Fallout: Equestria - Allegiances

by Fair Play

Rating: mature
Tags: Fallout, Profanity, Violence, Crossover, Dark, Death, Gore, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo, Adventure
Length: 297605

Family? Friends? Country? Updraft, an Enclave officer undercover in the Wasteland, is forced to rethink his relationships with his old life and his new. And what will he do if the fates of ponies rest on his decision? Will he choose wisely?

Family? Friends? Country? Fortunately, many of us have never had to choose between them.

Dust Cloud, AKA Private Updraft, is an average soldier with a middling job in the Enclave. He is selected for special service observing life in the Wasteland for possible colonization or cooperation by the Enclave. He clandestinely moves down to the Wasteland to complete his mission.

Soon, surprising events force him to question where his loyalties lie… and the loyalties of all those he knows… and is forced to choose between them. The lives of ponies lie in the balance. What will he choose? And will it be the right choice?

Based on the world of Fallout: Equestria by Kkat
Prereaders/Editors:
Stanku: Prologue, Chapters 1-6
Setokaiva : Prologue, Chapter 1-2
Gamma Deekay: Prologue, Chapters 1-current

Cover Art: Sw1tchbl4de
Please visit the Deviantart page.. you won't regret it: http://sw1tchbl4de.deviantart.com/

Thanks to the following for writing their fictions that inspired me to try my hand at writing:
Kkat (Fallout: Equestria)
Somber (Project Horizons)
FuzzyVeeVee (Murky Number 7)
No One (Heroes)
Mimezinga (Pink Eyes)
Fallingsnow (Guise of Chaos/Echoes of Chaos)
Gamma Deekay (Merchants of Hope/Better Days/Long Haul)
Relentless (Frozen Skies)

Published 2015-12-15 04:40:01 UTC
Last updated 2020-05-19 00:17:16 UTC

Chapter 2 - Freefalling

Chapter 2 : Freefalling
Jane, get me off of this crazy thing!

The feeling of the wind whipping through my mane and tail as I flew around Canterbury was glorious. With my eyes closed, I faced the sun and enjoyed the gentle warming feeling on my face and body. Opening my eyes, I looked down upon the cloud tops in and around the base with a smile.. The other soldiers moving around the base were the size of ants. I looked over and saw another pegasus stallion in their flight suit out for a spin as well. He gestured toward a large cloudbank and put a wicked grin on his face. If it was a race he wanted, it would be a race he got. I put all my effort into it and took off like a shot. He accelerated at the same time and we both hurtled towards the cloudbank.

This was nothing new in Canterbury. As an ancillary base, and with the last skirmishes with the griffons and dragons well behind us, there wasn’t much call for combat flight. We got bored. So, to keep things interesting, every now and then you’d find yourself in a dare like this one simply to spice things up.
We got closer to the fluffy, grey outer edge of the cloudbank and I noticed it wasn’t just a cloudbank, but a thunderhead. I wasn’t too concerned about lightning since our flight suits protected us from direct hits, which were rare anyway. The biggest concerns were the strong and rapidly changing winds. This was going to be interesting. We headed into the quickly darkening mist.

The first wind gust caught me by surprise and shot me severely off course. Adjusting my flight path, I had to fight against several large gusts which cost me time. As I neared the center of the thunderhead, the wind picked up even more and I had to strain just to make any leeway. Most pegasi, except for the very best, would storms if they could. Apparently my competitor was not most pegasi. He was heading directly into the center of the storm. Well, if I was going to win, I had to at least try.

I paralleled his flight path. Rain started to splash against my goggles, making it hard to see. I lost sight of the other pony, but I kept on course. A downdraft buffeted me and dropped me several feet instantly. The motion made my stomach lurch, but I kept pushing on. The wind was nearly tearing the feathers from my wings. To make matters worse, I still didn’t see the other pony. The clouds were so dark and thick it was almost as if we were flying at night. He couldn’t have gotten that much further ahead of me, could he?

Large hailstones began to pelt my body all over. The bit sized hailstones hurt each time they impacted. This race was starting to get out of hoof. I had to- OOF! Something massive hit my midsection. It was the other pony! He was playing dirty! Between the wind, rain, hail, and now the blow I just received, I was starting to lose control of my route.

I saw the pony arc away and turn back towards me. He was going to ram me again. I turned to avoid his path. He adjusted quickly, too quickly to be believed, and he hit me squarely in my right wing. I heard a sickeningly wet snap followed by a shot of blinding pain. I cried out in anguish. That bastard must have broken my wing.

I began to spiral downward having control of only one wing. Plummeting out of control, I tried to regain stable flight. Every time I tried to move my broken wing my vision flashed white with a new shot of stabbing pain. I saw my opponent enter my line of sight again and was heading right for me. As he got closer, he pulled his hood back. It was Muddy! He gave me another wicked grin and slammed into me again, speeding up my descent to the cloud cover and the ground below. His job done, he gave me a mock salute and flew away.

The top of the cloud cover was approaching at an alarming rate. The wind roaring in my ears was deafening. The death spiral I was in was making me nauseous. And the worst part was that there was absolutely nothing I could do about it.

“Dust, please…” a female voice called out. I looked around for the source of the voice but there were no other ponies in sight.

“Dust, come back, you need to come back,” the voice said. Again, no pony could be found.

“Whoever is out there, help me, please!” I screamed out in panic.

“Dust, please wake up!”

I continued falling as I looked for the source of the voice calling out to me. Eventually, my descent carried me into the cloud cover below. I kept falling and everything got darker, until things were pitch black.

“Dust, wake up!”
---OOO---

Darkness. That was all that I could see once I opened my eyes. I tried to sit up -- and then a burning spike of pain drove straight into my consciousness.

“UURG--” I started to cry out, but was quickly muffled by something firm clamping my mouth shut. As my eyes focused and adjusted to the dim light, I could make out two pink hooves that were wrapped around my mouth. I whimpered in pain through my clenched teeth.

“Shhhh!” the pink pegasus from the lab whispered urgently. “He’s still up there.”

I could faintly make out hoofbeats echoing off the walls of the cavern we were in. The hoofbeats stopped and after several seconds of silence, I heard glass shatter against the floor of the cavern a little distance away. Somepony let out a long whistle. Avery familiar voice also drifted down to my ears. “No fucking way he survived that fall. But what the fuck am I going to do now… I killed Dust and Last Stand is going to be here to look for us sooner or later. I gotta get my story in order now. Why did he have to be such a goody-two shoes? Why couldn’t he just keep being my friend instead of siding with that dirtpony?”

Muddy. It all came rushing back to me: the pink pegasus, the fight in the lab, being pushed over the ledge. Wait a minute! That fucker pushed me over the ledge!

The pink pegasus leaned in closer to my ear. “If I let go of your mouth, you have to stay quiet. Nod if you understand.” I nodded my head as much as I could given that she was holding my muzzle. She removed her hooves from my mouth. “Good.”

I barely made out Last Stand’s voice through the lab door. “Dust! Muddy! Where the fuck are you two?”

“Shit, gotta think quick. Why would Dust have left the Stable...” His voice trailed off as I heard the lab door grind open, and then slide closed again. Finally, all I heard was my shallow breathing echoing in our chamber.

She leaned in close to whisper again. “How badly are you hurt?”

I grimaced even harder. Wrong question.. I was using all my willpower not to scream out in pain. A whimper forced its way out of my body. My companion gave me a compassionate look and held my hoof. I squeezed her hoof back.

She leaned in close and whispered into my ear again. “We’re going to wait here for a bit…”

“No!” I harshly whispered. “I’m not letting that asshole get away!” I tried to get myself up off the floor again. “Urgh!” I cried out involuntarily as several parts of my body flared up in pain.

The pegasus gently placed a hoof on my shoulder. “Listen, he already left and you are in no condition to go after him now. As I said before, we are going to wait a bit here until the coast is clear. Then we’re going to find some way to get you up to the clinic. First, though, I need to find out if you have any broken bones. This is going to hurt, like, a lot. Here, bite down on this.” She placed an old belt near my mouth, and I bit down on it. I thought inanely that the salty, gamey taste of the leather was a damn sight better than some of the canned food we scavenged from the Wasteland. Not being able to help it, I chuckled a little. This turned out to be a mistake as new bolts of pain fired through my body. The grunting quickly replaced my laughter.

She took each of my legs, and very carefully flexed them. Everything she touched hurt. When she pressed down on my abdomen, I felt a sharp, stabbing pain. I clenched my teeth on the belt and whimpered. Tears started to form in my eyes.

“OK, your legs seem none the worse for wear. You probably have a broken rib or two. Other than that, though, you seem alright, considering.”

I hesitated, weighing my next statement carefully.. Finally, I spit the belt out. “Wings. Check my wings.”

“ OK, I’ll check your… Wait, what?”

Damn it. “Wings. I need you to check my wings under my armor.”

A pause. I could easily imagine her dumbfounded look even in the shadows. “You’re a pegasus? Why are you covering your wings?”

Waves of pain wracked my body. “Long story. I’ll tell you later.” Well, I’d tell her something later. What, exactly, I’d figure out by then. “Look near the top of the barding. You should see two yellow cords. On my front right leg there should be a knife. Take it and then cut the two cords so that you can then open two flaps and get my wings out. Careful, it’s a combat knife so it’s deadly sharp.”

She did exactly as I told her. I was somewhat relieved when the slight pressure exerted by the barding was released. My right wing was under my body, so she flexed the left wing first. Fortunately, that was one part of my body that didn’t hurt.

“OK, I’m going to have to roll you over to get to your right side. Here, put this back in.” She offered me the belt once more. I bit down and braced myself. As she rolled me over, several parts of my body I didn’t even know could hurt screamed out in protest. After some struggling on her part and some biting and grunting on mine, I was now laying on my left side. She gently opened the flap and and flexed my right wing.

My vision flashed white with the intense burst of pain. I almost yelled out, but I just bit down harder on the belt instead. Cries still escaped through my clenched teeth, but I was able to keep things mostly quiet. Everything hurt a little, but my right wing hurt the most. It was severely fractured, if not outright broken.

She leaned in closer and started rifling through my saddlebags. “You keep Med-X in here, I hope?” she asked.

“Mm-hrrm,” I ground out, seething.

It didn’t take her long to find one of the syringes. My ears flinched back when I heard the cover slide off the needle, and I found myself biting the leather even harder, right before a sharp sting blossomed in my right front leg. But it was well worth the discomfort. A numb sensation quickly began spreading from the site, dulling the ache in my ribs like a flood over a wildfire. Ahh, painkillers. Do. Your. Stuff. As we sat there, I felt my eyelids start to droop.

“By the way, my name is Silver Lining,” she whispered into my ear.

“Nice to meet...”

I drifted off to sleep. My last thought was which bone of Muddy’s I was going to break first when I caught up with him.

I opened my eyes and was surrounded by the inky darkness again. Maybe everything from before was just a nightmare. I tried to get to my feet, but was overcome with stabbing pains from several parts of my body. Falling back down to the ground I realized that, nope, this was all too real.

I glanced around the cavern and from what I could see, I was quite alone. Nearly panicked, I whispered, “Silver Lining? Are you there?”

I was greeted by silence. The only sound in the cavern now was the echoing of my own breathing. I strained to hear anything coming from the lab above. Still nothing. Where did Silver Lining go?

Left to my own thoughts, I went back to Muddy. I thought we were friends. We were, in fact, the only real friends we had down here. And he betrayed me. Why? What was worth killing me over? Or was it an accident? No. It couldn’t be. My armor releases were cut, not worn. He had to have cut them with a knife. Oooh, what I would do with a knife when I found him.

From above, I heard the lab door grind open. I glanced up at the lab and saw a silhouette against the red lighted lab. Then a blinding light filled the cavern. I watched as the source of the light slowly moved towards me. It was Silver who had turned on a flashlight.

“Dust, are you awake?” Silver asked.

“Yeah, but I wish I wasn’t. Not to whine, but everything hurts. How long have I been asleep?”

“Two hours, I’d guess. The others you came with left the stable about an hour ago. I’ve been looking for anything we can use to help you. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find anything.” She dropped her head a little forlornly.

“Go to the clinic. Turn on the robot, it should be able to fly down here and heal me.” In theory, anyway. That was the job of the medical model of the Mr. Handy robot.

“I tried that already. The robot is useless, it just doesn’t work.”

I swore under my breath. “OK, then we need to get me up to it. How strong a flier are you?”

“Not nearly strong enough to carry you. You’re going to have to fly on your own. I saw that you have more Med-X in your bag….” Her voice trailed off. I knew what she was getting at.

“Don’t have much choice, risking another dose of Med-X so soon or possibly dying down here. It’ll be either my injuries or the overdose that will do me in. Alright, let’s try this. Only give me like half of it now, and if we need more, we can risk it then.” She reached into my saddlebags again and pulled out another syringe. I heard her pop the cap off and felt the sting and the familiar warm heat flowed over my body. The pains I felt subsided… mostly. I tried flapping my wings. There was pain, but it was bearable. Of course, I wasn’t supporting my whole weight yet.

“Now or never, I guess.” I halfheartedly grinned at Silver and she returned the same in kind.

I began to flap and started to rise off the ground. As soon as I had my full weight on my own, the pain intensified, but still nothing I couldn’t struggle through. I grunted every time that I flapped my wings, but I couldn’t stop, not now. You really had to hand it to the pre-war ponies, they knew how to make a good pain killer.

Most of the flight went well. Near the top, though, I felt the pain intensify in my right wing. I reached out for the edge of lab floor and I heard a wet snapping sound. Pain shot through my body and my vision was flashed with bright white stars. I howled out loud enough to probably scare Cerberus.

I began to fall back towards the bottom of the cavern, but my forelegs caught the edge of the lab floor. Boy did this position feel familiar. Once again, I was holding on to the edge while my legs kicked helplessly beneath me. “Silver, help!”

She got beneath me and started pushing up on my hindquarters. She was able to help me gain some ground. I was still dealing with the overwhelming pain and couldn’t do much to help yet. I could hear her grunting under the strain. Eventually, she got me high enough that I could get my back hooves on the floor. I clambered up the rest of the way and collapsed on the floor of the lab. She flew up and collapsed right next to me. We both lay there on the floor, panting.

“Thanks for the lift,” I said between ragged breaths. “But did you have to cop a feel back there?” I chuckled.

“I.. what? No… I didn’t... “ she stammered between breaths. Her pink face grew a bright red, even in the emergency lighting.

“I’m just kidding around with you, calm down.” Growing pain from my right wing reminded me why the flight became such a problem, so I turned to look. It definitely wasn’t supposed to hang that way. “Oooh, that can’t be good.”

Silver looked at my wing and gasped. “Oh no, it must have broken completely. The pain must be horrible right now.”

“Oddly enough, not so bad.” But it was worse than it was a few moments ago and it was slowly building. “Maybe adrenaline? And it’s starting to wear off. And I don’t want to risk any more Med-X. We should probably bind it to my body so it doesn’t flap in the breeze.”

“But there is no breeze in here?” She seemed confused.

“It was a joke, albeit a bad one.” I smacked my own hoof against my forehead.

We both stood up, although I was a little slower than she was. She got a roll of bandages out of my saddlebags and wound it around my wing and torso. It still hurt, but at least it wouldn’t move freely as we navigated the stable.

We stood up, which took far more effort than I would have liked, and walked and limped out of the lab. Every shot of pain caused me to draw a sharp breath. Silver must have heard me, since she got under my left wing and took as much of my weight as she could. At least my wing was immobilized and didn’t hurt. Much.

Fortunately, the only sounds we heard as we made our way through the stable was our own hoofsteps and breathing. We made it to the clinic without any incident. I threw myself down on the metal examination table with a loud clang.

“I hope you’re good at following directions, because I need you to get the robot up and running.” I glanced over at Silver, and was not comforted by her reaction.

She kinda smirked at me and then said, “Um, well, don’t have much choice, do I? I should be OK, just be patient, please.”

I walked her through the manual override procedure and the robot whirred to life. The jet on the old Mr. Handy unit sparked to life. “GOOD EVENING SIR AND MADAM! WHAT A GLORIOUS DAY IT IS! HOW CAN I BE OF SERVICE?” Geez, I always forgot how loud and obnoxious the Mr. Handy model could be.

“First of all, can you lower your volume a little? Secondly, are you programmed for medical procedures?” I asked the floating robot.

“NO SIR AND YES SIR,” the unit boomed back, sounding oddly pleased with itself. I might go deaf, but at least I might survive.

“Well, I am in need of medical attention,” I barked.

The robot floated over to me. The arms rotated around the central orb of the unit and a scanner hovered over me. The robot moved the boxy device along the length of my body, paying particular attention to my wings. The flashing lights were blinding in the dim lighting of the Stable. “LET’S SEE WHAT WE HAVE HERE. OH MY, IT SEEMS YOU HAVE MULTIPLE FRACTURES OF YOUR LEGS, MULTIPLE BROKEN RIBS, AND A COMPOUND FRACTURE OF YOUR RIGHT WING. IMMEDIATE SURGERY IS REQUIRED. OH DEAR: NO BLOOD PACKS IN INVENTORY AND MEDICAL SUPPLIES LIMITED TO THOSE STORED ON THIS UNIT. SHALL I CONTINUE WITH EMERGENCY MEDICAL PROCEDURES?”

“Can you fix what’s wrong with what you have?”

“YES SIR. PERMISSION TO ADMINISTER ANESTHESIA AND PROCEED?”

“Yes.” The arms rotated around again and a long needle made its way toward my leg. I felt the sharp pinch and some slight pressure.

“START COUNTING DOWN FROM 100, SIR.”

“100… 99… 98,” and then everything went black.

When I reopened my eyes, I saw the red lighted interior of the stable. The air smelled of copper. If I never saw the inside of another stable again, I would be perfectly happy. I looked around the clinic and saw the Mr. Handy had returned to its maintenance pod and was inactive once again. A pile of bloodied bandages and several opened healing potions were strewn across the floor. I must have been more injured than I thought. And on one of the work tables lay my barding. It had been cut open, I guess so that the Mr. Handy could heal some of my internal injuries.

As for my injuries, I was sore everywhere, but nothing outright hurt anymore. I glanced at my right wing and saw that is was bound against my body, but at least it was arranged the way it was supposed to be. A stiff rod of some sort bound my broken wing to the area where the break happened. I had to hand it to the Mr. Handy, it did it’s job admirably.

“Hello? Silver?”

The jet on the Mr. Handy flared to life. As the robot moved towards me, it cheerfully called out, “GOOD MORNING SIR! WHAT A FABULOUS DAY IT IS!”

“How long was I out?”

“SIR WAS KEPT UNCONSCIOUS FOR APPROXIMATELY THIRTY-SIX HOURS.”

“And how is ‘sir’ doing?” I always got aggravated working with these robots.

“ACCESSING CLINIC DATA. PATIENT S.V.I.P #002. ORIGINAL DIAGNOSIS: MULTIPLE FRACTURES OF LEGS, RIBS, AND RIGHT WING. MINOR FRACTURES TREATED WITH ADMINISTRATION OF HEALING POTIONS. RIBS SET AND HEALED WITH ADMINISTRATION OF HEALING POTIONS. RIGHT WING RESET, SPLINTED, AND HEALING POTIONS ADMINISTERED TO ACCELERATE HEALING. RECOMMENDED RECUPERATION TIME: 6 DAYS,” the robot rattled off.

“Why are you calling me an ‘esvip’?” I asked.

“I AM NOT CALLING YOU AN ESVIP, SIR. S.V.I.P. IS SHORT FOR STABLE-TEC VERY IMPORTANT PONY. IDENTITY RECORDS NOT FOUND IN STABLE-TEC RECORDS. 99.1 PERCENT MATCH TO… OH DEAR: NAME REDACTED.”

“First of all, my name is Dust Cloud. Secondly, why is the name being redacted?” My curiosity was piqued.

“ERROR. DATA IS UNAVAILABLE TO RESPOND TO REQUEST.”

“Oooookay. Do you know where Silver Lining is?”

“So, you’re awake?” Silver Lining asked as she stood in the doorway. I hadn’t heard her steps in the stable as she approached.

“How did you do that? I didn’t hear a thing!” I blurted out in amazement.

“Practice, I guess… when you do it enough, you learn to be very quiet. It helps out when I’m trying to hide when people come in here. I’ve avoided almost four groups that way, including yours.”

“You may have to teach me that one day.” I saw a bandage around her leg. “What happened to you?”

“Well, when the robot was working, it needed blood to heal you. I was a matching blood type, so I donated some.”

“Wow, thanks. You didn’t have to do that. I mean, you barely know me.”

“It’s OK. I couldn’t just sit here and do nothing. You did save me from that other pony, and if it weren't for you, who knows what could have happened to me.”

“Muddy, yeah, sorry about that. I don’t know what got into him. I’ve never seen him do anything like that before. By the way, what happened before? After you tackled him and he shoved me off the ledge?”

“Well, I flew down into the cavern and hid. I figured he’d come looking for me since I hit him. While I was waiting, I saw you crash down to the bottom of the cavern. I pulled you as far into the cavern as I could so that he couldn’t see you. I guess he assumed you were dead.”

“Wow. Thanks. You barely know me, why did you help?” I asked.

“Well, you did try to help me, even though it didn’t quite work out for the best.” She walked over to my barding, tapped it and look at me. “So, you ready to tell me about this now?”

I took a deep breath and slowly released it. What was I going to tell her that was believable but didn’t give away too much? “I came from above the clouds. I accidentally flew below the cloud cover one day and I knew they wouldn’t let me back. I also knew that Wasteland ponies don’t take too kindly to pegasi so I modified some armor I found so it would conceal my wings.” Let’s hope she believed it.

Her face tightened into a frown. “Stupid Enclave rules. Pegasi are pegasi. What does it matter where they are from or where they’ve been?” I bristled at her denigrating the Enclave but I didn’t outwardly react. “You’re either gonna have to fix it or leave it behind. The robot had to cut it off to help you. Do you know how to repair it?”

“Let me take a look.” I slid off the table, and unceremoniously fell to the ground with a thump. I guess I wasn’t fully back from the anesthesia yet. “Help me up, please.”

Silver walked over to me and supported me over to my barding. In the red lighting of the lab it was hard to see details. I was able to see that the robot basically cut through a seam, so this would be easy to fix. “Yeah, there’s a repair kit in the saddlebags that I can use to make repairs. We’ll take care of it before we leave and head back to Coltington.”

“L… leave the stable?” she asked staring blankly at me.

“Yeah, we can’t stay here forever. First of all, we’re gonna run out of supplies. Second, the computer could go crazy at any second and shut down or reactivate various systems and I don’t want to be here when the security system arms itself. Finally, I need to find Muddy and find out what’s wrong with him. I don't know why he would flip the way he did."

“Dust, I haven’t left this stable in over a few months.” Her eyes were wide with fear. “Everything out there is dangerous and I’m safer in here. I can’t go, I just can’t.”

I felt that she was hiding something, but I wasn’t about to press things. Especially since I was also hiding facts of my own. “Silver, I can’t stay here. Once I fix my armor, I am heading out of the stable. Whether you come with me or not, that is your choice.”

“O...O… OK.” she uttered between short, rapid breaths. She slumped down in a corner and was fidgeting with her hooves.
Turning my attention to my gear, I pulled out the repair kit and began to fix the armor. Gear maintenance was one of my strong suits, except when it came to weapons cleaning. Muddy and I had made a deal: I would fix everything else we needed fixed and he would take care of our weapons. It worked out well so far, until now.

Once I finished repairing my armor, I slid it back on and felt the familiar pressure around my body. Odd how that feeling became comfortable. It was almost more natural to me than flying had been. In another stroke of luck, my armor accommodated my splinted wing perfectly and would ensure I didn’t try to use it too early.

“Well, it’s time. Have you made a decision?” I asked Silver.

She bolted upright. “Y...Y...yes. I think I’m going to go with you.”

“Good… grab whatever stuff is yours and meet me in the atrium.”

The jets on the medical robot flared to life. “PATIENT DUST CLOUD, SIR. IT IS RECOMMENDED YOU DO NOT LEAVE THE CLINIC FOR AT LEAST SIX MORE DAYS,” the robot boomed.

“Thanks for your concern, but I need to go. Are you saying I can’t leave or shouldn’t?” I asked.

“PATIENT DUST CLOUD IS HEALED ENOUGH TO WALK. RECOMMENDATION IN LIEU OF STAYING IN THE CLINIC IS TO AVOID STRENUOUS ACTIVITY FOR AT LEAST ONE WEEK. FLYING SHOULD BE AVOIDED FOR 6 WEEKS AND ONLY RESUME LIGHT FLIGHT THEREAFTER. FAILURE TO FOLLOW THESE RECOMMENDATIONS MAY LEAD TO AGGRAVATED INJURIES.”

“Thank you for all your help. I think I will be leaving after all.”

“VERY GOOD SIR. HAVE A FABULOUS DAY! IT’S BEEN AN HONOR TO SERVE YOU!” The robot glided back over to the maintenance bay and docked. The jet extinguished and we were left in silence again.

We walked out into the atrium and she headed back into the lab section. A few minutes later, she came back with saddlebags on. They weren’t very full. Seeing the confused look on my face, she said “I usually travel light. I only have a few personal belongings. I did grab my supply caches on the way back.”

“OK, let’s go.” I led the way up the stairs that led to the entry room. When we got there, it appeared that the scavenging team had sealed the door behind them. What I didn’t expect to see were several trails of blood that led towards the utility section. I felt bad for Prickly Pear. Something obviously bad went down in the utility section.

I went to the main door control panel and keyed in the sequence that would open the door. The buzzing of the warning system and the yellow strobe light activated. With loud grinding and squealing, the large gear door moved inward and then rolled to the side. I started walking out of the stable.

“W..w...wait. I can’t do this. I can’t leave.” Silver cried out nearly in tears.

“Silver, I can’t stay. There is too much I have to do and we’ve already been down here long enough.” I took several steps into the cavern beyond the door. “Are you coming with me or not?”

She took several steps towards the door and froze at the threshold. She raised and lowered one of her hooves several times. She blurted out, “Sorry, I just can’t!” and she jumped over to the control panel. The klaxons and strobe reactivated as the door began the close itself.

“Thanks for your help in there and if you change your mind, find me in Coltington!” I yelled out as the door squealed shut.

I sighed, feeling bad for her. I can only imagine what she went through and what she thought was waiting for her out here. Then again, I guess I was in the same boat. Who knew what was wrong with Muddy or if he had flipped again while I had been stuck in the stable.

Puzzling over what could be so scary to her, I worked my way out of the cavern and through the makeshift door at the entrance. When I swung the door open, daylight, as it was, flooded the cavern and overloaded my eyesight. My first few breaths of "fresh air" were a small comfort after being cooped up in the derelict stable. Based on the light, it must have been close to noon. Things were always a little brighter at midday.

As I walked back to Coltington, I couldn’t help but to think of Silver. I was worried about her surviving in the stable and its malfunctioning systems, sure, but she had lasted so far, and she would again. I was more concerned with what made it seem like a good idea to stay in the stable instead of the Wasteland. The Wasteland was no walk in the park, but it had to be better than a dark, stuffy stable. Or was that just the pegasus in me talking.

The outline of Coltington slowly grew on the horizon and washed me with a sense of relief wash over me. I never thought I’d think of this place as home, but I was comforted just by the sight of it. Picking up my pace a little, I felt some pains, and the robots advice came back to me. Take it easy, Dust. I slowed back down to a slow walk. All I wanted was to sleep tonight in my own bed.

I got to the outskirts of town and looked for the security patrol. At first, the lack of a security patrol was a little discomforting, but maybe Muddy ran off and they were down a pony. I didn’t dwell on it long. Home was just too much of a draw. I rounded one of the first corners in town and saw Brown Root.

“Hey Brownie! Brownie! Over here, it’s me, Dust!” I yelled out. Brown looked over his shoulder and his eyes opened wide. He then took off at a gallop across town. Something else that seemed weird. Maybe he was just running off the get the rest of my friends. But then why not talk to me first? Again, I shrugged it off.

I rounded the last corner near my house and saw the little shack I have called home for the last year. A odd mixture of rage andcalm fell over me. “Alright asshole, now it’s time to get yours,” I thought to myself as I drew my knife. I’m coming, Muddy. Remembering to be careful, because who knew what Muddy was up to, I slowed my gait and quietlymade my way to the shack. We had covered the windows over, so I knew looking in wouldn’t do me any good, but I could listen. I stopped at each window and strained to listen for any noise within. When I was convinced, and disappointed, that Muddy was not waiting inside for me, I made my way to the front door.

I twisted the handle and pushed the door inward. There was a little resistance and then a tiny “ping”. The sound was oddly like the one the spoon of a grenade made when it detached from the grenade itself. Wait, did I say grenade? It was then I saw it at the base of the door and it was indeed armed. I turned as fast as I could and galloped as fast as I could.

Unfortunately, my delayed reaction caught up with me. I felt the shockwave from the grenade lift me off my feet and propel me through the air. Small impacts peppered my barding and elicited several sharp stinging pains from my hindquarters. The air around me heated up as the explosion from the grenade threw off its heat.

Now, normally, I would begin to fly to control my descent, but my wings were still injured and contained within the armor. Who in their right mind in Enclave R&D came up with the idea of binding our wings again? I wanted to walk up to that egghead and buck him, hard. In this situation, the only thing to do would be to tuck and roll.

I fell back to the ground, making sure to twist and land on my left side. The force made me slide several feet on the dirt until I came to a sudden stop. I kicked up a dust cloud (I know, right?) and began to cough as my lungs were assaulted with dirt and then smoke. I began to cough and spit out whatever dirt I could. Smoking pieces of debris fell down to the Earth like small comets. I was pelted by a few pieces and knew I was getting burned by some of the pieces that hit my bare skin.

After my coughing subsided, I closed my eyes and just breathed to get everything back under control. I muttered, “Fuck you Muddy, you got me again. Fuck you very much.” After several breaths, I heard the distinctive “clack-clack” of a shotgun being cocked. I opened my eyes and saw the ends of the barrels of a double barrel shotgun spinning with the world around it. At the other end of the shotgun I could barely make out Last Stand. He had murder in his eyes.

“Hello Dust Cloud. Or should I just call you Thief?” he growled.

Well, shit. It was then that I passed out, yet again.

Level Up!
Stats: Medicine 35
Perk Obtained: Painkiller: You have an increased resistance to Med-X addiction. You can now take twice as many Med-X doses in a 24-hour period without feeling any effects of addiction. However, any addiction as a result of Med-X overdose will last twice as long.

Author's Note

Thanks to those of you who gave me some constructive criticism. Hopefully, I've address a lot of the concerns that were raised.

Chapter 3 - Rock Bottom

Chapter 3: Rock Bottom

The one good thing about hitting rock bottom, is that there is only one way to go from there.

I opened my eyes half hoping to find myself back in the stable. As bad as the stable was, my last memory was not a good one. When I saw the ramshackle combination of weathered wood and rusted, corrugated metal, I knew I was back in Coltington. The room smelled clean, almost too clean. My armored barding hadn't been removed again, so at least there was that. I tried to move but found that my legs were all tied down to the bed I was on. Oh hell, this couldn't be good.

“So, he finally wakes up,” Last Stand grumbled at me. I turned my head towards his voice and saw him sitting in the dark corner. He blended in with the shadows almost perfectly. As he ambled forward, I saw the look in his eyes that was cold and made me shiver and wish I hadn't woken up. The way he was holding his favorite shotgun didn’t put me at ease at all. “I didn’t think you’d be dumb enough to come back. Not after stealing from me, and you know how I feel about thieves.”

“But I didn’t…” I started to protest.

“SHUT UP!” he bellowed, his chest heaving. “Don’t even try it. Muddy already told us what you did.”

Damn it, Muddy, almost killing me twice wasn’t good enough? “I don’t care what he said to you, I didn’t do any of it. Did he also tell you that he tried to kill me and almost succeeded?”

“That’s exactly what he said you’d say. I knew you couldn’t be trusted. Tech, and those that work with tech, can never be trusted.” He swung the barrels of his shotgun and aimed them squarely at my head. He racked the slide and even the “chack-chack” sounded more menacing. “Any last words?”

“Last Stand, just what is it you think you are doing? We talked about this earlier,” a calm, monotone voice said. I turned to look and saw Big Boss entering the room.

Last Stand looked even more annoyed than before. He growled before he said, “I know what YOU said, and I never agreed to it. He stole from me, from the company, and he deserves to die!”

“Enough.” Even though he didn’t raise his voice, Big Boss spoke with a calm authority that demanded obedience. No wonder he was always the pony running the big operations. “Last Stand, will you please leave us?” It sounded like a question, but there was no mistaking it was a command.

Last Stand grumbled like a peal of thunder as he trudged out of the room. He glanced at me over his shoulder one last time before he left and closed the door.

“Dust Cloud.” I began to speak but Big Boss cut me off. “You know, what you have to say doesn’t really matter to me. What I do care about is what you’ve done to the company. Haven’t we taken care of you? Paid you well? Outfitted you so you’d be safe? Healed you when you were injured during operations? And now you do this?”

“But…”

“Wait for me to finish. You have no idea how much trouble you’re in, my little pony. Last Stand wants to kill you. No one trusts you. Muddy is gone. All I want to know is where is the tech you stole and why did you do it? You may speak now.”

Where to even start? “I know this is going to sound strange and will probably contradict everything you’ve already been told. Can I at least get through it all before you tell me I’m crazy?” He nodded. “OK. Well…” I briefly outlined what I saw when I walked in that lab with Muddy and Silver. Picking up the tempo of my speech, I explained how Muddy almost killed me and left me for dead and how I made it to the clinic and got healed by the robot. In order to protect Silver so they didn't send another team after her, I did leave out the detail about her staying behind.

Big Boss sat quietly, contemplating my words. He touched his hoof to his chin and simply said, “Hmmm. You put me in a difficult position Dust. Muddy is no longer around to talk to, which is the only reason I’m giving your story any credence whatsoever. And your version is not unbelievable. I just wanted to see if you’d try outright lying to me. That being said, now what am I to do with you?”

“Um, I have an idea. How about you untie me and let bygones be bygones?”

He laughed. “Nice try. The problem is that, right now, everyone you know wants a piece of you. Your friends are either gone or hate you now. All I care about is the loyalty of those that work for us. So I have a proposition for you. As of right now, you are, as far as I am concerned, a thief. Usually, we just take you out back and shoot you… and trust me, Last Stand is first in line for those honors. But I also have my doubts. Dust, you’ve been nothing but a hard-worker to us for as long as you’ve been with us. You have never hidden any tech loot from us and you could have easily done it. And the value of the material you’ve brought back… But then again, we have no reason to doubt Muddy’s story either. So here is the proposal. You go back into the stable and clear out the Utility wing of anything valuable. Unfortunately, Prickly Pear’s team was severely injured by a malfunctioning computer so they weren’t able to even start their job. Go in, get anything you can get your hands on, and get out and we’ll be square.”

“OK, which team do I go in with? I don’t trust Last Stand to keep me safe.”

“Oh, you misunderstand me. When I say you go in the stable, I mean just that. You, and you alone, go in.”

“Wait a damn minute. You’re going to send a single pony into a situation that severely injured a entire scavving team AND their fire team escort. Hell no!”

“Alright…. I see…” He turned his head towards the door. “Last Stand, will you rejoin us?”

“No.. nononononono… I get it… I get it.”

Last Stand practically ran through the door. “Yes Big Boss?” He wasn’t even trying to hide the delight in his voice.

“Never mind, Last Stand. Seems like Dust here changed his mind.”

As excited as he was moments ago, Last Stand seemed incredibly crestfallen now. “Ok boss.” He turned and slowly made his way back outside.

“Ok, but I need you to do something for me. You will keep Last Stand off my tail?” I asked. He really did scare me.

“We will tell him that it would be in his best interests to leave you alone, but we can’t promise he’ll care so much. That’s the best I can do.”

“Do I at least get to sleep on it? I’ve had a rough few days.” I laughed nervously.

“I fail to see the humor in the situation.” Big Boss glared at me.

“Doesn’t sound like much of a choice. I’ll do it”

“Oh, and Dust, I’ll untie you so you can sleep tonight. But don’t get any bright ideas. I am posting guards at the door and guards outside with orders to shoot. Do we understand each other?”

“I get it. I leave, I die.”

“Very good.” He came over the bed and untied my hooves. “Good night Dust Cloud,” he said as he left the room.

I sat up for several hours, the blood trail leading towards the Utility section haunting my mind. I guess to be accurate now, it was a blood trail leading OUT of Utility. Somepony, or ponies, had been injured enough to leave that trail. I hoped I was getting the whole story from Big Boss about it being a computer malfunction and not something more. My eyes finally got heavy and slowly closed. I had a dreamless night's sleep.

A knock at the door startled me awake. “Dust Cloud. Time to get up and get going.” It was Big Boss.

“Yeah, give me a second to get ready.” I crawled out of bed and gathered my gear. Opening the door I saw Big Boss and two guards waiting for me.

“You ready to go?”

“Wait, can I make one more request? Can I please speak with Prickly Pear before we go? At least I’ll know what’s waiting for me down there.”

Big Boss contemplated it for a few seconds. “I will take you to see Prickly Pear, but I can’t guarantee he’s in any condition to help you. Let’s go.”

I finally realized that I had been held in one of the rooms in the local clinic. The sickly-sweet smell of decay was stronger in the hallway than it had been in my room. Something was wrong for the smell to be that strong. We went down a short hallway to another room. Big Boss knocked. “Prickly Pear, may I come in?”

I heard Prickly Pear’s faint voice, “D...d...d..doors… watch the doors!”

Big Boss headed inside. After a few moments, he called my name. I walked in the room. First I noted the overpowering smell of urine and shit. I was not prepared for what I saw. Prickly Pear had been through the wringer. His two front legs were splinted and covered in bandages which were bloodstained. Under the sheet, I could see that his two back legs ended at the knees. He must have voided his bowels at some point during the night leaving a large yellow stain on the top sheet and a small puddle on the floor. And his eyes… his eyes were wide open and unseeing. He was staring into space and did not notice me entering.

“Prickly, it’s me Dust Cloud. How are you?”

“The stable… the stable's alive. The stable is angry!” he cried out.

“Prickly, what do you mean?” I asked.

“Get out! Everyone get out! The doors! It’s using the doors!” He was terrified.

“Prickly, it’s OK. You’re in Coltington now. The stable can’t hurt you.” I was doing my best to calm him down.

“Coltington… oh good… I’m safe…. No, wait. It’s another trick! The stable, it's alive and it wants to kill us all!”

The doctor shoved his way past us and injected Prickly Pear with a syringe. Prickly slowly faded into a restless sleep. He would whimper every few second and would mumble, “It’s alive!’ under his breath.

“OK, that’s enough for the morning, he needs to sleep.” The doctor basically shoved us out of the room.

Big Boss turned to me. “I hope you got some useful information. You ready now?”

“Do I have a choice?.” I didn’t feel ready, but I didn’t really have a choice.

“You do have a choice, I just don’t think you’ll like the alternative, with you being dead and all.”

We walked out the clinic door and passed Last Stand. He was sitting there cleaning his shotgun. He winked at me. A chill ran from the tip of my nose all the way to my tail.

The walk to the stable was quiet and uneventful. Several attempts to start conversation were met with silence. We made our way down into the cavern that led to the stable entrance. The cooler, stale air set my hair on edge. As the daylight faded, my stomach started to tie itself into knots. I broke out into a cold sweat.

“Um, are you sure that I can’t have someone come with me?” I laughed uncomfortably.

“Unfortunately, no. Dust, I didn’t want to send you in alone. But Last Stand convinced everyone else that we shouldn’t risk any more ponies on this. I convinced them that this operation would probably do what Last Stand wanted and kill you, and if it didn’t, we got something out of it. I'm really the only reason you're still alive.” We got to the door control panel. Big Boss activated it and the strobe lights washed the cavern with their yellow light and the klaxons were almost deafening. The door retracted and rolled to the side accompanied by the usual grinding and squealing. Once the strobes and klaxons stopped and the cavern was silent once again, Big Boss turned to face me.

“You have twenty-four hours to get what you can. If you can’t find anything of any value, you are to bring back the control chip from the water purifier which is in the deepest part of the Utility wing. There will always be guards on duty. They will re-open the door in twenty-four hours. If you try to leave earlier than that, they have orders to kill you. If you aren’t back here when they open the door, we will booby trap the door to kill anything that attempts to leave. Any questions?”

“No. I think I got it. Either I die out here, die in there, or get lucky and survive it all somehow.”

“Yeah, that’s pretty much it. Good luck.”

I walked into the red-lighted stable and heard the klaxons and saw the yellow strobes as Big Boss closed the stable door behind me. Once the door closed completely, I was alone and could only hear my own breathing and the soft hum of the stable ventilation system.

“Silver Lining? Are you here?” I called out. Unfortunately, the only response was my own echo. I didn’t expect a response. She probably was hiding down in the lab assuming she heard the stable door opening. My first priority was the check on her first. Maybe she knew something about the Utility wing. I went down the stairs into the Atrium and then to the lab door without any incident. After overriding the lab door, the cooler, fresher air from the lab section blew over me. I made my way back to the fateful room where I almost died. When I got to the door, I reached out to the door control, but then froze. The vision of Muddy behind the door, waiting for me so he could finish what he started, haunted me.

“Well, here goes nothing.” I pushed the door control and waited. Once I was satisfied that there wasn’t anything waiting for me on the other side, I stepped into the lab. Out of a sense of paranoia, I looked around the room making sure there was nothing waiting for me in the shadows.

“Silver Lining? Are you in here? It’s Dust Cloud,” I called out.

“Dust Cloud? You came back?” I heard a faint voice call out from the cavern in the back of the lab. “Be right there!”

Silver Lining flew up from the cavern below and landed in the lab. “Oh Celestia, I never thought I’d see you again! How are you doing? How’s your wing?” She gave me a big hug, squeezing my wing in the process.

“Owww! It was OK until just now!” After shaking off the pain, I filled her in on the events at my house and how Muddy tried to kill me again.

“Oh, Dust, I'm so sorry. But, what are you doing back here?” she asked.

“Funny story, really." I paused. "Well, maybe not. I am in here to clean out the Utility wing or else they’ll kill me. Muddy framed me and they think I stole from them. Shouldn’t be too bad, though, based on what we’ve seen in the rest...” I started to slow my speech based on the look on her face, “of… the...stable… what?”

“Umm, Dust, the Utility wing, is haunted,” she murmured softly. Her pink face had gone nearly white, even in the dim lighting of the emergency lights.

“What do you mean, haunted?” I asked.

“Well, in the few months I’ve been here, that’s the one place I haven’t been in. There are all types of weird sounds I hear coming from that area. I have never set hoof in that part of the stable.”

Well, shit, first Prickly and now Silver. Looks like I had my work cut out for me. “Um, well, at least now I know I’m heading into some danger. Maybe if I play it safe, I can make it out of there.”

“Oh Dust, please don’t go in there. Let me talk to them, explain that it was really Muddy,” Silver pleaded.

“Not gonna work… do you think they’ll believe a pegasus they’ve never met before who just happens to have a story like the one the alleged thief is telling?” I shook my head and muttered under my breath, “Go down to the surface, he said. Do something meaningful, he said. Well, fuck you very much General,” and out of some weird, long lost instinct, I added, “Sir.”

“What was that Dust?”

“Nothing… don’t worry about it. Listen, Silver, I normally wouldn’t ask another pony for their supplies, but I need to know. Do you have any weapons or medical supplies hidden away in one on your caches?”

“Well, I do have a small supply of healing potions, and I think I may have found one or two grenades.”

“Can I have them? I will repay you somehow. Something tells me I will need them.”

“Um, sure. I’ve hidden most of my stuff in the cavern. I’ll be right back.”

She flew down into the cavern below and disappeared into the darkness. When she left my view, something made my stomach uneasy. I glanced around the lab, expecting someone to emerge from the shadows and attack me. When I saw her pink form reemerge, I felt a sense of relief.

“Here you go, hopefully this is enough.” She handed me a half-dozen healing potions. Next, she handed me three cylindrical spark grenades and not the apple-shaped frag grenades I was hoping for. “Is this what you wanted?”

“Not what I expected, but I thank you for it.” I placed the spark grenades and healing potions in my saddlebags. “Alright, I’ll see you around I hope.” Turning and starting to leave the lab. I heard hoofsteps behind me. Looking behind me I saw that she was following me. “Where are you going?”

“I left you alone once before. I am not doing it again. After you left last time, I regretted my decision almost immediately. I don’t want to be on my own anymore. And I won’t let you go into the Utility wing alone.” She stomped her hoof down to punctuate her statement. The thud echoed throughout the lab and cavern.

“No, I can’t have you following me. I may not make it out of there alive, and I don’t want to put you at risk.”

“Dust, can I just say that I want to stay with you and leave it at that?” I could see the pleading in her eyes.

“Alright, I don’t really have time to argue. But listen, when we’re in there, do whatever I tell you to. If I say stay down, stay down. If I say stick to my side, I want you attached to it like glue. And if I tell you to run, I want you to run, even if it means leaving me behind.”

“But…” she started to object.

“No… I insist on this. I may be getting myself killed, but I don’t want you to die along with me. This is my problem, not yours.”

She opened her mouth as if to argue, but then stopped. “OK, I guess I can live with that.”

“Good, let’s go.”

We made our way back up through the Atrium and into the entry room. We paused at the door marked Utility and saw the blood trail leading to the door. I heard Silver gulp beside me.

“You sure you’re good with this?”

“Y..yeah. Let’s go.”

I reached out for the control that would open the door. When the button was pressed, the door slid open and I was overwhelmed with the coppery stench of blood. It was nauseating. I heard Silver gag a little. “Breathe through your mouth. And smile, it’ll alleviate the gag reflex.” It was an odd look for her. Her normally pink face took on a shade of green, which was impressive in the red emergency lighting, and topped off with an obviously fake smile. How I wish I had a camera.

“For now, I guess we’ll follow the trail,” I pointed down the hallway.

Fortunately for us, the blood trail was dry and crusty but we avoided stepping in it as much as possible. Even though I didn’t expect to find anything, we still ducked in the first few rooms. These storage rooms were usually empty in stables. The first people to discover stables typically cleared them out since they were so close to the surface. There were a few spark batteries and random parts, which I stowed in my saddlebags. As we got the the end of the hallway, the blood trail led down the stairs to the next level. After reaching the next landing, we walked through the doorway. The hallway broke off in two directions.

“Left or right first?” I asked Silver.

“Umm, left?”

“Alright.” After we took a step away from the doorway, it slammed shut behind us unusually quickly. The sound echoed down the hallways for a few seconds. I turned around and hoofed the control box. The door did not move. “Hmm, this is interesting.” I bucked the control box to get to the inner workings. As I reached for the mess of wiring, I heard a high pitch whine. Sparks flew out of the box nearly burning my hoof. I shielded my eyes from the intense light and heat. The hallway filled with the scent of ozone and melting plastic. After the fireworks subsided, I looked back at the junction box and saw a melted slag of copper and plastic.

“Looks like we aren’t getting out that way.” I turned towards Silver, “Do you know if the Utility wing has an entrance into the Living Quarters?”

“I don’t know… I didn’t spend much time in the Living Quarters… all the skeletons.” I didn’t think it was possible, but her complexion lightened even more than it already was.

“Okay, we’ll worry about that later. Stay close.” If this stable was laid out like the others, this level would house all the maintenance bays. This was where a lot of good stuff could be found. The first door we came across wouldn't open with the switch either. Fortunately, it didn't explode when I tried to override it. I finished the override of the control box and the door slid open.

We moved into the room and saw that it was a general maintenance bay. Maybe I'd finally find a working Pip-Buck. During our training, they had always fascinated me, and I wanted one. We made our way over to the workstation. “Jackpot!” I yelled out in glee. On the workbench were 3 Pip-Bucks. I picked up the first one. “Damn it.” The Pip-Buck was missing its screen and the entire control panel. The technician must have cannibalized it to fix another one. I put that one down on the table and picked up the next one. I hoofed the activation switch and nothing. C’mon. The first time I’ve come across Pip-Bucks and tell me none of them work. Picking up the third one, I hoped it would turn on and hoofed the activation switch. The screen lit up and from what I could tell, was booting properly. Eventually, I was greeted by a smiling pony hoofbumping the screen, followed by what I recognized as the main menu, but it indicated that the biometric interface was missing its input.

“Score! This should be enough to get me out of trouble… a fully working Pip-Buck… geez, I wish they would let me keep it. Hopefully they’ll let me keep the duds and I can cobble them together.”

I felt Silver Lining peeking over my shoulder. “A working Pip-Buck?”

“Seems that way…” I involuntarily let out a little squee.

Silver giggled. “Look who is as excited as a little filly… it’s cute.”

My cheeks got warm. “No… I’m not.”

“No, it’s cute, really.” She giggled.

“Can we drop it, please?”

There were a few precision tools used to work on small electronics which I stuffed in my saddlebags as well. We left the Pip-Buck bay and went into the other maintenance bays on this side. The next maintenance bay was where the robots were serviced. Nothing extraordinary in this one as well, but we did find a couple of spark batteries. I added them to our collection.

These were the only two bays on this side of the hall. We made our way back to the middle and headed in the other direction. Thinking back on it, our team should have been the one to clear out the Utility wing, with me and my expertise in tech. That did seem a little odd in retrospect. However, I was glad we weren’t. I might have ended up like Prickly Pear. That thought was cleared from my mind when I saw the door back to the main entrance was opened once again.

“Hmm, I wonder when that happened…” I thought out loud.

We checked out the two maintenance bays on the other side of the hall and found nothing of any value. They were filled with general tools and scrap metal, nothing that would help me earn my freedom.

We went back to the central hall and followed the blood down to the next level. In other stables, this would be the power generation level. Based on the size of the parts of the stable I had seen so far, there would be at most two generators on this level. Standing in the central hallway, I noticed the two large doors that should lead to the two generators. I nearly jumped when I thought I saw some movement out of the corner of my eye. A brief search revealed that the hallway was empty. I heard a faint whirring sound and saw the security camera move. Funny how that was the first time I noticed that.

We kept walking and I noticed that the camera kept following us. “Alright, this is a little unsettling.” We scoured the two generator rooms and found nothing useful. We made our way back to the main hall and followed the blood trail down another flight of stairs. The blood trail came to an abrupt end at the landing where I saw what appeared to be the bottom half of two rear legs the same color as Prickly Pear. This must have been where Prickly lost his legs. I basically ordered Silver Lining, “Stay close and keep your eyes open. And don’t think about what’s on the floor.” She gulped, probably stifling back nausea.

This final level would house water purification, waste processing and the maneframe. I wasn’t expecting anything from the maneframe room, but I needed to at least get the control chip from the water purifier, just in case the Pip-Bucks weren’t worth enough. As we got to the landing, I stepped through the threshold. A motor whirred to life, louder than usual.

“Watch out!” I yelled to Silver. Leaping forward and landing on my side, I looked back and saw Silver frozen as the door closed, separating the two of us. I now knew what happened to Prickly. Poor bastard.

“Silver! You OK?” I yelled through the door.

“Yeah, just startled. How about you?” she called back.

“I’m OK. Let me try to override the door.” Remembering what happened last time, I took my time and stayed aware of any sudden changes. I bucked the box open and slowly reached inside it. There was no whine this time and I began to work with the wires. From somewhere behind me, I heard the sound of metal scraping on metal. I looked toward the source of the sound and saw a hatch opening in the ceiling above me. Once it was open, a sentry gun started to lower out of the ceiling. Oh, shit!

“Silver, be careful, the security system is active,” I yelled as I ran for one of the rooms on this floor. Hopefully I would guess right and end up in the maneframe room. That was my only hope. I slammed the control box and dove into the room in front of me as I heard the first shots fired by the sentry gun. They slammed into the floor just outside the threshold of the door. The door slid closed behind me and the firing stopped. All I could hear now was the humming of the machinery behind me and the beeping of the sentry gun searching for a target in the hall.

I looked around the room I was in and saw water purification systems. Damn it Stable-Tec, why couldn’t you label the rooms here like you did in the Admin wing. I swore several more times under my breath, using combinations of the goddesses and actions that aren’t appropriate to share. Well, at least I could get that damned control chip. I made my way to the control station for the water purifier, opened the access panel and removed the chip.

With my minor problem solved, I turned to my bigger dilemma. How to get out of the room without getting turned to swiss cheese. I hoofed the control for the door and peeked my head out into the hallway. It didn't take long for the sentry gun to retrain its sights on me. Two bullets pinged and sparked on the frame of the door as I hastily withdrew my head. I hoofed the control and the door closed. Apparently the way out wouldn't be through the door.

I glanced around the room and saw there were no other doors in this room. I began to look for wall vents that maybe I could use to get to other sections of the stable. There were only two overhead vents, and there was no way I was getting up into them. I started to pace around the room to think and kept looking for other ways out. My search turned up nothing and I started to fear this room would become my tomb. I dropped down onto my hindquarters. One of the plates of my barding hit the floor panel beneath me and it made a hollow sounding ring.

What the hell…. I stood back up and looked closely at the floor panel. It appeared that it led to a shaft of sorts under the floor. But how was I going to get the panel open. I looked around the room for something to use for leverage and found some scrap metal on a shelf in the corner. I pried the floor panel off and slid it off to the side. The sound of metal scraping on metal was grating and filled the room with an ear-splitting squeal. Once I got the panel clear, I knelt down and looked into the tunnel.

It was pitch black and I could barely see past the couple of feet the red emergency lighting of the purification room cast into the tunnel. From what I could see, it was just barely large enough for a smallish pony to crawl through and it led back towards the central hallway. I lowered myself into the crawlspace and began to work my way down the tunnel.

After moving a couple of feet, my breathing became shallow and rapid. I stopped to catch my breath and I noticed that my head was pounding. I was never comfortable around tight spaces, but I didn’t think my claustrophobia was this bad. I stopped and tried to catch my breath. My mouth was extremely dry and my heart was pounding almost out of my chest. I pictured a pony skeleton trapped under the floor. My head was cleared when I heard a rumbling sound followed by several pings and the sound of running water coming from the room behind me. What the hell just happened?

I saw water start to flow into my crawlspace from the hatch I used in the purification room. The damn purifier must have blown! Of all the times for a systems failure, but I didn’t have time to worry about that now. I started to crawl my way toward the other end of the tunnel. The walls around me started to vibrate and the pipes started to bulge. I tried to move faster, but I was already short of breath and now the tunnel was spinning.

I heard a weird bursting sound and got slammed in the face with a jet of water. The pipes on the other side of me burst a few seconds later. Water was pouring into the tunnel and was starting to fill it. There was already a standing layer of water at my hooves. I had to make it through the rest of the shaft and quickly.

The shaft was now slicker due to the water coating the floor beneath me. I scrabbled my way along floor, moving painfully slowly. I had only traveled a couple of feet and had about two dozen more feet to go. As the water got deeper, it got harder to move. I had slithered several more feet, but the water was now up to my throat and was filling the shaft rapidly. I kept pushing myself forward, more out of desperation now than will. Progress was painfully slow and I knew it.

The water was now splashing at my muzzle. I was about halfway through the crawlspace. The water was going to cover my head shortly and then this would get more difficult. My hooves were not getting as much traction since I was starting to float a little bit. What else could possibly work against me here?

The water was now above my head and I still had about ten feet to go. My vision was obscured by water in the tunnel. I raised my mouth to the ceiling of the tunnel and took what would be my last breath until I got out of here. I inhaled as deeply as I could and continued to push my way towards air. As I kept pushing, my lungs started to burn, both with effort and with the overwhelming urge to breathe. The edges of my vision began to fade. Don't breathe Dust... don't breathe!

I started to panic. I was going to die this watery death, deep in this stable, under the floor, where no one would look for me. Silver Lining wouldn't even be able to find me, even if she could get to my location. I kept pushing my body forward and fought the nearly overwhelming urge to breathe. Kick, Dust, keep kicking! My head started pounding with every beat of my heart.

After a couple more kicks, my face slammed into a wall. Goddesses be damned, that hurt! I must have reached the end of the crawlspace. At least I hoped that was the case and not that I had simply gotten turned off course and slammed into a wall. I didn’t really have much choice. Bracing my legs underneath me, I pushed up with all my might.

Something above me gave and my body shot up through the floor of another room. I felt water cascading off my body and fell to my side on the floor of the new room. My lungs gasped greedily for air as I lay on the ground. My body heaved air in and out for a couple of minutes. Slowly, my vision returned to normal and my breathing slowed.

I sat up and looked around the rather small room I was in. The room was dominated by the large maneframe and its interface panel. The maneframe! Oh thank the goddesses! There was a chair for an operator near a small keyboard and a small utility table. I stood up and walked over to the door. I listened carefully and heard the soft beeping of the sentry gun trying to acquire a target. My situation was improved, but I wasn’t out of the woods yet.

I sat down at the console of the maneframe and looked at the small screen:

ACTIVITY LOG:

LIVING QUARTERS: LEVEL 2: DEPLOY ROBOT LQ.G.1

LIVING QUARTERS: LEVEL 2: TEST SUBJECT 1003 DETECTED

UTILITY: LEVEL 3: WATER PROCESSING: INCREASE PRESSURE TO ALL VALVES

UTILITY: LEVEL 3: ACTIVATE SENTRY TURRET U3.1

UTILITY: LEVEL 3: EMERGENCY HATCH SEAL: HATCH 3.2

UTILITY: LEVEL 3: TEST SUBJECT 1022 DETECTED

I scanned more of the log and noticed that the computer had been tracking our movements since, well, since the beginning. Several entries further down, I read the following:

UTILITY: LEVEL 2: EXPERIMENT CONCLUDED. TEST SUBJECT 1005 FAILED.

UTILITY: LEVEL 2: EMERGENCY HATCH SEAL: HATCH 3.2

The computer was running experiments! It thought we were test subjects in some sick and twisted game! I scanned the rest of the entries and saw that the computer was activating and deactivating various system. Perhaps the most frightening entry was the one that read:

PROTOCOL UPDATE: TEST SUBJECT 1005: UPGRADE TO LEVEL 3

I scanned back up in the most recent entries and found these two entries:

PROTOCOL UPDATE: TEST SUBJECT 1022: UPGRADE TO LEVEL 6

and

PROTOCOL UPDATE: TEST SUBJECT 1003: UPGRADE TO LEVEL 6

If what happened to Prickly was a level 3 experiment, and the computer had already upgraded Silver and I to level 6….

“Holy mother-bucking goddesses,” I muttered under my breath. The computer was really trying to kill us. I had to get out of here and meet up with Silver. My assumption was that she was test subject 1003 and she was stuck somewhere on level 2 of the Living Quarters. I had to get out of Utility first.

Keying in commands, I attempted to access the maneframe’s override procedures, but found that I was locked out. The computer kept saying I had insufficient access and to contact my nearest Stable-Tech representative for assistance. Yeah, I’ll get right on that once I have a time machine.

I went back to the main menu and looked for a way to modify the experiment. Again, all I was told was that I lacked a sufficient level of access. After randomly going through menu options, I found one I was able to access: SENSOR MAINTENANCE. Maybe I could shut down the sensors and blind the computer.

The only menu option was for Sensor Reboot. I selected that option and saw the the screen start a countdown from five. When it finished the countdown, I heard the soft beeping in the hallway stop. Awesome! It worked.

Feeling pleased with myself, I trotted to the door and hoofed the control panel. The door slid open and I stepped out in the hallway. I was halfway into the hall when I heard the beeping from the sentry resume. No fucking way! I saw the turret swing towards me and I dove back into the maneframe room. Three shots ricocheted off the floor behind me. That had to have been only about 10 seconds! I had to get into the hallway and override the doorway in just 10 seconds?

I sat back down at the console and looked for the Security subroutines. Maybe I could override all the hatches and have all the doors in the stable open at once. Unfortunately, I was informed hatch control was under strict control of maneframe experimentation control.

Think, Dust, think. Can’t go back, so we go forward. I pictured the hallway. The sealed door was blocking my access to the higher levels of Utility. The other wing housed a, presumably, flooded water purification room and a waste processing room. Then there was a stairway down… A stairway down! It would mean going deeper into the Stable, but I had no other choice. The question now became, would ten seconds be enough time to make it past the sentry and out of sight? I had no choice, I had to try.

I went back to the maneframe and rekeyed the menu option for rebooting the sensors. After five seconds, I heard the beeping in the hallway stop. I galloped to the door control and hoofed it. The door opened halfway and stopped. Fucking computer… now it was playing games with me. I slid to a stop and almost smashed my face against the half closed door. I stuck my head out in the hallway… it was a tight fit. The motors whirred as the turret swung its way towards my door. The doorway was a tight fit as I quickly pulled my head back in and the door slammed shut behind me.

I let out a growl. “Fucking maneframe, fucking doors, fucking stables…” If this was typical of all stables, then no one made it out. I imagined ponies dying in multitudes of horrible ways. And I was probably going to be another one… and Silver too. I was shaken from my thoughts by the beeping resuming in the hallway. The door slid open again. “OK computer, you wanna play games, I can play games too.”

I grabbed a screwdriver off of a maintenance cart nearby and galloped towards the door. I jammed the screwdriver into the door track as hard as I could and got it wedged. Hopefully this would hold the door. I went back to the maneframe and rebooted the sensors once again. Breaking into a full gallop, I turned towards the door. As I got closer to the door I saw it start to close and get jammed against the screwdriver. Right after I passed through, I heard the motor whining against the strain.

I made it several steps into the hallway and I heard the screwdriver skitter away as the door closed behind me. Well, there was no going back now. I got under the sentry gun and turned down the staircase. The harsh beeping of the sentry gun droned on behind me as I waited on the landing. Hopefully, I was out of line of sight. I hoofed the door control and nothing happened. The computer was playing games again.

I bucked the control box and quickly shattered the computer board behind it. Hopefully that would prevent the computer from remotely operating the door. While frantically looking for the wires that would activate the door’s motor, I heard the sentry gun whir to life behind me. Ah, shit. Gotta move quick. I touched the two necessary wires together and the door started to slide open. After the door was fully opened, I galloped through the opening. The sentry gun opened fire and sent several rounds towards me. A couple of rounds pinged against the floor behind me. Then I felt like I got slammed in the torso. I dove and slid against another door. The firing from behind me stopped. Searching my body where I felt the impact, I found the mushroomed round that my armor had stopped. Thank you Enclave R&D. My side still throbbed, but I was alive and I was out of Utility.

Hoofing the control, the door slid open and I walked into the Living Quarters. I sat down after the vestibule door closed behind me. I needed to calm down and brace myself for what would happen in the Living Quarters. There was a crazy computer trying to kill me, Silver Lining to find somewhere in the Living Quarters and I had to get back to the front door, all without getting anyone killed. And this trip was supposed to be hard.

Based on what I read in the maneframe, Silver was stuck somewhere on Level 2. Hopefully she hadn’t gotten too far, and I wouldn’t have to search all the levels. I wondered how many levels this particular stable had. Unfortunately, most of the records regarding stable specifics were deemed unimportant so the Enclave never sent teams to recover them.

I looked at the door in front of me and it indicated that I was on level 4 of the Living Quarters. Great, just had to find my way two levels up first. I reached out for the door control in front of me, half expecting it to explode in my face. When I was able to activate it without any problems, I guessed the computer stopped using that particular game. Which, of course, made me wonder what games it would be using.

When the door slid open, I saw a long hallway in front of me. There was a sour odor, but very faint. It reminded me of other stables filled with old rotted bodies. I couldn’t see the end of the hallway in the dim, red lighting, but I did see there was a branch off to the right a good distance down the hall. The first two doors I saw were the restrooms and were marked for mares and stallions. I quickly searched both bathrooms and saw that the first aid kits were already ransacked. High Ground’s team must have done a pretty thorough job, or someone else had previously made their way through here.

When I was back out in the hallway, I saw the door control for the first bathroom I went in was illuminated with a red indicator light. I hoofed the control and nothing happened. It seemed the computer was still playing a game with me with the doors, but it had changed. I would be able to enter each room only once. Well, that shouldn’t be too hard to handle. But I had to be careful since I needed to check every room for Silver.

I entered the first room, calling out Silver’s name as I entered. I also searched the dressers and lockers, but found nothing of any value. Finding the drawers already ransacked, I guess that by the time anyone got to level 4, they stopped checking dressers and the like. The most disconcerting thing about the room was the skeletal remains that lay in the bed under the sheets. The Overmare ordered everyone to stay in their rooms and from what I saw, this poor pony did. Until he or she died. I said a short prayer to the goddesses for the occupant before I left.

The next few rooms were a repeat of the scene I found in the first. Now I know what Silver was talking about when I asked about the Living Quarters earlier. The sight of the pony skeleton in the bed never got less heartbreaking, especially when it was obvious it was a filly or colt.

I decided to stop searching room by room since there was nothing of any value, monetarily or offensively, and made my way to the staircase on the opposite end of this level of the stable. Making my way up the two flights of stairs, I found my way to the door marked level 2. I hoofed the control and walked through.

The first thing I noticed was the sound of a plasma pistol being fired every few seconds. The second was screaming every time it did so. And the screaming sounded a whole lot like Silver.

“Don’t worry Silver, I’m coming!” I screamed out. And then I felt immediately foolish. Best case scenario, she wouldn’t hear me. Worst case scenario, the robot with an energy weapon now had a new target.

Great move, Dust, great move.

As I walked through this level, I noticed that all the door controls were illuminated with a red light. I assumed that all the doors were going to be locked so the only room I could make it into would be the room Silver was hiding in. Game level 6, maybe?

I walked to the end of the corridor and peeked around the corner. Down at the far end of the hallway was a Mr. Gutsy robot. The large orb-shaped robot was floating outside of a stable room on its jet engine. It was about three-quarters of the way down the hallway. There was another branch about half-way down so I imagined this floor had a figure 8 design. I went around the other direction and up the middle hallway in order to get a better look at it.

I peered down the hallway and saw the Mr. Gutsy still outside the room, taking potshots into the room with its plasma weapon. My guess is that it was still detecting Silver as alive, but couldn’t quite get a clear shot at her. I was going to take care of the robot, but first I needed to get inside and check on her condition.

Well, time to see if this robot would react to sound. I reached into my saddlebags and grabbed a hoofful of caps. I hurled them down the hall away from the robot and myself. They clattered along the ground with a shower of metallic pings as they bounced off the stable floor. The Mr. Gutsy turned and started moving towards the sounds.

“You better run you zebra-loving bastards!” it gleefully called out as it moved down the hallway. I pinned myself against the wall as closely as I could and waited. Hopefully the robot wouldn’t notice a pegasus squeezed along a stable wall. I held my breath as I heard the jet engine sound approaching my hiding spot and then saw the robot glide past. When it was past me by a good deal, I started walking down the hall as quietly as I could. Unfortunately, there isn’t much you can do to hide the sound of horseshoes on bare metal. The robot spun around.

“Who’s ready to have their ass kicked?” it said as it started floating back towards me.

I took off at a full gallop towards the room I assumed Silver was in. Plasma bolts flew past my head and I felt the heat of some of the shots. One shot hit my mane and I caught a whiff of smoldering hair. Thankfully it wasn’t a direct hit. I slipped a little as I tried to round the corner into the room, almost falling to the floor, but I made it inside. I sidled up next to the door frame and turned my head to check behind me. That was when something large and heavy hit me right in the face.

“Mother-bucking goddesses,” I hissed as I clutched my face in my hooves. I felt the blood dripping out of my nose and tasted it as it dripped in my mouth. Could I get injured anywhere else today?

“Dust, is that you?” Silver said. “Oh Celestia, it is. I’m so sorry. I’m so so sorry for that. I thought you were the robot and I panicked and…”

I turned and stared at Silver. “So you throw something at it? That was your big plan?” I glanced down at the ground and saw a large paperweight sitting at my hooves. “And you throw a paperweight?” I blurted out through my two hooves rubbing my face.

“Well, it was the only thing I could find…” she sheepishly said, her face started to turn bright red. “I said I was sorry.”

“That and five caps will get me a Sparkle Cola!” I yelled. She turned her head away from me. I immediately felt pangs of guilt. I sighed deeply. “Silver, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that… it’s just that… it fucking hurt!”

“Yeah, well, OK I guess. How did you…” she started saying, clearly hurt, but we were interrupted by the Mr. Gutsy.

“There’s nothing I like better than making some other poor bastard die for his country!” we heard from outside in the hallway.

“Quick, here,” Silver whispered as she moved behind an upturned bed tucked in the corner out of sight of the door. “It doesn’t seem to be able to hit me here.”

“That’s all well and good, but we gotta get out of here.”

“I know… any ideas?” she asked me.

The Mr. Gutsy appeared in the doorway and started firing plasma rounds into the room. It wasn’t hitting us, but it was filling the room with the smell of ozone and sulfur.

“This is fun,” I grumbled. “What do you have on you?”

“Just some food, medicine and general supplies.”

I growled to myself. “Alright, so much for the easy way. Think Dust, think. Mr. Gutsy’s are armored, so light arms are out, not that we have any. I won’t be able to sneak up to it to deactivate it. Maybe…” I continued rattling off technical specs and thinking of reasons why we couldn’t do anything to get out of our predicament.

“Oh for Luna’s sake,” Silver rolled her eyes at me. Much to my surprise, she reached into my saddlebags and pulled out a spark grenade. I forgot I had those! She pulled the pin and stepped out behind our little bunker and hurled the grenade into the hallway. The robot fired a plume of flame towards Silver, but it appeared to miss her. Shortly afterwards, the hallway was filled with blue flashes of light and the sound of arcing electricity. The Mr. Gutsy fell to the floor with a loud clang and stopped moving. I ran over to it, removed the access panel and deactivated it.

I smacked my hoof against my forehead. “I am a stupid pony.”

“Dust, yes you are, but I having more pressing matters. HELP!” she screamed.

I turned around and saw that her vest was on fire. The sides of it were starting to melt and streak down her sides. “The vest, off, NOW!” I called out. She started to slip out of it and I helped her remove it. Once it was on the ground, I started stomping on it to extinguish the flames, which I had done in short order. “Let me take a look to see if you got burned anywhere.”

She started to protest, “No, really, I’ll be OK, just a few burns.”

I only got a quick look before she moved away, but I saw a series of scars that ran the length of her body. There were also several puncture wounds that had already scarred over. There were some fresh injuries, but most of the scars were old and already healed. The long, dark streaks and spots spoke to a long period of abuse. Her flank seemed to be heavily injured, obscuring her cutie mark, but I didn’t get a clear look at it before she turned away from me.

“Silver, what happened to you? All those scars on your back?” I asked.

“N...nothing… just a few injuries after running into… never mind. I’m OK, really,” she said with a clipped tone as she put her vest back on. “Can we just get the hell out of here please?”

“What were you about to say?” I asked.

“No…. no… never mind… don’t worry about it,” she sputtered out, “Let’s just go please.”

Fortunately, the rest of the way back up to the entrance room was uneventful. We spent the time discussing what had happened to us while we separated. She had it relatively easy. She made it back to the Atrium easily and thought she’d look for an entrance to Utility through the Living Quarters. Level 1 was clear, but on level 2 she was immediately set upon by the Mr. Gutsy and chased into the room I found her in. When I told her my story, she seemed enthralled and genuinely terrified for me. “Dust, I know it’s not my fault, but I’m sorry you went through all that.”

“It’s OK Silver, I’m here and I’m relatively OK and so are you. That is all that matters.” We got to the door and Silver went to hoof the door control, until i pushed her hoof away. “The guards out there have orders to shoot to kill if I try to leave early. The way I figure it, I’ve been down here for almost 16 hours, we should grab some sleep until they let us out in the morning.

She turned to look at me, “Should we head back into the living quarters and grab a mattress or two?”

“Oh hell no. I am not spending another moment in the living quarters. I’ve had enough of the living quarters for a long, long, LONG time. I’ll be fine sleeping on the floor. How about you?”

“I guess I can manage.” Silver took off her saddlebags and placed them on the floor and layed down, using them as a pillow.

“Umm, Silver. Mind if we share those? I don’t want to take my armor off in case the guards open the door and I can’t get my armor back on fast enough. They,” I gestured at the door with my hoof, “don’t know I’m a pegasus, remember?”

“Sure, just no funny stuff. Besides, I already know you were staring at my flank before,” she said with a wink as she nudged me in my shoulder.

“What, no, I would never, not like that, you see...” I stammered trying to collect my thoughts.

“Now we’re even for before when you joked about me copping a feel,” she giggled and then paused. “Are you ready to tell me why you don’t want anyone knowing you’re a pegasus?”

I knew I wouldn’t be able to deflect this time. “A few years ago, several earth ponies came across me in a bar. They saw my wings and immediately assumed I was with the Enclave and beat the snot out of me. Ever since, I’ve felt it was easier to hide the fact that I am a pegasus than deal with all the bullshit that comes with it.” Well, the part of avoiding the bullshit was true, at least. “Don’t you get the same?”

“Sometimes, but I usually keep to myself. The only ponies I talk to are usually shopkeepers and as long as you’ve got the caps, they’ll sell to you.” Silver turned to look at me. “Dust, thank you for saving me before. You could have just left me there, most ponies would. You are a good pony, and that’s refreshing for the Wasteland.”

“Thanks, you’re pretty good yourself.”

“Good night, Dust.” After a few minutes, I heard her breathing slow as she started to drift off to sleep.

As I lay down, I couldn’t help but to think about the past few days events. First, there was the inexplicable change in Muddy. Why had he attacked me and why did he seem so manic all of a sudden? If he was so willing to attack Silver and try to kill me, what would he do now that he was on his own? I had to track him down to get to the bottom of things. Maybe our facilitator had some information I could use. I’d have to track him down as well.

Finally, I thought about Silver. A complete stranger a couple of days ago who had saved my life as I lay dying at the bottom of the cavern at the bottom of the lab. She had done so barely knowing me and what I could or couldn’t do for her. She had been nothing but genuinely nice, and I couldn’t figure out why. I couldn’t help but to smile a little thinking about her. Why did I care so much though? I was down here on a mission, and I had no time for distractions. Right? My train of thought was cut short as Silver turned over in her sleep.

She muttered under her breath, “Dust, thanks again for saving me from Clear Skies.” She resumed her soft, slow breathing shortly after that.

I bolted upright and stared at her. How did she know Muddy’s real name?

Level up!

Skills
Science: 40

Perk Obtained!
Robotics Expert: You are a master of all devices robotic in nature and know the strengths and weaknesses of all models of robots.. You can now successfully deactivate robots that have not detected your presence.

Chapter 4 - Picking Up the Pieces

Chapter 4 - Picking Up the Pieces

“Sometimes the hardest pieces of a puzzle to assemble are the ones that are missing from the box.”

The flashing yellow light and loud klaxons of the stable door opening startled me awake. I guess I fell asleep thinking about how to handle Silver’s slip-up last night. My friends Brown Root and Wilted Flower were the ones to greet us when the door opened. Apparently, Last Stand wanted his lackeys to be there, but Brown and Flower got them really drunk and took their place. Why Flower came in her body armor, I didn’t know. She always seemed to wear it. We had been greeted by drawn guns when they saw Silver Lining. This was expected since she was a pegasus. Second, no one knew she was in the stable. After a few minutes of tense introductions, weapons were put away and we were escorted to Big Boss’ office.

The scavenging company had made their headquarters out of an old barn on the outskirts of town. It was really the only building large enough to house all the stuff they found and all the weapons they owned. Amazingly, it was in decent condition with most of the original construction still in good shape. Big Boss kept his operating office in a small room built just inside the main doors.

The office was rather small, but then again it didn’t need to be large for what he used it for. It housed a desk, several chairs, and a small table with several clipboards on them. When we entered, Big Boss was seated behind his desk, which was unusually bare. Normally, it would be covered with piles of mission reports, requisitions, and sales logs. He must have been expecting us, but then again, that was not a surprise seeing as how we were working on his timetable.

“Welcome back, Dust. I hope your journey through the stable was an easy one.” I couldn't help but to scoff a little at that comment. “I guess not. I see you made a friend.” That last word was laced with some sarcasm. “You must be Silver Lining. Dust has told us about you, or more specifically, what you did for him in the stable. For that, I have to thank you. But, if I may, how did you end up in the stable and for how long?”

I saw the muscles in Silver’s body tense when Big Boss addressed her directly. She had also been very tense when she first met my friends, and whenever they tried to talk to her directly. “I’ve been hiding out there for several weeks. I’m trying to stay away from some ponies that are looking for me.”

“And who are these ponies?” Big Boss asked, arching his eyebrows.

“Ponies that want to hurt me.” Silver answered. That was an oddly nondescript answer. I was starting to feel awkward, being only a bystander to this conversation.

Big Boss looked aggravated. “Alright, let’s try this. How did you find the stable?”

“I was chased into Horseton by the ponies I mentioned before. I just stumbled into a cave and there it was.”

Big Boss grumbled, “And you just knew the code to open the door?”

Silver glanced at me nervously. “No, the door was already open.”

Big Boss leaned back in his chair. “Miss Silver, this will be easier for both of us if you just tell me the whole truth.”

“I am telling you the truth. The door was open when I got there. I closed it from the inside control panel.”

“Uh huh… alright, let’s try this. How did you get into the lab section? Or was that door open as well?”

“It was unlocked.” I could see her tensing up every time she had to answer a question.

“Big Boss,” I interrupted, trying to back him off a little, “she did save my life, twice, in the stable. She’s a good pony.”

“I do appreciate your input, Dust, and she may have earned your trust, but not mine. So Miss Silver, how do you know Muddy Waters?”

“I don’t, at least not well. He attacked me when he came into the lab I was hiding in. That’s pretty much it.” Her voice was slowly becoming quieter as the interrogation continued.

“And then Dust here came in....” his voice trailed off waiting for a response.

“Shortly after Muddy had struck me a couple times.”

“That’s all?” Big Boss looked skeptical. “Dust, how long would you say, at a minimum, Muddy was alone with her?”

“Huh? How long?” My head snapped towards Big Boss in surprise. I figured it would be Big Boss interrogating Silver. I never expected to get drawn into this part of the meeting. If I was going to be honest, Muddy was alone with Silver for at least a few minutes, by the time I left the one lab I was in, got to the other lab, and opened the door… and I had to remember that Muddy had more than enough time to hide by the time I got there. However, I never saw him enter the lab in question, so it could have been much longer than that. But could I lie to Big Boss? “A couple minutes, tops?” Yes, apparently, I could. Why I lied, however, I couldn’t figure out.

“Hmm.” BIg Boss was looking right at me and I didn’t like the look I was getting. “Alright, so Dust and Muddy fight and Dust falls off the ledge...”

Silver interrupted, “Umm, thrown off.”

“What was that Silver?” Big Boss seemed a little thrown off balance by the interruption.

“Um, Muddy threw Dust off the ledge.” Her voice was starting to crack when she spoke.

“OK, so after Muddy allegedly threw Dust off the ledge…”

“Wait a minute… you don’t believe me?” She said with a shocked look on her face.

“Frankly, no. I don’t trust pegasi. Two hundred years of turning their backs on their former brethren can do that to you. Now, how did you get down to Dust without Muddy seeing you?”

Silver starting shifting her weight from one hoof to the other repeatedly. Poor thing. She continued answering the question, but her voice was now barely above a whisper. “At one point during the fight while Muddy was strangling Dust, I charged into Muddy to get him off of Dust. While they were recovering I flew down into the cavern to hide.”

“So, after being thrown,” the word was dripping with contempt, “Dust lands at the bottom of the cavern. Now what happens?”

“I dragged Dust into one of the darker corners of the cavern. I didn’t want Muddy to finish what he had started. I hid the two of us from Muddy the best I could. Muddy looked over the ledge looking for us. He couldn’t see us though, it is way too dark in that cavern.” A grin momentarily came to her face as she obviously took pride in successfully hiding us. However, it disappeared the minute Big Boss addressed her again.

“So Muddy is up in the lab. What happens now?”

“Well, Dust comes to and I keep him quiet. Muddy is up in the lab worrying about how he will cover this all up.”

“Hmmm…” Big Boss kept calmly looking at Silver. He seemed well practiced in interrogation. “Miss Silver, I assume you were in the lab when one of my ponies got there to fetch Muddy?” Wait, no one ever entered the lab?

Silver’s head immediately snapped toward Big Boss. Her eyes narrowed a little. “No one ever entered the lab after Muddy threw Dust off the ledge.” She must have picked up on Big Boss’ trap too. It felt like I was watching two ponies play chess, and my head was starting to hurt.

“Once you knew there were other ponies in the stable, why didn’t you come up and get our attention? Surely, you had to know that Muddy couldn’t do anything questionable in front of others?”

“I don’t know you ponies. You all could have been like Muddy.”

“So, then why trust Dust?”

“He tried to save me from Muddy. Even though it didn’t work, at least he tried.”

Before I could thank her, Big Boss continued. “So, somepony that you barely knew who happened to stumble into a questionable situation and accidentally stops an alleged beating immediately earns your trust?”

“Well, no, not exactly. It was the almost dying that did that. Enemy of my enemy is my friend?” Silver shrugged a little. It was at this point I realized my head had been moving back and forth between Big Boss and Silver like I was watching them play catch.

“One last question for you. How did you get Dust back into the lab? He was clearly unable to climb back to the cavern, and it’s not like he can fly.” He hesitated a little. Did he know? “And you hardly seem strong enough to carry him the whole way.”

“I guess the adrenaline of the situation kicked in and I got him there. Barely, I might add. If I didn’t help him, he would have died.” She glanced at me when she said that. She must have been more stressed than I thought since her cheeks were flushed.

Big Boss took a second to think. “Alright, now why don’t you two fill me in on what happened in the stable the second time Dust went in?”

We took turns and told Big Boss of our individual experiences in the stable. Big Boss patiently listened to each of our stories in turn. He seemed particularly troubled by the different ways that the computer had tried to kill us.

“So, Silver, can you please explain to me how you ended up on the safer side of the door when it slammed shut?” He was staring right into SIlver’s eyes by this point.

“Just luck I guess.” She shrugged.

“And why did the Mr. Gutsy not enter the room you were in, but seemed to immediately target Dust when he was in the hallway?”

“You ask that like you think I planned....Wait, you think I caused all this, don’t you?” Silver’s head dropped and she looked ready to cry..

“Well, yes. You were the only pony in the stable before my ponies got there. You had, by your own admission, been living in the stable for an extended period of time with no attacks on you. And when my ponies show up, ponies start getting hurt. So, yes, I think you are behind it.” I don’t know if he meant to raise his voice, but he did.

“Wait, no… I can’t believe… Why would I… I would NEVER do that” I could almost see Silver’s brain working overtime.

“So says you. Well, regardless of whether or not I am getting the whole truth,” I noticed he was looking right at Silver when he said that, “You two have given me a lot to think about. But before that, Dust, what do you have to show me?” His tone was a little ominous. But then again, it was life or death we were talking about here, specifically, my life or death.

I was still a little shaken after watching the previous grilling of Silver. I opened up my saddlebags and removed everything I had scavenged from the stable.

“First, we have about 10 spark batteries.” I placed each battery on his desk.

“Hardly anything to get excited over.” He was right, but I was going to take my time. I almost died for this stuff. And I still may.

“Next, we have an assortment of tools and random electronics parts.”

“Dust, are you trying my patience on purpose. Do you have anything worth showing me or not?”

“Alright, how about this?” I tossed the water control chip onto his desk.

He picked up the chip and spun it between his hooves. “Looks like you did what I asked. Very good, very good. This should get us a lot of caps. It looks like it wasn’t a mistake...”

I cut him off. I was on a roll so I thought I would finish off with some flair. “And, for the big finale,” I drew out each Pip-Buck one at a time and placed it on his desk with a thump, “1, 2, 3, 3 Pip-Bucks. And the tools to work on them.”

I could see the gleam in his eyes. He picked up each Pip-Buck in turn and hoofed the activation switch. After trying all three, I saw his face sink a little. “Three non-functioning Pip-Bucks? Well, better than nothing I suppose. We can sell the working parts for caps, at least.”

My heart sunk. “Wait, none of them work? One functioned inside the stable.” I picked up each Pip-Buck and tried the switch. The third one turned on and showed me the booting screen again. “See, I told you.” I handed it to Big Boss. Once it left my touch, it turned itself off. “What the?”

Big Boss turned the Pip-Buck around in his hooves. “Very surprising. It seems this Pip-Buck is programmed to only respond to certain ponies. And it seems you are one of those certain ponies. These were very rare models, specially made for VIPs. I’ve only heard of one other that was found. When they tried to bypass it, it nearly killed the technician. The odd thing is, how is it programmed to work for you? You’re not 200 years old are you?”

“I’m as surprised as you are,” I shrugged.

Big Boss nodded. “This day just keeps getting more and more interesting. Dust, do you think you can cobble the other two together into something that will work?”

“I don’t know for sure. I’d need to see if I had the right parts between the two of them. I could try, but no promises. I’d never had my hooves on a Pip-Buck before.”

“Would you kindly try to fix the other Pip-Bucks, please? You may use one of the workstations outside. Let me know when you’re done. And Miss Silver, I assume you’ll want to stay with Dust?” Silver nodded very quickly. “I figured.” It was obvious he was still not comfortable around the pegasus.

He called for his assistant to walk me to one of the workstations with the two broken Pip-Bucks. Silver followed closely behind and sat down next to me and just watched me work. Using the tools I picked up from the stable, I took apart both Pip-Bucks and managed to piece one back together totally. I took a deep breath before hoofing the activation switch. When I was greeted with the brohoofing, smiling pony, I exhaled. I separated the extra working components and tossed the broken ones. Silver and I walked back over to Big Boss’ office and knocked.

“Come in, Dust,” he called out.

“I finished the Pip-Buck, here you go.” I placed the now-working Pip-Buck in front of him. “And here are a bunch of extra parts. I figure you could sell them for a pretty cap. Am I done here?”

“Dust, I understand that you are angry with us and I do personally apologize for sending you back into the stable. Last Stand will be pissed you made it out at all, but a lot of the others will be thrilled with what you did. You have exceeded what was expected of you so, as far as I am concerned, the matter regarding the alleged theft is closed. But, I will need to discuss the situation regarding Muddy and you with the other leaders. Please feel free to get settled in town. I know your house blew up, so I took care of a room at the boarding house for you. Silver, I also took care of a room for you, in appreciation for saving Dust. I will get in touch with you once I have more for you. Why don’t you both get checked out by the town doctor to make sure you’re OK.”

“Thank you Big Boss.” I nodded. “C’mon Silver, let’s go.”

After Silver walked out the door, Big Boss cleared his throat. I turned around and he pointed his hoof at his eyes and then at Silver who was still walking away. I simply nodded and then caught up with Silver.

After leaving the doctor’s office with relatively clean bills of health(we both had previous injuries that were still healing, after all), we made our way back to my old shack. I hadn’t seen my shack since the day it blew up. There wasn’t much left. Collapsed and broken fragments of lumber, pitted and charred, stood at odd angles to each other. It still smelled like smoke. Whatever the blast didn’t destroy initially, the fires afterwards most likely burned to a crisp. This was probably one time I was grateful I was an operative on a special assignment. There was really nothing in the shack that had any emotional value. But Muddy and I had stockpiled a collection of medical supplies and weapons, just in case things went sideways.

I started digging through the debris, grateful for once that the shack wasn’t that large. Unfortunately, it looked like Muddy cleaned out the shack first. No surprise there. He had several hours here while I lay presumably dying in the stable. None of our little supply caches were here.

“Dammit! I yelled and stomped the floor. My hoof went right through the floorboard and sunk in up to my fetlock. My hoof stopped moving and there was a clanging sound.

“What the?” I pulled my hoof out of the hole and peered into the opening. There was a small metal box hidden under the floorboard. I started stomping at the floor to make the hole larger.

“Dust? Did you find something?” Silver asked from the other side of the used-to-be shack. She seemed a little calmer than compared to her questioning in Big Boss’ office.

“Yeah, looks like something is hidden under the floor.” I finally made the hole large enough and pulled a small metal box out. I placed it on the floor and kicked it open. A small book fell out.

I picked up the worn tome. It was a simple book with a plain green cover. It was obviously a very old book, but was in reasonable shape. I flipped through the pages and saw a multitude of hoof (or mouth)written journal entries. The writing appeared to be Muddy’s and he appeared to have started it shortly after we got down here.

“What is it?” Silver asked while trying to look over my shoulder.

“Looks like a journal of the pony who lived here before us. Must have hidden it and forgot to take it when he left.” I felt bad lying to her, but I didn’t know where her loyalty lied. I threw the book in my saddlebags and lied to Silver, “Maybe I can rip out the written pages and sell the blank book for some caps. Alright, looks like Muddy got everything. Let’s go to the boarding house.”

As soon as my head hit the pillow, I fell right asleep. I was startled awake by knocking on my door. Before today, I was either knocked unconscious or sleeping on a floor somewhere. Sleeping in a bed was a pleasure.

“Wha? Huh? Who is it?” I called out still groggy from my nap.

The gravelly sounding voice of my friend Wilted Flower answered. “Dust, it’s Flower. Big Boss needs ta see ya now, alone.”

“Ugh, OK, give me a minute,” I grumbled back. What in the goddesses did he want now? I quickly threw my armor back on and opened the door. “What does he want?”

“Wouldn’t say. Just said ta get ya and get ya back there, pronto! Let’s go.” Why was she wearing her body armor to deliver a message. I had a sinking feeling in my gut.

I apparently had slept most of the afternoon. The daylight was starting to diminish as we made our way back over to Big Boss’ office. Flower left me at the main barn door once we got there. “Good luck.”

Luck? Why would I need luck? I turned to look at her and ask her, but she had already left and I couldn’t see where she went. How did she do that?

Big Boss’ door was open and he was sitting behind his desk. I knocked. “Big Boss, you wanted to see me?”

“Yes, I did Dust, please have a seat.”

“Um, ok.” I planted my rump on one of the chairs opposite his.

“The other leaders and I have discussed your… situation. Needless to say, we are all a little concerned over the events from the stable, regardless of which version of events we believe. Most ponies believe you did nothing wrong. But then assuming you are telling the truth, then we need to know why Muddy would try to kill you.” Welcome to the club. “Do you have any idea why?”

“I wish I did, Big Boss. We’ve been friends for a few years and we’ve never had problems, that I’m aware of anyway.”

“Hmm, that’s disheartening. I do not like mysteries.” His forehead furrowed. “Anyway, you’re probably wondering why I asked to see you?”

“The question had crossed my mind, yes.”

“The other leaders and I discussed the situation as I had already indicated. But we also came to a decision. I have bad news and good news.” He inclined his head a little. “The bad news is that we no longer have a spot for you on one of our scavenging teams. Last Stand doesn’t want you back and none of the other teams want you due to the questionable circumstances that still surround you.”

It felt like the floor had fallen away from underneath me. I had been working for the company for almost the entire time I’ve been down here. And now they are just turning their backs on me? I slumped in my seat. “Wow, um, just wow. Didn’t I prove myself by going back in alone to clear out the utility wing? Isn’t that what the suicide mission was about? I can’t believe you are firing me after I’ve done everything you’ve asked of me?!?”

“Dust, calm down. I never said you were fired,” Big Boss said in a calm manner, completely opposite of my mood right now.

“Then what the fuck are you saying?”

“I said you were no longer working on a scavenging team.” I’m sure my face belied my confusion. “I have an offer for you. The other leaders and I want Muddy back. We feel that there are now too many questions concerning his actions in the stable. In that vein, we are sending out a team to bring Muddy back. We feel that your knowledge of him will be invaluable...”

“Big Boss, I don’t know much. Muddy didn’t say anything too useful before he kicked me into the cavern in the stable. And I couldn’t find anything in the remains of our shack. I don’t see…”

Big Boss interrupted me. “You have a very bad habit of jumping to conclusions, don’t you?”

I felt my cheeks get hot as they probably flushed. I am not a smart pony sometimes. “Sorry, Big Boss.”

Big Boss grinned a little. “What I was going to say is that we have decided to send out a team to bring Muddy back. Your knowledge of him will be invaluable, so we have decided to offer you leadership of that team.”

“Oh….OH!. But wait, I thought the leaders didn’t trust me?”

“Well, they don’t, at least not to send you back into another recovery with possible loot. But we all feel that you are uniquely qualified to be in charge of this mission. You are personally vested in the outcome and you know him better than anyone else in town. You’d be perfect for the job.”

He made a very good point. I had a lot of questions that needed answering and Muddy would be the only pony to give them to me. Seeing as how I wouldn’t be working my normal job, I needed something to do to earn my keep. This would allow me to address all of my concerns. But, did I really want to go hunting for someone who would probably try to kill me the instant he saw me? I really had no idea what I wanted to do.

“Do I have to make a decision right now?”

“Well, I suppose not. The search team leaves tomorrow morning, whether you decide to take me up on this offer or not. They leave early in the morning. They will not wait. If you decide to take me up on my offer, meet here at first light to get outfitted and to meet your team.”

I wandered around Coltington for about an hour thinking about the offer Big Boss had made me. I was no closer to making a decision than I was an hour ago. I was also starving. I swung by the boarding house and picked up Silver, who was also starving.

The inside of Coltington’s “diner” was nothing special. Again, much like the rest of town, it was a conglomeration of corrugated metal paneling and salvaged lumber. The odor of various grilled meats and stewed vegetables filled the air. There were only a hoofful of tables and Blue Plate, the unicorn chef, was behind the counter with his stained apron on. I ordered the stew, which was usually made from a random assortment of pre-war canned vegetables. Silver was going to order the Daily Special, until I told her it was usually radroach meat. Her face got pale and she ordered the stew as well. I guess neither one of us liked eating meat, to which other ponies had gotten accustomed. We also both got a bottle of Sparkle Cola. Ahh, the carrotty goodness!

After getting our bowls of food, we sat down at one of the tables in one of the corners. The food smelled delicious, but then again, I hadn’t had a real meal in a couple of days. I dug right into the bowl of what appeared to be carrots, peas and corn in brown broth. It didn’t really matter what the vegetables were specifically, it tasted good enough. Silver poked at the bits floating in the water.

“Sumfin wron wiff your food?” I asked through a half-full mouth.

“Dust, didn’t your mother even teach you any manners?”

I swallowed all the food I had in my mouth. “Sorry,” I said sheepishly. “So Silver, what are you going to do now that you left the stable?” I asked between scoops of food.

“I don’t know, I figured I’d just hang around Coltington, maybe get a job. Of course, that’s assuming that Big Boss leaves me alone.”

“What do you mean, leaves you alone?”

“Dust, we’ve been followed since we left his office earlier.” Was Big Boss just having her followed, or if it was meant for the both of us. She glanced up from the carrot-like chunk she was trying to scoop up with her spoon. “Where did you go a little earlier when you left the boarding house?”

“Big Boss wanted to talk to me about the situation with Muddy. It seems they are going to drop the allegation that I’m a thief, mostly anyway.”

“That’s good… but you don’t look happy,” she said. “What’s the bad news?”

“I don’t really have a job anymore. Even though they believe that I’m not a thief, they still don’t trust me because of what happened with Muddy.” I decided to keep the bounty hunting a secret for now.

“Oh Dust, I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright. I’ll find something. You have no idea how valuable someone with my skills is. I’ll probably have a new job in a few days. May not be in Coltington, but that could be awkward anyway. So if you stick around Coltington, are you worried about the ponies you’re hiding from?” I asked.

“I figure if I hang around town, they can’t get to me easily,” she responded. “Safety in numbers?”

“Mind if I ask who is looking for you? I know you didn’t want to tell Big Boss, but will you tell me?”

Her movements slowed as I asked the question. She took the food into her mouth and chewed it, albeit very slowly. She swallowed her mouthful, “Dust, I really don’t want to talk about that. It wasn’t a pleasant part of my life and I’d rather not discuss it… at least not now.” She sighed deeply.

“Don’t you trust me? Or is everything you told Big Boss a lie?”

“I do trust you.. just not with that. It is very painful for me, OK? I would appreciate it if you don’t bring it up again.” Silver shifted in her seat. I was making her uncomfortable.

“Alright, can I at least ask you about exactly what happened between you and Muddy before I walked in the lab?”

“Dust, there isn’t anything to tell. Muddy walked in a couple of minutes before you. He got a couple of shots in and then you walked in.”

“So, where did all those injuries on your torso come from?”

“DUST, ENOUGH!” The few patrons there were all turned to look at us. Even Blue Plate stopped what he was doing to look.

“Alright everypony, nothing to see here. Turn back around.” I called out to the entire room. Everyone went back to their own meals, but you could feel them trying to slyly glance our way.

“Dust, I am going to say this one last time. I do not want to talk about anything from before we met. If I feel ready, and that is a huge if, then I will talk to you about it, but not until then.”

The next few minutes were spent in awkward silence as we worked on our meals. I broke the silence. “I was offered an interesting opportunity by Big Boss. I didn’t bring it up earlier because I don’t know how I feel about it, but I need to bounce it off of somepony. He has asked me to lead a team to go find Muddy and bring him back to town to answer for his actions.”

She nearly choked on the morsel she had in her mouth, “Are you sure that is a good idea? I mean, he did try to kill you already, twice. What will stop him from killing you outright now?”

I noted that her first reaction was to dissuade me from looking for Muddy. However, she did have a point. Muddy was better than me at hoof-to-hoof combat and anything dealing with weapons. I wasn’t going to be able to beat him head on. I was either going to have to outsmart or outnumber him. “What if I said I’ll have a team with me?”

“I guess that depends on who is on the team?” she asked.

“Well, um…” Shit… I forgot to ask who the team was. I facehoofed myself, hard. “I am not a smart pony sometimes.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me, you didn’t ask?” I simply shook my head back at her. She shook her head at me. “Dust, I think you should just let him go. He left without killing you. If he really wanted you dead, he would have made sure you were dead, don’t you think? Going after him will just get you killed for sure.” Still trying to talk me out of it. “Besides, you’re safer here with all your friends and the rest of the town.”

She had another point. But I had other considerations to worry about, and they were things I couldn’t discuss except with only one other pony. Muddy was my Special Operations partner and we were responsible for each other. If something was wrong, he needed my help. There was also our facilitator, Midnight Ink, to worry about. He was the only pony I knew of in the Wasteland that knew the truth behind Muddy and me, and he was in danger as well and would need to be warned. And if Muddy was beyond help, then I would have to make sure he was put down. I don’t know why, but I felt that I should probably be the one to take care of that.

“Silver, let me ask your opinion on something. Do you think I should tell Big Boss that Muddy is a pegasus?” I had been pondering this for a while now. I don’t know if it would help or hurt. Being a pegasus, or consorting with pegasi, immediately made you an enemy of most Wasteland ponies. But then again, if Muddy was going to ditch the entire earth pony facade, he might be wandering the Wasteland as a pegasus and if they were looking for an earth pony, well that wouldn’t be very helpful. And, of course, he could out me as well.

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea Dust. If you do that,” she leaned in close and whispered, “then he may do the same to you. His reputation is being questioned now, but you have just made a big step in saving yours. Besides, how would it look if it was known you were lying to everyone this whole time about him?” She leaned back and resume a normal volume. “Why would you do that anyway?”

“Well, I’m assuming Big Boss will want to get his hooves on him. Whether or not I go, the more information he has the better.”

“I guess. I still think it would be a foolish thing to do. I say just let it go and try to get a new start here.” I looked up and looked right into her eyes. I hadn’t been able to notice in the stable, but her eyes was the same shade of blue as the sky above the clouds. I could get lost in those eyes… dammit, not now!

“Silver, I do have a question for you. How did you open the door to the stable? You need a code for the external controls.”

“Oh that? That was easy. The group I was with, we came across a Stable-Tech sales office a while back. One of the terminals was still active and had the entry codes for all the stables in this part of Equestria. Unfortunately, the file was somewhat corrupted and we only got a hoofful of codes.”

“So you lied to Big Boss?” I asked, surprised.

“Well, yeah, I didn’t want him knowing that I had information on other stables. Something tells me that if he knew that, he’d never let me leave town unless I told him everything. Even then, he may keep me around to make sure I was telling the truth.” She grinned a little, taking obvious enjoyment from pulling the wool over Big Boss’ eyes.

“Interesting. How many other stables are there in the area?” I asked… maybe if I could get Big Boss some leads to more stables I’d get more credibility back.

“We were able to save only 3 codes. The problem is all we had were stable numbers. The locations were kept in a different file we couldn’t access.”

Damn it, why can’t anything ever be easy? “Silver, I don’t mean to pry… what happened to the rest of your group?’

I saw her mouth for into a small frown and her eyes and ears dropped noticeably. “They were all killed.” I was about to say something, but she added, “Including my family.”

“I’m so sorry Silver, I didn’t mean to…”

“It’s alright, Dust, I know.”

We finished the rest of our meal in silence.

It was dark after we finished eating, so we made our way back to the boarding house and went to our respective rooms. After locking the door behind, I removed my armor and placed it next to the bed. I slipped into the bed and pulled the sheet up over my body, reveling in the comfort of a real bed again. Staring at the ceiling, I started trying to figure out what I was going to do.

The ceiling did not reveal its thoughts on the matter, even after an hour of intense questioning. I kept glancing over at the saddlebags, wondering about the contents of the journal I had found. “Fuck it, I can sleep later I guess.” I said as I reached over into my saddlebags and withdrew Muddy’s journal. I was curious to see what it had said and I probably wouldn’t be getting any sleep until I did. I flipped it open to the first page. Muddy’s writing was unusually neat, considering we had to use our mouths to write.

The first entry was shortly after we moved into Coltington:

“I’ve never kept one of these before so I don’t quite know where to start. I guess I should say that I needed somewhere to write down my thoughts. I tried talking with my partner Dust, but he’s a bit of an egghead and seems to be taking this whole Wasteland thing a little poorly. I don’t know if I’m going to be able to make it down here. I miss all the comforts of home and some of the shit we are seeing down here is unreal. I guess I have to endure this, though, if I am ever going to become a Wing Commander like I was promised by the General. I guess I can endure anything as long as it means getting my life’s dream to come true. At least the General sees the promise that my other commanding officers did not.”

First of all, where does he get off calling me nerdy? Secondly, how was he going to become a Wing Commander? He gave up his commission in the Enclave armed forces when he joined Special Operations just like I had.

I scanned several other entries and did not notice anything interesting until one from a few months ago:

“I made it halfway through. Several more months and I will be back up at the fort training for my flight wing. And not soon enough. Dust will not stop complaining. I hate the Wasteland this, I hate the Wasteland that. It’s driving me nuts. It seems like he’s expecting to be down here for a while. I try to tell him that we’ll be getting out of here soon, but he keeps telling me it doesn’t work that way. Whatever, stupid pony.”

Stupid pony? Who does he think he is? I was definitely gonna talk about this with him if I ever ran across him again. Wait, was I really that whiny?

I kept scanning until I got to a weird looking entry. It was from about a month ago. The writing was messy and dark. It appeared he was rushing through the entry and pressing down really hard on the pencil.

“Goddesses be damned! That fucking liar! The General is a fucking liar! I spoke with Midnight today during our routine report. I mentioned that I was getting excited that we’d be leaving soon. Midnight looked at me funny and explained that we were posted down here indefinitely and even if we did return, we would never return to normal service. And if we tried to return without authorization, we’d be dewinged and branded as Dashites! The son of a bitch lied! I’ll never be a Wing Commander! Fuck that pegasus! Fuck all pegasi! Fuck the Enclave! Fuck the Wasteland! I will find a way to get what I want! Get what I deserve! Get even!”

Is this what caused Muddy to snap? The writing seemed visceral and unfiltered. I would be angry too if I found out someone had dangled my life’s dream in front of me, lying the whole time. There was one more entry left in the journal from a couple of weeks ago. The writing was was once again neat and clear:

“I found something interesting in the ruins of Horseton today. There was even a small surprise waiting for me inside. My new toy should help me deal with some of the issues that have arisen lately. If only they knew. This should at least be a small start to my path back to glory!”

What the hell was Muddy talking about? A surprise in Horseton? Did he find the stable before anyone else? New toy? Was he referring to Silver? Issues? Path back to glory? I laid my head down on the pillow and started to think about what the journal could possibly mean. My head only started to hurt.

My mind first went to Silver. What did I really know about the pink pegasus? All I knew for sure was that she had been hiding in the stable from somepony, or ponies. Who they really were I had no real clue. She was obviously afraid of them, that much was clear. True, she did save my life, twice: once when I was pushed off the ledge and when I was about to face off against a Mr. Gutsy. She very easily could have left me to die either time, but she didn’t.

But then there were questions I had that didn’t have answers. Who exactly was Silver hiding from? Were they the same ponies that had injured her? Had Muddy injured her? Why did she save me, a perfect stranger? Was it simply in appreciation for saving her? Or was there more to it than that? And why did she decide to leave the stable with me? And what was with the random thoughts I’ve been having about her? I barely knew her… has it really been that long since I’ve been with a mare? Is that all it is?

The most glaring was how did Silver know Muddy’s real name? We were not supposed to break cover for any reason whatsoever. So they apparently knew each other better than Silver was letting on. But that doesn’t explain why Muddy would break protocol. Then there was his journal which raised even more questions. I realized that I had not spent as much time listening to him as I should. Why was he under the impression we would only be down here for a year? Why did he think he’d become a Wing Commander? Was he really promised all this? From what I read, he was lied to. There really was no going back, at least not anywhere near the way he seemed to believe it would be.

Maybe the answer to all these other questions would explain probably the most important question I had… why had Muddy tried to kill me twice? We had been basically inseparable since we had been teamed up for training. I didn’t think we had any major arguments, so why did I seemingly become the focus of his aggression lately? Or was I just a convenient target?

Finally, my mind drifted to the General. Why had he lied to Muddy? Or was he lying to me? Or maybe, he was lying to both us? But why? Why did he have to lie at all? Ugh, my head was starting to pound. I laid my head down on the soft pillow and closed my eyes to clear my thoughts.

My thoughts drifted back to Silver and I fell asleep picturing those sky blue eyes...

Level Up!

Skills : Speech 25

Perk Obtained
Scrounger : You are getting good at this “salvaging” thing. You will find 10% more caps and ammo when searching ruins for salvageable material.

Author's Note

Thanks for those of you who have stuck around. If you are worried about the story never leaving town, don't worry... this is the last chapter that takes place entirely in Coltington for the near future... the real journey starts next time.

Thanks again!

Chapter 5 - First Steps

Chapter 5 - First Steps

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

I had not gotten much sleep that night. Big Boss’ offer all ran through my mind all night along with reasons why I should and shouldn’t lead this expedition. I might have finally fallen asleep more from exhaustion than anything else. I was glad to finally get out of bed and make my way to Big Boss to inform him of my decision.

The barn slowly emerged from the early morning haze. As I reached the large barn door, I saw that there was a small group of maybe a half dozen ponies milling around with clipboards, checking off items on their lists. Three distinct piles were being made. From what I could see, all sorts of supplies were being put together, including food, water, and first aid kits.

I made my way into Big Boss’ office where he was looking over a clipboard of his own. He put down the clipboard as he said, “Good morning, Dust. Can’t say I’m surprised to see you. I figured you’d take me up on this offer. Mind if I ask why you decided to go on this mission though?”

“I thought on this most of last night. On some level, I do want revenge for what Muddy attempted.” I sighed deeply. “But, if someone has to kill Muddy, I don’t know, it just feels right if I am the one to do it.” What I wasn’t going to say was that I was also afraid that Muddy would tell everyone that I am a pegasus.

“I can respect that, but please note, we are considering this first and foremost a capture mission. We would like him alive so that we can interrogate him. Some of the leadership feel that he is hiding something else and we want to make sure he didn’t steal anything that he may have found inside.” If only he knew.

Big Boss continued, “But first, I have some good news for you.” Big Boss walked over to a safe I hadn’t noticed in the wall before. “After much discussion, and some serious disagreement, I managed to convince the leaders of something.” He clicked in the final number in the combination and the door swung open. Big Boss reached in and withdrew a box. He closed the safe and spun the dial. After walking back to his desk, he placed the box on top of it and slid it towards me. “Go ahead, open it.”

I tentatively reached out towards the box and lifted open the flaps. Sitting inside was a Pip-buck! “Wait, what? I don’t understand?”

“Officially, we are simply loaning it to you for the duration of the mission. Some of us felt the special abilities it bestows the user would be useful to you in finding and dealing with Muddy. I mean the map alone will be helpful, but I’m sure you’ll find a use for the SATS, inventory management, and health management systems.”

I brushed my hoof over the smooth surface of the screen, simply staring at it. “And unofficially?”

“Unofficially, when this mission is over, assuming you keep working for us, I can’t see any reason you can’t keep using it seeing as how you are the only one it works for. We tried having everyone else stationed here in Coltington try it out, and no one else could get it to even turn on.”

“So, I get to keep it?”

“Again, officially, no. You are simply borrowing it. But when the mission is over, unless you quit the company, I will not necessarily ask for it back immediately.”

“No. Fucking. Way.” I was getting my own Pip-Buck! When we were getting trained on Wasteland tech/weaponry, I was excited about the prospect of finding a Pip-Buck. And now I have one! “Mind if I?”

Big Boss nodded. I removed the Pip-Buck from the box. It looked just like a standard Pip-Buck. It had all the normal knobs and dials, and the usual screen which took up the majority of the device. The one odd thing was that embossed on the front of the device was a Dashite symbol… well, I supposed it was really Rainbow Dash’s cutie mark, seeing as how there was no such thing as a Dashite back then.

“Rainbow Dash?” I muttered to myself, or so I thought.

“Yes, you noticed that too. This Pup-Buck was either designed for or by Rainbow Dash. Seeing as how it is believed that Rainbow Dash didn’t usually dabble in more intellectually driven pursuits, I would guess the former. Why it was made, though, I have no idea. And why it is reacting to you, I have no idea either. You’re not related to Rainbow Dash, are you? Is it possible for an earth pony to have descended from her? Did she even have children?”

I managed to stifle a gasp. Again, with another veiled reference to my true nature from Big Boss. Did he really know? Or was I simply being paranoid? “I don’t know… history isn’t exactly my strong point.” I opened the Pip-Buck and placed it on my left foreleg. As I closed the clasp that would hold it closed, I saw a little flash run along the seam between the two halves and the clasp itself. “What the?” I tried to reopen it, but it wouldn’t budge.

“Interesting… looks like the Pip-Buck magically sealed itself to your leg. Something tells me that only a very strong spell can remove that now.” Big Boss chuckled a little. “Looks like that Pip-Buck might be yours on a more permanent basis than we originally thought.”

I tugged unsuccessfully at the Pip-Buck a few more times. “Looks that way.” I couldn’t help but to grin a little. I flipped the activation switch with my other hoof and watched the Pip-Buck boot up. My vision flared and then returned to normal as the EFS kicked in with all of its displays. I apparently was facing north, was unarmed, and all the ponies around me were not threats. It worked just like it was described in training. “This. Is. Awesome!”

“Well, then best of luck with it.” He moved out from behind his desk. As he passed me, he said, “C’mon, let’s get you geared up and meet your team.”

That’s right… I needed to meet the team I forgot to ask about yesterday. I wondered who got assigned to me seeing as how there were still some trust issues.

It was a short walk back to the area where I saw the material being assembled before. Before we got there, I heard a feminine, gravelly voice say, “Of course he’s gonna accept it… it’s not like Dust wouldn’t want ta get revenge on Muddy.”

A deep male voice responded, “Well, I don’ know ‘bout that, but I figur’ Dust wants ta get to the bottom of this all.”

It sounded like my friends Flower and Brown Root, but they wouldn’t join this mission. I doubt Last Stand would let them.

We rounded the corner into the main work area. In a small room off to the side was Wilted Flower and Brown Root.

“Flower? Brownie? What are you doing here?”

Flower spoke up first, “Well, I heard ya were goin’ ta play hide and seek with Muddy and how could I resist?”

Brownie spoke up next, “Eeyup. We couldn’t let ya go out and have alla the fun now, could we?”

“No, I don’t mean why are you coming. What I mean is how did you get away from Last Stand? I can’t imagine he willingly let the rest of his team leave him behind?”

Big Boss was the one to answer. “Well, Dust, that answer is easy. They came to talk to me once they heard we were assembling a search party and you would most likely be leading it. I guess there really is no such thing as a secret around here.” He glanced at Flower and Brownie and they both simply grinned and pointed at each other. Big Boss simply shook his head. “But more importantly, don’t forget, Last Stand works for me, so I have the last say.”

Flower laughed. “And boy is he pissed. He told us that if we left with ya, not ta come back ta work for him.” The smile faded from her face. “But Dust, seriously, and more importantly, we felt bad for believing the lies Muddy told ‘bout ya.” Flower drooped her head a little. “Sorry about that.”

Brownie’s head also drooped a little. “Eeyup. Ah feel terrible ‘bout that, Dust. Ah’m sorry.”

“It’s OK guys, I can sorta understand it. All you had to go on was Muddy’s word and my mysterious disappearance, which made it all the more suspicious.”

Flower grinned a little but Brownie’s head was still drooping. “Dust, ah’m really sorry ah was the one who ratted ya out when ya came back instead of talkin’ with ya first. After all we been through, I shoulda given ya a chance before running ta Last Stand.”

I put my leg around Brownie’s shoulders. “Brownie, don’t go beating yourself up over this. It’s OK. I’m fine. Besides, I’m more pissed at Muddy than anyone else right now.”

Brownie gave a sad, little grin. “Thanks Dust, ah owe ya though.”

“I just may cash that in some day, Brownie.” I turned to Flower. “You too, Flower. Don’t beat yourself up over any of this. I don’t want anyone going with me because of a guilt trip.”

“Don’t ya worry ‘bout me, Dust. I’m doing this because we’re friends.” She chuckled. “And, I hate Muddy. Bastard tried to put the moves on me a while back. When I said no, he said some awful things, mostly about my “dirtpony” lineage.” Muddy had tried to hook up with Flower? Why hadn’t he told me about that? And he slipped up and called her a dirtpony?

Big Boss cleared his throat. “Now that this is settled, let’s go get you geared up. Let’s go see Firing Pin first.”

I didn’t really care for Firing Pin, the company armorer. He was just… well… weird is the only word I can come up with. We entered his workroom, which was adjacent to the vault that stored the armory. The workroom was a small, cluttered room with no windows. As usual, it was lit only by a small work light on a work bench. There were boxes of piled up on every other available surface, none were labeled and all were stacked haphazardly.

Behind the small workbench, levitating a revolver in his green magical field, was the white-maned Firing Pin. As was normal, his mane looked like he had electrocuted himself. His coat was, appropriately, gun metal gray and his mane matched. He was wearing a white lab coat and was wearing a pair of magnifying goggles. When he heard us enter, he looked up and his eyes were comically enlarged.

When he spoke, his voice was almost a croak. “Ponies four, do I see. They have come to see me. Weaponry is what they seek. Bossy, pretty, strong, and meek.” Did I mention he always spoke in rhyme?

“Firing Pin, have you assembled the gear I requested for this team?” Big Boss queried.

“Your list, no, I have not made. It simply didn’t make the grade. Let me look at who will bear. I will give them weapons fair.” Firing Pin levitated the revolver he was working on into a storage box on top of one of the piles. He limped his way over to us.

He stopped at Flower first. He looked up and down, stopping to stare her right in the face. Flower backed off each time he tried to get closer.

“First, the fair Flower do I see. What kind of weapon, shall I give thee? Armored always, strong of will. Many ponies will she kill. Impeccable is her aim. I shall outfit her the same. A long range rifle, scoped and true. Is the best weapon I can give to you.” He turned and levitated one of the boxes down. He placed it on the bench and levitated out a very mean looking sniper rifle with a high powered scope. Flower hefted it in her hooves, checked the firing bit and giggled to herself.

He hobbled over to Brownie next. He repeated the same scan as he did on Flower. It was almost as if he was trying to see and remember who each of us were.

“Now Firing Pin, we’ve had these talks before. Ah don’t wanna kill nopony. Just give me somethin’ for self defense and I’ll be fine.”

“Here stands Brown Root, loves all life. He hates the Wasteland with all its strife. When faced with danger, he will fight. Using all his magical might. Two weapons, on you I shall arm. So you can do the necessary harm. Machine pistols, rapid and true. Are the armament I give to you.”

Two machine pistols floated out of another box. “I’ll take em, but I will try my best not to use them, Mr. Pin.”

Firing Pin simply laughed. He hobbled his way in front of me. After looking me over, he laughed the hardest I’ve ever heard him laugh before. “Dust Cloud is pony number three. Who is standing here in front of me. Not a fighter, like the other two. A joke this must be, to outfit you. Something is needed, for one with no skill. Or else he will end up as the kill. Something which is simply point and bite. To keep this one in the fight. “

A shotgun floated out of a box and right in front of me. It appeared to be a combat model outfitted with a magazine drum.

“Easiest weapon of all to use. Can kill anything that you choose. Long range weapon, it is not. Only useful when the situation's hot. Brown and Flower, will do more fighting. To keep Dust Cloud from dying. But if something should get near. Simply bite, it will disappear.

Firing Pin’s face lit up with an evil grin. “Wait! I have one more for you. I just remembered it, it is so new. Don’t let size make up your mind. And do not leave this gun behind.” A tiny pistol, barely larger than my hoof, floated out of a box. It was dropped right in front of me. I heard my companions snicker behind me.

“This tiny weapon, I give to thee. Small in size and power it be. But for Dust, I take it off the shelf. So he does not hurt himself!” He began to cackle and the other ponies in the room laughed with him

I mumbled under my breath, “I can fight… I took out a raider last week all by myself. He has no idea what he’s talking about, the loon.”

Firing Pin stopped laughing and became deadly serious. “Do not mock me, Dust Cloud. It is a bad idea to be overly proud. You and I both know I’m right. You barely know how to fight. So be wise in choosing your words, If you want to stay alive with the herds. And do not ever again act like a jerk, if you want your weapons to work.” My blood ran cold with the implied threat.

Big Boss stepped in. “Alright, I think you’ve made your point Firing Pin. Didn’t he, Dust?”

My voice came out barely a whisper. “I’m sorry Firing Pin… I didn’t mean to call you a loon.”

Firing Pin simply shook his head. “Your strengths I had just addressed. Now to equip you with the rest. First off, simpler weapons there are none. Than your basic mouthgun.” A box flew down from the top of a pile and three pistols flew out to each of us. Firing Pin held mine back, which made me miss reaching for it. I glared at him.

He continued, “And now for something more, if you’re outnumbered to even the score. Zebra made arms, none are better. Than making large groups of ponies deader.” Three zebra-made assault rifles flew out of a box and levitated over to us. How did he remember where everything was?

Firing Pin, looking self-satisfied, leaned back and said, “These guns to you, I do give. In the hopes they will help you live. Take care of them and they will take care of you, in whatever your adventures may have you do. Care for them and clean them too, and Dust, that goes double for you!” Brownie and Flower started laughing all over again.

Big Boss’ voice brought the laughter to an end. “Alright ponies, that’s enough. Gear up and follow me.” We each stowed our weapons and followed him. Big Boss lead us back to the main staging area of the barn, back to where I saw the table of general supplies being collected. Big Boss picked up a nearby clipboard and looked over a checklist as we each stowed some of the gear away in our saddlebags. There was a generous supply of general first aid supplies, camping equipment, food, and water. We split all of this evenly between us.

“Okay ponies, listen up. As I’ve said before, this is a capture mission. We would like to get Muddy back alive, if possible. However, that does not mean I wish you to place yourselves at risk. If you need to, defend yourselves at all cost. I will allow you to be mostly autonomous, Dust. You knew Muddy, you may have some idea where he was headed. You probably know how he thinks better than most. I wish you the best of luck and please be safe. Please try to send word of your progress when you can.” A pony came running in with boxes of ammo and almost a dozen grenades. We passed them around evenly amongst ourselves. With that, Big Boss turned and left the room.

“Alright, Dust, where are we headed?” Brownie asked. Flower was looking at me too.

I inhaled deeply and let out a slow breath. I was actually a little nervous about this moment. For as long as I could remember, I had always been the one taking orders, not giving them.

“Well, the only thing I can think of right now is to visit our mutual friend, Midnight Ink,” obviously leaving out the fact that he was also Enclave. “I would think that if Muddy was going to see anyone on his way out of town, it would be him. He lives a couple of days away. If you have anything else to do in Coltington, do it now.”

Both of my friends shook their heads and said that they were ready, so we grabbed whatever gear was left, and started heading out of town. As we passed each building, I thought about when I would next see the town that I had called home for a year now. I had made friends and fallen into routines. I knew that someday I would possibly be recalled to Canterbury, but I guess I started to call this place home. The mood became even more somber when I realized, I may not make it back from this mission at all. Between the irradiated wildlife and crazed ponies, this trip out in the wastes was a risky proposition. Add to the fact that we were chasing a homicidal pony, it just made it that much riskier.

After we passed the outskirts of the town, we all turned around and took one last look at Coltington. No words were spoken, but we all exchanged knowing glances. After time for each of us to reflect, we turned back around and headed out.

Our first day of travel was, thankfully, uneventful. We exchanged stories of our youth, of which I had to modify mine so that they weren’t pegasus stories, but earth pony stories. I wish I could have simply flown to Midnight’s, I would have already have been there. However, that was obviously impossible given my companions. The long trip also required that I keep up my fake identity continuously. In town, I could usually find some way to slip away to some privacy where I could remove the mask. I also had Muddy to confide in.

The daylight, if you could even call it that, started to fade when Brownie recommended we make camp for the night. He had some experience with protecting caravans before he settled in Coltington a few years back, so we took his advice. He found a small rocky outcropping which gave us a sheltered area to camp in. I was tasked with finding firewood for the night.

I spiraled out from camp, picking up any piece of wood which I felt would be useful. It was amazing to me that there was even wood left. It’s not as if there were many living trees left and even if it wasn’t used for campfires, I imagined it all would have rotted away. The hairs on the back of my neck started to stand up on end. I dropped the wood I was carrying and turned around. I scanned the area and couldn’t find anything of interest.

I picked up the wood again, and continued on my search. I got that weird feeling again. This time, I tried to surreptitiously glance around while still picking up wood. I thought I saw some movement from a small gully I had passed earlier. Changing my search path, I zig-zagged my way towards it. When I finally made my way over, I looked and saw nothing again.

I shrugged it off and resumed my search for firewood. I still got the weird feeling, but I let it pass. Once I had as much wood as I felt I could carry, I made my way back to camp.

“Holy crap, Dust, I didn’t ask ya ta bring me a whole forest!” Brownie exclaimed.

“Maybe he’s tryin’ ta’ build a house out here, Brownie?” Flower snickered.

“Well, we won’t have ta worry ‘bout runnin’ outta wood tonight.” Brownie simply laughed..

“Hey Brownie, Flower, I got this weird feeling the whole time I was searching for wood. Do you guys have the same thing, or is it just me?”

“Eeyup… I got that feelin’ too… we’re bein’ followed. I noticed it several hours ago. Didn’t think nothin’ of it since whoever it is never got close.”

“Wait, you mean to tell me that you knew we were being followed and you didn’t tell me? What the…”

“Well, first, ya didn’t ask. Second, I didn’t want ya ta get all nervous and try ta confront ‘em and spook ‘em. If they meant ta kill us, they woulda done so already.”

Flower giggled. “Yeah, Dust. You have a tendency ta fly off the handle.” My heart jumped a little. No, it was a figure of speech… right?

“I guess, but can you please not keep secrets next time?” I knew my voice sounded more aggravated than I intended. I took a deep breath. “So, what do you think we should do about it?”

“Nothin’. I don’t think they mean us any harm. ‘Sides, I don’t think they have any weapons. Also, far as I can tell, it’s only one pony, and we outnumber ‘em three ta one.”

Flower giggled again. “C’mon Brownie. Don’t muddy things up by using your fancy mathematics!” After a couple of seconds, she looked at the two of us. “Oh, c’mon, did neither of ya see what I did there?”

“Ugh.. Flower, that was bad.” I shook my head. “Brownie, do you have any idea where our uninvited guest is?”

“Last ah saw, ta your 10 o’clock, ‘bout 50 yards out behind that scrub brush.”

“Brownie, you are going to have to teach me how you do that one day.”

“Eeyup.”

I glanced over the shoulder of Flower towards the scrub brush in question. I didn’t see anythi… wait, I saw the brush move, but there was no wind. I lowered my voice to barely above a whisper. “Got it.”

“Just don’t do nothin’ drastic. Ah got whoever it is in my sight.”

The next fifteen minutes were the most stressful I had ever faced. It felt odd to just sit there while a possible hostile…” I glanced down at my hooves and again at the new Pip-Buck. Oh crap… I smacked my hoof against my forehead. “I am not a smart pony.”

“Eeyup, but why are ya sayin’ it this time Dust?” Brownie chucked a little and I heard Flower snicker.

“I have EFS now.” I tapped my Pip-Buck with my hoof. “I forgot that part of the information staring me literally in the face is a detection spell.” I turned my head towards the last place I saw movement, which was directly behind Flower. There were two green marks on my EFS display. I assumed one was Flower and the other had to be our guest. “Unless green means hostile, we have nothing to worry about.” I waited a few minutes. The green marker wasn’t moving. “I’m going to go meet our ‘friend’. Just keep an eye on me in case this all goes to shit.”

“Alright, ah hope you know what yer doin’” Brownie nodded.

I stood up and started trotting away from camp. I was angling slightly away from the green marker that was our guest. My plan was to flank whoever it was and force a dialogue. I periodically glanced towards the scrub brush and my EFS still indicated there was a friendly in that direction.

Eventually, I passed by a small mound of debris from a fallen billboard and started to sneak my way back towards the unknown pony, Trying to keep something between the EFS marker and myself, I crawled along the ground staying out of sight. I eventually made my way to the other side of the scrub brush behind a ruins of a carriage.

I wanted to catch our “friend” off-guard. So I braced myself and then rushed out of my hiding spot towards my target. “Who goes…. there?” There was no one there, and the EFS marker had disappeared from my view.

I felt a hoof touch my back. “Hi Dust.”

“Gah!” I jumped a couple of feet in the air and landed unceremoniously on my rump. “Who the fuck?”

I turned to see who had snuck up on me. A familiar pair of eyes as blue as the skies in Fort Canterbury greeted me. “Silver? Don’t do that!” I panted.

“Sorry, Dust. I heard something moving towards me and I didn’t know it was you so I hid. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Scared, I’m not scared. I’m just ultra alert right now.” Never mind that I was still breathing heavily and my heart was beating out of my chest. “Now tell me, what the hell are you doing out here?”

“Oh, um, I followed you guys. You left Coltington without talking to me. I woke up and heard you already left.” She frowned when she said that. “Why?”

“Silver, I’m sorry… Big Boss does not trust you so I didn’t think it wise to show up in his office with you. Come to think of it, neither do my traveling companions.” I placed a hoof on her shoulder, “More importantly, however, this will probably be too dangerous. Muddy will probably try to kill me and I didn’t want to give him two targets. I was trying to protect you.”

“Dust, you can talk to your friends and probably convince them. I know Big Boss would never have listened, so now you can say you didn’t have a choice and he can’t blame you.”

“Silver…” I pleaded.

“And I can’t believe you would have left me behind when you were going after Muddy. Don’t you think I want to find him as much as you do?”

“Silver, I’m worried, is all. He already wants to kill me, what do you think he will try if he sees you?”

“This is too important for me. Don’t you think I want revenge on him for what he did to me?,” she said, straining to keep calm.

“What did he do to you?”

She stiffened. “Dust, please, I’m not ready yet.”

I grumbled. “Silver, I hope you get ready soon. I need to know what I am up against. His behavior will be the biggest indicator of that.” Silver started to mindlessly kick at the dirt. “C’mon, let’s get back to camp. I’m not leaving you out here alone.”

We made our way back to camp. Flower and Brownie were both sitting right where I left them before. When they saw Silver, I saw them reach for their weapons, but I simply shook my head and they relaxed a little.

“So Dust, where did ya find a trampoline out here in the wastes?” Brownie said, giggling to himself.

Flower, fell backwards over the rock she was sitting on, laughing loudly. “Yeah Dust, you almost ended up in Enclave territory!”

“You guys saw that, huh?” I felt my cheeks start to get warm.

“Well, ya did tell me ta watch out fer ya when you left.” Brownie offered.

“Thanks Brownie… I appreciate it,” I said with a good measure of sarcasm.

Flower finally stopped laughing and crawled back on top of her rock. “Oh, Dust, you shoulda seen it. First you...and then she...and then you… BWAHAHAHA!” She fell over laughing again.

“Flower, I get it. It was funny. Ha ha…” This was going to be a long trip.

Finally everyone calmed down (some took longer than others). We offered Silver some of the food that we had scavenged, although I didn’t have the heart to tell her it was feral dog meat. She ate it up greedily enough.

“So, Silver, Dust here knows a lot about ya, but we don’t. Where are ya from?” Brownie asked.

“Not much to tell… My family used to live in a small settlement on the outskirts of Phillydelphia. We left when Red Eye started getting more aggressive and was claiming everyone as slaves. Not much else to tell you. My family got killed and I have been running from their killers. That’s why I ended up in the stable and you guys pretty much know the rest.”

“Ah’m rightly sorry ta hear bout yer family. But who would do such a thing?” I quickly glanced towards Brownie and tried to surreptitiously shake my head.

“Just some bad ponies. I don’t like talking about it much.” Her voice trailed off and she stared at her hooves.

Flower leaned over and put a leg around her. “Sorry Silver. We don’t mean to bring up painful memories. What do ya do for a living?”

“I never really had to do much. My family looked out for me. Until they died that is. My parents were traders. They liked looking for ancient artifacts from old Equestria. To the right ponies, they were worth a pretty cap. I guess you could call me a freelance scavenger, for lack of a better description.”

“What about brothers and sisters?” Flower asked.

“I have an older brother. Don’t know much about him though. He was captured by raiders when I was really young.”

“Wow, Silver, I’m sorry.” I placed a hoof on her shoulder. “I can only imagine how that feels.” Well, I sort of did. I effectively lost everything that was dear to me about a year ago.

“It’s OK… that’s just the way the Wasteland goes I guess,” she offered.

Brownie said very solemnly, “Yes it is, but it doesn’t make right.”

“Um, Silver, I can’t help but ta notice, where’s your things? Food? Water? Weapons?” Flower asked.

I hadn’t noticed it yet, but she only had her saddlebags with her and they seemed very empty.

“I didn’t think to get any of that stuff. I figured you guys would be stopping in towns along the way. Plus, I was in a hurry to catch up with you since you had like an hour head start on me.”

Flower smacked herself in the face with her hoof. “Ugh, noobs. Alright, we’ll have ta find somewhere ta get some stuff for ya eventually. Until then, Dust, she’s your friend, you deal with her arrangements.”

With the mood suddenly sour and it getting late, we decided to call it a night. Brownie volunteered for the first watch, which I didn’t argue with. I was more of a morning pony anyway. Flower would take the middle watch and I would take last watch tonight. I offered my bedroll to Silver for the night. She thanked me but insisted I keep it. She would just sleep on the ground.

I excused myself to relieve myself and trotted out away from the camp. As I was about to do my business, I heard hoofsteps behind me. I turned and saw Flower coming up behind me.

“Dust, we need ta talk. There’s somethin’ not right with that pony, and I’m not talking about her bein’ a pegasus. Don’t you find it odd that she’s not willin’ ta talk about anything personal?”

“She’s just been through a lot. I think it’s perfectly reasonable given her situation.”

“Uh-huh, OK… you keep on believing that, but I think there’s more going on. No one follows anypony into the Wasteland unless they have a very good reason… and she ain’t followin’ Brownie and I since she couldn’t know that we were going anywhere.” Not unless a dumb pony like me told her everything. “Just be careful is all I’m sayin. Especially since you have a crush on her.”

“What? I have no idea…”

“Can it. I saw the way you kept lookin at her while we were eatin before. Look, I know I can’t really tell you how to live your life, but watch out. Somethin ain’t right here.” And she trotted off.

I finished my business and trotted back to the campfire. Everyone had finished eating, and was starting to set up their bedrolls for the night. I rolled mine out and watched while Silver took off her saddlebags and set them up as a pillow.

“Silver, you’re sure you don’t want to use my bed roll? I’ll be OK on the ground,” I offered again.

“No Dust, I’m sure. Thanks though.” She smiled a little at me. It made me feel a little flutter in my stomach. I heard Flower snicker from her bedroll across the fire from me.

I laid down and quickly fell asleep.

“Dust… wake up…. Dust, wake up!” I heard someone whisper.

“No, mom, I’m not going to school today.”

“Dust! Please!” I felt my body get shaken and slowly opened my eyes.

“What the fuck is going on?” I blinked trying to clear my eyesight. It was dim since the fire had burned down low. Damn it, why hadn’t Flower or Brownie put more wood on? “What happened to the fire?”

“Shhhhhhhhh….” Silver placed her hoof over my mouth.

I mumbled as I tried to speak through her hoof. As my eyes adjusted to the light, I saw she wasn’t looking at me, but at something outside our little camp.

I pulled her hoof off my mouth and whispered, “Silver, what is it?”

“I don’t know Dust… I woke up and heard something rustling. I looked for Flower but her bedroll is empty and I can’t find Brown Root either.”

“OK, calm down.. let me look…” Remembering I had EFS this time, I slowly looked around the entire camp. I saw the green marker for Silver. The only other marker was a yellow marker. There were no markers for Brownie or Flower. Either they were out of range, or they were dead. Celestia, I hoped it was the first option.

I moved as quietly as I could until I could see what had caused all the trouble. Rooting around in a small bush a good distance from the camp was a radhog. I had heard stories and seen pictures, although this was my first time actually seeing one. All I knew for sure was to not startle them and to avoid the large front teeth and tusks. Many a pony would come back from a confrontation with a radhog missing a limb, or not at all.

I got a better look at it and saw that it was barely the size of a cat. It was actually almost cute, in a post-apocalyptic kind of way.

“Aww, look at the cute little baby,” I jokingly cooed.

“Dust, I think you should back away…”

“But this guy is soo cute.. I could almost reach out and pet him.” I reached out with my hoof.

“Dust, not a good idea,” Silver’s voice was wavering as she spoke.

“Silver, what are you so afraid of, this guy is…”

That’s when I heard it… the deep bellowing of another radhog.

“Silver, is that…”

“Yes…”

“And it’s big?”

“Yes…”

“And this is its kid, isn’t it?”

“Yes…”

It was this moment that baby radhog decided to cry out for it’s parent.

“Shit…”

The parent bellowed back and I heard loud heavy footsteps start to approach. I turned my head in the direction it came from and I saw the red marker fade into view on my EFS. It must have been just out of range.

A few moments later I saw a beast almost as large as I was break out of the underbrush a good distance away. It was hard to get details in the dark, but it had tusks as long as machetes and probably almost as sharp. Its fur was a matted mess. Saliva was dripping from its snout. And the smell. At this distance, it was faint, but it was a sickly sweet combination of rotting meat and rotten fruit. It hesitated slightly as it searched out its offspring and then resumed its course directly towards us.

“Silver, run!” I turned and ran as I heard the steps start to thunder behind me. The animal brayed behind us. I quickly glanced around and looked for options. The only cover was the small outcropping we were camping near. Having no better idea, I pointed and yelled out, “Silver, that way!”

We both turned and headed towards our makeshift shelter. “Brownie! Flower! If you can hear me, HELP!”

We ran into the small cavern-like area and I saw what might be our salvation. In the back of the area there was a small ledge several feet off the ground. It was relatively flat and was on top of a small mound of stones with a steep slope. If we could get on top of that, the radhog probably couldn’t reach us. I motioned with my head towards it. “There! I’ll boost you up!”

“No need!” She spread her wings and started flapping. She quickly rose up off the ground and easily landed on top of the ledge. Right, pegasus equals wings equals flight. It had been a while.

“Dust! Your turn!”

“I can’t, the armor! Here, put out your hoof and help me up!”

I backed up several feet and ran and leaped onto the incline. I grabbed her hoof and I felt her strain with all her might. My legs slipped on the steep surface behind me, kicking up dust and loose gravel. I kept kicking and climbing. The radhog was right behind us now.

With one last push, my legs got some purchase and I was able to get the upper half of my body on the ledge. With a lot of brute strength and a little assistance from Silver, I was able to get myself the rest of the way up. The beast slowly backed away several feet. “Yeah! That’s right, run! Come get us now you oversized piece of bacon!”

That turned out to be a mistake. The radhog lowered its head and started running top speed towards us. Its head butted the wall just below where we were standing. I felt the large stones below us shift a little while smaller stones dislodged and rolled down the slope.

“Dust, did you really have to tease the damn thing!” Silver cried out.

“Yeah, wasn’t one of my best ideas, was it?” Did I ever mention that I am not a smart pony sometimes?

The radhog impacted the wall several more times. Each time, the stones shifted more and I could feel the instability increasing.

“Alright, time to end this.” I reached into my saddlebags and pulled out the combat shotgun. Firing Pin may not have trusted my prowess with firearms but this would come in handy. I clicked off the safety and aimed.

The radhog impacted the wall one more time and I felt the stones beneath my feet tumble away. The world was turned upside down as I tumbled down the slope. I heard Silver’s screams as she fell down the incline as well.

I hit the ground hard with a loud “oof” and my shotgun scattered away from me. I quickly scanned the area and saw the back half of the radhog sticking out from a pile of stones, not moving. I could not find the pink body of Silver.

“Silver! Silver! Where are you!” I galloped over the rock pile and looked in every crevice I could. I needed to find her. I couldn’t lose her.

I started pulling stones away from where I thought I last saw Silver. I never got more than a few stones in before the ones above collapsed on top of the hole I had dug. I was still trying when I saw the radhog start moving and trying to pull itself free.

“Well, isn’t this just grand.” I galloped towards my shotgun and picked it up. I swung around as I saw the radhog pull itself free and start to charge towards me again.

I aimed and bit down on the firing bit. The recoil almost ripped the shotgun from my mouth, threatening to remove several teeth with it. Princesses be damned that hurt! I saw the shot all sail over the radhog and disappear into the darkness behind it. “Well, shit, Firing Pin was right.”

The radhog closed the distance quickly and lowered its head, trying to spear me with its tusks. I leaned to the right avoiding the sharp tusk on that side. However, I still got hit by its head. I got thrown to the side and I hit the ground rather ungracefully. The shotgun bounced off the ground, but I managed to keep a hold of it in my teeth.

“Dust! Dust! Where are you! Dust!” It was Silver, she was OK!

“Silver, run, hide! It’s still alive!” I mumbled between clenched teeth.

Unfortunately, she had already come out into plain sight and the radhog heard her shouts. It started running towards her.

I swung the shotgun up but saw that Silver was in the line of fire. I couldn’t risk the shot. I put the strap around my neck and ran towards the radhog. What I lacked in size, I made up for in speed. Silver was frozen in fear and the radhog was going to make pony-kabobs out of her.

I ran up the side of the radhog and and leaned into it with all my might. We both tripped over a rock. I felt myself collide with Silver which threw her clear and then I tumbled end over end with the radhog. A sharp pain erupted from my shoulder as one of the tusks pierced its way between two of the plates in my armor. I was thrown clear at the end and landed several feet away from the radhog. After turning myself over, I saw the radhog regaining its feet and turning towards me.

I also saw several green boxes pointing out various spots on the radhogs body with percentages. This must be the SATS working its magic. How did that happen though? Why didn’t these things come with a manual? I pulled up my shotgun and thought about where I wanted to shoot. I felt my head automatically aim itself towards the radhogs torso, which is where I decided would be the best target due to its highest hit percentage. I bit down on the firing bit. The weapon threatened to pull itself free of my grasp, but expecting it this time, I was able to hold on with less pain.

I saw several puffs of red mist spring from the radhogs torso. The beast roared out in pain and began a charge. I scanned the percentages again and thought about my target. I felt my head aim on its own and I bit down on the firing bit several times.

Each thundering boom from the shotgun followed by red mist and an accompanying scream of pain. On the last shot, the radhog fell to the ground and slid the rest of the way towards me. It stopped just short of my hooves. The empty shotgun was still emitting a “click” each time I bit on the trigger.

I looked down, ready to swing my shotgun like a bat. The radhog was not moving at all, not even the rise and fall of its chest. I slowly backed away, waiting for it to get back to its feet. It didn’t move.

“Oh, thank Celestia. Silver, where are you? It’s OK, the radhog is dead! Silver?”

I started to panic. I galloped back over to where I remember Silver standing before the last charge of the radhog. Could I have not moved in time? Did the radhog get her?

Slumped on the ground next to the rockslide was her motionless pink form. “Oh no.. Silver, no…”

Level up!

Stats: Small Arms 25

Perk Obtained: Small Game Hunter - You inflict +25% damage to small creatures.

Chapter 6 - Decisions

Chapter 6 : Decisions

“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

“Silver, wake up! Please?” I cried out while I shook her limp body. I spent several minutes standing over her pleading for her to recover. She wasn’t responding to any of it!.

“Silver, please…. wake up!” She saved my life once, I had to do the same for her.

I grabbed a healing potion from my bag and poured the purple liquid into her mouth. It ran out of the corners of her mouth, dripping to the ground beneath her and was absorbed by the earth below

“Shit, no.. c’mon.. think, Dust, think…” I had to do something. My training slowly started to kick in. Leaning near her snout, I placed my cheek near her nostrils. She was still alive!

“Oh Silver, what have I done?” And where the hell were Flower and Brownie?

Continuing to follow my first aid training, I checked Silver over for any injuries. The only visible injury was a small gash and large lump on the side of her head. That must have been where her head hit the rockslide. Hopefully she was just knocked unconscious.

I heard two voices in the distance. It was hard to make them out, but it was a male and a female. I sure hope that it was Flower and Brownie. If it was, say, raiders, I was probably dead, or worse. I saw the familiar brown and yellow bodies of my friends come around the ridge we had set up camp beneath.

They both stopped dead in their tracks when they saw me cradling Silver’s body on the ground. “Um, Dust, what happened here?” Brown asked.

“Where the fuck did you two go?” I spit out angrily.

“Brownie and I were checking out some lights we saw passing by a little distance away. Silver was awake and said she could watch things while we checked it out.” Flower explained.

I smacked my hoof against my head. “So you leave the camp without telling me?”

“In all fairness, Dust, we did try to wake ya. Ya sleep as if yer in a coma. Silver said she’d be OK and we weren’t gonna be gone long.” Brownie said, with a tinge of remorse in his voice.

“Well, while you two were gone, we were attacked by that.. thing,” I threw a hoof out to my side in the direction of the radhog corpse. “I had to fight that by myself. And then we collided with her! And then she got thrown to the side! Next thing I know, there she is.” I hastily point at her. “She almost died! And none of this would have happened if you guys were fucking here!” Brownie trotted over and knelt down next to Silver. I saw him begin a cursory examination of Silver. Flower put her leg around my shoulder and led me away. “Dust, come with me, NOW!” Flower basically dragged me away from Silver and Brownie.

“Get your damned hooves off of me! I need to be there with her! I need to fix this. This whole situation is fucked up and I’m sitting here doing nothing! LET GO OF ME!”

She smacked me across the face. “Dust. Calm. Down. Now. Or else I’m gonna smack ya again.” The surprise of the hit shook me out of my rant. “It’s OK Dust, I get it. But ya have ta calm down. We’re only a day outta Coltington and yer already throwin’ yer bit. I have bad news fer ya. Someone was bound ta get hurt… it’s the way it is out here.”

“But it shouldn’t have been her! It should have been me! Or, Celestia forbid, you or Brownie! But not Silver! She doesn’t deserve this!”

Flower smacked me again. “Dust, I swear. Don’t make me knock ya out.” She placed her hooves on my shoulders and looked me right in the eyes. “Calm down. People get hurt out here all the time. It...happens… All we can do is hope she gets better. Besides, if this were me or Brownie, would ya be this mad?”

“Of course I would!”

“Bullshit. And both you and I know it. And, who are ya really mad at? Me and Brownie, or yourself?”

“That’s a stupid fucking question! Why would I be mad at myself?”

“Because she got hurt under yer watch. You feel that ya failed her and couldn’t repay her fer saving you.” She punctuated that last point by touching my chest with one of her hooves. “Besides, I know what this is all really about.”

“Yeah, and what is that?” I said mockingly.

I saw a wicked grin appear on Flower’s face. Oh no. She then started singing, “Dust and Silver, sitting in a tree. K, I, S, S, I, N, G…”

I felt a dull heat in my cheeks. “Flower.. please stop…” I squeaked. But her accusation derailed my thinking. Could this really all be because I liked her? Would I have treated Flower or Brownie differently? Flower must have seen a change in my posture.

She gave me a little hug. “Alright, alright Dust. Let’s go see what Brownie has ta say.”

We made our way back to where Brownie was still laying next to Silver. He was checking her head out rather closely. I cleared my throat. “So, Brownie, um, sorry about before. Um, what do you think?”

“First of all, it’s okay Dust… ah forgive ya. And ad far as ah can tell, she is simply knocked out. She took a nasty blow ta the head. It should be just a matter a’ time. Although, ah’d really like ta get her to a doctor.”

“Brownie, you used to travel with caravans. Are there any towns near here closer than Coltington?”

“Well, there is a small village called Dirtpatch a coupla hours ta the east. The only problem is they don’t have their own doctor. They rely on the services of a traveling surgeon, so she may not even be there when we get there.”

I nodded, “I understand. I think that’s our best option. Worst case, at least we get somewhere inside for her to recuperate.”

“Alright, but we should wait here til mornin. Don’t want to run across any of the larger creepy-crawlies that are out there.”

“Agreed.” I looked at Silver. “I’ll take watch. I don’t think I’ll be sleeping much.”

The next few hours passed slowly. I leaned up against the rock slide and rested Silver’s head on my legs. Every time I felt a twitch, I would quickly look at Silver waiting for her to say something or move, but I must have imagined it.

Daylight came not soon enough. I gently nudged Flower and Brownie awake and we broke camp. Brownie led the way east, as I eased Silver’s weight onto my back and started carrying her. Both of my friends offered to help, but it was my mistake that caused this, and I would be the one paying for it.

After about what felt like noon, I saw the outline of a small town appear. Dirtpatch was an appropriate name. It was a hoofful of shacks in the middle of a large, brown plain. There weren’t even any dead trees or dried out grass. Hell, there weren’t even any stones. Just the town in a sea of brown dirt.

As we kept walking, I noticed that we didn’t see any movement from within the town. “Uh, Brownie, you did say that this town was occupied, right?”

“Eeyup I did. Last time through here there were about two dozen ponies around.”

Well, then they left and left in a hurry. There were still clothes hanging on clotheslines and doors left wide open. But the town still looked lived in. It was a discomforting incongruity.

We decided to split up and check things out. Brownie gently removed Silver from my back and laid her down on the ground. He was going to stay with her. Flower and I would search for signs of anypony.

I carefully made my way towards one of the cookie-cutter buildings. Sporting typical Wasteland-motif (rusted corrugated metal and aged wood), I peered through the windows. The table was still set for a small meal. Foal’s toys were still laying on the ground in another room . I went back to the front door. It was ajar, so I pushed it open with my foreleg. “Hello? Anypony home?” No response.

I searched through the entire house and found nothing that would indicate the fate of these ponies. As I was walking through the living area, I stepped on a carpet and the floor sank a little. Looking down at the floor, I started hopping on my hooves and saw the floorboards warp under my weight. I leaned down close to the floor and peered through the floorboards. Instead of dirt or stone, I saw the top of a staircase.

I walked back out of the house. “Brownie? Flower? I think I found something.” I heard Flower scream from one of the other buildings in the town. I galloped to her as fast as I could. I got near to where I heard the scream but couldn’t tell which one of the houses it came from. “Flower? Where are you? You OK?”

“Yeah Dust… I’m good. I’m in the house on the left.”

I walked into the house and saw Flower was stuck in a hole in the floor. “What the hell happened?”

“Not much, just walking along and suddenly the floor beneath me gives way. Can ya help me out now?”

I giggled a little. “Sure thing.” I walked over and grabbed the back of her armor with my mouth and pulled. She pushed with her free hooves and we eventually got her out.

“Thanks, Dust… now, what the hell happened?”

I looked into the hole we just pulled her out of. I saw several steps, just like in the other house. “Looks like you fell through a hatch leading to a basement.”

“Basement? In a house in the Wasteland? Ain’t never heard of that before,” she said with a quizzical look on her face.

“Shall we?” I asked as I nodded towards the stairs.

“We shall.” I pulled the remains of the cover off and started down the stairs. At the bottom, it was starting to get dark, so I activated my Pipbuck’s light. It cast a dim green glow on the walls around me. What it revealed was a small room, big enough for several ponies. There was no furniture or anything else to speak of, just a small closet essentially.

“Weeeeeird.” Flower said under her breath. “Why would they build somethin like this?”

“I dunno, but there was another one in the house I was in, let’s go check that one out.”

We made our way back to first house I was in and back to the floorboards I had discovered before. Moving everything well away from the area, I saw the square shaped cover that was hiding the staircase. Flower helped me remove it.

I drew my shotgun and mumbled between my clenched jaw, “Cover me.” I heard her draw her pistol from its holster.

I started walking down the staircase. Again, my Pipbuck casting a gentle green glow around me. I quickly glanced at the EFS and saw a couple of green markers, but not knowing the layout of the town, they could have just as easily had been Brownie and Silver. At the bottom of the staircase I felt something cold press up against the back of my head. I froze.

“D-d-d-drop your weapons and MAYBE we won’t kill you, b-b-b-b-both of you,” a shaky male voice said.

“Fuck!” Flower mumbled under her breath. “Dust, don’t move. There was a small alcove right next to the stairs.”

A nervous-sounding female voice said, “Uh, Tiller, I don’t think these ponies are the raiders.”

I felt the pressure against the back of my head slacken a little. “I d-d-d-don’t know…

I holstered my shotgun, “Flower, you too.” I saw her hesitate, but she ultimately returned the pistol to its holster. “Listen, my name is Dust Cloud, my associate up there is Wilted Flower. We don’t mean anypony any harm.”

The male voice was still shaking. “Yeah, that’s what s-s-s-s-slavers say right before they throw them collars on you.”

“We only came into town looking for help for one of our group. She needs to see a doctor. She’s outside with the last member of our group. It’s only the four of us.”

“Let’s see if you’re t-t-t-t-telling the truth. Slowly go back up the stairs. And you, Flower was it? G-g-g-get at the top of the stairs where I can see ya.” I could hear the terror in his voice. Once we were at the top, he called out, “P-P-P-P-Planter, cover me.” I heard more hoofsteps behind us. “N-n-n-now, slowly, bring us to the rest of your group.”

Flower gave me a worried look, but I nodded my head. We had to get them to trust us and I didn’t want to do anything stupid. Whatever happened here already had these ponies on edge. We slowly walked our way back out of the house and toward Brownie and Silver.

Brownie saw us first. “Dust, Flower… good, ah was gettin worried… what’s wrong?” He must have seen our new acquaintances since he levitated his machine pistols out of their holsters. “Let mah friends go and no one gets hurt.”

“Brownie… put your guns away… these are the townsponies. They think we’re raiders or slavers.” I nodded at Brownie.

He hesitated. “Ah sure hope ya know what yer doin.” He floated his weapons back into their holsters.

I stopped walking and turned my head towards the light green earth pony who I assumed was Tiller. “See, just the four of us. Our wounded pony is named Silver. She’s over there on the ground.”

“Y-y-y-you could all be putting on a big act…” Tiller started to say.

The other pony who was escorting us, Planter I assumed, spoke up next. “Oh for Celestia’s sake Tiller. Put the gun away. If they were raiders or slavers, and this were all an act… well, it’s obviously too good of an act to be slavers or raiders.”

“B-b-b-b-but Planter, how do you know….. OW!” Planter had smacked Tiller upside the back of the head with her hoof.

“Tiller, I love you, but you can be so stupid sometimes.” She turned and looked towards us. “Sorry ponies, we didn’t mean to scare you. We’re all just a little jumpy around here.” She turned towards the rest of the town and yelled out, “It’s OK everypony! They’re friendly.”

Slowly, I saw faces start to appear in windows. All the ponies were armed and all of them seemed uneasy. Fortunately, my EFS was filled with green markers.

“I’m so sorry about before. Let’s do this right… My name is Planter, and that blockheaded pony over there is my husband, Tiller.” She held out a dark brown hoof. “Pleased to meet ya!”

I shook her hoof. “Likewise. I would introduce ourselves, but you kinda know our names already. I hate to be so abrupt, but do you have a doctor in town? We need to get our injured pony looked at, she’s been unconscious since last night.”

She followed me over towards Brownie and Silver. I heard her steps slow as we got closer. “A pegasus? You’re traveling with a pegasus?”

“She’s mudborn… not Enclave.” I don’t know why I got so defensive. Oh yeah, that would be since I am Enclave hiding amongst groundpounders.

Planter gave a slight pause and a weird look. Then she said, “It’s not that, we just don’t see them around here that much. I wish we could help, but our doctor is, um, missing?”

I looked at Planter and rose an eyebrow. “Missing?”

“That’s the reason everyone is so jumpy. The doc was foalnapped when she got to town the other day.”

“Who foalnapped her?”

She sighed. “It was three ponies we had never seen before. They came strolling into town and insisting they needed medical attention. The doc looked them over and said they were fine, but they insisted she needed to go with them. When she refused, one of them picked her up and carried her away. When we fired on them to save her, they fired back and killed several of us. We saw the three of you coming, we assumed it was them again and hid.”

I realized that we’d be the ones to have to save the doc. I sighed, “Which direction did they take her?” Why did I get the feeling that this day was going to suck?

Planter pointed towards a mountain range to the east. “They headed that way. Only problem is that I am unaware of anything in that direction.”

“Great, so now it’s a game of hide and seek too. Ugh. Brownie… mind staying here to keep on eye on Silver?” Brownie nodded in response.

Planter spoke up. “We can give you a bed to rest her on instead of the ground. Follow me.” Brownie hefted Silver’s weight onto his back and followed Planter towards the empty house we were in before.

I turned towards Flower, “Let’s get this over with.”

After about an hour’s walk, we found ourselves at the base of the mountains Planter had pointed us towards.

“Now to find where they could be hiding in this mountain range. Shouldn’t be too hard, right?” I grunted my aggravation. I gestured in the two directions in which the mountains extended. “North or south?”

Flower nodded towards the North and so we went. I didn’t really have a plan in mind, just hoping we got lucky.

Flower nudged my shoulder. “Can I ask you a question?”

“You’ve never asked permission before. What’s up?”

“Well,” she hesitated. “Something you said back in town is bothering me. You referred to Silver as ‘mudborn’.”

“Yeah, what’s so weird about…oh.” Oh crap! Mudborn is a term usually used by Enclavers, not Wastelanders. And not in a nice way. It slipped.

“Yeah, that. I haven’t heard that term used except by Dashites. And all Dashites are former Enclave. Do I need to connect the dots here?”

I stopped in my tracks. Flower turned to face me. “Flower, c’mon, don’t be ridiculous. I must have heard the term used by Dashites also. Where else would I have gotten it from? Besides, I’m not a pegasus.”

“Pinkie promise.”

“What?”

She had a all-business look on her face. “Pinkie promise that you are not Enclave, former or current.”

“Seriously? What are we, foals?” I heard my voice cracking I was so incredulous.

“Seriously. No one can break a Pinkie promise.”

Stupid superstitious nonsense. “Cross my heart…” I was snapped out of my “solemn” oath when I saw a puff of dirt jump up at my hooves. It was followed shortly afterwards by the loud crack of a rifle. “Sniper!”

There was little cover where we were. It was wide open space which butted right against the sheer face of the base of the mountain we were near. “Flower, there’s no cover! Keep moving!”

I started zig-zagging towards the source of the rifle fire. I was banking on the fact that since the sniper missed on a stationary target, that a moving target would prove to be impossible for him or her to hit. I heard three more cracks of the rifle, but did not feel any impacts or see any evidence of the bullets hitting anywhere nearby. I did hear Flowers hooves thundering along the ground behind me, so I assumed she was unharmed as well.

After a little running, I finally saw a red marker appear in my EFS. “Flower, hostile to our 11 o’clock.” I glanced in that direction and saw only more sheer rock face. Where the fuck was he hiding?

I kept running, our saving grace being that the sniper was obviously not a markspony. Not only did it take a while for them to reload, but they couldn’t hit a moving target. The reports of the rifle became louder as time went on. Pretty soon we’d be right on top of them and they probably wouldn’t miss at that range.

I glanced towards what we believed was the source again, according to EFS, and I saw the muzzle flash. They were tucked in behind a small rock pile that had formed at the base of the mountain.

I said, nearly out of breath, “Think you can keep firing at him and keep him under cover? I am going to try to get there before he gets brave enough to pick his head up.”

“Shouldn’t be too hard. But why not kill him?”

“We may need him to tell us where the Doc was taken!”

“Alright. One more question. Why do you assume it’s a stallion and not a mare?” she snickered.

“Flower, really? Busting chops now?”

“A mare’s gotta do what a mare’s gotta do,” she grinned.

She stopped running and drew her sniper rifle all in one swift move. She dropped to the ground and took up a firing position. I heard the first report from her rifle like a cannon shot. I saw it impact the rock pile I had designated.

I maneuvered so that I was never in her line of fire. She fired off a new shot every few seconds. I could only guess she was waiting to see a head start to appear and then she’d fire to persuade the pony back into hiding. As I got closer to the rock pile, I drew my shotgun. I rounded the corner around the rock pile. Through my clenched teeth I mumbled , “Drop the fucking weapon!”

The small, green unicorn with the sniper rifle immediately appeared surprised and terrified at the same time. “Please don’t kill me! Please!” The sniper rifle clattered to the ground as his magical field collapsed and I saw the ground underneath the pony turn dark with moisture. I smelled the unmistakable odor of urine. The marker on my EFS also shifted from red to green.

“Who are you? And what are you doing here?” I demanded.

“Please don’t kill me. I’m sorry I shot at you. I was protecting my family. Daddy said outsiders are dangerous” He had hidden his face under his hooves.

This was going to take some tact. “Shhhh… it’s OK. No one is going to get hurt.” I glanced over my shoulder and saw Flower closing in, scanning the mountainside with the scope on her rifle. “My name is Dust Cloud. Who are you?” I extended a hoof.

He backed away from me as fast and as far as he could. “No… please don’t hurt me. Please don’t hurt daddy.”

“Can I talk to dad?”

“No… I shouldn’t even be talking to you. I was told not to talk to strangers.” He started sobbing.

“What the hell is his story?” Flower mumbled as she sidled up next to me, with her rifle still drawn.

“I don’t know… but something definitely isn’t right here.” I turned back towards the crying stallion and got closer to his level. “Everything will be OK. We aren’t going to hurt you. We are here to help.”

“You’re here to help?” he said, sniffling between words, and he sniffled one more time at the end for good measure.

“Yeah, my name is Dust and hers is Flower. Who are you?”

He calmed down a little. He sniffled, and then said, My name is One.”

“Nice to meet you Juan.” What kind of name is that for a pony?

“No… not Juan.. One. O… N… E… One” He smiled, seemingly proud of himself.

“Like the number?” My head was cocked to the side in confusion.

“Yeah, my brothers are Two and Three. And then there’s dad.”

Flower giggled. “So let me get this straight, you and your brothers are named One, Two and Three?”

He seemed nonplussed by all this. “Yeah, what’s so hard to understand about that?”

Flower started to answer, but I cut her off. “Nothing, nothing at all. Can you bring us to your father? We need to see him.” I asked.

His face lit up. “Sure thing! You said you’re here to help Dad!”

Flower leaned in close to me and whispered. “You sure this is a good idea? This kid seems loco in the coco.”

I glanced back at One as he skipped away from us. “Good idea? No. Bad idea? I don’t think so. I don’t think he fully realizes what’s going on. He acts like a colt. Let’s see where he brings us and let’s talk to his father.”

We trotted after One as he skipped along and hummed a tune to himself. Wherever he was leading us, he was sure about it as he never veered from his path. He led us into a very well hidden crevice between two large boulders and we were at a metal door. He picked up a hoof and then quickly put it down and looked at us.

“You have to cover your eyes. I’m not s’posed to show this secret knock to anyone.” Flower and I looked at each other, stifling laughter. “I mean it guys. You hafta cover your eyes!”

Flower and I looked at each other again and then shrugged. I took my right leg and lifted it up and placed it over my eyes. I can only imagine that Flower had done the same since I heard a rhythmic series of knocks on the door. After a short delay, I heard a deadbolt being opened on the other side of the door, followed by a slight creaking as the hinges resisted the force being applied to them.

“OK! You can look now!” I took my leg off my face and saw that One was absolutely beaming.

“One, you shouldn’t be back… wait a minute, who are they?” Another green unicorn was standing on the other side of the door. He looked exactly like One.

“Two, don’t worry. They’re good ponies! I shot at them and they forgave me and didn’t try to hurt me! They even say they’re here to help Dad!”

“But One, you know Dad said not to trust strangers… and these are strangers. ‘Sides, we already brought that other pony back to help Dad.”

“Yeah, but you can never have too much help, right?”

“But Dad said not to trust strangers! Remember what happened when that other bad pony tried to give us something?”

“I know, but these seem like better ponies.”

“You don’t know anything, One.”

“I do too! I know lots.”

“Nuh-uh. You’re a dummy!”

“No, you’re a dummy!”

“No you are!”

I was about to start screaming at them when I heard a third voice. “Stop it you two! Dad’s asleep!” The new pony was another green unicorn, again looking exactly like One and Two. He turned towards us. His eyes opened wide and his mouth dropped open. He started screaming, “Stranger Danger! Stranger Danger!”

One’s and Two’s heads snapped right towards the new addition. “Three! Shhhhhhhh! Dad’s sleeping!” they said together.

I was starting to get a headache. I clamped my hooves against the sides of my head.

One looked at me. “What’s wrong Dust? Trying to crush your own head? Wouldn’t that hurt?” I heard Flower snicker behind me. I groaned. He continued, “Arn’t you gonna come in Mr. Dust? You said you needed to talk to Dad.”

We slowly made our way inside the room. Once we were fully inside, Two slammed the door behind us with a deafening “clang”!

Two and Three started dancing in place and chanting, “We got Daddy more help! We got Daddy more help!”

A new voice joined the cacophony. This time, it was a female voice. Walking into the room behind the door was a older, female unicorn. She wore a white shirt, which was covered with bloodstains, both old and new. Her cream colored coat and golden mane were nearly impeccably cared for.

She glared at the three stallions and scolded them, “If you three can’t keep quiet, you’re going to wake your dad up. And he needs his rest!”

The three stallions said in unison, “Sorry, Doctor Mender.”

Finally noticing our presence, she sighed and asked, “And who do we have here?”

“My name is Dust Cloud, Doc.” With a nod towards Flower, I added, “And this is my friend Wilted Flower. We’ve been looking for you. We have a friend back in Dirtpatch who needs help.”

“Pleasure to meet ya Dust. I’d be more than glad to help you, but my services are, um, required here.” The emphasis she put on the word “required” was odd. “I’m afraid I can’t leave.”

“Doc, one of my friends…”

Flower interrupted, “Very special somepony.”

I cleared my throat and resumed, “My friend is seriously hurt. We need you to look at her.”

She sighed again, “I don’t think you understand. I can not leave. The boys won’t let me.”

I heard the telltale sound of a shotgun being racked behind me. Two had levitated one out from somewhere and had it trained on me. “No one leaves until Daddy is better!”

I facehoofed myself. “I am not a smart pony.”

Three had levitated a dead pony’s switch. “And if anyone tries to hurt us… BOOM!”

Doctor Mender sighed, “Sorry, Dust. Looks like you’re stuck here just like I am.”

I heard a wet, wracking cough coming from another room adjoining this one. A faint voice called out, “Doc! I need your help.”

The doctor excused herself and I followed. Two and Three kept a watchful eye on me. One had sat down in one corner of the room, sulking.

I followed the Doc into a small adjoining room. In it, there was a bed with a pony laying in it under some sheets. I smelled antiseptic. The doc must have been working a lot in here. The pony was an elderly pony with a wrinkled dark blue coat and light blue mane. I noticed that the sheets right near his head were blood spattered.

“Foggy, what’s wrong?” the doc asked.

“Not much, I’m just fucking dying.” He broke out into a coughing fit again. “And who the hell are you?” He eyed me up and down and raised one eyebrow at me.

“My names Dust Cloud. Your boys out there seem to have foalnapped me.”

“Ugh, those fucking dumbasses… they don’t share a brain between them.” He rolled his eyes. “I have to apologize to you. They aren’t too bright, but I assume you already learned this. They think they’re helping me to live. What they don’t know is I’m already dead.”

I looked at the doc and she nodded. “It’s a combination of old age and balefire radiation poisoning.”

“Don’t you have any Radaway?” I asked.

Foggy simply shook his head. “That isn’t the problem. It was a long term injury from exposure when I was younger. It wasn’t treated back then and it’s too late to do anything about it now.”

The doctor simply nodded. “The best I can do for him is make him comfortable. It’s simply a matter of time.”

Foggy coughed up some more blood. “Doc, can I have some time alone with Dust here?”

“Sure thing Foggy.” The doc looked defeated. It had to suck to be a doctor knowing there was nothing you could do for a patient. She walked out of the room and closed the door behind her.

“So, what’s your rank, soldier?” Foggy asked with a knowing look on his face.

“What? Rank?” I did my best to feign ignorance.

“Please… don’t fuck around with a dying pony. I don’t have the time.” He lowered the sheet he had on exposing a pair of wings. “I know an Enclave soldier when I see one. I used to be Enclave. Besides, who do you think designed that armor you’re wearing right now.”

“I, uh, um…” I was trying to think of a lie I could tell. I couldn’t think of one. “Private. Well, formerly Private. Special Operations.”

Foggy sighed. “When I was in the Enclave many years ago, I was in R&D. We designed that armor you’re wearing for recon teams scouting out griffon operations during the war.”

“So, what’s an R&D egghead doing down here in the Wasteland?”

“I decided to follow Dr. Sunlight to do some experiments. He was looking into ways of reclaiming the irradiated soil in order to grow crops down here again. We were hoping to augment the cloud crops. We needed more food… our population was stagnating. I thought we had the blessing of the Council to come down. We didn’t; Sunlight lied to me. He was rogue. We were marked as contaminated and expelled.” More coughing, more blood.

“I’m sorry… that sucks.” I lowered my head in a gesture of empathy.

“Heh, at least they didn’t clip our wings off.. that would have really sucked.’ Foggy coughed up even more bloody phlegm.

“What’s your research specialty?” I inquired.

“Cloning and genetic manipulation. I was supposed to create hardy strains of seeds that would thrive in the harsh conditions down here, even after cleaning the soil and water.”

“Cloning? Wait a minute… does this explain why One, Two and Three…”

He interrupted me, “Yes, they are clones. Dr. Sunlight and I got into a huge argument after the Enclave booted us. He wanted to try to access the SPP towers. He took off and left me here to fend for myself. I continued my research and even found a unicorn that was interested in my work. His name was Sprout. We had made a lot of progress, gifted was that one… until the raiders came.” I knew that any story involving raiders was not going to end well. “We managed to fend them off, but not before they severely injured Sprout. I used some of his genetic material to make clones. One, Two, and Three are the result.” He doubled over in a hacking cough. I thought he was going to cough up a lung.

“Umm, Doc, not to be insensitive, but is the cloning process not perfect? I mean, does that explain their, um, odd behavior?”

“You can come right out and say it, son. They’re not right in the head. And yes, the process was still a work in progress, but I felt guilty for not being able to save Sprout. And now we’re all prisoners here. Me, by my ailing body, and you all by my failed work.” He sounded defeated in that last statement.

“Can’t you tell them what to do? Won’t they listen?”

“They used to… but now, they see me dyin’ and they are doing all they can to save me. Poetic, that. I couldn’t save Sprout and now his progeny are trying to save me. One has the most sense of any of them, but even he is singularly focused on saving me.” He hesitated and took a deep breath. “Dust, if you want to get anyone out of here soon, you’re going to have to make a choice. You’re either going to have to kill me, or kill One, Two and Three.”

It felt like I got punched in the stomach. “N..no… I’m not a murderer. I can’t kill a pony in cold blood.”

“Listen up soldier.” More coughing and blood. “Sometimes you have to do something for the greater good. None of you are making it out as long as either I or the three clones are alive. My time is almost up, but the doc says it could be days or even weeks…”

“NO!” I shouted. I didn’t even realize I was basically growling through clenched teeth.

“Listen Private! What branch were you in before?”

My mind was numb. “Transport.”

“I figured… it seemed as if you never saw any combat. Son, casualties are unavoidable. Sometimes, you have to do stuff you’re not happy about. Sometimes, it’s necessary.”

Doc Mender opened the door. “I heard yelling, is everything OK?”

Foggy nodded. “Yeah, Dust and I are just having a debate about Wasteland ethics. It got a little heated, we’re OK.”

Doc looked at me and seemed unsure. “OK.. but try to take it easy… last thing you need is stress.” She backed out of the room, giving me one last, long glance before closing the door.

“Foggy, no.. I will not kill you. And I can’t kill the clones. There has to be another way.” I walked out of the room, gently closing the door behind me.

Before it closed fully, Foggy called out, “You’ll see I’m right.”

Back out in the entry room, Two was still guarding the door and Three still had the detonator in his magical grip. One was still in the corner. Doctor Mender was sitting next to Flower, cautiously eying the clones.

I trotted over to them and sat down near them. “Doc, is there anything that can be done for Foggy?”

“No, unfortunately. The only thing that could possibly help is getting him to Tenpony Tower. Rumor has it that there are unicorns there that are highly skilled in healing magic, but he’d never survive the trip.”

“Shit.”

Doctor Mender gave me a stern look. “Dust, what did you two really fight about in there?”

“Foggy basically gave me an ultimatum. He said we’d either have to kill him, or the clones, or wait for him to die.”

The doctor gasped. Flower simply looked at me. “Dust, ya told him ya couldn’t kill him, right?”

I nodded, “That’s what I was yelling about. I told him I couldn’t do it. But that means we’re stuck here until Foggy passes on his own and who knows how long it will be? And does Silver even have that much time?”

Doctor Mender looked at me. “What is the problem with your friend?”

“She took a blow to the head. She’s been unconscious since late last night.”

Doctor Mender frowned. “Head trauma… could be nothing, could be something serious. I’d need to see her before I know for sure.”

“I know… thanks, Doc.” I got up and walked over to One, who was still sitting in the corner. I sat down next to him and waited for him to acknowledge me.

“Mister Dust, I’m sorry I got you into this mess.” I noticed tears were working their way down his face. He must have been crying a while.

“One, it’s OK… I know you were just trying to help Dad.” I sighed. “You know he’s very sick, don’t you?”

“Uh huh… Doctor Mender told us. Two and Three don’t believe her. But I see it, Mister Dust. Daddy is coughing up blood.” He sobbed softly.

I put a leg around his shoulder. “I know One… I know. I saw it too… he isn’t good.”

“Mister Dust, what will we do without him? What happens when he goes away?”

“I don’t know for sure. You can stay here if you want. You guys have done well so far.”

“Yeah, but Daddy always told us what to do. With him gone, we won’t know how to do anything.” He started crying louder.

“Shhhh… One… shhhh….it’ll be OK. Remember the town you guys met the Doctor in? Dirtpatch?”

His face lit up a little. “Yeah! That’s where we met all those nice ponies, until they started yelling at us. I don’t know why they did that though….”

“You guys scared them is all. They thought you were hurting the Doctor.”

“Oh no! I hafta tell them I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt anyone! I just wanted to ask the doctor what we could do. Two and Three were the ones who wanted to bring her back. They told me to show her the way. Then, later, I saw you and thought you could convince them to let her go, but now they have you too.” He looked towards the door, still sobbing. “Oh, Two and Three won’t let me go, either. They say that we need to hold everyone here until the Doctor heals daddy.”

“One… I have a really good friend back in that town. She got really badly hurt last night and needs to see a doctor. I’m afraid that if she doesn’t get help, she may die. Is there anything we can do to convince your brother to let us all go?

“Mister Dust, I’ve been trying to talk em into letting the Doctor go home ever since she said Daddy was really sick. But they think she is hiding something. I know she needs to help the other ponies out there, but Two and Three won’t listen.” He put his head back down on his legs and sobbed more.

I sighed. How was I going to broach this topic with him without freaking him out. “One, what kind of chores does Daddy have you do?”

“Oh, nothing fun! I hafta clean the house and I cook. Oh! I used to help Daddy clean up around outside too, when he was feeling better.”

“What kind of stuff did you have to clean up?”

“Lotsa stuff! Mostly it was garbage, sometimes it was dead animals.”

“Dead animals?”

“Yeah, Daddy would have to shoot them sometimes. Sometimes they would attack us and he’d shoot them, and one time, there was one that must have lost a fight and was making weird sounds laying on the ground. Daddy had to shoot that one too. He said it was in a lot of pain and we would be doing it a favor. That made me sad.” He frowned when he said that.

“One, do you think you could ever do something like that?”

“No.. never Mister Dust! I don’t want to hurt anything!”

“What if the animal asked you to do it?”

“Mister Dust… don’t be silly… animals can’t talk.” He giggled a little.

“I know One, I know. But what if it could, what if it asked you to end the pain and to kill it?”

“I don’t know Mister Dust. I guess so. I’d want to anyway. I don’t know if I could actually do it though.”

“Thanks One… I appreciated our little talk here.”

For what it was worth, the clones made sure we had something to eat. Checking my Pip-Buck, I saw that it was nighttime and we wouldn’t be leaving here tonight at any rate. The Wasteland was simply too dangerous to travel in the dark.

I overheard Two and Three talk about their plans for keeping an eye on us overnight. They had finally taken our weapons and supplies as a precaution since at least one of the brothers would have to sleep and they couldn’t take us all on individually. Then again, the only two combat capable ponies would have been myself and Flower. Doc Mender probably would have called up that Hippocratic oath nonsense and then not do anything until somepony got hurt, and that would probably be one of us.

One was still in the corner, but now he was mumbling to himself between periods of crying. One was not part of their security plans. It seemed as if they didn’t really trust him. I just hoped that our little talk earlier didn’t make his situation worse than it had been before. I felt bad for the stallion. To have a colt-like mind was one thing, but then to also be held hostage by your brothers while your father lay dying in another room. That had to be horrible.

Our little talk also had me thinking about the situation. Could I kill somepony if I really needed to? Even knowing they would die of natural causes anyway? He was in pain, that much was obvious. Talking with the doctor, I found it took every dose of Med-X she had just to keep him comfortable. But, I was no murderer. I couldn’t convince myself that killing Foggy was a moral thing to do, even in the pain he was in. After a while, my head hurt.

Not seeing any way around the situation, I decided to take advantage of the rest I could get overnight. We were, by all accounts, in a secure location, safe from the elements, with warmth and food. Except for the whole hostage thing, it was pretty nice. I drifted off to sleep, somewhat glad for the rest I was about to get.

Throughout the night, my sleep was repeatedly interrupted by three recurring nightmares. The first nightmare had me standing, bloodsoaked, over the bodies of three unicorn foals. The gun in my mouth was smoking. Flower and Doc Mender were screaming, wordlessly, at me. The second was a very similar situation, but this time I was standing over the lifeless body of an old stallion, with three colts crying in the background.

The worst was the nightmare I had of Silver. She was laid out on a slab with a shaft of light shining down on her. The grim reaper would appear next to me, point at Silver, and then start to drift towards her. I would try to run after him, try to pass him, but no matter how hard I tried or fast I ran, I never got closer. The black-robed pony would pick Silver up off the slab and slowly glide away from me.

After the sixth or seventh time being startled awake, I decided to stay awake. Glancing at my Pip-Buck, I saw it was early morning. It had now been a full day of Silver being injured. We needed to get back today and there was no way around it. Somepony was going to have to die. I quietly rose and made my way to Foggy’s room. Two or Three (I couldn’t tell them apart) was still guarding the door with the dead man’s switch. One was not in the room.

I knocked on the door, and Foggy beckoned me in with a rasping cough.

“So, you here to kill me?”

“Yes…. yes I am.” My words were heavy with regret. “I don’t want to Foggy, but I need to. And if the only choices given to me are you or the three clones, at least with you, it’s mercy. Silver needs help, the doctor is the only one who can help, and we need to get out of here.” I drew my pistol.

“No Mister Dust.” It was One. I could tell by the tear-stained face. I hadn’t seen him sitting in the corner of Foggy’s room. “You won’t be killing my daddy.”

I stammered, “O-o-one, I think you misunderstand…”

“NO! DON’T SAY IT!” he cried out. “I know what you were thinking about, and I can’t let you do it. But I know how I can get you out of here, and no one has to get hurt.”

“Wait, how? Your brothers are being very careful. And the dead-pony’s switch?”

“I have a plan, but you need to trust me. Get your group ready to go, and when I distract my brothers, go, and get as far as you can before they realize what’s going on.”

“But what makes you think they’ll leave the door unguarded?”

“Mister Dust. Please. Trust me.” His eyes were full of purpose.

“OK…. thanks One.” I placed a hoof on his shoulder. “You’re a good pony.” I turned to Foggy, “It was a pleasure meeting you, sir.”

“You lucked out today Dust. One day, you’ll have to make the hard decision. And there won’t be anypony around to bail you out.” He looked oddly upset with me.

I nodded silently and made my way out of the room. I saw One get closer to his dad. I made my way back over to Flower and Mender. I leaned in close and whispered, “Alright ponies, One will give us a distraction soon. When he does, we need to get through that door and get as far as we can.”

The two ponies nodded, but then Mender asked, “But how?”

“I don’t really know for sure. He asked me to trust him, and I am.”

I heard screaming coming from Foggy’s room. It was One. “Dad, please don’t say that! You don’t mean that!”

Foggy yelled back, “Yes I do! You are worthless! I never meant to make you!” I saw Two and Three snap their heads towards Foggy’s room. “Wait, One, put that down!” Two and Three looked at each other and trotted into Foggy’s room.

I looked at Flower and Mender. “Now! Let’s go!”

We got up, grabbed our gear the clones left near the door and trotted through the door. We got a few feet away and then I heard it. A sharp report of a pistol. It was shortly followed by the twin wailing of two voices, “Daddy! NOOO!! One, what did you do? Why?” We all looked at each other with horrified looks on our faces. What had One just done?

The voices trailed off after that as we got further away from the hideout. I screamed out to Flower and Mender, “You two keep going! Get back to Dirtpatch! Help Silver. I need to go back and see what happened!”

I turned around and started to gallop back towards the hideout. I saw a bright flash followed quickly by a loud booming sound. Then an eerie silence as a plume of smoke rose from the former location of the hideout and became a steady stream of black.

Level Up!

Stat:
Speech +10

Perk Obtained: Babysitter: You now have additional conversation options when dealing with foals (or those with a mental age of a foal)

Chapter 7 - Ramifications

Chapter 7 - Ramifications
“We are free to choose our paths, but we can’t choose the consequences that come with them.”

I didn’t even realize I had stopped galloping. In my shock, I hadn’t noticed that Flower and Doctor Mender had joined me. My body was numb, and I felt my stomach threatening to purge everything I had eaten recently.

Staring vacantly, Flower murmured, “Dust, do you think he…”

“Yes, Flower, yes I do.” My mind was racing with all the possibilities. “But he said no one would get hurt...” I murmured. We stood there for a while and the only sound was the light breeze blowing across the Wasteland. “I’m going to go back and see what’s left and if anyone needs help, I’ll come get you once I know it’s safe. Flower, please wait here with the Doctor.”

Separating from the group, I made my way back towards the little hideaway and got back to the two boulders that concealed the entrance. The first thing I noticed was, besides the smoke, there wasn’t any outward sign of the explosion, besides the door having been blown off its hinges and flung across the little alcove. As I got closer, I saw that some refuse from the entry room had been ejected into the little sheltered area. A stream of smoke was still slowly emanating from the empty doorway.

I walked to the doorway and peered inside. The explosives must have been just inside the door. The majority of the damage was really focused near the entry door and got more diminished as you moved away. There wasn’t a part of the room that wasn’t scarred with burn or impact marks. The smell of burnt gunpowder permeated the air. Anything that was breakable was shattered into shards of various sizes and anything flammable was still smoldering. The only good thing was that this hideout must have been a bunker of some sort since the walls showed signs of only minor damage.

I noticed that, fortunately, there was no blood or corpses in this room. None of the ponies were in here when the bombs exploded. However, it did send a chill down my spine thinking of what might have happened had we tried to escape and the clones detonated the bombs. I moved towards the room I was dreading seeing: Foggy’s room.

Being mostly undamaged except for some burn marks, the door was open at the time of the explosion. The first thing I noticed was the large puddle of blood on the floor that emanated from the green corpses. They must have been thrown by the shockwave up against the wall. Their limbs and heads were at odd angles to their torsos. Their normally green coats were pockmarked with black burn marks and red, dripping wounds. Hopefully, death was quick and painless.

I walked closer to the bed and saw what I knew I would. Foggy had been laying down just the way I remembered seeing him last. He looked oddly peaceful. Well, except for the burn marks and gunshot wounds on either side of his head. One must have done shot him, it’s the only explanation. But how could he have done this? He said he wasn’t going to hurt anypony!

A soft sobbing was coming from somewhere inside the room. I walked around the bed, and sitting on the floor, curled into a tight ball, was One. He was softly sobbing, muttering to himself, “I’m sorry Daddy. I’m sorry Two. I’m sorry Three.” I saw some singeing of the fur on his head and a few cuts, but otherwise, he was in good shape considering the size of the explosion. A combination of the door and the bed he wisely put between himself and the bombs must have saved him.

“One? Are you, um, OK?” I quietly asked. He gave no response. I spoke a little louder, “One? Hello?” Still he just quietly sobbed curled up on the floor. I reached a hoof out and rested it on his shoulder. He jumped.

“Who’s there?” A look of relief washed over his face when he saw it was me. He immediately wrapped his hooves around my neck and hugged me tightly. “Oh, Mister Dust… what have I done? Daddy is dead, my brothers are dead… what have I done….”

“Shhh… One, it’s OK… it’s OK…” I simply held onto him as long as he held on to me. It was really the only thing I could do. “One, what happened?”

“Daddy begged me to shoot him Mister Dust. That’s what Daddy and I were talking about before you came in. He said something about the, um, greater good? I didn’t want to shoot him, but he begged me Mister Dust. You have to believe me Mister Dust.” His tearful eyes were pleading.

“One, it’s OK.” I lied. It would never be OK, but I didn’t want to put that on him yet. “You did what was needed. Foggy was in a lot of pain and he realized he was causing pain to you, Doctor Mender, Flower, and me. He knew he was going to go away soon. He thought he would be helping everyone.”

Between sobs, he asked, “But how can going away help me?”

I sighed and gave him a squeeze. “Remember that greater good he mentioned?” I felt One nod. “Well, sometimes, we have to give up something so that we can help everypony else. Your father wanted to help out me and my friends by giving up what little time he had left. He never wanted to make you sad, but if it helped out more ponies, then it is hopefully worth it.”

“It still sucks.”

I couldn’t help but to laugh at that comment. “You’re right One. It does.” He let go of the embrace but sat back down on the floor. “One, what happened after we left? After Foggy was shot?”

“Oh… Well, Two and Three came in and they were mad. Daddy thought they would just give up when they saw him, but they just got mad and were yelling at me. Two even aimed his gun at me. I panicked and I used my magic to grab the detonator away from Three. Two was still yelling at me but Three was telling him not to shoot me because I had the detonator. I panicked and released the button. Then, boom.”

“Wait, you ripped the detonator out of Three’s magic?”

“Yeah Mister Dust! I’ve always been good at that kind of magic. Daddy always asked me to move around heavy things.” He didn’t realize a unicorn strong enough to rip something away from another unicorn’s magic was a rare thing. “Oh, and Mister Dust! Daddy wanted me to give this to you!” He levitated a scroll from between the mattress and the frame of the bed. “He told me not to look at it.”

I opened the scroll. In surprisingly neat handwriting, Foggy had written me a personal note.

“Ten-hut Private. If you’re reading this letter, then you took the pansy-ass way out and let somepony else do what was necessary. Soldiers need to make decisions, and decisions sometimes mean people die. The sooner you realize the that, the better off you’ll be down here. Not everyone makes it out alive.

“Most likely, One was the one who put me down. I was hoping to avoid that. He may look like a stallion, but he has the mentality of a colt. Since your weakness got him into this mess, I am telling you that it’s your responsibility now to teach him how to survive in the Wasteland. And Private, be careful. He may seem mature at times, but he is more fragile than he seems.

“Good luck.”

I put the note down and was dumbfounded. I was now One’s guardian? How the hell was I going to do that if I’m trying to track Muddy down? I couldn’t keep him safe. Hell, I’d very likely lost one pony already.

“What does it say Mister Dust?”

“It says that your dad loved you very much and wants you to be safe.”

He sniffled again and I saw his lower lip tremble a little. He was trying to be a brave little pony. “I love him too.” One slowly walked over to the bed and hugged the lifeless body of Foggy one last time.

As One was saying his goodbye, I walked out of the hideout and found Flower had moved just outside the rocky alcove. I quickly filled them in with what happened. I asked the Doctor to give One a once over just to make sure there wasn’t something wrong. She started to walk towards the hideout, but One came walking out.

“One, I am so sorry for your loss. Are you OK?” Flower asked.

“Thank you Miss Flower, and yes, I’m OK, I guess.” He was not a good liar.

Doctor Mender walked towards One. “One, I’m so sorry for all of this. Do I have your permission to check you out?” One nodded, and the Doctor’s horn and One were enveloped in a teal magical field. After several minutes, the Doc looked at me, “He’ll be OK… miraculously, his injuries are mostly superficial and minor. The worst of it is the serious case of tinnitus. His ears will be ringing for hours.”

“Thanks Doc. Doc, Flower, can you please head back to Dirtpatch. Can you please go help Silver?” I asked, with tears forming in my eyes.

Flower turned towards me. “Dust, what are you going to do?”

“One and I have some work to do.” Flower and the doctor nodded and turned towards Dirtpatch and started galloping away.

One turned to me. “What work do we need to do Mister Dust?”

I sighed. “Do you have any shovels and anything flammable?”

After taking a couple of hours to set up a small pyre and dig two graves, One levitated Foggy’s body on top of the pyre and his brothers’ bodies into the graves. I had attended many cremation rites in my time in the military anytime a soldier died or was presumed dead, or a veteran passed away. I knew most of the words that would need to be said. I lit the wood we had soaked in some machine oil we found and it went up quickly. As the body burned, I solemnly said, “From the clouds from which we were born, back to the clouds we return. May Celestia and Luna watch over Foggy as he takes his final flight.” I heard One begin to cry again. After a moment of silence, we turned to his brothers and just stood there. One tried to start a speech several times and faltered.

“I can’t make the words come out Mister Dust. I don’t know what to say.”

“It’s OK One. Just think of the good times you had together.”

I saw him smile a little after that. After a long moment, I took a shovel and began to fill in the graves. One helped out by levitating large piles of earth on top of the growing mounds. I had to hand it to the kid, his magic was strong.

“Alright One, go grab your stuff. We’re heading back to Dirtpatch.”

One looked at the mounds of earth and roaring fire one long, last time. He then trotted off to the bunker and collected what was left of his things. Afterwards, we began the walk back to Dirtpatch.

All in all, it had taken us the rest of the morning to bury One’s family and make it back to Dirtpatch. When I returned to town, it was more lively than the last time I was there. Ponies were out, taking care of the mundane activities of daily life. The town had a rather small population, even before the events of a few days ago. It was then that I realized my mistake.

An earth pony mare yelled out, “The raider’s back!” Within moments, I saw ponies from all over town emerge from their houses with weapons in hoof or held in magical fields.

I did my best to get between as many of the townsponies and One as I could. I reared up and shouted out, “Everyone stop! He wasn’t one of the ponies who did the shooting the other day! That was his brothers! Please, put the weapons down!”

“Mister Dust? Are these the ponies I hurt the other day?” One asked nervously.

“Yes One… let me talk with them. Don’t say anything unless I say to, OK?” I saw One nod. I heard a door slam open and Planter emerge from one house with a hunting rifle in his grasp. He trotted up to me. “What do you think you’re doing Dust! This is one of the ponies that attacked us the other day!”

“I know… I know he was one of them! But hear me out. I assume you already spoke with Flower and found out about what we went through! I know three ponies came to town a few days ago! I know they took the doc away by force!” When I said that, I looked back and saw One’s head drop down. “But one pony took the doc and the other two open fired, right?”

“Yes.. you’re right, but how do you know?” Planter kept nervously glancing between me and One.

“Listen to me. I’m not saying he didn’t do anything wrong. One was manipulated by his brothers. He only wanted to save his father. He thought the Doc wouldn’t have followed him back. He panicked and he made a mistake. But he wasn’t here when the killing started. That was his brothers.” My heart was pounding in my chest. I still saw a lot of angry faces around town.

“Mister Dust, I’m scared.” I hadn’t noticed that One had laid down on the ground and hid his head underneath his hooves.

“It’s alright One, I know. Just stay calm, please!” I turned my attention back to the town. “Who here hasn’t made a mistake? Who among you is completely blameless of anything?” I saw a few faces soften. “One here has made a mistake. I know that and he will freely admit to it. But he did not kill anyone here.”

I turned back towards One and said quietly to him, “One, I’m sorry I have to bring this up.” I faced the town again. “One helped us all escape, including the doctor. He killed his own brothers to do this. Those were the ponies you are angry at! Those are the ones you want dead! I know you don’t know me, and I know you don’t really have a reason to trust me, but look at what he has done. He, and he alone, is responsible for the doc coming back!”

I returned to my hooves. One had started crying again. He wailed out, “Daddy, Two, Three. I’m so sorry…”

The tension was so thick you could almost breathe it in. For several long seconds, no one moved an inch. The only sound was the light breeze whistling between cracks in the ramshackle homes and One’s sobbing. It was unsettling to say the least. Several seconds later, I heard the sound of a pistol being rendered safe. It was soon followed by the sound of several other weapons being disarmed.

Planter looked at me. “Dust, we are only trusting him because you are vouching for him. We will ask the doctor to confirm all you have said. However, if he steps out of line, we won’t hesitate to put him down.” I knew he was deadly serious.

“Thank you Planter, I appreciate it. Now, where’s Silver?’

I galloped to the house that Planter said I’d find Silver in. Carefully, I opened the door into one of the smaller houses in the town. It was a typical, one room Wasteland shack made of scrap wood and corrugated metal. Laying on the bed was the motionless, pink form of Silver. Brownie was sitting on the floor in one corner and Doctor Mender was standing next to Silver. Silver’s body and Doctor Mender’s horn were both enveloped in the same teal colored magical field I saw before.

“Hey Doc?” I asked.

Brownie looked up, “Shhhhhh… she’s workin. She’s using a healing spell ta help Silver as much as she can.”

“Did the Doc say anything?”

Brownie shook his head. “She wasn’t happy, that’s all I know. She cast a different spell earlier, shook her head and told me not ta let anyone interrupt her. That was two hours ago.”

“Oh…. Did Flower make it back here OK?”

“Yeah, Flower and the Doc got back a few hours ago. Flower brought the Doc here straight away and then stormed out. And ‘fore ya ask, I don’t know where she headed.”

“Brownie, I’m going to go find Flower… If Silver wakes up, find me immediately.”

“Eeyup.”

I trotted through town and asked everypony if they saw Flower. They all said that she was headed back towards the mountains. I cleared the outskirts of town and saw her sitting on a small rise, looking back towards the hideout. I slowly made my way up to her.

“I told ya ponies ta leave me alone.”

“Flower, it’s me,” I said softly. “Mind if I join you?”

“Knock yerself out… I’m not gonna be good company though.”

I sat down next to her, looking in the direction of the hideout.

“Flower, are you OK?”

“No, I’m not.” She paused for several seconds, then added, “Dust, how did One do it?”

“It’s complicated. First, he didn’t want to hurt anypony. He knew his brothers wouldn’t let us go as long as his father was alive. Secondly, his father asked him to do it. Foggy knew we were stuck and he knew he was out of time. He just hurried things along.”

“No, Dust… I didn’t ask why. I asked how. How could he have done that?”

I heard Flower sniffle. If sarcasm were an emotion, that would have been the only emotion I ever saw from her. Until now. The tear running down her face was shocking to me.

“I don’t know Flower… he just thought he was helping everyone.”

“Dust, what did ya say ta One when ya spoke with him?”

“Not much, I just asked him about him and his dad and he told me a story of a time they had to put down a critter that was almost dying. It was a mercy killing.”

“I wish I had his courage. He did what I wish I coulda…”

“What do you mean Flower?”

Flower sighed deeply. “My father. I wish I coulda done the same fer my father. Years ago, before ya met me, I lived with my dad. My mom had passed years earlier, fore I can remember, and it was just me and him. He was a great dad. He did everything he could ta protect me from the Wasteland and taught me how ta fend for myself. One day, our little town was attacked by raiders. It was horrible. They overran the defenders quickly and then had their way with whoever was left. I got lucky. Dad had built a safe room for me and I was able ta hide. The sounds though, still haunt me ta this day.”

I saw her involuntarily shudder. “What they did ta the ponies, I can’t even mention. After the raiders had their way and took anything of any value, I came outta hiding and found my father. He was in a bad way. He had been beaten and broken. We had no healing supplies. The only pony in our town that was medically trained had been, well, it wasn’t good.

“Dad asked me to put him out of his misery. He begged me Dust. All he wanted was an end ta the pain. And I couldn’t do it. I sat there and watched him die. He moaned fer hours Dust… and I just sat there. Watchin… and listenin…” She broke out into a full cry. I put my leg around her and just held her. She rested her head against my shoulder.

“Let it all go Flower, it’s OK.”

We sat there like that for a while.

Flower had calmed down after a while and we just sat in silence. And then I heard it. “DUST! WHERE ARE YA?” It was a deep, bellowing voice. It had to be Brownie. “THE DOC NEEDS TO TALK WITH YA!”

“Silver?” I muttered to myself. “Flower, do you mind…”

“Go ahead Dust…. I’ll be OK fer a while… go check on yer special somepony.” I let the comment go as I got up and galloped towards the house.

I made it there in record time and walked in, making sure to stay quiet. I saw Silver still lying in the bed unconscious, but the Doc was lying on the floor next to her, looking exhausted. However, she was still awake.

“Doc, what is it? What’s going on with Silver?”

“Well, I have good news and bad news,” Doctor Mender said, pausing occasionally to catch her breath. “I have never had to work so hard on a single pony in my life. You’re lucky I’m not charging you my normal rates for this, in thanks for saving my flank.”

“I appreciate it Doc… now what’s wrong with Silver?”

“I don’t know how well versed you are with medicine, but she had a hematoma. That’s bleeding on the brain. The pressure was causing problems for her. Now, the good news is that I was able to get in and fix the damage and drain the excess blood. I never had to do that level of detail work before, that’s what took so long.”

“OK, and the bad news?”

“The excess pressure was there for an extended period of time. There may be brain damage that I could not fix. The only way we’ll be able to tell is to see what happens when she wakes up. If she wakes up. “

“Oh… and, not that I don’t appreciate what you did, but is there nothing else you can do?”

“Not me, no. I am decent with medical spells, but I can’t fix everything. Bullet wounds and other fighting injuries are my specialty. Those same doctors I mentioned before in Tenpony Tower? They could probably fix her right up, but it’d be expensive and it’s a long trip.

“So we are just in a wait and see mode now then?”

“Unfortunately, that’s all I can do. And before I forget, thanks for saving me. I just hope it wasn’t in vain. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I’m gonna go pass out for a few days.”

The doc collected her things and made her way out of the shack. Brownie, who I didn’t even notice sitting in the corner, came over to me. “Dust, ya just gotta have faith. Ya just gotta believe she’ll be OK.”

“Thanks Brownie. And thanks for watching over her. I’ll take it from here. Why don’t you go get some real lodging and relax. You’ve earned it.”

“No problem. If ya need me, find me.”

I nodded at him. He made his way out of the house. It was now just me and Silver. I laid down on the floor next to her and simply listened to the soft sound of her shallow breathing. I just lay like that for a while and staring at her gentle face. My reverie was interrupted by a beep and a new message in my vision. “Scootaloo 1 decoded.”

I had almost forgotten about the Pipbuck on my leg. I realized I never got a chance to fully play with it and learn all that it could do. I noticed I was in something called “Stats” mode. It gave me a readout of my vitals as well as the status of the various parts of my body. I flicked a dial and now saw “Items” mode. I scrolled through, taking note of everything I had in my saddlebags. I was amazed at how much was actually able to fit in there. There was one weapon entry with which I was unfamiliar. It was simply labelled “Dash’s Lament”.

The last option was “Data”. I saw a map with some labelled locations. There was a radio option, but when I picked that, all the entries were grayed out. I assumed that meant I was out of range of any radio signals. The last option was “Notes”. I flicked over to that option. A list appeared. The first entry was the previously mentioned “Scootaloo 1”. The rest were labelled as “Encrypted”.

I flicked over to the entry. A small box and timer appeared. An audio recording? I activated the recording.

A rough, feminine voice began spilling out of the small speaker of the Pipbuck. I turned down the volume until I was sure I was the only one who could hear it.

“To whoever finds this Pipbuck,” the voice started. This was followed by some light coughing. “The unicorn I paid to enchant this Pipbuck tells me it will only respond to a special pegasus. So if you’re hearing this, you are that special pegasus. Well, welcome to the Wasteland.” Some more coughing. “My name is Scootaloo, Vice President of Stable-Tec, Cutie Mark Crusader, and first Dashite.” Holy shit. This Pipbuck was actually used by Scootaloo. If she wasn’t the second most reviled pegasus in Enclave history, I’d probably be more excited. “I put this Pipbuck together to help you out on a quest only someone like you can undertake. As you prove yourself worthy of the information within, these entries will decode themselves. Scootaloo, out.” Before the recording cut out, there was some wet coughing. Scootaloo sounded really sick.
Well, at least one mystery was solved. This Pipbuck would was designed to respond to a special pegasus, not specifically me. Then again, how many pegasi were there down in the Wasteland. Not many, by all accounts. There were few dirtborn pegasi, and even if you added all the “contaminated” Enclave that were classified as MIA, the number had to be less than one hundred, right? And that’s assuming they all were still alive. So how many others could it have been?

But what quest was I now part of? Damned if I knew, and damned if I was going to actually complete it. All I knew is that I was hunting for Muddy, and then I’d be getting back to Coltington, finishing my assignment, and then returning for whatever was waiting for me in Special Operations once my time down here was done.

I flicked the Pipbuck back to the map and looked over at Silver laying in the bed. I would do better by her. There really was no choice. Muddy was going to do Celestia knows what to her and then she saved my life. I had to repay the favor. I was just glad I was able to get the doctor to her in time… at least I hope it was in time. I just hoped nothing was wrong when she awoke.

A soft beep emanated from the Pipbuck. “What the hell is it now?” Looking at the screen, the second line had changed from “Encrypted” to “Sacrifice”. I selected the entry. The screen was filled with text. It was talking about some Wonderbolt air show in Canterlot and Rainbow Dash’s part in it. What is this? Some pre-war history lesson? I didn’t have time for this garbage and the entry was definitely too long for me to waste my time on that traitor. Besides, I knew all I needed to about Rainbow Dash from my schooling. I flicked it off.

I glanced out the window and saw that it was getting dark outside. It had been a long day. And it was only the second day of my mission. I sighed. If it was already this hard, I did not relish what the balance of my journey would bring. I found a spare blanket next to the bed and, using my bedroll, made myself a bed for the night. After the rough couple of days I had, I drifted right off to sleep.

I slowly began to become aware of sounds around me. No, it couldn’t be time to wake up already. I laid in my bed willing myself to fall back asleep.

“Good morning Dust,” a voice said softly.

“Flower, is that you? It’s too early.” I groaned.

“No…. it’s not Flower,” the voice replied.

“Then who….” Then it dawned on me, “Silver?” I sat up and looked at the bed. Silver was awake just looking at me. “Oh Silver!” I jumped up and ran over to the bed and gave her a hug. “Silver, I was so worried about you.”

“Ow, ow, ow. Hey now, not so rough.” I eased my embrace and she hugged me back. “Dust, what happened? Last I remember, the radhog was charging me.”

I told her everything that had transpired since the radhog incident. I apologized profusely for throwing her into the rockslide. “Don’t be silly. If you hadn’t done that, I’d probably be dead, right?” I nodded. I continued and recounted the trip to Dirtpatch, Flower and I being held at gunpoint, and the events with the clones and Foggy. All in all, she took it in quite well.

“Dust, you are one unlucky pony.” Well, that was putting it mildly. “But I appreciate you doing all of this for me.”

“Well, if I hadn’t hurt you in the first place…”

“Dust, how many times do I have to say this? if you hadn’t thrown me clear, the radhog probably would have hurt me worse. You have to stop blaming yourself for everything.” She hesitated before adding, “And are you sure you’re ok with everything that happened with One?”

“I don’t know. I feel terrible for putting him in that position, but I couldn’t kill Foggy.”

“I know what you mean, I don’t know what I would have done.”

We were interrupted by a knock on the door. “Mister Dust, it’s me, One. Are you home?”

I walked over to the door and let One in. He waved as I introduced him to Silver. “Oh hey Miss Silver. Are you Dust’s very special somepony?”

I felt myself blush. “Uh, well, she, um,” I stammered.

Silver, thankfully, took over. “No, One. We’re just friends.” My stomach turned at that statement.

“Oh, but Miss Flower said,” he started to say.

“Flower was just playing around.” Luna damn you Flower.

Silver arched an eyebrow. “Wait a minute, One, what did Flower say?”

“Oh, well Miss Flower said that Mister Dust had a huge crush on you, Miss Silver, and that he wanted to kiss you and love you and make a foal with you.” He sat there with a dumb grin on his face.

Silver snickered. “Is that so? Well, then Dust and I will have to talk about that later, won’t we Dust?”

My head started to spin. “Yeah, sure.” I cleared my throat. “So, One, what did you need me for?”

“Oh! I almost forgot! Flower said you guys are leaving town soon. I’m going with you.”

“Um, One, I don’t think that’s a good idea. It’s dangerous where we’re going. I think it’ll be better if you stay here.”

“Nuh uh, Mister Dust! Daddy told me that you would try to leave me behind. He told me to tell you to, um,” his face scrunched up as he was thinking really hard, “oh, to remember that you took the easy way out.” He added, “and that, um, what did he say,” he tapped his hoof against his head, “oh, you owe it to me for doing what you should have.”

“Oh…” I was floored. Looks like Foggy was going to haunt me from the grave.

“Well, I’ll see ya later Mister Dust! I can’t wait for our adventure!” He was smiling from ear to ear and was basically prancing as he left the house.

“Umm, Dust, you can’t possibly be thinking of taking him with us?” Silver asked.

“I don’t know if I have much choice Silver. He has no family left, and the townspeople here aren’t exactly fans of his. He can’t take care of himself, and I do sort of owe him. He did what I should have.”

“As I said before, you have the worst luck.” She shook her head.

“So, I was going to ask before we got interrupted, how are you feeling?”

“Believe it or not, I’m actually feeling quite well, considering all you’ve said happened to me. The doctor did a good job.”

“Do you think you can walk? I think we should check in with the doctor before we do anything else.” She nodded her agreement.

After finding the doctor, thankfully awake, Silver got a mostly clean bill of health. The doctor said that as far as she could tell, there was no permanent damage from the head injury. She would have liked a few more days of rest, but said as long as we promised to take it easy, then there shouldn’t be any problems.

Next up, we found Flower and Brownie. They were actually still sleeping when we knocked on the door of the shack they were borrowing. Both of them were excited to see Silver up and about, and were relieved when they heard the doctor’s prognosis on Silver.

“But I have something we need to discuss,” I said to the group. “One wants to come with us. Wants is actually not the right word. He thinks he is coming one way or another. Foggy made sure to have him try to guilt trip me. Sorry to say, it actually worked a little.”

“I don’t know Dust. It’s dangerous out there and can ya really take care of him? What if we get inta a firefight?” Brownie asked.

“I know Brownie… I asked myself the same thing. But we can’t leave him here. You saw how the town reacted towards him yesterday. They’re not exactly going to give him a fair shake once we leave.”

Flower spoke up next. “I don’t know Dust. I agree with Brownie. We can’t play babysitter with him.”

“I know, I know. Brownie, after we get to Midnight’s shack, what’s the next closest, friendly settlement?”

“Let me think on that… that would prolly be Murky Springs, bout a half day away from Midnight.”

“Alright, we’ll drop him off there. At least there he’ll have a fighting chance to become part of the community.”

Everyone murmured in acceptance if not outright agreement. It was a difficult position we were in, especially considering it was all because of my actions. Or more accurately, inaction.

We quickly gathered our things and grabbed One. He was waiting for us in a shack he was loaned. He had already packed his saddlebags and was simply sitting in the middle of the floor.

“Hi Mister Dust! Are we leaving on our adventure now?” The smile on his face couldn’t get any bigger.

“Yeah One, we’re leaving.”

“Yippee! We’re going on an adventure! We’re going on an adventure!”

We all couldn’t help but to giggle a little at his exuberance. Especially when he started dancing around the shack.

After calming One down, we found Planter and Tiller and thanked them for them for their hospitality. We traded for some food and made our way out of town.

The morning passed uneventfully. One had calmed down and was mostly keeping to himself. I could only imagine yesterday’s events were still weighing heavily on him. Hell, they were weighing heavily on me.

Around midday, Midnight’s shack appeared on the horizon. I had seen it a couple of times before during routine visits to make situation reports. It was a small, two-room shack in the middle of nowhere. He had built it out of a cargo container and some scrap.

“There it is. Geez, I always forget how far out in the boonies he lives.” It was a necessary part of Midnight’s job. Besides being the contact point for several teams in the area, he would also receive flyers from the Enclave for mission updates and to report back to the General. He needed to make sure that he wasn’t seen as an Enclave collaborator with all the visits he received.

“Alright guys…. Midnight can be, um, a little eccentric. Wait here and let me go talk to him first. He doesn’t really like strangers.” This was only partially true; he didn’t like Wasteland strangers.

After trotting up to his door, I knocked. The sound of tins cans clanging together in makeshift wind chimes on the porch mixed in with the sound of the ever present light breeze in the Wasteland. I heard hoofsteps inside the house.
Suddenly, a whiny, nasal voice from the other side of the door barked, “I’m not interested! Now just leave me alone!”

“Midnight, it’s me, Dust Cloud.”

“I don’t know no Dust Cloud,” he muttered back.

Ugh…. even though we weren’t supposed to use our real names, he insisted as the only way to make sure I wasn’t there under duress. “Of course you know me… you know, Updraft? Now open up!”

“Now why didn’t you say so, that’s a horse of a different color!” He opened the door and clapped a hoof on my shoulder. Midnight was true to his code name. His coat and mane were as dark as the sky at night. His eyes were a dazzling silver color which made them stand out starkly against his face. His cutie mark was a scroll and quill. Unlike other field operatives, he did not need to disguise his wings. He rarely interacted with the locals beyond bartering. “Dust, great to see ya! Come on in, come on…” I saw his gaze shift to over my shoulder. “Who the hell is all that?” He pointed towards them with his hoof.

“Midnight, those are my friends. We need to talk to you, about Clear Skies.” After using Muddy’s real name, I saw Midnight’s facial expressions tighten. “My friends and I are looking for him and I thought you could help.”

“Dust, now you know how I feel about dirtponies. And that pegasus with you, she ain’t Enclave, so is she dirtborn, or a Dashite?” His eyes narrowed as he gazed at her.

“I’m not sure Midnight… I just don’t know if she was born down here or if she was kicked out of the Enclave.”

Midnight grumbled a little under his breath. “Alright Dust, bring em in. But I am not happy about this.”

I motioned to my friends to come over to the house. After a couple minutes we were all settled inside Midnight’s shack. There was a faint smell of roasted vegetables. Midnight hadn’t really become accustomed to the whole meat-eating thing most Wasteland ponies did. He seemed uncomfortable with the new arrivals, but he wasn’t being outright rude to his guests. He did keep eying Silver any chance he got. Any time she saw him looking at her, he would turn away and act as if he had been looking at something else. It wasn’t working since there really wasn’t anything to look at. Midnight kept no personal items lying around.

“Well, Dust, I should have known something was up. I rarely see you and I saw Muddy a couple days ago.”

I perked up. “A couple days ago!”

“Yep. Didn’t he tell you he was coming?”

I sighed deeply. Starting with events at the stable, I told Midnight everything pertinent about Muddy: his two attempts at killing me and his subsequent disappearance.

Midnight’s face contorted with concern. “I knew something was up. He seemed a little fidgety when he was here. Said he was taking a little bit of a trip.”

“Did he say where he was headed?”

“Not really, all he mentioned was heading North. Said something about looking for a stable.”

“You wouldn’t happen ta know where the stable is, would ya?” Flower asked.

Midnight shook his head. “Unfortunately no. He didn’t mention anything else. You may want to head over to the Stable-Tec Field Office over in New Flankfort. The computers there, assuming they are still running, should have information about all the stables in the area.”

“Did you tell Muddy any of this?” I asked.

“Yeah, he asked if I knew where any stables were and I told him I didn’t. I did mention the Stable-Tec office as a possible lead.”

“Brownie, how far from here is New Flankfort?”

“The ruins of New Flankfort are a little less than two days from here to the northeast. Nothin’ between here and there, though.”

“Alright… looks like we’re headed to New Flankfort then.” I’m coming for you Muddy.

Midnight offered lunch for us before we headed out. It was a simple collection of vegetables from his stockpile of canned goods, which were delivered by Enclave soldiers when they delivered news. We all ate our meals quickly and gratefully. Who knew how long it would be before we ate good food again. As everyone was packing up their things, I saw Midnight leave the shack and head back to the garden. I quietly slipped my way outside as well. Once I was sure nopony had followed me, I walked up to Midnight.

“Midnight, there’s more to the story than I could tell you inside,” I whispered.

“I kinda expected that. So they don’t know that you’re Enclave yet, huh?”

“Only the pegasus, Silver, knows I am a pegasus, but she doesn’t know I’m Enclave. The others still think I’m an earth pony. Anyway, let me fill you in on the rest.” I told him all about the journal I found and the angry writings inside. I also filled him in on the unusual behavior I had noticed before that day in the stable.

Midnight smirked. “I thought this might happen. When I first met you two, I felt off about Muddy. I couldn’t quite put a hoof on it, but it was there. He seemed eager to be down here, too eager.”

“Yeah, well, I think we all see how that worked out now.”

“Dust, be careful. When he was here, I was actually nervous just being around him. He seemed full of rage and he was barely controlling it. And with what you told me, it seems like any pegasus that gets in the way will pay the price.”

“I know, I know.” After taking a deep breath, I continued, “Midnight, I might have to take him down. You do realize that?”

“Yeah, Dust. I know. I hope it doesn’t come to that.”

“Me too, Midnight. Me too. As much as I hate him for trying to kill me, he is still one of us.”

“And Dust, remember, the locals cannot find out about us…. No matter what.”

After everyone finished up, we gathered our things and set out towards New Flankfort. Brownie said that it if we didn’t have any problems, we could probably get there by tomorrow night.

After about an hour of walking, I regretted my decision to head to New Flankfort first.

“So Mister Dust, where are we headed?” One asked while sidling up to me.

“We’re headed to New Flankfort to visit a Stable-Tec Regional Headquarters,” I droned.

“And what’s that?” he asked with his head cocked to the side.

“Ever hear of a stable?” I flatly responded.

“Nope.” There was that goofy grin again.

I grumbled. “OK… well, imagine an entire city buried underground. Houses, an orchard, recreation facilities, everything buried underground. Stable-Tec built these cities.”

“Uh huh.” He paused. “Why would they make these stables?”

“A long time ago, there was a big fight. The bad guys were going to use big magical weapons. Ponies got scared and wanted to be safe, so they built these cities to protect themselves.”

“Ooooh. Um, OK.” He became oddly silent. “I don’t get it.”

“One, think about your old home. Why did you live there?” I asked.

“Daddy said to keep us safe from the bad ponies,” he said.

“Right, but could your house protect you from everything?” I continued.

“I don’t know. No one ever really found us.” He was still sounding confused.

“Remember when the bombs went off. Remember how broken things were?” My aggravation was starting to bleed into my questions.

“Yeah,” he said with a nod.

“Well, imagine a bomb about, oh, one thousand times more powerful. Your house couldn’t protect you from that. Also imagine that unless your house was built in a special way, the bomb could still hurt you even if it didn’t break through the walls. The stables were built specially in order to protect ponies inside.” I hoped this drove the point home.

“Ooooh…” he said while nodding again.

“You still don’t get it, do you?” I sighed.

“Nope!” His smile went from ear to ear.

I stopped walking and facehoofed myself.

“What’s a matter Mister Dust?” he asked.

“Nothing, One, nothing. Let’s just keep walking,” I grumbled while shaking my head.

The light started getting dim and my skin started to prickle in the evening chill. Brownie recommended that we set up camp for the night. We were in the middle of a large plain with no real features to speak of except for the occasional withered tree. One and I collected as much firewood as we could find while Brownie set up camp. Flower was off scavenging for dinner, but we had enough supplies to make due if necessary.

It was amusing and somewhat uplifting to watch One work. He either forgot about the previous day’s events, was dealing with it very well, or was blocking it all out. He was busy trotting from tree to tree looking for loose wood, even bucking a few to see if he could knock anything loose. Every so often, he would call out for me to catch up with him. It was endearing in a way.

After collecting as much wood as we could carry, we made our way back to camp. Brownie already had a fire pit ready to go and we dumped all our wood nearby. He got to work on starting the actual fire.

Flower trotted back into camp. She hadn’t managed to find any game, so we broke out the dried goods we had with us. It wasn’t as good as fresh food, but it was still better than some of the alternatives.

“So Dust, what’s yer plan fer if we find Muddy?” Brownie asked.

“Umm, I was kinda hoping we wouldn’t need a plan per se. I was hoping I could talk sense into him and get him to come back to Coltington peacefully.”

An odd silence fell over the camp. Everyone, except One, had stopped eating and was staring at me with wide eyes.

Flower was the one to break the silence. “Umm, Dust? Are ya an idjit? Muddy has tried to kill ya twice. What’s to make ya think he won’t try again?”

“Um, I don’t know… I’m hoping we don’t have to do anything. I don’t want to have to hurt Muddy. Yeah, I know he hurt me badly twice, but I think deep down he really is a good pony. He was just put into a bad spot, I’m sure. If we need to though, we’ll take him down. I’ll take him down. I just need you guys to have my back.”

“If ya say so Dust. Far be it from me to question anyone, but I’ve seen ya fight. Ya really arn’t a fighter,” Brownie added.

“Not this again, please. I can do it, I know I can,” I pleaded.

“We’ll see,” is all he said.

The rest of dinner was spent making small talk. One had a ton of questions for everyone, which was slowly becoming the norm. He was just so fascinated with finding out about everyone. It might have been due to the fact that the only people he knew before a few days ago were his father and his brothers.

Brownie and Flower volunteered to split the watch overnight, which was fine by me. “As long as you two don’t disappear again.” I added sarcastically.

“Seriously Dust? Yer gonna hold that over us now?” Flower spat out.

“Maybe for a little while,” I responded with a little smirk.

“Umm,” it was One, again, “where am I going to sleep?”

“What do you mean, One? Don’t you have a bedroll?” I asked.

“A bedwhat?” he looked at me quizzically.

“Ugh…. alright… here, take mine,” I unpacked my bedroll and gave it to One.

Silver spoke up next. “Um, Dust, I don’t have one either. We haven’t had a chance to get one yet, remember?”

“Right… haven’t really been at a town with a shop yet. Umm, Brownie, Flower, can you two share a bedroll tonight while you guys are on watch? And I guess Silver and I can share the other one?”

I regretted saying it as soon as the words left my mouth. Flower’s ears perked up. “Ooooh... Dust… whatcha…”

I interrupted her as my cheeks flushed again, “Flower, not now.” Silver blushed nearly as bad as I was.

Flower simply snickered. One looked up, “I don’t get it, what’s so funny?”

She beat me to it. “Well, One, remember when I told you about Dust and his special somepony?”

I grumbled through clenched teeth. “Flower… stop please.”

Flower simply fell over laughing. One still looked confused. I muttered, “I’ll tell you someday One.” Hopefully not.

Flower and Brownie were setting up their part of the camp while I showed One how to set up a bedroll. Silver was taking care of our area.

After setting One up, he turned over to face me. “Mister Dust? Can you tell me a bedtime story?”

“What? You want me to tell you a story?”

“Well, yeah, Daddy would tell us stories when it was bedtime before he got sick. When he couldn’t do it anymore, we took turns telling stories to each other. It’s the only way we were able to fall asleep sometimes.” The look in his eyes pleaded with me even more so than the tone of his voice.

“One, I don’t really know any bedtime stories.”

“C’mon Mister Dust… pleeeeeeeeeease?” He looked almost ready to cry.

It didn’t take long for Flower to butt in. “Yeah Mistuh Dust, pweeeeeeease tell us a bedtime stowie.”

“Flower, shut up.” I grunted, exasperated.

“Alright One… let me think here.” While not strictly a traditional bedtime story, I told him about the time Twilight Sparkle and her newly found friends had found the Elements of Harmony and defeated Nightmare Moon. It seemed to do the trick, as he quickly fell into a quiet slumber. Once all I could see was the gently rising and falling of his sides, I quietly made my way over to Silver. She had been laying down on the bedroll with her head propped up in her hooves.

“That was a sweet thing you just did there,” she whispered.

“Um, thanks, I guess. I never thought I’d have to tell a bedtime story to a fully-grown stallion before.

“Regardless, you didn’t have to do it.” She had a cute grin on her face. It made me feel a little warm inside.

“Well, I guess to make this work, we should sleep back to back? This way it will be a little less awkward?”

“Oh, OK Dust, if you think that is best.” The grin disappeared from her face. Why did I suddenly feel terrible?

I laid down next to her and pulled the blanket up over the two of us. I could feel her body rise and fall slightly with each breath. “Good night Silver.”

“Good night Dust.”

Thankfully, sleep came quickly.

The gentle brightening of the skies in the morning roused me from my slumber. While yawning, I was greeted by a mouthful of something. Spitting out whatever it was in my mouth, I opened my eyes, temporarily blinded by the relative brightness of the morning light. Once the glare cleared, I look down and saw that my mouth had been full of green… hair? Once my eyesight focused further, I saw that it was Silver’s mane.

I tried to move to get a better view of things, until I noticed my leg was stuck under something. The fog of sleep on my mind was finally starting to clear and I saw that, at some point during the night, I had rolled over in my sleep and wrapped my forelegs around Silver. Her forelegs were, in turn, wrapped around one of mine. She was slumbering quietly and had a small smile on her face.

“Oh hell,” I thought to myself, “what did I do last night?”

Silver started to stir. “Good morning Dust,” she muttered.

“G...good morning Silver. Um, did you sleep well?”

“Yes, I did, thank you. How about you?”

“Ummm…” my mind was racing a million miles a second. And then, I just blurted out, “Silver, we didn’t, you know, um.”

“What? Oh Dust,” she started giggling a little. “No, we didn’t do that. You just turned over in the night and wrapped your legs around me. You silly stallion you.”

And of course, almost as if Discord himself had planned this whole thing, I heard a catcall whistle. And of course, it had to be Flower. But she wasn’t alone. Brownie and One were there too.

“So, Dust. Wanna yell at me ‘bout that special somepony stuff again?” She was barely restraining her laughter, and she wasn’t alone. It was going to be a long day.

After eating and packing up camp, we resumed our journey towards New Flankfort. Fortunately, breakfast had passed without many comments about the sleeping arrangements, and Silver had been nudged up against me the whole time. Flower was still giving sly looks accompanied by a wicked grin, but she wasn’t saying anything. We packed camp and resumed our trip.

Unfortunately, Flower couldn’t keep quiet much longer. She sidled up next to me and whispered to me, “So, Dust, when are you two gonna go on a date?”

“Flower, please, don’t,” I hissed back.

“Dust, I don’t get it. Why is this botherin’ you so much? It’s sweet, really.” She nudged me in the shoulder.

“Flower, it’s just that it’s not what you think. I didn’t mean to hold her during the night. I don’t even remember doing it.”

“That doesn’t matter Dust, some part of ya wanted to do it. And what is so wrong with having a crush on another pony?”

“Flower, what makes you think I have a crush?”

“Dust, please. We all can see it, even One does. It’s the way you look at her; the way you listen when she speaks.” My stomach was tying itself into knots. My mind was starting to race and I felt my whole body start to tense. “It’s even so cute the way you turn away quickly when she looks at you. It’s adowable. I just don’t see why you can’t just pony up and admit that you are falling…”

I couldn’t hold back any more. I blurted out, nearly yelling, “Flower! I… DO... NOT... LIKE HER LIKE THAT” The only sound was my hard breathing and the echo of my last statement. My vision started to fill with pinpoints of light. Everyone had stopped dead in their tracks and was staring right at me.

Ah, shit. What did I just do? I looked at Silver. She simply turned away and tried to put as much distance between us as she could while still being part of the group.

Flower smacked me, hard. “Yer an ass Dust, you know that?”

The shock of what I had just done froze me in my tracks. I don’t know why I had gotten so angry with Flower. It’s not as if her behavior was anything different than I had known. She was always a smartass and her words did seem genuine. But if that was the case, then why did I fly off the handle?

A pit had formed in my stomach. It only got worse when I saw Silver, who had now placed both Brownie and One between her and myself.

I took a deep breath and released it. “Flower, I’m sorry. I really am…”

“It’s not me ya have ta apologize to, you ass.” She nodded in Silver’s direction.

I began to walk towards Silver, but she moved in tighter with Brownie and One. Brownie simply shook his head at me.

“Ummm, alright… I guess we should get moving again?” I said sheepishly to the group.

No one said anything, and we resumed our walk.

The next leg of our trip was awkward, for me at least. I was an outcast in our little group. Flower, Brownie, and One had spent a good portion of time talking quietly with Silver. After a while, Flower and Silver broke away to talk privately. Brownie sidled up next to me.

“You done messed up big time Dust.”

“I know, I know….”

“I don’t know what’s goin’ on in that head o’ yers, but ya better get it under control. You did a number on that poor mare over thar.”

“I know Brownie… I know. I don’t even know why I freaked out like I did. It’s not like Flower did anything wrong.”

“Dust, look, ah’m no expert in matters of emotions. But, what ah do know is that mare is fallin fer ya. And what ya did there hurt her bad. Whether or not you feel the same fer her, you need ta fix things.”

“I know Brownie, I know. I will. I just want to do it privately.”

“I don’t know if that’ll be possible Dust. But if ya want, I’ll try ta distract Flower and One fer ya.”

“Thanks Brownie… I’d appreciate that.” After a short pause, I added, “Brownie, how do you know if you like somepony, or like like somepony?”

“That’s a hard question ta answer Dust. I think everypony has a different way of seein’ that. All ah know is how ah felt the first time I had a crush on somepony. And what it boils down ta is ta think ‘bout how ya feel if you imagined that pony was gone. Ah’ve found that ta be the best way to tell.”

“Well, right now, I feel like crap thinking that she won’t even let me near her. And I feel, I guess hollow is the best way to put it. It feels like a part of me has been ripped out and I know it’s missing but I can’t do anything about it.”

“Well, if ah can put in mah two bits, ah think ya’ve got yer answer right there, Dust.” He paused. “Look, I’ll do my best to get Flower and One away from her.”

“Thanks Brownie… you’re a true, true friend.”

“Don’t thank me yet. You’ve a lot of work ta do.”
I nodded. Brownie went back over to the rest of the group.

A few hours of more awkward silence later, we finally came across something break up the monotony of the plain we had been travelling. A small settlement, made up of mostly one and two room shacks, lay ahead of us. It was obvious that nopony had lived here in a long time. Windows were broken and missing and doors were banging against their frames in the light breeze. No sign of any life was here, which was confirmed by a quick look at my EFS, which I was slowly getting accustomed to.

Brownie broke the silence. “Alright everypony, let’s see what we can find here. Prolly has already been picked clean, but ya never know.” He motioned each of us towards a different shack. Slyly, he had put me and Silver in shacks right next to each other. “Everypony ‘specially be on the lookout fer bedding materials so we can make makeshift bedrolls fer Silver and One.”

We each made our way to our assigned shacks. I walked into mine and was mildly surprised by what I found. Or more accurately, what I didn’t find. The house was picked clean. My search being complete, I quietly made my way over to where Silver was. I heard her rummaging inside a cabinet. Quietly, I opened the door.

I cleared my throat. Silver jumped a little and looked at me.

“What do you want?” she said dejectedly.

“Can we talk for a little?”

“Fine.”

“Silver, first, let me apologize. I’m sorry that I acted the way I did back there on the road. I never should have said what I did, and I never should have said it the way I said it.”

“Uh-huh.” She turned back to her cabinets and resumed her search.

“What I’m trying to say Silver is that I don’t really know how I feel about all of this. Flower made me uncomfortable and I lashed out. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I don’t even know if what I said was true…”

“Then why did you say it?” She stopped her search and looked me right in the eyes. “If you don’t know how you feel, then why did you say that?”

“I don’t know Silver. Look, I never had a special somepony before. Never really had the time and I never really found somepony who liked me as much as I liked them. Not to mention the fact of the big secret I’m hiding. I never wanted to risk opening up to somepony. All I know for sure is that there is something different in the way I feel about you. Ever since I said it, I’ve been feeling sick to my stomach and every time I thought about what I did, I felt worse.”

She sighed deeply and tears started to form in the corner of her eyes. “Dust, I won’t lie to you. I think I am falling for you. Last night was the first night in a long time I felt content. When you put your hooves around me, I had this feeling of calm that I had not felt since my family was still around. I also know that I didn’t want it to end this morning. I was happy… and then you threw that against the floor.”

My eyes started to water. “Silver, I’m sorry. I never intended to do that to you. Flower got under my skin and I just wanted the conversation to end. I just wanted her to drop it. All I can say is sorry.”

We sat there in silence just looking at each other. Tears were streaming from our eyes, leaving trails of clean fur amongst the dust that had collected on our faces during our walk. She walked over to me and placed her hooves around my neck and held on tight. I slowly returned the gesture. We simply stood like that for a few minutes.

She sniffled. “Dust, I’m still hurt by what happened. But I will do my best to put it past me, OK?”

“That’s all I can ask.”

Someone cleared their throat in the doorway. It was Brownie. “Sorry to interrupt, but the rest of us are done. You guys ready to move out?”

We both silently nodded. I gestured to let Silver leave the shack first. After she squeezed her way past Brownie, he looked at me and shrugged his shoulders. I simply nodded back and he gave me a fleeting, quick grin.

We hadn’t found much in the town, but at least we did find some makeshift bedding materials for Silver and One. After squaring them away, we resumed our journey.

After a few more hours, Brownie let us know we were getting close. We came upon a small rise and walked our way to the top of it. One we crested the hill, the former town of New Flankfort lay before us.

It was the second largest town I had ever personally seen in the Wasteland besides Horseton. The city was a couple dozen blocks wide and long, and was generally laid out in a grid pattern. It was an odd mix of multi-story commercial buildings in the center, surrounded by smaller single family homes and row houses on the outskirts of town. Nopony had been here in a long time. The buildings were in various stages of disrepair. Most had holes bored into their sides. Some of it looked natural, other visible scars were obviously the work of explosives. The larger commercial buildings in the center were more structurally complete, but most had broken window panes and partially collapsed floors.

“Welcome ta New Flankfort!” Brownie declared. “Somewhere in there is the Regional Headquarters fer Stable-Tec. Let’s see what we can find”

At the bottom of the hill we were climbing we reached the outer edge of the city. The section we were at consisted of cookie cutter single family houses. It was almost as if someone had made a whole bunch of the same model and simply placed them right next to each other. The damage notwithstanding, the houses were identical, right down to the color. We began to walk down the street when One yelled out, ”Hello! Is anypony home?”

His voice echoed down the street while the rest of us froze in shock. I clamped my hooves around his snout and quietly shushed him. I released his snout and he looked at me, confused.

“Mister Dust, why would you do something like that?” He asked, clearly hurt.

“Because One, whenever you enter somewhere new you stay quiet, until…”

Everypony heard it at the same time and froze. The faint raspy growl travelled on the wind from further down the street. When we heard it, everypony except One turned a shade lighter. Then, the first growl was joined by another, and another, and another… We all looked at each other. Someone gulped, hard. It might have been me and I never would have known.

One whispered, “What’s everyone so afraid of?”

I whispered back, “Ghouls. And by the sounds of it, a lot of ghouls.”

Then, we heard the faint hoofsteps start.

Level up!

Stat
Speech -5

Perk(?) Obtained
Hoof in Mouth - Sometimes, you make bad dialogue decisions when under pressure. In those situations, -1 CHR.

Author's Note

It feels good to be back in the swing of things!

Hopefully the chapters will release a little more frequently instead of every 3 months or so....

Big thanks to Gamma Deekay on helping me review this before publishing. Visit his page and read some of his stuff!

Hope you like it!

Chapter 8 - Intersections

Chapter 8: Intersections
“You never want conflict. But sometimes conflict is inevitable.”

All of us were frozen in place, except for One who was looking at the rest of us like we were crazy.

Thankfully, he had the sense to whisper. “Mister Dust, what are ghouls?” he asked with confusion in his voice.

“One, they are ponies who should be dead but aren’t.” The first few red bars started appearing on my EFS in the direction of the main part of the city. As time passed, more began to appear in my view.

Quickly looking around, I found a house with an open door and no red bars emanating from it. I pointed towards it with my hoof, “Quick and quiet! Everyone in there!” We all carefully made our way into the house, closing the front door behind us. It was a nice little home with a small kitchenette and family room, both still fully furnished, on this level with a staircase leading up to the second floor. Keeping my voice low, I said, “Flower, go check out and secure the back door. One, can you move this couch in front of the door?” One nodded and the couch was engulfed by his magical field. “Everyone, stay down and out of sight.”

I crawled over to the window and peered just over the dusty window sill. Looking down the street in both directions, I was looking for signs of movement or additional red indicators to fade into view on my EFS. Now that I was getting used to it, it was becoming second nature to check that before believing my own eyes. Fortunately, for right now, there was no movement on the street and just the same hostile indicators I had seen before. However, the low, raspy growls were still all around us and getting stronger by the second.

Brownie sidled up next to me and whispered, “Do ya got a plan, Dust?”

“Not really Brownie… I am going to go up to the upper floor and see if I can get a better view of the surrounding area. You got things down here?” I asked.

Brownie answered with his typical, “Eeyup.”

Keeping low to the ground, I crawled over to the staircase. As I was about to start climbing, Flower returned from the rear of the house. She smirked and said, “Ah did the best ah could with the back door. The kitchen table and anythin’ else I could move is blockin’ it.”

After nodding, I whispered, “Great. I’m going upstairs to see if I can get a better look. Help hold down the fort down here.”

I began to climb the staircase, stepping very carefully on each step. Two hundred years without maintenance of any kind probably didn’t bode well for the wood used to build these houses. Some of the steps flexed under my hooves, but the steps were remaining silent… for now. Some days the lighter build of a pegasus was a welcome trait. It would have been easier to fly, however.

After getting to the landing at the top of the staircase, I made my way to the bedroom at the front of the house. The room had obviously belonged to a young colt. What little color was left was faded blues mixed in with the white drywall and pink insulation where time had done its worst. The far wall was dominated by a large window. On one wall was a pennant that said, “New Flankfort Manticores”. It always amazed me what kinds of things survived in good condition and which things were basically dust after all this time.

Slowly and quietly, I made my way over to the window. There were no blinds or curtains, those having given up the fight a long time ago. In their place, however, was a thin layer of grime. It wasn’t thick enough to block my vision, but it was hopefully enough to hide any of my movement from anyone, or anything, on the outside.

Starting my scan, I focused on the directions indicated by my EFS. It would pick up anything long before I could actually see it. However, it also meant that I wouldn’t know which directions to prioritize. After checking several targets and finding nothing, I finally saw one of the shuffling zombies. It was in the backyard of a house across the street and several closer to the city. It walked right into a section of picket fencing and then began to repeatedly bump into it.

Snickering to myself, I continued looking at the EFS markers trying to match them up with an actual ghoul. It didn’t take long before I found a second shambling corpse, and then a third, and then a… oh shit. Quickly checking my EFS, the indicators in this direction had become less of a set of individual markers and became one giant red blob. My blood ran cold and any snickering I had started, abruptly stopped. A large herd of ghouls was headed in our direction.

Carefully, I moved back towards the staircase and made my way down the stairs. I avoided the steps that flexed under my weight before just in case they chose this moment to give away our location. In the living room, One was peeking out the window, and the others were hiding out of sight of the windows.

Slinking along the floor, I edged up next to One. Peeking above the window sill again, I looked back in the direction of the ghouls I saw upstairs and found that a handful more had appeared with the rest of the group.

One broke the silence, thankfully whispering, “What did you see Mister Dust?”

I glanced around at my companions, “Ghouls, and a lot of them.” Breathing in deeply, I then released a deep sigh. My exhalation had caused a cloud of dust to kick up from the window sill. I saw the little cloud make its way towards One’s snout. My blood froze as he inhaled at that exact moment.

My heart started racing when I saw One’s eyes squint and his mouth begin to open wide in the precursor breathing to a sneeze. I quickly clamped my hooves around One’s mouth.

“One, you can’t, try to hold it in!” I pleaded.

I felt his body tense and relax under his strain to fight the sneeze. Finally, after a couple of seconds, his whole body relaxed and he looked at me with relief in his eyes. I let go of his snout.

“Thanks Mister Dust. I thought I was going to… AHCHOO!”

The silence was deafening for all of several seconds. Then the raspy growls outside took on a more menacing tone. I glanced out the window and saw the herd of ghouls change direction and head towards our hiding place.

“Fuck… stay down and stay quiet,” I ordered everyone. The shuffling hoofsteps were getting louder with every passing second. Every pony dropped to the floor and hid behind whatever furniture was readily available. One and I dropped beneath the window sill and pressed up against the wall as closely as we could.

After what felt like an eternity, I heard the first hoofsteps right outside the window. They were slow and stuttering, but the first set were soon joined by others. The hoarse breathing of the ghouls was now plainly audible, even through the closed windows.

When the first ghoul bumped up against the house, the thump made all of us jump a little. My heart started pounding in my chest and I saw the worried looks on everypony’s face. The first thump was soon joined by a second, then a third, and a fourth. The individual banging sounds merged into one, non-stop thump against the walls, windows, and doors.

My mind was racing. We couldn’t stay in the house for long. It was true that if we could remain quiet enough, the ghouls would eventually lose interest and disperse. But something eventually would give away our position and that many ghouls would overpower our makeshift barricades.

I had an idea. Leaning in close to One’s ear I whispered, “One, I know you have strong manipulation magic… but how are you with small objects?”

He nodded his green head. “But Dust…” I quickly clamped his mouth shut. He just nodded his head again. I gestured towards the stairs with my snout. “Wait here for a second. When I signal, quietly make your way to the stairs.”

Staying low to the ground and trying to avoid anything that would make noise, I crawled over to the couch that Flower, Silver, and Brownie were hiding behind. “OK, I have an idea but we may have to do some cleanup afterwards. You guys OK with that?” They both nodded silently.

Looking back at One, I gestured towards the stairs. To his credit, he slunk down very low to the ground and nearly silently made his way towards the stairs. The thumping was at an all time high now until we heard the sound of cracking glass. The ghouls would soon be through the windows and they would probably see us huddling inside the house.

Leaning in close, I looked at One and very sternly warned him, “Follow my exact steps and take them nice and slow.”

I thought I saw his lower lip tremble a little, but he calmly whispered back, “You got it, Mister Dust.”

Very carefully, I made my way back up the stairs trying to remember which steps had the weaker wood. After getting about three quarters of the way up, I turned and gave One an air-hoofbump to help bolster his confidence. He returned the gesture, and put his foot down on the next step. The stair creaked liked a rusted hinge. My stomach dropped and everypony’s face turned a shade lighter.

The growling outside the house increased seven-fold. The intermittent thumping on the windows and walls accelerated to a fever’s pitch. One of the panes of glass shattered and tinkled to the floor beneath it. My friends clustered together behind the couch and drew their weapons just in case.

I silently mouthed to One, “Nice and easy. You can do this.” To his credit, One put a nervous smile on his face.

As we both cleared the landing, we heard the creak from the front door. With the age of this house, who knew how long the material would last. One and I, no longer in line of sight of the window, were able to walk, albeit slowly, to the front window I looked through before.

Now time for the trickiest part of my plan. I gently eased the lock on the window open and began to push it upwards. After a century and a half of neglect, the window’s track was rusted over. Applying consistent force, the window eventually began to slide open, but stopped after a few inches. I let go and it slid shut with a deafening bang. Putting my hooves under it, I lifted it again and tried lifting it further, but every little bit of motion began to make noise. Not wanting to attract any more attention than the ever growing mob of ghouls already was paying us, I stopped.

Reaching into my saddlebags with one free hoof, I pulled out a frag grenade. “One, can you hold the grenade in your magic, pull the pin and then drop it as close to the middle of the group as possible?”

One’s golden eyes rolled up in his head and his tongue stuck out. He was deep in thought. “I think so, Mister Dust.”

“Alright, I will hold the grenade here where you can take it and…” I was cut off by what sounded like a cannon going off. After listening to the echo of the report, I was able to make it out to the the sound of a .45 caliber Desert Griffon. Who in their right mind would be firing off that hoof cannon with ghouls around?

Unfortunately, our undead friends outside did not hear it, or didn’t care. But the group was still growing in size. I looked at One and he simply nodded in reply.

Holding one of the pineapple shaped grenades outside the window, I saw the light blue aura surround the grenade. After I pulled my hoof away, I watched as One pulled the pin out of the grenade the then saw the grenade hover a few feet away and then drop when the field disappeared. I yelled out, “Fire in the hole!” Grabbing One, I ducked us both down under the window. After several seconds, I was blinded by a flash of light followed by a deep rumble as everything nearby was bathed in orange. My body involuntarily shivered as I flashed back to my previous encounter with a grenade explosion.

I heard the cracking of the glass above us and felt the house shake under the assault of the grenade. After waiting for nearly a minute, I picked my head up and looked out of what was left of the window. All the panes of glass in the window had either cracked or blown inwards. I could see small shrapnel marks on the walls and ceiling.

Looking out the window, I saw a level of carnage I had not been expecting. The ghouls closest to the grenade has been blown apart. The further from the center of the blast you got, the more intact the bodies were. However, most of the group had died in the explosion.

I scanned around looking for markers on my EFS. The number of red EFS markers dropped dramatically after the blast. Based on the overlay in my vision, there were at most half a dozen ghouls left. That should be a reasonable number for us to handle hoof to hoof.

Climbing back down the stairs, One and I returned to the first floor. I saw my friends still huddled behind the couch, all of them nodding at me. The front door looked like swiss cheese. It was peppered with tiny holes, made by what shrapnel made it past the sea of ghouls that had formed. The window in the living room was gone, with glass shards splayed on the ground.

When we got down to the first floor, Flower walked over to me, grabbed my collar, and asked incredulously, “That was your fuckin’ idea? To blow up this part of the city?”

“Hey, it worked. There are only six ghouls left in this part of town and we can now leave and work our way towards the Stable-Tec building, can’t we?” I smirked.

“Celestia’s sake Dust… next time, I’m coming up with the idea!”

“Fine.” I didn’t hear her coming up with any ideas when things started getting bad. “One, can you please move the couch. Everypony, let’s go clean up this mess.”

After everypony else nodded in agreement, the blue magical field moved the couch out of the way. Before opening the door, I informed the group where the remaining ghouls were located and who should go for which target. Not sure of their fighting skills, I paired up One with Brownie and Silver was coming with me. Flower winked at me. Not now Flower, please don’t start anything now. Fortunately, she didn’t.

Brownie, Flower and One headed in their respective directions as Silver and I worked our way towards two ghouls who had gone around the side of the house and avoided the blast. Why they didn’t move towards the explosion, I didn’t know.

“Silver,” I said started as I handed her my pistol. She was trembling when she took it from my hooves. “Have you ever fired a gun before?”

“N...not… not really. My typical approach to a problem is to hide and wait for it to pass.”

“Ugh,” I grunted. “Alright, this will be your first lesson. You need to be able to defend yourself and the rest of the group. Long story short, put this in your mouth,” I said as I placed the firing bit between her teeth. “Do not point it at anything you don’t want dead. Bite when you want to fire.”

“O...o...ok Dust.” I felt so bad when I saw the look of pure terror in her eyes.

I peered around the corner of the house and found the two ghouls. They had both gotten into the backyard of the house but must have accidentally closed the gate behind them. The two were ambling around the backyard looking for something. This should be easy.

Leading the way, I slowly made sure the gate was latched securely and whispered to her, “Stay here, behind the gate. You’ll be safe that way.”

I took the suppressor for the pistol out of my saddlebags, I attached it to the front of the 10mm pistol. I moved to her side. “OK, first, make sure the safety is off. On the side of the bit there should be a small toggle you can feel with your tongue.” She mumbled an affirmative response back. “Up means the safety is on and the the gun won’t fire. Down means the safety is off. Use your tongue to move the switch down.”

She tried several times until I finally heard the small click of the toggle being moved into the firing position. Reaching around her head, I used my hooves to show her how to aim. “Simply look down the sights and line up whatever you want dead with the little orange tab in the opening.” I moved my head right next to hers so I could get a decent look at the sights with her. The close contact with her gave me a warm feeling in my cheeks.

“OK, ready to try pulling the trigger? Don’t bite down too hard, or else you’ll throw off your aim. Squeeze only as hard as necessary.” I felt the muscles in her jaw tense and heard the pop of the silenced round. I watched as it sailed high and to the right. “OK, not bad. Again, nice and gently when you bite down. It’s not a race.” We tried this several times. The rounds kept missing. Eventually, the pistol popped and the round flew true and got the ghoul right in the skull. A spray of black foulness erupted from the front of the ghoul and it fell to the ground, lifeless. Fortunately, the other ghoul either didn’t hear the diminished sound or didn’t care.

“Not bad… not bad… but we need to work on your accuracy.” I whispered to her. “Let’s try the second ghoul now. Try it again, but without my help.

I watched as she lined the pistol up and was aiming for the ghoul’s head. I could see she was trembling a little, but it was no where near what she had been like before. It took her a while to aim, but she finally felt confident enough and I saw her jaw clench. The pistol made the usual “pfft” sound a suppressor usually made. The bullet found its mark on the first try. The fence behind the ghoul was sprayed with black foulness as the ghoul fell to the ground.

She dropped the gun from her mouth and it clattered to the ground. “Dust, did I just? Was that really me?”

“Yes it was Silver. Not a bad shot either. Very nice. Now, don’t get too…” I started but was interrupted when she wrapped her hooves around me and gave me a hug. My knees started to wobble. Instinctively, I hugged her back. My body started to tingle all over.

“Ahem,” a gravelly female voice said, interrupted our reverie. It was Flower. Of course it was Flower. “The other ghouls are down. Are ya two quite finished or are ya goin’ to get a room?”

I nearly choked on my words. “No, we’re fine, right Silver?” She nodded back. “We’re ready to move out.”

After regrouping, we made our way towards the city proper. The cookie-cutter houses began to give way to small apartment buildings and commercial centers. All the buildings were in various states of disrepair. Some had even toppled over in the century and a half since the bombs fell. The entire time, I kept scanning my vision for EFS tags. There were red marks all over the place, but nothing that I could match up with an actual sighting. We all were keeping our eyes peeled.

Brownie broke the eerie silence. “Hey Dust, do ya have any idea where you’re goin’?”

“Not really. If you have a better idea of where this building is, I’m all ears,” I responded with an awkward laugh.

“Doesn’t that fancy Pip-Buck tell ya? I’ve run across other ponies who have found ‘em and they said they didn’t need maps anymore,” he asked.

I looked at the Pip-Buck. I was starting to wish that these things came with instruction manuals. The training we got on this kind of tech was woefully inadequate. There were so many features I’m sure I had no idea were in these things, much less knowing how to use the ones I knew about. Fumbling with the device, I looked at the map and flipped to a local mapping mode. A mess of green lines appeared on screen. There was one location marked off with something resembling a pushpin.

Where have I seen that before? “Brownie, you’re right. This has a mapping feature. The building is apparently,” I hesitated trying to get my bearings in relation to the map I saw, “that way.” I followed that with a gesture with my hoof.

The feeling of the city began to change again. Low-lying apartment complexes gave way to taller skyscrapers. Sprinkled between the spires were smaller commercial buildings which seemed oddly out of place. Some buildings had collapsed completely and blocked the roads we wanted to use. Several detours were necessary in order to reach the Stable-Tec building. I stopped looking at my EFS since the markers were permanent fixtures and it was impossible to know which threats were close or not. And the growls… it felt like we were always surrounded by the poor, dead ponies. That was probably the most unnerving part of the whole situation.

One broke the silence next. “Mister Dust, what happened here? Where are all the ponies?” he asked.

“They died a long time ago, One. A long time ago, two sides fought a big fight and used horrific weapons that killed many ponies. Not only did it kill ponies, but it also destroyed the cities that they lived in,” I responded very matter-of-factly.

“Why did the two sides fight, Mister Dust?” He was staring up at the tops of some of the skyscrapers and almost tripped over his hooves several times.

“Well, that’s an interesting question One.” I paused before continuing, “Some ponies say it was because the two sides hated each other. Others say it was greed. I think it was because both sides were afraid of each other and couldn’t face each other to deal with it.”

“Oooooh…” he hesitated. “Mister Dust, why can’t you ever answer me so I understand?” Everypony else laughed.

As we turned a corner, our destination appeared before our eyes. It was a brick- and glass-faced building that was three stories high. Unlike many of the surrounding buildings, the glass on the Stable-Tec building was mostly in tact. It had fared really well considering what most other buildings looked like after all this time. The recognizable circle and line logo was emblazoned on the two large, glass doors that graced the front of the building.

We pushed our way through the doors into the large atrium. Out of a misplaced sense of paranoia perhaps, we locked the door behind us. The atrium was impressive. It was an open air space with walkways for the upper floors running overhead. In the center of the room was a large statue of a blonde maned pony in a stable suit. There were several doors leading off the atrium in different directions. Behind the large statue was a metallic reception desk. The air had a musty odor and everything was covered in a thin, undisturbed layer of dust. Fortunately, the growling of the ghouls outside was much diminished behind closed doors.

Our hoofsteps on the tile floor echoed in the atrium as we made our way towards the reception desk. I paused to look at the map on my Pip-Buck and pointed in the direction of the pushpin marker. “We need to go that way,” I announced to the group.

The double doors opened easily. The security systems in this part of the building were disengaged not having had power for over one hundred years. We found ourselves in a large room filled with small dividers. A lot of ponies must have worked in these small stalls. All the terminals were powered down. Some of the desks still had piles of papers on them, faded and yellowed.

I was a little surprised when Silver had spoken up for the first time in a while. “Ummm, guys, where are all the ponies that worked here?”

The question made me stop in my tracks. “What do you mean?”

“Well, there must have been a lot of ponies that lived here, right? And except for the ghouls outside, we haven’t seen any others. No skeletal corpses or anything. So where is everypony else?”

"Maybe they all got out ‘fore the bombs fell?” Brownie asked.

“Have you ever found a city like that before? Any of you?” Silver pressed.

“Brownie, she has a point. We’ve scavenged a few towns over the last year or so. Can you remember a single time where there weren’t any skeletons? Everything we’ve found led us to think that towns were surprised by the megaspell bombs.” I nodded towards Silver, “She has a very good point.”

“I don’t rightly know. But now that ya brought it up, let’s get what we came here fer and get out. Now I got da creeps.”

Checking the map again, I followed the marker and entered a large conference room. The windows overlooking a small park were mostly intact, with only a few covered with spiderwebs of cracks. I stopped and looked around the room. “I don’t get it. We are right over the marker.” When it dawned on me, I facehoofed. “It’s not on this floor.” After grunting in aggravation, I spit out, “Let’s find the friggen’ stairs.”

We quickly learned why the building for such a large company was only three stories on the outside. There were 4 subterranean levels to the building as well. Not knowing which floor we had to go to, we started at the bottom. We eliminated this level as it seemed to contain only access rooms for the plumbing, electrical, and climate control systems. The next level up seemed more likely since it housed a lot of computer equipment.
“Mister Dust, I don’t like this. It’s too dark and too quiet,” One squeaked out.

“I know, One. I know. We’ll only stay as long as we need to,” I said as I patted him on his shoulder. To be honest, I didn’t like it either.

We kept following the ever present marker on my map. The level was a labyrinth of hallways, closets, and small rooms jam-packed with computers. The only other time I had seen so many computers in such a small space were stables. The dim, red emergency lighting brought back memories. Bad ones at that.

“For Celestia’s sake,” I blurted out, “feels like the stable all over again.”

Silver edged up to my side. “Dust, are you OK?”

The room started to spin a little and I found it hard to breathe. “Yeah, yeah, I’ll be OK,” I got out between breaths. I heard footsteps echoing down one of the hallways. My ears perked up immediately. “Shhh!” I whispered to everyone.

Brownie looked around and said, “What is it Dust?”

“I heard hoofsteps. Coming from that way,” I said as I pointed down the hallway to my left. The hallway became engulfed in total darkness as the lights turned off completely.

We all gasped in surprised. Flower stammered, “W...w...what the hell is going on?”
The lights flickered back on a few seconds later. As I looked around to see if anything had happened, I saw a flash of yellow and green at the end of the hallway. I broke out into a gallop as I ran towards the sighting, “Muddy! Get back here!” I left the rest of my group behind.

My vision was now tinged with red and I could hear my heart beating in my ears. I was going to get him. I needed to get him. I had to make him pay for what he did to me! No… that’s not it. I need to get him back to find out what happened. Ugh! Why couldn’t I think straight!

I got to the end of the hallway and followed in the direction I saw Muddy go. Still sprinting as fast as my legs could go, I ran in the only direction open to me. When I got to the next intersection, I skidded to a halt and scanned in every direction. I heard the cries of my friends from behind me, but nothing else. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw another flash of green and yellow. “Muddy, you son of a bitch! Get back here!” I took off after him.

This little game of cat and mouse continued for several turns. I had no idea where I was going, or even how large the floor was. All I knew is that I had to keep following Muddy. Eventually, I made a turn and was standing right in front of a doorway. “You have nowhere left to run Muddy!” I screamed.

I hoofed the activation panel and the door slid open in front of me. On the other side of the door was a small room dominated by the interface for a maneframe. There was a small table with some binders on it and not much of anything else. I walked in the room and the door slid closed behind me. Damn it! Muddy wasn’t in here! I ran back out into the hallway and looked down the hallways again.

“Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!” I stomped at the ground. The metallic ping echoed down the hallways.

Laughing, I heard a voice respond, “Updraft… I’m over here! Come find me!” It was Muddy.

My vision flashed red again. Galloping down the hallways, I followed the voice until I was faced with another door. As I reached out to hoof the controls, I heard a horrendous crashing sound on the other side. I withdrew my hoof, listening to the rest of the cacophony that emanated from the room beyond.

Once there was silence again, I hoofed the control. The door slid open and I was staring into what had to be a small lab. There was a large table in the middle with various scientific apparatus and cabinets lining all the walls. Or at least whatever walls were left. The far side of the lab was apparently missing. All that could be seen was the stony wall of a cavern where the last wall should be.

My heart nearly skipped a beat and my brow was covered with a cold sweat. My memory flashed back to the lab in the stable. Without realizing it, I drew my pistol. I was not going to be caught unprepared again.

Slowly, I stepped into the lab, being sure to check every corner, every dark shadow where a pony could hide.

“Muddy!” I hollered. “Where are you!”

I searched the entire lab. The cabinets were all empty and all there was nothing hiding in the shadows. I began to make my way over to the edge of the lab. I had to check to see if Muddy had hidden in the cavern as I had done.

The air in the lab had become cold and stale. With each step I took, I looked nervously over my shoulders. In return, all I saw was darkness and all I heard was my own ragged, shallow breathing. I got to the edge of the floor and peered over the edge. I flicked on the light on my Pip-Buck and shone it down into the blackness. It was deep, but besides stony walls, there was nothing else of any interest.

I breathed a deep sigh of relief. I turned off my Pip-Buck light and turned around to head out of the lab. The yellow face and green mane of Muddy filled my vision.

“Hey Dust. How are you doing? Ready for another fall?” he sneered at me. He reared up and shoved me over the edge. I fell over the edge and desperately grabbed for something… anything. My hooves found the floor to the lab and I grabbed on for dear life. There I sat dangling over the edge, my rear hooves flailing, looking for any kind of traction. There was none to be found.

With as much strength and volume as I could muster, I screamed out, “Somepony help me! I’m in the lab! And Muddy’s here!”

That sneering yellow face peered over the edge and laughed. Mockingly, Muddy repeated my words back to me, “Somepony help me! I’m in the lab! And Muddy’s here!” Returning to a normal tone of voice, “Nopony can hear you Dust. It’s just me and you. And I am going to have fun this time. It was too quick last time.”

Muddy began to kick at my right hoof. He was toying with me, moving it a little each time and laughing. After what felt like an eternity, my first hoof was kicked free. I tried to swing it back and regain a firm hoofhold, but Muddy kept kicking it back. As he fought off my one hoof, he began to kick away my second one.

As he kicked my second hoof clear, Muddy chuckled and said “Good bye Dust. Mind the gap.”

When my hoof was free, time slowed to a crawl. I felt my body fall away from the ledge and gravity began its irresistible pull on my body. I cried out, “Somepony help me!”

My vision was filled with a flash of pink as something grabbed my hoof. I heard a female voice, “Dust, it’s OK. It’s Silver. I’ve got you.”

My descent came to a stop. “Silver! Thank Celestia! Watch out for Muddy!”

She looked confused by that remark. “Dust, what do you mean?”

“Muddy! He was just here and he pushed me over this ledge!” I cried out.

“Dust. Listen to me. Muddy wasn’t here and you aren’t dangling over a ledge.” she calmly said.

“Wait… what?” I looked around. The cavern and lab faded from view to be replaced with a small room that appeared to be another computer room. I was dangling off the edge of an elevated walkway but my hooves were only inches from the floor. Letting go of the desk, I gently allowed my body to fall to the floor. “But Muddy was here and he… and I thought I was going to die again…”

My body slumped to the floor and I began to cry uncontrollably. My body shook with each sob as tears streamed down my face.

Silver sat down beside me, rested my head on her hooves and laid her head next to mine. “It’s OK Dust. It wasn’t real. And I have you now.”

We stayed that way until Flower, Brownie and One found us.

After calming down, I explained to everypony what I had seen and felt. Flower, in her normal, brusque fashion, simply said, “Dust, that sucks.”

“Yes, Flower, it does. Can we please get to the computer, get the information we need and get the hell out before I flash back again?” I asked with a hoarse voice.

I was still very anxious to be in a small, confined space. My heart rate was elevated and my brow was still covered with a fine, cold sweat, but I wasn’t hallucinating anymore.

We followed the marker on my map until we found the maneframe room, which I realized I had already been in. Of course, at that point, I wasn’t in the right state of mind. The room was much like I remembered it, but now I saw fine details I hadn’t noticed in my crazed search for Muddy. The biggest detail was that the screen for the maneframe had been busted.

“Son of a bitch. Muddy must have beaten us here. Fuck.” I kicked the maneframe. “Ouch! Son of a bitch!”

Silver placed her hoof on my shoulder. “Dust, calm down. Can you fix it? I mean, there are computers all over the place. Can you replace the screen?”

“Well, let me think…” At first, my mind was a jumble of anger at the hallucination, anger at Muddy making this difficult, and fear of enclosed spaces. However, as Silver kept her hoof on my shoulder, my body began to relax and my mind began to calm down. Could I fix the maneframe’s screen? Yes, it was possible. All I needed to do was swap out the screens, assuming Muddy didn’t do anything worse to it. “Yeah, yeah, I should be able to. All I need is a monitor from another maneframe. Let’s split up and look for one.”

One, Flower and Brownie went as one group and Silver and I as the other.

“How are you holding up?” she asked me with a look of concern on her face.

“I’m OK, considering. I mean, I really thought I was going to die again…” my voice trailed off. With recent events, it came crashing back on me that Silver somehow knew Muddy’s real name.

“I just wish I knew how to handle Clear Skies when I found him,” I said with a sigh while monitoring her reaction.

“I don’t know Dust. I still think this whole trip is unnecessary. Just leave him be and he can’t have a chance to get you for real,” she said with some real concern in her voice.

I stopped walking in the hallway. “Um, Silver, who is Clear Skies?” I asked.

“C’mon, Dust, you know who he is. He’s the pony that tried to kill you back in the stable. Are you sure you recovered from your hallucination?” she giggled nervously. Her body was tense.

“No, that was Muddy. I don’t know a pony named Clear Skies.” Yes, I lied.

Even in the emergency lighting of the subterranean levels of Stable-Tec, I could see the blood drain from her face. “What do you mean Dust?”

“Silver, I do not know a pony named Clear Skies. The pony that tried to kill me is named Muddy Waters. You called him Clear Skies that last night back in the stable. Who is Clear Skies?” I asked, with more of an accusatory tone than I really intended. “And why do you keep trying talking me out of finding Muddy?”

“Oh Dust, don’t be paranoid. I must have gotten the names mixed up. I must have heard Clear Skies from somewhere and just used that name by mistake. And as far as trying to talk you out of this, I just don’t want to see you get hurt… again.” I could tell she was a little hurt, or was it indignation, by the accusation.

“But Silver…” and then I was interrupted by Brownie yelling.

“Dust! We found a maneframe!” he hollered.

Silver took the opportunity to change the topic. “This is great! Let’s go get that monitor!” she exclaimed as she trotted out of the room as quickly as possible. Short of revealing my secret, I really had nothing else to use against her, so I’d have to figure out another approach.

After a short walk, we found the other group. They had found another maneframe and One was already trying to get at the monitor. “Don’t worry Mister Dust! I got this for you!”

I couldn’t help but to laugh a little. “It’s OK One, let me take care of it. Thank you though.” He was beaming at that comment.

It didn’t take long for me to open the panel and remove the monitor. These maneframes were meant to have interchangeable parts anyway. It would have been easier if I was a unicorn and had magic to manipulate the tools, but it didn’t take long for me to get the job done.

We made our way back to the original maneframe room. I got to work replacing the screen. Everypony was still asking if I was OK, and I responded to all their questions that I was. If this kept up, this would become very aggravating. After making the last connections and reassembling everything, we could finally access the maneframe.

After navigating a few menus, I found a listing of the dozen or so stables in the local area, including the one under Horseton. Working through each entry, we were able to narrow down the candidates to three stables north of Midnight’s shack.

Stable 104 was allegedly never completed so we crossed that one off our list. Stables 98 and 188 were operational. After hacking a security protocol protecting the details of the stables, we saw that stable 98 was a control stable with no remarkable features to it, but stable 188 was a research and development stable. One last report was made from 188 before all communications were terminated and it was reported they were researching the SPP towers. Wait a minute, why would stable ponies need or want to research the SPP towers. Further details would be held on-site only according the the report.

“Huh,” I murmured. “It appears we’re heading to a place called Whinnycrest.”

Brownie hummed to himself for a moment. “Hmm, I’ve hearda there. Never been there mahself. It’s out in the middle of nowhere. It makes no sense they’d build a normal stable there, being miles from the nearest pre-war town. You really think Muddy went there?”

“It’s the only one that makes sense. There will probably be nothing in 104. Stable 98 is either abandoned or staffed by a full community of ponies including security. There is no way he is taking over the stable all alone if it is occupied. Besides, there’s nothing special there. Stable 188 might be staffed still, but they are developing something powerful, assuming it has anything to do with the SPP towers. Not to mention the fact that it is the only stable not anywhere even close to a large town,” I reasoned.

Brownie hesitated for a second. “Ah guess yer right. Alright ponies, let’s go.”

We carefully made our way out of the subterranean levels of the Stable-Tec building. I had never been so happy to see what passed for daylight down here beneath the clouds. Anything was better than dim emergency lighting in small, confined hallways.

As we walked out the front door, I asked, “Hey Brownie, how far from here is…”

I was interrupted by a metallic ping behind me. “What the fuck?” A couple seconds later was the unmistakable report of a high powered rifle. “Get behind cover everyone!”

The sniper wasted no time. We heard large caliber rounds impacting the brick, cement and metal that was all around us. The only problem was that with the echoing of the sound in the buildings around us, we couldn’t determine where the shots were coming from.
I heard a scream of pain. “Who got hit?” I screamed out.

Flowers gravelly voice was the first to respond. “I’m good Dust.”

Silver’s sweet voice was next. “I’m fine.” That was a relief.

“I’m A-OK too Mister Dust!” One called out with his usual enthusiasm. Thank Celestia.

Then silence, both from the sniper and from the ponies I was travelling with.

“Brownie? Brownie!” I cried out in a panic. “BROWNIE!”

Brownie’s pained voice finally responded, “Ungh! Dust, he got me...”

Keeping in cover as best I could, I made my way over the source of Brownie’s voice. He was lying prone on the ground behind a pile of rubble from one of the nearby buildings. He was clutching his hindquarters and there was blood seeping around his hooves. My heart dropped as I watched his body slump, motionless.

Level Up!

Stat:
Repair - 35

Condition Obtained
Bad Memories - When confronted with tight, confined, dark spaces, you suffer penalties to your SPECIAL. Perception -1, Luck -1

Author's Note

Major thanks go to Gamma Deekay.... he has been invaluable in getting my fic back on track!

Chapter 9 - Fears

Chapter 9 - Fears
“And the things that we fear are a weapon to be held against us.”

“Brownie! No!” I cried as I slid next to his body. I didn’t even check to see if I was in the line of fire or not. “No, no, no… not again…” After checking for breathing and a pulse, I discovered he was still alive, just unconscious.

Frantically, I reached into my saddlebags, groping for a healing potion. Luckily, it was the first object that I grabbed from the top of the bag. Nearly removing the glass neck of the bottle along with it, I bit off the cork and spit it out. Hastily, I forced the contents down his throat to the best of my ability. The purple liquid splashed in and around his mouth. I noticed that most of it was splashing out and dropping to the ground below.

"Shit, this isn’t going to work. C’mon Dust… first aid… think, think!” I thumped the side of my head with my hoof. Instinct starting to kick in, I reached into my saddlebags and reached for another healing potion, but came up empty.

“Damn it! Flower, Silver, One! Anypony! I need a healing potion, NOW!” I screamed out.

Flower galloped out of cover and crossed the small courtyard quickly. She was momentarily shocked when she saw the extent of Brownie’s injury. “Get outta my damn way, Dust. I got this.” She hurled her sniper rifle at me, “Cover us!”

Finding a small pile of rubble from one of the nearby collapsed buildings, I took a prone position behind it and rested the rifle’s stock on the top. Peering through the scope, I scanned all the buildings that the shots could have possibly come from. Behind me, I heard an empty healing potion bottle drop to the floor. “C’mon Brownie, I ain’t losin’ you now,” Flower cried out.

After an initial scan of the rooftops, I stopped looking through the scope to give a more general survey of the area. Right when I was about to give up, I saw something flash from the corner of my vision. Quickly, I looked right where the flash emanated from. At the top of a low lying commercial building at the fringe of the developed part of the city, I saw another flash.

Looking back through the scope, I tried to focus on where the flash of light came from. At the corner of the low-lying building, I saw a small lump of green and yellow. I reached up with my hoof and adjusted the magnification level. Now I could clearly see a pony with a yellow body and a green mane peering at me from behind the scope of another sniper rifle. Muddy! He pulled away from his scope and looked right at me and smiled. Then he gave a small wave and disappeared from view.

“It’s Muddy! I found him!” I yelled. Leaving the rifle clattering on the ground, I started to gallop as fast as I could towards Muddy.

Flower looked up from her ministrations. “Where the fuck do ya think yer goin’ Dust?”

“It’s Muddy! I have to go get him! He’s right over there!” I exclaimed.

Flower didn’t even skip a beat or stop her work on Brownie. “Dust! You aren’t goin’ anywhere. I need ya ta cover me in case this brouhaha attracted some of the ghouls that are still millin’ around!”

“But, he’s getting away!” I pleaded.

“And who’s gonna protect me and Brownie? One? Silver?” she said between opening bandages.

“No… but… ugh!” She was right of course. I couldn’t leave her behind. No one else in our little group was combat trained. I yelled at the top of my lungs, “Muddy! I’m coming for you, and I will get you!”

“Now that ya got that outta yer system, help me get him inside where it’s safer! We don’t need to be out in the open in case the ghouls come or Muddy feels like target practice again!” she ordered.

Flower and I started to drag Brownie back to the Stable-Tec building. One saw us struggling and used his magic to do all the work. Once we got him back inside, we locked the door and hid behind the reception desk. I stayed on the lookout for ghouls, while Flower kept working on Brownie.

After a tense half an hour or so, Flower collapsed against the wall and sighed. “Ah’ve done everything I could. He seems stable, but it may take some time. Ah’m gonna go hunt down some first aid supplies. This building had to have a nurse’s station, or at least a lot of first aid kits lying around.” Silver and One went with her. We hadn’t encountered any hostiles before, and my EFS was clear, so I figured it was safer to send everyone else while I watched the lobby.

I slumped down next to Brownie and looked him over. Flower’s patch up job was very impressive, given the basic supplies we had on hoof. Next to Brownie was a bloody .308 caliber round. Thank Celestia that Muddy wasn’t using .50 cal ammo or else we’d be planning a funeral instead of watching him recuperate.

“Brownie, I’m sorry.” I said to his motionless body. “I never intended for you, or anypony, to get hurt. If I could take it all back, I would. Maybe Silver has been right this whole time. Maybe I shouldn’t have taken off after Muddy.”

Brownie coughed lightly. “Don’t be stupid, Dust. If it weren’t us, it woulda been some other ponies.”

“Brownie! You’re alright!” I cried out in joy.

“Ah’ve felt better, but yup, ah am alright considering ah had a hole shot through my flank.” He looked over at his newly healing flank. “Thanks for patching me up, Dust.”

“It wasn’t me, Brownie, it was Flower. She should be back any moment now. She’s foraging for first aid supplies.” I grimaced. “Brownie, I really am sorry for getting you into this. If I hadn’t…”

Brownie grunted as he shifted position to get closer to me. “Dust, ah mean it. Don’t go killin’ yerself over this. Ah’ve been hurt before, and ah’ll be hurt again. Heck, I know that someday ah’ll probably die out here. Ah came with you knowin’ injury and death were not just possible, but likely.”

“Thanks, Brownie. I appreciate it. I still feel bad though.” I said and nervously giggled. Brownie simply gave me a pained grin.

The doors on the other side of the atrium opened up. Flower, One, and Silver came in carrying a large bag. “Dust, you’ll never guess what we…” Flower started. Her eyes opened wide when she saw Brownie and I talking. She dropped her bag and galloped across the atrium and began hugging Brownie. “Oh Brownie! You’re OK! I thought I lost you!” Then she started kissing Brownie right on the muzzle.

My jaw dropped to the ground. “Brownie? Flower? Since when… are you… whaaaaaat?”

They both turned bright red. Brownie cleared his throat and said, “It’s been a while, Dust. We’ve just kept it on the down low.”

My stomach turned. “Oh Luna. Flower, I am so sorry that Brownie got hurt. You must have been worried to death.”

“Yeah, Dust, I was. But Brownie and I both know that it probably won’t end happily. This is the Wasteland after all. We’re just happy to enjoy it while we have it.” She smiled as she nuzzled Brownie.

“Um, OK. Well, I’m gonna go check out Muddy’s sniper nest, see if he left...” I started to announce to the group.

Silver jumped up. “I’ll go with Dust!”

Surprised, I muttered, “Um, OK. See if he left anything behind. One, can you stay here and help take care of Brownie?”

“Yes sir, Mister Dust!” he beamed.

As Silver and I walked away, I took one last glance at the happy couple. I couldn’t help but smile a little.

After asking One to lock the door behind us, Silver and I walked out of Stable-Tec towards the building on which I had seen Muddy. The symphony of ghoul sounds had seemed to have died down since earlier in the day, for which I was grateful.

After we got a good distance away from Stable-Tec, Silver broke the silence. “So, Dust, that’s nice about Brownie and Flower, you agree?”

“Yeah, there’s enough misery in the Wasteland. It’s nice to see a little bit of good now and then.” I sighed. “Celestia knows I’ve seen more death and violence than anything else out here.”

“They are such a cute couple. It’s a little depressing and uplifting to see that they are trying to be happy even though they both know it will probably end poorly, you know?” she asked.

I sighed again. “Yeah, it is. I don’t know how they could do it though. To know that one day, one of them will be devastated. I don’t know if I could do that.” Not to mention the fact, that one day when my mission was done, I would probably have to leave the Wasteland, which meant leaving anypony I cared about behind.

“So, would you ever try?” she asked.

“I don’t know. I don’t think I could remain as upbeat as they are. I’d be too worried about losing my special somepony.” I said, matter of factly.

“Oh,” she said with a tone of sadness in her voice.

I quickly stammered, “Not to say that I don’t think it’s possible! I just haven’t been presented with even a remote possibility of it happening,” and then, with a little hesitation, “until now…” Silver grinned at that. We got to the base of the building in question and began to look for a way in. “Alright, you go that way and I’ll go this way. We’ll meet up on the other side. Look for a way into the building.”

I walked around the building in my direction, stopping to check each door and window I passed. Every door was either locked or blocked by debris and the windows led to rooms with no way to progress further into the building. I got to the far side of the building and waited for Silver.

After several long minutes of waiting, she rounded the corner and made her way over to me. I asked, “Everything OK? That took longer than I thought it would.”

“Huh? Oh, I must have been lost inside the building longer than I thought. There was an open door, but it led to a maze of rooms that didn’t lead anywhere. I had trouble finding my way out,” she replied.

“Damn, I found nothing either,” I kicked at the building.

“Um, Dust, nopony is here to see you. Why don’t you just fly up to the roof? How long has it been since you’ve flown?” she asked.

Now that she said it, it had been almost a year, and she was right. No one was around. The rest of our group was holed up in the Stable-Tec building and wouldn’t be leaving anytime soon.

For the first time in almost a year, I removed my armor somewhere other than my small shack in Coltington (well, and that one time in the stable). The feeling of the breeze through my feathers was the most amazing feeling I’ve had in recent memory. The tingling feeling that ran from the tips of each feather through my bones almost brought me to my knees. I flared my wings out, fully spreading the feathers and the feeling only intensified.

I looked over to Silver and she was still wrapped up in her quilted vest. “Silver, aren’t you going to join me?”

“N...n...no… I think I’ll stay down here on the ground.” She softly replied.

“Alright, I won’t be long.” I looked up at the sky and began to flap my wings. My body slowly rose from the ground. Once my hooves cleared the ground, I felt the weightlessness that was a normal feeling before my assignment here. Now, it felt odd, but in a good way.

I rose higher and higher. I was about to land on the roof, but decided to take advantage of this while I could. I accelerated and rose well above the buildings and devastation below. Keeping below the cloud cover, since I didn’t want to attract the attention of the Border Patrol and get shot out of the sky, I began some basic maneuvers. Nothing too strenuous since I was still under the stable’s robot doctor’s orders, but enough to get my blood pumping. The wind whipping through my mane, tail, and wings was divine. The only thing that could make this better would be the sunshine, but that was not to be during this flight.

After a short flight, I headed back down towards New Flankfort and Muddy’s sniper nest. Circling the building, I made sure the coast was clear and descended to the barren rooftop. Moving to the corner where I had seen him wave at me, I searched around for anything he left behind. He was good, which was to be expected. Muddy had policed his brass and left no other evidence of his presence.

I sighed deeply. Hopefully I was right about Muddy heading towards Whinnycrest. My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of an energy weapon powering up behind me.

“You are one hard son of a bitch to kill, you know that?” It was Muddy’s voice. I slowly reached for my pistol, realizing too late that it was still holstered on my armor on the ground.

Cautiously, I turned around to face Muddy. He had an energy rifle mounted on a battle saddle aimed right at me. His armor had been modified so his wings were no longer hidden. He had a mean sneer on his face.

“Muddy,” I said laced with contempt.

“Hello Dust, or should I call you Updraft?” He laughed. “Still keeping up the facade? Do your little friends know your secret yet?”

“What does it matter to you? What do you want?” I spat out.

“What I want? From you?” He laughed again. “There is nothing you can give me that I want. I never really had a problem with you, Updraft. It was never personal.”

“Yeah, pushing me off a ledge and then trying to blow me up isn’t personal?” I snapped back.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, Updraft. I am truly sorry for trying to kill you in the stable. If it makes you feel any better, I didn’t plan it that way. I just couldn’t have you telling everyone about my behavior. How is the mare by the way?” he asked with mock concern.

“As far as you’re concerned, she is fine. So if you didn’t mean to kill me in the stable, then why try to blow me up at our house?” I needed to get some answers finally.

“The grenade trap? That wasn’t meant for you.” he said mockingly. “I thought you were dead. That was for Midnight. I figured he would come looking for me at some point. I had to take care of him too.” His eyes twitched at that last statement. “But I guess you set it off and not him. Unfortunate.”

“Why Clear Skies? Why? What happened to you? What changed?” I asked.

“What changed? Just everything, my dear friend.” He began to pace around a little, always keeping an eye on me. “When your life basically comes to an end, I think it’s normal to snap a little.” He must have seen the confused look on my face. “Oh, you still don’t know, do you? You poor little bastard. We’ve been lied to, Updraft. There is no going home. There is nothing waiting for us. I won’t be getting command of my own flight wing. We will be here until the day we die.”

My world began to spin. “No, you can’t be right. That’s not possible. I was told we’d be down here for two years and then we’d get recalled and given support jobs.”

Muddy laughed maniacally. “You poor, gullible bastard. Next time you see him, ask Midnight how long he has been down here. But I have other plans. I will get what I was promised.”

“How, Muddy?” I asked, incredulous. “You can’t go back up, you’ll get shot on sight by the border patrols. You know that. So what’s your big plan?”

Muddy smirked. “Oh, I won’t be telling you that. I know better. Suffice it to say, I will leave them no choice but to give me what I want.”

An uncomfortable silence fell between us. Our manes were blowing in the slight breeze as we just stared each other down.

“Now, Dust, I don’t want to kill you. I really don’t. I only shoved you off the ledge in the stable since I was still surrounded by those dirtponies and needed to appear normal. You would have gotten in the way of that. But now that I am away from there, I have no reason to kill you. Not to mention the fact that you have more important things to take care of; a friend who needs medical help, and your little ragtag group. So here’s my offer. Let me leave. Go settle down somewhere with the pink bitch and your friends. You will never hear from me again. I will never bother you again.” Muddy took a deep breath. “But, if you come for me, I will kill you and your friends, slowly and painfully. Starting with the big one, then that little firebrand. It’s a shame I never got to know her better.” I didn’t like the tone when he talked about getting to know her better. “Next will be the one that follows you like a lost puppy. Then the pink bitch. Then, and only then, will I give you the death you will be begging for at that point.”

I growled at him, “Muddy, I will find you, this isn’t the end of this.”

Surprisingly, with a little regret in his voice, he said “I was afraid you’d say that.”

As I saw his mouth head towards the firing bit, I activated the SATS on the Pip-Buck. Not surprisingly, all parts of Muddy’s body were marked at 0% chance to hit, but I wasn’t looking to go on the offensive. Using the slowed time effect, I began to dodge the laser blasts that were about to be heading my way. I saw the red beam erupt from the tip of the weapon and head right towards me.

Even in the dilated time effect, the laser beam moved awfully fast. It was still faster than I was, but my goal was simply to avoid a direct hit. The beam hit my right shoulder. Celestia be damned it still hurt! I didn’t have time to think about it. Now I shifted my weight towards the ledge that was right behind me. Knowing what I was about to try, the movement was agonizingly slow.

As my body weight fell backwards over the ledge, I felt gravity begin to exert itself over my body. This was a sickeningly familiar feeling. It was made even worse since I could see everything happening in excruciating detail. Shifting my body weight, I, albeit slowly, turned my body around. Spreading my wings, I was hoping to catch enough lift to slow my descent enough to avoid injury.

Painstakingly making my way down, I felt my body begin to rise a little. When I got to within a few feet of the ground, I tucked my wings and allowed my body to fall to the ground.

Still feeling the shock work its way up my legs, I tucked and rolled to my good side and deactivated SATS at the same time. I allowed my body to slide to a stop and I lay there motionless. I could smell the sickening mixture of burning hair and skin. Oddly enough, it reminded me of a building we had cleared that cannibalistic raiders had taken over. The smell was very similar to the interior of that building. Feeling what little food I’ve had recently start to fight its way back up my throat, I did my best to keep myself from vomiting.

Hearing hoofsteps rush towards me, I opened the eye closer to the dirt to see what I could. Surprisingly, I saw pink hooves. Holding a breath, I waited. I began to hear some soft sobbing.

Muddy’s voice echoed between the nearby buildings. “Well, is the little pain in the ass dead?”

I nearly choked when I heard Silver respond between ragged sobs, “I… I… think so. You said he wouldn’t get hurt! You promised if I stayed with him, nopony would get hurt!” Needing to breathe, I began taking shallow breaths while fighting the urge to gasp at what I just heard.

“Change of plans. He needed to be taken care of,” he spat out. “He was going to keep getting in the way. It’s better this way. Besides, you don’t have to keep lying to him anymore.”

“Fuck you, Clear Skies. You know I didn’t want to do that. If I knew you would double cross me, I wouldn’t have made that promise.” Silver was full out crying now. The burning pain in my side was beginning to become unbearable. I had to hold it together until it was safe.

“Silver, Silver, Silver, don’t you see? It’s better all around! He doesn’t have to deal with the Wasteland anymore, which he hated. You don’t have to keep lying, and everypony else will go home now.” Muddy started to laugh.

“What happens to me now?” she said between sobs.

“You? Well, now you’re worthless to me.” he scoffed. “You can go back to hide in your little stable. When I finish what I’m doing, no one will matter to me. I will be the top of the pyramid around here! So mourn your little special somepony. But remember this, if I ever see you again, I will kill you. You understand me?”

“Clear Skies, I don’t know how I’ll do it, but I will kill you. I will get vengeance for Dust.” she growled.

Muddy only laughed harder. “Hah! You don’t even know his real name!” I bit my tongue to stay quiet. “Goodbye, Silver!”

After a long pause, Silver slumped over my body. “Dust, I am so sorry. I should have warned you. I hope you can hear me. I think I was falling in love with you.” She resumed crying.

I opened my other eye and said softly, “Is he gone?”

Silver jumped and probably could have cleared the building behind her. “What? How? You’re alive?”

I didn’t move. I repeated, “Is he gone?”

“Yes, Dust, yes he is gone!” I sat up and she hugged me. “I thought I had lost you again.” She backed away and I saw her hoof swing at me too late. She smacked me hard across the face. “How could you do that to me! Make me think you were dead again!”

“I’m sorry I had to fake it. As long as I was unarmed, he would have probably killed us both had I tried anything,” I explained. “Quick, let’s hide in case he circles around again.”

We got inside the building through an open window and ducked down. We both sighed in relief. Her face suddenly changed from relief, to a look of grave concern. “Um, Dust, what did Muddy mean when he said that I didn’t know your real name?”

I grimaced. “First of all, do you have a health potion I could use? Then, how about a deal? I’ll tell you about my name if you tell me about you and Muddy?”

The blood drained from Silver’s face. “Um, OK, I guess.” She reached into her saddlebags and took out a health potion for me. I popped the cork and downed it quickly. The pain began to subside and I felt tightness and itching as the skin began to reform itself in place of the burned flesh.

After the sensation passed, I took a deep breath. “I am hiding from slavers. I escaped from some slavers who were transporting me to Fillydelphia years ago. I didn’t want to take any chances so I kinda took on this new identity. There is no way I am going into slavery. To this day, it feels as if the collar is still around my neck. My real name is Updraft.”

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that, Dust. Or should I call you Updraft now?” she asked.

Shrugging in response, I said, “I’d prefer if you call me Dust. It would be easier.”

She hesitated, before continuing, “OK, my turn I guess. Remember when you left the stable and I stayed behind?” I nodded. She took a breath and resumed, “Well, Clear Skies, um Muddy, came back to the stable. He was able to find me easily this time since I was out trying to find supplies to replace the ones I had to use to help you. He cornered me and threatened me. He wanted to make sure that no one from Coltington was following him. My,“ she grimaced at the next word, “job, was to go with any group that left to find him and dissuade them in any way I could.”

My jaw dropped. “So that’s why you’ve been trying to get me to stop chasing Muddy?”

She avoided my gaze. “Yes, I didn’t want to. He told me that anypony from Coltington that he ran across would be killed. I couldn’t live with that on my hooves. When I heard a group was leaving Coltington, and especially when you were leading the group, I had to tag along to try to protect you. I guess I failed there, huh?”

Poor pony. She was put into a lose-lose situation. I reached out to hug her and she dove right into my embrace. We sat there in each other's hooves for a while.

We waited for dusk to come, just in case Muddy was waiting. After darkness was starting to fall, we decided to fly most of the way back to the Stable-Tec building and land out of sight of the building itself. Silver did an initial scan to make sure our friends weren’t searching for us and might see me flying. When she came back with the coast clear, I picked up my armor and carried it to our landing site. It’s a shame it was so dark or I might have been able to get a better look at her injuries I saw before in the stable. That would have to wait, I guess.

Once we were back on the ground, I quickly slipped my armor back on and we walked the rest of the way. I knocked on the large glass doors and Flower emerged from the darkness within to open the door for us.

“Thanks goodness, Dust! One and I thought somethin’ happened to ya guys. I am so glad to see ya back in one piece.” She gave us both a little hug. I grimaced when she pressed against my healing burns. She backed away, “What the hell happened out there?”

“Muddy happened.” I said regretfully. I told her the short version of events on the roof, leaving out the parts regarding Muddy and my true names and other incriminating details.

“Fuckin’ asshole. I am so goin’ ta kill him when we find him,” she spat out as she stomped the floor in disgust.

“How’s Brownie doing?” I asked.

The expression on Flower’s face softened. “He’s doin’ fine. He was up a coupla hours ago. He was worried about ya. Fell asleep shortly after that. He’s been sleeping ever since.”

“And One?” I said while looking around the room for him.

“He got tired a while ago. The little guy hadn’t really slept well since he left home. Had ta read him a bedtime story a little while ago. He’s asleep behind the desk as well.” She smiled a little.

“Alright… well, it looks like we’re camping here for the night anyway. Hopefully Brownie’s well enough to travel in the morning. We have a lot of ground to cover.”

I agreed to take first watch tonight. With their secret out of the bag, Flower curled up with Brownie and shared a blanket with him for the night.

I couldn’t help but to watch the two of them and realize how risky what they were trying really was. I mean, either one of them could have died today, and the other would be alone again. But was the alternative any better? I’ve only done it for a year, but could I last longer without letting anyone into my life? Would it make things better if I had somepony to care about and who cared about me?

A short time after it was completely pitch black, I watched Silver make her way towards me. “Um, Dust, mind if I sleep next to you tonight?”

“Sure, Silver, I don’t mind.” I cleared a patch of floor next to me and she set up her bedroll.

After she settled in, she whispered, “So, when are you going to tell everypony else your real name?”

I whispered back, “I don’t think I will. I can’t risk them accidentally mentioning my real name in case anyone recognizes it and tries to claim the reward. Don’t forget, pegasus slaves are unusually valuable. Besides, a name is just a name. You ponies know who I am as a pony. What does it matter what the label is?”

“I don’t know Dust,” she said. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. They may think you are being dishonest.”

“Silver, I will cross that bridge when I come to it. I can’t risk it.” I hated lying to her, but it was necessary.

“Mind if I ask you about your cutie mark? Today was the first time I really got a good look at it.” She asked, “What is it and what does it mean?”

I sighed. “You know what, Silver. I don’t really know.” I had been dealing with this my entire adult life. Best I can make out, it looks like a shield standing up on the ground with clouds on top, fading from brown to blue. “I got it when I was younger, when I helped protect some smaller colts being picked on by larger stallions. My family thought it meant I was supposed to protect ponies.” The story was mostly true. I just didn’t tell her that I got it at Junior Speedsters Flight Camp and that it was partially what led me to continue the family tradition of military service. I really didn’t put much stock in it.

“Hmm… that’s interesting,” she stated.

“Your turn.” I said.

“What? Me?” I nodded my head. She drew in a sharp breath. “Not much to mine. It is literally a dark cloud with a silver lining. I got it when I was younger and I would always see the good in a situation. It appeared when I talked a good friend out of killing herself when she didn’t want to face the horrors of the Wasteland anymore. I always seem to be able to help ponies find the good in the bad.”

“That’s interesting. Can I see it when it gets light? I’m sure it looks amazing,” I asked.

“Um, no,” she quickly and abruptly replied.

“Okay… sorry I asked.”

There was a very deep silence for a few moments. Then Silver cleared her throat. “So, are you going to talk about the five hundred pound yak in the room?”

My mind began racing. “Huh?”

“Um, when I thought you were dead, I told you that I was falling in love with you...” she trailed off.

“Oh, that. If you want, I can forget the whole thing happened. I mean, you were speaking from a misplaced sense of grief, and may not have…” I started to say.

“No… it wasn’t misplaced.” she said while looking right up at me. “I still think I am falling in love with you. I don’t think it was simply from thinking you were dead.”

“Wow, Silver. I think you are the first pony that has ever said that to me. I don’t know what to say. Thanks.” I blurted out.

“Oh,” she said, looking dejected again.

“And I think I really like you too…” Wait, what did I just say?

“Oh.” She drew in a sharp breath. “I think I’m just gonna go to sleep.” She turned away from me and became silent. I spent the rest of my watch looking frequently at her sleeping form.

Flower relieved me and I tried to sleep. No matter, what I did, my mind was racing and I stayed awake, staring at the wall or the ceiling or anything for that matter. What the hell was I thinking when I responded to Silver’s statement? “I really like you too?”. Really, Dust?

I turned over to face Silver. Her back was still facing me and I could see the gentle rising and falling of her side. I quietly slid right next to her and whispered in her ear, “I don’t know if you can hear me, but I am sorry for before. I am not that good with words. I just hope you can forgive me for being a stupid pony before. Good night, Silver.”

I rolled over and laid my head down again. Clearing my mind to the best of my ability, I started taking deep breaths and felt myself start to drift off to sleep.

“Dust! Wake up!” A hoof smacked me across the snout.

“What the f…” I looked up and saw Flower standing over me “Flower, what the hell was that for?”

“It’s Muddy! He just ran by! We can catch him if we move now!” she shouted at me while running towards the front door.

Making sure I still had my weapons on me this time, I took off with the rest of the group as we bolted out the front door. One, Silver, and Brownie were already waiting for us outside. Brownie looked amazingly good for somepony who was near death yesterday. “Mornin’, Dust. Let’s go get ‘im.”

I nodded at my friend and we all took off at a dead gallop. Muddy was barely a yellow speck, but we were still able to see him. We were all ponies on a mission, moving as fast as we could to catch up.

Slowly, painfully so, we caught up with Muddy. I could clearly see his yellow flank and green tail flicking in the wind in front of me.

“We’re coming for you, Muddy! You’re not getting away this time!” I yelled.

It wasn’t until this moment that I saw why we were able to catch up to Muddy. He had mounted an anti-materiel rifle to his battle saddle. When the fuck did he get that? It swung towards us. “Shit… everypony scatter!”

We all spread out in order to force Muddy to at least aim to hit us instead of taking potshots at a clustered group. The rifle sounded like a cannon shot. I watched as Brownie’s head shattered into a chunky red mist. His headless body dropped to the ground and flipped over several times before coming to rest.

I was shocked, but Flower was the first to speak up. “Brownie! NO!” She stumbled a little while she tried to change directions, but then resumed our charge. “You mother fucker! When I get my hooves on you…”

The rifle’s monstrous report sounded out again. Time seemed to slow as I watched Flower’s chest open up into a bloody blossom and then the round exploded out her side. She fell to the ground too.

I drew my pistol and did my best to aim and bit down on the firing bit. My shots rang out and had no apparent effect on Muddy. My blood froze as I saw the muzzle flash and thunderous sound of the rifle again. I couldn’t look this time. I knew it wasn’t me, so it had to be either Silver or One. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a pink pony keeping up with me. My heart sank over One.

Silver and I both stopped running. We looked behind us and saw the body of One. The poor stallion never even got a chance to live and died because of me. I looked back towards Muddy and he was gone from view. Silver walked over and we locked in a hug.

I jumped when I heard the rifle report again. I felt something warm splatter against my back. Silver’s body slowly slid down mine and came to rest on the floor. I couldn’t recognize her face amongst the carnage.

I fell to my knees and began crying over her still form. I had just gotten all my friends killed and for what? Why didn’t I listen to Muddy?

A gun cocked right behind my head. “Don’t move, Dust.” It was Muddy. How did he get so close so quickly? “I told you not to come after me Dust. I warned you. But nooooo… you had to be a hero. You had to dispense justice. Well, welcome to the Wasteland, these aren’t the movies we watched growing up. Sometimes, the good guys die.”

Muddy started laughing and I heard the click as Muddy bit down on the bit.

BANG!

I jumped awake with a jolt. My breathing was short and ragged and my body was covered in sweat. The room was still completely pitch black. Looking around in a panic, I realized I was still in the Stable-Tec atrium behind the reception desk.

Silver was jolted awake by my sudden movement. “Dust, are you OK? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, a bad dream is all.” I said between breaths.

“Do you want to talk about it?” she asked.

“Not really, it was nothing important anyway.” I paused. “Sorry I woke you up.”

Silver sighed. “Dust, you know I’m here for you, right? If there is something I can do to help you out, I will.”

“I know, and I appreciate it. I’m just going to go back to sleep.” I laid my head back down and heard Silver do the same.

My eyes closed and I tried to clear my mind. It always came back to the part of my dream when I felt the warm splashing on my neck. She was a mare I’ve only known for several days, but when I saw her body in my dreams, it wasn’t just an acquaintance or even a friend. I don’t think I’d have the same reaction if it were Brownie or Flower. How did this happen? And with a dirtpony of all ponies?

After tossing and turning for almost an hour, I turned and watched Silver sleep. The gentle rising and falling of her sides put some of the fears in my mind at rest. But then the specter was still there: what would happen if I lost her permanently?

I got up and looked for a stairwell. Fortunately, there was one right off the atrium which was unlocked. Quietly opening and closing the door, I climbed all the way to the top floor and saw that it had roof access. The door was a little jammed, but a few shoves with my shoulder and it creaked open.

It was still the dead of night, and the world was covered with an inky darkness. I looked up to the sky and just stared. I hadn’t seen the actual sky in a long time, and I missed its pull. I couldn’t wait to see the light blue background with the warm, yellow sun. But then I felt some melancholy as well. Silver couldn’t join me… and here I was again, my thoughts going back to Silver.

Hoofsteps approached from behind me. “A cap fer your thoughts?” It was Flower. Please don’t start, Flower.

“Shouldn’t you be down there watching the others?” I tried to deflect.

“No sir. You ain’t gonna get away with that now. Brownie is awake watchin’ the lobby. He’ll get my attention if needed.” She pulled a bottle of Wild Pegasus out of her saddlebags. “Here, take a swig. Or two.”

“Flower, I don’t…” I started to say.

“Nope… yer drinkin’ it, even if I hafta force it down yer throat.” She proffered the bottle again.

I grabbed the bottle from her and brought it to my mouth. Tilting the bottle, I took a big swig. The liquid burned as it made its way down my throat. I instinctively exhaled trying to calm the burn.

“Now, I said two. Let’s go.” she said while she mimed taking a drink. Glaring at her a little, I threw my head back and took another swig. This swallow burned a little less. I nearly gasped for air after gulping it down. “Ain’t that better?” Flower grabbed the bottle from my hoof and drank about double what I did. “Why are ya such a lightweight?” She laughed.

“I’m not!”

“I’m just jokin’ with ya.” Flower interrupted, giggling. After a slight pause, her face hardened and she continued. “Now, are ya gonna tell me what’s been up your ass lately, or am I gonna have to drink it out of ya?”

“What makes you…” I shut my mouth and took a deep breath through my nostrils. “Why bother trying to hide it. Well, you see…”

Flower interrupted me. “It’s her, Silver, isn’t it?” I was going to deny it, but then I simply nodded. “What the hell is the problem? She’s cute… hell, I’d give her a good time.” She clapped me on my back.

“I don’t know what it is Flower.” My emotions started to flood my brain. “I just met her several days ago, and I just don’t know why I feel the way I do.”

“What do you mean, Dust? How do you feel?” she asked.

“That’s a tough question. It all started when I left the stable after Muddy attacked me. She stayed behind and she was all I could think about as I walked back to Coltington. And then when she met Big Boss for the first time, I lied to him to protect her. I lied to Big Boss, Flower. Can you believe that?” I asked, incredulous. Flower just nodded and waited. “And then I’m sure you remember the night we got attacked by the radhog.”

“Mmm-hmm.”

“Well, as you know, since you had to knock some sense back into me, I flipped my shit that night. I thought I lost her. Again.” I needed to take a couple of breaths to calm myself down. “Then, when we were being held by the clones, I thought it was a very real possibility that I wouldn’t make it back in time to save her. And when the doctor told me she wasn’t sure if she was able to do enough for her…” I said trailing off at the end.

After a short pause, I picked up where I left off. “And then there was tonight. I had a nightmare. It was about Muddy. He was picking us off one at a time. He got everyone. First it was Brownie and you. And I felt bad when it happened, I really did. But once he took out Brownie, One, and you, Silver and I were mourning. But then Muddy shot her while she was in my hooves. I felt bad before, but it wasn’t until that moment when I felt like my world was over.”

A very long silence passed between us. She spoke, softly and, out of character for her, kindly, “So, Dust, why do you think you feel this way about her? What is it that makes her that necessary in yer life?”

My brain started working overtime. “I don’t know, Flower. I was never good with mares. Before you met me, I had a few marefriends, but no one I think I could call my special somepony. After those mares and I had broken up, I felt bad, but nowhere near what I have felt over the last week or so when I think of losing her. At first, I thought it was simply because she saved my life in the stable. But as time passes, I’m not so sure.”

Again, a long silence enveloped the night. Flower wrapped her hoof around mine. “Dust, do you mind if I put in my two caps?”

“Sure.” How could it hurt?

“As you know, the Wasteland is cruel. We see death and destruction every day. Raiders, slavers, mutated animals, radiation… it seems like the Wasteland has only one job: ta kill us all.” She placed one of her hooves on top of mine. “It is rare to find something like love out there. I feel that if ya can find it, ya should grab on ta it and not let go. If ya choose ta let it go, the Wasteland will take it and destroy it.”

“Aren’t you afraid of losing Brownie one day?” I asked.

“Every day, Dust. Only every day. I try not ta dwell on it. I simply enjoy it while I have it and hope that I die first,” she said with a smirk. “But I can tell you this. I know that I’d rather live with that fear than not have Brownie at all.”

We sat there for a couple of hours watching the horizon brighten to a lighter gray as the sun must have been rising behind the clouds. After what would have probably been a full sunrise, Flower stood up. “Let’s go. We have to get everyone up and out.”

“Flower, one more question. What do I say to her?” I asked.

“Dust, unfortunately, I can’t help ya there. All I can say is ta speak from yer heart.”

Flower kept walking back to the stairwell. Before she forced the door open again, I called out, “Thanks, Flower.”

“No problem, Dust. Now let’s get back to it.” She said as she disappeared down the stairs.

My Pipbuck beeped. I looked down at the screen and the list of encrypted log entries had reappeared. The second encrypted entry changed to read “Hope”. Clicking on the entry, the screen was filled with text. It appeared to be another history lesson about Rainbow Dash. This time it talked about her trying to impress the Wonderbolts to be accepted. What the hell? Why would a Pipbuck be filled with stuff about that traitorous mare? I flicked off the log entries, gave the brightening horizon one last look, and then re-entered the Stable-Tec building.

The walk down the stairs felt like it took an eternity. I was running through several variations of what I wanted to say to Silver. I got to the ground floor landing and tried to collect myself before going into the atrium.

Pushing through the door, the first thing I saw was Flower nuzzling next to Brownie, who was also awake. She picked her head up and looked at me and simply nodded. I picked up my pace a little back to wear Silver was sleeping.

After hearing her light breathing, I surmised that she was still asleep. I would have felt bad waking her up, but we had to break ‘camp’ and resume our chase of Muddy anyway. As I got closer to Silver, my pace slowed and my mind began to race. My stomach was threatening to perform somersaults.

Standing next to Silver, just looking down, my resolve started to falter. If I was going to do anything, it had to be now. I dropped down and laid next to her. Gently nudging her shoulder, I whispered, “Silver, it’s time to wake up.”

After repeating a few more times, her eyes fluttered open. While still yawning, she said, “Good morning, Dust. Is it really that time already?”

“Yes it is, Silver, but before we go anywhere, we need to talk.” My mind was starting to freeze up on me.

“Sure thing, Dust,” she said with a look of anticipation on her face.

“I just wanted to tell you… um, that…” No… c’mon, I have to tell her. “Um…”

“What is it, Dust? You can tell me anything,” she said looking a little worried.

“Well, um, you see, it’s just that, uh…” My voice started to fade.

“Yes, Dust?”

“I forgot.”

“Oh… OK. Well, if you remember, I’ll be ready to hear it.” she said, trying but failing to mask the sadness in her voice. “I guess we should pack up and join the others.”

After she turned her back to me, I facehoofed myself. Hard.

It took the group almost no time at all to pack up since we never had to set up a full camp last night. Seeing as how we never set up a heat source, it made things even easier. However, we had to settle for some brahmin jerky for breakfast.

After we all gulped down the salty, chewy meat, we finished packing up our gear. At one point Flower looked over at me with a look in her eye asking how things went. I shook my head and she facehoofed herself. I couldn’t argue with her.

I checked in with Brownie, and while he was still in pain, the healing potions had worked wonders. He wouldn’t be winning any races anytime soon, but he could handle a hike.

We double-checked that we had everything and we assembled by the front door. I stopped the group. “Before we go, I think there is something Brownie and One need to know. Yesterday I ran into Muddy. He shot me and got away, but before he did, he proposed a deal. If we leave him alone, he said that we will never see or hear from him again. However, he claimed that if we continued after him, he would kill all of us, saving me for last to punish us.

“If anypony wants to head back to Coltington, I will not blame you in any way. If I have to keep going alone, I will. This has become somewhat more personal between Muddy and I, and none of you need to risk your lives over this. Go back and tell Big Boss that we lost track of him, but I am going to keep looking. Anypony that wants to leave, speak now or forever hold your peace.”

My traveling companions all glanced at each other.

Silver spoke up first. “Dust, I won’t leave your side. I want Muddy as badly as you do.”

Flower and Brownie exchanged one more glance. Brownie looked back and said, “Dust, we joined ya at the beginnin’ because of what Muddy did to you and nothin’ has really changed since then. We’re with you.” Flower nodded in agreement.

One looked uncertain. “Mister Dust, while I may not fully understand what we’re doing, I know this. Daddy told me to stick with you and that’s what I intend to to.”

My traveling companions… no, my friends, were with me to see this out. Even in the Enclave military, I had never felt this unity of motivation. My friends wanted to help me because it was the right thing to do, not because it was what we were ordered to do.

And it felt damn good.

We were able to clear the outskirts of New Flankfort while avoiding the ghouls that were milling around (the EFS was a great invention). While I wish I could fly to Whinnycrest, I couldn’t reveal my secret to my friends, and I didn’t want to arrive alone anyway.

Silver’s words began to settle on me. Would my friends hate me when they found out the truth? If they even ever found out the truth? I would be upset if I were them, but I had very good reasons to not tell them. Besides, it’s not like I changed my behavior. Dust was Updraft and Updraft was Dust, right? What did it matter that I was really an Enclave pegasus sent down to spy on them? Well, when you put it that way…

My pensiveness was interrupted by Brownie shushing us. He climbed up on top of a small rise and pulled out some binoculars out of his saddle bags. “Um, it appears to be small group of ponies. Definitely not raiders or slavers. Should be OK.”

He came back down and we kept on walking. After a short period of time, we met the group. It was a group of maybe a dozen earth ponies and unicorns dressed up in rancher gear. Each had a rifle of some sort. We nodded a silent greeting and they did the same.

The last member of their group passed by Silver and I saw his eyes light up. I whispered to my group, “I don’t like the looks of this, let’s pick up the pace a little.” and we all began to trot. I watched behind me as the pony who noticed Silver went to the leader of the group and began to have a very animated talk. The leader pulled a scroll out of his bags, looked at it and then back at Silver. I was getting a bad feeling.

“Silver Lining?” the lead pony called back.

Before I could say anything, she snapped her head back and started responding, “Yes? Who’s ask…”

I hate it when I’m right. The markers on my EFS flashed from green to red as the ponies behind us all drew their weapons. The lead pony yelled back at us, “Stop right where you are or we’ll shoot!”

We were in no position to defend ourselves. None of us had drawn our weapons and the entire group got the jump on us. We stopped and slowly spun around to face our new enemies. The group made their way back to us and circled the group. Twelve to five were not odds I wanted to try.

“Silver Lining. You thought you could hide from your master?” the lead pony asked with a sneer.

Before she could answer, I stepped in front of her. “Listen, we don’t want any trouble.”

“Neither do we. But Silver left our employer before the terms of her contract were settled. He’s been looking for her for a while now. We will be taking her with us, one way or another,” the lead pony said with a tinge of aggravation.

“She is our friend, and we will not simply turn her over to you.” I stamped my hoof for emphasis.

“Oh, I think you misunderstand me. Boys…” He nodded at his companions.

“What do…” I started to say. I felt something hard impact the back of my head and my vision was flashed with stars. The world was spinning as I fell to the ground and everything faded to black.

Level up!

Unarmed - 25

Perk Obtained: Jack Be Nimble - When unarmed and unarmored, you enjoy a +2 Agility boost when in SATS.

Author's Note

Thanks as always to Kkat, Mimezinga, Somber, FuzzyVeeVee, No One, Fallingsnow for inspiring me with their stories.

I would like to add a new inspiration and that is Gamma Deekay. If you haven't read Merchants of Hope yet, I highly recommend it.

Gamma also deserves a load of thanks for helping get me back on track by helping review my material!

Hope you all enjoyed chapter 9!

Chapter 10 - Renewal

Chapter 10 - Renewal
“Renewal requires opening yourself up to new ways of thinking and feeling.”

Slowly, I became aware of sounds and sensations around me and I opened my eyes. The bright, at least for the Wasteland, light hurt my eyes and I closed them immediately again. The throbbing coming from the back of my head was fading, but I could feel my head pulse with each heartbeat.

“What is it,” I moaned while rubbing the lump on the back of my head,“ with me and waking up injured lately?”

I heard soft groans coming from my left. Slowly, I reopened my eyes, allowing myself to adjust to the light level with minimal pain. On the ground, were my friends, who were all waking up just as I was.

“How is everypony?” I asked shielding my face from the daylight.

“Ugh. Feels like I got run over by a whole herd o’ brahmin,” Flower said between groans. “What the hell was that for?”

“I think those ponies didn’t wanna take no fer an answer,” Brownie said, nursing a similar lump on the back of his head.

“Mister Dust, my head really hurts,” One whined.

“I know One, and I’m sorry. It’ll go away soon. Just do your best, OK?” I said. “Silver, how are you doing?” After several long seconds with no response, I frantically surveyed our area. “Does anyone see Silver? Silver? Silver!”

“Naw, Dust, I don’t see her. I think those ponies took ‘er,” Brownie said after looking around.

“Ponies? What pon…” I started, and then my memory came back to me. The twelve rancher ponies. “Ugh, those bastards. Brownie, can you track them?”

“Lemme see.” Brownie began scanning the ground around us. There were so many hoofprints that I wasn’t hopeful. “Eeyup, they went thataway,” he said while pointing towards a mountain range off the road we were following. Fortunately, the group’s path after knocking us out was not a paved road so tracking should not be an issue.

A quick glance down at my Pipbuck confirmed the time. “Oh crap! We’ve been out for a little over an hour. We have a lot of ground to make up. Let’s go!” I exclaimed, shocked at how much time we had lost. I was hoping we didn’t fall far enough behind that we would lose the trail, and Silver.

Brownie, as our tracker, led the group. Flower sidled up next to me. “Uh, Dust, are ya sure yer gonna be OK with this? I mean, you gonna be able to think clearly?” she asked, clearly concerned about me.

“Of course I can, why wouldn’t I?” Flower thumped her hoof over the top of my head. “Ow! What the hell was that for?” I whined nursing a new sore spot on my head.
“Puh-lease, Dust, I ain’t stupid,” Flower said mockingly. “We had this discussion last night. Are you gonna be OK with this?” she asked with more concern in her voice..

“Honestly, Flower, I don’t know. All I know for sure, is that we need to get Silver back,” I said with determination. I was worried, of course. And the only thought on my mind was Silver.

After almost losing the trail a few times, it took us a little over an hour and a half to discover where the ponies took Silver. We were all lying prone, passing a pair of binoculars between us looking over our destination. In the middle of a flat plain which butted up against a small mountain range was a modest looking house. A couple of stories high and made mostly of brightly painted wood, it stood out against the desert like a sore hoof. It was surrounded by a very tall fence topped with razor wire. Besides the larger house, there were several smaller shacks spread out among the grounds. Around the smaller shacks stood large piles of junk.

There was a lot of movement around the property. Several ponies, wearing leather armor and carrying shotguns, were patrolling the fence line and were weaving in between the piles of junk. Other ponies were picking through the piles.

“Appears we have some slavers here,” Brownie grunted while scanning the estate.

“Slavers? Out here? I haven’t heard any reports of slavers in this area,” I said with concern.

“I ain’t heard anythin’ like that either,” Brownie said, furrowing his brow.

“In either case, we are severely outnumbered. I count nearly two dozen guards, and that’s only what I can see,” I said slightly dejected. Something about this whole thing seemed off to me, but I couldn’t quite put my hoof on it.

“Well, ya could always try diplomacy?” Flower asked with a nervous chuckle.

“Do slavers typically negotiate for the release of their slaves?” I asked visibly confused.

“Well, not usually, Dust,” Brownie started. My hopes began to sink. “But these ponies don’t act like regular slavers. Real slavers woulda’ just captured us and made us slaves too. They were only interested in Silver. And the behavior inside the fence is unusual as well. The guards aren’t harassin’ the other ponies,” Brownie stated, his face twisted in deep thought.

Brownie had a point. If they were run-of-the-mill Wasteland slavers, we’d have collars on and have woken up in one of those shacks. “Then maybe there is some wiggle room here. Perhaps I can negotiate our way out of this,” I stated with a hopeful grin on my face.

After a short discussion, it was decided I would be the negotiator. Brownie and One stayed behind while Flower was going to provide cover fire if needed. I stowed my weapons, trying to appear as non-threatening as possible as I approached the gate. The ponies on patrol had stopped walking once they saw me approach. I watched as they all quickly trained their shotguns on me.

Slowly, I approached the guards at the front gate. “I don’t know who the fuck you are, but get your damned flank away from here before I fill it with…” his voiced trailed off as he studied me. “You’re that damned pony what wouldn’t give us the pink one back,” he spat out while pointing at me.

“That’s right. You fucking brained us and then you took my friend and I’d like her back. I want to talk to the pony in charge,” I demanded of the guard while stamping the ground for emphasis. And then I’d like for you to come out here so I could give you a little of your own medicine.

The guard I had spoken with trotted in the house, while the other ponies kept their shotguns trained on me. After several long minutes, the pony returned. “The boss’ll see you. But you will leave all your weapons out here,” he said smugly while gesturing at my guns.

“Fuck no. You attacked me once, what’s to say you won’t do it again?” I glared at the pony. I so wanted to wipe that smirk off his face.

“Then you won’t get in and see the boss,” he stated while glaring at me.

After considering my options briefly, I realized I had none. With a growl, I stepped up to the gate and dropped all my weapons. The guard then patted me down and searched my saddlebags. I got nervous when he started feeling up the area near where my wings were hidden, but apparently, he either didn’t feel them or didn’t care. “Alright, follow me,” he said as he waved me onto the property.

After crossing the gate, a pony slammed it behind us. We made our way up to the house and yet another guard opened the door before we got there and then closed it behind us after we passed through it. The inside of the house was decorated in pre-War splendor. Brightly colored walls with gold leafwork was everywhere you looked. There were also plush carpets from wall to wall. The house must not have been damaged in the apocalypse and appeared well maintained in the intervening time. My escort led me up the stairs and towards a set of double doors.

After opening the doors, my escort said, “Have a seat. The boss will be with you shortly.”

The doors were left opened when my escort left. I looked around the room I was left in, and was very impressed. The large space had high ceilings and was decorated in the same pre-War glitz and glam. The carpet was still relatively plush, the deep crimson paint on the walls was in good condition, and the large picture windows behind the desk were clean and clear of cracks. This house was obviously far enough from any megaspell blasts and was clearly cared for.

Beyond the window, I could see the junk piles being picked over by working ponies. But it was what I saw behind them that caught my interest. There appeared to be a cave way in the back of the property which had several guards near the entrance. Weird. My mind started working to figure out what could be hidden back there that required so much of an armed presence.

“Ahem,” I heard a pony clear their throat behind me. I turned around and saw a crimson unicorn stallion with a black mane. He was wearing a old-fashioned business suit, and had a revolver holstered to his leg. “So I hear you want to speak with me about Silver Lining?” Who the fuck was this guy?

“Yes, sir. My name is Dust Cloud,” I started, raising my voice slightly. “Your thugs attacked my friends and I for no reason, and then kidnapped a friend of mine. I want her back.”

He slowly made his way around to the desk to sit down. Leaning forward, he placed his elbows on the desk and steepled his hoofs together. “First of all, let’s conduct business as gentlecolts. No shouting is necessary. My name is Manual Labor, but you can address me as Manny.” He paused, appearing to judge me. “I do apologize for the zeal with which my associates pursued your friend. If I may ask, what is your interest in Miss Lining?”

“Manny, she is a good friend of mine. She also saved my life on at least one occasion.” His simple stare was unnerving me. “I want her back. I want you to free her.” I didn’t just want her back, I needed her back.

“Free her? What do you think I do here, Mister Cloud?” he asked with some playfulness in his voice.

“First, call me Dust. Secondly, aren’t you a slaver?” I said as I pointed out the large window, “and aren’t those ponies working out there slaves?”

Manny briefly laughed. “Me? A slaver? How amusing and insulting at the same time, Dust. You misunderstand what is going on here. These ponies aren’t slaves, they are here voluntarily,” he said with a small chuckle.

“Excuse me?” I asked with more disbelief in my voice than I intended. Why was this conversation making me even more confused than I already was?

“All those ponies you see working out there, Dust, all owe me in one way or another. They either needed goods or services from me or my family and had no way of paying. Instead, they agreed to work off their debts by working for my company. They get shelter, food, and safety while they are under my protection,” he said very calmly. “I detest slavery, but needed a workforce. It seems like a good exchange to me.”

“C’mon, I know how this works Manny. The terms of the contract are hard to fulfill, right?” I asked with a modicum of sarcasm. Why was this pony playing games with me?

His expression darkened. “Dust, this is now the second time you have insulted me. Please do not let it happen again. And to answer your question, no, the contracts are quite fair. Everything I offer has a reasonable price and all workers earn a decent wage. After backing out a nominal fee for room and board, each pony can work off their debt,” he barked at me.

I could see from his aggravation that I needed to soften my approach. “I apologize for coming across as insulting. It was not my intent. So what is Silver Lining’s contract worth?” I asked, hopeful it wasn’t a large amount.

Manny leaned back in his chair. “Oh, well, Miss Lining’s contract is a little complicated. Her parents traded with me and gave me a device I needed for a special machine we have here. Unfortunately for them, the part they gave me was incompatible and not only destroyed the machine, but also killed several ponies, including her parents, in the process. Including the cost of the machine and the amount of the money owed by the dead workers, Silver’s family owed me nearly ten thousand caps,” he finished with a glare.

“Ten thousand caps?” I blurted out after my jaw dropped open. Where in Celestia’s name was I going to get ten thousand caps?

“Now, normally, I’d cut a deal with you since I am a reasonable pony, but in this case, I’m going to have to pass. You see, I need a pegasus around here to work one of the machines. So, unless you can pay the full amount, her contract is not for sale,” he stated, clapping his hooves together.

“How long will it take Silver Lining to work off her debt based on her current salary?” I asked dreading the answer.

“Given the current wage and cost of room and board, it will take her at least five years to work it off,” Manny said leaning back in his chair.

“F… five years?” I muttered with my jaw dropping open in disbelief.

“Yes, Dust. Five years,” Manny repeated, emphasizing each word.

I slumped down in my seat. “Can I at least talk with her?” I asked, slightly defeated. My heart sank and my mind spun at the idea of not seeing Silver for five years. What was I going to do?

“I’m not an unreasonable pony, I don’t see why not.” He turned towards the door and yelled, “Hard Labor! Can you please fetch Miss Lining so she can speak with Dust here?”

“Hard Labor? Any relation?” I asked while waiting.

“Why yes, he is my son,” he said with a nod. “This is a family operation here.”

After several long minutes, I heard hoofsteps approach from down the hall. A rust colored unicorn stallion with a silver mane entered the room. I assumed that was Manny’s son, Hard Labor. Following very closely behind him was Silver. When I saw her, time seemed to freeze and every thought cleared my mind. She looked none the worse for wear, except for a sullen look on her face.

“Dust? What are you doing here? You shouldn’t have come,” she said, breaking my reverie. Her face brightened a little upon seeing me.

I trotted over to her and wrapped her in a hug. Silver tentatively hugged me back. The rest of the world faded away again in that moment.

Manny cleared his throat, jarring me back to reality. “Ahem, pardon me. We will give you two some privacy and shall be just outside the door when you are done, Dust,” he said as he turned to leave the room.

We broke our embrace. “We appreciate it Manny,” I said with a nod. Manny and Hard left the room and left Silver and I alone. “Are you OK? Have they hurt you?” I asked her while hugging her once again.

“Yes, Dust, I’m OK,” she said forlornly. “I’m not hurt. I just want to get out of here.”

“Is what Manny says true? You owe them ten thousand caps? Were these the ponies that you were hiding from in the stable?” I asked, the shock coloring my words.

“Yes to everything, Dust. My parents were traders in this area. We traded with Manny for parts for his machines, rare parts that are worth a lot of caps. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find an exact part for one of the machines and my dad thought a replacement would work. The part exploded, damaging the machine with it and killing several ponies that were nearby. My parents were also caught in the blast.” Tears were starting to stream down her face. “After everything was said and done, between the damage and the ponies that were killed, that’s what I owe.”

“What machines are there here that only you can run?” I asked. The only such machines I could think of were pegasus devices.

“I can’t say without violating my contract. All I can say is that only a pegasus can run it.” She hugged me harder. “Dust, I want to leave here. Help me.”

I squeezed her harder at her statement. My eyes were starting to tear. My mind was racing with the different options of rescuing her. “Silver, I promise you, I will do whatever I can to get you out of here for good.” I paused as I started feeling my emotions for her flood my brain again. “And Silver, I… um, what I also want to say is that…”

She pulled away so she could look me in the eyes. “Yes, Dust, what is it?” she asked with a glint of hope in her eyes.

“I will see you soon,” was all I could force out.

“Oh. I hope so, Dust,” she said as she drooped her head. Luna be damned, Dust, you are an idiot!

“Manny, we are done in here!” I shouted towards the door. The crimson unicorn reappeared with his son. Hard Labor led Silver Lining away.

Manny cantered back to his desk and sat down. He turned to me, steepling his hooves again. “I assume you are satisfied?” he asked.

“Well, to be honest, not really,” I said with a sigh, “I won’t be satisfied until we can walk away from here with Silver.”

“Well, unless you have ten thousand caps, that isn’t happening,” Manny said sharply. “Unless…” Oh boy. I don’t think any good business deal started with the word “unless”.

“Unless what?” I asked while rolling my eyes

“Well, my problem here is threefold. I really don’t want to hold someone here against their will, but I can’t just forgive the debt. And I do need a pegasus to run a machine that is crucial to my operation here. But…” Ugh. Another word I didn’t like hearing in a negotiation. “I have a larger problem you and your friends might be able to help me with.”

I quickly feigned a shocked response. “Friends? What friends?” I blurted out.

“Please, Dust. I am not a stupid pony. My spotters saw the two unicorns and earth pony you are travelling with. The yellow one especially would be hard to miss.” I relaxed realizing the farce wouldn’t continue working. “But I am not mad about that, I would have done the same thing in your horseshoes. Anyway, my problem is a band of raiders which has been trying to attack my estate here recently. We’ve been able to hold them off, and probably will be able to indefinitely, but it’s wreaking havoc with morale and costs me a load of caps to clean up afterwards. If you can take care of the raiders and find me a replacement pegasus, I will cancel Silver’s contract.”

“Oh, is that all?” I said with sarcasm dripping off each word. After seeing a flash of anger cross Manny’s face, I sighed and said, “I’m sorry about that. It just seems that every time I turn around, I find myself in a worse situation.” I hated to admit it, but he had me between a rock and a hard place.

“I can appreciate that. Maybe you should find a safer line of work,” Manny said. “There is one more thing I need you to take care of. One of the raiders, a red and white mare, has been specifically threatening my son. If nothing else, I want him dealt with. Do you understand me?”

“Yeah, I get it.” Why did I suddenly feel so dirty?

Manny nodded at me. “So, do we have a deal?”

“Don’t have much choice, do I?” I said as I shook his hoof.

“I’m glad to hear it. The raiders usually come from the east. Word of warning. They are a crazed bunch. My recommendation would be to shoot first and ask questions later. Good luck.” And with that statement, he trotted out of his office.

I was quickly led off the estate and given my gear back. I had to resist every urge to buck the smug pony at the gate on my way out. Brownie perked up when he heard my galloping approach. “So, how is Silver doin’?” he asked tentatively.

“She’s OK. She doesn’t want to be there, and Manny, the owner of the estate, seems to be generally a fair pony. Long story short, Silver owes him a lot of caps and the only other way to get her out is to take care of a raider band and find a replacement pegasus.” I saw everypony else’s mouth drop open as if to ask a question. “Don’t ask. But that’s the deal I had to take.”

Flower was the first pony to put together a coherent sentence. “Dust, how are we gonna take out a whole raider band? And then find a pegasus, which are rare enough anyways, that will voluntarily submit ta Manny?”

“I know… I know… I figured we would at least look at what we have on hoof with the raiders and then take it from there,” I responded with a little shrug.

After some grumbling, we all agreed that it couldn’t hurt to at least take a look. We headed eastward from our position.

Flower trotted up to my side. “How are ya holdin’ up, Dust?” she asked. Why was she so concerned with my mental state recently?

“I’m OK, I guess. I’m worried sick about Silver, of course,” I said dropping my head a little. “I can’t help but think I could have, should have, done something to keep Silver from being kidnapped right under my hooves.”

“There was nothin’ you coulda’ done to stop that, Dust,” she said while giving a reassuring pat on my shoulder. “They had us outnumbered and outgunned.”

“I guess,” I said with a sigh. “I just wish we hadn’t gotten in this predicament. It seems that every time I turn around, something goes wrong.”

Flower chuckled a little. “It does seem that way, doesn’t it. Maybe you’re just an unlucky pony,” she added with another little chuckle.

“I guess,” I said as I sadly laughed a little also.

“Don’t worry, Dust. We’ll get her back somehow,” she said with a nod and a clap on my shoulder.

After walking for another hour, Brownie shushed us and pointed to the northeast. We found some low lying cover and got to a prone position. Looking through the binoculars, I scanned in the direction that Brownie had indicated. All I found was a small shack. There were a few ponies walking around the outside performing the mundane activities of daily life.

“These can’t be the ponies we are looking for. They don’t seem like raiders,” I stated with a measure of relief in my voice. “But maybe they can point us in the right direction.”

We approached the shack, slowly and with our weapons holstered. One of the ponies, a bluish-gray earth pony mare looked shocked “IT’S MANNY’S PONIES! EVERYPONY OUT HERE!” she shouted as she took up a defensive position behind some crates.

Gesturing to Flower, Brownie, and One, we all stopped where we were and waited for the ponies to stop panicking. Three additional ponies burst out of the shack with shotguns, and four more ponies appeared in various places in the area around the shack. All in all, there were eight ponies staring us down from behind shotguns and rifles.

A deep orange unicorn mare with a brown mane, who was levitating a hunting rifle next to herself addressed us. “You can go right back to Manny and tell him that we will not give him what he wants!”

“Hold on a second,” I replied, keeping my voice level and remaining as still as possible. “Yes, we were sent by Manny, but we aren’t here for anything. We’re looking for a band of raiders. Do you know where they might be coming from?”

The unicorn mare started laughing. “Raiders? In these parts?” She burst out laughing as her rifle fell from her magical grasp. “Wow, Manny must be getting desperate.” The rest of the ponies were laughing now also.

One turned to me, “Dust, what is everyone laughing at? I don’t get it.”

Sighing, I turned to One. “One, it appears the we’ve been used. My guess is that Manny wants these ponies dead for some reason and was hoping we’d be the ones to do it for him.” I was getting a really bad feeling about the situation I got us into now.

“Ooooh….” I waited for it and then joined in when One said, “I don’t get it.”

“I know, One. I know,” I said with a giggle. I turned my attention back to the unicorn. “Can somepony please fill me in now?” I shouted towards her.

The unicorn mare stopped laughing and trotted out to meet us. “Leafy Greens, pleased to meet you,” she said with a firm hoofbump.

“Dust Cloud, but everyone calls me Dust,” I said. “Do you mind filling us in now?”

“Of course, of course. Let’s grab a seat, and I’ll fill you in,” she said while gesturing towards a table set up outside the shack. As we moved closer to the shack, I saw small patches of land being cultivated. There were even some green sprouts appearing here and there. Was I really seeing what I thought I was seeing?

“Are you ponies actually gardening? And successfully?” I said, shocked.

“Yes we are, and I think that is part of the reason Manny wants us dead.” We got to the table and we all sat down. “You see, we are a threat to Manny’s ‘operation’ as he calls it.”

“Wait, Manny runs a farm? But I didn’t see any farming going on there,” I said mildly confused by her statement. What the hell did I get myself in the middle of?

“Yes, he does. We don’t know where he does it, but he sells tatos, mutfruit, razorgrain, and the like. He came out a while ago to buy us out, but we refused. Ever since then, he’s made veiled threats and has sent ponies to sabotage us, but we’ve caught them every time. My guess is that he was hoping by sending mercenaries, no offense intended of course, that it couldn’t be traced back to him,” she said shaking her head in surprise.

“So, shoot first and ask questions later. Now it makes sense,” I muttered to myself.

“As I said before, Manny must be getting desperate. Mind if I ask why you would take a job from Manny?” Leafy asked folding her legs on the table.

“A friend of mine has a contract with Manny. I am trying to pay off her debts so she can leave,” I responded while sadly lowering my head.

“Geez, and how much is her contract worth? What did she do?” asked Leafy, clearly not surprised by the statement..

“Well, she is a pegasus…” I started.

“Say no more. It doesn’t really matter what the rest is,” Leafy said shaking her head.

We were interrupted by the rattling of several tools. We all glanced towards the source of the noise and saw a red and white mare stumbling over the tools. A pegasus mare.

Leafy Greens stood up and started stamping the ground with one foot. “So, where were you this time, Autumn?” she asked glaring at the pegasus.

The pegasus’ head shot up. “N… n… nowhere. Just went out for a walk,” she said, clearly surprised by the interrogation.

“Well, we need your help around here. You know how things are. We need everypony helping out. Now go help with the vegetables,” Leafy scolded the pegasus still stamping the ground.

“Yes, mother,” Autumn said dejected while lowering her head to the ground.

“Ugh, kids. Such a hoofful sometimes,” Leafy chuckled shaking her head.

“Leafy, what did you mean when you said how things are here?” I asked.

“Dust, I won’t lie to you. We’re barely holding on. Our yields aren’t large, and Manny fudges his prices to beat us out. We only really have one advantage, we can beat him to market. We have a sky carriage that we can use to bring our yields out faster and further and charge more,” she said and gestured to an old model skywagon that was half hidden behind the shack.

My head started to throb. I had somehow inserted myself in the middle of a price war between two ponies. Manny is willing to kill Leafy to get what he wants, and Leafy is doing whatever she can just to hang on. But Leafy has just what Manny wants and I need to get my friend released. I groaned out loud as I slammed my head against the table.

Everypony’s head snapped towards me at the sound. After assuaging the fears of all the other ponies sitting at the table that I wasn’t going batshit crazy, I pulled my friends aside.

“Look guys, I have to apologize first for getting us into this situation. We stick with Manny, we have to do something we don’t want to…” I started whispering.

“But Dust…” Brownie interrupted.

I cut him off. “Brownie, don’t worry, I wasn’t going to say we should do it. But if we don’t do what Manny wants, Silver is stuck. Of course, we only know one half the story. What exactly is Manny hiding from us? We have too many questions. Flower and I are going to go back to Manny’s and I am going to sneak around and get details on his operation. Brownie, One, please keep an eye on Autumn. There is a reason Manny wanted me to focus on making sure she got killed more than anypony else,” I said with a renewed sense of purpose. We were going to get to the bottom of this one way or another.

Flower and I left immediately and made it back to Manny’s within the hour. We stayed out of view until we found a vantage point that would conceal us. I didn’t need Manny to know we were here this time.

Flower and I scanned the compound. Unfortunately, security seemed airtight, especially around the cave entrance that was heavily guarded.

“Damn, place is locked up tight,” I said hoofing the ground.

“Hold yer horses, Dust. Look over there,” Flower said as she pointed at something behind us. I turned to look and saw a caravan heading towards Manny’s. “That may be yer way in.”

“You know what, you might be right. I’m going to need a distraction when I get close though,” I said raising an eyebrow. Flower simply nodded.

I trotted off towards the caravan. I had to meet them before they got within sight of Manny’s compound. After a brisk trot, I passed the head of the caravan. Fortunately, this caravan was lightly guarded. There were four wagons and only three guards. I gave an easy wave as I passed the front of the caravan. The guards looked like they were on edge, but they weren’t jumpy. I made sure I was on the side of the caravan opposite Flower’s position.

Almost as if she was reading my mind, the unmistakable sound of her sniper rifle firing off several shots rang out. The guards perked up and immediately ran to that side of the caravan and start searching for the shooter. The drivers sped up knowing they were so close to home. I quickly slid under one of the wagons and immediately grabbed onto the undercarriage and held on for dear life.

My muscles started to ache as the wagons jostled over the uneven terrain. Every bump threatened to throw me off of the wagon. My biggest fear was dropping and getting run over by the wheels of the wagon, which would certainly be fatal. The burning started to become almost unbearable and I wanted to let go.

The drivers called out to the brahmin to slow down and the wagon decelerated. Glancing out the side of the wagon, I saw a fence fly past. The drivers called out again and we slowed down to a complete stop. The wagon above me shifted and I saw the driver’s hooves land on the ground and trot away. Waiting several minutes, and after several scans of the area, I dropped to the ground once I felt I was alone.

Rubbing my legs to help relieve the burning, I surveyed the area I found myself in. Using the house as a reference point, I was on the same side of the house as Flower. Hopefully, she was still able to see me and provide me with some cover in case things went sideways. And let’s face it, didn’t they always go sideways lately? I had a large distance to cover to get to the heavily guarded cave, and I needed a plan. I wished I could trust the indentured servants, but they were just as likely to turn me in. It was odd… for the first time in a while, I was alone.
Scanning the immediate area, it was, no surprise, a cargo loading area. There were several wagons. One was a even a skywagon. It appeared to have seen better days. There was an open hatch which was surrounded with blackened metal. That must have been the explosion that Manny was referring to before. And what he needs a pegasus for. He must have attempted to repair it in the interim, or he planned on stealing Leafy’s. I made a mental note to remember to get the whole story before agreeing to work with somepony in the future.

The perimeter of the area was littered with baskets and crates. Empty crates. Idea! Quickly trotting over to the boxes, I flipped one upside down. Using my combat knife, I cut an opening on one side of the box. I muttered, “I hope this works,” to myself and then lifted one end of the box and scurried underneath as it fell back down. Peering through the opening I made, I had a small field of vision, but I could see whatever was directly in front of the box. That, coupled with my EFS, would hopefully be enough to work.

“Here we go,” I thought to myself as I pushed up on the box with my back and began moving slowly towards the cave in the back of the complex. Pausing every few feet, I would let the box back down and listen for signs of approaching guards. After several of these stops, I heard some voices. I dropped the box back down and waited.

“Ugh, I can’t wait for this shift to be over. My hooves are killin’ me,” a gruff voice said.

“Yeah, yeah, all you ever do is complain about your damn hooves,” an even gruffer voice responded.

I felt the box shift a little bit and saw two legs dangle out in front my viewport. Oh, for fucks sake. Why did he have to sit on the box?

“I’ll never understand why you insist on sitting that way. It looks so… unnatural,” the second voice said while laughing.

“It feels good. And what does it matter? I’ll sit any way I want,” the first pony responded defensively.

The box shifted again above me, threatening to tip over. I heard a body land on the other side of the box. “You asshole! What was that for?” the first voice complained.

“To knock some sense into you. C’mon, let’s get back on patrol,” the second voice said.

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s go.” The two voices faded away.

I took a deep breath and relaxed a little. Let’s hope that I don’t get interrupted again. I continued my journey across the property. After a few more of my advance and hide cycles, I heard more voices approach. Luna be damned, again? Really?

These voices were really whispers and weren’t as confident as the others. “Look, over there, let’s hide behind that box,” a male pony voice whispered.

“You sure nopony will see us there?” a female whispered back.

“I’m sure… c’mon!” the male responded.

I felt something bump into the box. It was shortly followed by the telltale sounds of two ponies making out with each other. What did I do wrong to deserve this? After a period of time, during which I learned the two ponies were named Scarlet and Rubble, I heard a new voice clear their throat.

“C’mon you two, take it back to your quarters,” a confident sounding stallion said. The two ponies gasped and hurriedly galloped away. “Fuckin’ teenagers.” A banging sound reverberated inside the box and the box moved. “I gotta get somepony to move this box back to loading.” The pony was grumbling some more as he trotted off.

Checking my EFS again, and checking the general area through the opening on the box, I resumed my path to the cave. As luck would have it, I made my way almost all the way to the cavern opening. To get there, I still needed to cross a small clearing with a guard shack, and four patrolling guards.

After watching their patrol routes for a while, I found one small window of opportunity to get close to the opening. Once I got there, I’d have to come up with a new plan. I very slowly made progress to the rock wall and got as close as I possibly could without being seen. There was still a good ten feet or so out in the open that I needed to cross.

“Damn, I’m fuckin’ exhausted today. Would you guys mind if I took a little nap before the end of my shift?” I heard one of the guards ask.

“Sure thing, but if you get caught, it ain’t my flank,” another voice responded.

“Thanks.” I heard hoofsteps approach the box. The box shifted a little as somepony settled on top of it. After several minutes, I heard light snoring. Son of a bitch.

The sound of gunshots startled me awake. Damn it! How long was I out? Peeking out the opening, dark had fallen and the two guards nearby were running around in a panic.

“Where the fuck is it coming from?” one pony yelled out in a panic.

“I don’t know, I think over there?” the other one responded.

Shit, this was my chance. Double checking my EFS, I saw that the only two ponies in the area were the two guards and they were facing away from me looking for the sniper. Way to go, Flower!

Propping the box up, I scurried out from underneath it and let it softly return to the ground. Being as quiet as possible, I trotted into the cavern opening and found a large steel door with a smaller door inset into it. Checking the handle of the inset door, it was locked. Damn. Fumbling through my saddlebags for my screwdriver and bobby pins, I went to work on the lock. It was a long time since I had done this, and that was in training. After struggling with the lock for a few minutes, I heard the soft click I was waiting for.

Quickly and quietly, I opened the door and made my way inside. Just as quietly, I closed the door behind me and relocked it from the inside. I was in a metal-lined hallway with sparse fluorescent lighting. The air was cool and oddly fresh. It reminded me of the air in the lab space in the stable under Horseton. I trotted down the hallway and entered the first doorway I came to. The room was dark except for the green glow of a terminal.

Sitting at the chair, I started manipulating the keyboard looking for information. The main screen indicated that this was a security terminal. Scanning through the logs, I found that this place was the “Equestrian Agricultural Experimental Station #1”. The only other information I could take from the terminal was that this place had geothermal power and a deep well for water supply. What the hell had Manny stumbled across?

Leaving the office, I made my way further down the hallway. I passed other rooms which were either empty laboratories or offices. There were a few bunkrooms as well, but it was obvious this facility was not meant for long term habitation. At the end of the hall, there was a fork. Fortunately, a sign indicated what lay in each direction. The one that interested me the most was ‘Cultivation Bay’ which led beyond a large door. I hoofed the activation panel and the door slid open in front of me.

What lay beyond the door shocked me so strongly, that my legs collapsed underneath me. The door opened into a large room that was flooded with incredibly bright light. It was probably the size of four, maybe 5, aircraft hangars. The room was full from wall to wall with racks, for lack of a better word, suspending plants of various types. The roots were just dangling in the air. Scurrying around the room were dozens of Mr. Handy model robots, tending to the plants. Some were collecting ripe fruit, others were spraying the roots with some kind of mist, and others were removing dead limbs from growing plants. This was an aeroponics facility! A huge aeroponics facility!

When the gravity of the situation fully beared down on me, my mind nearly exploded. This facility could help the Enclave! We could improve our production yields. Food would be sufficient, if not plentiful. Birthing limits could be removed! This was amazing! This could even help out the Wasteland. Other facilities, maybe not so large in scale, could be constructed to feed settlements. This could help everypony!

A terminal set off in the corner caught my attention. I needed to make sure I got any information about this facility for General Cirrus. The terminal ended up being a treasure trove of information regarding the method used in this facility. There was an option for data transfer but it was asking for the Pipbuck interface. I quickly looked over the device on my leg and quickly realized there was a connection plug that would fit in the terminal. After plugging it in, the displays indicated the data transfer was happening and then was completed.

I hurried back to the door leading to the Wasteland. Something told me the exfiltration was going to be more of a pain than the infiltration. Surprisingly, when I got back to the door, my EFS indicated that there was nopony waiting on the other side. After slipping back through to door, making sure I locked it from the other side, I casually got back under my box and made my way back towards the loading area. The entire way back, I ran into absolutely nopony. The estate seemed abandoned. I left the box at the gate and made my way off the estate.

After getting back to our rendezvous point, I found Flower there a little out of breath. “Hey Flower. What happened?”

“Ah, nothin’ much. Just settin’ up some distractions fer ya. It’s amazin’ what some explosions’ll do to create a diversion,” she said with a snicker.

“I figured you had something to do with the ghost town. Thanks for the cover fire by the way,” I said with a nod. She simply nodded in response. “You’ll never guess what I found. Manny is sitting on a farm… a very large, indoor farm.”

She whistled. “Holy shit. Makes ya wonder why Manny wants Leafy dead. Ya figure a small operation like Leafy’s couldn’t do much against him,” she said shrugging.

“Greed. He wants it all for himself,” I said with a sigh. “Let’s head back and see what Brownie and One found out,” I added.

We trotted back to Leafy’s settlement. Brownie and One were nowhere to be found. Leafy said she saw them head out a few hours ago. Brownie had already negotiated our stay for the night. For the first time in a long while, I was going to look forward to sleeping an entire night and not having to take watch. Sleep came quickly.

Although sleep came quickly, it did not persist. I woke up several times during the night, expecting to find Silver laying next to me. Each time, I remembered where she really was and my heart sank. I hoped I was able to figure out some way to get Silver away from Manny, now that I wasn’t going to ‘take care’ of his problem. I did manage a full night’s sleep, although it was in two hour stretches.

Once the sun came up, I saw that Brownie and One had come back at some point during the night. The farmers had started their day, and were making enough noise outside that my companions all woke up.

“Morning Brownie, One. We missed you guys last night,” I said with a yawn.

“Mornin’, Dust. You’ll never believe what we found out yesterday. We…” Brownie started.

I quickly interrupted him. “Brownie, let’s get somewhere that we won’t be overheard. Just in case,” I said while pointing to the door of the shack. He nodded and our entire group packed up our stuff and met a good distance away from the farm.

Brownie spoke up first. “As I was sayin’, we followed Autumn like ya asked and you’ll never believe where she went,” he said playfully while raising one eyebrow. I shrugged my shoulders. “Autumn headed back towards Manny’s and had a small rendezvous with a rust colored pony with a silver mane. They have a small cave they used for, um,” Brownie said blushing a little bit.

One perked up. “Mister Dust, they were kissing and hugging and stuff… but then they got into a fight and were wrestling,” he said with a big grin on his face.

I raised an eyebrow at Brownie. “Wait, you said rust colored with a silver mane? Did you hear a name?” I asked turning to look at him. The gears were turning in my head.

“She kept calling him ‘Hardy’ while they were, um...“ Brownie was turning a deeper shade of red.

“Wrestling!” One blurted out. I didn’t think it was possible for him to smile any bigger.

“Holy shit!” I cried out shaking my head. “Leafy’s daughter is in a secret relationship with Manny’s son!”

We were all shocked into silence. Well, except for One“Leafy and Hardy sittin’ in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G,” he sang while trotting in place.

“We get it One, we get it,” I squeaked out. “Well, as shocking as all that was, my revelation is more amazing. Manny is sitting on a farm. A very large, indoor farm,” I said.

Brownie was shocked and I filled him in on the details and the fact that Manny had a disabled skywagon. We all stopped and thought about the situation for a few minutes. “Ponies, I have an idea, but it’s going to require some subterfuge on our part. Everypony OK with that?” I asked, glancing at each of my friends. Everyone nodded and I filled everyone in.

I trotted back up to the gate of Manny’s estate and the ponies on guard ushered me right in. After being escorted back up to Manny’s office, I sat and waited. My brain was working a mile a minute, hoping I could pull this off. I had to, if I was going to get Silver back.

Manny and his son came striding in. “Dust! So good to see you! Is it safe to assume you took care of those raiders, especially the one I asked you about?” He gave his son a sideways glance when he said that part.

Putting on my best act, I hesitated a little before responding. “Y.. yeah, of course. I told you I would, didn’t I?” I said, faking discomfort.

Manny gave me a long sideways glance now. “Really? Why did you just hesitate a little there?” he asked staring at me.

“N...n...no reason. Really… we mopped up the floor with them. And there is a pegasus there too. But she is being tended to by a companion of mine due to some injuries she had,” I answered with some trepidation in my voice, hoping my lie wasn’t spotted.

“Hmmm… you’ll have to forgive me, but I don’t believe you,” he said shaking his head.

“Well, look, just give me Silver and you can go verify it on your own,” I said with some false anxiety.

“Not going to happen. Here’s what’s going to happen. We’re gonna go out there together. If you are telling the truth, Silver is yours, free and clear. If you are lying, then her contract will no longer be up for sale,” he said with a deathly serious glare.

“OK.. fine, just waste our time,” I said rolling my eyes.

“Dust, time is money,” he started, and then said, “and I don’t like wasting money.”

We congregated around the front of Manny’s house. Silver looked tired. She did gallop over to me and gave me a hug when she first saw me. I hugged her back. “Don’t worry Silver, we’re getting you out of here. But don’t say anything,” I whispered in her ear. I felt her nod in reply.

Manny, Hard Labor, Silver, myself, and two guards left the estate. I lead the entire group towards the settlement. I could feel Manny and his escorts watching my every move. I had to play my cards right here for this to work. Hopefully Brownie was able to get his part done as well. After about half an hour, we had reached the location called for in our plan. The reason we picked this site was that is was a blind corner around a small rock formation and a group coming from either direction wouldn’t see the other until they were right on top of eachother. Now, I needed to delay.

“Excuse me, can we stop for a second so I can take a leak?” I asked trotting in place a little to sell it.

“Yes, and make it quick,” Manny said looking rather frustrated.

I moved away from the group and feigned relieving myself behind a small pile of rubble. Checking my EFS, I saw about eight additional green markers appear. Alright, here came the tricky part.

I walked back towards the group just as the farmers rounded the corner. When everypony saw who the other group was, everypony drew a weapon and was aiming at the other group. I saw Brownie move into position behind Leafy as I moved behind Manny.

“Leafy? But how? I thought you were dead?” Manny yelled out, glaring at me and gritting his teeth.

“No, your mercenaries couldn’t do it, but I should kill you just for thinking to try such a thing,” Leafy yelled back through her clenched teeth.

Brownie and I both drew our weapons on Leafy and Manny, respectively. Both Manny and Leafy looked shocked and the escorts didn’t know whether to aim at the other group or Brownie and myself. The two started to say something, but Brownie cut them off. “OK, listen up, here’s how this is going to work. You will send your escorts back to your respective homes, excluding Autumn and Hard. They are involved in this too. Then we will all sit down and talk things out,” he said while keeping his weapon levitated on Leafy.

Manny was the first to respond. “And why would I do that?” he asked, clearly pissed.

“Yeah, Dust. Why should we trust you?” Leafy asked, just as aggravated.

I holstered my pistol. “Because I have as much to gain or lose here you two. We all have something that somepony else wants.” I said and paused for effect. “Now, do we all agree?” I demanded as much as asked.

Both Leafy and Manny sighed at the same time “Don’t have much choice,” they said in unison both slumping their shoulders.
“You bastard. I will kill you after all this,” Manny added with a hateful glare.

The escorts were sent away and it was Leafy, Autumn, Manny, Hard, Silver, Brownie and myself. Once I was satisfied everypony else had left, I ordered everypony left to sit down.

“Now we’re going to have a talk. I don’t know what pissing match you two have gotten yourself into, but you two have been acting like idiots.” I started. I saw them both start to say something, but interrupted, “Nope. Don’t want to hear it. Let me talk.” They both shut their mouths. “Manny, I know you are sitting on a disabled skywagon and a farm.” I watched his jaw drop open in surprise. “Leafy, I know you have a working skywagon and a pegasus to run it.” She simply nodded, since she hadn’t tried to hide it.

“Now Manny, you have volume on your side. Leafy, you have the means for distribution. Both of you have something to gain here and everything to lose. Manny, if you can’t get your crops to market, you can’t sell them. Leafy, you can get them to market, but can’t grow enough to make a good profit. Why don’t you two work together?” I said, glancing back and forth between the two of them. Here was where I had to get lucky..

“Now, why would I work with a pony who wants to kill me? How can I trust him?” Leafy scoffed with some sarcastic laughter..

“Why would I work with this inferior pony? I could simply kill them all myself. It would make things more complicated, but it might be worth it,” Manny spat out.

And the moment I waited for happened. Hard Labor stood up and faced his father. “Dad, you can’t do that! I love Autumn!” he screamed trotting over to his father.

An uncomfortable silence filled the air as it looked like Manny had been punched in the gut. “What? How can you love this dirtfarmer!” Manny screamed in disbelief.

Hard walked over to Autumn and embraced her. “I do, Dad. Autumn and I have been secretly seeing each other for months now. I checked out the settlement when you first started complaining about it. And then I saw her,” he said and leaned down and kissed Autumn on the cheek.

“But, you can’t! I won’t!” Manny blurted out, his voice fading.

Leafy then started. “How dare you sneak out like that! I won’t allow you to be with him!” she scolded Autumn with a glare.

Manny was taken aback. “Wait? Won’t allow her to be with him? What are you trying to say?” he yelled, staring right through Leafy.

“I wouldn’t let my daughter be a part of your scummy family. You are nothing but a dressed up slaver and attempted murderer!” Leafy spat back, walking towards Manny.

“Watch who you call scummy, bitch!” Manny retorted, walking towards Leafy. Oh hell, this is not going the way I intended.

I raised my voice as loud as it could go. “Everypony! Be quiet!” I screamed. Everypony’s head snapped towards me. “You two are being complete idiots! Manny, do you or do you not need help getting crops to market on time?” I asked glaring at him.

Manny looked uncomfortable. “Yes,” he muttered, lowering his head.

“And Leafy,” I said as I turned my head, “Do you or do you not have enough crops to make good money?” I asked glaring at her now.

“No, we don’t,” she said, looking dejected.

“And Autumn and Hard, do you two love each other?” I asked, looking at the lovestruck couple..

They looked at each other. “Yes!” the blurted out at the same time. “We were actually going to elope in a few weeks, but then all this nonsense started!” Hard said while embracing Autumn.

Leafy and Manny looked shocked. “Elope?” they said at the same time.

“Yes. We love each other and want to be together forever!” Autumn responded.

I waited a while to let it sink in. “Now, as I see it, there is a very easy solution here, as long as you two,” I pointed at both Manny and Leafy, “can stop being so pigheaded and put it behind you. Manny, you have the crops. Leafy, you have the transportation. I’m sure you two can negotiate a fair agreement, especially considering you’ll be family soon enough,” I said.

The ensuing argument took over two hours to rectify. The two kept focusing on the fact that Manny tried to kill Leafy and Manny thought Leafy was beneath him. The whole time, the two kids were lovingly looking at each other and started crying every time things got sour. As time dragged on, I interjected each time the argument returned to the pointless insults they kept throwing at each other. They tried to leave several times, but Brownie kept threatening to shoot them if they walked. I didn’t think he had it in him but they believed it.

Daylight started to fade and the argument was still going strong. A pair of screams punctuated the evening air. The arguing of the two ponies stopped abruptly. We all turned to look in the direction of the screams.

Leafy’s mouth dropped open. “Autumn?” she cried out, obviously worried.

Manny also looked dumbstruck. “Hard?” cried out, also concerned.

We all broke into a gallop at the same time. After a short gallop, we all skidded to a halt at the situation we saw. There was a large creature that looked like a weird mix of a lion, bat, and scorpion. On the ground in front of it was the prone body of Autumn and Hard Labor was doing his best to protect her. He was covered with scratches and other wounds.

Leafy gasped. “A manticore? What the fuck is one of these doing this far out from Everfree?” she said, clearly confused.

“I don’t care where it came from, we gotta kill it!” I screamed. We all drew our weapons and started pelting it with whatever we had.

The first few rounds of fire drew its attention away from the kids and it started charging towards us. We all separated and did our best to divert its attention. It was a cacophony of gunshots, various weapons being reloaded, and the screams of the manticore. The manticore was currently charging me and I was racking my shotgun and pulling the trigger as fast I could. As it drew nearer, I tried to rack the shotgun and it got jammed. Frantically, I did everything I could to clear the chamber. Unfortunately, I paid attention to my gun for too long.

I looked up just in time to see the large paw swipe at me from the side. I jumped backwards, avoiding the swipe so narrowly I felt the rush of air blow through my mane. Unfortunately, I did not stick the landing and fell to my backside. The manticore was right on top of me. I could smell the foul odor of its breath. It was the sickly sweet smell of rotting flesh. Blood from several open wounds was dripping off various parts of its body and splashed all over me. My vision was blurred and everything was slick. I dropped my shotgun to the ground. The manticore roared while it reared up and was about to land on top of me, and ending my life in the process.

I closed my eyes, preparing to meet my maker. My last thoughts were of Silver and of all the words I couldn’t say to her. Things I wish I had done, mistakes I wish I hadn’t made. “Silver, I’m sorry I was such an idiot,” I cried out, to nopony in particular. The manticore let out one last roar before tearing me to shreds. But, this roar was different. It sounded pained and weakened. I opened one of my eyes and watched while the beast fell over backwards. It landed with a thump and the only movement left was the slight rising of its sides as it drew its last breaths. Flower trotted over with her sniper rifle and with one last shot, the beast became still.

The next thing I knew, Manny and Leafy ran over to their children. I quickly stood up and shook off as much of the beast’s blood as I could. Then, I trotted over to where everypony had gathered. Hard Labor was badly injured but nothing that appeared life threatening. Somepony had given him a healing potion and he was drinking it. Autumn was a different story. She was lying on the ground, breathing, but unconscious. She had two deep gashes running the length of her body. Brownie was already administering aid to her. Leafy was looking on, visibly shaken. Surprisingly, Manny was comforting her.

“It’s OK, she’ll be OK,” he said while having an leg around leafy. Amazingly, Leafy had nestled her face in Manny’s shoulder.

Hard Labor had trotted over. He was still weakened, but he looked on the scene, with concern on his face. “Will she be OK?” he asked, tears streaming down his face.

I patted him on his shoulder. “Brownie is a damn good medic. If anyone can help, it’s him,” I said with a nod.

Hard Labor turned towards his father. “If you weren’t so Celestia damned stubborn this never would have happened! We wouldn’t have been out here for this to happen!” he yelled at his own father.

“I know… and I’m sorry,” Manny said, lowering his head in embarrassment.

Soft coughing drew all our attention back to Brownie and Autumn. She coughed some more. “Hardy… where are you Hardy?” she weakly said.

Hard Labor shoved everyone out of his way. “I’m right here, Autumn.” He knelt down and nuzzled with Autumn.

“Are you OK? Last thing I remember was you standing between me and the manticore,” she asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just glad you’re OK. I thought I lost you. I love you Autumn,” he said wrapping her up in his legs.

“I love you too,” she replied returning the embrace.

“Hard Labor, thank you for saving my daughter,” Leafy said extending her hoof for a hoofbump.

“You’re welcome, but I didn’t do it for you. I did it for her,” he said returning the gesture.

“That’s my boy,” Manny said. There was an awkward silence. “Um, Leafy, I’m sorry that your daughter was in this position,” Manny said turning towards Leafy extending a hoof.

“And I’m sorry your son had to get hurt to help her,” Leafy said, bumping Manny’s hoof.

“Maybe, since our kids can be together, maybe we can learn to work together too,” Manny said looking hopeful.

Manny and Leafy started a small conversation between them, but I couldn’t hear it. Somepony wrapped their legs around me and squeezed with all their might. “Dust! For the love of Celestia! I thought the manticore was going to kill you!” she cried out while squeezing me tightly.

I hugged her back. “So did I, Silver. I thought it was over. And all I could think about was you. Of all the mistakes I wished I hadn’t made and all the things I wished I had done,” I said while pulling out of the embrace.

“What do you mean, Dust?” she asked.

I looked her right in her sky blue eyes, then leaned in and kissed her.

Level up!
Small Guns - 30

Perk Obtained - Snake? Snake? SNAAAAAAAKE! - You get a +5 to Sneak when using nontraditional hiding spaces.

Chapter 11 - Near Miss

Chapter 11 - Near Miss
“The enemy always has the advantage of surprise.”

The feeling of my lips pressed against Silver’s was sublime. It felt like my hooves were floating off the ground. My wings were trying to force their way out, but were held in check by the armor. Silver pulled away briefly, her mouth opened in shock.

“Oh, um, uh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to overstep…” I stammered. Had I just made a huge mistake?

Silver dove back in and resumed our kiss, even as I was mid-apology. Every sight and sound faded away and my mind, for once, was completely focused on one thing. It was probably the most amazing moment of my life so far.

The next few hours were a little bit of a blur to me. Since it was getting dark, we all headed back to Manny’s estate so that Leafy and he could hammer out the details of their agreement. Manny and Leafy went into Manny’s office to negotiate. The rest of us were asked to wait in a sitting room while they were working.

As soon as we were escorted to the sitting room, Silver and Flower sat down in one corner and were chatting animatedly. Every now and then I heard the two of them giggle. All I could think about was Silver. I know it was just one kiss, but the feeling was lingering with me. Graduating flight school, passing basic training, my first assignment; I thought those were the high points of my life. They paled in comparison to that one kiss.

“Dust?” a male voice and a brown hoof waving in front my face broke my reverie. I looked up and saw Brownie. “Dust? Are ya OK? You’ve been kinda zoned out fer a coupla hours now.”

I nodded. “Yeah Brownie, I’m OK. Just thinking,” I said wistfully.

“About what?” he asked with a sly smile on his face.

“About...um…” I started thinking of what lie I would tell, but then realized that it made no sense to lie to Brownie. “Silver, I’m thinking about Silver.”

“Well, duh,” he said tinged with sarcasm. “This isn’t your first kiss, is it?”

“What? No…” I responded shaking my head. “This is just the first time it felt like… this.”

Brownie snickered a little. “Ahh, young love,” he said with a giggle. “Dust. I’m happy fer ya.” Brownie smiled as he walked away.

A few moments later, Manny and Leafy trotted into the office. Neither was smiling, but they both looked relieved.

“So, did you two finally work something out?” I asked, hoping it was good news.

“Yeah, we did,” Leafy said with a sigh. “We will help Manny ship his produce around the region with our skywagon, with Autumn’s help of course. There will be a 60/40 split of the gross income, including my crops in the sale. The skywagon stays on my property and we decide on the shipping schedule jointly.” Leafy sighed when she was done.

“And I believe I owe you this,” Manny added, handing me a folded up piece of paper. After unfolding it, I realized it was Silver’s contract. “You may not have done what I had asked, but the result is acceptable.”

I turned towards Silver. “Here… I think you deserve to take care of this more than any of us here,” I said while handing the contract to Silver.

She took the paper from my hoof with tears in her eyes. “I never thought this day would come,” she said, her tears now streaming down her face. She held the unfolded piece of paper in front of her, almost as if she had never seen it before. Silver took the corner of the page in her mouth and tore the page in two. She stacked the two pieces on top of each other and then tore the paper again, and again, and again. She repeated tearing it until there were only tiny pieces of paper left and she threw them in the air. Then, while the paper was still falling like snow, she hugged me so hard I thought I was going to suffocate. I, of course, returned the favor.

“I hope you will clean up after yourself,” Manny said, a little aggravation coloring his tone. “It’s late. I need to retire. You all can stay in the guest rooms in the other wing.” Everypony else made their way to their rooms. I stayed behind to help Silver clean up her mess.

“So, how does it feel to be a free pony?” I asked, while struggling to pick up tiny pieces of paper with hooves. Celestia be damned. How useless hooves were at times!

“I don’t know how to put it,” she responded, growling at her confetti. “It’s been so long and I never thought this day would come. I feel like I have a huge weight lifted from my shoulders. I won’t have to look over my shoulder anymore, fearing someone is looking to bring me back. I won’t have to hide. I know I should be ecstatic, but I’m really just tired. I’ve been running for so long.” I knew what she meant. My secret has been weighing on me every day I’ve been down here. And it’s only gotten worse as I got closer to my friends.

“Well, then let’s clean this up and then get a good night’s rest,” I said with a smile.

It took us a few minutes to pick up all the paper pieces. After picking up the last one, I had a newfound appreciation for unicorns. It was so much harder to do some things with hooves. Finding a trash can, we dumped all the pieces into it and then made our way to the guest rooms. We found two rooms with open doors and were about to go our separate ways.

I stopped and looked at Silver. “Do you want to…” I said, trailing off at the end.

“Only if you want to…” she said, blushing slightly.

“Do you think it’s a good idea?” I asked, slightly uncomfortable.

A door creaked open just behind us. “Would you two just shut up and pick a room so the rest of us can get some sleep?” Flower grumbled into the hall, shielding her eyes from the light in the hallway.

“Eeep,” Silver squeaked as she jumped a little.

“Sorry Flower, didn’t mean to wake you,” I said sheepishly.

“Uh-huh,” she said, closing the door behind her with a click.

I followed Flower into the room she picked.

The room was much like the rest of the manor. It was remarkably well kept, considering it was over one hundred years old and had survived a megaspell war. The most amazing part was the bed. It was the largest bed I had ever seen myself, easily large enough for two ponies. The frame was made mostly out of wood and had a post on every corner. A fabric canopy was supported over the top and ran down the sides. The bed itself was covered with clean, white sheets and a plush blanket over the top.

I whistled out loud. “Manny really knows how to play host,” I said, still in awe of the room. “I think this is the nicest room I have ever seen, much less stayed in.” I ran my hooves over the waiting bed. They sank into the blankets and mattress to a surprising depth. “Oh, I am so looking forward to sleep tonight.”

Silver giggled. “Are you more excited about that bed or me?” she asked with a sly smile on her face.

“B...b...both, of course!” I blurted out, surprised by her question. “I’m just looking forward to a nice, comfortable night’s rest where I don’t have to worry about anything happening for once. With the pony I care deeply for.” Silver blushed at the comment.

We both crawled into bed. I kept my armor on since anypony could walk in and I didn’t want to be caught with my wings out. Oddly enough, Silver kept her jacket on. She obviously wasn’t ready to broach the subject of the injuries I saw previously. I hoped she’d be ready to talk about it soon, but I learned from the last attempt and wouldn’t force it. Silver snuggled up next to me and I wrapped my legs around her.

She gave me a small kiss on the lips. “Good night, Dust,” she said with a big grin on her face.

“Good night, Silver,” I repeated with just as big a grin. I fell asleep quickly.

A sudden movement next to me roused me from my sleep.

“Silver, is everything alright?” I asked, still groggy from sleep. There was no response. “Silver?”

I shook her body and she did not rouse from her rest. Her body was still on my one leg, so I couldn’t shift my position too much, but I did the best I could to see what I could. Using my mouth, I toggled the switch for the Pipbuck’s light and the room was bathed in a soft, green glow. Looking at Silver, I saw her green mane was still draped over her head. However, part of it had turned red and the red portion was growing larger every second. Using my free hoof, I brushed the mane away and saw blood seeping from a small, round wound in her temple.

“Silver? Are you OK?” I asked in a panic. “Silver? Silver!” I shook her inert form and no response. I watched her sides and they were not rising and falling. “Silver?” I cried out.

“She isn’t going to answer you, Dusty,” a stallion’s voice hissed from the darkness.

“Who… who’s there?” I whimpered, still shocked by Silver’s death.

“Oh, Dusty, I am hurt you don’t remember your old friend,” the voice said with a small laugh at the end. A yellow face with a green mane entered the small area of light from my Pipbuck. “It’s me, Muddy, or is it Cloudy Skies? I can’t keep it straight anymore!” He laughed maniacally.

“Muddy! Why? Why did you kill Silver?” I yelled, now openly crying while still clutching the lifeless form of Silver.

“I’ve killed you three times already and I just can’t keep you down. I already warned you. Leave. Me. Alone. I can see that you aren’t going to keep up your end of the deal, so I am going to punish you as I promised,” he said with a nasty edge to his voice. “I already took care of your friends…” He broke off his statement with more laughter.

I bolted out of the room and across the hall. Bursting through the door of another bedroom, I quickly scanned the room. On the bed, under a now blood stained sheet, was a lump. I cautiously approached the bed and reached out for the sheet. There was only one lump so I figured this was One’s room. What had Muddy done?

I drew the sheet back, bracing myself for the horror I would see. One was lying there, a look of fear still on his face. His lifeless eyes bored into me, making me feel very uneasy. His mouth was stuck open, almost in a soundless scream. Then I saw it. The gash that ran from ear to ear on his neck. The bed beneath it was a dark scarlet.

I bolted from the room and collapsed on the floor, catching my breath. “Why, Muddy! Why?” I screamed out in anguish. I wanted to wrap my hooves around his throat, but couldn’t get the image of the bodies I had found already out of my head. My head was pounding and legs were trembling.

“Oh Dusty, why don’t you check on Brownie and Flower,” Muddy called out mockingly from my room.

“No… I don’t want to. I can’t!” I cried out between sobs.

“Oh c’mon Dusty! You wouldn’t want to miss all the fun!” he responded with a snicker.

Grudgingly, I stood up and slowly made my way to Brownie’s and Flower’s room. I paused at the door, trying to steady my breathing and nerves. The door pushed open with a creak. I extended my leg to illuminate the bed. My stomach revolted at the sight. Brownie and Flower were tied to opposite posts on the bed. Their mouths had been gagged with the pillowcases. Their bodies were covered with various knife wounds. None of the wounds were in a vital area. They were meant to inflict pain and not to kill. The fur on their faces was tear stained. Each of them had a round bullet wound to the side of their temple. Muddy made them watch each other get tortured and then made one of them watch as the other died. The sick fuck!

I cried out in rage. I ran back into the hallway, drawing my shotgun along the way. Bashing the door out of my way, I charged into my room, following the sound of Muddy’s laughter. “Muddy, I will kill you,” I mumbled out while still biting on the firing bit.

I felt the cold metal of a gun barrel pressed against the back of my head. “I don’t think so,” Muddy said with a cold finality.

BANG!

I shot upright in bed with a gasp. My brow was covered with a cold sweat and I could feel my heart racing. Each heartbeat made my head pound.

“Dust, what’s wrong?” Silver asked, still rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

My mind twisted over itself trying to make sense of what it had just seen. I could not form a coherent thought. “You. One. Brownie and Flower. Dead. Muddy,” I blurted out between ragged breaths. Hugging Silver, I squeezed hard. She hugged me back as I started crying.

It took the better part of an hour for me to calm down enough to tell Silver about my nightmare. Even when I was able to put words to thoughts, I couldn’t explain things clearly. But Silver was patient and didn’t interrupt. She simply held me while I processed everything.

“Dust. Shhhhh… it’s OK. We’re all OK. Muddy didn’t hurt any of us,” Silver said softly while caressing my head.

“I can’t lose all of you… especially you Silver… I just can’t,” I muttered between sobs.

“I won’t leave you Dust, I won’t leave you,” she said gently.

I fell asleep again with her cradling my head and comforting me.

A knock on the door startled me awake. My eyes were still sore from the night before and my head was still throbbing. Silver had cradled my head in her legs all night and she fell asleep like that. I carefully extricated myself from her embrace without waking her up and quietly walked to the door.

Opening it as quietly as possible, I saw Brownie standing out in the hallway. “Dust, I couldn’t help but to hear ya last night. Are ya OK?” Brownie asked, clearly concerned about my well being.

Exiting into the hallway, I quietly closed the door behind me. “Yeah Brownie, I’m OK. I had another nightmare. This is the second one since Muddy threatened to kill us all if we followed him,” I said, yawning.

“Sorry ta hear that Dust. Jus’ remember, even if the worst does happen, it’s not yer fault. We all came along voluntarily,” he said, patting my back.

“I know, Brownie. I just hope we can all get through this with a minimum of injury,” I said ruefully. Brownie tried to say something but I extended a hoof in a gesture to stop. “But I realize that I have to be prepared for a casualty of some sort,” I said, cutting him off.

“Eeyup,” he said with a knowing nod.

I sneaked back into the bedroom and laid down next to Silver. A route had to be planned to Whinnycrest from Manny’s since we were taken off our original route. I looked at my Pipbuck and saw that the Data screen was up again and another one of the encrypted data files was decoded. It was replaced with the title “Perseverance”. I didn’t even bother to open this one. I did not need some stupid history lesson about the traitor. Turning the dial, I switched to the map and started planning a route.

“Good morning, Dust. Feeling better?” Silver said, looking at me and yawning.

“Well, I’d be lying if I said I was good. Last night kicked the crap out of me. But thank you for, well, everything,” I said placing my hoof in hers.

“Don’t mention it. Besides, what are special someponies for?” Silver said, grinning.

“Heh, yeah,” I laughed, involuntarily.

“What’s so funny?” Silver asked, her features saddening.

“Nothing bad. It’s just that I never thought I’d have a special somepony. I never thought I’d find that special mare,” I said, squeezing Silver’s hoof.

“Well, you found her,” she added, smiling once again.

“Yes I did,” I confirmed and nuzzled with Silver.

As nice as the bed was, we did have to get out and get to work. Fortunately, the rest of the estate were early risers, so we didn’t have to risk waking anyone. Manny offered all of us breakfast before sending us off. It was really nice having some fresh produce for a change. I will say that the aeroponically grown produce did taste phenomenal. This would be great for the Enclave.

After we had all finished eating, Manny and Leafy thanked us for forcing the confrontation. There was still a little bitterness that it was forced under the barrel of a gun, but I think they both realized it was necessary. Autumn and Hard were happy as anything. They could barely keep their hooves off each other all morning. After loading up on some fresh supplies provided at no cost by Manny (he said it was still in gratitude for the business arrangement, and I made sure there was no contract to sign), we thanked Manny for his hospitality, said goodbye to everyone, and left the estate.

My perusal of the map agreed with Brownie’s experience with the Wasteland. We had another day and a half of travel to get to Whinnycrest. Fortunately, we would be passing through a small settlement called Fetlock Flats on the way. At least we would have another night in a bed, although I don’t think it would stand up to Manny’s accommodations.

The first few hours of travel passed without incident. Silver and I ended up trotting next to each other the entire way. I couldn’t resist the urge to keep looking at her and trying it not to make it obvious to the others. Of course, it was Flower who told me I was wrong.

“Hey, Dust! If cameras were still a thing, I’d say to take one since it’ll last longer,” she said with a snicker. Both Silver and I turned bright red.

One trotted up next to me and cleared his throat. “Mister Dust, I don’t mean to be a pain, but can I ask you some questions?” he asked hesitantly. “Alone?”

“Sure thing, One. Silver, excuse me,” I said, brushing her cheek before walking away. One and I slowed our pace, leaving some space between us and the rest of our group. “What can I do for you, One?”

“Mister Dust, I don’t know how to say this right. I don’t like being out here with you guys,” he said, his gaze shifting uncomfortably.

“One, what do you mean? Did one of us do something to annoy you?” I asked, hurt by the implication that we may have done something to mistreat him.

“No… no… it’s not that. You ponies aren’t the problem. It’s, like, everything else,” he said. He started and stopped several times, having trouble picking out the right words. “When I was living with Daddy, Two, and Three, it was just us. Now Daddy wasn’t always nice to us, but nothing bad happened until the end,” he said, starting to sob at the end.

“And now, One?” I asked, trying to draw him away from the thoughts of his father.

“I don’t know, Dust. It’s just that, like, everypony else is, like, um, mean to each other. I mean, look at what has happened to us in the few days since I left. The ponies at Dirtpatch wanted to shoot me on sight, the ghouls in New Flankfurt, Muddy trying to kill you, Manny trying to kill Leafy, Leafy wanting to do the same to Manny, I don’t know if I can make it out here,” he uttered. “How do you do it, Dust? How do you face it every day?”

“One, there is no easy answer for that,” I started. Of course, he didn’t know that I had only been dealing with this for really a year and I had a light at the end of the tunnel. I knew I would be going back up above the cloud cover one day, regardless of what Muddy and Midnight implied. “All I can say for sure is that you find some good friends and surround yourself with them, and you can face all the rest together.”

“Dust, do you think we will always be friends? Me, you, Flower, Silver, and Brownie?” he said between light sobs.

“Yeah… yeah, I think so, One,” I said. I hated lying to the stallion, but what was I going to say? That we wouldn’t be friends forever? That would devastate the poor stallion. Of course, I couldn’t tell the poor pony that I wouldn’t be around forever, and that it would be ending sooner rather than later.

“And you won’t leave me like Daddy, Two, and Three did?” he added, openly sobbing now.

I placed a hoof around his shoulder. “One, I can’t speak for the others, but I will tell you that I will do everything in my power to be your friend for as long as possible,” I stated. One gave me a weak smile in return. Now I felt shitty.

About another hour later, Fetlock Flats first appeared on the horizon merely as a speck. As we drew closer, I saw that it followed the typical Wasteland motif: rusted corrugated metal, withered wood, and pieces of scrap thrown together to make functional, if not aesthetically pleasing, buildings. I did have to give the Wasteland one thing. The lack of variety of building materials notwithstanding, each settlement had its own unique look unlike in the Enclave where every cloud building looked like every other cloud building.

We approached the gate as the sky started to darken. We made our way to the gate slowly and cautiously. Nothing freaked out small settlements like a group of well-armed and armored ponies approaching. I stopped at the gate and looked up at the guard tower. “Pardon me, is anypony up there?” I called out.

A light brown head with a black mane appeared over the railing on the tower. “Yesh, I’m here,” he slurred, punctuated by hiccups. He took a swig from a bottle he held in his left hoof.

“Can we enter your town, please?” I asked, straining to maintain eye contact.

“I dun, dun, dunno. I’m shup, shup, shup… I need to protect the town,” he struggled to respond.

“It’s been a long day and we just need a place to grab a bite to eat and someplace to stay. Can you please let us in?” I pleaded.

“Ummmm, no? The sheriff told meeee, if I shcrew thish up, um, whadidhe shay again?” he said, while tapping his forehead.

“Oh, for Celestia’s sake, just open the damn door,” Flower yelled out in frustration.

“I’ma, I’ma, I’ma… what do you ponies want again?” he asked. He disappeared behind the railing with a thud. “Ouch.”

“Is anypony else up there?” I yelled, hoping somepony else responded.

“Nope, jush me,” he said, not yet returning to view.

I turned to the rest of the group. “Alright, we need to get somepony else here to talk to. This pony is too drunk to deal with. Flower keep an eye on the guard, please?” I said, drawing my shotgun. “Everypony else, get ready to jump.”

I fired one shot into the air away from the settlement. After reholstering the shotgun, I turned my attention back to the tower. “What the fuck wash that?” the drunken voice cried out. I heard some scuffling and the upper half of the pony reappeared behind the railing. He was fumbling with his rifle, trying to aim it at us. I tensed, readying myself to jump out of the way of return fire.

The guardpony rested the stock of the rifle on the railing. He reached down towards his left hoof and bit down on the top of the bottle. “What the? Why dinn’t my gun fire?” he asked as he looked at the bottle. Reaching over with his other hoof to inspect the bottle more closely, he knocked the rifle off the railing and it clattered to the ground in front of me. “Awww, my whis, whish, whisk… my drink!” he cried out. He leaned over the railing. “Um, would ya mind toshin’ that back up here?” I looked at Brownie stifling a giggle. If this weren’t so aggravating, I probably would be laughing harder.

The guardpony fell back onto his haunches with a thump. “Oh man, I saved up for a month for the Wild Peg, Poog, Pig…. that bottle,” he moaned. He thumped his hooves down and seemed surprised by the sound of the bottle hitting the wooden railing. WIth a quizzical look on his face he looked at his hoof. “My whishkey!” he cried out in glee and finished the rest of the bottle.

“Scrub, the fuck is going on up there? What was that gunfire?” an authoritative female voice shouted from the other side of the door.

“Nothing, shur, shar, sheriff,” he called back now leaning over the railing.

“Luna be damned, Scrub, are you drunk on duty again?” the mare yelled out in frustration.

“No, sheriff, I’m jush…” he started to say as he slumped over and started snoring softly.

“For crying out loud, third time this month,” the sheriff muttered.

“Excuse me, sheriff? Can you please let us into town? We need to find somewhere to stay tonight,” I yelled out through the door.

“Hold on a second,” the sheriff said. I heard hoofsteps climbing up a set of steps and soon saw a blue face with a golden mane peer over the railing next to Scrub. And I wish I knew what was up with Wasteland pony sheriffs and their stetsons. “Before, I let you all in, who are you and where are you headed?”

“My name is Dust Cloud, and these are my friends, Wilted Flower, Brown Root, Silver Lining, and One,” I said while gesturing to each of my friends. After introducing One, I saw a confused look appear on the sheriff’s face. “It’s a long story. And we are heading to Whinnycrest.”

“Sheriff Seven Stars, nice to meet you,” she introduced herself. “No one heads to Whinnycrest. Not since it was overrun by ghouls. What business do you have there, if you don’t mind my asking?”

“We are headed for the stable that is allegedly there. We’re looking for an acquaintance of mine who I have good reason to think is heading there. Maybe you’ve seen him; a yellow pegasus with a green mane?” I answered. I didn’t see any reason to hide our goal. Besides, we could probably get some good information from her, this being the settlement nearest Whinnycrest.

“Never heard of any stable at Whinnycrest and what the hell you looking for a featherbrain for?” the sheriff asked with a sour tone and a grimace. Featherbrain? Damn dirtponies. I almost forgot pegasi are not generally accepted down here. “You know what, nevermind. I probably don’t want to know. He didn’t come through here, so unfortunately, I got nothing to tell you. But sure, you can come in for the night. Start any trouble, though, and I’ll kick you out on your flank so fast…”

“We understand, Sheriff,” I said nodding.

“Deputy Brick, please open the gate for these ponies. Then take Scrub’s place till he sleeps it off,” she said to a pony behind the door. She turned and I heard the sound of hoofsteps down the stairs. While that was happening, a scraping noise emanated from the door. The hinges of the doors squealed as they protested being opened.

We thanked a small brick red earth pony with a gray mane who was waiting on the other side. He simply nodded back at us as we heard the door closed behind us. Taking another look back, I saw another pony that looked exactly like the first. “Dust Cloud, that’s Deputy Brick and Deputy Mortar,” the sheriff said as she reached ground level. “I have to head back to the Sheriff’s Office with Deputy Mortar anyway, so we’ll show you to the inn.”

We trotted through Fetlock Flats and got an impromptu tour. The general store was closed since it was near dark, but Sheriff Seven Stars assured me they would reopen at dawn. We saw the small cafe, closed now since the owner was also the wife of the barkeeper and served the food at the bar at night. We approached a small building marked with a star. “And here’s my office. Deputy, will you continue on to the inn with these ponies,” she asked her underling. Deputy Mortar responded with a tip of his hat which fell off his head and landed at Brownie’s hooves.

Brownie reached down to get it for him. When he had it gripped in his mouth, a red flash lit up the darkening town. “What the fuck?” I exclaimed as I around for the source of the unusual light. Deputy Mortar was aglow with a red energy that seemed to be burning from within. His brick red flesh was turning a bright pink and his entire body disintegrated into a glowing pink ash and collected at a pile at Brownie’s hooves.

Flower was the first to react. “Sniper! Take cover!” she shouted out as she dove for cover behind the corner of a nearby building. All the ponies in the area were fleeing as I looked for a defensive position. The closest place I could find was the sheriff’s office. I dove for the doorway and tucked and rolled into the office itself. Afterwards, I scurried to hide behind the wall next to the door.

The sheriff had already taken up a position on the other side of the door. “What the fuck is going on?” she yelled at me through her teeth clenched on the firing bit of her revolver. “You ponies just arrived to town and now we are dealing with a sniper that has already killed my deputy! Why do I think those two events are related?” A few stray energy rounds streaked past us through the open door of the office. The sizzle as they impacted the rear wall was accompanied by the smell of burning wood. “If we survive this, you have a lot of questions to answer.”

Slightly peeking around the edge of the door frame, I noticed that all of my friends had found cover positions from the incoming fire. “Flower! Can you get a bead on the sniper?” I yelled.

“What do ya think I’ve been tryin’ ta do? Every time I stick my head out, I get shot at,” she screamed back through her clenched teeth.

“Alright. I’m going to give you a distraction. I need you to find the source of the fire,” I called out while holstering my weapon.

“What do you think you’re doing, Dust?” the sheriff asked.

“I’m gonna draw the sniper’s fire by giving him a clear target. Hopefully, he’s not that good of a shot,” I said with a nervous laugh.

Taking another quick look around the edge of the door, I picked out several spots that would provide me with cover from incoming fire. “Flower, get ready!” I shouted, steeled myself, and took a deep breath.

When I finally felt ready, I bolted out of the door to the sheriff’s office and headed for a cart that was off to my left. I had made it a half dozen steps and was starting to feel confident when the first shot passed right behind my head. After diving and rolling behind the cart, I braced myself against it and caught my breath.

“Flower, please tell me you got a read on the sniper’s position,” I yelled out across the street.

“Nope, Dust. Sorry. I need more time!” she hollered back.

Well, fuck. Looking across the street, I tried to find my next point of cover. There was a small alleyway between two of the shacks that made up the town, so I decided to aim for that. “Get ready, Flower!” I screamed. With a leap, I started galloping across the street. “This was a bad idea! This was a bad idea! This was a bad idea!” I repeated over and over again as I crossed the street as quickly as possible. Halfway across, I tripped in a rut in the ground and stumbled. I managed to keep my footing and resumed my gallop. However, the stumble proved to be a lifesaver. An energy round passed right in front of my face. I could feel the heat of the energy as it passed within a few inches of my snout. The close call motivated me to squeeze a little more speed out of my hooves as I skidded to a halt inside the small alleyway.

I was panting heavily at this point. “Please… tell… me… you… got… it….” I squeezed out between my rapid breathing.

“Nope, sorry…. He’s not in town, though! Only one more place to check. Just one more time, Dust!” Flower yelled back.

“Celestia! Luna! What did I do wrong?” I screamed out in frustration. “OK, Flower, one more time. Get ready!”

I thought about going back to the cart, but I didn’t want to be so predictable. Scanning the city around me, I found my last point of cover. Unfortunately, it was going to be the longest sprint yet. My target was a rusted old skywagon that was sitting outside the general store. It was going to be a fifty or sixty yard dash. Taking a few deep breaths, I prepared for, hopefully, my last run.

I took off. A few steps into the open I slipped on some loose dirt. I fell face-first onto the ground and did a somersault. When my back slammed into the ground, stars filled my vision and the pain started to burn from several point on my body. The wind was knocked out of me and I struggled to catch my breath. All of that was cleared from my thoughts when the dirt in front of me puffed up after an energy round impact. I stumbled to my feet and tried to run. My right, front leg refused to cooperate and I was reduced to a fast limp. On one of my steps on the injured leg, my knee buckled and I stumbled again. This time I did not fall to the ground, but I felt an intense heat pass right over my head. Shortly afterwards, it was followed by the smell of burning hair.

I couldn’t stop running. I had to get to cover, unless I wanted to end up like Deputy Mortar. The sniper wasn’t taking any more chances. I don’t know how much ammo he had, but he was burning through it Energy rounds were pelting the ground in front me, passing by my face, and impacting objects behind me. I was so distracted avoiding rounds by zig-zagging across the settlement, I nearly missed my cover. After performing a quick u-turn, I slid up next to the skywagon.

“Flower, please tell me you got him this time!” I yelled back in her direction.

“Yes, ah did! He’s in the mountains out there,” she shouted back. “And now,” she said more quietly to herself. The booming report of her sniper rifle sounded and echoed against the buildings. “Luna be damned, I missed!” An eerie silence filled the town. “Dust, ah think it’s safe fer now. I think I got him, but it was a glancing shot. He dropped into cover and I haven't seem him yet.”

“All you ponies! My office, now!” Sheriff Silver Star ordered through heaving breaths. Her eyes were wide with anger. “Somepony has some explaining to do!” she grumbled through grinding teeth. "Except you Flower! Keep an eye on that sniper!"

“I’ve dealt with raiders! Radscorpions! Even the occasional manticore! But never, and I mean NEVER have I had to deal with a sniper attack. And then you ponies come into town and now my deputy is dead, the ponies in town are scared shitless, and my office is a mess,” she screamed while pacing her office. “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t just toss you out of this town on your flanks, right now?”

“Sheriff. To be completely honest with you, I don’t know why the sniper attacked your town,” I said flatly. “If I knew what was going on, I’d tell you. Is it possible Mortar had enemies?”

“Hell no. Unless you think raiders have trained snipers now. Tell me more about this pony you are chasing. Any way he is responsible?” the sheriff asked.

The sheriff was right. This was not the work of raiders. “His name is Muddy Waters,” I said with a deep sigh. “He and I had been friends for a few years. We worked together in Coltington before he tried to kill me, three times, for no apparent reason.” I saw no need to involve the sheriff in the details. “The scavenging company we work for has tasked us with his arrest.”

“And could he be responsible?” she asked.

“I don’t know. Do I think he could do something like that? Yeah, seeing as how he has tried to kill me multiple times already. But I can’t imagine why he’d take out the deputy and not me,” I replied, scratching my head.

“But you wern’t near the deputy, Dust,” Brownie interjected. “I was closest.”

“Yeah, Mister Dust. Deputy Mortar dropped his hat. Brownie bent over to pick it up and that’s when the deputy went all pink,” One said looking at me quizzically.

The thoughts in my head stopped immediately. My mind flashed back to the roof in New Flankfurt. “I will kill you and your friends… starting with the big one,” I heard in my mind. It was Muddy’s threat.

“If it was him, he wasn’t aiming for the deputy. He was aiming for Brownie,” I mumbled, my voice trailing off at the end. The realization of the situation hit me like a ton of bricks. I involuntarily dropped to my flank and the sounds in the room faded away. Assuming it was Muddy, he was now actively hunting us down. My friends were now in real danger, and it was all my fault. I had to find a way to get them out of danger and end this.

A brown hoof waving in front of my face drew my attention out of my internal debate. “Dust? Dust! Are ya still with us?” Brownie was saying while staring at me uncomfortably close to my face.

With a shake of my head, I cleared my mind. “Yeah, sorry, just thinking.” I surveyed the room and saw my friends there. If there was any chance that Muddy was the one responsible for the attack, I had to take care of it.

“Sheriff, we’ll go investigate the sniper,” I said flatly. Everypony in the room turned their head simultaneously to look at me. The sheriff looked relieved. Brownie looked concerned. One had the same confused look on his face as he always did. And Silver…

“No! You are not going to go risk yourself again!” Silver screamed out stamping at the ground. “Assuming it is Muddy, and we are not sure that it is, he always gets the upper hoof on you! He has almost killed you several times already. Who’s to say it won’t happen this time! You can’t risk yourself again! There has to be some other way!” she yelled as she broke down into crying.

“Silver, this is something we have to do. If it is Muddy, then I am responsible for what happened here tonight. If it isn’t Muddy, then the town is better off with a group of prepared ponies taking care of this and not some random settlers,” I tried to explain. Silver bolted from the room, still crying.

“We’ll leave later in the morning tomorrow and take care of it,” I said to the ponies left in the room. “Now, if you’ll excuse me,” I said and left the sheriff’s office.

Silver hadn’t made it very far as she was sitting on a small bench just outside the sheriff’s office. She was still crying. I walked over to her and placed my hoof back around her shoulder, “Silver, this really isn’t safe. Can we at least move somewhere not in the direct line of fire in case the sniper gets any ideas?” She weakly nodded and I walked her to the town’s bar.

The small bar smelled of sweat and stale beer. It was dimly lit and the floor had a slightly sticky film on it. I found a small booth off in one corner and led Silver to it.

“I’ll be right back,” I said giving her hoof a small squeeze.

I made my way over to the bar. The bartender was a amber colored unicorn stallion with a deep brown mane. He was busy cleaning some glasses in his magical field. Why did it seem like all bartenders were unicorns?

“So, you’s the one whose scarin’ away my customers,” he grumbled as I approached.

“Not exactly a fair assessment, barkeep,” I shot back defensively. “The sniper might have been trying to take out the deputy. In either case, can I get a couple drinks? Can I get a Sparkle Cola and a shot of Wild Pegasus, please?”

“Yeah, sure, whatever,” he grumbled as he prepared the drinks. I hoofed over the requisite number of caps, with a nice tip, and the barkeep was helpful enough to levitate the drinks to our table.

To my surprise, Silver took the shot of Wild Pegasus and took the whole shot in one gulp. She even slammed the empty shot glass down on the table and finished with a gasp. I stood there with my mouth agape. Silver saw me and gave me a mean look. “What?” she snapped at me.

“Nothing,” I said, shaking my head back to my senses. “Just didn’t expect you to do that.”

“Dust, let’s not beat around the bush here,” she said with an exasperated sigh. “Why are you so hung up on getting Muddy, even if it means you risk getting yourself killed?”

“Silver, this is not about me,” I said shaking my head. “I am doing this to protect you and everypony else. Muddy has threatened to kill you all and I doubt that he will just stop if we stop. We are a threat to him and whatever plans he has for the future. I know too much, and by extension, so do you all.”

“I don’t know, Dust,” she said leaning into my shoulder. “But we could find somewhere to settle down. The ponies there could help protect us.”

“I wish it were that easy, Silver. I really do,” I said leaning into her in return. “I don’t want anypony getting hurt because of me, and if we don’t get Muddy now, he will hurt somepony.”

“What if it isn’t Muddy?” she asked.

“Well, then it’s no different than any other day down here,” I said shrugging. “If it wasn’t the sniper, it would be raiders, radhogs, bloatsprites, you name it. At least this time, I’m not trying to do it alone.”

“I’m still scared, Dust,” she mumbled.

“So am I, Silver,” I said while gripping her tighter.

We ordered a small meal of canned vegetables for dinner. After gulping down the food in short order, we spent a while in the bar just holding each other. After a while, we both decided getting some sleep would be a good idea. Especially since we had a long walk the next day. Passing by the sheriff's office, I noticed another pony had taken up a sniping position on the roof and was watching the mountains. We worked our way back to the Inn to find that Brownie had already negotiated rooms for the five of us.

“And you tell that friend of yours that I don’t know how he talked me into a free room, but not to try it again,” the innkeeper grumbled. I couldn’t help but to giggle a little bit.

The room, after spending the night at Manny’s, wasn’t anything spectacular. At least it was a lumpy mattress on a rusted bed frame, and not just a pile of straw in the corner. Silver and I wasted no time crawling into bed and cuddled next to each other. It wasn’t the best I’d been in, but it definitely beat a bedroll on the ground somewhere. The warmth of her body next to mine was relaxing. After a brief moment, I felt Silver’s breathing slow as she fell asleep.

Very carefully, I extricated myself from the bed we were sharing. Quietly, I made my way to the corner of the room where we had stashed our saddlebags and threw mine over my back. I felt bad lying to Silver, but there was no way I was going to risk my friends’ lives again. Taking care of the sniper, assuming it was Muddy, was a job I had to take care of alone.

Slowly closing the door with a soft click, I left the inn. Knowing it was rather unlikely, I still checked with the general store to see if I could pick us a few extra healing supplies. Without Brownie and Flower, if anything went wrong, I’d be on my own. My assumption was correct and the store seemed closed for the night, but I saw a light on inside. Peering in through the window, I saw a pony stocking shelves. I knocked on the door and convinced the pony to let me in. We haggled on some medical supplies to bolster my stock. I was rather proud of the price I was able to negotiate, especially the value I got for some of the fresh produce we got from Manny.

Having accomplished everything I wanted before leaving, I simply made my way to the gate. Hopefully, my friends wouldn’t miss me until the morning and wouldn’t try to come look for me. As I drew near the gate, I simply nodded at Deputy Brick and he opened the gate for me. The baleful look he gave me filled me with guilt. All I could do was turn my head away in shame. I stepped through the gate and I heard it slam behind me and the lock slide back into position. Looking towards the mountain range the sniper had taken his shots from, I turned to head in that direction.

I felt horrible lying to my friends, but I needed to do this alone. I couldn’t risk anypony else on this, and Muddy had made it very clear to me that my friends would be killed first to teach me a lesson. At least if somepony died, it would just be me. But if Muddy was as sadistic as I thought he was, he would just hurt me badly and not outright kill me. He wanted me to suffer for some reason.

A pony clearing his voice behind me made me jump a little. I turned toward the source of the sound. Several ponies emerged from the darkness near the wall surrounding the town. As they drew closer, I made out the forms of Brownie, Flower, One, and Silver.

Silver glared at me with death in her eyes. “And just where do you think you’re going?”

Oh, shit.

Level Up!

Skills: Barter, 15

Perk Obtained: Fleet of Foot: Those pegasus instincts must still be kicking in. Gain +1 to agility when your enemy is using a long range rifle.

Author's Note

I have to say, this was the hardest chapter for me to write so far. But, here it is! I hope you all enjoy it!

Chapter 13 - Judgements

Chapter 13 - Judgement
“When you judge others, you do not define them, you define yourself.”

We all stood silently in the moments following One’s attack on the would-be assassin. One had not moved from behind the skywagon, having retched several times. The last few sounded more like dry heaves, which made sense seeing as how his whole stomach was probably splattered on the ground.

Flower and Brownie had been inseparable with Flower providing first aid on Brownie’s, thankfully, superficial wound. She had not wasted a healing potion or even any of our magical bandages, opting instead for some clean cloth and pressure to stem the wound.

Silver and I worked silently taking care of what needed to be done. Together, we carefully lifted the inert body of the injured pony inside of the skywagon. Blood was dripping in an unending stream from has shattered snout. His breathing was labored and he gurgled with every breath. I tried to lay him down in a way that allowed the blood to drain out of his body instead of him drowning in it.

After squaring away our passenger, I walked quietly behind the skywagon. One was lying prone near a puddle of his own vomit. His sobs wracked his body and he was gasping with every breath. His charred horn was still shooting sparks and emitting a stream of smoke. Given the appearance, I didn’t know if he was crying because of what he did, the pain from his burnout, or both.

“One,” I said gingerly. “It’s Dust. How are you doing buddy?”

He picked his head up and I saw tears streaming down from his bloodshot eyes, and snot was dripping from his nose. “Mister Dust? How is the pony?”

“He’s not good, One,” I said gently. One responded with a redoubling of his crying. “One, you did what was necessary. If you hadn’t done that, Brownie would be dead. And who knows if he would have killed any of the rest of us.”

“But Dust, I never wanted to kill anypony,” he said punctuated by sobs. “I’m a good pony. Good ponies don’t kill other ponies.”

I gave a half-hearted chuckle. “One, things aren’t that simple,” I started while placing my leg over his shoulder. “Sometimes, good ponies have to do bad things.” I debated sharing the next piece of information with One but figured it would do more good than harm. “One, I’ve killed other ponies before. They were trying to hurt my friends and I had to kill them protect my friends.”

“But Daddy said that good ponies don’t hurt other ponies,” he said looking up at me. “If I didn’t do anything wrong, then why do I feel so bad, Mister Dust.”

“One, you never get used to killing somepony,” I said with a sigh. “I still feel bad when I have to do it. And I try everything I can to avoid it. But sometimes it’s necessary. And even to this day, when I kill, I still feel like I’m going to throw up also,” I added with a small laugh. “Listen, One, we need to get going soon. The pony is in bad shape and we need to get him back to Fetlock Flats. Can you get inside the sky wagon?”

“Sure thing, Mister Dust,” he said, laced with melancholy.

I helped him to his hooves and inside the sky wagon. The inside now had a rather unpleasant coppery odor. The assassin’s blood had started to pool around his head. Once One got inside with me, he glanced at the assassin’s body. He dropped his head instantly and took a position as far from him as possible.

“One, are you going to be alright?” I asked, placing a hoof on his shoulder.

“I’ll be OK, Mister Dust,” he said with a sniffle. “I think.”

I gave one a small smile and a pat on his back. After leaving the interior of the skywagon, I made my way to the front where Silver had started to attach the harness to herself. She was fumbling with one of the straps as I rounded the front of the wagon.

“Need a hoof?” I asked, giving her a weak smile.

“Yeah, if you don’t mind,” she said with a sigh. “Whoever designed these things never envisioned a pegasus having to do it alone.” She had a point. Every time I got strapped into a sky wagon for cargo movement, it took a team of tenders to get everything in place. I basically stood there while they did all the work. “How is everypony doing?”

I began to thread one of the straps through a buckle. “One is taking this pretty hard,” I said with a sigh. “He thinks he is a bad pony. Flower is tending to Brownie. Our assassin is inside the sky wagon, unconscious. I’m OK. How are you holding up?”

“I think I’m OK,” she said, unconvincingly. “Dust, how could One do that?”

“Well, I guess he was so scared for Brownie that he was able to fight through his burnout,” I started.

“No,” she said, cutting me off. “I don’t mean physically. I mean, why did he attack that pony so brutally?”

“He doesn’t want anypony to get hurt anymore,” I said with a sigh. “He seems to think that everypony should be a good pony.”

“Oh,” was all Silver said in response.

“So, if you don’t mind my asking, how did you learn to fly one of these things?” I asked, while fastening another strap.

“Oh, I don’t really,” she said matter-of-factly. I dropped the strap I had in my mouth and the buckle clanged on the ground. “What?” she asked, aggravated.

“You’ve never actually piloted one of these things?” I asked, shocked.

“Well, once… but it was much smaller than this was and made more for cargo transport instead of passengers. Basically, it should be the same, right?,” she said with a shrug.

“Um, wooooooow,” I said sarcastically. “There’s way more to it than that.” It took a typical flyer dozens of hours of training on simulators before they really got the hang of flying personnel transports.

“Well, then why don’t you fly it,” she spit back. “Oh, that’s right, you can’t let anypony know you’re a pegasus,” she whispered.

I grunted in frustration. “Silver, you know why…”

She quickly cut me off. “Yeah, Dust, I know. You have this big secret. You always seem to have something to hide,” she said with a sneer.

“Silver, you know why I can’t…” I started, but stopped when I saw her fence tense with anger. “This isn’t about my secret, is it?”

“No, Dust, it’s not,” she growled. “I’m still pissed at you for trying to sneak away. Probably even more so now. What would you have done if you faced this assassin by yourself? Assuming you made it past the rockslide, the crumbled path, the bridge…”

“I know… I would probably be dead. Don’t you think I know that!?” I said, more harshly than I intended. “Look, we need to get this pony back to Fetlock Flats. Can we finish this later once this is taken care of?”

Silver sighed. “Sure, Dust. Whatever,” she said dejectedly.

Brownie and Flower had already made their way inside the sky wagon. After checking with Silver to make sure she was ready, I got inside and closed the door. The entire wagon shook and I felt a rising sensation. From behind me, I heard a loud gulp. Turning around, I saw Brownie hiding his head under his hooves, and what little of his head I could see had a greenish tint to it.

“Brownie, are you OK?” I asked, trotting over to him.

“Eeyup, Dust, ah’m…” he started to say, which was then punctuated by a dry heave. “Um, nope. Ah feel like ah’m gonna be sick.”

“Brownie, please tell me you don’t get airsick?” I asked.

“Ah guess so,” he said with a nod. “First time in a sky wagon.”

Frantically looking around the cabin of the sky wagon for a pail of some kind, my eyes settled on a small container holding paper bags. The outside of the container had a drawing of a pony with its tongue sticking out and spirals around its head. I grabbed one with my teeth and found it had a waxy lining. I offered it to Brownie. “Here you go, Brownie,” I said.

“Thanks, Dust. Ah appreciate it,” he said as he dry heaved again.

After several minutes of flight, the sky wagon dropped erratically. Everypony was jostled around the cabin. I watched as Flower hit her head against the wall. “Ouch! What the fuck is goin’ on?” she yelled, rubbing her head.

“I have no idea,” I said, shaking my head. “Everypony hold on to something!”

The cabin was jostled again and I lost my grip on the rail I had grabbed. I rolled towards the cabin door and slammed into it. The wind was knocked out of me and I had trouble getting my breath. From behind me, I heard the sound of straining metal followed by a metallic ping.

The door flew open behind me and I fell out of the opening. Grabbing onto the edge of the floor with my two hooves, I held on for dear life. “Somepony help me!” I screamed.

Looking into the cabin, everypony else was still holding onto something for balance. The wagon leaned towards the side that I was dangling from. My hooves started slipping along the metal floor. “Somepony, please help!” I screamed. Still, nopony could move. My right hoof slid clear of the floor. My body swung as my weight became entirely supported by my left hoof, which had continued to slide towards the edge.

I watched in terror as my left hoof slid clear of the floor and I felt the all too familiar freefall sensation. “Noooooo!” I screamed as I felt my body descend in open space. And then I suddenly hit the ground, the wind slightly being knocked out of me.

“What the hell?” I asked as I looked up and saw that the sky wagon was only several feet above the ground. I could see Silver was struggling with landing the wagon. The trickiest part of any flight was the landing. It was swaying in both directions as she tried to gently lower it to the ground.

Eventually, Silver got the cart on the ground with a loud thud. From inside the cabin, I heard all my friends fall to the floor, each of them grunting. Shortly afterwards, all of them crawled out of the cabin and fell to the ground. “Thank Celestia! Sweet, sweet ground!” Brownie said, kissing the dirt.

“Ummm, Brownie, I’m over here,” Flower said with a snicker, still lying on the ground. “Then again, after what you did back in there, I may not want ta go anywhere near yer mouth.”

“Sorry about that everypony!” Silver called out from the front of the wagon. “It’s been a long time since I’ve flown a wagon. Can someone help me out of this harness, please?”

“I got it ponies,” I said as I uneasily got to my hooves. I walked to the front of the wagon and began to loosen the straps holding Silver into the harness.

“Is everypony, OK?” she asked as I removed the first strap.

“I think they’ll be fine,” I said, working on the second strap. “Everypony just got a little jostled. For somepony who has only flown a wagon once before, you didn’t do a bad job,” I said with a half-grin. My first time piloting a wagon in the simulator I crashed and lost all ponies on board. “Brownie, Flower, One… are any of you good to go get the doctor?”

“On it,” Brownie called out, already galloping towards the gate.

Silver had set us down about thirty yards away from the main gate just outside of town. “Not a bad landing job after all,” I said with a whistle. A small grin formed on Silver’s face. “Be right back… I’m going to go check on our would be assassin.”

I trotted into the cabin of the wagon. It reeked of the pungent odor of vomit, mixed with the coppery smell of blood, and the sour smell of urine. “Geez, you guys did a job in here,” I said rhetorically. A small cough came from the back corner of the wagon.

I trotted over the prone, brown body of the assassin. “Are you OK?”

“What the fuck do you think?” he said with a weak growl. “Your little dumbass almost killed me with a rock.” The pony coughed, adding to the still growing blood pool. His eyes rolled up into his head and he passed out once again. I checked his vitals. His pulse was weak and thready and his breathing was shallow and still had a gurgle to it.

I trotted outside of the skywagon. Flower and One made eye contact with me and I returned a scowl. One looked away with a deep sigh. Flower nodded to me and trotted over to him and talked very quietly with him. I rejoined Silver at the front of the skywagon.

“How’s the assassin holding up?” Silver asked, having been interrupted from preening her feathers.

“Not good. He came to just long enough to curse us out again, and then passed out,” I said, shaking my head. “Brownie went to get the doctor, but I’d be surprised if our friend there made it out of this OK.”

Silver’s expression turned dark. “Dust, do you think One will be OK?” she asked softly.

“I hope so, Silver,” I said with a sigh. “I hope so.”

A little while later, I heard a group of hoofsteps getting closer and the screeching of the metal gate sliding open. I saw Brownie, a cream colored unicorn mare wearing a white lab coat, and Sheriff Seven Stars galloping towards us. I trotted out to meet them.

The cream colored unicorn trotted right up to me and stopped. “Where is he?” she asked, her voice full of urgency. I pointed towards the skywagon and the unicorn mare trotted over and and into the wagon.

“Don’t mind Dr. Syringe,” Sheriff Seven Stars said angrily. “She uses her talents on everypony whether they deserve it or not, whether she knows it or not,” she said loudly while looking at the skywagon door.

A muffled voice came back from the skywagon. “Sheriff,” Doctor Syringe yelled back, “I have a pony to save!”

“You’re wasting your time!” she yelled back. “He’s might die anyway since he allegedly killed Deputy Mortar!”

“Not! Now! Sheriff!” the doctor yelled back. “We can have this argument, again, later!” she added with a huff.

The sheriff kicked a small rock nearby. “Darn fool,” she said in a huff. “Healing a pony that will probably be executed anyway is a waste of time and resources.”

“Allegedly killed Deputy Mortar?” I asked, shocked.

“Well, what did you expect?” she responded. “That I would take it on your word only?”

“Everypony watch out! Emergency coming through!” Doctor Syringe yelled from inside the wagon. The unconscious body of the assassin was levitated out of the wagon enveloped in a purple magical field. The doctor followed shortly behind, her horn glowing the same color.

“Now what do you think you’re doing, Doc?” the sheriff asked.

“Sheriff, right now, he is my patient,” the doctor said in a huff. “Later, you can have him as your suspect, condemned, or whatever you wish to label him. Now move!”

The sheriff growled back but grudgingly moved out of the way. “Damn, fool!” she growled. “Maybe wasting her time and resources on that kind of pony. I better go check him out before he comes to.” The turned towards the gate, but then turned to me. “By the way, don’t leave town. I still need to investigate what happened.”

“Say, what now?” I gasped in shock. “You need to investigate what?”

“The attempted murder, of course,” she said matter-of-factly. “As far as I know, that pony was just some innocent pony you stumbled across. He may not have been the pony that attacked us earlier.” The sheriff turned around and trotted back into town.

“Did she just say what I think she did?” I muttered. “Does she really think we tried to murder than pony? And then bring him back here?” An uncomfortable silence was the only answer everypony else could give. “Alright.. Flower, Silver, Brownie… take One back to the inn. I’m going to go to the doctor’s office and see what’s going on.”

Everypony nodded and we headed for the gate. A new dark green earth pony mare greeted us at the gate. She must have been informed about us and let us pass by without a problem. Once inside, we split up and headed to our individual destinations.

The doctor’s office was a nondescript wooden shack. The only hint of the purpose of the building was the pink and yellow medical box mounted next to the front door. Man… the advertising ponies back above the clouds needed to learn a lesson from the ponies that designed the Ministry logos. Those things were over a century old and you still saw them everywhere.

After entering the building and closing the door quietly behind me, I was hit by the smell of antiseptic and blood. It was an odd mixture. A blood red unicorn mare with a blue mane was sitting behind a desk. A pen and her horn were both engulfed in a pink magical field. She was writing something down on a paper attached to a clipboard.

“How can I help you?” she asked, not even picking her head up from her paperwork.

“I’m looking for the sheriff and the new patient that was brought in just a few moments ago,” I asked.

A muffled voice shouted from a room behind her. “Sheriff, not now!” Doctor Syringe yelled. “Once I get him stable, you can pull all the voodoo you want on him. But not a moment sooner!”

“Doc… this pony may have killed my deputy, and allegedly attacked one of the travellers that came the other day,” Seven Stars said, barely audible. “I need to do this now so I can possibly close this case.”

“Seven, why do we always have this same fight?” Syringe responded.

I knocked on the door and then popped my head in. “Mind if we join you two?” I asked. The two ponies nodded. “I couldn’t help but to hear you two, what’s going on?”

Doctor Syringe was the first to respond. “The ol’ Sheriff here wants to read this ponies mind,” she said, shaking her head. “But he is in no condition to survive such an invasive procedure.”

“Wait,” I said. “What do you mean, read his mind?”

Sheriff Seven Stars removed her stetson to reveal a horn. “My special skill is memory magic,” she said, tapping her horn. “When I need to know the truth, I just read a pony’s mind. Hasn’t failed me yet. And after the last twenty four hours we’ve had around here, I want to wrap this up quickly.”

“So, wait, you’re going to read this pony’s mind to see if he is guilty?” I asked, leaving my mouth agape. “Can’t he lie?”

“Worst case scenario,” Seven Stars said, shaking her head, “is that the picture is unclear or incomplete.” The sheriff took a short pause. “I will also be reading your friend’s mind to see what happened up on that mountain.”

“You don’t believe us that he,” I said, gesturing towards the unconscious pony, “attacked us?”

“Dust,” she answered, shaking her head, “I’ve learned in many years of being a lawpony, not to trust anypony. Doc, you let me know the instant he is strong enough.” The doctor shook her head in affirmation. “Dust, bring me to your friend.”

The sheriff followed me back to the inn. “Sheriff, before we get to the inn, I think there is something you should know,” I started. “One is not a normal pony. He is the result of cloning, and mentally he is more like a colt than a stallion.”

“Cloning?” she said, shocked. “Where the fuck in the Wasteland does anypony have the gear to do cloning?”

“Long story short, Enclave outcast continuing genetic research he was working on before he got banished,” I shot out in one breath.

“You’re right, that is short,” she said with a chuckle. “Why are you telling me this?”

“I just want to make sure he gets a fair shake,” I said with a frown. “He’s had a rough time.”

“Dust, as long as he didn’t do anything wrong,” she said with a knowing look, “he has nothing to worry about.”

But would she see his overreaction as right or wrong?

We walked in the inn and the innkeeper just gave me an icy stare. Brownie must have amused himself with negotiations again. I had to remember to ask him for some of his tricks.

“Same rooms as last night,” the innkeeper grumbled. “Just get outta my sight.”

The sheriff gave me a sideways glance. “Brownie is a very good negotiator,” I said with a giggle. “Probably talked him down to two for the price of one.” The sheriff responded simply with a nod.

After climbing the stairs to the second floor, we trotted over to One’s room. I quietly opened the door and gestured for the sheriff to enter first. When I got into the room, I saw that Brownie and Flower were huddled together in one corner. They were looking towards one of the beds, on which Silver was sitting and trying to comfort One. One had his head buried in his hooves and was crying.

The sheriff looked at me, confused. I held up my hoof telling the sheriff to just wait. “One, it’s me Dust,” I started, gently. “How are you doing?”

“Mister Dust?” he whined between sobs. He picked his head up and looked at me with tears streaming down his face. “I feel horrible.” He punctuated his statement with a sniffle.

“I’m sorry to hear that, One,” I said, giving him a pat on the shoulder. The sheriff cleared her throat. “One, the sheriff is here. She needs to see what happened on the mountain. She is going to use her magic,” I began. At the mention of magic, my friends all looked surprised. The sheriff removed her hat showing her horn. “To read your mind and see what happened. You have nothing to worry about, OK?”

“If you say so, Mister Dust,” he said between sniffles.

“One, is it?” the sheriff said, stepping towards him. “This will not hurt, but you will re-live the moment, and I may also accidentally bring up older memories. Do you understand what is going to happen?” One nodded and put his head back down on the bed. The sheriff closed her eyes. Her horn lit up in a silver magical field. A thin thread of magic snaked from her horn right to One’s head. Little pulses of light travelled both ways along the thread.

“Brownie, have you ever seen or heard of anything like this?” I asked, watching the process.

“Nope, Dust. I mean, ya figure there’s gotta be ponies out there that know memory magic,” he said, shaking his head, “but I ain’t ever seen it personally.”

“This freaks me out a little, if I may be honest,” Flower interrupted. Silver nodded in agreement.

A few moments later, the silver thread left One’s head and went back to Seven Stars’ horn. The sheriff took a few ragged breaths. “Damn. Damn, damn, damn!” she muttered.

“What’s the matter, Sheriff?” I asked.

“He was too emotional during the attack,” she said, frustrated. “It changes the perception of the event. If I were to believe his remembrance, he used a rock the size of the skywagon you all flew down here and knocked his head clean off his body. I’m gonna need to use somepony else.”

“I’ll do it,” Silver volunteered.

“Thanks, but no thanks, miss,” the sheriff said with a nod. “I prefer to pick at random so the volunteer hasn’t had time to prepare. Dust.”

“Yes, sheriff?” I responded.

“No, I mean, Dust, you will be the pony I read next,” she stated with a chuckle.

“Wait, what?” I gasped.

“I’m going to read your mind,” she said. “Are you ready?”

“Do I really have a choice?” I gasped. “I don’t like the idea of somepony else rooting around in my head.”

“I’m afraid not,” the sheriff said with a shake of her head. “Unless you want me to assume your friend here is guilty.”

I sighed deeply. “Alright, go ahead,” I said, resigned to the decision that was made for me.

The sheriff closed her eyes again and I watched as the silver thread began to extend forward from her horn. The thread approached my head slowly. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

I felt a gentle pressure on my forehead as the thread made contact with my skin. The pressure gradually increased, feeling much like a headache. Then the pressure subsided almost instantly as a gentle warmth filled my head.

The warmth of the room faded and the surrounding sounds diminished. In the distance, a bright light pierced the darkness. I was blinded by the sudden brightness. The light grew and then began to fade, leaving me standing in a hallway lined with doors every few yards.

“Where the fuck…” I muttered in shock.

“Welcome to your memory, Dust,” the sheriff said. I glanced around and saw her shimmer into existence right behind me. “The memory is a funny thing. Every time I do this, it appears differently. Some ponies it’s a series of chests. Others it’s like a old fashioned mail room. In your case, you ‘store’ your memories behind these doors.” She looked down both ends of the hallway. Something I hadn’t noticed before is that some doors were made of weathered wood and others appeared to be made of clouds. “This is a first for me though,” she said, gesturing towards one of the cloud doors. “Ain’t never seen doors made out of clouds… I wonder what it means?”

The sheriff approached one of the cloud doors and reached her hoof towards it. Her hoof passed right through. “Huh, that’s weird. Maybe I’ll just stick to the regular old doors,” she said, still clearly confused. “Let’s split up. Let me know once you’ve found the memory from the mountain.”

I approached the nearest door which happened to be of the cloud variety. I reached forward and my hoof met resistance. Shit… I hope the sheriff didn’t see that… everypony knows only pegasi can manipulate cloud based objects. After my hoof bumped the cloud door, it slowly faded out of existence.

A field of clouds appeared before me. “You ready for your first real flight, Private?” a mare’s voice called out beside me. I glanced over and saw an orange pegasus mare with a golden mane strapped into yet another skywagon. Starburst?

“Yeah, I guess so,” said a voice that sounded a lot like mine, but I didn’t say anything. “I just wish I was doing what they were,” my disembodied voice said. My field of vision shifted and I was soon watching pairs of pegasi in flight suits practicing combat maneuvers.

“Updraft, you barely passed basic maneuvers,” Starburst said with a giggle. “You knew you were always going to be flying support missions, not combat.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I responded with a groan. “Hey Starburst, what are you up to later?”

“Not much,” she said. “Just hoping Zephyr is off duty tonight.”

“Zephyr?” I asked, confused.

“Yeah, him and I went out on a date last night and I was hoping to see him again,” she said beaming.

“Oh,” I said, deflated. My heart sank and it felt like the clouds were pulled out from underneath me.

“You OK, Updraft?” she asked.

“Yeah,” I said, lying to her. “Just, um, mentally preparing for the drills.”

The cloudy door faded back into existence in front of me.

“Whatcha looking at?” the sheriff asked.

I jumped and my flank bumped into her. “Were you looking over my shoulder?”

“Yup,” she answered flatly, “it seemed like you found something interesting.”

“Nah, nothing good,” I muttered, “just a bad dream I had once.” Well, it wasn’t a complete lie. I did really want to go out with Starburst. “Let’s keep looking.”

“Uh-huh,” the sheriff said, giving me a sideways glare.

Sticking to the wooden doors, I began opening them and watching the memories behind them. One door led to the memory of my first day down in the Wasteland with Muddy. That fucking radscorpion that snuck up on us. I don’t think either one of us had galloped so fast in our lives.

The next door revealed the day I discovered my affinity for pre-war tech. Celestia! How naive I was back then. My vision blurred as the shopkeeper smacked me upside the back of my head. And then the look of elation as his once nonfunctioning terminal was working once again.

Shit… I just realized that the sheriff might stumble upon a memory of a discussion that Muddy and I had about our mission. Or worse, it could have been a memory of one of our meetings with Midnight Ink for debriefing. Shit, shit, shit.

“Hey, Dust! Is this yellow stallion, Muddy?” she called out from down the hallway.

Fuck! “I don’t know,” I said, panicked. “Let me come check it out!” I galloped down the hallway and looked in. It was Muddy and we were inside our little shack in Coltington.

“Muddy, I don’t know if I can deal with this much longer,” I muttered. “I don’t think we were prepared well enough…” I slammed the door closed.

“Dust, what’s wrong?” the sheriff asked.

“Nothing, that’s just personal,” I quickly replied. “And has nothing to do with the mountainside. But yes, that is Muddy”

“You’re right. I’m sorry for prying,” the sheriff said sullenly. “Let’s just try the next door.”

Luna be damned, that was close. I opened the next door and saw Brownie, with a knife being held to his throat. “Uh, sheriff, here it is,” I called out.

Sheriff Seven Stars galloped over and looked through the door. She watched as the events played out before her. It was weird watching such a recent memory as if it was through somepony else’s eyes. The sheriff seemed more comfortable with it. I could only imagine how many times she had done this.

Once the memory was over, she closed the door and looked at me. The space around me started to fill with a haze and then faded to black. The light retreated towards a single point and then disappeared completely. My eyes fluttered open of their own will and I watched as the silver thread withdrew from my head. It felt like something was slithering through my skin. It was not a pleasant feeling.

Once the thread returned completely to Seven Stars’ horn, she finally reopened her eyes. She collapsed to her flank and was breathing heavily.

“Sheriff, yah alright?” Flower asked, trotting over to her side.

“Yeah,” she muttered, rubbing her temples. “The spell is rough on me, but it is worth it. And it looks like our patient has some questions to answer when he comes to. Pardon me, ponies, but I gotta go rest now.” She trotted out of the door, giving me another long sideways glance before she closed the door and left.

An awkward silence filled the room. “The town is gonna kill that pony you know,” Flower said meekly, breaking the silence.

“Eeyup,” Brownie said nodding “You know we can’t let that happen, right?”

All of us turned to look at Brownie. “Umm, Brownie, did you forget that pony held a knife to your throat was going to kill you?” I asked, surprised.

“Ah know, Dust,” he said, shaking his head, “but, as much as ah hate ta say it, he was doin’ a job Not ta mention the fact he was lied ta,” Brownie argued.

“But Brownie,” Flower started to protest.

“Nope, I won’t have none of it,” Brownie interrupted shaking his head. “Ah will not be party to more pointless killin’. There’s enough of it already.”

Another awkward silence filled the room. “Alright, Brownie. I can’t say that I agree with you, but I respect your decision,” I stated flatly. “Question is, what are we going to do about it?”

“Well, first, we need ta keep the townsponies away, especially Deputy Brick,” he said. Shit, I nearly forgot about Deputies Brick and Mortar. “And then we gotta convince the Sheriff not ta carry out Wasteland justice. Ah figure ah’ll go stand guard over him tonight.”

“No, Brownie,” I said firmly, shaking my head. “I’m not going to give that pony another shot at you. He told us very clearly you were his target. I’ll go.” Brownie opened his mouth to start arguing but then decided not to argue the point. “You ponies stay here and watch over One.”

After dropping most of my gear except for my pistol, I trotted over to the doctor’s office. The shadows of the buildings were getting longer and many of the shacks and businesses were lighting their lanterns. Geez, how long did it take to go through my memories? We had gotten back to town in the early afternoon and now it was evening.

It was a quick trot and I entered the doctor’s office. The same nurse as before was working on more paperwork. “What do you want?” she asked, in a huff.

“Nothing. I’m fine,” I responded. “I’m just here to wait for the patient to wake up. I have questions I need to ask him.”

“Uh-huh,” she said, still not having looked up at me. “If I hear you disturbing the patient, I will kick you out of here so fast…”

“I know, I know,” I said dismissively. “What is it with you ponies and that phrase.”

I trotted back into the ward, which was lit only by two lanterns near the door I just came through. The beds and other furniture in the room threw long shadows. I saw that the other patients that had been here earlier in the day were all gone. Our would be assassin was still unconscious on the bed. I found a chair and pulled it over near the bed.

“Funny running into you here,” Sheriff Seven Stars said while emerging from the dark corner of the ward.

“I could easily say the same to you,” I responded, tracking her movements in the room.

“What do you think you’re doing here?” she asked.

“To be honest, making sure this pony survives until there can be a trial,” I said, measuring her response.

To her credit, she was nonplussed. “What, you thought I was going to execute him tonight?”

“The thought had crossed my mind. I mean, after what he did to Deputy Mortar,” I started to say.

“Stop right there, Dust,” she spit out at me. “You’re lucky I don’t shoot you right there. Besides, I should be the one questioning you.”

My body froze. “Wh-what do you mean?” I stuttered.

“C’mon, Dust, don’t play stupid,” she said with a knowing look. “Your memories, the cloud doors, the memory I saw. You’re a pegasus, aren’t you?”

My mind raced. What could I say here that would get her off my tail? “Yes, sheriff, I’m a pegasus.”

She cut me off before I could continue. “Enclave? Dashite?”

Here goes nothing. “Ground born. Starburst was my friend.” Here was the big gamble. Hopefully she hadn’t trotted over early enough to see the entire memory. “We found some skywagons and thought we could get them to work. They didn’t.”

Seven Stars seemed to mull over what I had just told her. “Alright, then answer this,” she said giving me that same piercing glare. “Why do you hide what you are?”

I took a deep breath. “I’m an escaped slave,” I said with a sigh. “I figured if there was a bounty it would be placed on a pegasus stallion, not an earth pony. Hiding in plain sight, you know?”

The sheriff mulled over the new information. “I can’t say that I’m completely comfortable with this,” she said shaking her head. “But you did catch Mortar’s murderer and haven’t lied to me about anything else, so I’m inclined to believe you. Do your friends know?”

“Silver, the pegasus, does,” I answered. “Other than that, that’s it. I would appreciate some discretion, please.”

“Don’t you worry, Dust,” she said with a nod. “I’ll keep your secret, but if I may put in my two bits, secrets have an ugly way of always coming out.”

“Thanks, sheriff, I appreciate it,” I said, extending my hoof for a hoofbump. The sheriff bumped back. “Now, if I may ask, what’s going to happen to our patient here.”

“Well, that’s not up to me,” she said. “Tomorrow, I’ll assemble a jury of five locals and will present the information I know. Then it’s up to them to decide guilt and punishment.” The sheriff took an uncomfortable pause. “An allowable penalty for his crimes is death.”

“Sheriff,” I said, “would it change anything if Brownie said he doesn’t wish to pursue the matter?”

“Not in this case,” she responded, shaking her head. “If it was just Brownie, I’m sure the jury would take it into consideration. However, Deputy Brick isn’t so forgiving. And to be honest, neither am I. Not after what I saw in his head.”

“Saw?” I asked.

“I went into his memory while he was unconscious right before you got here,” she said quietly. “I know.. I know.. Doctor Syringe would be furious, but this couldn’t wait. Anyway, he is the one that killed Deputy Mortar. As such, I’m sure Brick will want justice, and I can’t say I blame him.”
“Eye for an eye,” I said with a sigh. “I hate to ask, but do I have your word that nothing will happen to him,” I added while pointing towards the unconscious pony, “tonight?”

“Mister Dust,” she said solemnly, “I am first and foremost a lawpony. I will not break the law, no matter what.”

“Alright, Sheriff. Good night,” I said and left the room.

It was now fully dark outside and the only light in the town was from lanterns or torches. I slowly made my way back to the inn, needing time to think. I hoped I could trust the sheriff in keeping my secret. I really didn’t need the distraction of explaining my being a pegasus right now. I had no reason to think the sheriff would betray me, but then again, she also had no reason to help me. I guess I just had to take her at her word.

I got back to the inn and the innkeeper just scoffed when he saw me. I walked past the desk and made my way up to the rooms. I knocked on the room that Brownie and Flower were sharing. A bleary eyed Brownie answered the door.

“Brownie, sorry to wake you,” I said. “I just figured you’d want to know, there will be a trial when the pony wakes up. The sheriff confirmed that he killed Deputy Mortar. I don’t know if there’s anything we can do.”

“Eeyup,” he said with a yawn. “We’ll figure it out tomorrow. G’nite, Dust.”

“Good night, Brownie.”

I walked over to the room that Silver and I had shared.the previous night. Quietly opening and closing the door, I made my way into the room. I heard the soft breathing of Silver asleep. Making sure the door was locked, I took advantage of the privacy and eased my way out of my armor. I hadn’t removed it for days and my wings were tight. My muscles fought me as I tried to extend them as far as they could go. The room was barely big enough, but I was able to give them a good stretch. I further gave them a few good flaps to work the muscles out.

I heard a rustling from the bed. Silver had awoken and turned over. “Where do you think you’re flying off too?” she joked, while yawning and rubbing her eyes.

I giggled a little in response. “Nowhere. Just trying to work out a few kinks,” I stated, folding my wings back in. “Didn’t mean to wake you.”

“It’s alright, I don’t mind being woken up if I can see you,” she purred. “What’s going on?”

I let out a deep sigh. “The sheriff has confirmed that the pony that attacked us is the same one that killed Deputy Mortar,” I said. “Even though Brownie wants to forget all about the attack on the mountain, Deputy Brick wants justice. So does Seven Stars for that matter.”

“What are we going to do?” she asked, clearly horrified by the implications.

“I don’t know, Silver,” I said dejectedly. “Fortunately, nothing will happen until he regains consciousness. At least that gives us time to think.” I trotted over to the bed. “Is there room in there for one more?”

“I don’t know,” she said with some venom. “Are you going to try sneaking away again?”

And that’s what I was afraid of. “Listen, Silver…” I began.

“No, Dust. You listen to me,” she interrupted while placing a hoof over my mouth. “What you did last night was inexcusable. First of all, leaving Brownie, Flower, and One behind… they’re your friends. Why in Celestia’s name would you turn your back on your friends?”

“I…” I tried to say.

“No, you will let me finish,” she scolded. “When will you get it through your thick skull that your friends want to help you. They’re not being coerced, they weren’t tricked. Two of them volunteered and the other respects you almost as much as a father. And then there’s me… you claim I’m your special somepony!”

“But…” I stuttered.

“Be quiet!” she shouted. She took a few deep breaths. “If I am your special somepony, why would you leave me behind? If you feel for me the way you say you feel for me, you wouldn’t want to be without me. But you leave me here? And run off to possibly get yourself killed? And I’ll never see you again? Do you have an explanation for that?” There was a long, awkward pause between the two of us. “You can’t even answer that question?”

“Am I allowed to speak now?” I said with some level of sarcasm. The glare Silver shot at me made me recoil. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it to sound that pithy. And to answer your questions, it’s basically the same answer. I left you four behind because I care so much about you, especially you. I would rather get injured, and yes, even killed, if it means saving you and the others from the same fate. I know it’s not what you want to hear, but it’s the truth!”

“But what if you died?” she yelled. “What would I do?”

“I… I never thought of that,” I said meekly. She was right. I hadn’t put any thought into what my friends would go through had I died on my own. “I… I…” I began softly sobbing. “I just don’t want any of you to get hurt.” Where was this coming from? Why was this getting to me so deeply?

Silver climbed out of bed and wrapped her legs around me and I buried my head into her shoulder. “Dust, shhhh….” she said while gently caressing my head. “We’re your friends. We will be here whenever you need us. And if one of us gets hurt, you need to know it’s not your fault. It’s a risk we have chosen to take.” She drew back and stared me right in the eyes. “And Dust, I love you. I will be here for you, forever.” She leaned in and kissed me.

As soon as our lips touched, the world again fell away around me. The tension, fear, and anxiety of the past few days simply melted away. A warmth filled my body from nose to tail to wingtips. My wings even extended of their own free will.

I don’t remember how long we were locked in the kiss, but once we broke it, the world around me muted itself back to the dull colors of the Wasteland. Silver had a grin on her face and she rested her head against my shoulder, still wrapped in each other’s legs. I did the same.

“Does this mean I’m forgiven?” I asked.

“Not by a long shot, mister,” she answered with a giggle. I laughed back.

We broke the embrace and crawled into bed. After my abbreviated rest last night, I was looking forward to a good night’s sleep. I layed down next to Silver and wrapped my wing around her as we pulled the threadbare sheet up over us.

“I love you, Dust,” Silver mumbled as I felt her breathing slow and she fall asleep.

“I love you too, Silver,” I answered back even though she didn’t hear me. I drifted off to sleep rather quickly thereafter.

I was jarred awake by a banging on the room to the door. “Dust! Wake up!” Flower was yelling through the door.

“Hold on a second,” I groaned as worked my way out of bed. Silver stirred and rolled over, pulling the sheet back up over her. I quickly donned my armor and opened the door. Flower was pacing out in the hallway.

“Dust, we gotta move. The assassin woke up and the sheriff is starting the trial now,” Flower said quickly. “And Brownie is on his way down there now.”

“Ah, shit,” I grumbled. “I was hoping to have more time to prepare. Silver, get up! We gotta go!” I said, turning back into the room. Silver simply groaned as she made her way out of bed.

We galloped our way out of the inn and followed the stream of ponies working their way towards the sheriff’s office. It seemed like the entire town was taking time to watch the morning’s events. As we rounded the corner near the sheriff’s office, we were greeted by the throng of ponies collected in the street. Everypony was hollaring towards the sheriff’s office. The voices were so many and so loud, you could barely make out individual statements. Up on the porch of the sheriff’s office stood Sheriff Seven Stars, Deputy Brick, and the pony with a large bandage wrapped around his head. Off to the side stood five ponies, shuffling uncomfortably with their current position.

“Fillies and gentlecolts! Please calm down!” the sheriff yelled out, stomping her hooves. “There will be order!” The cacophony slowly died down as the crown calmed. “Now look, I know we haven’t needed one of these in a long time, but I will insist on everypony conducting themselves properly.

“As you all know, two days ago, the town was attacked and Deputy Mortar was killed in the line of duty,” she started. Deputy Brick lowered his head at the mention of his brother. “After interrogating both the accused himself and witnesses to other crimes, I have determined that this pony,” she said, gesturing at the injured pony, “named Sure Shot, was responsible for the shot that killed Deputy Mortar.”

“Kill him!” a pony from somewhere in the crowd called out. Several others echoed the call.

The sheriff stamped her hooves again. “That is exactly the behavior we can not have! During my interrogation, I discovered that Deputy Mortar was not the intended target of the attack, and Sure Shot was hired to kill a different pony. These are the facts of the case that I’ve discovered. Deputy Brick has chosen not address the jury, feeling the facts stand on their own merit. Is there anypony here who would speak on behalf of the accused?”

There was a short pause while ponies looked around. It was so quiet you could hear the breeze whistling through gaps in the buildings around us. Suddenly, a voice broke the silence. “Ah have somethin’ ta say, if ah may,” Brownie yelled out.

“That is your right,” the sheriff said. “For those of you who don’t know, Brown Root here is the pony Sure Shot was hired to kill. He was also the victim of other actions of the accused which we are not adjudicating today.”

Brownie trotted up to the porch and faced the crowd. “Ah know I ain’t one of ya, and I ain’t intendin’ ta minimize your lose,” Brownie started, nodding towards Deputy Brick. Deputy Brick nodded in response. “Ah ain’t arguing the facts of this case. Sure Shot did fire the shot that killed Deputy Mortar. He was aiming fer me and meant ta kill me. He was also hired ta do a job, and that job was ta kill me. As ya all can see, this entire incident revolves around me!

“Now, ah know the sheriff said we weren’t discussing other things, but this same pony tried ta kill me again up on the mountain. By all rights, ah should be bitin’ at the bit ta get justice also. But ah’m here with a different message.

“Sure Shot can never undo what he did. And ah know it doesn’t help, but he was doin’ a job. Don’t ya think that the friends and family of any pony killed by a bounty hunter wants justice? Shouldn’t the pony that hired him be the one to face that justice? Sure Shot is nothin’ more than a tool. When a pony gets killed, do we blame the weapon or the pony usin’ the weapon?

“And hasn’t there already been enough killin’? Don’t we all face enough death in the Wasteland? Raiders, radscorpions, slavers; they all take enough life on a daily basis. Do we need ta add ta that count today? Look in your hearts and have mercy today.”

The crowd exploded as Brownie’s words faded to silence. “Kill the murderer!” echoed throughout the street.

“Ponies! Calm down! Please!” Sheriff Seven Stars yelled out futily. “I need you all to calm down!” The poor sheriff’s pleas fell on deaf ears.

Two gunshots rang out. The crowd was shocked into silence. Looking around, I saw the smoking gun held in Deputy Brick’s mouth. He holstered his weapon and approached the center of the porch.

“Ponies! Listen!” the deputy called out. “I loved my brother with all my heart. And it tore me up inside when I heard he was killed. I wasn’t even left with a body to mourn, just a pile of pink ash! Did I want justice for my brother? Yes, yes I did! In fact, I wanted to be the one to pull the trigger when it was time.

“But Brown Root has made me reconsider. Am I still mad at Sure Shot? Yes, I can never forgive him for killing my brother. But he didn’t intend to. We have never tried a bounty hunter for doing their job. If it wasn’t me, then Brown Root would be dead instead. And I won’t lie, I wish he had been killed instead of Mortar. But we can’t change what has happened

“All I ask you, ponies of the jury, is to show mercy on this pony,” Brick called out. He moved next to Brownie. “For Brown Root and I, find some other way!”

The crowd began to murmur to each other. There was a general uneasiness with the speech that the deputy had just given. Some were still seeking blood and others were didn’t want to see anymore death today.

The sheriff stamped the wooden porch again. “Brown Root, Deputy Brick, thank you for your input,” she shouted above the crowd. Most of the ponies quieted down while the sheriff spoke. She turned to face the other five ponies standing on the deck. “Jury, you have heard all the evidence and the pleas of the victims of Sure Shot. It is your job to determine guilt and punishment. The maximum punishment for this crime is death.”

Slowly the five ponies walked into the sheriff’s office. The sheriff closed the door behind the last one and took up a position guarding the entrance. The ponies outside began to discuss the evidence and the information presented with each other. Each pony I could hear had a slightly different viewpoint on the case.

I pushed my way through the crowd to talk to Brownie, who was still standing on the deck talking to Deputy Brick.

“Deputy, that was an amazing thing you said just now,” I said. “Why are you willing to forego justice?”

“Brown Root inspired me,” he said, giving Brownie a half-grin. “Killing Sure Shot won’t bring Mortar back, and he didn’t mean to kill Mortar.” Brick sobbed. “At least Mortar went out serving the town, just like he wanted. And Brown Root is right, there has already been too much killing. I don’t need to add another body to the pile.”

“That was mighty noble of ya,” Brown Root said while placing a hoof on his shoulder. “You are an amazing pony.”

The sheriff nodded and then trotted to the end of the deck, looking out into the horizon. “Brownie, you’ll never cease to amaze me,” I told him.

“Eeyup,” he said with a smile.

Hours passed. The ponies had not left the area near the sheriff’s office, for fear of missing the verdict and sentence. Many ponies had sat down where they stood earlier. Others had formed small groups to discuss topics from today’s events, to routine town business. Suddenly, someone knocked from the inside of the sheriff’s office door. The door opened and the five ponies filed their way out of the office.

The collected citizenry got back to their hooves and paid their undivided attention to the jury. It was quiet enough you could hear a pin drop.

“Ponies of the jury, have you reached a verdict and sentence?” the sheriff asked.

An older blue earth pony stallion wearing an old-fashioned business suit stepped forward. “Yes we have, sheriff,” he answered dully.

“And what have you decided?” the sheriff continues with the formalities.

“In the case of Sure Shot, the charge being murder, we have found him guilty of the crime as charged,” the stallion intoned. The crowd began to murmur again, not surprised by the verdict, but now trying to guess the sentence.

The stallion cleared his throat and the town quieted down once again. “And as punishment, we have decided to order Sure Shot to community service for the rest of his lifetime,” the pony said. The crowd erupted. Some ponies were irate that Sure Shot would live. Others were complaining that community service was not enough of a punishment. The jury forepony began again, yelling to be heard over the crowd. “He shall assist the town and help defend it from any external threat, in exchange for room and board. He shall also accept no further bounty contracts.”

The crowd erupted once more. The sheriff and deputy tried to shout over the crowd and calm them down, but to no avail. The sheriff shepherded Sure Shot and the jury into her office. Deputy Brick attempted to disperse the crowd. Brownie, Flower, Silver, One, and I helped form a pony shield in front of the sheriff’s office.

It took another few hours, but the last townspony gave up and left the area. I went inside to tell the sheriff.

“Sheriff, the last pony left. It’s safe for the jury and Sure Shot to leave now,” I informed her.

“Thank goodness,” she said taking a relieved breath. “I was hoping to not have to take severe action to break up the crowd.”

“Mr. Forepony, if I may ask,” I queried the older stallion, “why did the jury spare his life?”

“It wasn’t easy, but it seemed to us that if Brownie and Brick, the most directly affected ponies, didn’t want him killed, then we shouldn’t kill him,” he said. “Besides, he is more valuable as a security officer than a corpse. Now if you don’t mind,” he said with a nod, “I think we’ll all take our leave.”

“Thank you all for your service,” the sheriff said. The jury ponies filed out of the sheriff’s office and went their own ways. “Sure Shot, I think it will be best if you spend the night here, in case any of the townsponies get any ideas.”

“Yeah, thanks… you ponies have already ruined my life,” he grumbled, “might as well make it worse.”

“These ponies saved your life. If it weren’t for them, you’d be executed right now,” the sheriff spit out at him.

“Maybe that would have been better,” Sure Shot said in a huff. “Now I’m a servant with no hope of ever getting free. Might as well just call me a slave. He trudged off into one of the cells and slumped on the bed, facing away from us.

“Ah, just give him some time,” the sheriff said, looking at Sure Shot with empathy. “Thanks for your help today, by the way. Go to the diner and tell Silver Ladle that dinner's on me tonight.”

“Thanks, Sheriff,” I said with a nod.

We all trotted to the diner. The small shack had a weird mix of the amazing aroma of vegetables and the disgusting smell of roasting meat. We all opted for a vegetable stew. When we told Silver Ladle that the sheriff would be picking up the tab, he merely scoffed. I was going to ask, but I didn’t want to get involved in what was obviously a disagreement between them.

Silver Ladle served up four bowls of stew and floated them out to our table.

“Brownie, I was really impressed today,” I said between slurps. “I never expected you to be able to turn the tide of the town.”

“Aw shucks, Dust,” he demurred, “all I did was tell everypony what I felt. It was the truth. We didn’t need another death today.”

We ate in relative silence. We were all so hungry, we barely stopped shoveling the food in our mouths. When we were nearly finished, the small door to the diner slammed open. Deputy Brick was standing in the doorway, out of breath. “Dust, you need to come down to the sheriff’s office. Now!” he yelled.

“You guys stay here, no need for all of our evenings to be ruined,” I said. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

I exited the diner and closed the door behind me. Deputy Brick was about to take off. “Wait a second, what is it?” I asked.

“You need to come down and see,” he said.

He trotted off and I trotted behind him. In short time, we found our way back to the sheriff’s office. Sheriff Seven Stars was outside on the deck, hanging her head and shaking it. The door was left open.

“Sheriff, what’s wrong?” I asked, concerned.

I noticed her face was a paler shade of blue than normal. “It’s horrible. Sure Shot killed himself,” she said, covering her mouth.

I carefully walked into the sheriff’s office. The first thing I noticed was the smell. It was a mix of the coppery stench of blood, mixed with the smell of sulfur. The sheriff’s chair was overturned behind her desk. As my eyes adjusted to the dark of the office, I saw that one of the jail cell doors had been left open. Slowly, I made my way over the cell. I was not prepared for what I saw.

On the ground of the cell, was the brown body of Sure Shot. The neck suddenly ended in a jagged mess of flesh, muscle and bone. A blood pool had started to form around the stump. A short distance away was a sawn-off shotgun. I could see the firing pin impressions on the ends of the shells, indicating that the shotgun had been fired, and recently based on the smell. Looking on the wall, I saw what I expected to find: a splatter of blood, speckled with gray brain matter and white flecks of bone.

I galloped out of the sheriff’s office and vomited up all of the stew I had managed to eat before leaving the diner. “Why did he do that?” I asked through dry heaves.

“Here, I found this near the body,” she said while handing a folded slip of paper to me.

The front side had “Dust” written on it in simple hoofwriting. I unfolded the paper and read:

“Dust, By the time you read this, I will have killed myself. You should have just left me on the mountain to die. Bringing me back to town was only ever going to end in my death, whether it was by my own hooves or the townsfolk. I can’t live as a slave, even if I’m not called such. So I have decided to give myself the only freedom I can know at this point.

“Before I go, I did need to tell you one more thing. Before Muddy left, he did tell me one thing. And I am only sharing it with you because I know it will drive you crazy and that is the last joy I will have. Muddy told me he was heading to Whinnycrest to finish preparing the best stage of his little game yet.

“Have fun obsessing on that, and see you in the afterlife.

“Asshole.”

Level Up!

Speech: 40

Perk Obtained

Please Return to the Full Upright Position - Agility +1 and Endurance +1 when riding in an aerial vehicle

Chapter 14 - Echoes

Chapter 14 - Echoes
“History rarely repeats itself, but its echoes never go away.”

I don’t know whether it was the gore of the scene laid out in front of me, or the contents of the letter, but my brain had stopped working. Simply staring at the motionless body before me, I tried to process everything that I had just been exposed to.

A hoof tapped me on the shoulder, and I jumped several inches off the floor. “What the fuck?” I yelled as I landed and nearly fell to the floor.

After regaining my balance, I looked at the pony that snuck up to me and found Silver. “Are you OK, Dust?” she said softly. “I figured I’d follow you, just in case something bad… I’m gonna be sick,” she added with a gulp as she looked behind me. Her face turned a shade of green as she bolted out of the office. I heard her retching just outside.

“Aww, c’mon!” the sheriff groaned. “Now who’s going to clean that up!”

After shaking my head to regain my wits, I walked outside. “Sheriff, how did this happen?” I asked. “I mean, how did he get a hold of a weapon?”

“Well, since he was found innocent and ordered to defend the town, I figured he should get his weapons back,” she sheriff said with a grimace. “He did not seem like the type to end it this way.” She shook her head several times. “What did the note say?” she said, breaking the silence.

“He said he was going to die either way and I should have let him die on the mountain,” I said somberly. “And that Muddy said he is heading to Whinnycrest for the, how did he put it, best stage of his little game.”

“This pony, Muddy, sounds fucked up,” the sheriff responded.

“That, Sheriff, is an understatement,” I said grimacing.

I trotted over towards Silver, who was still heaving. I grabbed her mane and held it back away from her mouth. I didn’t realize she had eaten that much before leaving the restaurant. It didn’t matter now, however, since none of it was staying down.

“For Celestia’s sake, I hope I never see anything like that again,” Silver forced out between dry heaves. “Why aren’t you nauseated by that?”

“You should see half the shit we’ve run across in raider run buildings,” I deadpanned. “This, unfortunately, is nothing compared to that.”

Silver wiped her mouth with her hoof and regained a fully upright position. “I hope I never get that accustomed to stuff like that,” she said in disgust. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that it was simply a matter of time. Thinking about it further, I was amazed that this was the first time she had seen something like this.

“Never ran across any raider camps, huh?” I asked.

“No… always steered clear of anything other than the established settlements,” she said. “Seemed safer. Anyway, what are we gonna do about Muddy?”

“C’mon, let’s get back to our friends,” I said as I started walking. “We have a plan to make.”

We walked the rest of the way through the town quietly. The town didn’t quite feel the same. Colors seemed muted, sounds seemed muffled. All I could see in my mind was the bloody stump where Sure Shot’s head used to be. I had seen similar things in raider hideouts, but the, I guess the best word was freshness, of it here had rattled me to my soul.

We got to the restaurant where Brownie, Flower, and One were busy laughing and smiling. Brownie was the first to notice our return. The expression on his face soured when he saw us. The others saw Brownie’s reaction and looked at us also. Pretty soon, everypony was wearing a sour face.

Quickly, I filled them in on the gyst of what had happened in the sheriff’s office. Brownie took it especially hard. After hearing the news, he kept stirring at what remained of his stew and didn’t look up from it for a long time. Flower kept trying to snap him out of it, to no avail. One was the only one who seemed to not be affected, simply blowing bubbles with the straw the server had given him.

“Unfortunately, we have more to talk about,” I said somberly. “I know we’ve had this talk already, but are we going to continue after Muddy? He’s prepared something for us, and I’m afraid of what it could be, especially since he refers to it as a game.”

Brownie shook his head. “I don’t see what choice we have, Dust. If we don’t bring Muddy back, then ya get in trouble,” he said. “As far as ah’m concerned, nothin’ has changed here. It’s just a little more dangerous now, is all.”

Flower, nodded. “Yeah, Dust. We got inta this ta help ya,” she added.

“And Dust, don’t take this the wrong way,” Silver interjected. “But I want Muddy brought in as much as you do for what he did to me.”

An awkward silence filled the space between us. I still wanted to ask her about what, exactly, he had done. But she had made it clear, on several occasions, that I was not to bring it up. We all finished our dinner, the only sound the clattering of our flatware on the bowls.

After dinner, we quietly made our way back to the inn. Brownie walked right past the innkeeper and up the stairs. “Looks like, I’ll be negotiating today,” I mumbled to myself. I approached the rust colored stallion behind the county.

I opened my mouth to say something but he started saying something first. “You’re rooms are already taken care of, courtesy of Deputy Brick,” he said while reaching behind the counter and handing me the keys to the rooms. “He left this for you, also.” The innkeeper hoofed over a small note.

“Thanks,” I mumbled and walked away.

Silver and One followed me up the stairs. Brownie was waiting by the door, twisting the locked knob. “Brownie, here you go,” I called out while tossing the keys to him. “See you at sunrise.”

“Thanks, Dust. I plum forgot,” he said as he fumbled with the door.

I hoofed One his key. “Thanks, Mister Dust. I am so tired, and my head still hurts. I hope sleeping tonight helps,” he whined, rubbing his left temple.

“I’m sure it will, One. Good night.” I said.

I unlocked the door to our room and gestured for Silver to walk in before me. After entering the room behind her, I locked the door behind me with a gently click. Much like the night before, I shrugged off my armor and saddle bags and began stretching my wings.

“What did the note say?” Silver asked.

“Shit, forgot all about it,” I blurted out. After folding my wings back in, I withdrew the faded paper note our of my saddle bags. I unfolded the piece of paper and read aloud.

“Dust. I can’t thank you enough for bringing my brother’s killer to justice. I wanted to blame you for it, but I realized that the only pony responsible was Sure Shot. I also want you to thank Brown Root for me. He helped me to see that revenge wasn’t the way to go. It still hurts and I miss my brother, but killing Sure Shot wouldn’t bring him back. Please see me before you leave town tomorrow (just a guess you are all heading out). I have something I want to give you. Deputy Brick.”

“Huh,” I murmured as I put the note down. “I guess Brownie was more persuasive than I thought.”

“I don’t know, Dust,” Silver said as she slid into bed. “I don’t know if justice was served here. How can a mercenary be considered innocent if he agrees to kill a pony who has done nothing wrong?”

“I don’t know, Silver,” I said, shaking my head. The truth was, I didn’t know. That was the one thing I couldn’t wrap my head around while I was down here. Had things gotten so bad for these ponies that some were willing to kill others, regardless of guilt or innocence? And did they do it with a clear conscience or were they tormented by it? Things were much clearer above the clouds.

“You coming to bed?” she asked with a yawn.

“Yeah. We have a long walk ahead of us tomorrow and we have to make it to the stable by sundown,” I said while reviewing the map on my Pipbuck. The dark green display showed that Whinnycrest was a good thirty miles or so north of here. It would take us most of the day just to make it to the stable. And if the sheriff was right, the area was overrun by ghouls. But that was a problem for tomorrow.

I slid into the bed beside Silver. The lumpy mattress was oddly comfortable, probably due to the fact that I was exhausted, mentally and physically, from the day’s events. Or maybe I was dreading finally catching up with Muddy tomorrow. What did he have waiting for us? Would I get somepony else hurt tomorrow?

Silver’s body gently warmed me, melting away the tension and stress I was feeling. Her gentle breathing was comforting as well. I wished I could spend the rest of my life with her like this. But, one way or another, it was going to come to an end at some point. Either one of us would die, or I’d have to return to the Enclave.

Suddenly, a message appeared in my vision. It was amazing how quickly I became accustomed to the EFS and the random info it would display. This notification was informing me that an encrypted entry “Compassion” was decoded. Not having any interest in reading about Rainbow Dash, I ignored it. Why was my Pipbuck so motivated to teach me about her? She had no redeeming qualities and died more than 150 years ago.

I wrapped my hooves around Silver. She instinctively shuffled to get closer to me and wrapped her hooves around mine. Feeling her rhythmic breathing helped to relax me, and I soon drifted off to sleep with her.

The Wasteland daylight softly roused me from my slumber. For the first time since Coltington, I had been able to sleep the whole night with no interruptions or nightmares. Just me and my special somepony on a lumpy mattress with threadbare sheets. I dare say it was the best night’s sleep since leaving the fort.

Gently nuzzling Silver’s cheek, I slowly woke her up as well. “C’mon, Dust, just give me a few more minutes,” she groaned, gripping my hooves tighter.

“Silver, trust me. There’s nowhere else I’d rather be right now than here with you.” I told her while hugging her tightly. “But we have a long trip ahead of us, especially if we want to make it to Whinnycrest by tonight.” Her response was to simply stick her tongue out at me.

Donning my armor and saddlebags, I double checked to make sure everything was in place. The last thing I needed was to out myself this close to our goal. It took a little more coaxing to get Silver out of bed, but ripping the sheet off of her and swishing my tail in her face pretty much did the job.

“Geez, Dust,” she whined. “I’d hate to see what you’d do if it was something more important!”

We made our way downstairs where everypony else was waiting for us. Flower made eye contact with me and raised her eyebrows. I shook my head in response and felt my face flush. She broke out in soft laughter. Brownie had already picked us up some freshly opened canned vegetables for breakfast, which we all greedily ate.

“Alright, everypony. First we have to go see Deputy Brick,” I said. “He has something for us. Then we go to Whinnycrest.”

We trotted across town to the sheriff’s office and let ourselves in. Deputy Brick was sitting behind one of the desks in the office, leaning back in his chair and his hooves on the surface. A quick glance to the jail cell showed me that somepony had cleaned it as best they could. There was still a red hue to the weathered wood, but it was only obvious if you knew what to look for.

“Deputy Brick, you asked to see me before we left town?” I asked.

“Yes, Dust,” he said while kicking his feet off the desk and returning to an upright position. “Knowing you are heading up to Whinnycrest, I have something that will help you.” He opened one of the drawers on the desk and withdrew a small box. He pushed it along the top of the desk towards me.

I picked up the box and opened it. Inside was a small, steel key. “Huh. What does this key open?” I asked while flipping the key over.

“My ancestors were residents of stable 188. They were forced out of the stable more than a century ago. Most of the residents didn’t make it, but mine made it to Fetlock Flats,” he said wistfully. “My parents worked for the maintenance department. That key has been handed down from generation to generation. It will get you access to the sewer system.” Brick now pulled out a rolled up piece of blue paper. “These are the blueprints for the sewers. As you can see, you can enter the sewers on the outskirts of town and one of the tunnels leads right to the stable entry area. This should make things much easier for you.”

“Brick, thank you,” I said. “This is so generous.”

“Well, I wasn’t going to be going up there anytime soon,” he responded. “All I ask is that you look into something for me. Family rumors say my ancestors hid an heirloom somewhere in the sewers. According to tales passed down the family line, it’s hidden in a footlocker in a control room in the center of the sewers. Whinnycrest isn’t a large town sothe sewer system won’t be complicated. If you could just look for that family treasure, I’d appreciate it.”

“No problem, Deputy,” I said while offering a hoof for a hoofbump. “We will do our best.”

“I know you will, Dust,” he said, bumping my hoof back. “I know you will.”

With a last round of trading to get rid of excess junk and pick up some additional canned food, we made our way to the edge of town. A deep rumble overhead caught our attention. “Oh great, please don’t tell me…” I muttered as the first drops of rain spattered around us. “Damn weather ponies,” I muttered under my breath.

“What was that, Dust?” Flower asked.

I froze involuntarily. How could she have heard me? “Nothing, just complaining,” I blurted out. Flower gave me a sideways look, but we kept on walking.

The rain wasn’t particularly heavy, but it was steady. My Pipbuck began a slow clicking, which I figured out meant that the radiation in the area was beginning to pose a threat. Fortunately, we had packed away a limited amount of RadSafe, which we all took to help minimize our exposure. The worst part was how cold the rain was. After the first hour, I was downright shivering.

After another hour, I made the decision to find shelter, at least until the rain let up. Brownie vaguely remembered there being a small service station about half an hour off our current path. Seeing as how it was the only option, we headed towards it.

The small steel and glass building crept up on the horizon, barely visible through the now heavy rain. The ground underneath us had become a slick mud a while ago and we were all caked in it up to our fetlocks. I had stopped shivering a short while ago, which probably meant I was hypothermic.

As we drew near, I was grateful that the structure itself was mostly intact. The rolling doors for the service bays had collapsed decades ago, but the steel and glass structure of the office was fully in tact. The rain had become a torrential downpour so we galloped the last hundred or so yards. My EFS had shown no bars besides our own, so I knew this was a safe place to shelter for the short term.

We all got under the roof for the service bays and began to dry ourselves off. Brownie, Flower, and One removed all their wet clothing before Brownie began to set up a fire using the wood from a nearby workbench. Silver was doing her best to wring out her jacket without removing it. Fortunately, my armor was more or less waterproof, so I just needed to dry out my exposed fur.

Brownie had a fire going in short order, and we all clustered up around it, trying to warm ourselves. Flower and Brownie were cuddled together, trying to warm each other better. Silver and I had done the same. One found an old oil-stained drop cloth which he was using as a blanket of sorts.

“So, Dust, do ya have a plan ta deal with Muddy once we get ta the stable?” Brownie asked.

“I wish I did, Brownie. But it seems like Muddy has a plan, and he is treating this as a game,” I said, thinking out loud more than responding to him. “My guess is we will be walking into some kind of trap. But if we don’t play his game, we will never get a run at him.”

“I don’t like this, Dust. Not one bit,” Brownie said, shaking his head.

“I know, Brownie,” I said with a sigh. “No matter which way I run this through my head, Muddy always has the upper hand. The minute we breach the stable, he’ll know, and we have to assume he controls all the systems. The only plan I can come up with is a longshot and places you all at risk.”

“Well, what is it, Dust?” Silver asked.

“We split up,” I said hesitantly. Everyone, except One, looked at me shocked. “I know what you’re going to say, but hear me out. As long as he controls the stable, we’ll never make leeway. If there is one thing I learned scavving stables, it’s that Muddy will be in either the Overseer’s office, or wherever the backup control terminal is. Unfortunately, that varies from stable to stable. Anyway, if we split up, Muddy will have more trouble dealing with us. While he’s distracted, I can try to override control of the stable.”

A long silence followed. Everypony was mulling through the plan in their minds. “Look, if anypony has a better idea, I’m all ears,” I said, looking around. Nopony said anything. “That’s what I thought. If something better comes up, we’ll do it, but I think this is the only chance we have.” Everypony mumbled in agreement.

“Um, Mister Dust. What’s this?” One asked while hoofing at something on the floor.

I walked over to where One was and looked at his hooves. In the floor was a small, recessed panel. There were two hoofholds build into it. I tried to lift it, but it didn’t budge.

“One, are you able to use your magic again?” I asked.

“I don’t know, Mister Dust. My horn still hurts, but I’ll try,” he said, shrugging.

I watched as his face screwed up in effort. Sparks started to shoot from his horn and he grimaced in pain. “I’m sorry, Mister Dust. I just can’t,” he whined.

“It’s OK, One,” I said, patting him on the shoulder. “Let me see if I can find something I can leverage this open with.”

In one corner of the service station was a long metal rod. I grabbed it and walked back over to the panel. Carefully threading it through the hoof hold, I anchored the loose end against the wall and starting lifting as hard as I could. With a loud grinding sound, the hatch slowly moved upwards. Eventually, it cleared the surrounding foundation and I let it drop to the pavement with a loud thud.

Underneath the hatch was a small staircase that led underneath the service station. After a few feet, the staircase disappeared into the darkness. Cool, stale air began to wash over me as I kneeled down to try to get a better look.

“I wanna check this out,” I called out. “My EFS is clear, so it should be relatively safe. Anypony want to come with?”

Flower perked up. “I’ll go with ya. I’ll try ta keep ya out of trouble,” she said.

“Be careful down there, Dust,” Silver called out in an unsettled voice.

“Don’t worry, I got Flower with me and if it gets dangerous, we’ll head back,” I said while walking towards the opening. I began to walk down the concrete stairs, each step kicking up a small cloud of dust. The bright, green light from my Pip-Buck cast an eerie glow all around us. At the bottom of the stairs, a short hallway ended in a wall with a hatch-type door set in it. Still seeing nothing on my EFS, I looked at Flower and gave her a nod.

With a loud squeal, I turned the wheel set into the door. When it locked in place, I gave the door a tug. Fighting against the strain of not having been used for over a hundred years, I finally got the door to swing open. A very musty and rotten odor poured out of the doorway. After coughing a few times and clearing my throat, I began to walk inside the door.

A small room opened up in front of me. It was really no bigger than one of the bunk rooms back up at the fort. There was room for a small table and kitchenette area, a communal toilet and shower, and three beds set against the wall. Somehow, the circulation fan was still in operation even after all this time, circulating the rotten air. The sight of a foal-sized skeleton in one of the beds made my heart sink. It was clutching a deteriorating sock-pony puppet. One of the eyes was dangling by a thread, amazingly having survived all this time. In the next bed was a larger stallion skeleton. In the final bed, the trio was rounded out by the skeleton of a mare.

My hooves kept kicking up small clouds of dust. Ours were the first tracks in this cellar. I carefully walked over towards the bed of the mare and saw a small leather bound book and pen sitting on the bedside table. I gently folded over the cover and saw smooth and flowing hoofwriting. It was the journal of a pony named Groundrunner. The beginning of the journal was a collection of mundane entries detailing daily activities, petty disagreements, and pride in her daughter, Bean Sprout’s, achievements.

The last several entries were much darker in tone. Whereas the other entries were all laid out similarly, with dates and a greeting line, these abruptly started and were in a much more erratic hoofwriting.

The first entry read: “They fucking did it. Those damn stripes did it. They took out Cloudsdale! And Canterlot! And several other cities! I just can’t believe it. Fortunately, we were far enough way to avoid the destruction of the blasts. We have to find a safe place to stay. Rocky is out foraging for supplies. What are we going to do? How will we explain this to Sprout!

Turning the page, I found another: “Rocky found a shelter for us. The Wrenches next door went to Canterlot to try to get some friends to come back with them. They had built a shelter under their service center. I hate to say it this way, but they won’t be needing it anymore. We are collecting our things to make a run for it.”

That was followed by: “We just barely made it to the shelter today. Civilization has broken down. Shortly after leaving for the shelter, we ran across a band of outlaws. They started shooting as soon as they saw us. Rocky got shot in the shoulder. I hope he’ll be OK. I am going to search for first aid supplies tomorrow. Bean is taking it as well as can be expected, clutching onto Smarty Pants for comfort. She seems OK, but I can only imagine what is going on inside her head. Every time I try to talk to her, she withdraws and just rocks in her bed with Smarty Pants. We can’t stay down here forever.”

I turned to the next page. “Still looking for medical supplies for Rocky. Everywhere I go nearby has already been picked clean. Ponies I have stumbled across are willing to trade, but I haven’t been carrying anything. I’ll have to carry some next time I go out. For the first time, I have come across survivors from other small towns. Apparently, places like Appleloosa, Ponyville, and Dodge Junction were not hit directly. But a lot of ponies are getting sick. Everypony is looking for aid. Rocky is still deteriorating. I must find aid soon or I fear he won’t make it.”

The next passage’s hoofwriting was barely legible and the pen had formed deep gouges in the paper. “Fuck the pegasi! Fuck them! I was out today looking for supplies for Rocky. Overhead I saw the contrails of three pegasi arcing in the sky. As soon as they were directly above me, I waved at them and began yelling for help. The lead pony looked right at me and then kept on going! That fucking bastard! And to top it all off, they were actually creating clouds with their contrails. The sky was almost completely overcast. They are going to cover us over and forget we are even down here!”

The next page had small circles of water stains that had smeared the ink. “Rocky died today. His infection never healed and I couldn’t find the medicine I needed. And now Bean is coughing up blood. She sleeps all day and can barely keep down food or water. I’m not feeling well either. My mane is beginning to fall out. I must get help.”

The last entry was more lightly written. “Doing worse… won’t last long… Bean is still sick… Need to do something… Can’t leave her alone… Today I will end her misery and then do the same to myself…. Just hope I have enough Med-X for me…”

I gingerly closed the journal. What the hell was this!? How many ponies had really survived the megaspells? I thought it was a handful at best. Even if other rumors I’ve heard down here were true, handfuls of survivors were left behind. But according to this, whole towns survived the initial blasts. That means there were many ponies left behind under the cloud cover. This journal has to be the rambling of a crazy mare. This flew directly in the face of everything I had been taught since I was a foal.

“Interesting reading, Dust?” Flower asked, while rummaging through a bin across the room.

“Just a journal,” I responded. “This family died shortly after the megaspells fell.”

“Celestia bless their souls,” she muttered. “Good news is I found some medical supplies and some canned food.”

“Did you find some Med-X?” I asked, expecting her answer to debunk the journal.

“Yeah, there were about 5 empty syringes over here,” she said with a nod. “It’s a shame, we coulda used some.”

No fucking way… this couldn’t be. The journal couldn’t be true, it just couldn’t. Flower was saying something, but my brain was not processing it. The Enclave had to be right. Nopony could have survived. There was nopony down here to save at the time. The surface was uninhabitable after the megaspells.

I was abruptly broken away from my thoughts by Flower gently shaking me. “Dust, ya still with us?” she asked, staying right at my face.

“Yeah, sorry,” I blurted out. “The journal just shook me up a little. Imagining what it was like when the spells fell.”

“I don’t think I coulda handled that,” she said shaking her head. “To survive the blast and suffer the beginning of the Wasteland.”

“Yeah,” I muttered, trailing off. “Anyway, did you get anything of any value?”

“Yup, cleaned the place out,” she said with confidence.

“Good,” I said. “Let’s get the hell out of here. This place gives me the creeps.” Yeah, and in more ways than one.

We walked back up the stairs and I closed the hatch behind us.

“So what did you find down there?” Silver asked.

“Just a lot of Wasteland history and a few supplies,” I said, still muttering a little.

Silver walked over to me and placed a hoof on my shoulder. “Dust, are you OK?” she said. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“Yeah,” I said softly. “There was a family that was living here right when the megaspells fell. Their bodies and a journal the mother kept were downstairs. I don’t think I’ll ever get over seeing the bodies of foals..” Silver wrapped me in a hug and squeezed me softly.

“Looks like the rain is windin’ down,” Brownie said gazing out the open doorway. “If we pick up the pace a little, we should still make it ta the outskirts of Fetlock Flats before dark.”

We all packed up our stuff and got back on the road. It was nice that my armor dried while we were indoors, or else I’d be downright uncomfortable. The others had enjoyed the brief period of time where their armor was still warm from being dried out by the fire. I, obviously, had not taken mine off.

The rain had turned the dirt covering the roadway into a thin layer of mud. We tried to pick up our pace to a slow canter, but had to slow down at times due to the slickness of the roadway. We were going to make up some of the lost time, but I wondered if it would be enough.

Quickly glancing up towards the sky, I saw a section of the gray overcast lighten a little. It almost threatened to open up and allow the blue sky above poke through. That was one of the results of the lack of full control of the SPP system. The traitor, Rainbow Dash, had locked the Enclave out when they tried to close up the skies permanently. As such, sections of the cloud cover would weaken and almost dissipate completely. This is what limited food production and kept the Enclave under the threat of near famine. It’s a shame Gilda never captured her and brought her back.

I wondered what it had looked like the day the decision was made to close it up. If the history books were correct, there were few survivors on the surface when the decision was made. The journal, though, had my mind racing at the possibilities.

To first survive the explosion of the green balefire that the megaspells had wrought had to be bad enough. The videos that had come out of Cloudsdale the day it was destroyed I saw in history class flooded my mind. I never knew that clouds could burn. But the magical balefire had even ignited the white, fluffy buildings. The lucky pegasi were the ones close to the explosion. They had simply been vaporized. Others had spent weeks in the care of doctors before succumbing to radiation poisoning.

Videos from the surface had been worse. Canterlot, Manehattan, Phillydelphia… it was the same in each. A bright green flash followed by widescale destruction. Smaller buildings were simply demolished. Larger buildings were damaged, many toppling over in the shockwave. Some early expeditions found piles of dead bodies and nothing else. It was these discoveries that led to the decision to close off the sky. Cloudsdale was the only skybound casualty of the war. And the government was adamant on keeping it that way.

But the journal cast all of that in doubt. Suspending my belief in what I had been taught in school, I asked myself what if there were whole towns full of survivors? Goddesses, to have seen the destruction happen right in front of my eyes? To see a once-great sky city completely destroyed? To watch a town erased from existence? To see loved ones die right in front of you?

And then my thoughts began to dwell on Bean. Now, I had no children, but I can’t imagine being driven to the point of killing your own child. To lose all hope and to think the better choice is murder? Granted, from the sound of the journal, they both would have succumbed to radiation sickness, but, what if one of them didn’t? What if poor little Bean had woken up one day to find her mother dead. And then how would she have taken care of herself? Even if the precursors to the raiders hadn’t found her, then some horribly irradiated beast would have.

And then there’s the supposed behavior of the remnants of the pegasi before the Enclave was formed. What I read in that journal shook me to the core. How could anypony turn their backs on that many of their brethren on the surface? If there were that many survivors, how could they have simply ignored their cries for help. And then, to seal them away under a perpetual covering of clouds? To issue the order and then having to follow it?

But that couldn’t have happened. The journal must be a fake. Ponies looked out for one another back then. Earth ponies and unicorns fought the ground battle while the pegasi cleared the air. We fought the zebras, griffins, and dragons together. We couldn’t turn our backs on each other? Could we? And to pretend survivors didn’t exist? To leave them to a fate worse than death? To hear the cries below and pretend they didn’t exist?

I didn’t know if I could follow such an order. I mean, I know the military exists to protect the interests of the Enclave and to protect its’ citizens, but I don’t know if I could have been that callous. But could I have defied an order? My head was starting to throb at all the implications.

“Hey, Dust, buddy?” Flower said. “Ya still with us here in the Wasteland?”

“Huh? Yeah,” I said, being jostled back to reality. “That journal just got me thinking about what it was like to be there when the megaspells fell.”

“Ah can understand that,” she said with a nod. “Ah’ve heard stories passed down through families, and none of them end well. Those damn cloudherders left entire towns to die. Rather than try to help all the survivors, they simply turned their backs.”

I bit down on my tongue to stifle my gasp. Flower is saying that there were whole towns full of survivors. Did she really expect me to believe that?? Did the Enclave make a mistake? Could they make that huge of a mistake? Or was the journal just overexaggerating? My head started to hurt again.

“I didn’t know you knew stable ponies, Flower?” I asked.
“Aw, nah, Dust. I know a few ponies that survived the blasts and lived on the surface,” she added, nonplussed. Her statement caused me to trip over my own hooves, nearly causing me to faceplant. “Ya OK there, Dust?”

“Yeah, yeah,” I blurted out. What the fuck was going on? First the journal, and now this? And if Flower knew family of the survivors of the megaspells, why hadn’t I heard of this before? Had it really never come up in conversation before? Or did I simply ignore it?

I looked back up towards the sky as we kept cantering towards Whinnycrest. Did the Enclave lie about everything regarding the Wasteland? Did we really have no choice or did we doom everypony else to die?

I felt a gentle touch on my shoulder which snapped me out of my thoughts. Silver had sidled up next to me and tapped me with her wing. “A cap for your thoughts?” she asked, the corners of her mouth turned down in concern.

“I just can’t stop thinking about the Last Day,” I murmured. “I mean, what could it have been like to be on the surface with the megaspells going off all around. And even if somepony survived the initial onslaught, the magical radiation probably got them. And then, the Enclave closing up shop… I just don’t get it.”

Silver visibly shuddered when the Enclave was mentioned. “Those damned featherbrains,” she spat out. “If only they cared about what was going on down here.” Her body visibly tightened with each word.

“Silver, are you OK?” I asked.

“Yeah, it’s nothing, really,” she replied awkwardly. She opened her mouth as if to say something else, but then closed it.

“Silver, if…” I started.

“It’s nothing, I swear,” she said firmly. I’d have to try again later.

The next few hours passed uneventfully. The terrain, in usual Wasteland fashion, hadn’t really changed much since we left Manny’s. Flat land, rocks, dirt covered and cracked asphalt.

My mind kept wandering to the mystery of the discrepancies between my teachings in school, the journal, and even Flower’s statements. The same questions as before kept swirling through my mind. And then there was Silver’s reaction to the Enclave. None of this helped to ease my mind.

After a few more hours, the light began to dim. What little light was making it past the cloud cover, was quickly diminished by the sun setting behind the clouds. Checking my Pipbuck map for what felt like the thousandth time, we were right on the edge of what I assumed were the city limits of Whinnycrest. The first few red bars began to appear at the bottom of my vision. We found a small rise that gave us a good vantage point of the town.

Flower took out her sniper rifle and used the scope to scan the town. “Holy shit, Dust,” she said with a whistle. “You gotta take a look at this yerself.”

She hoofed me her rifle and I look through the scope. Everywhere you looked, you saw clusters of ghouls. There wasn’t a street, courtyard or fenced in yard that didn’t have at least a dozen ghouls shambling around. “Holy hell,” I gasped. “I am so glad we have a back way in. There is no way we’d be able to fight through that herd. According to Brick, southwest of town there should be an old causeway. A few hundred yards up there should be a locked sewer maintenance access. That should get us right to the stable entry cavern.”

After handing Flower her rifle back, we set out towards the west. After about half an hour, we reached the cement causeway. The only problem is that it wasn’t so dry right now. The rain from most of the day must have run off and flooded the area..

“Ah hope y’all brought yer galoshes. Looks like we’re goin’ fer a swim,” Brownie said with a smirk.

Unable to stifle my groan, I rolled my eyes as I watched Brownie and Flower tread slowly into the flowing water. Fortunately, the water only went halfway up their fetlocks, so the water wasn’t deep. One trotted in after them, gleefully splashing in the water. Flower couldn’t help but to giggle a little at One’s antics. I was glad to see it. Maybe this would be the thing that helped him break out of his funk. Silver looked at me and arched one of her eyebrows as she kicked off the ground and floated up the river while flying.

“Smartass,” I muttered under my breath.

“What was that, Dust?” she asked playfully.

“Oh nothing,” I responded with a measured dose of sarcasm.

I took my first few steps into the flowing water. Geez, was it cold as fuck! The soft clicking of my Pipbuck told me that it would be best if I didn’t linger here too long. Speeding up into a light trot, I splashed my way up the river with my friends. As promised, after a few hundred yards, a small, steel door was set unto the concrete walls of the causeway. In the twilight darkness, we didn’t see it until we were right on top of it.

Taking the key out of my bags, I eased it into the lock and was pleasantly surprised how easily the lock turned. After removing the key, it took Brownie and myself to force the door open, fighting years of rust that had almost frozen the hinges. “For once, something is going right on this trip,” I said with a small grin on my face.

“Now, Dust, let’s not get ta temptin’ fate here,” Brownie said with a grimace.

“C’mon, Brownie, don’t you think the Wasteland owes us one by now?” I asked.

“It doesn’t work that way, Dust,” he said, shaking his head.

After the last of our party made their way inside, Brownie and I forced the door closed and I locked it with the key. “At least nopony can sneak up on us from behind,” I said as I stowed the key back in my bag.

Flicking the light switch on my Pip-Buck, I bathed the sewer tunnel in front of us in a bright, green glow. The first thing that struck me was the smell. Some of the rain must have made its way into the sewers and reinvigorated the musty, rotten smell of the sewers. I heard One and Silver dry heave several times. Brownie, Flower, and I, having encountered this many times before, were comparably OK.

The section of sewer we were in continued straight for as far as the Pip-Buck light could illuminate. The old cement and brick construction held up surprisingly well over the time. The only other item of interest was another steel door, similar to the one leading back outside. Painted on in white block lettering was the word “Storage”. Brick’s key fit the lock again and this door opened more smoothly than the exterior door.

The door led to a small room ringed with large cabinets. My Pipbuck light didn’t penetrate to see what was in the cabinets, however. In the back of the room sat a console with a large, blinking red button. “I wonder what this does,” One said, coming from the direction of the button.

“One, don’t…” I managed to blurt out before I saw the light of the button disappear. From behind the wall, I heard the muffled sputtering of a generator. After several seconds of struggle, the generator purred to life and a bare light bulb over the center of the room came to life.

Able to see more clearly, I glanced around the room again. The cabinets had been forced open and left empty. Seeing as how the exterior door had still been locked, this must have been cleaned out when the denizens of the stable that had been forced out. There was a small desk in one corner with the remnants of the daily routine of whatever operator had worked here. Apparently, he had fueled up the generator the day the bombs fell. I am really glad he or she had. The only other object of any interest was a door set into the back wall, which probably led to the generator.

My attention was diverted when Brownie cleared his throat. “Hey, Dust. What’s yer plan? Rest up tonight or head right fer the stable? Mah two bits, this room would be a good place to bed down fer the night.”

I yawned as Brownie mentioned bedding down for the night. Today was a rough day, especially considering the pace we needed to maintain to make it here in time. And I didn’t want to enter the stable tired. Whetever Muddy had planned, we needed to be ready for it.

“I guess this place is as good as any,” I said as I walked over and locked the door. “Probably don’t even need somepony to take watch.” Almost as if it had been waiting for that moment, a low roar echoed its way through the sewers and though the door. “When will I ever learn,” I said as I shook my head.

“Wh-wh-what was that?” One murmured, his eyes having widened to the size of dinner plates.

“Oh, far as I can make out, just a radigator,” Brownie stated matter-of-factly. “From the sound of it, probably just a small one.”

“Oh, like a baby?” One asked, his ears still flattened against his head.

“Well, considerin’ a baby is still as big as a pony,” Brownie said, “this one’s probably a mite bigger than that.”

“Oh...” One sighed as he nervously looked towards the door.

“Well, look, One. Unless they’ve learned ta open doors, we’re safe in here, at least fer tonight,” Brownie said placing a leg around his shoulder.

Brownie and Flower volunteered for guard duty tonight, with Brownie taking the first shift. The rest of us set up our bedrolls and settled in for the night. Cuddling up with Silver, as was now usual for us, I felt as peace once again. It wouldn’t cease to amaze me how just being close to her set my mind at ease.

After nuzzling her neck, I yawned again. “Good night, Silver,” I whispered in her ear.

“Good night, Dust,” Silver whispered back.

Silver began to softly breathe next to me. Her gentle breathing was easing the muscles in my body as well. My eyelids began to droop as the world around me began to fall away. As my eyes fluttered open for the last time before falling asleep, another roar echoed throughout the sewer. My eyes shot open again. This was going to be a long night.

After finally struggling to fall asleep, I was fortunate enough to sleep through the whole night. Brownie and Flower let me know that the radigator had quieted down after an hour or so. Flower had also messed around with the generator control console, finding that the generator was indeed nearly fully fueled. At least we wouldn’t have the lights die out on us unexpectedly.

We all packed our gear up and left the little closet in which we had just spent the night. The generator had also powered up lights along the length of the sewers. I sighed in relief that we wouldn’t be walking around a dark sewer, with the only light being the one from my Pipbuck.

Brick has told us that it was basically a straight shot from the entrance to the stable access, but we did have a side trip to make. We had promised to look for Brick’s family heirloom.

Fortunately, the sewer had raised walkways on either side of the flowing runoff. Every so often, there would be a metal walkway that would allow us to cross over to the other side if needed. My hoofdrawn copy of Brick’s blueprints said we had to get to the third intersection and then make a left. We passed the first intersection and were on the way to the second when we saw that it was blocked off. The ceiling must have caved in a while ago and had completely sealed off this tube.

“I guess we backtrack and find a way around,” I said with a sigh. As the echoing of my words died out, they were replaced by another roar of the radigator. It sounded closer than it did last night. “Ah, shit,” I hissed. “Alright, everypony keep quiet.”

The echoing of our hoofsteps now sounded like gunshots. Funny how I hadn’t noticed them before. The radigator roared every now and then, the exact direction hard to determine due to the echoing of the sewers. I found myself checking my EFS more frequently than usual. If it ever found us, I wanted to make sure we had as much warning as possible.

After several turns and a few more unexpected detours, we found ourselves near the central control room. It was an elevated room surrounded by glass windows. A small, metal stairway led up to the steel door that led into the room. The sound of the echoing hoofsteps on the metal walkway were even louder than the cement, if that was possible. One, who had been trailing the rest of the group, started climbing the stairs and they let out a loud groan. We all stopped dead in our tracks, as the radigator let out a blood-curdling roar.

I quickly hoofed the key out of my bags and unlocked the door at the top of the steps. Everypony quickly climbed the stairs and dove into the control room. I quickly ran in behind them and turn to close the door. The head of the radigator turned the corner and our eyes met.

The thing’s head was nearly as big as a pony! It’s brownish, scaly body was probably about the length of ten ponies. This thing was huge! It began to run towards us at full speed. I grabbed the door handle and pulled on it as hard as I could. Before the door slammed shut, I saw the radigator rear up and swing at the handrail of the landing just outside the door. The entire thing shook and creaked at the force.

Quickly, I swung the handle downwards, engaging the locking bolts. I leaned against the door, as if to brace it against the assault. The radigator continued to strike at the metal stairway, being too large to climb it itself. The metal creaked under the assault. I was concerned it wouldn’t survive the onslaught and we’d have to jump down. I wasn’t particularly looking forward to a fifteen foot drop.

Almost as if it heard me, the radigator stopped striking at the staircase. However, it didn’t leave. I could hear it pacing the section of sewer just outside the door. I allowed myself to slide down to the floor. “Holy shit! That thing is fucking huge!” I exclaimed between ragged breaths.

“Eeyup. Gotta be the biggest ‘gator I ever seen,” Brownie said nodding.

“Well, let’s see if we can wait it out. In the meantime, let me get this family heirloom,” I said while scanning the room. “Anypony see the footlocker?”

“I got it over here!” Flower called out. The footlocker was basically identical to the one that used to be in my bunkroom in Fort Coltington. The dark green, metal box was oddly comforting. My mind flooded with the memories of days of routine duties above the clouds, with the sun shining down on me…

“Uh, Dust, ya gonna open it?” Flower said, interrupting my reverie.

“Huh, what?” I said, being harshly brought back to reality. I shook my head and saw I was still kneeling at the footlocker. “Yeah, sorry, just thinking about the radigator.” Using the same key that had opened up everything in this sewer, the key fit into the lock and it opened effortlessly. Inside the footlocker was… a memory orb. I gingerly hoofed it out of the footlocker and looked at it. I had only seen memory orbs in sealed cases. A grayish smoke shimmered inside the glass orb. I would have asked either One or Brownie to view the orb, but that would have been a violation of Brick’s privacy.

My contemplation of the orb was cut short by another roar of the radigator. It was still pacing just outside the doorway to the control room. “Now, what in Tartarus are we going to do about you?” I asked sarcastically to the radigator. “Brownie, how fast can radigators move?”

“Faster than we can,” Brownie said, shaking his head. “Ain’t no way we’re outrunnin’ it.”

“Of course,” I said, rolling my eyes while sighing deeply. “Anypony else have any ideas?”

“Umm, Mister Dust,” One said sheepishly. “I don’t want to get into trouble again by pushing buttons, but this computer is still working,” he said, pointing towards a screen filled with green writing.

I walked over and looked at the display. It seemed to be a status report of the water retention and flow control systems in the sewer. From what I could make out, most of the sluice gates were locked in the down position and were not responding to computer controls. However, there were still a handful of gates that were in the down position, but were operable. Also, the water levels behind all the sluice gates were at the maximum levels. According to the readouts, there were hundreds of thousands of gallons of water stuck behind those gates…

“Map! Somepony find me a map of the sewers!” I yelled, frantically looking around the room. My friends were frozen in shock at my sudden outburst. “We can use the water to flush the radigator away from here, but I need to see where these gates are!” I wish I had done a better job copying the blueprints when I had the chance.

“Over here! Is this what you’re looking for, Dust?” Silver called out, standing near a large bulletin board with a blueprint still pinned to it. How these things survived this long, I’ll never know, but I am not about to question it right now. After ripping the blueprint off the board, I trotted back over to the computer terminal and began checking the map against the sluice gate designations.

“Holy shit! This might work,” I cried out in glee. “Everypony look! These gates are still working,” I said as I pointed out the working gates. “These have assloads of water behind them and this one leads to the drainage culvert. If we open all those gates, the water should flush the radigator out of the sewers.” I could see the looks of doubt on everypony’s faces. Well, except for One, who just looked confused. “Does anypony have a better plan?”

Everypony else muttered under their breaths for several moments. “Ah guess we gotta give this a try,” Brownie said with a resigned tone.

Turning back to the keyboard, I began to key in the commands that would open all the operational sluice gates. The computer confirmed operation on each one. Slowly, a dull roar began to build outside the door. Even the radigator’s attention was diverted towards it.
Suddenly, around the nearest corner, a large wave of water rushed past the doorway. The roar became deafening as I watched as the water overpower the radigator and I saw it bob in and out of the water as it was dragged away, towards the drainage culvert.

After a few minutes, the water levels outside began to fall once again. The central canal was still filled with water, but the concrete walkway was visible once more. “Alright, everypony, let’s go. But let’s double time it in case the radigator wasn’t completely washed away.” Everypony nodded in agreement.

I unlocked and reopened the door and we made our way down the staircase back to the concrete walkway. The cement was slightly slick, and I felt my hooves slip a little under me occasionally.

A loud roar echoed through the sewers. My blood ran cold as we all looked behind us, towards the source of the sound. “No fucking way,” I gasped. “It couldn’t have, could it?”

“Ah don’t know, Dust,” Brownie said, his eyes widening as he peered down the sewer. “I don’t plan on waitin’ around to find out.” He then took off at a gallop.

Soon enough, all of us were galloping away from the control room and towards the door that should lead us to the stable access tunnel. The roaring behind us kept getting louder, but the radigator couldn’t be seen. Finally, the far wall of the sewer with an inset door appeared in our vision.

“Almost there everypony! Keep going!” I yelled. My right hoof gave out underneath me as it slipped on a slick section of smooth concrete. I tumbled head over hooves and ended up lying on the concrete. Looking behind me, I was able to make out the bare outline of the radigator, running rapidly towards us.

Scrabbling quickly to my hooves again, I took off with a greater sense of urgency than before. I shortly caught up with my friends and even began to overtake them a little. I was the first to make it to the door and I was fumbling in my saddlebags for the key to the door.

“Uhh, Dust, I don’t mean to be a pain, but could ya hurry please?” Flower said, frantically looking between the door and the radigator which was rapidly gaining ground behind us. I finally found the key and tried to fit it into the lock. My heart nearly skipped several beats and I dropped the key and heard the tinkling sound it made as it bounced along the ground.

“Shit!” I screamed. “The key!” I looked down in a panic and looked for the key. It had bounced a short distance away from my hooves. I quickly reached back down and got the key. Slamming it into the lock and turning it, I got the door open with a creak. The radigator was close enough that I swore I could smell its rotten breath from behind us. “Hurry everypony! GO! GO! GO!”

Everypony scrabbled through the door and I quickly joined them. Brownie helped me slam the door behind us and I locked the door. As soon as I pulled the key free of the lock, I heard something slam into the wall and door behind us. It was quickly followed by several more slamming sounds and a few roars. After several seconds of continued attacks, silence filled the cavern we were in. I released the breath I had involuntarily been holding.

“Holy shit, that was too close,” I said between my panting breaths. Everyone murmured their agreement.

Looking around at the cavern we’d found our way into, I saw that it was yet another typical Stable-Tech entry cavern. I swear they all looked the same. The sewer entrance had dropped us right in front of the large gear shaped doorway. The door itself had been retracted and I noticed that the entry room beyond was bathed in the full light of a functioning stable.

“That can’t be a good sign,” Silver said softly, peering into the opening. I simply nodded in agreement.

After I saw everypony had caught their breaths, I looked to each of my friends and asked if they were ready. Everypony nodded.

We made our way into the entry area. The first thing I noticed were several irregularly shaped red blotches. They appeared to be blood stains, but someone had obviously cleaned up the mess that caused them. There wasn’t even the typical, coppery smell that accompanied other bloody messes.

“Looks like Muddy laid out the red carpet for us,” Flower said with a nervous chuckle.

“Really, Flower?” I scoffed. My stomach doing somersaults. “I don’t like this, not one bit.”

Suddenly, the klaxons and yellow strobe lights that accompanied a stable door operation came to life. The large, gear shaped door squealed behind us as it was rolled into place. We all simply watched it close behind us.

“Brownie, see if you can reopen the door, please,” I said tensely.

“Umm, Dust, there is no control panel,” Brownie said, surprised.

I looked towards the typical location for the interior activation panel and saw that one had never been installed here. “What the hell?” I asked rhetorically.

The sound of metal scraping against metal came from behind us. We all turned as two sentry guns lowered behind us and began to sweep the area just around the doorway. The two guns beeped softly, letting us know they were scanning for targets.

The stable public address system squealed with feedback. The sound of somepony blowing against a microphone replaced the whine. Shortly afterwards, Muddy’s voice flooded the entry room.

“Welcome Dust and company,” Muddy said menacingly. “Want to play a game?”

Level up!

Stats:
Sneak: 15

Perk(?) Obtained: Butterhooves: You suffer -1 agility when attempting things under pressure.

Chapter 15 - Trials

Chapter 15 - Trials
“Going on with life, it only gets more and more intense as time goes by - and the challenges only multiply.”

“... game… game…” Muddy’s last word echoed against the metal walls of the entry room.

“Muddy, just give it up!” I yelled looking for the camera that he was undoubtedly watching us through. “This isn’t a game, Muddy! Make it easy on everypony and just give it up.”

Muddy simply laughed in response. “Oh, but Dust, it is a game. The best kind,” he said with a chuckle. “This game has the highest stakes… life or death.”

Nervously, I glanced around at all of my friends. “C’mon, Muddy. Nopony has to die here,” I said calmly, hoping to defuse the situation.

“You really expect me to believe that?” he scoffed. “Dust, you bring me back to Big Boss, I’m a dead pony. Even if you bring me home, I’m a dead pony. At least this way I go out my way. Anyway, here are the rules. I am sitting here at the lowest level of the laboratory wing. You are going to make your way down here. Along the way, you will be faced with several challenges. If you can make it all the way down here, then I will come with you willingly.”

“If that’s all it takes,” I started to say.

“But!” he interrupted me. “You fail a challenge, it will cost you… a life!” He began to laugh maniacally, causing the speakers in the entry area to buzz trying to duplicate the sound. “I do have to say, the pony who gave me this stable did a great job!” The emphasis he put on the word “gave” sent chills down my spine. “Oh, and Dust, I wouldn’t try to leave. Once you entered the stable, there was only one way out and that is forward.”

The sound of keystrokes clattered over the PA system. One of the sentry guns spun towards me and fired. I felt the impact on my side and I dropped to the floor, having trouble breathing.

“Dust! Are you OK?” Silver shrieked as she ran to my side. She began to run her hooves across my body. The sound of Muddy laughing echoed through the entry room.

I let out several hacking coughs. “Yeah, yeah, I’m OK. The armor caught it all,” I said as I looked the armor panel and saw the mushroomed round implanted. “I get the point, Muddy!”

“Good,” he said with a menacing tone. “You will find there are no other paths through the stable. And, Dust, remember, I know about your affinity for tech. You try to pick a lock, you forfeit the game. Do I need to tell you what the penalty for forfeiture is?”

“I can guess,” I sneered. “Don’t worry, Muddy, we’re coming for you.”

“I can’t wait, Dust!” he laughed a few more times and then we heard the PA click off.

As silence reclaimed the entry hall, I surveyed my friends. Silver was still by my side. I hadn’t even noticed that she was still nuzzling my neck after checking me when I got shot. I knew she wouldn’t leave my side. Brownie and Flower were side by side. They were sharing a concerned look between them. Flower leaned in and nuzzled Brownie’s neck and Brownie wrapped one hoof around her. One, who usually didn’t understand much of what was going on, even looked anxious.

These ponies, who faithfully followed me all over the Celestia-forsaken Wasteland, were now placed at more risk than I ever imagined. I could only imagine what ‘games’ Muddy had planned for us as we progressed through the stable. And somepony was probably going to die. What had I gotten us into?

I gently pushed Silver off of me. She looked mildly hurt. “Silver, sorry, but I need to say something to everypony,” I said while getting onto my hooves. Damn, my side burned with every movement. I would remember to make Muddy pay for that. “Everypony, I’m not going to try and bullshit you and tell you everything is going to be alright. It isn’t. This situation is more fucked up than I could have predicted. And for that, I am truly sorry.” The shame of the situation made me hang my head. “I will do everything I can to get us all out of here, and if a sacrifice needs to be made, I will make it. I won’t ask you.”

The next thing I knew, I felt a hoof around my shoulder. I looked up and opened my eyes and saw Brownie right next to me. “Dust, how many times do we hafta tell ya. We knew this was gonna be dangerous. And it’s not like this has been a walk in the park.” The sincere look in his eyes bored into my doubts and insecurity. “Ah think ah speak fer everypony here when ah say that we’re with you one hundred percent.”

Everypony walked over and put their hooves out and stacked them together. I looked at each and every one of them and they all had a small smile on their faces and were nodding at me. “Well, I guess it can’t really get any worse than it is now, huh?” I said as I put my hoof on top. Everypony chuckled a little.

The PA system shrieked to life once more. “Oh, I think you’ll see that it definitely can get worse… it can get much, much worse,” Muddy said, this time without a laugh. All of the smiles on our faces disappeared immediately. When will I ever learn?

After taking a moment to process Muddy’s comment, we began our trek through whatever the stable had in store for us. The three exits from the entry area that led deeper into the stable stood before us. We didn’t even bother trying the doors for the living quarters and utility wings as the control boxes were not illuminated at all, indicating somepony had cut power to them. Only the door for the laboratory wing had power. I hoofed the control panel and the door slid open effortlessly.

Beyond the door was a typical stable hallway. Gleaming steel walls, rubberized floor panels, and bright fluorescent lights greeted us. The temperature was comfortable and the air smelled fresh.

“Somepony has been doing some maintenance in here,” I said to nopony in particular.

“Eeyup,’ Brownie said with a nod. “I thought the same thing. Everything is too clean, and everything looks like it still works.”

Walking past the various doors that would lead to the different labs, the door control panels were dark for all of them. Finally, we came to a wall and a door with a green-lit panel.

I took a deep breath. “Everypony ready?” I said with trepidation.

After everypony responded with a nod, I carefully reached out and hoofed the panel. The door slid open smoothly with a quiet whir. We all carefully walked inside. The door slid shut behind us and I watched as the light on the panel turned from green to red. “I guess there’s no turning back now,” I muttered.

The room we had walked into was a large, open room. There were no tables or lab equipment in the room. The only objects of note were tall metallic towers. They were evenly spaced throughout the room in an almost grid-like regularity. The only other object of note was the door that sat nestled in the wall directly opposite of the one we entered through.

“Alright, here goes nothing,” I sighed as I began to walk towards the doorway on the far side. I slowed down as I approached the first pair of towers and nervously glanced between them. A quick glance back to my friends showed looks of concern, especially from Silver. Gulping loudly, I took me next step. As I walked between the two nearest towers, a high pitched whine quickly built. A bright flash blinded me as I felt two stabbing pains in my side which quickly turned into a burning sensation.

“Fucking shit!” I yelled as I jumped backwards towards my friends and then collapsed to the floor. My vision returned as and I saw crackling electricity spiking between the two towers and then diminish. The smell of ozone was incredibly thick. The high pitch whine, however, remained.

Silver ran to my side. “Dust! Are you OK?” she shrieked as she clutched me in her hooves.

“Yeah, I’m OK,” I groaned between grunts of pain. “That fucking hurt! The hell happened?!?”

“The two towers ya walked between zapped ya,” Brownie said, pointing towards where I had been standing moments ago. “It happened so fast.”

The PA system whined to life again with Muddy’s laughter. “Have yourself a shocking discovery, Dust?” Muddy said between bouts of laughter. “Hope that didn’t hurt too much!”

“Fuck you, Muddy,” I grumbled. “Is this your idea of a game?”

“Of course!” he said with elation in his voice. “It’s a maze. So, of course it’s a game! And be warned, that was a level one shock. Every time you make a wrong turn, the level goes up. From what I learned from the pony who gave me this stable, level 5 is fatal. Good luck!” The PA system clicked off.

“Dammit!” I muttered. “If that was a level one shock, I don’t want to see level two.” I took several deep breaths to help relieve the pain in my side. “Anypony have any ideas?”

“Dust, did you hear or see anything before you got shocked?” Flower asked surveying the towers in the room.

“Just a high pitched whine, ” I grunted between deep breaths. “But now that whine is non-stop.” I slowly got up on my hooves, grimacing with each movement. “Let’s see what happens this time.”

“Dust, no! You can’t!” Silver blurted out as I made my way back between two towers. “Your shock is level two!”

“I know, Silver,” I said with a nod. “But I am not putting you ponies at risk here.”

Brownie moved towards me to block my path, but I was closer. I moved between two different towers than the two I had crossed before. As I drew closer, I heard the whine pick up in pitch. I was about to reach the space directly between them when I felt two hooves grab my armor and tug sharply backwards. A split second after I was pulled clear, electricity arced between the two towers.

“Now why would ya do a darn fool thing like that, Dust?” Brownie scolded me.

“It’s the whine, that’s the signal,” I exclaimed, pushing his hooves off me. “Watch!”

I walked back towards the two towers. I slowed my pace as I got close. My muscles were tensing, getting ready for the whine to start and for me to jump. I was surprised when the pitch of the whine didn’t change and I was able to walk through the towers without incident.

“Alright, Mister Dust! You made it through!” Dust cried out as he trotted towards me.

“One, be careful, we don’t…” I started to say before I was cut off by the crackle of electricity. One got struck by electric bolts from both towers. He jumped back and crumpled to the floor sobbing.

“But, why, Mister Dust,” One said between gasps. “You walked through no problem.”

The PA system whined to life again. “Oh, did I forget to mention that the maze changes every move you make? Oops,” Muddy said with mock concern. The PA system crackled off once again, leaving only the whine and One’s sobs.

I walked back towards One and as I drew near the towers I heard the whine intensify. I backed off and the whine died down to its normal level again. “Shit! I’m stuck over here. But at least we know I was right about the whine signaling a discharge. At least we know how to get out of here. Everypony, be careful.”

Slowly, we made our way through the room, one move at a time. There were several close calls and we were beginning to become spread out across the room. Flower and One were even forced to move away from the exit door, but I hoped eventually their path would lead back towards us.

After I made it halfway across the room, the whine cut out completely and the room was pitched into silence except for our breathing.

“Aw, crap, that can’t be good,” Flower said with a sliver of aggravation. She moved towards the next pair of towers and the whine did not return. As she was about to cross directly between them, I heard the whine ramp up very rapidly.

“Flower, watch…” was all I got out before the snap of electricity.

Flower crumpled to the floor, writhing in pain. “Fucking A!” she cried out as she pushed herself backwards.

“Flower!” Brownie cried out as he started to gallop towards her.

“Brownie! No!” I yelled.

Another snap of electricity and Brownie was dropped to the floor. He crawled back away from the towers and groaned on the floor. “Celestia be damned!” he cried out between groans.

“Brownie! Flower! You ponies OK?” I asked, making sure to stay still.

“Yeah, Dust,” Flower groaned. “Feels like ah got kicked in the stomach, but otherwise, I’m good.”

“Same here,” Brownie said, still floored. “These towers kick like a brahmin.”

“Alright, everypony. Be careful, move slowly, and be prepared to jump,” I said.

The trip through the room was arduous. One, Flower and Brownie each got shocked twice. Even Silver made a misstep and got shocked once. It took all of my willpower not to run to her aid. I didn’t escape further harm either. I got shocked a total of four times. Level four knocked me down for a good fifteen minutes or so just to recover.

“Dust, please be careful,” Silver said, tears in her eyes. “Your next shock is level five.” She left the rest unsaid.

Flower, Brownie and Silver all had reached the exit door. I was just one move away from them. However, One was stuck in the opposite side of the room in a corner.

“Alright, just one move left,” I muttered to myself. I approached the towers between me and my friends. I moved as slowly as possible, hoping I had enough time to react before I got shocked to death. Fortunately, there was no whine and I was able to walk through unscathed.

“Alright, One,” just take it easy and one step at a time,” I said, trying to reassure him.

“Okay, Mister Dust,” he said with a nod. He approached one pair of towers and the whine intensified until he backed off. He turned and approached the other pair and the whine rose again. “Umm, Mister Dust, what do I do…” he started to say.

Suddenly the floor panel under One gave way and he disappeared from sight. His scream mixed with the thumping of a large object banging against sheet metal. After a short time, the screams and banging died down, and the floor panel reset itself.

“Player neutralized. Remaining players await instructions,” a mechanical, female voice droned.

There was the fucking PA system again. “And round one is over, and it looks like you lost, Dust!” he said threateningly. “Are you going to forfeit or move on to round two?” After some more laughing, the PA system turned off and the door in front of us slid open.

“Muddy! You bastard!” I screamed. “You better not hurt him!”

“Or else what, Dust?” Muddy said dripping with contempt. “What can you possibly do about it? And you knew this was the price.”

I stomped hard, feeling the force all the way up my leg. A growl escaped from between clenched teeth.

“C’mon, Dust. Round two is waiting,” Muddy added, giggling.

“C’mon, ponies,” I said, nearly growling, to the group. “We can only hope that Muddy doesn’t hurt One. We’ll find him, or I’ll die trying.”

“Be careful, Dust,” Brownie said, placing a hoof around my shoulder. “Don’t let yer emotions get the best of ya. That’s probably what Muddy wants.”

Silver walked up to me next. “Dust,” she said as she wrapped her hooves around me in a hug. I immediately felt some of the tension melt away. “This wasn’t your fault, and I’m sure you’ll do everything you can to help One.” I numbly nodded.

The doorway that had just opened led to a brightly lit hallway. We slowly made our way down, checking each door we came to. The activation panels for all the doors were unlit. We stopped at one of the doors so I could see if I could bypass it, but it appeared somepony had ripped out all of the components. The panels were just there for aesthetics.

After a short walk, we finally found a door with a lit panel. I took a deep breath and looked at each of my remaining friends. Each of them nodded in response. I pressed the panel and the door slid open. The room beyond was pitch black, only illuminated by the light spilling in from the hallway.

I entered the room first, followed by the rest of the group. As soon as we crossed the threshold, the door slid shut behind us and we were plunged into pitch black darkness. I reached for the light switch on my Pipbuck and the bright green light illuminated the small area just around me.

The PA system shrieked the life. I was getting sick and tired of that sound.

“Dust and company, welcome to round 2! In a moment, the lights in the room will turn on. You will have 15 seconds to figure out the way to the exit. Then the lights will turn off and will not turn back on again,” Muddy said sounding like one of the DJ’s on the radio throughout the Wasteland.

As promised, the lights turned on as soon as Muddy stopped speaking. The room was completely bare. The only feature, besides the door on the other side, was a red, painted path between us and the door. It snaked around the room, doubling back on itself a few times. As promised, fifteen seconds later, the lights turned back off. The sound of metal sliding against metal filled the room and when it stopped, the silence was broken by a soft beeping sound.

“Ah shit… sentry guns. Well, at least this shouldn’t be too hard,” I said, walking towards the beginning of the paint path. I waved my Pipbuck over the ground until I found the path. “See, this will be a piece of cake,” I said as I took my first step on the paint. I heard a soft whir followed by a gunshot. A sharp impact on my chest knocked the wind out of me and dropped me to the ground. “Fucking A!”

Muddy’s laughter filled the room. “Oh, did I forget to mention one of the rules? No light sources!” Muddy laughed maniacally. “Oh… and that was a rubber bullet. I forget how many of those things I put in before I had to load real ammunition. And the real stuff, is armor piercing! Good luck!” The PA system actually clicked off this time, plunging us into silence, while I was still trying to catch my breath from the rubber projectile.

“Dust, are you OK?” Silver asked.

“Yeah,” I coughed out “It hurts like a mother fucker, but I’m OK.” I remained on the floor, trying to force deep breaths into my lungs. “While I’m catching my breath, anypony have any bright ideas?”

I heard a soft “whump” sound which was followed quickly by a flash of red. Another gunshot fired and I heard Brownie grunt. The sound of a body hitting the floor quickly followed. A red flame slowly grew in intensity in one of the corners.

“Son of a bitch!” Brownie grunted between short, ragged breaths. “Ah fergot how much nonlethal ammo can hurt! Ah’ll be OK.”

“Brownie, what the hell were you…” I started.

“Ah figured the flare can give us light,” he said, still gasping. “Ah just didn’t figure on the gun tracking me.”

“Well, next time warn me,” I said. “This way, I can figure if it is something I would do and, therefore, a bad idea.” I couldn’t help but to giggle a little bit. “Ah geez, it hurts to laugh.” Everypony else laughed a little, even Brownie. Except his laugh, was followed by a groan.

After several deep breaths, I flicked the light of my Pipbuck off and slowly got back to my hooves. I surveyed the room, now lit by the ignited flare in the corner of the room. It wasn’t ideal as it only lit half the room, and not the entire path, but it was better than nothing. Brownie slowly made his way back to his hooves as well.

“Alright, everypony stay close to me and follow my exact path,” I said to my friends as I gazed at the start of the red paint. It was barely visible in the red light of the flare, and it got worse the further from the flare it went.

The first dozen yards or so, the path was easy enough to follow. But we were moving away from the flare, so the red light was fading just due to distance, in addition to the flare burning itself out. The flare sputtered, which drew my attention towards it. Suddenly, I heard a gunshot and another impact on my chest which sent me down to the floor gasping for air again.

“For Celestia’s sake!” I forced out between gasps for air.

“Dust, are you…” Silver asked from somewhere behind me.

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll be OK. It just stings like hell,” I moaned.

I heard another gunshot. This time, a female gasp was followed by a loud thud.

“Flower? Silver?” I wheezed. “Are you two OK?”

“Yeah, I’m good,” Flower called out from somewhere behind me.

The only other sound to come from behind me was somepony gasping. “Holy Tartarus, that hurts!” Silver gasped from behind me.

“Silver!” I cried out. “Are you OK?”

“Yeah,” she forced out between coughs. “It just hurts. I’ll be OK.”

The red light from the flare began to fade. “Ah shit, ponies. We gotta move, we’re almost out of light,” I ordered the group.

“Nah, Dust. Ah got one more flare,” Brownie called out. “Ah can take another rubber bullet.”

“But what if the next one is a live round,” Flower asked, her voice tinged with anxiety.

“Well, then we have health potions, don’t we?” he responded, with a nervous laugh.

From somewhere behind me, I heard Brownie flip open the flare gun and slide the flare round inside. He closed the breach with a sharp click. I heard another “whump” and watched as another flare flew across the room. However, there wasn’t a gunshot. This time, there was a light “fwip” sound.

Brownie grunted in pain. “Ah, shit. That wasn’t…” Brownie said, his voice trailing off at the end.

“Brownie? Brownie! Brownie, answer me!” Flower screamed, fidgeting her hooves.

“Player neutralized. Remaining players will remain still or risk forfeiture,” the female voice droned again. The lights in the room turned back on. On the floor was Brownie. He was lying motionless on the floor, but I could not see any visible wounds. Then I saw it. His sides were slowly rising and falling with breaths. That’s when I saw the metallic cylinder with the small pink fletching of a tranquilizer dart jutting out of his neck.

“He’s alive, just knocked out,” I said, watching Flower’s body relax. “Muddy! Please let us help him!”

Suddenly, from the side of the room, a large panel began to slide away. A pony-shaped robot began to lumber its way out of the hallway that was behind that panel. It was a Ponitron, painted Stable-Tec blue and yellow.

“Players will stay clear. Interference with the robot or leaving the path will result in the loss of this player and forfeiture of another player,” the mechanical female voice informed us.

The Ponitron slowly made its way towards Brownie. Once it was close enough, it used its front hooves to pick up Brownie and placed him on his back.

“Do not touch him!” Flower screamed. The Ponitron did not heed her words and simply turned around and lumbered out of the room with Brownie. The panel slid back into place and the room became silent once more.

The PA system shrieked to life. “Now you’re oh-and-two, Dust,” Brownie mocked. “Do you just give up now or will you continue on?” The PA system clicked off once more. The door at the end of the painted path slid open to a lit corridor beyond.

“Dust, yer not thinkin’ of givin’ up, are ya?” Flower asked, her eyes wild. “If you are, I’m goin’ on without ya.”

“Flower, I am not leaving anypony behind,” I said with a nod. “Don’t forget, One is missing, too.”

“Oh, yeah,” she said dropping her head.

“C’mon, let’s go,” I said, nodding towards the open door.

With the game over, we were able to walk straight to the door and not get shot at. Flower repeatedly glanced towards the wall panel that Brownie disappeared behind. I couldn’t blame her… what if it was Silver that was taken by the Ponitron?

Again, the corridor was lined with doors that didn’t work. We eventually had to climb down two stairwells and two more corridors before we got to a door that had a green light on it.

I took a deep breath. “I am so tired of this shit already, but is everypony ready?” I asked. Everypony nodded in agreement.

After hoofing the panel, the door slid open softly and another long corridor lay beyond. It was wider than a normal hallway and was probably a couple hundred feet long. As expected, once we crossed the threshold, the door behind us slid shut.

Once the door closed, I took a closer look at the room we were in. There were no guns or robots in sight. The floor was covered with square panels and there was a yellow line painted a couple of feet just inside the room. The walls and ceiling seemed seamless, except for the lights in the ceiling. The only other features of any interest were the doors, one on the far side of the room and the one we entered.

“What in the name of Celestia do we do in here?” Flower muttered.

As if on cue, the entire corridor was bathed in green light and a ticking sound started.

“What the?” I mumbled out loud.

After a short period of time, a buzzer sounded and the lights in the hallway shifted to red. The buzzer stopped and the lights remained red.

“Does anypony have any idea what is going on?” I asked out loud.

“Nope,” Flower said, shaking her head.

“Me neither,” Silver replied.

The lights in the room turned green again with the same ticking as before.

“Well, ah can’t see any problems here, and ah need ta go find Brownie,” Flower announced as she started walking across the room. As she crossed the painted line, the buzzer sounded and the lights turned red. The panel underneath her gave way and she started to fall. “Holy shit!”

Turning in midair, she grabbed the edge of the solid floor on our side of the line. I dove and slid across the floor and grabbed her hoof with one of mine. “Flower, don’t let go!” I screamed.

“Wasn’t exactly on my list of things ta do, Dust,” she said sarcastically. “Can ya please just pull me up now?”

Gripping her hoof with both of mine, I began to pull as hard as I could. Looking over the edge, I saw that the floor panels opened up over a three story drop. I redoubled my efforts to pull Flower out of the hole. I felt Silver grab onto the collar of my armor and pulled with all of her strength.

Flower began to rise slowly out of the pit. My legs began to tremble with effort and my hooves were beginning to slip in her grasp. “Hold… on… for… just… a… little… longer…” I grunted out between exertions.

We began to make some real progress getting Flower to rise up above floor level. Soon, she was able to get one hoof on stable ground and she used that to push off and flop down on the solid floor behind the yellow line. Flower, Silver, and I flopped over onto our sides and lay there just breathing in deep, heaving breaths.

After a couple of minutes, my breathing began to slow. “Hey, Flower, next time you’re going to do something Dust-level stupid, please let me know ahead of time. I want to be prepared,” I said facetiously. Silver and Flower giggled back.

After several more moments, we all caught our breath and got back onto our hooves. I walked up to the yellow line and just stared at the panel in front of me. “Now, what are the rules, I wonder,” I said, thinking out loud. “Can one of you please grab onto my armor, I’m testing a theory.”

“Ya sure about this, Dust?” Flower asked as she moved behind me.

“As sure as I can be,” I answered. “Just hold on to my armor tight, just in case.”

The lights in the room were still green when I placed my two front hooves on one of the remaining panels adjacent to the yellow line. I let my weight settle normally and the panel seemed to hold. Suddenly, the buzzer went off and the lights shifted to red. The panel beneath me didn’t shift at all.

“Huh, this is weird,” I said as I turned my head. At that moment, the panel beneath my hooves gave way, and Flower tugged and pulled me back onto solid ground. “It appears we are playing Red Light-Green Light. We can’t move at all once the light turns red.”

“Isn’t that a foal’s game?” Flower asked, gritting her teeth.

“Yeah, but this game has higher stakes,” I said somberly. “Let’s just be careful. And let’s make sure there aren’t more than one of us on a panel at a time.”

The first time the lights switched to green, I moved onto the first panel beyond the yellow line. I kept moving, and when I cleared the first panel, I heard somepony follow behind me. Suddenly, the buzzer sounded and the lights turned red. I froze and tried to remain as motionless as possible.

After several long moments, the lights turned green and the ticking resumed. I glanced over my shoulder and saw my friends behind me, walking forward. After crossing a couple more panels, the buzzer sounded and the lights turned red once more.

Unfortunately, I was caught with one hoof in the air, midstep. I froze as best I could, holding my hoof aloft. After a few seconds, I felt the muscles in my leg start to burn from exertion. After what felt like minutes, the lights turned green and the ticking resumed.

“I can’t wait for this to end,” I muttered while walking forward.

“Me neither,” both Flower and Silver said at the same time.

Suddenly and unexpectedly, the lights flashed to red with the buzzer after only a few seconds. I breathed a light sigh of relief since all four of my hooves were flat on the floor. The time began to drag on, but I was having no problem staying still so far.

“Dust, ah have a slight problem here,” the muffled voice of Flower said from behind me. “I don’t know how much longer I can hold this position without moving.”

“Do your best,” I said, trying my best to not move my lips.

“I’m sorry, Dust,” Flower mumbled.

I heard a loud click from behind me, followed the squeaking of a rusty, metal hinge. The next sound I heard chilled my blood. Flower screamed and it sounded like as time passed, she got further away. I didn’t dare risk turning my head to see what happened. Finally, I heard a mechanical whirring sound and metal grinding against metal.

“Flower!” I screamed through clenched teeth. “Silver, did you see what happened?” I said, still not moving my lips as much as possible.

“No, she was behind me,” she said, clearly concerned.

“Player neutralized. Remaining players will continue playing,” the mechanical, female voice called out. The lights turned green and the ticking started again.

Every other thought fled from my mind. I’ve just lost my third friend in this “game” of Muddy’s. I didn’t know whether they were alive or dead. If they were alive, I had no idea what Muddy had in store for them

Finally, my frustration won out. “C’mon, Muddy! You got your pound of flesh! End this round!” I called out. The PA system remained silent.

I moved forward again and saw a green line as I got closer to the door. I figured that was our goal. I was about two panels away when the lights turned red again. My hooves stopped dead in their tracks, but my momentum was still trying to carry my body forward. My body tried to move forward and I tensed all my muscles trying to stop.

As I felt myself passing the point of no return and about to fall forward, the room turned green again. I fell forward and crawled my way past the green line painted onto the floor. I lay there listening to the ticking clock. The firm ground underneath me was comforting and I just wanted all of this to end. Silver’s voice broke me out of my reverie.

“Dust, I am so stupid,” she said facehoofing herself. “I was so worried about staying with the group, I forgot I could just fly over the floor.

“Be careful,” I called out as she kicked off the floor. As she cleared the floor, I heard a small “thwip” sound.

“Ouch,” Silver yelled. “What the hell…” Her eyelids started to droop and she began to sink back down to the panels on the floor. She semi-crash landed on the panel right in front of me and promptly fell asleep.

“Unauthorized flight detected. Target pacified. Room placed on lockdown,” the female mechanical voice called out. The room immediately plunged into red with a siren sounding every few seconds.

Shit. This wasn’t good. When Silver came to, she would most likely move and I could only assume that would trigger the panel she was laying on. I couldn’t cross back over the green line without triggering the panel I stepped on.

My mind was racing over the possibilities of getting us out of this predicament. Several scenarios played out in my mind, and every one of them ended up with either Silver or I taking a long plunge.

“Urgh,” Silver moaned.

“Silver! Don’t… move!” I shouted at her.

“Dust, what’s going on?” she asked, beginning to fidget.

“Silver! Freeze!” I pleaded.

“Huh?” she asked as her eyelids fluttered open.

“Silver, please stop moving or else you’ll get hurt,” I said with some urgency.

“Oh, yeah, I forgot,” she said while stopping her fidgeting. “Got any ideas?”

“No good ones,” I replied somberly. I reached into my saddlebags and took out a coil of rope. “Here’s the gist of my plan. I throw you the rope, you grab onto it, unavoidably tripping the floor panel. I pull you to safety afterwards.”

“You’re right, that plan sucks,” she said with a giggle. “Unfortunately, I can’t come up with anything better.

“Alright, I’m throwing it on three,” I said, beginning to swing the rope. “One… two… three!” On three, I heaved the rope towards Silver. It landed right next to her hooves. As she reached to grab it, a loud buzz filled the room and all the panels slammed open at once.

“Oh Celestia!” Silver screamed as she fell through the open hole. I felt the rope pull taut, threatening to pull me over the edge. “Dust! Pull me up!”

“Silver, hold on tight!” I mumbled through the rope in my mouth.

Straining with all my strength, I began to backpedal, slowly gaining ground. I watched as the rope dragged along the edge of the frame where the floor panel used to be secured. Small specks of hemp were flying off the rope as it moved across the metal.

“Silver, when you get high enough, you’re going to need to plant your hooves and jump,” I said, my commands still being muffled by the rope in my mouth. My teeth were starting to hurt from struggling against the weight.

As I kept backing up, my flank bumped against the wall. “Shit, Silver, I’m out of room,” I grumbled. “I’m going to try to pull, but you may need to jump sooner than I thought.”

I picked up my right hoof and wrapped it around the rope and pulled as much as I could. I watched as Silver’s head and then her torso rose above the level of the floor. I closed my eyes and strained as much as I could, trying to pull the rope as much as I could.

Suddenly the rope went slack and I fell backwards against the wall. “Silver! No…” I began to say when I got thrown onto my back by a large object. “What the?”

When reopened my eyes, Silver was laying on top of me, breathing heavily. I wrapped my hooves around her tight. “Oh, Silver! I thought I lost you!”

“So did I, Dust,” she said as she wrapped me in her hooves also.

“Players in safe zone. Opening access to chamber four,” the female mechanical voice called out. The lights in the room returned to normal white light and the door in front of us slid open.

After lying in each other’s legs for several minutes, I cleared my throat. “I wish we didn’t have to, but ready to go?” I said while gesturing towards the door.

“Not really, but don’t really have a choice,” she said, resigned to the fact that we had to move on.

This time it was a small walk down the a corridor until we came to a lit door panel. I paused in front of the door and then hoofed the panel. The door slid open like the others, but it revealed a small room on the other side. I looked at Silver, shrugged, and walked into the room.

The room was barely bigger than one of the Special Operations dorm rooms back at the fort. There were no other exits that I could see, and the only interesting feature was the large mirror on the far wall.

As we approached the mirror, the door behind us slid shut with a loud slam. The PA system shrieked to life, and in such a small space it was deafening.

“Well, well, well, look who fell into the spider’s web,” Muddy said with acid in his tone. “My two little cheaters!”

“Cheaters?” I blurted out. “What the hell do you mean by that?”

“In the last room, with the rope,” he said angrily. “You were not supposed to do that! And Silver trying to fly! That broke the rules of the game!” He let out a low growl. “And for breaking the rules, there are penalties!”

“Muddy, fuck you!” I yelled. “This is not a game, my friends are missing or dead! And here you are talking about penalties!”

I heard a hissing sound coming from one of the nearby vents. Soon after, a green gas began to pour forth, filling the room.

“Silver! Hold your breath!” I screamed as I took the deepest breath I could and held it.

“Now, Dust, you will find that is quite futile,” he said condescendingly. “There is no way out and you won’t be able to hold your breath that long!”

I ran back towards the door and saw there was no panel on this side. Damn it! I ran back to the mirror and started bucking at it with my hooves. I was greeting by a hollow “thunk” each time and the mirror did not budge.

Soon, my lungs were screaming for air. I watched as Silver took a breath and slowly dropped to the floor. I dropped down next to her and finally gave in as I gasped and filled my lungs with the gas. At first, my throat and lungs burned, but that was slowly replaced with a soothing numbness. I lay down on the ground and grabbed Silver’s hoof with mine.

“Sorry I failed us, Silver,” I said, fighting the effects of the gas. “I love you.”

“I… love… you…” Silver started to say as I passed out.

When I opened my eyes, I was floating in midair. I had no control over my body except for eyes. Scanning around me, I saw a dense, green cloud beneath me. Through the green haze, I could barely make out two bodies; a pink pegasus mare and a grey earth pony stallion.

“Wait a minute, that looks like Silver!” I blurted out in shock. “What the hell?”

A shrouded figure emerged from the other side of the cloud, floating at the same height as me. “Hello, Dust. Or should I call you, Updraft?” the voice said.

“H...how the hell do you know my name?” I asked, surprised. “And who the hell are you?”

“Well, let’s just say that I’m awesome and leave it at that,” the voice said with a chuckle. “This way it answers both questions at once!”

I turned my attention to the motionless bodies on the floor. “Are… are we dead?” I asked, not really wanting an answer.

“Nah, it’s not time for that yet,” my companion said. “You still have a lot of work to do. But it will come at a great price.”

“Somepony will die?” I asked, staring at the body of Silver.

“No, not thinking big enough,” the shrouded figure said shaking their head. “The price will be much larger.”

“All of my friends will die?” I asked, hopeful the answer was no.

“Bigger,” the figure said.

“I can’t handle that,” I pleaded. “Please don’t make me do it.”

“It isn’t me that decides that, Updraft,” the voice said. “But it appears our time is up. Just remember, sometimes we learn our history so that we can repeat it.”

The shrouded form began to move away from me and disappeared in the mist. “But wait! I have no idea what you mean!” I shouted, to no avail.

The fog around me increased in intensity until everything went pitch black.

Slowly, the sound of the ventilation fans became louder around me. My eyes fluttered open and I realized I was in a pitch black room. The headache I had was monstrous. I used my hooves to massage my temples, hoping it would alleviate the headache.

A spotlight turned on, focused on me. The light nearly blinded me and I shielded my eyes using one of my legs. I started to get up, but was soon interrupted by a voice, which made me freeze.

“So, Dust, you finally caught up with me,” Muddy’s voice said with a tinny quality to it. “I am so impressed you made it as far as you did. From what the previous owner of this stable told me before his,” Muddy said with a little giggle, “little accident… nopony made it past the second room before now.”

“Dammit, Muddy... “ I groaned, my head still pounding, “I am not in the mood for this right now. If you’re going to kill me, just kill me.”

“Oh, no, Dust, I am not going to kill you,” he said. His tone sent chills down my spine and made me shiver involuntarily. “I am going to do much worse.”

Slowly, the room I was in began to brighten from the overhead lights slowly turning on. I was in a small room. One wall was lined with doors and windows. Each door had a number written on it in red paint. At least, I hoped it was red paint. The rooms beyond the windows were still dark. I was laying on top of a small raised platform with a small pedestal attached to it. On top of the pedestal was a small panel with six buttons on it. The only other feature of the room was a large storage container.

One of the rooms behind the windows lit up. It was a small room with a door set into the back wall and a computer panel near the window. On the other side of the glass was a familiar green and yellow pegasus stallion.

“Muddy!” I yelled. I began to trot towards him.

“Nuh..uh..uh… I wouldn’t do that if I were you, Dust,” he mocked. I froze in my tracks. “You leave that pedestal, you forfeit the round… and your players!” He interacted with a panel in his room and the other rooms lit up as well.

Each room was about the size of small wagon, maybe big enough to hold a few ponies comfortably. Each room had a door set into the back wall just like Muddy’s. At first, I was wondering why he was showing me this.

After fidgeting with some more controls, Muddy cleared his throat. “Attention players! Time to wake up… it’s the final round!”

After a few moments, I saw movement in the windows. The first thing I saw was a brown head appear in one of the windows. It turned around to face me. It was Brownie!

“Brownie! You OK?” I yelled out. Brownie didn’t respond, but did begin to bang on the glass. His mouth was moving, but I couldn’t hear anything.

“Now, now… you will have time to talk soon enough,” Muddy announced over the speaker. “Besides, the rooms are soundproof, so it doesn’t matter anyway!”

In the other windows, Flower and One appeared slowly. Each of them looked shocked to see me and then relieved. They started banging on the glass but stopped when they realized the announcement pertained to them as well.

Finally, I saw the pink and green head of Silver appear. The look of relief on her face was more palpable than the others. She even began to cry. She tried to say something, but I couldn’t hear her just like the others.

“Oh good, everyone’s awake,” Muddy laughed. “We can get on with the game now!”

“Muddy… why are you doing this?” I asked, glaring at him.

“Does it matter, Dust?” Muddy replied, with a sneer. “Or is this the part I tell you my big plan?”

“Muddy, no more games,” I pleaded. “Why did you try to kill me? Why are you trying to kill my friends? This can’t be just because I walked in on you and Silver and the fact that we are chasing you. And please, no vagaries. Just come out and say it.”

“You know what, Dust,” he said, nodding and playing with the controls again. “You’re right. It is larger than that.” Muddy began pacing in his little room. “The General lied to us. We aren’t down here on some short term mission. Midnight? He’s been here for almost a decade! A DECADE! And there are others, ask Midnight about it. Oh, and to top it all off, there is no going back.”

My heart nearly stopped. “No… that can’t be. I don’t believe you,” I murmured in shock.

“Oh, Dust! Grow up!” he yelled, causing the speaker to reverberate a little. “We were lied to… and tricked. I know you found my journal. You know what I was promised. I was supposed to become lead pony in my own flight squad. That isn’t happening now! Whatever you were promised, forget it. The only thing the General cares about is anything that will help him. And I think I found it… or to be more accurate, I think you found it. I took the liberty of checking your Pipbuck while you were out.”

I quickly glanced at the computer strapped to me foreleg. “What do you mean?”

“Oh, I know all about Manny’s little aeroponics operation,” he said. “That alone would have been enough. But you stumbled across something else. And the General will be very interested in seeing that! And what do you think he’ll do to the pony that can deliver it?”

My mind began to race. Being able to seed the clouds more efficiently would help the Enclave considerably. But Cloudy said that there was something bigger I found? What could be be talking about?

“Now that we took care of that… Dust, I have bad news for you all,” he continued with a laugh. He fidgeted with a few controls on the panel in his room. “You lost the game. Not only did you cheat, but you didn’t escape the last room you were in. So now we enter the penalty phase. As you see before you, each of your friends is locked in a room with no way out. I, too, am locked in a room with no way out, right now. I took all your gear, so there is no shooting or breaking your way in or out.

“In front of you, you see the panel with six buttons on it?” he asked. I turned to look at it and saw the six numbered buttons. Well, five were numbered. The last had a skull drawn on it. “You have a choice to make now, Dust.

“If you press the button with my room number on it, I will surrender to you, but your friends will die. And your other choice is to pick one of your friends to die, save everypony else, and let me escape,” Muddy explained, topping it off with a laugh. “Oh, and you have five minutes to make your decision. You can all discuss this during the five minutes. And one last thing: failing to choose will result in all of your friends dying, me escaping, and you surviving. Have fun!” Muddy sat down and pulled out a bowl of something white and puffy and began eating it with a wicked grin on his face. A countdown appeared on the small panel in front of me.

Nopony spoke for the first several seconds. And then, everypony began speaking at once. After everypony realized everypony else was trying to speak, we all quieted down.

“No, I can’t do this, I can’t choose to kill somepony!” I screamed in frustration. “Muddy, you can’t make me do this!” I looked in his room and he simply sat there grinning and stuffing his face with the food he had. “Please don’t make me do this!”

Brownie was the first to speak up. “Dust, if yah need ta pick somepony, pick me,” he said, tears forming in his eyes. “Ah can’t watch ya kill somepony else, especially not Flower. Ah just couldn’t live with mahself if she died.”

“Oh no yah don’t,” Flower yelled. “Yah don’t get ta make that choice fer me!”

“Mister Dust, I don’t wanna die…” One started to say, his head dropping towards the ground.

“But Flower, ah couldn’t live with mahself if ah watched ya die,” Brownie pleaded.

“And ya think ah could?” Flower interrupted. Tears were flowing down her muzzle. “Ah don’t think anypony here wants ta die. This is part of Muddy’s game!”

“I’ll be honest,” Silver said, her voice trembling. “Nopony here wants to die. Muddy wants to torture Dust by forcing him to choose. And if he chooses anypony other than me, I’m sure there will always be the doubt that he let me live for selfish reasons. This is exactly what Muddy wants!”

There was silence for a short time. “Two minutes left, Dust!” Muddy said, his voice muffled by a mouthful of the food he was eating.

“You know what, Muddy?” I asked, clearly stressed. “Go fuck yourself!” His only reaction was to laugh and stuff more of the puffy food into his mouth.

“Mister Dust?” One said unusually calmly.

“Wait a minute, One,” I replied. “Muddy, stop the madness! You want something? I’m sure we can figure something out!”

“Mister Dust?” One said, with a little more persistence in his voice.

“One, wait a second,” I shot back. “I’m sure we can figure out a way to get what you want without hurting anypony…”

“MISTER DUST!” One yelled.

Everypony looked a little shocked, even Muddy. I turned to look at One. He was breathing heavily and was looking at me with determination in his eyes.

“Mister Dust, I don’t want to die, but please, pick me,” he said, his gaze never wavering from mine.

“One, no, I can’t…” I started.

“Mister Dust, please,” he pleaded. “I don’t want to see Mister Brownie and Miss Flower separated. Miss Silver is your special somepony. You all are used to the Wasteland.” He paused and took a deep breath and sighed. “I nearly killed a pony a few days ago, and I don’t think I could have lived with myself. I don’t want to hurt anypony, and I don’t want to get hurt anymore.”

I began to sob softly. “One, no, I can’t…” I said.

“Mister Dust, you have to,” he said. “I’m the only choice left.”
I never took my eyes off of One, but my friends began to chime in.

“No, Dust,” Silver gasped. “You can’t.”

“Dust, don’t yah dare do it,” Brownie said.

“Dust, please, don’t listen to him,” Flower said.

“Thirty more seconds!” Muddy said gleefully. What I wouldn’t do to smack him right now.

“Mister Dust, it’s OK,” One said, his eyes still watering. “Do you think I’ll see my brothers and daddy again?”

Tears were streaming down my muzzle and my nose was running uncontrollably. “Yes, One, I think you will.”

“Mister Dust, please know that I like you and you treated me almost as well as my father did,” One said.

“One,” I said between sobs. “You are a special pony, one of the bravest I’ve known.”

“Ten seconds remaining,” a computerized, female voice called out.

My hoof hovered over the button matching One’s room. I looked at him one last time and he nodded. I moved my hoof down and pressed the button.

“Room one chosen,” the female voice called out. The doors to my friends’ rooms all slid open. I looked at Muddy and saw the back door to his room had opened as well.

“Nice choice, Dust!” Muddy screamed in delight, clapping his hooves.

Silver ran over to me and wrapped her hooves around me. I couldn’t help but to do the same. I heard Flower’s and Brownie’s hoofsteps approach. I pushed Silver off of me. I saw the flash of brown too late as Brownie smacked me across the muzzle.

“Dust, I told ya, ta pick me!” Brownie yelled.

I was about to respond when I heard the sound of running water. Looking back into One’s room, I saw water begin to flow from several pipes in the ceiling of his room. The room begin to fill with water, and the horror of the situation made my thoughts stop dead in their tracks.

“Muddy, no, please, not this,” I pleaded. “Have mercy! Make it painless!”

“Sorry, Dust,” Muddy said. “All I said was you get to pick who dies, not how they die!”

“Muddy! This will be like torture!” I screamed. “You have to stop this!”

“But, Dust,” he said, snickering. “What fun would that be?”

The water level in the room was rising rapidly. I galloped over to the window between the two rooms. I turned and began to buck at the window. One tried to same on his side as Brownie joined me and helped me on ours. The glass held firm.

I watched as One’s horn became enveloped in his magical aura. First the glass glowed and I watched as it bowed, but it never broke. The field dissipated and instead it enveloped the door. I watched One’s face contort in effort, but the door never budged. Soon, his horn sparked and went black and the magical field disappeared completely.

“One!” I said watching the room fill with water. “Be brave! It will be over soon!”

The water was now at the same level as his mouth. I watched as he craned his head as high as it could go. Before it got too high, he took as deep a breath as he could.

For the first several seconds, everything looked peaceful. The room had completely filled with water by this point. I watched as his body tensed and his eyes filled with panic. I placed my hoof against the glass. One did the same, placing his hoof over mine.

One began to thrash, fighting the urge to breath. He even tried to swim to the top of the room, but to no avail. Finally, in a full panic, he tried to bang at the window, trying to break it. With horror, I watched as he began to exhale. Flower and Silver began to cry and trotted away. Brownie moved next to me and placed a hoof around my shoulder.

After the last bubble escaped his mouth, I watched as he took a lungful of water. The look of fear on his face terrified me and forced me into a full cry. As much as I wanted to look away, I knew I couldn’t for One’s sake. I didn’t want him to feel alone as he died.

“Now watch this, Dust,” Muddy said between bouts of laughters. “This is where shit gets real!”

One’s mouth began to move as if he was gasping for air. The sounds and sights around me began to fade. My thoughts were solely focused on One and something, anything I could do to help him. I couldn’t even hear Muddy’s insane laughter anymore.

One began to thrash, seemingly losing control of his body. The motions began to slow, until he finally stopped moving. His body went slack and he slowly sank down to the floor until he dropped from view, and, mercifully, the light in his room turned off, plunging it into darkness.

Level Up!

Perk Obtained: Inspiring - When interacting with a pony in a stressful situation, that pony receives +1 Charisma

Stats:
Speech: 45

Author's Note

I haven't commented on a chapter in a while but I felt it was necessary here.

This was the hardest chapter for me to write... I didn't really want to kill off One, but it was necessary to move the story along. Please know it was as hard for me to write as it probably was to read.

Chapter 16 - Lost and Found

Chapter 16 - Lost and Found
“You always find something in the last place you look.”

The sounds and sensations from around me faded. As I stared into the darkened window, all I could see was my ghostly reflection. My face appeared lifeless. My eyes devoid of any feeling.

One had to come back, he just had to. He couldn’t be dead. I couldn’t have killed him. I waited and waited for his happy, smiling face to reappear in the window. I gladly would have explained something to him, for the umpteenth time, just to have him back.

A sharp jostle roused me from my introspection. “Dust!” Brownie was yelling. It was hard to hear him over the crazed laughter of Muddy.

“You should see the look on your face!” he wheezed between bouts of laughter. “Please, Muddy, don’t make me do this,” he said mockingly. “This is torture!” he continued in his sarcastic voice.

“SHUT THE FUCK UP!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. My vocal chords burned with the effort. I galloped over to the window between his little cubicle and the main room I was in. I turned and began bucking at the window. “YOU!” I said with a kick. “WON’T!” Another buck. “GET! AWAY! WITH! THIS!”

“Haaaaa ha ha ha!” he laughed maniacally. “Oh, this is too much! Did I piss off poor little Dusty? Does he miss his fwiend?”

I kept bucking at the glass. Each impact jarred my entire body. I felt a sharp pain in my left hoof and saw blood begin to spatter against the window. Two strong hooves pulled me away from window and forced me to the floor.

“Dust, calm down!” a deep voice called out. Brownie held me firm while I struggled against his restraint.

“I have to get to Muddy!” I cried out. “I have to make him pay! I have to make him pay for what he made me do! What did I do, Brownie? What did I do?”

My body slumped from the fatigue of my struggle, both with the glass and with Brownie. My body shuddered as I broke down into uncontrollable crying. I buried my face in my hooves as my chest heaved. A gentler body laid down next to me and wrapped me in their hooves. I could only imagine it was Silver.

“Shhh, Dust,” her voice confirmed. “You didn’t do this. Muddy did. Don’t you ever dare think otherwise.”

“Well, while I’d love to stay and watch the fun,” Muddy snickered, “I have bigger and better things to do. Like revenge on everypony that screwed me!” He pointed towards the large case. “Your gear is in that case over there. It, as well as all the doors to the exit, will open in twenty-four hours, giving me enough time to become scarce. Don’t say I never did anything nice for you ponies.” The playful tone in his voice hardened considerably. “Come after me again, and somepony else dies.” I heard the PA system click off.

The sound of draining water drew my attention away from the inert speaker. The lights in One’s room were still off, but the water had to be draining out. It took several minutes, but the room emptied with one final gurgle and the sound of door hydraulics activating.

We all looked back and forth between ourselves and the now open door. The lights in the room turned on with a buzz. I gingerly took the first step towards the door when a brown hoof was placed on my shoulder.

“Dust, ah’ll take care of this. Ya shouldn’t have ta,” Brownie tried to comfort me, tears still streaming down his face.

“No, Brownie,” I replied solemnly. “I killed him, I should take care of this.” Brownie opened his mouth to argue with me, but then decided against it.

Several steps later, I was at the threshold. I took a deep breath and entered the room. Water was still dripping off the conduit and fixtures in the ceiling. I turned my head towards the window, dreading the sight I would see. There, under the window, was green body of One. His mane was matted to his skin, but he oddly looked cleaner than I remembered.

Nearing the body, I got my first look at his face. The look of panic I had last seen was frozen in his features. The shock stopped me dead in my tracks. My body involuntarily shivered while I stared into his vacant, hazel eyes. His mouth was still gaping open in a silent scream. I reached out and gently lowered his eyelids and closed his jaw. I knelt down next to his and rested my forehead against his.

My mind flashed back to meeting the stallion behind his sniper rifle and him wetting himself once he realized I had the upper hoof. I remember the talk we had about mercy before he killed Foggy. The fight on the mountain, the button pushing in the sewers… it all flooded back and made me break down again.

I don’t know how long I remained there, but I was brought back to reality by a throat being cleared softly.

“Dust, are you ok?” Silver asked gently, staying in the doorway.

I lifted my head to look at her. I could feel the tears and snot running off my snout. “No, Silver,” I sobbed. “How could I have done this?”
Silver walked over to me, avoiding looking directly at One. “It wasn’t you, Dust,” she countered. I was about to protest, but she placed her hoof over my lips. “Muddy forced you to make a choice. But he was the one that made up the rules. You either had to choose to kill somepony, or the rest of us would have died. There was nothing you could do.”

I pushed her hoof away. “He never should have been here. None of you should have,” I sighed. “I should have come alone. This way, I’d be the only casualty.” Silver was about to say something, but I interrupted her. “Silver, you know I love you. But please, I want to be alone right now.”

The look of hurt on her face made me feel worse, but I wanted to be alone. I felt it was only right that I spend my time with One’s body. It was only fair, given I’d taken his life to spare everypony else’s, including mine.

A few hours later, filled with intermittent rage and sorrow, I walked back out into the main room. I never picked up my head except to watch where I was stepping.

Brownie responded first. “Dust… are ya… are ya ok?” he asked tentatively.

“No, Brownie,” I croaked. “I don’t think I’ll be OK for a long time. How are you two?”

“Well, ah’m OK…” Brownie reassured me. “Look, Dust, ah’m sorry ah hit ya before. It was wrong of me ta do that.”

“It’s OK, Brownie,” I started to say, picking my head up to look him in the eye. “You were right.”

“Dust, ah’m sorry for what Muddy made ya do,” Flower gasped. She must have cried as much as I had since I could still see the streaks from the tears in the Wasteland dust on her face.

Looking around for Silver, I found it odd that I couldn’t find her. “Where’s Silver?” I pondered out loud.

“She went into that room,” Brownie informed me while pointing to the room Muddy had been occupying.

I trotted over and knocked on the frame of the door. “Silver?” I muttered.

“Oh, hi, Dust,” she blurted out in surprise. She had been fiddling with the console that Muddy was using. “I was just trying to see if I could override the computer and let us out,” Silver said, finally looking up at me. “Are you feeling any better?”

“Yeah... “ I started. This was not the time for stoicism. “No, I’m not, I feel like shit.” Silver walked towards me and wrapped me in a hug. “Every time I close my eyes, I see him at the window. I see him struggling to breathe. I see the look of fear on his face.”

“Dust, I know it’s not going to be easy, but you need to let go of that,” Silver suggested, stroking my mane. “Muddy killed One, not you. He forced you to either choose one of us, or all of us.”

“But that doesn’t make it right!” I blurted out. “I should have just killed myself.”

“Do you really think that would have satisfied Muddy?” she asked. “He’s having fun tormenting you, Dust. Muddy would probably have killed the rest of us anyway had you done that.”

I pulled away and looked her in the eyes. “How can you be so sure?” I pleaded.

“I can’t. No one can.” she replied gently. Her sky blue eyes penetrated the maelstrom of thoughts running through my head. For the first time since it happened, I wasn’t focused on the murder of One. “But you have to forgive yourself. I’m sure One does.”

I buried my face into her shoulder and just let go one more time. My eyes and chest already hurt from all the crying, but this time wasn’t out of pure sorrow. I think I was actually a little relieved to hear somepony say that I was forgiven and that it is what One had wanted. It didn’t clear everything I was feeling, but it did help. I allowed myself to just sit there and soak it in for a good, long time.

After a while, we separated and I gave Silver a small kiss on the cheek. “Thank you, Silver,” I said, planting another kiss on her cheek.

“It’s what special someponies do, isn’t it?” she asked rhetorically.

“I guess,” I chuckled.

Silver and I walked back out into the other room where Brownie and Flower were still comforting each other.

“How are you two holding up?” I asked.

“Ah think we should be asking ya that question?” Brownie inquired.

“I’ll be OK,” I answered, while glancing towards Silver, “eventually.”

“So, what’s our plan once we get outta here?” Brownie asked.

“Well, I’m not giving up on getting Muddy. Especially now,” I said with as much gravity as I could muster.

“Neither will we,” Flower declared. “One was parta our group, family almost.”

“Well, I think our best bet will be to get back to Midnight’s,” I said. Everypony looked confused by that statement.

“Why Midnight?” Brownie wondered. “Why would Muddy go back ta Midnight?”

“Midnight is the only other pony in the area that Muddy trusts,” I reasoned. And it was the truth. Muddy hadn’t made any new friends while down here. He was always expecting to leave and go back to the Enclave. “Midnight is the only other pony, besides me, he ever spent any time with.” Again, not a lie exactly, but not the whole truth either. If Muddy was hoping to get back above the clouds, he was going to need Midnight’s help not to be shot down on sight by the cloud patrols near the fort.

Suddenly, I had a thought of Foggy. “But first, we need to make a stop near Dirtpatch,” I lamented, lowering my head a little. Everypony else simply nodded in response. “Anypony know how much longer we have down here?” I asked.

“Dunno,” Brownie said. “Has ta have been at least several hours.”

“Dust, aren’t you good with computers?” Flower asked. “Muddy’s terminal is still active in his room.”

“Well, can’t hurt to try, can it?” I smirked.

I did my best at trying to hack the terminal. I ran into several dead ends and was forced to reboot the terminal a few times. After causing an intermittent power outage, I gave up trying to break in. Either Muddy was better at programming than I thought, or this system was in place before he got here. I was choosing to believe the latter.

I walked back out into the main room and stopped to rub my temples. “I have bad news and good news,” I groaned, grimacing from the headache I was now suffering. “Bad news is that I can’t hack the system and get us out of here sooner. Good news is we only have about ten hours left.”

“Well, we might as well try and get some sleep then,” Flower suggested, standing up from next to Brownie. “If we can’t get out, I doubt anypony can get in.”

We arranged watches, just in case something weird happened, so at least one of us was awake. I got lucky and would have the last watch. Silver had drawn the second watch, so we were able to curl up next to each other. With some effort, I was finally able to clear my mind enough to fall asleep.

I awoke surrounded by darkness and silence. The warmth of Silver in my hooves was also missing. After standing up, I looked around, trying to find something, anything. A pinpoint of light appeared and slowly grew larger. Three silhouettes appeared inside the still growing circle of light and were slowly getting larger.

“Hello?” I called out. “Who are you?”

The figures remained silent. As they drew closer, I saw that they were three ponies wearing hooded capes. The three shrouded figures drew closer and when they had gotten within a few yards, they stopped.

“Updraft, I told you that you would face hard decisions, didn’t I?” scolded the same raspy voice as from my last dream. Or was this a vision? Or maybe a hallucination?

“Well, thanks for that, but you could have warned me about the trap I was walking into!” I screamed. “Am I done, at least?”

“Sorry, Updraft. It doesn’t work that way. It would be way cool if it did though,” the hooded figure explained, shaking her head at me. “And, unfortunately, you haven’t even begun to pay the price I mentioned before.”

One of the hooded figures drew closer. The pony reached up and drew the hood back and I was greeted by the smiling green face of One. “Hiya Mister Dust!”

“One?” I murmured in shock. “No, it can’t be! You died! I watched it happen!”

“I know, Mister Dust,” he gushed with the grin I thought I’d never see again on his face. “But isn’t this neat? Daddy says that I only get to see you once more.”

“Daddy?” I muttered, even more confused than before. “You mean Foggy?”

The other robed figure stepped forward and withdrew their hood. The wrinkled blue face of Foggy greeted me with a sad smile on his face. “You fucked up big time, Private.”

“Foggy?” I shook my head, trying to clear out the confusion I was now feeling. “What’s going on, here?”

“I don’t know, Private,” he grumbled, shaking his head. “This is your dream.”

“What?” was all I could say in response.

“Listen, Private,” he started with a shake of his head, “you done fucked up. I told you to look out for One, and look what happened.”

“I know, but,” I said, and was quickly interrupted.

“Nope,” he scolded. “There is no rationalizing. No explaining. Your decisions led to this moment. One is dead. You caused it, whether you meant to or not.”

“But,” I tried to say, and was quickly cut off again.

“But none of that matters,” Foggy sighed. “It is what it is. But now you have to learn to live with it.”

“I’m so sorry,” I started.

“No, not to me,” Foggy said shaking his head.

I turned to One. “One, I’m sorry,” I whimpered.

“Sorry for what, Mister Dust?” he asked, cocking his head to the side.

“For getting you killed,” I answered, my eyes beginning to tear up again. “I wanted to protect you, but because of my stubbornness, I got you killed.”

One placed a hoof on my shoulder. “Mister Dust, you didn’t kill me,” he reassured me, his eyes tearing up as well. “That mean pony killed me. But if he hadn’t, the Wasteland would have one way or another. Everypony is mean to one another. I couldn’t live like that. I forgive you, Mister Dust.”

Foggy cleared his throat. “Nice job, but he wasn’t the pony you have to apologize to either,” he said flatly.

“Then who?” I asked.

“I can’t tell you that,” he snickered, shaking his head. “You’ll have to discover that on your own.”
I began to cry again. The first pony spoke up again with her raspy voice. “Now, Updraft, there is no time for that,” she groaned. “What’s done is done, and you have to move on. But now, you have to try your best to be as awesome as you can and make up for it.”

‘But how do I do that?” I pleaded, needing an answer from the darkened face of the pony speaking to me.

“There is no easy answer, Updraft,” she lamented. “But the worst isn’t over yet. As I said before, you haven’t even begun to pay the price I mentioned before.”

“No, please, don’t make me go through that again,” I pleaded.

“Sorry, Updraft,” she remarked, shaking her head. “I don’t make the rules. Just remember what I said before, sometimes we need to learn our history so that we can repeat it.”

“I know,” I retorted. “I won’t fall for Muddy’s traps again!”

The mysterious stranger shook her head and sighed. She, One, and Foggy started to withdraw. “No, please, don’t leave me like this! What did I do wrong?” I yelled as I tried to run after them. No matter what I did, they gained ground and eventually disappeared in the bright light.

“NO!” I screamed.

“No!” I muttered as I shot up with a start. My sudden outburst jolted Silver awake next to me as she jumped against me.

“What the hell?” she exclaimed. After a cursory scan of the room, she focused on me. “Dust, are you OK?”

“Yeah, Dust, what the hell was that all about?” Flower wondered, her eyes still wide from the sudden surprise.

“Yeah, sorry, nightmare,” I mumbled somewhat unintelligible, still groggy. Looking around, I saw that Brownie was still sleeping.

“Don’t ya worry ‘bout him,” Flower chuckled. “The big oaf can sleep through almost anything.”

Flower settled back in next to Brownie and Silver and I curled up next to each other again.

“Cap for your thoughts?” Silver asked, curled up in my legs.

“I saw Foggy and One again,” I sighed. “One forgave, but Foggy wouldn’t. He did say I had to let go and move on and do my best to make up for it.”

“Makes a good point,” she mumbled. I felt her tense up in my grip. “Dust, what if One hadn’t volunteered. Who would you have picked?”

My mind froze. Who would I have picked? Could I have separated Brownie and Flower? Would the survivor had been able to forgive me? Could I have chosen Silver? Could the others have forgiven me for that? Would I have chosen One anyway?

“Never mind,” she interjected. “I don’t think I want to know, and I’m just glad you weren’t put into that position.”

I wish I could just forget about it, but I knew it wasn’t going to be that simple. Glancing at my Pipbuck, I saw that I had about an hour until my watch. Images of One’s face haunted my thoughts until I fell asleep. Fortunately, it was dreamless sleep.

My watch was uneventful. But then again, we had expected it to be, since we were essentially locked in a cage with no weapons anyway. I spent most of the time in One’s room, looking over his corpse. In some ways, he was the best of us. He couldn’t hurt a fly. The only death really on his hooves was Foggy, but that was really a mercy. Foggy wanted it to happen. He was so pure of thought. He didn’t have a dishonest bone in his body. And all he wanted, for whatever reason, was my approval and acceptance.

Near the end of my watch, I heard a soft beeping coming from the direction of Muddy’s room. I walked over and looked at the control panel and saw a thirty second countdown. I gently woke the rest of the group and we huddled together near the center of the large room. The soft beeping increased in tempo when there was about five seconds left and when that time elapsed, the door behind Muddy’s room slid open with a soft whoosh. Behind us, a soft click emanated from the large gear locker.

“Careful everypony, this may be part of a trap,” I cautioned everypony, gingerly walking towards the gear locker. I bit down on the handle and twisted. The door slid open effortlessly. As promised, all our gear was haphazardly thrown inside. “For once…”

“Now, Dust, we had this talk before,” Brownie cajoled me. “Don’t tempt the Wasteland.” I decided to shut my mouth.

We all geared back up, splitting One’s gear evenly between us. Flower reached out to go through One’s saddlebags, but I gave her a stern look. I would be the one to do that.

While everypony went through everything else, I went through One’s belongings. His pistol and ammo would go to Silver, seeing as how it was the same caliber as the weapon we had already outfitted her with. We would split up the medical supplies to whichever one of us needed it the most. One had been travelling light originally, having only taken a small notebook and pack of colored pencils with him.

With trepidation, I opened the notebook. The first several pages were crudely drawn pictures of three green ponies with a larger, blue pony with them. I could only imagine that it was One, Two, Three, and Foggy. There were pictures of them eating together, Foggy reading them stories, and even one with One and Foggy hunting. All of them had been labelled “My Family.” My eyes started to water.

The next page saddened me. Two crudely drawn ponies, one gray and one green, were standing watch over a fire and two crosses. The green pony had tears falling down his face. I started to sniffle.

Turning the page one more time, the next picture sent me over the edge. It was a collection of ponies standing in a line: a large brown one, a smaller yellow pony, and a smaller pink pony. At the end was a small green stallion with his head nestled against a large, gray pony. The picture was labelled “My New Family.” With tears fully streaming from my eyes, I stashed the notebook into my saddlebags.

After everypony had collected their gear, everypony else made for the now open door in Muddy’s room. I, instead, made my way into One’s room. Lifting his legs over my shoulders, I strained to lift his weight over my back. Brownie came into the room and cleared his throat. “Need some help?” he asked.

“No, Brownie,” I sobbed, “this is something I need to do myself.” Brownie simply nodded, a knowing look in his eyes.
One’s weight slowed me down, but wasn’t overwhelming. I wouldn’t be winning any races, but he was starting to smell of death. This journey was going to be unpleasant, but necessary.

Down a short hallway behind Muddy’s room was a door to an elevator. We needed to split up into smaller groups. Everypony else went up first, and I waited with One. As I heard the elevator descending back down, I looked back into the room we had just spent a day in. The last moments of One’s life flashed before my eyes. After I stepped into the elevator and turned around, I thought I saw a ghostly image of him right before the doors slammed shut.

After a short ascent, I rejoined my friends. The elevator left us in a hallway. Crudely etched into the metal was an arrow and the word “Surface.” We followed the arrow which led us through a short maze of hallways and further arrows. At one point, we came across a wall that was broken through, leading into a small cave. The cave was essentially straight and had a slight incline to it. Red markers began to appear on my EFS, but we never encountered anything. The cave led to a large opening in a concrete wall which opened into a small room. In the room was a staircase heading up.

After climbing the stairs, Brownie opened a door. The cavernous room beyond was filled with shelving units that were empty. The air was stale and shafts of light came through grime-covered windows set high up on the walls.

This warehouse had been picked clean a long time ago. After a cursory search, we knew we were alone. That was a relief as my EFS was pretty much a sea of red markers. One wall of the storage room we were in was dominated by large overhead doors. A normal door was nestled in the brickwork between the two overheads. I stopped to rest as Flower carefully opened the door.

“Hey, Silver,” Flower called out after pulling her head back in. “Do you feel like flying some more?” Silver looked over, confused by the question. “There are some more skywagons out here.”

Inwardly, I breathed a sigh of relief and then immediately felt a pang of guilt. This wasn’t supposed to be easy. This was supposed to be punishment for my actions.

Flower quickly ran a recon loop out in the yard. After making sure it was clear of threats she came back in and got the rest of us and we made our way outside. The dull roar of the groans of all the ghouls wasn’t overly loud, but it was grating. The smell wasn’t pleasant either. The odor of one ghoul was bad enough, but a city full of them wafting on the breeze nearly made me gag. It felt like New Flankfort all over again.

Fortunately, all of the skywagons were identical and the nearest one was functional. I forced my way over to the skywagon. My muscles were burning from the strain I had been placing on them. Gently lowering One to the floor of the skywagon, I took a position next to him, a silent sentinel as we returned him home.

The flight back to Foggy’s hideaway near Dirtpatch was smoother than Silver’s last attempt. Or maybe I was so lost in my own thoughts, I just didn’t notice any bumps in the ride.

I was still mulling over my thoughts when a hoof was placed on my shoulder.

“Dust, we’re here,” Brownie said softly. “Want help with One?”

“No, Brownie,” I objected, “this is all on me. I should be the one to handle this.” Brownie was about to say something in response, but I shot him a steely look and he closed his mouth and turned away.

Hefting his weight on my back again, I strained my way back towards the graves we had dug for Foggy and the stallions. I gently lowered One’s body back to the ground. Brownie began to envelope one of the shovels we had left nearby.

“NO!” I shouted. The shovel fell back to the ground. “I need to do this.”

Silver slowly walked next to me. “Dust, please, let us help…” she pleaded as she placed her hoof on my shoulder.

I shrugged it off. “No… this is my fault, this is my responsibility,” I barked at her. The look of hurt in her eyes was unmistakable. “Silver, I’m…” I never got the chance to finish at she turned and trotted away. She was sobbing as she left. I sighed to myself. Something else I would have to fix later.

I grabbed the shovel in my hooves and began to dig as best I could. It was hard work, especially not having magic to work the shovel. Or as One had done, just lift all the dirt at once. We had set up Foggy’s pyre at the end with Two and Three laid to rest on the same side. I began digging the new grave on Foggy’s open side. I figured One should have gotten a place of honor. I’m sure Foggy would have been proud of him.

It took a couple of hours to dig the grave. I broke a sweat and my muscles were screaming, but I didn’t stop. My friends came back occasionally to ask how I was doing. Well, everypony except for Silver. She hadn’t come back around since I snapped at her. That was grating on my thoughts just as much as the grave I was digging and the reason I was digging it.

Once the grave was completed, I carefully moved One’s body into it. “I’m sorry, buddy. I’m sorry I couldn’t do better by you.”

I rounded up all my friends and led them back to the grave. Flower and Brownie stood next to each other and Silver took a position across the grave from me. I was forced to sigh again, one more of many I had already done today.

I cleared my throat and took a deep breath. “I know we didn’t know One for very long, and we didn’t meet on the best of terms. But he showed us his true colors almost immediately. Sacrificing everything he knew, he saved us and the doctor, which then allowed Silver to recover. Since that time, he was a naive but faithful member of our group.

“Now, at times, he may have been inconvenient to deal with, asking too many questions, not knowing when to stay quiet. But that was due to his innocence, his naivete in the Wasteland. He was seeing everything through fresh eyes, not knowing what everything was or how things worked. It was refreshing and uplifting to those of us hardened by life out here.

“But One seemed to understand how things should have worked. He offered us a glance at what life was like in the past. The past: a time of two princesses, a time of the power of friendship. He made a decision that I should have but couldn’t. He gave me the easy way out for a second time. And for that, although I feel like shit about it now, I respect and admire him for it.

“I have said this before, but I’ll say it again. In many ways, One was the best of us. I hope his soul will be at rest with Foggy and his brothers. May Celestia and Luna guide him in the afterlife.”

Everypony, including me, was at least sniffling at this point. I looked up and saw Brownie and Flower embracing. I couldn’t find Silver however. Then I felt a hoof rest on my shoulder. Surprised, I flinched a little and turned and saw Silver. I could see the sorrow in her eyes, but I also saw something else. Was it relief? Hope? What I do know is that it wasn’t anger or resentment. She nestled her head against my shoulder and I returned the gesture. “I’m sorry, Silver,” I whispered to her. “I love you.”

Silver sniffled. “I love you, too,” she whispered back, kissing me gently on my cheek.

After we had all packed our belongings, we loaded back up into the skywagon. I slumped down in the corner, both physically and mentally exhausted from the day so far. The silence in the cabin of the skywagon disappeared as everypony reminisced about One.

A few hours, and some minor course corrections, later and I felt the skywagon start to descend. Opening the top half of the door, I looked out and saw the small shack we were heading towards. All looked quiet, but Midnight rarely came out of his shack.

After a few minutes, the skywagon landed with a small thump which made us all sway. However, the landing was much better than the one back at Fetlock Flats. I hopped out of the skywagon and quickly trotted up front to help Silver out of the harness. I felt bad making her do all the flying, but I couldn’t reveal myself, especially now. I had dug myself into a hole so deep, there didn’t seem to be a way out.

“Nice landing, Silver!” I complimented her, offering a hoofbump. She hit my hoof back. “You’re catching on quick.” She blushed and looked away, a little embarrassed.

It was going to be a short walk from where we landed to Midnight’s door. “Everypony, remember, he’s a little eccentric,” I reiterated. “Even though he met you already, he’s still not going to be that friendly.” Everypony nodded in response.

Nothing had changed in the ramshackle little cottage Midnight maintained. Then again, not much had changed here since I met him on my first day down here. I saw smoke pouring out of the chimney on the top of his house, so Midnight was home.

We got near the shack, but Midnight had yet to greet us at the door. I figured he would have at least heard us and would be waiting by now. I trotted up to the front door and knocked a few times. After the last knock, I heard the unmistakable sound of a shotgun breech being snapped shut.

“Everypony down!” I screamed as I dove away from the door. All my friends scattered as I heard the first thunderous report of a shotgun being fired. A cracking sound from behind me was shortly followed by a shower of splintered wood landing on and around me. I scurried for some cover as more shots penetrated the door.

A small rock pile several yards from the front door became my cover. “Midnight!” I screamed over the stones. “What the fuck are you doing?”

“Stay away, Dust,” Midnight yelled back from inside. “I’m not going down without a fight!”

“The fuck are you talking about?” I hollaredback, surprised by his response.

“Oh, Muddy came back and told me all about your plan,” he shouted. “I know you are pissed and are coming for me.”

“No! That’s not true!” I shouted back. “I just want to talk!”

There was a very long delay. “Al… alright, but only you! And you leave all your weapons outside!” he yelled.

I looked to each of my friends, each hunkered down behind their respective cover. Brownie was shaking his head at me. “Alright Midnight! You have a deal!” I responded. I walked out into the open and made a big show of removing every weapon on my body, including my knife. Each weapon fell to the ground with a metallic clack.

“Dust, are ya sure ‘bout this?” Brownie asked nervously.

“Yeah,” I replied, nodding. “Besides, what’s the worst that can happen? I get shot?” I added with an uneasy grin. Brownie and Flower chuckled awkwardly. Silver was not amused.

I carefully made my way back towards the shack, listening for any signs that I would be under assault again. I got back to the front door. “Alright Midnight, I’m reaching out to open the door… well what’s left of the door,” I announced as non-threateningly as possible. Reaching for the knob, I began to grimace, hoping I wasn’t about to catch a shell full of birdshot.

The hinges squealed out in protest as I pushed the splintered remains of the door open. Midnight was not visible from the doorway. I stepped forward and the floorboards creaked under my weight. It was eerie in the silence that had fallen over the area. I took a few more steps still looking for Midnight.

My vision flashed bright white as something hit the side of my head. The pain was intense and the room started to spin and I collapsed to the floor. Something behind me slammed shut. I saw a dark blob flash across my vision.

“Dust! Are you OK?” I heard Silver nervously call out from outside

“He’s OK, for now!” Midnight yelled. “Nopony comes any closer or tries anything funny and he’ll be just fine. Try anything, I use him for target practice. Got it?”

“Yeah, we got it,” Brownie yelled back.

Two black hooves moved into my field of vision. “Now, Dust, tell me why I shouldn’t just pump you full of lead right now?” he threatened.

“Let me guess,” I huffed. “Muddy told you I was coming to kill you?”

“Yup.”

“Look,” I groaned, starting to get up.

“Nope… you stay right where you are,” he barked, keeping the shotgun trained on me.

I lowered myself back down to the floor. “Midnight, look, you’ve known me for how long? A year now?” I asked. He nodded in response. “Have I ever done anything that’s even remotely threatening?”

“Yeah?” he hissed. “So tell me about One?” My jaw dropped open in shock. “Yeah, Muddy told me about how you killed him.”

“Look, I don’t know what he told you...” I started.

“Muddy told me you murdered One,” he interrupted, trembling. “Said you locked him in a room and drowned him.”

“HE did that!” I yelled. “One was my friend. Muddy killed him. We just buried him.” I looked up at Midnight, tears starting to form at the corners of my eyes.

The barrels of the shotgun slowly lowered enough to not be pointing directly at me. “That makes more sense…” he muttered under his breath.

“Makes more sense?” I asked.

“Well, I didn’t believe him at first,” he answered, pacing in the small room. “If anypony was going to come kill me, I assumed it would be him. But when he didn’t kill me, but told me you were the violent one, well, I just kinda went with it. And then he started asking about the General and…”

“Wait,” I interrupted. “What now?”

“He was asking if there was any way to get a message to the General,” he started to explain. “The only way to get back is to be extracted by operatives from the fort. Otherwise, we just sit and wait. But he didn’t want to wait.”

“Fucking bastard… he is trying to get back,” I muttered. “What happens if one of us tried to go back?” I asked Midnight.

“I can only assume that the pony in question would be detained by the patrol flights and interrogated,” Midnight answered.

“Would the General be involved?” I asked tensely.

“I would imagine,” Midnight pondered, “especially if they were threatening to reveal what Special Operations was doing.”

“Holy shit, that’s what he’s gonna do,” I muttered to myself.

“What are you talking about, Dust?” Midnight said, his tone wavering.

“Hear me out,” I burst out, trying to get my thoughts out before they became muddled. “Muddy found out there really is no going back above. He snaps. He was promised a promotion and found out he wasn’t getting it. He starts concocting a plan, but running into him in the stable with Silver interfered. He snaps worse. He now starts looking for something, anything, that he can use to negotiate with the General. When I start hunting him down, he tries to dissuade me from continuing. However, I hand him what he needs: information about aeroponic technology that the Enclave can really use. Now he thinks he can negotiate for his return and his promotion to Flight Leader.”

“No, he couldn’t,” Midnight stammered, processing what I had just told him. “Holy goddesses, is that what he is planning on doing?”

“Midnight,” I added gravely. “All I know is that he is focused on getting back and getting his flight wing… or getting even with all pegasi.”

“Damn it,” he muttered. “I wish I stopped him from leaving.”

“How long of a head start does he have?” I asked.

“Just over a day? I think?” Midnight wondered aloud, sounding unsure of his answer.

Damn, that was a long head start. Who knows what Muddy was able to get done during that time. Had he already met with the General? Was he still trying to figure out how best to do it?

The sound of breaking glass broke my train of thought. “What the fuck?” I blurted out as I looked around the shack. One of the windows had broken and the glass was now cascading to the floor. One of the pieces his the floor with an unusual thump. Wait, that wasn’t glass. I turned back towards Midnight and he wasn’t sitting at the table anymore. Midnight was on the floor. The faint report of a rifle shot caught my attention.

“No fucking way,” I gasped as I dropped to the floor to check on Midnight. The first thing I noticed was the hoof sized exit wound on the side of his head facing me. Blood was beginning to pool under his head, and the pool was slowly increasing in size.

“Dust! Are you OK?” Silver called from outside. “We heard a rifle shot!”

I ran out of the shack and saw my friends ducking behind rocks. “Yeah, I’m fine, but Midnight is dead.” I scanned the horizon, looking for some clue as to where the sniper was. From a small rise a good distance away, I saw a small black speck fly up. Quickly, I grabbed my binoculars and aimed for what I had just seen. In the viewfinder, I saw a familiar yellow-bodied, green-maned pegasus flying towards the cloud cover.

“It’s Muddy!” I cried out. He killed Midnight. He could have killed any one of us. This had to end, and it had to end now. Midnight didn’t have to die and he needed to pay for One. “This ends now!” I reached to grab the releases on my armor with my mouth.

“Dust, what are ya doin’?” Brownie exclaimed, obviously confused by my actions.

With a strong yank, the release cord offered some resistance and then they gave way. I felt the side panels on my armor slacken and fall to the ground. I stretched out my wings and kicked off the ground as hard as I could.

“Dust?!? Yer a pegasus?!?” Brownie blurted out.

Flower gasped. “No fucking way!” she exclaimed.

“Dust! Why?” Silver shrieked..

“I’m going after Muddy!” I yelled and took off towards him as fast as I could fly. My friends further questions were drowned out by the wind rushing past my ears.

I could hear my heart beating at both the sudden physical exertion and the rage I now felt. First, he tried to kill me, several times. Then, he tried to kill Brownie twice. And then he made me kill One. And then Midnight. I had to get him to stop this now. All I could envision was my hooves around his neck.

The black speck was slowly becoming larger and more yellow. I had no way of knowing whether or not Muddy knew I was following him. He hadn’t fired at me yet, so I guess that was a good indicator that he was unaware as of now.

My wings and muscles ached. It had been a long time since I had gone for a flight as long as this. Not to mention the twinge I felt from where my wing had broken about a couple of weeks ago. Goddesses, had it only been that long? There was no pain, just a weird pulling feeling.

My heart nearly skipped a beat when I thought I saw him turn back and look towards me. If he saw me coming, I would be giving up my only advantage. Not to mention the fact, he had the firepower advantage with the long range rifle, whereas I only had my shotgun and pistol.

The cloud cover looks a lot different this close. From the ground, it seems like one flat blanket. But each cloud has its own fluffy contour. Tendrils twisting away from the main cloud bank seemingly reaching for you and rolling valleys gave the cloud cover its own personality. It also made it the ideal cover for concealed flight. But it comes with a cost. You also lose clear sight of your target occasionally.

On top of everything else, small rain droplets were starting to spatter against my face. Oh, what I wouldn’t give for a pair of flight goggles right about now. Muddy was still travelling in a straight line, so it seemed he still didn’t know I was behind him. The clouds kept getting darker, and looking through squinted eyes didn’t help matters any. The rain picked up some and was definitely making things unpleasant.

After wiping my eyes, I scanned for Muddy in the last place I saw him. He was nowhere to be found. “Shit, no. I can’t have lost him,” I muttered to myself while slowing to a hover and scanning for Muddy’s whereabouts. I saw a green flash in the distance.

“What the fuck?” I asked rhetorically as I saw the light get larger. “Fuck!” I grunted as I rolled to avoid contact. Plasma rounds, really? The green blob passed within inches of my torso. It was close enough that I could feel the heat on my underside.

“Muddy, it has to be. How much weaponry does he carry!” I grunted to myself as I righted my body. He had to have known I was following him. The real question is how long had he known?

Another green flash blinked in front of me. I banked hard to the left this time, the round comfortably missing me this time. Somehow, I was still gaining sky on Muddy. Either I was getting lucky or…

Muddy had disappeared from view. “What the?” I asked while scanning for his whereabouts. I was interrupted mid-thought when Muddy descended back out of the clouds and into clear view. He was a lot closer than I thought! I slowed down, not wanting to get too close and not have enough time to react.

Muddy pulled up hard and disappeared into the cloud cover again. I moved away from the clouds and scanned as much as I could, trying to find where Muddy had gone. There were no further green flashes, which I thanked Celestia for.

I saw it too late. A yellow blur emerged from the cloud cover and zoomed right towards me. I tried to evade contact, but I just couldn’t move fast enough. I watched as Muddy zoomed right towards me. At the last second, he rolled slightly right, not directly impacting me but forcing me into a spin.

The clouds and ground spun around me at a rapid rate. My head began to spin on its own, and I felt my stomach rebel against the movement. Flaring my wings, I began to slow my rotations. My body stopped, but my head kept going.

“So, Dust…” Muddy jeered, but then chuckled. “You know what, let’s drop the facade.” My vision cleared and I saw Muddy hovering in front of me, a plasma rifle aimed right at me. The menacing look on his face scared me. “So, Updraft, can I call you Updraft? You are a glutton for punishment. I almost kill Brownie, I force you to kill One, and I killed Midnight right in front of you. I tell you to stop following me or more ponies will die. How many more ponies do you want to die because of you?”

I felt a pang of guilt run through my body. “You know what, Clear, go fuck yourself,” I growled out at him. “And let’s get one thing straight. I didn’t kill One, you did.”

“Semantics,” he chuckled. “I set up the trap, but you triggered it. Which one of us is responsible? Does it really matter?”

A vision of One flashed in my thoughts. The wind began to pick up, whistling in my ears. “What the fuck do you want, Clear?” I yelled over the increasing noise around me.

“I want what I was promised,” he screamed back. “But that is neither here nor there.” Just when I thought his glare couldn’t be any more evil, it became so. “So, you broke our rules. Who do I kill next? The big brown one? Nah, he survived two attempts so far. How about his marefriend? Wouldn’t that be great? His marefriend dies and yours lives? He’ll love that. Or maybe I should just take your marefriend for my own?” He laughed a low, threatening laugh.

“Don’t you dare!” I shouted. “I’ll kill you myself!”

“You’ll have to catch me first!” he shouted back as he spun around and took off like a shot. I beat my wings as fast I could and barely kept up with him.

After a while of straight flight, he banked up into the cloud cover. I did my best to mimic his route. The dark clouds were thick and filled with strong winds that buffeted me in several directions.

I emerged from the top of the clouds and began to scan for Muddy. What I saw, shocked me.

Right in front of me was Fort Canterbury.

Level Up!

Skills:
Sneak: 20

Perk Obtained:
Loving Memory: Vengeance for a friend’s death drives you forward. When faced with their killer, you receive +1 Str, +1 End, +1 Agi

Chapter 17 - Return to Sender

Chapter 17 - Return to Sender
“Sometimes the past doesn’t look as good as it did through the lens of memory.”

I stopped to a hover to just admire the stunning sight before me. First, the sunset was more vibrant than I remembered. The bright reds and inky purples were breathtaking as the orange sun dipped below the horizon. The beauty of it brought a tear to my eye.

After admiring the sunset for a while, I took in the rest of the fort. Even though it had only been a year away, it felt like it was much, much longer as I looked at each building. The larger hangars were the first structures to grab my attention. They still sat in a row; the large rolling doors, closed at this time of day, overlooking the long runways. The landing lights were turned off and long shadows stretched along the flat pavement.

A little to the north sat the general barracks. A few stories tall, the deceptively large brick-faced building stood at attention, much like the good soldiers inside. Lights were on, seemingly at random in the various windows I could see from my vantage point. The Administration Building sat unsurprisingly dark, except for one window. I wondered which general was hatching what kind of plans. Maybe it was even General Cirrus talking another poor pony into service for him. I couldn’t help but to huff to myself a little.

The only building that stood out like a sore thumb, at least to me, was the Special Operations building. It sat isolated from the rest of the base, much by design. If only the poor ponies currently housed there knew what really waited for them beneath the clouds. Maybe if I had time, I would warn some of the trainees and could save at least a few of them from the trouble.

A red blip appeared at the bottom of my view. Turning in the direction of the marker, I couldn’t see anything, at first. Then I saw it; a quick blur of movement. Shit! It had to be a patrol, and I have been sitting here way too long. I could only hope the range of the patrol’s tactical headsets was shorter than that of my Pipbuck. The only direction open for evasion was towards the Special Operations building.

Leaning to my left and flapping my wings, I began to bank towards the building. I dipped down and skimmed the tops of the buildings below, flying directly into the last rays of the sun in the hopes to blind anypony behind me.

As I approached the broad, single story building, I dropped down fast onto the cloud cover. Looking around, I saw this part of the base was quiet, which was normal. Trainees trained hard during the day and spent their free time reading up on various topics for the trip down below. Whereas training in hoof-to-hoof combat and projectile firearms required hooves-on training, learning about the different types of factions and technology we would encounter was covered mainly with independent study.

I cantered up to the door set into the front wall and hoofed at it. The door rattled but failed to open against the deadbolt holding it closed. Shit! How was I going to get in? Then I saw the numeric keypad immediately next to the door handle. Of course! How could I forget! The doors were all opened with codes! Trainees rarely left the compound, and even if we did, we had to get used to not carrying anything that would identify us as outsiders to the Wasteland… now what was the code again?

Glancing over my shoulder, I saw the red blip somewhere directly behind me. Suddenly, the one blip split into two. C’mon Dust Cloud! Think!

“Are you sure you saw something?” I heard a voice behind me say. “I don’t see anything. Besides, you know how the brass feels about us getting this far out.”

“I’m telling you, it was hovering there for a while and then it took off this way,” another gruff voice replied. “Wouldn’t you want to be sure there wasn’t really an intruder?”

Fuck, fuck, fuck! Think, Dust, think! I stared blankly at the keypad. What was the damn code? Why am I suddenly thinking of Nightmare Night? The Last Day? It happened near Nightmare Night, didn’t it? I quickly keyed in the date for the Last Day. A soft beep and loud click greeted my ears. Without hesitation, I opened the door and slid inside. I made sure I closed the door quietly behind me.

The door was solid metal so the patrol ponies wouldn’t be able to see me through it. But it was a double-edged sword since I wouldn’t be able to see them either. The red blips on my EFS, however, were omnipresent. I strained to listen through the sealed door.

“Now where the hell did it go?” the first voice from before asked, muffled by the door.

“Can we just get outta here, Wind?” the second voice said with a quiver. “We’re gonna get in so much trouble for getting this close! Besides, my display isn’t showing anything but green.” Huh. Why wasn’t I showing up on their tactical headsets?

A pony sighed deeply. “Yeah, yeah,” the first voice said with resignation. “Let’s get back on route.”

I waited several long moments and the red blips on my EFS disappeared. I slid down to the floor and breathed a sigh of relief.

“What the hell is that smell?” an unmuffled mare said from somewhere behind me. Ah shit, not again.

“Holy shit,” a second pony, a stallion this time, said with a cough. “Damn that is rancid!” The pony took a few sniffs. “Whatever it is, it’s coming from over here.”

I stood up immediately and walked to the door. I cracked it open and looked outside, making sure the coast was clear.

“Hey you! What are you doing here!” the mare called out behind me. “And what is that smell!” she added with a slight gag.

I slowly turned around and saw a rust colored buck and a pale green mare both dressed in the drab grey training jumpsuits we wore early in training. “Well, I, um, that is…”

“Whoa! Look at that armor! Isn’t that one of the old mark 7’s?” the female asked to the male, almost as if she was looking at a relic.

“Nah, that’s a mark eight. You can tell from the placement of the front ballistic panels,” he said, dismissing her excitement. “But the better question is who are you and why are you wearing outdated gear?”

My mind raced. “I am Operative Cloudburst, codename Tumbleweed,” I said as convincingly as possible. “I found this old armor set in the armory and wanted to see what the differences were with the mark nine’s.” I stood up straight. Hopefully this works. “And who are you two to question a senior operative getting ready for deployment?”

The two ponies stiffened immediately. The stallion answered first. “Sorry Operative Cloud… I mean Tumbleweed. We just smelled something and thought we should check out what it was.”

“Alright, you found it. Now go and let me get back to my training,” I said, with the same false bravado.

“Yes, sir. Sorry, sir!” the two ponies said with a salute.

“And stop with all that nonsense! You aren’t soldiers anymore. Just go!” I barked at them, remembering how some of the senior trainees addressed me when I was first in training.

“Yes, sir.” The two spun on a dime and trotted off. “Whoa, do you think we’ll ever look and smell that bad?” the mare whispered to the stallion.

“I sure hope not,” he responded as they trotted out of view.

That was too fucking close! I better get out of here before I run into any more witnesses. I turned back to the door, but my eyes caught something instead. A nearby door had a simple placard on it that said ,”Personnel Records”. Hmm… maybe I could get some info on Muddy.

I tried the knob, but it did not turn at all. I snickered to myself. All my time down in the Wasteland wouldn’t go to waste here. I fished out my screwdriver and bobby pins and picked the lock in no time. They really needed to improve security around here, especially considering they trained you in bypassing such security systems.

The room I found myself in was no larger than my shack that was, correction to used to be, down in Coltington. There were a few filing cabinets with labels for things like “Operational Procedures”, “Emergency Directives” and other dry sounding titles. A small desk nearby, however, held a terminal.

“Piece of cake,” I muttered as I tapped the keys to bring the display to life. I bypassed the simple security system in a matter of seconds. Most of the terminals in the Wasteland had much more complex security. Is this how complacent the Enclave had become? Or was my perception now colored from my time in the Wasteland?

After navigating several menus, I found the section for active operatives. Scrolling through the entries, I saw that Special Operations had almost four dozen active operatives all over the Wasteland. Most were heavily concentrated near the large population centers like Fillydelphia. I found my entry and scrolled through it.

Most of the entry was standard military jacket information. Birthplace, family information, training results, service record; it was pretty bland reading. It was interesting to see my cover story actually written as part of my military record. I was recorded as assumed killed in action during a routine delivery run due to unforeseen weather patterns. The skywagon and my body were “found” and returned to Fort Canterbury. Huh, I wonder how they pulled that off.

The last couple of entries were interesting, however. The first entry was a couple of days before my first meeting with General Cirrus. “Private Updraft is a perfect fit for Special Operations work due to his lack of upward mobility and less-than-stellar record. Will attempt to recruit.”

The next few entries were results of various training classes. “Covert Ops: 56th percentile; Small Arms: 44th percentile; Wasteland History and Technology: 89th percentile; Leadership: 10th percentile; Hoof-to-hoof combat: 15th percentile.” Were my scores really that bad? I thought I had done reasonably well.

The following entry was labelled “Psychological Evaluation.” I remember that day. Dr. Brain Cloud spent an hour asking me stupid questions and asked how I would handle weird scenarios. I kept reading. “Operative Updraft shows the necessary mental fortitude to survive the conditions of the Wasteland. He will unflinchingly follow orders without question from any pony he feels is in a superior position to his. He shies away from leadership roles as he feels too much empathy for those around him and can not deal with loss or disagreement, therefore avoids roles which would force him to deal with it. Updraft will always do what is best for the individuals in the group rather than what is the best overall tactical decision. It is recommended he be placed with a pony with stronger leadership ability.”

Could that be right? I always did what was best for everyone regardless of the tactical considerations? Did I let One die because it was best for everyone or it was the best tactical decision? Was he really the least valuable member of our group? I shook my head to clear my thoughts. I didn’t have time to dwell on this now.

The last entry was labelled “Operative Assessment.” This must have been General Cirrus’ final assessment of me. “Operative Dust Cloud will prove to be a useful, albeit middling, asset in the field. He will no doubt follow orders when required. He will be assigned with Operative Muddy Waters for placement in Coltington. Operative Muddy Waters will be the lead pony in the team. For Operation Cleansing Equis, he will be assigned as operational support.” Cleansing Equis? What the hell was Cleansing Equis?

“I don’t have time for this,” I muttered to myself as I backed out of my record. I was about to turn off the terminal when I remembered I was originally here to look at Muddy’s record. Navigating the various menus again, I found Muddy’s record. His record started out much the same way as mine, mostly a typical service record. He was recorded as killed during routine flight training due to an accident. However, when it came to the part of his record that should have been his Special Operations record, the narratives were replaced with message: “Narrative Classified. Restricted to Thunderbolt Level Clearance only. This attempt has been logged and reported to Special Operations security.”

Time to get the Tartarus out of here before the MPs show up. After turning off the terminal, I quietly made my way back to the hallway and to the door I entered. After opening the door ajar, I scanned the area around the building. The sun had fully set and the base was covered in darkness, punctuated by pools of bright light from the street lights.

Two red blips appeared suddenly on my EFS in my periphery. “Shit,” I hissed under my breath. I had to find somewhere to hide and quick. But where was I going to hide from their tactical displays?

As quietly as I could, I went through the door and guided it shut behind me. Frantically, I looked around for some place for me to hide. There was nothing in the immediate area. I started to break out into a cold sweat.

I trotted to the corner of the building and looked around. Damn, I wish the EFS had a distance indicator. I had no idea when they would get here and I would be found out. I couldn’t get captured, and I could only imagine that Muddy had the General on his side by this point.

Then I saw it. Sitting against the Special Operations building was a short, green dumpster. Hearing the lock on the door click open behind me, I trotted over to the container, lifted the cover just enough to get in, and then carefully lowered it behind me. A soft, squishy sound greeted me as I landed on a pile of thrown out food. It was wet and cold, but, surprisingly, not nearly the worst thing I had ever had to crawl around in. But the smell! I nearly gagged on the stench inside. The smell of rotting food was overwhelming in such a confined space. It took every ounce of self-restraint I had not to vomit and give my position away.

A gruff, stallion voice was the first one I heard. “What did those two trainees say? A gray stallion with a blue mane, right?”

“Eeyup,” another stallion said. “They also said that he stunk really badly and was wearing an old mark 7.”

“And how do we know they aren’t lying to cover up for themselves?” the first muttered in frustration.

“They’re newbies. They couldn’t have hacked the security on that terminal, not yet anyway,” the gruff pony responded curtly. “Look, you go that way and I’ll go this way and we’ll meet up on the far side of the building.”

One thing that always confused me is how pegasi made sounds when they walked on clouds. I mean, it was water vapor, right? However, in this case, I was thankful for it. I was able to hear the hoofsteps approach the dumpster. Every muscle in my body tensed as they got louder. Suddenly, I was jolted by the sound of metal screeching against metal as the dumpster I was in was jostled.

“Yo, Jet Lag, what’s up?” a goofy sounding male voice called out.

“Nothing much, Cargo. Running behind on garbage pickup today, aren’t we?” the gruff voice asked.

“Yeah, but it’s not a big deal. The incinerator doesn’t shut down till the last dumpster gets dumped,” Cargo said with a little laugh. Something banged up against the edge of the dumpster near the front opening. Please don’t open the lid!

“Alright, see ya later,” Jet Lag replied with a small laugh.

I gulped audibly. The incinerator? I had to get the fuck out of here before we got there. After hearing Cargo tie himself into the harness, I pushed up on the lid of the dumpster. It moved several inches but then snapped against my effort. A clanking chain drew my attention and I saw it was holding the lid shut.

“Celestia be damned,” I said, grimacing. I lifted the lid again and tried to see if I could pick the lock from the inside. Unfortunately the lock was facing away from me and there was no way I could get my tools into the keyhole. I slumped back down against the wall of the dumpster and sighed.

I could feel the dumpster begin its descent. After a short flight, we landed with a thud and I heard Cargo unhitch himself from the harness.

“‘Ey Cargo! Yer late!” a deep, rumbling voice called out.

“Yeah, sorry boss,” Cargo replied dejectedly. “But it ain’t my fault! The incinerator malfunctioning earlier today backed us all up!”

“Yeah, yeah,” the boss said with a tone of mock pity. “This yer last one?”

“Yup, this is the one from over by the ghost building,” Cargo said with a chuckle.

The boss growled. “Now don’t ya go telling me you believe in those foal tails,” he said, clearly aggravated by the insinuation.

“C’mon boss,” Cargo whined. “Have you ever seen anypony other than the security ponies coming out of there?” he asked.

“I don’t like rumors and I won’t stand fer ‘em,” he barked back. “Whatever they do in there, they need privacy. That’s all. Now hook her up and let’s get it done so we can all go home!”

“Yes sir!” Cargo shouted back. Cargo must have been approaching the dumpster so I took and held a breath. It didn’t help that my heart was racing at a mile a minute.

Cargo was whistling a jaunty little tune as I heard something slam into position from above. Next, I heard a chain slide off the front of the dumpster. The whistling faded as Cargo must have been walking somewhere else in the facility we were in.

I pushed up on the lid again and it opened several inches and then suddenly stopped. Whatever was holding the dumpster must have been securing it from above. My stomach spun as the dumpster lurched up about a foot.

The ascent continued and I risked a look outside the lid. Cargo had moved to an operator’s terminal and was manipulating the controls, presumably to dump me with the refuse into the incinerator. The worst part was that he was wearing headphones and was rhythmically bobbing his head while he whistled.

“Hey! You!” I shouted out, not caring about my predicament anymore. If I didn’t survive, all of this was for naught. “Let me out!” I also banged on the side of the dumpster, hoping to get somepony’s attention.

Unfortunately, Cargo didn’t respond. His headphones must have been drowning out any noise.

I kept yelling as loud as I could, hoping somepony, anypony could here me. The dumpster stopped ascending and began moving laterally. The sudden change of direction threw me against the wall of the dumpster, banging my head in the process.

“Son of a bitch!” I screamed in frustration. Pushing the lid above me, I kept trying to open it, hopefully enough to get out. However, no matter how hard I tried, the lid wouldn’t open more than a few inches. “Hey! Cargo!” I called out through the crack. “There’s a live pony in here!”

Cargo kept bobbing his head to the music and watching the status board and not the moving dumpster. I needed to figure something out, or else I was going to become crispy critter.

Banging on the sides of the dumpster, I was getting desperate. My only hope at this point was that somepony else would come in and notice the noise. I would have to deal with being discovered once I had survived.

Think, Dust, think! How can I get out of here? How can I get Cargo’s attention? Maybe if I shoot near him, he’ll notice. Then, once he knows there’s a live pony in here, he’ll bring the dumpster back! I wiped the sweat off my brow. Geez, it’s getting warm in here.

The last few words of my thoughts echoed through my mind. It was getting awfully warm in here. And there was a yellowish glow starting to shine in through the gaps between the lid and the dumpster.

I skittered to the dumpster lid again and peered out the opening. I couldn’t see Cargo at his console anymore as I had passed over the heat shield for the incinerator. Well, fuck! As if matters couldn’t get any worse, the dumpster started to change direction as it was being lowered in order to dump its contents.

I had no room to spread my wings to start a hover and that would probably be the least of my concerns as the heat was growing quickly. I might die from heat exposure before I hit the actual flames. Slumping back against the dumpster, I began to reflect on my soon to be death. While nopony else would miss me at this point, I felt bad about leaving Silver behind. Silver, I know you can’t hear this, but I love you...

My thinking was interrupted by a loud, buzzing alarm. The sound was joined by a flashing yellow light. “What the?” I asked out loud, yet to myself. The dumpster stopped moving abruptly.

“Celestia be damned,” I heard cargo mutter as the dumpster was swinging. “Damn incinerator.”

I peeked outside the dumpster again and saw that the incinerator was, in fact, extinguished.

“Third time this week,” Cargo grumbled while pushing buttons on his console. “I’ve told maintenance the entire system needs an overhaul.”

Cargo hit some controls and the dumpster shuddered to life, but this time moving away from the now cooling incinerator. I slumped back against the rear wall of the dumpster and took a deep sigh. At least now I wouldn’t be burned to a crisp.

The dumpster shifted direction and was descending back towards the floor. It hit the floor with a sharp thud, throwing me around a little. The wind was knocked out of me and I was hoping Cargo was still wearing his headphones. After some slight jostling, accompanied by some screeching of metal, the room became quiet.

Hoofsteps approached the dumpster. I drew in a sharp breath and held it with my entire body tensing. Two loud bangs echoed inside the dumpster.

“Looks like you get a reprieve tonight,” Cargo said. “But don’t worry we’ll get the incinerator fixed first thing in the morning.” Was he talking to the garbage, or did he know I was inside?

The echoing hoofsteps moved away and then the bay was suddenly dropped into inky darkness. I allowed myself to relax and rest inside the dumpster for a few moments. “That was too close,” I said between deep breaths.

After waiting several moments, I eased the lid open and scanned the bay I was in. In addition to my EFS not showing any markers. The night lighting cast long shadows throughout the facility, but there were no ponies visible in the darkened bay.

I climbed out of the dumpster and searched the for the way out of the incinerator bay. Finally, I found the overhead doors that allowed the carriages in, but I didn’t want to risk making that much noise. Fortunately, I found a standard door tucked way in a corner. After cracking the door open a little, I scanned the area around the garbage processing facility.

Closing the door, I began to think. I hadn’t really had time to come up with a strategy since clearing the cloud cover. Where would Muddy be? The better question to ask was about the location of the general. The only pony up here who could do anything for Muddy was him. And where would the general be? All I knew for sure was that he would be somewhere in the part of base where all the officers lived. But there were dozens of houses there.

And then it dawned on me. The Admin Building. Even if the general wasn’t there now, I’m sure there would be a way to lure him there. Like breaking into his office? Trying to hack his terminal? That would be sure to work!

Unfortunately, I had spent little time on this part of the base. All I knew for sure, was that it was the furthest from the Admin building as it could possibly be. The biggest problem was I was going to be crossing the main runway and past a few of the bunkhouses to get there from here.

“Of course, why would I expect this to be easy,” I moaned quietly to myself, rolling my eyes back in my head.

Looking back towards the Admin building, the lone office lit up possibly took on new meaning. It could mean that Muddy got to the General first. It could also mean I was going to have to convince the General that Muddy was really a threat.

But first, I had to get there. As was usual at night, the runway was empty and generally unlit. There was some spillover from spotlights on some of the hangars but it barely touched the runway, much less made things visible. At least this part should be easy.

I decided against flying since the airborne detection talismans would pick that up almost immediately, so I set off at a slow trot. I had gotten half way across the runway when the base public address system squealed to life.

“Attention all base personnel! All flight control and emergency service personnel required to report to main runway! Incoming damaged raptor for an emergency landing!” a panicked sounding pony nearly yelled through the speakers. “I repeat! Incoming damaged raptor for an emergency landing!”

Lighting gemstones began powering up on one by one with loud thuds followed by loud crackling. Small pools of light began to brighten on the runway. Lights on the sides and down the middle of the runway snapped on also. A deafening siren pierced the silence.

And there I was, in the middle of the runway, lights coming up on either side of me, and a large number of military personnel heading right for my position. What was it that Brownie kept warning me about playing games with the Wasteland?

I frantically looked around while my EFS began to fill up with red bars. Muffled orders were being barked from the hangars and lights began to turn on in the barracks. If I didn’t act soon, there was no way I would go unseen.

The only possible hiding spot was a small equipment locker off to the side of the runway. Usually, these were stocked with emergency fire suppression and first aid kits. Normally, I wouldn’t think this was a good hiding spot, but with the full mobilization, specialized personnel and equipment would be brought out here. Hopefully, this meant that the emergency locker would go untouched.

Now at a full gallop, I ran to the locker and swung it open. For once, luck shone down on me since the locker was already mostly empty. I didn’t look a gift pony in the mouth and slid into the locker and closed it behind me. As the latch slid back into place, I heard the first hoofsteps of ponies landing right outside the locker.

“Hey Glide, can you believe this shit?” a deep mare’s voice said.

“No, I can’t. My one night off and there’s gotta be an emergency,” a male voice grumbled in response. Glide seemed like he couldn’t be bothered being here. “It’s pointless for us to be here. Fire Control teams will be here shortly and the medics are already on site, why do they need us?”

“Rules are rules,” the female responded with a sigh. “Speaking of which, did you ever fill the locker back up with the stuff we, um, borrowed?”

“No,” Glide said with a guffaw. “We’d be up shit’s creek if they really needed us anyway.”

“Do you know which raptor it is?” she asked.

“The Soarin,” he responded matter-of-factly.

I heard a little “eep!” as a response. “The Soarin? But my sister…” she said but trailed off, worry dripping off the words.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself Roll, we don’t know how bad it is,” Glide said, trying to comfort her.

“Have you heard what happened?” Roll asked, clearly concerned about the status.
“Nah, not yet, but it was probably another damn dirtpony attack,” Glide said with a huff. “First the Fleetfoot, then the Spitfire. Now the Soarin. They’re all monsters. We should just wipe out every last one of them.”

“Damn right!” she responded. There was a loud bang against the side of the locker which caused me to jump and hit the top of the locker.

“The fuck was that?” Glide asked, clearly surprised by the second sound.

“Eh, I must have just jarred something loose,” Roll answered. “Let’s just sit and watch the show.”

The sound of sirens and ponies shouting faded away as I reflected on what Glide had said. Did I once think the way he did of the ponies stuck in the Wasteland? Did I really think they were all monsters? Did I want to kill them all?

There were raiders and slavers, sure. They needed to be taken care of. Then there were the Steel Ranger nitwits but they were just misguided. In their ridiculous little quest to hoard all the leftover technology, at least they were taking down some groups of raiders, slavers and even mutated beasts. Of course, they did take out groups of regular ponies, too. But what had the Enclave done to help? Nothing but lie about the surface and the ponies that lived there.

I knew good ponies. Brownie, Flower, and Silver for sure. Last Stand, even though he hated me for no apparent reason, was just trying to eke out a living. Big Boss, Pot Luck, Manny, Green Leaf, the list went on and on. Those ponies didn’t deserve death; they deserved help. I’m sure once they knew more about what was going on down there, the Enclave would change their mind.

I was jolted from my thoughts by the sound of the latch being opened. The door began to open and I froze. Artificial light began to slice through the cabinet as the door inched open.

“The fuck are you two doing?” a gruff voice barked impatiently. “Those supplies ain’t gonna do shit. Just grab stuff off the wagon!”

“Sir, yes, sir!” Glide and his buddy responded stiffly. Two pairs of hoofsteps faded as they moved away from the cabinet.

In what seemed to be a repeating theme for the day, I relaxed and slumped against the cabinet, thankful I wasn’t discovered, again. I leaned over near the door and opened it a crack. The sight before me made my heart sink.

On the main runway sat the Raptor-class Soarin’. While most pegasi were impressed with the Thunderhead class vessels, I was always drawn to the Raptors. Their short, wide, and flat bodies were a study in efficiency. While a Thunderhead could carry more ponies, a Raptor could be more densely packed, which allowed it to be a very effective rapid deployment vessel. While nopony would call it a luxury vessel, from friends who had served on Raptors, I had heard they were no worse than the conditions in the barracks. The large, dark, menacing clouds that floated on either side of the vessel were imposing, crackling with electrical energy.

However, this Raptor had seen better days. A large hole had been ripped in the dorsal section of the ship. Smoke was still seeping from the gashes in the jet black surface of the vessel. The exposed conduit and twisted metal contrasted jarringly with the otherwise sleek appearance of the ship. The port side cloud was not as sharply defined as usual and sputtered weak electrical arcs randomly.

Whatever weapon caused that amount of damage must have been powerful. Granted, my time in the Wasteland has been limited, but I have seen a lot of what is left. A hole that size was not from an RPG or even a ground-to-air missile battery. Either somepony in the Wasteland was hiding something big, or something else was going on.

However, I had more pressing matters to look into. First, I had to figure out a way to get away from this runway. There were too many ponies running and flying back and forth trying to put out the fires and rescue trapped soldiers on the Soarin. However, about fifty feet away sat a firewagon and sitting in plain view on the back was a full fluorescent yellow firepony suit, complete with helmet and breathing mask. I just had to get there.

The door of the cabinet creaked as I gingerly opened it. The squeal seemed ear piercing to me, but nopony around seemed to notice. Watching ponies coming and going near the bright red wagon, I waited for just the right opening. Two fireponies had just trotted away with hoses draped over their backs and this was it. I galloped as hard as I could towards the firewagon and slid in behind it near where the firesuit was.

I never imagined I could have changed into a firesuit so quickly. Especially considering the suits weren’t designed to have a fully armed and armored pony inside. The mask made it hard to breath and the eyeholes gave everything a fuzzy outline. I began to walk away from the wreck as nonchalantly as possible.

“Hey Waterjet! Where are ya going?” a male voice yelled out behind me. I kept walking, hoping he was talking to somepony else. “Waterjet!”

I froze and turned around. Another pony in a firesuit was gesturing towards me, his orange head and red mane not covered by the helmet/breather combo. “Waterjet! We need you inside looking for survivors! Get to it before the Lieutenant finds you!”

My blood ran cold while I nodded towards the pony. I had no experience with fire rescue. Well, no formal training anyway. We did have to effect some impromptu rescues in some old buildings during scavenging missions that went wrong. But never inside a Raptor class vessel.

Sweat began to pour down my brow as I trotted my way towards the Soarin. As I got nearer, I saw the start of the carnage that had been wrought. Several rows of bodies had been formed a few dozen yards away from the wreck. Since sheets had been pulled over them completely, I could only assume they had died in the wreck. I instinctively gave a small salute to the ponies.

I got to the edge of the wreck and stared up at the gaping maw that used to be the exterior of the ship. Several pegasi were actively fighting small fires that were burning on nearly every visible deck. Other ponies were using tools to separate pieces of wreckage to ease access to parts of the ship. The rhythmic hammering and screeching formed a crude dirge in my mind.

I hopped up on the deck plating directly in front of me. The deck was sitting at an unnatural angle. The slope of the floor and the angle at which the hallway now sat made the vessel feel alien to me. The deep red emergency lighting added to the effect, casting long, dark shadows around pieces of the structure, now warped beyond recognition. Small flames and burning embers cast their own eerie light, making movement appear where there was none.

Walking down the hallway, I tried every door I came across. Since the power had been knocked out, I needed to force each door open, fighting the inactive hydraulics. From the look of the small bunk rooms I was opening, I must have been in the crew quarters, and these must have been for the lower ranked ponies. The rooms were tiny and sparsely furnished. Personal belongings were strewn everywhere. Half burnt pictures of families and loved ones sat on the floors. Pages from books and magazines formed an odd mosaic laying on the floor and illuminated by the embers and emergency lighting.

Heavy hoofsteps echoed behind me. A small group of fireponies trotted past my room and further into the ship. A few seconds later, a helmeted head popped back into my room. “This level’s already been searched! We’re heading to the next level up! C’mon!” The head disappeared around the bulkhead and the thundering hoofsteps faded away.

If I stayed here too long, I would attract attention if more groups came through. But I had to find a reason to get out of here and away from the wreck. I backed out of the bunkroom and went in the same direction the group had travelled. At the end of the hallway was an open door which led to stairs. I craned my head to see if I could hear where the other ponies went. Faint voices seemed to echo from above me, so I decided to go down.

This deck was more damaged than the one above. The emergency lighting was more sparse and there were still active flames and sparking wires. Besides the sparks, the only other sound was the hissing of my breathing apparatus.

I found myself on another deck filled with crew quarters. Support beams here criss-crossed the hallway and would severely limit my movement. The first door I tried to open seemed jammed and no matter how hard I strained, it refused to budge. After the third such failure, I slumped to the floor frustrated and temporarily exhausted.

“He…. help,” a muffled, scratchy voice called out.

My heart nearly slammed through my chest as my body jolted upright. “Hello?” I called out. “I’m here to help! Where are you?”

“Heeeelp,” the voice wheezed.

Through the helmet and breather, I had trouble isolating where the voice was coming from. “If you can, bang on the bulkhead or the floor! I am having trouble finding you!” I yelled out.

At first, all I was greeted with was silence. I began to fear for the worst until I heard a soft thud, followed by another. “Good, I can hear you! Keep it up!” I strained to listen through the helmet.

Thus began a game of taking a few steps, and then straining to listen for the thud. Was I getting closer or further away? How should I adjust my direction? After a thankfully short period of time, I had narrowed it down to one of the doorways I hadn’t tried yet. Of course, this door seemed just as jammed as the others.

“Hold on! I’m right outside!” I yelled while trying to pry the doors open with my hooves. I had to say, at least Stable-Tec built in battery backups to their door mechanisms. The Enclave designers could learn a lesson from them.

After several minutes of straining and grunting, I gave up trying to open it manually. “Hold on! I have to find something to pry the door open. Please hold on!” I pleaded through the door.

Frantically searching, I trotted up and down the hall looking for some sort of tool to use to pry the door open. Suddenly, the world went upside-down as I felt a sharp pain in my leg. After tumbling to a stop, I craned my neck to see behind me. Jutting out of the wall was a small metal support.

“Luna be damned!” I whined in pain. But at least I think I found the tool I could use. Grabbing the loose end in my hooves, I bent it back and forth until it snapped away from the wall. One of the ends was flat enough, I might just be able to get it between the doors!

I galloped back towards the trapped pony and began my next attempt at opening the door. After some straining, I finally got one of the ends between the two doors. As I applied force to the bar, the door squelched in protest of being moved. Slowly, but surely, I got the doors open far enough to get my hooves between them. After a little more elbow grease, the doors gave their final shriek of protest before they slid open.

The damage inside the room mirrored the damage done to the rest of the deck. Furniture had become detached from the wall and was strewn all over the room. “Hello? Where are you?” I called out, hoping I hadn’t been too late.

“Over… here…” the voice whispered. “I’m feeling cold.” Oh shit, that’s not good.

After pushing a locker to the side, I found the poor pony. A sky blue pegasus mare with a white mane lay on the ground. Streaks of blood broke up the otherwise shockingly white mane. Her blue duty uniform jumpsuit was stained with more blood and tears in several places. She looked weakly up at me with magenta eyes that were glassy and struggled to keep open.

“Hold on! I’ll get you out of here soldier!” I said while making sure there was no hazard to moving her.

“Too late... for me,” she croaked between pained breaths. “Need… to tell… something…” Her sentence was interrupted by several soft coughs, each one splattering blood across the deck near where she lay. “Not attacked…” Her body convulsed through several more coughs. The volume of blood she produced was frightening. “Discord...” Her body shook as she exhaled with a rattle. She moved no more and I watched as her eyes became lifeless.

For Celestia’s sake, how many ponies are going to die right in front of my eyes? I slid my hoof against her eyes and closed them as I said the small prayer all soldiers knew. “From the clouds from which we were born, back to the clouds we return. May Celestia and Luna watch over,” I paused while I looked at the soldier’s embroidered name tag, “Cool Breeze as she takes her final flight.”

After having a moment of silence for Cool Breeze, I hefted her weight onto my back and began the slow trek back out of the Soarin. Walking back through the gaping wound in the Soarin’s hull, several ponies saw me carrying Cool Breeze. Almost instantly, I was inundated by medical ponies who were helping lift Cool Breeze off my back and towards the medical tent. I shook my head knowing there was nothing they could do.

“Hey Waterjet… Waterjet?” one of the nurse’s asked me, looking quite concerned.

“Huh? What?” I asked, my thoughts still focusing on Cool Breeze.

“Your leg? What happened?” she asked pointing at my front right leg.

Glancing downwards, a gash in the protective suit opened to the armored leg guards beneath it. “Oh… must have been that piece of wreckage I tripped over,” I muttered trying to remember what exactly had happened.

“Well, you better head over to the medical tent before you go back in,” she said while picking up the first aid kit she had.

“Yes, ma’am,” I said while I took off trotting towards the medical tent. After the nurse trotted and turned her back to me, I changed direction and headed back towards the firewagon I took the uniform from. With rescue and fire suppression operations going on full bore, the outskirts of the runway were pretty much abandoned. Quickly kicking off the firesuit, I trotted away and back towards the admin building.

As I trotted towards my destination, my mind began to wander about Cool Breeze’s last words. What did she mean that it wasn’t an attack? And why did she bring up Discord? The draconequis was captured before the war and was imprisoned in stone.

The sound of a slamming door drew my thoughts back to the task at hand. Sticking to shadows, I had avoided pockets of idle soldiers moving about the base at night. However, the next leg of my trip would bring me right past one of the barracks buildings. If I was going to run into somepony, it would be here.

Two ponies had walked out the front door of one of the barracks and were probably headed out to the base recreational facilities. I wasn’t too worried about being seen. The darkness was doing its job, but I was also ducked behind a low brick wall used for decoration. After the two ponies walked away, loudly chatting, I sneaked my way into the alley between two bunkhouses.

I let up my guard a little as these alleyways were rarely used. And even if they were, I would have more than enough warning to find a spot to hide. However, I still remained on alert.

As I passed the back door to the barracks, I heard the click of the door release being pushed in from the inside. I ducked behind the dumpster in the aisle. My body shivered as I remembered my experience almost being cooked alive earlier.

The door swung open and stumbling out the door was a familiar orange buck with a gray mane. It was Cloud Buster. Shit! If anypony was going to recognize me, even in my current state, it would be him.

I pushed myself as far against the wall as possible, hoping that he hadn’t seen me. As I pushed, one of my hooves slipped and I saw the glass bottle a little too late. My hoof knocked the bottle and sent it skittering across the floor and into the open. I froze.

“Who’s there?” Cloud Buster called out. I heard his footsteps approaching the dumpster.

Well, shit. I stood up and and slowly walked out from the dumpster. “Hi, Buster,” I said meekly with an awkward smile on my face.

He shook his head in confusion. “Um, who the hell…” he trailed off, the confused look on his face slowly turning into one of shock. “Updraft? Is that you?”

“Yeah, Buster, it’s me,” I nodded in response.

He trotted over to me, looking over every inch of my body. “But, how? I mean, you died during a delivery?” he asked, his voice wavering.

“Buster, I wish I could tell you, I really do,” I grimaced. Yet another pony I was either lying to or withholding the truth from. “All I can say is that it’s classified.”

In a move that surprised me, Buster wrapped his hooves around me. “For Celestia’s sake, Updraft, I am so glad to see you! You have no idea how hard it was,” he blubbered. “I can’t wait to tell Twister and Windy, we were all tore up when we got the news! Oh, and your mom! She hasn’t been the same since…”

My mother. That was probably the hardest part of the entire thing. Even though my mother was a general, General Cirrus had told me that even she couldn’t know about my new post or my cover story. For the past year, she had been under the impression her only son was now dead.

“Buster!” I barked, covering his mouth with my hoof. “No pony else can know about this.” I stared right in his green eyes. “No pony.”

Buster backed up a couple of steps. “Oh...oh, ok,” he stuttered. He looked so crestfallen.

“Buster, I’d love to stay and chat, but I have to get going. The longer I just stand around, the more likely somepony else will see me,” I glanced up and down the alley. “I hope someday I can fill you in on everything.”

“OK, Updraft,” he said uneasily. “If there is anything I can do to help, please let me know,” he pleaded.
I trotted to the end of the alleyway and then stopped. Turning my head, I saw Buster still there, just watching me go. I sighed deeply and turned the corner.

My emotions were now spinning out of control. Seeing Buster brought back memories of my life on base. My friends and coworkers were always up for a good time. My mom had supported me every step of my career, even though it was unimpressive. I always looked forward to our weekly dinners where we could just talk. She was always offering to put in a word with commanding officers in other departments to help me advance. I had always declined, wanting to progress on my own and not live off her wing feathers.

And what had I done? I gave it all up to work for a clandestine group. My actions would never be known and I was effectively erased off the clouds. Even if I did return, could I possibly repair all the damage I had done? Would my friends be able to trust me again? Buster sure seemed to, but then again, all he knew was that I wasn’t really dead. What would he think if I told him everything I had been through? And my mother? I’m sure she would forgive me, but would things ever be the same?

After a fortunately uneventful trot, I found myself at the front door of the Admin Building. Peering in through the smoked glass, I saw the security desk dominating the lobby space. The only light was coming from a small desk lamp which was throwing long shadows across the lobby. Sitting behind the desk was the same Sergeant from the morning I first met with Cirrus. He was reclined back in his chair watching something on the terminal on his desk.

Think, Dust, think. How was I going to get past him? Once the door opened, he would see me clearly. And there was no other way into the building. I needed a distraction. Fumbling around in my saddlebags, I searched for something that would make an effective distraction. I had my few weapons and ammo, some food, medkits, drugs… nothing that would distract somepony. Caps… I had caps.

I sidled up next to the door on the handle side. I hoofed a few caps from my saddebags and held them, ready to throw. I pulled open the door and then let it glide back closed. I peeked around the doorframe and saw the sergeant hadn’t even looked up. I opened the door again, but this time, I helped it slam closed. Peering through the darkened glass again, I saw the guard look towards the door and then back to his screen.

“C’mon, you dumbass, get curious,” I grumbled as I opened and slammed the door again. I watched the guard get back up and trot towards the door. I took a few steps and slid up into a small corner near the door and glanced around the corner. Waiting with bated breath, I listed for the door to open. After what felt like eons without the door opening, I stepped back to the door. The guard was back behind the desk watching his monitor.

“Son of a bitch!” I muttered to myself. This time, I knocked hard on the door and then stepped back into my little alcove. I peered around the corner again and waited for the door to open. I heard a click and watched the door swing open. The guard stepped outside and looked around.

“Whoever is doing this, it isn’t funny!” he hollered, clearly aggravated by the repeated interruptions. After he turned around, I hurled the caps towards the main pathway in front of the building. They clattered away. One of the caps, remained upright and spinning. The guard spun around and squinted in the direction of the caps. “What the hell?” he squeaked as he trotted away. Quietly, I slid my way towards the door and squeezed my way in before the it closed behind me.

The door clicked softly behind me and echoed in the large atrium. Quickly, I trotted my way past the security desk and made my way to the main stairwell. My head was on a swivel as I made sure I wasn’t going to run into any more guards. As I passed the security desk, I took a quick look at his terminal. No wonder he was so aggravated. He was watching “The Neighs of Our Lives”. Geez, I missed that show.

My hoofsteps echoed as I walked, but I wasn’t worried since I didn’t hear any other steps echoing back. As far as I could tell, I was alone in the building. The six flights of steps took almost no time to climb and I found myself on the sixth floor.

Most of the lights were out, leaving the floor in a gloom I usually came to associate with the stables on the surface. All the doors were closed except for one, out of which light was pouring. I walked my way there, carefully listening for voices, steps, anything. I approached the door in complete silence. The office belonged to General Cirrus.

Quietly walking up to the office, I edged around the open door and scanned the office. It was empty. I walked in and looked around. It felt like more than a year ago I last stood here, being sold on the idea of joining Special Operations. The big map had become more cluttered in the intervening time. More settlements had been indicated and some of the larger cities had notes under them. Some indicated they were occupied by Steel Rangers or slavers, while others had mentions of Stables.

I glanced back at the General’s desk and the terminal that sat there, softly glowing green. I trotted over and saw that it had been logged out, but I said down and put my skills to work. Within minutes, I had hacked my way past the login screen. There were many options to choose from, but the one that caught my attention were the Special Operations files. Navigating to that menu, I could choose from Personnel, Operations, and Resources.

First, I scrolled to the Personnel records and found Muddy’s record again. The text shocked me:

“Psychological: Operative Muddy Waters suffers from delusions of grandeur compounded with anger management problems. He is quick to anger and quickly resorts to violence when placed under stressful situations with those he feels are his inferior. It is recommended that he not be placed in a forward operating area.

“Operational: Operative Muddy Waters will be placed in a low priority operational area partnered with Operative Updraft. His particular skill set will be particularly useful for implementation of Operation Cleansing Equis. For Operation Cleansing Equis, Muddy Waters will be placed in charge of a quick-operations team.”

What the hell? Cirrus knew that Muddy would snap and sent him down anyway? And to place him with someone he would view as his inferior?

I scrolled back and navigated to the “Operations” menu. There were half a dozen operations, but Cleansing Equis was right on top. I opened the file and read. My blood ran cold and my mouth hung open.

“Operation Cleansing Equis. Purpose: To clear productive areas of the Wasteland for occupation by Enclave forces for agricultural resources. Operational Summary: After covert operatives discover sufficient resources for agricultural growth, Special Operations personnel will clear the area by any means necessary. Agricultural specialists will then occupy the area and implement the discovered technology to bolster the food supply for the Enclave. Local workers will be conscripted into service to aid with the necessary labor.” Holy shit. General Cirrus was ready to kill and enslave the Wasteland ponies.

As I backed out of the menu, a word caught my attention on the list of active operations. I saw one labelled “Operation Discord”. I hoofed into the file. “Operation Discord. Purpose: To convince the military hierarchy of the necessity of direct action against the Wasteland.”

Somepony cleared their throat, causing me to snap my head upwards from the terminal screen. In the doorway stood General Cirrus, Muddy, and two MPs.

“Good evening, Dust Cloud,” the General sneered. “Didn’t anypony ever tell you not to touch other pony’s things?”

Level Up!

Skills:
Science, 45

Perk Obtained:
Dumpster Diver - Sneak decreases by 5 when attempting to hide during a pursuit.

Chapter 18 - Friends in Low Places

Chapter 18: Friend in Low Places
“What I have found is that real friends stand by you.”

Muddy simply snickered as my jaw dropped.

“Now, Dust,” the general sneered. “What would possibly possess you to break into my office, hack into my terminal, and access top secret documents, hmm? Oh, and before you think of anything, please know that the fine ponies behind us have orders to shoot to kill the instant you try anything funny.”

After clearing the initial shock, my mind raced. “General, listen! You can’t listen to Muddy! He tried to kill me several times, and has killed innocent ponies…”

The general interrupted me with a laugh. “Innocent? You mean those dirtponies? None of them are innocent! Just ask the good ponies on the Soarin who were ambushed by dirtponies,” the general laughed. “At least, that’s what everypony will think. Besides, as Muddy tells it, you were willing to give up a year of work just to save a damn, dirtborn pegasus!” he scolded me. “Was she a Dashite, too? And you took her side over the Enclave!”

“General,” I pleaded. “The pegasus…”

“Did I say anything that sounded like I care what you have to say?” he barked. “Did you, or did you not attack your partner?”

“Yes, but,” I started before being interrupted.

“And did you or did you not side with a dirtpony over your Enclave partner?” he asked, loathing dripping off the question.

“I had to keep…”

“Yes… or no…” the general said, beginning to pace the room.

“Yes, but,” I tried to explain.

“Then the rest doesn’t matter to me,” he said flatly. Muddy wasn’t even attempting to fight the grin on his face as the general turned back to me. “At this point, Dust, you are in huge trouble already. You know that treason against the Enclave is punishable by death, right?” He didn’t even give me a chance to respond. “Of course you do. So why are we even having this discussion, you might be wondering.”

The general seemed to be waiting for a response, but I just kept my mouth shut.

“Well, Muddy has given me some very interesting information indeed,” Cirrus teased. “Apparently, you have come across some information that will be infinitely valuable to us.”

“Yeah, I found some aeroponics research in an abandoned facility,” I started. Again, I got cut off.

“Please, aeroponics?” he said derisively. “It would take us years to adapt that for our needs and we don’t have the time. But that isn’t to say that the facility won’t be useful in the short term. We will commandeer the facility. But no, that’s not what I’m referring to.”

“What other information could I possibly have?” I asked. My mind raced at the possibilities. Wait… “Do you mean the research I found in the stable in Horseton?”

For the first time, the general looked surprised. “Oh, you’ve been a busy little pegasus haven’t you? What do you think you found…?”

“In the stable in Horseton, where Muddy tried to kill me,” I glared at Muddy before resuming. “I found some research that allegedly could clear soil and water of balefire radiation.”

“Huh…” he responded with a grunt. “But, sadly, no. That kind of research has been attempted by our scientists and found unworkable.”

“Then what is it?” I barked back. “I don’t have the patience for this.”

The general stopped pacing. “So you really don’t know?” he said, shocked. He turned to Muddy. “He really doesn’t know…” They both started laughing. “Dust, Dust, Dust… that valuable Pip-Buck on your leg, it really is an amazing device. It seems to have automatically downloaded a file to your Pip-Buck while you were up in Whinnycrest. Why don’t you check the file list…” The general had circled back around to his position besides Muddy.

I brought up the Pip-Buck and scrolled through the data listing. There were only a few files: the aeroponics research was the first file and it had logged One’s journal. Seeing that sent a stab of grief through me, but I didn’t have time right now to dwell on it. The last file in the list caught my attention. It was simply named ‘S.P.P. Key’.

I muttered to myself. “S.P.P. key… S.P.P. The Single Pegasus Project?”

“Oh look, Muddy, Dust has caught on,” the general said condescendingly. “You really should check your gear more often. It appears you’ve inadvertently downloaded a file that will allow us to bypass Rainbow Dash’s lockouts in the S.P.P. You do realize what this means, don’t you?”

With the S.P.P. unlocked, the Enclave would have full control over the clouds, and could make it so cloud farming could be expanded. It could save the Enclave. But it would also trap the Wasteland under a perpetual, solid cloud cover. It would be permanently dark and all the ponies on the surface would lose whatever slim hopes they may still be holding on to

“No… you can’t, they need our help!” I cried out in frustration.

“Yes, we can, and we will. But we need your help,” he said, disdain dripping off each syllable. “We know that the Pip-Buck is a special model. We have run into one before. It was Scootaloo’s, the vaunted Vice President of Stable-Tec,” he added with some scorn. “It never responded to any of our previous attempts to access it. The one you have appears to have been specially designed also. All we know is that it won’t respond except to a pony that meets the criteria that was programmed or enchanted into it. All you need to do is unlock the file, get us into the S.P.P. tower, and we will consider giving you a life sentence in prison in place of an execution.”

“And allow you to doom the Wasteland to slowly waste away?” I challenged.

“Dust,” he spat, “what makes you think I give two fucks about the dirtponies in the Wasteland? We will use them to keep the facility you found running until we get the S.P.P. towers running, and then they can all rot for all I care.”

Time around me seemed to freeze. What was the choice I was being forced to make here? The first option was to turn my back on all my friends in the Wasteland, sentencing them to a slow and painful death, while I spent the rest of my life in jail? But then again, the Enclave would thrive. The second option was to turn my back on the Enclave and submit myself to whatever the general had planned for me if I said no. The food situation would get worse, and eventually it might mean the end of the Enclave as we know it.

“General,” I said, getting his attention. “With all due respect, go fuck yourself.”

“Tsk, tsk, tsk, Dust,” the general said, shaking his head. “I was hoping we didn’t have to do this the hard way.” He turned to Muddy and the MPs. “Looks like you were right, he’s gone native. You know what to do.”

With Muddy and the General blocking the door, the two large MPs approached me. Scanning the room, I had no option but to submit since fighting would be pointless at this point and there was no avenue of escape. One of the MPs quickly drew a baton from his belt holster and swung right at my head.

After a short burst of pain, everything went black.

I came to some time later, and felt myself lying flat on a platform of some kind. My head was throbbing from where the MP had struck me with the baton. Trying to move my hoof to rub that spot, I soon found that my hooves were tied to whatever platform I was lying on.

I opened my eyes, trying to see where I was, but the room was dark. No… that wasn’t quite right. Somepony had placed a dark bag of some sort over my head. I groaned out in frustration.

“Ah, you’ve woken up,” Muddy said from somewhere behind me. “Here, let me take that for you.”

The black bag was pulled off my head, and I was nearly blinded by a spotlight shining right in my face. The throbbing in my head only made the blinding light even worse as I whimpered in pain.

“Oh, Dust, the pain hasn’t even started for you yet,” Muddy snickered. “But you can end it all right now. All you need to do is agree to get us into the S.P.P. tower.”

“Why don’t you just kill me and then use my body to open the tower?” I spat still squinting from the light.

“We tried using your unconscious body already,” he shot back. “Proximity is not good enough. . That fucking Pip-buck will only respond to you and it has to be you voluntarily entering the commands. So that’s why we’re here. We’re gonna see if I can’t convince you to help us.” The acid that dripped off the word ‘convince’ actually sent chills down my spine.

My eyes finally started adjusting to the room I was in. It was a small room with bare concrete walls. There were two bare gems dangling from the ceiling casting a dim light. And there was, of course, the spotlight that was shining right in my face. However, as my vision cleared, I saw a second spotlight. Looking at its target, I saw another table with an unmoving shape.

A loud bang brought my attention back to Muddy. He was now standing between the two tables, and moved to block my view of the other table. “Don’t concern yourself with my chicken friend over there,” he gestured with a baton. “She doesn’t concern you. Or do you sympathize with griffons now, too?”

I grimaced, bracing for the impact, as Muddy swing the baton. However, no impact was forthcoming. Instead, I heard the muffled crack as the baton struck a body. I heard a pained squawk and I looked back towards the other table, which held a griffon. Her body shivered as she began weeping.
“Help me…” she croaked. The lion part of her body was gray and her head was covered with black feathers. Her teal eyes were ringed with lavender. The feathers just below her eyes were tear stained. Dried blood stained the feathers around the corners of her mouth.

The baton whistled through the air again followed by the same sickening crack. She squawked again and softly weeped.

“I told you to shut up!” Muddy growled. “Besides, can’t you see I’m talking to a friend?” he said while swinging the baton again, eliciting another squawk. “I’m sorry, Dust. My other guest here is so rude. Now where were we… oh, yes, the S.P.P. tower. See, we need you to let us into the tower. It won’t work any other way.”

“And let you kill or enslave the Wasteland ponies?” I grunted, my head still pounding.

“What is it with you and those dirtponies?” Muddy snapped at me. “They are beneath us. They’re no better than the ghouls that are running around out there. I say let them die so that the Enclave can grow stronger!”

“No,” I grunted. “The Enclave has already done enough damage. I can not, will not, stand idly by and allow you to doom them a second time.”

“I knew I was right,” Muddy laughed. “I told the general that you cared too much. He didn’t think you would be that strong.” He turned to look at me with a wicked grin on his face. “Good thing I’ve been learning some methods of... ‘persuasion’, shall we say.”

Muddy disappeared from view momentarily. A rhythmic squeaking sound grew louder. Rattling metal joined the squeaking and grew louder. Soon, Muddy reappeared by my side with a small cart. On top of the cart were an assortment of sharp implements, all of which were caked with dried blood.

“I am so going to enjoy this, Dust,” Muddy snickered. “And just remember, you can stop this at anytime. All it will cost you is betraying the dirtponies and letting us into the tower.” Muddy turned his back and began perusing the cart of tools. “Now, which one do I want to start with?” He turned quickly and his hoof swung out and surprised me. Even in the blur, I could see the power-hooves he was wearing to amplify his strike. He bashed me right across the muzzle. “Maybe I should start with some hooves on treatment, eh?”

My vision spun as the pounding in my head increased ten-fold. My head flopped to the side and I saw the other captive in the room. The look of terror in her eyes and the tears running down her face told me she had been through what I was just about to begin experiencing. She mouthed, “I’m sorry,” before turning away.

Another strike spun my head the other way. I felt a warm trickle of blood run from my nose and down my muzzle. A groan escaped my muzzle unopposed. The room spun in my vision, which was now hazy.

“Aw, c’mon Dust, don’t let me down,” Muddy mocked.

“Why?” I groaned. “Why are you doing this, Muddy? I know it’s not only for the Enclave.” The coppery taste of blood in my mouth made me involuntarily spit out a glob of bloody saliva.

“Yeah, you’re right, Dust,” he chuckled. “I’m not that patriotic. It’s power. The general promised me power. I’ll be given control over a combat wing which will help pacify the Wasteland. And when the S.P.P. tower is operational? I’ll be in command of an entire flight division!”

I couldn’t help but to laugh. “Yeah, keep on believing that. You honestly think the general will give you that much power?”

Instead of responding verbally, Muddy struck me several more times. After one particularly vicious strike, a wet snap and a flash of pain indicated something in my muzzle had broken. I fought back whimpering as hard as I could, but it was all for naught. I began to softly weep.

“Ah, there it is…,” he squealed with glee. “And to think, this is only the beginning!” Muddy reached behind him and I heard metal rattling on the tray. He turned back around with a stun gun in his mouth. He moved so quickly and jabbed the prongs into my leg.

Every muscle in my body involuntarily contracted as the electricity coursed through my body. My teeth clenched and my body fought against the restraints to no avail. After several agonizing seconds, Muddy withdrew the prongs.

“Like my toy?” he asked rhetorically as he twisted the device in his hoof. “Bought it off a trader that came to Coltington one day. It was a piece of junk, but all it needed was a little rewiring before it worked like a charm. All those travelers I used it on seem to agree.”

All of my muscles ached and another whimper escaped my lips. “Do I have your attention now, Dust? Are you willing to help us?” I pretended to whisper a response to him. He drew closer. “What was that, I couldn’t hear you,” he said mockingly.

I collected as much phlegm as I could and spit it right in his face. The mixture of saliva and blood splattered against his face and began to drop off his muzzle. He slowly wiped it away and looked back at me with a murderous glare. “That was not a wise decision.”

Muddy turned back to the small tray behind him. After some more rattling, he spun around with another implement in his hoof. It appeared he was holding a small soldering iron. The tip was red hot and was releasing a thin wisp of smoke. I began to squirm as he drove the implement against my my muzzle and pressed hard.

I screamed as the iron burned into my flesh, filling the air with the smell of burning pony. He removed and replaced the soldering iron several times. “Are you going to help us open the tower now?”

“Why should I?” I grunted through my strained breathing. The room around me was fading to black.

“I will not let you ruin my future… the Enclave’s future!” Muddy hollered at me. “Besides, I can keep this up all day. Can you?” I couldn’t respond as I felt my consciousness slipping away. “Now, now, this simply won’t do,” he mocked. Muddy reached behind him and swung something towards my muzzle. I feebly recoiled and tried to avoid it. “Now, stop that! I am trying to help you here!”

The top of a glass bottle was forced into my mouth. He quickly forced my head back with the bottle. The familiar tang of a healing potion flooded my mouth. I gulped down the liquid.

“That’s a good little pony,” Muddy chuckled. After the last dregs of the potion went down my throat, he tossed the bottle and I heard it shatter against the wall. I could feel my burn wounds slowly healing themselves, and could even feel the bones in my muzzle beginning to knit themselves back together. “I’ll be back later. Why don’t you think about what I’ve said?”

Muddy trotted away and I heard a door slam behind me and a deadbolt slide shut. Even though the healing potion was working its magic, my body was still in pain. All I could do was lay there, whimpering.

“He is right, you know,” a meek voice said to me. I turned my head towards the source and saw that it came from the griffon captive. “He will keep doing this, over and over again, until they get what they want. It’s how they work here.”

“He’s been doing this to you, too?” I asked between sharp breaths.

“No, not him,” she responded. “Others. They bring you right to the brink of unconsciousness, and then they heal you so they can start over. I’ve been here for...” she said with a pause. “Days? Or has it been weeks now?” she trailed off.

“What do you have that they want?” I asked her.

“The location of Talon operating bases,” she sighed. “I will not give up my people. Especially not to the Enclave. Not after what you assholes have done to us.” She paused and then continued. “Just so you know, he will be back. And he will keep torturing you until you give up what he wants.”

My blood ran cold at the thought. I was never particularly good at dealing with pain, and it appeared the rest of my life would be spent in it. I couldn’t believe the Enclave actually tortured their prisoners like this.

“Name’s Gertrude, but you can call me Gertie,” the griffon said. “Might as well get to know each other. We’ll probably be the last thing the other sees.”

“Updraft,” I sighed. “But you might as well call me Dust.” I saw a confused look flash across her face. “Long story.”

We both fell into silence for a while. I simply had no words. My face ached dully as the wounds were still healing. Suddenly, the sound of scraping metal caught our attention. The door opened behind us and then closed. A cream colored stallion with a blue mane and crossed knives as a cutie mark walked between the tables.

“OK, Gertie,” they said, sounding kind of bored. “Are you going to tell us what we want to know?”

“I don’t know,” she replied back with some snark. “Are you going to let me claw your throat out?”

“I figured you’d say that,” the pegasus responded. He reached onto the table and drew out a small knife. He turned towards Gertie, blocking my view of her.

Gertie screamed as I could only imagine what the pegasus was doing to her. He changed weapons several times during the session, switching between knives, the soldering iron, even a mallet and a metal spike. He kept it up for what felt like an eternity, but in reality was only about an hour or so according to my EFS. After grabbing a healing potion and force feeding it to her, he left the room.

“Gertie, you OK?” I asked.

She breathed heavily several times. “Yeah, Dust, I’m OK. That was actually an easy session,” she said with a pained chuckle. “Nothing broken, and the idiot remembered the healing potion this time. That’s a bonus.”

“Remembered?” I gasped.

“Yeah. Sometimes they ‘forget’ to bring it. Leave you writhing in pain for a while,” she deadpanned.

I returned to my thoughts about my life and if I’d spent it well. What had I done to bring me to this point? Turned my back on friends and family. Turned my back on my people. Led others into danger and hid the truth from them. Maybe this was fate? Karma?

My thoughts were broken by the sound of the door again. Gertie and I looked at each other, fear in our eyes trying to determine whose turn it was. The yellow face and light green mane of Muddy filled my view and my hopes plummeted.

“Have you made a new friend, Dust?” Muddy mocked. “Going to make friends with another enemy of the Enclave?”

“Muddy, just do what you came here to do,” I pleaded.

“Oh, I plan on it. But I have to ask, will you help us access the S.P.P. tower?” he asked.

“Fuck. You.” I spat back.

Muddy simply rubbed his hooves together. “Hmm, where to start.”

Thus began a few days of a repeating cycle. Muddy and his fellow pegasi came in and took turns beating, burning, and cutting Gertie and me. In particularly bad sessions, they would break the bones in our wings, which was probably the most painful injury I had ever experienced, since the fall in the Stable that is. And every time, they would heal us back up with potions so they could do it all over again.

I was soon deafened to my own screams, Gertie’s cries for help, and Muddy’s laughter. At least Gertie’s torturers didn’t mock her. She had probably been here so long that they were bored at this point. But not Muddy. Muddy was relishing every second of this. All because I was preventing him from getting what he wanted, and he was going to make me pay for every delay.

Torture sessions merged into periods of sleep due to pure exhaustion. Occasionally, they would force a thin, watery gruel down our throats just to keep us alive. Hours turned into days turned into weeks. If it weren’t for my EFS, I wouldn’t know how much time had passed. When it wasn’t my turn to be tortured, it was Gertie’s. We did our best to help each other through the lulls between sessions. As painful as it was, being a sympathetic face during the sessions helped us pull through. It didn’t remove the pain, but it helped to know someone was there with you.

Sessions were randomly held. Sometimes I had one back to back; sometimes they alternated between Gertie and me. Sometimes, they worked on both of us at the same time. I don’t know if my screams or Gertie’s shrieks were louder.

I think I would have cracked several times over if it hadn’t been for Silver. My thoughts would usually wander to her, even during the worst of times. I didn’t know if she began to hate me like the others most likely had, but it didn’t matter right now. Just thinking of her calmed my mind and allowed me to endure.

“DUST!” Muddy screamed at the top of his lungs, breaking me from my reverie. “Welcome back to the world of the living. Now what were you thinking of to distract you so well from our little session here? Is it the pink bitch? Maybe when I’m done here, I’ll hunt her down and give her a turn. Maybe that will change your mind.”

I just reacted and strained against my restraints. “NO!” I bellowed. “You will not hurt her! She has nothing to do with this!”

“I don’t really care,” he deadpanned. “As long as it gets you to give up the key, I’ll do whatever I have to.” Muddy took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “But the truth is, Dust, I’m getting bored. You can only take so much more of this. You obviously don’t care how much I put you through. But maybe you’ll care if it’s happening to somepony else.” He turned and looked at Gertie.

Muddy reached over and grabbed a knife from the tray. “The longer you hold back, Dust, the worse it gets for her,” he said. “All it takes is the word from you.”

The knife descended faster than I thought it could. It slid right through the skin on her left leg leaving a widening gash. Blood began to flow down her leg in rivulets. Gertie screamed like nothing I had heard before.

A look of fear… no, not fear, this was surprise. “This wasn’t the deal!” she screamed. Deal? What is she talking about?

“Does it look like I give a fuck?” he shot back. “The deal was you’d help us get him to change his mind. And if this is what it takes, then that’s what I’ll do.”

The knife descended again, this time slicing through the skin on her talon. Blood began to spurt from the open wound. She screamed again, now a mixture of pain and fear.

“Dust, you better hurry, she’s bleeding out over here,” Muddy laughed.

To her credit, Gertie grit her teeth and shook her head weakly. I strained against my restraints. “Muddy, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Go. Fuck. Yourself.” I screamed.

Muddy’s face tightened as plunged the knife into her midsection. Gertie shrieked and then fell limp. I could still see her chest rising and falling slightly, but she needed help, and fast.

The next sound I heard was shocking. Muddy began to growl. It was a deep, guttural beastly sound. He threw his head back and screamed a loud and primal scream. He grabbed the small table and swung it over his head, descending right towards my skull.

The impact drove my head back into the table with a crack. I heard several sickening snaps and felt several stabs of severe pain flash through my body. My vision was spinning and things began to fade.

“Luna be damned,” Muddy growled. “Medics! Get the fuck in here and clean this up…” he said as I slid into unconsciousness.

Once again, I was in the land of pitch blackness and silence. As was normal, a small pinpoint of light pierced the veil. A hooded figure approached.

“Is this Foggy or the mysterious stranger?” I asked the pony.

The female, gravelly voice responded. “You have been through many trials, Dust, and have been awesome. And to top it all off, you have not given up yet.”

“I’ve wanted to, trust me,” I said. “Muddy has driven me so close to the edge.”

“Why don’t you just give up then?” she asked.

“I can’t,” I answered. “I just can’t turn my back on the Wasteland ponies. We did it once before and I can’t allow them to do it again.”

The hooded figure simply nodded. “But you’re Enclave, aren’t you?”

“Yes, but that doesn’t mean the Wastelanders have to die,” I responded. “We all lived together in peace before, we can do it again.”

The hooded figure nodded again. “It’s cool to see that you are learning, but you aren’t quite ready yet,” she said. “You are almost through this trial, but you will then have a very hard decision to make.”

The hooded figure turned and started to canter away. “Wait! Who are you!” I called out.

“All in good time, Dust. All in good time,” she said.

The white light grew larger and engulfed the entire space.

I awoke with a start. I involuntarily tried to sit up, but my restraints still held fast. After relaxing my body I scanned the room. It was still the small, barely lit room I had been in. On the table next to me, I saw Gertie’s body. My mind began to race until I saw the slight rise and fall of her chest, showing me she had survived.

I opened my mouth to speak, but my throat was burning from all the screaming before I passed out earlier. I could barely whisper. “Gertie,” I whispered. “Gertie, please tell me you’re alive.”

My pleas were met with silence. Then, after several seconds, a small groan rumbled out of her throat. Gertie struggled briefly against her restraints. Her head turned towards me and her teal eyes locked onto mine. “So I guess it wasn’t just a nightmare, huh?” she croaked.

“Are you OK?” I whispered back.

“What do you think?” she shot back. “I was stabbed, three times, for you. Was it worth it?”

I really couldn’t argue with her. It was my resistance that caused Muddy to attack her so brutally. “I’m sorry… but I can’t just let them get the tower,” I sighed. “Um, Gertie, what did Muddy mean before about a deal?”

Gertie gasped. “Well, Dust, that’s a bit complicated.” Gertie grunted in pain and took a sharp breath. “Mind if I first ask why you care so much about the dirtponies, anyway,” she said, grimacing in pain.

I noticed the deflection, but I had time to pursue it later. “There are good ponies down there, trying to survive,” I sighed. “We turned our back on them once before. I don’t think it’s right to screw them over again.”

Gertie laughed, and then immediately cried out in pain. “Don’t make me laugh,” she uttered.

“Sorry,” I shot back. “But I believe it.”

“No,” she said, still grimacing. “I mean it. Don’t make me laugh. It hurts.”

I couldn’t help but to giggle a little, immediately regretting it as my head started to throb. My laughter was cut short, however, as I heard the deadbolt on the door sliding open. Gertie and I looked at each other, our eyes widened in fear.

Light spilling in the now open door, lightened the room slightly. The room darkened as I heard the door click shut and soft hoofsteps slowly grew louder.

“What’s a matter, Muddy?” I shouted. “Getting too tired to walk over here?”

There was still no response and a pony’s head appeared silhouetted in the spotlight glaring into my face, obscuring the features.

“Shhh, you don’t want to attract any attention,” a gentle, yet firm, female voice responded. The voice was so familiar. As my eyes adjusted, I saw it was a magenta mare with a flaming orange mane and emerald green eyes.

“M…. mom?” I sputtered out in shock.

“Oh, Updraft!” she cried out. “It really is you! You are alive!” I was quickly and strongly wrapped up in her strong legs, encased in black Enclave power armor.

I nuzzled her back. “Mom! How did you find me?”

“Oh, Updraft! Your friend Buster told me you were back,” she said with a grin. “He almost got himself brought up on charges for fighting my aides to get my attention. Sorry it took us so long to get to you. We tailed them here, but this place is not easy to get into.” She looked me up and down. “Dear Celestia, all those scars. What have they been doing here?”

“Torture, mostly,” I sarcastically responded.

“Let’s get you out of those,” she said, while starting to release me from my restraints. Once I was free, she embraced me again and this time I could properly hug her back. The jet black armor she was wearing made the hug rather uncomfortable, but I didn’t care. “Updraft… I was told you were dead. Where have you been?”

“Well, that’s a little tough to explain. It’s classif....” I started to evade, but hesitated. Why am I hiding this now? “You know what… fuck it.” I told her all about Special Operations, the clandestine observations, Muddy’s betrayal, the S.P.P. tower key… all of it.

“You have a key to the S.P.P. towers?” she murmured, clearly shocked. “You know what this means?”

“Yes, I know. But I’m not giving it up,” I said firmly. Mom looked clearly shocked at what I said. “Mom, the ponies down in the Wasteland aren’t all bad. If we use the towers, we only make things worse for them. I can’t allow that to happen.”

“But Updraft! The Enclave needs the towers to feed…” Mom started.
The door flew open and a jet black Enclave armor helmet popped into my vision. “Umm, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we gotta move. Somepony’s coming!”

“Got it, Buster,” she nodded. Buster was here? “Alright, we can take care of this later,” Mom said, starting towards the door. “We gotta get out of here, now.” I didn’t move towards the door, however. I went towards Gertie. “Updraft, what are you doing? Let’s go!”

“Wait a minute,” I called back. I leaned over Gertie. “C’mon Gertie, you’re leaving too.”

“What are you doing with that griffon, Updraft?” mom implored.

“I can’t leave her here,” I blurted out. “Mom, you have no idea what they are doing to us here. It’s inequine!” I turned back to Gertie. “Gertie, get up! We’re leaving.”

Gertie groaned back. “Dust, er, Updraft, whatever your name is. Just go, I’ll just hold you back.”

“No, Gertie. I’m not leaving you here. C’mon,” I pleaded. I helped Gertie get to a seated position on the table. As she slid off the edge, she teetered and almost fell on her face. “Oh, no you don’t!” I quickly draped her leg across my shoulder and helped her move.

“C’mon, mares and gentlecolts. We’re running out of time here!” Buster called out again. As I drew closer to Buster, I saw he had two duffel bags thrown over his shoulder. He clapped me on the back. “Good to see you again, buddy! We took the liberty of rescuing your equipment before getting you here.”

“Good to see you too, Buster,” I nodded, offering a weak hoofbump. “Mom, why are we sneaking out? You’re a general, after all?” I asked, while Buster scanned the hallway to make sure the coast is clear.

“Updraft… whatever you got yourself into is big and secret. And it goes way above my head. Whatever General Cirrus is up to, it has the full vetting and support of somepony on the Council, so I have no authority here.” she explained. Buster waved us out and we made our way out into the hallway.

Better lit than the interrogation chamber, I could see we were in a cinderblock lined, windowless hallway. The lights were bare gems dangling by wires from the ceiling which cast odd shadows all around us. This wasn’t the Fort. Hell, this wasn’t even in the clouds.

“Where the hell are we?” I muttered, more to myself than anypony else.

“Not sure of the actual name of the location,” my mom whispered back. “From what we can tell, it was a bunker built into one of the mountainsides of old Equestria.” My mom must have noticed my face scrunched up in confusion. “Don’t know how, but General Cirrus found this place just below the cloud cover. He stores material here and uses it for other things he doesn’t want the brass to find… like torture I guess. Now let’s stay quiet… we need to sneak out of here.”

We followed Buster on the way out, slowed by Gertie’s inability to walk on her own. Muddy had done a number on her legs. Some scars were years old and others were light pink meaning they were fresh. “Just leave me, you idiot,” she groaned. “You’re gonna get caught again, or worse.” Hoofsteps behind us grew louder as we needed to slowly and carefully make our way out of the bunker.

“We don’t have much time,” Buster whispered. “They’re going to find you guys missing sooner or…” His statement was cut short by the blaring of klaxons as flashing red lights filled the facility. “Later,” he finished with a grunt. “Alright everypony, double time.”

Buster led us through long, nondescript hallways and we eventually found our way to a stairwell. The climb was slow and laborious. Gertie was basically dead weight and I wasn’t really in any condition to carry her, but nopony else could. “Gertie, I hope you can fly once we get out of here,” I prodded.

“Yeah, I should be able to,” she groaned again. “Assuming we get out of here.”

As we climbed the stairs, we heard ponies’ voices echoing down the hallways. Buster motioned across his mouth, telling us to stay quiet. He stepped out into the hallway. It felt like years before his helmeted head rounded the corner and motioned us to follow.”

We carefully made our way towards what I could only imagine was the exit. Several ponies were barking orders.

“Look over there!”

“Check corridor two-alpha!”

“I think I saw something over there!”

It was a game of cat and mouse as we painfully waited for Buster to give us the all clear, and then moving out into the open. All the while, hoofsteps and random shouts echoed all around us.

After reaching another corner, we all played the wait and see game while Buster cleared the hallway ahead of us. He never got past peeking around the corner.

“Shit,” he mumbled under his breath. “Two guards, posted by the entrance.” He paused and I could see the wheels spinning in his head. “Alright, I got a plan, but nopony’s gonna like it. I run out and distract them and you guys get out. I’ll loop back around and catch up later.”

“That’s suicide!” I hissed. “You’ll never make it!”

“Updraft,” he said with a smirk, “don’t tell me you forgot that I was the fastest runner at the academy…”

He was right, but I didn’t think it would made a difference here. I put a hoof on his shoulder. “Buster, I don’t know how I can thank you for this,” I whispered to him.

“Hey, hey,” he said with a chuckle. “You make it sound like this is goodbye.” He gave me a wink. “I’ll see you on the other side.” With that, he took off around the corner at a full gallop.

“Hey! You! Stop!” one of the guards yelled. “Intruder alert! Entry!” he continued, followed by the squelch of a radio. Hoofsteps took off at a gallop and faded away.

Mom jumped around the corner first and trotted to the door. “Luna be damned!” she cried out, banging the door with a hoof. “We need to find a keycard!”

“Not really,” I said pridefully, as I gently laid Gertie down. “Let me, please,” I said as I bumped my mother out of the way. “All it takes is a little of this,” I said as I bucked the panel open and began working on the door. “I should have this open is a jiffy.” Suddenly a bright green flash blinded me, forcing me to push away from the wall.

“Everypony behind cover!” Mom yelled out. She drew out her plasma pistol and began taking pot shots down the hallway. I watched as two jumpsuited ponies dove behind the corner, nearly avoiding being gooified. “Updraft… how much longer do you need?”

“A couple of minutes?” I said back, unsure of how accurate it was.

“Alright, I’ll do my best to provide cover,” she yelled back. “Please get the door open quickly!”

I heard the electronic whine of the plasma pistol firing. Occasionally, I would hear the sizzle of a plasma round hitting something nearby. I manipulated the wires as quickly as I could. Suddenly, a soft beep sounded from the box and the lock on the door clicked open.

“Got it!” I yelled. “Let’s go!”

“That was pretty impressive!” Mom called back. “Let’s get the Tartarus out of here!”

I picked up Gertie again and carried her through the door. We had entered a small cavern and we all ran towards the other opening. Mom was the first one through the opening and she immediately dove back inside. A chorus of plasma rounds peppered the stone around the opening and some struck the back wall of the cavern.

“Shit! They’re waiting for us outside!” she hollered. “I saw at least half a dozen of them.”

The door behind us squealed open and Buster came galloping through, closing it behind him. I saw some fresh scorch marks on his armor. “Buster, you OK?” I asked.

“Yeah, nothing this can’t handle!” he bragged, tapping his armor with his hoof. “How are things out here?” A plasma round found its way through the cavern opening and hit his armor, harmlessly sparking off of it. “That good, huh?”

“We gotta find a way out of here,” I called out. “Before we get overrun in both directions.”

Buster aimed his plasma rifle right near the door lock and fired. The green energized plasma glowed brightly as it spread over the locking mechanism. The lock itself got red hot and then eventually cooled. “That should hold them inside for a bit,” he snickered, “but it won’t last forever.”

My mom sighed deeply. She trotted over to me and placed a hoof on my shoulder. “Updraft, we have to get you out of here. I can only imagine what General Cirrus has planned if he gets his hooves back on you.” She turned and looked at Buster. “How are your evasive maneuvers, Sergeant?”

Buster giggled. “Not too shabby if I say so myself,” he said, laughter in his mechanically enhanced voice.

“Updraft,” mom said with a tear in her eye. “I just got you back, and now I have to say goodbye again,” she sobbed.

“Mom? What are you saying?” I asked, dreading her answer.

“Buster and I are going to provide you a distraction,” she said, between sobs. “You have to get out of here and far away from Cirrus.”

“But, mom… he’s going to hunt me down,” I complained. “Muddy and him want nothing but to control the S.P.P. towers.”

“I know,” she said. “I am going to do my best to convince the Council that he has gone too far, but it’s going to take time. You need to lay low and stay out of his hooves, you got that?”

I nodded. “Mom…” I started to say.

“Updraft, it’s OK. I found you once, I will find you again.” She wrapped me in a hug. “You stay safe, you got that? I won’t lose you again.”

I squeezed my mom back. “Yes, ma’am,” I said with a half-hearted giggle. “How will I know when it’s safe to come back?”

“I’ll find you, Updraft,” she said, “even if it’s the last thing I do as a general.” She kissed me gently on the cheek. Banging on the door rattled us both out of the embrace.

“Umm, ma’am. I recommend we exit the area as quickly as possible,” Buster’s robotic voice interrupted.

“I agree,” mom said, pulling out of the hug. “Updraft, give us about a minute to draw them away and then you take off and get the hell out of here.” Mom looked over at Gertie, “Hey, griffon, you think you can get out of here, too?”

“Yeah, don’t worry about me,” Gertie grumbled. “I’ll make it.”

Mom pressed her forehead up against mine. “Updraft, I am so proud of you for surviving what you went through,” she said, fighting back tears. “We will see each other again, you hear me?”

“Yes, mom, I hear you,” I replied, fighting back tears of my own.

“I love you, Updraft.”

“I love you, mom.”

“Alright, Buster,” mom said, putting her helmet back in place. “Let’s put on a show and see if we can get Updraft some space.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Buster said, not even trying to hide the excitement in his voice.

“Let’s go.”

The two of them flapped their wings and began to hover off the ground. Moving to the far wall of the cavern, they began to accelerate towards the cavern opening. The sounds of plasma weapons firing began to fill the cavern again. Pulling my pistol, I began firing randomly out the cavern opening, hoping to alter the aim of the assaulters. I peeked my head around the cavern opening and watched the black armor clad forms begin to climb away from the mountainside and veer off in opposite directions. Several attackers immediately took off and followed close behind.

Using my EFS as a guide, I scanned the surrounding area and tried to match red markers with possible assailants, but I couldn’t match up visible ponies with the red markers on my EFS. I looked over to Gertie. “You ready?”

She simply nodded back and gestured towards the cavern opening. I strode out into the opening and took several steps. Still seeing no soldiers, I flapped hard and took off. As soon as I cleared the ground, I saw three heads pop up and take aim. They were wearing standard Enclave jumpsuits and body armor, not power armor. Well, that was good news at least.

I banked hard to my left as the first plasma rounds streaked past where I had just been. Taking a quick look back, I saw that I had only one pony pursuing me at the moment. The only problem was that he had an energy weapon on a battle saddle and all my weapons were mouth-fired. I was going to have to get in close and personal.

My heart was pounding and I broke a sweat. It had been a long time since I had done any combat flying. Pulling in my wings, I dropped into a dive and fell several dozen feet. More plasma bolts peppered the air around me, some getting close enough I could feel the heat. My pursuer knew he had the upper hoof and simply kept me in his sights.

Banking hard to the right, I started heading back towards the mountain. I was going to have to use the terrain to get the upper hoof on him. As I neared the mountain, I saw more green bolts flying through the sky. My EFS showed two red bars pursuing one green bar. Gertie was in trouble. She was going to need help. An energy bolt whizzed past my ear. Alright Dust, worry about you first.

I began to fly zig-zags between features of the mountain. Maybe if I got lucky, my pursuer would make a mistake and crash into an outcropping or something. Unfortunately, I found nothing so useful. I dipped my right wing and banked hard in that direction and tried to double back.

I saw I was getting really close to Gertie and her two pursuers. They were closing in and were nearly able to grab her and drive her out of the sky. Gertie flared her wings, braking quickly, allowing the two pegasi to catch up with her. Quickly, more quickly than I thought possible, she grabbed the nearest pegasi and encircled his body, including his wings. They began to plummet, but I watched as Gertie buried her face in the pony’s neck.

She flung her head back and I saw a spray of red fill the air around them. Gertie spit something of her mouth and let her prey go. He reached for his neck and began falling towards the ground. Holy shit.

A plasma bolt flying past my head refocused my attention on my own problems. I still had my pursuer to deal with, but I saw I could help Gertie a little. Her other pursuer did not see me. Pulling in my wings, I began a dive and aimed right for the pony. Right before I crashed into him, I flipped and got my legs out in front of me and planted them right into the pony’s midsection. He careened into the mountainside and rolled down a few dozen yards and fell motionless. Yes!

My celebration was short lived as I felt a burning sensation begin to spread in my rear, left leg. Looking back, I saw a patch of glowing green plasma that had bored through a portion of my armor. Damn projectile armor! It was basically useless against energy weapons!

Every maneuver I made now caused the leg to burn in pain as the burned skin was stretched. Each shot of pain drew my attention away from the mental calculations I was making to avoid my pursuer and sneak around him. I turned my head to look back at my pursuer and my vision flashed green.

The left side of my face felt like it was on fire. I couldn’t open my left eye, not that I wanted to. I involuntarily clutched at it and began to glide. The shot couldn’t have been a direct hit, could it? Did I lose my eye?

A large mass drove into my side, twisting my body around. The ground was directly below me and I was falling at an alarming rate, my new lack of depth perception notwithstanding. Another impact from the side turned me upside down. Every move I made to upright myself was met with another impact.

The ground was now approaching at a sickening rate. I flared my wings, doing my best to slow my descent. The pegasus landed on my back and weighed me down. Why wasn’t he just shooting me? Was he trying to take me alive at this point? Could I even survive the impending crash?

The pegasus jumped off my back and I flared my wings as hard as I could. The joints strained against the forces and I bent my legs, getting ready to brace for the impending impact. I felt my hooves hit the ground and I allowed myself to pivot forward. Tucking my wings and twisting slightly, I landed on my shoulder and began a barrel roll on the ground.

My head hit the ground hard and my vision flashed white. When I regained vision, the world spun around me as I felt impact all over my body. I was at the mercy of momentum as I hit the ground over and over again. The wind was knocked out of me at some point and my entire body felt like it was being pelted by rocks.

I finally came to rest and just lay there trying to catch my breath. My face and leg were on fire, my entire torso was throbbing and I felt rivulets of blood dripping down my body in several placed. I opened my one good eye and saw I was lying in the middle of a dirt plain. There were no identifiable features anywhere nearby and no place to head for cover. And that was what I could see between red flashes and my vision dimming in and out.

I heard a pony land somewhere behind me. Sitting up, I saw the pegasus who had just beaten the crap out of me approaching with his plasma rifle leveled right at me.

“So, you thought you could outsmart an Enclave trained flyer?” he snickered. “I can’t wait ‘til I report to General Cirrus!” He motioned for his radio button and a gray flash flew past us. A thin red line appeared across his neck. Rivulets of blood began to flow freely from the wound. He somehow finished activating his radio, but his lips were moving with no sound coming out of them. Soon after, he collapsed to the ground.

Collapsing back to the ground myself, my body still on fire, I heard another set of hoofsteps beside me. I rolled over and looked up with my good eye and saw a grey, griffon face looking down on me. Her beak and talons were stained with blood. She began reaching towards me with her talon. I closed my good eye, fearing for my death, yet again.

“C’mon, Dust,” Gertie said gently. “Let’s get you to a doctor.”

Level up!

Skills:
Unarmed: 15
Perk Obtained:
Turbulence: “The pilot has turned on the fasten seatbelt light…” - Gain +10 to unarmed when in flight

Chapter 19 - Starting Over

Chapter 19 - Starting Over
“If I am what I have and if I lose what I have who then am I?”

“C’mon, Dust,” Gertie said gently. “Let’s get you to a doctor.”

The killing blow never came. Instead, a sense of relief washed over me and my entire body relaxed. My head dropped back to the ground, and I couldn’t help but to laugh a little. And Celestia, did everything hurt.

“What’s so funny, featherbrain?” Gertie asked, clearly confused at my reaction.

“Inside joke,” I groaned. “If you knew how many times I’ve almost died already…” I started, and then everything started to grow dark. “This isn’t goo..” was all I remembered saying.

My next memories were a disjointed series of events.

One time when my eye opened, all I could see was the ground and I was bobbing up and down along it. I tried to crane my head and only saw the back of a black, feathered head. “Gertie?” I rasped through my painfully dry throat.

“You awake?” she asked, looking back, her teal eyes betraying her concern. “Maybe you can walk on your own now?” I felt her trying to shrug me off her back. I slid off her back and collapsed on the ground like a bag of rocks. “C’mon, featherbrain, we gotta keep moving. We’re still too close to that base.”

I nodded in reply and tried to get to my feet. Once I was upright, I took a step forward. “Hey, this isn’t so…” I croaked as the world began spinning again and then went black.

Another time I opened my eye, I saw we were flying well above the ground, but nowhere near the cloud cover. “Gertie? Where are we?”

“Never you mind,” she shot back, strain apparent with every word. “You know that you weigh a ton?”

A sudden burst of wind buffeted us and we dropped several feet.

“Sorry for the turb…” she said as I blacked out again.

My eye strained to open. This was beginning to get aggravating. I stared up at the ceiling of a room I found myself in and saw it was a drab, olive tarp. Wasteland daylight was bleeding in through small holes and tears in the material. The only sounds I heard were the soft breathing of others in the tent and the soft flapping of the tent flap in the breeze. Straining to look around, i saw several unmoving bodies in other beds. They were all griffons!

“Doctor!” a shrill voice cried out. “The turkey is up!”

The shout caught me by surprise, causing me to sit straight up. Perhaps a little too quickly. The room began spinning again and then went all black.

The next time I opened my eye, I was looking up at the tarp again. This time, the holes and tears were black beyond, and the tent was dimly lit by several hanging lanterns. There were still several other griffons in here with me. Above the soft breathing of my roommates, I heard somepony softly snoring nearby. Craning my head in that direction, I saw a female griffon dozing at a desk.

“Excuse me, nurse?” I rasped again. Damn, my throat was dry again. “Nurse?”

“Huh? Who?” she blurted out, having shot up out of her seat and quickly scanning the room. “Oh, it’s only you,” she said with some disdain. “Hold on while I get the doc. Wait here.” She turned and quickly walked out of the tent.

“Where the hell would I go?” I mumbled to myself.

While waiting, I took stock in my condition and what I could remember. The events in the bunker still burned brightly in my memory. As I recalled them, each wound or scar would flare up in pain, a permanent reminder of my time with Muddy. My leg was still burning from where the plasma round had melted the armor around it. Moving the stained sheet, I looked at the wound. The flesh had been somewhat healed, but the coat in the area was slightly off-color and patchy at the edges. Also, my left eye burned. Reaching up for it, I felt a wad of bandages over it and traced a roller bandage wrapped around my head, holding it in place. I groped for the knot, wanting to remove it.

“I wouldn’t do that, if I were you,” a gruff voice lectured me. I glanced in the direction of the tent flap and saw a dark brown bodied griffon entering. His white feathers filled out his head except for rings of orange around golden eyes. “Your eye is not yet healed, unless you want to lose it permanently.”

“So… so it’s not permanently damaged?” I stuttered.

“As far as I can tell, no,” he replied, approaching my bed. “Now, don’t get me wrong. A unicorn with a healing spell could ascertain that better than I, but when I was debriding the skin around it, the eye itself seemed undamaged. Only time will tell for sure. Your leg is mostly healed. I wouldn’t go running any races on it, but you will be able to walk when I let you out of here.”

“Here,” I said absentmindedly. “Where are we?”

“Welcome to Stonepoint,” the doctor said with some pride, “Headquarters of Stoneclaw’s Talons.”

“A Talon camp?” I murmured. “Shit…” There was no love lost between griffons and Enclave.

“Don’t worry,” he laughed. “I don’t still harbor that stupid old grudge. Nor do most of the others.”

“Is that why the nurse called me a turkey before?” I countered.

“Well, just because we’re not pissed anymore doesn’t mean we still don’t like insulting you,” the doctor guffawed. “Now from what Gertrude said, your name is Dust? Well, nice to meet you Dust, my name is Asclepius,’ he said, extending a claw.

I feebly reached back and hoofbumped with him. “Thanks for patching me up doctor. How’s Gertie doing?”

“Gertie?” he asked, bemused. “Well, Gertrude...,” he said turning his head towards the other beds in the tent. “She’s...”

Somepony else in the tent cleared their throat. The doctor and I both turned towards the flap where a rather imposing griffon stood in front of several others. He was about another head taller than any other griffon I had ever seen. His body was jet black with radiant white feathers on his head. The jet black body armor he wore, which blended seamlessly with his coat, made him even more imposing, especially with the stark white Talon logo emblazoned on the front. His eyes, well, eye since one of them was covered by an eyepatch, was a deep bronze ringed by deep purple feathers. The griffons behind him were a mix of browns, blacks, and grays with varying coloring in and around their eyes. “Asclepius, mind if we have some time with our guest here?”

“Of course, sir,” the doctor replied, “but I still object to…”

“I know your objections, Doctor,” the large griffon said curtly, “but this must be done.” The doctor glared back at the large griffon and looked like he was going to say something, but then quickly turned and scurried his way out of the tent.

“Dust, is it?” the large griffon asked. “How are you feeling today? I hope Asclepius put everything back in the right place?”

“As far as I know,” I answered cautiously. “And with whom am I speaking?”

“My name is Stoneclaw, head of this outfit of Talons,” he said, proudly. “I believe you met my daughter, Gertrude?”

“Gertie is your daughter?” I gasped. “Well, fuck me…”

“Yes, she is. She is my pride and joy,” he interrupted with some level of melancholy. “Mind if I ask you a few questions?”

“I have a few questions first,” I cut him off, carefully eying his entourage. “Who are the others behind you?”

Stoneclaw sighed deeply. “Those,” he said, gesturing with a claw, “are my squad leaders. Horatio, Gawd, Anita, Razorclaw, and Geronimo,” he said, while gesturing to each griffon in turn.

“And may I ask why they’re here?” I cautiously inquired.

“Well, it has to do with Gertrude,” he said with another sigh. “What do you know about Talons, Dust?”

“Well, I know you are some of the fiercest and most effective mercenaries in the Wasteland,” I said to a chorus of nods and grins. “I also know that you are not to be fucked with.”

Stoneclaw gave a sad laugh. “Do you know why we are considered some of the best mercenaries?”

“Well, I know you never fail a contract,” I responded. The stories from the Wasteland contradicted my military intelligence in this respect. We had been told that the Talons were a disorganized and rag-tag group of unaffiliated mercs. In reality, while they may not have been a unified front, they all basically operated the same, and did it well. “And I know that it happens that way since failure is not tolerated. A Talon is either successful or dead.”

Again, another chorus of nods and grins from the various griffons in the room. “That’s right,” Stoneclaw said with pride. “But I have a problem. Gertrude was out on a contract when you met her. And she…”

I cut Stoneclaw off. “Mind if I ask what that contract was?”

Stoneclaw looked over his shoulder at his squad leaders and they all nodded in unison. “We were hired to help a pegasus with an interrogation.” He paused and looked me right in the eye. “Your interrogation, apparently.” I did my best to remain stonefaced, in spite of feeling my blood run cold. That’s what she meant by the deal. It was all an act! “She was also supposed to help you escape and gain your trust. Ultimately, she was supposed to convince you to go to Neighvarro for some reason.”

“But something went wrong, didn’t it?” I asked with some sarcasm.

“Well, that’s what we were hoping you could clear up for us,” he answered. “What happened after you met Gertrude?”

I regaled the group with a detailed retelling of the several weeks we had been the guests of Muddy and his interrogators. The squad leaders were shocked with some of the torture methods that were employed on both myself and Gertie. Stoneclaw was oddly unaffected when I mentioned what had happened to Gertie, except for the last few sessions. During that portion of the events, pained grimaces contorted his face several times. “You didn’t know what was in store, did you?” I asked.

“I only knew what I was told, what was in the contract,” he responded, his voice shaking. “It was all supposed to be an act. When did it appear that things changed?”

I would never forget that moment. The moment that I saw all rational thought leave Muddy’s brain and was replaced with pure fury. Having time to reflect now, it dawned on me that the only time I had ever seen any actual injury to Gertie was that day when I saw her get stabbed several times. I never really thought about what Gertie had gone through since I was so focused on my own pain. Her terror that day was real. Whereas I expected my treatment, she was under the impression that no harm would come to her. “It really is all my fault,” I mumbled to myself. “It was several sessions before we escaped.”

“Thank you, Dust,” he nodded. “Excuse us, please.”

Stoneclaw walked over to the squad leaders and a heated discussion began, albeit in whispers. Regardless of how hard I strained to listen, I could only pick up on snippets of the conversation and only when things got more argumentative.

“...bad idea to take that contract…”

“...Luna damned turkeys…”

“...can we trust him?”

“...might be lying…”

“...saved Gertrude…”

“...contract is a contract…”

The general uproar settled down and even the whispers stopped. Stoneclaw looked at each of his squad leaders in turn. “Alright… time to decide…” Stoneclaw held out a claw in a fist. Slowly, each squad leader voted by extending a claw either upwards or downwards. Horatio, Anita, and Gawd voted claw up; Geronimo and Razorclaw voted claw down. “And so it is decided.”

The squad leaders filed out of the tent through the flap. Stoneclaw walked over and dragged a small, metal stool with him. I felt my body tense up as he drew nearer. What was I going to be able to do if he decided to do anything to me? I had no ideas given my current state.

“Thank you, Dust,” he said with a deep sigh as he dropped down onto the seat. “You have done me a great service today, whether you realize it or not.”

“What did I do?” I asked, clearly confused.

“Well, first, you saved your own life,” he said with a laugh. “But I wouldn’t be thanking you for that, would I? No, what I’m thankful for is that you saved Gertrude’s life.”

“What? Gertie? Why?” I sputtered.

“Well, when Gertrude came flying into camp with your ass draped over her back, many thought she had abandoned the contract,” he recounted. “As you know, that is a very big deal for us. She wouldn’t speak to any of us about what happened. She dumped you into a bed in the medical tent, told us your name, asked if we could save you, and then dropped into a bed herself. She has not said a word since. So, we needed a witness, and I was hoping that witness would be you.”

“What if I remembered things differently?” I asked. “And why do you griffons trust me?”

“To answer your first question, we probably wouldn’t be having this conversation right now,” he said, shaking his head. “I probably would have had Gawd carry you back to the client. And to answer the second question, Asclepius told us you would have been unconscious most of the way back. You wouldn’t have really had a chance to conspire with Gertrude.”

“So, you’re telling me my ability to almost die, but not quite, is why I’m still here?” I said, in disbelief. Stoneclaw nodded, and I couldn’t help but to laugh. And Celestia, did it hurt to laugh. Stoneclaw looked very confused. “Don’t worry about it, inside joke.” After calming down, I took a deep breath and looked to Stoneclaw. “So, what happens now?”

“As far as I’m concerned, once the doctor has patched you up and gives you the all clear, you’re free to go,” Stoneclaw said.

“Free to go? Why?” I muttered, shocked. Mercenaries were not known to be generous.

“You saved my daughter’s life,” Stoneclaw said.

“What about the contract?” I asked, still dumbfounded.

“The contract was null and void the moment Gertrude got stabbed for real,” Stoneclaw shot back. An uncomfortable silence settled between us. “Mind if I ask why you turned against your own?”

The question caught me off guard. “Me? Enclave? That’s funny. I’m dirtborn…” I started.

“Dust, please don’t lie to me now,” Stoneclaw interrupted me.

My mouth opened, about to deny the connection again. “There must be a better way than the way things are right now,” I said with a sigh. “We were wrong back on the Last Day, and I can’t allow the Wasteland to keep paying for our mistake.”

“Interesting,” Stoneclaw said, stroking his chin. “Not often I run into Enclave pegasi who disagree with the propaganda, much less feeling remorseful about it.” He turned to look towards another bed in the tent. “If you’ll excuse me…”

He got up and walked over to the bed. “Gertrude.. Please Gertrude, say something…” Stoneclaw sat down and reached out towards the lump under the blanket. The lump pulled away from his extended claw. Pain flooded Stoneclaw’s face as he withdrew his claw and just sat there watching.

I lay there watching the two of them for a while before my eyes got heavy. I fought it as long as I could, but could not win, and fell asleep.

When I woke up, daylight was peeking through the tent material again. Sitting up slowly in bed, I took stock of my surroundings. The doctor was sitting at his desk, scribbling away on a clipboard. His attention was diverted so fully that he didn’t even realize that I had woken up. The rest of the tent was empty, except for the heavily blanketed lump on the bed where I last saw Gertie laying.

“Morning, Doc,” I croaked, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.

Asclepius looked up, startled. “Oh, good morning, Dust,” he replied, laying his clipboard down and walking over to me. The doctor began to look over my body, checking my pulse and bandages. “And how are we doing today?”

“I don’t know, you tell me,” I said dryly.

“Well, your vitals are still improving, which is good. Your injuries are mostly healed, which means we need to start getting you out of bed and moving a little,” his said, his face growing darker. “Now I have to check your eye…” he said, trailing off.

In the few days I had been here, I had gotten used to the feeling of the bandage over my eye. In fact, the lack of depth perception had become my new normal. I reached up and felt the wadded up bandage.

“Alright, Dust, I’m going to slowly take off the bandage,” the doctor started. “When I get the bandage off completely, don’t open your eye too quickly, give it time to adjust.” Asclepius reached up and began to unroll the bandage. Finally, the bandage came off and the ever present pressure against my eye was relieved. I could see the daylight filtered a soft red through my eyelid. “Well, the scar looks nasty, but that was to be expected from a plasma wound. But that’s not the important part. Slowly, open your eye.”

I hesitated for a moment, afraid of the final outcome of the injury. My memory flashed green with the plasma bolt that injured me, and may have disabled that one eye permanently.

“Alright, Dust, c’mon, gently,” the doctor prodded.

My eyelid struggled to open. I felt the muscles flutter a little in strain. “It’s alright, the muscles need to readjust, especially since they haven’t been used in a few days. Keep going,” the doctor prodded me on. When I finally felt the eyelid shift a little, my vision flashed white.

“Doc, I can’t see anything, it’s all white!” I screamed out in panic.

“Calm down, Dust,” the doctor comforted me. “Give it time to adjust. Keep going though.”

I strained to open my eyelid even more. The scarred skin felt tight and fought the muscle. My eyelid slowly slid open more, allowing the light flooding in to intensify. The light actually began to hurt. Blurry shapes began to form in the completely white field. The glaring white light faded to merely bright, and then to bearable. The blurry shapes began to sharpen into my familiar surroundings.

“Good, good,” the doctor said, while peering at my eye. “How’s the vision?”

“Still a little fuzzy,” I said, concerned.

“That should pass shortly,” he replied, matter-of-factly, still peering at the eye. He pulled a small penlight out of a pocket of his jacket. “Keep looking forward,” he stated as he began tracking the penlight across my eye several times. “Let me know when you lose sight of the penlight.” He tracked several repetitive tracks across my field of vision. I only ever lost sight of it when it got to the extremities of my field of view.

“Good,” he sighed in relief. “It looks like your eye is fully healed. The fuzziness should clear in a little while. Want to take a look?” he asked, holding up a mirror.

After grabbing it from him, I gazed at the reflection. The pony I saw was a stranger to me. He had the same gray coat and blue mane as mine, but everything else was harder, meaner. The wild, unkempt mane flowed in every possible direction at the same time. It was dirty and frazzled. The face and body were mottled with small scars from various injuries sustained in many conflicts, both recent and older. The scar near my eye was probably the biggest change. A severe, pink wound started above the eye across both eyelids and continued for several inches below. The rough, mottled texture was oddly shiny at the same time. And the eyes… they seemed empty and sad.

‘Now, if you’re worried about the scar, there are a few unicorns...” the doctor started.

“It’s not the scar, doc,” I mumbled, staring into those dead eyes. “I don’t recognize the pony in the mirror.” I tossed the mirror to the foot of the bed. “What has happened to me?”

“From what I see, you’ve been through alot, Dust,” the doctor tried to comfort me. “Not that any of us here in the Wasteland haven’t.” He placed a claw on my shoulder. “Just know that you have survived it all and are a stronger pony now because of it.”

“I don’t need empty platitudes, Doc,” I said with a sigh. “If it weren’t for Gertie, there wouldn’t have been anything for you to save. Speaking of which, how is Gertie doing?” I asked, glancing towards her bed.

Asclepius sighed deeply. “Physically? She is healing as well as can be expected, given the extent of her injuries,” Asclepius explained. “But she has not said a word to any of us since she asked if we could save you when you first got here. Since then, silence. Speaking of which, I better go check on her.” He turned and began to walk away, but then stopped. “Oh, and Dust,” he said, looking over his shoulder, “Around Stoneclaw, I would recommend you call her Gertrude and not Gertie.”

I watched as Asclepius walked over to Gertie’s bed. As happened before with Stoneclaw, Gertie withdrew from his outstretched talon. He whispered something I couldn’t hear and walked back to his desk and sat down. After picking up his clipboard, he gave me a forlorn look.

I turned my head, and looked at the blanketed lump that was Gertie. She had done so much for me in such a short amount of time. She single hoofedly drew two of the assaulters off my tail and left me to deal with only one, which I couldn’t even do. She ended up having to save me from that one as well. And then, she dragged me Celestia knows how far across the Wasteland to get here. But now, she completely withdrew? What is it that is bothering her so much? And why is she withdrawing from her own kind?

And what does this all say about me? I had survived weeks of torture from Muddy, slowly escalating in severity. I had things done to me that I wouldn’t wish on Muddy, even now. And my escape, if you could even call it that. I barely got a few dozen yards away from the mountain and I had somepony chasing me. Yeah, I was able to disable one of the pursuers, but it wasn’t permanent. Gertie was able to take out two of them on her own, with what seemed like minimal trouble. She certainly seemed like a strong griffon. And to think, my mom wanted to leave her behind.

Mom… I hoped she made it away safely and was working on some way to stop Cirrus and Muddy. But if the conspiracy ran all the way up to the Council, she would need to tread slowly and carefully. And Buster… I hoped he survived too. He risked his life and career for me… I don’t know if I would have had the bravery to do the same if the roles were reversed.

My thoughts were interrupted by somepony clearing their throat. Turning towards the sound, I saw the doctor had put his clipboard down and was standing by the flap. “I’ll be right back,” the doctor said. “I just wish I had better news for Stoneclaw.” Asclepius turned and moved the flap aside. He gave me one long, sideways glance and then left the tent.

I looked back at Gertie. I had to do something, anything, for her. She had done so much for me. I drew the blankets aside and sat up on the edge of the bed. The room began to spin a little but quickly stabilized. Slowly sliding off the edge of the bed, I placed my back hooves on the floor and began to shift weight to them. The strain in my muscles burned, but after going through what I had, this was nothing in comparison. My front hooves met the floor and my balance began to waver. Reaching out for the bed to hold onto, I allowed the tent to stop spinning.

After the motion had stopped, I began to shuffle my way towards Gertie. What was only a few beds away felt like miles. It probably took me ten minutes just to make it half way across a room, but at least I hadn’t fallen flat on my face.

I sidled up next to Gertie’s bed and found a small stool that I had seen Stoneclaw use several times before. I sat there and just stared at the shapeless lump under the blanket. I reached out towards her with a hoof.

“Gertie,” I whispered as I laid my hoof where I thought her shoulder would be. At my touch, I felt her muscles tighten, so I withdrew my hoof.

“Leave me alone,” she groaned, slightly muffled by the blanket she was hiding under.

“Gertie, it’s me, Dust” I pleaded. “Please talk to me.”

“I don’t want to talk,” she muttered. “I don’t understand why anypony would want to talk to me.”

“Gertie, what do you mean?” I said, her statement catching me completely off guard.

“I’m a failure, and I’m weak,” she muttered through the blanket she was using to hide from the world.

“Gertie, I don’t know what you mean,” I said, trying to comfort her. “What we went through was worse than anypony should ever have to experience. And we both survived.”

“Correction… only you were being tortured,” she spat. “I was there putting on an act, remember?”

“Yes, I do. But,” I started, “it didn’t stay an act, did it? If anything, you had it worse than me. I knew what I was in for, in general. But you thought you were safe. Then that changed in an instant, with no warning. You almost died.”

“I probably should have,” she argued. “I failed the mission, I failed my father, the company… Tartarus, I even failed you.”

“Gertie, you didn’t fail anypony,” I tried to argue. “Muddy betrayed you and you did the best you could after that. If anything, you saved me. That soldier would have turned me back over to Muddy for him to continue his sick game. If anything, I owe you my life.”

“Yeah, well, none of that would have happened if you hadn’t had to save me first,” she grumbled. “I’m weak, just like everypony here says I am. I could barely deal with the short amount of torture I went through. I broke down, Dust. I gave up on life. I wanted you to leave me behind. But you didn’t. I failed, and this mission was my last chance to earn my mark.”

My face tightened into a scowl. “What do you mean?”

“Talons have to earn their talon mark on their armor,” she explained, softly through the blanket. “Until we succeed on a mission, we don’t get a mark. Until then, we are considered inferior. We can’t get independent contracts, and most of the time, we don’t go out unless supervised. I’m an embarrassment to my family, especially my father.”

“It’s one mission,” I tried to console her. “I’m sure other Talons failed their first missions also.”

She scoffed at me. “That’s where you’d be wrong, featherbrain,” she chided. “Most griffons succeed on their first missions, because there is no other choice. It’s either success or death. I have the unique honor of being a survivor on several failed missions, even ones where other Talons have failed. Other Talons died. Because of me.”

“It can’t be…” I began to say.

“Stop!” she shrieked. “You don’t know… you weren’t at Rusted Bridle Ridge… because I can’t fight, I’m not good enough, my squadmates died. Including...”

She was cut off when three griffons rushed into the tent. It was Asclepius, Stoneclaw, and another griffon that I did not recognize.

Asclepius was the first to rush over. “Dust!” he yelled as he pushed me away. “What happened?”

“We were just talking,” I blurted back.

“Don’t touch me!” Gertie screamed.

“Gertrude,” Asclepius said with a calm, even tone. “It’s OK, it’s just me and your father.”

“Get away from me!” she yelled back. “No one knows.. No one gets it!”

Stoneclaw had joined us next to the bed. “Gertrude, my little fledgeling…” he said, trying to comfort her.

“Dad… it includes you too!” she screamed. “Just leave me alone.” Soft sobbing began to come from under the blanket.

The doctor helped me back over to my bed.

“Doc, can I have a word with Dust first?” Stoneclaw said, having moved over to the tent flap. Asclepius simply nodded and helped me over to the tent flap.

Stoneclaw held the flap open for me and followed me outside. The air had a sharp chill to it, which my lack of equipment was not doing anything to help.

I turned and Stoneclaw was right on top of me. “What happened in there, Dust?” he asked, his eyes pleading just as much as his voice as he grabbed me by the shoulders.

“I don’t know,”I responded. “We were talking about our time together, and the escape, and then she started talking about failing missions, and…”

Stoneclaw made a deep sigh and hung his head, shaking it slightly.

“Stoneclaw, what’s going on with her?” I asked.

“Gertrude isn’t exactly Talon material,” Stoneclaw said somberly. “She wants to be a Talon so badly, to make me proud, but she just doesn’t have it in her. She’s mediocre with weaponry, too clumsy for stealth, we’ve kept trying to find a speciality for her…”

“What about aerial combat?” I interjected. “I saw her take out two combatants single-hoofedly.”

“Not based on what happened on her last mission…” Stoneclaw said. “She has been a part of several missions where all her teammates were killed. And when we tried to send her on easy, supervised missions, something always goes wrong. If it weren’t for the backup teams, we would have failed those contracts. It’s gotten to the point that nopony else wants to work with her and there are very few contracts that I can still try to give her. This last one was probably her last chance.”

“What happens if she’s not a Talon?” I asked.

“Well, that’s up to her. She could go back to Griffonstone or she could freelance,” he said, his voice trembling. “She could run support here, but she doesn’t want to do that. She wants to be a Talon.”

My vision started to spin. “Stoneclaw, I think I need to lay back down,” I murmured. I took a step back towards the tent and my legs got weak. I started to fall, when I felt a strong claw grab a hold of me. “C’mon, Dust, let’s get you back into bed.”

After being mostly carried back into bed by Stoneclaw, Asclepius checked me out. He said that my body was still replacing the blood that had been lost during my torture. “A few more days,” he said, “and you should be back to normal, or at least as normal as anything gets around here. Rest.”

I took his advice.

A very serious conversation roused me from my nap.

“What do you mean, you don’t know where she is?” Stoneclaw rumbled.

“I mean what I said! I left the tent for a few minutes to get some supplies and when I came back, her bed was empty!” Asclepius shouted back.

“Is she in any condition to be out there right now?” Stoneclaw blurted out.

“Her vitals were fine, but I don’t know how she is really doing,” Asclepius responded. “She would never tell me how she was doing!”

“Where would she have gone,” he muttered to himself.

My mind began to race. Shit. “Umm, excuse me…” I interrupted.

“Not now, turkey,” both Stoneclaw and Asclepius blurted out in unison.

“Excuse me,” I said more forcefully. “What is Rusted Bridle Ridge?”

The blood seemed to drain from both of their faces and their beaks dropped open. Stoneclaw recovered first. “Rusted Bridle Ridge is where Gertrude lost her entire squad to a raider attack,” he muttered. “They were ambushed en route to a contract and were outnumbered four to one. She was the only griffon to make it out alive. We couldn’t even recover the bodies. She blames herself, even though it wasn’t her fault.”

This didn’t feel right. Gertie wouldn’t be taking this so hard if that’s all there was to it. “There’s something more to it than that, isn’t there?” I asked.

Asclepius looked at Stoneclaw and his head just dropped. “Rusted Bridle Ridge is where Gertrude’s sister died, during a mission.” Stoneclaw took a very deliberate pause. “The mission Gertrude was on.”

No wonder she was taking it so hard. And I think I knew where she was going. “And where is Rusted Bridle Ridge”? I asked.

“A couple hours south of here,” Stoneclaw said, seeming distracted. “She already has, what, a fifteen minute head start, Doc?”

“About that,” the doctor confirmed. “That’s the longest I was out of the tent.”

“I’ll send Horatio and Geronimo to find her,” Stoneclaw pondered out loud.

“Umm, I have a better idea,” I offered. “She is ashamed of herself right now because she thinks she is a let down to the Talons, right?” Stoneclaw nodded. “Why don’t I go? She will probably be more receptive to me.”

“No, Dust, you don’t understand,” Stoneclaw muttered. “Rusted Bridle Ridge is still under control of the raiders.” Stoneclaw paused. “I’m going to send Horatio and Geronimo… the others are all out on contracts right now.”

“No… let me go, alone,” I offered. “I can more easily sneak in and sneak out. Let me go find her and bring her back. I think she’ll listen to me. A Talon might just drive her off.”

“Are you saying my Talons can’t handle things?” he thundered, his features sharpening with tension.

“No… I’m saying Gertie doesn’t want a Talon handling things,” I barked back. “She wants to handle it so she can become a Talon.”

Stoneclaw simply sighed. “Alright, Dust, I see your point,” he conceded. A strong talon gripped my shoulder. “But I’m going to send Horatio and Geronimo for backup. Whatever you do, just please bring her back safe.”

“I’ll do my best, Stoneclaw,” I said with as much confidence as I could.

The doc grudgingly administered a health potion and a Med-X to, hopefully, allow me to fly this mission, even in my compromised state. “Dust, I’m not thrilled with this,” he said warily. “You could barely stand yesterday. Just…”

“...take it easy,” I said at the same time as him. “I’ve heard it before. I think last time it was a Mr. Handy unit.”

Outside the tent, I took a few tentative flaps to see how bad things were going to be. I don’t know if it was Asclepius’ skill or the Med-X but I felt no pain. Flapping harder, I began to hover off the ground a little but had to work hard to maintain it.

“How’s it feeling?” Asclepius asked.

“No worse than can be expected, at least,” I answered, with a little sarcastic giggle. “I might even be able pull off some light maneuvers.”

“Now, Dust,” Asclepius scolded me, shaking his head. “When I say take it easy, I mean take it easy. You suffered a lot of injuries and blood loss, neither of which have fully healed.”

Heavy steps approached. The imposing forms of Horatio and Geronimo rounded the corner of the tent as I landed from my test hover. Even though I didn’t get a good look at them before, they were very imposing then. But now, they were even more awe-inspiring. Even walking on all fours, they were still another two or three heads higher than me. They looked exactly like each other, down to the smallest detail. Both had amber colored eyes that were ringed with magenta feathers, and their chocolate colored bodies blended smoothly with the cream colored feathers on their heads. The only difference were two ugly scars that ran down their cheeks, but on opposite sides from one another. Their jet black armor with the Talon marked emblazoned on the chest made them even more fearful.

“Are you two…” I began to ask, looking back and forth between the two.

“Ya,” one of the twins responded. “Ve are twin brothers,” he said with a thick Germaneigh accent.

“Ve haf been ordered to back you up vile you rescue Gertrude,” the other twin said with the same accent, but much colder.

“Ummm… I apologize for asking…” I said, feeling my cheeks warm with a blush.

The two twins sighed at the same time. The one with the scar on the left side responded. “Yes, ve are twins. I am Horatio, und he is Geronimo.” They rolled their eyes at the same time. “Are ve leaving soon?”

I looked at the doc and he closed his eyes as he sighed deeply. He nodded slightly at me. “Let me just gear up and we can go,” I said to my newfound partners.

I ducked back inside the tent and opened the footlocker at the foot of my bed. The trunk held all of my gear. The first item I pulled out was my armor. In my rush to start my escape, I didn’t inspect it before leaving the bunker. The rear hindquarters were still melted from where the plasma round had hit me. The two wing concealing flaps were still dangling loose. Digging through the pouches, I started looking for the repair kit so I could close them up again, more out of force of habit than anything else.

Then it dawned on me. For anypony that mattered, they already knew my secret. Brownie and Flower knew I was a pegasus. At this point, they probably had pieced together that I was Enclave also. Silver knew I was a pegasus, but if they had pieced together my secret identity, then she was probably as shocked as everypony else was.

I looked around for one of the Doc’s tool trays. After finding one and grabbing a scalpel, I carefully cut the stitching that connected the flaps to the armor body. One of the flaps was just large enough to cover the hole in the rear leg, so I attached it there so I wasn’t completely exposed.

After repairing the armor as best I could, I slipped it back on and it felt different. The torso felt looser than it ever had before. Weeks of malnourishment, blood loss, and atrophy of my muscles had lead to my body being leaner than it probably had ever been in my life. The biggest change was in my wings. Wearing the armor, the feeling of pressure on my wings had been ever-present. I hadn’t noticed on my flight to Fort Canterbury since I was so focused on my goal, but the lack of pressure was, well, weird. Being able to flex my wings and feeling the slight breeze in my feathers was a new sensation. I felt almost like a new pony.

“Ahem,” Geronimo cleared his throat, his head poking through the tent flaps. “Are ve ready to go? Or are you going to continue de fashion show?”

“Yeah, sorry,” I said, jumping a little at the surprise. “Let’s go.”

We took off right outside the medical tent and Geronimo took the lead, with Horatio and I following in formation. The trip started in silence, but then Horatio broke the awkwardness.

“So, turkey, vat made you join de Enclave military?” he asked congenially.

“Parents were military, parents’ parents were military, parents’ parents’ parent’s… anyway, it goes way back,” I responded.

“So, your family has been raping ze Wasteland for generations?” Geronimo said over his shoulder.

“I, but…” I started, but Horatio cut me off.

“Geronimo, don’t bring zat up. Dust vas not part of zat,” Hortatio said in my defense. “Zat was over und hundred years ago.” Geronimo simply grunted in response. “Don’t mind him, he can’t let go of ze past.”

“So, I’m sorry if this is too personal or whatever, but what made you become a Talon?” I asked, trying to maintain some semblance of conversation.

“Vell, there isn’t much to say,” he said with a shrug. “Ve need caps, zey pay. Und zere is safety in numbers. So, vat is your plan once ve catch up to Gertrude?”

“Well, assuming she doesn’t do something completely stupid like a full out solo assault?” I asked, grimly. “I am hoping to be able to talk her down and get her to get back to Stonepoint. What do you know about the area?”

“Vell, I’ve only seen it from flyovers, but it is a very craggy area,” he said, deep in thought. “Ze raider camp is in a small, open area, protected by the mountain on all sides. They vill see her coming if she tries an assault.”

“Damn it,” I muttered, my mind began to race fine-tuning my plan.

I was silent for a long time as I was too focused on trying to figure out what the various options were. “Horatio, do you mind if I bounce some ideas off of you?” I asked, breaking my silence.

“Sure, Dust, vat do you got?” he asked.

“Well, as I see it, there are three possibilities,” I started. “For all intents and purposes, the first two options are the same. Whether we catch up to her in flight, or before she attempts an assault, I go in and try to talk some sense into her.”

“Zat would be ideal,” he nodded.

“The third option is what gets me,” I said, shaking my head. “If she already tried to attack. Best case scenario, she is under attack and severely outgunned. Worst case scenario, she is captured and possibly even dead, or worse.” Everypony knew what raiders did to their captives, especially the females.

“Even ze three of us von’t be able to help her,” Horatio said morosely.

“I know… I know… I gotta figure something out…” I mumbled.

“Vell, think fast, ve are almost zere,” he pointed out to a mountain range before us.

Rusted Bridle Ridge looked just like the peak of every other mountain range I had ever seen here in the Wasteland. It was a bunch of sharply jutting peaks and crags and crannies of all sizes. Of course, there was a narrow winding path making its way up one side of the mountain. The ridge itself was nothing spectacular. It was a sharp peak that ran for some distance in both directions. On the side we were approaching, there was a small plateau tucked against the side of the mountain. A small stream of black smoke was wafting gently from it.

“Zat would be ze raider camp,” Horatio said extending a claw towards the wisp of smoke. “So, what is ze plan?”

“See that ridge over there, about three peaks to the left of the camp?” I asked, pointing. The two mercs nodded silently. “Do you think you can get over there and set up an overwatch position?”

“Certainly!” Horatio said, energized by the impending action. “And vat vill you be doing?”

“Well, I will be flying in low and slow, trying to see if…” I started to explain until I saw a flash near the camp. “Quick! Give me one of your sniper rifles!”

Horatio handed his over. “Vat do you see, Dust?” he asked, squinting in the direction I was starting to aim the rifle.

Looking through the scope, I got my bearings and scanned the section of the mountains from which I saw the flash. At first, I didn’t see anything. But then I saw some movement. It was hard to make it out since it was a black speck against the dark stone of the mountain, but it was definitely Gertrude. She had an assault rifle strapped to her back and she was deftly making her way between cover points, approaching the camp.

“Shit, she’s almost there,” I hissed. “Alright, change of plan,” I started, handing Horatio his rifle. “I gotta get out there quick before she makes it to the camp. I will try to avoid being noticed. Do you two still think you can get to that point without getting seen?” Both mercs nodded. “Good… let’s hope we get lucky.”

We all took off at the same time and I watched in awe as the two griffons flew swiftly towards their overwatch location. I dove down and skimmed the ground, hoping the raiders would not notice something approaching along the ground. I slowed my approach as I had to climb along the side of the mountain, trying my best to stay as close to the mountainside as possible. A few times, it felt like I was going to scrape along the rocky face below.

After a tense flight, I landed on narrow pathway near the last spot I saw Gertrude. Carefully, and quietly, I made my way to her. Rounding a small bend in the path, I saw Gertrude propped up behind a small rock formation prepping her assault rifle and checking her backup magazines.

“Gertrude,” I whispered, hopefully loud enough for her to hear.

She jumped and swung the muzzle of the assault rifle towards me. Her talon was on the trigger and I saw her talon tense. Recognition washed over her face, which then quickly tightened up in anger. “Dust, what the fuck are you doing here?” she hissed at me.

“Gertrude, I’ve come to bring you back home safely,” I explained. “This is not a smart idea, trying to take on the entire raider camp alone.”

“Well, now I’m not alone, am I?” she said with disdain. “And who did Dad send to back you up?”

“Horatio and Geronimo,” I answered, slowly starting to approach her. “They’re on Overwatch. Gertrude, what brought you out here?”

She racked the bolt and put the gun down. “To prove myself… to earn my mark,” she mumbled under her breath. “If I could do this one thing, maybe it would be enough to prove myself to the others.”

“But this is suicide,” I pleaded. “You’re outnumbered sixteen to one, even with me and the others, it’s still four to one.”

“I have to get vengeance for my sister, Dust… I must,” she said, choking back tears.

“This is crazy!” I whispered.

“You don’t know!” she shouted. She clapped her talons over her mouth instinctively as the sound travelled along the mountainside.

“Hey, didja guys hear that? I’m gonna go check it out!” a high pitched, uneven voice called out with a giggle. Hoofsteps began to draw near.

“Shit,” I whispered. “Looks like Plan B it is.” I drew my shotgun and got ready for the pony to round the corner.

Gertie and I waited and waited but no pony rounded the corner. “Maybe he gave up,” she whispered.

The sound of a shotgun being racked let me know otherwise. “He he he,” a pony laughed maniacally. “Lookee what we have here. A turkey and a chicken! He he he.” Gertie started to raise her weapon. “Eh eh eh! I wouldn’t do that if I were you. Drop them!”

We both turned slowly to see our assailant. An olive green unicorn pony with an orange, spiky mane was standing on top of the rock formation above us levitating a shotgun in a dark gray magic field. The pony was spattered in blood and was wearing black combat armor. On the chest of the armor was…. Oh shit! I had a bad feeling about this.

“Wh… where did you get that armor?” Gertie asked, her talons starting to shake.

“Oh this?” he responded, showing off the armor like a fashion model. “I took it off a chicken like you a little while ago. Oh, did I have fun with her! Kept calling out fer somepony named Gertrude.”

A low rumble filled the air. The rumble slowly turned into a growl and then a primal scream. Gertie moved so quickly, all I saw was a dark grey blur streak towards the unicorn. The raider never saw the attack coming and was bowled over backwards off the top of the rock. Gertie unleashed a guttural scream as her talons raked across the pony’s neck, shredding it to ribbons and splashing blood everywhere.

“Gertie! Stop, he’s dead!” I shouted as she still slashed away at the unmoving form.

Gertie’s slashes slowed and eventually stopped. Her breath was heaving as she sat atop the unidentifiable lump of meat beneath her. Blood was spattered everywhere and it was dripping off the end of each of her talons. Her eyes were glazed over and unfocused. She glared, not so much at me, as much as through me.

“Hey!” another voice called out and garnered both of our attention. “Who the fuck are you two?”

A black coated earth pony raider was a few dozen feet away. The pony didn’t even have time to recognize the threat. Gertie moved like a flash again. I looked behind me to where Horatio and Geronimo were stationed and motioned them to get over here. I watched as two black specks shot out from their overwatch position.

Knowing backup was on the way, I took off after Gertie. She was moving even faster than I expected, having already neutralized the raider that called out to us. She was halfway to the camp and cries of alarm started to sound out from the encampment. Then came the gunfire.

The encampment was a small collection of tents. Of course, the decor was typical raider. Wooden spiked barricades ringed the outside of the camp. Every few feet there was a spike with some poor pony’s remains impaled on it. There were earth ponies, pegasi, unicorns, and even some griffons ringing the encampment. The few streams of smoke indicated there were bonfires alight inside the camp.

Between bursts of gunfire, raiders were screaming to each other, trying to coordinate an attack against a very determined griffon. Drawing my shotgun, I sidled up to the fabric of one of the tents and scanned the camp. There were already three bodies of raider ponies lying on the ground, blood pooling from gashes across each of their throats. Raiders were galloping towards the far end of the camp.

A grey streak launched from behind another tent and dove into a small group of raiders. They raised their weapons, which flared out almost in unison. How they weren’t hitting Gertie was shocking, as her attack continued undaunted. The small group fell back and clambered over each other trying to get up.

I moved along the tent and tried to get closer to the action so my shotgun would be more effective. The raiders’ attention was focused on Gertie dodging between cover and her dive attacks against groups of raiders as they separated from the larger group. One of the benefits of fighting raiders was they were so disorganized, you could usually just wait for them to make a mistake and then benefit from it.

There was a small collection of crates closer to the main skirmish, but it would require a trot out in the open. Trotting as quietly as possible, I neared the crates. I nearly made it all the way, but then I heard it.

“Fucking shit! There’s another one over here!” a pegasus raider cried out.

The crate in front of me splintered from the impact of a round on the side. I slid into cover and tried to peer around the side. A small group of raiders had diverted their attention towards me. They were peppering the crate with repeated rounds from their various weapons.

Two thundering booms came from behind me. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw the tell tale glimmer of light from a sniper rifle scope. Horatio and Geronimo must have found a good vantage point to help thin the herd. I gave them a small salute.

Peering around the edge of the box, I saw two headless corpses lying on the ground and a third raider running away, back towards Gertie. If the intel was to be believed, there were now only half a dozen raiders left.

More screaming drew my attention back to area of the camp where Gertie was doing all of her attacking. I saw a few of the raiders firing blindly into the air, trying to hit Gertie as she flew maneuvers over their heads. One raider was wielding a rather nasty looking shotgun with a drum magazine. He was firing almost nonstop towards the gray streak that was Gertie.

A puff of red burst forth from Gertie’s chest and she let out a shrill shriek. Her movements went from graceful and purposeful to erratic. She descended towards the ground behind a group of tents and the raiders ran after her. Without thinking, I burst forth from my hiding spot and scanned the immediate area. All the raiders were fully interested in their comrade’s lucky shot and had cleared the immediate area. Only Celestia knew what they had planned for her.

I took off and flew over to where Gertie had crashed and the three raiders were now closing in on her.

“I got first dibs! It was my shot!” the shotgun pony yelled with an evil grin on his face. He advanced on Gertie. He was moving up behind her with an evil grin on his face. Oh dear Celestia, no!

I adjusted my course so that Gertie was no longer in line with the pony. Diving down, I aimed my shotgun into the largest crowd of raiders I could find and pulled the trigger. The kickback nearly tore the shotgun out of my mouth, but I held firm. I watched as two raiders fell where they stood, their heads and necks having been hit by several pellets of shot from my shot.

The remaining unicorn raider looked up and found me as I started to bank and start another strafing run. Instead of drawing a gun on me, he drew a grenade from his vest with his magic and pulled the pin.

“Nothing funny or I will feed this to your little friend here!” he yelled at me as I flew above him.

I banked and landed a few feet away from him and Gertie.

“Back off! Or I let go of it!” he hissed.

“You wouldn’ do ‘at! ‘ou’d die too!” I yelled back, mumbling through the firing bit in my mouth.

“I’m dead anyway, aren’t I?” he barked. “At least I’ll take you and her out with me when I do! Unless you let me go and tell your friends to back off also.” He gave me a wicked sneer. “Besides, we both know your shotgun is empty.”

Looking at the ammunition indicator in my EFS, I saw he was right. Shit! An uneasy silence fell between us. The crazed look in the raider’s eyes was replaced with desperation. Gertie was lying on the ground, whimpering between shallow breaths. Horatio and Geronimo couldn’t see us where we were unless they changed position, so I had no way of knowing whether or not they could help.

I triggered SATS and time froze around me. I had an idea, but it was a long shot, as SATS was indicating. Lining up the commands, I made a small prayer to Celestia and triggered the sequence.

Dropping the shotgun to the ground, I quickly drew my pistol. My head moved on its own and I bit down on the firing bit. The grenade exploded in a small puff of smoke as the bullet I fired shattered it cleanly dispersing the gunpowder inside. The look on the raider’s face was almost comical as he looked between me and the grenade. After several seconds, the detonator popped with a flash and nothing else. The raider sneered at me and drew a knife with his magic.

“This should be easy,” I laughed to myself as I went to trigger the firing mechanism one more time.

The knife flew faster than I could ever imagine, knocking my pistol clean out of my mouth. The impact also jarred my head, leaving my ears ringing and the world spinning a little bit.
So, hoof to hoof combat it would be. Calling on my combat reflexes, I drew my own knife in one deft motion. Even though we were evenly matched weapon-wise, I was at a severe disadvantage since he could move his knife anywhere he wanted, while I was limited to what I could reach. Focusing squarely on the levitating knife, I tried to deflect several swipes with my own. On the last attempt, the raider evaded my parry and got a glancing slash across my right foreleg. Pain flared up my leg and made me falter slightly. Luna be damned that knife moved quickly. Between defensive swipes and ducks and dodges, it was just a matter of time before he overwhelmed me and I would get injured or killed.

Gertie looked up at me, tears streaming down her face. She reached out for the raider, but he was just out of reach. I began to circle around, trying to place the raider directly between us. The knife swooped in and I was forced to dodge back the way I came. A sharp sting came from one of my rear legs. A quick look revealed I had gotten a superficial wound. As superficial as it was, it was still streaming blood down my leg.

The knife flew back towards me and I rolled away the best I could. A clang next to me indicated how closely I dodged it.

Screw this! I jumped and took off, arcing around, trying to force the raider towards Gertie. The raider was obviously not used to attacking an airborne opponent, as I was more easily able to dodge his jabs and swipes. Tucking my wings in, I began a dive rights towards him. He took a few steps back, trying to place the knife between us.

Gertie seized the opportunity. She grabbed his two rear hooves and hugged them tight. In his surprise, the raider tried to pull away, but it led to him falling backwards on top of Gertie. The fall broke his focus and the field around the knife dissipated and it fell to the ground. I flared my wings and landed right next to the Gertie and the raider and drove my knife into his throat. Twisting and yanking, I tore a large hole into his neck and he began to gurgle, clutching his spurting wound.

After several seconds, the raider collapsed, squarely on top of Gertie. I grabbed the raider by the filthy armor he wore and yanked him off of her. He was still breathing shallowly. I watched as the light disappeared from his eyes and he let out a disquieting rattle.

Two thumps from behind me signalled the arrival of Horatio and Geronimo. They advanced towards Gertie with Horatio pulling out a light yellow medical kit. They both slid in next to her.

“Get… away… from… me...,” she groaned to her two would-be medics. “I can do this on my own.” After weakly pushing away Horatio’s claw with the health potion in it, she twisted and got her four paws underneath her and slowly began to rise off the ground. She was struggling with every inch, but she was pushing through it. Or at least she was trying to.

Her legs began to quiver with the effort and she fell back to the ground in a heap. Horatio and Geronimo leaned back in.

“No! I can do it!” she yelled weakly. She began to push her way off the ground again. This time, she made it only halfway up before collapsing again.

I stepped between Horatio and Geronimo and approached Gertie. She looked up at me with tears in her eyes. “Dust, I fucked up again, didn’t I?” she sobbed.

“C’mon, Gertie,” I said as I helped her onto my back. “Let’s get you to a doctor.”

Level Up!
Big Guns - 15

Perk Obtained: Big Brother - When engaged in combat with a companion, you gain +10 DAM with your currently equipped weapon.

Chapter 20 - Inspiration

Chapter 20 - Inspiration
We know what we are, but we know not what we may be.

Gertie simply looked up at me with her watery eyes. I could tell she was losing the fight to hold back tears in front of her fellow griffons.

“Horatio, Geronimo,” I called out over my shoulder, “why don’t you two scavenge what you can off the bodies.”

“Ya,” Horatio responded with a nod. “Ve vill search the bastards.” The two griffons split up and began picking over the bodies.

Gertie began to struggle to get onto her paws. “Dust, help me,” she grunted. “Need to… get to... “

“Shh, Gertie, I know,” I comforted her as I helped her to her paws. The blood stains on the front of her flak jacket were frighteningly large. How was she still upright? She draped her paw over my shoulder and we slowly made our way out to where we first encountered the raiders.

We neared the rock pile where I had first caught up to Gertie, and the nearly headless corpse was still laying there. A large blood pool had formed around the body from the open neck wound. Gertie withdrew her paw and reached out towards the armor but stumbled and nearly fell over.

“Take it easy,” I grunted as I caught her weight and lowered her down to the ground. I”ll take care of that for you.” Gertie smiled weakly back at me. Kneeling over the body, I looked for the releases which would allow the armor to be removed from the corpse. The sickeningly sweet smell of the blood was mingling with the usual terrible body odor most raiders displayed which nauseated me. After carefully removing the armor, I turned and hoofed it over towards Gertie.

“Dust, inside the armor, there should be a hidden pocket,” she moaned.

Having had worn armor designed for clandestine purposes, finding a hidden pocket was pretty easy. A folded and yellowed piece of paper was inside. “Gertie, it’s a piece of paper…”

I didn’t get to finish my sentence as Gertie broke down and began to sob. I looked down at the piece of paper and wondered what could be causing her so much pain. Gingerly, I unfolded the paper. A rather well done charcoal drawing was on the piece of paper. It appeared to be two griffons, both female. One griffon, the smaller one, looked a lot like Gertie. The other griffon was obviously older, lighter in color, but with Talon armor on. They were standing side by side, both grinning widely. At the bottom was an inscription. “To my sister and hero.”

“Oh, Gertie, I am so sorry,” I said with a sniffle as I cradled her in my hooves. She looked up at me with tears streaming down her face. I showed her the drawing and she gingerly took it from me. She held it carefully as if it would break from even the smallest amount of handling.

“Sorry, Gloria,” she mumbled between sniffles and sobs. I just sat there comforting her as best I could.

Several moments later, Geronimo caught my attention by clearing his throat. Gertie jumped and disentangled herself from my hooves. “Ve haf finished cleaning up,” he stated flatly. “Not much besides some crappy veapons, some ammo, und a shitload of chems.” He handed a shotgun over to me. “Und this. Talon tradition says ze one to make ze kill gets ze weapon.”

It was the shotgun with which the raider shot at and hit Gertie. It was in shockingly good shape, the steel looking well cared for and oiled. The wooden stock was deep and lustrous and looked immaculate except for a word roughly etched into the wood: Flyswatter.

“It does not fire normal shells and zis is all ze ammo ve could find,” he added, handing over about a dozen shells. “Maybe ve vill find more later.”

“Thank you,” I responded while stowing the shotgun in my armor.

Geronimo merely shrugged. “Horatio und I vill be vaiting back at camp venever you two are ready to go,” he said, inclining his head towards the camp. “Oh, und Dust,” he said looking back at me, “very impressive back zere.” He turned and walked towards the camp.

“That’s quite a compliment, coming from him,” Gertie chuckled between sobs. She crawled back over to me and sidled up next to me. “Dust, why do I keep fucking things up?”

“Gertie,” I chuckled, “if I knew the answer to that question, I would have avoided so much trouble in my life as well.” I felt something warm and wet drip onto my foreleg. Looking at it, I saw it was blood, and for once it wasn’t mine. “Gertie, we really have to get you back to Asclepius. Can’t use a healing potion until the buckshot is removed.”

I got back on my hooves and helped Gertie get back on her paws. She was still weak and needed to use me for support, but I didn’t mind. After a few minutes, with stops for rest breaks for Gertie, we shuffled our way back into the camp. Horatio and Geronimo stepped towards us, probably to help Gertie.

“No,” she barked at them, causing them to back up. “I want Dust to help me.”

“Gertie, I don’t think I’m in any condition...” I started to protest.

“Dust, please,” she pleaded with me. “I can’t fly back leaning on Horatio and Geronimo.” Her teal eyes looking up at me pierced through the reasoning part of my mind.

“Alright, Gertie…” I turned towards the twins. “Did either of you find any Buck around here?”

The two twins looked at each other with serious stares. “Dust, are you sure zat’s a good idea? Buck is vone of ze most addictive chems around?” Horatio finally said, breaking the silence.

“I’m guessing Asclepius can take care of me if that happens,” I said with a nod. “I’m sure he has some Fixer in his supplies. If not, I’m sure some forced rehab will work. Besides, I need to do this for her. I owe her.”

The two exchanged serious glances again and then shrugged. Horatio reached into a satchel he was now carrying and withdrew a plastic bottle. After unscrewing the cap, he tilted the bottle and the yellowish-orange tablet tumbled out of the container. Pawing it over to me, I took it up in my hoof.

“Here goes nothing,” I said, uncertain of what I was about to do. This was one thing I had thus far avoided in the Wasteland. Sure, I took healing potions, Med-X and RadAway, but none of those chems were highly addictive, not to mention the other side effects. Eh, you only live once.

I popped the tablet into my mouth and dry-swallowed it. The tablet, not being too large, went down easily. From what I had heard, the effects were nearly instantaneous. And boy, those stories were not exaggerated in the slightest. A few seconds after swallowing, I felt strength return to my extremities.

“Holy shit, this stuff is intense,” I cried out in surprise. “Let’s hurry before this wears off.” The twins nodded in return and waited for me to help up Gertie. I got her weight squarely on my back and made sure she wasn’t going to just slide off. “Let’s go,” I said, giving my wings the first few flaps.

I rose off the ground easily and got airborne almost as quickly as Horatio and Geronimo did. As a group, we all flew back towards Stonepoint, mostly in silence. Gertie was holding onto me more strongly than I would have thought possible. Her head was nestled against my neck. It was oddly comforting.

As time passed, I felt it become more difficult to stay aloft. “Uh, guys, how much longer to Stonepoint?”

“Ve still haf about fifteen minutes, Dust,” Horatio responded. “Is everyzing OK?”

“Let’s just say that the quicker we get there the better,” I grunted back. I began to flap my wings as fast and hard as I could, trying to pick up as much speed as possible. I could feel the strain in my previously broken wing, and I knew I was running the risk of reinjuring it.

The outline of the camp became visible after a few more minutes. I was working so hard to stay in flight and was basically panting while still flying. Shifting my weight forward, I began to glide into camp. The tents that made up the camp began to approach quickly, very quickly.

“Shit, shit, shit,” I stammered. “Gertie, hold on, this might be a little rough.”

Gertie’s grip on my body tightened as I tried to slow our approach. Flaring my wings, I attempted to gain some lift to counteract the increased weight I was carrying. “C’mon, almost there, hold on,” I groaned while I felt the strain grow on the muscles and joints in my wings.

I was several feet off the ground when it happened. I felt something pop in my previously injured wing. Pain flared throughout my wing as I lost control over it. It became useless and it dropped and hung by my side. My body turned quickly, making my head spin.

“Hold on, Gertie!” I cried out as I saw the ground approach quickly.

My front legs impacted the ground first. The impact shuddered its way up my legs and made my entire body shake. Shifting my weight and collapsing my left leg, my body turned in that direction. I felt Gertie slide off my back and saw her fall to the ground.

My body continued to move forward, forcing me into a somersault. I tucked my wings as best I could, but the injured wing didn’t respond. The world spun and the ground was now up and the sky was down.

My rear legs came up and over my head and I landed flat on my back. My body twisted and I began to roll. I tucked in everything that I could, but again, my wing would not listen to my my commands. I slid across the ground feeling the terrain trying to tear my armor open. The friction was starting to build heat through the armor I was wearing.

Finally, my forward movement stopped almost as abruptly as it started. I was still on my back and I simply looked up at the cloud covered sky as I caught my breath. My wing was throbbing and the rest of my body was complaining also.

The sounds of steps approached. Soon, I was staring into the golden eyes of Asclepius.

“Dust, what the hell are you doing?” he barked out, while glancing at my body, probably assessing my condition.

“Just an emergency landing, Doc,” I replied with a cough. “But don’t worry about me, you gotta help Gertie,” I said, nodding my head in her direction.

“Why? What happ…” he started as he looked in her direction. “Oh for Celestia’s sake! Nurse, get your ass out here, I need your help!”

The nurse ran out of the tent towards us, her eyes widening as she approached us. The doctor and the nurse quickly flanked either side of Gertie’s limp body and the doctor began assessing her condition.

“We gotta get her into an operating theater now!” the doctor shouted. He and the nurse lifted Gertie up off the ground and quickly, but carefully, made their way inside the tent. Horatio and Geronimo landed and followed the group inside.

“It’s alright, guys! I’m OK, I got this!” I called out, sarcastically. Ugh, I was going to have to do this myself.

Slowly, I turned myself over on my good wing’s side, keeping it tucked so that I didn’t injure it either. I got my hooves under me and very slowly stood up. The world started to spin a little, but my general weakness was the worst part. If this was a side effect of Buck, I could see why ponies got hooked on it so easily. If another dose made this feeling go away, popping pill after pill didn’t seem like a bad idea.

Gaining my hooves, I shuffled my way towards the tent. Fortunately, my impromptu landing placed me closer to it than I thought. Working my way inside the flaps, I saw a flurry of movement around a bed inside a section of the tent which was cordoned off by plastic sheeting of some kind. The doctor and the nurse were moving with a purpose, the doctor ordering tools and the nurse providing them. I knew Gertie was in good hooves.

I worked my way over to the bed I had called home for the several days I had been here. Carefully, and avoiding injuring my wing any further, I took off my armor and stashed it inside the footlocker at the foot of my bed. Easing my way into bed, I laid myself down and just waited for it to be my turn. The doctor would save Gertie, he had to. Meanwhile, I felt tired suddenly. I thought that if I just closed my eyes for a little bit, it would help. Closing my eyes quickly turned into sleep.

My eyes fluttered open staring at the roof of the medical tent again. This was getting old.

“Dust?” Gertie asked very softly.

“Gertie?” I responded, looking in her direction. She was laying in the bed right next to mine, her entire torso wrapped in bandages. “What happened?”

“Shhhh,” she hushed me quietly. She nodded her head towards the test and I saw Asclepius sitting at his desk with his paws up behind his head. He was softly snoring. “I don’t know… last thing I remember was we were leaving the raider camp. Next thing I knew, I woke up here a few minutes ago.”

“We got you back, more or less,” I scoffed. My chest flared up in pain. “Ugh, why does everything hurt?” I groaned.

Bandages were covering large portions of my upper barrel and legs. My wing was bound against my body, again. “Fuck me,” I moaned. “Not again.”

“What’s wrong, Dust?” Gertie asked, seemingly no longer caring about the volume of my outbursts.

I looked back at my bound and bandaged wing. “This isn’t the first time I’ve hurt this wing,” I informed her. “And last time, I was told I needed to take it easy… which I really haven’t done.”

“Oh,” she said morosely, “I’m sure Asclepius was able to fix it… he can heal almost anything.”

“Well, I’m good, I will admit, but maybe not that good,” Asclepius interrupted. “There is only so much that non-magical medicine can accomplish. Now, Dust, what were you thinking? I thought we agreed you take it easy… and then to take Buck?”

I waved him off with a hoof. “Doc, I did what I had to do to get everypony back safe… and I would gladly do it again if given the chance,” I retorted, with a little bit of pride.

“Well, let’s discuss what your little act of heroics did,” he scolded while picking up a clipboard. “I’d say overall you were lucky. Several sprains and strains, the worst being a dislocation of the bones in your wing. A mild concussion from the landing. A few lacerations, looks like they were from a knife. And of course, I had to flush the Buck out of your system,” he scolded.

“I know, Doc, I know,” I muttered. “I had to do it all to save Gertie. She would have died, or worse, if I hadn’t.”

“I know… but it doesn’t mean I have to like it,” he said with resignation and shaking his head.

“So, what’s the prognosis?” I asked, fearful I extended my stay longer than it had to be.

“The scrapes and strains are all pretty much healed already,” he answered. “And I already reset the dislocated joint. I would just wait until tomorrow morning for it to heal enough so you can move and to make sure I flushed all the Buck out of your system and that you haven’t suffered any of the side effects. And yes, the stuff is that bad.”

Asclepius put my clipboard down and walked over to Gertie’s bed. Lifting up her clipboard, he shook his head. “And you, little miss,” he scolded her. “What were you thinking? You took a load of buckshot right to the chest. How it got through the flak jacket, I don’t know.”

A loud, booming voice overpowered the tent. “And I would have thought you learned your lesson the last few times,” Stoneclaw chided her. “First, your sister gets killed and then you go in and almost get yourself killed? What would that have proven!?”

“But, dad!” she retorted.

“But nothing,” he grumbled through his beak. “You keep making mistake after mistake! Bad call after bad call! And you and those around you get hurt!”

“But…” she murmured, her eyes beginning to water.

“We lost your mother, we lost Gloria,” he grumbled, his voice starting to waver. “And I almost lost you today! If Dust, Geronimo and Horatio hadn’t been there, do you know what those raiders would have done to you?”

“But Dad! I want to be a Talon!” Gertie shrieked back.

“Well, as far as I’m concerned,” he point a paw at her, “as long as I am alive, you will never be a Talon!” With that declaration, he spun around and stormed out of the tent.

“No… no…” Gertie sobbed. “This isn’t fair.” Tears were streaming down her face.

I leaned over to face Gertie in her bed, causing my side to flare up in pain. “Ugh… Gertie, give him a chance to calm down… he’s just a little upset right now. You almost died today,” I said, trying to comfort her.

Gertie turned to look at me. “No, Dust,” she shot back. “My dad does not simply change his mind. And this isn’t the first time he’s said this.” My face twisted into confusion. “After the first couple failed missions, he was upset, but still supportive,” she said between sobs. “As I kept failing missions, he began to try to talk me out of it.”

“He’s overreacting… I mean, you both have lost a lot,” I tried to comfort her.

“No… this goes beyond that,” she shook her head. “Dad is also embarrassed by me. The leader of the great Stoneclaw’s Talons!” She puffed out her chest with mock bravado and thumped herself on it, which elicited a grunt of pain. “And his daughter is completely useless as a merc.”

“Gertie, you aren’t completely useless,” I tried to comfort her and bolster her confidence. “You saved me from that Enclave trooper when he had me dead to rights. You also took out one in one-on-one flight combat. That isn’t useless.”

“Yes, but I still needed you to rescue me from the situation I got myself into,” she sobbed. “I convinced my dad to give me that mission. We usually don’t do non-combat missions, but Dad wanted me to be successful so badly. He wanted to see his daughter had what it took to be a Talon.”

“Well, assuming you’re right, what will happen to you?” I asked, trying to change topics from failed missions.

“He will probably send me home to my aunt in Griffonstone,” she sighed. She fell silent for a bit. “Dust, I don’t want to talk about this,” she said flatly and turned away from me.

“C’mon, Gertie,” I said, trying to elicit a response. “I’m sure everything will be OK.” There was a short, silent pause. “Gertie?” No response. “If you want to talk, you know where to find me.” I waited a few second, but she lay there motionless.

I rolled onto my back and lay my head down on the pillow. I closed my eyes and fell asleep quickly.

The sound of clattering metal interrupted my sleep. I shot up and glanced around the tent. One of the doctor’s tool tray had been knocked over and a figure slid out of the tent flaps in the shadows. I glanced over to Gertie’s bed and saw that it was empty.

“Now, what the hell is she up to,” I mumbled under my breath. Looking around for Asclepius or a nurse, there were none to be found. “Shit.”

Rolling over and sliding out of bed was more difficult than it should have been, but it wasn’t overly painful. My knife wounds still protested the movement as the skin stretched and threatened to reopen the wounds, but I hoped the healing potions had done the trick.

I walked out of the tent and scanned the immediate area. It was night, and from the lack of activity, it must have been late since there was nopony around. There were a few griffons sitting around the central campfire, slinging back some drinks from glass bottles. I could barely make out the sentries patrolling the outer edge of the camp.

Looking away from the activity, I waited for my eyes to adjust after having looked at the fire. I saw a shadow slip around a corner of one of the bunk tents and heading towards one of the larger tents in the compound.

Carefully, and quietly, I tailed the shadow, being careful not to get too close. After turning one corner, I watched as the shadowy form slipped into the largest tent in the section of the compound. Slipping in between two of the nearby tents, I stopped and kept watch on the tent’s opening, waiting for my target to emerge.

After several long minutes, somepony emerged from the tent. From my better vantage point, and my eyes finally adjusting to the darkness, I saw that I had been following Gertie. She had a duffel bag strapped to her back and thought I could hear quiet sobbing. She looked nervously around and then walking towards another section of the camp.

Fortunately for her, it was late at night and she didn’t have to work too hard to avoid being seen by anypony. She criss crossed between hiding spots near tents, which made my life difficult since it required me to lose sight of her at times. After several hiding spots, she slunk into another tent in the complex. After checking to see if the coast was clear, I followed and slipped between the tent flaps.

This tent was about half the size of the medical tent. But it was lined with cages that were chock full of weapons of all kinds. Pistols, shotguns, rifles, grenades, ammo… it was all here. And Gertie was hunched over, fidgeting with the lock on one of the cabinets full of rifles.

“Gertie,” I whispered.

She spun around and jumped a good distance off the ground. When she landed, she stumbled and knocked into one of the cabinets, causing the neatly arranged weapons to fall and clatter against each other.

“Did anypony else hear that?” a muffled voice came from outside the tent.

“Damn it, Dust,” she hissed back. “Why did you sneak up on me like that?” Muffled hoofsteps sounded from outside. “Shit, follow me,” she groaned as she slipped out of the tent and I followed her lead. She moved through the camp at a decent clip now. I did my best to keep up, but my healing leg muscles hindered me.

She was leading me outside of the camp into the nothingness of the Wasteland beyond. “Umm, Gertie, where are you bring me?” I asked nervously.

“I got a place I go to when I need time to think on my own,” she called out over her shoulder. “C’mon, just follow me.”

We snaked our way across the barren plain the camp lied in and made our way towards some low lying rock formations. Gertie made a beeline for the largest of them. “C’mon, Dust, hurry up,” she called back as she waved me towards her. As I drew near, I saw a small opening near the bottom of the formation. Gertie scrambled her way into the opening with ease.

After her hindquarters disappeared into the opening, her head popped back out. “C’mon, Dust, there’s enough room in here for two.”

I crouched down and began to crawl my way through the opening. Gertie’s lithe body made it really easy for her to make it through. My bulkier frame made for a tighter fit, and I had to fight for every inch of progress. After a couple of feet of pushing and straining, the tunnel opened up into a small cavern several feet across and high.

“Watch this,” I heard Gertie’s voice echo through the darkness. A small light began to grow from what I could make out as a small lantern. As the flame grew larger, the walls of the cavern began to sparkle. Gems of various colors began to shine in the faint lantern light, reflecting colored light across the entire cavern. The entire space was soon covered with a multi-colored tapestry of lights.

“Whoa….” was the only word that my brain could form. “What is this place?”

“As far as I can tell, it’s the remnants of a mine from before the war,” she pondered. “Most of it collapsed on the Last Day. I come here whenever I need to think.”

Gertie slumped against the wall and slid down its jeweled surface. I walked over to her and did the same.

“A cap for your thoughts?” I asked her.

“Why me?” she moaned. “Why does death keep following me around?” Gertie started to sniffle.

“It’s not your fault, Gertie,” I attempted to comfort her. “The Wasteland, especially the life of a merc, is dangerous. If it’s not one threat, it’s another.”

“But it’s not me that’s getting hurt…” she whined. “Gloria, Hercules, Gustav… the list goes on and on… they are the ones that died… for my mistakes.”

“Gertie, it’s not your fault,” I murmured. “Ponies die, unfortunately. I know that all too well.”

“What do you mean?” she asked, looking up at me as if looking for a lifeline.

A green stallion’s face flooded my memories and made me shiver. “There was a pony… a friend of mine,” I muttered. “Long story short, his father died because of me and I basically became his guardian.” I paused and sighed. Each word was harder to say than the last. “He was an adult, but had the mind of a child. He looked up to me like a big brother. And then… then…” I stammered and had to stop.

“Dust, what happened?” Gertie pleaded.

I could feel the tears beginning to run down my face. “Muddy happened. He lured us into an old stable full of traps and forced me to choose which of my friends would die. I chose him and I was forced to watch him drown,” my voice trailed off.

His fearful face struggling to hold his breath underwater flashed through my mind. The last bubbles escaping his mouth drifted away and the the fearful opening of his mouth as he inhaled water. “Please, make it stop,” I pleaded as I openly sobbed.

Two furry legs wrapped around my neck and squeezed hard. Gertie’s body was pressing up against mine and I could feel it trembling with her sobs. The tension that had been building in my body suddenly began to melt away. I could also feel her body beginning to relax as well.

My thought turned back to One. I realized I had never really dealt with his death. I had thrown myself so fully into getting revenge, I just pushed it to the side. But now, it all came flooding back.

“It’s not fair,” I moaned. “I didn’t want to kill him. I didn’t want to choose. But it was either him, Brownie, Silver, or Flower. I didn’t want any of them to die! But it was just like Foggy! I may not have killed them, but I might as well have!”

Two wings wrapped around my body, enveloping me in a comforting embrace. “Shhh, Dust, it’s alright,” Gertie cooed. “I know you aren’t a killer. Everything will be alright…”

“I wish I could go back, I would find some way to convince Muddy to take me instead,” I sobbed. “It should have been me.”

“Dust, don’t say that,” Gertie said gently, while running a paw through my mane. “You have done so much good since then, and that’s only what you’ve done for me and my father. You saved my life, got vengeance for my sister, and got us closure. Who would have done that if you were dead?”

“You wouldn’t have needed saving if I were dead,” I blurted back. “I wish I had never come down here,” I yelled. “I left my friends, my family, my life… and for what? I am the target of a psychopath. I allegedly have a key to one of the S.P.P. towers on my leg. My old friends and family can never see me again. My new friends now think I am a liar.”

“Dust, what do you mean, never come down here?” Gertie asked. “Does this have anything to do with Muddy talking about you turning your back on your own kind?”

And now the other horseshoe drops. “I am… or was… a soldier in the Enclave military,” I started tentatively. “I was picked to come down to the Wasteland to gather information on life in Equestria. It was a clandestine mission. But, as you saw, that isn’t the case anymore.”

“You… were Enclave military?” Gertie said uneasily.

“Yes… I was,” I admitted.

Gertie withdrew her embrace and backed away a short distance. “And you have betrayed them?”

“I guess the short answer is yes,” I responded thoughtfully. “I mean, after spending my time down here, I have seen that the Enclave has lied to all of us. Things are not what we were told. I can’t stand by and let it continue.”

Gertie launched herself at me and hugged me again. “Dust, I wish I were more like you. You have done so much. More than I can say…”

I couldn’t help but to laugh. “Done so much? What have I done?” I barked. “I got two ponies killed. I got myself captured and you tortured. Turned my back on two different lives, in rather spectacular fashion might I add.”

Gertie cut me off. “But Dust, don’t you see…,” she said, placing a paw on my shoulder. “You became a role model for a stallion in need. You saved three of your friends, even if it was at the cost of another pony. You saved my life after somepony else put it in danger. You rescued me from the raiders and got my sister’s armor back. You’ve earned the respect of my father.” Gertie sidled up next to me and nestled her head on my shoulder. “I wish I could be more like you.”

This was definitely unexpected. I figured this confession would turn Gertie against me, just like everypony else. But she saw something in me that nopony else, well, except for maybe Silver, saw. And maybe Silver didn’t even see that same pony anymore.

We simply sat there holding on to each other for a long time. It was just nice to sit with somepony again, but it did bring back a longing to be with Silver again. Assuming she would have me back.

“Dust, do you hear that?” Gertie asked, sitting up and craning her head towards the opening. I strained to hear what she had heard. Soon, I was able to make out some soft popping sounds.

“Is that…” I started to ask.

“Gunfire,” Gertie said definitively. “C’mon… let’s go… the camp is the only place anywhere near here.” Gertie’s face was twisted up into concern.

We squeezed our way out of the small cavern and trotted back towards the camp. As we drew near, several trails of black smoke were emanating from the griffon camp.

“Dad!” Gertie screamed and took off at a full out run.

I strained myself to my limit just to catch up. Leaping in the air, I tackled Gertie. We rolled, end over end, and I ended up on top of her, pinning her down.

“Get off of me, Dust!” she yelled, straining against my weight. “I have to go help my Dad!”

“We have no weapons and we have no idea what is going on just yet,” I reasoned with her. “We have to figure out what’s going on, get weapons, and armor. My gear is in the medical tent, where is yours?”

“In my dad’s tent in the middle of the camp,” she said with anxiety in her voice.

“Alright, follow me,” I said, nodding towards camp. “First, let’s see if we can figure out what’s going on.”

We slowly made our way towards camp, ducking behind anything that would provide cover. Multiple sources of gunfire could be heard, as well as screaming, cheering… and was that laughter?. There was only one kind of pony that fought like that: raiders.

Keeping silent, we finally worked our way to the edge of the camp. Somewhere in the camp it sounded like a pitched gunfight was being held. The raiders were whooping and hollering and the griffons, if there were any, were keeping mostly quiet. Moving between a couple of tents, I peered around the section of the camp we were in. Fortunately, it seemed that the raiders were mostly confined to the area near the center of camp… Stoneclaw’s tent.

After rounding another tent, we were looking into the clearing in front of Stoneclaw’s tent. Two large, metal tables were dragged out and turned on their sides, acting as makeshift barricades. There appeared to be only a handful of griffons defending the tent; four at most, based on what I could see. Hiding behind other tents or rocky outcroppings were nearly a dozen raiders popping up and taking pot shots before being forced back down by return fire.

“Shit… this doesn’t look good,” I muttered quietly. “There are at least a dozen of them, but they keep moving around and I can’t get a good look. And there seem to be only four defenders.”

“Is my dad one of them?” Gertie asked, clearly concerned.

“I didn’t see him,” I responded, shaking my head. Gertie jumped forward and nearly passed by me before I grabbed her and dragged her back behind cover. “No! We can’t do anything stupid. Especially as outnumbered as we are!”

“But, Dad!” she whined.

“As soon as we get prepared, we’ll do what we can for him,” I whispered back. “We can’t do anything right now. Your gear is in there?” I asked, pointing towards her father’s tent.

She looked back at Stoneclaw’s tent. “Yes,” she murmured.

“Crap…” I hissed. “Alright, I have several weapons back in my footlocker in the medical tent. Unfortunately, I have only one set of armor. C’mon, let’s go.”

The medical tent was on the fringe of the camp. We began to double back the way we came through the camp. While a majority of the activity was now behind us at Stoneclaw’s tent, there was sporadic gunfire and hollering all across the camp.

Fortunately, we didn’t run across any raiders on the way back to the medical tent. “Where the hell did these raiders come from, and where are all the griffons?” I muttered to Gertie while hiding behind a tent waiting for some raiders to clear the area.

“All the others must be out on contracts right now,” Gertie whispered back. “We are the only merc company in this area of the Wasteland. Tartarus, there were some days it was just me, my dad, and Ascelpius and his staff here. And as far as the raiders go, I have no idea. Usually, they aren’t so stupid to try something this brash.”

“Could they be associated with the raider camp we took out?” I asked.

“Maybe, I don’t know…” she trailed off, looking back towards her dad’s tent.

“All clear,” I whispered, redrawing her attention.

We crept our way to the medical tent. Before barging through the flaps of the tent, I heard the sound of metal hitting metal.

I threw myself against the side of the material and threw out a hoof to push Gertie back as well.

“What the hell…” she started to say before I jammed a hoof in front of her beak.

After she quieted down, I peeked through the gap in the flaps. A large, brown raider pony wearing the traditional spiked armor was rummaging through the medical tent. He was throwing medical implements over his shoulder and they were landing everywhere in the tent. The large shotgun strapped to his battle saddle made me very concerned. Scanning the rest of the tent showed he was alone.

“Where the fuck do they keep the drugs!” he grunted as he kept searching.

“We got one inside,” I whispered to Gertie. “I’m gonna try to sneak up on him. You got my back?” Gertie nodded in response.

Slowly pushing my way through the flaps, I made my way to the doctors desk just inside the tent. The raider was still rummaging through a steamer trunk, tossing various medical supplies and basic healing spells to the side.

“Gotta have Dash here somewhere,” he mumbled, “he’s just gotta!”

Creeping out from the desk, I moved in directly behind him so as to avoid being seen. Every time he picked up his head with some bottle in it, my heart skipped a beat. But he was too focused on his search to see me.

His head popped back out of the chest another time and flung an object over his shoulder. It was a needle of Med-X and it was heading right for my eye. I ducked to the floor to avoid being impaled, but I knocked over a bottle of healing potion which rolled away across the floor. The raider’s head turned towards the bottle and I could see his sickly, yellow and bloodshot eyes as they tracked up from the rolling bottle to me.

“What the fu…” he blurted out as I jumped into action.

Faster than I thought possible, I leaped into the air and landed on his back. I wrapped one hoof around his neck and I wrapped the other one around my foreleg and tensed every muscle. My legs squeezed around his windpipe.

‘Urk!” squeaked out of his mouth as his hooved raised to mine, trying to dislodge them.

I held on for dear life, squeezing as hard as I could. The raider tried calling out for help, but gurgles and squeaks were all that he could manage. He spun several times, trying to dislodge me from his back and failing. Each spin got gradually weaker as he must have been fighting off unconsciousness.

His next move caught me completely off guard. The raider reared up and flipped over backwards. I smacked into the ground with his full body weight on top of me. The wind was knocked out of my lungs and my vision flashed. I struggled to breath and involuntarily placed one hoof over my midsection.

The raider rolled away from me and we both started gasping for air at the same time. He was clutching his throat as I still held my midsection, trying to will air into my lungs. The raiders breathing slowed and he turned to look at me while I still struggled to breath. An evil grin crossed his face.

He turned his head to trigger the switch the made the firing bit of his battle saddle to spring forward.

“Little birdie is going to make a great meal tonight,” he said while licking his lips. He reached forward for his firing bit.

Gertie jumped out from behind one of the nearby beds and knocked the raider’s head away from the bit. She reached out to claw the raider’s neck as she had done before but he ducked at the right moment. He turned and bucked, catching her in the midsection and driving her back a few feet.

Shaking his head clear, he looked for his firing bit again, hoping to take care of us with a couple of well placed shots. I climbed up to my hooves and ran straight for his midsection. Ducking my head, I impacted him full on with my shoulder directly into the shotgun. I felt something give, but all I did was manage to back him up a few steps as I fell to the ground.

Gertie rushed to my aid, but the raider recovered quickly. “Stop right there!” He giggled to himself realizing he had the advantage. “This is going to be so much fun! Who should I kill first… you?” He grinned as he turned towards me. “Or her?” he said with a snicker as he turned towards Gertie. “I think I’ll save the girl for last. I ain’t ever had me a griffon before!”

I grimaced as I watched him reach for the bit and bite down. I closed my eyes, hoping that this would at least be painless. The tent was then filled with the loud boom of the shotgun, sounding almost like a thunderclap. The weird thing was that I felt no pain. Wait… if I felt no pain, then that meant…

“Gertie!” I called out, snapping my eyes open. Looking where she slid to my aid, I saw she was still laying there, eyes closed and grimacing as well… but there were no injuries…

Looking towards the raider, he was now laying on the floor, breathing shallowly. A large chunk of his neck was torn to shreds and blood was pouring out profusely. The pained expression on his face portrayed the physical pain he must have been feeling. Blood was bubbling from the open wound as his he futilely tried to draw breath. After a final rattle, he moved no more.

“What the hell happened, Dust?” Gertie asked, her voice trembling.

I looked over the raider’s body and the mystery was solved. My impact must have bent the mounting point of the shotgun which re-aimed it right towards his own neck. He hadn’t checked in his blood lust to get rid of me and have Gertie to himself.

“I knocked the shotgun off aim,” I answered, still in shock myself. Gertie and I sat there, simply breathing. I was thankful for my dumb luck in saving both of our lives. My thoughts were interrupted by increased gunfire from the middle of the camp. “C’mon, we gotta help the rest of the company.”

We both walked over to my bed and opened my footlocker. Fortunately, the raider was single-minded in his hunt for chems and hadn’t touched any of my gear. The first thing I grabbed was my armor and slipped it on as quickly as possible. I definitely was beginning to like the wingless model of the armor. It was easier to put on and was way more comfortable.

Diving back into the footlocker, I pulled out the shotgun that Firing Pin gave me back in Coltington what felt like a forever ago. I slipped it into its usual holster on my armor and looked back in the footlocker. I still had Flyswatter from the raider camp, the pistol from Firing Pin, and the tiny gun that was given to me as a joke.

“Pistol or shotgun?” I asked, looking at Gertie sheepishly.

“Seriously? Those are the only choices? You don’t even have a rifle?” Gertie asked, clearly aggravated with the choices.

“Yeah, sorry, not really good with them,” I responded, blushing slightly.

“Ugh, give me the pistol I guess,” she grunted. I hoofed her the pistol and all the rounds I had for it. I grabbed the shotgun shells for my weapon and slid them into the storage pocket. Grabbing whatever medical supplies I had, I stashed them into my saddlebags as Gertie was picking up whatever she could find from the trunk and the floor. Fortunately, the raider hadn’t broken a lot of the potions.

Grabbing the few grenades I had, I gave a couple to Gertie and kept a couple for myself. “Well, that’s all I got,” I said with a shrug. “I hope it’s enough. Besides, there’s always my knife and your talons,” I said with a nervous chuckle. Gertie was not amused.

We made our way slowly towards Stoneclaw’s tent, but we tried to approach the raiders directly from behind. We ran into no raiders on the way to the center of camp and hunkered down behind one of the bunk tents.

Once again, we found ourselves watching the small clearing in front of Stoneclaw’s tent. The two metal tables were doing their job admirably, having not allowed any of the shots to penetrate their protective cover. Two of the raiders from before were squirming on the ground, blood gushing from nearly fatal wounds. The griffons must have gotten some good shots off.

“Gertie, do you think you can make it to that tent over there?” I whispered to her, pointing to one of the cloth structures on the other side of the clearing.

“Yeah, I should,” she said, voice wavering. “But do you think it’s a good idea to split up?”

“I’d rather get them in a cross fire situation,” I admitted. “But, no, it’s not the best idea. But it’s better for us if we are multiple targets instead of just one.”

“I guess,” she said, her voice uncertain. She grabbed my hoof with her talons. “Be careful, Dust, please.”

“You too, Gertie,” I replied.

She began to slink away, looking over her shoulder at me before she disappeared behind a tent.

It felt like an eternity before I saw her pop up next to the tent I had indicated. She gave me a thumbs up with a grave look of concern on her face. I nodded back at her, my face tightening into a smirk.

Gertie counted down from three and then we both popped out of our hiding spots. My shotgun would be useless at this range, but that wasn’t the idea. I was hoping simply to drive the raiders into Gertie’s firing lines. The shotgun thundered in my mouth and the raiders turned, shocked at our appearance. Gertie fired several shots, and took out a handful of raiders with expertly placed headshots.

Bullets peppered the tarp of the tent next to me, causing me to dive behind the tent and out of sight. I could hear more gunfire whiz past my hiding spot. Gertie’s pistol had stopped firing, meaning she was either reloading or pinned down by return fire as well. I tried to peek around the corner, but bullets impacted the ground near me, spraying me with dirt.

Two loud, thundering shots came from the direction of the griffons. More gunfire rattled out in response, but there were no impacts anywhere I could see. Carefully peeking around the corner, I could see that the raiders were focusing their effort at the big tent once again. Looking towards Gertie, I saw she was readying herself for another volley.

Several shots and another handful of raiders hit the floor lifeless. From what I could see, there were only a few left. Those that were still alive were frantically looking around the clearing. One stallion locked eyes with me and was raising his gun when his head exploded into a red mist and the remnants collapsed to the ground. The last two raiders looked at each other and bolted. Three griffons jumped up from behind the table and began firing their assault rifles, cutting them down midstride. The two bodies hit the ground and slid several feet and then there was silence.

“Anypony have eyes on any raiders?” I shouted out.

“Negative!” Gertie called out from her perch.

“All clear!” Horatio called out from behind the tables.

Slowly, we all worked out way into the clearing, scanning the area for any leftover combatants. After several seconds of tense waiting, my body began to relax.

“Fuck yeah!” one of the griffons yelled out from behind the table, causing me to nearly jump out of my skin.

“For Luna’s sake, Gerald, did you have to do that!” another griffon nearby yelled back, smacking him on the back of his head. Some light chuckling erupted from all sides.

The tent flaps flew open and the imposing form of Stoneclaw strode out of the tent, his left paw wrapped in a sling and pinned to his chest.

“Stoneclaw, sir, I really must insist…” Asclepius muttered, trailing behind him.

“Not now, Asclepius,” Stoneclaw interrupted. “I need to find my daughter.” Turning to the clearing, he bellowed, “Gertrude! Are you out there!”

“Dad!” Gertie screamed and began to walk quickly towards him.

I trotted to catch up to her and to rejoin the group at the tent. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw movement. Turning my head, I watched as a raider climbed back to his hooves and charged towards Gertie with a knife drawn. Breaking into a gallop, I took several paces and dove between Gertie and her attacker.

My chest erupted into intense pain as the knife must have found its way between two of the panels that made up my armor. A gunshot rang out from my right side and the raider’s head snapped back, his eyes suddenly lifeless as his body dropped like a ton of brick.

Stumbling over my own hooves, I collapsed to the ground and slid a few feet. I looked towards my chest and saw the knife sticking out, buried up to the hilt.

I don’t know why, but I started laughing. First it was a small giggle, but it erupted into full out laughter.

Somepony slid in next to me. “Dust, for Celestia’s sake, are you OK?” Gertie sputtered out and she grabbed my hoof. I was still laughing. “Dust, what is so funny?”

I never really got a chance to answer as the world started spinning.

“For Luna’s sake!” Asclepius shouted out. “Help me get him to the infirmary!”

My body got jostled and I felt a sharp sting from my shoulder. Looking towards the pain, I saw Asclepius withdraw a needle.

The world gently slipped away as I entered a drug induced sleep.

Level up!

Unarmed: 20

Perk Obtained: Birds of a Feather : “Why? Can’t you watch me like a griffon?” - Griffon companions receive +15 DT when you are nearby.

Chapter 21 : The Old and the New

Chapter 21 - The Old and the New
“There are three constants in life… change, choice, and principles.”

I opened my eyes to the sight of the material of the medical tent… again. This was seriously getting old and very quickly. The new feature this time was the throbbing pain coming from my chest. Looking down, which hurt on its own, I saw a large bandage taped onto my chest with several red spots on it.

A soft grunt came from my right. Turning my head and feeling dull pains throughout my chest, I saw Gertie. She was sitting in a chair next to my bed, her head on her paws on my bed, snoring softly.

I tried to speak, but my throat was dry. “Gertie,” I managed to rasp. “Gertie?”

She grunted and began to stir. She picked her head up, her eyes blinking rapidly with the effort of waking from her nap. “Dust?” she asked, clearly out of sorts. “Dust! You’re awake!” She wrapped her paws around my head and squeezed. “Oh, Dust! I thought I’d lost you!”

I could barely breath, she was hugging me so tightly. “Gert… Gert…” was all I could manage to squeeze out.

“Oh my gosh!” she blurted out as she released me. I heaved to refill my lungs with fresh air. Each breath also elicited a pained gasp.
“Luna be damned, it hurts to do anything,” I groaned.

“I’m so sorry, Dust… I didn’t mean to hurt you. Let me go get Asclepius… he’s gonna want to know you’re awake,” she blurted out and ran from the tent.

Several moments later, I heard rapid hoofsteps followed by a slower, deeper set. Gertie nearly flew through the tent flaps back to my bedside. A few moments later, Asclepius strode through the tent flaps at a quick walk.

“See! I told you he woke up!” Gertie shouted at the doctor.

“Dust! Celestia be praised!” Asclepius gasped. “You shouldn’t be conscious yet!”

“First of all, why not, Doc?” I asked. “Second, can I get something to drink please? My throat is killing me.”

“Of course, of course,” he said while striding away from the bed. He quickly returned with a tin can filled with room temperature water.

I greedily slurped it down to quench my thirst. “Thank you,” I said gratefully. “Now, if I may ask, what happened to me this time?”

Asclepius shook his head. “You took a knife to the chest. It nicked your aorta. A centimeter higher and it would have severed it completely. As it was, I almost lost you several times during surgery.”

“You saved my life, Dust,” Gertie said, grabbing my hoof with her paws.

“There is that,” Asclepius said with a resigned sigh. “Dust, I don’t know how many more injuries like this your body can take. Even the first time I operated on you, I saw many already healed injuries. Some of them even looked serious.”

“I know, Doc,” I sighed. “It’s not like I do it on purpose. So what’s the prognosis?”

“Surprisingly good,” he replied, looking at his notes on his clipboard. “The injury was serious but is healing nicely, faster than I expected. You had a lot of internal bleeding but that was easily fixed. A couple of days here and you’ll be alright to move around. I’d say about a week, with healing potions, before you’re back at what you’d call one hundred percent. Now, get some rest… and I mean it.”

“Trust me, Doc,” I said with a pained giggle, “I would love nothing more than that right now.” With that, Asclepius turned and left the tent.

“Dust, I mean it… you saved my life,” Gertie said softly, drawing my attention. She was still clutching my hoof and was looking up at me from where her head lay on my bed. “That raider was trying to attack me. I would have been the one injured, or even dead. Why did you do it?”

“Gertie,” I demurred, “I just reacted. I saw the raider attacking and I wanted to make sure nopony got hurt.”

“But you didn’t have to,” she argued back. “You could have died!”

“I don’t know what to say, Gertie,” I shrugged. “I just did what I thought was right.”

“You don’t have to say anything,” she started to say.

Somepony cleared their throat. Gertie and I both looked towards the sound and saw Stoneclaw standing there. He was still wearing the sling on his one leg, but it looked more expertly applied this time. “Gertrude, Doc, can you excuse Dust and I for a little bit?”

“But, Dad!” she protested, her body stiffening.

“Gertrude, please, not now,” Stoneclaw said with a sigh. “I need to talk with Dust privately for a moment.”

Gertie opened her mouth to start to argue, but then decided against it. “I’ll be back when he leaves, Dust,” she promised. Gertie turned away and walked out of the tent, giving her dad a long, sideways look as she passed him.

Stoneclaw walked over to the bed and took a seat on a small stool by my bed. “How are you feeling, Dust?” he asked. “Asclepius said you were healing nicely, but I’m more interested in the non-medical stuff you’re feeling.”

“Been better, been worse, if you can believe it,” I started with a small giggle. “My chest hurts like a son of a bitch, but it’s better than the alternative.” I gestured towards Stoneclaw’s sling. “How are you doing?”

“Just a flesh wound. One of the rounds was a through and through,” he responded, looking at his leg. “I need to thank you, yet again, Dust. Not only have you saved myself and the skeleton crew that was left here, but you also saved my daughter’s, yet again. For that, I can not pay you enough.”

“Don’t think anything of it,” I said nonplussed. “I just did what you would have done for me. Although, I do have one question. Where was everypony else? Why was there just a skeleton crew left here?”

“In retrospect, I should have expected what happened,” he sighed. “A slew of contracts came in from caravans asking for protection from raider attacks. I mean, the raiders are active in this area, but never this many attacks in such a short amount of time.”

Stoneclaw’s body tensed and he hesitated. “Stoneclaw, what is it?” I asked.

“Well, I don’t know what this means, but as we were cleaning up the bodies, we discovered that all the bodies,” he started, but stopped and shifted in his seat. “The bodies were all pegasi…”

“Pegasi? That many of them in one raider band?” I mumbled, very confused. Ground bound pegasi were rare enough, but to find that many together in one group? It was unheard of.

“I thought the same thing. All the bodies were pegasi and they were all wearing armor that covered their wings. I haven’t seen anything like that before,” he stated flatly. “Until I saw your armor the first time.”

“Wait, what?” I blurted out, surprised at the insinuation. “You don’t think that I…”

Stoneclaw interrupted me. “No... no… I don’t think you are involved. But I figured you might know something.”

“No… unfortunately, I don’t think I know anything useful,” I started. I mean, I knew that it was possible that Cirrus and Special Operations could be up to this, but why? They had the numbers and the technology, not to mention air superiority. Why would they pose as raiders? “It just doesn’t seem like something that the military would do. They would just come at us straight on.”

“I agree, but it is odd, isn’t it?” he said with a shrug. “So, what are your plans after you heal up?”

I took a deep breath and released it slowly. “I don’t know,” I answered. “I want to go after Muddy and Cirrus, but I am outnumbered and outgunned. I could wait for my mom to try to work on a solution, but who knows how long it will take and what could happen in the meantime. I’m not sure which is better.”

“That is a tough choice, and not one that I envy,,” he said with a nod. “Well, if there’s anything I can do to help, please let me know. I owe you so much.”

At that statement, he stood up and slowly walked his way out of the tent. Asclepius entered shortly afterward.

“So, Doc, how long was I out this time?” I asked.

“I kept you sedated for a couple of days post-op,” he answered. “The pain was going to be intense and I didn’t want to pump you full of Med-X, you’ve had enough recently. Besides, there was no reason you needed to be awake and you really do need the rest.” He raised an eyebrow. “Gertrude didn’t leave your side the entire time.”

“Say what now?” I muttered.

“Gertrude was by your side the entire time, nearly fifty hours or so,” he answered. “She only ate and drank what I brought her. She slept in that chair. We couldn’t drag her out of here.” Stoneclaw giggled.

“What’s so funny?” I asked. I didn’t like where this was going.

“I think she has a crush on you, Dust,” Asclepius said, still giggling to himself.

Oh, Tartarus. Gertie has a crush on me? Stoneclaw is going to kill me. I can’t have this, not with how I feel for Silver. But then again, Silver may not want anything to do with me anymore, especially if she found out my secret. And Gertie is kinda cute… oh, shit.

“Why can’t anything be easy?” I whined. Asclepius simply laughed.

One thing that sucks about recuperating from major surgery is that you have a lot of time lying in bed. The reason this convalescence especially sucked was that Gertie made it her mission to be my personal nurse. Anytime anything needed to be done, she wanted to be the one to do it. Asclepius had to kick her out of the tent at times to let me sleep.

Being bedridden also messed with your sleep cycles. The first night, I couldn’t fall back asleep. One of the other bad things about being confined to a bed but awake was that you had a lot of time to dwell on thoughts.

What the fuck was going on with the pegasi dressed as raiders? The armor didn’t look like mine, but it served the same purpose. They certainly didn’t seem to work like any soldiers that I knew. But then again, who knows how long they’ve been down here? Maybe they were sent down to infiltrate raider clans, but then went native. But then why were there so many of them? My mind went over all the possibilities and the likelihood of each being true.

Eventually, my mind drifted back to my friends. I would probably have to catch up with them again at some point. I couldn’t impinge on the hospitality of the Talons forever. Besides, I had to face the music for lying to my friends for so long. I could only hope that Flower and Brownie could see past it and see that regardless of what I was, they did get to know who I was regardless of the name. Yes, I am, or was, I guess, an Enclave soldier, but I didn’t change my personality. Also, my actions would hopefully speak loudly enough. I made sacrifices and did anything I could to help them and keep them safe. But I could see how the lie could be a problem.

The rest of Coltington would probably be a different story. Most of those ponies didn’t get to me as well as Flower and Brownie did. Most ponies hated pegasi because of the whole cloud cover thing. I guess I was even hating pegasi a little bit because of it, too. I would probably become a pariah in my “hometown”. Maybe I’d have to get a shack in the middle of nowhere like Midnight did. Then a vision of Last Stand flashed into my memory. Maybe he would finally be able to make good on his many threats to me. Not to mention Big Boss… this was a mission to regain his trust…

And Silver… this was probably what occupied my thoughts the most. I loved her… I didn’t mean for it to happen. Hell, I wasn’t planning on being down here long enough to be in a relationship. And when I met her in the stable? She was the first potential victim of Muddy and I saved her. And slowly, over time, she became so much more to me. In many ways, what I did to her was worse than what I did to the others. Yes, I lied to her, but I lied on top of a lie. She knew I was a pegasus before anypony else. But then I lied to her about my origins… she probably hated me right now, especially for leaving the way I did. Would she forgive me? Could I even ask her to?

My mind running circles on itself made me exhausted. So because of my tired mind, or maybe in spite of it, I finally managed to fall asleep.

When I opened my eyes again, it was clearly day. With the cloud cover, it was virtually impossible to determine what time of day it was, but it was bright outside. Asclepius was at his desk, scribbling in a notebook of some sort. A nurse was restocking procedure trays and inventorying the medical supplies as she did so.

And at my side, as had become normal, was Gertie. “Morning, Dust,” she asked with a big grin on her face. “How are you doing?”

“Pretty good, considering I had a knife almost cut my heart open,” I answered sarcastically. “How are you?”

“Oh, I’m good,” she said with a sigh. “Dad and I are fighting again.”

“What about?” I asked.

“I think I proved myself when I helped defend the camp,” she grunted. “He thinks I’m still too inexperienced. I just want to be a Talon so badly, Dust! It’s just not fair. Gloria was taking on solo missions when she was my age.” A tear started to form at the corners of her eyes.

“Gertie,” I started, patting her claw. “Your dad has a lot to worry about. He needs to worry about the effectiveness and reputation of the company. But, more importantly, he has to look out for you. This company has lost him his wife and one daughter…” I paused, to look her solemnly in the eyes. “You’re all he has left.”

“What’s he gonna do, Dust? Keep me here forever?” she asked gruffly. “He has to let go at some point.”

“Give him time, Gertie,” I said, hoping to end the conversation. “A lot has happened lately you know.”

Gertie looked like she was about to ask something, but then let it go. After a few moments of silence, she perked up again. “So, what are you going to do when you’re given the all clear?”

“I don’t know for sure,” I murmured. “I’ve pissed off so many ponies. I want to go home, but I don’t know if I can. Hopefully my friends will still want me around and then we can deal with Muddy and the general.”

“How pissed off are your friends?” she asked, gripping my hoof. I hadn’t realized we never broke contact.

“Well, first, there’s Brownie and Flower. They’ve known me for about a year, but never knew I was a pegasus until I took off after Muddy. So they are probably pissed off to a fare thee well. And then there’s Silver. We were in a relationship.” I noticed that Gertie’s composure dropped a little at that statement, but I continue, nonplussed. “She knew I was a pegasus and was hiding it from everypony, but even she didn’t know I was Enclave. I can only imagine she is more pissed than the others.”

Her body shifted uncomfortably. “Well, I hope she isn’t too pissed off,” Gertie said, probably intending to be more comforting than it came across. “Anyway, Dust, I need to go for a bit. Dad has me going into Albaneigh for a supply run. I’ll probably be back tomorrow.” She paused as her features softened. “Please don’t leave before I get back,” she pleaded.

Gertie walked towards the tent flaps and paused when she got there. She looked over her shoulder at me, almost longingly. I think I saw her cheeks flush a little before turning and exiting the tent.

A soft chuckling drew my attention away from the tent flaps. It was Asclepius behind his desk, giggling while still taking notes.

“What’s so funny?” I asked, a little flustered.

“Never mind,” he said between chuckles.

I just grumbled in response.

Gertie’s words had echoed around in my head ever since she left. Why didn’t her dad let her become a full-fledged Talon? Was it as simple as it seemed?

I slid the sheets down and sit up on the side of the bed. The tent started to spin a little bit, but no worse than a night of drinking. The rustling must have gotten the Doc’s attention.

“And just where do you think you’re going?” he asked, almost scoldingly.

“I need to talk with Stoneclaw,” I answered, grimacing from the tightness I still felt in my chest.

“I’ll bring him here,” the doc said while rushing over to my side. “You shouldn’t be getting out of bed yet.”

“No, I have to confront him with this, not let him come when he’s ready,” I answered firmly. “Unless you are expressly forbidding me from doing this…”

“Even if I did,” he said with a sigh, “would it really stop you?”

“No, not really,” I answered half-laughing. “If I fall over, you’ll be the first I call, I promise.”

“Why do I even bother sometimes.” he grumbled. “Alright, let me at least help you to your hooves.”

With a little help, I got to my hooves and was relatively stable. The first few steps were challenging. After that, it became a little bit easier, but I wasn’t going to be winning any hoofraces.

What should have taken a couple of minutes ended up taking more like fifteen. The doc kept his distance, thinking I didn’t realize he was there, but I knew he was tailing me. I figured if it made him feel better, I could let him follow me. Besides, it’s not as if he had any other patients to take care of… it was just me.

Finally, I was standing at the entrance to Stoneclaw’s tent. I glanced back over my shoulder and gave Asclepius a wicked little smirk. Asclepius facehoofed himself, and I couldn’t help but to laugh a little.

After steeling myself for the confrontation I was about to force, I entered the tent. I took a few steps inside and stopped. The inside of Stoneclaw’s tent was about twice the size of the medical tent. The main section was dominated by maps of the local area. Hoofwritten notes were made indicating what I surmised were names of Talons. I saw names I knew like Gawd, Horatio, Anita, Razorclaw and Geromino, as well as several I did not recognize. Adjacent to the map was another list headed by the label “Trainees”. There was a list of about half a dozen names. Most of the list were names I did not know, but then I saw Gertie’s name at the bottom. All the other names had checkmarks next to them, but Gertie’s had been crossed out and rewritten several times.

The other dominating feature of the room was a large desk. It was a patchwork piece of furniture, cobbled together from an old kitchen table with bits of salvaged wood to fill in gaps and holes. It was covered with paper and clipboards. Stoneclaw was lounging back in an old office chair, lightly snoring.

“Ahem,” I said, clearing my throat.

Stoneclaw jerked awake. “Huh? What? Who?” he muttered as he shot upright in the chair.

“I’m sorry to bother you, Stoneclaw,” I apologized, “but I think we need to talk… about Gertie.”

If it wasn’t possible to see blood drain from a griffon’s face, this is about as close as anypony could probably get. “Dust, you sure you want to talk about this? Here? Now?” Stoneclaw stammered.

“Yes, I think it’s that important that we do this now,” I firmly answered, approaching his desk. “All I see is Gertie getting hurt.”

“Now, Dust, I don’t think you’d presume to tell me how to raise my daughter,” Stoneclaw challenged me, leaning forward.

“No, Stoneclaw,” I rebutted, raising my voice. “I can not imagine what it’s like to raise a daughter in the Wasteland. But I do know that Gertie wants more.”

“I would love to give her that, Dust,” he retorted, increasing his volume as well, “but I am just doing what I think is right for my daughter.”

“Now, you may be right, Stoneclaw, it may be safer to keep her here with you.” I answered back, finding myself right next to his desk. “But, you won’t be able to tell her what to do forever.”

“You think I don’t know that, Dust?” he asked, stiffening his posture. “But I will do whatever I can. I don’t know if she knows what she really wants. She’s too young.”

“Wasn’t Gloria the same age when she did it?” I asked, jabbing a hoof towards Stoneclaw.

“Well, younger, but I don’t see how that’s relevant here,” he shot back, taken aback by my pointing at him..

“Of course it’s relevant!” I answered, slamming a hoof down on his desk. “If Gloria was ready at that age, why isn’t Gertie?”

“Well, Gloria was more mature for her age,” he said, placing both paws on his desk and standing up. “She could handle it.”

“Well, I think Gertie can handle it to,” I shot back, placing my other hoof on his desk and standing, still a couple of feet shorter than him. “I’ve seen her in action and you haven’t!”

Stoneclaw’s break dropped open. “What do you mean by that?” he growled.

“I’ve seen it three times now,” I told him. “Once after she rescued me from the outpost. The second time at the raider camp. And then when the camp was under attack.”

“Three times? Three?” Stoneclaw said, his tone softening.

“She’s good. She knows how to handle the equipment she is given, she knows what moves to make…” I started to argue, leaning forward.

“Dust! Enough!” he shouted, leaning towards me. “I don’t want to hear about this! And get out of my tent!”

“No, you can’t avoid this,” I shouted back. “I won’t let you keep Gertie from what she wants, she deserves it!”

“I don’t think it’s the right time for her to start a relationship with you!” he fired back, taking heaving breaths. We were now inches from each other leaning over his desk.

It felt like the floor was yanked out from under my hooves. In fact, I involuntarily fell back dropped into a seated position.

“Wait, what?” I muttered.

“I see how she looks at you,” he began to explain. “She’s been almost inseparable from you.”

“No, wait, stop,” I muttered as I waved my hoof at him. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“My daughter has a crush on you, if not more,” Stoneclaw muttered. “Aren’t you two starting a relationship?”

“What? A relationship?” I said, tripping over my own words. “No! Not that I think I wouldn’t but she… never mind.” I shook my head.

“So, if it wasn’t about you and her, what were you talking about?” he asked, clearly confused.

“I was talking about Gertie becoming a Talon,” I answered, starting to laugh a little.

“But you said.. And then I… oh for Celestia’s sake!” Stoneclaw stammered and fell back into his chair. After a few moments, he started to laugh a little also.

We both just sat there laughing. After a short while, we calmed down. “Goddesses be damned, I thought you were trying to say that… oh never mind,” Stoneclaw finally said. “But, I think we still need to talk about what you intended to talk about.”

“Why won’t you make Gertie a Talon?” I asked. “Hasn’t she proven herself multiple times over by now?”

“But she has failed multiple times over as well,” he answered back. “I can’t have a Talon in the field who can’t fend for themselves.”

“Haven’t you ever failed at anything?” I retorted. “I know I have… Goddesses, have I failed.”

“Yes, I have failed, but it was back when I was in training,” he responded with a sigh, “but I had other Talons there to back me up. She won’t always have that kind of backup if she’s a full fledged Talon.”

“Did it ever cross your mind that maybe she is so worried about being judged by everypony that she is freezing up because of nerves?” I countered. “Look at what happened when nopony else was around. She handled two Enclave military fliers in hoof to hoof combat and won. She took on and defeated more than half of a raider camp. And then here? She was able to pick off multiple assailants.”

“But she almost got killed in the camp and almost got stabbed here,” he argued. “If it weren’t for you, she’d be severely injured or worse.”

“At the camp, she was in a rage, she wasn’t thinking. And that was because of her sister… I don’t think that will be a problem again.” I said, trying to assuage his fears. “And here… she was just the closest target. It could have been anypony nearby. Tartarus, it could have been me or you!”

“Dust, I appreciate what you are trying to do for her,” Stoneclaw started, glaring at me. “But she is my daughter, I need to take care of her.”

“And I am not trying to tell you how to do that. Goddesses know that I have no idea when it comes to that,” I snapped back. “But,” I started, softening my tone, “I am afraid you are going to push her away more than protect her.”

Stoneclaw simply sighed in response, steepling his claws in front of his face. “Please leave me, Dust,” he said with a finality that made it clear it was not open for discussion.

I turned and walked towards the exit to the tent. From the corner of my eye, I thought I saw something move just beyond the flap, but when I got outside, there were just the normal complement of griffons just milling around the camp.

After limping my way around the first tent, I nearly bumped into Ascelpius. “Hey, Doc, have a nice walk today?” I said with a snicker.

Asclepius grunted. “Yes, Dust… now can we just get you back to bed?” he said, with a deep sigh.

Fortunately Asclepius was there since talking to Stoneclaw took a lot out of me. I had to lean against him for the entire walk back to the medical tent. After almost collapsing to the ground, the Doc helped me into my bed and I took a well deserved rest.

My slumber was interrupted by my body being jostled mildly. My eyes fluttered open, expecting to see the doctor or the nurse reaching over me trying to take some reading. However, this is not what I saw.

The tent was dark, lit only by the few lanterns that were used at night. A wing of gray feathers was stretch out over me, covering me like a blanket. A gray-furred arm was wrapped around me as well. Soft, warm breaths were blowing against the back of my neck.

“What the fuck?” I mumbled as I craned my neck to see behind me. Gertie was laying next to me, wrapping me in this embrace.

At first, my body stiffened at the implication. This was a rather intimate embrace to be sharing with her, even though I did not really consent to it. But, here I was, wrapped up in her leg and wing. What would Silver say if she were here? But Silver wasn’t here, was she? Shit, what would Stoneclaw think if he saw this right now?

Silver’s soft pink face and green mane flashed into my memory. Her gentle blue eyes, which has always comforted me when I needed it most, were comforting me once again. Goddesses, I loved her. But then the nagging doubt peeked in again. Did she still love me after what I did and who I am?

Oddly enough, Gertie’s embrace was comforting in its own way. It was nice feeling somepony’s embrace again and knowing that Gertie knew the real me and loved me either for it or in spite of it. Either way, it was a good feeling.

I nudged Gertie by rolling my shoulder. She shuffled a little bit and groaned, but did not rouse from her slumber.

“Gertie?” I whispered. “Gertie?” Gertie simply murmured but didn’t wake up. This would be something I dealt with later. Or maybe, I wouldn’t have to deal with it at all. I rested my head on the pillow once again and drifted back off to an uncomfortable sleep.

Movement around the medical tent jolted me awake once again. At first, I thought it was maybe Gertie who had woken up earlier than I did. “Good morning,” I croaked.

“Good morning, Dust,” Asclepius’ stern, deep voice responded. “I hope you had a restful night?”

Did he know? “Yes, yes I did. Why do you ask?” I asked nervously.

“With the skin and musculature still stitching together, I assumed it would be hard to get comfortable,” he responded absent-mindedly as he was reviewing my chart. “I have good news for you. After what I saw yesterday, and what I’m seeing now, you should be able to be up and about. Not ready to leave yet, but you can actually get out of bed without me yelling at you,” he added with a chuckle.

The tent flap fluttered behind the doctor and a large claw drew it to the side. Stoneclaw’s imposing form filled the opening. “Doctor, is it alright if I have a private word with Dust for a few minutes?” he asked.

“For once, I don’t see why not,” the doctor said, mildly laughing. He hung the clipboard back on my bed and strode out of the tent.

Stoneclaw grabbed a nearby stool and dragged it near the bed and sat down on it. “Dust, I have to say, you have made my life interesting. After yesterday, I was ready to throw you out of camp. I was really pissed at you talking about my daughter,” he said with a sigh.

“I appreciate that you didn’t,” I added with a chuckle. “Still not in the best shape.”

“Yes, I know,” he nodded. “But it was more than that. I realized that you might have had a point. Maybe I’m too close to make a decision on Gertrude. Maybe I have been blocking her bids for a commission only because she is the only daughter I have left.” I began to try to say something be he cut me off. “Please, let me finish, or else I may not be able to.”

“Normally, I’m fully involved in the decision to grant a trainee full membership as a Talon,” Stoneclaw explained. “However, I am stepping back. I am going to allow Gawd, Horatio, Geronimo, Anita and Razorclaw to make the decision. In fact, they are discussing it right now, and will make a decision by the end of the day. I just hope you’re right about her.”

“Stoneclaw, you have every reason to be proud of your daughter,” I said, pride swelling in my voice. “She is one of the best wingponies, err winggriffons, I have ever fought with.”

“I believe you, Dust,” Stoneclaw said with a small grin on his face. “So, assuming something doesn’t happen between now and then, the doctor tells me that you’ll be ready to leave in a couple of days. What will you do?”

“Well, I need to get back to my friends. I think I have a lot of explaining to do, and forgiveness to ask for.” I began, speaking sullenly. “But I’m afraid I may have done too much damage there. And then after that, I need to stop Muddy and the General somehow. Even if they may not have access to what they really need, there is enough other stuff that they can get their hooves on and it would only hurt the Wasteland.” I felt bad hiding the fact that I have an S.P.P. key strapped to my forehoof, but I didn’t quite trust him with that information, assuming Gertie hadn’t told him yet.

“And what will you do if your friends don’t take you back?” he asked.

“I guess I’ll have to try to do it on my own,” I said after a short pause to think.

“Hmm,” Stoneclaw muttered. “Well, if there is anything I can do to help you out, short of working for you for free, please let me know.”

“Just out of curiosity,” I asked, his statement piquing my interest, “how much does it cost to get a mercenary for a mission like mine?”

“A vengeance mission against the Enclave with wide implications for the Wasteland?” he said, somewhat sarcastically. “I don’t think you could afford it. We’re talking thousands of caps.”

I laughed nervously. I have only seen an amount of caps that large and that was in Big Boss’ safe back in Coltington. “I guess you’re right,” I said, chuckling nervously.

“If you’ll excuse me, Dust,” he said while standing up. “But I have other matters to attend to. Please come by my tent at 1800 hours to find out the result of Gertrude’s commission. With that, he strode out of the tent. Gertie and Asclepius entered the tent together shortly afterwards.

Asclepius walked to his desk and said down in his chair with a creak. Gertie nearly flew across the room to my bedside. “Dust! Did you hear the good news!” she gushed.

“Yes, Gertie,” I replied calmly, trying to calm her down. “Your dad just told me your application is being considered by the lieutenants.”

“I know!” she nearly yelled. “Isn’t it awesome!” She was basically hopping up and down. “I can’t wait to get my Talon insignia! And I have you to thank for it!” She threw herself at me and wrapped me in a tight hug.

“Gertie… Gertie,” I wheezed, “I can’t breathe!” She released me. I hesitated before bringing up the uncomfortable topic of last night. “Gertie, we need to talk.”

Her mood diminished slightly. “Wh.. what about, Dust?”

Seeing the light dim in her eyes a little struck me to the core. We could talk about this some other time. Let her celebrate now in case she doesn’t get what she wants later. “Just wanted to make sure you know that I stand behind you all the way,” I finally said.

Gertie wrapped me in a hug again. “Oh thank you, Dust! Thank you for everything.” She spun and ran towards the exit. “I’ll see you later tonight! I know Dad invited you! You better be there!”

“I will, I promise,” I said, solemnly. Gertie spun back around and ran out of the tent.

“I’ve never seen her happier,” Asclepius said, not looking up from his clipboards. “I hope she gets this.”

“Me too, Doc. Me too,” I muttered.

The rest of the day was spent pondering the situation I now found myself in. I couldn’t help but to think that no small part of the decision to give Gertie her commission was due to my actions and words. Even though Stoneclaw wouldn’t be involved directly in the decision, I found it hard to believe he wouldn’t at least campaign for his daughter.

And then there was the matter of last night’s actions. It was now painfully obvious to me that Gertie was infatuated with me. And, while I wish I could say that I had absolutely no interest, I knew that, deep down, that would be a lie. My heart still belonged to Silver, assuming she would have me back. But, I did have some feelings towards Gertie.

The doctor reminded me when it was close to 1800 and helped me get out of bed. Fortunately, I was more stable than I was the day before and could even walk unassisted and without needing to stop. Considering this was an “official” function, I decided it would be appropriate for me to wear my armor.

As I opened the footlocker, I remembered that I hadn’t fixed the armor since I got stabbed. Withdrawing the black garment, I dreaded to see the level of damage that had to be repaired. I could only imagine that in addition to the cut from the knife and the dried blood, I assumed the doctor had to cut if off of me.

As I held the armor aloft, I noticed that the armor was clean. There was no dirt or blood anywhere to be seen on it. Somepony had cleaned the armor while I was out, cleaner than I had even gotten it when I was caring for it. Also, all the cuts and damage had been sewn up and cleaned up so you could hardly tell that it was damaged.

“Huh,” I mumbled, “looking pretty good…”

“You can thank Gertrude,” the doctor muttered from his desk. “She fixed it up for you while you were healing.” He raised a eyebrow while making that comment.

I slid the armor on and it was still a little loose, but it felt fine. “So, how do I look?” I asked the doctor, somewhat joking.

“Like a million caps,” the doctor answered, exasperated. “Now, go, or you’ll be late.”

The walk over to Stoneclaw’s tent was a lot easier than last time. I was able to maintain a consistent pace and didn’t need to stop for any breaks. After the short walk, I was in the clearing in front of the tent.

A crowd of black armor clad griffons were clustered around the entrance to the tent, leaving a generous walkway to it. There was a general rumble, but I was able to pick up snippets of conversation:

“Do you think she’ll get it?”

“Of course, her dad is Stoneclaw.”

“The turkey had to help her, so why should she get in.”

“I heard they’re going to give the turkey a commission.”

“I heard she took down two Enclave fliers single-pawed.”

It seemed that Gertie and I were the focus of conversation. The crowd was split as to Gertie and her worthiness. Some couldn’t look past the fact that she was Stoneclaw’s daughter and that was why her failures were being ignored, while others were extolling her victories in combat. A number of the crowd was even debating the level of my meddling, but most were thankful I helped keep the camp from being overrun. But it didn’t matter, we weren’t here for me.

After squeezing my way through the crowed, I stepped through the tent flaps into Stoneclaw’s tent. Several chairs were brought in since my last visit with most of them flanking the large desk in the back. Stoneclaw was, of course, sitting at his seat. On either side of him were the lieutenants. They all acknowledged my arrival with at least a head nod. Horatio and Geronimo, in particular, seemed more deferential than the others. Especially Gawd, whose glare could probably cut glass.

Seating in the middle, facing the others, was Gertie. She was sitting upright. I could see the tension in every part of her body. She barely turned her head to greet me. The poor thing was probably nervous as Tartarus.

Seated off to the side were several griffons I had seen milling around the camp over the last several days. Everypony was in their Talon armor. It was rather intimidating being surrounded by almost a dozen griffons in jet black combat armor, with the white Talon insignia shockingly contrasting to the fabric behind it. Even in the dim lighting, they stood out like beacons.

“Dust, I’m glad you finally arrived,” Stoneclaw intoned. “Now we can start.” Stoneclaw looked at Gertie. “Are you ready, Gertrude?” he said softly. Gertie simply nodded in response.

Anita stood from her seat. She was rather imposing, especially in her armor. She would have been about a foot shorter than Stoneclaw, but she has massively built legs. Her dark gray feathered face blended in with her black furred body which further blended in with the armor. Her yellow eyes stood out like beacons in the dimness of the tent.

“Gertrude Stoneclaw,” she started. So, Stoneclaw was a family name? There was so much I didn’t know about griffons. “You stand here to be judged by your peers for the honor of becoming a Talon.”

“And judged I will be.” she barely squeaked.

“To be a Talon is an awesome honor. All trainees must prove their strength, cunning, and persistence to get the job done,” Anita recited. “Griffons have been through many hardships and have prevailed. The Talons were formed from this struggle and have served with honor ever since. Please, tell us why you deserve your mark.”

Gertie cleared her throat. She started by telling the panel of the events in the mountain base, especially what happened once Muddy lost control of himself. She did gloss over asking to be left behind and retold the aerial battle in detail.

“So, you escaped by yourself?” Razorclaw asked flatly.

“Um, well, no. I needed Dust’s help,” Gertie answered weakly. Razorclaw crossed his arms and leaned back.

After waiting for other objections, Gertie recounted the events at the raider camp. Even I didn’t know most of the events that occurred since she was out of sight most of the time. It sounded a lot like the action novels I used to read during my down time back at the fort. That was until she got shot, of course.

“So, you got back up and finished the fight after being shot?” Razorclaw interjected, rather abruptly.

“Well, no, Dust had to help out there as well,” Gertie mumbled.

Razorclaw huffed at the response and glanced at the other lieutenants. Anita broke the silence. “Continue, Gertrude,” she prodded.

Finally, Gertrude reported on the defense of the Talon camp. This one was going a lot more smoothly, especially since she didn’t really do anything wrong this time. Anypony could have been the target and she eradicated many threats on her own.

Of course, Razorclaw couldn’t let it go. “Two questions: First, didn’t Dust help you out as well? And second, why weren’t you in camp when it was taken?”

Gertie seemed taken aback by the questions. “Yes, Dust helped out again,” she grumbled, clearly aggravated by the repeated attacks. “And what difference does it make where I was?”

“Well, it just seems that a trainee should have been in camp. You weren’t out on a mission or any other duties. You were just gone,” Razorclaw shot back.

“Listen, Razorclaw,” Gertie said back, louder and stronger than of her previous statements. “It appears that you have something against me. Let’s hear it.”

“Hah!” Razorclaw guffawed. “As if you don’t know. Why are we even here discussing this. You have failed several times, causing the death of many of your squadmates. And you still think you deserve to be a Talon, or are we here simply because you are Stoneclaw’s daughter?”

Gertie turned and looked at me. I nodded at her. “You got this,” I mouthed to her.

She turned around and glared directly at Razorclaw. “You’re right. I don’t have a spotless record,” Gertie started strongly. “Yes, I was on missions that failed. And yes, those missions cost us lives, including my sister.” A few of the lieutenants diverted their gaze at the mention of Gloria. “But don’t forget. These were missions with several veteran Talons accompanying me. If they couldn’t handle it, how could I have made any difference. We were outnumbered, outgunned, or outmaneuvered in every case.” Her face hardened as she glared at Razorclaw. “And don’t you ever dare accuse me of asking for special treatment because of who I am. I am Gertrude Stoneclaw. My actions should and will speak for themselves!”

Razorclaw looked like he was going to interject, but Gertie kept going. “And, are you telling me that you have never relied on another griffon, or pony for that matter? Even if it was the client and not another Talon?”

The lieutenants grumbled amongst themselves. Razorclaw’s intense gaze softened a little as he discussed his concerns with Geronimo next to him.

Anita shouted over the din to calm everypony down. It took a few minutes, but eventually all the griffons calmed down. “Fellow Talons, this is indeed an unusual situation. Normally, Stoneclaw would be the only one to make the decision as to whether or not a trainee would become a Talon. But he is unable. So it comes down to us. We must all be united in our decision.”

All the lieutenants extended a paw ending in a fist. Everypony looked towards Geronimo first, being the griffon furthest to our left. Geronimo grinned at Gertie and extended a claw upwards.

All heads turned towards Horatio. He, likewise, grinned and extended a claw upwards. Gawd and Anita followed with claws up, although without the grins.

Everypony now looked at Razorclaw. His features were still very sour. He looked back and forth between Gertie and me. Razorclaw closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Gloria, I hope I am doing the right thing,” he muttered under his breath. He slowly extended a claw upwards.

The tent collectively released a breath that we didn’t even realize we were holding. I also allowed myself to slump back in my chair, and Gertie did the same. Even Stoneclaw seemed to relax a little, although I don’t think he knew what the word meant.

Anita cleared her throat and called the meeting back to order. The tent was now refocused on her. “Now Gertrude, who is your feather-mate?”

Gertie turned and looked at me. “Dust,” she said, surprising the hell out of me.

The tent went into an uproar. There was so much grumbling that I couldn’t make anything out. Only Stoneclaw was silent, and he was actually grinning a little bit.

Anita finally calmed the tent down. “Gertrude, a feather-mate has to be a griffon who can vouch for you!” she nearly yelled.

Gertie shook her head. “No, a feather-mate simply needs to be one who has shared combat with me.”

Anita was taken aback by the challenge. She turned to the two nearest lieutenants and they whispered amongst each other. “You are right… we’ll have to allow this,” she muttered, still in shock. “But this is highly unusual, allowing a turkey to be a feather-mate.” The others still grumbled, but Anita powered on. “Dust, I’m sure you don’t know what this requires of you. A feather-mate vouches for the prospective Talon. We ask if you would lay your life in their paws. Do you support Gertie’s entrance into the Talons and would you lay your life in her paws?”

I was still floored having heard my name in these proceedings. I figured I would just be here for support. This is way more than I expected. But would I entrust my life to Gertie? Hadn’t I already? Twice?

“Yes,” I stated firmly. “I would lay my life in her paws, without a doubt.”

I watched as Gertie relaxed a little. I was going to have to ask her about that later. But now she stood up and walked over to me, drawing a knife. “Dust, please extend your wing,” she asked.

“Wait, what?” I blurted out.

“Do you trust me?” she asked, her eyes pleading with me.

“Yes,” I said. “Yes, I do.”

I extended my wing and watched as Gertie neared my wing with the knife. Her next head movement caught me off guard and I could barely see the actual movement. I expected pain, but feeling none, I was a little confused. I looked over at my wing and saw one of my flight feathers had been sliced away. The dark gray feather drifted to the floor.

Gertie quickly extended a wing of hers and sliced one of her feathers. She reached down and grabbed both. “Dust, with this feather, I pledge my life to the ideals of the Talons. Do you pledge to guide me on the path and keep me true to those ideals?” she recited as she handed me her feather.

“I… do?” I said, unsure if it was the proper response. It must have been acceptable as Gertie turned back to the lieutenants.

“Stoneclaw...” Anita prompted looking at Stoneclaw.

Stoneclaw stood up and walked over to a footlocker behind his desk. Kneeling down, he began to rifle through it looking for something. I heard the lid close and he approached Gertie, hiding whatever he searched for behind his back.

“Gertrude, you have made me very proud today,” he intoned solemnly. Your entire family has been devoted to the Talons and I know it has been a lifelong dream of yours. One of us in particular, would be the proudest of you today.” Stoneclaw brought the item out from behind his back. In his paws, he held a set of black combat armor, emblazoned with the Talon’s mark. The armor looked familiar, but then again, it all did.

“Is this…” Gertie started, reaching tentatively for the armor.

“Yes,” Stoneclaw said, a tear starting to form in his eye. “This was Gloria’s. I’m sure she would be honored to know you’re wearing it… and she would be proud of you. We all are.”

Gertie took the armor from him and held it tentatively. She ran one paw over the insignia, feeling each edge. Then, very carefully, she placed the feather she took from me and put it inside the pouch I found the drawing in before, before putting the armor on carefully. When she was done, she stood up, looking more confident than I had ever seen her.

Anita broke the silence. “Gertrude,” she said with pride, “welcome to Stoneclaw’s Talons!”

The entire tent broke into cheers, which then spilled over into crowd outside the tent. Gertie hugged her father as the lieutenants gathered around her. Well, except for Razorclaw. He was already at the tent exit, taking one long look at Gertie and then storming out of the tent.

After releasing her father from her grasp, and getting the obligatory congratulations from the others, she ran over to me and wrapped me up into a hug as well. “Dust,” she gushed, “thank you! Thank you for everything!”

“You did it on your own,” I responded. “Never doubt that.” I watched with joy as tears began to stream down her face.

The tent was filled with a deep rumbling. Stoneclaw was clearing his throat. “Ahem, excuse me,” he called out. “There is one last matter I wish to take care of. Dust?” I turned to look at him. “The entire company owes you so much. From returning our fallen comrades' gear from the raider camp to helping us retake our camp, we can never thank you enough. Now, normally, I would be honored to offer you membership as a Talon, you would need to go through all the orientation and evaluation, but something tells me you have other plans.

“But please, take this,” he said as he handed me what looked like an old style bit. On the one face, there was a claw etched into the metal and there was a Talon insignia etched on the reverse side. “This is a marker. It signifies that I owe you a debt. You should be able to trade it with other Talon companies for help if you need it. I, of course, will never forget what you have done for us.”

“Thank you, Stoneclaw,” I said gratefully. “I hope I never need it, but it’s good to have.”

“No, thank you, Dust,” he said. “Now, let’s celebrate!” It was probably the first time I had seen him with a smile on his beak.

Stoneclaw walked over to his desk and rummaged around one of the drawers. In the meantime, I turned to Gertie. “Gertie, what is Razorclaw’s issue with you?” I asked her.

Her features saddened a little. “Gloria was Razorclaw’s feather-mate,” she answered sullenly. Her paw touched the Talon insignia on the armor again. “He resents me for surviving the attack instead of her.” Gertie frowned for a few seconds. “But, I think she’d be happy for me.” She hugged me tightly for several seconds.

After disengaging, we both saw that Stoneclaw was waiting. In his good claw was a bottle of Wild Pegasus. “You aren’t kidding about celebrating! I haven’t had real Wild Pegasus in a long time,” I said, probably more surprised than I should have been.

Stoneclaw put the three glasses down and filled them all about half way. “Well, if you’re going to do something, you might as well do it right,” he said with a grin. He handed each of us a glass. “To Gertrude! May her career be long and successful!” We all clinked glasses and took a swig of the alcohol. The burn of the spirits down my throat was comforting.

“To Dust!” Gertie shouted. “The best winggriffon, err, wingpony you can have!” We all clinked glasses again and took another swig. Then, both Stoneclaw and Gertie looked at me, waiting for something.

“Oh, my turn?” I asked sheepishly. I thought for a few seconds as the others stared at me, holding their glasses aloft. “To new friends! May the winds always be at our backs!” For a third time, we clinked our glasses together and downed the remaining drink… until Stoneclaw refilled our glasses for the first time of many that night.

Level up!

Speech - 50

Perk Obtained
Pony of Steel - “What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.” - You have survived a lot of life-threatening injuries. You receive a permanent +1 to Endurance.

Chapter 22 - Going Home

Chapter 22 - Going Home
“There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.”

The light seared through my eyelids, forcing me from sleep. Well, it wasn’t exactly sleep as much as it was having passed out. I didn’t remember much after the fourth full glass of Wild Pegasus. Stoneclaw wasn’t pouring drinks, he was pouring quadruples. And, of course, it had to be Wild Pegasus 101. Man did that shit always mess me up, and it had been a while since I’ve had anything that strong. Where Stoneclaw got a hold of three bottles of it, I don’t know and, right now, I didn’t care.

I picked my head up and the sudden lurching of the room made me put it right back down and close my eyes tightly. The impact with the ground made my head pound in pain. I could feel my heartbeat in my temples, strong enough that it made me imagine a sound to go with it. The deep bass line was just feeding back into the throbbing and making it even worse.

Opening my eyes more slowly helped a little, but even the reduced light felt like needles being driven into them. From what I could make out, I was not lying in a bed and I definitely was not in the medical tent.

Something shuffled next to me. I looked down and saw that my hooves were wrapped around a dark grey body with wings. Wait, if I was able to see her fur, then where was her armor? Then again, looking down at my body, where was mine? Looking past the sleeping form wrapped in my grasp, I saw a black mound which must have been the pile of our two sets of armor.

What the fuck did I do last night?

“Ugh, can you please turn off the Luna damned light,” Gertie groaned, covering her eyes with a claw.

“Good morning, Gertie,” I groaned uneasily.

“Good morning, Dust,” she croaked back. “What the fuck are you doing in my… wait, this isn’t my room, and where is my armor?” I felt her body go rigid as she put the pieces together. She shot upright, which was probably a bad idea, as I watched her clutch the sides of her head and press her eyes shut. “For Luna’s sake…” she groaned. She reopened her eyes after a few moments, and she refroze in shock. “Dust, did we, um, you know?”

“Gertie, I really don’t know, I don’t remember anything from last night either,” I shook my head, causing the room to start spinning again. “Where are we?”

Gertie looked around the room in a panic. When I saw her head freeze and her beak drop open, I followed her gaze and saw the desk in the room… Stoneclaw’s desk.

“Shit. Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit,” Gertie mumbled staring at one of the openings between two sections of the tent.

Groaning emerged from the opening to the other part of the tent. Gertie’s eyes widened in apprehension as Stoneclaw came stumbling out of the other room. His head raised slightly as he made eye contact with the two of us. He shook his head and then stumbled out of the tent into the daylight.

Gertie and I looked at each other. “That can’t be good,” we both said simultaneously.

“Let me go talk to him, maybe I can calm him down,” I shrugged. “What’s the worst that happens? He kills me?” I said, sarcastically. “At least the hangover will be the least of my concerns.” Gertie did not laugh.

Stumbling through the tent flaps, the daylight assaulted my eyes, forcing me to squint hard. The needle like feeling came back and I realized how bad an idea this was. I began to, slowly, work my way over to the mess tent. Somepony dropped something nearby and it sounded like a sonic boom to me, causing my head to throb. Today was going to suck.

Shambling through the opening to the mess tent, I was overtaken by the smell of roasting meat. The smell was different than the trays I had been receiving in the medical tent. It was more enticing here, being fresh off the fire. I scanned the tent and saw Stoneclaw facing away from me, his face buried in his claws.

Since I was in the mess tent anyway, I figured I might as well grab a bite to eat. Walking my way to the rear of the tent, I came across the surprisingly clean stainless steel serving table. There were large platters of brahmin meat and roasted vegetables, which, I assumed, were pulled from cans. I heaped a few helpings of the vegetables onto my plate, having never really gotten comfortable with eating meat. At the end of the table was a silver colored urn which was giving out the heavenly aroma of coffee. But this was better than any coffee I saw in the Enclave or in the Wasteland thus far. Grabbing a nearby tin cup, I filled it with the brown liquid.

Carefully carrying my tray, I walked over to Stoneclaw’s table. “Is this seat taken?” I asked, quietly.

“Ugh, no, just keep it down,” Stoneclaw mumbled through his claws.

After putting my tray down, I slid into the bench across from Stoneclaw. He looked up from his claws and I saw his golden eyes were bloodshot and very hooded. “Oh, it’s you,” he grunted.

“Good morning to you, too,” I responded in kind.

“Rough night last night?” he asked with a grimace.

“I guess, though I don’t remember much of it,” I groaned. “This hangover is kicking my ass.”

“Here,” he said, pulling a small flask out of his vest. After unscrewing the top, he poured something into my cup. “The coffee will help, as well as a little of the hair of the dog.”

“Anything, as long as it helps kick this,” I muttered and then took a swig. The bitter taste of the coffee mixed with the sting of the Wild Pegasus was an interesting combination. It was probably all a placebo effect, but I started to immediately feel better. “Where did you find coffee this good?” I asked after a few sips.

“A couple of our mercs came across it in a warehouse while working on a contract,” he informed me. “In exchange for a discount on our services, we negotiated that we were able to keep the coffee.”

“Oh,” I said, thinking of how I was going to broach the next topic. “Um, Stoneclaw, look, um, I’m sorry that you had to find Gertie and I…” I started to say.

Stoneclaw started chuckling. “Dust, you don’t remember what happened last night, do you?” he asked between alternating bouts of giggles and groaning.

“No… I don’t”, I said uneasily, running a hoof through my mane.

“Oh, Luna!” Stoneclaw laughed, punctuated by a grimace. “Dust, yes, you and Gertie got very, um, touchy-feely last night. Hell, she even stripped you both out of your gear… but then you passed out cold. She tried to shake you awake but you were out.” Stoneclaw was outright laughing at this point. “You’re a goddess-damned lightweight! Nothing happened! I feel bad for you!”

I could feel the blood welling up in my face. “Oh, um, wow,” I stuttered. “So Gertie and I didn’t…” I started to ask. “That has never happened before.”

Stoneclaw waved me off. “No, Dust. You two didn’t, but not from lack of wanting to,” he said, still chuckling. It all must have caught up with him as he pressed his claws against his temples. “Oh, this hurts so much, but it’s too funny.”

I didn’t know how to respond, I was so embarrassed. I could only imagine the horror he was feeling watching his daughter trying to get it on with a pony she had met under trying circumstances. But then, the pony passes out and frustrates his drunk daughter. And to think, both were drunk enough not to remember any of it.

“Dust,” he said, breaking me from my inner thoughts. “Leaving today?”

“Assuming Asclepius clears me?” I answered, nodding. “Yes. I need to get back to my friends, assuming they are still my friends.”

“And then?” he continued.

“Well, I have to take care of Muddy, with or without help,” I said, overwhelmed by the thought of what that entailed.

“How would you like a Talon mercenary at your side?” he asked.

“We both know I can’t afford that Stoneclaw,” I answered, thinking of my limited funds.

“What if cost wasn’t an issue?” he proposed. Before I had a chance to respond, he continued. “Look, I know Gertrude wants revenge for what Muddy did to her… and to be honest, so do I. Tartarus, a lot of the company want revenge, too. Normally, I would send a squad out, but you have insight and experience we don’t. Besides, even a company as large as ours would be no match for a division of the Enclave. A small operation would be more successful here. So, I’m prepared to give you a merc for a steep discount.” He looked at me, steel in his bloodshot eyes. “One cap.”

‘Wait, what?” I said, stunned.

“Even as company commander, I can’t just give you a merc,” Stoneclaw stated. “But I can negotiate a fair price. And I can’t imagine a price more fair for all parties involved.”

“Um, wow, I don’t know what to say,” I said, still in shock from the offer. “Thanks doesn’t seem like enough.”

“You’re welcome, Dust,” he said, placing a claw on my shoulder. “Just promise me something. If possible, let Gertrude have the kill. And if not, just make sure he suffers as much as she did.” Stoneclaw clawed me a wicked looking combat knife.

“I will do my best, Stoneclaw,” I swore. “But I may have no choice. Muddy is probably surrounded by a squad of Enclave trained combat flyers. But I will try.”

“That’s all I ask, Dust,” he said, giving me a few pats on my shoulder.

A short while and walk later, Stoneclaw and I found ourselves re-entering his tent. Gertie must have removed herself to her portion of the tent and took our armor with her. Stoneclaw rounded his desk and sat down with a creak of his chair. He gestured to one of the chairs opposite him and I took it.

“Gertrude, will you please join me out here,” Stoneclaw called out. The sound still made my head throb a little, but not nearly as much as it had before.

“Ugh, Dad, not now,” Gertie groaned from beyond the flaps to her space.

“Gertrude, it’s important,” he said, flashing a wicked grin to me. “Besides, this is an order from your company commander.”

You could hear the rustling starting from her room almost immediately. “Y...y...yes, sir! Be right there sir!” she called back. She stumbled through the flaps into the main room, still straightening out her Talon combat armor. She tripped over her own claws, stumbling a few steps, before falling flat on her face. “Son of a motherless…” she exclaimed. She quickly stood back up and brushed herself off.

“Talon Gertrude, reporting for duty,” she said, stiffening up at attention. Her eyes, still severely bloodshot, flashed from her father to me. Her face twisted into confusion as she made out who was sitting at her father’s desk. “What is going on?”

“Gertrude, Dust here,” he said, gesturing towards me, “has contracted our services to help him deal with a pony of interest. One Muddy Waters.”

Her face now twisted into controlled rage. “And how are we dealing with him?” she said through grit beak.

“That decision will ultimately be up to Dust,” Stoneclaw indicated. “Are you interested in this mission or should I give it to one of the other Talons?”

“That won’t be necessary,” she grumbled. “I’ll gladly take it.”

Stoneclaw nodded his approval. He reached for a drawer in the file cabinet that was under his desk and pulled it open with a squeal. He removed a piece of paper, a quill, and some ink. After writing a bit on the paper, he passed it across the desk to me. It was a contract indicating that I was the client, Gertie was the assigned Talon and it was for the neutralization of Muddy Waters.

There were three signatory lines at the bottom of the contract. Stoneclaw had already signed as company commander. There was a line for the client and one for the Talon. I quickly grabbed the quill in my mouth and signed my name. Spitting the quill out, Gertie took it in her claw. She took a deep breath and then signed the contract with a grin.

Stoneclaw took the contract and folded it up before putting everything back into the filing cabinet. Stoneclaw stood up and rounded the desk. “Good luck, Gertrude,” he said while wrapping her up in a hug. “I know you will make me proud. And Dust, good luck to you, too.” After breaking the embrace with his daughter, he extended a claw and I shook it with my hoof.

Gertie looked at me with barely constrained joy. “So when do we leave, Dust?” she asked.

“As soon as the doc clears me,” I said, grimacing. This should be fun.

I got my armor back from Gertie’s room, put it back on, and then made my way to the medical tent. Fortunately, the doctor’s examination was very brief. Besides suffering from a little bit of dehydration, Asclepius cleared me to leave.

“Dust, before you go, I just have two things I want to say,” he said, completely straightfaced. “You have taken a lot of abuse. I’ve repaired everything I can. But remember, you are not invincible. I don’t know how much more you can take before you won’t get up again. By all rights, you should have been dead twice over already, and that’s only the injuries I’ve personally treated.”

“Doc, trust me, I have been doing everything I can to avoid injury,” I deadpanned. “And what is the other piece of advice?”

“Please take care of Gertrude,” he pleaded. “I know she is a very capable fighter, but I would hate to see anything happen to her.”

“Doc,” I said, solemnly, “trust me, I need all the friends I can get. I will do everything in my power to make sure she doesn’t get hurt.” The doctor nodded in approval. “And doc, thanks for everything you’ve done. You definitely put the doctor back at Coltington to shame.”

“Thanks, Dust,” he said. “I appreciate it.”

After taking all of my gear back and stowing it in my armor, I made my way back to Stoneclaw’s tent. The main area of the tent was unoccupied and I made my way towards Gertie’s room. As I drew nearer the opening, I could make out the voices of Gertie and Stoneclaw.

“Now, Gertie, remember, you need to take care of your equipment,” he lectured her.

“Dad, I know,” she replied, clearly aggravated.

“And listen to what Dust says,” he added. “Not only is he the client, but he has a lot of experience. More than I think he is letting on.”

“Dad, please, I know!” she whined.

“And another thing,” he started, but I knew I had to end it.

“Gertie! Are you here?” I called out, acting as if I just entered the tent. Stoneclaw quickly stopped his lecture.

“Yeah, Dust! Back here,” she called out, clearly relieved for the interruption.

I waited a few seconds simulating walking across the tent, and then I made my way into her area. “There you are,” I said. “Doctor cleared me, so whenever you’re ready to go…”

“I’m ready now!” she responded, perhaps a bit too eager.

“Good luck, Dust, Gertrude,” Stoneclaw said, a tear forming in his eye.

Gertie slung a sleek sniper rifle and assault rifle across her back. The pockets of her armor were clearly packed. With what, I had no idea. Gertie looked around the camp, taking it in for what would probably be the last time in a long time. I saw her eyes start to water.

I put a hoof on her shoulder. “Are you, OK?” I asked.

“Yeah,” she said, turning to look at me. “I just never thought that I’d see the day I leave on my very own contract.”

“Take as long as you need,” I said, remembering the day I flew down from Fort Canterbury. “I don’t think anypony is ever really ready to leave the place they call home.”

“It’s OK, Dust,” she said, looking over the camp wistfully. “It’s not like I’m leaving forever, right?”

And with that, we took off for Coltington.

Glancing at the map on my Pipbuck, I estimated we’d be airborne for the majority of the day and getting to Coltington right before dark. Oddly, the first hour or so was flown in silence.

“Dust, tell me about your friends,” Gertie requested.

“Oh, well, first there’s Wilted Flower. She’s nice enough, if a little rough around the edges. Good fighter, good friend. And then there’s Brown Root, or Brownie. He’s a really nice stallion. Most honest and forthright pony I know. He’s no Asclepius, but he’s a damned good medic. Oh, Flower and Brownie are an item,” I described my friends to her.

“And who is Silver?” she said, more awkwardly than her previous request.

“Well, she’s, um, I found her in a stable,” I started. “She was being assaulted by Muddy and I broke it up, which is what started all this nonsense. She’s a groundborn pegasus and,” I started, but paused and took a deep breath. “She’s my special somepony.” A wave of sadness flashed through my body. “Or maybe, was my special somepony might be more accurate now.”

I could see Gertie’s features deflate momentarily. However, she quickly pushed it aside. “And what do you think they’ll think about a griffon mercenary?”

“Well, if this was before, if I vouched for you, it wouldn’t be a problem,” I said, my voice trailing off a little at the end. “But now? I don’t know if they’ll trust me, and by extension not trust you. But you are a Talon,” I paused when I saw a small grin flash across her face, ”and that carries with it a certain reputation.”

“And what if they don’t trust you?” she asked.

“Well, that’s the problem,” I admitted. “If they don’t trust me, it’s just you and me against the Enclave.”

“Oh,” was all that Gertie said, and I really couldn’t blame her.

We flew the rest of the way making small talk. She would tell me tales of her upbringing in the Talon camp, her father’s stories of missions he had been on, and even Gloria’s victories. She was particularly proud of her sister’s achievements. During that portion of the flight, her claw never left the Talon mark on the armor. In return, I told her stories of my boring career in the Supply Corps. Things picked up when I told her about the training I had endured for Special Operations. She had remarked that it was a lot like the Talon training she had to endure before she could go on missions.

We made better time than I thought and it was a few hours before sunset when I saw the silhouette of Coltington creep up along the horizon. “There it is,” I said with a point of my hoof. “I think we should land close to town and walk in. I don’t want to attract everypony’s attention at once.”

The altitude challenged my memory of Coltington from my time living there. The haphazard layout looked even more random from the air, if that was even possible. It was as if a foal was given building blocks and was asked to make a town. We both leaned forward and began a dive towards the ground. As we drew near the earth, we both flared our wings and came to a soft landing. I tucked my wings up against my body and gave Gertie a terse nod.

“Let’s go,” I said to Gertie with a second nod towards the town, “and remember, these ponies last saw me as an earth pony, so some odd reactions are to be expected.”

We trotted towards town and the first interaction with the townsponies was almost immediate. A couple of ponies were milling around outside their shack. It was Odds and Ends, a husband and wife who sold scavenged junk. I saw them do a doubletake when they saw me trotting in. You could see they recognized me, but the confusion on their faces was visible. They muttered something to each other as Gertie and I approached. I saw Odds’ purple magical field envelop his pistol as we drew near.

“Hey, Odds,” I said, sheepishly. “It’s me, Dust. Look, I know you probably have a lot of questions, but it’s really important I find Brownie or Flower or a pink pegasus who is probably with them. Do you know where they are?”

“Dust?” Odds responded. “You’re a… a pegasus?”

“Yes,” I answered. “I know. But again, it’s really important I find Brownie or Flower.”

“Y… yeah, they’re home,” he said. “They moved in together in that vacant shack at the other end of town.”

“Thanks, Odds,” I said, as I turned and trotted away.

I could hear Odds and Ends mumbling to each other behind me. Gertie shrugged. “I didn’t think that went that badly,” she said.

“Let’s hope it stays that way,” I said as I trotted off towards Brownie’s house.

We trotted around the edge of town. I wanted to avoid the crowds and a million smaller conversations until I had a chance to meet my friends. The trot took a few minutes, but we soon found ourselves standing in front of a large, two story shack. Well, large in comparison to most of the shacks in town. A lot of the houses were small, one floor houses. This house had been built by a family with a few foals who had moved on a few months before I came down here. However, different as it was size-wise, it still had the old scrap wood and sheet metal construction that the rest of the town had. It had always been vacant as long as I remembered.

“Alright, let me try this on my own,” I said to Gertie. She simply nodded in return.

I strode up the the door and raised my hoof to knock. First, pausing shortly to take a deep breath, I then knocked on the door. The door swung inwards with a creak and I was standing face to face with Brownie. It was good to see his face again. The deep, soulful eyes were something I’d missed.
“Hey, Brownie,” I said, sheepishly, “how are you doing?”

“D...Dust?” he asked, clearly surprised as he looked me up and down. I saw his focus shift behind me. “And is that a griffon with ya?”

“Yes, on both counts,” I said cautiously. “Can we talk?”

“Sure, Dust, come on in,” he said, his voice wavering.

After a few steps, I was inside Brownie’s new house. They had it looking pretty good with a few personal touches here and there. The feeling of a cold, metal barrel being pressed against the side of my head took me by surprise. Without turning, I looked to that side and saw Flower holding the pistol. “Flower, c’mon, is this necessary?” I pleaded as Brownie began to rifle through my saddlebags, taking my weapons.

“Yes it is, Dust, or whoever ya really are,” Brownie said, his voice tinged with anger. “Now, call out ta yer furry friend out there ta throw her weapons down in fronta her.”

“Brownie, Flower, c’mon, you know me,” I tried to reason with them. The gun was only pressed more firmly against my head. “Alright, alright,” I said. “Gertie! They want you to throw down your weapons in front of you. Please do it, and don’t do anything rash!” I shouted out.

“But, Dust!” she began to protest.

“Gertie, this is all a big misunderstanding. I don’t want anypony getting hurt. Just do it!” I ordered her.

A few seconds dragged out into an eternity until I heard the sound of a gun rattling against the ground. Shortly after that, a second weapon rattled to the ground also. Hoofsteps moved in behind me. “Now, why don’t ya have a seat over there. Don’t do anything stupid.”

I slowly made my way over to a chair against the far wall and sat down. For the first time in a long while, I saw Flower’s face again. Her yellow coat and amber eyes were still as oddly vibrant as usual. Of course, there was fear and anger in her eyes, as she still leveled the pistol right at my head.

“Flower, please, this isn’t necessary,” I pleaded with her. Gertie entered the shack with her claws at her side. She had been stripped of everything that could be used as a weapon. If only they had seen what she had done to the raiders and Enclave officers with just her bare claws. Brownie came in behind her, leveling her own assault rifle at her. “Take a seat next to Dust, hairball.”

Gertie bristled at the insult. “Gertie, let it go,” I pleaded. “Just stay calm.” I saw her body relax a little as she sat down next to me.

Brownie dropped the weapons in a pile and closed the door. He turned to face the two of us. “Now, let’s start this right. Who are ya? Are ya Enclave? Dashite? Groundborn?”

“Brownie, it’s me…” I started and then sighed and lowered my head in shame. I had to come clean, it was the only way this could go. “My name is Updraft. I am a former Enclave soldier who was sent down here to observe Wasteland life for a secretive branch of the military. And this is Gertrude. She is a Talon merc who saved me from that secretive branch of the military.”

“Ah wish ah could believe ya, D… I mean Updraft,” he started.

“Please, just call me, Dust,” I said morosely. “There is no pony called Updraft anymore,” I droned, my eyes glued to the floor. The more I dwelled on what I had done, the worse I felt.

“OK, Dust,” he said, with acid in the words. “Yer former Enclave? And were sent down here ta spy on us?”

“Well, I wouldn’t call it spying,” I said, looking up at his choice of words before Brownie’s glare shot daggers at me. “Yes, I was spying.”

“Fer what reason?” he asked.

“A branch of the Enclave is looking to see if there is any way to cooperate with Wasteland ponies,” I told him. “There’s a food shortage up there. They’re looking for ways to boost food production.”

“And that’s all?” he said, still glaring.

“Yes, that was all,” I explained. “Observe and report.”

“And where have ya been the last several weeks?” he asked.

I told him the entire story. I started with the infiltration of Fort Canterbury and getting captured in the general’s office. I spared him some of the gorier details of my imprisonment and torture at the hooves of Muddy. And then I finished with my time at the griffon camp with my convalescence and raider attacks.

“And ya?” he said, turning his gaze towards Gertie. “What’s yer story?”

“My name is Gertrude Stoneclaw of Stoneclaw’s Talons,” she said proudly. “I was hired by Dust to help him deal with Muddy, and, if I’m being honest, to get revenge on Muddy for what he did to me.”

“And ya swear this on yer commission?” Brownie asked.

“I swear it on my honor as a Stoneclaw Talon,” she proudly declared.

Brownie turned towards Flower. “Flower, do ya know anythin about the Stoneclaw Talons?”

“I know they usually stick ta honorable contracts, as far as mercs go,” she said. “Regardless, a Talon swearing on their honor is a big deal.”

We sat there in silence as Brownie mulled over everything. Eventually, he nodded. “It’s alright, Flower,” he said. “Ah think it’s safe ta assume he’s not here ta hurt us.”

Flower lowered her weapon and Gertie and I breathed a sigh of relief.

“Brownie, you have no idea…,” I started but got cut off.

“Now, now, Dust,” he interrupted. “Just because we think ya won’t hurt us, doesn’t mean we trust ya yet. Why didn’t ya tell us the truth? Especially after Muddy tried ta kill ya twice?”

“I was afraid, Brownie,” I explained. “I was afraid you all would turn your back on me,” I said somberly. “After Muddy betrayed me, all I had was you guys. I wanted to tell you as soon as we left Coltington, I really did. But when I thought about it, I thought you would abandon me, and then I would have had absolutely nothing down here.”

“How much of it was an act, Dust?” Flower asked me. “Was it all an act? Did you lie to One?” She shot me a very serious glare. “Did you lie to Silver?”

My heart dropped in my chest. “No… all I lied about was my name and where I was from. I am the same pony you worked with for so long. I am the same pony that left in search of Muddy. That mourned Foggy and still carries around the guilt for that. That mourned One’s death and still feels guilty for it.” I paused when Silver’s pink face and green eyes flashed through my memory. “That fell in love with Silver.” Tears were forming in my eyes.

“If I may?” Gertie said, cutting into the conversation. Flower nodded. “I have known Dust now for several weeks. Most of it at the mercy of Muddy. Dust and I have gone through torment the depths of which I hope you never experience. He could have ended it very quickly. All Muddy wanted was for Dust to turn his back on the Wasteland. But Dust refused. Over and over and over again. And with each refusal, Muddy’s cruelty only got worse.

“And I wouldn’t even be standing here if it weren’t for him and his selflessness. I was willing and waiting to die at Muddy’s hooves. But Dust refused to leave me behind. Even when his rescuers protested it, he came back for me and dragged me out of that hell. He has put himself in jeopardy multiple times to help others. It wasn’t his fight. Hell, he probably wasn’t in any condition to fight. And for Celestia’s sake, he took a knife to the heart to save me. Does this sound like the actions of Updraft, an Enclave officer, or Dust, your friend?”

Brownie and Flower glanced back and forth at each other. Brownie walked towards me and just looked at me while I was now at a full cry. He wrapped his two hooves around me and hugged me. I instinctively hugged him back while I completely broke down. Soon another pair of hooves wrapped around me and squeezed. Followed by a third set of legs.

“Hey, I couldn’t resist,” Gertie said with a sad giggle. We all just sat there while I cried it all out of my system.

After several minutes, I was able to collect myself and withdraw from the group embrace. “You all don’t know how much this means to me,” I said, still sniffling a little.

“Now hold on thar, Dust,” Brownie said, a few tears still running down his face. “Ah think ah speak fer Flower when ah say that we understand what ya did, but we’re not happy with it. Ah think it’s going ta take a while before we can forgive ya.”

“And I’d understand if you never did, Brownie,” I agreed, “but I hope you can. You have no idea how much your friendship means to me, especially now. And I need to talk you all about what’s going on, but there is something more important to deal with first. Where’s Silver?”

Flower and Brownie looked uncomfortably at each other. “Silver is out on a delivery,” Flower informed me. She must have seen the confusion that colored my face. “She’s a courier. One of the fastest around. She should be back later today,” Flower explained. “But you need ta go talk to Big Boss. If he hears you’re back in town, he’s gonna send Last Stand after ya. Come with us.”

I had completely forgotten about Big Boss. With everything else going on, it was the least of my concerns. However, hearing Last Stand’s name still sent chills down my spine.

Fortunately, we were a short trot away from the company’s office at the outskirts of town. We entered the overhead doors where several ponies were working on sorting through the scavenged loot. The ponies would look up and look at me in shock. I could only imagine what was going through their minds.

After we had walked upstairs, we came to Big Boss’ office door. Brownie knocked on the frame. “Big Boss, sir. You asked that if anypony came across Dust they were ta bring em right ta ya?” he said. “Well, here he is.”

Big Boss turned around in his chair slowly. “So, I’ve heard rumblings you were back in town. Rumors spread quickly around here. So, Dust, long time, no see,” he said, obviously judging me. “Thank you, Brownie, I’ll take it from here,” he said with a wave. Brownie backed away from the door. Big Boss gestured towards the chair opposite him. “So, Dust, to be honest, I never thought I’d see you again. Then again, I never would have figured you for a turkey, either. And, if you don’t mind my saying so, you look like Tartarus.”

“You should have seen it all before it was all healed,” I started, while sitting down in the offered chair. “Look, Big Boss, I know I have a lot to answer for.”

“Well, that remains to be seen,” he said, steepling his hooves in front of him. “Tell me what happened once you left Coltington.”

“But, haven’t you heard this from Brownie and Flower already?” I asked, confused.

“Yes,” he said, “but I want to see if you have anything to add.”

I described all the events between leaving Coltington and escaping from Muddy’s hideout. I left out everything at the Talon camp since it had nothing to do with Muddy. At times, he would ask questions for clarification, and I answered. I had nothing to hide, not anymore.

After I was done, Big Boss leaned back in his chair. “So, I guess it would be fair to say that the bounty hunt was a failure, then.”

“Well, so far,” I said. “I still plan on going after Muddy.”

“Interesting,” he replied. “Well, I’m glad to see that you’re OK, Dust. We all thought you were dead. Believe it or not, you are a valued member of this company.”

“Seriously? How can you mean that?” I asked, a little surprised. “And you’re not going to ask me more questions about being a pegasus?”

“Dust, how many times do I have to say this,” he said with a laugh. “I don’t care about your past, just what you’ve been able to do for the company. Others may have other concerns, but not me. You’ve been a very valuable worker and have never done anything against us. In fact, after joining us, our profits skyrocketed since you were able to scavenge technology and gain access to parts of buildings we normally couldn’t. I just feel bad that the others never really trusted you enough to never question that. As far as your past, there could have been any number of reasons you hid your Enclave background from us, but it doesn’t really matter to me. Your actions since joining us have spoken volumes. If I questioned everypony’s past and excluded ponies hiding things, I probably wouldn’t have any employees left. I would ask if you were coming back to work soon, but I assume you’d say you were busy.”

“Yeah,” I said, nodding. “I have to go after Muddy.”

“Oh, before I forget,” he said, getting out of his chair. He walked over to his wall safe and opened it. Pulling out a small sack, he tossed it towards me. It hit his desk with the unmistakable sound of caps. “This is your paycheck for the several weeks you’ve been out hunting. Don’t ever let it be said I’m not fair,” he said with a laugh.

“Thanks, Big Boss,” I said with a smile. “Thank you.”

“Oh, there is one more matter we have to settle, since you aren’t coming back to work,” he added, scaring me a little.

“And what is that?” I asked cautiously.

“Well, there is the matter of the weaponry you still carry,” he said. “And then there’s the Pipbuck,” he added, pointing at my hoof.

“Well, I can give you the weaponry back, if you want,” I started. “But, I don’t know how you’d get this off of me,” I added laying my hoof down on the desk.

“Well, to be honest, the weaponry is the least of my concerns. I’ll let you work that out with Firing Pin,” he said with a wave of his hoof. “It’s the Pipbuck that’s worth more. But, to be honest with you, it’s not worth very much to me if it only turns on when you’re wearing it. And it’s not even worth scrap since those special models were hand made and the parts are not interchangeable. So it’s worth no more than one of the broken models you brought in, except to a collector. So, how does one hundred caps sound?”

I nearly choked at the amount. He was right that a working Pipbuck was worth thousands of caps to the right pony. A non working one was still worth at least a couple hundred. And one that was ostensibly made for Rainbow Dash herself? What was he thinking?

“Are you sure?” I asked, clearly confused by his motives.

“Now, Dust, I won’t be bargained any lower on this,” he said, laughing. “One hundred caps,” he repeated, this time, adding a wink. I couldn’t count out the caps fast enough.

I turned and left Big Boss’ office as quickly as I could. I didn’t want him remembering something that could create trouble, now. Brownie, Flower, and Gertie were waiting for me at the top of the stairs.

“Well, what did he say?” Flower asked.

“Surprisingly, it was all good. He basically wanted to know what happened, what I planned to do and he apologized for putting me through all this,” I said to varying levels of shock. “Plus, he sold me this,” I said, raising my hoof, showing off the Pipbuck. “Got it for an awesome price, too. Oh, and he gave me my paycheck. Anypony feel like a bit to eat, on me?” Everypony nodded in agreement, quickly.

Before leaving, we made a quick stop to see Firing Pin. As we entered his workshop, we saw he was hunched over a rifle of some kind peering through a magnifying glass and manipulating small tools.

“Excuse me, Firing Pin?” I asked with trepidation, not wanting to disturb him.

The small tools levitated to the table as he looked up from his work. He looked me up and down and a small grin crossed his face. “Ah, before me, who do I see? The earth pony Dust, it must be. But what is this, I spy on his side? A pair of wings, he surely did hide. Returning now, after much time has burned. I hope he brought my weapons to be returned?”

“Yes, Firing Pin,” I nodded as I hoofed the weapons over to him.

His face soured when he saw the shotgun and pistol. “These weapons surely can’t be mine? The condition of which, surely are not prime. Who had weapon care as their main goal? Surely these were cared for by a foal!”

I grumbled at his accusation. “Firing Pin, look. I don’t really have the time to argue with you. Big Boss sent me down here to either return them or settle with you somehow. What do you want to do?”

Firing Pin inspected the weapons very closely. “The state of these guns, surely is sad. The condition of them is incredibly bad. To fix them would take much of my time. A hundred caps should rectify this crime.”

I hoofed the caps out of the little pouch Big Boss had given me and gathered up the weapons and left. We all made our way to Horseton House for a bit to eat and something to drink. The ponies had roasted vegetables, probably from cans, and Gertie ordered a Brahmin steak. We also ordered a round of the local swill that passed for beer. It was no Wild Pegasus, but it was good enough to drink.

Brownie, Flower and I caught up while we ate and drank. To be honest, I was really more on the periphery of the conversation. My brain kept drifting to thoughts of Silver and her beautiful pink face and enthralling blue eyes.

“Dust, ya still with us?” Brownie asked, snapping me out of my own thoughts.

“Ah, leave the lug alone… can’t you see he’s in wuv,” Flower teased me with a punch to my shoulder. I couldn’t help but to see Gertie’s expression droop a little at the tease.

I was able to pick up some bits of the conversation, between periods of inattentiveness. Brownie and Flower had decided they shouldn’t keep their relationship a secret anymore. As soon as they got back to Coltington, they sold their individual abodes and moved in together.

“Dust, we have bigger news than all that,” Flower said, nearly squeeing as she spoke.

“Ah’ve asked Flower ta marry me,” Brownie said, smiling from ear to ear. “The next time the travelin’ preacher is in town, we’re gonna ask her ta marry us. After almost dyin a few times, we figured it we couldn’t live without each other, so we’re makin’ it official.”

“Brownie, Flower, that’s great!” I exclaimed. “This calls for a celebration!” I turned towards the bar. “Pot Luck! What do you got back there for a celebration?”

“All I got is apple whiskey,” Pot Luck answered, without putting down the glass his magic was cleaning. “Fifteen caps.”
I fished the caps out of my bag, plus a generous tip, and Pot Luck levitated them over after putting his glass down. A few moments later, a bottle of apple whiskey and four glasses floated over to our table. “Thanks, Pot Luck!” I called over.

I poured four drinks into the glasses and we all raised our glasses up. “To Brownie and Flower! Shall they have a long and happy marriage!” We all clinked glasses and downed our drinks. We all gasped a little as the liquid burned its way down our throats.

The conversation turned away from the pending nuptials. In the weeks since I had seen them, they got back to work after Big Boss gave them a week off after our little trip. Apparently, Big Boss felt bad for all they had seen and been through, and wanted them to rest before rejoining scavenging teams. Once they were back on the job, most of the outings were typical. They did tell me about the one bunker they began to search but the damned Steel Rangers showed up and forced them out since the company wasn’t prepared for that level of armed resistance. Although, they did lose one pony when his nerves got the better of him and accidentally fired a shot at the Rangers. One laser rifle shot turned him into pink dust but, fortunately, cooler heads prevailed and there were no more casualties.

Flower and Brownie were in the middle of a conversation with Gertie, asking about her journey on becoming a Talon. Most of the stories were her early training missions and were pretty routine stuff. Escort missions, search and recovery, things like that. Most of the early ones had little to no combat and went off without a hitch. Then, of course, they were the other missions. The failures. The mood did darken a little bit as she retold those stories. Brownie offered a toast to fallen comrades, and we drank again.

After a bit more conversation, mostly about our adventures together in the Talon camp, we were all feeling a little tired. Gertie and I gave Brownie and Flower a little hug and we went our separate ways, with plans to get back together in the morning.

We all stepped out of the inn and the sun must have been close to setting, but the sky was still a light gray. Gertie and I began to make our way to the inn. “They seem like nice ponies,” Gertie commented nonchalantly.

“They are. They are the nicest ponies I know down here. They were always willing to help out another pony in need,” I commented.

Some movement in my periphery caught my attention and I looked up. Up in the sky I saw the outline of a pegasus flying overhead. As the shape got directly overhead, I was able to make out some details. It appeared to be a pink pegasus with a green mane. “Silver?” I muttered to myself.

“What was that, Dust?” Gertie asked.

“I have something I have to check out,” I muttered. I pulled a bunch of caps out of my bag. “Here, go to the inn and get us two rooms. I’ll catch up.”

I didn’t even wait for a response and took off after the pegasus. I kicked up and flapped my wings to get some altitude. Silver had a good head start on me. Flapping my wings as hard as I could, I did my best to catch up. She banked to the left and began to descend towards the shacks on the outskirts of the city. I followed as closely as I could, but her lead was still sizable.

She landed and I could barely make out her walking into one of the shacks. I was so happy to see that she didn’t go back to hiding in the stable. After clearing the last building, I flared my wings as descended to the ground below. Touching down, I transitioned right into a trot and went right up to the front door. Steeling myself, I knocked on the door.

After a few seconds, the door creaked open. It was Silver. Her beautiful pink face and piercing blue eyes were looking at me. “Hi, Silver,” I said sheepishly.

“D… Dust? Is that you?” she stuttered, her eyes widening in shock. She sidled out the door and closed it behind her.

“Oh, Silver, I’ve been waiting so long for,” I began to say, moving in for an embrace. She moved so quickly I didn’t see it as she swung her hoof at my face. It struck with more force than even the time she slapped me back at Fetlock Flats. “Ow! What the fuck was that for?”

“Why, Dust? Why did you take off and leave me behind, again?” she growled at me. “You promised me you’d never do that again!”

“I know, I know,” I began to defend myself. “I wasn’t thinking. I was so full of anger for One, and for Midnight. I had to catch him. I saw the opportunity to finally get to him and I took it. I wasn’t thinking about anything else.”

“That’s all you have to say about that!?” she grumbled. “You took off and disappeared for weeks!” I saw her move again and braced myself for another strike. Instead, she wrapped her hooves around me and gave me a hug. I went in to kiss her but she pulled away. “Where the hell were you for so long?”

“Muddy caught me and tortured me for weeks. You don’t want to know what he did to me,” I recalled my voice trembling. “All I could think about during it all was you. Of how I had to survive to get back to you. I almost gave up over and over, but then I knew I’d never get to see you again.” I could see some emotion wash over her face, but I couldn’t identify it.

“My mom and my best friend from up above broke me out,” I kept the story going. “I made my escape with a griffon who was also being tortured but got hurt. The next couple weeks I spent in a Talon camp healing up and getting into two gunfights and healing all over again. I got here as soon as I could!”

“Oh, Dust,” she began, tears forming in her eyes. “I thought you were dead or were staying up above. I held out hope for weeks, hoping you’d come back. I can’t believe you’re here.” She glanced over her shoulder at the shack and then back at me. “Dust, I have something you need to know…”

The door behind her creaked open and a deep blue earth pony stallion with a gray mane and violet eyes appeared. He was wearing a leather duster and a cowpony hat. “Sweetheart, is everything OK out here?”

“Yes, dear,” she answered the stallion. Sweetheart? Dear? “Scrapyard, this is Dust Cloud. Dust, this is Scrapyard, my stallionfriend.”

“St… stallionfriend?” I said as I felt my heart plummet in my chest.

“Is this your old special somepony?” Scrapyard asked.

“Scrap, please wait for me inside,” she requested of him. “I want to talk to Dust for a second.”

Scrapyard shrugged. “Sure thing, hun,” he said as he turned and went back inside.

“You moved on?” I asked, my voice struggling to make it out of my throat.

“Dust, you have to understand. I waited weeks, and no sign of you. I was a mess. I met Scrapyard and he helped me pick up the pieces,” she said, her voice growing strained also.

“I… I… don’t,” I stammered before giving up. I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes.

“Dust, look. I’ve had a long day and I need rest and I need to talk to Scrapyard,” she said placing a hoof on my shoulder. “Can we please get together tomorrow morning and we can talk all about it? I promise?”

“Yeah, sure, whatever,” I said numbly. Silver moved in and tried to kiss me on the cheek. I pulled back and shuddered from the attempt. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”

“Dust, please don’t be like this,” she pleaded, her voice cracking.

I simply shrugged as I walked away.

My body was numb and my brain couldn’t focus on anything besides Silver. And Scrapyard. How could she just give up on me? She had to know I would make my way back to her. But no, she gave up on me and moved on. To Scrapyard.

My mind went in circles about Silver, Scrapyard and me. The next thing I knew, I stumbled my way into the inn. Somehow, I ended up with another two bottles of apple whiskey in my bags. Room Service greeted me as I walked into the building.

“Hey, Dust…” Room Service started, but stopped. “Is that really you, Dust? You’re a pegasus?” she started.

“Listen, Room Service,” I grumbled back. “I know you have a lot of questions, but I am not in the mood to answer them right now. Yes, I am a pegasus. If you don’t mind, I’d like to talk about this later. Did a griffon come through earlier and rent a room?”

“Y… yeah. Your griffon friend already got you a room. Unfortunately, all the singles were full, but she got you a room with two beds. Top floor on the left.”

“Yeah, whatever, thanks Room Service,” I grumbled as I stumbled up the stairs. I got to the room and inadvertently slammed the door against the wall.

“Holy shit, Dust, you trying to scare me to death?” Gertie shrieked as she turned to face me. When she saw me, I saw her features soften as she scrambled over to me. “Are you OK? What happened?”

“It’s Silver, she gave up on me and started seeing another pony,” I explained as I pulled out a bottle of apple whiskey. Biting the cork off of it, I took a long swig. The burning was still painful and barely made a dent in my thinking. I offered it to Gertie.

“Dust, I don’t think that’s a good…” she began to object.

“C’mon, I can’t drink alone,” I said while proffering the bottle again. Gertie reluctantly took the bottle from my grasp and took a small sip. “C’mon, you can do better than that!”

Gertie looked back and forth between the bottle and me. “Ah, what the hell,” she grumbled and took a big swig.

“That’s what I’m talking about,” I cheered. I grabbed the bottle back and took another long pull. “Burns so good!” The reality of the situation started to wash over me as I felt my eyes beginning to water. “This sucks, Gertie. This really sucks!”

“Dust, what happened?” she asked as she took the bottle and drank again.

“I followed Silver back to her house,” I started. I took another drink. “She asked about where I was and that’s when he appeared. Scrapyard, that son of a bitch! He stole my special somepony.” My tears began to flow more freely and I began to sob. “I love her Gertie! I really do. And for the first time, I thought somepony cared for me back… and I threw it all away by leaving. And for what?” I looked at the bottle, which was now empty, and hurled it across the room. Gertie caught it before it shattered against the wall or floor. I fumbled with my bags and took out the second bottle.

“Dust, why did she…” Gertie started.

“She thought I was dead,” I interrupted. “And even if she had thought I was alive, she would have had no idea when I would possibly be coming back, or even if I was coming back.”

“Well, Dust, you can’t really blame her,” she tried to explain.

“Dammit, Gertie, I know! That’s the frustrating part,” I said, taking yet another swig from the newly opened bottle. “As much as I want to hate her for it, I just can’t. She’s right. I just wish I could do something to get her back!” The room was starting to spin.

Even though her features were starting to blur a little, I could still see she was uncomfortable. “Um, Dust, I don’t think there’s anything you can do,” she said, trying to comfort me. She also gingerly took the bottle out of my hooves. “You may just have to move on as well.”

“I dunno, Ger, Ger, Gertie,” I struggled to say and downing another swallow. The whiskey didn’t even burn anymore at this point. My open sobs turned into outright crying, which lasted quite awhile. “Mebbe sheeel be da only pony to love me.”

“Dust, I don’t think that,” Gertie tried to comfort me, as she put her claws around me.

“I know, Gertie,” I slurred. “Yoove always been there, been there for me.” I nestled my head against her shoulder. She gently placed her claw on my face and began to caress it.

I looked up at Gertie’s face, which was becoming very difficult to do because of the blurriness and spinning. She was looking down at me longingly with a small frown on her face. “She doesn’t deserve you if she gave up on you so easily, Dust,” she argued. “You should only be with somepony who will stand by you, no matter what.”

She leaned her head down and kissed me on the cheek. It was a weird feeling, being caressed by her beak. But I don’t know if it was my inebriated state, or my emotions running amok, or maybe both, but it felt really comforting. I let go of a mildly satisfied moan, which elicited a grin from Gertie.

Without any conscious thought, I leaned into her and kissed her right on the beak. She jumped a little in surprise and withdrew a little. However, after a short pause, she leaned right back in and kissed me right back. Her dry, smooth tongue was a really different feeling than kissing a pony. That was the last thing I remembered before I blacked out.

A loud knocking at the door startled me awake. What was probably gentle rapping sounded like major construction going on.

“Ugh, stop the knocking,” I shouted towards the door.

Somepony shifted from right next to me. Fighting to open my eyes against the assault of light, I saw that it was Gertie… again. And both of us were out of our armor… again. But this time, we were both wrapped in each other’s embrace. Ugh, what happened last night? My eyes scanned the room and fell upon the two empty bottles of apple whiskey. Oh....

There was more knocking at the door accompanied by a slight creaking. “Dust, are you in here?” Silver’s voice nervously asked from the other side of the sheet metal door. “The door is unlocked.”

“Wait, gimme a second!” I tried to shout back before the door opened all the way.

“Dust, are you in…” she began to say as I saw her head appear around the edge of the door. Her eyes locked on me and Gertie. “... here?” she said awkwardly. “Oh… oh, I see.”

“Wait! Silver! It’s not what you think!” I shouted as I saw her face disappear behind the door. “Shit, shit, shit!” My head began to throb worse than it already was.

I extracted myself from Gertie, eliciting an aggravated groan from her. I stood up, perhaps too quickly, causing the room to spin. “Ugh, two days in a row…” I muttered as I climbed down the stairs as quickly as I was able.

I stepped outside the inn and saw Silver’s pink form trotting away. “Silver! Wait, please!” I began to trot after her. “Silver!” She stopped trotting, but she didn’t turn to face me. “Silver, please.”

As I caught up with her, she turned to face me and I wish she hadn’t. You could almost see her facial muscles tensing and her jaw clenched. Her glare could have cut the air. “What do you want to talk about, Dust? I asked you if we could talk about us in the morning and what do you do? You hook up with that griffon friend of yours. You couldn’t even wait one night. ONE NIGHT!”

“Silver, I’m sorry,” I tried to explain. The throbbing in my head got worse, and I had to press against my forehead with my hoof to get any relief.

“Hungover?!” she growled at me. “Do you even remember what you two did last night?”

I stopped and thought hard about it. I remember kissing Gertie, but that was all my memory could drag out of the depths of the whiskey. “We kissed, that’s all I know for sure,” I admitted.

“Grrr!” she growled between her clenched teeth. “And to think, I broke it off with Scrapyard last night!”

“You… you what?” I muttered in shock.

“Yes, I broke it off with Scrapyard,” she shot back, beginning to pace. “When you appeared on my doorstep, all my old feelings came flooding back. But then I also felt guilty, because immediately I knew I had to leave Scrapyard.” Tears started to form in her eyes. “And what did you do? You went out and got together with her!”

“Oh… Silver, I’m so sorry,” I said. “I was devastated when I saw you living with Scrapyard. I thought I had lost you forever, again.” Tears were starting to form in my eyes as well. “Can you forgive me? I love you, Silver. I think I always will.”

“I don’t know, Dust,” she said after an awkward silence. “You hurt me. I mean, I can understand why you did what you did, but I don’t know if I can forgive it. I don’t know if I should.”

It got really quiet between us. The sound of early morning life in Coltington became more noticeable. The trotting of the security ponies changing shifts. The sounds of laughter as the fillies and colts trotted off to school. The low rumbling of a Raptor-class airship flying by… Wait, a Raptor class airship?

Silver and I both looked up and watched as the round, dark black cloud that made up the body of a Raptor class ship emerged from the lighter gray cloud cover overhead. Arcs of lightning pulsed around the two smaller clouds the jutted out like wings on the outside of the ship, outlining the whole thing in an eerie glow. Four smaller elongated Cumulus class troop transports appears around the Raptor. Smaller black specks appeared, keeping in place relative to the Raptor. I could only imagine they were the armored flyer escorts.

“What is the Enclave doing?” Silver gasped, her gaze transfixed on the ships above us.

After completely emerging from the cloud cover, the ships continued moving east.

“I don’t know, Silver,” I muttered, “but I can promise you it’s not good.”

Level up!

Medicine - 40

Perk Obtained: Boozehound - “Here’s to alcohol. The cause of, and solution to, all of life’s problems.” When intoxicated, you now have -2 INT and -2 CHR, except to griffons where you gain +2 CHR.

Chapter 23 - Revelations

Chapter 23 - Revelations
“Three things can not be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.”

Silver and I kept staring at the horizon where the skyships were headed for what felt like an eternity. I don’t know what she was thinking, but I know what was going through my mind. Where were they headed? What was the plan that required that kind of a mobilization? Did the general really have access to that much ponypower? Or was more of the Enclave military involved now? And where was Muddy in all this?

“Dust!” Silver yelled right into my ear, knocking me out of my own thoughts. “Are you listening to me?”

I shook my head clearing my thinking. “Yeah… no, sorry,” I muttered. “Trying to figure out what’s going on here.”

“And what is going on here?” she asked back, still staring at the horizon.

“Silver, I really have no idea,” I said. “C’mon, let’s go find Brownie and Flower.”

We galloped through town, almost bumping into ponies left and right. The air show had attracted almost everypony’s attention and the townsponies were all gawking skyward like we had been. After a couple of minutes, and near misses on what could have been some very violent collisions, I was banging on the door of Brownie and Flower’s house.

“Brownie! Flower! Are you home?” I shouted while banging on the door.

“Yeah, we’re out back, Dust!” Brownie shouted back.

Silver and I trotted around the shack and Brownie and Flower were staring eastward, at the rapidly disappearing Enclave forces.

“What do ya think they’re up ta, Dust?” Brownie asked, his voice wavering.

“I really don’t know, Brownie,” I answered. “But I intend to find out and stop it.” I moved to block their view of the disappearing skyships and flyers. “And I need some help…” I sheepishly admitted.

An uncomfortable look settled on their two faces as they looked at each other. They shuffled their weight between their hooves uneasily.

Brownie finally broke the awkward silence. “Um, Dust,” he said uncomfortably. “I think Flower and I need time to talk about it.”

“I… I understand,” I muttered. I had to admit… it hurt. But I really did understand. “Look, I’m gonna go get myself outfitted to leave. I’ll wait until midday.” I paused, taking a deep breath. “I know I wasn’t honest with you in the past, but I am telling you the truth now. I am not with them. Whatever Muddy and the general are up to, I want to stop. I just want to help.”

I waited for some sort of response, but none was forthcoming. Brownie and Flower alternated uncomfortable glances between each other and me. I turned and trotted away. Sitting here wasn’t going to change their mind any. I started trotting my way towards the center of town to go shopping.

“For what it’s worth,” Silver said sidling up to, and startling, me. I forgot she was there. “I believe you. And I’ll be with you through this. I want to get Muddy as much as you do.” She paused awkwardly. “Even though I am severely pissed off at you right now.”

“I know and I’m sorry,” I said, sheepishly. “Thank you, Silver.”

The rest of our trot back to the center of town was uncomfortable. My mind was a mess of thoughts ranging from the relationship between Silver and me, the relationship between Gertie and me, and what I was going to do about the Enclave. I still loved Silver, but did she still love me? Could she ever forgive me for, well, whatever happened between Gertie and me? And what exactly did happen between us? I still had no recollection. And of course, how was I going to take on Special Operations, although it appears there was more direct military involvement now. Ugh.

We got to the center of town and went right into Warped Barrel’s shop. Unlike his name, his selection of weaponry and ammunition was top quality. How he managed to get all of it was beyond anypony. He certainly wasn’t finding it locally. What was even more amazing were his prices. In short order, I had restocked my ammo and got some spare parts for some badly overdue maintenance.

Stepping outside the shop, we were passed by a crowd of ponies cantering in the general direction of town hall. In my peripheral vision, I saw something moving towards us from the sky. Looking up, I saw Gertie circling and descending towards us.

“Dust, I’ve been looking everywhere for you,” she said, out of breath. I saw a short, dark glare cast in Silver’s direction before she focused on me again. “You have to come with me, but we have to stay hidden.” Gertie spun around and took off in the same general direction as everypony else. I looked at Silver and shrugged and followed Gertie.

A short trot later, we were nearing town hall, but Gertie stopped short and stayed tucked in a small alley between two houses. A general hum of multiple conversations filled the air. She gestured around the corner. I walked up to the corner of the building and peered around it. A large, for Coltington at least, group of ponies had gathered in front of Town Hall.

Standing on the raised porch were two Enclave military ponies in their sleek, black armor. I could never understand why armor made for flyers was made to look like a flightless arachnid, but it was damned intimidating all the same. The sharp, pointed tail and metallic wing guards sent a message: don’t fuck with us. The two laser rifles mounted to the armor added to that message. The two pegasi were both carrying their helmets under their wings. One was a dark purple mare with a silver mane and the other was a teal stallion with a white mane. I couldn’t see their rank insignia from where I was, but if they were wearing armor, they weren’t enlisted airponies.

The dark purple mare raised her hoof and the general hum of the ponies who had gathered began to disperse. “Attention Wasteland ponies! I am Lieutenant Funnel Cloud. I bring a message from the Enclave.”

At the mention of the Enclave, a general din began to fill the air again. Some ponies loudly booed and hissed and others were shouting general insults. Funnel Cloud raised her hoof again and eventually the crowd calmed down.

“I am sure you all noticed the airships that passed overhead a short while ago. Consider this a warning. The Enclave will be performing operations at a small plantation east of here. Keep your distance and nopony will get hurt,” she announced.

“And why the hell should we listen to you!” somepony from the crowd shouted out. A lot of the ponies nodded their head and murmured their agreement.

“We don’t want to hurt anypony,” Funnel Cloud started. “But, we will defend ourselves if necessary. What we are doing is none of your concern and we will not permit outside interference.”

“Interference my ass!” another pony near the front shouted. “You interfere every day when you don’t open the sky!” The pony who was shouting, a light blue earth pony stallion, began to charge the two Enclave pegasi. I recognized him as Dirty Rag, one of the employees at the bar.

“No!” I shouted, more out of instinct than any hope of stopping him. The Enclave stallion moved faster than I could have imagined. He quickly swung his rifle in the direction of the earth pony and fired. The bright red beam erupted from the barrel and hit the earth pony squarely in the chest. His body began to radiate a red glow. As he was still moving forward, Dirty Rag began to leave a trail of smoke behind him. As he reached Funnel Cloud, he broke apart into a cloud of ash and washed over the two armored ponies. The crowd gasped loudly and fell deadly silent.

Nonplussed, Funnel Cloud and her partner simply shook their heads, releasing clouds of dust. Funnel Cloud looked over her armor, which now had a thin layer of ash covering it. “Damn it!” she muttered. “I just cleaned this.” With a snort, she looked back over the crowd. “I hope we have an understanding now. We will not go out of our way to hurt anypony, but will defend ourselves if necessary.

“Oh, and one more thing,” she continued. “We understand that a former Enclave pony you know as Dust Cloud may return here. There will be a reward for anypony who captures him and hands him over to us. He must be captured alive to earn the reward. And if we find that you are sheltering him, there will be consequences. We’ll be back weekly to see if you have found him. Thank you for your time.”

With that statement, the two flyers replaced their bug-eyed helmets and walked off the porch. The ponies in front stumbled over each other to clear a path for the two pegasi. With a few flaps of their wings, they began to hover off the ground and then took off towards the airships that we had previously seen.

“Dust, you don’t think they’re talking about…” Silver started.

“Manny and Leafy… yes, yes I do, Silver,” I murmured, shaking my head.

“What’s going on, Dust?” Gertie asked.

“Long story short?” I answered. “There’s a war-time, underground hydroponics bunker where fresh food is grown by robot workers. Some acquaintances of ours run the place. The Enclave must be taking it for themselves.”

“Shit,” Gertie mumbled. “Typical Enclave. Taking whatever they need regardless of the consequences.” Gertie shot me a pained expression. “Sorry, Dust.”

“It’s alright,” I said, trying to comfort her. “The only thing I have in common with these pegasi anymore is my wings.” I sighed deeply as the realization hit me that I would probably never be going home again. And even if I did go back, could I fit in? Could I ever honestly live with myself knowing that I had abandoned the entire Wasteland, especially my friends, knowing what the Enclave was doing to the Wasteland? And everypony knew, or at least heard rumors, about what happened to dissenters in the Enclave. They had a way of disappearing, thanks to the military-run council.

The sound of a shotgun slide being racked drew me out of my thoughts. A deep, rumbling and familiar laugh came from behind me. “I knew I’d get you one day, thief. Or should I call you Enclave now?” the voice threatened, sending a chill down my spine. “And I thought you were just a nuisance to me… little did I know you were something much more important.” Gertie went for the pistol holstered on her left leg. “Uh, uh, uh… I wouldn’t do that if I were you, merc.” I turned my head and saw that Last Stand was flanked by a handful of other ponies from the company. I guess he had his new team.

I shook my head. “Gertie, no,” I ordered her. “Last Stand, what the hell is this for?”

“I always knew there was something wrong about you,” Last Stand growled between his teeth. “You know what the funny part is? I don’t even care about the reward. I just want you to get what’s coming to you.” He nodded his head towards the Sheriff’s Office. “Let’s get movin’.”

Last Stand and his lackeys waited for Silver, Gertie and I to move past them before searching us and removing all of our weapons. Gertie bristled at the idea of being disarmed, again. We were then forced to lead the way to the Sheriff's office.
As we got closer, I could see Old Tin reclining back in her chair on the porch. She was a deep blue unicorn mare with a graying mane. She always wore a cowpony hat and a neckerchief. She looked like every stereotypical sheriff in the western movies I used to watch as a foal. She leaned forward and stood up as Last Stand forced us forward.

“Now, Last Stand, what in tarnation are ya doing?” she called out.

“I have three prisoners I need you to hold on to until the Enclave comes back,” he grunted at her.

“And what law did they break ta become a guest o’ mine?” she questioned.

“He’s a dirty Enclave turkey and they want his ass,” he shot back. “And I want the reward.”

“So he did nothin’ wrong, then,” she laughed. “And t’ others?”

“Well, they’re friends of his and would probably try to break him out,” Last Stand tried to explain.

I heard a rumbling start to grow as we attracted a crowd. Many of the ponies, who had started to disperse after Funnel Cloud left, returned to the square to watch the new drama.

“Now, Last Stand,” the sheriff said, shaking her head. “Ah can’t keep ‘em locked up fer ya unless they done somethin’ wrong. Have any o’ ‘em broke any laws?”

He grumbled under his breath. “No,” he answered. “Fine, I’ll take care of this myself.” He turned to address the three of us. “I’ve got an idea. Let’s bring them to the stable.”

Silver and I exchanged nervous glances. “The stable?”

Last Stand laughed. “Yeah, the stable. One way in, one way out,” he chuckled. “And I know you won’t go exploring since the stable would probably kill you anyway!”

“Ah don’t think so,” another deep voice rumbled from the other side of the square. “Let our friends go!” Brownie rumbled from across the square.

Trotting across the square were Brownie and Flower. They were both carrying their weapons of choice and moving toward us rapidly.

“Brownie, Flower,” Last Stand grumbled. “Do not get involved. This has nothing to do with you.”

“That’s where yer wrong,” Flower fired back. “They are our friends and that has everything ta do wit’ us.”

Last Stand and his lackeys drew their weapons and aimed them at Brownie and Flower to repay the weapons being aimed their way.

“Now listen y’all!” the sheriff shouted. “Y’all put yer weapons down like civilized ponies!”

“Only if they do it first!” Last Stand yelled back. “He’s a proven liar and is wanted by his own military! He’s obviously the threat here!”

“Don’t ya think if his military wants ‘im back so badly he’s a threat ta them, not us!” Flower screamed back.

“He lied to us about who he was! How can we trust him!” a random pony from the crowd called out.

“What has he ever done to hurt us!” another yelled back.

The crowd broke down into two diametrically opposed sides. One side was calling for my incarceration and the other for my freedom. Neighbors were yelling at neighbors, friends threatening friends. The sheriff was trotting back and forth trying to put out fires before they blew out of proportion.

I almost didn’t see the bottle flying towards me. Ducking at the last second, the bottle flew over my head and crashed into the wall of the sheriff’s office behind me. That was all that was needed.

Ponies began to fight other ponies openly. Hooves were flying and ponies were tackling other ponies. Last Stand charged me. I braced myself for the impact but it never came. Brownie tackled Last Stand from the side and they both went tumbling away. They wrestled on the ground, neither seemingly having the upper hoof.

“Dust! Help!” I heard Silver scream. Looking towards the source of the scream, I saw one of Last Stand’s lackeys advancing on her. He still had his weapon drawn but it was currently aimed at the ground. I began to charge, having to sidestep a few combatants. Lowering my shoulder, I aimed for his midsection and made contact. He tumbled to the floor and I stumbled, but remained upright.

“And stay down!” I yelled as the stallion was trying to catch his breath.

“Silver, you alr…” I started to say. I felt a sharp impact on the back of my head. The world began to spin as the edges became black. Soon, I saw the ground rush up me at an alarming rate as my vision completely blacked out.

The void again. I was actually beginning to get accustomed to this.

“Foggy? One? Stranger?” I yelled out into the echoless blackness.

A sliver of light appeared before me. “C’mon on in, Dust, we need to talk,” the gravelly, female voice called out. The stranger.

I stepped up to the sliver and pushed with my hoof. The door swung open, revealing a room that looked a lot like the general’s office in Fort Canterbury. The same large map dominated the one wall but a large, opulent desk dominated the room. The windowed wall revealed the jet black of the void. Sitting behind the desk was the robed figure I have had several confusing conversations with already.

“So, we meet again, Dust, or should I call you Updraft now?” the voice rasped.

“Does it really matter?” I asked, rather aggravated.

“It does matter,” she responded. “Who are you?”

“What do you mean?” I asked, confused by the point of the question.

The windows behind the desk flashed bright before resolving into an image. Gaunt pegasi were lined up, clutching some sort of paper. Their cheeks were sunken and you could make out their ribs. One mare near the front of the line was clutching a small foal.

“Mommy, ah we getting food today?” the small pony asked.

“Yes sweetheart, we are,” the mother said, not very convincingly.

“Mommy, why are so many ponies hungwy?” the foal continued.

“You see, Gusty,” the mother started to answer. “It’s hard growing food up in the clouds. And there are so many pegasi. We all have to share what little we have.”

“Why can’t they just gwow moah food?” the foal innocently asked.

The mother pointed towards a tall, white tower with a cloud and lightning bolt symbol at the top in the distance. “See the tower over there?” she asked. The foal nodded. “That tower controls the clouds. Without it we couldn’t control them. A long time ago, the pony who built them didn’t turn them on all the way and hid the key to do it. We have some control of the clouds, but not all of them.”

“Oh,” the foal said, pondering the answer she just received. “Why can’t we build moah towews?”

“The pony who hid the key?” the mother started. “She also hid the way to build them.”

“Oh,” the foal answered. A loud grumble filled the air. “Mommy, I’m so hungwy.”

“I know, Gusty, I know,” the mother said trying to comfort her.

After a few more minutes they made it to the front of the line.

A well fed looking pegasus in a military uniform looked at the pair with an empty glare. “Voucher,” he ordered.

The mother handed it over with a shaking hoof. The solder placed the voucher in a box and reached into a different one. He turned and placed two sickly looking carrots on the table. “Next!” he yelled.

“B,but sir!” the mother protested. “This is barely enough for one pony, much less the two of us. We need more.”

“Look, lady,” the solder gruffly responded. “This is all you get. Take your carrots, count yourself lucky and move. I have to keep this line moving,” he rebuked. “Next!” he yelled out looking over her.

She grabbed the carrots off the table and handed them to the foal. “Here you go, sweetheart,” she cooed. “Eat these so you grow up big and strong.”

“What about you, mommy?” the foal asked, tears rolling down her face.

“It’s OK, sweetie,” the mother responded through her own tears. “We’ll try again tomorrow.”

The image in the windows faded.

“Why did you show me that?” I demanded of the cloaked figure.

“Oh, I’m not done yet,” she sadly responded, pointing towards the large map.

The graphics on the map faded as they were replaced with an image.

It appeared the be the Wasteland, but it was darker than I ever remembered it. The cloud cover was an ominous shade of gray, darker than I ever remembered seeing it. And it was nearly uniform in color. Usually there were light spots and dark spots, but this cloud cover was solid.

A large house was visible. It appeared to be Manny’s plantation house, but it was hard to tell in this darkness. I could barely make out shouting in the background. The image shifted to show a cave opening. Two military pegasi were flanking either side with laser weapons mounted on their battle saddles. Walking in and out of the opening were ragged-looking ponies drawing carts behind them. The carts would go in the cave empty, but they would come out filled with baskets of fresh fruit and vegetables.

“Keep moving dirtponies! We have a lot of produce to move!” another military pegasus yelled towards the ponies drawing the carts.

A crashing sound drew my attention and I saw it was from a cart that had tipped when it’s puller had fallen to the ground.

“Get up! Get up now!” the soldier yelled.

“I… I… can’t,” the earth pony muttered through grimaces and hisses of pain.

“Get up now or else!” the soldier yelled again.

The pony tried to shift his weight. But the instant he tried to put weight on his front hooves, they collapsed under him and he fell to the ground again. “No.. no.. I’m alright, I swear!” he begged.

The soldier nodded towards one of the pegasi flanking the doorway. A bright red beam lanced from his rifle, striking the downed pony square in the chest. His body began to emanate a red light as it began to fall apart at the extremities. In short order, a small pile of red, glowing dust was in the pony’s place. The soldier activated a radio on his shoulder with his chin, “Chains, this is Cornucopia. We need another worker. And try to make this one younger. Over,” he said into the microphone.

The image faded from the map, replaced with the familiar lines and markings.

“Who are you?” the shrouded figure asked one more time.

“I don’t understand the question!” I shouted back.

“Are you Updraft the Enclave operative? Or are you Dust the Wasteland pony?” she asked.

“How can I answer that!” I cried out. “I’m both!”

“But I thought you said you had nothing in common with the Enclave?” the figure asked, bemused.

“If you’re talking about the military, I don’t,” I muttered, fighting back my frustration. “But there are good ponies up there! Misinformed and ignorant, but they don’t mean poorly.”

“So you’re an Enclave pegasus then?” she asked. She flipped around a picture frame sitting on the desk. In the frame was an animated image of Brownie and Flower. They were sickly looking and clutching each other. “But what about them?”

“That’s not fair!” I shouted. “Those are my friends. Of course I can’t turn my back on them.”

The cloaked figure turned around another picture frame. This one had an image of Buster and my mother fighting off Enclave military pegasi. “What about them?”

I was speechless.

“Who are you!” the figure demanded.

“I don’t know!” I cried out and buried my face in my hooves. “You can’t make me choose! I can’t!”

“Dust, Updraft, whoever you are. I’m not making you choose,” she said. “But you have to make a choice. You can’t be one without harming the other.”

“How can I choose?” I cried. “If I choose the Enclave, I am dooming all the ponies down here to a miserable life, for as long as that lasts, even if they aren’t Enclave slaves. If I choose the Wasteland, I am dooming the Enclave to widespread starvation. I just can’t make that decision.”

“And where does Silver fit in all of this? Or is it Gertie now? It’s so hard to keep track,” the stranger queried.

“Low blow,” I mumbled.

“Doesn’t make it any less true,” the figure admitted. “Who are you?”

“I… I don’t know,” I admitted.

“Until you do,” the figure said, gravely, “you will not know what you need to do.”

The room faded to black.

My eyes fluttered open and the foggy haze faded. I was laying on a red, threadbare couch. My head was throbbing, but given recent history, this time wasn’t so bad. Looking around the room I was in, I saw a desk and one lone jail cell. I must have been inside the sheriff’s office.

“Dust, are you OK?” Silver asked as she walked over to my side.

“I’m OK, considering,” I asked, rubbing the back of head and finding a large lump. “Rock or bottle?”

“Rock, as far as we could tell,” she answered.

“How long?” I asked.

“About ten minutes,” she answered.

“Huh,” I grunted. “It felt longer than that.” I began to notice the rumble of a fight going on outside. “What’s going on?”

“It’s horrible,” Silver muttered moving towards the window. “The whole town is fighting. A lot of them are scared of the Enclave. Some want to turn you over to keep them from coming back and doing something horrible to the town. The other half want nothing to do with helping the Enclave and see you as a way to be a pain in their side. The sheriff is trying to calm things down, but every time she calms down a pocket, another one flares up.”

No. I had to stop this. I wasn’t going to be the reason Coltington turned on itself. I needed to be a solution, not a problem. I had an idea. Looking around the office, I found a repeater rifle hanging on the wall. I trotted over to it and grabbed it off the wall. Opening the chamber, I saw that the sheriff kept it loaded.

Silver eyes widened when she saw me take the weapon. “Dust?” she asked. “What do you think you’re doing with that?”

“Stopping this,” I said grimly as I walked to the door.

Swinging the door open, I saw that the situation had not really improved since I had been knocked out. Ponies I had known my entire time down in the Wasteland were still fighting amongst themselves. Many were muzzle to muzzle, shouting at the top of their lungs. Some had weapons drawn, but not aimed at each other. Yet. A few were wrestling on the ground, getting in kicks whenever they could. Fortunately, I could not hear individual arguments.

I aimed the rifle skyward and activated the trigger. The gun kicked like a mule, but I held on as it boomed. The crowd jumped, nearly in unison. The din of the fighting ceased almost immediately. The dozens of ponies in the square looked me in unison. Slowly, lest I be seen as a threat, I placed the repeater on the floor next to me.

I cleared my throat, steeling myself for what I was about to do. “Mares and gentlecolts! Please stop fighting over me. All I ask is that you give me a chance to explain things. I will ultimately concede to whatever the town decides, but I do want to give you some very important information.”

Everypony was now giving me their rapt attention, even Last Stand who had been fighting with the sheriff just now. “I won’t beat around the bush. My name is Updraft. Yes, I came to Coltington as an Enclave spy. Yes, I lied to you about who I was, over and over again. I know that this revelation gives you no reason to trust me now.

“I know that is isn’t enough, but all I can really say is that I’m sorry. My mission, at the time, was to get to know about the Wasteland and how it works. You have to understand that most pegasi above the clouds don’t know that there are good ponies down here. Hell, I didn’t even know there were good ponies down here. We’re taught all our lives that there is nothing but monsters down here.”

Some ponies started to grumble about what I was saying. I raised my hoof to try and calm the crowd. “I tell you this so you understand where I come from and not to insult,” I explained. The crowd seemed to accept that and calmed down. “I was under orders to collect information and report back to the Enclave. I was led to believe that we would be trying to help, or at the very least, co-exist, with you. I really thought I’d be helping.

“And you are all familiar with Muddy. We came down together as a team,” I said, scanning the crowd. Some rumbling began to arise, but I kept talking, hoping not to lose my momentum. “Well, Muddy… he went crazy when we found out we would never be going home again even though we were told we’d only be down here for about a year. He didn’t take too kindly to that. Not to mention, I stopped him from assaulting Silver here inside the stable. What he was going to do, I don’t know for sure, but I can tell you it wasn’t going to be pleasant.

“Now that you know all about my identity, let’s talk about who I am. All I ask now is that you think about who you came to know me as, Dust. Dust was never an act. I may have lied about where I came from, but I always acted true to myself. Everything I did, it was the true me. When I worked with all of you in the ruins of the Wasteland, trying to earn as many caps as possible, that was me. When I risked myself to help us clear a ruin with as few casualties as possible, that was me.”

I began to scan the crowd, looking for ponies I knew well. “Sage! Tumble! Those nights we played poker long into the night? That was me. Redheart! When I helped search for your missing foal? That was me. Last Stand! I know we never got along but, name one time I ever did anything to hurt somepony!”

The entire crowd turned their head at the same time to look at Last Stand. If his coat wasn’t so dark, I swear I could see the blood drain from his face. “Well, um, I can’t,” he stammered out among the gaze of the crowd.

“And haven’t I always tried to be helpful when I could?” I asked.

“I… I… guess,” he muttered. “But that doesn’t justify your lie!” he shouted, trying to regain the upper hoof.

“Well, you’re right, no I can’t. All I can do is ask for your forgiveness for that. And that you judge me for my actions while I was here living among you. Look, I’m not asking you to take my word for it. Talk to Brownie. Talk to Flower. Talk to Silver. For Celestia’s sake, talk to Gertrude, the Talon merc that came with me,” I pleaded. “Let them tell you what they saw.” I turned to the Sheriff. “Sheriff, I will turn myself into you while the town decides what they want to do. I will abide by whatever decision they make. I leave myself at your mercy.”

I heard a few gasps from the crowd, none louder than the one that came from behind me. I turned to look and saw Silver with her hoof over her mouth. “Dust, are you sure about this?” she asked, her face turning white.

“Yes, I’m sure,” I said with a sigh. “I’m sick of the lying. If the ponies here can’t see me for who I am, then I will never convince them otherwise. But I refuse to let the Enclave drive a wedge between ponies down here. Enough damage has been caused.”

I walked back into the sheriff’s office and into the lone jail cell. I momentarily flashed back to the prison cell in Fetlock Flats where the would-be assassin took his own life rather than serve the town. I thought I saw a splatter of red against the far wall, but when I blinked, it disappeared.

The sheriff walked in and closed the door behind her. “Dust, ya don’t hafta do this,” she said sadly.

“Yes I do,” I replied. “If you don’t lock me up, the ponies will worry about me leaving, angering half of that crowd. I told them I’d abide by their decision and I will be a pony of my word. I will not be the reason an attack squad of flyers get sent here. The town wouldn’t last five minutes.” I pulled the jail cell door shut behind me and sat down on the small bed inside.

The door to the office squeaked open again. Gertie walked in carrying a small duffel bag. “Well, don’t ever let it be said you can’t cause a scene, Dust,” she said with a giggle. “You should hear the conversations that are going on outside. The town is in a uproar right now, but fortunately there is no violence… yet.”

“Thanks, Gertie,” I deadpanned. “What’s in the bag?”

“Well, it’s our stuff,” she responded, dropping the bag on the sheriff’s desk. She turned to the sheriff. “By the way, you’ll find a jet black earth pony out there on the ground with a swollen face.” She placed her two claws in front of her, upturned. “I’m turning myself in for his assault.”

“Jet black? Last Stand? What did you do?” I said, partially in shock and partially laughing.

“Well, I asked him nicely for our stuff back and he refused,” she answered flatly. “He tried to sic Frik and Frak on me, but I convinced them otherwise.” She turned to face the sheriff again. “Oh, you’ll find those two with the other pony as well.” Gertie simply shrugged.

The sheriff was shocked. When her brain finally had a chance to process what was just said, she dropped her head and just shook it. “I think I’ll forego the charges, this time,” she laughed. “Besides, I don’t think Last Stand will press charges when I tell him he’d be arrested for attempted kidnapping.”

Gertie laughed. “Sheriff, if it’s OK, I’d like to spend the night here watching over Dust,” Gertie asked. “I am sworn to protect my contract holder.”

“I ain’t got no problem with that,” the sheriff replied with a laugh. “Hell, I wasn’t gonna even lock the door.” The sheriff turned and walked towards the front door. “The couch is purty comfy fer sleepin’, if ah do say so mahself.” She strode out of the office and closed the door behind her.

I turned to Gertie. “Sworn to protect my contract holder? Where did you get that from?” I asked, giggling.

“I don’t know,” she said, while shrugging. “It sounded good, didn’t it?” We both laughed heartily.

“So what are you going to do, Dust?” Gertie asked, sitting on the couch.

I laid down on the bed and leaned back with my hooves behind my head. “You know what? For right now, my only plan is to lay here and wait for the decision they make,” I mused. “Ever since all this shit started, all I’ve been doing is thinking, and something tells me when I get out of here, I will have to start thinking all over again. It will be nice to not have to think for once.”

“I think you’re right,” she responded, reclining on the couch herself.

Something didn’t feel right. It was as if there was something I needed to do, but forgot what it was. I scoured my mind, trying to remember what it was.

“Um, Dust,” Gertie asked nervously. “Before you check out, can we talk about last night?”

Oh… fuck… that’s what it was. “Sure,” I answered. But I wasn’t sure I was ready to talk about this.

“What do you think of us?” she asked.

“Well, that’s a tough question, Gertie,” I said. “First, can you tell me what happened last night?”

“Long story short…” she started. “You downed two whole bottles of whatever it was and then tried to make a move on me. But you were too inebriated to really do anything. You passed out drunk on the mattress. I stripped us both down and laid down with you, seeing as how it was the only bed.” She sat up, with a pained look on her face. “I wrapped you in my legs, and, at some point during the night, you returned the favor. But that’s all that happened.”

“Oh, thank goodness,” I said with a sigh of relief. I saw a pained expression flash across her face. “I didn’t mean it like… oh goddesses.” I took a deep breath. “Gertie, look… I feel something for you. I’m not sure what it is, but I care about you. But I love Silver. Even after seeing her with Scrapyard, I still do. I just hope she can forgive me and take me back,” I admitted. “I’m sorry that I’ve been sending mixed signals. It’s not my intent to lead you on.”

Gertie took a few short breaths and sobbed. “I know, Dust. Even back at camp, I knew you loved somepony else,” she explained. “Since we’re being honest here, I love you Dust. I know I haven’t known you that long, but you are such an amazing pony. You are strong and selfless. You are sacrificing yourself in order to save ponies, many of whom want you dead simply because you’re a pegasus. I know I could never be that forgiving. And on some level, I know you weren’t as into me as I am into you. And I understand. Please just know that if you can ever give me a chance, I’ll be here waiting.” She took a few deep breaths. “I need to clear my head. And please don’t feel bad, it’s not your fault. I’ll be back later, OK?” she asked.

“Gertie, I’m so s…” I started.

“Dust, shhh,” she said, while hushing me with a talon in front of her beak. “I’ll be back later, I promise. And I’m fine.” I didn’t believe her.

She strode to the door and gave me one last look, longingly. She turned and disappeared through the door. And then, I was along with the silence… and my own thoughts.

After about an hour, the door creaked open again. It was starting to get dark, so I could only imagine that it was early evening. First, I only saw the silhouette of two ponies, but it quickly clarified into Brownie and Flower.

“Ya have no idea what mess you started out thar, Dust,” Brownie said as he strode towards my jail cell. “The town is in a fuss over this.”

“Yeah, Dust,” Flower added excitedly. “Last time I saw everyone this excited was when that alicorn was spotted a few miles out. I think everypony except the foals is discussing you in one way or another.”

“Well, at least I made my mark,” I sighed. “Not what I wanted to be known for, but there it is. Tartarus, I didn’t even want to be known at all. Which way does it seem to be heading?”

“Raht now, seems ta be split, fifty-fifty,” Brownie informed me. “Some folks’r a might upset ya lied. Some folks’r defendin’ ya fer all ya did fer em while ya were here. Others jus’ wanna stick it ta tha Enclave.”

“Dare I ask which side you guys are falling on?” I asked, a little afraid of the answer.

Brownie and Flower glanced at each other and then back at me. “Now that’s a dumb question ta ask, Dust,” Flower scoffed. “We still aren’t happy that ya lied ta us. But, ya learn a lot about somepony by fighting alongside em. You’ve always given one hundred and ten percent of yourself ta help others, even if it meant putting yourself in danger. And a lot of the town seems ta knows that, too. Especially after talking ta Gertie.” Flower and Brownie both flashed a sad look on their faces. “A lot of the town was shocked ta hear what you went through. A lot feel bad fer ya.”

“Thanks, guys,” I said, tears forming in my eyes. “You have no idea how much that means to me.”

“Yer welcome,” Brownie responded. “But, ya need ta know. A lot of ponies arn’t happy that yer Enclave. They won’t listen ta any reason.”

“That’s alright. I made my bed, I have to lie in it,” I said with a sigh. “I just hope I’ve won over enough.”

“Well, whatever happens, Dust, we believe in ya,” Flower said, trying to comfort me.

The door creaked open again and another pony walked in. This time it was Silver, and she was holding a tray with a bowl of something steaming on it. “Oh!” she said with a start. “Brownie, Flower. I didn’t expect to run into you here. I’ll come back later.”

“Nah, it’s alright,” Brownie said with a wave of his hoof. “We were jus’ leavin’ anyway. See you tomorrow morning, Dust.”

“See you guys,” I added. They turned and walked past Silver and closed the door behind them. “So, come to see the condemned?” I asked, jokingly.

“Condemned?” she asked, clearly confused.

“Bad joke,” I answered. “Anyway, what do you have there?”

“I figured I’d bring you some dinner,” she replied. “I got you a bowl of the stew from the other night, you seemed to enjoy it.”

I pushed the door open as she got near. She jumped in surprise. “The sheriff didn’t think it was necessary. She doesn’t see the need for all this anyway,” I explained. I smelled the stew as she got near. “Mmmm.. thanks Silver, I appreciate this.”

“Well, I couldn’t let you starve, could I?” she answered.
She sat down on the couch in the office as I hungrily chowed down the stew. It tasted just as good as it did the day before. After slurping the last of the liquid, I put the bowl back down.
“That hit the spot,” I said with a little burp at the end. “Excuse me.”

Silver chuckled a little. “It’s OK,” she said between chuckles. “You have no idea the afternoon I’ve had. Everypony in town wanted to talk to me about you. We’ve all been busy: Brownie, Flower, your merc friend and me. Everypony wants to know what we know about you.”

“Understandable,” I replied with a nod. “Up until yesterday, I was one of them. Today, I am an Enclave spy. Not to mention how it came out.”

“Yeah, I know,” Silver said dejectedly. “I still don’t like it. It’s not like you hurt anypony.”

“Yeah, but think about it,” I answered. “Name one time the Enclave have done anything positive down here.”

Silver paused and looked in deep thought. “I guess you’re right,” she admitted. There was an awkward pause and it looked like she was going to say something several times but stopped. “Dust, can we talk about us, and the griffon?”

My heart skipped a beat, but I guess I knew this was unavoidable. “Yeah, we might as well,” I mumbled. “Silver, look…”

“Dust, please, let me go first,” she cut me off. “I have already forgiven you for hooking up with that griffon…”

It was my turn to cut her off. “But nothing…” I tried to say.

“That’s not the point,” she said. “You obviously have feelings for her. And I know you have, had, feelings for me,” she added awkwardly. “I know I shouldn’t, but I feel awful for starting something with Scrapyard, but what was I supposed to do?”

“Silver… I don’t blame you at all,” I answered. “You had no idea if or when I was coming back. It was weeks, months, that I’d been gone. And it’s not like there was a plan. Was I hurt when I saw you with him? Yes. Was I mad? Yes, at first. But I still love you.”

“Yeah…” she said and then stopped. My heart skipped a beat. “But I can’t wrap my head around this griffon. How long were you with her?”

“Well, all in all? A few weeks in captivity, a few weeks at her merc camp, I guess,” I answered.

“Do you love her?” she answered, shuffling her hooves.

“I… I’m not sure,” I said, after thinking a little. “I know I feel something for her. But I don’t know what it is for sure. I didn’t think it was possible for me to feel for somepony else when I already had a special somepony, but there is something there.”

Silver simply looked at me, stunned. “Well… well, I appreciate the honesty.”

“Do you still love me?” I asked, fearing the answer.

“I… I don’t know,” she said, which floored me and made my stomach lurch. “Every time I think of you, I see you with the griffon. But I can’t stop thinking about you. And it hurts.” She was nearly crying.

“Silver, please believe me when I say that I am so sorry for all of this,” I pleaded with her.

“I know, Dust,” she said. “I need time.” She paused, again looking like she wanted to say something. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Dust. Good night.” She walked over to me and gave me a kiss on the cheek. She turned and walked through the door, giving me a long glance before closing the door.

Today sucks.

A couple of more hours passed with no more visitors. I could see through the windows that it was an inky black outside. I laid my head down on the pillow and, breaking my own plan, thought about everything that had happened today. Between Gertie’s feelings for me, Brownie’s and Flower’s report of the attitude of the town, and then Silver’s admission that she may not love me anymore, it all made me exhausted. Gertie hadn’t yet come back from wherever it is that she went and I wondered if she would come back here at all, given what had been said. After running circles in my mind for a while, I finally drifted off to sleep.

I woke with an uneasy feeling and looked around the sheriff’s office. Somepony had come by and turned off all the lanterns. The office was pitch black and I could barely see outside the cell, much less beyond.

“Gertie, are you out there?” I called out, wondering if she had finally come back. I strained to listen for some response when I heard the soft sound of somepony breathing. The breathing pattern did not sound like somepony sleeping. “Gertie? Silver?”

The racking of a shotgun slide sent shockwaves through my system. “Hi, Dust,” said the low, rumbling voice of Last Stand. “It’s about time we had a talk.”

I saw a spark and then a lantern slowly came to life. It cast long shadows against the walls and barely illuminated Last Stand’s features. Then again, with his coloring, I doubt I’d be able to see him anyway. He picked up the lantern and placed it on a small table between the couch and the cell. Last Stand sat down on the couch with a few creaks of the springs.

“Why?” he said after a long silence.

“I don’t get the question,” I answered. “Why what?” I grumbled at him. “Why did I come down here? Why did I lie? Why did I come back? What do you want to know?” Last Stand just glared at me. “Look, I’m not going to waste your time here. I assume you either have spoken with everypony or have heard from somepony in town. By this point, you know I was an Enclave spy. You know my secrecy was an order for the duration of my time down here. You know that I was just supposed to collect information.”

I waited for some sort of acknowledgement from Last Stand, but none were forthcoming. I am so glad he never came to any of our poker games. He could probably bluff and win with only four cards in his hoof.

“And why did I come back?” I barked. “I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t for Silver. She was a big part of why I came back. But it’s not that simple. The Enclave has something bad planned for the Wasteland. And I can’t just sit back and let it happen,” I explained, becoming more aggravated as time wore on. “Oh… and of course, I want to get revenge on Muddy for assaulting Silver, killing One and Midnight Ink, and threatening my friends. And for all he has done to me.”

A cold silence filled the room as Last Stand simply measured me up. His lack of movement was unnerving, not to mention the fact that he never let go of his shotgun. After a long, eerie wait, he simply stood up, turned off the lantern and made his way out of the sheriff’s office.

“Good talking to you, too,” I called out sarcastically. I laid back down in bed and fell into a very uneasy, fitful sleep.

I must have been in one of my longer periods of “sleep” when I was startled awake by the sound of the door opening.

“Wakey, wakey, Dust,” Old Tin shouted as she walked in the door. “Sorry ta wake ya, but the mayor wanted me ta collect ya fer the vote. Seems like the town is gettin’ impatient.”

“Alright, Sheriff,” I said, resigned to my fate. “Let’s get this over with.”

The sheriff gave me a sad nod, and waited for me to fall astride of her. As soon as we made it out of the door, I saw that nearly the entire town had gathered. It was a much more peaceful gathering than yesterday. Ponies were packed in tight and there was a soft rumble as ponies discussed, assumedly, my fate amongst themselves. A sea of heads turned as the nearest heard the sheriff’s door close and the rest of the crowd followed suit. An eerie silence fell over the crowd.

It was a short walk to the front of town hall where the mayor was waiting. I never really got to know the mayor. Every now and then she’d make an announcement to the town, or congratulate a newly married couple or a couple expecting a new foal. Her face looked unusually grim, but I guess I understood why. Gertie was waiting in the front row as close to the mayor as was possible.

After the sheriff and I made our way to the side of the mayor, she cleared her throat with the entire town staring. “I’m not happy for the duty I must perform today,” she started her speech. “I never imagined we’d have somepony in town that we couldn’t trust, but here we are. Now, after overhearing discussions last night, I figure we have a few options. One, we could hold on to Dust here until the Enclave officers come back. Two, we could exile Dust. Or three, we could just continue letting him live here and protect him as best we could when the Enclave comes back.

“Or we could just kill him now and get it over with,” a pony called out from the crowd.

“I will not support murder,” the mayor shouted in response. “All I will say is this. After thinking about his situation last night, while I do not support his reasons, I can understand why he did what he did. After talking with many of you, I also know he has done far more good for this town than not,” she added in support. “But, I will leave this decision completely up to you since we will need to deal with the repercussions together. All those in favor of executing Dust, raise a hoof now.”

Thankfully, only one pony raised a hoof for this option. It was the same pony that raised the option. I released a breath I didn’t even realize I had been holding.

“Alright then,” the mayor continues. “All those in favor of exiling him, raise a hoof now.” A decent amount of ponies raised their hooves. I scanned the audience looking for Last Stand. His jet black coat betrayed him and I saw he was a couple rows back, dead center. His hoof wasn’t raised.

The mayor sighed deeply. “Now, all those in favor of turning Dust over to the Enclave?” she asked.

At first, a good number of hooves shot up in the air. Searching the crowd, I was trying to see who was sentencing me to this horrific fate. But the one thing I noticed was that I did not see a jet black hoof in the air.

A pony cleared their throat with a deep, growling rumble. The crowd looked towards the source of the sound. It was Last Stand. I was floored. The ponies whose hooves were in the air slowly lowered them. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

The mayor breathed a sigh of relief. “And finally, who is in favor of freeing Dust and letting him do as he pleases?” At first, only a few ponies raised their hooves. Last Stand had a unsure look on his face. Finally, and slowly, he raised his hoof. Gradually, the rest of the town followed suit. It was so touching that my eyes began to well up with tears.

“Well, it appears the matter is settled,” the mayor declared. She turned to me. “Dust, you are free to come and go as you please.” She turned back towards the town. “Thank you everypony! You have confirmed my faith in ponykind today.” She turned and made her way into town hall.

The crowd began to disperse and heading back to their daily routines. Flower, Brownie, Silver and Gertie all rushed me on the porch and locked me in a huge hug.

“Dust, we’re so happy!” Silver cried out. “I can’t believe Last Stand actually supported you!”

“I know,” I mumbled, still flabbergasted. “I wonder what that was about.”

Almost as if the goddesses were listening to us, Last Stand strode up to us. “Dust,” he said flatly.

“Last Stand,” I answered in kind.

“Aren’t you curious?” he asked.

“Of course I am,” I said. “But I figured you’d tell me if you felt like it.”

“Dust, after talking to everypony, I saw that you’ve done more for this town than I have,” he admitted with some shame in his voice. “When most of the townsponies told me what you’ve done for them, and hearing about the torture you endured all in the name of helping the Wasteland, I knew I couldn’t turn you back over to them. I just never saw that in you before. I chose not to.”

“Last Stand,” I said, choked up. “Thank you.”

“Eh,” he shrugged off. “I still don’t like you,” he laughed, turned and cantered away.

“Who’s the son of a bitch?” Gertie asked.

“That’s Last Stand, and it’s a long story,” I said with a laugh. Brownie, Flower, and Silver all laughed also while Gertie had a confused look on her face.

“Well, let’s go celebrate, Dust!” Flower exclaimed with a slap on my back. She started trotting in the direction of Horseton House.

“Thanks, but sorry Flower,” I said, freezing her in her tracks. “This was an unexpected delay. I need to go see what Muddy and the general are up to. I’m heading out to Manny’s. I don’t care what Funnel Cloud threatened.”

“Well, we’re coming with…” all three started to say at the same time.

“Wow, I appreciate it but...” I interrupted them.

“No, Dust,” Brownie fired back. “Yer not gonna pull this it’s not yer fight bullshit again and then try ta sneak off without us. Haven’t ya learned yer lesson yet?”

“Brownie, if you’ll let me finish,” I answered with a modicum of mock annoyance. “What I was going to say was to wait since I have to go get my stuff from the sheriff’s office.”

Flabbergasted, the group looked around at each other. And then we all broke out laughing at about the same time.

Level up!

Speech - 55

Perk Obtained:

Convincing: “Duck season! Rabbit season!” You have talked your way out of many bad situations. Gain +1 CHR

Chapter 24 - Intel

Chapter 24 - Intel
“It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.”

The laughter died down after a short time.

“We thought ya’d never ask, Dust,” Brownie said, still catching his breath from the laughter. “Flower and I were ready ta fight with ya ‘bout it.”

“Yeah, Dust,” Flower added. “I was even ready ta tie ya up ta make sure ya didn’t ditch us again.”

“Thanks, I guess?” I said with a shrug. “Not that I don’t appreciate it guys, but why are you coming with me after all I’ve done?”

“We thought ‘bout it and figured ya didn’t have a choice but ta lie ta us,” Brownie reasoned. “Ya were under orders, and ya couldn’t go home if ya broke ‘em.”

“Yeah, but why take up my fight with me?” I asked, still curious.

“Well, this isn’t really just yer fight, Dust,” Flower replied, placing a hoof on my shoulder. “The Enclave is bad news fer us down here. Ah don’t know what they’re up ta, but it ain’t good for us, I know that.”

I grunted and nodded in agreement. Even though I didn’t know all the details of their plan, I knew that the general and Muddy didn’t care about the Wastelanders. So whatever they had planned, it wasn’t good.

“So, what’s the plan?” Silver asked. “How are you going to take on Muddy and the Enclave?”

I had to think about this for a while. What was my plan? Did I even have an idea of what I was going to do? Was I just going to traipse into the Enclave encampment and demand they leave? Fat lot of good that was gonna do…

“Dust!” Silver shouted in my ear. “Are you still with us?”

“Huh?” I gasped while jumping in surprise. “Um, yeah, sorry... I was thinking.” Forgetting what I was thinking about, I blinked blankly for several seconds. “What did you ask?”

“What is your plan?” Silver repeated with a sigh.

“Well, I don’t think I have one,” I sheepishly admitted. “I figure we can’t come up with anything until we see what we’re up against.” I looked towards the east. “I guess we have to go to Manny’s first.” I felt something unsettling in the pit of my stomach.

“You figure? You guess?” Gertie squawked. “Dust, we are going up against the best trained military left in the Wasteland. You can’t go in half cocked.”

“Well, I can’t go in not knowing exactly what we’re up against, can I?” I shouted back, my breath heaving.

My friends looked at me strangely. They glanced at each other uncomfortably looking like they wanted to say something. Brownie finally stepped forward and placed a hoof on my shoulder. “Dust? Are ya OK?” he asked softly.

“Yeah, yeah I am, Brownie,” I lied. Something was bothering me, but I wasn’t quite sure what it was. “Alright, well, we gotta get going. Let’s meet back here in an hour. Get whatever you need for the trip.” I paused and gave everypony a grave look. “I don’t know how long we’ll be gone.”

Brownie and Flower turned and headed towards their home on the outskirts of town. Gertie, meanwhile, headed towards the inn. Silver looked like she was going to go also, but then she stopped.

“Dust, what’s bothering you?” she asked me, grabbing my hoof.

“Nothing,” I snapped. After taking a deep breath, I added, “I don’t know Silver, I really don’t. But you’ll be the first I tell if you want.”

Her mouth opened, and then closed again. She paused for a little. “Sure, fine.” Silver gave me a long, somber glare and turned to head towards Scrapyard’s house.

My gear was still stored in the Sheriff’s office, so I began to make my way back there. My mind began to think about how in Tartarus a small band of Wastelanders, and one former Enclave, would stand up against the forces that had been sent down here. And Gertie had a point, regardless of how poorly I took it. It was going to be five against Celestia knows how many soldiers. We needed a plan, and we needed it quickly. If only we knew what they were up to.

And how was I going to keep everypony safe? My friends were putting their trust and their lives in my hooves. Brownie and Flower were in love and deserved happiness. Who was I to interfere with that? And what if one of them died? Could I keep them safe?

And what about Silver and Gertie? They both had personal reasons to go after Muddy, but now it was bigger than that. To get to Muddy, we’d have to get through the military. And what if one of them died? I had feelings for both of them, and they both had feelings for me. It would be all my fault if something bad happened to them.

My thoughts were interrupted when I bumped into a solid object. Shaking my head clear, I saw I had walked right into the railing outside the sheriff’s office.

“Whoa there, pardner, watch where yer goin’,” the sheriff said with a laugh. “What’s got ya so distracted?”

“Oh, sorry, sheriff,” I muttered, a little embarrassed. “I’m just thinking about… well, it’s complicated. Hey, sheriff, I got a question for you. Where are your deputies?”

Her face darkened at the mention of deputies. “Well, that’s a long an’ sad story, Dust.” She sat down in a small bench on the porch of her office. She nodded towards the available end. “A few years ago, this town was attacked bah raiders, ah lot of raiders. Ah was jus’ made sheriff and ah wanted ta prove mahself ta the town. Ah convinced all mah deputies ta come with me ta take em out.” She paused, took a deep breath, and closed her eyes. “Lost every single one o’ em takin’ those bastards down.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t know,” I muttered. “And you haven’t replaced them yet?”

“Nah… Ah can’t bring mahself ta do it,” she responded. “Ah take care of all the law enforcement on mah own.”

“But how can you possibly protect the whole town?” I asked, feeling an unusual sense of urgency. “You can’t possibly take care of it all by yourself?”

She laughed. “Yer right, ah can’t,” she admitted. “But ah do mah best. Ah’m just lucky nothin’ really bad ever happens here. But ah’m so tired, Dust.”

“I know how you feel, sheriff,” I confided. Whether it was due to my constant state of being injured, or just how much shit had gone down, I was always very tired. I could use about a month’s vacation, and even that wouldn’t be enough.

“Hey, sheriff, one more question if you don’t mind?” I asked. She simply nodded in response. “Any ideas for going up against a better armed, better trained force that severely outnumbers you?”

She seemed to ponder this for a few moments. “Frankly, Dust,” she posed, giving me a deathly look. “Don’t.”

That’s what I was afraid she’d say.

I gathered up all my gear from the unlocked chest in the sheriff’s office. She wasn’t kidding when she said she wasn’t worried about me the night I was “jailed”. Glancing back at the threadbare couch, I thought back on the vision I had yesterday. I really hadn’t had time to process it yet.

What was the stranger trying to say? Who am I? I won’t know what to do until I know who I am? I had to stop Muddy, didn’t I? And who else could I be?

My thoughts were interrupted by a peal of thunder. I looked out the office window and saw that the sky had taken on a darker shade of gray, much like my vision. My blood ran cold momentarily. Was I still having a vision? Was everything that had happened in my head?

A booming voice summoned me from outside. “Hey, Dust! Are ya there?”

“Yeah, Brownie!” I called back as I walked out of the office breathing a sigh of relief. “What’s up?”

“Looks like rain,” he answered. “Are we gonna wait till it passes?”

I looked up at the sky as the first cold drops pelted me in the face. My Pipbuck began to click softly and slowly. “Yeah, Brownie, it doesn’t make sense to leave and get soaked… or glowy. Let’s go get some breakfast.”

It was a quick gallop to Horseton House, especially motivated as we were by the rain that was picking up, as was the clicking from my Pipbuck. We weren’t the only ponies to have the idea of getting out of the rain as many of the townsponies were galloping here and there.

The ground was beginning to get slick as we neared the entrance of the tavern. Nearly sliding right into the building, we were able to slow enough to enter without falling flat on our asses. The place was packed more than normal, likely due to the rain. We were immediately assaulted by the smell of a couple dozen waterlogged ponies mingling with whatever was being served today. It was an odd, and off-putting smell. However, I am sure that this wouldn’t stop us from partaking in some of whatever it was.

“Wipe your damn hooves!” Pot Luck yelled out from behind the bar. The mat at the door was already soaked through with the mud from the hooves of all the other ponies, but we did our best. We didn’t need to piss off the pony about to feed us.

The bar was filled with a loud buzz of several conversations happening all at once. Normally, I would take my seat at the small table in the corner, but I wasn’t looking to glean information off of anypony today. Instead, Brownie led us to one of the only open tables large enough for our group.

It was a small, round table off to one side of the bar away from the door. I sat down on one of the chairs and Silver maneuvered her way into the chair next to mine. Gertie’s face flashed a momentary glare, but she softened it quickly and slid into the chair on my other side. Silver gave her a short, sideways glance. Oh, Celestia, this was going to be fun.

“This doesn’t bode well fer us, does it?” Flower asked shaking the last of the water out of her mane and bringing me out of my concern for my newfound love triangle

“Hopefully it stops soon,” I said, hoping she was wrong. “Otherwise we are all in for an uncomfortable walk.”

“Well, at least ya three can fly and stay out of the mud,” Flower grumbled.

Gertie snickered a little at that statement. “Most likely not,” she scoffed. “The Enclave is probably going to set up aerial patrols searching for Dust. If they see any airborne pegasi, they will probably shoot first and ask questions later.” She shot me a serious look. “The Enclave doesn’t care if they kill off a few Wastelanders as collateral damage.”

There was a small, awkward pause. Thankfully, Brownie, broke the silence. “So, Dust, any progress on a plan, or are we still on wait an’ see?” he asked.

“Well, I think we need to get out to Manny’s and scout the situation,” I mused. “Unfortunately, if they have a Raptor down here, we’re going to be outnumbered at least twenty to one. Not to mention outgunned too. Unless you guys are hiding a large supply of energy weapons,” I shouted at them. Realizing my mistake, I closed my eyes and craned my head back. “Sorry, I know you’re trying to help. I just don’t know what we’re going to be able to do.”

“Well, is there anypony you can talk to to get any information?” Silver asked, clearly concerned.

“Well, if I knew where my mom or Buster were,” I responded, running through all of the ponies I could trust. It was a short list. After running out of ideas, I leaned back in my chair and sighed. “No, there is nopony I know.”

Brownie, Flower and Silver looked uncomfortably at each other.

“What?” I asked, aggravated by the situation. “What are you thinking of?”

Brownie looked at me nervously. “What about M… Midnight Ink?” he asked.

Midnight Ink? My stomach felt like it dropped several hundred feet without me. “What are you talking about?” I asked incredulously. “He’s dead. I was there when Muddy shot him.”

“Would he have had any idea about what the Enclave was up ta?” Flower asked, with some trepidation.

The rest of the group got into a discussion, but I was barely listening. I had forgotten all about Midnight Ink. If I hadn’t gone back to see him, maybe Muddy would have left him alone. Hell, maybe Muddy would have recruited him. But as it stood now, he was another in a long line of ponies who had either died or gotten hurt because of me and this fucking Pipbuck on my fetlock.

A loud thump caught my attention. “Huh? What?” I stuttered, nearly jumping out of my chair.

“Where did you go this time, Dust?” Gertie said with a chuckle, placing a claw on my shoulder. “You’ve been doing that a lot lately.”

“Bit fer yer thoughts?” Brownie offered inquisitively.

“What did you guys do with Midnight’s body?” I asked, hanging my head in shame.

“What do ya mean, Dust?” Flower responded placing a hoof on my shoulder. “We buried him right by his shack.”

“Did you give him any last rites?” I asked, still unfocused.

“Well, we said a prayer ta Celestia and Luna,” she responded uneasily.

It wasn’t Enclave last rites. That, of course, would fall on me. “We’re going back. I need to do right by Midnight,” I stated, flatly. “We’ll go once it stops raining.”

Everypony gave me a weird look and appeared to want to say something, but they all stayed silent.

The rest of breakfast was filled with nervous, yet inane conversation. This time, it was Gertie’s turn to learn more about Brownie and Flower. However, Gertie avoided talking directly to Silver and Silver did the same with Gertie. This was going to become an issue if I didn’t do something about it. But what could I do? They were jealous of one another and were trying to ‘win’ me.

The rain ended shortly after we finished eating. Ponies began to splash through town returning to their daily routines. My Pipbuck still clicked slowly, but I figured it was safe enough. Besides, we still had some Radaway.

Brownie led us to the edge of town where they had parked the skywagon. It was just as I remembered it, except for one large dent on the side. I ran my hoof along the dent. “What in Tartarus happened here?” I blurted out.

“Well, we only said she did a mite better,” Brownie replied, his cheeks reddening.

I could only roll my eyes in response. Memories of past cargo runs flashing through my head, I trotted to the front of the skywagon and saw Silver starting to prepare the straps to the wagon.

“Want me to help you strap in?” she asked, her voice a little tense.

“Sure,” I agreed. Gearing up was always a two pony job anyway. “Silver…” I started.

“Dust,” she interrupted, placing a hoof over my mouth. “What are your feelings for me and Gertie?”

“Um, well,” I stumbled over my words, floored by the unexpected question. I took a deep breath to collect myself. “Silver, I meant what I said before. You are the only reason I am still alive. I wanted to give up and die when I was being tortured by Muddy. But thinking of you kept me going, kept me alive. I wanted nothing more than to get back to you.”

“What I can’t wrap my head around is why you went back with her if you loved me so much?” she asked, pulling one strap way to tight.

“Ow!” I cried out, grimacing in pain.

Silver grimaced also. “Sorry!” she cried out, quickly loosening the strap a little.

“I won’t pretend and say that it was due solely to the alcohol,” I started. “I got close to Gertie when we were held captive together. She helped save me and was there to nurse me back to health. When I saw Scrapyard, I got hurt and I ran to her. I can’t explain it any better than that. All I can do is apologize.”

Silver looked like she was going to start to say something and then stopped. She opened her mouth and grunted and then closed it again. After that, she took a few deep, quick breaths.

“Bit for your thoughts?” I asked, bracing myself for something I may not want to hear.

“I want to hate you so much, Dust,” she admitted. “I mean, I saw you in that griffon’s arms, legs, claws, whatever!” She started pacing and her voice lowered. “When I saw that, my vision flashed red and I just had to get out of there and wanted to run! But, seeing you made me remember everything I felt for you and I couldn’t understand why I was with Scrapyard anymore! I know that I love you, and I probably always will. But how can I trust you again? I mean, if we get into a fight, what’s to say that you won’t run back to her! And then what am I going to do? I can’t go through all this again.”

I tried to move towards her but was held in place by the wagon. Straining against the harness, I grunted. “Oof.. “ After regaining my exposure, I started to talk again. “Silver… I know there is nothing I can do to erase what I’ve done. But as long as we are both alive, I swear it won’t happen again. I know the depth of my mistake and I do not ever want to go through that as well. I know a promise from me probably doesn’t mean much, but please know that I love you deeply and promise not to do anything to hurt you again.”

She seemed to be thinking about my words. We both sat there simply staring at each other. Then, she slowly walked over to me. When she got close enough, she stopped and hesitated. She reached out and wrapped a hoof around me and squeezed. “Dust, I do love you,” she said. “But, I don’t know if can trust you right now.”

My heart dropped and my jaw with it. She leaned in and gave me a short kiss on the cheek, turned, and trotted off to the passenger cabin.

“All aboard who are coming aboard!” Gertie hollered with a laugh.

Brownie, Flower and Silver all climbed inside the passenger cabin and Gertie reached out for the door.

“Where do ya think yer going?” Brownie asked, stopping the door from closing with a hoof.

“I get claustrophobic inside these things,” Gertie answered matter-of-factly. “I’ll fly out here with Dust.” I think I saw her give a quick glance to somepony behind Brownie, which I could only imagine was Silver, before looking back at Brownie.

“Alright,” Brownie responded, seemingly oblivious to the friction between Gertie and Silver.
Gertie closed the door and then walked up to me. “Ready to get this tub flying?” she asked slyly.

“Yeah, I guess so,” I replied with a sideways stare.

“What?” she responded defensively.

“Claustrophobic?” I asked. “I’ve seen your secret space, remember?”

“Hmm, yeah,” she murmured, her face turning red. “Look, I just can’t be inside an enclosed space with your special somepony,” she explained, acid dripping off the last two words.

“Look, Gertie,” I started to argue, but she cut me off again, extending one talon.

“Not now, let’s just get airborne,” she ordered.

Looking over my harness one last time, I saw that Silver had done an admirable job getting me hooked up. Tartarus, I dare say it was right up there with the tenders at the fort. My instincts kicked in and I reached for the flight helmet that should have been dangling from a hook behind me, but then realized this wasn’t a military transport. Even though it had been more than a year since I had flown a skywagon, I began to fall into old routines.

Automatically, my mind began to go through my old pre-flight checklist. First, I visually inspected the physical condition of the struts and harness that held me to the cabin. Without pegasus flight magic to be amplified by the flight talisman built into the cabin, the skywagon would plummet to the ground. I also gave myself a once over to make sure there were no injuries I was overlooking that would keep me from flying. I also needed to check the quick-releases on the harness to ensure I could get free if I needed to.

Even though I was not wearing my typical flight suit, with integrated comms, I continued with the next part of my preflight routine without thinking. “Transport pilot epsilon five requesting flight clearance,” I spoke absently into empty air.

“Umm, Dust, who are you talking to?” Gertie’s voice broke me from my focus on routine.

Startled, I jumped and hectically glanced around. When I saw Gertie’s raised eyebrows and the grin on her face, I felt my cheeks redden. “Um, old habits,” I admitted sheepishly.

“Well, pilot epsilon five,” she giggled, “I think you’ll be waiting a long time for clearance. Let’s just take off.”

I kicked the fuselage of the skywagon. “Alright ponies,” I called back. “Buckle up!”

Kicking up off the ground, I began to flap my wings. It had been a long time since I had hauled one of these things, but memories came rushing back. These bulky passenger transports were awkward to fly, even with the flight assist talisman, but nothing that challenging. In short order, I got us airborne and turned towards Midnight’s shack. It would be a couple of hours until we got there.

Gertie swooped in next to me and matched my speed. “So, Dust, can we talk?” she asked.

“Sure, why not?” I answered. “Not like I have anything else to do without comms.”

“I want to talk about us,” she said tentatively. “And we won’t be able to get any more privacy than this.”

“Oh, OK,” I muttered. This was a conversation I didn’t want to have right now.

“Before I say anything else, I know you love Silver and I know that probably won’t be changing anytime soon,” she stated. She then continued not allowing me a chance to interrupt. “But I need you to know that I love you, too. Laying with you that night made me feel things I have never felt before. I know you were drunk at the time, but the warmth, feeling your heartbeat, it made me feel things. Things that are real. Now, I know there is a chance that you will never feel the same for me as I feel for you as long as Silver is around. But, and I want an honest answer, if Silver isn’t in the picture anymore, do you think you could give me a chance?”

I turned to look at her to give her an answer and I saw tears forming at the edge of her teal eyes. I could see in those eyes she was desperately looking for hope. But could I give that to her? Without lying? “Gertie,” I began softly, “I was never good with the mares. I’ve loved before, but could never be brave enough to do anything about it. And then I found Silver and all that disappeared. I am sorry that I did what I did, twice, when drunk. I know that’s not anypony’s fairy tale ending. But I do feel something more than friendship here. How much more, I can’t honestly say. Could it be infatuation or even love? I guess it could, but I can’t know for sure.” I watched her reaction and she bit her beak. “I know it doesn’t answer your question, but it’s the best I can do.”

“Oh,” she said, dejected. I think I saw a tear form and start to roll down her cheek, but she turned away too quickly for me to see. “I guess I can understand that,” she tried to say confidently, but I could hear the wavering in her voice. “I, um, I’ll go watch our six.” And with that, she banked away and fell behind the skywagon.

This was going to be a long trip.

After a couple of hours of uncomfortable silence, I saw Midnight’s shack appear on the horizon. But something was not right… a thin stream of black smoke was emanating from the shack’s chimney. I kicked the fuselage of the wagon to alert the ponies inside.

“Something’s not right, ponies,” I called back loudly, hoping they could hear me inside. “Hold on, I’m going in for a landing.”

I began my descent towards Midnight’s shack, landing on the opposite side of the small rock formation I’d walked past many times. Bracing myself against the increased weight from the failing talisman, the skywagon was lowered gently to the ground.

The door creaked open and the large, brown body of Brownie galloped out and away from the cart. Right behind him was Flower. “C’mon, Brownie! That landing wasn’t that bad!” she called out, chasing after him. “C’mon, at least let me hold yer mane!”

Silver strode out of the wagon next and next to me. “Let’s get you out of that harness,” she said gently, grabbing one of the straps in her mouth.

Gertie landed on the other side of me. “And I’ll help out on this side,” she said, giving Silver a long, sideways glare. Silver simply growled in response.

“Shhh,” I shushed them. “Something’s not right. Keep it down.”

“Dust, it could just be a squatter who found an unoccupied place to live,” Gertie offered.

I dropped down to my stomach and crawled over to the edge of the rock formation between us and the shack. The EFS at the bottom of my vision showed no bars of any color coming from the shack. “Then why is there no marker on my Pipbuck?” I asked with a whisper. “I’m telling you… something's not right. Somepony is in that shack.”

Scanning the area, there was no cover between our position and the shack. Anypony inside would see us coming as soon as we left our cover here. “Assuming you’re right, I wonder if they saw us land?” Gertie asked.

“Ah can’t imagine they didn’t,” Brownie offered as he and Flower walked in behind us. “Flower and I made more’n enough noise, even if they didn’t see the wagon.”

“We need a distraction,” I blurted out. “Gertie, think you can get on the other side of the shack and draw their attention?”

She flashed back a wicked grin as she was already tossing and catching a grenade in her claw. “Way ahead of you, Dust,” she snickered. “Can you give me some cover while I maneuver into position.”

Gertie scrabbled away to the opposite side of the rock formation. My friends saw me unholster my submachine gun and they pulled out whatever small arms they had. I shook my head silently and thumped myself on the chest. Taking aim at the roof of the shack, I opened fire. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw Gertie take off and make a high, looping arc, landing on the other side of the shack.

After several moments of silence, Gertie cried out, “Fire in the hole!” We all braced ourselves against the rocks at our backs until we heard the loud boom of the grenade.

“Let’s go!” I cried out and began galloping towards the front door.

I got to the house first, quickly turned around and bucked the door in. Flower galloped past me with her shotgun drawn, with Brownie right behind her. After regaining my balance, I entered behind them. As soon as I crossed the frame, I scanned the room for something, anything.

“Clear!” Flower shouted. Brownie mimicked her shortly thereafter.

“What the fuck?” I mumbled out loud, not really expecting an answer. The shack was a lot like I remembered last time I was here. Well, except for the dead body of Midnight. But there was a red splotch on the floor. It had to be what couldn’t be cleaned up when Midnight was killed.

My attention was drawn to my Pipbuck, which had started to click softly. There wasn’t a reaction the last time I was here, was there?

Silver sidled up next to me and put a hoof on my shoulder. “Dust, what’s wrong?” she asked.

“Radiation,” I muttered, staring at the display on my Pipbuck. “That didn’t happen last time I was here.”

Waving my hoof around the room, I was listening for when the clicking got faster. As I moved around the shack, the clicking either remained the same or became slower. In fact, it was fastest when I was in the dead middle of the shack.

“Where the hell can the source be?” I wondered aloud. I lowered the Pipbuck towards the floor and the clicking got slower. Could it possibly mean…?

Kicking up off the flower, I flew a couple of feet to the top of the shack. The more I rose, the Pipbuck’s clicking got louder and faster. No way… My eyes darted back and forth looking for the possible source for the radiation. Nothing was jumping out at me. Maybe it’s not inside the house, but outside.

I landed quickly and bolted out the door. “Dust?” Gertie called out behind me. “Where the hell are you going?”

Once I was clear of the shelter, I kicked off the ground again and flew above the shack. Not knowing how strong the shack was, I hovered a few inches off the corrugated tin roof and searched for the source of the radioactive material. All I could see was the orange mottled surface of the roof no matter how far I looked. Then, I saw something move out of the corner of my eye. Looking more closely, I saw something fluttering in the breeze. Hovering over to it, I saw a small piece of paper fluttering in the breeze. The paper was wrapped around something larger that was jammed between two of the corrugated panels. Carefully peeling back the panel, I grabbed the paper-wrapped object. Slowly, I unwrapped the package. There was the familiar white and orange shape of a holotape and a small vial of some kind of metal. When the Pipbuck got closer, the clicking almost became a sustained sound. Dropping the tape to the roof, I flung the paper and vial as far as I could. The clicking quickly diminished and then disappeared.

With the immediate threat gone, I hoofed the tape and scanned the item. It was a typical Robronco holotape, used for data storage and transfer. I almost gave up on it until I turned it over and noticed the word “Dust” carved into the plastic of the protective case.

I maneuvered back off the roof and landed on the ground, still looking at the tape in my hooves.

“What did ya find, Dust?” Brownie asked, tilting his head in a questioning manner.

“A holotape with my name on it,” I answered, still turning it over in my hooves. “It has to be Muddy, right?” After a pregnant pause, I raised my Pipbuck and popped open the tape deck. Removing the protective cover, I slid the tape into the Pipbuck, closed the deck and hit the play button.

“This message is for Dust Cloud,” Muddy’s voice rang out over the tinny speakers. “If you aren’t Dust, please put this back where you fucking found it!

“Ahem, now that that’s out of the way, hello, Dust,” Muddy sneered. “I see you’ve decided to come out of hiding. Or are you coming for me? Either way, I will be enjoying this. You see, you’ve been a thorn in my side. The general wasn’t happy you wouldn’t work with us and that you escaped. However, we did decided to put plan B into effect. We are taking over that farm you helped out. The hydroponics bunker should give us a lot of food that will help appease the population in the short term. So, thank you for that.

“But, the general still wants the SPP system. Only you can unlock it. But I know you won’t, not given a choice. I told him as much, but he doesn’t believe me. But I know you will sacrifice yourself to save others. But, Dust, we need the SPP and I just can’t take no for an answer.

“Here’s the deal. Meet me at Manny’s plantation. Alone. With the Pipbuck, as if it could be removed. We’ll fly together to Neighvarro, you’ll open the SPP, and then the Enclave will have enough food to thrive. But I know that you won’t take that offer. So, I’m going to sweeten the deal, at least for me. Tell me what these names have in common: Coltington, Dirtpatch, Fetlock Flats, the Plantation… have you figured it out yet? These are all places you’ve been and ponies you’ve helped. These are also the places that will pay for your refusal to help.

“I’m sure you saw the message my lieutenants delivered to the ponies at Coltington. Similar messages have been sent to the places mentioned previously. For every week you don’t do as I ask, I will have one of the settlements attacked and ponies killed. This will continue until you turn yourself in or there are no ponies left. I would assume you know I’m not kidding.”

“See you soon, Dust.”

The tape deck on the Pipbuck stopped with a fateful click.

For a while, the only sound you could hear was the wind blowing across the Wasteland and our breathing. We all looked at each other and back at my Pipbuck, not sure what there was to say.

“Dust, what are ya gonna...” Flower muttered, still staring at my Pipbuck.

“I… I…,” I stuttered running through different options in my head. “If I give Muddy what he wants… But if I fight him… We can’t possible take on an army…” My mind was spinning in circles. I growled, kicked off the ground, and flew away. .

My head was a mess. All I could envision was death no matter what I did. If I chose to help Muddy, the Wasteland was as good as dead. And there was no guarantee he wouldn’t attack the settlements just to make me pay, you know, just for fun. But if I resisted, he was going to destroy everything I knew down here. And I could only think he would eventually hunt me and my friends down. I knew I wouldn’t be killed, but there was nothing stopping him from using my friends against me.

“Dust, you need to stop!” Silver called out from behind me.
It barely registered on me as I kept flying. I couldn’t let my friends get hurt again for me. This was a losing battle, no matter what I did. Better I die than anypony else get hurt.

A jolt to my cheek jarred me back to reality. “Dust! Stop right now!” Silver yelled at me as she cradled my face with her hooves. She was flying backwards and keeping up with me while doing it! “Dust! Stop this! What in Celestia got into you?”

I flared my wings and gradually slowed my speed. To her credit, Silver was able to do the same and match my speed exactly, until we were both hovering. Her hooves never left my face. “I can’t, Silver. There’s nothing I can do to stop this.”

“Dust, don’t you mean there’s nothing we can do?” she corrected me. “We are all in this together.”

“Silver, that’s not true. It’s me Muddy wants. It’s me he needs,” I sobbed. “The rest of you are just bargaining chips to be used against me.”

“It’s not that simple, Dust,” she said while staring right into my eyes. The warmth from her soft blue eyes calmed me down almost instantly. “You’re right. If you fight Muddy, he will try to use us against you. He will try to capture us to coerce you to opening up the towers. But you have to understand, if you give him what he wants, we might as well be dead anyway. Do you think the Wasteland can survive complete, dark cloud cover for eternity?”

“Well, no, but…” I tried to answer, but was cut off.

“And don’t you think the ponies down here deserve a chance to live, as shitty as it is down here?” she asked.

“Yeah, but…” I attempted to say, but was, again, cut off.

“And didn’t you promise you weren’t going to run off and try to handle things on your own again?” she said, nearly scolding me.

My head was spinning. “But… but.. I wasn’t trying…” I couldn’t bring myself to admit what my real purpose was.

“But what, Dust?” Silver shot back.

“I was trying… I wasn’t,” I stammered. Could I admit it? And what would she and the others think?

“Dust?” she asked. “What is it?”
“I can’t do it!” I shouted in frustration. After hanging my head in shame, I admitted sheepishly, “I was trying to run away from it so I wouldn’t have to handle it.”

“Oh…. OH…” Silver gasped, her features softening. “Oh, Dust, I’m so sorry… and here I am scolding you.” She wrapped her hooves around my neck and squeezed. “We thought you were trying to take care of it alone.”

“I can’t. I can’t do it alone,” I admitted. “But I also can’t risk your lives. I am faced with a shitty choice and I just can not make it.” I felt hot tears streaming down my face. “I just can’t do it. If I try to do it alone, I will lose everything I care about. If I take you guys with me, I risk losing everything I care about.” I pulled back and looked Silver right in the eyes. “No matter what I do, I lose.”

Silver nuzzled her nose against mine. “Dust, how many times do we have to talk about this?” she said in an almost scolding tone. “We are fighting with you voluntarily. We understand the risks and know what the outcome might be. We know that we may die. For Luna’s sake, we are expecting somepony to die. But we know we are fighting for something worth the risk.” She cupped my chin with her hoof and lifted my head. “Besides, Dust. This is our home. Don’t you think we would want to fight and even die for our home?”

Her words resonated through my head. Was there really not a choice? What she said had made sense. Regardless of what I did at this point, the ponies in this area were doomed. And if I went back with them willingly, the whole of the Wasteland was doomed also. But, was there something I could do to stop it? And was it true that somepony was going to die? Maybe it would have been better if I never agreed to come down here…

A pink hoof waving in my face brought me out of my inner monologue. “Dust? We need to head back,” Silver said, looking at me with concern. “Are you sure you’re ready for this?”

“I’m not sure, Silver,” I answered somberly, “but I don’t think I have any choice.”

She looked as though she was going to argue the point with me, but let it go. She turned, looked back at me one more time. She opened her mouth, but then snapped it shut again and took off back towards Midnight’s shack. I followed close behind.

The other ponies, and griffin, were just milling around the skywagon as Silver and I touched down after our short flight back. Brownie thought he was surreptitiously giving Silver a questioning look with tight features on his face, and Silver, to her credit, made a barely perceptible nod. Brownie’s features softened a little and he looked back towards the skywagon.

“Sorry about that, everypony,” I apologized to the group. “Just had a little freak out there for a moment. I’ll be OK.” I wasn’t sure it was just a little freak out, but they didn’t need to know that. If they doubted my sincerity, they didn’t show it, at least in an obvious way.

“It’s ahlright, Dust,” Brownie said sympathetically while placing a hoof on my shoulder. “Don’t ferget, we’re ta help ya through it all.”

“I know, Brownie,” I answered, nodding. “Alright, everypony inside. We’re heading to Manny’s.”

Everypony, except for Gertie, piled into the skywagon. Brownie hesitated before stepping into the cabin. I couldn’t blame him; airsickness sucked ass.
Gertie walked up next to me. “I got your six,” she said, checking her weapon was loaded and ready to fire, giving me a little punch to the shoulder.
After she strapped me into the harness, I took off pulling the skywagon behind me.

The flight to towards Manny’s was fortunately uneventful. Gertie hung back, looping to watch our tail, although I doubted anypony was looking for us. The real fun wouldn’t begin until the Enclave knew where I was.

Several dark spots appeared on the horizon and began to grow in size. Normally, as I approached a Raptor class ship, I was in awe of the feat of engineering that lay before me. The sleek and imposing lines, the arcing electricity, the dark gray color… it all achieved its secondary goal of imposing fear on those that saw it. For once, I was afraid. I could only imagine a few sky-tanks were the craft next to it, having carried a majority of the troops that were needed for an occupation force. The smaller, boxy craft always made me laugh. Unfortunately, I was not laughing today. Smaller, moving specks were flying between the ground and the multiple craft. Those were probably power-armor clad flyers and there were quite a few of them.

Gertie appeared next to me suddenly, startling me in the process. She whistled. “That’s an awful lot of turkey power,” she said. “Seems a little bit of over kill, doesn’t it?”

“Could the facility was larger than I thought,” I mused. “But, did they really need that much ponypower to take and hold the facility. Why do they need so many combat flyers? For Celestia’s sake, from what I can see, they have more than enough top flight fighters to hold the plantation.” Something felt wrong.

“Well, maybe you can ask them yourself,” Gertie said while pointing towards the Enclave force. “Looks like we attracted some attention.”

“Shit,” I exclaimed. “Alright, let’s get this tub on the ground.” I looked over my shoulder and cried out, “Hold on everypony. Time for an emergency landing.”

The skywagon resisted my sharp decline. I heard impacts against the fuselage and hoped my friends weren’t being tossed around too much. Looking for a defensible position, I found a small pile of fallen trees which we could hide behind and aimed towards it.

I slowed as we drew near the ground. Flaring my wings for the last few feet, I heard the skywagon thump down behind me. Gertie quickly unhooked me from the harness as I heard the door of the fuselage creak open.

“Dust, what the…” Brownie began to ask.

“No time to explain,” I interrupted him. “Enclave incoming. Get behind some cover.”

Everypony quickly dove behind the pile of trees and got their weapons ready. Peering through the branches, I kept looking in the direction of Manny’s farm, waiting to see the arriving flyers. I did not have to wait for long.

Five pegasi in power armor quickly approached and landed right next to the skywagon. They all were the scorpion-like, jet-black armor and had their helmets in place. Mounted on each set of armor was a laser rifle and a grenade launcher. We were not going to win if a firefight broke out.

One of the pegasi climbed into the skywagon and began a cursory search. The others stayed outside and kept watch for us, I assumed. After a brief search, the pony stuck their head out and gave a tinny, “Clear!” through the loudspeaker on the suit.

One of the ponies that stayed outside reached up for his or her head and removed the helmet. A yellow face with a newly cropped green mane appeared. Of course it was Muddy. The helmet swung back and rested against the neck of the armor. Muddy sneered as he surveyed the area.

“Alright, Dust,” he called out, sounding kind of bored. “I know you’re here. We saw you coming and you didn’t have enough time to go far. So why don’t you just come out here so we can talk face to face. I promise no harm will come to you or your friends.” He gestured towards his wingponies and each of them powered down their laser rifles. They could still obliterate us with their grenade launchers, but it was a symbolic show of truce.

I glanced at all of my friends and each of them gave me a terse shake of their head. I signalled for them to stay put as I holstered my weapon and stepped out from my cover. “What do you want, Muddy?” I asked him, as I moved away from the trees, keeping my friends out of the line of fire.

“I’ll keep this short and sweet,” he muttered, as he started pacing. “The General doesn’t want to play games anymore. He wants the SPP and he wants it now,” he droned on. He really wasn’t enjoying this. “Normally, I’d have fun with dragging it out of you, but I am not being given this option. Since you aren’t part of the team anymore, we have to find a way to get you to help us.”

“I’ll never…” I started to say, but Muddy mimicked me.

“...help you, Muddy,” he mocked. “I know. That was nothing, if not predictable. But here’s the problem. The Enclave needs the towers to stabilize the cloud cover and allow more widespread cloud farming. This facility isn’t the solution, but will help in the short term. By our calculations, we’ll deplete this crop of food before the end of the year and then have to wait several months for more.” Muddy adopted a more sarcastic tone. “A logistically unacceptable solution,” he said with a mix of frustration and aggravation. “The General wants the towers for a more permanent solution.

“So here’s the deal, Dust,” he said, returning to his menacing tone. “It’s actually the same deal as before. You come up with us to Neighvarro, let us in, help us get the towers running, and if you are no longer needed after that point, you can come back down here or rejoin Special Operations. I’m sure the general would give you your own flight wing, like mine, if you did. If you come back down here, you’ll only see us again if we need help with the towers.

“Or,” he said, glaring at me. “You will pay. We know threatening you won’t do us any good. Instead, we will attack every settlement you have had any interaction with. Able-bodied ponies will be put to work in the facility. Pegasi will be put to work farming the clouds or transporting material. All others will be killed immediately.”

I grit my teeth and glared at Muddy. “You do that, and…”

“...and you’ll pay,” he completed my sentence for me. “You know, Dust, you are such a one tune pony. But yes, I wouldn’t do that. Too messy, not fun. But I’m not calling the shots now. So there it is. I’ve been authorized to give you one hour to make your decision. Come alone to the plantation, no armor, no weapons, and then we’ll head up. Otherwise, prepare to watch ponies burn.”

Muddy swung his head forward and the helmet swung back into place over his head. He signalled his wingponies to form up and they took off and headed back towards the plantation.

“Dust, you don’t think they really would…” Silver started to ask.

“Yes, Silver. I know they would,” I answered. “Things are bad up there. The general populace doesn’t know how bad things are. Hell, I don’t even know if the entire military does. But even the military supplies were running short when I was last up there. They need this.”

“I know the Enclave can be assholes, but the civilians would be OK with this?” Gertie asked.

“The civilians don’t get told shit. As far as they are concerned, they are fed and happy. Same sex coupling is awarded by the government to keep the population numbers steady. But some reports still show the population rising and the cloud yields dropping. Even if it’s not bad today, it will get bad shortly.”

“So, what’s the plan, Dust?” Brownie asked.

I couldn’t answer. We were severely outnumbered and outgunned. And even if we did get into the plantation, what were we going to do?

“The Enclave are down here for the facility,” I mumbled under my breath, just trying to think. “As long as there is a facility, they will stay here. But then we won’t be able to get to the food either…”

“Dust, what are ya mumblin bout over there?” Brownie asked.

“Just trying to figure out what to do,” I said, just realizing I had started pacing. “I have half a plan, and you’re not going to like it.” The whole group looked at me funny. “I wonder if they have any explosives in there.”

“Yer not thinking of…” Brownie said with a gasp.

“Yes, Brownie… we’re going to collapse the entrance. Then the Enclave will have no reason to stay there, at least,” I said with a snicker. “But that’s only half the problem. Now how do we get inside. I’m sure they have guards posted at every access point. They’ll have security patrols on the ground and in the air. This isn’t going to be easy…”

My mind began to ponder all the possibilities, and none seemed very hopeful. And failure wasn’t an option. It wasn’t just me and my friends at risk. It was all the ponies I knew in all the settlements I had been to. Hoofsteps broke my concentration.

“Can we all stand still for a minute?” I asked, slightly peeved. “I’m trying to think of a plan here.”

“Dust, none of us has moved,” Gertie answered shortly. She extended a claw towards the east.

Following her claw, I saw a small caravan. It was a pony-drawn wagon being pulled by a rather large earth pony. Four Enclave officers in standard duty gear were leading and flanking the wagon, walking instead of flying. I could not see what was under the cover.

My brain raced at the possibilities that now lay before us. A large grin spread across my face.

“I have an idea.”

Level up!
Science - 50

Perk Obtained:
Strategist: Opportunities present themselves when needed. Obtain a temporary boost of +1 to Luck when planning strategies.

Chapter 25 - Infiltration

Chapter 25 - Infiltration
“When in Roam…”

My plan had few moving parts, but left a lot to chance. Scanning the path the cart would have to take to Manny’s, we saw a small valley where several long dead trees had fallen and would provide cover for us. However, I know that we couldn’t just meet them head on. Even though it was five against four in our favor, assuming the non-pegasus cart driver was not an Enclave sympathizer, it was still four fully trained soldiers with superior weaponry. Our ragtag group of one former Enclave soldier, one neophyte mercenary, two experienced Wasteland adventurers, and one inexperienced fighter wouldn’t stand a chance face to face. We needed the element of surprise.

My friends took their positions among the husks of the dead trees, hid and waited. I would distract the escorts and my friends would take them out while they would be, hopefully, focused on me. The cart drew near and entered the small valley. The guards tensed up, noticing the perfect spot for an ambush. Once they were fully in the middle of the trees, I took off and flew right towards them.

All four flicked up their firing bits and three of them began to aim towards me. I couldn’t get a good read on their faces since they were all wearing standard issue combat helmets. What I did know was that there were three stallions and one mare. The mare called out.

“Whoever you are, you are to land and submit to interrogation!” she shouted at me.

Without delay, I landed several yards in front of them, keeping the guards directly between me and where my friends were hidden. “It’s about to be your lucky day,” I announced. When I saw barely a reaction, I doubled down. “You do know who I am right?” I held my left foreleg aloft so they could see the Pipbuck on my fetlock.

“Holy shit, Shear,” one of the rear guards gasped through his bit. “You don’t think this is the traitor, do you?”

The mention of the word traitor drew the attention of the ponies in the back. They trotted forward as the driver of the cart slunk down as far as he could in his harness. He’s seen this type of tactic before I assumed.

“Yes, it is I, Dust Cloud, formerly known as Operative Updraft!” I called out with mock bravado. “And I am surrendering myself to you to bring me to Clear Skies or Muddy Waters or whatever he goes by now.”

“Holy shit!” one of them mumbled. “Do you know what this means? This will probably get us a juicy promotion!”

While they were all discussing their new found fame, my friends emerged from behind the trees and quietly approached the guards from behind. I watched as Gertie quietly counted to three on her claws and then they all moved. Each of my friends leapt and wrapped their hooves around the throats of the pegasus in front of them while they grabbed their opposite foreleg. They all applied pressure and the look of fear in the eyes of the soldiers became visible.

The guards began to wheeze and gasp while beginning to struggle against the death grips my friends had. The leader tried to activate the radio button on his shoulder, but Gertie quickly severed the wire with her sharp beak.

I watched as the exposed parts of their faces started to turn blue, and in one case, more blue. Two of the soldiers were still trying to pull the forelegs away from their throats. That was a waste of effort. The other two began to flail back and forth, even resorting to rearing up and falling backwards to wrench free of their attacker. Flower was on the back of one of them and made an audible “oof” when she slammed into the ground, but held firm.

Silver didn’t fare nearly as well. When her victim reared backwards and fell over, Silver’s grip loosened just enough for the soldier to break free. They tumbled away from each other both breathing heavily, albeit for different reasons. Silver tried to pull her weapon as quickly as possible.

“No!” I shouted. “We need the uniform clean!”

“Is… that… so?” the pegasus wheezed. Retaining an impressive amount of composure, he aimed the plasma rifle mounted on his side right at Silver. “You… will… pay… for… that…” the soldier wheezed between breaths. I made a move to put myself between Silver and the pony. “Nuh-uh,” he shouted. “You stay... right there, or she... gets it right now.”

Silver looked between the rifle and me. “Dust...” she cried out in anguish.

I froze. Here I was again. Somepony’s life was in the balance and it was because of my actions, or lack thereof. If I moved, the soldier would shoot her. If I didn’t move, the soldier was probably going to kill her anyway.

“Alright… now you… will give… me all… your… weapons…” the solder began to blurt out.

“Batter up!” I heard Gertie’s voice from somewhere behind the soldier.

Before he could react, there was a loud “THWACK”. The soldier’s face contorted and froze weirdly. He released a low groan as his eyes rolled back in his head. The soldier then collapsed to the floor. Gertie was standing there with the warped remains of a plasma rifle in her claws. She was shaking her head at the now useless weapon.

“What a waste,” she mumbled. “This could have gotten us some good caps at the right trader.” She allowed the ruined weapon to clatter on ground.

“You... you saved me,” Silver gasped. “Even after I treated you so badly. Thank you.”

Gertie sneered a little. “Don’t thank me,” she deadpanned. “I didn’t do it for you…,” she started, turning towards me. “I did it for Dust.” There was a long awkward pause.

Fortunately, Brownie broke the silence. “Ah think we better take care of our other guests here,” he said, gesturing towards the cart.

Before we had a chance to strip and bind the soldiers, I heard a soft whimper from the cart. The driver was still on the ground, covering his head. “P...p...please don’t kill me…” he stammered.

“Shhh… it’s OK,” Silver said, comforting the pony. “We’re not going to hurt you. In fact, we’re going to let you go home.”

“Even the foals?” the driver asked, still skittish.

“Foals?” Silver gasped, her jaw flapping open.

I moved past Silver and the driver and peeked inside the covered wagon. Bound to each other were approximately a half dozen foals. They were all shaking in terror, but otherwise, looked none the worse for wear.

“What the hell?” I muttered more out of shock.

“The soldiers came a few days ago,” the driver recounted as Silver began to unhook him. Flower and Brownie began to free the foals. “They told us they needed volunteers. When we refused, they took the foals and told us they’d release them once we decided to join them.”

Brownie, Silver, and Flower all tensed and I could see the muscles in their face straining as they were most likely clenching their jaws. Gertie looked unfazed by the report. Then again, the griffons had been screwed over just as badly by the Enclave, so she probably wasn’t surprised. I was heartbroken. I know they were following orders, but still…

“Those sons of bitches!” Silver growled. “How can they do this?”

Everyone was looking to me for answers. “I didn’t think frontline soldiers were capable of this,” I answered with sigh. “Then again, what choice do they have? Most soldiers are the only means of supporting their families. Especially with the projected food shortages, military families will get preferential treatment. Still doesn’t make it right, though.”

Gertie was in the middle of stripping the soldiers out of their uniforms, binding their hooves, and gagging them. Brownie and Flower finished untying all the foals. They were all a little fearful, but who could blame them.

I turned back to the driver. “Are you going to be OK getting these foals home?” I asked him.

He tilted his head to one side and placed a hoof on his chin. “I think so,” he responded. “There really isn’t much between here and home. There are some raider camps out to the south, but I can swing more northerly to avoid them. I just need a weapon. Those bastards made me leave mine back in Mudwater.”

“Brownie, got anything to spare?” I called out. One of the foals had climbed up on his back and was taunting the other foals. Flower had an amused look on her face.

“Eeyup,” he called back. “Ah got a coupla pistols ah can spare.”

“Should be fine,” the driver added. “Should only be some radroaches or bloatsprites between here and there. “Thanks for saving us.”

“You’re welcome,” I said in return. “But they will probably come back when they realize what has happened here. Just be ready this time.”

A small frown curved his mouth downwards. After a simple nod, he turned to the foals. “C’mon, kids! We’re going home!”

“YAY!” the foals all called back and ran towards the wagon. The smallest of the group, the one that had been on Brownie’s back, stopped and turned. “Mistah Brownie?” he said. “Thank you for letting me be king of the mountain.”

“Twas nothing,” he said. “Now go with yer friends.”

Flower trotted over to Brownie. “Aww, Brownie,” she gushed. “I never knew you were good with foals.” She wrapped him in an embrace.

“Tain’t hard,” he said. “They just like ta have fun.”

Brownie, Flower, and I chuckled.

“Now that the daycare center is closed,” Gertie butted in, “we have larger issues, don’t we?”

The small joy we felt quickly dissipated as we cantered over to Gertie. She had, by this point, stripped the four soldiers and secured them in the bushes so they couldn’t be seen from the road. I looked over the four soldiers. I did feel bad for having to do this, but it was necessary.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “For what it’s worth, I know you were only following orders, but we have to stop this.” Not surprisingly, they didn’t answer. As I looked over the last two, I realized I had seen them before.

“Everything OK, Dust?” Gertie asked, seeing me pause.

“Yeah, I know these two,” I mumbled as I thought. “I ran into these two back up in Fort Coltington. They were only trainees. They ran into me while I was looking for information on the General’s plans. They’re so young.”

“Want a tissue?” Gertie asked harshly. “Dust, they are down here doing bad things. I don’t feel bad for them.”

“Yeah, but...” I began to rebut, but Gertie shot me a glare. She was right. They may have been otherwise good ponies, but they were down here doing bad things. My stomach turned as a sad thought crossed my mind. “Gertie, wouldn’t that make me a bad pony since I was down here doing bad things before?”

Gertie stopped what she was doing and walked over to me. She placed a claw on my shoulder. “Dust, you may have come down here for the wrong reasons, but everything you have done since then has more than made up for it. Don’t you ever forget it.”

I looked up at Gertie and a small grin spread on my face. She gave me a terse nod and went back to her sorting of the gear she took off our victims.

Silver and I quickly changed into the uniforms that fit us best. Both of ours were a little baggy, but they didn’t look too bad. My helmet was hard to put on due to my wild mane, but we were able to get it to fit and hide most of the unkempt mess. I wish we had something to cut it quickly. Hopefully, I could pass myself off as an operative if I got noticed, but that could mean an audience with the general or even Muddy. Meanwhile, Brownie and Flower took off their armor, revealing their wasteland clothing they wore beneath. Brownie and Flower stashed all their gear into a duffel bag that Gertie borrowed from the wagon driver. Meanwhile, I pared down the gear that Silver and I carried to closely resemble standard issue gear for a routine mission.

“It’s not too late to back out of this,” I nervously asked my friends. “Once we get inside, we have no idea what exactly they are going to do to you.”

Brownie and Flower looked at eachother gravely. “We know, Dust,” Brownie answered. “But if we don’t do this today, it may only be a matter o’ time ‘fore it happens anyway.”

Nervously, I took the small bit of rope we had and loosely bound Flower’s and Brownie’s forelegs together. I did my best to make a slip knot that looked secure. It wouldn’t pass any close scrutiny, but I was hoping the guards would accept it since they were being escorted by “soldiers”.

Silver had me the most nervous. She would need to pass herself off as an Enclave soldier even though she had no Enclave training. Hell, she had no formal military training at all. I’d have to cover for her as best I could.

Gertie landed behind us. “I found a good overwatch point,” she announced, looking us all over. “I’ll have a view of most of the property, including the tunnel into the facility. But, there is a small piece of the property in the northwest that’ll be blind. Do your best to avoid that area.”

“Got it,” I said with a terse nod. “Try not to fire unless absolutely necessary. If you have to intervene, then I’m guessing we will have larger problems.”

“Understood,” she answered. Her brow furrowed in concern. “Dust, are you sure this is a good idea?”

“I can’t think of any other,” I admitted with a shrug. “As long as that facility is there, the Enclave won’t leave and they will keep enslaving ponies to keep it running. We have to do this.”

Silver took up the loose end of the rope in her mouth and we began walking towards Manny’s farm. I could see from the look in her eyes, she was nervous. For that matter, so were Flower and Brownie. Their lives were entirely in my hooves and my plan. If things went awry, they were completely helpless.

The short walk to Manny’s seemed to take forever. As we drew closer, we saw that the military force had beefed up security around the compound. There was now a tall fence and makeshift guard towers set up every dozen yards or so. Large spotlights hung from the underside of each platform, but they were off in what passed for daylight down here. A checkpoint had been set up about a hundred yards from the house, close to where the facility entrance was. A small line of carts had formed waiting to be cleared for entry. The large warship that flew overhead recently had landed and was near the checkpoint. Carts from the compound were forming a line near the cargo hatch.

“We have to slow down or else we’ll have to wait in line,” I whispered to everypony.

“Ah got this,” Brownie whispered back. He suddenly collapsed to the ground. “Ya gotta yell and hit me, Dust.”

“Brownie, no, I can’t,” I pleaded.

“Ya have ta,” he said. “We’re already drawing some attention.”

I glanced over my shoulder and saw that some of the guardposts were indeed looking in our direction. The snipers had drawn their weapons and were peering down the scopes.

“C’mon you filthy dirtpony!” I yelled nervously, adding a stomp at the ground. “Get up!”

“Sorry, ah can’t!” Brownie answered back.

“Get up now or you’ll regret it!” I shouted. To add some drama, I fired a shot into the dirt next to him.

“Dust, they’re sending some guards out here to look,” Silver whispered. “There’s still one cart waiting to be checked in.”

“Hit me, Dust,” Brownie whispered. “They’ll back away if they think ya have it under control.”

“Brownie, I can’t hit you!” I pleaded softly.

“Dust, ya have ta,” Brownie answered. “You are a soft pony. Ya are too afraid ta do what needs ta be done. Ya will get somepony killed and ya will have nopony to blame but yerself. Ya got One killed. Ya got Buster killed.”

I felt the rage grow inside me. Why was he saying all of this. It wasn’t all my fault.

“Fer Luna’s sake,” he added, “ya probably got yer mom killed!”

That did it. I felt my body turn and my rear leg kick out. The sickeningly wet impact assaulted my ears as the impact jolted my body. Silver and Flower both gasped. Brownie whimpered in pain. What have I done?

“You have him under control now?” a strange voice called out.

I turned and saw one of the gate guards about halfway between the gate and us. The last cart in line had just begun to move inside the complex.

“Y… yeah,” I answered. “I got this. This dirtpony thought he’d get a little uppity.”

“Well, don’t hurt him too bad,” the guard answered while turning away. “We need all the labor we can get.”

I turned to Brownie and acted like I was harshly forcing him up. “Brownie, I’m so sorry,” I whispered while standing over him.

“S’alright, Dust,” Brownie answered, flexing his jaw and grimacing. “It needed ta be done. Sorry ‘bout the stuff ah said. Let’s go.”

He was right, but I still felt awful. I bucked one of my only friends left down here. What was worse… I knew on some level that he could be right. My mom and Buster could be dead and it would be all my fault. And if things went wrong here…

My thoughts were cut off abruptly as we reached the gate and were stopped by the guards. “Better late than never, Operative Breeze and Storm. Where are hell are Operatives Sunburst and Zephyr? And what the hell happened to your wagon?”

Quickly, I composed myself. Here goes nothing. “We were attacked by raiders, sir,” I began to report, keeping at attention while explaining the made up details. “It was an IED we didn’t see until it was too late. Zephyr and Sunburst were running point and took the brunt of the blast, taking out our radio. We had to fend off the rest of them, but they destroyed the cart and cargo.”

“Fucking dirtponies,” the guard said. “We’d be better off just wiping them off the face of Equis.” The pegasus scanned Brownie and Flower. “So who are they?” he asked gesturing towards Brownie and Flower.

“Two scavengers we found on the way back. We figured we shouldn’t come back empty hooved,” I tried to defend myself.

“Clear Skies won’t be happy about losing the foals. We needed them for collateral,” the guard grunted. “But I guess you didn’t have much choice. We can always go back with another cart. Alright, get these two down to workforce processing and then get yourselves to the medic and get yourself looked over. We’ll need you for another pickup run in a few hours.”

“Yes, sir,” I responded with a salute. “C’mon, primitives, move it!” I barked at Brownie and Flower. Grabbing the rope from Silver, I gave it a tug, causing Brownie and Flower to stumble. The guard giggled a little under his breath.

After we cleared the gate, I look at Brownie. “Brownie, I’m so sorry…” I began to apologize again.

“Dust, ya did what needed ta be done,” he whispered. “Now keep quiet or ya’ll blow our cover.”

The layout of the property hadn’t changed all that much since our last visit. The piles of junk and other refuse were exactly where they had been. For Luna’s sake, I even saw the box I used to creep around last time. But the military had definitely made its mark.

It’s amazing how base camps always seem to be made up the same no matter where they are. During some of the skirmishes with the griffons, the camps were laid out nearly identically. The mess tent and infirmary were adjacent to each other, which was SOP. The barracks was a short distance away and was the largest tent out here. What was missing was the command tent, but I imagine that Muddy and the General had commandeered the house for their command post. There was a new tent which was heavily guarded, and had to be the tent holding the workers.

There was also more activity in the yard than last time. Fully laden wagons appeared from the direction of the facility, drawn by an earth pony or unicorn. They looked exhausted and malnourished. I guess the Enclave felt taking care of the workforce wasn’t necessary since there was a large supply of fresh workers from the surrounding settlements. However, there were no obvious injuries, so at least they weren’t being abused. Empty wagons travelled in the opposite direction, presumably heading towards the facility to be reloaded. The wagons weren’t escorted on the grounds because the security that ringed the property probably took care of that.

“Where do you think you’re going, Operative!” a voice yelled out from behind me. Fortunately, Silver stiffened into an attention posture as I taught her and I more easily did the same.

“Taking these new workers to the facility,” I yelled back through the rope in my mouth as I looked in the direction of the voice. An indigo colored stallion was approaching me. His lime green mane was still in the military buzz cut. He was wearing the same uniform I was, but he had an insignia I didn’t recognize affixed to his collar.

“First of all, that’s Senior Operative to you, maggot,” he snapped back. “Secondly, you need to go debrief. Senior Operative Cyclone is waiting for you in the house.” He reached for the rope I held and took it from me. “I’ll bring these two dirtponies and put them to work for you.” He trotted away as I gave Brownie a concerned look. He returned a barely perceptible nod as he and Flower were led away. Shit.

“Well, let’s go debrief,” I muttered to Silver. “The sooner we get this over with the better.”

“Will they be OK, Dust?” Silver mumbled to me, watching our friends be dragged off.

“Yeah,” I tried to comfort her. “They can take care of themselves.” I doubt she believed me. I didn’t believe myself.

We quickly made our way to the back door of Manny’s house. As we entered the rear door, we saw we were surrounded by pegasi all wearing the same uniforms and insignia as the senior operative we encountered before.

“Dust,” Silver asked, her voice wavering. “How are we going to find Cyclone?”

“I… I don’t know,” I mumbled back. Asking where Cyclone was might draw too much attention to us and we were trying to avoid that at all costs.

I peered down both hallways trying to find some way to identify where Cyclone’s office would be. But there were just too many doors.

Muffled yelling from my right drew my attention. A door flew open as two pegasi ran out. These two did not wear any insignia.

“Fuck!” one exclaimed, not breaking stride. “What crawled up Cyclone’s ass today?”

“I heard that, maggot!” a stern voice yelled out from the newly opened door.

The two operatives looked at each other and picked up the pace.

“Breeze! Storm! Get your asses in here!” the voice bellowed.

Without hesitating, we both picked up our pace and trotted towards the office. We trotted into the room and closed the door behind us.

Cyclone’s office was a converted library. The walls were lined with Old World books. Most were faded and dust covered, but I was able to make out an old copy of Twilight’s “Friendship Journal”. It was in amazing shape.

“I know you two were probably expecting to be debriefed by Typhoon, but this time you two certainly did screw the dragon!” the gruff voice pulled me out of my distraction. I looked around the room for the voice but couldn’t find it.

“We were taken by surprise, sir,” I tried to defend myself. “There were no reports of raider activity along our route!”

A tiny stallion, barely taller than the desk, walked out from behind it. His cream colored coat and white mane were impeccably groomed. It made me jealous. But, I’ve never seen a full grown pony that small. And the voice coming out of that body? I was barely able to stifle a laugh. Silver wasn’t so disciplined.

“And, just what is so funny, Operative Storm!” he bellowed.

“N… nothing,” she answered back.

Cyclone craned his head towards her. “Nothing, what, maggot?” he screamed.

“N… nothing, sir!” Silver blurted out.

“Report, now!” Cyclone demanded.

I told the cover story that we had concocted. The raiders attacked the cart with an IED which took out the other two operatives, the wagon, and its cargo. Since our radio operator was caught in the blast, we lost our radio at the same time. We were barely able to fight off the attackers, but not without losing all of our gear.

“Celestia’s horn on a hog. Are you two incompetent or unlucky?” Cyclone bellowed, still pacing the office.

“I would say unlucky, sir!” I shot back.

“After hearing from Typhoon about last week’s fiasco with the Mr. Handy in the facility, I’d say the former,” he said with a smirk. “Wouldn’t you?”

“Sir, yes, sir,” I admitted resignedly. What the hell did Breeze do to the Mr. Handy?

“Get your fucking asses to the infirmary, and let Doc Sawbones check you out,” he ordered. “Once you’re cleared for duty, see Typhoon for your new orders.”

“Sir, yes, sir,” I answered with a salute. Silver followed suit. When I saw Cyclone’s face tighten in aggravation, I turned and trotted out of his office. Silver was right behind me.

Once we cleared the house, Silver released a breath she must have been holding. “Dust, are all Enclave military officers such assholes?” she asked, breathing heavily to catch her breath.

“No, just the ones that like power too much,” I answered. “Which means most. C’mon, let’s go requisition some explosives. We have a facility to close.”

Silver fell into line with me and we trotted off to the quartermaster’s tent. The flaps were tied open as this tent was needed nearly all day every day. Fortunately, when we got in, there was nopony else waiting. This would make things easier.

“Storm! It’s great to see you!” the olive green pony with the red mane called out from behind his desk. “I heard your convoy got hit?”

“Yeah, we got attacked,” I said, feigning sadness. “Only Breeze and I made it.”

“So Sunburst and Zephyr?” he began to ask.

I nodded with a grimace on my face. “Yeah.”

“Damn, they were good ponies,” he said. “Fucking grounders. We should just wipe them off the face of Equis.”

“Yeah,” I agreed, fighting back my anger. If only he knew the whole truth.

“So what can I do for you today?” the quartermaster asked.

It was now up to Silver. “It’s not w...w...what you can do for us,” she said as demurely as possible. “It’s what I can do for you…” She moved awkwardly to the desk and leaned over it, blocking the quartermaster’s view.

“Whoa…” he reacted, coughing a little. “I thought you and Mist?”

“Yeah, well,” she purred, batting her eyelashes. “Sometimes one pony just isn’t enough.”

The quartermaster was completely distracted by Silver. Even as awkward as she was coming across, she was being very effective.

I ducked behind the counter and slinked my way towards the large red cabinets where the explosives surely were stored. The large bomb symbol as well as the myriad danger stickers were a dead giveaway. Looking back over my shoulder, Silver had her head cradled in her hooves and the stallion was so enthralled I probably could have snuck up behind him and removed his uniform. But there was no time for that.

Bypassing racks of energy weapons, arcane power cells, and other arms, I made my way to the cabinet. A quick tug on the handle caused the entire cabinet to rattle. Shit!

Peeking back over my shoulder, I saw the quartermaster start to turn his head. Silver, thinking quickly, pushed his head away from me and back towards her. That was too fucking close. I had to open that lock! What I wouldn’t give for a damn unicorn and some lockpicking tools at this point. And if I had to guess, the quartermaster probably had the keys on him. Fuck me.

Slinking my way back across the tent, I was able to see Silver and the quartermaster. They were still flirting and Silver was doing everything she could to keep his attention. It was working on him… as well as me. Watching her try to seduce the quartermaster, as fake as it was, still made me jealous, and aroused. The way the light from the gemstone lanterns danced off her eyes… the way she swayed her flank.. It was hypnotizing.

A crashing sound drew me from my reverie. “Oh my,” Silver gushed, “I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to knock that off the counter!”

“It’s alright!” he eagerly replied. “I’ll get it.”

When the quartermaster bent over, she shot me an annoyed glare and gestured me to hurry up. My cheeks flushed and I meekly shrugged an apology.

“Don’t worry about it, Breeze,” the quartermaster said, his cheeks reddening.

Silver quickly lured him back into conversation and picked up right where she left off. After waiting long enough to make sure the quartermaster was enthralled again, I crept my way towards him.

Peeking around the corner, I saw the quartermaster’s gaze was fully on Silver. I looked at his belt, hoping to see the keyring dangling there. No luck. Turning to look at Silver, I saw her give me a subtle glance. “Get him to turn around,” I mouthed silently to her.

“Ooh, what is that gun back there?” she said, point to something opposite me.

“What? That old T-13 plasma rifle?” the quartermaster questioned, clearly confused. “That’s standard issue.”

“But it looks like it’s in great condition,” she complimented. “You must take really good care of everything around here. Better than I’ve seen anywhere I’ve been posted.”

“Breeze? You feeling alright?” he asked, clearly unsettled. “We’ve been down here for weeks now. You’ve been in here before.”

Panicking, I looked quickly at the quartermaster’s side. Dangling off a small hook was a keyring with several keys in it. But the quartermaster was turning back around.

Then Silver did something I wasn’t expecting. She leapt onto the counter and began to kiss the pegasus square on the lips. I was stunned. What was she doing? Looking in her eyes, which were oddly open, she glared at me.

Oh, shit, yeah!

Slowly and carefully, I crept up behind the quartermaster and grabbed the keyring. After ensuring he didn’t react, I made my way to the back of the tent and opened the cabinet as quietly as I could. The door swung open and I saw what I was looking for. Hastily, I grabbed several bricks of C4, a box of blasting caps, and two detonators, just in case. As quietly as I could, I closed and relocked the cabinet and made my way back to the front of the tent.

I tiptoed back to the pegasus and carefully placed the keys back on his keyring. Silver was still locked lips-to-lips with the quartermaster. My blood boiled. Wasting no time, I made my way back in front of the counter and cleared my throat.

“Breeze?” I asked, uncomfortably. “Command is waiting, remember?”

“Oh, Storm,” she giggled, “such a stickler.” She giggled some more and then turned to the quartermaster. “See you later?” she said, adding a wink.

“You’d better believe it!” he answered enthusiastically.

We trotted our way out of the tent and started to make our way to the facility. Passing between two tents, I pulled her aside.

“What were you doing back there?” I hissed quietly at her.

“Distracting him!” she defended. “You needed to get the keys and he was about to see you!”

“But, you… you… you had to kiss him?” I stuttered angrily.

“I didn’t see you coming up with any other ideas,” she growled back. “Besides, it didn’t mean anything.”

“Didn’t mean anything?” I shot back. “How would you feel if you walked in on me and…” My body froze and it felt like my heart skipped a beat as Gertie flashed through my mind. “Oh…”

“Can we argue about this later?” she grumbled. “We have more important things to do, don’t we?”

“Yeah, yeah,” I grumbled. “Let’s go.”

I don’t know why it was bothering me so much. I know she only did what was necessary and we didn’t really have any other choice at that moment. We couldn’t be discovered or else this whole thing would come crashing down.

As we drew near the opening to the facility, overhead speakers squealed to life. “Operative Breeze, please report to Command. Operative Breeze to Command!” a mare barked over the loudspeakers.

“Dammit, what now!” I spat out, angrily. “Alright, let’s go take care of this.”

The speaker squealed to life once again. “Operative Storm to wagon pool. Operative Storm to wagon pool, immediately.”

“Fuck,” I groaned. “Silver, are you going to be OK? We have to split up.”

‘Y… y… yeah, Dust, I should be,” she stuttered, glancing nervously at the manor house.

“Don’t worry,” I tried to comfort her, placing a hoof on her shoulder. “Just say ‘yes, sir’ or ‘no, sir” and you’ll be fine. We’ll meet up at the facility, OK?”

“A...alright,” she said, uneasily. We both turned to our destinations. I was about to start trotting when I heard Silver stop. “Dust?”

“Yes?” I responded as I turned around. Before I knew it, she had wrapped her hooved around me and kissed me. I kissed her back quickly. We separated before we drew any unwanted attention. “What was that for?”

“Just in case,” she murmured. “Dust… I still love you.”

“I love you, too,” I said back. Silver grinned a little, still obviously nervous and then trotted away.

I got to the wagon pool in short order. When I walked in the yard, I saw the bottom half of a pony jutting out from a wagon. The blue jumpsuit was stained with dirt and grease.

“Excuse me, Operative…” I began, uneasily.

The pony rolled out from underneath. The exposed part of his light brown coat and yellow mane were, likewise, coated in dirt and grease. “Elbow Grease… and you don’t hafta call me Operative,” he said jovially. “E’rryone just calls me Elbow Grease around here. What can I do for ya?”

“Command ordered me here,” I explained, shrugging my shoulders. “No idea why.”

“Oh, hmm,” he said, pensively, placing his hoof on his chin. “They sent a field operative to assist me? Why on Equis would they do that?” This was an unusual request? He led me to the far end of the wagon yard to several wagons that were separated from the rest. “These here wagons have malfunctionin’ levitation gems. We gotta swap em out with new ones. Unfortunately, this is a two pony job. Ya feel up to it?”

“Sure thing,” I groaned. I needed to get out of here and find my friends. “Let’s get this done as quickly as possible.”

Replacing gems was one of my least favorite jobs when I used to be in the wagon pool. They simply weren’t meant to be replaced. But with a lack of unicorn magic to fix these, we had to jerry rig a way to pop out the old ones and mount new ones or else the wagons simply wouldn’t lift all the cargo. It was hoof-breaking work. After a couple of hours, and many small scratches and bruises later, Elbow Grease let me go.

“If’n I need help again, I’ll be sure to ask for ya!” he called back over his shoulder as he walked to another corner of the yard.

“Oh, please do. I’m sure Storm will love that,” I mumbled to myself, giggling a little bit.

After being released from a job that gave me flashbacks from my past, I trotted my way back to the facility. The main door was a tempest of activity. Wagons were entering and exiting at an almost constant clip. The earth ponies pulling the carts seemed exhausted and gaunt. They did not seem abused, however. Just overworked. Small mercy there.

As I was about to make my approach, two more wagons exited the facility. A familiar crimson bodied stallion emerged from the door. It was Manny! He was a lot worse for the wear. His impeccably groomed mane was a mess and filled with knots and kinks. His hoofs were caked with dirt, and the bags under his eyes betrayed the fact that he was exhausted. Right behind him was an orange bodied mare with a brown mane. Leafy… it had to be. She was as much as a mess as Manny was. Unfortunately, I couldn’t do anything for either of them, right now.

There were two guards flanking either side of the door, both armed with double energy rifles on their battle saddles. They were carefully eying the wagons as they exited the facility, loaded down with bushels of food from inside. Seeing the sheer volume of food, this facility must have been much larger than I had originally envisioned.

“Here goes nothing,” I mumbled to myself as I approached the door.

“Halt, Operative Storm,” one of the guard stallions barked. “You are not cleared for this area.”

“I know, Operative,” I began, quickly scanning his uniform. “Twister. But command wants me to look at the computer system to make sure the Mr. Handy robots won’t go haywire.” I raised my left hoof and pulled back my uniform to expose my Pip-Buck. “Tech team found this in one of the primitive towns and want me to try to interface with the computer system.”

Twister warily eyed the Pip-Buck and me. After several tense moments, his stoic features returned. “Alright, go ahead,” he barked at me.

“Yes, sir,” I responded and quickly cantered my way past the guard, weaving my way between two carts.

Once I got inside, I ducked down a small side hallway and then inside the first room I came across. It was a small security booth with a window looking out into the hallway near the entry door. The room was illuminated by a small, flickering, overhead light. The computers were long dead.

Working quickly, I popped open a nearby access panel and placed two of the bricks of C4 I took earlier. Instincts kicked in as I pushed the blasting cap into the clay-like material and attached the wired to the receiver of a detonator. Flicking the switch, the light on the detonator glowed a dim green. I pushed the access panel back into place.

I was about to leave the office when the unused monitor caught my eye. Quickly removing the cover from the tube in the back, I removed as much of the circuitry as possible and stashed it in the desk. Molding the rest of the C4 I had to fit in the casing, I added a blasting cap and detonator. Carefully, I replaced the cover and made sure it looked undisturbed.

After slowly edging the door open, I peeked down the hallway to make sure nopony saw me leaving the security office.
Once I was sure the coast was clear, I crept my way out and quietly closed the door behind me. My ears perked up at the sound of hoofsteps echoing from further down the corridor. I turned to look and saw a flash of the hindquarters of a yellow pony with a green tail.

“Flower?” I called out, hearing nothing in response but my own echoing voice.

I walked down the hallway to where I saw the pony pass by before and saw nothing but a series of junctions in either direction. I still heard hoofsteps, however.

“Flower? Brownie? Silver?” I whispered. Again, my echoing voice was the only other sound I heard.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw another flash of movement just as it turned a corner a few dozen yards down the hall. A fast as I turned my head, all I saw was a quick flash of pink and green.

“Silver? Is that you?” I called out towards the pony I just saw. After getting no response, I quickly followed, damn the silence. I needed to catch up.

Rounding the same turn as the pony I saw, I was greeted with only another hallway with several junctions.

“Luna be damned!” I hissed.

More hoofsteps drew my attention in a different direction. This time, I saw a brown body and tail trotting away from me.

“Brownie! Wait up!” I called out, trotting to catch up.

Brownie rounded a corner several yards ahead of me. I caught up, nearly galloping. I rounded the same corner as him but saw an empty hallway.

“What the fuck is going on here?” I pondered out loud.

Scanning the entire hallway for Brownie, I saw something I wasn’t expecting. There was a doorway with light spilling out from inside of it about halfway down the hallway from me. That was the only room that had been open my entire trip.

Creeping quietly up to door, I sidled my way against the door jamb. Carefully craning my head around the frame, I looked inside the room. It appeared to be a simple meeting room, dominated by a rectangular, metallic table with several chairs around it. One of the chairs, oddly, was facing away from the doorway. Behind the chairs on the other side, I saw the backsides of my friends.

“Brownie? Flower? Silver?” I cautiously called out as I slowly made my way into the room. As soon as I had crossed the threshold, the door slid shut behind me with a surprising slam. I nearly jumped out of my own skin. “The fuck?”

“Welcome, Dust,” Muddy’s cold voice called out. The chair facing away from me slowly turned around revealing the yellow and green head of Muddy. I could feel my heart rate increase and my teeth began to grind.

“Muddy!” I shouted as I tried to reach across the table to get at him but it was too long.

“Now, Dust, that’s no way to greet an old friend, is it?” he calmly replied, not even moving to avoid my charge. “Where are your friends?”

“What do you mean… aren’t they...!” I shouted back, my voice wavering.

“Thank you for your help, Operatives,” Muddy snickered. The three ponies behind the table turned and I saw they weren’t my friends after all. “Head back topside.”

“Yes, sir,” all three ponies said in unison with a salute. They trotted around the table and out of the room, completely ignoring me as they walked past.

“Where are my friends!” I growled at Muddy through clenched teeth.

Muddy snickered, which enraged me more. “All in good time, Dust… all in good time,” he retorted. He gestured towards the open seat directly opposite him. “Why don’t you have a seat? We need to talk.”

Skeptically, I looked towards the chair he indicated. Not willing to take any chances, I sat at one of the chairs immediately adjacent to it.

“Now, Dust,” he said, feigning indignance. “That hurts. You really think I would try to trick you like that, knowing I have the upper hoof anyway?”

“Fuck you, Muddy,” I grumbled. “What do you want from me then?”

“Well, let’s get technicalities out of the way then…” he said, almost sounding bored. “Will you open up the Neighvarro tower for us?” he droned, as if he didn’t really want to be having this discussion.

“N…” I started to say.

“No…” Muddy said over me. After seeing my surprised reaction, he added, “I told the general you still wouldn’t help us. Oh well, nothing ventured nothing gained. Now for plan B.”

Three terminal screens crackled to life behind Muddy. The first screen showed a video of Brownie, bound and gagged, on the floor of a skywagon flanked by Enclave troopers. There was a small town in the background. The second screen was very similar to the first, but this time it was Flower who was bound and gagged. Again, another small town was in the background. Finally, on the third screen was Silver, bound and gagged as the others were, with yet another town in the background.

My blood began to boil and I could hear by heart pounding in my ears. “Where. Are. They!” I asked tersely, between breaths. “Tell me where they are or else I’ll…”

“You’ll do what,” he interrupted. “Should anything happen to me, you won’t make it out of this facility alive. Secondly, you will never find out where your friends are. And my troopers have orders to kill them and leave their bodies to the elements. Muddy pressed a button on a small console I hadn’t seen on the table and a speaker crackled to life.

A cacophony of cries for help filled the room. The voices of my three friends were jumbled together, but the fear and desperation in their voices was unmistakable.

“Muddy, if you have hurt them…” I yelled.

“Oh, Dust, please,” he dismissed me. “You are all talk and no action. We both know you’ll do nothing to me, even if you were able to get away with it. Now shut up and listen.”

I settled back in my chair. He did have the upper hoof for now. I patted my armor, feeling for the detonator, just in case things went poorly.

“I have each of your friends,” he began. “Each of them has been escorted to a different place in the Wasteland. Your friends have a limited amount of time before my troopers leave them, bound and gagged, wherever they are. Now, I know you know that the Wasteland isn’t exactly a safe place. Who will find them? Will it be a benevolent wanderer or merchant?” His voice was rising with excitement and his smile grew. “Or will it be a vile raider? Who will win? No one knows!”

My stomach was spinning. My friends were truly in danger. And I had no idea how I was going to help them.

“Of course, I would be willing to help you,” his voice had an edge to it. “All I need, is your cooperation. And before you just snap back saying you’ll never help, just look at your friends. They need you. Now, I know you are going to say that you won’t help me. I know you are thinking of a way to help your friends without having to give in.” He pressed a different button than before and the door behind me slid open. “So go. Try and help your friends on your own. And when you change your mind and want my help, you can find me here.”

Slowly, I got up from table. As I began to walk towards the door, I kept looking over my shoulder, expecting Muddy to pull something.

“No tricks, no gimmicks,” he said with a sigh. “Go… do what you think you must… but I’d hurry. You don’t have a lot of time.”

Getting to the frame of the door, I peeked my head outside and scanned the hallway. They were as empty as before. I looked back over my shoulder and Muddy had turned around and was watching the screens. I walked out into the hallway and began to work my way out of the facility.

At first, I was simply walking. Walking became cantering. Cantering turned into trotting. Finally, I was at an all out gallop. As I got back to the main entry way, I noticed it had been cleared. The main door to the facility was open. I cleared the frame and the two guards were simply standing there and made no move to stop me.
My entire trip out of the compound went the same. Enclave troopers had cleared a path all the way out of the complex. Nopony lifted a hoof to help nor hinder me. It was surreal.

I cleared the gate of the complex and kept galloping towards the rally point we had hidden the Enclave soldiers earlier. As I approached, I saw the silhouette of Gertie overhead as she began her descent. Soft mumbling came from the place where we had stashed the bodies.

A soft thump behind me signalled Gertie’s landing. “What’s going on, Dust? I saw three skywagons take off almost two hours ago and you were hauling ass out of there. Where is everypony else?”

“Gertie…,” I said, solemnly, “we have a problem…”

Level up!

Sneak - 25

Perk Obtained:

Trapper Keeper - “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” You are beginning to have a sixth sense about detecting traps. SATS can now target components of traps in targeting mode.

Chapter 27 - Discovery, Part 2

Chapter 27 - Discovery, Part 2
“The truth is rarely pure, and never simple.”

Gertie hooked me into the harness for the skywagon and we were off in short order. Our destination was Fountainview to rescue Silver. Gertie was flying next to me, helping to keep an eye out for Enclave soldiers in case Muddy, or more likely the General, was done playing games.

“What do you think he’s really up to?” Gertie asked me. “Muddy, I mean?”

“I wish I had a clue, Gertie,” I answered. Truth was I had absolutely no idea what Muddy was playing at. “If he wanted everypony dead, he would have just killed them. If he wanted to torture me, he would have killed you guys in front of me. But this… this game? I have no idea why he is doing it this way.”

“Do I even have to say what I’m thinking?” she continued, with a smirk.

“No,” I said with a nod. “I know it’s a trap. It may or may not be waiting for us in Fountainview or The Garden, but I know Muddy has something planned.”

“Can I ask you a dumb question?” Gertie asked, her face betraying her concern. “Why do you continually risk yourself like this? I mean, the Wasteland sucks and it will always suck. Muddy has all but promised to kill you unless you help him. And if not you, he will kill the four of us and make you watch.” Her features softened. “Since the Wasteland can’t really be made any worse, why risk it? Not to mention the offer he has made to you… to return to the Enclave where things are better?”

“I don’t want anypony to get hurt, especially because of me,” I responded.

“But, Dust… ponies are getting hurt because of your choices…” she shot back. “I mean, revenge I would understand. Hell… I could even have accepted bloodlust as an answer. But while you are trying to save everypony, ponies are getting hurt and dying… especially those close to you.”

“Yes.. but…” I started to argue, but realized she had a point. I was getting my friends hurt. Or, to be more accurate, I was leading them to Muddy to get hurt. Even if I wasn’t actively trying to stop Muddy, he would probably be hunting me down, and using my friends to get to me. “He won’t stop. That much is obvious. And as shitty as the Wasteland is, I can’t just let it get worse. Not because of me.”

Gertie looked like she was going to argue the point, but the words never came. “So… Flower...,” she finally said. Gertie shook her head a little. “Still can’t believe she is a Dashite and that they took her wings. That shit is fucked up.”

“I always heard the rumors,” I grunted. “They are so afraid of the civilians learning the truth, they go to extreme measures to hide everything. If nopony sees the truth of what’s down here, then nopony can contradict the government line.” I couldn’t help but laugh a little. “And I never thought I would be a pony to say stuff like that. I used to be such a good, loyal Enclave soldier… until I came down here.”

“Hey now!” Gertie laughed. “Maybe that’s not the Wasteland’s fault. Maybe you’re just a shitty soldier.”

“Gee, thanks, Gertie,” I laughed back. When the laughter died down, I had to bring up something more serious. “So, what do you know about the cult that is supposedly at Fountainview?”

She let go a long whistle. “Buncha nutjobs if you ask me,” she answered. “They call themselves the Sunfire Cult. They worship some kind of fire pony.”

“How crazy are we talking here?” I asked, trying to formulate a plan. “Are we talking like the closeted Rainbow Dash admirers who just hope for a better tomorrow? Or are we talking more like the Dashites who make sacrifices and actively work against the Enclave?”

A tight grimace flashed across Gertie’s face. “It’s worse than that, from what I’ve heard,” she answered. “We’re talking robe-wearing, weapon brandishing, demagogue-worshipping type of cult.”

“Well, won’t this be fun,” I scoffed.

The skies began to darken as we continued flying. “Sun must be setting,” Gertie commented. “Let’s hope we can find Muddy’s soldiers before we can’t see.”

“That won’t be a problem,” I said, pointing to a small clearing a good distance from town itself. “They’re not even trying to hide. Then again, that’s not their goal, is it?”

Gertie huffed in response.

I began descending towards the clearing. As I thought, the soldiers made no move to attack or defend against us. The skywagon landed with a gentle thump behind me and Gertie landed right next to me. Shortly afterward, I heard the hatch on the skywagon creak open and Flower’s hoofsteps behind me.

“Took you long enough,” one of the soldiers, a blue mare, grunted. “Please tell me we’re the first place you came to,” she said.

“Sorry, we went to Trotwood first,” I said mockingly. Their faces twisted into a frown. “Lost the bet, I guess.”

“Fuck you, traitor,” the other soldier, a cream colored stallion spat out.

I had to admit, I took pleasure in ruining their day that way. “Where is Silver?” I asked.

“In town, somewhere,” the mare responded, nonplussed. “We dropped her off about, what, midday?” she said, looking at her partner for confirmation. He nodded back. “Alright, Twister, let’s head back to the farm.” The two soldiers walked towards their skywagon and paid us no further mind.

“Let’s go scope things out,” I recommended, pointing to a small rise which would give us a good look at the town.

We walked over to the rise and Gertie pulled out her sniper rifle and peered down the scope. After a few tense minutes, she hoofed the rifle over to me. “Take a look. You’re not gonna like what you see.”

She passed me the rifle and I peered through the scope. Fountainview was a lot like most Wasteland towns. The buildings were ramshackle collections of scrap metal and pieces of wood cobbled together into passable buildings. Most were one story buildings, but the occasional two story structure stuck out like a sore thumb. In fact, if it weren’t for the large, ornate, marble fountain in the center of town, I could think we were back in Coltington.

However, it was the ponies that made things really different. There seemed to be two different groups of ponies in town. One group of ponies were wearing nothing but rags. They were the ponies doing all the work: the carrying, building, farming, etc. They didn’t seem particularly mistreated, but they all were working with no sense of purpose, no urgency.

The other group was a different story altogether. These ponies were all wearing fancy-looking robes. They were all white, embellished with trim that was iridescent teal, purple, and blue. Where each pony’s cutie mark should have been, the robe had a different mark altogether. It was a stylized sun with arms of fire radiating out from it.It seemed oddly familiar, but I couldn’t really put my hoof on it. These ponies walked around town not really doing much of anything, except occasionally, one of the robes ponies would hit and yell at one of the ragged ponies.

“That the Sunfire Cult?” I asked Gertie, pulling the rifle away from my face and hoofing it to Flower.

“Looks that way,” she answered. When she saw the confused look on my face, she continued. “I have never really seen them before. Our company doesn’t usually operate this far west. We got rumors from merchants we ran across who had been out this way.” Her face tightened. “I also remember hearing that they aren’t too welcoming of strangers.”

“Uhh, Dust,” Flower muttered. “Yer gonna wanna see this.”

Flower hoofed the rifle back over to me and I peered back through the scope. All the robed ponies were gathering near the center of town. After they had all collected, the door to the largest building in town opened, and one of the rag wearing ponies was being dragged, forcibly, towards a large pile of wood with a stake in the middle. The two robed ponies that were dragging him then tied him tightly to the post.

After a few moments, another pony strode from the large building. He was a large crimson unicorn stallion with a golden mane and tail. He was wearing robes similar to the cultist ponies, but his was fringed in gold trim. His aqua colored eyes were welcoming, but also held a hint of something more sinister.

He strode confidently towards the wood pile. He began to talk to the collected group. If only I could read lips. The robed ponies would respond to some of his speech and he would continue on, frequently gesturing towards the sky, the collected group, or the pony attached to the stake.

Finally, with a grand sweep of his leg, the horns of two nearby unicorns became enrobed in light. The edge of the wood pile came alight.

“Oh, fuck, no,” I muttered. “They’re burning him alive!” I said more out of shock than to inform my friends. They simply gasped in response.

The wood must have been dry because the flames spread very quickly and very soon made it to the pony. He was struggling fiercely against his bonds, but he was secured too tightly. His clothes caught fire and I saw his mouth open in what I could only imagine were screams of pain. The fire beneath him grew in intensity. I could see patches of his coat burn away and the skin underneath start to bubble.

I dropped the rifle. I couldn’t bear to watch anymore. One’s drowning face flashed quickly in my mind, but I pushed it away. I didn’t want to think about which was worse.

There was a very uneasy silence that fell over the group. We could only exchange knowing glances.

“Sooo… we’re going to have to disguise ourselves and try to blend in then?” I asked uneasily.

“Well, I wasn’t saying it, but yeah,” Gertie answered with a nervous laugh. “Hey, at least it’s going to be dark out soon?” she phrased as a question, but it was clearly rhetorical.

“Yeah…” I huffed. “At least we can get closer without getting seen. But we still need to get our hooves on three sets of robes and learn more about them so we can blend in.”

“Dust,” Flower added after clearing her throat. “Do ya really think that’s such a good idea? I mean, I don’t see no other griffons in there… Gertie might stand out, in a bad way.”

“As much as I hate to admit it, Dust, she’s right,” Gertie admitted with a sigh. “I can provide overwatch and protect you from the air, especially if you wait until it’s dark. During the day, I’ll have to take up a position out here somewhere.”

“I’m not a huge fan of this plan…” I said, taking a deep breath and slowly releasing it. “I don’t like leaving anypony behind anymore, but I can’t see any other way this will work.”

“Why don’t ya two try ta get a coupla hours sleep,” Flower offered. “Ah’ll take watch… ah got some shuteye on the flight over here.”

At the mention of sleep, I involuntarily had the biggest yawn I could remember. “That’s not such a bad idea.” Gertie nodded in agreement and followed me to the skywagon. I closed the door behind us with a clang. The windows on the skywagon were still letting a little light into the cabin, but I drew the integrated blinds which darkened the interior, hopefully, enough. After setting out the bedrolls we had packed, we both lied down on top.

After I got settled on the floor, Gertie rolled over and tried to rest her head on my shoulder. “Dust, do you mind if I, um, ya know…” she mumbled.

“You know I don’t think...,” I began to say tersely, but then I looked down at Gertie’s face. Her features were tight and even in the twilight inside the cabin, I could see her eyes welling up with tears. “Ah, fuck it. Sure.”

A small grin erupted on her face as she slid up next to me and rested on my shoulder. “Dust, I know I’ve been a little selfish regarding you,” she said softly. “I know you were with Silver first and you have feelings for her, but it doesn’t change how I feel. And while I know that I can never replace her, just know that I’ll always be here for you.”

“Gertie, please…” I began to say, but she placed a talon across my lips.

“Shhh,” Gertie hushed me. “You don’t need to respond, it’s OK.”

I stopped trying to answer her and just laid there trying to sleep. I heard and felt Gertie’s breathing deepen and slow until I knew she was asleep. Shortly afterwards, I did the same.

A soft rapping on the skywagon roused me from my sleep. Gertie jumped up as if she’d heard a gunshot.

“Huh? What? Who?” she stammered as she frantically looked around the cabin, reaching for her rifle.

“It’s OK, Gertie,” I tried to comfort her. “It’s just Flower waking us up.”

“Oh,” she mumbled as I saw her visibly relax. “I guess it’s time to go see what’s up.”

We got up and worked our way outside the skywagon. Flower was waiting a few steps away looking toward Fountainview. The town was lit up with lantern light which flickered and cast shadows on the other buildings.

“Yeah, a cult overrun town at night lit by flickering lantern light,” Gertie deadpanned. “Not creepy at all.”

“Alright,” I began to describe my plan, as it was. “Gertie, get overhead and watch us from above. I’m not expecting much interaction tonight. Especially since we’re really just trying to see what this cult is like so we can fit in. If you can see a way to get some robes easily, that would be great.”

Gertie gave me a terse nod. “Be careful, Dust,” she said, her eyes betraying concern. “All I hear about this cult is bad.” She glanced at Flower, but not with the same depth of emotion as she did with me. “You too, Flower.” With several flaps of her wings, Gertie was airborne and disappeared into the dark.

“Alright, let’s see how close to town we can get,” I said, pointing towards the nearest building. Flower simply nodded.

We both crept towards town, keeping an eye for any movement that we could see in the dark. Fortunately, if it was too dark for us to see somepony else, it would be too dark for them to see us also.

We got to the buildings at the fringe of town without incident. Edging our way along the side of the nearest building, we moved to a position where we could see a lot of the town.

There were barely any ponies out in the central square at this time of night. A lone sentry ambled into view, yawning and shaking his head to fight off his fatigue. He was armed with a combat shotgun attached to a battle saddle, but the firing bit was in the inactive position. I couldn’t make out the grumbling he was doing under his breath, but he was obviously unhappy about guard duty.

Flower tapped my shoulder and pointed at the other end of the square. Another guard was strolling into the view. As the two approached each other, they stopped and shared an intricate hoofbump.

“May Celestia shine her light down on you,” the first guard intoned, seeming rather bored.

“And also on you,” the second guard responded. “I hate the fucking night shift.”

“Yeah, I hear ya,” the first replied. His mood then brightened visibly. “Did you hear?”

“Yeah! We’re going to have an Ascension soon!” the first said, positively giddy. “Can’t believe they found somepony important to sacrifice.”

“I know! It’s rare to find a pegasus,” the second sighed. “I can’t wait to bask in Daybreaker’s warmth. I hope the rest of the night passes quickly. I can’t wait. But I guess we better get back to it. Glory be to the sun.”

“And Celestia’s ever-lasting flame.”

The two parted ways and left the clearing. I looked at Flower and she furrowed her brow. Nodding, I agreed with her. I gestured around the back of the building and we both crept away.

“Let’s see if we can find where they might be keeping Silver,” I whispered.

We circled the town slowly, looking over every building we came to. None of the buildings had windows so we couldn’t really see what was inside, but we tried to discern the function of each building based on what was around. We found what we thought was an inn, a bar, several houses and a shop. Several of the buildings, however, were so nondescript, we couldn’t figure out what they were.

Until the last building. This was one of the few two-story buildings in Fountainview. While the construction was nothing unusual, the building was appointed with several crimson banners with the same stylized sun and fire symbol we saw on the robes of the cult members. It was also the only building where there were signs of activity on the inside. Flower and I crept our way to one of the corners near the front of the building and peered around the side. On the porch, flanking both sides of the door, were two more sentries, both armed with shotguns on battle saddles.

I gestured to head back behind the building and we crept our way back.

“I guess we found the headquarters, or whatever you want to call it,” I declared, shaking my head. “Heavily guarded in the front, and no way of knowing what’s inside. Luna be damned.”

“Dust, we have no way of knowing if that’s even where Silver is,” Flower whispered back. “She may be kept in another building completely, or…” she paused, shifting her weight between her hooves. “We may already be…”

“Flower, please, don’t say it,” I interrupted. “I need to believe she is still alive. If I lose anypony, especially her,” I said, pausing for a brief pang of guilt, “I don’t know what I will do.”

Flower simply responded with a nod. “We need ta find those robes and get inside that building then. What about the other two guards… we can probably isolate and take ‘em out one at a time. Let’s just hope we don’t come across any surprises.”

I smacked my hoof against my head so hard, it actually hurt. “You had to go ahead and say that, didn’t you.”
Flower gave back a sheepish grin.

Finding the first sentry wasn’t hard at all since he was ambling right towards us, just on the other side of the buildings we were slinking behind. Flower hid behind a different building as I went to check on the location of our first target and make sure there were no other guards around.

After feeling satisfied that the coast was clear, I watched the sentry with baited breath. He was taking his dear old time making his rounds. Eventually, he got close enough for our plan to work. Picking up a hoofful of dirt, I threw it against the nearest building. The mix of dirt and small rocks clattered against the steel sheeting that made up the walls of the structure.

“What the…” the sentry said as he turned in my direction.

I slunk further back down the alleyway I was in and waited to see if he took the bait. After several agonizing seconds, the hooded figure appeared in the alleyway and began to peer down the narrow path. His lantern cast a narrow circle of light around him, but did lend some light to the alley.

Picking up another hoofful of earth, I threw it up in the air between the buildings. The larger particles clattered on the ground, but the finer material made a cloud that lingered. The sentry crept down the alley towards me and neared Flower’s position. He swung the lantern left and right, looking for the source of the unusual sounds.

He approached the rear of the building that Flower had hidden herself behind and was about to turn to continue his search. However, before he had a chance, I galloped between two buildings as he was peering away from me.

“Wh… who goes there!” he cried out and I heard his hoofsteps quicken.

I turned and waited for him to approach. He turned the corner and swung the lantern towards me. I was momentarily blinded by the bright light thrown off by the flame.

“Who the fuck are…” he started.

Flower crept up behind him with her rifle in hoof. She raised it above her head and brought the stock down against the pony’s head with a sickening crunch. The sentry’s eyes rolled back in his head as he collapsed like a sack of rocks.

“That’s one,” Flower called out cheerfully as she rummaged in her bag for rope and some cloth. In short order, I had stripped the sentry of his robes, and anything useful. The pony didn’t have much besides his weapon, a hoofful of caps, several rounds of ammo for his shotgun, and a small book. The leather bound tome was barely larger than a magazine for an assault rifle. The cover had the words “Scripture of Flame” stamped in gold leaf. Probably the mad ramblings of their leader.

Flower had the pony tied and gagged in short order. “We will have ta carry him back to the skywagon, but he should be out fer a while,” she whispered. “Let’s find the other sentry.”

We circled around the town again, but did not cross paths with the sentry.

“Dust, ah hate ta say this, but maybe we should split up,” she said with a shrug. “Maybe we’ll have better luck finding him.”

“I don’t know… I don’t like the idea of us splitting up,” I argued.

“Dust, we need a second set of robes,” she began to argue. “And we have ta do it before it’s morning. Besides, we have Gertie watchin overhead.”

“But…” I began to disagree but realized she was right.

After sharing a tense nod, we walked away in opposite directions. I was circling around town in the same direction we had already been traveling, while Flower was going the opposite.

Being alone, the lantern-cast shadows seemed more imposing, and the alleys and roadways felt like they were closing in on me. My hoofsteps sounded amplified in my own ears. The small, random sounds of the nighttime Wasteland caused me to jump a little.

I was so caught up in my own thoughts I didn’t hear the hoofsteps of the sentry growing louder. What I did manage to hear was the racking of a shotgun.

“Who the fuck are you!?” a stallion shouted out from behind me.

Instincts kicked in and I spun quickly and dove behind the nearest building. Peering around the corner, I saw the other, and only other, I hoped, sentry.

“Show yourself, slowly!” he yelled again.

Checking my weapon, I had a full clip and one in the chamber. If I played my cards right, I could spin out and take out the guard, if needed. But I needed to try to knock him out. A bloodied set of robes with several suspiciously bullet-shaped holes would bring too many questions.

A voice coming from directly behind me shattered my concentration. “I would do what he says,” another stallion voice called out.

Spinning around quickly, I saw another robed figure with a combat shotgun mounted on a battle saddle aimed squarely at me. However, next to him, manacled, gagged, and tied to a rope, was Flower. She had a pained look on her face. Fuck.

I dropped my weapon to the ground and tried to appear as harmless as possible. The stallion approached me and jabbed me in the gut with the barrel of his shotgun. “Move!” he growled.

“May Celestia shine her light down on you,” I recited, trying to convince them that I was a member of the cult.

“Nice try,” he grunted as he forced me forward.

“Brother!” the first guard called out when we rounded the corner of the building I had been using for cover. “I see Celestia has blessed you with luck this evening!”

“Celestia be praised indeed,” the second cultist answered back. “I found this one on the other side of the complex. I was bringing her to the Prophet when I heard you shouting at this one. I decided to come to help.”

“Firebrand will be so delighted!” the first guard gushed. “More heathens for sacrifice!”

“Truly!” the second guard muttered, his excitement clearly overcoming him. “It’s rare we have an ascension ceremony, but to have so many offerings! Daybreaker will surely bestow her blessings upon us.”

“Yes, she…” the first pony said, but cut off with a gurgle. Blood began to run from the corners of his mouth as his body slumped to the ground.

“What the fuck?” the second guard said from directly behind me.

I didn’t hesitate. Leaning forward, I bucked back as hard as I could. The now-too-familiar feeling of the shock ran up my legs and the sickeningly wet crunch met my ears. The stallion was driven backwards but remained upright.

Flower dove as soon as she saw the guard distracted. She threw her hooves over the head of the guard and pulled backwards hard. The rope between her hooves dug into the neck of the stallion and he began to gasp for air as he clutched his throat. Flower, to her credit, was not letting up. Even the gasping and gurgling ceased as Flower kept her grip tight. The stallion attempted to throw hooves into Flower, but he never had the angle.

The movement of his hooves slowed as his face began to take on a sickly blue hue. The attempted strikes became nothing more than taps. Eventually, the blows stopped altogether as his hooves dangled limply by his side.

After several seconds of inactivity, Flower loosened her grip and dropped the body to the ground. The body just lay there as we confirmed that he was, in fact, deceased.

“That’s two,” Flower said between ragged breaths. “And three?” she said, her inflection turning it into more of a question rather than a statement. She glanced past me at the body of the guard that had died unexpectedly.

A thud from behind drew my attention. Gertie had landed besides us, looking rather proud of herself. “I just can’t take you anywhere without running into trouble, can I?” she teased. “Did you see that? Completely neutralized from fifty yards up while hovering!” she continued, gushing.

“Yes, very impressive, Gertie,” I agreed. “I’m just glad the third guard was here so we got our second set of robes”

“Wow, way to be a killjoy, Dust,” Gertie deadpanned. “Need help moving the bodies?”

“Yeah, ‘specially since there are three now,” Flower mused. “Ah’ll go get the first one. You two can grab these guys.” She trotted off into the darkness.

“I hope we’ve got all the ponies on guard duty tonight,” I grunted as I lifted one of the bodies onto my back. “I don’t think I can handle another surprise.”

Gertie slung the other body over her shoulder. “Geez, what do these ponies eat!” she grunted as she strained under the weight.

“Did you happen to see anything else interesting while you were up there?” I asked, shuffling while trying not to drop the body.

“Nothing you probably don’t already know,” she answered. “I think you got all the night security and the only building with any activity is the two story building you and Flower hid behind for a while. Do you have a plan?”

“Far as I can tell, she has to be in that building,” I mused. “It’s the only one with lights on and guards posted in front. Where else can she be?”

“Okay… so how do you get inside?” Gertie asked.

“We can’t right now… the guards will probably never let us get close…” I began to brainstorm out loud. “During the day, we can probably mix in with another group going in and get past the guards.”

“Um…” Gertie looked at me nervously. “What if Silver is the sacrifice in the morning?”

“Oh… um,” I gulped. I hadn’t thought of that. “I don’t know… it’s not like we can just shoot our way through. All the cultists we’ve seen so far have been well armed. I can only imagine what a whole group of them would do.”

Gertie reached into her pockets and pulled out a frag grenade. “We do have these…” she offered.

“I’m hoping it doesn’t come to that,” I countered. “I don’t want to kill anypony unless we have to. Besides, it might hurt or kill Silver accidentally.”

We got back to the skywagon and dropped the bodies next to it. Gertie pulled off the good set of robes from the choked out guard. The other set had gotten too blood stained to use. Flower arrived a few minutes later with her pony. He was still unconscious and his bindings held.

“Gertie, get back airborne and watch from above until daylight,” I said, formulating a plan. “When it gets light enough to be seen, land and get the best vantage point you can. Flower, you and I have a ceremony to attend.”

Gertie nodded, jumped, and became airborne again. Flower took out the set of robes she removed from the pony earlier and slipped into them. They were a little big on her, but it wasn’t really noticeable unless you looked closely. I slipped into my set of robes which were a good fit, even with the armor and wings.

Flower drew her hood up over her head. When it was in place, you could barely see her face with only the tip of her snout sticking out. It was great concealment. I drew my hood up also and got an approving nod from Flower.

We made our way back to town. On the way, we had formulated a plan to continue circling the town like the guards had been to maintain our cover. It would also allow us to get a closer look at the front of the building we thought was where Silver was being held. But it also meant we had to split up again. There was no argument though… it would be too suspicious if two guards patrolled together when they hadn’t been doing it before.

The first time I drew near the building, one of the guards spoke. “May Celestia shine her light down on you,” he recited, almost mechanically.

“And also on you,” I responded.

“Don’t normally see you during rounds, everything OK?” the guard asked.

Shit. “Yeah, just figured I’d mix things up… try to stay awake…” I explained, hoping it would pass muster.

“I hear ya… don’t forget you’re needed for setup shortly before sunrise.”

“Y… yeah… gotcha,” I answered. Setup for what, I wondered.

I continued my “rounds” and ran into Flower. “See anything?” she asked.

“No… the guards questioned me,” I informed her. “The guards don’t usually patrol in front of that building.”

“Noted… “ Flower said, but was interrupted by a rhythmic, banging sound. “The fuck?”

The sound was coming from the direction of the headquarters, for lack of a better term. We both gave each other a knowing glance and started walking back towards the main building. Hiding in the shadows, we peered around the corner.

A unicorn in rags had his horn was aglow in orange magic. In front of him stood a large post. A sledgehammer held aloft in a matching orange field was pounding away on the top of the post. Meanwhile, several more of the ponies wearing rags were either pulling carts filled with wood or holding piles of wood in magical fields. The wood was being piled up around the base of the post.

“Oh, crap, this doesn’t look good,” I mumbled. “Does that look like…”

“Yup,” Flower answered, not letting me finished.

“You don’t think they intend to,” I asked, in shock.

“Yup,” she repeated.

“Shit,” I muttered. “And dawn isn’t too far away, is it?”

Flower looked over her shoulder and the sky in the distance was beginning to lighten. “Nope.”

Slowly, more of the ponies in robes filtered into the main square of the town. The long robes and the large hoods concealed most of their features except their snouts. Most were getting close to the wood pile. Others had stopped to talk to other ponies.

The crowd grew larger and the din grew as a multitude of conversations were being held. The snippets of the conversations we could hear from where we had been waiting were mainly about the ceremony. Nopony was talking about details, just that it was going to be an amazing ceremony, whatever this Ascension was.

After full daylight had filtered through the town, the door to the main building swung open. The two guards flanking the door snapped to attention. The crowd immediately in front of the building ceased their conversations and fully focused on the doorway. Eventually, the silence filtered its way through the crowd.

The large stallion from the previous night appeared in the doorway of the main building. He strode down the stairs and across the main square towards the wood pile. He stopped several paces away and turned to face the crowd.

“Good morning ponies!” he bellowed. “It appears Celestia has graced us with her eternal light again! Glory be to Celestia!”

“Glory to the sun!” the crowd returned, in unison.

“May Celestia shine her everlasting light on you!” the leader bellowed.

“And also on you!” the crowd droned.

“Today is an auspicious day!” the leader droned on. “It has been far too long since we have had an ascension!”

The crowd erupted into cheers. Ponies were excitedly chatting between each other. A small group of ponies near the front looked especially excited.

The leader reared up on his legs to calm the crowd down. “We have been fortunate enough to have been given a suitable sacrifice for Celestia! On this joyous day we will reinforce our love for Celestia and all she so generously gives us! We will bask in her light!”

“Celestia be praised!” the crowd cheered.

“Bring out the sacrifice!” the leader bellowed.

The crowd erupted into another set of cheers as the doors to the main building in the square reopened. Two robed ponies emerged holding ropes in their mouths. Behind them was another pony in a flowing, white hooded gown. Her entire body was hidden by the garment. She was being partly dragged by the ropes of the lead ponies tied around her neck. Two additional robed ponies trailed the rest of the group with their weapons trained on the pony in the gown.

She was led to the wood pile and the four ponies went to work securing her to the post. It took several minutes as the pony began to struggle against the cultists, but it was to no avail. Eventually, the four stepped away leaving a clear line of sight. The hood had fallen away from the face of the pony. It was Silver!

“Sil…” I began to cry out before a hoof slammed across my mouth.

“Goddess damn it, Dust,” Flower hissed at me. “Yer gonna get yerself killed if you do that!”

“But we have to…” I began to protest.

“Ah know…” she answered, “but we need a better plan than just runnin’ in there all half cocked.”

The crimson stallion reared up once again to calm the crowd. “Oh great Celestia!” he began. “Your loyal servants wish to demonstrate their love and devotion to you. You bless us with the gifts of food and shelter. You keep us safe from the other threats of the Wasteland. And for that, we are grateful.”

“Praise be to Celestia!” the crowd responded.

“And now, to show our love,” he continued. “We wish to make an offering to you!”

“Celestia is love! Celestia is life!” the crowd droned.

“And look!” the stallion gasped, pointing behind the crowd. “We have been honored with her presence here today!”

“What the fuck does he mean…” I began as I turned my head to look.

From the east, a white form began to emerge. As it got closer, details could be made out. It was a white pegasus… wait… no… pegasi didn’t have horns, too. It was an alicorn! This would not be good… alicorns always fucked things up whenever they appeared. But something felt off…

Flower and I looked at each other. “A white alicorn?” we said at the same time.

“I have never even heard of white alicorns, anywhere,” Flower said in shock.

As the alicorn drew nearer, you could make out the flowing teal, blue, and pink mane and tail. On her flank, there was a sun with radiating arms cutie mark. Holy shit.

Flower gasped. “No…. it can’t be… this isn’t possible,” she muttered, her words matching my thoughts. How could this be? Didn’t Celestia die in Canterlot on the Last Day?

Celestia flew overhead. If this was a fake, then it was a damned good fake. She landed gently next to the cult leader. All the ponies, dropped to their knees and prostrated themselves.

“Rise, my little ponies,” Celestia boomed. “How are my favorite ponies today?”

The cult leader rose and addressed her. “Celestia, your grace. We are overjoyed to share in your light and love today!”

The crowd, standing back on their hooves, responded. “We are honored by your love, Celestia!”

“We are thankful for your protection and bounty out here in the wretched Wasteland,” the leader incanted.

“Through Celestia’s gifts, we shall survive!” the crowd chanted.

“And in thanks for your gifts, we present you with one of our own,” the leader said, pointing towards Silver on the stake.

“Thank you, Firebrand,” Celestia cooed. She glanced at Silver. “Your sacrifice shall be for the benefit of all here.”

Silver struggled against her bonds and mumbled through her gag. I could hear my own heartbeat as I fought off the urge to just run across the square and save her. But Flower was right. We were woefully outmanned, and even without an alicorn here, outgunned as well.

“But, your Grace, there is more than meets the eye this time,” Firebrand said with a nod. The two ponies nearest silver pulled the gown away from her back so her wings were now visible. “This time, we offer you a pegasus!”

Celestia’s face twisted in a way that sent chills down my spine. “This is, indeed, a special gift. You offer me a traitor to pay for the sins of the pegasi in turning their back on us all those years ago?” she bellowed. “This is indeed a special day! You will help to atone for the sins of your predecessors, little one.” Celestia kicked off the ground and began to hover above the crowd. “Little ones! Your undying love and devotion to me is always loved. You offer your lives, obedience and loyalty to me. And your presents to me do not go unnoticed. But today… today is special. Today is a day where the pegasi can pay for what they’re done to my land… your land… and you…”

Celestia’s eyes darkened to jet black. Her mane and tale lost the bright, pastel hues they normally had, exchanging them for orange and yellow. If I didn’t know any better, I would say her mane and tail were basically aflame.

“And now, I, Daybreaker, will exact retribution for their crimes from this traitor for turning their backs on their nation, their rulers, and you!” Celestia-turned-Daybreaker shouted above the crowd.

“Flower, we have to do something!” I pleaded.

“I know… but what?” she responded. “You’ve heard the rumors about alicorns. Regular weaponry won’t work against them!”

Daybreaker’s horn began to glow as if it, too, were on fire. She reared back her head.
“Silver…” I cried. “I’m so sorry.”

The magic in Daybreaker’s horn built up to almost blinding levels. Suddenly, a shot rang out. Everypony jumped at the sound. However, there was no apparent target. Nopony was wounded, and there were no ricochets to indicate a missed shot. However, Daybreaker had disappeared.

“Dust, ya think that was Gertie?” Flower started.

“Yeah, but she doesn’t usually miss,” I answered.

“Somepony out there tried to attack our queen!” Firebrand bellowed. He pointed behind the crowd. “The shot came from that direction! Everypony! Find the heretics! Bring them here! They shall pay for their insolence! Secure the pegasus!”

The crowd turned and galloped out of the town square. Two of the guards quickly untied Silver and dragged her back inside the building. After several seconds, the only ponies left behind were Silver, Firebrand, two guards, and us.

“Where did Daybreaker go?” Flower mused.

“That was weird… I didn’t see her fly off,” I pondered. “Where did she go?”
Flower shrugged.

Firebrand was pacing in the square. “Who the fuck dares to interrupt me!” He then shifted his view to the balcony atop the main building. “And where is Mirage? Get her the fuck out here!”

The two guards galloped into the main building. A few moments later, they came back out dragging a gray unicorn mare in robes out the door. The look of terror on her face was unmistakable.

“What the fuck happened!” Firebrand bellowed as he approached Mirage. “You can’t break focus like that!”

“S…s…sorry Firebrand,” she stammered, shying away from him. “The g…g…gunshot startled me.”

“But you can’t drop it like that!” Firebrand shot back. His hoof snapped out and struck Mirage, and she was thrown a couple feet back. She clutched her face and began to weep. “You have to keep up the illusion! Now get back in there and prepare for when they all come back!”

Mirage scrambled away back into the main building.

“Unbelievable!” Firebrand continued, pacing around the square. “What was supposed to be a glorious day was ruined by this… once I get my hooves on the pony that did this… ugh… come, we have preparations to make. Bring the pegasus.”

We were soon left alone with an empty square in front of us. “So, Celestia is an illusion?” I muttered. “Damn good illusion if you ask me. But thank Celes… um, it’s great that she’s not real. But, what in Tartarus are we going to do about Silver?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Flower said shaking her head. “She is always under well-armed guard. Not to mention the faithful,” she said, imbuing the last word with sarcasm.

“We need to find Gertie and make a plan,” I finally concluded. “We have to do something to get her out of here.”

Drawing our hoods over our heads, we started to make our way out of town towards the skywagon. We made sure that we weren’t being followed and were careful to avoid interacting with the cultists as much as we could. Unfortunately, our luck was going to be short lived.

Gunfire drew our attention and, of course, it had to be coming from the direction of the skywagon. Flower and I shared a quick, grave glance before we broke out into a full out gallop. As we cleared a small rise, the skywagon came into view. Ringing the vehicle were about a dozen cultists, all firing on the wagon.

“Don’t tell me she is stuck inside the wagon,” I grumbled.

Almost as an answer to my question, the door to the cabin opened slightly and I saw the barrel of a rifle stick out and fire off a few shots. Quickly, the cult fired back in unison and the cabin door slammed shut.

“Well, that answers that,” Flower muttered. “What are we going to do?”

I had no idea. For once, I couldn’t even begin to formulate a bad plan. Going in guns blazing would most likely get us killed. We couldn’t sneak, as the fracas probably was attracting attention of more cultists and somepony would see us.

“Go get Firebrand!” one of the cultists was shouting. “He’ll know how to deal with this nonbeliever!”

Shit.

Two ponies galloped off back towards town. It wouldn’t be long before he came back. We had to do something.

An idea flashed across my mind. I turned towards Flower. “I have an idea, but you’re not going to like it,” I told Flower. “I would say watch my back, but if this doesn’t work, I don’t know if there will be anything you can do.” I left all my weapons with Flower. “I’m going to get us back to town so I can get close to Silver… you will need to give me a distraction when the time is right. Remember, the pony projecting the illusion hides out on the balcony of the building.” Flower simply grimaced in response.

I trotted out into the open, sure to be seen by the other cultists. “Brothers! Sisters! Hold your fire!” I shouted trying to attract the attention of the nearest cultists. They eventually stopped firing, and the effect spread slowly over the clearing. All the ponies’ heads were now pointed in my direction. “Gunfire is getting us nowhere! Let me try to talk sense into the fool!”

The ponies responded with some low grumbling, as they, no doubt, were questioning my sanity, if not my tactics. “If you want to get your head blown off like Pious did, be our guest!” a random pony shouted. Most snickered at his statement.

Cautiously, I trotted towards the skywagon. “Non-believer!” I yelled. “There is no need for violence! I am sure the cleansing light of Celestia will reveal itself to you!” I intoned, putting on my best faithful tone. “All I ask is for several moments to talk. You’ll notice I am unarmed and pose no threat to you!”

The cabin door cracked open and I could see Gertie’s beak in the slim opening. “D…” she started to say.

“Yes! Celestia is great!” I interrupted her. “Her love and wisdom knows no bounds! She can be a great and loving guide!” I kept approaching the fuselage. As I got closer, I could make out Gertie’s face and could see that she was clearly confused.

After several seconds, I reached the door. “Dust, what the hell is going on?” she asked, still looking mixed up.

“I’m trying to save all our asses here,” I explained. “Listen, Silver is being held under heavy guard. This cult is being manipulated by Firebrand through an illusory Celestia.”

“I knew something was fishy!” she exclaimed. “I tried shooting her when she was threatening Silver. I saw the shot. It impacted directly behind her. There is no way I missed.”

“Listen, this cult is going to come in here and take you by force soon,” I informed her. “It would be best if you let me pretend to capture you peacefully. This will let us get close to Silver. Between the two of us, we should be able to get her clear, while Flower gives us a distraction.”

“Dust,” Gertie said, shaking her head. “That has got to be one of the most feather-brained plans I’ve ever heard, and my head is covered in feathers!”

“Can you think of a better one?” I shot back. “Especially considering this town is already set on burning Silver at the stake?”

Gertie opened and closed her beak several times as if to say something, but nothing ever came out. Eventually, she just sighed and dragged a claw across her face. “Dust, I’ll be surprised if we make it out of this alive.”

“I know, Gertie,” I admitted. “I know.”

Taking a coil of rope out of my saddlebags, I told Gertie to step out of the wagon. I made a great show of tying her up, but made sure that the knots I was using were not going to hold under any strain. Continuing the show, I disarmed Gertie, stowing her weaponry on myself. After she was disarmed, I could almost hear the surrounding cultists breathe a sigh of relief. That was followed up with the sound of several weapons being stowed.

“Very good work, brother!” a voice bellowed. Looking in that direction, the imposing form of Firebrand was making his way over to the wagon. He turned his attention towards Gertie. “I never would have imagined a griffin mercenary would be causing all this trouble. And to try to murder our Goddess? Shame. No matter, though. She will make an excellent offering to Daybreaker as well as the pegasus. She will soon learn the error of her ways!”

The crowd of ponies around us cheered. Firebrand turned back towards town. “Come, my children! We have a ceremony to finish!”

The cultist ponies began to fall in line behind Firebrand. I fell in line with Gertie in tow. Several ponies ran out in all directions. Most likely, they were recalling their other brethren who were still off on the search.

In short time, we were back in town and I was directed to bring Gertie to the stake. Silver was dragged through the door in short order and lead back to the stake. She was still wearing the white, hooded robe and kept her head down. As she approached the stake, she looked up and her face lit up in shock.

“Gertie! They got you, too?” she asked, her voice pained.

“Yeah,” Gertie muttered.

Silver looked over at me and her face lit up again. She quickly looked back at Gertie, who simply shook her head.

“Tie them to the stake!” Firebrand bellowed, emerging from the main building once again.

I herded the two ponies to the stake and used the remaining length of rope to secure both ponies to the wooden post. Again, I made sure to use very loose knots that could be pulled free quickly, if needed. When I was done, I retreated a few steps near the front of the mob.

Firebrand strolled into the center of the mass of ponies. “Brothers and sisters! Earlier today, we were about to begin a joyous offering to Celestia for all she gives us, all she provides for us! But we were sorely interrupted. This, griffin,” he said, contempt dripping off the last word, “sought to take it all away from us and tried to murder our Goddess.”

The crowd began to hiss.

Firebrand reared up and waved his hooves, calming the crowd. “It was foolish for her to think such would be possible, but this world is full of fools and nonbelievers! But Celestia did fly away! Let us hope and pray for her return!”

All the ponies around me prostrated themselves on the ground. I quickly followed in suit.

“Oh, Celestia!” Firebrand incanted. “Please forgive us! We meant to offer you our love and gratitude, but we were not careful enough to keep non believers at bay! We ask for your return so we can set things right again!”

The ponies around me began chanting some verse about the great Celestia and her cleansing light. I couldn’t make out the exact words among the din of the entire crowd, but you could tell they were words that had been uttered before. Glancing upwards, I saw a white spot appear in the sky and approach the town once again. It was Celestia. Sneaking a peek at the balcony, I saw Mirage hiding in the doorway, her horn aglow.

“Celestia” flew into town much like last time, her iridescent mane and tale flowing in the wind. But there was something wrong. The movements weren’t fluid. They seemed almost unnatural.

“Oh great Celestia! We are humbled you have returned to us, even after our past mistakes!” Firebrand spoke.

The loud, bellowing voice responded. “Oh, Firebrand, I understand it wasn’t your fault. I know there are non believers that would try to prevent me from spreading my love.” The alicorn looked towards the two bound ponies. “Is this griffin the one who tried to kill me earlier?” Firebrand nodded his confirmation. “Oh, you silly bird. Don’t you know you can’t kill an alicorn? And for that, as well as all your race’s crimes against ponykind, you will pay!”

Again, Celestia’s mane and tail turned into flame. Her eyes darkened and her horn began to glow. But the horn wasn’t glowing orange like last time. It was more pure, more white, as if it was still that of Celestia’s.

“It’s time,” I muttered. I jumped up, causing several ponies around me to begin to protest. I was waving my hooves and gesturing towards the balcony. I’d never be able to get a shot off here… but Flower…

“C’mon, Flower,” I mumbled as more ponies began to protest.

“We have another snake in the grass, I see!” Firebrand yelled. “Brothers and sisters, get him!”

The cultists around me tackled me to the floor. I strained against them, but I was too outnumbered to break free of that many hooves.

A gunshot rang out. The ponies around me slackened their grips and stepped away. As the space around me cleared, I looked to see what had happened. On the balcony, prone but squirming, was Mirage. Her horn was no longer aglow in any magic. Many of the cultists were looking between her and the now empty sky where Celestia had occupied.

Many of the cultists were asking where Celestia had gone, but a few of the voices were muttering about an illusion. Some ponies were asking each other if Celestia had been a fake. At first, there was some resistance, but more and more voices began to join the chorus.

“B..brothers and sisters!” Firebrand stuttered. He actually stuttered. “Have no fear, I am sure she will return!”
“N… no, I can’t,” Mirage muttered from the balcony.

“Mirage, don’t you dare!” Firebrand bellowed. Mirage slunk back on the balcony, recoiling in fear.

The cultists were now fully confused. They were all questioning what had just happened. However, the loudest protests came from the rag-wearing ponies, who I had not noticed had collected at the rear of the square until now. The raw anger I saw jolted me to my core. This even paled the anger I saw from raider ponies from time to time. This was visceral, yet focused.

The rag wearing ponies began to press in from the back. Firebrand retreated several steps towards the large building, two of the cultists stepping in to form a protective wall in front of him. The two guards drew their shotguns with their magic and held them aloft.

“Gertie! Now!” I shouted as I ran behind Silver and helped undo the loose knot. I shed the robes I was wearing and tore the white gown off of her.

She grabbed me and hugged me. “Dust, I knew you’d come,” she gushed.

“Silver, now is not the time. We have to get out of here!” I shouted over the din.

She pulled back sheepishly. I felt bad snapping at her, but things were deteriorating rapidly. And then the first shots were fired.

It took all three of us by surprise and we all ducked by instinct. “Everyone OK?” I shouted. Both Gertie and Silver nodded back. I glanced out over the crowd and saw what had happened. Several ponies, both robed and ragged, were motionless on the ground. The front line of cultists had drawn whatever weapons they had been holding at the time. The ragged ponies, to their credit, were fighting back with only their hooves.

“Let’s get the fuck out of here while the getting is good,” Gertie snapped as we slinked away from the main body of fighting. I couldn’t argue. It had turned into a cacophony of screams, yells, gunshots, and the sound of hooves striking bodies. We ducked down a small alleyway between two buildings and just galloped.

We didn’t get off scot free, however. “Hey, we got a few trying to escape!” a gruff voice yelled behind me. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw the robed forms of two ponies galloping behind me. Their shotguns pointed in our direction gave me reason to worry.

The first shot boomed from behind me. I felt several impacts along my armor, which surprised me more than hurt. However, several pellets found the unprotected parts of my legs and neck. The pinpoint pain and burning made me stumble, but I kept my footing.

Silver, however, wasn’t as lucky. She had fallen to the ground and rolled a few times before skidding to a halt. She curled up and began to cradle her rear left leg. I saw the pink hair began to bloom over with red.

“Silver!” I cried out and skidded to a halt. By the time I was able to turn around, the cultist and I were the same distance from her.

My fear for Silver gave me an adrenaline surge and I broke out into as fast a gallop as I could. Unfortunately, the cultist did not have to change directions and reaccelerate. We were closing the gap, but he had the advantage.

I dove, trying to close the gap. The robed pony saw what was coming and sidestepped my drive. He then placed his hooves on my shoulders and rear legs, flipping me head over hooves. I flopped to the ground, causing me to expel all the air I had in my lungs and causing me to see stars.

There was nothing I could do as I saw him turn and level the barrel of his shotgun right at Silver. I strained to get to my hooves, but my labored breathing and dizziness caused me to lose my footing.

The cultist began to laugh as he brought the barrel close to her head. Fearing what would come next, I closed my eyes and began to hope against hope that Silver would survive.

The report of the shotgun sent a shockwave through my body. My mind was blank as one of my only reasons for living had been snuffed out right in front of me and I couldn’t have done anything about it. Visions of her eyes and smile filled my head, trying to fight off the nightmare that would soon start.

“Hey, Dust,” Gertie grunted. “Are you going to help or just sit there?” she said, her voice strained.

Opening my eyes, I saw an unexpected sight. Gertie had her two claws wrapped around the barrel of the shotgun, with her and the cultist fighting for control over it. The barrel would move back and forth between the two, each trying to point it squarely at the other to end it. I fought my way to my hooves and dove into the fray. Wrapping my hooves around his neck, I tried to pull him away from Gertie and the gun, but damn he was strong.

Gertie had a slight advantage now, but it was still a tug of war. The cultist reared and I felt myself get lifted off the ground, dangling from his neck. To Gertie’s credit, she still had a death’s grip on the gun, but I felt myself losing mine on the cultist.

Knowing I was losing effectiveness, I just let go and dropped to the floor. I turned quickly and lashed out with my hooves. Reacting faster than I thought possible, he ducked under my kick and I met nothing but air. However, this caused his balance to shift and he fell forward on top of Gertie, the shotgun between them.

As the two bodies hit the floor, the gun erupted once again. A cloud of red mist burst forth from the pile of bodies, which became eerily still.

“G… Gertie?” I cautiously called out, moving slowly towards the pile.

After several seconds of silence, chills began to run down my spine. “Gertie? Are you OK?” I repeated, slightly louder this time. I was greeted with another uncomfortable silence.

“D…Dust, you don’t think…” Flower started.

I raised a hoof to stop that line of thought. She couldn’t be dead… she just couldn’t.

A low groan from the pile made me jump. I drew Gertie’s rifle and held it in front of me.

“Ugh,” Gertie groaned. “Is anyone gonna help me get this lump of shit off of me,” she continued, struggling with the corpse on top of her.

I galloped over and helped lift the deadweight off of her. She slowly got to her paws and shook her head. “Gertie, are you OK?” I asked.

“Huh? You’re going to have to speak up,” she shouted back. “Ears are still ringing from being so close to that blast.” She began to fidget with her ears, trying to deal with the noise.

I hugged her. “I am so glad you’re alright… I thought you had…” I half-shouted at her.

“I thought so, too,” she said with a chuckle. “Still sucks… fucker was heavy.”

Silver sidled next to me. “Dust, you’re bleeding… are you OK?”

In the scuffle, I had forgotten about the shot I had taken. But now that Silver mentioned it, it was beginning to hurt like hell, but nothing I hadn’t dealt with before and a healing potion wouldn’t fix. “Yeah, I’m fine… I really should be asking you that question… are you OK?” I asked, looking at the bleeding wounds on her legs.

“It hurts, I won’t lie,” she admitted. “But, I can still walk…”

“Good, you scared me there, too,” I said, wrapping her in an embrace. Her only response was to tighten her grip around me.

“Alright, let’s get the hell out of here,” I said, sweeping my leg away from the center of town.

We galloped out of town and back to the waiting skywagon. Flower was waiting for us, breathing a sigh of relief when she saw us gallop over the small rise.

“Oh, thank Celestia,” Flower said with a sigh. “When the fightin’ broke out, I didn’t think ya guys would make it. Things went ta shit fast. The cultists are slaughtering the workers… but the workers ain’t giving up the fight. They are incensed!”

“Can’t say I blame them… can you imagine being lied to just to keep you under control?” I posed. “I mean, the slavers are bad, but at least their methods of control are in your face. This was more insidious.” I gave her a pat on the shoulder. “Nice shot, by the way,” I complimented her.

“Eh, twas nothin,” she sheepishly said. “Once ya pointed out the unicorn, it was an easy shot. I hope I didn’t hurt her too bad.”

“She seemed OK when we left,” I said. “But, I think we should get the hell out of here though, just in case the cultists come back looking for us.”

The three nodded in agreement as Flower and Silver headed for the passenger compartment. Gertie followed me to the harness and she began to hook me up. “I’ll take my weapons back, by the way,” she chuckled. “Dust… seriously… thanks for your help… I don’t know if I could have beat that guy by myself… he was too strong.”

“You’re welcome, Gertie,” I said. “But you would have done the same for me…”

“I know… but still,” she demurred. She leaned in and gave me a small peck on the cheek. I felt my cheeks redden.

She quickly finished hooking me into the harness and we took off. As usual, Gertie flew as my wing-griffin and we took off. As soon as we took off, I turned and headed towards the town.

“Uh, Dust, the Garden is the other way,” she objected.

“I know… I just need to see what’s going on…” I answered.

In a couple of minutes we were over the town. Bodies littered the streets. Robed and ragged ponies both were lying motionless on the streets. There were little skirmishes going on in almost every part of the town.

“PUT ME DOWN!” a voice bellowed near the center of town. “YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS! CELESTIA WILL BURN YOUR SOULS FOREVER!” Adjusting our path, I headed towards the voice.

Firebrand was the pony that was yelling and for good reason. Several of the worker ponies had them in their grip and they were dragging him towards the stake that was supposed to be Silver’s funeral pyre. Several of the ragged ponies were fighting back a smattering of cultists, but they were holding their ground.

“Couldn’t happen to a nicer pony,” Gertie said mockingly. “C’mon, Dust, you don’t need to see this.”

She was right. No matter what evils he may have perpetuated, nopony deserved this. I banked the skywagon to my left and headed to the northeast.

“We’re coming, Brownie,” I muttered to myself.

Level up!

Speech (+5)
Perk Obtained:
“Cult of Personality”– You are now able to convince ponies of many things, regardless of the strengths of their beliefs. CHR +1 when dealing with strong-minded ponies.

Chapter 28 - Discovery, Part 3

Chapter 28 – Discovery, Part 3
“When all the details fit in perfectly, something is probably wrong with the story.”

For a good portion of the trip to The Garden, I could not shake the image of Firebrand being burned to death from my mind. I know he had been sacrificing the working ponies in order to placate his following, but that didn’t give the workers the right to do the same to him, did it?

“Dust!” Gertie shouted, breaking me from my circular thinking.

“Huh?” I blurted out. “Sorry, I was thinking about Firebrand.”

“Son of a bitch got what he deserved,” she said with a cold tone. Her features softened when she looked at me, however. “You’re not blaming yourself for that, are you? That was a tinderbox that was just waiting for the right match to set it off.”

“No… I’m not blaming myself…” I confirmed to her. “I was thinking about whether it was right or not for the ponies to do to him what he was wrongfully doing to them. I mean, is the entire Wasteland eye for an eye? Is there any way to make things better?”

“Dust…” she said, shaking her head. “I know you have some experience down here, but you did spend a majority of your life up there,” she said, gesturing towards the cloud cover. “You only got a taste of what happens down here. You’ve probably seen a lot. But I’ve seen more. Between the raiders, slavers, cults, alicorns, irradiated mutants, psychopaths… I could go on and on. The Wasteland is a fucked up place.”

“I know it can have its rough parts,” I started. “But is there enough good out there to save? Is all of this worth it?”

“I think so,” she replied. “I mean, look at our little group. A Wastelander in love with a disgraced Dashite. And then there’s the Wastelander, griffin mercenary and former Enclave soldier love triangle thing that’s going on. And that’s just our small little corner. There’s stories like this all over the place. Ponies coming together despite their backgrounds to overcome the raft of shit that gets thrown at them every day.”

“Yeah, but,” I started, but hesitated. “Is there enough good?”

“I hope so, Dust,” she said, a small frown forming on her face. “I really hope so.”

A couple of hours in the air, and some inane chatter later, I saw the walls of The Garden rise up over the horizon.

“There she is, The Garden,” Gertie said with awe in her voice. “Probably the most valuable city in this part of the Wasteland.”

It was certainly impressive, and the video I saw did not do it justice. The concrete walls were maybe a dozen feet high and encompassed an area which was easily ten times larger than any settlement I have ever set eyes on. I would dare say it was just about as large as Horseton. In the wall, there was only one large gate, which controlled access in and out of the town. The buildings on the inside were still made of corrugated steel and wood, but it did not have the haphazard construction that other settlements had. The buildings seemed planned, well-constructed, and laid out in a thoughtful manner. The wood was actual lumber, not reclaimed scraps, and the fields of crops… I never got to see the extent of the hydroponics facility, but I would guess this was larger by far.

“How did they do this?” I asked, still in awe of what I was seeing.

“Rumor has it that decades ago, some ponies stumbled across this place. They had all the tools and loads of construction material. Must have been some kind of supply depot before the war. They discovered that the land itself and the well water were all relatively clean. This place is kinda far from the major cities in the area so it must not have been as irradiated during the war and became clean a lot faster.”

“They must be under constant attack,” I mused.

“They used to be,” she answered. “But a lot of ponies move here and take up jobs either working the fields or on security. Ponies from all over come here to trade, mainly for food, and part of the deal always involves weapons or ammo. The Garden’s security force is probably the largest organized fighting force in the wastes, except for maybe the Steel Rangers, assuming they are all united. Even raiders have wised up and don’t bother The Garden anymore.

As we got closer, I could see the large expanse of fields enclosed inside the walls. Scores of ponies were working the fields, with a large number patrolling the town. Dozens of wagons were parked outside the walls near the entrance. Near the entrance of town there were many stalls set up. A mob of ponies were squirming their way from stall to stall, trading wares with the locals. Most of the stalls were selling fruit and vegetables, with a choice few offering other wares.

“Damn, I wonder if Muddy has any plans for this place…” I mused idly.

“Yeah, well let’s hope he doesn’t,” Gertie shot back. I looked and saw a stern glare being fired in my direction.

“Do you see the skywagon?” I asked, trying to change topics.

“Should be easy to find,” she responded, squinting. “I mean, how many skywagons can there be?”

Looking more closely, Gertie was right. Most of the wagons waiting outside were of the pony drawn, wheeled variety. However, there were a handful of metallic skywagons. Some were obviously turned into carts with the addition of wheels. Clever.

“There are some skywagons that were converted,” I told Gertie. “We need to find one without wheels. Let’s land and get a closer look.” I aimed for an open spot, making a mental note of where the skywagons were.

After a smooth landing, Gertie unhooked me from the flight harness as Silver and Flower made their way out of the passenger compartment. They were giggling amongst themselves.

“Anything you care to share?” I asked as they trotted over to us.

The laughter stopped quickly and Silver blushed. “Um, no… just girl talk,” she stammered. I looked at Gertie and we just rolled our eyes at each other.

Flower whistled as she craned her head to see where we were. “I heard the rumors of this place, but I never expected them ta be true. This place is ginormous.”

“You should have seen it from the air,” I answered. “We couldn’t see any Enclave soldiers from the air, so we need to check out the skywagons. Some of them have been turned into regular carts.” I gestured behind their heads. “There are a few over in that direction. You two take those and Gertie and I will take the others.”

Silver and Flower nodded and took off towards their skywagons while Gertie and I did the same. The skywagons that we saw were all civilian models with what used to be plush interiors and non reinforced hulls. I really wish there had been a way to tell the difference from the outside, but the manufacturer of these models kept the same design, only swapping out materials and specific components during fabrication.

“Hey, Dust!” Flower shouted. “Ah think we found it!”

Gertie and I looked at each other and began a canter towards Flower’s voice. It took us a couple of minutes, but we found the two of them standing next to an unusually clean skywagon. Looking over the fuselage as we approached, I saw what gave it away. On the side of the vehicle, there had been the blocky letter “E” with wings which made up the logo for the Enclave. Somepony had painted the words “fuck you” over it with red spraypaint.

“Yup, I’d say you’re right,” I agreed. “Any sign of the soldiers?”

“No… none… no sign of Brownie, either,” Silver said with a sigh. Flower’s face was tight with worry.

“Maybe they’re in town somewhere,” I offered. “Let’s go look around.”

Following the general mass of ponies and other creatures, we approached the entry gate. This settlement, at least from the outside, was more impressive on the ground than it had been in the air. The concrete walls seemed almost impenetrable given their impressive height. Pegasi, griffins, and unicorns with flight magic could make it over, if they dared. Dotted along the top of the wall were security outposts, each one armed with a large anti-aircraft gun. The ponies manning the towers each had sniper rifles. Nopony was going to sneak up on this settlement and get away with it.

The throng of ponies eventually organized into a loose line. The line moved surprisingly quickly, given the sheer number of ponies that were waiting to get inside. As we neared the front of the line, I could see why. The one main line split into two separate lines at the gate. There were two teams of ponies that were searching saddlebags and confiscating weaponry and placing them into secure containers. As each pony walked away, they were given a key.

“The Garden takes security very seriously,” Gertie informed me. “It is the number one trading hub in this part of the Wasteland and they do not take chances with their reputation. One of the main reasons is that nopony gets in with any weaponry other than a pistol, so the only heavily armed ponies inside are the security forces.”

“I can see that,” I said with a whistle. “And you always get your stuff back?”

“I’ve never had a problem,” she said with a shrug. “Don’t worry, Dust. Nothing bad can happen here.”

“Next!” one of the security ponies barked at us. Each guard was wearing jet black ballistic armor. The two that dealt with the waiting line simply had sidearms. It was the ponies in the security tower that were the real threat. Each was armed with a mounted machine gun with belt fed ammo.

“Celestia!” I muttered, impressed by the level of security. “How many ponies do they have working security here?”

“Not as many as you’d think,” Gertie said. “This level of presence is only out during the day. At night, the gate is sealed and it’s just the ponies on the wall.”

I stepped up to the guard who had a footlocker sized box waiting. “Place your weapons except for one pistol each in the box and state your name,” he barked, seeming rather bored.

“Dust Cloud,” I responded, beginning to unsling my machine gun. Silver, Flower, and Gertie did the same.

A pen held in his green magical field began to write the information on a clipboard, also floating in his magical grasp.

“First time at The Garden?” he droned on.

“Yes,” I answered, going through my saddlebags removing anything that could be considered a weapon. Grenades, my knife, and the tiny pistol I forgot I had been carrying all made their way into the box. The guard snickered a little at the small pistol.

“Rules are simple. Don’t cause any trouble. You’ll get your weapons back at the end of your stay. Restricted areas are marked with red and white barriers. No trespassing. No flying. Violations of minor rules results in expulsion. Violations of major rules result in death,” he announced, rummaging through my saddlebags to make sure I wasn’t hiding anything. Once he was done going through my stuff, he looked past me. “Next!”

“Excuse me, maybe you can help me. I’m looking for…” I tried to ask.

“NEXT!” he shouted louder, still looking past me.

“C’mon, I just…”

“NEXT!”

I grunted at the guard and walked through the large steel doors. Stopping just inside, I waited for Gertie to finish her screening.

She came along a few moments later. “Nice ponies, huh?” she chuckled.

“Eh, I can understand. Early on in my military career I was on guardpost duty frequently. It was mind numbing work,” I said with a shrug. “Quite an operation they have, though.”

“Never heard of any problems here,” Gertie replied. “The worst I’ve seen is a hoof fight, and that’s usually at the bar.” She laughed to herself. “Stupid stallion tried to put the moves on me, once.” She gave me a menacing glare and lowered her voice. “Once.” Gertie chuckled after that and I joined in also.

“Now, how are we going to find what we’re looking for?” I mused. “The guards weren’t much help.”

“Hmmm,” Gertie mumbled to herself while scanning the town square. She perked up and motioned at me. “C’mon, I know what to do.”

The town square was a bustling place. As I saw from the air, this town was a little more put together than most. The buildings were still made of salvaged material, but these were in better shape and more uniform than others. The buildings also seemed to be arranged in a more regular arrangement, with actual streets seemingly branching off in several directions.

This part of town also hosted the town market. Ponies, griffins, and I think I even saw a minotaur, had set up stalls and were selling various wares. Most were selling produce of various types, all looking healthy and, if I dared say it, delicious. Some ponies were also selling prepared foods which gave off a delectable odor. One, in particular, stood out among the others.

“What is that wonderful smell?” I asked, sniffing at the air some more.

“That’s The Garden’s Brahmin meat,” Gertie answered. “It is some of the best I’ve ever had. Their Brahmin are much healthier than most of the Wasteland. We should get some later, but right now, we need to go this way.”

Gertie led us to a small stall right near the front. It was a simple stall. The elderly unicorn mare behind the table was selling small containers of blueberries.

“Excuse me,” Gertie caught the mare’s attention. “We’re looking for some ponies that may have come through recently.”

“Well, a lot of ponies come through here,” the mare responded. “Don’t know if I’d remember them even if they stopped and bought something from me.”

“You’d probably remember this group,” Gertie pressed on. “Two Enclave officers and a large unicorn stallion?”

“Hmm… might seem familiar…” the mare said, stretching out her words.

“Ugh…” Gertie huffed. “Here.” Gertie reached into her vest and took out several caps and plunked them down on the table.

“Ah… let me think here,” the mare answered as she collected the caps and hoofed a small container of berries towards us. “I vaguely remember seeing those featherbrains coming through here, yesterday? Two days ago?” The mare stroked her chin while she looked upwards. “Quite the talk of the town. Not often we get honest to goodness Enclave down here. Most of the crowd weren’t too happy.”

“Uh huh,” Gertie answered frustrated. “Do you remember anything useful?”

“If I remember correctly, they headed that way,” the mare said, pointing to one of the roads branching off the square. “They were asking about where they could get a meal. Probably headed to Chuck Roast’s place.”

“Chuck Roast’s? Do you know…” Gertie began to followup.

“Scram… you’re scaring away potential customers,” the mare barked at us.

I grunted at the brusqueness of the dismissal. We all just looked at each other and Gertie shrugged, spun, and headed down the street that had been indicated.

We headed down the street and we gawked at the similar looking buildings arranged neatly all in rows. I could imagine that this was what a large pre-war city looked like, minus the material being used. It reminded me more of Horseton than a Wasteland settlement. Ponies were walking with purpose all around us. Nopony wanted to waste time here.

After a few moments, a delightful smell wafted over us and actually made my stomach growl. “Damn, that smells wonderful!” I blurted out.

“Yeah, it’s what good food can do for a recipe,” Gertie responded. “Some of the best food I’ve ever had has come from this town.”

“Hard ta imagine we hadn’t heard of this place before,” Flower wondered aloud. “I mean, something this big has ta be well known.”

“Well, we are several days away by hoof,” I pondered. “Most of the food you bought here would spoil before we got back to Coltington. As great as this place is, it would be mostly useless for us.”

“I s’pose,” Flower grumbled.

A few intersections away, a sign hanging off a building became visible. It was crudely painted, but there was no mistaking the picture of fruits and vegetables situated right next to a steak of some kind. “Chuck Roast’s?” I asked rhetorically.

When we were several steps away, the front door flung open and a pony stumbled out, followed by a unicorn wearing a striped vest. “And stay out!” he barked and went back inside.

“Yeah… you and what… what… wh… {hic} what… we… er…” the pony stuttered. He stumbled his way across the street and was approaching two red and white barriers.

“Uh oh,” Gertie muttered to herself.

Before I had a chance to ask, the drunk pony stumbled into and through the barriers. Two black-clad ponies I hadn’t seen until now emerged from a nearby alleyway and galloped over.

“You are in violation of Garden rules and regulations. Per the penal code, your punishment is exile,” one of the security ponies announced.

“But, I… I…” was all he got out before he vomited all over the street.

The two security ponies hefted up the dead weight and dragged him down the street and turned a corner.

“Damn, they’re serious about their rules, aren’t they?” Flower asked, her eyes still wide in shock.

“Well, yeah,” Gertie answered. “This is why there’s never been a problem here. Big walls keep the threats out, security takes care of problems inside.”

“Alright then,” I said, darkly. “Let’s go see if we can find our friend.”

We stepped up the building that housed Chuck Roast’s and opened the door. A warm, savory smelling air wafted through the door and washed over us. It had the unmistakable smell of stewed vegetables and meat, but this was surprisingly crisper. The inside was filled with several rows of tables. Ponies, mostly unicorns, wearing red and white striped vests were making their way between tables taking orders and delivering food. The pony that had thrown out the unfortunate fellow from before was standing behind a bar. Behind him was an old fashioned mirrored wall lined with liquor bottles.

“I guess trade is alive and well here,” I muttered. “Let’s go see if Chuck has any information for us.”

I walked over to the bar and squeezed into a small space between two other patrons. Chuck made his way over to me. The mustachioed unicorn was also wearing a red and white vest, but he had a gold chain with a pocket watch attached dangling from one pocket. He was also wearing, of all things, a monocle. “Welcome to Chuck’s! What can I get ya? Not often we see a griffin and a pegasus around these parts.”

“Funny you mention that…” I replied, with a little snark in my voice. “We’re actually here for information… on a couple of pegasi that may have come through here recently. Probably with a large, brown, unicorn?”

“Now… now… I don’t have time to flap my gums!” Chuck answered jovially. “I have paying customers to help!”

“Ugh, fine,” I grunted, hoofing several caps on the bar. “Sparkle Cola?”

“We ain’t got none of that weak shit,” he said. A bottle behind him became enveloped in a magical field. “Here, try this. I’m sure you’ll like it.” His magic tipped the bottle of Wild Pegasus into a small glass. He kept pouring until I had a double shot.

I grabbed the glass and tipped it down my throat. It had been a while since I had a drink. Tartarus, I think it was before all this started. The familiar burn of the spirits when down smooth. “Alright… now, the pegasi?”

“Came in here a couple of days ago,” he answered, stroking his chin. “Think they said they were just grabbing a bite and then heading home.”

“Home, huh?” I asked.

“Yup… that’s what they said,” he repeated.

“Thanks, Chuck. Any way we can get a table?” I asked.

“Sure… let me just get one cleaned off for you!” he beamed. “Apron Strings! Table for four!” he shouted over my shoulder.

A haggard looking unicorn mare turned and sighed. Her horn lit up and a rag flew from her apron to a table a few tables away. After a quick wipe down, she gestured to us to sit down. We squeezed our way over and sat down.

“Dust, why didn’t you ask more questions?” Silver asked.

“Well, I knew…” I started.

“Welcome to Chuck Roast’s,” one of the vest wearing ponies asked as he slid over to our table. “Today’s specials are a wonderful vegetable stew made with fresh carrots, tomatoes, and potatoes. Then, there’s a sumptuous roasted Brahmin steak flavored with local herbs and spices. Can I get you anything?”

We gave the waiter our orders, which he gleefully agreed that each of our decisions were his favorite meal on the menu. After he wrote it down on a small slate he carried, he sauntered off to one of his other tables.

“Now, why didn’t you press the issue with Chuck?” Silver repeated from before.

“Well, I knew he was lying and I knew he wasn’t going to tell us anything,” I said in a whisper, barely loud enough to hear.

“How?” Silver continued her questioning.

“No Enclave soldier would refer to the Wasteland as ‘home.’ If they had said they were returning to base, or the farm, or the plantation, or pretty much anything else, I would have believed it,” I said, shaking my head. “I don’t think we’re going to get any help here. When we’re done eating, we should look around and see what we can find. Something doesn’t feel right.”

After quick agreement, we all sat in awkward silence looking around the room. The bustling atmosphere had a new gloom cast over it as I looked and judged each pony around me, trying to determine who could be trusted. Fortunately, it didn’t take long for the waiter to return with our food.

Flower, Silver, and I opted for the vegetable stew and Gertie got the steak. The smell was certainly amazing. The aroma of the vegetables mingled with pepper and garlic. It was probably the best meal I’ve had since I came down. I hungrily dove into my bowl, slurping at the contents. As each warm morsel worked its way over my tongue and down my throat, I couldn’t stifle small moans of delight.

“This is the best darned stew ah’ve ever had,” Flower blurted out after several bites. “Ah wish we had fresh veggies like this in Coltington.”

“This steak is amazing, too,” Gertie mumbled with a partially full mouth. “It’s tender and juicy and the spices are perfect. You guys have to try it!”

Gertie graciously cut off several small pieces with her talons and passed them around the table. Flower and Silver took the morsels and popped them right in their mouths and began to chew. I was more tentative, having never gotten fully comfortable with eating meat.

Once I did start to chew, I did see what Gertie was talking about. The meat was the most tender I’ve ever tried. Whoever was preparing the food knew what they were doing. The only other place I’ve had meat was in Coltington and Pot Luck’s chef was obviously not the same caliber as whoever this was. And the seasoning was delightful, having the same crisp flavors that the stew had.

We were all so wrapped up in enjoying our meals that we barely spoke after that point. After a short while, we were all finished and were leaning back in our chairs, rubbing our bellies.

Our waiter must have been watching us since he appeared almost immediately after the last bit of food was swallowed. “I trust everything was good?” he asked with a wide grin on his face.

“Yes, absolutely,” Silver answered. “This was probably the best meal I’ve ever had.”

“I will be sure to pass that along to the chef,” the waiter beamed. “Can I get you anything else?”

We informed the waiter we were done and he told us how much we owed. I nearly choked as the meal cost nearly twice as much as I was accustomed to, but it made sense given the quality of the meal. I hoofed over the caps with a tip and we left the restaurant.

We decided to split up to check out the town. Gertie, having been here before, was going to search the outlying areas of the city. Flower and Silver were going to check out the market to see if any of the salesponies had seen Brownie or the soldiers. I was going to the main security outpost to see if I could get any information there. We agreed to meet up by the old mare’s stall by the front gate in a few hours.

The security headquarters was built up into a fortress like building. It was made entirely out of concrete and had large steel security doors and no windows. Black armor clad ponies were walking in and out of the building. Each was armed in a different way, probably due to different duties they had been assigned.

I walked inside the building, and into a large work area. Several desks dotted the floor, each manned by a pony wearing black barding with the word security sewn into a small patch on the left side. Most were poring over piles of paperwork or furiously scribbling down information. To the right, the entire wall was made up of a large jail cell, separated from the bullpen with large steel bars. It was currently empty, probably due to the only two punishments being exile or death. Finally, in the back of the room was a larger desk with an older earth pony stallion seated behind it. He was currently yelling at two ponies.

“Can I help you?” a snide voice called out. I turned to see a small, earth pony mare in black barding looking up from her desk.

“Yes, please,” I asked, as politely as I could. “I was hoping to see if anypony could give me some information.”

The mare sighed. “Ugh, what kind of information?” she barked.

“Sometime in the last several days, two pegasi and an earth pony came into town. I was just wondering if anypony had seen them,” I continued.

I was given another deep sigh. “Do you know how many ponies come through this town on a daily basis?” she muttered, clearly aggravated at me. “Do you expect us to remember everypony?”

“Well, no…” I started.

“So then why are you wasting my time?” she asked, turning back to her work.

I opened my mouth to retort, but felt it wasn’t going to get me anywhere. Resigned to the fact that these ponies were too busy to help or care, I walked back out of the security station.

I spent the next few hours, wandering around and asking any security pony I could see whether they remembered Brownie or the soldiers. Nopony could remember seeing such a group. As it was nearing our deadline, I worked my way back towards the market. Hopefully the others were having better luck than me.

I wandered through the stalls, glancing at the offerings that were not food. Most of the stalls were typical Wasteland stuff: medical supplies, clothes, scrap… but one stand stood out. A young earth pony mare had a small collection of knick-knacks on her table. At a first glance, I would have mistaken them for more scrap. However, at a closer look, most were made of precious metals or included gems of some kind.

I was about to turn and walk away when something caught my eye. Mixed in with other gold jewelry, two pieces stood out. They were small pins made out of gold. The design was unmistakable: it was the block letter ‘E’ flanked by wings on either side. They were Enclave flight pins.

“Excuse me, miss,” I asked, drawing her attention away from a piece she was working on. “Where did you get these?”

“I know, rare, right?” she responded, proud of her wares. “I found them one day on my way to my stall here. They were lying on the ground in a small alleyway.”

“Where is this alleyway?” I asked with urgency. “I need to know.”

“It’s over by city hall,” she answered, pointing behind me. “Can I interest you in them?”

“Yes, and thank you for the information,” I said, flinging a few caps at her after negotiating. She greedily scooped them up as I galloped away.

It took me several minutes to find city hall, seeing as how it was not made to stand out in any way. No signs, more markings, just another corrugated metal building nestled among other corrugated metal buildings. I began to search around, trying to use the mare’s description.

In one of the small alleyways on the side of the building, near more of the red and white striped barricades, was the spot the mare said she found the pins. I quickly found the small pre-war dumpster she had indicated and began to look for clues. The ground was clean, insofar as there was no garbage lying around. There were plenty of hoofprints, but nothing that stood out as unusual.

Starting to lose hope, I opened up the scope of my search. There was nothing of any note on the walls or the grounds. And if I ventured any further in either direction, I’d either be back on the main thoroughfare or I would be beyond the barricades. Neither of those options seemed preferable.

Feeling almost hopeless, I lifted the lid to the dumpster and peered inside. It was completely empty. I sighed deeply, feeling like someone had slapped me. The only good lead I’ve found and it petered out. I started to lower the lid when I saw something fluttering in my periphery.

Lifting the lid again, I looked at the object. It was a small square of material stuck near one of the hinges in the back. It was navy blue in color and was made of a thicker, polyester material. On one corner of the material was a set of two gold bands that curved in toward eachother. It looked like an airpony rank insignia. Turning the square over, there was a smear of red which spanned the entire length of the material.

Was this part of an Enclave jumpsuit? Was that really a rank insignia? And did the two pins come from the two Enclave officers who had obviously been outside of town at some point. My head began to hurt.
Realizing I was running late, I tucked away the square of material and galloped back to our rally point. Flower and Silver were there waiting for me, bit Gertie was absent.

“Dust,” Flower acknowledged me with a nod. “Find anything interesting?”

“Yeah, but where’s Gertie?” I asked, looking around the town square.

“We don’t know,” Flower asked, her voice wavering a little. “We thought maybe ya knew.”

Almost on cue, we heard the scrabbling of claws in the dirt. Gertie rounded a nearby corner, and joined us quickly. She was breathing heavily.

“Sorry…” she began, he words broken up by rapid breaths. “Got… detained… flew… better… sight… security… not happy… let… me… off… with… warning…”

“Warning?” I asked. “I thought they didn’t give warnings here…”

Gertie flashed an evil grin while jangling her pouch full of caps. We all just shared a little laugh.

“So, did you find anything?” I asked. Gertie shook her head, her breathing now slowing. “Well, I did. First, look at this.” I pulled out the Enclave wing pins and showed them to the group. “There are the flight wings that are given to Enclave soldiers when they pass basic flight training. Almost every flyer gets them, even if their assignments are elsewhere. I found these two for sale in the market.”

Flower began to facehoof herself. “Sorry, Dust, I didn’t…”

“Don’t worry about it…” I tried to comfort her. “You wouldn’t have noticed unless you knew what to look for. Besides, they were thrown in with a bunch of other jewelry. Then, I found this.” I put the pins away and took out the piece of cloth. “This, as far as I can tell, is a piece of standard issue Enclave flight jumpsuits. See the rank insignia here? It’s also made out of the same type of fabric as I remember. And then there’s this…” I flipped the piece of cloth over and showed them the red marks I saw earlier.

“Is that b… blood?” Silver asked, her voice wavering again. “Do… do you think it’s…”

“As far as I can tell, yes, it’s blood,” I responded, placing a hoof on her shoulder. “I don’t want to make any assumptions about whose it is just yet. Who knows how that got there.”

Silver gulped hard and gave me a weak smile.

“So, any plan on finding the two dorkwads and Brownie?” Gertie asked.

I paused and thought hard. We had no concrete leads and everypony we talked to was covering it up. The only evidence we had were two pins and a piece of a jumpsuit, neither of which pointed to anything concrete. “No… none,” I admitted, hanging my head.

Silver walked over to me and put a hoof around my shoulder. “Let’s go grab some dinner and maybe we can figure something out,” she said, giving me a small hug. I simply grumbled my agreement.

We went back to the restaurant and had more of the stew and meat from before. Gertie had done some trading for some salvage we had found. She said that we would also be making a small trade with the weapons dealer who was holed up outside of town due to the no weapons policy. Besides, that, the conversation was all about Brownie.

Gertie leaned over to me. “Hey, Dust,” she whispered into my ear. “Do you see those two at your 2 o’clock?”

I tried to sneak a glance in the direction she indicated while pretending to look at Flower, who was sitting nearly in the line of sight. In a booth in the back corner sat two large earth ponies. They were wearing black barding and were very built, which was easy to see in the tight-fitting vests. The odd part was that neither of them had food in front of them.

“How long have they been here?” I whispered back.

“They tailed us when we left the market earlier,” she answered. Her answer meant they had been sitting there for almost an hour trying, and failing, to blend in. “Amateurs,” she scoffed.

“We got somepony’s attention, then,” Flower said, not even trying to look.

“What are we gonna do, Dust?” Silver asked, her voice tense.

“This may end up working for us,” I said with a wicked grin. The wheels spun furiously in my head. These ponies either knew where Brownie was or they could lead us to somepony who does.

“Dust, what are you thinking?” Gertie asked me nervously.

We quickly put my plan into action. There were only two ponies that they sent to watch us, but there were four of us. If we all split up, they would have to decide to tail some of us and leave the rest of us alone. Since Gertie and I had already drawn attention, I assumed we would be the primary targets. She and I would leave the restaurant separately. We assumed the ponies would follow us. It would then be up to Silver and Flower to tail our tails.

As planned, I got up first and made a show of saying goodbye to everypony in my group and trotted out the front door. If nopony began to tail me, Silver or Flower would come running out as if I left something behind. If I heard nopony, then it would be safe to assume I was being followed.

I began to meander back towards the market. Hopefully, I would still not hear anything and knew I was indeed being followed. It had been a couple of minutes since I left. Silver or Flower would have caught up by now, right? If that was the case, then I needed to head towards the inn and get a room and act like I was holing up for the night. Eventually, either there would be a change of personnel or they would just give up and return to wherever it is they went to report on what they saw.

Gertie’s directions were easy to follow and I soon found my way to the inn. The building was a little more solid than most other construction. It was very bunker like in construction made of mostly concrete and steel. The innkeep was not easily bargained with and I ended up paying full price for one room for the four of us. I walked up the room and let myself in. The room was more like a jail cell than a hotel room, but it was clean, had a locking door, and a window to the outside. I laid down on the bed and waited.

A good amount of time later, Gertie came strolling in.

“So?” I asked her, knowing she knew what I wanted to know.

“Seems to have worked like a charm,” she responded with a nod. “The first pony tripped over himself trying to make it out of the restaurant behind you. Flower followed him out and the other one stayed behind. I waited a little while and then took off.”

“Seems like, for once, it’s going to plan,” I said, morosely. “At least that’s the way it always seems, doesn’t it?”

Gertie simply responded with a grim smirk.

We waited what seemed like hours for either Flower or Silver to make it back to the room. Watching the light from the window, we knew it had turned dark a long time ago. We passed it in tense silence, giving each other knowing glances every now and then.

A sound made both of us jump and look at the door. The doorknob was turning. We both placed a hoof/claw on our pistols and watched, tense. The door opened and Flower came walking in.

“Whoa!” she gasped. “Calm down there, fellas!”

Gertie and I both took a deep breath. “Sorry, Flower,” I answered. “It was getting a little tense.” She chuckled a little. “So, what did you find out?”

“Not much, ah’m afraid,” she said, looking down at her own hooves. “Ah was in the lobby with Silver and our two friends. Ah tried to move to get a better angle ta see their conversation and I got made. So I just came up here. Silver’s our last chance.”

The wait became unbearable. I kept looking toward the door, waiting to see the doorknob turning, but it never did. Next, I would go over to the window, which was front facing, and looked for her to be walking down the street. She never was.

“Dust!” Gertie lashed out, glaring at me. “You’re going to create a rut in the floor if you keep it up! Not to mention the fact it’s annoying as hell!” She looked back down and began to scrub the barrel of her pistol furiously.

“Sorry,” I sheepishly admitted. “I’m just worried about Silver. Of all of us, she is least ready for something like this.”

Flower looked up from her position lying on the bed. “Dust, trust me,” she said, almost scolding me. “While ya were gone, Silver got herself in a lot of sticky situations as a courier. And she made it through ‘em all… not always unscathed, but nothing Doc Mender couldn’t patch up. She can do more than ya think.”

I gave Flower an awkward grin and returned to the window to look for Silver.

“Duuuu-uuuust….” a sing-songy voice broke the silence of my slumber.

My eyes began to flutter as they struggled to open against sleep.

“Wakey, wakey, sleepy head,” the voice repeated.

The brightness of the room blinded me at first. Whiteness turned to fuzzy blobs, which then began to sharpen as my eyes focused. A green-eyed, pink-coated mare was looking down at me. “Silver?” I asked as my mind caught up to my eyes. “Silver!” I wrapped her in a very large hug as I heard giggling.

Looking towards the giggling, I saw Flower covering her mouth, mockingly trying to stop her giggling. Gertie was shifting uncomfortably between her two paws.

I separated myself from Silver, keeping my forelegs on her shoulders. “What happened?” I asked.

“Well, I’m sure Flower told you about how she got seen,” she asked, rhetorically, waiting to see our head nods. “After that, it got real boring. The two of them just sat there watching the staircase. Must have been hours. But then one of the ponies got up and left. I slipped out the door after him and followed.

“It was tough… he kept looking over his shoulder and I had to keep hiding to stay out of his vision,” she continued. “And he took a winding path. But eventually, he went to town hall.”

“This late?” I asked, confused.

“Open twenty-four hours,” she said with a shrug. “Anyway, I didn’t want to follow him in so I looked through a window and the pony went into door with a pretty hefty lock. And the door is guarded.”

“That’s no surprise,” I muttered, shaking my head. “How many guards?”

“From what I could see, only one,” she answered.

I looked around at the faces looking back at me. “And I would assume it would be more heavily guarded, or at least monitored, during the daytime?” I asked the group rhetorically.

The sound of a slide being racked on a pistol caught my attention. By the time I turned my head, I saw Flower placing it into its holster. “Ah’m goin’,” she announced, her eyes determined.

“Flower, we have no plan, we don’t know…” I started to try to dissuade her.

“Dust,” she grunted with a stamp of the floor. “Ah’ve been patient up till now since we had nothin’ ta go off of. But if Brownie is in there,” she said, stopping to look me dead in the eyes. “Ah need him. We need ta get him.”

“But…” I tried to interject but got cut off.

“Don’t ya try tellin’ me about going off half-cocked,” she growled. “Remember when ya took off after Muddy?”

“Of course I do!” I yelled back. “And do you remember how it turned out for me?”

Flower growled back at me, her muscles tensing all over her body. Her head craned back and she took several deep breaths. After a few quiet moments, she lowered her head and looked right at me. “Dust, ya can’t stop me from goin’,” she stated. “One way or another, ah’m getting in that building and finding Brownie.”

I ran through every possible argument I could try to convince her not to do this, but none of them seemed convincing, even to me. I didn’t even bother wasting my time trying them on her. “Alright, Flower,” I conceded. “But we do this slow and steady. We stick together and do it as a team.”

“Agreed,” Flower responded, her face tightened into a grim grin.

We all gathered up our gear and made our way through the darkened streets of The Garden. We had to duck into alleyways or around corners to avoid security patrols. Attracting the attention of the security forces was probably not the best idea, especially considering we still had one of the tailing ponies behind us.

As we rounded one corner, Gertie grabbed me as she ducked down a small alleyway. Everypony else paused but she gestured them forward.

“What the…” I hissed at her.

She put a talon across her beak and peered around the corner. I had no idea what she was waiting for, but she was intent on something. Hoofsteps began to echo through the streets. Gertie leaned back in and pressed herself against the wall. I could see every muscle tensing.

When she moved, it was so fast , I barely saw it. As the first hoof appeared in the opening of the alley, she lunged and grabbed the pony. He barely grunted as she threw him against the wall and slammed his head into the frame of the building. After letting go, the pony slid to the floor and slumped into a motionless pile.

“Got any rope?” she asked, as she breathed deeply.

“How the hell did you know this was the pony?” I asked, digging through my saddlebags.

“This is amateur hour here,” she huffed. “I had him made from the minute we left the inn.” After she finished tying up and gagging the pony, she stashed him in a nearby dumpster. “Shall we?”

We caught up with the rest of our group in short order.

“Gertie took care of our tail,” I informed Flower and Silver after they gave me weird looks once we caught up. They both gave us knowing nods.

The area around town hall was just as dead as the rest of the streets had been so far. We snuck up to the front door as I looked for a window to survey the inside.

“Dust, use this one,” Silver whispered, gesturing to a window to the left of the main door.

Peering over the top of the windowsill, I could see the inside of town hall. Much like the rest of the town, it was made of wood salvaged from the construction materials left behind by the way. The entry hall had several wooden doorways leading off to other parts of the building. To the left, however, was a larger, metal doorway with a rather large padlock securing a hasp. And in front of the door, there was a security pony, wearing his barding with a submachine gun mounted on a battle saddle. No other ponies were visible.

Dipping back down before being spotted, I turned to the group. “Just as Silver said,” I informed the group. “One guard in front of a secure, locked door. We need a way to deal with him.”

“Anyone have a bottle of liquor?” Silver asked.

Flower reached into her bags and pulled out a bottle of Wild Pegasus. Silver grabbed it and took a big swig. After leaving her gun with us, she walked up to the door. “Now watch,” she said, as she opened it.

I peeked up over the windowsill to watch. Silver began to stumble as soon as she entered the building.

“Halt! No visitors after hours!” the security stallion barked out.

Silver acted as if she was having trouble standing up. “Well, he… he… hello there, sss... sss...ssstud!”

“Miss, you need to vacate the premises, immediately,” he barked.

Silver still stumbled her way closer to the pony. “B...b...but I was loo… loo… looking for a stud for tonight,” she slurred. She had made it next to the pony. She traced a hoof along his jawline. “And you are… are… are one fffffine piece of meat.”

The guard began to look flustered. “But ma’am,” he began.

Silver placed her hoof over his mouth. “Shhhhh… c’mon, let’s g...g...go have some fun!”

The guard looked around the foyer frantically. The mental conflict he was in showed on his face as his brow furrowed and his eyes darted back and forth. “Aww… what the hell,” he said.

Silver smiled. She wrapped her hooves around his shoulders. “Lead the way, stud,” she purred.

The guard couldn’t move fast enough. He led Silver towards one of the doorways off the main foyer which was dark beyond. He began to unfasten his armor. Right before crossing the threshold, Silver turned her head and nodded. The two disappeared into the dark.

Not missing our signal, the rest of us quickly, but quietly, made our way into the building. Flower and Gertie made their way right to the door. I knew Gertie was already looking for her bobby pins to start her work on the lock. I made my way towards the dark room.

“C’mon baby, don’t be shy now,” the guard murmured.

“Take your time, s...s...stud,” Silver responded.

I walked into the room and snuck up behind the guard and cleared my throat.

“Who’s there?” he asked as he spun around.

Spinning around, I bucked hard at his head. The familiar wet snap as my hooves contacted his head filled the room. His body slumped to the floor.

“What took so long!” Silver hissed. “I almost had to kiss him.”

“Sorry,” I said, getting the rope out of my saddlebags yet again.

In short order, the guard was bound and gagged and we dragged him to one of the dark corners of the room. Silver began to rifle through his pockets. “Ah-ha!” she cried out as she pulled something out of his pocket. She trotted out of the room and I followed.

Gertie was furiously working at the lock, sticking the bobby pin in and twisting. On the ground beneath her were the pieces of several bobby pins. “Fuck!” she cried out and she threw down the piece of bobby pin in her talons.

“Would this help?” Silver asked, dangling a key in front of her.

“Fuck yes!” Gertie gasped, a gleam in her eye. “Son of a bitch is a tough one!”

Silver trotted up to the door, put the key in the mechanism and turned. The door opened easily and we all moved inside and closed the door behind us. We were standing on a concrete surface which sloped down to another door. But this door was more of a windowless airlock. We all exchanged glances and I reached out towards the wheel that dominated the door. As quietly as I could, I turned it.

The wheel did squeak a little as I turned. After a loud thunk, the wheel would turn no more. Grabbing the large handle, I pulled the door and it squealed open.

I was almost knocked to the floor by the smell. The odor of rotting meat and blood assaulted us as the doorway swing open. Silver and Flower put their hooves over their mouths as if they were going to vomit. Gertie was gagging and I was doubled over with dry heaves.

“What the hell?” Gertie asked between gags.

“Smells like the inside of a slaughterhouse,” Flower said, struggling to cover her nose.

After we all calmed down, I looked through the doorway. It opened unto a metal, tubular corridor which ran off in both directions. Periodically, on either side, there was another airlock type door.

“What is this place?” I asked aloud.

“Looks like an underground bunker of some sort,” Flower mumbled as she took it in. “I wonder if the ponies here built it or stumbled across it. And what the fuck is creating that smell?”

“Shhhh…” Gertie shushed us.

I strained to hear what she could possibly have heard. Tinny music was barely audible. It sounded like old classical music. Suddenly, a voice accompanied the music. The voice was deep but strong. I couldn’t identify the language, but whoever was singing was good.

As I strained to listen for more details about our surroundings, moaning began to filter in between verses of singing. It was weak, but I could make out a few different voices.

“Well, it looks like everything is coming from the right,” I muttered, my stomach deciding to start doing somersaults. “Gertie, would you mind being rear guard?”

She still wasn’t fully recovered from the initial wash of the odor, but she nodded and spun to watch the other end of the hallway we were in.

We slowly and quietly made our way towards the singing. As we moved, the singing was punctuated with screams or whimpers. Each sound filled me with more and more dread. I felt pressure against my side and saw that Silver had sidled up next to me. She gave an awkward grin, but I could see the fear in her eyes. Looking at Flower, I could see mix of fierce determination in her eyes, but there was an undercurrent of fear.

After a while, we came to the first room that had light spilling from the gap between the door and the floor. The door was windowless, so we would have to open it to see what was inside. Gesturing to Flower that I was going to enter the room, she braced herself against the wall next to it, ready to help me clear it. Unexpectedly, the door was unlocked and swung open easily and with minimal sound. I swung around one side and Flower swung around the other.

I didn’t know where to look first… or probably, more appropriately, where not to look. The walls were splattered with blood. Some of it had been dry for a long time, some was only a few days old. In one corner of the room were a pair of yellow wings, severed from the body they used to belong to. The joints had been severed cleanly. On a small table next to them was a neatly folded Enclave uniform.

The center of the room was the most disconcerting. Lying on a stainless steel table in the middle of the room was a yellow pony. He was missing all four of his legs with large, bandaged wounds where they would have been. There were also two wounds where the wings would have met the torso. Several bandaged areas covered portions of the lower body.

“I thought raiders were sick fucks,” Gertie mumbled, her voice nearly inaudible. “But why would they do this to bodies?”

And then I saw something that made my world spin. The pony was still breathing…

“He’s still alive!” I blurted out right before I doubled over and vomited. “Why are they keeping him alive?”

“Umm, Dust,” Flower whispered. I looked over and she was holding a box labeled “Grade A Prime Brahmin.”

We all just stood there staring at each other in shocked silence. That was until the pony in the middle of the room groaned.

“Help me!” he rasped, trying to pick his head up.

We all jumped and backed away from the table.

“Help me! Please!” he begged.

“What’s going on here?” I asked.

“They’re cutting us apart… for meat,” he explained, tears streaming from his eyes.

“Wait? What?” I mumbled at the same time as somepony else. “You mean they’re serving pony as meat?”

We all looked at each other knowing what the implications were. We all had meat yesterday. The room filled with the sound of three ponies retching and our stomach contents splattering on the ground. Well, except for Gertie who seemed weirdly nonplussed.

“What?” she said, defending herself. “It’s not unusual for griffons to eat pony meat.” This caused a round of dry heaving.

“Gertie!” Silver barked. “What if it were Brownie you…” she started, before realizing what she said.

“You shut your mouth right now!” Flower barked. An awkward silence filled the room.

The pony on the table began to wheeze. “They’ve kept me this way for days now. They keep coming back for more.” He started coughing with blood splattering on the table beneath him. “Celestia… it may be too late for me… please help the others…”

“Others?” I asked, my blood turning cold.

There was no response as he laid his head down and his breath rattled and there was no more.

I looked around the room at my friends and saw Silver and Gertie were clearly disgusted. Flower had a different look. In all my time knowing her, I don’t think I ever saw her with a look of pure terror on her face.

“Dust… can we please… go find Brownie,” she pleaded.

“Sure thing, Flower,” I answered, giving one last look at the pony on the table.

Our missing friend took on a new urgency. Brownie had been captured for days. We had no idea if he was down here and, if he was, for how long. We had to find him before… well, before something else happened.

A loud scream echoed down the hallway and the singing, which had faded to the back of my mind, reached a fever pitch. We continued our way down the hallway and the singing grew even louder. The next door we came to was the source. This door was open, however.

I peered around the corner and the room was much like the last. Except, blocking our view of the table was probably the largest unicorn I had ever seen. He completely blocked our view of the table. He was wearing a blood stained chef’s uniform and a full face shield. In his blue magical field were two large knives dancing around the room.

He continued his singing as the knives plunged down towards the table. As each knife disappeared from view, a scream accompanied it. The poor stallion on the table was in agony. A piece of flesh rose up from the table and floated to a box on a small workbench on the side of the room.

The knives flew up again and turned their points back towards the table. I had to stop this. I galloped into the room and tackled the unicorn from behind. The magical field disappeared from the knives and they clattered to the floor.

“Who the fuck are you!” the unicorn screamed from underneath me.

“I’m the pony that’s going to stop this sick operation!” I screamed.

My left rear leg flared with pain. I looked and saw one of the kitchen knives back in the blue magical field buried a couple of inches in my leg. Son of a bitch that hurt!

“Looks like I have fresh meat!” he said, licking his lips. His eyes looked unfocused… manic.

My leg burned in pain as he magically withdrew the knife and raised it with the other one above my head.

“Looks like tomorrow will be a full menu!” he cried out in glee.

A gunshot filled the room and the unicorn froze awkwardly. His chef’s jacket had a new blood stain on it. The blood stain grew as he stood there looking at it. Looking behind him, I saw that Gertie had entered the room and the barrel of her pistol was smoking. The butcher, still looking at the blooming wound, slowly slumped to the floor.

“Thanks, Gertie,” I grunted through the pain. “Can you get me a healing potion, please.”

Gertie simply nodded and began digging through her bags.

“Dust…” Flower said, he mouth agape, looking at the table.

I propped myself up as Gertie began to pour the healing potion on my wound. On the table was the pony we saw get arrested yesterday outside the restaurant.

“If this isn’t Brownie, then…” Flower started.

“Flower, let’s just keep looking, OK?” I said, trying to calm her.

I looked at the pony on the table who was wordlessly pleading with me.

“We’ll be back,” I said.

After the wound had stitched itself closed, I stood up. I couldn’t put full weight on it, but it was usable. I limped my way to the door and everypony followed me. As I looked down the hallway, I saw several doors with a cone of light being cast on the floor at the bottom of each.

“Split up,” I ordered.

We all walked up to one of the doors and walked in. I heard Silver and Gertie gasp as they, no doubt, saw horrors akin to the other two rooms so far. I opened my door and looked inside and, fortunately, my room was empty.

“No!” I heard Flower scream.

The three of us left our rooms and galloped to the one Flower had entered. I was the first to get there and my heart sank when I saw the scene unfold. Flower was already leaning over the table. Brownie’s limbless body was on the table. Most of his body was covered in bandages. Amazingly, or perhaps unfortunately, he was still alive as well.

“Brownie, no! What have they done to you!” Flower sobbed.

“Flower?” Brownie wheezed. “Is it really you?”

“Yes, it is. It’s me, Dust, Silver and Gertie!” she cried. “We’re here.”

“I knew ya’d come,” he rasped. “I knew ya’d come for me.”

“Oh, Brownie…” Flower said, crying into Brownie’s neck.

“Flower,” he said, trying to pick his head up. “Ah think this is the end of mah journey.”

“No, Brownie…” Flower argued. “We’ll get ya out of here. We’ll get you help! Dust? We have Hydra, right?”

“Flower,” Brownie said, raising his head enough to kiss Flower on the forehead. “Ah think we both know that ah ain’t makin’ it through this.”

“But Brownie, this can’t be the end… it just can’t,” she cried. “Ah can’t lose you!”

“Flower,” Brownie coughed. “We both knew it coulda ended this way. We both knew the Wasteland doesn’t play fair. Ah’m just glad ah could see you one last time. Ah love ya, Flower, with all mah heart.”

“But Brownie! What about us? What about our life together,” she pleaded. “Ah don’t know if ah can go on without you.”

“Flower, ah’m sorry,” he said, tears starting to run down his face. “Ya know ah wanted to live mah life with ya. You made me the happiest pony in the Wasteland. Ah’m sorry it has to end this way.”

“Brownie…” Flower muttered between deep sobs.

Brownie raised his head and nuzzled Flower’s. Flower pulled hers back and gently kissed Brownie on the lips. She then returned to nuzzling his neck.

“Dust,” Brownie called out after a period of time. “Ah need you ta do me a favor.”

“Anything, buddy,” I said, walking towards the table.

“Ah want you ta put me outta mah misery,” he announced.

“Brownie, no!” Flower protested.

“Flower,” he said, looking her in the eyes. “Ah’m in so much pain. And ah don’t want this ta drag out. Please, let me go.”

Flower clutched Brownie’s body.

“Brownie, please... no…” I pleaded. “Please don’t make me do this.”

“Dust, please... “ he pleaded. “Ah need ya ta do this. Ah can’t have Flower do it and ah’d rather have somepony ah know, somepony who cares for me, ta do it.”

“Brownie…” I pleaded further.

“And, Dust,” he continued. “Don’t blame yerself. This wasn’t yer fault. Every pony’s time in the Wasteland is limited. Mah number was up.”

“Flower… ah love you and ah’m sorry ah can’t keep mah promise ta ya,” Brownie wheezed. “Silver, Gertie, it was an honor and a pleasure ta meet ya and get ta know ya. And, Dust… ya are really one of the better ponies ah’ve met… ya’ve given so much of yerself… please don’t ever ferget it.” His body wracked with coughs. “Now, please…”

“Ah can’t watch,” Flower cried out as she bolted from the room.

Silver gave me a glance and ran out after her.

Gertie stepped up to the table. “Brownie, it was an honor to have known you. May your soul find peace in the afterlife.” Gertie then snapped a salute to Brownie. A small smile grew on his face.

Brownie then looked up at me, his eyes pleading me to do what he had asked. Hesitantly, I drew my pistol from out of its holster and braced the muzzle against his head. Brownie gave me one last, knowing look and then closed his eyes.

I took a few deep breaths and closed my eyes. “Brownie, I’m so sorry,” I mumbled before placing the firing bit in my mouth.

After a few seconds, I gently bit down on the firing bit.

Mission failed.

Chapter 29 - Nadir

Chapter 29 - Nadir
“Sometimes we have to reach rock bottom before we’re willing to rise up and overcome our trials.”

The gunshot echoed in the room. It seemed especially loud in my ears. Brownie’s body shuddered one last time as his life left his body. The room fell eerily silent.

When what I had done finally settled in my mind, the pistol dropped from my mouth and rattled on the floor. Each impact sounded like a gavel striking a sound block. It was as if somepony was judging me for my actions.

I stood there numbly just looking at Brownie’s body. His eye was still open and it was staring right into my soul. Gertie’s claw appeared in my vision and swiped over his face, closing his eye in the process.

When she finished, she walked over to me and placed a claw on my shoulder. “Dust, you did…” she began to say.

“Don’t you dare tell me I did what needs to be done!” I shouted, my voice cracking. “I still killed him!”

“Dust, you have to listen to me,” Gertie spoke softly to me. “Brownie was in a bad way. There was no happy ending here. At least now he’s not suffering.”

“And what about me, Mister Dust?” I heard One’s voice say. “Did I need to die, too?”

“No… no, no, no, no, no,” I muttered, frantically looking around the room for One.

“Yeah, Dust. Did ah really need ta die, too?” the deep voice of Brownie said.

My legs went weak and I fell to the floor. I slammed my hooves over my ears. “No… I’m sorry I murdered you!”

“Dust, who are you talking about?” Gertie asked, having dropped to floor to look me in the eyes.

“Yeah, Mister Dust,” One’s voice mockingly called out. “Who are you talking about?”

“DUST!” Gertie yelled, distracting me from the conversation I was having. “We have to move, now!”

“Wh… what’s going on?” I asked, still searching the room for the source of the voices.

“Somepony is coming from the direction of city hall,” Gertie told me, scooping up my gun and jamming it into my holster. “We have to get out of here!”

Gertie bolted out of the room and I followed after her. I could hear the rumble of voices coming from the end of the hallway we came from. As a group, we travelled in the other direction, looking for another way out of here. Silver had to more or less drag Flower, who kept looking over her shoulder.

The underground complex became a series of twists and turns. We passed a number of doors that were either locked or were waiting open, leading into empty rooms beyond. I didn’t want to see what was behind the locked ones.

“We have to get to the surface and get to the gate before they find out we were here,” Gertie said, cautiously looking around a corner. “If they catch us, we aren’t getting out of here alive.”

“But if they haven’t seen us, how much trouble can we be in?” Silver asked, sticking close to my side as we moved down the hallway.

“What about the guard you seduced?” Gertie shot back.

“Oh…” Silver responded.

Something bumped into me from behind, causing me to jump out of my skin.

“Oh… sorry, Dust,” Flower mumbled, her voice monotone. “Didn’t see you there...” She wasn’t looking at me, as much as she was looking past me.

“Flower, are you OK?” I asked, tentatively.

“Huh?” she asked, still looking as if she were just staring down an endless tunnel. “Yeah, I’m fine… no…”

“Flower, look,” I started.

“Can this wait?” Gertie interrupted. “I think we found a way back to street level.”

The floor beneath us did start to slope upwards. The voices behind us were still soft and muffled, leading me to believe that they were far enough behind us… for now.

At the end of the hallway, we came up to a wall with a different door than the others we had run across. This one was larger by far… large enough for two ponies, at least, to walk through at the same time. Gertie braced herself against it and gave it a shove. It began to scrape against the floor as it swung outward. A blast of cold air washed over us.

We quickly ran through into the darkness beyond as we all helped Gertie push the door closed behind us. The cold room we were in was now completely dark.

“Anybody got a light?” Gertie asked.

“Yeah, Brown…” I started to say, my stomach dropping as the words left my mouth. I could hear Flower whimper somewhere in the darkness. “Oh…my bad.”

I raised my hoof with the Pipbuck on it. While it didn’t give off a lot of light, it was enough to make out some of our surroundings. We were surrounded by shelves which were loaded with foodstuffs of all kind. There were baskets of vegetables and fruits on some. Others held boxes with some writing on them, which was unreadable in the darkness.

“Got a door handle over here!” Silver called out.

We all ran over as Silver pulled the handle and the door swung open. The room we were now in looked like a kitchen. There were a lot of firepits, pots, and pans around. As belied by the hour, the kitchen was devoid of any cooks or chefs. We continued our path away from this hell we were in.

When we pushed through the next door, we were in a very familiar room. It was Chuck Roast’s dining room! Sparely lit by a few gems, and completely empty of ponies, the room was barely recognizable.

“Dust…” Silver started to ask.

“Not now, Silver. Let’s just keep going,” I stopped her. We didn’t need to have this conversation right now.

We all fell into step behind Gertie, trusting her instincts and knowledge of town. Fortunately, it was still night and there would be fewer ponies on the street, including security. We made good progress towards the front gate, only needing to stop a few times to avoid an occasional security patrol. The security ponies did not seem on heightened alert, so either they had no communication system or the ponies who had entered the underground tunnel were a separate force.

The market, thankfully, was also mostly empty. It was weird to hear only our hoofsteps echoing off the surrounding buildings when you could barely hear yourself think earlier. We cantered our way across the square and drew near the gates. A small line of ponies were waiting to leave town and get their weapons back.

“Shit,” Gertie mumbled as we took our place at the end of the line. “There’s only a skeleton crew at the gate. This could take a while.”

We uneasily shifted our view between each other, the short line in front of us, and the town behind us. And then it dawned on me…

“Fuck, we don’t know who is looking for us!” I gasped.

“My guess, Dust, is that they’ll be the ones with the big guns,” Gertie deadpanned.

“No… I mean, would whoever is following us risk involving the normal security force?” I asked. “Or is this secret something so big it’s being hidden from the town?”

Gertie shrugged. “I don’t know… we better hope so,” she deadpanned.

The line moved forward as the pony at the head of the line cleared the security checkpoint. Only about four more ponies before us. We all kept quiet, but it was probably due to anxiety more than any kind of strategic concern. The line moved slowly, but steadily.

“Next!” the old guardpony on duty called out as the pony in front of us cleared the gate. We stepped up to his table. “Name?”

“Dust Cloud, Wilted Flower, Silver Lining, and Gertrude Stoneclaw,” I recited to the guard. Silver kicked me in the leg. I looked at her and she had a stern look on her face. “Oh, and Brown Root.”

The guardspony adjusted the glasses on his nose and looked down at his clipboard. “I don’t see any Dusty Flower on my list here.”

“No… no… it’s Dust Cloud,” I corrected him.

“Hmmm,” he mumbled as he perused the list. “I don’t see no Rust Shroud.”

“DUST CLOUD!” I shouted to the guard.

“No need to yell,” he scolded me. He returned to looking at his clipboard. “Dust Cloud, Dust Cloud, Dust Cloud… ah, here you are. Wait here while I grab your locker. The guard cantered over to a set of shelves filled with almost identical looking boxes.

“This is gonna take forever!” I groaned.

“Don’t have much choice, do we?” Gertie asked.

I sighed.

The guard returned with my box and I quickly removed all my gear. Flower, Silver and Gertie all took their turns which ended in much the same way.

“Finally, Brown Root,” I informed the guard.

“You already got yours,” he answered.

“I know… Brown Root is…” I paused when a pang of guilt wracked my gut. “Was… our friend. He’s no longer with us.”

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that,” the guard said. “But I’m going to need you to fill out form 13.1Q to claim your deceased friend’s gear.” He hoofed the clipboard over to me as he disappeared into the shelves again.

“Dust,” Gertie muttered to me.

“Not now, Gertie,” I answered, fumbling with the pen in my mouth.

“Dust,” Gertie muttered again.

“Gertie, I have to fill this out,” I grunted.

“Dust!” she hissed as she grabbed my head and twisted it. Entering the far side of the market were two ponies wearing street clothes. It looked like they were going to be leaving town also. And then I noticed the assault rifles slung over their barrels.

“Shit!” I hissed to myself. “Excuse me, guard? Is there any way you can hurry this up?”

“Don’t ya worry, I’ll find it,” he called back from the shelves. “You just fill out that form and make sure it’s right!”

Redoubling my efforts on the form, I scribbled in the necessary information as quickly as possible. I glanced back over my shoulder as I saw the two armed ponies steadily making their way towards the exit. A loud thud drew my attention back.

“Here ya go!” the guard said cheerily. “Now let me see that form.”

As the guard grabbed the clipboard, we opened the box and split up Brownie’s stuff.
“Alright, looks like everything’s in order!” he confirmed. “We hope you enjoyed your stay at The Garden. Come back soon!”

“Thanks...” I said. “But I don’t think so!” I called out as I galloped towards our sky wagon.

Gertie rushed over and strapped me into the wagon as quickly as she could. Flower and Silver climbed in the passenger cabin and closed the door behind them. Suddenly, we heard a commotion near the gate. The ponies in line were grumbling as the two armed ponies were talking with the guard and he was pointing in our direction. I locked eyes with one of them and his face twisted into a snarl.

“Fuck!” I cried out as Gertie tightened the last strap. “Let’s get the fuck outta here!”

I flapped my wings as hard as I could and tried to get the skywagon airborne quickly. I watched as the two ponies galloped closer, each drawing their assault rifle into firing position. I banked to my right trying to position the wagon between them and me.

Several volleys of gunfire sounded below me, quickly followed by several pings against the fuselage of the skywagon. The sound of the gunfire below and behind me, and the frequency of the bullet impacts, faded away as we increased our distance from the city.

After a while, I slowed my pace to a more sustainable speed. Gertie flew up next to me after doubling back to ensure we weren’t being tracked.

“Shit,” she whined. I shot her a confused look. “I really liked The Garden and now I can never go back.”

“Yeah, Mister Dust, way to ruin things for her,” One’s voice filled my ears.

“Ah don’t think a simple sorry is enough,” Brownie followed up.

I felt a whimper escape my throat.

“Dust, you OK?” Gertie asked, clearly concerned.

“Yeah, I’m good,” I lied. “We need to set down and figure things out. Where is a safe place?”

Gertie thought for a little bit. “There’s an old trading outpost about an hours flight north of here. The Talons have used it before and we’re on good terms with the townsponies.”

“Sounds good to me,” I said with a nod. “Why don’t you check on the others and then help me navigate, please?”

“Sure thing, Dust,” she answered as she angled away to get to the fuselage.

“Ah, now we’re all alone,” Brownie’s voice said. “Fine mess ya got me inta.”

“It’s not real,” I repeated several times, clapping my hooves against my ears.

“Ah, Mister Dust. That isn’t going to work,” One said.

“Another plan, another death,” Brownie mocked. “But this time, ya can’t hide behind the window. Ya killed me, Dust. Ya murdered me.”

“And why did you pick me, Mister Dust?” One heaped on.

“I’m sorry!” I shouted.

“For what, Dust?” Gertie asked. I hadn’t seen her come back yet.

“I, um, thought we hit some turbulence,” I lied again. “How is Silver… and Flower?”

“Silver is fine,” Gertie answered and then paused. “Flower, well, Flower is a mess.”

I sighed. I could only imagine what she was going through. She had settled down to start a life with Brownie. And then I re-enter the picture. We need to save the Wasteland. I lure them away from Coltington. And now Brownie is dead. Killed by my hoof. What if it had been Silver? My stomach twisted in on itself. I was being selfish thinking about myself when I should be thinking about Flower.

“Equestria to Dust?” Gertie asked, having maneuvered right next to me. “You OK there? You’ve been doing that a lot since.. Well…”

“I know, Gertie,” I answered, trying to cut off that train of thought. “I’ll be OK.” I saw the mixture of doubt and concern on her face. “It’ll just take time.”

“You know I’m here if you need to talk,” she replied.

“I know,” I said. Talking wouldn’t do much.

“Why do you turn your friends away, Mister Dust?” One’s voice returned. “She just wants to help.”

“Yeah, Dust. Turning yer friends away, that’ll keep em safe,” Brownie mocked.

I squeezed my eyes shut and took a deep breath.

The rest of the trip to the trading post was spent in silent reflection. At least as silent as it got with the voices of my two dead friends mocking me at every chance they got. Gertie gave up trying to initiate conversation and flew in silence next to me.

We landed on the outskirts of town as the sun was starting to come up. I set the skywagon down gently and waited for Gertie to release me from the harness. As she began to unbuckle me, Flower and Silver came out of the passenger cabin.

I hadn’t gotten a good look at Flower since we were running out of The Garden. To be frank, she looked like shit. The area around her eyes were puffy and her tears had cleaned streaks of fur down her face. Her eyes were completely bloodshot. As I took this all in, snot dripped off her nose.

“I’ll go get us some rooms,” Gertie said, with a yawn.

“Not yet,” I said, shaking my head. “There’s something more important we have to do first.” Everyone shot me a confused look. “Where’s the bar?”

Gertie answered with a solemn nod and led us towards the shell of a building that housed the small bar. It was in amazingly good condition, but still showed the typical wear and tear of centuries of use. The large door was falling off its hinges, but I think that hardly mattered to anypony.

The inside was sparsely furnished. Compared with Chuck Roast’s, this place was a dive. The tables were the old wooden spools that were used to move wire back before the war. There were only a few chairs, if you could call a small crate a chair. The bar was made of half sheets of plywood, supported by sawhorses.

The pony behind the bar was in a threadbare vest. It was hard to tell if his coat was brown or dirty, or some mix of the two. He was mindless, spinning a bottlecap on the bar as I approached.

“Yeah, what can I do you for?” he spoke gruffly, not taking his attention away from the bottlecap.

“I need the strongest bottle you got, and four shotglasses please,” I asked.

“Wild Pegasus good?” he droned.

“Absolutely,” I said with a nod.

With a deep sigh and an eye role, he turned around and levitated a bottle of the liquor and four glasses to the table that my friends had claimed. After mumbling an amount to me, I hoofed over the requisite number of caps and walked to my friends.

Gertie had already opened the bottle and poured everypony a double shot of the amber colored liquid. I grabbed the shot glass closest to me and raised it in the air.

“Flower, would you do the honors?” I asked.

Flower, who had been staring off into the corner, slowly turned her head towards me. “Ah don’t... think... ah can, Dust,” she said, starting to sob. Silver sidled up next to her and wrapped a hoof around her.

“To Brownie!” I called out. “He was probably my first true friend down here in the Wasteland. He saw a pony who wasn’t fitting and made sure he had somepony to talk to. He was always willing to help another pony in need and always gave one hundred and then percent of himself.” I paused and saw the water welling up in all my friends’ eyes. “Even if it meant he would have to sacrifice himself to do so. He saved my life many a time we were scavenging ruins or stables, but he would never ask for anything in return. Flower,” I turned to look at her directly. “Although he wouldn’t really talk about it, we all know he loved you. All he wanted was to make you happy, because you did so for him. To Brownie!”

My friends solemnly repeated my toast and we all slammed back the drinks. It was cute to see Silver’s face scrunch up as she gulped down the burning liquid which was probably the strongest thing she had drinken, probably ever. Gertie quickly poured everypony another round.

“Why didn’t I get a toast, Mister Dust?” One’s voice said, returning to taunt me. “DIdn’t you like me?”

“Well, did ya?” Brownie drawled.

I quickly grabbed the shotglass and slammed the drink down. The mocking voices of my two dead friends wavered a little.

“Hit me,” I said, slamming the glass down in front of Gertie. She poured and I slammed down that drink as well. “Again,” I ordered with another slam.

“Dust, you think that’s a good idea?” Gertie asked, hesitating with the bottle.

I shot her a stern look and she filled the glass again. Gulping down this drink, the voices of Brownie and One quieted to silence.

I leaned back in my seat and breathed out in a relieved sigh. We all sat there for awhile drinking in silence. Occasionally, I would glance at Flower to see how she was doing. Silver was comforting her as best she could. Even Gertie would try from time to time.

“Flower…” I said, fighting through the alcohol and the room spinning.

“D...Dust…” she slurred back. “Loo… loo… look… I know ya d… d… did what think ya had ta, b...but ah can’t fergive you. You k...k...killed the love of my life. Ah d...d...don’t wanna know ya right now.”

It felt like I got bucked in the stomach. I grabbed the bottle and poured myself another drink. This time, the alcohol didn’t burn as it went down. Good, I was getting numb. And then things went black.

The dull roar of the bar filtered into my ears. I picked my head up from hooves and struggled to open my eyes. When I did, the room was still spinning. Flower’s muzzle was buried in Silver’s shoulder and Gertie was looking on, not sure what she should do. Flower looked up, and even though it was a momentary flash, I could see the anger in her eyes. Looking away, and fighting the spinning room, I grabbed the bottle and took a giant swig.

“F...fine…” I slurred. “It’s m..m..my fucking fault.” I grabbed the bottle and stumbled away. “Fuck this.” Then the floor began to rise towards my head.

The next sensation I remember is my head throbbing. It felt like my brain was trying to break its way out of my skull. And based on the feeling, I couldn’t blame it. Even though I haven’t even tried to move yet, I could already tell this was the hangover of all hangovers.

My eyelids struggled to flutter open, but when even a sliver of light came through, it felt like needles being plunged right into my eyeballs. I slammed my eyelids shut and and tried to press my hooves against them. I was only able to move them so far before they stopped because of some restraint.

“Uuuuugh,” I groaned from my prone position.

“About time you woke up,” somepony grumbled from nearby. The voice boomed into my head making the headache worse.

“Shhhh,” I tried to hush the pony. “No so loud.”

“No, I don’t think so,” the voice boomed.

I turned my head, slowly, to see who was torturing me. Squinting, I saw a gray and black blob. “Gertie?” I asked.

“Yes,” she shouted.

“Are you enjoying torturing me?” I groaned. “And why the hell am I tied down?”

“Didn’t know you were into that kinda stuff?” she asked, barely holding back laughter. “You are one lousy drunk, Dust,” she bellowed, sending spikes into my head. “What do you remember?”

“I remember the floor of the bar floating towards my head?” I joked.

“I’m not laughing,” Gertie grunted. “Do you remember shouting at Flower in the bar? Do you remember breaking two bottles of Wild Pegasus before walking off with a third? Do you remember having a conversation with an empty barstool?”

“No...no…” I muttered. Did I really do all those things?

“Do you also remember talking about One and Muddy with a brahmin? And picking the fistfight with the merc passing through town?” she resumed shouting.

“No… I really don’t,” I mumbled.

“You really do not hold your liquor well,” Gertie scolded.

“So, why am I tied up?” I asked, trying to raise a hoof again.

“You kept trying to get up and have round two with the merc,” Gertie said, loosening the ropes. “It was the only way to keep you from getting killed.”

“How long was I out?” I asked, rubbing my forehoofs to get the circulation back.

“Well, we’ve been here for two days now,” she said after some thought. “You’ve been in and out, drinking more each time you woke up. I finally stopped you.”

“And Silver and Flower?” I continued.

“Flower is about as well as can be expected,” she answered. “She still isn’t talking to you, by the way. And Silver is helping her out. You know, if the courier thing doesn’t work out for her, she might want to try psychology.” She reached into one of her pockets and pulled out a syringe of Med-X and a bottle of water. “I got this for you for the hangover. It will only take the edge off.”

I greedily slurped down the bottle of water. “Ugh, anything is better than this…” I said, swallowing the water. “But I gotta take a leak first.”

After stumbling down to the latrine and back, I got back in bed. Gertie came over and pulled the cap off of the syringe.

“Go sleep this thing off,” she said, sticking the needle into me and pushing down on the plunger. The pounding diminished slightly.

“Thank you, Gertie,” I said, as I laid my head back down on the pillow.

I waited for the door to click closed behind her as she left the room. I simply laid in bed, my head threatening to burst open.

A gunshot rang out and startled me to attention. Glancing around the room, a pony’s presence surprised me. Slumped against a wall with his head hanging was Brownie. A large hole was present on the side of his head. Ruby red blood ran down his face, dripping to the floor and pooling beneath him. I nearly jumped out of my skin when I saw his head rise.

His brown face had gone slightly paler than I remember. His eyes were vacant, seeming to stare through me. His mouth slowly opened and a ghastly rasping escaped his lips. “Why?” he groaned with staggering breaths.

I closed my eyes and buried my head in my hooves. “Brownie, I’m so sorry… I…” I started to apologize, opening my eyes once again. The motionless body of Brownie was still slumped in the corner, but thankfully, the head was drooping again and not look at me.

“Fuck me,” I gasped as I slumped back down in bed. The throbbing in my head had gotten worse, which I didn’t think was possible.

Leaning out of bed, I reached over for my saddlebags looking for more water or even more Med-X. Digging around inside, I found the familiar glass shape of a Wild Pegasus bottle. Drawing it out of the bags, I saw that the neck seal hadn’t even been broken yet. I guess drunk me was getting ready for the next round.

Twisting the cap and breaking the seal, I took a large swig off the bottle. The booze burned as it flowed down my throat. After several moments, the image of Brownie became fuzzy at the edges.

“Thank Celestia,” I sighed in relief. Bringing the bottle back up to my lips, I took another large draught. I repeated this cycle until I blacked out again.

I felt my head throbbing before I fully woke up. Why did waking up drunk or hungover always have to hurt so much?

I went to rub my temples, but found I couldn’t move my hooves. Attempting to open my eyes, the first light seared my vision and caused me to cry out in pain. As the room around me sharpened in my vision, I saw that I wasn’t in my room at the inn anymore. This room was very large with high ceilings. There were tall commercial racks lining the walls and others lined up in rows in the room. Several overhead gems lit the room in a harsh light. Looking down at my hooves, I realized they were tied to one of the large shelving units.

“What the hell?” I said out loud, not expecting a response.

“Mornin’, Dust,” Flower’s voice echoed in the room.

Even though I knew she was speaking softly, it still boomed in my head. Trying to find her, I found her as she came around the corner of one of the shelving units in the middle of the room.

“Flower, hurry and untie me!” I cried out.

“No, Dust,” she responded, with a deadly seriousness in her tone. She took a swig from a nondescript bottle.

“What do you mean, no?” I gasped in surprise.

“Ah mean ah’m not going ta untie ya,” she answered flatly. “We need ta have a talk… well, ah need ta talk, ya need ta listen,” she said, jabbing a hoof in my direction.

Flower paced unsteadily around the room for a long time. “Ya took somethin’ from me, Dust,” she finally said. “Somethin’ ah loved, somethin’ ah needed.”

“Flower, I just…” I tried to defend myself.

Flower drew a frag grenade out of her saddlebag and placed it on a nearby table. “No… ya don’t get ta talk unless ah say so,” she interrupted me, almost growling. “I get ta talk…”

I decided to keep my mouth shut and not anger her more. My head began to throb more than it had when I woke up.

“Can I at least get some Med-X first?” I moaned. “This hangover is kicking my ass.”

“No,” she said flatly, her gaze never turning away from me. “Maybe some discomfort, some pain, will do ya some good.” She took yet another swig. This one emptied the bottle and she hurled it across the room. The sound of the bottle breaking pierced my skull.

We sat just staring at each other while I pressed my temple against the floor, doing my damndest to minimize the pain I was feeling. Her breathing was ragged. I could see the muscles in her jaw tensing.

“Look, Dust,” she finally began. “Ah’m not clueless here. Ah know that Brownie was hurtin’. Ah know he was gonna die. What we need ta talk about is why you did it.”

“Flower…” I started.

“Nope… ya still don’t get ta talk yet,” she barked. “He was my special somepony… MINE!” She slammed her hoof down on the ground, causing my headache to flare. “It was not yer action ta take!”

“Brownie asked me to!” I shouted out, trying to avoid getting cut off again.

“And that was wrong of him,” Flower yelled back. I could see her eyes watering over. However, she never looked away from me. “He shoulda let me do it!”

“But he couldn’t… he didn’t want to hurt you like that,” I explained.

“But why did it have ta be him?” she cried out.

“Flower… I don’t have an answer to that,” I sighed. “It could have just as easily been you or Silver. Why did Muddy send you guys where he did? And how could anypony guess the order we would visit the towns in? If it wasn’t Brownie, then Silver would have been burned at the stake. And if it wasn’t Silver, then who know what they would have done to you. The Wasteland just sucks.”

“No offense, Dust,” she cried. “But ah wish we never met ya.”

The matter of fact way she said it shook me to my core.

“If ya and Muddy hadn’t come down here, think about it,” she reasoned. “Brownie and ah would still be scavenging. We’d probably be at home right now, probly just holding each other. We wouldn’t be galavantin’ across the wastes on some revenge suicide mission. Silver would still be in her stable, never having been attacked by Muddy and having ta worry about ya. Or in the middle of a weird love triangle between two pegasi and a griffin merc.”

Her words gave me reason to pause. “What can I say, Flower, you’re right,” I admitted. “Perhaps everything would be better if Muddy and I never came down. But think about it this way… Silver would be trapped in the stable, too afraid to leave. And maybe Brownie wouldn’t have raised your relationship to the next level if we hadn’t been through everything.” I saw her features begin to soften. Maybe I was getting through to her. “Maybe no one would be as happy…”

“And you think ah’m happy now?” she screamed in rage, her face tightening once again. “How the fuck do ya think ah’m happy?”

“I can only imagine how tough this is for you,” I began to explain. “I can only imagine what I would do if I lost Silver or Gertie.”

“Dust… are you in here?” Silver’s voice echoed from outside the room.

Flower approached me, a little off balance. Once she got close enough, she grabbed a nearby rag and jammed it into my mouth. After drawing her gun, she hid behind a shelving unit.

“Dust? Where are you?” Silver called out, her voice sounding closer than before.

I struggled against my bonds, but Flower had tied the knots really well. The rag jammed in my mouth was stuffed in deep enough that I couldn’t work it out. All I could do was make a muffled yell, which I doubt she could hear.

Silver kept calling out my name as I heard her hoofbeats echo outside the room. I didn’t want to imagine what Flower was thinking about this whole situation.

I saw Silver’s pink face and green mane appear in the doorway. My gut sank as I saw her look at me and her eyes widen.

“Dust! I’ve been looking all over for you,” she cried out and she trotted into the room. I could see the joy drain from her face, replaced by concern. “What’s going on here?”

“Welcome to the party, Silver,” Flower slurred as she gestured towards me.

Silver backed towards me, never breaking eye contact with Flower. “Flower, what do you think you’re doing?”

“Dust and ah were just havin’ a li’l talk,” Flower said, slurring her words a little. “Ah think Dust needs ta learn a little about right and wrong. Why don’t ya join him over there.”

To her credit, Silver looked unfazed by Flower’s reaction as she moved towards me. “And what do you think Dust did wrong?”

“He killed Brownie!” Flower shrieked. “Isn’t that wrong enough? He took away the one truly good thing that was mine in the entire Celestia damned Wasteland!” Flower placed the gun down on a nearby shelf and picked up the frag grenade. To my dismay, she pulled the pin, her hoof still wrapped around the spoon.

“Flower,” Silver said, taking a carefully measured step towards Flower. “Let’s not do anything foolish here. You know that while Dust may have fired the shot, it was the ponies of the Garden that killed Brownie. And it was the Enclave pegasi that handed him over to them. All Dust did was show mercy to him.”

“No… Brownie coulda lived,” she cried. “We coulda gotten him back here and treated his wounds…”

“No, Flower,” Silver said, shaking her head. “Brownie was never going to leave that room. By the time we landed at the Garden, he was already on his last legs. He was already dying.”

“No… no…” Flower said, crying. She began pacing the room. “It can’t be true… we coulda saved him…”

I mumbled through the rags in my mouth. Silver took a step towards me and leaned down to remove the rag from my mouth.

“Flower,” I struggled to say over my dry mouth and tongue. “I loved Brownie like a brother. I wouldn’t do anything to hurt him…”

“And killing him didn’t hurt him?” she shot back.

“Flower, you were there,” I reasoned. “Brownie had lost all four of his legs. You saw the blood in the room. You saw what he looked like, what he smelled like. You know he wasn’t going to last long. I am amazed he lasted as long as he did.”

“No… he coulda have lived…” she said, beginning to sob uncontrollably. “Why did ya have ta take him from me?”

“Flower, I won’t try to say I hurt as much as you do,” I admitted. “But doing what I did… what I was begged to do… is something that will haunt me for as long as I live. I see him when I sleep… I hear him when I’m awake… the only time I don’t see or hear him is is when I black out… and that’s probably only because I don’t remember anything.

“If I could take it back, I would,” I continued, watching her intently. I could feel warm tears begin to form in the corners of my eyes. She still looked tense, but at least her anger seemed to be fading. “I didn’t want to do it… I really didn’t. But what choice did I have?”

“Ah don’t… we coulda… I shoulda…” Flower began to stammer. Her head began to hang as her voice trailed off. She looked up at me, tears running down her face and snot flowing out of her nostrils. “Dust? What have ah done?”

“It’s OK, Flower, it’s OK,” I said, trying to comfort her. “Can you untie me now?”

“Sure, Dust,” she answered with a weird combination of sniffling and a chuckle. Silver kneeled down and undid all my bindings. I stood up, stomping my hooves a little bit to regain feeling.

“Oh, thank Celestia I found you all!” Gertie gasped as she rounded the door jamb.

Time seemed to slow down as I saw Flower gasp and the grenade fell from her grasp. On the way down to the floor, I saw the spoon detach from the body of the grenade.

“Grenade! Move!” I hollered as I shoved Flower and Silver away from the grenade. Moving towards it, I kicked the grenade between two nearby shelves, turned and started to gallop.

I saw Flower shove Silver to the ground behind a nearby shelving unit. I was about to dive with them, but I felt pinpricks of pain in my haunches and the heat of the explosion tickling my hindquarters. I felt something smack against the side of my head and everything went black as I saw the ground rapidly approaching.

The black void. Again. This was getting annoying.

“Hello? Where are you, hooded stranger?” I called out into the echoless darkness.

Fortunately, the stranger was in no mood for theatrics, either.

“Hello, Dust,” she rasped at me.

“Hello, whoever you are,” I responded. “Can we skip right to the point, please? What lesson am I supposed to learn now?”

“Lesson? You think I’m trying to teach you a lesson?” she responded.

“Isn’t this whole ordeal about teaching me a lesson?” I barked out. “About how evil the Enclave is? Or how I need to suffer for what my people did? Or the mistakes I am making?”

The robed figure chuckled softly while shaking her head. “You have it all wrong, Dust. This isn’t about teaching you a lesson. Although, I guess it would be awesome if it were that simple. And it’s not anything that I am doing to you. You are doing this all to yourself.”

“To myself?” I questioned loudly. “I wanted to kill One? I wanted to kill Brownie? I wanted Flower to nearly kill me and Silver? Riiiiiight.”

“I’m not saying you wanted it all to happen,” she answered. “But this is a path of your choosing. Did anypony force you to come down here? Did anypony force you to go after Muddy in the first place? Or back to the Fort? These are all choices you made. And right or wrong, it is what has led to this. But none of this is to teach you a lesson.”

“Then what is this all for?” I asked.

“This is life, Dust,” she said solemnly, shaking her head again. “Sometime, things just are.”

“Dust!” I heard a different, faint voice call out.

“Looks like our time here is short,” the robed figure said, looking over her shoulder.

“No, I need answers!” I shouted back.

“All in good time, Dust,” she called back as she faded from view. “All in good time.”

“No! Wait!” I yelled…

“No!” I shouted as I shot upright.

My head turned to take in the room in frantic fits. I was sitting in a bed inside a wooden walled room. The smell of antiseptic and decay mixed together and assaulted my nose. There were two other beds, one on either side of me, but they were empty.

“Oh, Dust!” Silver cried out. “Thank Celestia you’re OK! We were so worried!” She wrapped her legs around me and squeezed.

“What happened?” I asked, still trying to make sense of things.

“When the grenade went off, a can of beans from a nearby shelf flew and hit you across the side of the head,” she said, pulling back from her embrace. “It was a glancing blow, though. Doc said another couple of inches it would have been much worse.”

The door swung open, hitting the wall behind it, startling me. Gertie came rushing in, moving to the side of the bed opposite Silver.

“Thought we lost you there!” she cried out and wrapped me in an embrace, also. “As each day passed, I got more and more worried.”

“Days?” I asked, feeling my face twist into confusion. “How long was I out?”

Gertie and Silver looked at each other, unease etching their features. “Umm,” Gertie finally muttered. “Four days.”

“Well, shit,” I said with a sigh. “You’d think I’d be used to this by now.”

“Ahem,” a weak voice barely said from the direction of the door. It was Flower, her head hanging so low, it was almost touching the floor. “Would you all mind if ah spoke with Dust fer a little?” After a short pause, she added, “alone?”

Gertie and Silver shared uneasy looks with each other.

“It’s OK, mares,” I said with a slight chuckle, which made it feel like a spike was driven into my head. I reached up and pressed against my temples. “Ugh… I could certainly use some Med-X. Anyway, I don’t think Flower means me any harm anymore. Right, Flower?”

Flower shook her head without looking up. Gertie and Silver shared one more uneasy glance and slowly made their way out of the room. As they passed Flower, they each shot her one last glare. Flower carefully closed the door behind her and then walked up to the bed.

“Dust, ah…” she started.

“Flower,” I interrupted. “I understand why you did it. I hope I never have to understand the depth of the pain you are feeling.”

“Doesn’t make it right, Dust,” she murmured, still not looking up at me. “Ah’m embarrassed fer what ah did.”

“But you don’t have to be,” I said, trying to comfort her. “I know you didn’t really want to hurt me. And then there was the alcohol.”

She finally looked up at me. Her cheeks were puffy and her eyes were bloodshot. “Geez, Flower,” I gasped. “How long has it been since you slept?”

She sniffled and then cleared her throat. “Ah’ve lost count,” she mumbled. “Ah think ah get fifteen minutes here, ten minutes there… but ah haven’t a good night since, well, since… Ah keep seeing him, Dust. And Silver and Gertie won’t even talk to me.”

“I can talk to them… they’ll come around,” I said, placing a hoof on her shoulder. “And except for the alcohol and, for lack of a better word, the coma, I probably wouldn’t have been sleeping either.” I paused, taking a deep breath. “I hear him, sometimes.”

“Wha?” she asked, backing away, her eyes like saucers. “Who?”

“Brownie… Every now and then, I hear him,” I confided in her. “He mocks me to torture me I guess. And sometimes, One is with him.”

“D… Dust,” she gasped. “How can that be?”

“I think it’s because I blame myself for their deaths,” I muttered, hanging my head. “I’m the one that chose Silver over One. And I’m the one that pulled the trigger on…”

Flower walked over and placed her hoof over my mouth before I could finish the sentence. “Shhhh…” she whispered. “Dust, ah… we… had no idea ya were carrying this around with ya.”

“I didn’t think it was anypony else’s burden to bear,” I answered. “I told Silver a little of it… but not everything.”

She wrapped her hooves around my neck and squeezed gently. “Dust, thank you fer sharing that… and ah’m sorry,” she murmured in my ear. “Ah know ya did what needed ta be done and ah know ah couldn’t have done it… ah just didn’t know it was affecting ya the way it was.”

“Thanks, Flower,” I responded. “Look… for what it’s worth, I am sorry for Brownie. I know it was necessary, but it doesn’t mean it was something I wanted to do.”

“Ah know, Dust,” she answered. “And ah didn’t mean ta try and kill ya.”

A metallic rattling drew my attention to the tray next to the bed. The tools on the tray were rattling softly.

“What the hell?” I asked, looking intently at them.

Soft booms filtered through the walls of the shack. I looked at Flower and she looked as confused as I felt.

The door slammed open and Gertie was standing there breathlessly. “Dust, you have to come outside and see this!” Before waiting for a response, she turned and ran back down the hall.

Carefully working my way out of bed against my stiff muscles, I trotted out of the clinic and onto the street of the town. All the townsponies were facing the same way, most with their mouths hanging open.

In the distance, a large, black cloud stood out against the uniform lighter gray of the sky. Little black specks were flitting around the shape, occasionally dipping down below the horizon. Streams of black smoke wound their way upwards, blending in with the body of the ThunderHead.

“Dust?” Silver muttered from next to me. “What’s going on?”

I took a deep breath and let out a deep sigh. “Muddy and the General are taking the gloves off.”

Level up!

Explosives(+5)

Perk Obtained
“Misery Loves Company” - Bonds have grown deeper over a shared tragedy. When Flower is a companion, you gain 20 action points and DR increases by 5.

Chapter 30 - Turnabout

Chapter 30 - Turnabout
“Just when I think I have learned the way to live, life changes.”

My muscles stiffened as I lowered myself to launch. As I was about to leap upwards and begin flapping, two strong claws grabbed my shoulders and pinned me down.

“Whoa! Where do you think you’re going?” Gertie asked me, digging her claws into my skin.

“I gotta go stop this!” I cried back.

“Yeah?” Gertie remarked. “You and what army? You’d be crazy to fly off on your own.”

I struggled against Gertie’s strong grip. “I can’t…” I grumbled. “I can’t…”

“Put you all at risk,” they all grumbled in response.

“C’mon, Dust, isn’t this argument getting a little old,” Gertie shot back. “Dust, we’re at risk whether we are with you or not. Isn’t that much obvious by now?”

“Yeah, Dust. We are all at risk,” Brownie’s voice echoed in my head. “Some of us, though, arn’t at risk anymore, huh?”

Silver walked up to me and placed her hooves on my shoulders. She looked me right in the eyes. “Dust,” she said, solemnly. “We are with you in this one hundred percent. We all know what could happen and we accept the risk. You need us and we want to help you. We won’t take no for an answer.”

“And don’t ya think that it’s not just ya that has a stake in this, do ya?” Flower added, strongly. “If ya go on yer own, ya’ll lose. And then Foggy, One, and Brownie woulda died fer nothin’. It’s not just about ya anymore.”

“I can’t just sit here and do nothing!” I cried. “Who knows what they are doing to those poor ponies! Besides, unless something changed, they still need me alive. Even if I get captured, I’m still relatively safe. And as long as the General thinks he can convince me, we have time on our side!”

“So what are we going to do?” Gertie asked, looking a little uneasy.

“We’re gonna go see what’s going on,” I stated. “Then we decide what to do from there. We’ll go in low and I’ll get as close as I can, safely. You three will cover me from a distance.” My friends looked nervously between each other. “Guys, I promise. I won’t put myself at risk unnecessarily. Observe and report… I swear.”

“Al… alright,” Silver said, still looking me right in the eyes.

“Gear up and meet here in five,” I ordered and we all took off to the inn.

Within about ten minutes, we were airborne heading towards the town under siege by the Thunderhead. Gertie was flying point, just in case we attracted unwanted attention.

As soon as I could see the edge of town, I set the wagon down and Gertie unhooked me. Flower and Silver came out of the cabin and walked over to us.

Pulling out my binoculars, I looked towards town but could only see the ruined wall of the buildings on the perimeter. “Damn it!” I muttered. “I can’t see into the center of town… too many ruins blocking the view.” After pondering for several moments, I added, “I’m going to have to go in and get a closer look.”

“You sure, Dust?” Silver asked, her voice wavering a little.

“Gertie, you find a place to set up overwatch. Flower, Silver, you’re her spotter and guard,” I ordered. “I’m gonna get as close as I need to see what’s going on and then I’m going to head back. If anything goes sideways, I’ll get my ass out of there.”

Everypony nodded in agreement and they took off, following Gertie’s lead. Scanning the horizon, I found a path that would provide me with decent cover, even from air recon. I was going to have to weave my way between random outcroppings and burned out buildings, but it would allow me to get close enough to survey the town.

After a few close calls from patrolling fliers, I made my way near the outskirts of town. I made my way through the crumbled wall of a pre-war two story house. The structure was surprisingly intact on the inside. Most of the walls were still standing and the doors were unexpectedly still in place. The window panes were still in place, albeit covered with centuries of muck. I found the staircase that led to the second floor and found a window that overlooked most of the town.

Crouching low, I went to the nearest window which was missing one pane. Cautiously, I peeked out through the window into the town below.

While I was still a decent distance from the center of town, due to the crumbled buildings between my house and the center of town, I had a mostly unobstructed view. Most of the cobbled together buildings were streaking smoke through large holes. A few fires were still burning in some of the outlying buildings. Several Enclave skywagons were parked in the middle of town, their drivers still harnessed in. The passenger compartments were open and ponies were being guided into them. The ponies themselves were shuffling into the wagons since their hooves were bound by leg-irons.

“Son of a bitch,” I muttered quietly to myself. Muddy and the General had given up all pretense. They were outright assaulting the Wasteland and taking prisoners. I could only imagine they were all being herded to the manor and put to work in the hydroponics facility moving and loading cargo.

An old stallion collapsed while waiting his turn in line. Two of the Enclave driving the line walked up to him. One of the soldiers jabbed him with the barrel of the energy rifle. The old stallion attempted to get up, but fell back down to the ground. You could see from the contorted features on his face, he was in pain. Without any hesitation, one of the guards aimed and fired his energy rifle, turning the stallion into a glowing, pink cloud.

The rest of the ponies in line jumped away from the dead pony, only to be battered by other guards carrying clubs. In short order, the ponies fell back in line and shuffled into the wagons. Two of the wagons closed the passenger compartments and took off. They headed to the west, towards the Manny’s house.

Having seen enough, I crept away from the window and snuck my way out the back of the house. Weaving my way back between cover, I made my way back to the skywagon. My friends joined me shortly thereafter.

“They’re taking the population,” I announced, not even waiting for the question. “They’re loading them up into the skywagons and taking them away. I can only imagine they are taking them to the Manny’s to work.”

“They’re taking slaves now?” Silver gasped.

“Looks that way…” I admitted. “If they can’t get the towers to work, I guess they’re going to put the facility into overdrive. From what I saw there, the growing room was huge, and I don’t know how many of them there are. The Mr. Handy’s do the farming, but they need the ponies to move it around.”

“So, what are we gonna do about it?” Gertie asked. “Is this just a ploy to get you to help them?”

The silence between us was palpable. There was no easy answer. To go to this level of aggression meant there was no stopping the operation at the hydroponics facility. Even if I now agreed to open the SPP towers, I doubt they would just pack up and leave. We had to find a way to make it so there was no reason for them to stay. We had to get rid of the facility.

“We have to blow it,” I announced gravely. My friends looked at me with a quizzical look on their faces. “We have to shut down the facility. At least then they’ll stop herding ponies to work in it.”

“That’s all well and good, Dust,” Gertie objected, crossing her arms in front of her. “But it’s not like we can just stroll in there. You know that place is like a fortress now and it’s only the four of us, two of which have formal combat training. And, no offense Silver, but after that only Flower is proficient. And even if we did have enough ponypower to fight, how would we shut it down?”

Another uneasy silence fell over the group. We needed to shut down the facility. Or at the very least, make it not worth the effort. And it had to be something that could be done quickly.

“If only we could blow the entrance,” Flower mused. “It would be nearly impossible ta get back in. We’d lose the food ourselves, but at least they would lose it, too.”

“Yeah, but how would we get explosives in there?” Silver asked.

The revelation crashed down on me. We wouldn’t have to get inside the facility… just close.

“You gotta close yer mouth, Dust,” Flower chuckled. “Otherwise bugs’ll fly in there.”

“We don’t have to get explosives in there,” I muttered, beginning to dig around my saddlebags furiously. “I already did,” I announced as I pulled out the detonator. “After Muddy captured you guys, I planted some explosives near the entrance. Should be enough to collapse it. We just have to get close, and boom.”

“But won’t that cause us to lose the food also?” Silver asked.

“Yeah, but we can always get enough ponies to help us dig out,” I answered. “Besides, the only way the Enclave will leave is if they think the facility is a loss.”

“That’s good an’ all,” Flower responded, not as excited as I was. “But what about all the ponies inside already?”

Shit… I hadn’t thought about the Wastelanders working inside. We had to get them out first.

“Hey, Dust, do ya remember that stable we were in outside of Nickerson?” Flower asked, her face scrunched up as she tried to remember details.

Ugh… I couldn’t even remember the stable number. But as I was trying to deactivate the security system, I accidentally triggered an environmental system malfunction. The stable’s systems kicked in and started closing off sections of the stable as it tried to herd us outside. “Yes, Flower,” I groaned. “I already apologized for that…”

“No.. I’m not looking fer an apology,” she said, cutting me off. “Do ya think the facility has a system like that?”

“If it’s Stable-Tec, sure,” I mused. “But we have no idea if it’s Stable-Tec or not. But it sure did look like a stable. Well, except for the grow rooms.”

“So, if we triggered the same type of situation, whether or not it is Stable-Tec, wouldn’t the same thing happen?” Gertie asked.

“Perhaps,” I muttered as my mind raced. “I mean, from what I’ve seen, most of the computer systems were set up by Stable-Tec. And even if they licensed their tech to somepony else…” I drifted off as my mind raced. Every system I’ve hacked has always had the same functionality. Even those terminals not found in stables. Could this really work?

“OK… but how do we get in?” I asked. “They’re not just going to let us in. And last time we were there, there were two guards at the front door.”

“I could distract them,” Gertie called out. “Do a quick little fly by and they’ll be all over me.”

“No, that won’t work,” I disagreed. “The two guards will radio it in and they will call in flyers to get you. The target needs to be something they can’t pass up…” There was only one pony that fit that bill. “It has to be me…”

“No!” Silver cried out. “You can’t give yourself up to Muddy… who knows what he’ll do to you now.”

“That’s why you guys will come in and save me,” I chuckled. “I’ll distract Muddy and the General as long as I can. Then you guys will break in and save me. If I know Muddy and the General, they’ll bring me to Manny’s former office, with the big window.”

A sly grin spread on Gertie’s face. “Ah, a smash and grab,” she said with a chuckle.

“How do you know they’ll take you there, Dust?” Silver asked, cocking her head to one side.

“It’s like his office up in the base. He’ll probably stick with what’s familiar,” I said with a shrug. “So, Gertie, Silver, are either of you good with terminals?”

After finding a useless terminal in the junk shop in town, I took about an hour teaching Silver and Gertie how to break into the terminal’s admin functions. This should allow them to trigger the environmental alarm, assuming something unusual didn’t come up. Silver seemed to pick it up faster than Gertie. Then again, pony terminals weren’t made with griffin claws in mind, it seemed.

After stocking up on ammo and first aid supplies, we gathered back at the skywagon. As I moved into position to get harnessed in, Flower began shifting uncomfortably. I gave Silver a concerned look and she stopped hooking me up.

“Flower, is everything OK?” I asked, moving towards her.

“It’s noth…” she bagan, but then stopped. “Dust, ah know there’s a lot on the line… and ah know we need ta leave quickly… and I know we don’t have…”

“Flower, it’s OK, what is it?” I asked, placing a hoof on her shoulder.

“Dust, ah know we have nothing ta bury,” she started, shifting between her hooves again. “But can we have a service fer Brownie… please?” she asked, tears forming in her eyes. “Ah don’t need no marker or anything… ah just want to have a service fer him.”

“I d…” I struggled to start, a pit forming in my stomach. How could I say no? “Alright, I have an idea… let’s go find a place.”

Going back into one of the shops, I bartered for a small metal tub. Gertie carried it through town, and I found a small pile of scrap wood that appeared nopony was interested in and grabbed that as well. We made our way outside of town.

“Dust, I don’t mean to sound insensitive here, but what the hell are you doing?” Gertie whispered to me.

“Watch and see,” I responded with a smirk.

After a short walk, we found a small rise and made our way to the top. I gestured to Gertie and she put the tub down at the spot I indicated. I piled up the wood into a small mound.

“A funeral pyre?” Silver asked.

“Old Enclave tradition,” I answered. “No place for cemeteries, so we burn all of our dead. Also, a lot of military fliers don’t come back from missions and we still have services.”

Flower had already figured out what I intended to do and found some brush. She placed it around the pile of wood in the tub. Gertie took out her flint and lit the kindling. Soon, the fire spread to the wood and we had a crackling fire.

After the fire established itself, Flower took a few steps closer and opened her mouth to speak. After attempting to get words, she hung her head. “Dust,” she mumbled. “Ah just can’t. Would ya mind?”

“Of course not, Flower,” I responded. I stepped towards the pyre and Flower fell in besides me. I could sense Gertie and Silver drawing close, also.

“Brownie was probably the best example of us,” I started. “He was always willing to give of himself to help out another pony. My first week down here, he saw me sitting alone, albeit intentionally, and engaged me in friendly conversation.” A small chuckle escaped my mouth. “I brushed him off rudely. He was compromising my mission, after all. But Brownie never gave up, and he became a good friend. He looked out for me on early scav missions until I got my hooves underneath me. And even after, he still looked out for me.

“But he wasn’t just a good friend to me. He was fiercely loyal to those he cared for. It didn’t matter who you were, he would be there for you in a heartbeat. He would face down hordes of ghouls if it meant helping another pony,” I said with another chuckle at the end. “I’m just glad we never had to test that.”

“And I could only imagine how he felt about you, Flower,” I added, looking right at Flower. “Knowing what I have felt about love and if the way he treated his friends was any indication of how he treated the one he truly loved, you were everything to him, and he would have been everything for you, too.

My speech was broken by a deep sigh. “Unfortunately, he was taken from us, too soon and very unfairly. But the Wasteland is a cruel master. It often takes and rarely gives. And even though we wish we had him for longer, we will always cherish the time we did have with him. He will live long in our minds, and even longer in our hearts.” After pausing, I looked at my companions. “This next part is a little awkward. Usually we say from the clouds from which we came, but that doesn’t seem appropriate here.” The words slowly came into my head. Mustering all the resolve I could, I took a deep breath. “From the dirt from which he was born, back to the dirt he returns. May Celestia and Luna watch over Brownie as he takes his final journey.”

After the last word left my mouth and the world around us fell silent except for the fire, Flower, buried her head into my shoulder. Silver did the same, albeit, I assume, for different reasons. Gertie simply gave me a terse nod.

We waited until the fire burned out before heading back to the skywagon. On the short walk over, Flower leaned in close to me. “Thank ya, Dust. Ya really cared fer Brownie, didn’t ya?”

“Like a brother, Flower, like a brother,” I admitted.

After getting to the skywagon, Flower entered the passenger compartment, while Silver helped me into my harness. “That was really nice, Dust,” she complimented.

“It’s a skill I wish I didn’t have,” I retorted. “I hope I never need to use it again. But I think we both know…” I trailed off, leaving unsaid what we both knew was true.

As had become habit at this point, Silver stayed in the cabin with Flower while Gertie flew point with me. After such a somber event, the few attempts at conversation seemed hollow and we flew the rest of the way in silence.

On the way to the manor house, we had to reroute a couple of times to avoid Enclave patrols or other skyships we could see in the distance. We didn’t want to spoil what little element of surprise we did have on our side.

Gertie and I agreed that landing in the same spot we hid before was a good idea. The skywagon would be invisible from ponies on the ground. Aerial patrols would be a different problem as there was no cover anywhere nearby.

“Alright, here’s how this goes down,” I began as everypony congregated. “Flower, find a good overwatch position.” I saw her begin to object. “No questions on this… there’s no way you’re getting in and out of that complex on hoof. Gertie and Silver… you two will wait for me to distract the guards at the entrance to the facility. Once they are clear, you should be able to make an entrance. Get in, trigger the environmental alarm and get the Tartarus out of there…” An evil grin spread across my face. “And then come save me.”

“Dust,” Gertie began to argue. “Are you sure this is a good idea? I mean giving yourself over to Muddy like this?”

“It’s the only way I can think of doing this,” I said, shaking my head. “We need to get the guards away from the door and you need time. This is the best I’ve come up with… do you have any better ideas?” The last part came out with more of an attitude than I intended. All of my friends shook their heads uncomfortably.

“Alright then,” I said. “Everypony ready?”

After a round of head nods, Flower trotted away towards a small rise a few hundred yards away. I kicked off the ground and began flapping my wings, banking towards the manor house itself. Silver and Gertie began a arcing path around the outskirts of what we assumed was visual range of the pegasi. They would come in from over the mountainside that housed the facility.

On the flight over, my mind was not racing at a mile a minute, which was a new feeling for me. I knew my plan, I knew my purpose, and I knew my reasons, and I was at peace with all of it. Yes, things might go horribly, but at least I was finally doing something, and for the right reasons. I also trusted my friends and knew that it wasn’t all on my shoulders. They were trusting me to do my part, and I was relying on them to do theirs. All in all, it was… empowering.

Stealth wasn’t the name of the game here. I wanted to draw as much attention as possible and draw as many guards away from their posts as I could. But the guards at the facility were the goal. Keeping low, and having my weapons stowed, I flew right by the manor house. All the better for Muddy and the general to see me coming. Taking a casual pace, I flew a meandering course around the grounds. Slave ponies looked up at me in awe while their Enclave guards didn’t seem to know what to make of it, but they were all following my progress. Some were even powering their weapons. However, the grounds were woefully underponied.

I made sure to land close to the facility guards. They had already powered their battle saddle-mounted energy rifles.

“Halt! You will leave the area immediately!” one of the guards bellowed at me. Some of the slaves dragging carts out of the facility stopped to watch what was about to happen.

“Alright, but if you don’t want to make the General happy, I’ll understand,” I mocked, still approaching them.

“What do you mean, dirtpony?” the same guard growled.

“Oh, I don’t know. Names Dust Cloud,” I said, somewhat singing. “Or maybe you know me as Updraft?” The flash of recognition is what I was waiting for. “Ah, I see you know me. Well, I’m here to turn myself in and negotiate with the General.”

I saw some movement in the sky above the ridge. Looked like Gertie and Silver were getting into position. Even though I knew it was all in my head, I could feel Flower’s gaze through her scope at my back. All of this made my confidence soar.

One of the guards approached as the other scanned the area for threats. “And why are you turning yourself in?” the guard asked.

“Well, that’s between me and the General,” I responded. “But I’d hurry, I’m sure that some of the other guards are coming and only the ones to actually turn me in will get the commendations.”

The guard approaching me stopped with a gleam in his eye. He turned his head to his partner, who had a similar look in his eye. The only reaction was a short nod. The two approached me and flanked me on both sides. Before, turning around to begin my escort to the house, I saw Gertie and Flower quietly drop in behind and quickly enter the tunnel. Phase one accomplished.

The two guards were talking excitedly about how they would use their new promotions to their advantage. Mostly, they just wanted out of the “Luna forsaken wasteland” and would ask for a transfer. Couldn’t say I blamed them.

The other ponies we passed on the way had mixed reactions. Most of the slaves were mainly confused why pegasi were escorting another pegasus to the house. Most of the other pegasi started as confused, but then you could see their eyes widen as they realized who I was.

The walk was rather uneventful. With two soldiers in tow, nopony stopped us any further. They guided me all the way into the house and back into the opulent office I had met with Manny what felt like years ago. How long had it really been? Weeks? Months?

Sitting behind the desk now, however, was the General. Standing behind him, shuffling on his hooves uncomfortably, was Muddy. Muddy was now wearing a navy blue flight suit and was wearing the insignia of a colonel.

I felt every muscle in my body tense up as I saw Muddy for the first time since Brownie’s death. Fighting every instinct I had to jump across the room and strangle him, I fought the emotions down and kept my cool. “Congratulations on the promotion, Muddy,” I lied.

“Dust, this is a huge surprise,” he sneered back. “How are your friends?”

“Brownie’s dead, Flower and Silver are alive,” I deadpanned, trying not to betray my true feelings. I didn’t need them to know they could get to me.

“Sorry to hear that, Dust,” the General offered. “Hopefully it was a good death.”

“It wasn’t,” I shot back. “Your little lapdog saw to that.”

Muddy growled and began to approach. The General shot a leg out to the side, blocking his path. Muddy grimaced as he dutifully resumed his position behind the General.

“Now, to what do we owe this honor?” the General asked, as civil as if he were asking about the weather.

Here’s where the rubber meets the road. “I’m done,” I said, sighing in resignation as best I could. “I can’t deal with all the death. You win.”

“Death? What do you mean?” the General said, recoiling in surprise.

“Your little slaver squads, rounding up those that can work and summarily executing those that can’t,” I fired back. The anger in this statement was real. “There’s no reason for any of this.”

The General turned to look at Muddy. “Seems like my second in command has taken excessive liberties with my orders. I’ll deal with this later,” he said, seemingly trying to comfort me. The muscles in Muddy’s jaw tensed and I could hear his teeth grinding. “Now, when you say you’re done, does that mean…”

“Yes, it means I’ll help you get into the SPP towers,” I interrupted him, feigning impatience. “But I have conditions.”

“No, it doesn’t work that way,” Muddy growled.

“Now, now, Muddy,” the General smooth voice broke through the objection. “Why can’t we at least hear him out. We aren’t animals after all.”

Muddy’s body tensed. I thought he was going to explode.

“I want the attacks on Wasteland settlements to end,” I began. “No more prisoners, no more deaths.”

“Easy enough,” the General said with a laugh. His teal eyes, which I once found calming, now seemed cunning and calculative. I could tell he was sizing me up, planning his next moves. “Besides, with the towers, we won’t need the facility.”

How I wished I could believe that. He wouldn’t give up on this facility. “And my friends and family, they will not be pursued for any crimes against the Enclave. It’s as if none of this has happened.”

“But then what do you suggest I say to the families of the soldiers you and your friends have killed?” he responded. His comments didn’t seem genuine. He was calculating.

“C’mon General. You and I both know this won’t be the first time you have to make up some brahmin shit answer to tell the families. How many soldiers have been lost down here, never to return?” I asked, countering his ploy. “Besides, it’s not my problem.”

The General sighed. “Fair enough, is that all?”

“And I get a full pardon,” I continued.

Muddy gasped. “No fucking way,” he blurted out.

The General raised a hoof. “Now, Dust, that is a tall order,” he retorted. “You have committed many crimes against the Enclave. Treason is a big problem.”

“General, let’s be frank,” I argued back. “You need me. All I am asking is to be left alone so I don’t have to look over my shoulder the rest of my life.”

“Dust, this I can not do for you,” the General said with a sigh. “This would be too big to hide from the public…”

“You misunderstand me, General,” I answered, shaking my head. “I don’t want to go back. I’ll stay down here. I just want your word that you won’t arrest me or send assassins after me or whatever.”

Cirrus hesitated. I could almost see the gears turning in his head. “I think that can be arranged,” he began. “That is, of course, if you agree to amputation. We can’t have you stirring up trouble after all.”

Keeping up the act, I waited. No pegasus would blindly agree to amputation. After waiting long enough, I nodded. “Yeah, I can live with that, now call off your attacks.”

“Sure, I don’t see why…” Cirrus began.

“What! General! No!” Muddy said, nearly choking on the words. “We have to keep it up to make sure he complies!”

“I don’t think that’s a problem,” Cirrus laughed. “Dust here isn’t devious enough to pull the wool over both our eyes, is he?”

A radio crackled to life behind me. The soldier pressed a hoof against his ear. His face tightened into a look of concern as whatever message was being heard. After a few more moments, he lowered his hoof and looked at the General.

“Sir, there’s a problem at the facility,” he reported. “An environmental alert was sounded and everypony is being forced out by some sort of evacuation procedure.”

“The Tartarus,” Cirrus mumbled. “Go! Get it under control.”

The two soldiers guarding me ran out of the room, slamming the door behind them.

“What have you done, Dust?” Muddy growled through his grit teeth.

“What do you mean, Muddy?” I teased. “I’ve been with you the whole time. And you can ask the two soldiers that walked me here… I was never inside the facility.”

Muddy stormed around the desk. “Don’t play games with me!” he bellowed as he turned and kicked at me. He connected, sending me to the floor as the impact flashed my vision white and I was overwhelmed with pain. He continued raining blows down on me. “Tell! Me! What! You’ve! Done!”

“Stand down, Muddy!” the general ordered. Muddy flashed a look towards Cirrus. A quick flash of surprise washed across his face, but he regained his composure quickly. “Beating him won’t get what we want.”

“Why are we treating him like a VIP?” Muddy argued back. “We should just force him to help us.”

“We tried that, remember?” Cirrus replied. “The tower won’t respond unless he’s a willing participant. The drugs didn’t work. Being unconscious didn’t work. He has to be willing!”

“Then capture his friends! Torture them! Tartarus, torture his parents, also!” Muddy yelled.

A quick wave of relief washed over me as I got confirmation my parents were alright. But does this mean they were captured? Or just that Muddy knew they could get to them at any time. And what about Buster?

“Haven’t we tried torture already!” Cirrus bellowed. He was losing his patience.

Hoofsteps grew louder from the door to the office. The arguing stopped momentarily as they heard them also. The door flew open as Gertie and Silver trotted their way in and closed the door behind them.

“What is the meaning of this!” Cirrus barked. “What is going on here!”

My friends ignored him. “Mission accomplished, Dust,” Gertie said proudly. “The facility has been evacuated. Everypony is out.”

“You did this?” the General sneered.

“I told you Dust had something to do with this!” Muddy snapped.

“I thought we had a deal, Dust?” Cirrus asked.

“General. I can not make any kind of deal that would hurt the Wasteland. We’ve done enough damage, it’s about time we started helping. Truly helping,” I said to him. “I’m sure we can make some sort of deal to help…”

“Deal?!?” the General said with a laugh. “A deal? With these dirtponies? Not an option. Besides, we need all the food for Enclave. The Wasteland can just die for all I care!”

“And that is why we can never work together,” I calmly replied. “At the end of the war, we turned our backs on our brethren. They have suffered because of our cowardice. That ends today.”

Cirrus laughed. “You can’t be serious,” he scoffed. “The Enclave will never help the Wasteland. Not when there are so many pegasi that need help. And pegasi will always come first.”

“I was afraid you’d say that,” I said with a sigh. Reaching back into my saddlebags, I withdrew the detonator. “If you won’t at least share, then I’ll have to take it away.” I flicked the arming lever up, revealing the firing switch underneath. A red light glowed on the face of the device.

“Now, Dust. Let’s calm down here,” Cirrus said, his demeanor suddenly seeming less relaxed.

“I’m afraid not,” I announced. “I can not let you enslave the ponies down here and keep abusing them.”

“Ah, shit, for Luna’s sake!” Muddy growled, drawing his energy pistol. “Just kill one of them and he’ll cave. Here, watch!”

Muddy swung the pistol towards Gertie. Moving faster than I thought possible, I dove and knocked Gertie out of the way.

“Colonel! Stand down!” the General bellowed. “Or else I’ll have you busted back down to private!”

Every muscle in Muddy’s body tensed. You could almost see the rage boiling over inside him as he was redressed in front of me. He looked almost like the day I first found him standing over Silver in the stable.

Cirrus’ voice drew my attention as I stood back up. “I apologize for Muddy’s behavior. He’s just very passionate,” Cirrus explained. The sound of grinding teeth filled the room. “Let’s be reasonable. Destroying the facility would hurt both of us. These dirtponies need the food as much as we do. You won’t blow it up.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, Cirrus,” I gloated. “These ponies may have been having a hard time, but they were surviving without it. The Enclave, on the other hand, is struggling.”

“But how long can that last?” Muddy interrupted. “You’ve seen what I’ve seen… things are not getting any better. Ponies die every day. Raider tribes increase in size. Slavers roam with immunity. In what reality does this end well for the Wasteland?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Seems to me, they’re doing just fine,” I said, looking at Gertie and Silver. “Besides, the way I figure it, the Enclave needs us more than we need the Enclave.”

“Dust, you can not possibly expect us to work with these ponies,” Cirrus scoffed. “They are beneath us, both literally and figuratively.”

“I was afraid you’d say that, General,” I answered, shaking my head. I flicked the switch on the detonator. After a short delay, we heard the low rumble I was expecting.

“What did… did you just do?” Cirrus asked, his mouth hanging open. “You didn’t, you couldn’t!”

“But I did,” I answered. “By my estimates, the entryway to the facility is now buried under tons of rock. Now it is of no use to anypony. You don’t need to enslave the Wastelanders anymore.”

“Is that… that what this was all about?” he stammered. “You’re fucking insane! Do you realize what you’ve done? You’ve changed nothing! The Wastelanders just lost food and the Enclave needs those towers more than ever. We need you!”

“Yes, I know exactly what I’ve done,” I responded, the pride in my voice escalating. “I took away the only incentive you had to be down here and attacking the Wasteland.”

“You wish,” he laughed. “We’ll just use the slaves to clear the entrance now. And we still have to deal with you. What can we do to convince you to help?”

Muddy growled again. “That’s enough! We can’t just sit here and dance around it,” he screamed as he drew his pistol, yet again. “How many chances does he get!”

“Colonel, how many times do I have to order you…” the General growled.

A high pitched whine filled the room, followed closely by a red flash. The General’s jaw dropped open and an odd red light began to glow from within. Within short order, the red light spread throughout his body and intensified. I had to shield my eyes from the brightness of it. Once the light died down, I reopened my eyes and the General was gone. In his place was a glowing, pink pile of dust.

“Wh.. what did you do?” I mumbled, my heart racing at the newest developments. “Why?”

Muffled voices began to fill the hall outside the door.

“Here, catch,” Muddy shouted as he tossed something in my direction. Without thinking, I caught a laser pistol. His laser pistol.

“Man down! The general has been killed!” Muddy shouted. “Everypony get in here and arrest these dirtponies!”

The muffled voices mixed with galloping hoofsteps. Soldiers were coming, and lots of them.

Gertie drew her rifle in a fast, rapid motion and aimed it right at Muddy. Muddy ducked, but Gertie still pulled the trigger anyway. The shot was deafening in this enclosed space. The large picture window behind where Muddy was standing shattered and fell away.

“Everypony, move!” Gertie ordered as she jumped and flew out the window. Silver and I jumped and made for the window.

Behind us, the door crashed open. Looking over my shoulder, I saw three Enclave troopers in full combat armor storm into the office and take aim at us.

“Evasive maneuvers!” I called out over the wind in my ears. We all banked at different angles as the first red laser blasts flew past us.

Oddly enough, after the first several blasts, no more followed. I glanced over my shoulder again and saw there was no pursuit.

“Gertie, there is no pursuit. I have a bad feeling about this,” I yelled over the roar of the wind in my ears. “Let’s get back to Flower.”

We banked and took a wide, looping course back to the skywagon and Flower. We avoided the manor house, but the feeling in my gut told me that was the least of my problems.

As we landed, Flower had just made it to the skywagon at a full gallop. “So, how did y’all do?”

“Well, the facility is no more,” I answered. “And Muddy killed the General.”

“What did you say?” Flower said, her mouth agape.

As I opened my mouth to answer, a message appeared in my vision. “Enclave Special Ops 1 radio signal found.”

I brought up the Pip-buck and tuned the radio to the new channel. My friends gathered around as the static cleared from the small speaker.

“Attention all Enclave forces operating in the Wasteland, including other Special Operations operatives in range of this message,” Muddy’s voice announced over the tinny speaker. “This is Colonel Clear Skies at forward operating base alpha-three-zero. General Cirrus has been killed by renegade Agent Updraft, also known as Dust Cloud. As the General’s second-in-command, I am assuming direct control of all forces.

“We can not and will not allow this terrorist attack to deter us,” his voice poured through the speaker. “General Cirrus served the Enclave with dignity and earned our respect.

“My first orders are as follows. Support and Logistics squadrons will break camp and transfer to the Neighvarro SPP. Next, all recon units will commence searching for Dust Cloud’s associates: a pink Dashite named Silver Lining, a griffin merc named Gertrude Stoneclaw, and a Wasteland earth pony named Wilted Flower. Dust Cloud is not to be captured, only his associates. You will bring them to the Special Operations base that will be assembled at Neighvarro. Additional details will be available from your unit commanders shortly. Assault forces will prepare for a search and destroy mission, searching out any Wasteland settlement that has either housed, provided assistance to, or is harboring the criminals. Such settlements will be completely destroyed. Initial target will be Coltington. Details will be provided to your commanders within the hour.

“Finally, I have a message for Dust Cloud. Should you choose to end this madness, turn yourself in to any Enclave forces you come across. They are all ordered to accept your surrender and escort you to Neighvarro. The decision, and the fate of the Wasteland, is yours. Message repeats. Attention all Enclave...”

I shut the radio off with a grunt. All of my companions faces had drained of blood and their wide-open eyes were focused on me.

“Dust, what are we gonna do?” Flower whispered. I was sure we were both thinking about the same thing; our friends and associates in Coltington.

“I d… don’t know, Flower,” I answered, my voice barely rising above a mumble. “We have to warn them,” I added, after a long pause.

I thought long and hard about my next chain of thought. It wasn’t going to go over well. “I know what you’re going to say to this. I think you guys should go hide,” I barely got out before I could see objections start to be raised. “Please.. Hear me out on this. You might be safer in the stable near Coltington. They will be looking for you, to capture you. They aren’t going to capture me.”

“Why do you think that, Dust?” Silver asked, her eyes still betraying her concern.

“Muddy wants to torture me into helping him,” I answered, certain of my logic here. “I have to go to Neighvarro voluntarily. But voluntarily doesn’t mean willingly. He is going to cause as much pain and horror as possible, all of it aimed at me, albeit indirectly. I don’t want to know what he is going to do if he gets his hooves on you.”
“Dust, ah don’t think anywhere is gonna be safe,” Flower added, placing a hoof on my shoulder. “Ah know ya wanna look out fer us, but ah don’t think anypony can do that now. If his desire is as strong as ya say it is, he won’t stop lookin’ fer us until ya volunteer or we are caught. Ah think it’s safer if we all look out fer each other. Besides, and ah can’t speak fer the others, while ah don’t wanna die, ah’d rather die together than alone.”

Gertie and Silver both nodded with tight grins on their faces. All three of my friends approached me and embraced me at the same time. I wrapped my hooves around them and squeezed tightly.

“This is what we’re fighting for, right here,” I stated firmly and resolutely. “And nothing in the Wasteland will take this away from us.”

We all broke the embrace and turned to look at the manor house one last time.

“To Coltington…”

Level up!

Explosives: +5

Perk Obtained: Friends forever! - DR increases by 10% when fighting with your friends by your side.

Chapter 31 - Defensive

Chapter 31 - Defensive
“The first lesson a revolutionary must learn is that he is a doomed man."

We wasted little time getting into the air. I knew that it would take Muddy some time to develop a formal plan and disseminate it, and then even more time for the affected units to get under way. However, that didn’t mean we could delay. We had to get to Coltington and get everypony ready for the attack.

I flew at top speed, straining my muscles but keeping up the pace. After the first hour, the burning turned into pain. But I couldn’t let up. Not if I was going to help save lives.

“Dust, you OK?” Gertie asked as she dropped into formation besides me. She had been flying recon ahead to make sure we avoided stray Enclave patrols, but would come back every so often to give me a report.

“Yeah, Gertie,” I answered. “Just trying to think if there was any way this could have been avoided. I know more ponies are going to die and I can’t shake the feeling that it’s my fault.”

“Dust, you’ve done what you could,” she answered, trying to alleviate my concerns. “You might have been able to reach the General and get him to stop. But Muddy?” Her beak tightened into a grimace. “I don’t think there’s anything anypony can do at this point. We both saw the look on his face when he shot the General. Nothing is going to stop him and the only way to get what he wants now is through you.”

I knew everything she was saying was true, but it didn’t make me feel any better. If I hadn’t blown up the growing facility, the slavery program would only be ramped up. And I would still be hunted. The general might have played by the rules, but he still would have done everything he could have to find me. Muddy just doesn’t play by the same rules.

“So, what’s the plan at Coltington?” Gertie changed topics.

“No plan, really,” I admitted. “We just have to do everything we can to get the town ready to defend itself. But, to be honest, I don’t know if there’s anything that can be done to stop the attack. They will have the personnel and firepower, not to mention air superiority. All we have is home field advantage.”

“And we give a damn about what happens,” Gertie added. “Sometimes, that is more important than numbers and strategy. Our ponies will fight to the bitter end to protect what is ours. Can you say the same for the Enclave?”

“They’ll do what they’re ordered to do,” I responded, shaking my head. “And they’ll do it very well. I don’t know if we can stand up to that.”

Gertie could only grimace in response.

It took a couple more hours to get to Coltington. Having pushed myself so hard, my muscles ached and my body had started to chafe under the harness for the skywagon, but we had to get there quickly. If I had to guess, the pegasi would only be here in a few hours, at best.

Gertie quickly released me from the harness as Silver and Flower came out of the passenger compartment. Unfortunately, I couldn’t waste any time on the pleasantries.

“Flower, you go find Big Boss and try to get him to share the armory,” I ordered. With a smirk, I added, “I’d love to see the look on Firing Pin’s face when he has to open his stock, but I have to be elsewhere.” Flower took off like Tirek out of Tartarus.

“Silver, go see if you can find Old Tin,” I barked. “Find her and get her to round up everypony. We’re going to need them.” Silver simply nodded and took off running.

“Gertie. Horseton is about 15 minutes east of here, by hoof. Do a fly-by and see if you can find anything we can use to bolster defenses here,” I continued, not missing a beat. “Or find a fall back position we can reinforce and defend if need be. If you see the Thunderhead, get back here ASAP.”

“And what will you be doing?” she asked before taking off.

“I’m going to go see the mayor and try to get things organized,” I answered. “It’ll be easier if he orders everypony around instead of just me trying to convince everypony.” We locked gazes. “Be careful.”

“You too,” I returned, with a small caress on her cheek. Gertie took off at breakneck speed towards Horseton.

After watching her leave, I began to run towards Town Hall. My mind was racing, trying to come up with what I would say that would sound believable and quick. How could you tell somepony that the Enclave was sending an entire Thunderhead full of troops to wipe out a town all because of me?

I rounded the corner of one of the private homes. A flurry of motion out of my periphery drew my attention. Unfortunately, I was unable to react when I saw the two by four swinging towards my head. The impact jarred my head and caused the world to spin as I tumbled to the ground. Rolling head over heels, the gravel on the ground bit into my exposed skin as the dust invaded my lungs with every breath.

After coming to a stop, I craned my head around to see what in Tartarus just happened. Before I could see anything, however, something was placed over my head and what felt like a rope secured it over my head and wrapped around my snout.

I fought against my attacker, but I could feel magic working against me and lifting me off the ground. I was being carried through town and we were taking a winding path. Losing track of how many turns we made, I eventually gave up trying to visualize the path on which I was being taken.

After several minutes, a creaking door signaled that we were entering a structure of some kind. The air was cooler and moist, meaning we had entered some kind of cave. That was confirmed once I felt the dirt underhoof transition to stone. I was unceremoniously dumped to the ground and soon felt rope coiling around my hooves and tightening.

Hoofsteps moved away from me and eventually became silent. Out of desperation, I attempted to force my way out of my bonds, but it was impossible. Fucking cheater unicorns. Eventually, I gave up and simply lay there waiting for my captors to return.

After a while, faint hoofsteps filled the cavern I surmised I was in. They drew closer and eventually stopped. Another set picked up again and moved slowly closer to me.

Once the ponies I heard were right on top of me, somepony grabbed the bag and yanked it off my head. The rough material scraped against my skin. Light did not assault my eyes, but it did take some time for them to adjust. I was right about being in a cave. The rocky walls extended into the darkness to my right, but ended abruptly at the door to my left.

Three ponies stood in front of me. Two were unicorns wearing jet black combat armor, and they were levitating assault rifles in their magical fields. The third, standing in the middle, looked like an earth pony. But she wasn’t. Her armor was too familiar… it was too much like mine. The laser rifle mounted to a battle saddle was another dead giveaway.

“So, Updraft,” she growled. “You’re the one that killed the General.”

“Who are you?” I asked.

“Most down here call me Tumble,” she responded, still glaring at me. “Others call me Operative Sidewinder.”

Operative… it figures. “How did you…” I began to ask.

“Find you?” she cut me off. “That’s easy… Muddy briefed us all.” I felt my face contort as my brain short circuited at the mention of multiple operatives. “Oh yes… Muddy was placed in charge of all the remaining operatives as Cirrus, Luna rest his soul, took on oversight of the overall mission.” She paused as she arched an eyebrow. “But he gave us secondary, private missions. I was here a whole hour before you landed, waiting for you.”

“And what do you plan to do with me?” I asked her.

A evil grin spread across her face. “Me? Not much,” she said, with a snicker. “I’m just going to wait here until the Spitfire shows up and I’ll turn you over. No muss, no fuss.”

“And, what, you were promised a promotion?” I muttered with contempt seeping through the words.

“Huh… you’re right, I’ll probably get one,” she answered, placing a hoof on her chin. “But that’s not why I’m doing this. These are my orders and I am just doing my part as a loyal Enclave soldier.”

“Ha!” I laughed. “Even if what you are doing is wrong? You’re causing pain and torment for the ponies down here, most of whom have done no wrong!”

“Done no wrong?” she scoffed. “Don’t you remember your history classes? Cloudsdale? These dirtponies caused so much death and destruction!”

“It wasn’t these ponies!” I shouted. “That was one hundred and fifty years ago! These ponies had nothing to do with any of that!”

“Then what about what they have done to our soldiers who have gotten stranded down here, never to return?” she shouted right back at me. “Like my brother!”

“Yes, there are messed up ponies down here,” I fought back. “But these ponies, and many others, don’t do that kind of stuff! They are also at the mercy of the animals you’re talking about!”

She hesitated for a moment, but only a moment. “It doesn’t matter. Muddy tells us that you are the key to a truly independent Enclave. We will never have to risk sending any of us down here ever again.”

“But you’ll kill all these ponies!” I cried out.

“Doesn’t matter,” she spat back. “They can all die for all I care.”

A knock at the cave door broke both of our attention. Everypony froze as the knocking sound echoed down the cave.

“You guys expecting anypony?” the pegasus whispered to the two unicorns. Both of them shook their heads. “Sureshot, go check that out.”

One of the unicorn mercs walked towards the door. Floating out one of her weapons, she cautiously opened the door and peeked through the crack. “I don’t see nothin’. Noscope, get over here and cover me.”

The other merc floated out his weapon and walked towards Sureshot. Once he drew near, Sureshot opened the door quietly and carefully moved outside. Noscope followed closely behind.

There were several moments of quiet. “What the? Who?” Sureshot’s muffled voice floated through the door.

A gunshot rang out followed by screaming. A loud thud sounded from outside, then sounds of scuffling on dirt followed by some gurgling, and then silence.

Sidewinder looked towards the door with a bewildered look on her face. “Sureshot? Noscope?” she called out while she approached the door. “What’s going on out there?”

She slowed as she drew near the door, bringing the firing bit to her battle saddle near her mouth. I could hear the energy rifle attached to her side hum as it powered up.

The door swung open, crashing right into Sidewinder and knocking her onto the floor. To her credit, she twisted mid-fall and rolled back onto her hooves facing the door. Gertie was still swinging off the door frame when she saw Sidewinder’s recovery and the shock on her face was palpable.

Unfortunately, Gertie could not stop her momentum and she released the frame. As she flew towards Sidewinder, she tried to extend her wings, but the cave opening was not wide enough. Sidewinder reared up, catching Gertie in her hooves. She twisted her body and threw Gertie to the floor. Moving as swiftly as the wind, Sidewinder dropped onto her hooves and pinned Gertie’s claws to the floor. Then, she placed a hoof on Gertie’s throat and began to press down.

Gertie began to struggle as she gasped for breath, but pained grunts were all she could squeeze out.

“Well, well, well,” Sidewinder mocked her. “What do we have here? Is someone trying to play hero?”

Gertie still struggled but could not make any leeway.

“Don’t you know there are no heroes here?” Sidewinder spat out. “The Wasteland chews them up and spits them out. And what do you two plan on doing? Taking down the Enclave? The two of you?”

I began to struggle against the ropes that tied my hooves together. Unfortunately, the knot held firm, despite my struggle.

“C’mon Sidewinder,” I pleaded. “Your beef is with me. Leave the featherbrain out of it.” I am sure Gertie would have smacked me for that comment if she wasn’t struggling for her life.

“You think I don’t know she is your ally?” Sidewinder laughed. “You think I’m that stupid? You’d have been better off pleading for her life because she’s your special somepony.”

“But she is!” I screamed, noticing the fringes of Gertie’s beak turning blue and her wide eyes turning bloodshot.

Sidewinder and Gertie both shot me looks, both very different. Gertie’s eyes flashed with hope I hadn’t seen since back in camp when we were spending moments together. Sidewinder’s face, however, twisted into disgust.

“Not only do you turn your back on your government, but you turn your back on your own species?!?” she grunted.

“The ponies and griffins have done more for me than the Enclave has!” I shouted.

I saw Gertie’s eyes begin to roll back into her head. Soon, her eyelids slid shut and I saw her body go limp.
“Gertie! No!” I cried out, renewing my struggle against the ropes that bound me. “You bitch! I will kill you!”

Sidewinder laughed as she removed herself from atop of Gertie’s body. She walked towards me, menacingly.

“You are so lucky that orders are to bring you in alive,” she growled. “Otherwise, I would kill you where you lay.” Her face contorted into a vicious sneer. “But I guess forcing you to watch your birdfriend die will be enough until I hand you over to the Muddy.”

A slight, scraping sound drew both of our attention off of each other. I glanced around the cave and saw nothing that could have been the source of the sound. It was still just Sidewinder, Gertie’s body, and me in the cave, and the door was still wide open from when Gertie made her entrance.

Sidewinder moved away from me and scanned the cave. She moved with purpose, almost as if she expected an assault from an unseen force. Once she was satisfied there was no unseen threat, she focused on the motionless body of Gertie.

“Maybe it’s your ghost already haunting me,” she said with a laugh as she kicked Gertie’s body.

Suddenly, Gertie’s claw shot forward, holding a knife. “I’m not dead yet,” she rasped.
Again, Sidewinder reacted very quickly to Gertie’s attack. She deftly blocked the claw holding the knife, grabbing it and twisting as she did so. She forced the arm out to the side and the knife clattered along the ground, landing a few feet from me, wedged between two stones.

The two of them began fighting hoof to claw. It was definitely impressive to behold. Both combatants would attempt to deliver blows and the other would defend or evade. Feints were made, but the attempts were read perfectly. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened had they been able to get airborne in the cramped space.

Neither of them was gaining the upper hoof and I knew it was just a matter of time before one of them got too tired to continue. I couldn’t take the chance it would be Gertie. After allowing myself to fall to my side, I pushed myself over to where I saw the knife land before.

Getting to the knife was not the hard part. I knew I was going to have several scrapes and scratches, but that was nothing compared to some of what I had been through so far. Now was going to be the hard part. My four legs were tied together underneath me, and no matter what I did, I could not break free of my bonds.

Twisting myself around, I got my hooves close to the knife’s edge. Carefully, I brought my hooves down over the top of the knife, trying to line up the rope with the edge. Gently, I lowered the rope down onto the knife and began a sawing motion. The knife shifted with each movement, threatening to fall free of the rocks which had a precarious hold of the blade.

I was making progress at a painfully slow rate. Every so often, I would glance over at the fight to see how things were going. Gertie and Sidewinder were both bloodied. Sidewinder had a series of claw marks up and down her legs since they were taking the brunt of the swipes. Gertie must have gotten a few strikes past her defenses since there was a bleeding gash on Sidewinder’s snout. But Gertie was not unscathed. She had a few bleeding wounds on her face and there was a trickle of blood coming out of her beak. But both kept fighting.

I had to get free to help her. I could only drag the rope against the knife a few times before I had to rest or else my twitching legs would dislodge the knife. The fight behind me became more desperate as their moves slowed due to fatigue. Gertie was breathing more heavily than Sidewinder was, which scared me.

Finally, I felt the pressure against my legs relax as the ropes unwound and fell free. I hurried to my hooves and charged the fracas. I don’t know how but Sidewinder knew I was approaching. She twisted away from me and kicked out with her rear legs, catching me right in the barrel. My breath was knocked out of me and I fell to the cave floor panting for air.

“Why don’t you just stay…” Sidewinder began, but was cut off by what I could only describe as a wet, squelching sound followed by a piercing scream.

Shifting my gaze to behind Sidewinder, I saw Gertie had gotten her claw wrist deep into Sidewinder’s barrel and was twisting it. With each movement, the squelching sound mixed with Sidewinder releasing another whimper as her face twisted into a pained grimace.

“You may have… beaten me…” she forced out between groans, “but you will bow down to the Enclave!”

Gertie withdrew her claw with another wet, squelching sound. It was covered in blood and bits of what had to be parts of Sidewinder’s organs. Sidewinder fell first to her knees, and then pitched over to her side. She lay on the ground, breathing shallowly for several seconds, before she let out an all too familiar shudder before she became still. Blood pooled around her wounds as I watched the life drain from her eyes.

“Oh Celestia!” I cried out. “Gertie, you’re alive! But I thought… I…”

“Sorry ‘bout that,” she said with a shrug. “I had to let her think she had killed me. Thanks for the distraction though!”

I ran across the cave and locked her in an embrace. She squeezed back just as hard. I pulled back slightly and looked back deeply into Gertie’s amber eyes. “How did you know…”

“I was on my way back from Horseton when I saw the bitch walking into the cave,” she explained, gazing right back at me. “Saw the familiar looking armor and figured it was something worth checking out. When I listened through the door and heard your voice…” she finished with a shrug.

“Well, thank you for saving me, again,” I admitted, sheepishly. “It seems that without you, I’d be dead several times over already.”

“It’s alright, we’re even,” she responded. “If it weren’t for your distraction, I don’t know how much longer I would have lasted with her crushing my windpipe. It seems like you’re always there to pull my butt out of the fire also.”

An uneasy feeling began to form in the pit of my stomach. It felt almost like the time right before… And then Gertie pressed her beak right against my mouth. Her tongue shot into my mouth and seeked mine. As much out of instinct and shock, I returned the gesture.

After holding for a few seconds, I released. “Gertie, we really shouldn’t…” I said. The look of hurt on her face was only a flash, but I saw it and felt guilty about it.

I turned away and walked over to the body of Sidewinder. “From the clouds we were born, to the clouds we return,” I intoned as I closed her eyelids.

Gertie, still panting, moved up to my side. “Why?”

“I can’t blame her,” I explained, as I hung my head. “She was just following orders, much like I might have, if I was in her hooves.”

A set of loud rumbles filtered their way through the open door. It sounded a lot like thunder. Almost like when…

“The Thunderhead,” Gertie and I both mumbled at the same time.

“How did they prepare so quickly?” I asked, out loud, more rhetorically than anything else.

“Dust, it’s been about two hours since we split up?” Gertie asked, her head cocked to one side.

“Was I really in this cave that long?” I answered back. “No matter… let’s go see what’s going on.”

We both ran to the door and rushed outside. To the east of Coltington, I could make out the unmistakable profile of a Thunderhead cloudship. When I had been in training flights, I never found the ship that intimidating. But being on the receiving end was a different story. Knowing the amount of power those vessels carried, I knew we didn’t stand a chance.

“C’mon, let’s go,” I said, mindlessly, more focused on what we were going to do when we got to Coltington.

We both took off and flew back to Coltington as quickly as we could. As soon as we drew near enough, I could see the ponies in town setting up makeshift barricades out of whatever material they could find. Most of it would not stand long under an assault by Enclave energy weapons. And not to mention I was sure most of the attacks would be from the air.

“Damn it,” I muttered, “they’ll be sitting ducks behind all that. Not to mention the first shot will set most of it on fire as soon as it was hit. And nopony has armor to fend off energy weapons.”

“Shit,” Gertie muttered, at the same time I thought it. “And the Enclave is probably wearing ballistic armor similar, or better, than yours.”

“Eeyup,” I agreed with a sigh. “Let’s find Silver and Flower.”

We circled the town, tightening our arc, searching for Flower and Silver. We closed in until we were at the middle of town. Ponies were hustling to and fro, carrying barricade materials to other ponies who were building them, while others were carrying weapons and ammo crates. In the center of it all were Flower and Silver, directing traffic and ordering ponies around.

Gertie and I landed near the two mares. “Look at you two, stirring the town into a frenzy,” I said, with a little tinge of teasing. They both gave me a weak grin. “So, what’s our status?”

“Our status?” they both shot back. “Where in Tartarus have you been?”

“Enclave operative caught me for a bit,” I answered, sheepishly. “She was going to turn me into Muddy, but Gertie pulled my ass out of the fire.”

“Old Tin is rounding up all of her crew. They are going to wait for us to say where they should go,” Silver informed me.

“Big Boss has ordered Firing Pin ta share the stores,” Flower told me. “Should be here momentarily, I reckon,” she added. “Also, when nopony could find ya, I went ta see the mayor. He’s getting the young, old, and infirm inta hiding. Everypony else is setting up defenses.”

“It may not be enough,” I informed them. “They’re sending a whole Thunderhead here.” The gravity of the situation was not lost on my friends.

“We’re gonna be outnumbered 10 to 1,” Gertie added. “Not to mention they’re gonna have energy weapons and the advantage of flight.”

“We may have to consider evacuating,” I added. “Get everypony to the stable. Then maybe we can lure the Thunderhead away.”

A shadow flitted past my hooves on the ground. Looking up to the sky, I saw a pair of pegasi flying overhead. “Recon team,” I said, mostly rhetorically. “Scouting out the area. Not good, not good at all.”

“Why, what’s the worst…” Silver started to ask. I pointed towards the Thunderhead and everypony followed my hoof. Small, black specks appeared around the Thunderhead, with more being added to the mix every second.

“Shit,” I muttered. “They’re coming.” I raised my voice to yell above the din. “Everypony! We have incoming pegasi! Get armed and get behind something!”

The barely controlled chaos that I had seen before erupted into complete anarchy. Ponies were galloping to find weapons or, once armed, into cover. Firing Pin hadn’t even made it here with his arsenal, so most ponies were only using pistols or shotguns. Not good.

The black specks kept growing, and now barely had the shape of the profile of an Enclave flyer. They were still several minutes out, at best.

Ponies began to settle into their defensive positions while Gertie, Flower, Silver and I found some cover in a nearby abandoned shack. An eerie quiet settled over the town. It sucked to just wait.

After a few more moments, the flyers were easily distinguishable with the gray sky behind them. My thoughts about them wearing just armor was quickly dashed when I saw they were each wearing the scorpion-like power armor issued to advanced squadrons. There were dozens of them. The jet black metal with the scorpion like tail, just as intimidating as I remember it. The bug eyed masks completed the fearful look.

I watched and waited to see what they would do. Our weaponry would be useless against them, regardless of the range. Even point blank, it would take a pinpoint shot to penetrate the weakspots of the armor and damage the ponies inside. It was tough stuff.

The first formation flew overhead and did not deviate from their flightpath. It was odd.

“What the fuck are they doing?” I mumbled more to myself than anypony.

The air was soon filled with a light whistling sound. Scanning the sky, I began to see small black specs begin to emerge from the overcast gloom. They soon formed into small, round objects with a stem…

“Grenades!” I shouted by instinct. “Everypony find cover!”

The grenades landed with a thud. Ponies began to run from their cover positions, away from a grenade that had landed nearby. But as they ran from one grenade, they ran right into the range of another. This was going to be a bloodbath.

The explosions happened almost simultaneously. About a dozen puffs of dust suddenly appeared, almost simultaneously. A few ponies were engulfed by the dust clouds caused by the concussion force of the grenades, and they were probably the lucky ones since they would most likely have died instantaneously. Shortly after the sound of the explosions, the shrapnel impacts could be heard, like rain pelting rooftops. Ponies began shrieking, no doubt having been hit by shrapnel. At least three I could see fell to ground and became still. Others were groaning and began to drag themselves through the open ground, trying to find someplace to hide.

Once the initial dust clouds cleared, the sight made my heart sink. I counted about a dozen ponies who were clearly dead. Their lifeless eyes staring right into my soul, sending chills down my spine. They were merely the latest victims of my stubbornness. Several other ponies were still crawling or dragging themselves into what they hoped was cover from future attacks. Some ponies had begun to run.

Another wave of flyers passed overhead, again not deviating from their path. I waited for the grenades to impact the ground. Watching the skies, I saw the grenades begin to stand out from the cloud cover background. These were different. They were cylindrical and long.

They still impacted the ground with small thuds. However, they did not explode like the previous ones did. These simply started spewing dense smoke. Shit.

“Everypony, clear out!” I shouted. If they were obscuring the area, it could only mean a few things, and none of them were good.

The first shrieks sounded shortly afterwards. The first were soon joined by more. Screams came and went, all of them in pain and terror.

“We gotta move,” I whispered to my friends. “Let’s try to save as many ponies as we can, but we gotta get out of here.”

All my friends nodded in agreement and we walked out of the building. The smoke obscured everything more than a couple of feet away from us. We crept our way through the smoke, trying to move in a direction away from the Thunderhead, although I doubt it would really make any difference,

Glancing at my Pip-buck, red and green markers filled the compass at the bottom. It was going to be impossible to figure out where friends and foes were since they markers merged into one, almost solid bar.

Several figures emerged from the smoke. It took me a second to recognize the armor-clad forms of Enclave shock troops. Unfortunately, they recognized us far more quickly than we recognized them. They all dove at us.

One of the troops tackled me to the floor and began to grapple with me. The retractable hoof bayonet was extended and the soldier was trying to stab at me with it. Some of my hoof-to-hoof combat came back instinctively and I blocked the first few swipes. The next nearly swung past my defense, and I was only able to redirect slightly. My shoulder burned as the knife found its way between two of the ballistic plates in my armor. The pain sent my brain into overdrive.

Grunting in pain, I swung with my hoof and connected with the side of the helmet. The impact climbed all the way up my leg, but it also shocked the soldier enough to send him off balance. Twisting my body hard, I was able to knock him to the ground. I leapt on top of him and grabbed for the hoof with the knife. I knew there was some release mechanism for the knife, just in case it got lodged in something, and I desperately tried to remember where it was. In the absence of any concrete indication, I just began to slam my hoof into the armored hoof of my attacker.

A sound to my right drew both of our attentions. Another frag grenade landed next to the two of us and we looked at each other in combined shock. I swung at, and connected with, his head and jumped away from the grenade as quickly as I could.

The world flashed white as every part of my body registered pain. My body flopped to the floor and I allowed it to just sit still. Slowly, a ringing sound grew in my ears and reached almost deafening levels. Once the white glare in my vision faded, I was staring up at the sky with the peaks of the various buildings of the town, all spinning and hazy in my vision.

Looking towards my former combatant, I saw his body lying on the ground, not moving. Large gashes had been cut into the armor and blood flowed freely from the joints that made up the neck and chest. Climbing warily to my feet, I began to wander aimlessly, trying to get out of the wide open battleground.

Muffled screams fought to overcome the ringing in my ears. The smoke was still thick, but I could see flashes of energy rifles. There were bodies everywhere. They were mostly townsponies with the occasional pegasus thrown in. There were also the glowing pink piles of dust which indicated where energy rifles vaporized the poor stallion or mare. The Enclave casualties were from what appeared to be point blank shotgun blasts. But for every pegasus body I found, there were at least five or six Wastelanders.

Eventually, I stumbled my way into an alleyway. I slumped down against the wall and allowed myself to rest. My head was throbbing, my ears were ringing, and my vision was still spinning. Just breathing hurt at this point. Energy rifles flashed and lit up the smoky battleground. A pony shaped form appeared out of the smoke and collapsed next to me.

The pony was large and jet black. His coat was slicked red with blood from several gashes. One wound was mottled and smoking. The pony turned to look at me.

Last Stand looked up at me, his face full of pain. “Dust?” I barely made out over the ringing in my ears.

“Yeah, Last Stand, it’s me,” I answered.

“You son of a bitch,” he said. I flinched as I saw his hoof move, but he wasn’t moving to strike me. He was reaching out to grab my hoof. “They got me bad, but I took out two of them. Heh, heh, fucking Enclave.” He chuckled, and then recoiled in pain. “I know I don’t have long for this world. I don’t blame you for this, Dust. But, please, promise me… whatever you do, you will get revenge for this. Promise me that!”

“I promise, Last Stand. Muddy and the Enclave will pay for what they started today,” I swore, gripping his hoof firmly.

“Good,” he said. “So tired…” his head flopped back and his eyes closed. He took a deep breath and exhaled in a rattle that sounded through the ringing in my eyes. Then he moved no more.

A new flash of light from the battleground nearby caught my attention. A large plume of flame shot through the smoke lighting up the entire area. Through the thinning smoke, I could see the outline of a building and it was now aflame.

A pony in extra thick armor emerged from the smoke. Mounted one side of their battle saddle was a flamer. The tip glowed blue. Another plume of flame erupted from the flamer, lighting another nearby building on fire. Ducking behind a rain barrel, I hid as best I could, lest I become roasted myself.

The flamer pony kept walking, lighting every building on fire that he passed by. The heat from the burning timber warmed my skin as everything became cast in an orange glow. I wanted to move from my hiding spot, but every time I went to make a move, another group of Enclave soldiers would march by, looking for more victims.

A cracking sound drew my attention to the building above me. The fire from the flamer had spread faster than I thought possible and the upper level was already fully burning. A hoof sized chunk of debris was falling towards me. I tried to move out of the way, but my seated position fought against me. I leaned to the side, but the debris still glanced off the side of my head.

The world went white again. The white haze faded and the world was spinning even worse than before. My stomach churned and I was forced to vomit. Pain shot through my entire head. I reached up and felt where the chunk of building had hit me and my hoof came back slick with blood. I had to get out of here.

Moving further into town surely would have been suicide, so I ducked away. I had to hope my friends found a way out on their own. There was nothing I could do alone and in my state against the force of Enclave that had assaulted the town.

The white smoke of the smoke grenades gave way to the black, acrid smoke of the fires that now engulfed the town. I could hardly tell where I was since nothing looked the same much less navigate my way through it.

I never thought about how many ponies lived in Coltington before, but after running across so many bodies, it was higher than I remembered. And my loss of hearing was probably a mixed blessing at this point. Seeing so many ponies struggling to stay alive, at least I didn’t have to hear the groans and ragged breathing that probably haunted the town.

Two armor clad pegasi stepped out in front of me as I turned a corner. They sized me up quickly and I saw one of them stiffen in surprise.

“Dust Cloud,” the voice rang through the tinny speaker of the power armor. “Will you come with us willingly?”

I opened my mouth to answer, but stopped. I couldn’t go willingly and help them. But I was in no state to fight. I felt my energy drain from my body as I collapsed to the ground. I tried to speak, but could only groan. The two began to approach my position. A clatter drew my attention and I tried to focus on the source. A cylindrical grenade was bouncing along the ground towards the armored ponies.

The two ponies tried to jump but the grenade lit up. Crackling blue energy filled the immediately area and seemed drawn towards the suits or armor. Clicking filled the area and then went silent. The two ponies in front of me stopped moving. However, when I looked closer, I could see the suits would shift a little, but then return to being motionless. The sparkle grenade must have disabled the suits.

I fell back and just lay there. I had no energy left to stand. I barely had the energy to breath.

“Dust!” a muffled voice fought its way through the ringing in my ears. I saw several hooves surround me. My body was now being lifted from the ground while my forelegs were draped over two other ponies. My head slumped forward as the ponies now dragged me away from town.

We took a winding path, stopping frequently. When we moved, it was with purpose. Soon, I felt myself being dragged down some stairs and something slammed shut behind me. I was lowered to the floor and leaned up against a wall.

“Dust!” a pony shouted. “Dust, are ya OK?”

All I could do was groan in response. My brain just seemed like it didn’t want to work.

“No serious, visible injuries,” somepony shouted from my left. “Some cuts and scrapes.” A light flashed into my eyes. I recoiled in pain as it felt like a hammer was being slammed against my skull. “Has a bad concussion, though.”

A bottle was forced into my mouth and my head was forced back. I gulped as the fluid forced its way into my mouth. A dull, warming feeling spread over my body. The ringing in my ears subsided slightly and the room stopped spinning. My head still had a deep throbbing feeling, but it was better than before.

“Dust? How ya doin’?” Flower asked. Turning to look at her, I saw that we were in a small storm shelter. The room was full of some of the colts, fillies, and older ponies from Coltingon. The younger ones were cowering in a corner, their bodies visibly shaking. The older ponies were doing their best to comfort them. One of the younger colts cried out for his mother and father.

The room itself was a small, metal walled room. There were shelves lining the walls which held small baskets of odds and ends, and some flats that held various canned or bottled goods. A single bare gem lit the small room.

“What the…” I croaked. “Where am I?”

“Old fallout shelter,” Silver informed me while tending to my injuries. “It was out behind the bar. Pot Luck uses it for storage. We were hoping to get these ponies further away, but the attack came much faster than expected.” She frowned a little. “When we sent them with the mayor, there were more than double…”

I wrapped Silver in an embrace. “It’s OK… you did what you could…” I tried to comfort her, knowing it wouldn’t do much.

“So, what do we do now?” she asked.

“Wait…” I said, dejectedly. “Not much else we can do…”

The next hour dragged on for what felt like an eternity. Occasionally, we would hear the whine of an energy rifle or the whoosh of a flamer being fired overhead. There were screams, which were mercifully cut short. Those sounds gave way to rumbles and crashes of buildings collapsing overhead. All we could do in our bunker was to share uncomfortable glances, hoping that our hiding space was good enough to save us.

After another hour, all noise from outside the door subsided. I looked at my friends and they returned the same.

“I’m going to check out what’s going on up there,” I announced. “Stay here, just in case.” Gertie, Flower and Silver nodded.

The door creaked open, seeming almost deafening given the silence. The scent of burning wood assaulted my nose. Another smell permeated the air, which made me think of the Garden. My stomach turned.

After climbing the stairs, I opened the external doors. The Thunderhead was not visible, fortunately. Acrid, black smoke filled the air. The town had been reduced to multiple piles of smoldering rubble. What used to be houses were now simply small mounds of what amounted to charcoal. Random pieces of metal were interspersed in the debris, impervious to the flames. Everypony had lost everything… I could not imagine anything surviving the blaze.

It was odd to me that even though the town looked nothing like it used to, I was still able to navigate the ruins. Some pathways were closed off to collapses, but the layout was still familiar. Cautiously and slowly, I cleared the exterior of the town. I frequently checked the skies to make sure there would be no surprises from airborne soldiers on cleanup patrols.

Slowly, I circled my way back in towards the middle of town. Not one structure remained. It was sad when I thought about all of the work that had been put it into building Coltington and it was all undone in a matter of hours.

I rounded the corner of another rubble pile and turned towards the center of town. The sight before me stopped me in my tracks. All the bodies of the defenders were stacked like cordwood and were smoldering. Identification was going to be nearly impossible as the bodies were just a pile of blackened skeletons, the flesh having been burnt away.

I approached the pile and could feel the heat radiating off the smoldering ash. I tried to count the bodies, but I couldn’t continue after getting to a dozen or so. A glint near the edge of the pile caught my attention. Looking at it, I saw it was a piece of metal. Carefully nudging it away from the pile and flipping it over, my heart sank even further. It was Old Tin’s badge. Although I knew it was the truth anyway, this solidified in my mind that Coltington was dead. Anypony who was defending the town was killed.

A line of text appeared in my vision. “Enclave Terrestrial Operations Alpha signal found,” it said.

I clicked the radio on. The static cleared and was replaced by Muddy’s voice.

“Attention Wastelanders within broadcast distance of Coltington. The town of Coltington is no more. They had provided shelter and assistance to Dust Cloud. Unless Dust cooperates, we will do the same to other towns. If you see or know anything about Dust Cloud or his friends, give such information to the next Enclave soldier you see. They will be conducting aerial surveys. Compliance will be rewarded. Opposition will be punished, severely. You have been warned.

“The next part of the message is for Dust. This is your fault. You can end this right now. All you have to do is fly to Neighvarro and use your Pipbuck to open the SPP tower. Once you do that, this all ends. Dirtpatch, Fetlock Flats, Fountainview, Trotwood, the Garden… the Stoneclaw Talon camp…”

Muddy’s voice droned on. “It’s your choice… Message will repeat. Attention Wastelanders within…”

I snapped the radio off and fell to my flank. It wasn’t fair… these ponies weren’t hurting anypony. Why did Muddy have to wipe out the whole town just to get to me?

I felt my eyes begin to water, but not from the smoke. A tear began to run down my cheek. I watched as it fell from there and hit the ground. When it hit the ground, there was a flash of light and everything around me seemed to freeze. I could still move but everything else was motionless, even the pulsating embers of the body pile in front of me.

“Who says it has to be fair?” the gravelly from the void said, echoing in my head. The robed figure emerged from the pile of charred bones. “The Enclave can cheat. They see these ponies as not as good as them… as a means to an end. That hasn’t changed in one hundred and fifty years. And they’re going to keep doing it as long as the population is content… as long as they feel safe.”

“But there’s gotta be something I can do!” I cried out in frustration. “This can’t keep happening!”

“But it will,” she answered. “The leaders will never let the truth get out. I know it is not cool, but it is reality. So this scene will repeat itself over and over and over again.”

“But I can’t let that happen!” I yelled. “There has to be something I can do!”

“But didn’t you try that here?” she retorted.

I screamed at the top of my lungs. “Then tell me what to do! There must be something!”

“There are options, but you have to find one you are OK with… or else it will never work,” she replied, as calmly as ever.

I fell to the floor and began to sob openly. I buried my head in my hooves and just let it all out. It didn’t even matter that dirt, smoke, and ash were beginning to choke me. I was so overwhelmed. Everything I had been through since that damn day in the Stable seemed to flood back at once. Every doubt, all the guilt, every thought flooded my head at the same time. Painful visions of One and Brownie flashed through my mind, mixed with visions of Silver and Gertie and the tender moments we shared. Every injury I had sustained seemed to flare up in pain simultaneously. There was not one part of my body that didn’t hurt. The sound of Muddy laughing echoed in my ears.

“Dust,” a fuzzy voice called out.

My vision flashed white again as I felt somepony touch my shoulder. “Dust, are you OK?” It was Silver.

“Huh? Yeah…” I said with a sniffle, trying to collect myself. “I thought I told you guys to stay put?”

“Dust… that was an hour ago,” she answered. “We didn’t know what happened to you.” An hour? Not possible. “Are you OK?” she asked.

“Not really.. but I am as well as can be expected anyway…” I turned back to the pile. “So senseless… so unnecessary…”

“And so not your fault,” she interrupted me. “Listen to me. I know you are going to be kicking yourself over this. But you did not do this. You did not cause this. This is all on Muddy. Tell me you understand that…”

“But if I hadn’t interrupted him that day in the stable,” I began to explain.

“Still not your fault,” she tried to dissuade me.

“Maybe if I hadn’t survived the fall…” I offered.

“No,” Silver replied flatly. “I will not allow you to think that way. Being dead is not a solution. He would still be the asshole that he is.”

“He might still be an asshole,” I argued. “But he would be an asshole without an army behind him.”

“But he would still have me,” she countered. “Without you, who knows what he’d have done to me. He could have kept on torturing me… or even killed me. And the scary part is… I don’t even know which is worse.”

“But…” I responded. “There’s been so much death. And all because I, for some reason, am the one to use this!” I thrusted my Pipbuck clad hoof towards her. “Without me, this never would have made anypony a target.” There was a long pause. “And your silence tells me I am right.”

“I can’t argue that,” she admitted. “But you not being here would not stop Muddy. You’re right… he wouldn’t be pursuing something this grandiose, but he would have still done what he’s doing. He delights in torture and pain. And that’s what this is all about.”

“Ahem…” somepony cleared their throat. “Everything OK?” Gertie had been the one to ask as she and Flower joined us near the pile.

“Yes… no…” I mumbled. “It’s OK… just a lot to think about.”

“Dust, did ya find anypony else alive?” Flower asked, anxiously.

“No, Flower,” I answered. “I did not.”

“I can’t believe he actually ordered this,” Silver murmured, looking at the pile of bones. “How… why?”

“It’s who he is,” I answered.

We all stood there for a long while, soaking in the consequences of my actions.

No one wanted to ask, but Gertie did anyway. “So, what happens next?”

I didn’t have an answer at first. What did we do next? We could not hope to take on the Enclave head on. This had proven it. But we needed to do something. We needed to find some way to remove what Muddy wanted from play. He wanted the power of the SPP tower. I couldn’t let him have it, of course. I needed to do whatever it took to take away all of his motivation to hurt others, even if it meant he would redouble his efforts at me.

A rainbow flashed in my mind. Mindlessly, I said under my breath, “Just like her…”

“What was that Dust?” Silver asked.

I wasn’t really paying attention except to my own thoughts. History lessons flooded my mind. Rainbow Dash, Ministry Mare for the Ministry of Awesome, was the mare who came up with the SPP towers. She would know what they were capable of doing. She was able to figure out how to limit their power. She knew the Enclave would abuse that power. Which is why the towers were working so minimally.

Then there is the Pipbuck. She either created the Pipbuck, or it was created for her. In either case, it would allow full control of the tower… or the ability to remove control. This is why Muddy needs it… but what if he couldn’t get it? What if it was lost to him?

“DUST!” all three of my friends yelled at me at once.

I nearly jumped at the volume of the shouting. I shook my head to clear my thoughts. “Sorry… just had an idea… hear me out. Muddy wants the SPP towers, right?” My friends nodded. “And the only way he can have that is with me, right?” Again, more nodding. “What if I made sure he could never get it?”

“But how?” Gertie began to ask.

“I don’t know yet, Gertie,” I cut her off. “But think about it. If he knew he could never control the tower, there would be no reason to kill everypony. Maybe I’d have to deal with the aftermath, but there would be no reason to coerce me to cooperate. He might want to punish me, but he’d have nothing to gain by killing everypony else.”

“But Dust,” Silver called out. “He will imprison you the minute you go to Neighvarro.”

“He can’t… remember?” I responded. “He needs me alive and willing. This is where I have all the power. He can do a lot to try and coerce me, but ultimately, the power is mine.”

“That’s all well an’ good,” Flower interrupted. “But how do ya plan on using it?”

“That’s a great question,” I admitted. “I don’t know what I can do or what the options are. I need more information on the SPP towers.”

“The only place to get that information is the Ministry of Awesome,” Gertie said. “And the only two I know of are the one in Neighvarro and Canterlot. I doubt the military will let you near the one in Neighvarro and the one in Canterlot is inside the pink bubble.”

“But do I really need info on the tower itself,” I questions, raising my Pipbuck laden forehoof. “Or do I just need information on what this can do.”

“Where will we go to get that information?” Silver asked.

“Well, the Pipbucks were made by Stable-Tec, right?” Gertie asked. “Can’t we just go back to New Flankfort?”

“No… this Pipbuck was created after the war,” I answered, shaking my head. “There is a recording of Scootaloo on here that told me as much. So I doubt information will be in any database.”

“So the information would be on there, right?” Silver asked.

I started to hoof my way through the various screens. Most of the screens appeared to be routine functions. Then I got back to the data screen. I hadn’t even looked at the Pipbuck since the “Compassion” entry decrypted and I chose to ignore them. In the meantime, the last two encrypted entries had changed to read “Innocence” and “Integrity”.

“What do ya got there, Dust?” Flower asked, sidling up to me.

“I don’t know, Flower,” I admitted, shaking my head. There appear to be stories about Rainbow Dash. I didn’t read them since I had no interest at the time. And then things got so busy. But the first two didn’t say anything about the SPP towers.”

“Don’t you think Scootaloo would have hidden the information away?” Silver argued. “Those entries were important to her for some reason. I think you need to read them.”

Ugh. I was never a big fan of reading. I would rather go see a movie. But something tells me this would never have been approved for public viewing.

“Let’s get back in the bunker, just in case they fly back around to make sure they didn’t miss anypony,” I recommended. We all made our way back to the small bunker.

I found a spot in a corner, sat down, and brought up the Pipbuck. Hoofing through the screens again, I opened up the “Sacrifice” entry. The entry talked about an aerial competition Rainbow Dash was involved in. It felt like the kind of writing that would appear in a biography. She was competing with her friends from the town in which she lived, but then got invited to fly with the Wonderbolts on their team. At first, she tried to balance both, but then she flew with her friends instead of a guaranteed win with her foalhood heroes.

The next entry was labelled “Hope”. This seemed more like a collection of small stories. Each highlighted a time when Dash was trying to impress the Wonderbolts in order to make it onto the team. There were many stories when she would try to perform some stunt or beat a record, or some feat that would make her dream come true. Each little story ended with an expression of how much she wanted this to be the time she got her invite.

“Perseverance” was next. This story told of Dash preparing for yet another air show. It always seemed she was competing, one way or another. But this time she wanted to win the Young Flier Award. To do so, she wanted to perform a Sonic Rainboom, which had only ever been done once before. Retellings of many failures, some of which were very dangerous, showed how badly she wanted to do this. Eventually, she was able to perform the Sonic Rainboom, even though it wasn’t intentional.

“Compassion” changed tone. This story was about her pet turtle. Rainbow Dash, flier extraordinaire, had a turtle as a pet? Apparently, the turtle had rescued Dash when the other animals she was considering had left her behind stuck in a rockfall. The turtle had freed her, so she chose him as her pet. Later, when winter was coming, Dash was very sad when it seemed Tank was sick. She was doing everything she could to “save” him. Eventually, it turned out Tank was just preparing to hibernate, but you could see how much she cared for the turtle.

The next entry was “Innocence”. Yet another air show. This time, she was only going to be a spectator. However, one of the Wonderbolts got summoned home since her mother was sick, so Dash was asked to fill in. However, Spitfire’s mother was already at the show. Dash ended up being accused of faking the letter. It took her friends helping her out, but she was eventually proven innocent and was able to join the show anyway.

Finally, there was “Integrity”. This story took place much later in her life. The megaspells had already been detonated. The story was more of a detailing of the many arguments and debates that were held regarding closing the skies and ignoring the surface. She asked, and then demanded, that the pegasi help out their brethren below. Each time she was rebuffed. A recounting of her decision to sabotage the SPP towers followed. Finally, she left the Enclave behind, knowing what the personal cost would be. She couldn’t turn her back on her friends, even though they were most likely dead.

I put my leg down, partly from fatigue and partly from surprise. These stories did not match what we had been told in school growing up. Then again, I should not be surprised by that. Of course they weren’t going to glorify the most well-known traitor in history. But was she really a traitor? Or were the pegasi the real traitors to the rest of Equestria?

“Well, what did you learn?” Silver asked. I had not noticed she had sidled right up next to me while I had been reading.

“Nothing useful,” I said, shaking my head. “I learned that Rainbow Dash was not the pony I was lead to believe growing up. But nothing about the SPP towers. It was almost as if the entire purpose of the Pipbuck was to glorify Rainbow Dash and what she did.”

As if on cue, a new line of text opened up in my vision. “Scootaloo 2” recording added.

Quickly, I looked back on my Pipbuck and quickly found the entry and started to play it. The same sickly voice from before spilled out of the tinny speakers. “Hey, it’s Scoots again.” She was interrupted by a wet, wracking cough. “Sorry, I’m not doing so good. Hopefully, by the time you hear this, you see that those bastards have lied to you and what the truth is about Rainbow Dash and the situation with the towers. I created this Pipbuck as an adapter of sorts. It can be used to reconnect the Crusader mainframe that controls the SPP tower. Hopefully, conditions are right enough so you can get access to the maneframe and fix it.

“However, if that is not an option, and if I am right whoever finds this, you know this cannot fall into Enclave hands. Here’s the bad news. These damn Pipbucks are virtually indestructible… sorry about that. The Crusader maneframe has the ability to overload the circuits and destroy it. I know it’s not the best idea, but it’s the best I could do.”

She stopped speaking and coughed for several seconds. I had heard that kind of coughing before and I knew what it meant. “Alright, it looks like my time is running short. I better stash this thing before I run out of time and I still have one more thing I want to do. Good luck.”

A new line of text appeared in my EFS. “Neighvarro SPP Instructions” added. I flicked over to that entry. It read more like a technical document. But essentially, to fix things, all I had to do was connect the Pipbuck to the Crusader maneframe in the Neighvarro tower. But the control room was surrounded by a shield and the Enclave was never able to get past it. For the destruction of the Pipbuck, the location of an access port in the anteroom was described. Apparently, all I had to do was connect to that port and the maneframe would fry it.

All I had to do was get into the tower. You know, the tower that was being surrounded by Enclave forces as we spoke.

This was not going to be easy…

Level Up!

Science +5

Perk Obtained:
Lore Master – “I knew the book was good, but I didn’t know it could drive a pony to petty theft.” - Your INT and PER have increased by 1.

Chapter 32 - Runaway

Chapter 32 - Runaway
“Nobody ever did, or ever will, escape the consequences of their choices.”

The room around me fell deathly silent. Even though I wasn’t looking at them, I could feel my friends’ gazes burning into me, looking for some guidance.

My brain began to formulate plans. Sneaking in was probably out of the question, since the tower would be heavily guarded and there was only one way in and out. Besides, it’s not like I had night vision gear, a stealth suit, or could sneak anyway. Might as well throw in an eyepatch, ya know, just to ratchet up the difficulty level.

A full out assault would be utterly useless. We’d be outmanned and outgunned. Not to mention that even though Flower could walk on the clouds as a pegasus, she would be stuck on the clouds and couldn’t do airborne maneuvers.

As soon as a plan entered my mind, a reason it would fail would be shortly behind it. Stealth, assault, bargaining, bribing… nothing seemed to be the right solution. My brain was racing.

Flashes of memory are all I have next. I bolted out of the storm shelter and ran as fast as I could. As soon as I cleared the smoldering ruins of Coltington, I kicked up and became airborne. I had no destination in mind. I didn’t even really pick a direction. I just flew.

What was I going to do? I had to take care of things… I had to have a plan. I needed to stop Muddy or else settlement after settlement would fall. Ponies would die. And this time it really would all be my fault.

It was beginning to get dark. I scanned my surroundings to get my bearings. The scenery was unfamiliar. Where was I? How did I get here?

I took a quick look at my Pipbuck and saw that I had covered a considerable distance to the northwest of town. This was a part of the Wasteland I had never travelled. I began to make slow lazy loops, scanning the horizon, hoping to find a landmark that was familiar to aid in navigation. The darkness limited what I could see, and what I could see did not help.

A red flash in my peripheral vision spurred my reflexes to act. Banking hard, I watched the laser beam approach. It missed me by mere inches.

Starting basic evasive maneuvers, I scanned the ground below looking for my attackers while zig-zagging across the sky. The darkening gray skyline obscured my vision enough that I couldn’t see anything on the ground.

Another red laser beam screamed past me as I continued my erratic banking. This shot came from behind and below me but I could not see the source. I needed to find out who was shooting at me and why.

Rearing back hard, I entered a tight backwards somersault. Finishing with a twist, I had pulled a full one eighty and was now flying back the way I came. Hopefully this would allow me to safely find my attackers.

Another red flash allowed me to focus in on the source. The darkness still kept details shielded, but I could at least tell where the shots were coming from. If I kept my altitude, avoiding the shots should be easy enough.

A searing pain flared up in my left wing. The pain was shortly followed by the crack of the rifle that must have hit me. My body began to twist as the wing hung limply and I entered a spiral towards the ground. It approached at a sickening pace, and I tried everything I could to slow my descent. However, every time I tried to extend and hold my wing out, the pain would overwhelm me and I had to relax the muscles.

If I hit the ground at this speed, I was not going to survive. If I could only slow myself down enough so as not to die…

I watched the ground as it approached and fought every natural instinct to try to fly. I had to conserve what little strength my wing had. The earth approached me at an escalating pace as the spinning added to the feeling of doom I had. I just had to wait… just a little longer…

When I could hold back no more, I flared my wings out and reared back. Pain shot up my wing, sending burning pains up into my back. My wing threatened to collapse again, but I held it out, fighting as long as possible.

The spinning ceased and I felt my descent slow as my flight began to level off. There wasn’t enough room for me to level off completely, but I just might survive the impact with the ground.

Watching the ground and bracing myself, I prepared to tuck and roll. At what I thought was the last possible moment, I tucked my wings. As I felt my hooves hit the ground, I allowed my legs to bend and I pitched to the side. I slammed into the ground, forcing the wind out of my lungs. But my body began to roll.

After rolling several times, I skidded to a stop. I fought to draw in the first lungful of air, being rewarded mainly with dust. A few hearty coughs and a deep inhale later, I began to gulp greedily at the cool air. My body was aflame with pain and my head was still spinning, but I was alive.

Three sets of hoofbeats approached at a breakneck gallop. I tried to turn and draw my weapon so I could face whoever is was that shot at me.

Three ponies appeared in the dusk. I could only make out a silhouette of them as they approached.

“Who are…” I began to ask, still trying to draw my weapon.

Some kind of rifle held aloft in a teal magical field approached my head. The impact was accompanied by a white flash and then darkness.

The feeling of coming to after being knocked out was becoming uncomfortably familiar. The spinning room, the muffled voices… it was all there. I was in some sort of small cave. A small campfire had been lit in the middle. I felt a pressure against my hooves… and my wing fucking hurt! Looking at it, I saw that a bandage had been hastily applied. Trying to flex it was a bad idea, and I groaned in pain.

“Not fucking again,” I muttered.

“Hey! He’s waking up!” a pony shouted. A cream colored earth pony mare was unsteadily shaking a gun in my direction.

Her two companions, a white earth pony stallion and a blue unicorn stallion, turned their attention away from the cave opening and one cantered towards me. The earth pony had an energy rifle on a battle saddle and the other levitated a massive looking sniper rifle. Well, I guess these were the ponies that shot me down.

“I gotta stop doing this,” I groaned, chuckling a little. That only made things hurt even more.

“Sh.. shut up!” the white stallion shouted. “I don’t wanna hear another word out of you until after we give you to the turkeys!”

“Do we really have to, Scrub?” the mare asked. “I don’t feel right about this.”

“How many times do we have to argue about this!” the blue stallion shouted back. “Either we turn him in or they’ll destroy our homes! You heard about Coltington!”

“But, we didn’t help him,” she murmured back. “The message said only the towns that help or hide him…”

“And what do you think will happen when they run out of towns he’s been in! And what about Weedy in Dirtpatch… he’s been there!” the blue stallion yelled. The mare looked away in shame. “We have to do this to save our town! To save all the other towns!”

I couldn’t help but to start laughing.

This drew the ire of the white stallion. “What is so fucking funny?” he grunted.

“Muddy may not kill your town after you turn me in,” I answered, still laughing. “But it’s not what he wants… what he needs. He needs me to volunteer. So he may just do it after all, just to coerce me if I don’t cooperate.”

The stallion turned and bucked me in my midsection, hard. My breath was forced from my body and I couldn’t draw in air. My lungs burned and my head spun as my body fought for air.

“Shut up, you son of a bitch!” the stallion shouted. The mare cowered away from him.

The stallion by the door turned and waved a hoof. “Shush! There’s somepony coming!” he whispered as he picked up the sniper rifle and looked through the scope. He appeared to track something across the sky. After several long seconds, I saw his body relax and he lowered the gun. “Clear. Just some ground chicken flyin’ by.”

“Now, back to you,” the stallion who had been shouting at me continued. “What makes you think we won’t get rewarded?” I could see the muscles in his jaw clenching. He was also shuffling from hoof to hoof.

“He doesn’t just want me,” I answered between ragged breaths. “He needs me to go willingly. Turning me in does you absolutely no good.” Again, I couldn’t help but to laugh a little. “Your best bet is to let me go and run, because I will never help him.”

“Maybe he’s right, Scrub,” the mare whimpered in the corner. “Let’s just go. Maybe he’s right.”

“Shut up!” he hollered, causing the mare to withdraw to the corner again. “I will not let Wild and Crater die because of this… this… asshole!” He turned his attention back towards me. “So, you need to go willingly, huh? Well, maybe we can help with that…”

The stallion reached into his saddlebags and withdrew a small hoof-mounted blade. “Maybe this will convince you,” he added while fixing the blade to his forehoof.

“Scrub, no, you can’t…” the mare protested, still shaking in the corner.

“I can and I will,” he said with a sneer on her face.

He drew closer to me and ran the knife edge against my face. He wasn’t applying enough pressure to cut skin… yet.

Flashbacks of my time being tortured by Muddy ran through my mind. And to think that all this pony had was his small knife. I blurted out with laughter. “You think… you think I’m afraid of that?” I fit in between chortles. “That’s how Muddy said good morning to me a while back!”

A flash of surprise flashed across Scrub’s face, but then my lack of fear angered him. I could hear his teeth grinding together. He pressed the knife against my skin and flicked the blade. A sharp pain was followed by the feeling of a flowing warmth running down my cheek.

“You think that bothers me?” I retorted. “I have much larger issues than a crazy pony with a small blade! I have the entire Enclave on my ass, Wasteland ponies whose lives are on my shoulders, friends who will probably die no matter what I do… and you think a small knife and a little blood scares me?!?”

I laughed harder. It was a maniacal laughter interrupted only by my need to breathe. The three ponies in the room looked apprehensive and even Scrub backed away.

“Everyone wants to kill me,” I screamed between bouts of laughter. “Wastelanders want to kill me. The Enclave wants to kill me. And even those ponies I’m trying to help are turning against me. Well, you know what, do it. You might as well. You just might make my life better. And who knows, maybe Muddy will even stop his murderous rampage!”

The mare still sat shrunk in the corner while the lookout by the door stood there, his jaw agape. Scrub was tense, his teeth still grinding.

“C’mon you dirty Wastelander!” I screamed. “You talk a good game! Don’t you want to save your town! Your friends! Then do it! Stab me with that knife! Make me give in! If you don’t, you know who’s dead? Weedy! And your family! And friends!”

Scrub growled between his grit teeth. He started to stomp his way over to me. “This is what you want, then I’ll give it to you!” He kicked out with the knife-armed hoof and caught me in the midsection. My side burned as my vision turned white. He kicked again, causing my rear leg to erupt in pain.

“No!” the mare cried out from her spot in the corner.

My laughter began to grow in intensity. “Is that all you got!”

Scrub turned quickly and bucked at me, catching me in the face. My laughter stopped as I drew in a sharp breath. A coppery taste filled my mouth and I could feel one of my teeth wobble a little in my mouth. I spat the blood at Scrub’s hooves. Then, my laughing resumed.

“I can keep this up all day,” Scrub threatened. “What about you?”

Scrub backed up and aimed his energy rifle at me. I braced myself for the inevitable flash of pain, yet again. The scary part is that I was beginning to be OK with this. In fact, I was beginning to accept it. Maybe I would be better off dead. My friends would be out of harm’s way, at least directly. Muddy may just give up knowing he could never get what he wants.

For the first time in a long time, my waking mind was quite peaceful. No thoughts about plots or plans. No worries about who would get hurt or what to do next. In fact, all I could think about was Silver and Gertie. Their faces were the only images to float around my head. Silver with her soft pink skin and her wonderful green eyes. The smile that melted my insides and made me feel like a colt again. And then there was Gertie. Her strong chiseled features. How the teal and lavender mixed around her eyes, standing out brightly against the black feathers that made up her face.

A cracking sound shattered the images in my head and made my ears begin to ring. I felt no pain, which was odd, since getting shot always hurt. But that was an odd sound for an energy rifle to make. They were typically more like a whine than a crack.

I looked up at Scrub and his face was twisted in look of pure shock. A small hole had appeared right between his eyes. Blood began to flow from the hole and wound its way down his face. Almost comically, he stood there momentarily, and then fell to the ground like a rag doll. He didn’t move afterward.

“What fuck did you do!” the unicorn by the door yelled out. “You killed him!”

The mare stood there, the pistol still in her mouth, smoke snaking its way from the end of the barrel. I didn’t know who was more surprised, her or Scrub. The unicorn by the opening began to swing his sniper rifle at the mare. She reacted more quickly than I thought she could, swinging her head towards the unicorn. The combined booming of the sniper rifle and pistol filled the room. If I wasn’t deafened before, I was now. A puff of red mist appeared behind the head of the sniper unicorn as the mare’s round found its mark. His body also crumbled to the ground.

I turned to the mare. The gun fell from her mouth and clattered to the ground. She fell to her flank and sat there with her eyes wide open and her jaw agape. A large wound had opened in her chest and blood was flowing from it rapidly. She attempted to stem the blood flow, but the blood simply spilled over her hooves. She pitched forward, her body thudding against the ground.

All I could hear was the ringing in my ears. What a waste… three dead Wastelanders, and for what? They killed each other over me. Because of me. Regardless of how you look at it, it was my fault. Maybe things really would be better without me...

I had to get out of here. Scrub’s body was a few feet away and he still had the knife attached to his hoof. I shimmied my way over to his body. Each movement caused my wing to shake and cause a flare of pain to shoot up my side. However, this was nowhere near the pain I had felt during my beating. I could handle this.

It took me several minutes to slide my way over and cut the ropes off my forehooves. After that, it was a simple matter of drawing my knife and cutting away the other ropes. Yet another health potion later, and I felt my body mending itself, again. There had to be some limit to the amount of damage magic potions could heal, and I had to be rapidly approaching it.

I walked my way to the cave opening and took one last look at the bodies I was leaving behind. Shame filled my thoughts and I looked at the poor mare’s body. She had tried to help… but she had died anyway. It didn’t matter that she tried.. She failed and paid the price. All because of me…

I ran out the cave opening and just flew. It didn’t matter where I headed as long as it was away. My mind was a mess and I couldn’t face anypony right now.

A rocky outcropping high up on a mountain caught my attention and I flew in and landed. I wouldn’t been seen from here at night, so this would be a good place to hide.

I dropped down onto my stomach and just laid there looking out over the Wasteland. This was the world I was trying to save, trying to make a better place. At first, it seemed like it was my salvation from a go nowhere job in the Enclave. Then, after some time, it began to seem like a punishment.

But it grew on me. Ponies befriended me, made me care. But now… I wasn’t so sure. Ponies had tried to kill me. Ponies were killing each other. Ponies were trying to kill my friends. My old home was even trying to kill me. Maybe I was better off dead.

My Pipbuck crackled to life, startling me.

“Attention Wastelanders within broadcast distance of Dirtpatch. The town of Dirtpatch is no more,” Muddy’s voice droned on the tinny speaker, but I stopped listening. The pit that had been forming in my stomach just increased in size. He couldn’t have…

After consulting my Pipbuck’s map to orient myself, I looked off in the direction of Dirtpatch. I could see a faint orange point of light from a location on the horizon. That had to be Dirtpatch. Even if I could fly top speed and even if I wasn’t going to be severely outnumbered, I’d be too late anyway.

Another pony settlement up in flames. More ponies dying, only because they knew me. But Muddy didn’t care. Muddy wouldn’t stop until he either got what he wanted, or I was dead.

And let’s face it. I was only going to get Flower, Gertie, and Silver killed… or I’d have to give in to Muddy and subject the entire Wasteland to neverending cloud cover. What was the answer? Was there even an answer to be found?

I sat on that ledge watching the small orange point of light flicker and then eventually twinkle out of existence. Dirtpatch was now nothing but ruins, rubble, ash, and bodies.

And it was all my fault.

My. Fault.

As would be the next one…

And the one after that...

I dug around in my saddlebags, looking for something to write with and something to write on. After rooting around for a while, I found a crudely drawn map of a stable we scavenged a while ago and a pencil. Putting the pencil in my mouth, I wrote by Pipbuck light:

“To whomever finds me, please find Silver Lining, Wilted Flower or Gertrude Stoneclaw. Last I knew, they were at the ruins of a nearby settlement… former settlement, called Coltington.

Silver, Flower, Gertrude…

I am sorry that you had to find me this way and I am sorry that I couldn’t tell you this directly.

Muddy is never going to stop killing ponies in the Wasteland. Just to get to me. I can not let that continue.

However, I can not, in good conscience, give him what he wants. It will just make things bad for everypony.

Perhaps in doing this, the killing will stop and things in the Wasteland can stay the same.

Silver, please know that I love you with all my heart. You were my first… and I am sorry that we never got to explore that. I’m sorry I am leaving you behind.

Gertie… I never thought I could have the feelings I have for you.. a griffon. You took my broken body and risked your life and safety for a pony you didn’t really know. I am sorry that I am also leaving you behind.

Flower… I can not ask for your forgiveness enough. You were a friend… a true friend, and I put you through so much pain.”

There was so much more I wanted to say, but there was no room.

I continued: “Please know I do not do this lightly… I truly see no other way out.”

I stowed the note in my saddlebags and secured the flap. I could only hope that whatever scavenger found me first would read the note and do the right thing.

I stood up and walked to the edge of the ledge I had been sitting on. My front hooves overhung the edge of the ledge and looked down. In the faint light of the limited moonlight that penetrated the clouds, I could see I was a good height off the ground. The cliff face was sheer, so there was nothing between me and the Wasteland floor below.

Looking out over the horizon again, an inky blackness welcomed my gaze. I don’t know what I was hoping to see, but all I saw was darkness.

“I’m sorry,” I said to no one in particular.

And jumped.

The wind began to rush past my body and my wings started to spread out of instinct. It took every ounce of self control to keep them pinned to my barrel and allow gravity to take its course.

As dark as it was, I could not clearly see the ground approaching. Things were eerily calm. I figured my thoughts would be overwhelmed with self-preservation, but they weren’t.

I had always heard that when one faces death, your life flashes before your eyes. I used to laugh it off as ridiculous, but that was what I was experiencing.

Oddly enough, most of my young life didn’t take long. Graduating from school, basic training, commissioning ceremony… all routine stuff. What I didn’t expect was my Wasteland life taking so much longer.

My first day down… causing a fight because I bumped into that security pony walking around a blind corner…

Discovering my talent for computers by fixing our landlord’s computer…

Making my first friends, Brownie and Flower...

Every stable dive, every scavenging trip, every fight with Last Stand…

The fateful day I met Silver… all curled up and crying in that darkened lab… Being pushed off the ledge…

The fall… that eerily similar fall… Muddy’s laugh echoing in my ears…

Then there were the deaths… Foggy, One, Brownie, Deputy Mortar, the assassin, the poor ponies of Coltington and now Dirtpatch… all because of me…

This would end it all...

But then I saw a pair of sky blue eyes that made everything else fade out of view. A pink face materialized next to it. Of course it was Silver. I remembered the flirtations… the awkward talks… our first kiss… and it all brought a grin to my face.

Then the black, feathered face of Gertie appeared. Again, the teal and lavender eyes and the affection she hid behind them warmed me. Her eyes also hid the pain of her unrequited feelings. But she was content, happy even.

Then I saw my memories of the love between Flower and Brownie… how they looked at each other and always made sure they were in contact with each other. The joy Flower had when she talked about their relationship and where it could lead.

The innocence in One’s eyes when he discovered anything new. How he looked up to me like a big brother.

These were good things. These were things I wanted in my life. These were things worth living for.

The visions cleared from my mind and I regained awareness of where I was. The ground was close and approaching very, very quickly.

I flared my wings as wide as I could. My left wing flared in pain and weakened. I began a slow and sickening spiral. I tried to pull back and felt my speed diminish, slightly. But it wasn’t going to be enough. I was falling too quickly.

“Nooooooooo!” I screamed at the top of my lungs as I tried to pull up enough to avoid death. I wasn’t walking away from this wreck, but I was trying not to die. “Not like this!”

Every muscle in my body strained against the forces I was asking them to endure. The pain burned in my left wing and I could barely breathe against every muscle in my body tensing up at once.

“Hold on there, you idiot,” a familiar, gruff voice called out. I felt two sets of legs wrap around me and pull up sharply. Gertie was on one side of me and Silver was on the other. They had wrapped themselves around my barrel and all three of us were pulling up as hard as we could.

We all groaned as we strained against the force of nature. I could feel our speed slowing… this just might work.

I looked down and saw the ground was close… too close.

“Level off! We need to get some lateral movement or we’ll all die!” I shouted. I tweaked my wing attitude slightly and felt a change in direction. It was slight, but it just might be enough. “Tuck and roll!”

Silver and Gertie released me seconds before I hit the ground. The impact jarred my legs and I felt shocks work up into my midsection. I allowed my legs to bend and I tucked my wings and rolled onto my shoulder. I began to tumble and completed several full rotations. Irregularities in the ground jabbed at my body. Everything hurt, especially my injured wing.

After a few more rolls, I began to slide. Small rocks bit at the little bit of exposed skin I had. Dust flew up into my face and into my nose and mouth. Eventually, I felt my forward movement stop and my body settled onto the ground in a heap.

I coughed violently to clear all of the dust I had inhaled during our crash landing. I could hear Gertie and Silver coughing on either side of me. Slowly, the coughs decreased in intensity and was replaced by heavy breathing and groaning.

“Celestia be damned,” Gertie sputtered between bursts of coughing. “You don’t do anything the easy way, do you?”

“What were you thinking, Dust?” Silver added between coughing of her own.

“I… I don’t…” I started. Did I really want to lie to my friends at this point? “I was thinking everyone would be better off without me.”

There was an uncomfortable silence. “Dust,” Silver started. “Do you… do you really believe that?”

“I did, Silver, I did,” I answered, feeling the tears welling up in my eyes. “I have been at the center of so much death and destruction. Foggy, One, Deputy Mortar, the assassin and Brownie… all because of me. And then there’s Coltington and Dirtpatch…”

“W...what about Dirtpatch?” Silver sputtered.

“Muddy took out Dirtpatch a short while ago,” I said, fully sobbing now. “I heard it over the radio and saw the fire on the horizon.”

They both audibly gasped.

“I figured that if I ended it, Muddy might just leave everypony alone,” I muttered between gasps of breath. “Or at least de-escalate things. If he couldn’t get what he wanted from me, then there would be no reason to hurt or kill anypony… or at least not target acquaintances of mine.

“If I was dead, you would be safer than with me around… everypony would,” I barely squeaked out. And this is when I broke down into a full out cry. Weeks of pent up stress, rage, sorrow, guilt… you name it, I was probably experiencing it all at once.

“I’ve tried so hard, but in the end, does it really even matter?,” I muttered through sobs and sniffles. “Every time I take a step forward, I feel like I fall back five. I fight Muddy with all my might, but ponies still die. I try to make things right, ponies die. Even if I do nothing, ponies die!”

I barely felt it when Gertie and Silver both crawled over and cradled me in their legs. Waves of relief washed over my body as I finally let it all go. I had cried over One and Brownie, but even then I had held back. I had to be strong for the others. But this time there was no holding back.

I don’t know how long I just lay there crying into my forelegs, being held by Silver and Gertie. Truth is, it didn’t really matter. Eventually, the tears stopped… and then the crying. Soon enough, even my breathing had returned to normal.

“How…” I started, interrupted by a sniffle. “How did you find me?”

Silver grinned a little. “When you ran off, we tried to follow you, but you are really quick. Anyway, I flew over a cave and saw smoke and a pony with a rifle on lookout and figured something was up. I found Gertie and got back here as quickly as I could… just wish it could have been sooner…”

An awkward silence fell on our small group.

“So, Dust…” Silver finally broke the silence. “You told us why you did it… but what made you change your mind? I mean, Gertie and I saw you falling and there was no way we could have made it fast enough, unless you tried to slow yourself…”

“Even through all the bad, I remembered the good I have seen in the Wasteland,” I responded, with a sniffle. “One’s curiosity and innocence, Flower’s and Brownie’s love for eachother… and you two. My feelings for you and the feelings I know you have for me.” I felt a grin stretching the muscles at the ends of my mouth. “You two are the most important ponies in my life. You make life worth living.”

Gertie and Silver cuddled up closer and squeezed me with their legs. For a brief moment, everything else faded away from my mind. All I cared about was the pony and griffon who were cuddled up with me.

I was still sobbing. My body was sore all over, but this was a different kind of soreness. It didn’t feel like any of the broken bones, stab wounds, or gunshots I had suffered. It was more of an all-over ache. But a gentle warmth worked its way through my body.

I don’t know how long we lay there, but light began to diffuse through the clouds and brighten the Wasteland a little.

The radio on my Pip-buck crackled to life. A very business like mare droned on over the speaker. “Plantation Forward Base to all Wasteland personnel. Prepare for advance on Fetlock Flats. Briefing at 1000 hours. All flight wings will depart at 1400 hours. Check in with flight commanders for assignments.”

I looked at the Pipbuck screen and the clock in the upper corner showed it was about 0800.

I sighed deeply. “Six hours…” I muttered. “When will I ever get a fucking break.”

“Don’t worry, Dust,” Silver said, wrapping me deeper in an embrace. “We’ll go and do what we can.”

“Yeah, and we’ll be there right by your side,” Gertie added.

“No,” I blurted out.

“Now, Dust,” Gertie started to scold me. “You can’t…”

I had to interrupt her. “Gertie… I’m not thinking of trying to go alone,” I said, shaking my head. “That would be suicide. In fact… going at all without a small army would be suicide. We barely made it out of Coltington. And Dirtpatch fell fast. We can’t win this by fighting.”

“But what about all those ponies?” Silver said, her voice wavering.

“We’ll send somepony to warn them. Tell them to get the fuck out of there,” I answered. “And then we’ll get the survivors of Coltington somewhere safe.” My face tightened into a severe grin and my voice lowered. “If there is such a place anymore. And then we’ll head up to Neighvarro.”

I caught them both off guard. “What?” they both blurted out in unison.

“I thought you said you weren’t committing suicide!” Silver shouted.

“Silver, calm down…” I said, trying to reassure her. “I am not trying to get killed.”

She flashed me a look as if to say, “Oh, really?”

“I swear!” I retorted. “Look, there is only two ways this will end. Either Muddy gets full access to the maneframe, completely clouds off the Wasteland, slowly killing off every living thing down here.” I took a pause. “Or, I go in and use the Pipbuck destruction access, to permanently lock down the SPP tower. It won’t improve anything down here, but at least things won’t get worse. It’s the best of both choices.”

“But what’s stopping Muddy from just killing you when you lock down the tower?” Gertie asked.

“That is a very valid concern,” I admitted. “But I look at it this way. The rest of the soldiers are just following orders. I can’t believe that when their primary objective is impossible that they will keep following Muddy. And the upper brass won’t stand for it either. I’m sure they are quietly approving of these plans just because it gets them what they want, too. But if that’s out of reach, they can’t justify risking lives for it anymore.”

“And what’s to keep Muddy from just killing you?” Silver asked.

“That’s the only sticking point,” I said, nodding. “It is a risk, but it’s one worth taking. It’s one I have to take”. I took another pause and looked each one of them in the eye. “And if I’m going to survive, I’m going to need help. I need you to have my back.”

I turned to my griffon merc. “Gertie, are there any Talon detachments anywhere nearby?” I asked.

“That’s a tough question, Dust,” she murmured as she scratched her head with one of her talons. “Camps move periodically when the work moves. Last I knew, Bloodfeathers encampment was northeast of Coltington.”

I found the favor coin Stoneclaw gave me and flipped it to Gertie. She fumbled it a few times but did catch it. “Go there, see what help they’ll give us in way of a favor,” I ordered. “Meet me back at the ruins of Coltington.” Gertie nodded and took off.

“Silver, I heard somepony became quite the courier while I was missing,” I said with a grin.

“Well, I mean, maybe,” she stuttered while her face reddened.

“Get to Fetlock Flats as fast as possible,” I said. “Warn them of what’s heading their way, get them to abandon the town. Maybe they can hide in the Stable nearby.”

“And what are you doing?” Silver asked.

“I’m going to go to Coltington,” I answered. “I’m going to make sure the survivors are safe. How long do you think it will take to get there and back?”

“Um, couple of hours, at least,” she answered after some thought.

“Alright… better get going, then,” I reared back, preparing to kick off and head back to Coltington.

Before I could clear the ground, Silver wrapped her hooves around me and dragged me back to the ground.

“Hey! What the…” I began.

Silver planted her lips right against mine and kissed me more strongly than she ever had before. I was shocked for several moments, and then I finally returned the gesture. We kissed for several moments more.

“Dust, I love you,” she said, breathlessly. “I can’t imagine living without you anymore.”

“I… I love you too, Silver,” I finally muttered back.

Silver smiled at me and then turned and took off. I watched as she slowly shrank to a small point and then vanished from view.

A gravelly voice startled me. “Love is a funny thing,” the hooded figure’s voice. “Makes you do funny things. Things you think are brave, or cool, or awesome. Sometimes they are, sometimes they aren’t.”

“Are you trying to tell me…” I tried to ask.

“I’m not really trying to tell you anything,” she responded. “Just remembering better times.”

“Not to sound too ungrateful, but why are you here this time?” I prodded. “Usually when you show up, I either have made a big mistake or something bad is about to happen.”

“That’s hardly fair,” she responded, sounding hurt. “Can’t a pony just visit a friend?”

“Look, I don’t really have time for this,” I said bluntly. “I have a plan to come up with, and I need to find a way to keep everypony alive.”

“Oh, I remember those days,” she said with some melancholy. “Plans, plans and more plans. Enemy compositions, allied units, projected casualties, acceptable losses, it’s all just too much to deal with. Take it from me, kid, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. How I pined for the days when I could just sit back with a Daring Do novel.”

“But what else can I do?” I shouted back.

“That’s always the problem, isn’t it?” she answered. “You make one choice, ponies die. You make another choice, ponies die and you piss off ponies you know. Doing nothing isn’t even an option.”

“Well, I’ve gotta do something,” I shot back. “I can’t let Muddy continue wiping out towns left and right.”

“Wasn’t trying to stop you,” she answered, shaking her head. “So, what are you going to do? Try to liberate the maneframe or destroy the Pipbuck?”

“I… I don’t know yet,” I admitted. “I want to clear the cloud cover to help the Wasteland, but if I open that option, nothing will stop Muddy from using it to completely reform the cloud cover. But if I destroy the key, well, then things never get better down here…”

“Well, whatever you decide to do, good luck,” she said with a turn and began to walk away.

“Wait?!? That’s it?” I shouted. “No sage advice… no veiled references… no vague predictions? I’ve done whatever I could do to save the Wasteland… as you said I needed to! I’ve lost friends! Whole settlements are dead! All because you told me to!”

“Whoa… hold on there,” she said, breaking her stride. She turned to face me. “I never told you what you needed to do. I told you what could happen, but never said you HAD to do anything.”

“That’s just semantics, isn’t it!” I yelled. “Like I’m not going to listen to the mysterious hooded figure that keeps appearing to me! Who in Tartarus are you, anyway?”

“All in good time, Dust,” she answered, turning away and walking away from me again. “Good luck, with whatever you decide to do. I’m sure you’ll use your best judgement!” With that, she began to fade from view.

“See! That’s what I’m talking about!” I shouted, now to no one in particular. I kicked at the dirt in frustration.

The flight back to Coltington was, fortunately, uneventful. I kept trying to refine my plan, predict every possibility, avoid every casualty. However, a quote from basic training kept echoing in my head: “Even the best laid battle plans don’t survive first contact with the enemy.” No matter how well I planned, most of the work would be done on the fly.

I got back to Coltington in short order. The survivors of the Enclave attack were combing through the ruins, trying to find anything that survived the fires. I helped several ponies comb through the remains of their houses for anything that was either useful or sentimental. Speaking with several of the older ponies, they had already decided to head down to Dry Forks since most had friends or family there.

After about an hour, I heard something land behind me. “Hey, Gertie,” I greeted her, still sifting through the ashes with an older mare.

“Hey, Dust,” she answered, sounding dejected. “Bad news.”

That got my attention. I turned and saw a matching look on her face. “Even calling in my Dad’s favor, Bloodfeathers can only spare three mercs. They’ll be here in an hour or so. Most of his company is out on contracts. Sorry.”

“Gertie, no need to be sorry,” I comforted her, lifting her beak with my hoof. “I wasn’t expecting much anyway. So, no long faces, OK?”

A gleam flashed in her eyes and she leaned forward, plastering her beak over my mouth. She began to kiss me with no abandon. As before, the shock of it all paralyzed me for several moments, after which I reciprocated.

Gertie pulled away. “Sorry about that, Dust,” she muttered. “I just couldn’t hold back any more. I know you love Silver, but I do love you.”

“Gertie,” I answered, a small grin on my face. “I do love you, too. But I can’t ignore my feelings for Silver. If it makes you feel any better, I have no idea what to do about the three of us.”

“Doesn’t really help,” she said with a frown, “but thanks for being truthful with me.” Gertie shuffled on her paws. “Dust, I’m going to for a flight… I’ll be back in a little.”

“Gertie… wait!” I called out, but she kicked up and took off before I could stop her. Damn it.

I spent the next hour or so helping the last survivors pack up and leave for their new homes. For as much as they had been through, they were unexpectedly hopeful. All they wanted was peace and safety, and they no longer could find it here.

Silver got back before Gertie did, landing right next to me with a lot of grace. “Hey, Dust,” she said with a grin. “Fetlock Flats is sheltering in the Stable until after the Enclave forces attack. The mayor and sheriff weren’t happy, but the townsponies had heard about Coltington and Dirtpatch and practically threatened to lynch them if they didn’t evacuate.” She paused to chuckled a little. “Where’s Gertie?” she said, looking around the ruins.

“She’s just out for a flight,” I answered. She didn’t need to know any more. Several shadows crossed our shadows. I looked up and saw four griffons begin a descent spiral. “Ah, look like she’s back now.”

The three mercs landed, barely disturbing the ground. They weren’t as impressive as Stoneclaw or some of the others, but they were armed to the teeth. They could have passed as brothers. Jet black feathers and fur, and deep golden eyes. The only identifying mark was that the largest of the three had an eyepatch.

“Bloodfeathers’ Talons, reporting for duty,” Gertie added as she touched down.

Finally, it felt like all the pieces were coming together.

“Alright, everypony. Let’s find Flower and I’ll fill you in on my plan,” I said with a smirk. “And it’s a doozy.”

Level Up!

Speech +5

Perk Obtained!
Fancy Flying : It’s got to be about 20% cooler - You can now perform tighter aerial maneuvers. AGI +1.

Chapter 33 - Clarity

Chapter 33 - Clarity
“You must first clearly see a thing in your mind before you can do it.”

“You have got to be kidding me!” Gertie squawked out in disgust.

“Dust, you surely can’t be serious!” Silver gasped.

“We didn’t sign on for no suicide mission,” one of the griffon mercs yelled.

Everypony was yelling at me after I had informed them of my “plan” as it were. All except one.

A shrill whistle shattered the air and caused everyone to quiet down and look at the source. Flower removed her hooves from her mouth and turned to me. “Crazy,” Flower deadpanned. “You really, really are a crazy asshole. So let me make sure I have this straight… we fly up to Neighvarro?”

“Yup,” I answered.

“And we turn ourselves over to Muddy?” she continued.

“Sounds right,” I said.

“And you act like you’re going to cooperate?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“But you’re going to destroy the Pipbuck?”

“Uh huh.”

“And then somehow we escape?”

“Seems to me like you have it,” I confirmed with a smirk.

“You really are crazy,” she repeated, shaking her head this time. “Besides the stunning lack of detail, I have one question… when in this plan do you think about Muddy just snapping and killing you?”

“Well, I can’t entirely rule it out,” I admitted. “I’m counting on him being the only pony in the room who’ll want to kill me at that point. I’m expecting the rank and file to lose a little of their nerve once the objective is no longer possible,” I said, waving the Pipbuck around. “Besides, soldiers still have their code of conduct to abide by… we won’t be a threat, there’s no reason for them to kill us.”

“Or he’ll order your execution right there and then,” Silver argued. “As well as ours. They are trained to follow orders, right?”

“Yes, but they should know a good order from a bad one. And that’s where our griffon friends come into the equation,” I responded. “Once the goal is achieved, or things go to shit, hopefully they can distract everypony long enough for us to make it out.”

“Dust, no offense, but that is a supremely shitty plan,” Gertie said.

“I’m open to other ideas,” I shot back, tinged with more frustration than I intended. “Tell me how else we can get near that access port so I can plug the Pipbuck in? You know that entire area is a military outpost, right?” An awkward silence filled the room as everypony tried to think of an alternate idea. “I thought not.”

A gloom had settled over the ruins of Coltington. A few survivors of the attack who hadn’t left yet began to build a fire for the night. “Look, I figure we leave in the morning. We don’t want them to think we’re trying to sneak in. We want to appear non-threatening. Unless they’ve changed the layout of the encampment outside the tower, we should come in from the north so they can see us coming.

“Lockjaw, you and your buddies figure out the best way to draw an armed contingent away from Neighvarro,” I ordered. “And I don’t expect this to be a suicide mission. Just distract… protect yourselves however you need to, but no unnecessary risks. I’m not looking to fight them and win, I’m just looking to escape.” The stern-faced griffon’s eyes bulged a little at first, but then he nodded in response. The small contingent walked away from the clearing and began talking amongst themselves.

Knowing what we had in front of us, the few Coltington residents who hadn’t left yet volunteered to cover the watch for the night. I spent the first hour or so tossing and turning and just couldn’t fall asleep. I got up and walked to what used to be the edge of town and just walked. The fire in the center of town caused shadows of the ruined buildings to dance along other parts of the ruins. My mind just kept racing about all that could go wrong tomorrow.

“Dust?” a voice softly broke through my reverie. I jumped at the sound, tripping over my own hooves. I faceplanted onto the ground below, forcing dirt into my mouth and nose, causing me to erupt into a coughing fit.

“Oh geez,” Gertie said with a giggle. “You OK, Dust?” She kneeled down to help my back to my hooves.

After a few more coughs full of dirt, I was finally able to breathe again. “Yeah, I’ll be fine.” After a short pause, I added, “Couldn’t sleep either?”

“No, not really,” Gertie answered. She shuffled her weight between her paws.

“Are you OK, Gertie?” I asked.

“Y.. yes,” she answered, her voice wavering. “No… Dust, can we talk?”

“Sure, what’s on your mind?” I asked while I sat down.

“I’m.. I’m sorry about before… it’s just that, I have these feelings and I don’t know what else to do,” she explained, her eyes beginning to water.

“Gertie, am I your first…” I began to ask.

“What? No!” she blurted out defensively. “Well, maybe. I mean, I’ve had crushes on some of the mercs before, but I was so much younger... and my dad would have killed them,” she added with a giggle. “But, with you, it’s different. I mean, you saved my life when you didn’t have to risk yours, but you did.”

“Any of the mercs would have,” I argued.

“Yeah, but they sorta had to… I mean, I am the head honcho’s daughter,” she laughed. “You had no such compulsion. You just did it. And standing up for me against my dad... having faith in my abilities… no one, not pony or griffon, has ever done that for me.

“On top of that, you’re funny, and caring… maybe a little too caring… and I don’t know when, but somewhere along the way, I realized I want to be with you,” she added and then paused. Gertie sniffled and then continued, “I know you love Silver, and I don’t know how I’ll handle it, but I want to. Even if I can’t have you, I need you in my life.” She ended with a deep sigh.

“Gertie, I don’t know what to say,” I began. It was my turn to sigh deeply. “At first, I was worried that I cared about you only because you saved me from the bunker. And I didn’t want to lead you on when it wasn’t real.” I saw her shoulders slump. “But, over time, I began to feel how real it was.

“To be honest, I was never much of a mares’ stallion,” I mumbled. “Priorities are… different… up there anyway. I don’t know if it’s common knowledge down here that same sex couples are almost encouraged to keep the overall population down. I felt things for other pegasi, but didn’t really know how to act upon it. And even though I always kinda liked the mares anyway, I could never bring myself to ask. There’s nothing special about me, at least, nothing to put me above the combat flyers. Everypony was out of my league…”

“But, Dust, you’re…” Gertie tried to interject.

I placed a hoof over her mouth. “Gertie, it’s OK. I know I’m just a run of the mill soldier pony. And there’s nothing wrong with that. And to be honest, I know I’m in over my head here. But I’m getting sidetracked.” I took another deep breath. “You are a selfless and brave merc, not to mention loyal. You have put your needs behind others, and not just because of a contract. You do it because it’s the right thing to do. That may not make you the best merc, but it makes you a good griffon.

“And I know how you feel… I have feelings for you too. Very complex and confusing feelings, mostly because of, and I’m sorry for this, Silver. I have feelings for her too, and I just don’t know what to do about it.” I paused, not knowing where to go with this… hoping for Gertie to fill the silence.

Fortunately, she did. “Dust, I know. And I don’t want to make things difficult,” she added. She placed her claw on the side of my face and looked me right in the eyes. “Just promise me I can always have you in my life, and that you will keep me in mind, if, you know…” Gertie punctuated the statement with a nervous exhale.

I couldn’t help but laugh a little. She wrapped her forelegs around me and I did the same for her. “Gertie, while I can’t promise I can give you what you want, I can promise that you will always be special to me.” I couldn’t help but giggle at my next thought. “And I will keep you in mind, if, you know…”

Gertie fought it at first, but even she laughed a little. She leaned in and gave me a kiss on the cheek. After breaking our embrace, she stepped back. “So, I’ll see you in the morning?”

“You bet…” I answered. “We got a long day in front of us tomorrow.”

She turned away, but hesitated. Then she turned quickly and wrapped me in an embrace. She quickly pressed her beak to my lips and kissed me hardly and deeply. After a moment of shock, I returned the act.

She broke away. “Good night, Dust.” Gertie worked her way back to the fire and curled up into her bedroll. I moved closer to the edge of town, finding a small alcove to sit down and lean against while still being able to gaze at the fire.

“I love you, too,” I muttered, under my breath. Almost as if she could hear me, her head raised and looked over her shoulder right at me. She couldn’t really have heard me, could she? After a few seconds pause, she slumped back down and laid her head down.

My mind began to race thinking about tomorrow. I was thinking of contingency plans, all the possible what ifs, what could go wrong, what would we do… And I even thought about Gertie here and there. And what in Tartarus was I going to do about Gertie and Silver?

“Dust?” Silver called out my name.

“Great, now I’m hearing her voice, too,” I mumbled to myself.

“Dust, what do you mean?” she asked.

I looked away from the fire and saw Silver’s silhouetted by the fire light. “Silver!” I cried out in surprise. “Can’t sleep?”

“No, and I see you can’t either,” she replied. “Mind if I join you?”

“Sure,” I replied, scooting over and letting her sit next to me.

“Cap for your thoughts?” I inquired.

“Well, I had a lot on my mind and I didn’t want to lose this chance to talk about it, in case, well, you know…” she added uneasily. “In case one of us doesn’t make it back.”

“I know the feeling,” I responded, nodding solemnly.

“Things have been, um, complex between us, haven’t they?” she started. Without skipping a beat, she continued. “I mean, you saved me from Muddy in the vault… by Celestia, that feels like ages ago now. And you didn’t need to… you could have just walked away… I was nothing to you… but you’re different than most ponies I know. Tartarus, most ponies would have tried to take advantage of me in that situation…”

Not quite knowing what to say, I just waited for her to resume. “But not only did you not take advantage of it, you risked your own life to save mine. And then you did everything you could to protect me further… and you even rescued me from Manny. I was confused… who was the wasteland pony who acted like no other wasteland pony I knew. And then I began to worry… did I just feel the way I felt since you saved me?”

I snorted while fighting back laughter. Silver looked up at me confused. “Long story,” I stated. “Anyway, keep going.”

“But the more I saw you do, the more I knew it was just who you were. You were even to risk your life for ponies you barely knew, even if it meant pissing all of us off. But that didn’t matter, doing what was right did.” She paused, and I could feel her tense up. “And then you went back up chasing Muddy. And I thought you had died.” I heard her sniffle and began to sob. “I thought you were dead, Dust. We all did. I mean, you were gone for months. And then I moved on to Scrapyard… and then you came back in my life.

“That day… Tartarus, not far from here even, you turned my world upside down. In some ways, it would have been easier if you hadn’t come back. I won’t lie… there were moments I wish you had died. I was angry. Things had just started to settle down for me. It definitely would have made everything easier. But all the old feelings came flooding back. And we never really got a chance to talk about this, we’ve been so busy. Losing Brownie, losing Coltington… and now tomorrow, we take on an entire branch of the Enclave military? This is insane…

“But, it made me realize I needed to lay it all on the line…” she paused, tensing up again.

“Silver, it’s OK if you…” I started to say, but couldn’t. Silver had locked me in an embrace and pressed our lips together. I remember this happening only one other time and that first time was amazing. But this was different. This was just… more, somehow. She wasn’t holding back, and neither was I. I lost myself in the moment and let go, too.

I don’t know how long we were locked in that kiss. But, the sound of something scraping along the ground caught both of our attention.

“What the?” Silver asked.

I scanned the area and couldn’t see anypony. “Maybe it was just the night watch.”

After a pause, she nuzzled up next to me. I finally felt the tension in my body drain and I drifted off to sleep.

I felt myself wake up, but I couldn’t see anything. Everything was black… ah, Tartarus…

“Oh mysterious robed figure! Where are you?” I called out, a slight edge to my voice. Of all the times for another visit…

“My, my, you’re rather impatient,” the gravelly voice called out, still not appearing. “You remind me of, well, me, when I was younger, and alive,” she giggled. “Why the rush?”

“In case you haven’t noticed, I have a suicide mission I have to be ready for tomorrow,” I grumbled. “I need my sleep.”

“This won’t affect your sleep… and is this what you call sleep?” she retorted, her robed outline appearing from the murk. She waved one of her legs and a small area lit up slightly, showing Silver and I sleeping against the ruined wall in Coltington.

“Am I not entitled to one night of happiness?” I shot back.

“No.. you are and it’s awesome… what took so long?” she laughed.

“Wh… what?” I stammered. “So long?”

“Oh, c’mon Dust, I’ve known this day was coming for forever!” she added with more laughter. “A turtle moves faster than you do!”

“Well, you know.. Um…” I just couldn’t form a coherent thought.

Eventually, her laughter died down. The robed figure walked next to me and sat down. The view changed and we were sitting on a ledge overlooking the entire Wasteland. Small pinpricks of light identified small settlements here and there. “Amazing, isn’t it?” she asked.

“It’s a shithole,” I glumly answered. “But it is amazing what the ponies down here can do. After what we did to them. It just isn’t right. Which is why I have to make up for it.”

“So, you’re the spokespony for the entire Enclave? I thought that was the Council’s job?” she asked me, sarcasm dripping off each word. “The great Dust Cloud, ambassador of the great Pegasus Enclave! Or is it Updraft.”

“That’s not what I meant,” I growled. “But I have the ability to do this, and I have to do this.”

“Why?” she shot back. “Why is it your job? Your responsibility? You called for the cloud cover? You drive out the sympathizers? And brand them? That’s all your doing?”

“Well, no, but…” I tried to argue.

“Then why? Why is this YOUR job?” she argued back. “There are so many ponies up there,” she said, pointing towards the sky. “Why do YOU have to do this? Why are you doing this?”

“Because it has to be me,” I shot back. “I have this thing,” I nearly shouted, waving the Pipbuck in the air. “I didn’t ask for it, and I didn’t want it! All I wanted was to go home. Back up there! But that was never going to happen. If I don’t do this, then more shit will rain down on the Wasteland.”

“That still doesn’t answer my question,” she shot right back. “Why. Are. You. Doing. This.”

“BECAUSE IT’S THE RIGHT THING TO DO!” I yelled, the image of the Wasteland shattering into shards and falling away.

After a long pause, the stranger took a deep breath. “See, was that so hard to admit?”

“What do you mean?” I said, nearly whispering.

“It’s easy to make decisions when you think you have no choice,” she said. “I’m the only one, there’s no other choice, what else can be done… But that doesn’t make a judgement on what’s being done. Many ponies have done terrible things without thinking… even me. But we were ‘just following orders’, we told ourselves. Those are the easy decisions. The really hard decisions are the ones where there is no clear answer. The easy choice is so tempting, but the hard choice might extract a high cost. But neither is right or wrong. It’s those decisions that are important… that show who you are.

“You could just stay down in the Wasteland forever. Eventually, the Enclave will tame Muddy down. But they will probably hunt you down, for a while anyway. But you could risk it all to do some good. Or you could have given the Enclave what they want and be a hero. How many ponies wouldn’t want to be the hero and live in comfort. No matter what you choose, some ponies win, some ponies lose, and some ponies pay a huge price.”

Another image formed in the inky darkness. It was Fort Canterbury. The supply depot. A shadow appeared near me and I saw my old self land, drawing a small skywagon behind me. Everything froze.

“Why are you showing me this?” I asked, my voice pained.

“What do you see?”

“It’s me before all of this started… shit, it hasn’t even been a year, has it... “ I paused. “It feels like this was a different lifetime.”

“Well, wasn’t it though?” she retorted. “Tell me, what do you see?”

“It’s me…”

“Look deeper, what do you see?”

“I see a soldier,” I answered.

“Talk to me about him...” she continued.

“He’s content. Likes his job, wants more, but who doesn’t?” I answered. “Always trying to satisfy his superiors, never quite doing so.”

She cut me off. “No… don’t tell me about his career… talk to me about HIM.”

“I don’t understand.” I was seriously confused.

“What kind of pony is he?” she clarified. “Is he a leader? Is he the kind of pony to single-hoofedly take on an entire army?”

“Well, yeah…” I started but my words fell flat in my own ears. My head slumped down. “No… no he’s not.”

“So you’re telling me he can’t lead ponies?” she asked, incredulously. “You’re telling me he’s not a fighter?”

The general’s face appeared from the shadows. “Annual reviews are good, but not excellent. Combat Readiness evaluations are OK. I’ll be honest, though. You are nothing but an average soldier, at best. You really don’t have much of a future in the Enclave if you hang around.” His original words somehow echoed in the void. As quickly as it appeared, it disappeared.

I fell down to the ground and began to sob. “He… he was right…”

“That’s right, private,” his gruff voice echoed out in the darkness. A ghostly image of the general in his dress uniform trotted out in front of me. “A middling soldier. Perhaps not even worth his commission in the Enclave. All you’re good for is pulling around a wagon. And Tartarus, you weren’t even very good at that!” He laughed. “I gave you your only chance to stand out, and you fucked that up too!”

“But,” I tried to argue but he cut me off.

“Please… I’ve heard it from many like you before,” spitting his words at me. “But I’m better than that,” he added, mockingly. “I can do better, I’ll show you. Please. Why do you think I picked you? Easy to control, eager to please, willing to do anything… and easy to disappear. No one misses you, Dust.”

“That’s not true!” I shouted back. “My mom, and there’s Buster! And my other friends!”

“They think you’re dead! No one is looking for you!” he snickered.

“And my other friends. Flower, Silver, Gertie…” I cried out, sinking to the ground.

“What about One and Brownie? You know, the ones you got killed,” he added with an evil grin.

“But they weren’t my fault,” I whimpered, starting to cry.

“How convenient for you,” he jeered. “Well, just remember this for the rest of your life, however short it may be.” he turned and walked away, fading into the black.

A parade of more ghostlike ponies appeared before me. A large brown pony began to fade into view. “Hi, Dust. How are ya?” Brownie’s deep voice echoed into my ears.

“Howdy, Mr. Dust!” One’s playful voice rang out behind him. His ghostly green form trotted past.

RIght behind him was Midnight. “Hey, Updraft. How’s it going?”

The lineup went on and on. Various townsponies from Coltington like Big Boss and Last Stand, Manny, Leafy, the assassin… were there really this many?

“I’m sorry… they are dead because I’m not good enough…” I cried out as my body fell limp.

“No, Dust… they aren’t…” she said, sitting down next to me and placing a hoof on my back.

“But I watched most of them die!” I shouted.

“But you didn’t kill them,” she said softly. “They are dead because of choices they made. Choices you were involved in, but you didn’t force anypony’s hooves. You inspired ponies to act. You showed them there is another way… a better way.”

“No… I can’t get off that easily,” I continued to sob.

“I never said it would be easy,” she said, her hooded head dropping. “You will remember each death for the rest of your life. But it is not your fault.”

The ghosts vanished to be replaced by a new set of ethereal images. I saw Flower, Silver, and Gertie, walk out of the darkness.

“And tell me this…” the stranger said and then paused. “What about this collection of ponies?”

“They’re good ponies… and a griffon,” I answered. “Selfless, fierce…”

“But why are they together?” she interrupted. “First, you have a Wasteland pegasus, not accepted by her own, and not accepted by the wastelanders. Speaking of which, there’s Flower, a Dashite. And finally, there’s the Griffon merc. How in Equestria is this group together?”

“Well, I met…” I started.

“No… I don’t need a history lesson.” I was getting a little frustrated being cut off frequently. “How did this disparate group, who, by all accounts, should not be a group, come together and stay together this long?”

“Because of me…” I started. “They were helping me fix my fuckups…”

“They didn’t have to… they chose to,” the hooded stranger replied. “They did it with you, not because of you or for you.”

“Yeah, but…”

“But nothin’,” she interrupted me again. “You bonded with these ponies. You formed a team. You got their trust. You’ve earned their loyalty.”

“But…” The realization washed over me and floored me. I had spent all this time thinking it was all about me, but in a different way. I thought it was all my fault… that I had guilted these ponies into following me. Persuading them into a fools’ errand for me. But that wasn’t it at all. These ponies are following because they want to, because they agree it is the right thing to do.

“But there is still one problem…” she said.

“And what is…” I started to say, but then I saw the orange colored eye slits of Enclave power armor emerge from the darkness. Attached to their sides, I saw the purple glow of the arcane power cells of the Novasurge rifles. I counted at least a dozen rows or armored soldiers.

A larger pony stepped in front of the group. The helmet actuated and flipped back, revealing Muddy. “That would be me, Dust.” The rifle began to whine as the power up cycle started. “I’d run if I were you.” Before I had a chance to react, the first energy bolt whizzed past my head.

Skittering to my feet, I began to run as fast as I could. But there was nowhere to go, no cover to be found. The magical energy beams whizzed closer and closer to my head.

The robed figure flew next to me and kept pace, her robes flapping behind her. “This is your problem now… figure something out!” She accelerated and flew away into the void in front of me.

The next shot found home. The burning sensation began in my hindquarters and slowly ebbed its way forward. Eventually, my entire body was on fire.

I shot straight up and screamed. The burning feeling began to fade away But I was still screaming between ragged breaths.

Silver wrapped her legs around me. “Shhhhhh… it’s alright.. You were having a nightmare.”

I buried my head into her chest and tried to slow my breathing as best I could. The burning sensation had faded completely. But the fear… that fear was still all too real. How could that be?!?

“Cap for your thoughts?” Silver said with a nudge.

“It was noth…” Why was I hiding this? “What do you think our chances are tomorrow?”

“You want an honest answer?” she asked. After I nodded, she sighed deeply. “Pretty shitty, I think. I mean, it is a pretty ridiculous plan. But then again, it is the right thing to do, isn’t it?”

“Yes, yes it is,” I admitted with a forced grin.

We sat there in an awkward silence for a while. I felt Silver’s breathing start to slow and settle into a pattern. I felt myself begin to drift off again, as well.

“I love you, Dust,” she murmured, just barely audible.

“I love you, too, Silver,” I replied.

She gave a soft moan back and I drifted off to sleep.

Morning came too quickly. Silver’s shuffling eased me awake.

“Morning sunshine,” she whispered sweetly.

“Good morning,” I answered in kind. “Sleep well?”

“No,” she chuckled. “You?”

“No,” I laughed back. I began to get up and Silver tried to grip me tighter. “C’mon, you know we have to do this?”

“Can’t we just sit here for a few more minutes?” she asked, her eyes watering up.

“Silver, we need,” I started but saw the emotion in her eyes. “Sure, we can sit here for a few minutes.”

I have to admit, the warmth of her body against mine was a feeling I would never pass up. She nuzzled her snout into my neck and we sat there for what felt like an eternity.

“Aww, look at you two,” Flower chided as she walked around the corner of the ruin. “Don’t wanna break this up, but we got shit to do.”

Silver let out a groan and made her way to her hooves. I followed suit. Every muscle in my body ached from the awkward sleeping position, but I didn’t mind it. I followed Silver and Flower back into the center of town.

One of the griffon mercs saw me and smirked. “What’s the smile on your face for, eh?” I grumbled. His buddies began to laugh. Shit… I hope Gertie wasn’t hearing this. Scanning the area, I saw her. When I locked gazes with her, she looked away, her shoulders slumping.

Ah, Tartarus.

“Alright everypony,” I announced. “Get your gear together. We’re wings up in fifteen.”

That bull of a grif, Lockjaw, trotted up to me as everyone else broke to attend to their preparation. “Hey, Dust, I need to talk to ya...”

“What’s up, Lockjaw?”

“I know your shell of a plan,” he started. “But me and the griffs are missing some of the details. How do we know when you need our help?”

“I don’t really know for sure,” I answered. His beak nearly hit the floor. “If all goes well, you guys have an incredibly easy mission on your claws. However, if things go bad, I expect you’ll know it. I just expect help with exfil.”

“And you’re sure you don’t want us to come in and help you fight?” he asked, looking at me as if I was crazy.

“Yes, I’m sure. I don’t want you guys at risk,” I said while shaking my head. “If things go that badly, there’ll be no fighting our way out, no matter how many of us there are. Our only hope would be to split their attention. I’ll get us out of the tower, we need you to help us get clear.”

“Alright,” he grunted, clearly not satisfied with the answer, and sauntered away.

I had to get my gear ready faster than anypony else since I was going to be the one pulling the skywagon for Flower and had to get strapped in. I can only imagine the surprise, albeit fleeting, when the soldiers see an “earth pony” walking on the clouds. It was just too bad we couldn’t use that in our favor.

Even though I had been fully trained in self mounting when it came to skywagons, it didn’t mean the job was not a pain in the ass. The eggheads who came up with the belts on the harness system needed to try it out on their own and maybe they would redesign the whole damn thing.

As I was struggling with the straps, I heard hoofsteps approach. Turning to look, I saw Flower walking up.

“Want some help, Dust?” she asked, putting her gear inside the carriage.

“Oh, absolutely, these straps…” I started to say.

“Not with the straps, dumbass,” she laughed moving towards the harness. “I meant with your love triangle problem?”

“Oh.. no… I…” I stuttered, completely floored by her frankness. “I just don’t know what to do… I love them both, and they both love me. I have to choose, but how do I choose? What is the right decision to make?”

“There is no right decision, Dust,” she mumbled, a strap still in her mouth. “You just have to do what feels right. And that just might mean not to choose at all.”

“But, Flower, I don’t want to lose one of them,” I rebutted.

“Nah, you misunderstand me,” she laughed, switching to the other side of the harness. “You can have both,” she added with a wicked smile.

“What? No, you don’t mean…”

“Eeyup, I certainly do,” she added, tightening the strap down.

I didn’t get a chance to answer her since the rest of our rag-tag little group was trotting up. No one said a word, but we all shared grim looks. Everypony knew what our goal was, and what the likely outcome could be. But nopony shied away. Everypony looked strong.

“I won’t get a chance to say this in the air, so let me say this now,” I announced. “This is not your fight, even you, Talons. If you want to step away, I will not think any less of you.” Much to my relief, nopony said a word.

“Alright then, obligatory speech time,” I announced, and everyone chuckled. “We are about to leave on what may be a one way trip for some of us. And it will probably be a mission that no one ever hears about ever again. But this is something that has to be done. This damned thing,” I said while waving the Pipbuck for all to see, “is too large a threat to leave out there to possibly get in the hands of the Enclave and as long as it remains in tact, nothing will stop Muddy, and the rest of the Enclave, too, I imagine.

“If there were another way, I would gladly do it. But the only way to destroy it is in the middle of the SPP tower and that is guarded by whatever forces Muddy has mustered. We have to enter the hornet’s nest. But that can’t stop us… it won’t stop us! What we do, we do for the entire Wasteland!”

As I scanned my small, rag-tag army, I swore I could see the approving faces of One, Brownie and the robed stranger. But when I took a second look, they weren’t there… why would they be?

Flower boarded the sky wagon and we all took off. Looking over my shoulder, I watched as what was left of Coltington grew smaller and smaller, until it finally disappeared.

Fortunately, nopony wanted to chat during the entire flight. It gave me plenty of time with my own thoughts. It was funny to me that I wasn’t thinking about strategy, or contingency plans, or what-ifs. I was thinking about Silver and Gertie.

Both were amazing. I knew I couldn’t live my life without either one in it. But I had to choose one of them, didn’t I? Or was Flower right, could I really choose both? Would they even go for it?

My mind went around and around this point. It felt like a bad record playing in my head, but no one had the decency to bump the machine. Just when I was about to go through the same argument for the hundredth time, a callout broke my train of thought.

“Neighvarro, dead ahead,” Gertie yelled out.

Level up!
Speech +5

Perk Obtained - Rallying Cry! - When followed by three or more companions, gain +1 Charisma. All followers gain +5 in all skills.

Prologue

Prologue – A New Path

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less travelled by.

I awoke to the sun shining right through the window, gently warming my face. Wait, the sun shouldn’t be shining through the window yet. I was supposed to be awake early this morning for my meeting with the general. Looking back at the window, I saw the sun right where it shouldn’t be. Groping blindly on my bedside table, I found the familiar shape of the pocket watch that had been passed from father to son in my family for generations. I depressed the button and the face popped open. The watch indicated that it was 9:30 in the morning. 9:30?!? I was supposed to meet the general at 9:45!

I jumped out of bed near panic. Last night, I received a message from General Cirrus’ assistant saying he wanted a private meeting with me this morning at 9:45, and that it was important. You never kept a general waiting, not if you valued your assignment in the Enclave. I galloped down the hall and jumped into the one of the showers in the barracks washroom. I took what was probably the fastest shower in my life. When I hopped out, I took a look in the mirror.

I was greeted by the familiar sight of the dark gray coat and deep brown eyes staring back at me. I was nothing spectacular to look at. I always seemed to blend in with the crowd. I ran a towel over my short-cropped sky-blue mane. Fortunately, military standard hairstyles meant less maintenance in the morning. I galloped back to the bunkroom and quickly opened the footlocker at the foot of my bed. I grabbed my standard issue Enclave dress uniform. The blue dress uniform slid on easily. I grabbed the rank insignia and fastened them to my collar. I also grabbed my nameplate and attached it to the right chest pocket. Looking at the black lettering on the silver nameplate, Pvt. Updraft, I made sure it was square with the rest of my uniform. I gave myself one last glance in the mirror, making sure I was presentable, and ran out of my room.

I hurried through the rest of the barracks until I was outside. As soon as I got free of the building, I flapped my wings and took off. I hurried as fast as I could towards the Administration Building where General Cirrus had his office.

“Hey Updraft, you still in for poker tonight?” I looked down and saw my buddy Cloud Buster.

“Yes! Sorry! Got to go!” I yelled back at him.

I got to the Admin Building in record time. When I landed, I checked my pocket watch. 9:44. Shit!

I galloped at top speed into the building and up the stairs. The general’s office was on the sixth floor. I ran past confused-looking ponies and nearly ran over one other. “Sorry!” I shouted. As I got to the sixth floor landing, I hurried through the double doors and right past a confused looking guard.

“Halt! Get back here, Private!” a high-pitched, scratchy voice called out behind me.

Damn, this was gonna get me in even more trouble. I skidded to a stop and waited at attention. The guard, a sergeant by the look of his rank insignia, caught up in short order. “You will explain yourself, Private!” he squeaked.

“Yes, sir! Sorry, sir! I was supposed to meet with General Cirrus at 9:45!”

“You know you’re late, right Private? You know what the general does to those who keep him waiting?” he sneered at me. Why couldn't he just let me go!

Before I had a chance to answer, I heard a gentle, deep voice. “That’s quite enough. It seems as if you scared the Private enough.” I turned around and there he stood, General Cirrus. He was not an overly large pegasus. He had a light green coat, most of which was covered by his dress white uniform. His chest was covered with various medals and honors he had received over the years. His brown mane was impeccably groomed. He had teal eyes that, as rumor had it, could see right through to a pony’s soul. “Pardon us, Sergeant, I’ll take it from here.”

The sergeant snapped a salute and responded, “Ye- ye- yes sir!” He turned around and trotted back to his post at the entry to the floor.

“He is right you know, Private. You shouldn’t keep your superiors waiting.”

“Yes, sir. Sorry, sir. I can’t explain it. I’m usually an early riser.” I said nervously. I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. A demotion? Was there a rank lower than Private? Time in the brig? Latrine duty?

He chuckled. “I think we can let it go.” He added with a joking tone, “This time.” We both laughed a little, albeit mine was out of nervousness.

After a short walk down the plushly carpeted corridor, we came to a door with a gold nameplate on it. The nameplate read, “General Cirrus, Special Operations.”

No one was sure what Special Operations did. Ponies that were assigned to Special Operations seemed to disappear. You would hear of their assignment and then they entered the training program and you never heard from them again. Rumors abounded as to what happened in that division. Some ponies said they were turned into super spies and sent on top secret missions; where to no one could ever say. Others said they were sent to the fringes of Enclave territory to watch for gryphon incursions. There were even some soldiers who thought they were subjected to top secret science experiments. The fact of the matter was that no one knew for sure.

The general opened the door and led me inside. The office was huge compared to my bunkroom. The office was lavishly appointed and had a window which afforded an awesome view of Fort Canterbury and the cloud cover beyond. All pegasi were familiar with the cloud cover that separated us from the Wasteland below. It was nearly universally revered as our main source of food and our protection from the horrors below.

“Won’t you have a seat, Private?” he gestured to one of the two open seats on one side of the large desk that dominated the room. I sat down in my chair while the General walked around his desk and sat down in his. “Do you have any idea why I asked to meet with you this morning, Private?”

I shook my head and responded, “No, sir.”

He laughed softly. “Good, good. Private, I asked you here to make you an offer. I have been looking at your service record. Middle of your class out of Neighvarro. Assigned right out of the academy as a transport officer for Supply Operations. Annual reviews are good, but not excellent. Combat Readiness evaluations are OK. I’ll be honest, though. You are nothing but an average soldier, at best. You really don’t have much of a future in the Enclave if you hang around.”

His assessment hurt. I know I wasn’t the best flier or markspony or anything for that matter. But I always gave my best and finished what I was assigned. “B..b..but, sir…”

“Let me finish, Private. If you stay in the traditional hierarchy of the military, you may get a couple of promotions, but you will end up working low level, meaningless, thankless jobs. I can assume you don’t want that to happen. I have an alternate offer for you.”

My thoughts came to a screeching halt. My father was a General in the Enclave army, as was his father, as was his father, etc. My family had a long, proud tradition of service to the Enclave. If what the General just said was true, I’d be the first member of my family in about 200 years to not become an officer. I was going to be an embarrassment to my family. I sighed deeply.

“You misunderstand me, Private. This is a good thing. Do you know what Special Operations does?" He continued without even waiting for a response. "Of course not. No one knows what Special Operations really does. I am in charge of all the missions that the Enclave doesn’t want to, and shouldn’t, publicly acknowledge. If the general population heard about what we were doing, then they’d riot and we’d have trouble on our hooves.

“Now, back to my previous point. You are an average, but loyal soldier. But being an average, loyal soldier won’t necessarily get you far. You might make Sergeant, maybe Lieutenant if you tried really hard, but that’s about it. You will never see the rank of your father, or his father, or any predecessor of yours. I am here to offer you a chance to do something meaningful, instead of loading and escorting skywagons filled with supplies to other bases. If we are to continue this conversation, you need to swear, under penalty of death, that what we discuss will not be shared with anyone not in Special Operations. What you are about to hear is a secret that only members of Special Operations and a few superior officers know. Do you swear to keep this a secret?”

I nodded my head. “Yes sir, you can trust me, sir.“

“Okay then… sit down, because we have to discuss a little history. You do know what the SPP towers are, right?”

I eagerly responded, “Of course, sir. They are what allow us to maintain the cloud cover and seed clouds and raise the food the Enclave needs to feed the population.”

“Correct. What you may not know is that we do not have full control of the towers, never did. Rainbow Dash crippled the towers and defected before we could open them up for full control. We can neither expand the cloud cover nor retract it. Now, I know you know that every family in the Enclave can only have a limited number of foals because of limited food supplies. However, there have been, shall we say, dissenters who believe that we shouldn’t limit their freedoms that way. They are not aware of how severely limited our food production is. Which brings me to the next important part of our story.

“You also know the origin of the term, Dashite. As everyone knows, any Enclave citizen who drops below the cloud cover is immediately expelled from the Enclave since they are now tainted. You even know they are branded with Rainbow Dash’s cutie mark over their own and are labeled a Dashite. You may be wondering why I am rehashing something every elementary school foal knows. Here is the big secret. The Enclave has been sending pegasi down to the ground, on purpose. And we aren’t talking isolated incidents. We are talking thoroughly planned, repeated excursions.”

My jaw dropped open. “But sir, why would the Enclave do that? There is nothing but radiation, mutants, and raiders below the cloud cover.”

“Ah, I see the propaganda campaign is still working. You see, Private, that statement is not entirely true. Yes, there are parts of the Wasteland that are irradiated. Yes, there are terrible mutations on the surface. And yes, there is definitely a population of ponies who have turned their back on equinanity. However, there are large pockets of earth ponies, unicorns, and even ground-born pegasi alike that are just trying to survive down there. They have formed small communities and support systems to help each other survive the challenges of the Wasteland.”

“But sir, doesn’t this mean that the Enclave is wrong?” I gulped audibly at that statement. Sedition was not tolerated readily by the Enclave.

“Normally, I would have you immediately arrested and brought up on charges. However, this is not a normal situation. Private Updraft, you are right. The Enclave is, and has been wrong about this for a long while now. As you can imagine, this has been kept quiet in order to maintain order among the population. If they thought the land below was habitable, we may have a mass exodus, whether it be to have more freedom, or to help our former comrades. The Council can’t have that. But, they aren’t clueless either. They know the status quo can not stand.

“So this is where Special Operations comes in. We are currently scouting out the Wasteland. If you join, you will be trained in infiltration, concealment, and observational skills. We will send you as part of a pair of operatives to one of the Wasteland settlements and you will embed yourselves into the community. The settlements we are picking are the ones that are closest to pockets of land that, by the calculations of our eggheads, will be the best locations to start farming.”

He gestured to a large map that dominated one wall of his office. It was a map of Equestria with several locations labelled. There were old cities such as Fillydelphia, Manehattan, and Canterlot. However, there were also a number of other labelled locations with names such as Coltington, Bucklyn, and Arbu. These other locations were also circled in red.

“Your job is then to observe the population and see if it will be possible to work with them. You will report back to me, through a facilitator, on daily life, alliances, enemies, opinion on pegasi, anything you think we need to know before we try to make contact. Ultimately, our goal is to work with the community and start farming operations so we can boost our food stores and, in the best case scenario, allow Enclave civilians to choose to leave the skies and settle on the ground, still under Enclave authority. But please note, you will be relatively on your own down there. If you and your partner get into trouble, it will be up to you to get out. The Enclave will disavow any knowledge of you and your mission. You will also be reported as M.I.A. so it won’t be alarming that you suddenly disappear. You will be referred to as an Operative and not by any formal rank. You will not be able to share any of this with anyone outside of Special Operations, even with your father, General Thunderclap. Finally, you will be a part of this division until the day you die. So what do you say, Private?” He placed his hooves on the desk and stared right at me. “Do you want to work for me?”

I leaned back in my chair and took a deep breath. I was extremely conflicted. On one side, I would have to ostensibly abandon a family tradition of proud Enclave service. But it seems that I would never be able to serve with any level of distinction. At least with Special Operations I would be doing something meaningful, something important. But I couldn’t let anyone know. As far as my family would know, I would be labeled as missing. This was not how I expected my day to turn out when I woke up late this morning. Then again, I would be doing more for the Enclave than I ever could otherwise. “Where do I sign?”

“Attaboy… now, what do you think of the name Dust Cloud?”

One year later….

Today was the last day of my Special Operations training. Tomorrow, I would head down to Coltington to start the reconnaissance operation I was being assigned to. My last act above the clouds for a while would be to pack up my belongings, and then head to the staging area for final preparations and my last night of sleep topside.

When I got back to my Special Operations room, I noticed that my roommate and future partner, had packed his stuff up and had probably reported to the staging area already. For the last year, I had shared a room with Operative Clear Skies, codenamed Muddy Waters, so that we could build some familiarity with each other before heading down to the Wasteland.

I opened my closet and grabbed the Enclave-issued armored barding that I would be bringing with me. It was specially designed for Special Operations. It was made out of a black material, but it was worn to make it look like it had years of rough Wasteland treatment on it. There were seams that were splitting and frayed threads, but it was still solid. Under the outer facade was the armor layer. Since the damn Steel Rangers had appropriated all the energy weapons, the Wastelanders were forced to use projectile weapons instead. Therefore, the typical energy dispersion material was replaced with carbon fiber panels designed to stop projectiles. It also made the armor lighter. The front legs had holsters that were for weapons and tools, and other necessary items for quick deployment, like healing potions. There were integrated saddlebags to hold other supplies. There was also a side holster for carrying rifles. I probably wouldn’t be using that since I scored at the bottom of my SpecOps class in marksponyship. The most unique feature was one that was not readily apparent. Since our main goal was to integrate with our assigned Wasteland communities, the armor was designed to hide our wings when they were folded up. Therefore, we could pass as smaller earth ponies and not stand out too much. Plus it allowed us to get true feelings on pegasi. In an emergency, I could pull a cord near the neck of the armor that would release panels and allow us to fly. It was probably the most unique armor I had ever seen.

After I removed the armor and put it on top of the bed, I looked back at the closet. I looked longingly at my Enclave uniforms. After today, a crew would pick everything up and it would be placed in top secret storage where only General Cirrus and I, if I was ever to return to Canterbury, could access it. Today would probably be the last day I wore an Enclave military uniform. We were told that if we survived our mission and were allowed back, we would be given support roles within Special Operations until the day we died. I took out each uniform and neatly refolded it and placed it inside the storage box I was given. It was a black plastic crate with a vacuum sealing lid. The only mark on the side was the special designation number I was given to identify me within Special Ops. I took my pocket watch and moved it towards the box as well. Our instructors told us anything unusual and of value would become a major target for thieves and raiders. If I took the watch along, it could get me into trouble and we didn’t want that. As I went to lay the watch down in the box, my leg froze. I couldn’t leave this behind. Since I was the only stallion in my family, and I was unlikely to have any foals now, the watch would not pass any further down the family line. I couldn’t leave it behind. If I were to die, I wanted to be buried with the watch, if possible. I placed the watch in the bottom of my saddlebags inside a secret compartment built into the armor. It should be safe there, at least for a while. I placed the rest of my meager belongings inside the crate. I really didn’t own much besides my military issued gear so it didn’t take long. I closed the lid on the box and left it near the door next to my roommates box. Spec Ops support would be by the next day to pick it up and archive it.

I went back to my barding. I began to load the other necessary equipment we were issued. All operatives received a worn, but well maintained 10mm pistol, along with boxes of rounds. The gun was artificially aged to look old and in disrepair, but was still in perfect working order. Although, if you listened to my fellow trainees, I could barely hit the broad side of a barn. We were each issued a small first aid kit containing several bandages, two healing potions, a bottle of Rad-X and a sachet of Rad-Away. The settlements in question didn’t have elevated radiation levels, but in case I did wander into any, we’d be prepared. Each of us received a combat knife for hoof to hoof combat. The knife was about 8 inches long and had a curved tip. One edge was flat and the other edge was serrated. It could also be used as a tool if necessary. I fared better during knife combat training, but would always fall to larger foes. The last piece of major equipment we were given was a flare launcher with one flare. If we were ever in a truly dire situation, we could fire the flare and any operative in the area that could assist would try to find me. However, operatives were well spread out and were so deeply embedded that it may be hard to get away. Finally, I stashed my canteen, compass, and small pouch of caps on one of the utility pockets on my front legs. I closed up the saddlebags and donned my barding.

I looked back in the mirror and hardly recognized myself. First, I noticed my gray coat broken in places where injuries had been received during combat training. Any injuries were healed using Wasteland techniques, so most left scars. This was to make us look more weathered as if we had been in the Wasteland a while and not newly descended from the sky. We were also forbidden to cut our manes during training. My military buzz cut was replaced with a long, flowing mane which was several inches long. We were also forbidden from caring for it the last few weeks in training so it became more messy. I could feel knots forming and the smell and dirt was uncomfortable. We were warned about this and that it would pass with time. However, not everything was bad. Training had helped me bulk up a little so I was not as slight as I used to be. I still wouldn’t win any strength competitions, but I could hold my own better than I used to. I dare say I was more of a soldier now than I ever used to be.

With one last look around my room, I made sure I hadn’t forgotten anything. My room was as bare as it was the day I was assigned here, except for the box near the door. With a deep sigh, I backed out the door, and turned off the light. I made my way down the stairwell, out the front door, and flew off to meet my partner before we went down to Coltington together.

As of right now, Updraft was gone. And Dust Cloud took his place.

Chapter 1 - The Fall

Chapter 1: The Fall

Watch the first step, it’ll be a doozy.

I bucked open the door to the shack that I had called home for the last year. I stomped in and bucked the door closed behind me. “Screw the Wasteland. I am so done with this. I am done with the dust. I am done with the radiation. I am done with the mutations. Done, done, done, done, and done!”

The blankets in the corner moved. A yellow face and light green mane emerged, eyes still closed. “Can you do me a favor this time, Dust, and turn off the repeat function on that tape player you’re using?” Muddy Waters sat up and rubbed the sleep out of his slate gray eyes. “What happened this time? Another radscorpion attack? Or was it a bloatsprite this time?”

“You know what, Muddy, shut the hell up. You got a cushy job. All you do is patrol the town and take care of the occasional thief or critter that shows up.”

“Why don’t you tell me what happened?” he grunted at me.

I wasn’t really mad at Muddy, it wasn’t his fault that we discovered I had an affinity for Wasteland technology. Shortly after landing down here, we trotted into town and negotiated for our little shack. Our landlord had a collection of odds and ends of technology, one of which included a semi-functional terminal. While Muddy was doing the negotiating, I sat down and played with the keyboard a little bit. When the landlord heard the clacking of the keys, he nearly smacked me across the face. It wasn’t until he saw that I had gotten past the error screen that had been appearing did he calm down. After that, Muddy was able to talk down his rent demands pretty significantly. Unfortunately, word also got out that I had a magic touch where tech was concerned. I was immediately hired to work for a reclamation crew that would scavenge the nearby ruins of Horseton.

Reclamation crews would go into an assigned building and clear out any useful materials we could find. The problem was that the buildings were in states of severe disrepair, usually infested by mutated vermin of all types, sometimes home to several raiders or ghouls, and sometimes irradiated. Horseton was hit by a zebra megaspell, but the magical radiation had subsided quite a bit since the Last Day. Usually a dose or two of Rad-X or a sachet of Rad-Away was enough to keep us safe.

“We were clearing out what we thought was an office building. We got to the cafeteria, which someone must have chained shut and one of my team cut the chain before looking. We were overrun by ghouls. We barely made it out of the building alive and barred them inside the front door. Tomorrow we go back with a fire team to reclaim the building and scavenge. Ya know, a typical Tuesday down here.” I sighed. “I did not expect this when I signed up.”

“I don’t think anyone does. We don’t really know what’s down here, that’s our job, remember?”

I jumped when I heard a knock at the door. Making sure Muddy’s wings at least were under the thin sheet, otherwise we’d be exposed, I went to the door. “Who is it?” I asked.

“It’s Brown Root,” the voice on the other side replied.

“Hold on a second,” I unlatched the door and opened it. The grinning brown face of Brown Root greeted me. As usual, his straw-colored mane was flopped over his emerald colored eyes. I always wondered how he was able to see anything at all. He was large, especially for a unicorn. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought he was an earth pony wearing a costume horn.

“How ya holdin’ up after ta-day? It got mighty hairy in there.”

“Eh, I’m OK, I guess. What about you? I thought we’d be surgically removing that thing from your leg… or at least building a new guest room onto your house.”

He chuckled. “Ah, that li’l thing? Nuthin’ a little magic couldn’t take care of. See, no injuries.” He held up his hoof, and it was uninjured. “Ya up for some poker tonight? Some of us wanna take back the caps you been takin from us lately.”

“Sure, no problem. Give me a chance to steal some more caps from you guys? How can I say no? Rusty’s place, 8 p.m?” I asked.

Brown Root nodded. “Eeyuuup. See ya then.” He turned and left. I closed and latched the door. I didn’t really enjoy these games, but I was pretty decent at it and it gave me a chance to mine some of the locals for intel.

I went to my side of the room and removed my armored barding. I had to admit that it did work reliably so far for the year I’ve been down here. I haven’t had to test the ballistic properties of the barding (yet), but it had protected me from a few raider knife attacks during some scavenging runs.

But I could hardly show up at a friendly poker game with armor on. In the year we’ve been down, Muddy and I created padded vests that hid our wings, but were more casual wear. They were made out of a green, quilted material that I found during a scavenging run and got to keep since it was essentially worthless. Our gear maintenance training helped us fashion these vests rather easily. I slipped my vest on and grabbed my caps.

Coltington was a nice little town, for a Wasteland settlement. It never ceased to amaze me how resourceful dirt-ponies could be. They crafted a solid little town from scraps and bits of trash from nearby Horseton. It wouldn’t be winning any interior or exterior decorating awards, but it was functional and it was home for these ponies. The only downside to the town was that there was no real idea of a street. At first, I found the layout completely maddening. Every five steps or so, you’d have to change direction or bump into a different building, but I saw potential. There were hidden alleys and alcoves all over the place. I had already planned out several escape routes and hiding places, should the need arise. After my first run-in with raiders, I had also planned a defensive strategy for the town in case we needed to hold out on our own. I was puzzled coming up with an offensive plan, if the need came to take the town by force. Although, that was more wishful thinking since I doubted two ponies could take the entire town by force. All of this planning meant I now knew the town like the back of my hoof, just in case. In any event, I made my way down to the town bar, Horseton House.

I walked in the door and settled down into my home away from home. It was a small establishment, only enough room for a modest bar and a hoofful of tables, but it was big enough for Coltington. It was lit by several bare gemstones, which cast long shadows in the corners. It was awash in a near-perpetual sour beer odor, but you got used to it after a while. Behind the bar was Pot Luck. He was a one-eyed unicorn. His left eye was gored out by a deathhound, or so the rumors say, so he wore an eye patch over it. I think it was all for show, but Pot Luck wouldn’t talk about it or show anyone what was under the patch.

The bar was relatively empty except for a couple of earth ponies sitting at one of the central tables. I walked up the bar, “So Pot Luck, what do you have that’s good today?”

“Same thing that’s good every day around here, nuthin’.” We both laughed; this was our running joke for a while now. “The usual?”

“Yes sir, but make it a single tonight. I’m gonna go kick some ass at poker.”

“When will they learn,” he chuckled. Pot Luck levitated one of the glasses in his green magical field and placed it down in front of me. The vodka bottle floated up next and started filling the glass. He stopped when it was halfway full. I fished out the requisite caps and a few extra for Pot Luck.

“Thank you.” I grabbed the glass and went to my usual spot in one of the dark corners of the bar. I found this spot by accident one night when a caravan was in town. It was the only seat available and I was hesitant to sit there since I was afraid I wasn’t going to see anything. However, I soon learned that it was the best spot in the house. I had a great angle on the entire bar and I could hear almost any conversation if I strained hard enough.

I sipped at my drink. I felt the familiar burn of the wasteland spirits work their way down my throat. It was oddly comforting. A few of the local ponies came for a post-work drink and then left. The big talk of the town was the attack on the scavving team today and how we were lucky no one got killed. There was also mention of a new stable being found and overrun by Steel Rangers far to the north. Those fucks were not anything to be trifled with. Either you gave them what they wanted or you were killed. All operatives had standing orders to avoid them at all costs. There was always conflict between the Enclave and the Steel Rangers; they wanted our tech and we wanted them gone. I would not be able to handle them in a fight as they would severely outgun us, but fortunately we had never faced any of them.

My spying was interrupted when the doors to the bar flew open and in strode Last Stand. There was no mistaking this pony, as his stare seemed to cut right through you. He was also fully jet black, both his coat and slicked-back mane.

“Dust, where the hell are ya! Muddy told me I’d find you here!” he bellowed.

“Over here,” I waved at him.

He trotted over to my table. Even this close, his dark coat blended into the shadows cast around the bar. “Go home and get into bed. We leave early tomorrow. A stable was found under Horseton.” Shit, a stable. Stable work was never good. Every stable we ever went into ended badly. Stable 32 was filled with a raider gang who had claimed the place as their new base of operations. Stable 103 was filled with ghouls. Stable 199 was my personal favorite. It had a malfunctioning, but still active, security system that had no targeting parameters. As such, it fired on any pony that got in range. Guess who got chosen to go first and disarm the turrets to make it safe for the other teams. Yup, you guessed right. “You earn your keep tomorrow since you’re pretty much useless at everything else.” He turned around and stormed away, no doubt going to find the rest of the team. I guess this meant no poker tonight.

If we were scavving a stable tomorrow, that meant all recovery teams would be there. That also meant the security teams would be brought in for additional firepower. Muddy was on night shift tonight so he was in for a long day tomorrow. I decided I’d try to find him before heading home for bed. I went to the edge of town and scanned in both directions. Muddy usually ended up on perimeter patrol since his partner was a lazy ass. I waited several minutes and saw him amble into view. He walked over to me and stopped, “What’s up, Muddy? Poker over already?”

“Nope Stable call.”

Muddy’s eyes lit up. “Seriously? Did you hear anything else about the stable? Raiders? Robots? Radgators?” Muddy loved conflict, perhaps disproportionately so. Our standing orders were to avoid hostility with locals unless it was for self-defense. The only time he ever got to use his guns was when something came up on a security patrol or he was running point on a scavving trip. He was always volunteering for larger runs and especially relished the stable trips.

“No, all I know is that we’re meeting at dawn; you know the place. I’m heading home to get some sleep. See you in the morning.” I turned and headed home.

I entered the shack, latched the door, and took off my vest. I spread my wings and gave them a few flaps just to stretch them out. This was the hardest part of this assignment. We were never allowed to fly except in the most dire of circumstances. Our wings were bound to our bodies for sixteen to twenty hours a day and we were only able to stretch them out at night, behind closed doors. The call of the sky was killing me. The year without flight was probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. There was even an entire set of training on the psychology of the loss of flight in pegasi. Even though our loss was self-imposed, and we could technically fly any time we wanted, it still drove some pegasi to the edge. Stories were told about pegasi who went crazy and removed their own wings and others who fell from a height and didn’t fly even to save their own lives.

After stretching my wings out, I lay down on my mattress and pulled the sheet up over myself. This way, if anyone was milling around outside when Muddy got home, they wouldn’t see my wings accidentally. I put my head down on my pillow, and my tired eyes slowly closed and I drifted off to sleep.

I awoke the next morning to Muddy stripping his submachine gun down for maintenance. He always got restless the morning of a big run.

“G’morning, Dust,” he grunted.”I already took care of your SMG for you… I couldn’t sleep after getting home last night.”

“Thanks, Muddy. I appreciate it.” I really did. As much as I knew how important it was to maintain a weapon, I did not like performing routine maintenance. At least Muddy complemented me in that regard.

“I can’t wait to see what’s hiding for us in the stable. I’m hoping for some action this time. The last time, you had all the fun with the turrets.”

“Yeah, fun, right.” I spit back.

I grabbed and double-checked all my gear before stowing it in the appropriate place on my barding. We trotted towards the muster zone outside of town we used for any large scale scavving mission. By the time we got there, several dozen ponies were already waiting. I let Muddy leave so he could join his security friends while I looked for Last Stand. His jet black coloring usually made him easy to find. I found him and made my way over to my team.

Of course, Brown Root was there. He was our medic. Next to him was Wilted Flower, in her full body armor as usual. The earth pony was the only female among all the scavving crews. There was good reason though. She could pick any lock and disarm any trap that we came across. Because of her, we were able to get into rooms most scavvers couldn’t and found shortcuts that helped us avoid unnecessary danger. She was unusually colored for a Wasteland pony, being a bright, lemony yellow with a light purple mane. She claimed it was because her ancestors were artists. We didn’t know what to believe. She always had a mischievous look in her amber colored eyes. Finally, there was Rusty. He was mainly there for any magical components we ran across, but he was also a pack mule and strong as a buffalo.

“Hey, guys,” I called out.

Everyone, with the exception of Last Stand, greeted me in return. He broke up the greetings, “So Flower, did we learn our lesson yesterday about opening doors that have been secured for no apparent reason?” Sarcasm dripped off his statement.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. How was I supposed to know the entire damn company hid in the cafeteria and were ghoulified?” She snapped back.

“Next time, just look inside before you let all hell loose on us.”

Brown spoke up to break the tension. “Lookee, mistakes were made, but we made it out of thar alright, didn’t we?”

Stand grumbled, “Yeah, only by luck. We should all be fuckin’ dead.” Last Stand then glared at me, “Ready to earn your pay today, Dust?” Last Stand particularly hated stable runs and since they were known for their tech loot, I was actually useful and necessary, which aggravated him more.

“Why doncha lay off him, Stand. He wasn’t responsible for…” Flower started to say.

“Flower, stop right there. I swear, if you bring that up one more time, I will take my shotgun, ram it up your ass and pull the trigger. For the last damn time, I don’t like tech, never will.” A while back, Last Stand lost an entire team when one of them tried to hack into a terminal and triggered the security system. Four ponies died that day, and some say a little bit of Last Stand did as well. “His only job on this crew is tech. He can’t shoot worth a damn and he can’t carry as much as the rest of us. I would leave him here if I could, but I’d get my ass handed to me by the boss since the stuff he can bring in is worth a lot of caps. That’s the only reason I tolerate him. End. Of. Story.” He punctuated each of the last three words with slam of his hoof against the ground.
Flower turned towards me, “Don’t worry, Dust, we all still luv ya.”

Somepony nearby cleared their throat. Outside all the cliques that had formed stood Big Boss. He actually wasn’t particularly big, and he wasn’t the one ultimately in charge. He was the field manager of the scavving company most of Coltington worked for. “Pardon me, ponies. May I have your attention? I’ll keep this short and sweet since we’ve all been through this before. We know nothing about this stable. The entrance was discovered by one of our scout teams. When they breached the entrance, they heard movement within and came back to report.

“Prickly Pear, you and fire team alpha will take the utility wing.” Two ponies nodded in confirmation. “High Ground, you and fire team beta will take the Living Quarters.” Again, more head nods. “Last Stand, you and fire team charlie will take the Administration and Laboratory wings.” We all groaned.

“Fire Team Charlie,” Last Stand said with a huff. Fire Team Charlie had the reputation of having more casualties than kills in combat. The reason was almost all the newbies, inexperienced ponies and those on “punishment detail” were assigned to Charlie. In large deployments like this, any security ponies that didn’t want to secure already cleared areas and that wanted to volunteer for front line duty with a fire team were assigned to Charlie. I knew what was coming next.
Muddy yelled out, “Can I volunteer to go with an entry team?”

“Of course, Muddy, when have I ever said no to you? You know where to go,” Big Boss replied. “Entry and fire teams, we go in 30 minutes. Security teams, you’ll follow when signaled. Get ready, ponies.”

Muddy trotted off to join his fire team. They would meet us at the stable door when the time was right. They would first head to the armorer to be outfitted with some of the better weapons we had available.

“Great, just great,” Flower said. “Not only do we have ta clear the stable, but we gotta babysit the fire team. This should be soooo much fun. Hey Dust, at least ya won’t be the weak link this time.”

“Thanks, Flower. Maybe you can NOT distract the fire team this time when you shake your flank in front of them. They almost let those radgators get us that one time in the flooded stable hallway, remember?” I shot back.

Rusty guffawed and called back, “Dust, calm down… she can distract me anytime!” The rest of the group started laughing. Flower simply flicked her mane and swished her tail.

After the laughing died down, everypony else galloped over to the armorer. I simply found a nice quiet spot to do my work. I usually spent this pre-entry time to complete my routine check of my gear. A pit always formed in my stomach when I saw the armorer break out the RPGs and heavy guns. Other ponies would push and shove to make sure they got one of the big weapons, but I was never one of them. Quickly peering down the sights of my SMG and making sure there wasn’t anything seriously out of whack, my nerves started to calm a little. Let the other ponies have their big guns. I would always prefer the little gun I used. Being lighter and having less recoil than any of the rifles, I knew I could send several rounds into a target in the same time it would take the rifles to get one. It also helped me overcome my less than stellar accuracy since I could just “spray and pray.” I just hoped that, with their larger caliber rounds, one of the other ponies didn’t have a friendly fire accident. After making sure my backup sidearm was in its holster and loaded, I checked my first aid supplies and support tools. My tech kit was filled with small spools of wire, a spare spark battery, and various electronic components. If this was a typical stable, I would have to override a few door locks, hack into several terminals, and bypass damaged systems. The focus on my work was shattered once Last Stand whistled to get all our attention.

Thirty minutes later we were all filing down the cave that led under Horseton and would lead us to the stable. It was amazing to me how many of these entry caverns were exactly the same. It was almost as if Stable-Tec built the cave around the stable on purpose. The light in the cavern dimmed and the air got cooler. It didn’t take long before I saw the characteristic yellow strobe light that signaled the stable entrance. The usual collection of pony skeletons were scattered around the door. Somepony had the sense to at least clear a path through them. The large gear which was the door had already been retracted and we could see the entry room beyond. I felt a shiver work its way down my spine and I felt my stomach become uneasy. Stables always freaked me out. They were so cramped and confining; two things this pegasus was not comfortable with. Muddy did not seem similarly affected.

The entry room was what we expected from a stable. The stable door opened to a small pathway flanked by raised platforms on either side. A door straight ahead of us had a sign which indicated it led to the Atrium. The entry room also had a door marked Utility. The emergency lighting was still active in this part of the stable, so everything was bathed in a red glow, until we all turned on our flashlights. The walls were now swaths of white light amongst a sea of red. Prickly Pear and his team made their way to the door for the utility wing, opened it, and disappeared beyond it. The rest of us headed towards the door for the Atrium. High Ground pressed the button and the door slid open. It opened to a long staircase which headed deeper into the stable. The emergency lighting was still the only active light source and any ambient light from the entrance had faded away by now. Before the door closed behind us, I heard the security ponies filing into the entry room waiting for their signal to secure our path back out.

We got to the bottom of the stairwell and walked into the Atrium. The first thing that hit me was the air. The air smelled so stale you could almost taste it. Apparently, the air handling system wasn’t completely functioning. Next, I looked around the Atrium. This Atrium was just like all the others I had ever seen. We entered onto the upper level. Directly across from us was a doorway labeled “Administration”. Across a small walkway were two more doors, one of which would surely lead down to the lower level. The other door was labelled “Clinic”.

Last Stand looked at High Ground. “You guys got the clinic last time. Our turn?”

High Ground simply grunted an affirmative reply.

Last Stand turned. “OK, my guys, we’ll clear the admin wing first, then come back for the clinic and then we’ll go look through the lab.”

Our team headed towards the door on the far end of the walkway we were on. High Ground and his team headed downstairs. Last Stand got to the door and pushed the entry button which buzzed. “Dust, you’re up, get us in.”

I was surprised the first time I came across a stable and some of the systems were still working. I mean, in many cases it had been two hundred years since anyone had performed any maintenance on any of the systems, yet there was always a door lock or part of a security system still functioning. Hell, even some of the maneframes were still running, even when the other stable systems had malfunctioned years ago. By this point, though, it didn’t surprise me anymore. When Stable-Tec built something, they apparently built it to last.

I walked up to the junction box holding the entry button and popped it off with a quick buck. I had done this dozens of times before and checked the normal problems. Disconnecting the power supply from stable power, which may not be delivering enough, I rigged the wires to the spark battery. Pressing the button on the dangling junction box still only resulted in a soft buzzing sound. Grunting, I dove back into the mess of wiring looking for anything that was obviously out of place. Finally, I found a small section of wiring which lead to the motor control which had shorted out. Quickly bypassing the shorted out wire, the door opened when I next pressed the button. After the door became silent again, it was replaced with a soft, rhythmic thumping sound.

“Heads up,” Last Stand called out. We all drew our weapons and cautiously advanced into the admin wing. Last Stand started whispering orders. “Dust, take a security pony and find the Overmare’s office and find what data you can. Flower, you and an escort go find the Security office and clear that out. Brown, Rusty, and I will find the armory and clean that out. Go.”
Muddy and I did not travel together when it could be helped. As much as we wanted to keep each other safe, we decided a while ago that we could overhear more if we split up. A fire team pony came up to my side. I couldn’t see anything about the pony since most security ponies always wore full barding with helmets and gas masks entering stables. They always overreacted to a stable find. He or she nodded at me and we proceeded.

Whoever designed the stables definitely did not envision incursions, or else they wouldn’t have labelled doors and provided signage to get to important parts of the stable. We walked past the Security office and kept moving. The thumping sound we heard earlier was getting louder. Finally, we got to the last door in the hallway, marked as the Overmare’s Office, and flanked both sides of it. My escort nodded at me and I pressed the entry button. After the door slid open, I heard the telltale raspy growl of a ghoul. I entered first and moved to my right. The only problem was the ghoul waiting right next to the door.

The ghoul lunged at me and tried to throw me to the ground. I sidestepped the initial charge which left the ghoul off balance. I turned and tried to buck the ghoul in the head, but its stumble moved it just enough to turn my buck into a glancing blow. After my miss, the ghoul grabbed onto my leg and bit down. Fortunately, the armored leg piece kept the ghoul from causing any real injury. My escort fired a shot from behind me, which had missed the ghoul entirely. I saw the round spark harmlessly off the wall behind the ghoul. I turned and glared at my escort who was busy reloading his rifle. That was a mistake.

The ghoul had regained his balance and dove at me once again. I only had enough time to turn and present my armored side towards it. The beast hit me with the force of a small cart. We fell to the floor and rolled a few feet. It ended up on top swinging its legs at me. Its jagged hooves opened a couple of small wounds along my face. The ghoul started lunging at my neck with its teeth. Grabbing it by the neck, I pushed it away as hard as I could. Its foul breath washed over me, making me gag.

BANG! The ghoul’s head exploded into bits of dried grey flesh, brain matter, and black ichor. Some of the vile fluid splattered across my face while the rest sprayed across the room behind it. Looking towards the sound of the gunshot, I saw my escort in a firing stance with the rifle aimed in our direction.

“Thanks,” I said to him or her through ragged breathing. He or she simply nodded in reply.

I took several seconds to recollect myself. My escort helped me to stand up again. I glanced around the room to get a lay of the land. It was typical for an Overmare’s office. One wall was dominated by a status board that indicated the condition of the various parts of the stable. It was not surprising that most of the readouts were red. The only systems that apparently were still functional were backup power and air handling. Air handling was functional? You could fool me. The center of the room was dominated by a U-shaped desk with a chair behind it.

My first task was to search the body we just found. Noting that the ghoul was wearing wasteland clothing and not a stable suit, I realized this stable had been discovered already, but who knows how long the ghoul had been here. I searched the saddlebags and found a hoofful of caps, a box of 10mm ammo and some rotten food. I took the caps and ammo. Not taking my eyes off the corpse, I said to my partner, “Go tell Last Stand that there are ghouls in this stable, but they aren’t stable dwellers. I’m hoping there aren’t too many. He’ll radio the others.” I heard my partner trot off down the hallway towards.

Next I glanced at the cabinet and bookcase in the room, but they appeared to have been rifled through already. My last, and probably most important task, was to search the Overmare’s desk and computer.

The desk was empty of anything useful, just like the rest of the room. I sat down in the Overmare’s chair and powered on the terminal. The comforting “Login:” line appeared. I started my work to override the terminal. Most were lightly secured, but this terminal had a more complicated password to hack. Eventually I found the password, “regretfully”, and the screen changed to the main menu. While not strictly worth anything, any intel on the stable we were in could help the mission inside the stable so the other teams could know of anything important. Long term, we might get other stable locations or information on other Stable-Tec facilities.

I keyed into System Operations, but it was relatively useless since any of the systems it remotely controlled were disabled. I went into the Communications folder. Usually, this would take a while, but the Overmare deleted all but one entry. It was marked “Stable-Tec Directive 1.” I opened the document and saw it was dated one week after the Last Day.

FROM: SCOOTALOO, STABLE-TEC VICE-PRESIDENT
TO: OVERMARE SAFE AND SOUND, STABLE 148
RE: STABLE EXPERIMENT
OVERMARE SAFE AND SOUND,
AS YOU HAVE BEEN PREVIOUSLY INFORMED, SOME STABLES ARE CONTROL STABLES AND OTHERS WILL PERFORM EXPERIMENTS FOR THE GOOD OF THE WORLD WHEN IT COMES TIME TO REPOPULATE. YOUR STABLE HAS BEEN SELECTED TO RUN AN EXPERIMENT TO TEST THE PSYCHOLOGICAL REACTION TO REPEATED, UNEXPLAINED DIFFICULTIES. IN SEVERAL DAYS, YOUR STABLE COMPUTER WILL START TO RANDOMLY SHUT DOWN ACTIVE SYSTEMS, OR ACTIVATE DORMANT SYSTEMS. THE PROGRAM WILL SHUT DOWN PRIMARILY BENIGN SYSTEMS (E.G. LIGHTING, MUSIC, PA, ETC). HOWEVER, OCCASIONALLY, OUTAGES OF CRITICAL SYSTEMS(E.G. AIR HANDLING, FOOD PROCESSING, WATER PROCESSING, ETC) WILL BE ENACTED, BUT FOR LIMITED DURATIONS OF TIME. YOUR TECHNICIANS WILL NOT BE ABLE TO DETERMINE A CAUSE AND ALL ATTEMPTS TO REPAIR WILL FAIL. YOU ARE NOT TO SHARE THIS INFORMATION WITH ANYONE BUT YOUR SUCCESSOR.
GOOD LUCK AND CELESTIA’S GRACE.

So this was an experimental stable. Rumor had it any experimental stable ended in tragedy. I would need to tell Last Stand so he could send runners to the other teams to warn them that systems might randomly power down or dormant systems may randomly activate. I flicked back to the Communications screen and entered the Overmare’s journal. I skimmed through the entries. Most entries were mundane stuff, but the last entry caught my attention:

OVERMARE’S LOG: DAY 823
DAMN YOU STABLE-TEC AND YOUR THRICE-DAMNED EXPERIMENTS. WHY WOULD YOU RUN EXPERIMENTS ON UNWITTING PONIES AND PLAY WITH THEIR LIVES? “LIMITED DURATIONS” OF TIME MY FLANK. THE COMPUTER DECIDED TO SHUT DOWN AIR HANDLING. IF IT WAS ONLY FOR A LIMITED DURATION OF TIME, THAT WOULD BE FINE. THE SYSTEMS HAVE BEEN DOWN FOR ALMOST A WEEK NOW. CO2 LEVELS ARE RISING AND O2 LEVELS ARE FALLING AND THERE ISN’T ANYTHING WE CAN DO ABOUT IT. I HAVE ORDERED ALL PONIES TO RESTRICT THEMSELVES TO THEIR QUARTERS AND TO LIMIT MOVEMENT AROUND THE STABLE TO CONSERVE OXYGEN. HOPEFULLY THE COMPUTER WILL END ITS EXPERIMENT SOON, BUT I DOUBT IT. OTHER EXPERIMENTS, ESPECIALLY THOSE ON NON-CRUCIAL SYSTEMS, HAVE LASTED ONLY A COUPLE OF DAYS. WHY DO I THINK SOME CODE-JOCKEY MIXED UP THE DESIGNATIONS FOR THE SYSTEMS AS CRITICAL OR UNIMPORTANT IN THE CODE? THIS MAY BE MY LAST ENTRY AS I WILL RESTRICT MYSELF TO MY QUARTERS AS WELL. I WILL RETURN IF THE AIR HANDLING SYSTEMS REACTIVATE. IN CASE THIS IS MY LAST ENTRY, I AM SORRY TO ALL MY PONIES HERE, I WISH THERE WAS SOMETHING I COULD DO.
AND FUCK YOU, SCOOTALOO.

I did not envy High Ground. Unless someone came through and did some spring cleaning, they were going to find room upon room of pony skeletons most likely lying in their beds, the inhabitants having gotten drowsy when the O2 levels dropped low enough, passed out, and then passed on. At least this time it was painless, unlike some of the other stables we had seen or heard about. I glanced back over at the Status Board and saw Air Handling was green. The computer must have reactivated it sometime after the ponies died. But then why did the air smell so stale? I shook my head silently to myself. After shutting down the terminal, I looked at my escort and said, “Let’s go.” By the time I found the armory, I saw that Flower must have finished with Security and was heading to the armory also. “Find anything, Flower?”

“Shit, Dust, you OK? Heard you got attacked?”

“Eh, not too bad… just a few scratches, maybe I’ll look tougher for the mares,” I chuckled as I inclined my head to give a good look.

“Damn, you got lucky there,” she said as she peered at my wounds. “Find anything valuable, at least?”

“Nah, nothin, it was empty. Somepony must have found their way in and cleaned it out.”

We both walked past two fire team ponies and entered the Armory. We both saw Last Stand and Brown packing their saddlebags full of ammo and bundling weapons together. “You three,” he pointed at the security ponies, “take these to the surface and come back here. And hurry, we’re gonna wait to enter the labs until you get back.” All but Muddy grabbed bundles of weapons and took off back towards the entrance.

“Last Stand, you may want to inform the other teams that systems may activate or deactivate while we’re in here due to a computer program running in the maneframe,” I reported.

“Fuckin’ great.” He fumbled with his radio. “All team leaders, be aware that computer systems are malfunctioning. Systems will be responding abnormally.” He clicked off the mic. “Alright, we’re done here, let’s check the clinic and then head to the labs.”

We walked back out to the Atrium. We heard muffled gunshots from somewhere in the stable. Last Stand cocked his head towards his radio. No report was forthcoming. One of the other teams must have run into trouble, but nothing major enough to garner a report.

The clinic was small mostly cleaned out already, mainly due to the fact that somepony had beaten us to it. There was a medical robot in its maintenance bay, but the bay was inactive. The desk was bare except for a terminal. A quick perusal of the interface saw only standard medical records and doctor’s journal entries. The throbbing of my facial injuries made me think back to the attack in the Overmare’s office and gave me an idea. Reading the medical reports more closely, I found that the occupants had not shown any unusual symptoms prior to their deaths. At least it didn’t appear to be a mass ghoulification. The only odd thing we found was a Stable-Tec bobblehead. It was a small statue of Scootaloo wearing a stethoscope and doctor’s scrubs. The base was inscribed with “Medicine”. Last Stand tossed it at me saying, “Here’s a toy for you, kid.” I kept it since it may have some value to a collector.

Once we finished in the clinic, our escorts returned. They fell into position behind us and we all headed downstairs to the lower level of the Atrium. Just as we expected, one of the doors on the lower level was marked “Laboratories”. We walked up to the door, pressed the entry button and were greeted by a soft buzzing sound. I went to work on bypassing this lock.

“Umm, Last Stand,” I said, “Someone has already bypassed this lock and secured it from the inside. And they were definitely outside and broke in. It’s gonna take me a little longer to get in, but we may not be alone in there.”

After some very creative rewiring, I was able to override the lock. Whoever it was had bypassed all the automatic systems which forced me to bypass the locking mechanism completely. Once the door opened, we were greeted by cooler, fresher air. The air handling systems here must still be functioning. At least that explains the green light on the status board. The labs must have been on a different air handling system than the rest of the stable. After a walk down a short stairway, the path branched off to the left and right. It was a curved path, and based on the degree of the curve, it was large. Either way you looked, the hallway seemed to continue for quite a distance. There was also a small hallway directly in front of us which appeared to branch off again at the end. If I had to guess, the labs were arranged in two concentric circles.

Last Stand grumbled, “OK, we’re gonna split up. Each one of you take a security pony and take a hallway. Flower, you, Rusty, and I will go to the inner hallway. Brown, go right. Dust, go left. If you run into anything suspicious, head back here, grab some extra security from upstairs, and wait for the rest of us to return. Everypony called or gestured to one of our escorts, The security officer I got trotted over to me and nudged me. He removed his mask. It was Muddy.
“Looks like it’s me and you, buddy,” he said.

I nodded, and we took off. All the doorways were on our left, and we stopped at the first one and pressed the button. The door slid open to reveal a small laboratory. It was a pretty standard setup: The room was dominated by a large workbench in the middle. Various beakers and flasks were on the table, some with crystallized substances in the bottom. There was also a terminal on the table, but upon a further look, it was inoperable. The back wall was dominated by storage cabinets and bins which held all manner of scientific equipment, but nothing of any express value. We had cleaned out so many of these types of facilities that microscopes and test tubes were virtually worthless. Immediately next to the door was a sink and some other large equipment, usually used for the sterilization of equipment, as well as a refrigerator. We searched the drawers and cabinets in the room and found nothing exciting.

This continued for the next two rooms we came across. As we made our way to the fourth room, I noticed the hallway started to have a downward slope to it.

“Interesting, we’re going deeper,” I mumbled. Muddy didn’t seem too interested. He was still on high alert. We did stumble across a few Ministry of Peace first aid kits, the familiar pink cross and butterflies on a yellow background standing out from the stark gray walls. They each held some healing potions, Rad-X, Rad-Away and bandages, which I pocketed. After coming up empty on three more labs, I said to Muddy, “You go get the next one and call me if you find anything interesting.”

“Ok,” he said, and took off down the hallway. He disappeared into the next lab as I entered mine. Similar-looking lab, similar results; however, this one’s terminal was functional. I booted it up, bypassed the password, and clicked into the Log menu option. There were choices for “Experimental Logs” and “Scientist Logs”. I started with the “Experiment Logs”. I skimmed a few, noting they were doing typical experiments for enhanced food growth, radiation clearing and the like, but then I stumbled across one labelled “Project Clean Slate”.

PROJECT SUMMARY
CLEAN SLATE
ASSIGNED TO STABLE 148.
RESEARCHER SCIENTIFIC METHOD.
PURPOSE: DEVELOP TECHNOLOGY THAT ALLOWS PURIFICATION OF WATER AND SOIL TO ALLOW PLANT CULTIVATION.
PROJECT STATUS: THEORETICAL DESIGN COMPLETE, READY FOR IMPLEMENTATION BY STABLE 182.

Holy Motherbucking Goddesses.

The ponies in this stable figured out how to clean radiation out of water and earth to allow growth of food again? Celestia’s Grace! This could save the Wasteland and the Enclave too!

My entire body started to tingle. I read through the rest of the file save the diagrams and specifics of the spells that would be required. Most of the scientific stuff was way over my head. The only parts of it I really understood were “magical matrix” and “cleansing spells”. The rest of it was about half-lives, balefire residue, magical contamination, and taint. As best as I could determine, it was a real report. Whether or not it would actually work was for the eggheads.

This… this was huge. More than enough to report to our facilitator; every brass pin in Enclave Special Operations, if not the entire Enclave, would want to see this.

Grinning, almost squeeing in excitement, I ducked back into the hallway.. “Muddy! You’ll never guess what I found! This lab has a method for removing radiation from water and soil! Muddy?!” I cried down the hallway.

What I heard back, however, was a faint female voice calling out, “Get off of me! Help!”

“What the…” I asked while I trotted towards the sound. The sound slowly got louder, until I stopped in front of a closed lab door and heard the same cries repeated. They sounded really close, so I guessed I had found the right door. Gripping the firing bit of my pistol in my teeth, I pulled it clear and released the safety. I flanked the door and pushed the button. The door hissed open and I peeked around the door frame and into the lab.

I was first assaulted by a strong musty odor. The rear wall had cracked and the back end had fallen off into a cavern behind it. I heard soft sobbing and, making sure the coast was clear, entered the lab toward the cries. The door hissed shut behind me. As I walked around one of the lab tables, I glanced over the edge of the floor and saw the back end of the room crumpled at the bottom of a deep cavern, at least thirty to forty feet to the bottom. It was only a guess since the open space tapered off to pitch blackness.

I looked back in the lab and saw the source of the crying. Between the two lab tables, I saw a darker pink pegasus with a green mane was lying on the floor, crying into her forelegs. ,She was wearing a body-length coat, which was obviously patched together from various other garments. Typical Wasteland design. The material was thin enough that I saw no suspicious bulges, so I concluded she was not armed. Quietly, I moved back towards the door, placing myself between it and the pegasus in case I needed to make a quick exit. I holstered my weapon, peeked around the table and softly said, “Miss, are y—”

Her head jerked up, and I saw her sky blue eyes open as wide as dinner plates. She began to skitter away from me, but struggled as her hooves slid uselessly against the floor. “N-No! Who are you? Get away from me!” she screamed at me, while still trying to put some distance between us.

“OK, calm down. I’m not going to hurt you.” I slowly lowered myself to a seated position. “I heard your screams before. Are you hurt? I’ve got a medkit.”

Her body relaxed a little, but she was still frantically looking around the room. “Where did the other pony go?”

I blinked. “What other pony? You’re the only one I’ve seen in this room.”

“He… he was here right before you came in. Where is he?” she cried out. Suddenly, her head snapped to the side. Her wide stare was fixed behind and to my side.

I turned my head to see what had startled the mare. A pony was standing off to the side of the lab. Why hadn’t I seen him when I first came in the room? Startled, I jumped up into a standing position. I had almost drawn my pistol before I recognized a familiar yellow body and light green mane.. “Muddy, how did you… What’s happening here?”

He had an unusual look on his face. He was breathing heavily through clenched teeth.“I came into the lab and found her this way. I was about to start to talk to her when I heard the door hiss open and I thought I’d hide in case it wasn’t you,” he said while pointing towards a cabinet with an open door.

“He’s lying!” the pink pegasus cried out. She moved behind me, keeping me between her and Muddy. “He attacked me and said he was going to hurt me!” she screamed and then sniffled with tears streaming down her face.

“Muddy? Wait, what?” I looked at the cabinet. It was barely large enough for an older colt to fit in. “You couldn’t fit inside that cabinet, especially with our armor on. Come on, what’s really going on here?” I kept my tone level, but my gaze was stern.

“C’mon Dust, you’ve known me, what, two years now? Does that sound like something I’d do?” he tried to continue acting calm, but he was gritting his teeth as he spoke.

Suddenly, from behind me the pink pegasus thrust a hoof towards Muddy, “You can’t believe him! He never hid! He attacked me and only stopped because you came in here! He told me that if I didn’t give him what he wanted, he was going to make me wish that I had and then he hit me and knocked me down to the floor.” She looked at me, her eyes pleading with me, “Please help me! Please help!”

“LYING BITCH! SHUT THE HELL UP!” His chest was heaving.

“Muddy, calm down… just tell me what’s going on.” Something felt off and my body was tensing up.

“She’s a lying bitch, she attacked me and—”

“We’ve played poker, Muddy; I know you can’t bluff.” My stance didn’t waver an inch. “You told me you found her this way. Things aren’t adding up. She’s saying you attacked her, but she clearly has no weapons. And she’s too small to…” I turned my head to confirm she was unarmed. That was a mistake.

I felt a foreleg wrap around my neck and a weight drop on top of my back. I started to feel pressure around my throat and it was becoming harder to breathe.

“You had to come interrupt me. I was about to get my revenge. Don’t you see it, Dust? We were lied to. Manipulated and lied to! I was promised things. Things I won’t ever get now! And all because of the fucking Wasteland! They took everything from us, played us like puppets, and left us here to die! To die! They will pay, Dust. THEY! WILL! PAY! You could have joined me. I would have taken you with me, but you had to choose to believe her. Now you’ll pay also, but it’s all going to start with this bitch.” He turned his head to look for the pegasus, but she was gone. My vision was starting to darken around the edges. “Speaking of which, where did she…”

Suddenly I saw a pink streak knock into Muddy and knock him off of me. His legs came free and I sucked in several deep breaths. He landed a couple of feet away from me and the pink pegasus disappeared again.

“Ooohhh, getting brave, bitch! You’re only gonna make it worse for yourself… and for Dust here.” He was glancing around the room looking for her.

Fortunately, in his rage, Muddy forgot some of our hoof-to-hoof combat training. He had put pressure on my windpipe instead of my arteries, meaning that while I couldn’t breathe, at least oxygenated blood was still being pumped to my brain. My vision returned to normal quickly with lungfuls of fresh air. The shadows that had crept in on the extremes of my vision began to withdraw and the bright spots twinkling in my eyes stopped completely.

I was already moving even before then, acting mostly on muscle memory to reach back and draw my pistol from my shoulder holster. However, no sooner did I crane my head to draw a bead on Muddy than he completely filled my vision, followed by his hind hooves, bucking lightning fast straight towards my head.

With only a split second’s reaction time, I ducked, and the twin kick narrowly clipped my jaw—which clacked shut right around the firing bit in my mouth.

BANG!

The pistol kicked in my grip, jerking my head violently to the side. Glassware on a nearby table erupted into a cascade of shimmering shards.. The pistol flew from my mouth and I heard it skitter across the floor, disappearing into the darkness. He was right next to me now delivering blow after blow with his hooves. Backing away from Muddy, I kept trying to figure out some counter move. I had seen Muddy fight before, but never like this. He was like a pony possessed and the attack seemed effortless to him. I took another step back and he advanced. I dodged and he moved with me. I took one more step back and my leg nearly slipped off the edge of the floor into the darkness behind me.

“Aww, did poor Dusty run out of room? I wish I didn’t have to do this. But you are now a liability to me.”

He turned faster than I had ever seen anypony turn before and bucked. His hooves connected with the front plate of my armor. I was pushed back over the ledge and started to fall. I grabbed the edge of the floor with my forelegs. Straining to climb back up on the floor, my legs flailed behind me not finding any purchase. I was kicking empty air.

Muddy walked over the ledge, looked at me and said, “Good bye, Dust.” His slate gray eyes looked empty. “I’m sorry I have to do this to you. I thought we could work together, get back together.” He kicked one of my hooves off the edge. I was still dangling by my other hoof. “But I can’t have you getting in my way.” I saw a tear form in the corner of one of his eyes. He paused before saying, “Mind the gap.” He kicked my other hoof off.

I felt gravity pulling at me as I fell to the ground beneath me, cold air whipping through my mane. Surrounded by empty space, I reached for the emergency release to free my wings, only to hear a single, heart-stopping metallic snik as it simply pulled free of my armor. It was then that I noticed the sharp edge on the cable. Muddy must have cut it at some point.

I felt the impact as my body smacked into the ground. Pain wracked through my body, and then everything faded to black.

Level Up!
Bobblehead Found: Medicine +10
Stats: Science 25
Perk: Polygraph: You have an uncanny ability to see the contradictions in a pony’s stories. You have unique conversation options when interrogating a pony.

Author's Note

Revised 3/10/16 - Thanks to Setokaiva!

Chapter 12 - Pitfalls

Chapter 12 - Pitfalls
“Good things do not come easy. The road is lined with pitfalls.”

My mind was a complete blank. All I could do was stare stupidly at my friends, who all looked like they were angry. No, that wasn’t it. They all looked disappointed in me. And on some level, that was way worse.

Silver walked slowly up to me. “You don’t want to answer? Or did you not hear me the first time? And… just… where… do… you… think… you… are… going?” she said, punctuating each word with extreme sarcasm.

“I, um, I was just, well,” I stammered. I couldn’t think fast enough to form a coherent statement. “I was just…”

I never got the chance to finish my sentence. A pink blur moved towards my head faster than I could react. My vision flashed white as Silver’s hoof struck me, hard. “You son of a bitch! You were going after Muddy all by yourself, weren’t you?” she yelled. “Even after telling the sheriff that we were all going together!”

“Well, yeah, but let me explain!” I cried out. Brown, Flower, and One were all looking away from the argument. Hell, even Deputy Brick, was fidgeting with his rifle. I was all alone in this fight.

“Silver, I was trying to do what was best for everypony!” I cried out. “If it is Muddy, then he is less likely to kill me alone. He wants to hurt you ponies first and make me watch. If it is not Muddy, you’re right, then it was a stupid decision. But I couldn’t take that chance. I was trying to protect everypony!”

She smacked me again, harder than the first time. It was so hard that it made my legs collapse underneath me. “But what about what we want? Don’t you think we want to help you? Don’t you think we know the risks?”

“Silver, I don’t think you do. Muddy has sworn to kill you ponies! I can’t let that happen!” I said while rubbing my face.

“I don’t care about that. I’m coming with you, whether you like it or not,” she stated with a stamp of her hoof.

“And we’re comin’ along too, Dust,” Brownie said, while both he and Flower nodded.

“And I’m coming too, Mister Dust!” One called out with a big grin on his face.

“Well, I’m staying right here,” Deputy Brick said from his perch. “You all are crazy!”

After an awkward pause, we all couldn’t help laughing a little at his comment.

The lightheartedness from Deputy Brick’s comment didn’t last long. Maybe it was due to the fact that we were travelling in near darkness, except for the light from my Pip-Buck. We had decided that it would be safer to use that instead of lanterns which may have been easier to see from a distance. Or maybe the foul mood was due to the lingering effects of my failed attempt to sneak out of town. Silver had not spoken to me since we left. She spoke readily with Brownie and Flower. Hell, she even talked to One a little. Everypony but me.

Flower kept checking her scope, to see if the sniper had reset his or her perch. Fortunately, she kept finding no sign of the sniper. Then again, that could be a bad sign since they might just be setting up somewhere we weren’t aware of and might discover too late.

At one point, I was able to sneak my way next to Silver. “Silver, look, I’m really sorry about trying to sneak out before. I thought I was doing what was best,” I pleaded with her.

“Uh-huh,” she said noncommittally.

“I know it was an asshole move to make, but I just don’t want to lose anypony,” I said. “Whether or not you agree, can you at least tell me you understand where I was coming from?”

“Dust, I understand. I’m just upset that you think so little of us that we can’t fight for ourselves, or at least make that decision to risk ourselves,” she said, shaking her head.

“But, I don’t…” I started. But maybe she was right. Maybe I needed to let my friends make their own decisions. “You’re right, Silver.” She didn’t say anything in response. She did give me a small kiss on the cheek, moved away from me, and then refocused on where we were headed.

Brownie trotted up next to me. “Hey, Dust. Can we talk?” he asked.

“Brownie, if this is about me trying to sneak out, I am sorry…” I started to say.

“Dust, that was a dumb move and ah already accept yer apology,” Brownie said shaking his head. “Flower does too and One, well One is One. But I have somethin’ else I need ta talk to ya about. What are we gonna do ‘bout, One? He doesn’t know how ta shoot, does he?”

“Shit, you’re right, Brownie. I hadn’t thought about that,” I said, stopping dead in my tracks. “Hey, One! Besides that rifle you were shooting when we met, do you know how to use any other weapons?”

“Yessir, Mister Dust! I was the best out of my brothers with shooting. Daddy made me the primary hunter because of it!” he said. I could see him beaming, even in the inky darkness we were travelling in.

“Brownie, do we have a spare…” I started to say.

“Gun, eeyup. I bartered fer a revolver and a rifle while we were at Manny’s,” he said with a wink. “Easiest deal I ever made,” he said with a chuckle. “His guardsponies arn’t the smartest.”

“Brownie, you’re the best. Here, One. Just in case,” I said while Brownie handed him his new weapons. “Hopefully we won’t need them, but better to be safe.”

One took the weapons like a colt with a new toy. He looked at the revolver as he belted on the holster. “This looks just like those guns from the cowpony movies we used to watch!” he exclaimed joyfully. “We used to watch them together,” he said, his face now softening into a little frown. I patted him on his back and he responded with a small grin.

We finally reached the base of the mountains. Looking back over my shoulder, Fetlock Flats was a small collection of lights on the horizon. “So, Flower, about where are we looking?” I asked while scanning the mountainside. My EFS only had our green markers so far.

“Last ah saw, he was about three-quarters up the mountainside,” she said, pointing up the mountain we were standing next to. “Ah really couldn’t get a better look.”

We followed the foot of the mountain looking for a pathway up to get closer to the sniper’s perch. Daylight was starting to break when we found a small pathway that started to lead its way up the mountainside. It was a narrow path that started up the slope and turned around a large outcropping. “Looks like we can finally head up,” I said, eying the path ahead of me. “Everypony ready?”

After a few quick nods, I led the group up the path. After making the first turn, I saw that we were on the first leg of a long switchback trail. As far as I could see, there were at least five trails we’d have to climb, and there possibly were more.

“Umm, Dust, I have a question fer ya,” Flower asked from behind me.

“What is it, Flower?” I responded.

“What is yer plan fer if we find Muddy?” she asked.

I took a deep breath and sighed. “Well, Flower, I am hoping that I can talk him down. But something tells me that won’t happen. If it comes down it it, with the five of us, I figure we can take him down. I just hate not knowing what we’re walking into.”

“Uh-huh,” she said with a nod.

After we double backed a few times, the outcroppings that formed the ‘walls’ of the walkway were diminishing in height. Eventually, the outcroppings on one side disappeared completely. Looking over the one side also showed that there was no part of the switchback below us anymore. If we fell over the edge, it would be a long and bumpy fall to the bottom.

“Careful everypony, the first step is a doozy,” I called out to my companions behind me. This was yet another time I regretted having to hide my identity. Flying would have been so much easier.

A slight breeze started to blow across the mountainside. “Could things possibly get any worse?” I asked, rhetorically.

“Now, Dust, don’t get ta tauntin’ the Wasteland. It has a nasty karma streak,” Brownie called out.

“I know, Brownie, I know,” I said, shaking my head. He was right. Even in my short time down here, I learned that the Wasteland had a funny way of making things worse just when you didn’t expect it. The memories meeting One, and the events that followed, flooded my mind. Point taken.

Up ahead, I saw a post sticking out of the ground. The only remnant of the sign that used to hang there was the nails that used to hold it in place. An aged piece of paper was fluttering in the breeze having been impaled on the ancient nails.

As we got closer, I saw that it was actually folded in half. On the front, in very sloppy hoofwriting, was the word “Dust”. A chill went down my spine. This confirmed my worst fears. “Muddy,” I muttered under my breath. “Everypony, keep an eye open. I have a bad feeling about this,” I said as I approached the note. Before reaching out and grabbing it, I looked around, searching for any sign of a trap.

Gently removing it from the sign post, I unfolded the weathered piece of paper. The hoofwriting on the inside was the same unsteady print I remembered from his journal:

“Dust,

“This is your last warning. Turn back now, nopony gets hurt. Keep coming for me, and there will be casualties.”

“Short and to the point,” I muttered, crumpling up the piece of paper and tossing it.

“What did it say, Dust?” Brownie asked.

“Warning us to turn back or else somepony gets hurt,” I said, shaking my head. “Last chance for anypony to turn back,” I asked, turning to face my friends. Most of them just gave me a steely stare in response. Silver’s look had more anger behind it than the others. “OK, stupid question, I guess.”

The pathway leveled out for a bit as it wrapped around the mountainside. The breeze picked up into a steady, light wind. Every now and then there was a gust which would kick up a puff of dust from the pathway in front of us. From somewhere up above us, a small boom was heard.

“What in the hell was that?” Flower asked, stopping dead in her tracks. We all craned our necks upward. Some small pebbles were careening their way down the rocky face above us. Occasionally, a hoof sized stone would crash down on the pathway near us and splinter into smaller pebbles.

“Mister Dust, I gotta bad feeling about this,” One said nervously.

“It’s OK, One. Let’s just get through this part and we should be fine,” I said as confidently as possible. A few steps later, a louder boom was heard from above.

Looking upwards, I saw the telltale plume of smoke from the detonation of explosives of some kind. That only had my attention shortly, as I started noticing the large rocks and boulders beginning to roll their way down the mountain. “Everypony, heads up!” I yelled out, beginning to trot ahead.

I almost lost my balance several times trying to quickly trot while dodging falling rocks. I heard two sets of hoofsteps directly behind me, so two of my friends followed me and the others must have tried backing up.

The first of the larger rocks began to pelt the path way ahead of us. It became a precarious act trying to avoid the rocks ahead of us while keeping an eye on what was still falling down the rockface above us. A particularly large boulder was bounding its way down towards us. “Back up! Everypony back up!” I yelled at the top of my lungs, hoping whoever was behind me could hear over the cacophony.

Scurrying backwards, I bumped into something. A quick glance over my shoulder revealed that I had just bumped my flank right into Silver’s face.

“Watch where you stick that thing!” she yelled at me. “One, you gotta move back!” she screamed at One. To his credit, One was trying to backpedal, but kept slipping on the small stones that now littered the pathway around us. A rock about as big as I was slammed into the pathway directly in front of me. The sound was deafening and the impact knocked me off balance onto my side.

Afraid to look back up, I know I needed to do so. Another large boulder was heading right for me. This one was easily twice the size of the last. Kicking with my legs, I tried to move out of its path. It grew larger very quickly as it descended, picking up speed as it went. I wasn’t going to make it out of its way. I felt somepony grab my front hooves and pull hard. The stone crashed into the ground, nearly missing me.

Looking at my savior, Silver still hadn’t let go of my hooves yet. “Thanks, Silver!” I screamed. Smaller rocks bouncing off our bodies. Crashing sounds still boomed above us. Another large boulder was moving our way. Glancing ahead to where it would land, One was in the crash zone. “One! You have to move!” I screamed.

“I c-c-c-can’t, Mister Dust! I’m s-s-s-scared!” he stuttered back. “Help me, please!” His eyes were as wide as dishes and he was cowering while lying on the ground.

“Dammit, One! Move!” I yelled as I quickly got to my hooves. I trotted over to him as quickly as I could. Wrapping my hooves around his head, I tugged as hard as I could. One was dead weight and didn’t give me any help at all. I kept tugging and moving him inch by inch. If I pulled any harder, I probably would have hurt his neck.

The boulder crashed to the ground behind One, cracking into two separate pieces. One of the pieces bounded further down the mountain. The other piece began to fall towards us. It was still larger than a skywagon and would cause some serious damage if were to land on us. “Push, One! Push!” I yelled, still tugging on his head. He began to kick with his back legs and we began to make some ground.

The boulder fell down, crushing all the smaller rocks underneath it. It fell completely onto its side and then rolled over the edge of the path and continued to slide down the mountain below. One started screaming right into my ear. “One, what’s wrong?” I asked, giving him a once over. Then I saw it. One of his rear hooves must have just gotten caught under the rock. It was bent off at an angle that should not have been possible.

“It hurts, Mister Dust! It hurts!” he screamed clenching his eyes shut. Tears were streaming down his face.

“I know, One. We’ll take care of it. Just hold on!” I screamed while reaching into my bags and pulling out a Med-X, which was miraculously right on top. Biting down on the cap, I ripped it off, plunged the needle into his leg and pressed the plunger down. I immediately saw his body relax a little.

“One more’s comin’ everypony! Watch out!” Brownie yelled from somewhere behind us. The largest boulder yet was still making its way down the mountain.

“Silver! Move!” I yelled.

She glanced up and her eyes widened in surprise. She leapt in our direction, hitting the ground and scrabbling her way towards us. The giant rock slammed into the pathway, barely missing Silver. I could feel the shockwaves through my body as it crashed through the pathway and took most of it with it. It quickly disappeared underneath the pathway and relative silence began to replace the crashing we had just lived through.

I took several seconds to calm and collect myself. “How is everypony?” I called out.

“I’m, I’m OK,” Silver said, still laying right next to me.

One simply whimpered in response.

“I’m OK, but we have a problem,” Brownie yelled out from behind us, clearly panicked. “Flower got buried under the rockslide!”

“Silver, take this and take care of One, please,” I said to Silver while hoofing her a healing potion from my bags. I trotted over towards Brownie, who was trying to lift a large rock. It was one of many that had settled on the pathway. I couldn’t believe that anypony was actually still alive under all of that.

“She’s in here, Dust! Ya gotta help me,” he cried out, uncharacteristically flustered. A magical aura matching Brownie’s horn enveloped the boulder as he continued to try to lift the boulder out of the way. I grabbed another part of the boulder and tried to lift with all my might. Unfortunately, the rock didn’t even budge.

I trotted over the Silver and One. One was still crying on the ground, but at least his leg seemed better than it was. “I set the leg as best I could and then gave him the healing potion,” Silver informed me as I knelt down next to One.

“One, look, I know it probably still hurts. If I could give you more Med-X, I would. But I can’t. And we need you. Flower is stuck behind a large boulder and none of us can move it. We need your help!” I pleaded with One.

One was still sobbing. “Mister Dust… it still hurts. It still hurts,” he cried.

“One, I know. And normally, I wouldn’t try to force this. Flower needs you. If you don’t help, she may die,” I pleaded. “Please, we need your help! You’re the only pony who can do this!”

One sniffled. “OK, Mister Dust. I’ll try,” he said, followed by another sniffle. He gingerly got to his hooves and limped over to the large rock pile with me.

I watched as the pale blue magical field enveloped both his horn and the boulder at the same time. His face contorted and he grunted and I saw the boulder shift a little. The magical field popped out of existence and One gave a grunt and fell to the ground.

“My leg still hurts, Mister Dust,” he groaned while grimacing. “I can’t focus on the boulder.”

“One, you are the only pony that can do this,” I pleaded. “The only one,” I said placing my hooves on his shoulders and looking him right in the eyes.

“Please, One,” Brownie interjected. “I need ya ta save her. I love her an’ I don’t wanta lose her.” Tears were streaming down his face, leaving clean trails in the dirt which had collected there.

“OK, Brownie. I’ll try again,” One said, tears rolling down his face while he looked up at Brownie. One took a few deep breaths and closed his eyes. The blue magical field again enveloped his horn and the boulder. The boulder grinded against the ground as One was able to shift it a few inches. The magical field popped out of view again as One collapsed to the ground again, panting.

Brownie slid over to the small gap and peered inside. “Flower! Talk to me, Flower!” he cried into the small opening.

A couple of light coughs came from inside. “Brownie? Is that you, sweetums?” Flower said hoarsely.

“Oh, Flower!” Brownie cried out in excitement. “Are you OK? Are you hurt?”

“I don’t think so,” Flower said. “You said you wanted to pin me down today, but I didn’t think you meant it this way,” she said with a snicker followed by a cough. Brownie’s face turned red. “I don’t mean ta sound ungrateful, but can I ask what yer waitin’ fer ta get me outta here? It is cozy and all, but...”

I looked to One and he nodded without me having to say a word. He took several deep breaths and closed his eyes again. The boulder glowed blue again and it rose an inch or two off the ground. “C’mon, One! Just need you to move it a little!” I urged him on.

He grit his teeth as he grimaced, fighting the strain placed on his magic. The boulder slowly glided its way across the path. With a string of grunts, One continued to move the boulder. A loud popping sound accompanied the dispelling of the magical field as the boulder crashed to the ground. It rocked when it hit the ground and slowly turned its way over the edge of the path and tumbled away out of sight.

A thud behind me drew my attention. I turned and saw One on the ground. Sparks were fizzling out of the top of his horn, which was now blackened. He was breathing heavily as he just lay there. Brownie had already slid over to the opening and was pulling Flower out of it. Once she was completely clear, they embraced tighter than I had seen before.

“Oh, Flower. I thought this was it. I thought today was the day I’d lose ya,” Brownie cried between sobs.

“Oh, you big mush. You know it’s gonna take more to kill me than a few big rocks,” she snickered. “Unless ya like me in tight, confining…” she started.

Brownie was quick to place his hoof against her mouth. “Alright, Flower. I think that’s enough,” Brownie squeaked. I couldn’t help but to laugh a little.

I looked towards One. “How are you holding up, One?” I asked, worried we pushed him too far.

He looked up at me. I don’t think I ever saw him so tired looking since we met. “I’ll be OK, Mister Dust. I just need a few minutes to rest,” he said while rubbing his horn. “Why does my horn feel so numb?”

“Ya burned out yer magic, One,” Brownie answered. “Don’t worry too much. It’ll come back in a little while. Just needs some time ta recover.”

I walked my way over to Silver and placed a hoof on her shoulder, which she shook off. “Are you OK?” I asked awkwardly.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she spat back. “I just want you to imagine what would happen if you had come by yourself. You’d be seriously hurt, or worse.”

Actually, I probably would have just flown away to avoid the rockslide, but with the others around I couldn’t do that. “I know,” I said, not wanting to prolong the discussion, since I’d probably lose anyway.

I trotted over to the pathway where the large boulder had sheared away a sizable portion of the path. A good twenty to thirty hoofstep length of the path was just gone. What was left in it’s place was barely wide enough for our hooves.

“Aw, hell,” I muttered to nopony in particular. Staring at the path, I tried to figure out a safe way to get across. Coming up with nothing, I simply shook my head. “Shit.”

I hadn’t noticed that everypony else had joined me at the walkway’s edge. “So, ya got any plans, Dust?” Brownie asked.

“That won’t get us killed?” Silver added with acid in her tone.

“Except for Silver flying over, no. The only thing I can think of is to sidle our way across that little ledge,” I said, not taking my eyes off the walkway ahead. If I could fly too, it would make things easier, but Brownie, Flower and One would be stuck.

“Maybe I can levitate us over?” One asked hopefully. I saw him try to concentrate, but sparks shot from his horn. “Oh, I forgot,” he said with a grimace and a groan.

“It’s OK, One,” I told him with a pat on the shoulder. “Alright, here’s what we’ll do. Silver, you’ll fly over first with one end of a rope. At least then, there’ll be a safety line, just in case. Everyone else will go over one at a time and when we’re down to the last pony, Silver will switch sides. Unless anypony has a better idea?”

I was met by a chorus of grunts and grumbles. Flower pulled a rope out of her pack and gave one end to Silver. She grabbed it in her mouth and flew easily over the gap. I was really tempted to do the same, but I didn’t want to blow my damned cover. I couldn’t risk alienating my friends at this point.

Brownie volunteered to go first. Such a large pony looked awkward standing on two hooves, but he somehow retained his balance. He edged his way to the ledge and began to slide his two back (bottom?) hooves slowly along the narrow strip.

“Dust, this is not one of your better ideas,” Brownie muttered. I could see a grimace on his face and he had begun to sweat, even in the cool breeze this high up on the mountain. A couple of tense minutes later, Brownie made it all the way across.

“Alright, I guess I’ll go next,” Flower said, clearly not excited by the prospect. She stood up and moved against the mountainside. She shuffled her hooves much like Brownie did. “Aww, Brownie! This ain’t so hard,” she called out once she got halfway across. Her left hoof slipped a little sending a small collection of pebbles and stone dust tumbling down the mountainside. “Maybe next time, ah’ll keep mah mouth shut,” she said with a grimace. The rest of her crossing was uneventful.

“Alright, One. Your turn,” I said to the young, green stallion.

“Um, Mister Dust, I don’t know if I can do this. I can’t stand on my hurt leg,” he said looking between his hoof and the ledge.

“One, I know you can do it. Just don’t look down,” I said, mustering as much support as I could.

One slowly made his way to the ledge. Standing up on his back legs, he was clearly favoring his injured leg. Hopefully, he had enough strength to overcome his injury and get him across. Before placing his first hoof on the narrow walkway, he gave me one more nervous look. I nodded in response. Visibly gulping, he began to shuffle his way across. He was making tiny moves, which I really couldn’t blame him for. He never took his gaze off the narrow ledge, making sure each move left him on solid hoofing.

At one point across, he stopped and looked back at me. “Um, Mister Dust, this part of the walkway looks like it’s cracked,” he said, his voice tinged with panic.

“It’s OK, One. Just keep going, it’ll be OK,” I responded, hoping I was right.

One gingerly placed his weight down on the fractured part of the ledge and slowly tested it. I heard a slight cracking sound followed by the sight of more tiny pieces of rock tumbling away. One glanced back at me. “It’s OK, just keep going!” I yelled, not meaning to be so urgent. He didn’t need the stress. Fortunately, a few more slow shuffles later, and he was able to slide the rest of the way across.

Silver handed her loose end to Brownie and then flew back over the gap. “Your turn now, Dust. Please be careful,” she said. She didn’t seem as angry as before, but then again, it could have simply been anxiety. I wasn’t looking forward to the crossing myself.

After handing the end of the rope I was holding to her, I made my way to the ledge. Keeping the rope under my legs so I could grab it in case of a fall, I began to slide my way across the gap. Making sure to keep my hooves securely on what remained of the pathway, I would slide one hoof and then slide the other one to meet it. I was kicking loose pieces of gravel as I moved. I made the mistake once of watching one of the pieces bounce away down the mountainside.

“Whose idea was this again?” I cried out anxiously.

“Um, this was yer idea,” Flower scoffed. “One of yer worst, but yer idea all the same.”

“It was a rhetorical question, Flower,” I said with a grunt as my hoof slipped a little.
After travelling half the distance without incident, I was starting to feel a little confident. This wasn’t so bad after all! How quickly I was about to be reminded that the Wasteland likes to teach ponies a lesson.

I slid my left hoof over and planted it. I began to shift the weight of my body to it while I was going to slide my right hoof over and then I heard it. The cracking of stone underhoof hit me like an icicle. My whole body froze and my mind could only focus on the rock underhoof. I watched as the section of ledge gave way and I felt my body begin to fall with it. Flailing for the rope, I grabbed it with both hooves.

“Holy shit! Help me up! Help me up!” I cried out in a panic. My hoof was still on the pathway, but the upper part of my body had fallen backwards and I was nearly horizontal.

“Hang on, Dust! We’re gonna try to pull ya back up!” Brownie cried out through clenched teeth.

I felt my body start to rise a little as the rope became taut. I was starting to feel somewhat relieved as I felt myself get pulled back towards vertical. It was then that the snapping of rope caught my attention somewhere to my right. Glancing towards the sound, I saw the rope beginning to fray about a yard or so behind me. “Oh, shit. Ponies, whatever you’re gonna do, please do it quickly!” A pop sent a shiver of terror through my body as I watched another one of the strands of the rope snap. It was quickly followed by a third and a fourth. I was being supported by only two thin strands of hemp.

Grabbing the rope in my teeth for additional grip, I also grabbed the rope with my hooves as best I could. I heard two more snaps and felt the familiar sensation of freefall. If my wings were free, this wouldn’t be an issue, but they were “safely” tucked away inside my armor. The rope snapped taut in my grip. I felt my hooves burn as they slipped over the rope and I felt pain through my teeth as the rope threatened to rip them right out of my head. I began to swing and saw the sheer face of the mountain approach rapidly. Fortunately, I was able to brace myself as my body slammed into the wall.

“Oof!” I gasped as the wind was knocked out of my, being careful not to let go of the rope. I looked up and saw Silver’s face appear over the edge. I was dangling about ten feet below her.

“Dust! Hold on! Flower and Brownie are going to try to pull you up!” she yelled out over the edge.

I felt the rope trying to lift me as I imagined Brownie and Flower pulling with all their might. I watched as Silver’s eyes went wide and she started shaking her head frantically. “Stop pulling! Stop pulling! The edge is cutting into the rope!” she screamed out. Immediately, I felt my ascent stop and I was left swinging at the end of my rope, figuratively and literally.

“What are we gonna do? What are we gonna do?” I heard Silver mutter frantically. The sad part at this point was that even if I wanted to release my armor and free my wings, I couldn’t risk letting go of the rope with either my hooves or my teeth.

Silver’s head disappeared for a moment. For a split second, I panicked thinking that she was leaving me behind. After a short absence, I watched as Silver flew over the edge and slowly descended down next to me, carrying another rope in her mouth. She got near me and started tying the rope off to my midsection. The rough hemp cut into my flesh, but I didn’t care at this point. If it kept me from dying, I didn’t care.

Once she was done, she gave the rope a tug to make sure it was secure. “OK, Dust, I am going to try to push you up while Brownie, Flower and One pull. Hopefully the reduced strain won’t cut into the rope too much and we can safely get you up,” she said. “However, this would have been so much easier if you could just fly yourself. And again, I want you to think about what would have happened if we weren’t here with you.,” she whispered to me.

“Point made, Silver,” I grumbled.

“OK ponies! Start pulling!” she yelled up. She flew into position above me and hooked her legs under mine and around my midsection. She grunted under the strain of flapping her wings as hard as she could, but I felt myself rising. I kept an eye on the rope, hoping I didn’t hear any snaps or see the rope start to fray. We were about half way up when I heard the first snap above me. I could see the tell tale unraveling of one of the strands of hemp that had been cut by the jagged edge.

“Um, ponies! We need to do this faster!” I yelled. “I don’t think the rope is going to hold!”

Silver renewed her effort to flap as hard as possible and I could barely make out the grunting of my friends as they were pulling. The edge drew closer and closer until I could reach it. However, the way that Silver had me meant that she’d have to let go for me to do so. I just kept my grip on her, doing my best not to hinder her efforts.

Finally, the top half of my rose above the edge of the walkway. With one last grunt and tug, my entire body was pulled back onto the pathway and everypony else collapsed onto the rocky path, breathing heavily. My body was still tremoring from nearly dying, yet again.

I soon felt something tighten against my body. Fearing I was slipping back over the edge and the rope was getting taught again, I looked down and saw two pink legs wrapped around my midsection. “Dust, I thought I was going to lose you. Please don’t ever do that to me again!” Silver pleaded with me. “But don’t think this gets you off the hoof for trying to sneak off!”

“I know, Silver. I know,” I said trying to stroking her mane with my hooves. Looking at the rest of my friends, I saw Brownie and Flower were embracing each other just as Silver and I were.

One was sitting with a grimace on his face. “Ewwww…” he said, looking like he bit into something sour. We all chuckled a little.

We all rested for several minutes, considering what we had just been through. Even One had regained some use of his magic, but he was barely able to lift small pebbles. But it was a start.

“Don’t worry none, One. Yer magic will come back just as good as it ever was,” Brownie said to him, trying to comfort him. One simply gave him a forlorn look in return.

After traveling along a straight path for a while, I got concerned. “Flower, wasn’t the sniper’s perch in the other direction?”

“Yes it was, Dust. But I didn’t see any other way of getting up here, did ya?” she asked.

“I guess not,” I agreed, shaking my head.

The path pulled a full u-turn and I started to feel better. Another few minutes later, however, and I wasn’t feeling so confident anymore. The pathway ended at a sheer drop off and resumed across a twenty or thirty yard crevice. Connecting both sides of the pathway was a rickety-looking rope bridge. The wood was aged and splintering in several locations. Several boards were missing along the way. The rope had turned a dark gray in years of constant weathering.

My mind immediately flashed back to the lab. Of my nearly fatal drop into the cavern without the ability to use my wings. How I almost died. “No,” I said as I felt the blood drain from my face. “No, no, no, no, no. Uh-uh, no way!”

“Calm down, Dust,” Flower yelled at me while shaking me. “What the hell is yer problem?”

“Don’t tell me you can’t see where this is going?” I asked sarcastically. “The ropes will snap, a board will break at an inopportune time, the wind will pick up at the wrong moment. This can go wrong in at least a thousand different ways.”

Flower moved faster than I thought possible and slapped me right across the snout. “Now, Dust. I agree, it doesn’t look good, but we have no choice. And we have ta get across ta the sniper’s nest, right?”

“Ugh!” I growled through clenched teeth. She was right, of course. It was either that or turn back now.

“Alright, ah’ll go first, to show you how safe it is, Dust,” Flower said with a smirk.

Flower strode up to the edge of the bridge, confidence in her steps. She paused as she reached the transition from stone to wood and looked back at me. “Now watch this!” she called out and stuck her tongue out at me.

She began walking out over the bridge faster than I would have liked. She placed her full weight down on the planks that made up the bridge with each step. Some of the boards sounded like they cracked and with some steps I heard the rope supports creak. A few of them even gave off little puffs of dust as she stepped on them. How long has it been since this bridge has been used?

Flower finally got to the other side and made a big show of jumping off the last plank onto the stone on the other side. “See! I told ya! Easy peasy lemon squeezy!”

I watched as a grin formed on One’s face. “I can do that too, Mister Dust!” One took off at a gallop towards the bridge and didn’t even slow as he took his first steps.

I cringed and covered my eyes as I watched One cross the bridge. “One! Take it easy! That bridge is old and…” I started to say.

Even at a hobble, One actually finished crossing before I had a chance to finish my statement. “See, Mister Dust! It’s super easy!” he cried out in sheer joy as he sidled next to Flower.

Brownie gulped audibly as he looked at me. “Dust, why doncha go next since yer lighter than I am,” he said, his wide open eyes not moving from the bridge.

My gaze did not waver from the bridge either. “Nah, Brownie, it’s OK. You can go first,” I said in a nervous daze.

Flower stomped her hoof down on the other side of the bridge. “Luna be damned. Would one of ya grow a set of balls and cross the bridge, fer cryin’ out loud!” she yelled at us.

Brownie and I looked at each other. “I’m thinking of a number between one and one hundred?” I asked sheepishly. Please don’t guess thirty-six, please don’t guess thirty-six, I thought to myself.

Brownie scoffed. “Thirty-six?” he guessed.

I felt my jaw drop. “Luna be damned,” I muttered in shock. “I guess that means I go first.”

“Eeyup,” Brownie responded, with a relieved sigh.

I trotted over to the bridge and paused. The bridge still appeared as run down as it had before. Standing closer to it, I could see more cracks in some of the boards and more frayed cords in the support ropes. I looked back at Brownie and he simply nodded at me. Flower stood at the other side of the bridge, impatiently tapping her hoof on the ground.

Very carefully, I placed my hoof down on the first board. It creaked in protest of the weight now being placed on it after more than one hundred years. Eventually it was carrying the full weight of the hoof and the creaking ceased. Now I took my other front hoof and placed it carefully on the next board. This time, the creaking of the board was joined by the creaky sound of the support ropes being placed under tension. I could already feel my pulse beating in my forehead as my lower lip trembled.

“I am not happy with this! Not happy at all!” I cried out in frustration.

“Awww, c’mon you big sissy!,” Flower yelled from the other side.

I continued my slow progression across the bridge. It took me almost five minutes just to cross halfway. Every board threatened to break under my weight and the rope sounded like it would snap at any second. A new whistling sound joined the quiet symphony from the bridge. “What the fuck?” I asked. The bridge started to sway in the strong breeze that just began to blow across the mountain. In my mind, I saw my broken body lying on the floor of that dark cavern in the stable. “Oh no…. Not this… Why? Why me?” I dropped to a lying position and grabbed onto both sides of the board I was currently on.

“Dust, you gotta get up and finish!” Silver called out. “Just sitting there is only going to make it worse!”

“Nope. I’m gonna wait it out!” I screamed back in a panic. My stomach began to turn as I saw the mountain below me sway in my vision. Fortunately, I hadn’t had a lot to eat for dinner or else I might have seen it make a second appearance.

My friends kept trying to motivate me to keep moving, but I was having none of it. Sooner or later, the wind would die down, the bridge would stop swaying, and I’d be able to keep walking.

A snapping sound came directly from my side. I looked over and saw that one of the strands of the support ropes had snapped, the frayed edge blowing in the breeze. Oh shit.

Slowly, I got back to my hooves and kept moving to the far side. I did pick up my pace a little, but I was still moving at what I considered a safe pace. I was making decent progress… for a while. After several steps, I heard a board crack when I put my weight down on it. My hoof pushed through the board, sending the splintered sections freefalling down the chasm below the bridge. Halfway down, they turned into what I envisioned as smaller versions of my own body. I watched as they bounced off the sides repeatedly. I immediately dropped down and closed my eyes. “That’s it, I’m done, I give up!”

“Dust, open yer Luna damned eyes!” Flower yelled at me very loudly.

“Nope, uh-uh, I’m waiting right here,” I said with a pout.

“Dust… just open yer Luna damned eyes!” Flower said with a bit of growl.

“No, why would I do such a…” I said as I opened my eyes just to give Flower a dirty look. The words escaped my head once I realized I was one step away from the end of the bridge. I felt my cheeks flush with warmth as a stepped over the missing board and got my hooves on firm ground. I trotted away from the bridge until I felt myself calm down. I sat down and tried to get my breathing under control.

Silver trotted over while Flower motivated Brownie to cross. “Dust, why are you so freaked out? You aren’t afraid of heights, are you?” she asked, whispering into my ear which she shielded with her hooves.

“No, n-n-not generally,” I stammered. “Just when I know I can’t fly my way out.”

“Oh… the stable, huh?” she asked.

“Yes, the stable,” I said, wincing as I felt a phantom pain from my healing wing.

Silver hugged me. “That sucks, Dust,” she said with a squeeze. “But don’t think I’m not still mad at you.”

What was the saying about a mare scorned?

It took Brownie about the same amount of time to cross the bridge as I did. While he didn’t have to deal with the breeze blowing the bridge around as much as it did for me, he did break a few boards on his way over. He did handle the situation much better than I did, however.

We kept following the mountain path for a while. I froze when I saw it end at a metallic door set into the wall of the mountain. Above the door sat an extremely weathered, wooden sign. It was in relatively good shape, considering it had been exposed to the elements for more than a century. It had been painted white with blue block lettering. The sparse lettering that remained read “Equestrian Mining - Gem Mine #14-a”. Below that, etched into the wood were the words “Collapsed - Enter at Your Own Risk..” Off to the side sat an old skywagon in amazingly good shape. The metal was still shiny and clear of rust. A red EFS marker suddenly appeared in my vision.

“Everypony… shhhh!” I whispered to my friends as I dropped into a prone position. My friends all followed suit. “Hostile target ahead.”

I very slowly led the group closer to the door, being careful to keep the marker directly ahead of me. Making sure to check above us (see, I do learn from my past mistakes!), I made it all the way to the door itself.

“Brownie, did we bring any of those flash bang grenades?” I asked with a whisper.

“Nope,” he said. I sighed and grimaced thinking of a plan B. “But ah did trade for some back at Dirtpatch.” He giggled, seemingly satisfied with himself.

Without me having to tell him, he knew exactly what my plan was. I did have to explain it to Flower and One as I got them to take cover behind the skywagon. Flower got into a position where she had a clear shot at the door, but had good cover in case whoever was inside was ready to fight back. I took up a position right next to the door and Brownie got next to me. I saw the flash bang held aloft in his magical field. With a silent nod, the three of us signalled each other that we were ready.

Moving in front of the door, I grabbed the handle and quickly turned it and pulled the door open, making sure I stayed behind it. At the same time, Brownie pulled the pin with his magic and threw the grenade inside the door. All three of us looked away from the door itself and waited for the bang.

“What the hell?” a voice inside the door said shortly before the loud percussive sound struck. “Holy shit! I’m blind, I’m blind!” The voice was clearly not Muddy’s.

Hoofsteps approached the door. I heard a soft thud right near the door frame. “Ow! Where the hell am I?” the mysterious voice asked. The hoofsteps continued until they were clearly outside the door frame.

I drew my shotgun and spun around the open door quickly. Brownie had already drawn out his pistol in his magic. Running as fast as I could, I slammed into the midsection of a stallion with a sniper rifle strapped to his torso. The pony tumbled to the ground and rolled a couple of times. He finally stopped and stayed there, still rubbing his eyes.

I approached the pony. He was an earth pony stallion with brown fur and white mane. He was on the small side stature wise, and clearly hadn’t eaten in awhile. He was still rubbing his eyes as I approached, making sure to keep a safe distance away. I stowed my shotgun while both Brownie and Flower kept their weapons trained on him.

“If you have any weapons on you, I’d throw them to the side,” I ordered. “You have a sniper rifle and a submachine gun trained on you. I’d definitely think twice about trying anything.”

The pony on the ground stopped rubbing his eyes and looked up at me. His teal eyes immediately constricted and he began trembling in fear. “P-p-please don’t shoot me!” he cried out, immediately curling into a fetal position. His EFS marker changed from red to green.

I held out my hoof and lowered it and my friends lowered their weapons, but didn’t holster them. Carefully, I approached the pony. “Listen, I’m going to take off your rifle. Just stay calm, OK?” I said calmly and gently. Nearly holding my breath, I reached out for his rifle and pulled it free from where is was strapped to his torso. I tossed the rifle to Flower. “Now look, my friends are going to holster their weapons,” I said, nodding towards my friends who followed my lead. “We just want to talk.”

“But that other pony said you were going to kill me!” he blurted out between sniffles. “He told me that I needed to get rid of you and then you wouldn’t be coming for me.”
I sat down near him. “Wait a minute… what other pony?” I asked.

“He didn’t tell me his name. All I know is he was a yellow and green pegasus and he said a grey and blue earth pony with four friends would be getting to town yesterday.” He was talking a mile a minute, but I was still able to understand him. “He said you were bounty hunters who were going to bring me in.”

“Muddy,” I said grimly. “Wait a minute, bring you in? What are you running from?”

“I’m a thief! I shoplifted from the general store in Fetlock Flats and Sheriff Seven Stars was hunting me down!” he screamed out, his words almost blending together. “I ran into the pegasus on my way out of town and he said he’d hide me. He also said that you were a bounty hunter and were going to kill me to collect the bounty. Please don’t kill me,” he pleaded as he started bawling his eyes out.

“Now calm down there, I’m not going to kill you,” I said calmly, trying to assure the poor pony.

“Y-y-you’re not?” he asked, pleading in his eyes as he looked up at me.

“No… I’m not,” I responded. “Now, the pegasus, did he say or give you anything?”

“W-w-well he left his sniper rifle for me to use,” he said while gesturing towards the rifle that Flower now held. “And he gave me this,” he continued as he reached into his saddlebags.

“Whoa there! Get yer hooves away from yer bags,” Flower barked as she leveled her rifle at the pony. “Dust’ll get it fer ya,” she said with a nod to me.

I trotted over and opened the saddlebag he had reached for. Inside, was a folded piece of weathered paper. I pulled it out of the bag and unfolded it.

“So, Dust, what does it say?” Brownie asked, trotting over to me.

I read the note out loud:

“Dear Dust, I hope you’re enjoying your little hunt. I knew you just couldn’t give up on this and you will not stop until you find me and ‘bring me to justice’. Hah! As if these ponies know what justice is. Well, seeing as how I can’t dissuade you from pursuing me, then I might as well play along. Good luck. You’ll need it. Sincerely yours, Muddy. PS - Peekaboo! I see you!”

My blood ran cold as I unholstered my shotgun in one swift motion and began searching the area around us. My EFS still showed only green markers.

“Anypony see him?” I asked, panicking as I kept sweeping my field of vision. All my friends responded with a chorus of no’s as we all kept looking for Muddy.

A brown blur moved across my peripheral vision which drew my attention. The prone pony was able to move faster than I thought possible. With what I thought was impossible speed, he had flipped himself over onto all fours. He then glided next to Brownie, took Brownie’s knife from its sheath and got behind Brownie with the knife to Brownie’s throat.

Gone from his face was the look of fear and panic, and it was replaced with a calm and cruel demeanor. “OK, ponies. Everypony drops their weapon now or else the big one will need a needle and thread to reattach his head,” he ordered very coolly. “And, Flower is it? Throw my sniper rifle back over here.”

“Dust, what do we do?” Flower asked though the firing bit of her pistol.

“Anypony have a shot?” I asked.

“Tsk,tsk, tsk. Don’t know how to follow directions, eh?” the threatening pony asked. The knife slid across Brownie’s throat, drawing a thin red line. Tiny rivulets of blood began to run down Brownie’s throat. “Very nicely maintained! I barely had to apply any pressure!”

Flower was the first to act. “OK, OK! Here!” she screamed. She tossed the energy rifle towards the brown pony and dropped her own rifle and stepped back from it. “Please everypony! Do what he says!”

Everypony looked at eachother with uneasy glances. Tears were streaming down Flower’s eyes. With a deep sigh, I tossed my shotgun towards the hostage taker, and then did the same with my pistol. I also took a few steps back. Silver and One did the same.

“You ponies were too easy! Muddy said you were dumb, but I didn’t believe it!” he said and then laughed. “I’ve had some strange contracts but this one takes the cake! I don’t know what this one did,” he said with nod of his head towards Brownie, “but he wanted you to go first and for it to take a while.” He shrugged. “As long as the caps are good, who was I to argue!”

One’s mouth dropped open. “But you said no one would get hurt!” he yelled.

“You must be the dumb one,” he said with a snicker. “Let me fill you in on a secret.” He mimed looking around for somepony listening in. “I lied,” he said in a sarcastic whisper and a wicked grin.

“No, not again! I will not let somepony get hurt again by some bad guy!” he screamed. His horn became engulfed in his magical aura. I couldn’t believe that he was able to sustain a magical field having had burned out so recently. The tip of his horn was shooting out a fountain of sparks. The pain he was feeling must have been intense, but the look of fury on his face was frightening.

Behind Brownie and our assailant, a hoof sized stone began to glow in a matching color. The stone shot off the side of the mountain right towards our attacker.

“What the fuck are you all looking at?” he asked while turning his head. The stone impacted with his snout, making a sickeningly wet thud along with a crack. The stone seemingly bounced off, but was still shrouded in the aura. The stone flew back towards him and hit his head again. Another wet snapping sound was joined this time by a spray of blood.

“No!” One yelled each time the stone withdrew and impacting the poor stallion again. After about five or six impacts, the pony lost his grip on the knife and slid to the ground off of Brownie’s body. That didn’t stop One from attacking him with the stone.

“One! Stop! You did it! He’s unconscious!” I yelled. The stone did not stop its attack. I grabbed One by the sides of his face and stared right in his eyes. At first glance, what I saw was sent a shiver down my spine. His eyes had constricted so they were barely pinpricks and bore right through me. He was breathing heavily through tightly clenched teeth. “One! Stop! You’re killing him!”

His eyes refocused on me. I watched as the magical aura around his horn slowly faded and then dissipated. I heard the stone drop the ground behind me. One was panting heavily. His whole horn was now a charred black color, and the tip was releasing a steady stream of black smoke. He pushed me out of the way and surveyed the scene.

The bounty hunter pony was lying on the ground. His face was nearly unrecognizable, being caved in at several spots. You couldn’t even be sure he was a pony. Crimson red blood had pooled around his head on the ground, mixing with the dust on the stony path. Amazingly, he was still breathing, but the gurgling sound that accompanied it didn’t bode well.

“Mister Dust… d-d-did I do that?” he asked. His eyes were wide open with fear.

“One, it’s OK, he was going to kill Brownie,” I said, trying to reassure him.

“Mister Dust, I think I’m going to be sick,” he whispered. One trotted away to behind the skywagon and shortly thereafter I heard the sound of him retching.

Sighing, I looked at the body of the barely alive pony. “Silver, have you ever flown one of those?” I asked, pointing towards the sky wagon.

“I’ve never tried, but it shouldn’t be that hard,” she said with a shrug. “I mean, if that ghoul pony out near Ponyville can do it, why can’t I?”

“Silver, go get hitched up. Everypony else, help me load him inside the wagon,” I said. “We have to get him back to Fetlock Flats.”

Level up!

Explosives - 15

Perk Obtained:
Tightrope Walker - When dealing with precarious footing, you receive +1 Agility.

Chapter 26 - Discovery, Part 1

Chapter 26 - Discovery, Part 1
“Truth is like the sun. You can shut it away for a time, but it ain’t going away. “

“... and then he just let me walk out,” I finished describing my encounter with Muddy to Gertie.

“I don’t like this, Dust,” she said warily, shaking her head. “This smells like a trap to me.”

“I agree, Gertie,” I concurred. “But, we have to save our friends. If we do nothing, they’ll be at the mercy of whoever finds them. We just have to go in and stay alert.” My mouth turned down into a frown. “Muddy seemed pretty sure we wouldn’t find them on our own, or in time.”

“How did this happen, Dust?” Gertie asked, frustration coloring her speech.

“I don’t know, Gertie,” I said, shaking my head again. “He always seems to be one fucking step ahead of me.” A deep sigh escaped my mouth. “I can never get ahead of him.”

“Well, let’s worry about that later,” she consoled me, placing a claw on my shoulder. “Now, I know which direction the skywagons went. However, there are a lot of settlements out there. Even being able to narrow it down by direction, that still leaves way too much ground to cover in the little time we probably have. Is there anything else you can remember about the videos you saw?”

I craned my head back and closed my eyes. I tried to replay the videos in my head, hoping I could remember details from the short clips I saw. “Silver... behind her wagon… small town… no large buildings…” Fragments of images flew through my mind, creating utter chaos in my thoughts. I kept going back to the struggling form of Silver.

“C’mon, Dust,” Gertie prodded me. “I know you can do it. Focus on the town behind the wagon. The wagon isn’t there… there is no Enclave… there is no Silver.”

The image in my mind distorted as the foreground faded away and background details sharpened. There were mostly dilapidated buildings. Nothing stood out. None of the buildings had signs on them. No single building drew my attention. Dammit… why was it so hard to put up a sign… or name a business… But no… all this town did was fucking walk around the fountain in the center of town. Wait, what? “A fountain! The town had a fountain in the middle!” I spurted out.

“Do you mean a trough with a spigot… or an honest-to-goodness, ornate fountain?” Gertie asked, probing for information.

“It was a multi-tiered, marble fountain, right in the middle of a bunch of dilapidated shacks,” I confirmed.

“Hmm.. that’s probably Fountainview,” Gertie said, stroking her chin. “Don’t know much about that area. The only rumor I remember is that a weird cult is operating out there. Bunch of loonies if you ask me.” Gertie paused, allowing my mind to relax for a second. “Alright, what about Flower’s video?”

I closed my eyes and tried to replay the video in my mind. Again, for a moment, I focused on the struggling form of Flower. Allowing my mind’s eye to drift, I tried to pick out details of the town behind. “Low slung concrete building with thin slits for windows… lots of wagon wreckage… open cargo containers stacked in several places…” I was getting frustrated again… nothing called out a name… I allowed my mind to drift. I looked at the skyline behind the town. It was as flat and vacant as anywhere else down here… except for that large needle like protrusion… “A spire! The town has a large, needle-like spire!”

Gertie’s reaction immediately betrayed her recognition of the town. “That sounds like the military supply depot at Trotwood,” she mused. “Hmm… slaver territory.”

“Ugh…. alright… now… Brownie…” I mumbled as I let my mind drift again. Brownie was oddly still in the back of the wagon, but he was still alive. The barely controlled rage in his eyes was obvious to me. Relaxing my mind, the picture fell out of focus. I tried to look behind him. “A wall… a very large wall… and brahmin pens...:”

“Well, that could be a few places,” Gertie responded.

“Fields of corn… but not the sickly stuff other towns can grow… this stuff is closer to the stuff the facility was growing…” I muttered blindly.

“Hmmm… that must be The Garden… only settlement that was not hit as bad with radiation as everywhere else. They grow and sell some of the best food around,” she recalled from memory.

“That doesn’t sound so dangerous?” I half asked, half stated.

“It shouldn’t be… they are the richest settlement around since everypony shops there. They have enough caps to keep their own mercenary force employed and then some,” she informed me.

“Then why the hell did Muddy bring him there?,” I pondered aloud. Gertie nodded. “Brownie seems the safest… so who’s closer? Flower or Silver?”

Gertie’s features twisted into deep thought. “Flower,” she answered, flatly.

“Alright… then let’s head to Trotwood first,” I decided. “But first, we need to take care of our Enclave friends.

Our Enclave guests were not thrilled when we went to release them from their bonds. Especially the stallion that got knocked upside the head. They demanded their weaponry back, which we, of course, denied. After some heated arguing, and a threat from Gertie to rip them to shreds, our guests finally turned tail. When they got a good distance away, I turned and smirked. “By the way, Breeze... the quartermaster is going to have some funny ideas about later,” I hollered at them.
I think I heard Breeze mutter, “Son of a bitch.”

Gertie and I took off a short time later after collecting our friends’ things. We took off towards Trotwood, which Gertie said would be about an hour in the air.

Gertie ended up breaking the awkward silence that had settled on us. “I hope you’re not blaming yourself, Dust,” she tried to comfort me. “Nopony could have predicted this.”

“No, Gertie, you’re wrong,” I sighed. “Muddy was prepared for me. He masterfully separated us before I realized what was going on and led me right where he wanted me. And this isn’t the first time, either. I need to be smarter. I should have expected that.”

“Dust…” she said, trying to console me.

“No, Gertie,” I interrupted, solemnly. “This is on me. This whole thing is on me.”

Gertie’s beak dropped open as if she was going to continue the argument, but then closed when she thought better of it. After a little while, she did break the silence again. “So, what’s the plan?” she asked.

“Well, it’s gotta be hard to hide a skywagon and still get the video they got,” I started. “I am going to assume the wagon is out in the open. Now, that’s not to say they won’t be expecting us. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve been warned already. I’m sure we got spotted taking off and they know the direction we are generally headed. But something tells me that Muddy has something else planned. I doubt it was an accident details were visible that would lead us to these particular settlements.”

“I agree,” Gertie responded. “Which doesn’t make me feel any better.”

After a short flight, I saw a spire appear over the horizon. Surrounding it were several small, concrete buildings. However, at this distance, I couldn’t see the gleam of the metal-skinned skywagon.

“There she is, Trotwood Military Supply Depot,” Gertie informed me. “One of the larger munitions depots during the war. Got cleaned out almost immediately once the area was safe to travel. Last I heard, it was holding its own against the slavers operating out of the north. The bunkers are pretty defensible.”

“Looks that way to me,” I concurred. “Assuming they had food and water, they could hold out there for an incredible long time. Do you see the skywagon yet?”

“Not y…. Wait,” she mumbled. “Yes, there it is. Ten o’clock.”

I strained my eyes to see what Gertie was pointing out. On the far side of the settlement was a small rise. Resting at the top of the rise was the cylindrical metal tube that was a personnel transport skywagon. The two soldiers I saw from the video before were standing right out in the open.

“I don’t like the looks of this,” I said, still squinting at the scene below. “They aren’t even reacting to us.”

“What do you wanna do?” Gertie asked.

“I’m gonna land and see what’s up,” I plotted. “Is there anywhere good for overwatch?”

Gertie scanned the area. “No, that’s the high ground,” she said, nodding. “Smart sons of bitches. I’ll have to back you up in person this time.”

I grunted my displeasure, but it wasn’t all that bad. Gertie was more than capable of handling herself. We may be outgunned, but at least we weren’t outmanned this time. I banked and began to descend to a point a few dozen yards away from the skywagon. I didn’t want to spook the guards.

“Holster your weapons,” I ordered Gertie. “I want to appear as non-threatening as possible.”

Gertie looked like she was about to object, but again, stopped. After ensuring everything was stowed, I slowly led us to the skywagon.

Once we were within earshot, I called out to the guards. “It’s me, Dust,” I yelled. The guards swiveled their heads towards me, but they didn’t react otherwise. “We are coming with our weapons holstered. We just want to talk.”

“Yeah, we know,” the guard droned. “C’mon out.”

I flashed Gertie a confused look. “They know?” I asked her.

We crested the rise and saw the guards just standing there. Their weapons were holstered. They obviously were not spoiling for a fight. “What do you mean you know?” I asked as we approached. Gertie and I paused several feet away.

“Clear Skies said you’d be coming,” the guard said, almost yawning. “Didn’t know how many of you or how soon.” He looked towards his partner. “Looks like we won the pool,” he said with a snicker.

“Where is Flower?” I demanded, glaring at the ponies.

“The mare?” the guard asked mockingly. “We left her in town. She’s probably still down there waiting for you.” With that statement, the two soldiers turned towards the wagon. One got into position to be strapped into the harness.

“What do you mean, left in town?” I asked them, aggravated at the vague answers.

“We walked her down there, what, thirty minutes ago?” the first guard said to his buddy.

“You just let her go?” I asked, clearly not believing their story.

“Those were our orders,” he replied. “Now, if you don’t mind, we want to head back to the farm. We get the rest of the shift off, thanks to you.” The two resumed flight preparation and basically ignored us from that point forward.

I turned and began walking towards the town. There was hesitation in Gertie’s steps.

“What is it, Gertie?” I asked after stopping.

“You know something is up, right?” she queried.

“Yes, I know,” I fired back. “But what are we supposed to do? Leave her there?”

“Of course not!” Gertie hissed back. She stopped and took a deep breath. “All I’m saying is that we need to be careful. There’s more to this than it appears.”

As we approached the town, I realized it really looked no different than it did from afar. Besides the spire, which appeared to be an old radio tower that had simply had its sides covered with sheet metal panels. The buildings were nothing but a series of doors that led to underground bunkers. If I didn’t know better, I would have just assumed they were a series of concrete outhouses.

There were very few ponies milling around town. A pink mare with a blue mane saw us coming and I saw the blood drain from her face. She immediately slunk back. “Are… y...y...you here for the delivery?” she stuttered.

“Delivery? No...what delivery?” I asked, my mind derailed from the unexpected reaction.

“Now, Misty, there’s no need for this,” a confident stallion’s voice rang out. An black-coated, white-maned earth pony with an attitude matching voice was trotting towards us. He was wearing an old world style suit and had two bodyguards flanking him, from the looks of the hardware they were carrying. “Now, why don’t you run off and take care of your errands.”

“Y…yes, Mayor,” the mare muttered and ran off, looking relieved.

“Howdy, there,” he boomed. “Mayor Rust, at your service.” He extended a hoof and I shook it in return. “Not often we see strangers in these parts, especially a pegasus and a griffon.” His inflection seemed odd at the mention of our races, but I got distracted by his continued speech. “What, may I ask, brings you to Trotwood?”

“We’re looking for a friend of ours,” I answered, watching the mayor’s reaction. “A yellow earth pony mare with a purple mane. Strolled into town recently with two pegasi?”

I saw something flash across the mayor’s face, but he regained his composure quickly. “Now, I can’t say I’ve seen this friend of yours, but I don’t always deal with visitors,” he explained. Pointing towards one of the bunker entrances, he added, “Why don’t you go to the inn and enjoy some food while I ask around for you.”

“Sure, I really appreciate it, Mayor,” I said, feigning a cheery attitude.

“Not a problem, my friend,” he said with a smile. “Tell Shotglass, the barkeep, that it’s on me.”

After turning towards the bunker, I started trotting towards the door. Gertie walked up beside me in short order. “You don’t trust him, do you?” she asked, her clipped tone betraying her anxiety.

“Of course not,” I said, not breaking my smile. “But if there’s one thing I’ve learned, politicians lie and barkeeps are always the best source of knowledge. Caps always talk,” I added with a laugh. Gertie chuckled back nervously.

After entering the bunker, I was not surprised what I saw. The main room of the inn was a small, cinder block room with furniture thrown in haphazardly. The tables and chairs looked a lot like the standard issue furnishings that were found all over Fort Canterbury. Where most bars had a shelf for displaying the liquor, this bar had no such aesthetics. A small shelf built into the wall housed only several liquor bottles. The room was lit by overhead lighting gems which cast a harsh light in the room. There was a smattering of ponies when we walked in.

“Hey,” the young grey stallion, I assumed to be Shotglass, said with a toothy grin. “Haven’t seen you around before.”

“Yeah, we’re new to town,” I answered. “The mayor sent us down. We’re looking for a friend.” I reached into my saddlebags and withdrew a small pile of caps and splashed them on the bar. “Maybe you can help us?”

“Before we get down to business, is there anything I can get you?” Shotglass asked us.

“Do you have any Sparkle Cola?” I responded. I didn’t want to drink any alcohol. I needed to stay alert.

“Hmm, I may need to check in the back,” he said, his voice wavering a little. He trotted towards a bulkhead door set into the wall behind the bar.

“Dust…” Gertie started.

“I know, Gertie,” I shot back. “Head’s on a swivel.”

A loud buzz sounded from several points in the room. The other ponies in the room reached into their saddlebags as I heard something hit the ground near us.

“Gas grenade!” Gertie shouted, trying to kick at the canister on the floor.

Even though she connected it with it, it hit one of the nearby tables and rebounded back near us. There was a loud ping as smoke began to pour from the top of the grenade. I galloped to the entry door we used and tried to open it. The handle refused to budge.

“It’s locked!” I shouted as I began to cough. Besides the hissing of the grenade, the only other sound was Gertie’s coughing.

My throat was beginning to burn and the room was starting to spin. I dropped to the ground and crawled my way to one of the other doors I saw in the room. It was a long and arduous crawl. Each movement got harder as my vision began to fade.

Eventually making it to the door, I looked up. The handle seemed like it was a million miles away as my vision began to blacken at the edges. Reaching for the handle, I was just barely able to wrap my hoof around it. Trying to pull, I found I didn’t have the strength and my whole body slumped to the floor. Then, the room went black.

“Dust!” a female voice called out. “Wake up, Dust!”

I opened my eyes, but saw nothing but blackness.

“I’m… I’m blind!” I blurted out in a panic.

“No, you’re not blind,” Gertie’s voice responded. “It is pitch black in here. I can’t see shit.”

“Dust? Gertie? Is that you?” Flower’s voice echoed out in the room.

“Flower?” I called back. “Yes it is us Are you OK?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she answered. “They took all my stuff, but I’m OK. What about you?”

“I’m OK, I think,” I answered taking stock in my situation. I now realized I felt a lot lighter than usual. Patting my body down, I realized I had nothing. “Damn it. They took all my stuff. Did they gas you too?”

“Gas? No… the Enclave bastards just handed me over an’ they threw me in here,” she said with a growl. “Are Brownie and Silver with ya?”

“No… they are somewhere else. This is another of Muddy’s games, and it looks like he’s winning… again,” I admitted. “How long have you been here?”

“If I had ta guess, ‘bout an hour or so,” she said. “Do ya know what’s going on?”

As if it was waiting for this moment, a speaker in the room squealed to life. “Sorry about the gas,” the mayor’s tinny voice filled the room. “We find it’s easiest on everypony this way. You will be our guests until the slavers come back. Please try to be as comfortable as possible until then.”

“You’re going to turn us over to slavers?” I retorted. “You do know what happens to slaves, right?”

“Yes,” he said, with little remorse in his response. “But it’s all we can do. It’s either hand over strangers or give up members of my town. The choice, I think, is clear.”

“You shouldn’t do this,” Flower growled.

“I know.. But we have no choice,” he answered. “It’s either you or some of my townsponies.”

“Fight back!” Gertie yelled. “Don’t be weak!”

“We can’t!” the speaker boomed back. “They outnumber us. There is no way for us to fight them off. We’d be dead and enslaved in a matter of minutes. As it is now, we give them a pony a week and they leave us alone otherwise. And, dare I say, two pegasi and a griffon should get us in their good graces. We’ll take the best care of you that we can… until then.”

“Wait… wait… you said two pegasi and a griffon…” I shouted back. “You dumb shit… it’s one pegaus, one earth pony and one griffon!”

“Wait? You think she’s? I think you need to rethink your last statement,” the mayor’s voice said deadly serious. The lights in the room flared to life, blinding me.

“No! Don’t!” Flower cried out.

After blinking for several seconds, the blinding white became a tolerable glare. The room around me slowly faded into focus. It was a small, cinder block room with only a single door. There was no furniture to speak of, no windows, simply a bucket in the corner. I felt my heart start to race and a cold sweat developed on my brow. I momentarily saw a stainless steel table in the middle of the room. After blinking, it disappeared from view.

Gertie looked none the worse for wear. It was odd to see her completely out of her armor like this, especially since she wasn’t stuck in a hospital bed. She was rubbing her eyes, trying to clear her vision no doubt. Flower was curled up in the corner but she was simply squinting against the onslaught of harsh lighting, not using her hooves.

“Flower? What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Don’t look!” she pleaded. “Please!”

“Why wouldn’t I want to look?” I asked, as I began to instinctively scan her body.

Along her back I saw two nasty scars. They were near the top of her back, close to her shoulders. They were slightly raised. Those scars were in the exact spot that a pegasus’ wings met the… wait, what?

“Flower?” I asked, carefully approaching her. “Are you… were you… Enclave?”

She looked up, tears streaming down her face. “Dust, please don’t…”

I reached out towards her hooves, which were covering her flank. She resisted me as I tried to grab her hooves, keeping me from moving them away from her cutie mark. At first, she refused to budge, but eventually relented and let me move her hooves. Where her cutie mark should have been, I saw the harsh, pink scars that were the result of a healed burn. The scars formed the shape of the cloud and lightning bolt cutie mark of Rainbow Dash. The mark of a Dashite.

“Flower?” I said, shocked.

She simply sobbed into her hooves. My eyes were locked on that wretched scar.

“Flower? Why… why keep it a secret?” I muttered, still in shock.

“Ah knew ah would be an outcast,” she blurted out between sobs. “Ah know how the ponies down here think. And ah can’t say ah blame them. The Enclave are a bunch of bastards. They sit high and mighty above their Luna damned cloud cover… hiding from the truth… hiding from the suffering they worsen by ignoring it.”

“Flower… does… does Brownie know?” I asked.

“Until now, only Brownie and Doctor Mender knew,” she admitted, still breathing deeply, but at least her sobbing had slowed. “Ah was going to tell you before you chased Muddy to Fort Canterbury, but you ran off before ah could. But when ya came back and outed yerself as Enclave… ah didn’t know how you’d react. And then to think that ah kept it from you for so long, especially when we yelled at ya for doing the same ta us...”

I slowly knelt down next to Flower and gently placed a hoof under her chin and lifted it up. She initially resisted, but then relented. Her amber eyes were ringed by red blood vessels and tears and snot were streaming down her face. “Maybe when I first came down here, that would have mattered to me. But you are one of my only true friends down here, hell, maybe anywhere now. You’ve stood by my side through this entire crazy ordeal, and that’s more than most ponies can say. Enclave, Dashite… that’s all in the past. What matters is what you have done and what you will do.” Flower gulped hard as I watched a drop of snot drip off her nose. “And whatever does Brownie see in you? You look like crap,” I guffawed.

Flower playfully struck me across the face. “You asshole,” she said with a laugh as well.

“I hate to break up this little love fest, but we have larger problems,” Gertie said after clearing her throat.

“You’re right,” I admitted, looking around. “Flower, we can talk about this later. Don’t have much to work with.” I trotted over to the door. It was completely barren on this side. No doorknob to try or lock to pick. “Well, that doesn’t give me much hope either. No windows… no vents… the only thing coming in and out of this room is the electrical work… ugh.”

“And the guards…” Gertie added.

“And the guards…” I repeated. “How is that going to help us?”

“The only way in or out of this room is through that door, right?” Gertie teased.

“Yeah…” I answered.

“And the guards are the only one who can actually open the door, right?” she continued.

“Yeah, so?” I grunted, starting to get aggravated.

“So we just have to find a way to get the guards in here,” she announced proudly.

“OK… so what’s your plan?” I asked her, wondering where this was all headed.

“I was kinda hoping you’d come up with one,” she admitted, sheepishly. “Plans seem to be your thing.”

“Are you kidding me?” I shrieked. “All of that and you didn’t have any ideas?”

“Well, no,” she muttered.

“This is a fine mess,” I started to complain.

A loud thud behind me drew my attention away from Gertie. Flower had fallen on the floor and was twitching. A white froth began to dribble from her mouth.

I dove onto the floor next to her. “Flower! Flower! Are you OK?” I shouted as I began to shake her gently. There was no response. “Holy shit! Guards! Guards! We need medical assistance in here!”

Gertie ran over to the door and began banging on it incessantly. “Listen here you dumb fucks!” she shouted. “Get somepony in here or else she will hurt herself or worse! And what will the slavers say when they see that you damaged the merchandise!”

The banging didn’t end and Flower was still gurgling while writhing on the floor. My mind raced as I ran through my options. I had no medical supplies and my first aid training was focused on battlefield injuries… not whatever… this… was.

A loud bang momentarily drew my attention towards the door as two guardsponies ran in with shotguns held aloft in magical fields. One held Gertie at bay as the other one approached me and Flower.

“Back up! Get against the wall!” he yelled at me.

“Help her! Help her!” I cried out in a panic.

The guard knelt down over her and began to give her a cursory examination. Almost as if it happened in slow motion, I saw Flower’s head turn towards me and she grinned. She actually grinned.

“Holy shit!” I whispered under my breath. I glanced up towards Gertie and she was already flashing me a wicked grin.

Gertie moved faster than I thought possible. She leapt and wrapped herself around the back of the pony closest to her. Her claw raked across his throat quickly, leaving thin, red lines across it. Soon, blood flowed freely from the wound and down his neck. The guard clutched his throat with a faint gurgle.

The other guard looked towards the new sounds. “What in Celestia…” he began to say, before I leapt into action.

Taking a few steps, I turned and kicked my legs out at the guard, hard. The impact jarred my body and I felt my hooves make contact with a wet crunch. The guard fell to the floor in a motionless lump as I turned to admire my handiwork.

Gertie was already patting down her victim. “Dust, see if that one has keys,” she barked out. She had already removed his weapon. I turned to the guard I took out and began to pat the pouches on his barding, looking for keys.

“Nice buck, Dust!” Flower said as she walked up next to me.

“Flower, first, how did you learn to fake a seizure so convincingly?” I asked, while still working. “And second, don’t ever do that to me again!”

“Sorry, Dust,” she apologized. “Ah saw we needed a distraction and knew we didn’t have many options. Besides, yer reaction had ta be genuine ta fool the guards.”

Feeling something small but hard in one of the pockets, I flipped it open and dug around. Besides a handful of caps, I found a small keyring.

“Got it!” I yelled out as I pulled them from the pouch and placed them in mine. I also grabbed the guard’s gun as I heard voices echoing down the hallway.

“We gotta move and find our gear!” Gertie cried out scanning the hallway outside the door. “It’s clear, let’s move!”

We all quietly crept out of our cell and into the hallway. There wasn’t much to see. Much like the rest of the building we had seen so far, it was a narrow, cinder block lined hallway illuminated by lighting gems. Much like the bunker Muddy held me in.

“Dust? You OK?” Gertie said, obviously having seen my loss of footing.

“Yeah, I’m…” I started but hung my head. “No… this brings back memories of Muddy’s bunker…”

“Don’t even go there!” she barked back. “We can talk about this later, but now you need to focus!”

My thoughts snapped back to the present concerns and I tucked away my flashbacks for later. Taking point, I walked out into the hallway and clinged to the nearest wall. “Any idea which of these rooms has our gear in it?” I asked, scanning the hallway.

“Oh, I don’t know, Dust,” Gertie answered with a snicker and pointing to the door directly behind me. “Maybe the one marked ‘Storage’?”

Craning my head to follow her talon, I saw the word “Storage” stenciled in yellow. I facehoofed myself so hard.

“Alright, smartypants,” Flower said with a laugh. “Now get us through those doors.”

Fumbling in with the keys in my hooves, I began to try each of the keys on the ring. What I wouldn’t have given for a unicorn right about now. The echoing voices gained in volume as I kept striking out on keys.

“C’mon, damn it,” I muttered after dropping the keys. I picked up the keyring. “Fuck! I don’t know which key I left off on!”

“Just pick one! We’re running out of time!” Gertie squeaked, looking down the hallway towards the voices.

Picking one key at random, I jammed it into the lock and turned. Wait! It turned!
The door opened with a soft creak and we all jumped inside quickly. Pushing the door softly, it slowly slid closed with a soft click. The room we found ourselves opened into a very long, narrow room lined with shelves extending the entire length of it. The shelves were full of nondescript green containers from floor to ceiling.

“Dust?” Gertie asked with an audible gulp. “Are we going to have to search this entire room?”

My head was still turning slowly, looking at the enormity of the task before us. “Holy shit,” I gasped. “I hope not. We’d be here all fricken day! We… we just can’t!”

Flower trotted over to the nearest container and threw the lid off. “Well, we just can’t sit here and do nothing!” she hissed. “We don’t unlimited time on our hooves!”

Muffled hoofsteps sounded from outside the door. “Shh!” I tried to quiet everypony down. “I hear something.”

The muffled hoofsteps grew louder and were eventually joined by muffled voices.

“...and then she claimed she only liked mares!” a gruff voice grumbled. A different pony laughed. The laughing ended abruptly. “The fuck is the door doing open?”

“Cuffs? Chains? Is everything OK in there?” the other, higher-pitched voice called out. The hoofsteps slowed but still advanced.

“I don’t like the looks of this,” the first voice said hesitantly. Two weapons cleared their holsters and the familiar sound of a safety being disengaged filled my ears.

“Gertie… you have point,” I whispered to her. “Once they are in the cell, I say we ambush them. We need one of them alive. Flower, since you’re unarmed, stay here.” Flower frowned, but then nodded.

Gertie responded with a tense nod.

“Cuffs? Buddy? Are you in there?” the higher voice called out, sounding like it was just outside the door.

The slow hoofsteps sounded like they moved away from the door. “Cuffs? Ch….” the first voice called out, followed by a gasp. “What the fuck is going on here?”

After turning the handle, I swung the door open and Gertie leapt out with incredible speed. As I rounded the door frame, she was already on top of the nearest stallion and was already raking her talons across his throat. The pony dropped to the floor clutching his throat, as red pooled around his head.

The second pony, a mare, reacted faster than I thought possible. She raised her shotgun and aimed it at Gertie. The muzzle of the gun flared to life and I cringed. There was no way she would miss Gertie at this range. To my surprise, Gertie twisted mid-stride, avoiding the brunt of the blast. Unfortunately, I did see several red puffs burst from her extended wing and she let out a pained shriek. But how did that guard miss that badly, even with a shotgun, in close quarters?

However, to her credit, Gertie did not stop her charge, even in pain. Leaping in the air, she kicked her rear legs out in front of her body and connected with the pony’s chest as she was attempting to re-rack the shotgun. Surprise flooded her face as Gertie landed on top of her. With a swipe of her talons, she knocked the shotgun loose and it clattered across the floor.

Gertie had a pained look on her face and grit her beak. “Where is our stuff?” she growled at the disoriented pony under her.

“In… in the mayor’s office!” the mare cried out. “P...please don’t kill me!”

I strode up behind Gertie and looked at the mare. She was barely older than a filly, wearing armor that clearly did not fit her. She did not have the weathered features of an experienced Wasteland warrior.

Looking at the other bodies we left in our wake, I saw that the other bodies all were similarly as young as she was. “What the fuck?” I muttered. “How old are you?”

“I just got my cutie mark last year,” the trapped guard answered, now between sobs. “I just don’t want to get given to the slavers.”

“Given to the… what do you mean?” I asked.

“We… the town, made a deal with the slavers,” she muttered while tears streamed down her face. “The slavers come by once a month. We give them slaves and they don’t take any of us. We usually trick more than enough ponies, like we thought we did with you.”

“What happens if you break the deal?” I asked tentatively.

“At the beginning of the month, five names are drawn at random,” she started to explain. “If there aren’t enough prisoners to hand over, then the ponies that were drawn get handed over to make up the difference.”

“The town willingly hands over their citizens?” Flower asked sharply. “What kinda asshats do something like that?”

“Y… you don’t understand,” she muttered, scared back into her shell a little by Flower’s outburst. “We’d never be able to fight them off, and there isn’t another settlement near enough to offer us help in time.”

“Where is the Mayor’s office?” I grumbled. How could ponies do this to each other?

“B… bottom floor,” she answered. “Only room on that level, but he is well guarded.” She looked nervously between the three of us. “Are you going to kill me now, like you did my friends?”

“No… you can go,” I mumbled, conflicted by the insinuation. We did kill them. We may not have known that they could barely fight, but that didn’t matter. “And we are sorry about your friends. We needed to get out of here and they were shooting at us.”

The young mare looked like she was going to say something, but then stopped. She turned and galloped down the hallway as fast as she could.

“Let’s go pay the mayor a visit and get our stuff back,” I growled.

“Dust, are you OK?” Gertie said, while placing a claw on my shoulder.

“I’m fine,” I snapped back. I wasn’t fine. I was angry. With all the shit that happens down here, the Wasteland doesn’t need any help to make life miserable. Yet, these ponies found a way to do just that. “Let’s just find the Mayor’s office, get our stuff, and get the fuck out of here to save Silver and Brownie.”

After collecting all the weaponry that was lying around, I stomped out of the cell and into the hall. Something was nagging at me. The guards were so young. In fact, so were Misty and Shotglass. And how could a whole town bring themselves to trapping and handing over other ponies to slavers. How could they lower themselves to that level?

“Anypony else notice we aren’t running across any other guards or security of any kind?” Gertie mused, scanning the hallway.

“Huh,” I grunted. “You have a point. Where is everypony?”

After several minutes of roaming the empty hallways, we found the staircase leading down to the lower floors of the bunker. Looking down the stairwell, it looked like we had three floors to traverse.

The ringing of hooves on metal echoed in the stairwell as we descended the spiraling stairs. We descended past three more floors of the bunker, still meeting no resistance of any kind. Finally, hooves met concrete as we made it to the bottom-most floor. After we all were on solid ground, we carefully and quietly walked our way to the doorway. As carefully as I could, I swung the door open. It creaked mildly, causing me to cringe.

After the door had fully opened, muffled laughter filled my ears. A small anteroom opened before us, leading to yet another metallic doorway. The laughter seemed to emanate from the other side. We all formed up on either side of the door as I strained to listen.

“Hot shit, this was a great plan you came up with, Rust,” a gruff, gravelly voice said between laughs.

“I never thought it would work,” a mare’s voice joyously responded.

“I told you ponies. Put enough fear into them, these townsponies would bend over backwards to do anything,” Rust’s voice explained. “We sit back while they do all the work and all you guys have to do is collect the slaves. And all without the risk of any of the slaves dying while we capture them!”

All three ponies were now laughing. “I still can’t believe they elected you mayor!” the mare said between laughs.

Flower responded before I could. “Holy shit!” she whispered, clapping a hoof over her mouth.

“Three of us, three of them,” Gertie stated flatly, checking over her shotgun. “Plus we have the element of surprise.”

“I know,” I nodded. “I just wish we knew how well they were armed.”

Flower racked her shotgun. “Well, we’re not gonna change that now,” she said with a nod. “If we’re gonna do this, let’s do it.”

“Alright,” I agreed, hesitantly. “I’ll open the door. You two take point since you have the shotguns.” My two friends nodded in agreement.

After turning the handle as quietly as I could, I quickly spun around and bucked the door hard. I stepped away from the door and my two friends rushed in past me.

“What the fuck?” the mayor yelled in surprise.

“Everypony drops their weapons and nopony gets hurt,” Gertie commanded, leveling her shotgun at the nearest slaver.

“Fuck you!” the stallion slaver yelled as he attempted to draw his weapon.

Flowers shotgun roared to life and brightened the room with its muzzle flash. The shot tore through the slaver, riddling his side with holes that burst blood on the chair he was sitting in and the wall behind. The other slaver started to reach for his weapon.

“Make my fucking day,” Gertie hissed, keeping her aim tightly on the slaver.

The slaver hesitated and then lowered his hoof. I walked up to him and removed a pistol and knife that were stowed on his barding. Finally being able to take a good look, I saw that this pony was one of the bodyguards that we ran into when we first met the mayor. What the fuck?

Meanwhile, Rust had regained his composure. “You three? How the? You should be in a cell?”

“Yeah, sorry ‘bout that,” Flower snickered. “Change of plans.”

Now that things were under control, I looked at the office we were in. Unlike the rest of the facility, it was a wood lined office with gold highlights. The floor was covered with a plush, red carpet. This had to be the commander’s office from before the war. Piled on shelves were weapons of all kinds, containers filled with caps, and cans upon cans of food. This mayor was living it up!

“You three,” I said, then glancing over to the newly made corpse. “Well, two… you are the lowest of the low. How can you do this to other ponies?”

“Caps,” Rust said matter-of-factly, with a shrug. “We are raking it in hoof over hoof.”

“How can you be so fucking laid back about that?” Flower shrieked. “Don’t you know what happens to slaves?”

He shrugged again. “Not my problem,” he said with a sneer. “As long as the clients pay.”

“Well, no more. We’re putting an end to this,” I stated. “Let’s go.”

“What are you going to do, kill us?” Rust scoffed.

“No… we’ll leave it up to the townsponies,” I replied, searching the mayor and the other slaver for anything useful or dangerous while Gertie covered me. Flower had already found where our gear was stashed and was wrapping it all up.

We led the two slavers up the staircase and out of the bunker. As we first cleared the bunker, we saw several ponies who were clearly confused by what they were seeing.

“Go get everypony!” I yelled at them. “We have something to talk about.”

The whole town congregated at the center of town to see what was going on. The crowd was busy discussing what they thought was happening. Something odd struck me as I scanned the crowd. All the ponies were all rather young.

“Ponies! Listen up!” I yelled into the crowd. The din died down in short order. “Your mayor is not who you think he is. He is actually a slaver, and has been using you to sell ponies into slavery. And when you can’t do the job, he just sells you instead!”

The crowd erupted into several discussions and became a general roar once again. After a couple of minutes, and lots of yelling by my friends and me, the crowd died down again.

“You have your chance now to get rid of him and not have to worry about the slavers again!” I shouted.

Rust started laughing. “Who do you think has been keeping the slavers away?” He answered, laughing. “If it weren’t for me, you would all be in chains and collars already! If you get rid of me, what is to stop that from happening! The system works! The system keeps you safe!”

I scanned the crowd and saw that there were no older ponies in the crowd. All of those present were either young adults or foals. “Wait! Is this the entire town? Where are the older ponies?”

“Our parents were taken away when they wouldn’t cooperate,” one of the fillies in the front called back.

“And what makes you think the same won’t happen to you!” I pleaded with the crowd.

“As long as we capture ponies for him, Mayor Rust protects us!” the crowd responded.

“Besides, you should see what he has in his office! Containers of caps, food, weapons of all kinds! He’s hiding it from you!” Ponies were still looking at me, dumbfounded. “Fight back! You don’t have to do this!”

“But they outnumber us!” the mob yelled back, getting more agitated.

“You see, Dust,” Rust said with a sneer. “They want me in charge. They need me in charge!”
Sentiments of support for the Mayor were being called out by the crowd. “Just go and leave us in peace!” “The Mayor protects us!” “You’re going to get us killed!”

“Dust, I think we better get out of here while the getting is good,” Gertie said, eying the advancing crowd.

“Agreed,” I said with a nod.

I drew my pistol and fired it into the air. The crowd gasped and then got quiet.

“Alright, fine,” I called out to the crowd. “We’ll leave. I just hope you can live with yourselves!”

We started to walk towards the wall of ponies. At first it looked like they were going to resist, but after eying the weapons, the crowd began to part. The ponies’ faces were a mix of fear and anger.

We cleared the edge of the crowd and continued our way back to our skywagon. A voice sounded out behind me.

“Ponies! Ponies! Calm down!” Rust called out. “We will get through this. We’ll just have to work a little harder for the rest of the month!’ His voice finally died as we increased the distance between us and the town.

“Well, that was fucked up!” Flower said with a nervous cough.

“But how could they knowingly give ponies into slavery?” I argued. “They are no better than the slavers then!”

“Dust,” Flower rebuked. “They are trying ta survive. It’s either give ta the slavers or become the slave.”

“I wish we had more time…” I started to bemoan.

“And what? Attack the slavers?” Flower chided me now. “We all would have died or been captured. Slavers are usually well organized and large organizations. Plus, we have to save Brownie and Silver.”

As we got to the skywagon, Gertie told us to stay back as she checked the area. After a quick circling of our landing zone and checking out the inside of the skywagon, she gave us the all clear.

“Where to now, boss?” Gertie asked, gesturing me towards the harness.

“Silver, next,” I decided. “She seems to be in the most trouble.”

“Let’s just hope all is as it seems,” Gertie replied uncomfortably. She grimaced faintly. I almost missed it.

“Has it ever been yet, Gertie?” I asked, sarcastically.

Level up!

Small Guns: 30

Perk Obtained!
Strategist - “Don’t mind the pony behind the curtain!” - +1 to INT and +1 to LUCK when planning a combat encounter but not actually taking a leadership role.