Fallout: New Republic

Chapters

1: This never happened...
2: That Could Have Gone Better...
3: Good Morning, Darling
5: Revenge Of The Neigh
6: New Faces
7.5: Neighbourhoods Night Out... Or Inn, In This Case...
8: A Long Day
9: Taking Slaves
10: It could be worse
4: Just your friendly Neighbourhood demigod
7: Luckies Find

1: This never happened...

Approaching high noon on a cold winter day, Selene glided down from the thick grey cloud cover that always dominated the Wasteland sky. As he landed on top of a high rise on the western edge of the Neighvada Desert, his weapons and equipment slung over his neck and back clattered against his thick leather armor. He had been traveling across the Equestrian Wasteland for just over a month to reach this point, somewhere on the far side of the Central Equestrian Irradiated Zone. After nearly 200 years the radiation had dropped off enough that the Irradiated Zone could be traveled without lethal consequences (Selene hoped), but the trek was still long and dangerous, passing across miles of lands completely devoid of life.

Now, he looked on a new land, a land he had never seen with his own eyes before. To the east lay the south stretch of the Neighvada Desert he had just finished crossing, a blurry light red stretch of sand that lead nowhere as far as he had seen in his five day flight across it.

To the south was another desert, this one grey and rocky. He did not know it's name. It was believed that across that desert was the land of the Zebras, the race that had been the Equestrians enemies during the great war. No one in the East had ever seen a Zebra, as far as Selene knew, and they were a myth as far as he was concerned.

To the west, across San Palomino Desert, was where Los Pegasus was originally located. Selene had no idea what had happened to one of the largest Pegasi towns, and the capital of their kingdom before joining the Equestrian Empire. He made a mental note to ask about the town at the first settlement he came across.

To the north was southern tip of the Rockies, an aptly named mountain range that stretched from far to the north to divide the Californeigha region from Neighvada Desert. "Damn Earth Ponies, always naming regions with neighs..." Selene mumbled to himself as he surveyed his surroundings.

He had hoped to run into a local by now. After traveling so far he was beginning to run out of water, and had already run out of food save for some old bread, and he had no idea where to go to find clean water let alone something to eat in this alien land.

He took one last look around, slowly turning in a full circle. He was surrounded by deserts on all sides, except north into one of the largest mountain ranges on the continent. Well, I guess that's that then, he thought as he pushed himself back into the air and began flying towards the mountains. There's bound to be a settlement somewhere along a river, and there are bound to be rivers running from those mountains... somewhere.

The wind ripped at the straps holding his equipment at his sides as he climbed back into the sky, once again thankful that his dark grey-green coat blended so well with the Wastelands eternal grey hazy cloud-cover. You'd think there would be ponies around here somewhere, or at least some animals... I've been in the Irradiated Zone for a month, and I come out to nothing more than I'd left. Typical.

Later in the day, as Selene approached the southern end of the Rocky Mountain Range, he finally spotted the first living thing he had seen in months. Make that seven living things, and they're ponies!

Selene rapidly descended from the clouds, instead racing along the desert floor as low as he could possibly fly, coming up on the group hidden below a small sand dune. He skidded to a stop just shy of the top, then pressed his belly into the sand and crawled to the top to get a better look at the ponies.

His spirits sank as they came into focus. They were in the tattered and bent metal armor that could only belong to a raider group. He had hoped that this side of the Wastes wasn't ruled by scum and villainy as the east was, but he appeared to be wrong.

Wait... only six of them are in Raider gear... the seventh looks like... a slave. And she was being lead along in chains. Where there are Raiders and Slavers, there are ponies to save!

Without thinking further—because would the greatest pony in the Wastes need to think?—Selene leapt into the air and charged down the dune, rapidly building as much speed as he could. It was only after he began his charged towards the six heavily armored and armed Slavers he began to consider how to deal with the situation.

Rifle? Yea, I can nail them pretty easily from here, but I've already left the dune behind... SMG? Yea, a fly-by would take out a few of them easily enough... but what about their guns? Yea, I need to kill them fast. I didn't bring any heavy weapons, traveling light across the continent... Damn it.

He was closing rapidly, and would be on them in moments. Luck was with him, and none of the six, tiered and weary from their day long march, had looked up or heard the soft rasp of his wings as he clawed his way through the air.

Shit, two are pegasi and one is a unicorn... I can't run, and I need to kill the corn before she guts me. Sword? Crap, I didn't bring it... I can't knife six ponies at once... Grenade! Ah pony feathers, did I bring some? Selene dug through the pockets on the outside of his armor—many ponies had called him crazy over the years, but he wasn't crazy enough to keep explosives in the pockets inside his armor, even if that armor wouldn't make a difference if it went off attached to him anyway. He found not just one, but two.

Thank Luna! He pulled the pins from each, holding one in each fore-hoof. "Eat shrapnel, you slaver scum!" he shouted as he flew directly over their heads, dropping both grenades in the center of their formation, one landing in front and the other behind the slave bound in chains.

"...Oh shit!" Selene shouted, realizing his critical mistake. He pulled up into a steep climb, but not for an instant considered flying back towards the innocent—for all he knew—slave mare he had just condemned to death. If I get myself killed trying to rescue somepony—from my own grenades—who is going to save the countless others undoubtedly enslaved across this forsaken land? Yep, that works for me. Instead he drew his 10mm SMG, preparing to dispatch any Slavers that might survive.

The grenades detonated, reducing the slave pony caught between them to paste. Four of the six Slavers were stuffed with so much shrapnel they died in seconds, but the one furthest to the back and the one furthest to the front both survived, albeit with severe wounds. Without a moments hesitation Selene raked the lead pony, a tall lime green pegasus stallion, with SMG fire as he flew back over them. The pegasus keeled over in the sand to join his comrades in eternal peace.

The rear guard was a red coated earth pony mare, who was too shocked by the brutality of what had just happened, as well as her own wounds, that she had yet to act. Selene decided not to give her a chance at redemption. She'd just shoot me in the back later. Without hesitation Selene gunned her down too.

Landing a decent distance away, Selene looked around, making sure there were no other groups preparing to rush to their aid. After a few moments of silence, Selene returned his SMG to his harness, and moved to inspect the corpses.

Too bad, he thought, looking over the bits of slave-mare spread over the dead Slavers, you could have been my first fan in the West. He took what little food they had—some half rotten apples and a bit of dried meat he really hoped wasn't pony—and then transferred their water from their canteens to his own.

As he returned his last canteen to it's strap at his side, he gave a little shake and listened to his possessions clattering around him. I have no idea how I ever sneak up on anypony, but then again, I am a God.

Taking one last glance at the devastation he had brought down on the first seven ponies he had come across, he shoved himself back into the air and continued towards the mountain range. Although I am not a merciful God, apparently.

The Slavers had been coming up from the west heading to the east, into Neighvada's norther desert, perpendicular to his current path to the north. I could go the way they were going, but I'd likely hit their main Slaver camp, which I'd rather not. I could go the direction they had come from, and find where they had collected the slave from... but they might not like what I have done to their captive... no, I'll continue to the north. I've had enough flat-lands and deserts, I want to spend some time in the mountains!

Now that I'm thinking about it, I don't think anypony will like what I've done here... they were not on a well beaten path though, so hopefully they won't be found... even if they are, this never happened...

Author's Note

2: That Could Have Gone Better...

Selene continued along, just below the cloud cover. He had managed to make it to the beginnings of the Rockies, and they reached up at him as he continued north. At this point he still had plenty of distance between the clouds and the tops of the mountains to fly, but further to the north the mountains reached all the way up into the cloud deck. When he reached them he would either have to risk flying in the clouds, climb well above them, or land and walk the rest of the way over.

Or just go around, he thought absently, scanning the twisted forest below. There are no boarders to a Pegasi, after all.

Between the half-dead trees he thought he spotted something bright white standing out clearly in the late afternoon light, but he couldn't be sure. He cautiously circled around, holding his wings still as he glided silently across directly over the top of whatever he had seen. There, another group of ponies... There were only five this time, one walking in the center with four making a square around them, slowly making their way along a mountain path between the knurled trees.

Selene continued passed them, gliding a decent distance away before flapping hard to regain altitude, raising to slip just inside the clouds above. Lets see, where are they going? West, heading away from the Slaver camps, or at least where I think they Slaver camps are... He checked his compass to be sure he hadn't gotten turned around. Yep, they're heading west. I need a closer look.

Again, Selene descended in a glide, this time coming in lower and a bit behind them, and slowed down as much as he could without stalling and falling out of the sky, to both minimize what little noise his passing would make and give him more time to look. The four ponies on the flanks were clearly Slavers, their twisted and rusted metal armor designed to frighten. What little leather they wore was likely stolen from the ponies they killed.

The pony in the center was different. While ponies with brightly colored coats and manes were quite common—even Selene, who's mane and coat were naturally dark still sported a bright cyan stripe down the center of his mane—it was rare to see them in all their glory. Most ponies traveling the wastes had allowed their coats and mane to stain to a darker color, both to make it harder to spot them and because it was very difficult to stay clean in the wastes even if one wanted too. Selene had allowed his cyan streak to stain into a darker green for these same reasons: water was a rare commodity, far too rare to be wasted saying clean, and he quite liked being hard to spot.

The pony in the middle of the Slaver formation apparently didn't care about any of these things, because their fur was bright white. Day glow white. Hurt your eyes looking at them, even in the dreary Wasteland twilight white. Here I am, come rape and murder me white. It wasn't terribly surprising they had been captured.

It was hard to tell anything more about them from this distance, as they were covered in a dark black cloak and hood, although enough of their legs and muzzle was visible that it honestly didn't help conceal them much. If it wasn't for their bright white coat, Selene probably wouldn't have noticed the group passing below him in the first place. Although on second thought, that very well may be what saves them, because who would be better suited to save them than me!... What? I never killed any slave-mare I was trying to rescue before: that never happened... Besides, I don't have any grenades left anyway!

Without spending another moment thinking, Selene glided further way, far enough he would not easily be heard, and began to drive himself back into the air with powerful flaps, again ending up just inside the clouds. It's time to save whitie!

As Selene positioned himself directly behind the group, he couldn't help but think there was something wrong here... Whatever; I'm a God! I'm sure it'll all work out...

He began his dive, only then thinking about how he was going to kill the Slavers if he didn't have any grenades. Umm... he rummaged around at random through his weapon holsters, drawing his 10mm light pistol in his left hoof and his combat knife in his right. That'll do! Thank the God's I'm ambidextrous!

He angled towards the right rear guard, coming down and slamming his chest on her back. Thankfully she was only lightly armored; if he had tried that on a more heavily armored Slaver he'd have ripped himself to pieces on their bent, jagged armor. As the Slaver-mare broke his fall, Selene drove the knife into the base of her skull, causing her to crumple to the ground in a heap, unmoving.

He quickly rose to his hooves and leveled the pistol in his left hoof at the rear-left raider. "Double skill motherfucker!" Selene emptied five of the nine rounds in his pistols clip. It was too small of a caliber to guarantee the Slavers death from anything less, even with every round impacting the stallions neck and head. He crumpled to the ground, screaming and spasming. He was so badly wounded he would be unable to stop the bleeding let alone attempt to retaliate. He would be dead soon enough.

"So who's next!" Selene shouted, pointing the pistol at the sky beside his head in what he imagined was an impressive action pose.

The two front guards reacted faster than he imagined was possible to the sudden rear attack. One, a large earthpony stallion, grabbed the hooded white pony from the center and shoved them behind himself. The other front guard, a small light blue mare whirled around and drew an assault carbine that made Selene's hunting rifle look pathetic, and his pistol look juvenile.

"What the fuck!?" she shouted, leveling the weapon at Selene's torso as she advanced.

No reason to waste time trying to aim for a ponies head when you're using a repeating rifle with that high a caliber, Selene thought to himself as he stared wide eyed. His stupidity had possibly just saved his life; if he had immediately tried to fire on the mare after killing her comrade she likely would have gunned him down before he could kill her. Instead he had pointed his weapon in the air and given her the time to take control of the situation, no longer needing to kill him to protect herself. Instead of killing him they were likely to try and take him as a slave instead.

Although I'd honestly rather die... think, think... "Oh my," he began, simply dropping the pistol that would do nothing but get himself killed if he tried to use it, "what a beautiful fur color you have..."

The mare did not look impressed. "Hooves on the ground!"

"Yea, ok," Selene mumbled, making sure not to get too close to his pistol still laying on the ground near him as he placed his hoof on ground, still furiously thinking.

The stallion said nothing as he drew a pump shotgun from his back and moved around the Selene's right.

Well shit... I was hoping I'd only have to deal with one gun at a time... now what...

The Stallion moved in on his right side, and began stripping his weapons away, cutting the strap holding his bolt-action hunting rifle at his said and tossing it away, followed by his SMG, then his few knives, then began to move on the the rest of his equipment.

It would have been faster just to remove his armor: everything else was attached to it, but Selene needed the time. What, what, what... Despite his eternal optimism—being a god and all—he was starting to panic.

His eyes were drawn to the white pony he was risking his life to save. She—those delectably curved eyes and large lashes could only belong to a mare, or a very convincing transsexual, either way truly deserving the feminine pronoun—looked calm, almost peaceful. She wasn't looking at Selene though, which struck him as rather odd since he was the new arrival after all.

She was sizing up the stallion on Selene's right, and after a quick glance at the mare still holding her carbine leveled at Selene, the white mare finally turned her gaze on him, staring directly into his eyes. Uummm.... I... Umm... Ah, ok...

She was quite tall for a mare, just a tiny bit shorter than Selene who was quite an average height for a stallion. He forced his eyes away from hers, and found himself looking over what of her body he could see. Her legs were quite long, but proportioned as you would expect from a well shaped mare, just all around larger. From a distance you wouldn't even know she could likely kick clean through a tree trunk...

Her sides underneath the cloak did bulge a little wide, even for a mare, but Selene suspected that was just her gear strapped at her sides... which did raise some interesting questions, most important of which was, why is a slave mare traveling with slavers allowed to keep her equipment?

Selene didn't get a moment longer to ponder the implications, because the white mare suddenly whistled, loudly. Purely on instinct Selene leapt backwards at the earsplitting sound, dragging the stallion who still had a firm hold on his armor to the ground.

The blue mare who was still holding her carbine aimed at Selene also started, jumping sideways away from the white mare, but keeping her eyes and weapon on Selene. "What's happening!?" she shouted, without looking away.

"That's going to cost you your leg, you bastard!" the pegasus stallion growled, surging to his hooves and bringing his shotgun up.

"What!? I just—" Selene began, staring into the barrel of the lethal weapon. The shotgun was suddenly surrounded by a dark purple glow and just a moment later kicked back into the stallions chest, and leaned back to point up under his muzzle. He didn't even have time to scream before the weapon discharged, taking the front half of his head clean off.

Well that's one down, Selene thought, not quite sure how he had managed to do that, or what to do next.

The blue mare with the carbine was still aiming directly at him, and while she was momentarily stunned by what had just happened there was no way Selene could close the distance before she fired on him, and his weapons had been cast too far away by the stallion to be of any use. Umm... I...

The blue mares carbine took on the same dark purple glow the stallions shotgun had, and was pulled down away from Selene, then a circlet of metal was ripped free of her armor and wrapped itself around her neck, cutting deep into her skin. In sudden panic she dropped her carbine to the ground, and began to cling to the metal circlet that was choking her, but it was too small and buried too deeply into her own flesh for her to get purchase on.

Rather than waiting to simply choke her unconscious, the metal circlet continued to squeeze tighter, cutting deeper and deeper into her neck as blood started to pour out from under it all the way around her neck. In just moments it had cut so deeply that bone snapped and was crushed. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head as she was released from the magic hold and left to crumple to the ground.

...Nope, no idea how I did that... But hey, four on one, and I won! So what if I only know how I killed the first two, I'm the best...

"Hey," he called out, tearing his eyes away from the poor blue mare who had been garroted by her own armor to look to the white pony, the last pony left alive besides himself. "It's ok, you're safe now."

"Am I?" She asked coolly, slowly stalking forwards with her head lowered slightly. Whether she had lowered her head in fear, caution, flirting, or reverence—I am Luna's spitting image after all—Selene couldn't tell.

Actually, as she pressed closer, it was beginning to look like she was stalking him like prey. Well that's stupid—how do you stalk somepony from the front? Silly unicorn. "Umm, I mean, yea, of course you are, and congratulations: you're my first fan!"

"Fan?" she spit the word, like he had spoken some high blasphemy, her eyebrows coming together in a fierce expression nearing rage. Admittedly, it looked kind of cute.

Well ok, I'd understand if I was some self obsessed pegasus who landed in front of your captors to make the declaration, but I took care of the danger first! I have my priorities perfectly in line, thank you very much! She had begun to move around his right side. Selene extended his right wing, leading edge tilted up, to herd her back in front of him.

Instead of shying away from his wing as he expected, she pressed her left shoulder into it as she turned to face him, still leaning most of her weight into his wing. The sudden pressure pulled Selene off balance, and sensation of her dragging across the sensitive underside of his wing distracted him quite a lot more than he needed to be at the moment.

Danger! Danger! his mind started shouting at him, but the mares eyes—a very dark blue contrasting starkly with her ridiculously white coat—held his attention, or at least what little remained. "You know what I mean," he muttered, despite the fact he didn't even remember what they had been talking about. He shifted his hooves around to better take the mares weight. His wings were strong enough to take his own weight for hours while flying; her's wasn't adding much to be honest, but she kept wiggling around and it was distracting.

"Hey, so what were you doing out here? You don't look like a Raider, but they let you carry your own equipment?" To make the point Selene gave the mare a quick jolt through his wing, and whatever was hidden under her cloak at her sides rattled. The mare lowered her eyes away from his for the first time, looking a bit embarrassed, giving him a moment to think.

Seriously, what's going on? Why are Slavers traveling with a posh unicorn? Wait, a unicorn!? Before he could follow the logical train of thought, which as with any sane pony ends with, she's a powerful unicorn, get the fuck away, she suddenly pressed forward, dragging her shoulder further along the underside of his wing, nearly reaching it's base.

The sudden spike of sensation completely ruined what logical thought Selene was capable of, leaving him faintly wondering if it was a good idea to dance with a viper. Well, snakes can make very good dance partners... so lithe and nimble...

The Unicorn brought her head back up, and stared directly into Selene's eyes, but there was something almost vacant about them, like she was focusing on something else entirely. Danger! Selene's eyes wandered around the Unicorns face, noting the darkened patches under her eyes—whether they were makeup or just part of her natural coloration he couldn't be sure—and her excessively long lashes, but otherwise noting no distinguishing features, which was itself rather unique: most ponies wandering the Wastes had plenty of scares. Either she rarely got herself into fights... or she always won them.

Selene's eyes moved up to her horn, which was glowing with a faint purple light. Selene's mind suddenly flashed back to guns shooting their owners, and armor strangling it's wearer. Danger! Danger! "Umm..."

"Don't worry, darling," the Unicorn mumbled, raising her left foreleg on top of the leading edge of his wing, and running her hoof down all the way to it's base at his side. The leading edge of a wing wasn't actually all that sensitive, and actually had to be pretty tough to take the force of the air in a steep dive. The really sensitive parts were on the underside of the wing, right were she was leaning her shoulder. It was a common mistake non-pegasi made when trying to flirt with a pegasi, but Selene found the gesture cute even if it was ineffective.

That's when the mare suddenly stepped back and turned away. With the weight instantly removed from his wing Selene stumbled forward, although he was able to catch himself without falling.

Selene looked back to the Unicorn, who had stepped back just out of reach, her horn flaring brightly now. Her demur smile had twisted into a one sided grin, teeth showing. The world exploded into bright colors, shifting from a neon red, to a muted green, then a dark blue before finally settling on a deep black.

Selene had expected to feel himself hit the ground, but the sensation never came. He had one last chance as competent though before the darkness swallowed it, and he spent it on the first thought that came to mind.

Fucking. Unicorn. Bitch...

Author's Note

3: Good Morning, Darling

As Selene slowly returned from the dark abyss the first thing he became aware of was the desperate need to vomit. I was knocked unconscious, I wasn't poised. Not helping, brain. Still, the feeling would not abate, and to top it all off he soon began to feel the horrific headache he was probably going to have for the rest of the day. Or night. Or whenever it is; how the fuck am I supposed to know!?

I'm going to kill somepony. Brutally. Slowly. And then I'm going to shove them down a deep, dark hole where they will never be found. And then I'm going to shit down that hole just to make the point. A shit hole: that's what they're going to be buried in. And then when I establish my great empire, I'm going to build my capital around that shit hole and everyone in the city is going to use that hole as their toilet, until it's nearly overflowing and then we are going to seal it off and call it the shit tomb... I think I may have a concession.

Slowly the rest of Selene's body made itself known, one achy cramp fading in at a time until he was fairly confident he could feel all of himself. He slowly slid his eyes open. There wasn't much he could see besides the dreary tree's surrounding him, knurled and twisted in silent agony, glowing in the flickering light from what must be a small fire burning behind him.

The sky was darkened, either nearing sun-set or just after sun-rise. He didn't know which, but judging by the still rather warm temperature—for this high up a mountain in winter—he was guessing the latter. Guessing from his lack of thirst or hunger he had only been out for a few hours, rather than a few days. So I guess that's how I'm going to know. Yay me...

Now what... He tried to roll onto his knees, possibly to at least reach a sitting position, but his body barely responded at all. Instead he ended up flailing slightly before the sudden body wide flare of pain convinced him it was a wasted effort.

Still, the small movement was enough to rattle his chains. Wait..? What chains!? He wiggled his legs again, doing his best to ignore the searing pain the movement caused. Now that he was focusing on it he could clearly feel the heavy weight of chains around all four of his legs, and a quick test revealed his range of movement to be severely restricted: he would be lucky to reach a standing position, let alone go anywhere.

He could hear the muffled thumps of a good sized ponies hooves on the ground as someone approached him from behind. Selene choked down the quick spike a panic: not only would it do him no good bound as he was, the spike of adrenaline that accompanied the fear nearly made him vomit, and he would really prefer to keep what little he had eaten over the last few days down. I can't imagine I'm going to be eating a lot over these next few days...

The white unicorn mare who had clubbed him in the back of the head trotted around in front of him, without the black cloak she had been wearing earlier, and missing most of whatever had been hidden beneath it. She wasn't even wearing any armor.

"Good morning, darling," she cooed, lowering herself into a sitting position. "How was your nap?"

How to play this... let's try polite: she seems respectable enough. "Cramped. Was that strictly necessary?" Selene half growled. Oops, that didn't come out right...

"Oh? I thought you would like it strict? Was I wrong?" She was looking down her muzzle at him, head cocked sideways and her eyes half lidded. It would have looked like a convincing flirt if Selene was stupid, or if she hadn't nearly killed him earlier.

As it was Selene found himself getting very angry at her flippant attitude, and had to close his eyes and force himself to relax as he felt his headache sharply spike. I swear, if I ever get the opportunity she is going to suffer for this... "No, I'm actually more the type of pegasus who likes room to soar." He tried to raise a hoof to make a fluid flying motion, but the chains didn't let him, and he was rewarded with another sharp spike of pain in both his leg and head. "Ack... but I'd be more than willing to play if you'd like to be chained up," he offered already knowing what her obvious answer would be.

"Hmm... You don't look like the type that can suppress my magic, so it would never be realistic anyway." Selene still had his eyes closed, but he could hear her slowly approaching.

He decided to try again. "Well, I guess neither of us will be happy with this. We should just shake hooves and go our separate ways." Again, he moved his leg and held his hoof as high as he could.

The mare moved closer still, placed her hoof on top of his, and gently pushed it to the ground. "Oh, no, I think one of us is going to be quite happy with this arrangement."

She moved closer again, carefully stepping over the chains holding Selene's legs in place. She moved so close Selene could feel the heat radiating off of her in the cool mountain air. "And I'm sure I'll really enjoy my time too."

Oh... not how I imagined myself spending my first nights in the west, if I'm honest. Whatever she was planing to do it was likely going to be far more pain that it was worth to Selene, but she's doing this for herself, isn't she? Luna, save me...

She suddenly grabbed Selene by the muzzle and pressed his head forward into the ground, exposing the side of his neck. Selene would have struggled, and probably been able to wrest his nose from her grip, but the motion would have caused immense pain and there was nothing he could do to stop her from trying again, so he didn't bother. Luna! Seriously!

She gently pressed the tip of her horn into his neck, lined up with his spine. Selene prepared himself for anything, expecting to end up writhing in some type of pain but not quite sure which. Is she going to electrocute me? Burn me?... what else can Unicorns do?

But none of those things happened. Instead he felt a cold wash out from her horn into his neck, which quickly spread out, numbing the pain in his neck. Huh... She slowly drug her horn up his neck, all the way to the base of his skull, and as she focused there the pain in his skull slowly began to recede as well. The feeling of queasiness even went with it, although it was replaced with dizziness, eventually leaving him very lightheaded.

When she eventually pulled her horn back the pain hadn't completely vanished, but it was just a dull throb rather than debilitating. Selene gave each of his legs a quick shake. Other than the chains still binding them together, which was still a major problem as far as he was concerned, they were just a bit stiff rather than in pain. I guess it was mostly just the concussion.

As he slid his eyes open, the white mares face complete filled his vision, almost touching his nose. He jolted as far back as the chains would allow (not very far) and stared at her for a moment. "Thanks, I guess—"

She stomped a hoof down on his side. His left wing was pressed hard into the ground, sending a sharp hot pain through his side as it was crushed underneath him, while his right wing snapped open purely on instinct. That was the first moment he realized his wings were not bound in any way. "Ah, damn it, what!?"

"I usually treat my slaves well, but you need to understand this: I own you." Her expression had lost all playfulness as she glared down at him, and when he didn't respond she put more weight on his side. "Do you understand?"

When she had laid him on his left side she had left his wing crumpled and wedged awkwardly underneath him, and now that she was putting so much weight on it the joints and delicate tendons where stretched to their limit. "Get off," he growled through clenched teeth as the pain blossomed from a sharp stabbing into a searing hot mess, bringing tears to his eyes.

"Hey, I need you to listen!" she shouted at him, standing with both forelegs on his side now.

He was already dizzy, but the wave of pain that caused pushed him to the edge of consciousness and threatened to bring his breakfast up once again. This needs to stop. "Get the fuck off!" he barked. Selene slid his right wing between her forelegs, up under her belly, and used it to leaver her over his shoulder into the air. The extreme strain this put on his right wing left a dull throbbing, but it was nothing compared to the sharp sting that remained in his left wing.

He heard her land somewhere behind him, hard. It sounded like she hadn't managed to get her legs underneath her and landed on her side. Good. Selene pulled his legs up, pulling himself sideways towards whatever she had him chained to. A small, about 20 cm thick tree, as it turned out.

A bit of struggling and he managed to bring himself to his knees, and twisted his head around to inspect his left wing. She had broken many of his primary feathers, but they would grow back quickly enough and it looked like he still had enough that it wouldn't impair his flight too badly, but carrying any heavy weigh would be impossible for awhile. In fact, he might even have to cut down on the gear.

The real damage was internal; she had stressed many tendons enough that a few were likely torn, and he could feel at least one broken bone. He slowly slid his wing open, moving carefully and praying quite heavily that it wasn't as bad as it felt. It was worse: a good number of secondaries had also been broken and he was actually missing four primaries. Hopefully they were next in his molting cycle, or he was going to be grounded for awhile. Has this idiot Unicorn never met a Pegasus before!

Speaking off... "What the fuck was that!?" the mare shrieked, stalking back towards him.

Selene didn't have the energy, or the words, to try and explain what the stupid mare had done by laying him on his side and crushing his wing into the ground. He tried to raise his wing enough to show her, but the tendons she had torn shrieked far louder than she ever could and his wing fell back to his side. Selene could do nothing but clench his eyes and jaw closed and concentrate on not passing out.

"What did you do that for?" the mare asked again, this time a bit more restrained, but Selene didn't hear her lost in his spinning world of agony as he tried not to barf for what felt like the tenth time tonight.

The first sign he had that she had approached was when the warm sensation of her telekinesis enveloped his injured wing, followed by the fresh spike of pain as she raised it out level to inspect. As he forced his eyes open and turned to face her, she was slowly scanning his wing with her eyes, with both her horn and eyes glowing a deep purple.

After a few moments, without even glancing at Selene's face, she leaned forward and pressed her horn into his wing, and began knitting the broken bone, what felt like his Radius or maybe his Ulna, back together. She then moved on to the tendons most badly shredded, these taking longer and by the time she had finished she had visibly tired. "I think that's all I can do," she said, dropping his wing. "You birds are horridly fragile."

If he wasn't chained to a tree, he would have broken her nose. Since he couldn't find anything to say that didn't risk her killing him, or at least putting him in excruciating agony for the third time tonight, he instead twisted his head around to inspect the condition his left wing was now in. She had done a good enough job knitting the bone and tendons back together, and while they might not be up to taking his wight in flight immediately that wasn't going to be a problem, because he was missing four primaries, one more was broken so badly it was likely to fall out, and all of the remaining five were torn or broken at various lengths. Nope, not flying again anytime soon.

"Hey, I hope I didn't break you too badly. I'm going to need my slave in good condition over the next few days." She had moved closer again, although was staying just out of reach.

"If you'd let me go long enough to take a piss, that would be nice," Selene mumbled doing everything he could to keep his raging fury from leaking into his voice.

As the mare looked up and thought about it, Selene took the time to contemplate which of her bones he was going to break first if she was stupid enough to let him go. As it turns out, she was. "Only because I know you'll be a dear, and not get yourself hurt any further," she said with a wink, and backed a little further away.

I think I'll start by snapping her horn off, then maybe her hind legs and let her crawl for help. The unicorns horn flared blindingly bright in the dusk gloom, and the metal chains around Selene's legs shrieked as they were ripped and twisted to fragments in an instant by the colossal force the mare had put them under, being scattered in every direction.

Or not... Selene thought, suddenly becoming quite apprehensive at the thought of being placed under that kind of absurd force if his attack failed. Besides, unless she's going to waste half an hour knitting those pieces back together, I guess she's not planing on chaining me up again.

He was wrong, or at least partially. Her horn flared again, and a thick strip of metal hovered over from her pile of equipment wrapped in her telekinesis. "Hold still," she purred, not waiting for a response. The strip of metal quickly bent, shrieking slightly at the sudden force, and wrapped itself around Selene's neck. He tried to jerk back, but it moved far too quickly and was already holding him in place before he could move. It was thicker than the strip that had killed the small mare earlier today, and he was able to get a good hold on it, but he doubted that would matter if it decided to kill him.

"It's nothing special, just a mark that you're my property... Oh, and I'm placing an enchantment on it. If you stray too far away from me, it'll trigger and kill you, but don't worry, I don't plan on letting that happen. Strong, attractive slaves are expensive! I don't think there is a pony in the Wastes that can afford you, so it's best you get used to me." She turned to return to her campfire, leaving Selene both happy to be free—from the chains—furious—he likely wasn't going to get to kill her tonight, and sad that he wasn't going to be flying for a few days, and maybe even a few months seeing how many feathers he was missing. ...But maybe I can—

"Oh," and the mare said, turning around, almost perfectly reading Selene's mind, "and I need to be alive to keep that from triggering. Let me know if you want it adjusted; it's not supposed to be uncomfortable."

Fucking... Unicorn... Bitch...

5: Revenge Of The Neigh

It hadn't taken long for Neighbourhood to collect up her possessions, secure them to a light harness, and throw on her cloak: she was traveling pretty light to start with and had only taken Selene's pistol and compass. Selene took the time to kick snow over where the fire had been. It would be almost impossible to cover all signs of their passage, but with just a little effort he could make it significantly less obvious this is where they had spent the night.

After just a short conversation they decided to head down the deer trail to the main road, to collect what they could from Selene's other gear and the raiders corpses. Selene spent most of the short walk down trying to find out more about Neighbourhood, but she refused to answer even basic questions. Eventually she outright told him, "look, darling, I know you're very curious by nature, and I promise I will never lie to you, but there are some things I simply can not tell you, or at least not so soon."

"Where you're from is too important?" Selene asked, jabbing her in the side of the head with his muzzle. They were walking very close to each other, with her again cuddled up under his right wing.

"At the moment, yes," she returned with a sideways glare.

"Fine," Selene mumbled after a moment. I'll dig it out of you later.

They continued in silence.

As they neared the end of the trail, and the main road it connected to, Neighbourhood suddenly stopped moving. Selene stopped too as she dragged him to a stop via his wing, still tightly wrapped around her. Her horn began to faintly glow, and the glow spread across to envelope her ears as they flopped around, searching for any faint sound.

Selene closed his eyes and listened too: he might not have any magic to boost them, but his hearing was sharp enough, and backed by a hunters instinct. Now that he was listening he could clearly hear the sounds of ponies trudging around in the snow that had fallen last night. He glanced at Neighbourhood, who was still focused on listening.

Eventually she opened her eyes and looked at him, and gently shook her head.

Selene pulled his wing free from her back and stepped away. "I'll be fine," he mumbled into her ear with a wink, then turned and hopped into the tree line. He moved quickly but quietly. With no gear at all, literally naked in his fur, he could press through the twisted underbrush without fear of anything snagging. His years spent charging through the evergreen forests on the East Coast as a young colt came rushing back to him as he weaved his way through the tangled mess of the dense sequoia forest.

He pressed down parallel to the main road until he was about even with the large group of ponies, then crouched down and moved closer to the road, slowly, and quietly. As he neared the edge of the forest he pressed his belly to the ground, and moved only slightly as he inched up to the edge. He pressed against the base of a giant tree, and checked the color of it's bark against his coat: it was more brown to his dark cyan-grey, but in the low light he blended enough they would be immensely lucky to spot him, even if they were looking for him.

He was finally close enough to easily see them, but still not close enough to make out what they were saying. They had stopped their early-morning march when they had come to the bodies, laying half buried in the snow and were just now digging them out. Selene laid there a few minutes, watching as they brought the four corpses together in the center of the road. The way they were handling them, with gentle respect, suggested they had known them at least in passing.

As Selene watched they moved in and out of his field of view. He counted about ten. He couldn't be sure, but they all looked like Earth Ponies too: he could miss a horn but there was no way he wouldn't be able to see their wings from this distance if they had any. He waited a bit longer; they were milling around, checking the area, and hadn't decided what they were going to do next, but they would likely start moving out soon.

He slowly inched backward, keeping his tail pressed close to his side to prevent it catching anything and making noise. Once he was back far enough to be out of view, he turned around and made his way back, following a similar weaving pattern between the thick underbrush. He poked his head out into the deer trail, where Neighbourhood was still standing.

"Hey," he whispered, waving a hoof. "There are about ten, but I think they're going to move away soon, and it didn't look like they found my stuff."

"We need to leave," she hissed at him as she moved closer. "Now."

"Why? They can't find us if we move deeper into the forest and don't leave a trail. I want my armor back at least and we hardly have any food!" He fought to keep voice down to a harsh whisper, but it was difficult.

"Were there any pegasi with them?" She asked, moving closer still, their noses nearly touching.

Selene drew back into the forest a bit. "I don't think so." Why would she care about Pegasi? Another Unicorn would be the only real threat to her.

"Then we need to leave... which way?"

"How the hell would I know?" he asked. "This is your side of the continent."

"I've never been this far south," she admitted.

"Well, if we want to get away I think we should go deeper into the forest, then up the mountain." He considered their options for a moment, then came to a firm decision. "Go back up the trail a bit, and try to walk in your earlier prints, then try to get off the trail without leaving any marks. Actually, I'll come too."

Selene moved out of the forest, not caring particularly about leaving tracks: he had already made a decent sized indent lower on the trail, and if they noticed it they could easily follow his trail back to this point anyway.

"Common," he whispered, moving up the trail. As he moved back up the trail he made a new set of tracks, but after getting away from where they came out, he moved over back into his original set of tracks coming down the hill, making it look as if his set coming back up had vanished. He checked behind to make sure Neighbourhood was doing the same: she was.

About halfway back to their small camp, he leapt from the trail and glided into the forest, high enough he wouldn't leave any marks until he was out of sight of the trail. As he landed he glanced over his shoulder, suddenly not sure how Neighbourhood would be able to follow without leaving a trail. The idea was that the raiders would find their trail easy enough, see that they had come back and looked around, then went back to their camp. Then the raiders would have to make a call; search around where their camp was thinking they had gone all the way back, or search around where their tracks ended on their way back, both of which would be well away from where they actually left the trail, but all of that would fall through if Neighbourhood couldn't get into the forest without leaving a trail here too.

Even after all he had seen of her power, Selene was still mildly surprised by what he saw. Neighbourhood levitated herself slowly over the bushes, and through the forest, to gently set down by his side. Selene only knew one Unicorn in his life that was able to self-levitate, and it was her special talent, leaving her without any other notable abilities. Selene still hadn't gotten a good look at Neighbourhood's cutie mark, and didn't have a clue what her talent was, but it was something he'd have to dig into later.

"Ok, stay close behind me." He moved forward, quickly darting between the brush and trees doing everything he could to avoid leaving an obvious trail. He tried to find a way through that was even larger than he was: while Neighbourhood was slightly shorter, she was still about his overall size and her gear would bulge her profile out further.

As he glanced back he was happy to see her easily keeping up: with her cloak wrapped tightly around her to prevent her harness from catching on anything she wasn't leaving much of a trail either. This should work fine.

They continued mostly blindly, Selene intentionally weaving them back and forth to confuse their pursuers if they even managed to pick up the trail in the first place. He eventually stopped, and retrieved his compass from Neighbourhood, who relinquished it without any fuss. Now, with an accurate heading, he was able to keep them moving in almost a perfectly straight line.

They continued almost straight north for nearly six hours, stopping only once to rest in the trees. It was a bit passed midday when they finally made it to the end of the trees, into a shallow gorge heading deeper and higher into the mountains.

"So now where to?" Selene asked Neighbourhood as they climbed out of the trees, into the open. The snow was still deep enough to be annoying, but it would only slow them slightly and they had made it so far from the group of ponies it would be almost impossible for them to find this point to regain their trail. They were in the clear, as far as he was concerned.

"I don't know. There is supposedly a free-trade-town hidden in these mountains somewhere, but as I've said, I've never been this far south. All I know is the ponies I was traveling with specifically didn't want to get into the mountains, so we were traveling the long way around them." She brushed some twigs that had hitched a ride on her cloak away, then looked at Selene expectantly.

"Ok, well I'm not even from this side of the continent," he said with a shrug. He also had some twigs on him too, but he honestly didn't care, and left them. "And why should we be heading towards a group of ponies who put your body guards on edge?"

"Body guards?" she asked, tilting her head.

Selene moved forward, and pulled her cloak around the side of her body, revealing the harness she was wearing as well as it's contents. At her side was his pistol and two of his knives, but across her back was her own weapon, a small two barrel shotgun. He hadn't noticed it until she had gone to put her harness on earlier today.

"Slaves don't carry weapons, and raiders don't do escort services. You were with them."

"And as a result I know exactly why we need to stay away from them, and yes, the kind of pony who deeply troubles them is exactly the type of ponies we need to find."

"Ok, well I'm not moving from this spot until you tell me—" he wasn't even close to finishing the thought when Neighbourhood's horn flared and he was gently lifted off the ground.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Please continue," she said, as she moved to walk up the gorge, carrying Selene with her, hovering just off the ground.

He didn't think he needed to continue, since his point was a bit moot. Neighbourhood was making it look easy, but as he watched her face more closely he could clearly see the strain that carrying him was causing her. "You can put me down now," he said quietly.

"Good," she said with a warm smile, setting him down beside her and pulling his wing across her back, "because I don't have a clue where I'm going."

"Yea, I don't either, but I guess if we keep heading up the mountain we'll eventually find this mystery town you know nothing about, other than the fact they scare away raiders... that you are one of." He gave her torso a quick squeeze with his wing, just hard enough to force her breath out in a forced sigh.

"Oh... Darling, you should be more gentle with me." She rolled her shoulders, rubbing her back across the underside of his wing. "I might not mind it now," she began, grabbing his chin in a hoof and pulling his head down to stare into her eyes, "but if you keep at it and I start to get board, I will retaliate."

Selene missed the threat at first, but the hard, serious look in her eyes drove the point home. He felt a bit skeptical at first, but then he started to think it through more clearly and completely: she was only slightly shorter than he was, but otherwise about the same size, and with his hollow bones she very well may weigh as much as he did. More importantly, she was a powerful Unicorn.

Still, he felt he should probably test her conviction a bit. He locked eyes with her, and began to squeeze around her torso and belly again. She quietly squeaked as the air was forced from her lungs. She tried to hold his stare, but as the panic at being unable to breath began to set in she blinked, then looked down. The moment she looked away Selene released the pressure, and allowed her to breath again.

"Ok, darling," she panted, still looking down. "I gave you fair warning." She looked back up, her mouth twisting into a crocked grin, and her horn flaring in a bright purple glow.

Selene didn't have any idea what she might be casting, only that he needed to stop her. He squeezed his wing around her belly with as much force as he could bring, but her cloaks soft fabric had turned hard as stone. He strained his tendons to their limit, but the cloak was being held in place with an immovable magic force. He tried to pull his wing away from her, but a faint purple glow suddenly surrounded it, and held it firm around Neighbourhood's side, trapping him beside her.

Neighbourhood's grin had widened, and her lips pulled back slightly to show her teeth. The fact that they were the flat teeth of a herbivore did nothing to soften the predators grin. Oh... I've made a mistake.

Her horn, still glowing to maintain the spell on her cloak and his wing, flared slightly brighter as she added a new spell to the mix. Selene was just starting to wonder what it was, when the metal band around his neck began to retract, squeezing. It didn't close his windpipe, instead it squeezed in from the sides, closing his carotid artery's on each side on his neck. She partially released the pressure almost immediately, to the point it impeded rather than stopped the blood flow to his head.

Still, he went lightheaded almost instantly, and he could feel the pressure rapidly building in his head and neck. He could still breath, and even speak, but the blood flow to his brain had been heavily restricted and the effects were immediate. He tried to claw at the metal band with his hooves, but he knew it was wasted effort, even though the rising panic forced him to do it. It didn't matter if he even could get leverage on the metal; it was too strong for him to bend alone, and he would need to overcome Neighbourhood's telekinesis first anyway.

"Now look," Neighbourhood began, ignoring Selene's plight, even as she was causing it, "I know what it's like have your freedoms restricted, and I will do everything I can to avoid limiting you in any unnecessary ways, but we need to come to an understanding. I own you now. I will try not to force you to do anything you don't want to, and I will reward you greatly for the services you do do, but at the end of the day, you are mine.

"I know, not all groups in the wastelands practice slavery, and many don't tolerate it at all, but I am from a group that does. As we travel we are going to come across groups that would free you if they knew, but they won't, because this is not the overt chains, shackles and 'yes master' type of slavery. No, I am much more kind and subtle master.

"I will be kind, even loving," she added, gently stroking the fur on Selene's chest. His vision had begun to blur, and he was starting to go numb, to the extent he could hardly feel the touch. "But you need to respect me. I won't restrict you more than I need to, but I can't have you running off, and I won't have you hurting me more than I allow."

She continued talking, but at this point Selene's hearing faded to the point he could no longer tell what she was saying. He considered asking her to stop—if he could still speak—but he decided against it. Instead, he watched her lips move as she continued talking until his vision faded away too.

It felt like just an instant later he was laying on the ground, staring up at Neighbourhood standing over him, with a worried expression on her face. He didn't remember falling.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she mumbled, lowering her head, sheepishly. "I may have overdone it slightly..."

He looked around for a moment, then checked the metal band around his neck; it had returned to it's snug, but comfortable, fit.

Neighbourhood moved up beside him, as he was laying on his back, and gently rubbed his chest. "I really am sorry—I keep forgetting you're not a Earth Pony."

That doesn't make any sense."...What?"

"Oh, don't worry about it, but I think you understand my point?" she asked, offering him a hoof.

"Yea," Selene said, grabbing her hoof and using it to lever himself back to a standing position at her side, "be respectful or I'll choke you."

"Well, not exactly," Neighbourhood whispered, nuzzling the side of his head with her muzzle, "but that's the gist."

"...Why would you be used to dealing with Earth Ponies?" he asked suddenly, tiered of knowing almost nothing about her.

"We've been over this..." she mumbled, lowering her head but still glaring back at him, suddenly aggressive.

"Fine, but you need to do something to help me trust you if you want me to stay."

"No, you didn't get it," she sighed. "You don't get to leave, no matter what you think, you're staying with me."

"Well if you want this magic, 'slave but not slave' thing to work, I need to trust you, and right now I don't, so answer some questions or get this thing off my neck!"

An instant after he had finished speaking Neighbourhood's horn flared in a quick bright flash, and the metal band around his neck exploded out away from him in tiny fragments. The few fragments that flew straight at Neighbourhood bounced away just before striking her by a second purple flash, this one not originating from her horn. Selene took a moment to check his throat, finding it completely fine, although he did have a bit of a headache.

"I'm perfectly willing to compromise, but you need to work with me," she punctuated with a stomp in the snow. "...I can't do this alone."

"I don't know what this is, but lets just focus on finding this town before we starve, ok?" Removing the metal band had made Selene feel more brave, but he reigned himself back in, thinking of the raiders she had killed, that she was apparently friends with not long ago.

"Ok," she said quietly, and passed him his compass back. "Which way?"

"I don't know, and this isn't going to help here," he flipped her cloak up and clipped the compass back at her side. "I think we should just head higher up the mountain. Near the top we should be able to see a settlement somewhere, if we don't run into it ourselves sooner."

"Up the mountain? Deeper into the cold?" She asked, starting to shiver already.

"Yea, but don't worry. We'll be fine," he added, raising his wing.

She quickly pressed herself into his side, and he gently brought his wing around her. What have I gotten myself into? Selene considered giving her a quick, only somewhat violent squeeze. That is what had set this all in motion, but she hadn't actually asked him to stop. For better or worse, Selene was a pony who took risks for stupid reasons, and this seemed like the perfect time to be himself.

He gave her a quick, tight, squeeze, forcing the air out of her lungs yet again, then released her immediately.

"Hhnnnggghhhhh, oh..." She stumbled slightly, but Selene easily held her up. "Oh, darling, you need to learn to be more creative."

Author's Note

For those who missed it, the title is a Star Wars reference...

6: New Faces

Selene and Neighbourhood continued up the mountain. They were traveling up a relatively steep slope, with a sharp drop off to their left and a dense forest on their right. It didn't look like the path really lead anywhere, but they didn't have any other directions to go at the moment.

They were still a good way from the top of the ridge when Selene began to hear the faint sound of flapping coming up from below and behind them, heading towards them. He stopped, stopping Neighbourhood with him, and listened closer. There were two different sets of flapping, each with it's own rhythm, one pegasi slightly larger than the other.

"There are two pegasi coming up behind us. Do you know them?" Selene asked, trying not to sound accusative.

"No, I don't know any pegasi... well, other than you, darling," she added, pawing at Selene's forelegs. "I don't think they mean us any harm, and they might be from the town in these mountains. If it comes to it, I can protect us."

"Alright," Selene shrugged, removing his wing from Neighbourhood's back, and turning to face the newcomers. They flew almost straight up the side of the mountain, out over the forest and quite a ways to their side. Selene spread his wings and tilted their leading edges up, to show the maximum surface area to the pegasi flying by, and slowly waved them up and down.

His dark green-grey feathers and fur that had helped him blend into the forest earlier in the day now made him stick out against the white snow. It would just be a matter of luck if they saw him or not, and as it turns out, they did. When a pegasus saw another pegasus on the ground, with their wings spread, they assumed something was wrong, as if something wasn't the grounded pegasi would just fly up to get the passing pegasi's attention. Because Pegasi could travel such extreme distances so quickly, they often traveled light without the supplies for a longer trip on the ground, which meant if they became injured and couldn't fly while out in the Wastes between settlements it would often prove fatal for them without help, and they all knew it.

It may have been an unspoken creed, but it held firm for Selene all his life to this point; he had been on both ends of a pegasi coming to anothers rescue several times, and likely would again. These two apparently felt the same as after just a brief exchange they both began a gentle dive towards them.

As they drew closer they slowed into a hover, and began to talk to each other again, still too far away to hear. Neighbourhood had pulled her hood back and they must have gotten close enough to spot that she was not another pegasi, but a unicorn. I honestly can't blame them...

After a moment speaking to each other, the larger pegasus slid back into a gentle dive, and landed a few feet away from them. The other circled around behind them, and landed a few yards away.

Selene focused on the larger pegasi who landed just a bit in front of them: he was a decent sized stallion who looked to be quite a bit on the older side, possibly twice Selene's—and he suspected Neighbourhood's—age, if not even older. His coat was mostly covered in a thick brown jacket, but what could be seen was a faded light blue. His mane was either shaved or he was badly balding, but his forest green tail was still plainly visible, if quite short.

"Hey," Selene took the lead, stepping forward, away from Neighbourhood, "I'm Selene. My wing was ripped up pretty badly," he splayed his left wings feathers out, clearly showing that half were missing, "but we've got a days supplies at least. We're trying to find a town or settlement or something up here, to resupply... Neither of us are from around here," he added, as the stallion continued to stare at him.

The stallion took a moment to look over Selene's wing, winced slightly, then looked over the rest of him. Selene was still completely without armor or even clothing, but his fur was thick enough no pony would mind normally. Still, it left the stallion with nothing to judge him on, which apparently set the stallion on edge.

"Well, I'm sorry to see a wing that badly mauled, but it looks like you two would be traveling by land anyway," he gestured behind Selene, at Neighbourhood.

"Well, yea, but I could scout out the nearest town pretty easily if I could fly, but, well, you know how it is," Selene said with a large wing-shrug.

"That I do..." The stallion squinted his eyes, deep in thought, and looked passed Selene for a moment.

Selene turned to follow his gaze, finding it falling directly on Neighbourhood, who had crossed her front legs and bowed her head, doing her best to look innocent. It tripped warnings in Selene's own mind; he could only imagine what the other two Pegasi must be thinking. Unicorns are trouble: a Unicorn trying looking innocent is outright dangerous...

"Hey, it's not polite to refuse an introduction," Selene with a smile, turning back to the stallion.

"No, it's not polite at all," the stallion confirmed, looking back to Selene, his hard features softening a little. "The names Dusty Skies." He took a few steps forward to close the distance between them and held out a forehoof.

Selene took it in one of his own and shook. Dusty Skies' grip was surprisingly strong for someone so old, but Selene was strong for somepony of such a thin build, and he was able to match it.

Neighbourhood cantered up beside Selene, and leaned heavily against his right side. Selene had to reposition his hooves to take her weight. "Hello Dusty Skies, I'm Neighbourhood, and it is quite nice to meet you." She had pressed herself so close Selene could feel her fluttering her eyelashes as they scrapped across his cheek.

Selene was a bit taken aback, but Dusty didn't seem surprised: in fact, he suddenly seemed much more at ease. "Well g'day miss Neighbourhood, it's a pleasure."

"Please, simply Neighbourhood will do," she returned with a hoof-wave.

"For you, miss? Anything. You Unicorns don't have sir names?"

"Some of us do, some of us don't. I don't."

"Not that this isn't an interesting conversation," a mare said, walking around them to stand beside Dusty, and stowing her weapon—a small caliber rifle—across her back, "but I think we should get to business?"

"And this is Mineral Fortune," Dusty declared. "Her mother, my wife, is one of the founding members of Luckies Find, a small mining town just up this mountain, and the town I believe the two of you are looking for."

Mineral was not wearing much armor, and her light coal grey fur was clearly visible over the majority of her body. She must not mind the cold anymore than I do. She wasn't the most attractive pegasi Selene had ever seen, but she was up there.

"If you don't mind me askin," Dusty drawled, "how did you manage to do that much damage to yer feathers without breaking any bones?"

"He did break bones," Neighbourhood answered for him, "and he tore tendons, but I was able to heal those for him... with magic," she added when the two of them stared, wide eyed. "It's not terribly difficult, although it does take immense energy. Unfortunately I was unable to mend his feathers: I have no idea where to even begin with them, I'm afraid."

"Well," Mineral began, smoothly recovering her composure. She completely lacked her fathers drawl. "We have an alchemist in town who's a pretty good healer, although nothing as... impressive as you."

"Oh, I assure you, no pony is." Neighbourhood was not turning out to be a subtle Unicorn, Selene noted, still not sure what to think of his new traveling companion.

"So how close is this town?" Selene asked, drawing the conversation away from Neighbourhood's ego before she could offend them. "As I said, we only have a day or two's worth of food at the most."

"Oh, it's just over this hill and around the peak a bit," Dusty answered. "If you're heading that way you pretty much can't miss it."

"I'd guess it would take you no more than seven to ten hours hiking from here," Mineral took over. "I'd offer to fly you, but we're late getting back as it is." The longing look she gave him said otherwise.

I bet if I didn't have Neighbourhood with me, you'd be dragging me back with you, Selene thought to himself, lost in her eyes for a moment.

"Are you sure you two are going to be ok spending the night up here?" Dusty asked, clearly not wanting to leave them out here, but also not wanting to commit to flying a Unicorn two hours over the mountain either.

"Yes, we will be fine," Neighbourhood answered with a smile. "My darling Selene here seems to be immune to the cold, and I can light a fire easily enough."

"Alright," Dusty began, "I'll let the town watch know you're com'in. I'm not sure how well they'll respond see'in you, Neighbourhood. You know, no hard feel'ins but we don't get a lot of your kind up here."

"It's ok," Neighbourhood said, rocking her head to the side. "I know what that's like, but I imagine you'll be more accepting than most."

"So, we're off," Mineral said giving Selene a quick wink. "See you in town," then she leapt into the air.

"Yea, we'll be see'in you," Dusty said with a small smile, then followed Mineral into the air.

The two pegasi had only just left hearing range, when Neighbourhood half tackled Selene from his right side, shoving him to the ground and sitting on his side. "So, why is it every time I introduce myself to an Earthpony, or even a Pegasi, they ask me why I only have a one part name, but they didn't care that you don't have a sir name either?"

Selene tried to push her off of him, but she ended up laying on her belly, with her forelegs on one side of him and her hindlegs off the other. Still, he was able to twist himself onto his back so he could look at her. "I guess because that's only a Unicorn thing, so they don't expect it from me."

"If so then wouldn't that make it more noticeable coming from you?" she asked, gently jabbing him on the nose with a hoof.

"I guess he wanted to make a good impression on me, or he was more interested in you. Look," Selene said, twisting out from under her and standing, "they said we're out up to ten hours from their town. We have maybe six more until it's dark, and I'd like to get there early enough we don't need to wander around at night looking for a place to stay."

"It's all, 'you—you—you,'" Neighbourhood mocked, but she hopped up as well. "Lead on," she added, shouldering him in the side.

Selene lead the way up the wide trail. For about seven hours they hiked their way up the mountain, until finally the sun slid below the mountains to their west. They were near the top, and Selene was willing to bet they were only one to two hours from the town, but they decided to stop and find a place to sleep the night.

Neighbourhood created a bright light with her horn, which they used to wined their way into the evergreen forest still clinging to life at this high altitude. "What are we looking for?" Neighbourhood asked, panting slightly. They hadn't been moving very fast, but the thinner air was apparently getting to her. Selene was used to flying at this altitude, near the eternal grey cloud cover of the Wasteland.

"This," he said, moving over to a very thick tree. The snow here was pretty deep, up to maybe four feet (about as tall as Neighbourhood, and just a touch below Selene), and it would take far too long to dig through it, and it would be a waste of clothing to use Neighbourhood's cloak to insulate them if they chose to sleep on the snow. Selene could get himself up into a tree, with their branches even providing some decent protection from the wind, but there was no way he could get Neighbourhood up, and she would have troubles herself given how much she was shaking and how short of breath she had become.

Instead, Selene had lead them in search of a tree well: a small area around the base of a tree where a pocket of air forms as the tree branches stop the snow falling. They could be dangerous in softer snow, but at this altitude the snow was far more than old enough to be packed hard, reducing the danger significantly.

Selene checked the tree closely: the snow had risen all the way to it's lowest branches, even burying a few of the lower ones. He parted them enough to get his head back towards the trunk, and was happy to find the well had formed almost all the way to the ground, and was quite wide out from the trunk.

"Ok," he said, gesturing for Neighbourhood to come up behind him, "this will work wonderfully."

"What?" Neighbourhood asked as she moved up beside him, not sure what he was even suggesting.

"We're going to spend the night down beside the base of the tree."

She looked at him, very skeptical but also shaking heavily in the cold despite her cloak.

"Listen, just trust me, and get in the hole." He pointed down between the branches. "Just try not to pull any snow down from the wall."

She looked at him again, then looked down in the snow-pit wrapped around the tree, then back at him again, then finally sighed, and turned to lower herself into the hole.

Selene held her forelegs as she lowered her hind-half into the hole, and once she had her rear legs down, pushed her away from the snow wall and let her forelegs fall to the ground. He was right, and the snow was just high enough to be level with the top of her head. Selene then moved about a quarter of the way around the tree, and hopped down himself.

Neighbourhood had come down facing clockwise, facing around the tree. Selene had made sure he'd come facing the same way, since they'd be unable to easily turn around once in the hole, since it's width out from the tree was much shorter than they were front to back. They had maybe one and a half feet from the tree trunk to the snow wall, at most.

Selene came around the tree behind Neighbourhood, who raised her head to looked over her shoulder at him: as he expected she was unable to turn her body around in the confined space. Luckily she didn't appear to be claustrophobic (Selene already knew that he wasn't, having spent nights in tight tree wells before); the look on her face was only slightly worried.

"It's going to be fine," Selene promised, jabbing her in the back of the flank. "Although if you can use your magic to dig enough of the snow off the ground so we don't have to sleep on it, and I'll pull some branches off for a lose bed."

She nodded after a moment, then turned to look at the ground and began doing just that. Selene had expected her to move a small hoof-full at a time, but she began to collect up huge clumps of snow, and toss them out over the side of the tree well. Selene ripped some branches off of the far side of the tree from where they would be laying, then set them out to make an impromptu bed. The bed ended up being just large enough Selene expected it would be comfortable for one and a half ponies, who would be happy being pressed against each other, but it would have to do.

Neighbourhood laid down first, and Selene draped himself across her back. He ended up with his back pressed against the snow wall, so we arranged some tree branches to insulate himself from them well enough he wouldn't get frostbite.

"You sure must like me," Neighbourhood goaded, craning her neck around to poke at his face with her nose.

"I'd rather you not die tonight," Selene admitted.

"So... why do you only have one name?"

Damn it. "I know nothing about you, while you know a bit about me. It would only be fair for you to tell me something about you first."

"I'll make you a deal: find something you want to know about me that I can agree to, and we'll trade." She fluttered her eyelashes. "But please don't take too much time; I would really like to get to sleep at some point tonight."

Selene thought for a moment. Something about the raiders she was with will just be shot down, and she flat refuses to talk about her family... probably because they are the raiders. He couldn't think of anything else to ask about. "Why don't you suggest something?"

"Hmm... well, I can't actually think of anything I'd be willing to tell you... So I guess we'll just hold it on credit?"

"Fine," Selene puffed, "but then you only get the short version of my names story. It's an old Equitish synonym for Luna, who was my grandmother... so, goodnight I guess."

Selene enjoyed the somewhat wide-eyed stare Neighbourhood gave him, and when she went to open her mouth Selene interrupted her by covering it with a hoof. "Until you tell me something about you, that's all you get."

She stared at him a moment longer, then reluctantly nodded, and pushed his hoof down. "Well, then I guess it's goodnight for now, darling."

Author's Note

Tree well shelter, for those of you having difficulty picturing it.

7.5: Neighbourhoods Night Out... Or Inn, In This Case...

Author's Note

As warned in a note in the last chapter, this chapter contains explicit genital references... a lot of them...

It's also our first chapter written from Neighbourhood's perspective, because I think it's important we know just how much of a deviant she is... and I thought it would make the chapter more fun.

Skip this chapter if you can not into pony sex: it is important for character and relationship development reasons, but I'll have Selene sum up the important bits in his mind in the next chapter, for those who want to skip this.

For the rest of you, those brave enough to venture into the twilight zone, have fun, good luck, and may the force be with you, always.

7.5: Neighbourhoods Night Out... Or Inn, In This Case...

Neighbourhood lead Selene into their room for the night, what was going to become her hunting ground.

The room was small, and clearly not intended for two ponies. The 'bed' was nothing more than a mattress laying in the corner, and the room was so small Selene would have nowhere to run. The door to the small bathroom was around the corner into the room, going back towards the hallway in the center of the building, creating a narrow entryway, just the right size to trap somepony in. And the door even opens inward: even if he can reach the handle it's not opening unless I allow! Perfection.

Neighbourhood moved into the center of the room, removed her cloak, quickly folded it, and lay it in the far corner. She then began to fiddle with the straps on her harness. "Could you help me with this?" she asked Selene, who was still standing in the door well away from her. She didn't need any help at all, but he didn't need to know that.

He moved into the room, letting the door swing shut behind him, and began to undo her harness. He stopped with it halfway off, and stared at his two knifes, compass, and his pistol. They were the only things from his original set of gear he had dragged all the way across the continent that they still had.

"They're still yours," Neighbourhood whispered, leaning forward to brush her cheek against his. "I'm just carrying them for you."

He gave her a warm, appreciative smile, and finished removing the harness, simply leaving everything attached to it, and lay it on top of her cloak.

As Selene had his back turned, Neighbourhood moved to stand immediately behind him. As he turned around he jolted backward slightly as he bumped into her. She backed up enough he could turn to face her, but not an inch further, so when he did turn to face her their noses were almost touching. It's showtime, she thought, preparing to act.

She suddenly moved forward, sliding her muzzle down the left side of his face, across his neck, and over his left shoulder on her way down his side. He smelled of new leather, and somehow faintly of rain despite having been dry for as long as she had known him. Before she could get too far Selene stepped to the side, then into the center of the room, and turned to keep her in front of him. She followed, still circling around to his left, with her head lowered and eyes locked to his.

They kept this up, with Selene slowly turning in a full circle as Neighbourhood stalked around him. Eventually, growing tired of this fruitless game, Neighbourhood turned, and began circling to his right, then turned and moved back to his left, herding him straight backward into a wall. She then pressed in straight, nipping at the fur on his chest as he retreated.

Selene ended up backing into the narrow entryway in front of the door. "Ha, you can't get behind me now," he said, trying to keep his voice down.

"You can't get away from me now," Neighbourhood returned in a low growl, continuing to press forward. I have you now.

Selene backed up as far as he could, until his rump pressed against the door, holding it closed.

Neighbourhood moved forward, raising her head level with his, and pressing her chest into his. She pushed hard enough nearly lift his forehooves off the ground, but backed off the pressure quickly. I don't want to be hurting him just yet.

"You poor little thing," she mumbled, reaching her head passed his neck to rub her head across his back. His fur was soft and warm against her cheek, and she could clearly feel the muscles across his back rippling and twitching as she dragged her face back and forth. He was rapidly becoming quite tense. "You need to relax, darling."

"What are you doing?" Selene asked in his own low growl. Neighbourhood slid further down his left side, pressing him against the wall of the small hallway, trying to squeeze far enough passed him to reach her goal. He tried to move forward, passing her to escape back into the room, but she quickly turned her back half across in front of him, squeezing him back against the door.

This isn't going to work, Neighbourhood realized. The hall simply wasn't wide enough for two ponies to fit in beside each other, and he'd be able to escape if she moved too far passed, so she backed off, and returned to standing directly in front of him. She pressed her chest back against his, and pushed him back against the door at the far end of the small hall.

She began to stroke his forelegs as she considered what to try next, in no rush. He was continuing to tense more and more with each passing moment, and every smooth movement up and down his foreleg caused him to twitch.

Neighbourhood dragged her eyes up from his chest to stare into his eyes: they were a sharp, clear cyan, that matched well with his much darker cyan-grey coat. His eyes had grown quite wide, and he had his nose pointed down and his neck stretched back, looking somewhat like a snake coiled and ready to lash out.

Neighbourhood leaned forward and bumped her nose into his: he was just a touch taller than her, but with his head leaned down his nose was in easy reach. He tried to turn away to the side but Neighbourhood pursued, and nuzzled her cheek against his. He leaned his head far back, but he turned his head to far and put his ear in front of Neighbourhood's face, and she quickly capitalized on his mistake by gently biting it, and using his ear to drag his head back toward her.

As he kept his face turned away, she stuck her muzzle almost directly into his ear, and whispered, "you can't escape," before suddenly pulling back. She put a hoof on his chest to keep him pressed against the door, and looked him over. He wasn't shaking, but he looked like if she gave him a good poke in the right spot he'd jump through the roof. I guess I'll have to give him a poke in the wrong spot.

She moved forward again, placing her forehooves just inside his, then pressing them out to stretch his forelegs wide, and pin his forehooves against either side of the small hall, then lowered her head to look underneath his chest and passed his belly. Why, there you are... His penis was dangling still quite limp between his hindlegs, although it did appear quite a bit larger than what she had seen of it during their travels so far. Well, most of our time together has been in the snow, up a mountain. I do hope he is a grower though: if he is a shower this might not be enough...

She moved forward, sliding her head and shoulders underneath his chest, considering her still varied options. He tried to move forward, over the top of her to escape, but she easily raised her hind end up enough in front of him to block his way, and with a little shimmy managed to force him back against the door.

She then decided on a course of action, and began to wiggle her hips around, seeing if that would be enough to catch Selene's attention. She obviously couldn't see if Selene had noticed, being underneath his torso as she was, but she did have rather wide hips (although admitidly somewhat standard for a Unicorn), and she was willing to bet quite a lot he would notice.

Sure enough after just a few moments his penis began to slowly expand. A grower. We're going to get along wonderfully, darling.

Selene again tried to push over Neighbourhood's flanks to escape back into the room, but this time Neighbourhood reached forward and pushed on the front of his thighs with her forehooves, shoving him quite hard into the door. "No, you definitely can't escape," she growled, pulling herself further underneath him, ending up with her hips just in front of his chest. "Feel free to use my rump as a pillow if you like, darling. I won't mind, and you're going to be here awhile."

She was slightly disappointed that he didn't verbally respond to her jest, and even more disappointed when she didn't feel anything on her flank a few moments later. Very well. A mare must do everything herself. She began to wiggle her flanks around again, and also began to run her forehooves up and down Selene's thighs, and when that failed to make him twitch the way she wanted, began to transition to the inside of his thighs. That did the trick. She then began to play a little game: by alternating which thigh she was putting the most pressure on she was able to make him flinch in one direction or the other, and she soon had him swaying in time with the movements of her flanks.

Without much else to look at she found herself staring at his penis as it swung back and forth, lulling her into an almost hypnotic trance as it continued to grow. After some time of this Selene had clearly had enough of being pushed around, and began to try and force himself forward again.

Neighbourhood, pulled out of the trance she had been enjoying, shoved him back into the door a little harder than she had intended. "Oh, I'm sorry darling, but you surprised me a little."

"Stop," Selene mumbled above her, sounding rather reluctant to ask.

"Oh, darling, it's far too late for that." Neighbourhood found herself again considering her options, and after just a moment of staring at his rather engorged cock, decided to stop being a tease. She crouched her rear down underneath Selene's chest, and pressed herself further underneath him being careful to keep firm hold on his rear legs to keep him pinned against the door. When she was close enough she twisted her head sideways and leaned forward, wrapping her mouth around his cock.

He tried to flinch backwards, but the door held him in place. He then tried to pull to the left, then the right, but the walls on either side of the hall only let him wiggle a small distance. Last, he tried to move over her now nearly prone form into the room, but that just forced his cock deeper into her mouth. He continued to squirm, but he must have realized the hopelessness of the situation.

Neighbourhood let her forehooves drop away from his rear legs, and smiled, knowing she now truly had him at her mercy.

His cock still wasn't completely hard, and she could feel it growing slightly larger in her mouth as his heart beat pushed more blood into it in gentle pulses that traveled it's entire length. She bit down with gentle pressure, just enough to warn him what would happen if he tried to move away and to hold his penis in place. She then began to slide her tongue across the bottom of his head.

He jolted back into the door again. He hardly moved at all but she could feel the muscles across his belly tighten.

She licked again, this time slower in a long drawn out motion.

He squirmed from side to side, bumping his flanks into both of the walls around them. There was nothing he could do to get away now, and Neighbourhood would have told him if she didn't have her mouth full.

She continued her gentle licks, sliding up and down the tip of his cocks head in slow, deliberate movements. The little gasps he began to give with every flick encouraging ever more, and she began to slowly build up both the pressure and frequency.

His cock was truly hard now, and likely as large as it was going to get. Neighbourhood tried to estimate what it would feel like inside of her, but she was having a very difficult time focusing passed his panting and the feeling of the now throbbing cock in her mouth.

She twisted her head further sideways and pressed her head forward, taking his cock deeper into her mouth. His panting was interrupted by a sharp gasp, that spread a smile across her muzzle and warmed her heart, as well as her own genitals, which drew her attention down to the growing heat between her own thighs. I'm going to have to deal with that soon, she realized.

She pulled her head back, taking his cock almost all the way out of her mouth, with her lips wrapped around his twitching head. After a brief internal debate she decided to continue as is for awhile longer, pushing all thought of her own genitals out of her mind, and slid her head forwards again, then back, then forwards, in long, slow, motions. She returned her tongue to work sliding all around he penis as it moved in and out of her mouth, and even began to grope the insides of his thighs. No stallion could last long under this assault, or at least not after spending months alone traveling, as Selene had.

As Neighbourhood continued her work his panting became erratic, and the throbbing of his cock increased in intensity and frequency. His constant twitching began to shift into light thrashing, and Neighbourhood felt a warm liquid seep into her mouth as he released a bit of pre-cum.

She stopped her blow job, and moved her head back a bit, holding his penis firmly between her teeth, and began dragging her tongue back and forth under the tip of his head, right were she knew stallions were most sensitive. She held his legs firmly pressed against the door, doing her best to stop him thrashing as she bore down, doing her best to drown him in sensation.

He gasped rather loudly, and tried to squirm away in any direction he could, but he could hardly move at all before hitting something. After just a moment his legs began to shake, and he leaned heavily on Neighbourhood's back as he nearly collapsed. As his thrashing slowed and he nearly collapsed on top of Neighbourhood, his panting and gasps shifted to loud moaning, and grunts. His body tensed, and his cock began to pulse in her mouth.

Neighbourhood continued just a moment longer, then suddenly stopped, and released his penis, pulling her head back far enough she could look up and see it. His body was rocked by a small set of spasms, but not quite enough to get him cumming. His cock throbbed violently, bobbing up and down, demanding the attention it so desperately needed. Not yet.

She watched as it's throbbing slowed: now that he was completely hard, it was a somewhat impressive sight. She had seen larger, but this would be far more than enough for her needs. Quite the grower indeed.

Now that Selene was able to stand on his own, and had lifted himself off of her, Neighbourhood slowly dragged herself backward out from under him, and stood in front of him. He was still panting, and sweating quite a bit. The look on his face as he stared back at her was a delicious mixture of shock and confusion, with a palpable tinge of the sexual frustration that she craved.

She stepped further back, and smiled at him with her head cocked to one side, letting her hair fall across and hide half of her face. She then shyly turned to walk away.

He gasped lightly, but whether in disbelief or disappointment Neighbourhood couldn't tell as she had her back turned. Since she had turned away from Selene Neighbourhood immediately became aware of her own genitals: her clitoris had swollen and was throbbing, sending sharp jolts of sensation through her body, demanding attention of it's own. She couldn't wait any longer.

She looked over her shoulder at Selene, who was still staring slightly wide eyed at her. She gave him a demur smile and held his gaze for a moment, as long as she could physically stand, then began to back towards him. As she pressed her rump against his chest, she felt an explosion of pleasure erupt from between her legs as she pressed her genitals into him. It took all of her willpower not to just rub herself across his chest to orgasm, then and there. He deserves more than that.

The look of confusion on his face shifted to one of knowing mixed with apprehension as he noticed her self lubrication that she had smeared across his chest.

Without waiting for him to act Neighbourhood lowered her hips and pressed them underneath his chest, continuing to slide back underneath his belly. The soft fur on his chest tickled her back as she stretched under him. She lowered her shoulders to slide under his as well, and pressed all the way back until she felt his throbbing cock press against the back of her leg. Of course, it's too much to ask for for everything to line up on its own.

She reached a foreleg back to grab his cock, and guide it into herself, then she slid back, until her hips seated snugly against the front of his thighs, entirely enveloping him. She suddenly felt whole, as if a gaping gap in her soul had been completely filled. The illusion was somewhat spoiled by the throbbing that rapidly built in his penis. She could feel every inch of him twitching inside her as he gasped in her ear.

She twisted her head around to look over her right shoulder, and looked into his eyes as she stretched her front legs straight, lifting his front legs off the ground, which he quickly wrapped around her chest in a tight, sexually charged, hug. "Don't wait for me," she mumbled, half closing her eyes as she stared at her new lover.

He stared back at her, eyes hazy, likely not comprehending what she had meant. As he had through most of their short affair, he continued to hold as still as his twitching body would allow. Poor thing: he's still not certain he wants this... he is going to get it though. I wouldn't have it any other way.

She couldn't hold still anymore: she needed to move, and more, she needed release. She began to grind her hips forward, and backward, forcing his penis in and out of her. He held her gaze even as his body tensed. Neighbourhood was now panting herself, as her clit throbbed, sending spikes of sensation though her body, threatening to drown her even as she demanded more. She continued her grinding along his cock: she couldn't stop now even if she wanted to.

He suddenly did something that surprised her more than she had ever been surprised in her life: he drew one of his forehooves down her belly, and pressed it into her clit. She had already been so aroused, and at the same time so deprived of direct stimulation, that she had grown incredibly sensitive; so sensitive that she likely wouldn't need the direct stimulation at all for this one, but now that she had it the massive overflow of pleasure forced her to close her eyes and locked her body rigid.

As her hips drew to a stop, his began to move, driving his penis in and out of her at almost the same slow tempo she had set earlier, all while his hoof gently rubbed around her clit, driving her to the brink faster than she thought possible for a mare.

She fought with every bit of willpower that remained to keep herself standing, and to keep from falling off the edge into bliss before he did. She had brought him this far, she had driven him right up to the edge already; she was not going to cum before him. Even as she made this declaration, his hoof pulled back her clitoral hood and began to stimulate her most sensitive body part directly. She felt them both tip sideways and lean against the wall, and she felt him drop his off forehoof to the ground to take back his weight to stop them from falling down, and she could do nothing about it because every fiber of her being was being consumed in the battle to hold the orgasm back, but it was a battle she was soon to lose.

She was approaching the point of no return, and preparing to resign herself to failure, when his body tensed around her and his thrusting grew sporadic. A moment later he groaned, followed by a ragged gasp. The sound and sensation of his orgasm drove her over the edge after him, ripping what little self control away from her, leaving her warped, twisted putty in his strong relentless hooves.

The violent, hot pulsing pleasure blossomed throughout her entire body, in pulses timed with Selene's hoof motions. For all she had done to control him up to this point, he controlled her now in a way he likely didn't understand. The heat and pleasure originating from her clitoris built to the point it felt like it was going to rip her in half from back to front, and a smear of bright colors filtered through her tightly shut eyes as her head went light and the world began to spin.

As the feeling faded she found herself laying prone on the ground, leaned against the wall to their left. Selene had gently laid himself across her back, and was nuzzling her ear. He was still inside her, and still throbbing from his own orgasm.

I've done it, she realized, enjoying the soft sensation of his muzzle rubbing across her ear. He's all mine now.

8: A Long Day

Author's Note

I didn't proof read this chapter as well as I likely should have. If you find any grammar/spelling errors please leave a comment with a small section copy/pasted from where the mistake was so I can easily find it with cnt F. Thank you.

8: A Long Day

Considering how long he had slept yesterday, Selene had slept surprisingly long tonight, not waking until the sun had already come up. This was rather unusual for him, but last night had been a rather unusual night.

Neighbourhood's sudden, forceful advance had completely blindsided him. He had been trying to piece together what her motivation was since they had met. At the moment he was leaning heavily towards she's just using me, and didn't actually care what happened to him beyond how much he could benefit her—in effect, the mirror image of what he thought of her—but last night had complicated the matter significantly.

Does she really care about me? Or was she just using me solely for her own benefit? If that was all she wanted, why did she spend so much time focusing on me? Is she trying to distract me? Was that supposed to be a reward for something? I don't think I've actually done anything for her yet...

...Is she trying to make me more pliable, to more easily manipulate me? That's what I'd bet on, I suppose. Which one of these would be worst for me? That she's just using me, and would happily kill or abandon me at any moment, but I really don't think that's something she'd do; if I was expendable she wouldn't have blown so much—both literally and figuratively—on me, to buy me that armor and speed the recovery of my wing.

All that really leaves is that she really cares about me—heavily doubt it—or she's planing on using me for a long time, and wants to trick me into loving her. I guess there's no harm in me playing along.

As Selene dragged himself fully awake, leaving his thoughts behind, he found his head laying across Neighbourhood's neck as she lay curled around his body. At least I ended up on top... Selene personally preferred the lithe, light body of a Pegasus, but his experiences were spread pretty evenly across the three breeds. Neighbourhood's body had the soft, supple curves common to most Unicorns, but she was firm to the touch rather than soft: she felt more like an Earthpony.

He gently shook her awake. "Hey, it's time to get going; we have a long way to go... to wherever we decide to go today."

She groaned, and rolled away from him, onto her back, gently flailing her legs in the air.

Selene dragged himself onto his hooves. "Common, up." He put a forehoof onto her belly, and shook her side-to-side.

She let him shake her for a bit, but as he continued without letting up she eventually grabbed his foreleg in both of hers, and dragged him to a stop. "That's enough of that, Darling."

"Ok, well then lets go," Selene said, pulling his foreleg back, and dragging her up as well.

***

They had split up after leaving the inn, Neighbourhood going to collect supplies for their next trip, while Selene went back to the blacksmiths to pick up his armor. The ironically lightly colored smith had already locked up and left her shop closed, with his newly painted armor outside on a table. Apparently the ponies of this town were either very trustworthy, or the mare didn't really care.

She had painted the double layered chain mail sleeves a very dark grey that was a very similar color as his own mercury grey fur, but without the green tint. The chest piece was painted mostly dark grey-green, much more closely matching Selene's fur, with a cyan stripe running out from under his belly, up his chest before splitting in a Y to go over each of his shoulders. It matched the darker cyan shade from his tail, rather than the brighter one, which he was thankful for as that would have made him too easy to spot.

Still, even using the darker color scheme the armor wasn't at all subtle. It wouldn't just make him stand out, but would also leave a lasting impression in every pony's mind who he crossed paths with. So much for a low profile.

Selene picked up the armor from the table, and was once again surprised at how light it was considering it's thickness. He quickly discovered two new features that hadn't been there last night. The armor now had metal 'shoes' covering each of his hooves, that were integrated into and closed off the mail legs, and the armor now had a hood. He pushed at the hood, and was surprised to find it very stiff, and thick, with at least two layers of leather and metal plates hidden in it. The neck was still flexible enough he could push it back and leave it laying on his back, but the top half was basically an open faced helmet hidden in the black fabric. Clever, and hopelessly over engineered... How much did Neigh pay for this?

Selene loosened the armors neck up as much as he could, and stepped his rear legs down into the armor. It took some trail-and-error, but he was eventually able to get his hindlegs down their respective holes. He ended up with his tail lodged at his side, and he had to reach around behind himself to pull it out of it's small hole.

He then slid his forelegs into the armor, and easily got them down the mail sleeves all the way down into the metal shoes. His shoulders slid into place all on their own as he stood up, now entirely in the armor. It took some fumbling to tighten up the shoulder straps to close the neck hole, putting most of the pressure on the top of his chest rather than his neck.

He brought the hood up, just to see what the complete experience would be. It was just long enough to protect the majority of the side of his head, but didn't come forward enough to obscure his vision to the sides, which also meant it didn't protect his eyes at all.

The hood also didn't hide his face. Not only would the armor draw attention to him, even with the hood up anypony would easily be able to recognize him. So much of Selene's life had been spent sneaking around, stealing what he needed to get by. Now, with who he was effectively painted across his armor, that would not be possible without terribly harming his reputation.

Not ideal for a scouting mission, but it's a change I've been putting off for far too long anyway.

He pulled the hood back and went to meet Neighbourhood halfway across the plaza.

***

Neighbourhood hadn't arrived yet, but Mineral Fortune was wondering around nearby, so Selene wondered over to talk to her. They traded complements, Mineral to Selene's new armor, and Selene to Minerals general appearance. They talked about the towns history a bit, and the basic geography around the area, but as it turned out Mineral had lived her entire life in the town, and, outside of her and her fathers patrols, had never gone far enough astray to ever visit any other towns, so what she could tell Selene was very limited.

"So, what were you planing on doing for your second day in our town?" she asked, crossing her forelegs and leaning forward.

"Me and Neigh are leaving pretty early, probably not long after she gets here. I'm not quite sure where we're going, but neither of us really want to stay in one place right now." He knew how shifty that would sound, but it was true, and he didn't really have any better reasoning.

"Oh... well, I hope your journey is a safe one, and you can make it back to us some day."

"Yea, me too," Selene mumbled, letting the conversation fall into an awkward silence. He didn't really have anything he could talk about without revealing what he considered too much.

"Umm... Me and my father are going on another patrol today. Until I'm old enough to start taking over from mom he thinks it's the best way for me to be useful, and I like the opportunity to stretch my wings, you know."

"Yea, I do," Selene said, stretching his own dis-used wings out from under their chain mail and cloth coverings. He hadn't checked his left wing today, and took the opportunity to fan it out in front of him to see. Whatever that was Neighbourhood had bought him was apparently working: not just one, but three blood feathers had begun to grown in, and were much larger than they should have been. It was too early to take an accurate guess, but he very well may be flying again in less than the promised week.

"Oh, umm, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to remind you of your injury."

"No, it's fine; I needed to check it anyway. It doesn't hurt at all, just some missing feathers. Thanks to that potion Neighbourhood got me I should be back in the air soon enough."

"That's good to hear!" Dusty Skies roared, coming up to join the group. "It's always a good thing to have another set of eyes watchin' over us. So where are you stayin, son?"

"He's not. Him and the Unicorn are leaving today," Mineral answered for Selene.

"Awe, shoot, I'm sad to hear it," Dusty said, giving Selene a rather rough bat on the shoulder. It carried enough force to rock Selene sideways, but his armor dissipated the force to the point he hardly felt it as it was spread across most of his side.

"Are you sure?" Neighbourhood asked, finally having arrived, taking up a position opisite of Selene, creating a square with a pony on each side. "Not many Pegasi, at least those I've met, would be willing to admit missing a Unicorn."

"You're more Earthpony than Unicorn," Selene stated, running with the observation he made earlier.

Neighbourhood gave him a vicious glare, but it only lasted a moment. Still, it was a much stronger reaction than Selene had expected from such a harmless observation, and one most independent ponies would take as a complement.

"So, have we decided where we're going?" Selene asked Neighbourhood.

"I'm thinking south," she stated simply.

"South?" Dusty asked. "Anywhere in particular?"

"I've heard that there is a trade town on the edge of the San Palomino Dessert. I'm thinking that would make a good enough rest stop on our way further south." Neighbourhood looked happy enough with that logic, although both Mineral and Dusty looked a little concerned over their lack of a specific destination.

"I think you mean Dodge City," Dusty offered. "It's a nice enough little place, mostly run by Earthponies, but they accept any kind... and I do mean any kind of pony. Slave traders, raiders, gambling and prostitutes. It's not a pleasant place, but they have their own small army to stop their visitors from killin' each other, so you should be safe enough."

"Hey!" Mineral suddenly burst out. "We're patrolling pretty far south today anyway; do you think we could give them a wing, pa?"

Dusty considered it for awhile. Selene couldn't help but remember how he had refused to offer them a flight back to town when they had discovered them, with him crippled, out in the snow. It had been fairly obvious he had refused simply because of Neighbourhood, and given how he was glancing at her now it was obvious she was still the sticking point.

Selene would have offered to ride with him, leaving Neighbourhood to Mineral, but while they weighed about the same, him and Neighbourhood, Selene could at least help take some of his weight with his wings, while Neighbourhood was just dead weight to them. More than that, he strongly suspected the only reason Mineral was offering was so she could get close to him.

Dusty finally came to a decision. "Yea, I suppose we could. We're not going that far south, but we should be able to get you close enough you can reach the town on your own by nightfall."

"Oh, that would be lovely, dear," Neighbourhood said, giving Dusty a head-dip.

"Then I guess we'd better get going," Mineral said, moving right up beside Selene. "I call this one."

Selene glanced at her, then looked at Neighbourhood. She was looking back at him, but doing a very good job of hiding what she was thinking, hidden behind a small smile. Looking closely Selene began to notice the small signs, the tension in the corners of her lips, the cold, almost emotionless look in her eyes. She was actually upset about this. Maybe she really does care... or is just afraid Minerals going to mess up her plans of getting me dependent on her, but I'm definitely not expendable to her.

"Ok, on you go, miss," Dusty said, moving up beside Neighbourhood, and leaning over slightly.

She gave Selene one last glance, then climbed on top of Dusty.

"So, how would you like me to..." Mineral trailed off, looking Selene over.

"Whatever is most comfortable for you," Selene answered, hoping whatever she chose wouldn't be too personal.

She smiled at him for a moment, then spread her wings and hovered off of the ground on quick, light flaps. "Go on, we'll catch up!" she shouted to her father, who nodded and took off himself, flying in a loose circle as he gained enough altitude to clear the buildings around them, Neighbourhood clinging to his back.

Mineral lowered herself over Selene's back, and latched all four of her legs around his torso. Before Selene could complain she flapped aggressively, and pulled him straight off of the ground.

Selene had spent much of his life able to fly on his own, so it always felt extremely wrong to be in the air while he couldn't fly himself. It wasn't all that bad though; while he couldn't fly missing as many feathers as he was, he could still slow himself enough for a rough but perfectly survivable landing, unlike Neighbourhood, who would probably die, or at least be crippled if dropped from any significant height.

So he forced himself to relax, and enjoyed the soft pressure of Minerals full body hug as she hauled him into the sky. They caught up to Dusty fairly quickly, who began to pick up the pace as they moved into formation on his right and a bit behind him.

Selene spread his wings out as Mineral dragged him through the air, only opening his right wing about halfway to compensate for his left wing missing half it's feathers. He wasn't able to add much to their forward propulsion, but his wings could still provide a decent amount of lift to take much of his weight off of Minerals legs.

He experimented with the angle he held his wings to the air, and as he steepened the angle enough he actually managed to generate enough lift to press his back into Mineral's belly, not just taking all of his own weight but some of hers too. She would have to work harder to push them forward with all the extra drag he was causing, but her legs wouldn't get tiered this way.

She nuzzled the back of his head in thanks, then returned her attention to flying.

***

They made good enough time, everything considered. Selene enjoyed the feeling of air beneath his wings for as long as it lasted, even though the majority of their propulsive power wasn't coming from him.

They had traveled all the way down the south side of the mountain range, and extended a decent way into the San Palomino Desert before Dodge City finally came into sight. It was one of the larger towns Selene had ever been too; at least as large as New Canterlot had been on the East Coast. It was completely surrounded by empty desert on all but one side, which was sprawled over the good sized river that fed the town. Selene made a mental note to ask about the rivers name if he had the chance.

Dusty moved in to land first, bleeding off his altitude in a gentle spiral glide down. Mineral followed, descending in a vertical hover. She dropped him while still a few feet above the ground, then landed beside him. "Don't forget to write..." she mumbled, leaning against his side.

"Thank you for the lift," Neighbourhood said, giving Dusty a rough bump on the shoulder before moving away. "You've saved us at least two days traveling."

"No problem, miss," Dusty said, with a little bow and a hat tip.

Neighbourhood nodded once, then turned and walked away towards the city, still a few minutes walk away.

Selene nodded to Dusty, then pressed his shoulder against Minerals, before saying, "I'll stop by to visit again in a few weeks," then moved away before she could respond. He wasn't quite sure what he intended to do with the young mare, but getting close to the mayors daughter seemed like a good idea at the time, and the grin Dusty gave him revealed he either approved or at least trusted his daughter to make her own mistakes.

As he hurried after Neighbourhood he heard the two Pegasi take to the air and begin making their way back to their own town.

***

Selene and Neighbourhood spent the next few hours wondering around the city. It wasn't a very tall city, with the majority of it's buildings being only one story, but it was enormous in circumference. It had a few wide main streets cutting it into pieces, and then many smaller streets criss crossing almost at random between the larger buildings, which then had large side alleyways cutting between them, and even smaller alleyways dividing the city further, creating a massive maze.

They eventually wondered passed a large tailors workshop, and after a brief discussion decided to have them make Selene a harness to go over his armor, so he could start carrying a heavier fraction of their supplies. It took Neighbourhood a bit of haggling, but she was able to convince them to rush through and make the harness overnight so they could pick it up and leave in the morning. They agreed, but only if she pay them in advance, so she did.

After they had taken Selene's measurements, over the outside of his armor, the two left and went to a nearby nightclub.

"I'm going to go look around for somepony," Neighbourhood told Selene as they entered.

There was a good sized dace floor in the middle of the club, although it was less than half full. On the far side was a bar that was more packed, with a large collection of ponies that looked to all be part of a gang, or something similar. To the side there was a lowered section that was full of tables, with ponies gambling on card games. It wasn't quite what Selene had pictured when Dusty had told them about the town, but there was so much tension it did feel like ponies would start killing each other with just a small spark.

"Who?" Selene asked before she could leave.

"Don't worry about it. I doubt he'll be here, but if he is I'll find him fast enough."

"What should I do?" Selene asked as she started moving away from him, heading towards the gambling ponies down in the large side den.

"Go talk to the barkeep and figure out where we're going next," she offered over her shoulder, then disappeared down into the den.

Selene walked around the dance floor to the end of the bar. The gang-ponies had filled up it's entire length, with even more standing behind them and talking with the rest, but they had apparently ordered all the drinks they would need and the barkeep wasn't busy, and came to the far end of the bar to see Selene immediately.

"What can I getcha?"

"Umm, nothing. I'm new in town and I just have a few questions about the surrounding area."

"Are you sure? We have a special tonight on—"

"Yea, I'm sure," Selene interrupted as nicely as he could. "Look, when I say new in town, I mean really new in town. I'm originally from New Canterlot, on the East Coast. I've only been here a few weeks and I—"

"Hey!" the barkeep interrupted Selene, turning to address the gang ponies at his bar. "This stallion new in town, and doesn't have any affiliations yet. You said you guys were looking to recruit, yea?"

Selene felt his heart sink as the entire gang of ponies, some of them nearly twice his size, all turned to stare at him in unison. ...I'm sure I'll be fine...

About half of them moved to step away from the bar at the same time, but one of them started shouting, "whoa, hey guys, give him some space! I'll talk to him!"

A powder blue Earthpony stallion who was covered in large black splotches squeezed himself out of the crowd. "In fact," he continued, still shouting, "I think it's time most of you head back! Go on, get!"

The group of ponies glanced around at each other for a moment, before they all started to amble away from the bar, most grabbing and taking their drinks with them, and a few dropping tips on the bar.

The blue stallion moved around them to come up to Selene. He was about half an inch shorter than Selene, but he made up for it with a confident step and a massive grin. "Hey there. You can call me Thunder Flint, or T.F." He held out a forehoof, looking up slightly into Selene's eyes.

"Selene," he threw out his name, grabbing the littler ponies hoof. He was stronger than Selene had been expecting, but Earthponies generally were.

"Nice armor," Thunder Flint commented, stepping back a bit. "Are you a knight?"

"No," Selene answered, shaking his head. "Just a stallion with some style."

There was a sudden bang from down in the gambling den. It sounded like somepony had thrown a chair against a wall.

Neighbourhood came rushing up from the entrance to the den, and forced her way through the gang-ponies still filing out. Selene was about to rush after her when no less than eight Earthponies came rushing up after her, and followed her out into the night.

9: Taking Slaves

Author's Note

I rushed this one out again too. We're starting to get to some really fun stuff (chapters that I had gone ahead to write, because I thought they would be so much fun I couldn't wait for the story to catch up until now :p).

So, if you'd all kindly proof read the grammar and spelling, and in more serious issues even the sentence structure that would be wonderful. Please include a copy/paste of the area around the mistake so I can find it easily with cnt F. Thank you.

You can either use the public comment system or PM it to me: I don't really care which personally.

9: Taking Slaves

Selene and Thunder Flint had stayed at the bar and talked for most of the night, mostly trading stories from their pasts but Thunder Flint also filled Selene in on some of the generals about the West. As Selene had expected there was no central power, with every town and city basically on their own. It wasn't unheard of for neighbors to come to each others aid, but it was rare.

The three main powers though were undoubtedly the Neighvada Raiders in the northeast, a massive tribe of roaming Earthponies who controlled most of the Wastelands slave trade, the City Of New San Franciscolt, the largest city in the West located along the coastline in the north, and Las Pegasus, the crashed remnants of the largest pre-war Pegasi city that had fallen from the clouds in the far south of the San Palomino Desert during the war.

Selene had decided internally that these two cities, New San Franciscolt and Las Pegasus, were likely his best bets to begin unifying the Western Wasteland, and he'd head there way as soon as possible.

Selene had wanted to stay at the bar all night if he had to, waiting for Neighbourhood to return, but he also wasn't sure he should tell Thunder Flint about her. Out of all the ponies in T.F.'s gang, most had been Earthponies with a decent number of Pegasi, but none had been Unicorns, and Selene didn't know how they'd react to him traveling with one, so he kept it to himself.

"Hey, so what is this gang about anyway?" Selene finally asked.

"We're a group of mercenaries. We mostly act as escorts for caravans, but we also have our own caravans to make our own large trades, and we'll act as a private army for anypony who can pay, as long as it's not too immoral. "

"Too immoral?"

"Well, I mean we do participate in the slave trade a bit. I don't know, we haven't had anyone take it too far yet, but it makes us sound civilized to say that, you know? Anyway, most places respect our neutrality, and as one of the largest mercenary companies everywhere else is too afraid of us to stop us.

We operate out of here, Dodge City, and some might even say we own the city," Thunder Flint finished with a wink.

"Yea, but do you?" Selene asked with his own sly grin.

"Not really, but the mayor loves us because we give her a massive discount for free residence. We have our own permanent garrison in the city that's at least twice the size of the towns own force, not to mention the hundreds of other ponies we have passing through between assignments. We could take this place over at anytime, and they know it."

"Then why don't you?"

"We don't have any reason to."

"And what if you had a reason?" Selene asked, with another sly grin.

"Then we'd take it over," Thunder responded with his own grin. "But that's not my call, I just run a small escort team. Quick is in charge of overall operations."

"Quick?"

"Quick Silver. This big Pegasus Mare. Stay away from her," Thunder said, suddenly serious. "I mean it, she's a bit unhinged right now. Where are you staying?"

"I don't know yet," Selene admitted with a shrug.

"Alright, well we have room for you, if you need it. We have a job too..."

"What?" Selene asked bluntly, not wanting to beat around.

"We've got one of our own caravans traveling all the way down to Las Pegasus, through the desert. It's an extremely dangerous trip, through a valley packed with ghouls. I'm betting we'll end up having to deal with at least some of them, and I'd like more ponies with us along the way. I'll give you half of my own pay for it, which as the division leader is nearly quadruple what the others get already."

"You'll give me twice the starting pay, for a crippled and unarmed Pegasus?"

"We have some weapons for you to barrow, and it's also more a show-of-force thing. The Pegasi down there can be shrewd negotiators, and crippled or not, you look awfully impressive in that armor. Also, I'm thinking we could use you as bait. Those ghouls can bite through a ponies leg in an instant, but I think you'd have a much better chance in that."

"At least your honest," Selene said, staring into Thunders eyes and trying to guess what he still wasn't telling him. He couldn't even begin to guess what, but he was hiding something. "If you come clean and tell me everything, sure, I'll come."

Thunder Flint looked down, his confident demeanor fading for a moment. "Yea, alright, pay attention because I'm only saying this once. Quick Silver is a bit pissed with me, and she's refused me any support on this one. I'm down four ponies, and I meant what I said, this is a dangerous rout. It's going to be a five day march too, if we're lucky and even longer if we're not. I also lied, we don't have any weapons for you, so if you can't find your own you'll just be ghoul bait, but that's still more than nothing and I need everyone I can get."

Selene waited a moment before speaking. "Alright, thank you for being honest. Sure, I'll help out, but I want three quarters of your pay." He gave Thunder a large grin, thinking he had him here.

"I would've givin you all of it, but if that's all you want," he returned, his cocky grin returning as well. "Look, I don't need the moeny, they pay me well enough it's fine, but this job needs to get done well, or I might be done for. This means a lot to me, thank you."

***

Thunder took Selene back with him to his officer barracks. His room wasn't terribly large, but it was enough for two stallions to sleep comfortably apart. The next morning Selene went to pick up his harness, and took a bit of time to return to the club to ask around if Neighbourhood had returned. She hadn't.

I guess I should just carry on with my life then... I really wish we had set up a meeting point or something. But they hadn't, and he didn't have a clue where she could be by now. Selene told the barkeep where he was going and to tell Neighbourhood if he saw her. He also stopped by to tell the tailor the same thing, as she might go back there too.

He then went to the southern end of town to meet Thunder, and begin their trek. By the time Selene arrived the caravan had already left, but they would be moving slowly enough that catching them on the trot would be easy enough. Thunder had gone with them, but had left a small Earthpony mare behind to meet Selene.

"So, is everypony who works with Thunder smaller than he is?" Selene asked as they began their march to catch up.

"No," the little lime green mare replied, "but he does tend to get the short end of the stick when it comes to new recruits."

"Ah, so that must be part of why he was so desperate to higher me directly."

"Yea, whatever you say, stallion. A crippled Pegasus with no weapons to his name. I can see why he wanted you."

***

Selene made it a point to trot fast enough on his long legs to force his rude escort to gallop to keep up with him. She was a tough little thing though, and never once complained or asked him to slow.

It only took them a few hours to catch up to the caravan. It was simply a massive barrel with wagon wheels attached at the front and back, and two good sized Earthpony stallions were pulling it along at a brisk pace. A Pegasi stallion and another mid sized Earthpony mare were walking along a bit in front of it, while Thunder Flint was laying across the top of the large barrel.

"Took you long enough," Flint shouted down from his perch.

They continued on for a few more hours, bleeding away most of the day, before something out of the ordinary happened.

"Boss, we've got something!" one of the large Earthponies pulling the wagon shouted.

Selene was still following along behind the wagon, so he picked up his pace to circle around in front of it.

"What!?" Thunder Flint shouted down, not bothering to look for himself.

"I don't know, but it looks like a lot of blood and some bodies!"

"Go check it out, Swift!"

"I'd rather not go alone!" the red Pegasus stallion said back. "How about I take the new guy with me?"

"He can't fly, he's injured!"

"It's ok, I can gallop fast enough to cover the distance almost as quickly," Selene said, moving up beside the other Pegasus who had himself picked up his pace to get a bit ahead of the wagon, which was still moving at it's normal pace.

"Are you sure?" Swift asked him.

"Yea, just cover me," Selene said, giving him a quick wink, then turned as began to gallop ahead of the caravan.

It had been a long time since Selene had actually sprinted along the ground, being a Pegasi he usually just flew, but he was not only one of the fastest fliers, but also one of the fastest runners too. Still, he cheated a bit by using as much of his wings as he could to help push himself through the air. He was of course bluffing about being faster on the ground than a Pegasi could fly, that just wasn't possible, but he was as close as anypony could be.

He covered the distance in less than a minute, so quickly that Swift actually had to push himself in the air to keep up, but he obviously wasn't at his top flying speed.

Selene slowed to a canter as he approached the bodies, looking around in every direction. The road was passing through some small rolling hills, mostly made of bare sand and dirt, but there was still virtually zero cover. Swift flew high into the sky, and began to circle, watching for threats over the hills. Selene moved right up to the corpses now, confident that nothing would sneak up on him with Swift overhead.

There were six of them a few feet off the side of the road, most blown to pieces with the others badly chard. All except one, which had obviously been blasted with a shotgun at close range, the only one that had been killed in a conventional way. A thick blood trail lead away from the road, up over a nearby hill.

"Anything over the hill!?" Selene shouted up at Swift.

"Yea, two more bodies!" he shouted back down.

There was a second blood trail, but it was very light and moved almost in parallel with the road, still heading south. Selene looked over the ponies more closely: they were all Earthponies, and while Selene didn't recognize any of them specifically, they looked like the ponies that had chased Neighbourhood away.

Selene thought it through for a moment, and came to the obvious conclusion. The only weapon Selene remembered seeing Neighbourhood posses, other than his knives and pistol, was a short shotgun, and it had obviously been at least one powerful Unicorn who had killed the rest.

"I'm going up ahead, to follow this lighter trail. Go tell the others what's happened, then follow me."

"What!?" Swift shouted down, gliding closer to Selene. "Why!?"

"Just do it," Selene said, looking over the Earthponies quickly, selecting a 10mm SMG from near one of them, and digging two extra magazines from the nearby corpse's pockets. He pulled the magazine from the weapon, and cycled the action. No round was ejected from the chamber. I guess they weren't expecting trouble...

He returned the magazine to the SMG's receiver, and cycled a round into the chamber, then clicked the safety on. He aimed it away from himself and tested the trigger. Happy that the safety was working as intended, he slung the SMG over his neck so it was dangling in easy reach across his chest, then began to follow the faint blood trail.

***

The blood trail faded pretty quickly, but Selene continued down the road anyway, watching for any signs of passage.

The river that passed Dodge City snaked its way to the south too, coming up beside the road in a few places and extending far away in others.

As Selene approached another spot where the river came close to the road, he moved off the road towards it on a hunch. Sure enough as he crossed over a small rise he could clearly see what looked to be a pony laying near the river, watching the water. He couldn't see the ponies colors, but it looked to be Neighbourhood in her black cloak.

His mind began to race through the possibilities. How do I play this? I don't know how these guys are going to respond to me traveling with a Unicorn... I could just leave her, I'm sure she'll be fine. But the sun had just gone down and it was already starting to get quite cold in the bare desert, and it was going to get far colder later in the night, and he knew how poorly Neighbourhood dealt with the cold.

Swift answered most of Selene's questions for him, as he quietly glided in to land right beside him. "Hey, do you know who that is?"

"I think I might."

"Well, if they were the one who did that, killed all those ponies back there, we need to deal with them. We can't leave some bastard Unicorn out here to terrorize everyone!" Swift was whispering, but in his excitement he was just loud enough to catch the pony down by the rivers attention.

Both Selene and Swift stepped back down the hill, far enough they wouldn't be seen, but Selene kept his head poked above the rise enough he could see, and quickly flipped his armored hood up to hide the brighter stripes in his mane. In the twilight his dark fur would be almost impossible to see against he dark, permanently hazed sky behind him.

As she turned to look, Selene could see her white face sticking out of her hood clearly, as well as the bulge in her hood as it covered her horn. She scanned the hillside for a moment, eyes passing right over Selene without noticing him twice, before she turned back to watch the river.

"What do you have against Unicorns?" Selene asked Swift.

"Against the normal one's? Nothing, but the kind that can nuke eight ponies and walk away? We'd be better off without those witches."

"And what if they deserved it?"

"Who's to say they did? Are you really going to trust that thing?"

"Seriously, you don't recognize her? She's the mare who was chased out of the bar last night, or at least I'm pretty sure."

"So? You missed the point, man. It's not why she did it, it's that she can do it that's the problem. No pony should have that much power."

"Whatever. Go get the others, I'm going to go talk to her," Selene said, standing up and beginning over the hill.

"Dude, what are you!—"

"Just go," Selene interrupted, and quietly made his way down the hill. If he was wrong and this wasn't Neighbourhood he very well may be in trouble, but he couldn't possibly imagine another Unicorn with that level of strength was wondering around, or the same light blue eyes and white fur.

"Hey, Neigh," he said as he approached, loud enough to be clearly heard but trying not to startle her more than necessary.

She still jolted slightly, and snapped her head around to stare at him. "Oh, hey. Sorry, I'm just... tired."

"Are you ok? Was that your blood you left on the road back there?" Now that he clearly knew who it was he cantered right up beside her.

"Yea, some of it. I got hit pretty hard in the shoulder, but I healed most of it. How did you find me?"

"I just stumbled across the mess you left, and followed the trail. I'm heading south towards Las Pegasus at the moment."

"Ah. Ok, we can go that way." She looked ok, but her eyes were pretty vacant.

"We?" Selene asked, cocking his head sideways.

Neighbourhood's eyes snapped back to Selene's face, and they slowly began to narrow as she processed what he had just said. "What do you mean?"

Selene still didn't know how the others were going to react, but he sure as hell wasn't going down with the ship if it was bad. He'd do his best, but he wasn't sticking his neck out very far. "Just trust me, ok?" He let his eyes go soft, and gave her a gentle pat on the back.

"...Trust you with what?"

Selene stepped a small distance away from her, and waited a moment.

Neighbourhood continued to stare up at him, her face slowly contorting in worry. "...Selene?"

Pegasi tended to have sharper senses than the other breeds, but Selene took it to a further level, and he could hear the sound of weapons being loaded faintly echoing over the hill, so he wasn't at all surprised when the mercenary ponies he was traveling with all suddenly come flooding over the hill.

"Selene!? What's going on?" Neighbourhood jumped to her hooves, and turned her back to the river. She inched closer to Selene, but apparently had lost enough faith in him that she didn't try to hide behind him.

The two stallions and two mare Earthponies spread out in a loose half circle around them, while Swift hovered above and behind them, in the sky about 20 feet over the river.

Thunder Flint came up last, moving closer to them to stand nearly beside Selene. "How does she know your name?"

"I told her," Selene shrugged, completely confident in his half truth.

Thunder walked passed Selene to address Neighbourhood directly. "Are you responsible for those other ponies deaths?"

"Yes, they were hunting me." If she could have moved backwards without walking into the cold river, she likely would have. Thunder was slightly shorter than she was, but he was an imposing presence nonetheless.

"Ok. Well, I'm sorry, but you're far too dangerous to be left alive."

"...What!?"

Rather than repeating himself, Thunder moved back away from Neighbourhood to stand between the two large stallions. "I'm sorry, but this is final."

Before Neighbourhood could react, and likely blow half of them away, Selene moved in front of her. "What kind of reasoning is that, Flint?"

"The sane kind, Selene."

"Sane? What did she do?"

"She killed eight ponies, Selene. I won't have somepony like that traveling with us. She'd kill us in our sleep."

"I could kill you in your sleep. Hell, even she could," Selene said, pointing at the little Earthpony mare who had escorted him back. "Any of us could. Sleeping sucks, doesn't it."

"She killed eight—"

"How many raiders and slavers have you killed?"

"Well, about ten, but—"

"But what?"

"Not all at once!" Flint shouted, moving forward slightly.

Because of how the bank was slanted and he was uphill Flint's eyes were about level with Selene's. Selene stepped forward, closing the distance and raising himself above the littler pony. "So that's it?" he growled, "you want to kill her because she's better at killing raiders than you?"

"No!"

"Then why?"

"Because she's too dangerous to have around!"

"Because she's too strong? Because she's better at killing that you are?"

Flint went silent, and his face began to flush red as his frustration built. "Yes Selene, that's why," he admitted,

"Then who's to say I'm not to strong to have around, or you are?"

"Common sense."

"What sense?"

"She can kill eight ponies with her bucking mind!"

Selene glanced around at the other ponies, seeing if any of them had what he'd need to make his point. He found it quickly enough; the larger mare had two grenades attached to her harness across her chest. Selene wondered over and grabbed one before she could figure out what he was doing.

He trotted back to Flint, then checked to make sure he had a good grip on the plunger, then plucked the pin out. "I might survive this in my armor, and Neighbourhood can probably shield herself. You'd all die, except maybe Swift. Even pipsqueak here can kill most of us in an instant."

"Pint!" the little Earthpony shouted at him.

"What? Really?" Selene asked, legitimately impressed at the bluntness of her name. "Pint Sized, I take it?"

She blushed a little as she admitted, "yea, I still don't know how my parents knew I'd be short..."

"Yea, I get it, now put that away!" Flint barked at him.

Selene carefully slid the pin back into the grenade, and checked that it would really hold the plunger in place.

Flint moved forward and snatched it out of his hooves. "The differences is, if I don't trust you I can take the grenade away from you!"

"Then lets take her magic away," Swift offered, coming in to land beside Selene. "We're transporting Belvedeer Vodka, right?"

As the others looked at each other, trying to figure out what Swift meant Selene turned around and looked at Neighbourhood. She was looking at the river, likely considering if jumping in the cold water would be worth escaping the situation. It didn't matter, Selene knew: with Swift here she would never be able to escape. She looked back up from the river, and Selene caught her eye, and gently shook his head.

"Yea, so?" Flint asked Swift.

"Well, don't Unicorns need focus to cast?" Swift asked, with a suggestive note in his voice.

"Yea, they do..." Flint ceded the point.

"Hey," Pint spoke up, "isn't there a massive bounty on live Unicorns in Las Pegasus?"

"Yea, there is, especially for powerful casters..." Flint looked back at Neighbourhood. "They want them unharmed though, and I'm not sure we can manage that."

"I can," Selene offered, moving back to stand in front of Neighbourhood. "I've dealt with them before. Not terribly difficult if you're not an ass."'

"No, we're using Swift's idea. I'm not trusting my life to one of them."

"Fine, but I'm in charge of implementing it, alright?" Selene wasn't going to cede this one. He was confident any of the others would end up pushing things too far, and getting themselves killed, and he was hoping Neighbourhood would give him more leeway before resisting, and resist less aggressively if he did go too far.

As he turned to look at her and saw her hurt, furious glare, he seriously considered just giving her up and walking away. But it was too late for that.

"Fine, she's yours," Flint said, turning to walk away, "but strip her of equipment and keep her under; I don't want any surprises."

Selene actually couldn't argue that point, and he wanted his stuff back if he was honest. He turned fully around to face Neighbourhood. She looked like a small animal backed into a corner, and her horn was already faintly glowing. Shit... all or nothing, I guess.

Selene moved forward slowly, and removed his new SMG and left it on the ground. "Hey, you're going to be fine in the long run, ok?"

"Stay away," she growled, lowering her head and pointing her horn at him.

Selene continued forward, walking upright and loosely, as non-threateningly as he could.

She hesitated, letting him move right up in front of her without reacting.

Selene stood in front of her for a moment, then snapped his forehoof up and grabbed her horn, using it as leverage to twist her head back. He then wrapped his other foreleg around behind her neck, and used it to pull her forward away from the river.

She collapsed onto her knees in front of him, and fought to bring her head back down, but couldn't overcome the massive leverage her horn gave Selene. "Get off!"

Selene could feel the heat in her horn build as she attempted to cast something, but with a violent shake and a tight squeeze around her neck, he was able to break her concentration, and the energy dissipated harmlessly. After a moment to make sure she wouldn't try it again, he then untied her cloak and pulled it off of her, and threw it over his own back–he might as well use it himself–before continuing on to her other things.

He quickly found the pocket at her side that held the potion she had bought him to help heal his wing, and slipped it into his own harness. He tried to find her coin purse as quickly, but he couldn't before the others realized what he was trying to do.

"Hey!" Pint barked, moving up to her other side. "Her stuff's not all yours!" She began to dig into Neighbourhood's other side, and came away with her gem bag and coin purse almost immediately. "Whoa, she's loaded!"

So much for that, Selene thought as he continued to strip Neighbourhood of everything she had. He took his pistol and it's magazines, as well as his combat and utility knives and compass, and found places for them on his own harness. He decided to leave what little else she had for the others, and removed her harness all together, and tossed it on the ground in front of them.

Pint hoofed the gem and coin bags to Flint, then went over her harness herself, coming away with Neighbourhood's short shotgun. "Awe, ya! Don't make any funny moves, or your heads coming off!"

Neighbourhood again tried to wrestle free, and Selene again used her horn as leverage to twist her head back and hold her still, but she kept fighting him.

The larger mare had gone up to the wagon, and returned with a large canteen Selene assumed was now full of vodka.

She tried to offer it to Neighbourhood, but she continued to struggle. "I'm not drinking that!"

Selene decided enough was enough, and pulled Neighbourhood over onto her side and sat on her. He stepped down on her horn, using it to force her head to the ground. "This isn't going to work... Anyone have some hose I can borrow?"

"Umm, yea, we have some on the wagon. How long?"

"Just a foot or two," Selene shrugged, "and a relatively small diameter would be nice."

The mare went to retrieve the hose from the wagon, and Selene motioned to Swift. "Could you stand on her horn please? If it starts to get really hot just stomp on it a bit."

"Sure," Swift mumbled, doing as he was told.

Flint had gone back to the wagon too, taking the two large stallions with him, apparently trusting Selene to take care of things, but Pint was still standing around watching. "Can you bring me her harness?"

"Gotcha," she peeped, bringing him Neighbourhood's harness from where Selene had thrown it.

Selene fiddled with some of the straps, approximating the pattern he would need. He used his utility knife to cut the straps to the right lengths for it's new, smaller purpose, making sure to keep all the fasteners on the back to make it much more difficult for Neighbourhood to get it off on her own.

He then gently pushed Swift off of her, and pulled her head up off the ground. Moving as quickly as possible, hopefully faster than she could realize what he was doing, Selene pulled his new tangle of straps over her face and around to the back of her head. As he tightened them the straps squeezed around her muzzle, clamping her mouth closed. Selene then locked the straps in their place, and let go, seeing how well his quick work would hold up.

Neighbourhood squirmed underneath him, and clawed at her face with her forehooves, mumbling through her closed mouth but unable to make any louder sounds. The straps held well enough, and as Selene expected she couldn't get enough leverage on the straps to pull them free on her own. As she finally stopped struggling, she looked up at Selene with a sad pout, or at least as close as she could get with her muzzle clamped closed.

By then the larger mare had returned with a short length of hose. Selene grabbed it, then looked back down at Neighbourhood. "You're sure you won't drink this on your own?"

Her pout slowly shifted to a furious glare, and she started to try and struggle free from underneath him, her horn again beginning to glow.

Selene leaned forward and stepped on her horn, pining her head to the ground again, breaking her concentration. He then loosened the straps enough to allow her to open her mouth. "Last chance."

She stayed silent, and glared straight ahead, refusing to open her mouth to even speak.

Selene checked the hose: it was made from a hard rubber, and wouldn't collapse unless under extreme pressure. He suspected it would easily be strong enough to stop Neighbourhood from being able to bite it closed.

"Fine. Swift, back on her horn."

As Swift took up position, holding her head down by the horn, Selene stood instead on her neck, just below her jaw. He slowly leaned more and more of his weight on her neck.

She squirmed under the weight for a time, but eventually couldn't stop herself, and opened her mouth to give out a brief cry of pain.

Selene took his weight off her neck, and shoved a bundled up length of strap into her mouth to momentarily hold it open. He then began to slide the hose through her mouth, and down into her throat.

She bucked and squirmed rather violently, but to her credit she never screamed.

He was eventually able to get the majority of it down her throat, and leaned forward to listen down the hose. He could clearly hear the soft gurgle of her stomach acid at work, rather than the soft wheezing he'd hear if he had ended up in her lungs. He then tied the other end of the hose up behind her head, about even with the base of her horn.

He tugged on the bundled up strap still holding her mouth open. After a moment of tugging she opened her mouth enough to let Selene pull it free. Finally he pulled the straps around her muzzle tight again, locking her mouth closed around the hard hose, locking the straps behind her head.

"That should do it," he said, leaning back.

Neighbourhood looked up at him, looking more sad than angry.

He gave her his best 'sorry' expression before pulling her head up, again using her horn as leverage. "Swift, if you'll pour for me."

"Yep, gotcha," he said, grabbing up the canteen. "How much do you think it'll take?"

"I'd rather not kill her, so lets start with half."

As he expected Neighbourhood began to violently thrash around the moment Swift began to try and pour the Vodka down the hose now leading to her stomach. Selene concentrated all of his strength on holding her head still enough Swift could pour without spilling too much, and allowed her body to thrash around behind her uselessly.

"And to think, you could have just had a nice drink, like a civilized pony," Selene mocked as her thrashing finally slowed as Swift finished.

"Alright, so you can take it from here?" he asked, backing away and hoofing Selene the canteen.

"Yea, I got her," Selene answered, taking it and attaching it to his harness. He then let go of Neighbourhood, to see what she would do.

She stood almost immediately, and tried to step away from him, but stumbled back onto her knees. She shook her head, then tried again and managed to stand easily enough, but the alcohol hadn't really set in yet so Selene had expected her to.

Selene picked up her cloak, and wrapped it around himself, tying it loosely enough he could easily throw it off if he needed to. He then picked up his new SMG, pulled the magazine from it, cycled it to eject the round he had loaded earlier, and picked the round up. He looked it over, then loaded it back into the magazine, checked that the mag was full, which it was, and returned it to the weapons receiver.

He decided to leave it safe, without a round in the chamber, slung it over his back hidden beneath his new cloak, then repeated the process with his pistol he had liberated from Neighbourhood. His pistol didn't have any safety mechanism at all, making it even more important to leave it without a round in the chamber and arguably making it better to leave it without a magazine in it either, although he usually did.

By the time he had finished Neighbourhood was wobbling on her hooves, any thoughts of trying to escape lost as a haze descended over her mind.

"Hey, common," he said, jabbing her in the side. When she didn't respond other than the initial jolt Selene wrapped his right wing around her side, and held her still.

He looked around for the other ponies, but they had all moved over the hill back to the wagon on the road, and were all out of sight. He took the moment to get the potion she had bought him to help with his wing, and drink some of it.

As he put it back in his harness under his new cloak he noticed Neighbourhood glaring at him. "Thanks for that again, dearest." He leaned forward, sticking his muzzle into her ear, and whispered, "seriously, play along and I'll make sure you'll be ok."

He then started making his way up the hill, dragging her along with him.

10: It could be worse

Selene was able to drag Neighbourhood along under his wing easily enough. She had almost no balance left from the vodka poured through the hose directly into her stomach, and was likely still tiered. As a result Selene had to hold her tightly against his side and balance her himself, but at least she was able to carry her own weight as they trotted along after the wagon.

By the time night fell they were deep into the San Palomino Desert, with near perfect visibility for miles in every direction. They could camp here and be sure no ponies could sneak up on them.

As the others began to settle in not far from the road, Selene dragged Neighbourhood, still gagged and muzzled, further away from the others. Pint Sized followed them.

"Hey," she mumbled, "I just want you to know I'm sorry about being an ass when we first met; I'm wasn't having a good day."

"It's ok," Selene mumbled back with a small smile. "Shit happens. As long as you own it and admit it, I'm ok with it."

Selene then turned to help Neighbourhood lie down, being careful to move her slowly. Her eyes had glazed over, and she was no longer really seeing what was in front of her. She looked about ready to pass out now, and was mostly oblivious to the world around her.

"Hey," Pint mumbled again, "do you really think she's safe?"

"Safe to have around? Yea, I'm sure she's not stupid enough to try anything," or at least that she'll spare me if she does get loose and start killing, Selene finished in his mind. "You should head back to the others: I'll be fine here."

"Ok... just shout if you need anything."

As Pint left Selene considered removing the muzzle and hose from Neighbourhood's head and mouth, but didn't, since he'd just have to wrestle it back on tomorrow. He then considered if he should give her any more vodka. She was close to blacking out as it was, but if he didn't she might sober up enough to be able to cast by morning, and if she woke up before him....

Not wanting to take that risk, Selene poured a bit more vodka down the hose into Neighbourhood's stomach.

Feeling the heat of alcohol in her belly, Neighbourhood looked up at Selene and frowned, eyes beginning to water slightly.

"Hey, you're going to be ok," Selene assured her, rubbing the back of her head. "Just go to sleep," he finished, pushing her head to the ground before leaning his own head on the side of her hips, far enough down he wouldn't be putting any pressure on her stomach.

He told himself he was just leaning against her so she couldn't try an sneak away without waking him, but he felt his breath hitch as he leaned against her. Hey, stop it! She's just a powerful tool, although if she becomes too much more trouble she may not be worth it...

***

Selene slept surprisingly well, all things considered. During his sleep he had migrated up Neighbourhood's side, and now lay with his neck and forelegs curled around her chest. He nuzzled his head into the soft fur on her neck, enjoying the moment wall it lasted. I may not love her, but a soft mare to cuddle with is a soft mare to cuddle with...

He eventually began to hear the noise of the others waking, and preparing to continue their journey, and pried himself from Neighbourhood's grip, taking the moment to look her over.

His eyes passed over her cutie mark. While this wasn't the first time he had seen her without her harness or cloak, this was the first time he really looked at her mark. It was a simple circle split by a jagged line down the middle, white on the bottom and a dark cyan on the top. The circle was itself cloaked in a red smear that trailed up her flank, smoothly curving up her hip.

It looked like a bi-colored meteor. ...I have no idea what that means... Oh well.

"Hey, it's time to get going," Selene said, shaking Neighbourhood awake.

***

They continued on for two days, slowly working their way down the San Palomino Dessert, and closer to Las Pegasus.

As they continued across the desert for the last day, the San Gabriel mountain range reared up on the horizon. When they had first drawn close enough to spot the mountains, Selene had thought they would reach them by nightfall easily. He was wrong, it had taken the entire day and they were still far from them when they stopped to sleep again.

Now, a day later, as they drew closer to the mountains, Selene began to understand why. Thunder had told him that they were not as tall as the Sierra Neighvada Mountains, but apparently not by much, Selene thought to himself as he stared up at the mountains lording over them, far into the permanent grey cloud cover that stretched across the wastelands. They were covered in snow for their entire top half, even now in the summer, creating a strange winter backdrop for the desert they were still crossing.

Luckily, while the San Gabriel Mountains were nearly as tall as the Sierra Neighvada range, they stretched only a dozen miles instead of the Sierra range's thousand miles, so they could easily pass around the mountains to the east instead of having to scale them.

"The Cajon Pass," Thunder explained to Selene as they neared it later that day, "is not so bad in terms of environmental hazards, but there is a large ghoul population nearby. They're mostly the ponies that survived the bombings of Las Pegasus, only to die from the radiation. Some managed to flee up into the San Gabriel mountains, only to die and end up frozen in the snow. Every summer the snow melts back further, and more are set free to replenish the few we manage to kill off in the valley pass, so don't bother wasting ammo on them, we'll just keep moving and stay quiet.

Tomorrow though. We're going to spend the night well away from those mountains."

"If we want to sneak through, wouldn't it be better to pass through during the night, when we're harder to spot?" Selene asked, although he was happy to get off his aching hooves earlier than usual today. He was a good sprinter and had great flying endurance, but he had only rarely needed to hike this kind of distance on his legs, and it was starting to get quite painful. He was a Pegasus, not a pack mule, and the extra weight of his new armor wasn't helping.

"No," Thunder answered simply. "They can't see well anyway: it'd be more of a disadvantage for us to travel at night, taking away one of our advantages over them."

***

As the others prepared to camp just off the road, Selene lead Neighbourhood away, down towards a small river coming down off the mountains to their west.

As they neared the river Selene took a few glances back at the others to make sure none were watching him too closely, then turned to the river. He took two of the three canteens he had been given filled with vodka, to keep Neighbourhood under, and quickly poured two of them out and filled them with river water.

Neighbourhood lay on the ground with her head towards the water a few feet away, but she was staring up at him with a curious look. She had spent the last three days quite drunk. Selene had tried to back off on the vodka he was forcing her to drink, but the others were too concerned that she might sober up enough to attack them, and told him to give her more.

Her expression shifted as she realized what he was doing, and could probably guess what he was planing.

***

As they started up into Cajon Pass Selene was careful to only give Neighbourhood the canteens filled with water. He had kept her drunk all last night, mostly because he didn't quite trust what she would do around the others once she sobered up enough to cast, but now that they were traveling into danger he wanted her able to defend herself, and him if it came to that. He cared about her more than them, was what it basically came down to. She was more valuable.

Pint was walking with Selene and Neighbourhood, well behind the others, when she turned to him and asked, "hey, can I have some?"

"Some what?" Selene asked back.

"The only thing you've got, bird brain!" she barked back with a broad grin, jumping into the argument with gusto. Selene was starting to like this little green mare, even if she was a little annoying.

"No, go get your own," Selene said with finality, gesturing towards the vodka cart well ahead of them.

"Naw, too lazy, so give it! What? You haven't replaced it with anything, have you?" she asked, obviously joking.

Selene tried to find a comeback that wouldn't incriminate him. He was a fairly good liar when it came to emotional things (oh, of course I really love you and am not just using you for sex... why would you think that?) but was fairly terrible at informational lies. Faking an emotion was easy, but keeping it from seeping in when delivering a simple answer was something he just couldn't do.

So he went with his usual tactic: telling the honest truth, but making it sound unbelievable. "Of course I have; swapped it with river water days ago. Look, she's basically sober," he finished by giving Neighbourhood a shove.

She stumbled away, shooting Selene a vicious glare after regaining her balance. She should have been mostly sober by now, but she still managed to put on a great act of still being deeply intoxicated. Note to brain: Neighbourhood is a good liar.

"Ha-ha, yea, whatever, just give it!" Pint squeaked, throwing herself into Selene's shoulder.

"I'm not even sure you're old enough to drink yet, little pony!" Selene shouted, shoving her back.

"Hey, I'm in my young twenties, same as you! Now give it!"

Selene sighed, and pulled what he hoped was the one canteen he still had filled with vodka from Neighborhoods harness, which he was still wearing over his own armor, and handed it to the little lime green pony.

She took a long swig, then handed it back, coughing. "Yuck. Premium Belvedeer Vodka my flank!"

"Hey, you asked for it," Selene mumbled as he pocketed the vodka and pulled out one of the water filled canteens, and poured some down Neighbourhood's hose. Even though she knew it was just water now, she still gave him a glare that was somehow both sad and angry at the same time. "Relax, you'll be fine," he said, giving her a soft pat on the shoulder as he turned away.

***

They had made it up over a large rise, and were preparing to descend down into the valley that was Cajon Pass. It was mostly a thick evergreen forest, far thicker than any Selene had seen in his travels across the wastes. The air was thick and humid, a sharp contrast to the arid desert they were leaving, making it hard to breath. It was as close to a jungle as they were likely to find in Northern Equestria.

"Ok, Swift, I want you to fly a good distance ahead of us. Selene, can you go with him?" Thunder asked, turning to him.

Selene stretched out his left wing, the one Neighbourhood had badly broken six days ago. Selene had been taking the potion she had bought him in Luckies Find for five of those days, and it had been healing shockingly fast. The bones and tendons were fine by now, but he was still completely missing two primary feathers. Normally they would take up to four months to grow back, but he had grown the other three in just four days. At this rate he'd be 100% in two days at most, which was lucky as he only had two days worth of potion left.

He probably could fly, on his own at least, but he didn't want to leave Neighbourhood behind with the others, for fear of what she'd do to them as much as fear of what they might try to do to her.

"Naw, I'm still not airworthy. Sorry Flint."

Thunder Flint winced slightly at the use of his family name, something Selene had picked up on during their travels, but he apparently didn't hate it enough to ask Selene to stop, so he didn't. "Ok, well then you can scout with Rosemary on the ground. Pint, I want you to check the sides, well ahead of us. If you get any ghouls on you, lead them away and lose them instead of leading them back to us.

I don't think any of the rest of you are fast enough, so kill them quietly if you can, or get Swift to lead them away, then he can just fly back. Understood?"

"Aye boss," The red mare Earthpony Selene had mostly ignored up until now barked. She had been rather quiet for the most part, staying well ahead of everyone else. The two massive Earthponies pulling the cart had hardly said anything either, so Selene ignored them too. Now that they would be alone with Neighbourhood and Thunder, Selene was wishing he had gotten to know a bit more about them, but it was too late now.

Swift took off, and extended out over the forest. He wouldn't be able to see much through the thick trees though.

Pint had already vanished. Selene hadn't noticed when she had left much less which direction she had gone. Oh... this is a wonderful idea...

He followed the red mare, Rosemary, off down the road, the two of them moving much faster than the Earthponies pulling the cart to get ahead of them.

***

Selene had tried to strike up a conversation with Rosemary, but she had shushed him immediately. So they trotted along in silence.

Every time they made it to a long straight in the road, or a decent sized meadow where visibility picked up to a few hundred feet, they would cross to the far side and wait until the cart would catch up, before continuing on ahead at a faster pace. They didn't want to get too far ahead and be unable to help if something went wrong.

Pint slipped back onto the road with them every ten minutes or so to check in, before disappearing back into the forest that was several shades darker than her light green coat. She was also checking in with Thunder periodically, keeping everyone informed.

Selene was beginning to wonder what all the fuss was about, when he heard gunshots not too far ahead of them.

"That sounds like Swift's carbine," Rosemary blurted out as she picked up into a gallop.

Selene kept pace with her fairly easily, using his wings to cheat by taking alternating leaps and glides through the air.

They rounded a bend in the road and came into a smaller meadow. Swift was perched up in a tree on the far side, firing down into a tightly packed horde of ghoul ponies. They're colors had faded, leaving a sickeningly bland collections of greys and browns instead of the bright pastel colors the ponies originally were. They fell as Swift fired, taking time to hit each in the head with a single aimed shot, safe on his high perch.

"Damn it, that idiot," Rosemary swore under her breath, stamping her forehoof on the ground as she thought. "Are you sure you can't fly?" she asked suddenly.

"I can short distances, easily enough to get to him."

"Ok, well fly over and tell him to lead them away: we don't have enough ammo to kill them all, and this noise will just bring more."

"Are you sure? It doesn't look like—"

"There are more: thousands," Rosemary interrupted, shoving Selene forward. "Go, and when he leads them away, hide in the trees and wait for them to clear out, or help lead them away yourself if you think you can fly long enough to escape."

"Ok," Selene mumbled.

He took several quick steps before jumping into the air, bringing his wings down hard, trying to push himself higher. He was expecting his left wing to catch less air, and wasn't flapping as hard with his right to compensate, but he still veered to the left at first, before finding his new balance on his still injured wing. He was able to gain altitude fairly easily though, and he already knew he could glide. He probably couldn't hover though, and he wasn't going to risk finding out over those... things.

He flew quickly across the meadow, well out of reach as the ghouls below surged around Swift's tree. He managed a rough landing in a tree opisite of Swift, making enough noise that many of the ghouls around Swift's tree turned to press against and flow around his. There were at least a hundred of them, and more were trickling out of the treeline.

"Whoa, hey!" Swift shouted across from his tree, holding fire for the moment. "This is crazy! Look at all of them!" He was wearing an ear to ear grin, having far more fun with this that he had any right to.

"Hey, Rosemary wants you to lead them away, and stop making so much noise!"

"What? We need to kill these things, otherwise this forest will never be safe!"

"It'll never be safe anyway, and besides, we don't have the ammo! Buck off, and lead them away! The more noise you make, the more will come!"

"Yea, yea," Swift mumbled, taking a few more shots at the ghouls, emptying what was left of his magazine, before switching it for a fresh one.

Selene checked his SMG and his personal 9mm pistol. Both were loaded, but neither had a round in the chamber, and he didn't feel like he'd need it: there were too many to kill, or even slow down, so he holstered and slung both weapons immediately after checking them.

Swift slung his carbine, then glided down from the tree, landing a few dozen feet further down the road. "Common, dinner time!" He shouted at the ghouls, which immediately gave up on trying to get Selene up in his tree, and turned to charge Swift. Selene had expected the slowly stumbling ghouls of fairy tails, but they managed a somewhat impressive if extremely uncoordinated canter, many skewing sideways as they ran.

Some couldn't keep that pace though, being too decayed, and fell behind. They would be the dangerous one's Selene realized, being left spread out behind the main horde, losing interest and beginning to wander, they would be the few to find prey and call the main horde in. If this even was the main horde, which Selene was beginning to doubt. And how many will Swifts firing bring down on us?

Selene waited in his tree for the last to move away, and for Rosemary to catch up. "Ok, let's keep moving," she called up to him.

***

They began to run into ghouls from then on, but usually just one or two. Selene would move forwards to get their attention, then lead them passed Rosemary who would move up behind them and rip them apart with two single-hoof arming swords she carried for apparently just this propose.

"Did you live around here?" Selene asked.

"No, but I've done this rout before. You need to kill them quietly, or you might as well just let them get you."

As they carried on, getting deeper into the forest, they began to run into larger groups. Selene had begun to help kill them himself. His armor was more than thick enough to stop their teeth from harming him, as long as he kept them away from his face. Even most of his neck was covered when he put is armored hood up and closed the collar.

His combat knife wasn't ideal for ghoul work though. It was too light to do any serious damage with a draw cut, and wasn't long enough to easily thrust into their internal organs. He tried slashing through their legs, tearing tendons and muscle, but they'd just lash out, using their crippled limbs as clubs. He tried bashing their teeth out with an armored hoof, but they'd just slam their head into him.

Every time he engaged even a small group, he would lose ground rapidly as his strikes and slashes refused to do enough damage to put them down. He couldn't even slow them. Luckily Rosemary was having a much easier time, her longer arming swords cutting deep into the ghouls, taking off entire limbs or tearing into their neck, severing their spine and the nerves within, leaving them flopping on the ground like fish.

Selene thrust his knife into a tall mares eye socket, stabbing back into her brain. He expected this to be enough to drop her, but apparently the ghouls didn't need much of their brain intact, and she kept coming. She thrashed her head to the side, jerking the knife out of Selene's grip. He would have grappled with her, to try and take the knife back, but a stallion was coming in on his right.

He jumped back, abandoning his knife for the moment, stepping to the side to put the stallion between him and the mare. As the stallion rushed forward, mouth hanging open, his massive eyes stained black with dried blood, Selene sprung forward, taking the momentum from his forward leap and transitioning it into a vicious forehoof strike catching the ghoul on the side of his skull. If it wasn't for his armored and padded shoe integrated into his armor he may have broken his wrist. Even through his armor he was left with a dull throbbing pain through his entire hoof.

The results were worth it though: with a disgustingly wet crunch the entire side of the stallions skull caved in, and he was sent sprawling back into the mare still struggling to rise behind him. To Selene's horror the stallion, who's skull was collapsed to the point of being almost unrecognizable, with bits of brain seeping out of the gaping cracks in his skull and tears in his hide, began to rise.

But the mare got to him first, completely ignoring the knife still lodged in her eye socket as she rushed him, snapping her jaws.

Selene backpedaled again. He noticed the mare was a Pegasus, her wing's flailing at her sides. Her feathers had fallen out centuries ago, leaving the thin wing arms bare, the skin rotting away in large patches revealing the hollow bones and tendons normally hidden beneath. She may have been quite attractive once—Selene was quite fond of mares that neared his own height—but the stumbling terror that had been left behind was a faded mockery of whatever she had once been. He couldn't even tell what her original fur color had been, and her mane was completely gone.

He hesitated for far too long. She managed to get close enough to snap her head forwards and bite down on his shoulder. Her teeth dug into the outer leather layer of his armor, but couldn't get through the thicker layers, let alone the thin metal plates. He threw himself backwards, and twisted away, dragging her onto her side, then yanked his knife from her eye. He tried stabbing through the side of her skull, but he missed whatever small part of her brain was still alive, hitting nothing but useless parts already long dead. He tried again in several other places.

She began to thrash from side to side, like a dog trying to break the back of it's prey. Selene was too heavy for her to bring down, but it made it impossible to aim as he fought to keep his balance. He reached a foreleg around behind her neck, pulling it down, then twisted his entire body away from her. He was trying to pry himself from her teeth, but she refused to let go. He ended up putting so much force into her head that her neck snapped with a wet pop.

She still clung to his shoulder for a few moments as her body went limp behind her, but after a moment her jaw went limp too as she finally died. Apparently severing their spine near the head was enough to actually kill them.

The stallion slammed into his right side, knocking them both to the ground. Selene pulled himself up and jumped away before turning to face him. The stallion, the side of his skull still caved in beyond all reason, was struggling to rise again. The damage Selene had done wasn't fatal, but it had left the monster barely functioning. Selene drove his knife into the stallions neck, just below the skull, and severed it's spine.

He then looked around to see how Rosemary was doing, just as she finished the last ghoul that had attacked her. There were nearly ten corpses arrayed around her. She had managed to kill all of them in the time it had taken Selene to kill his two.

"...You just need the right tool," she said as she moved up to Selene, passing him one of her swords. "Here, you'll do much better with this."

"Are you sure?" He asked, sheathing his combat knife at his side and gently taking the sword from her.

"Well, just be careful not to gut yourself with it," she said, giggling. The cold veneer of her personality had seemed to fade away. Selene put it down to an adrenaline high.

"What? No, I meant are you sure you want to give it to me."

"Yea, you're going to need it," she said, pulling off the swords scabbard and handing it over too.

Selene quickly found a place on his left side to strap it on, angled up enough to hopefully hold the sword during transit. The sword stuck in the scabbard fairly tightly, taking quite a bit of force to pull out, but he imagined it wouldn't be too hard to stop fast enough to have it go flying out. That would be a little embarrassing.

By the time he was done fixing the sword at his side, Thunder and his two stallion guards had rounded the bend and come into sight. He gave them a quick nod, noting the ghouls lying unmoving all around them.

"Let's get moving," she said, sliding back into her cold business tone.

***

The sword made everything much easier, but it was still annoyingly difficult to kill these things, and they were coming in ever larger swarms. Selene slashed the sword in a horizontal cut, the tip of the blade biting through a ghoul stallions throat, all the way back to it's spine. He didn't quite decapitate it, but it was enough damage to the spinal column to put it down.

Another ghoul took it's place imminently, so Selene cut back from the other direction in a mirror of his first strike, downing the second one.

The sword was a fairly bland looking thing, with a simple straight double edged blade, made from what looked like pressed steel. It was more of a doubled edged machete than a true sword, with it's balance far up the blade, making it feel more like an axe than the practice sabres Selene had sparred with as a kid. As a result it felt heavier than it was to move, and it's tip responded slowly. This, combined with it's complete lack of a guard and it's short length, would make it a terrible weapon in a dual against another sword, and almost useless when used defensively.

But Selene's armor made a guard redundant, he had enough guns to win a sword duel outright, and his current enemies were unarmed anyway, and with the balance so far up in the blade it was an incredible cutting tool for it's weight. It would be overkill against another pony, but every bit of extra depth he could get in his cuts counted against these monsters.

Still, it wasn't enough: Selene was cutting them down as quickly as he could, but he was still being pushed back, quickly. He heard more coming up behind him. He couldn't fight them like this.

He cut to the side, looping around the stream of ghouls coming at him from the front while also distancing himself from those coming out of the woods behind him. He cut down a few more as he crossed around them, retreating back up the road from where he had just come from, and where Rosemary still was.

Rosemary was doing far better than he was with the same weapon, killing the ghouls so quickly that she was pushing them back, able to advance forward. Still, more ghouls were coming up behind her, closing faster than she could press forward.

Selene disengaged from the ghouls still chasing him, and began to gallop back towards Rosemary. "Hey, who want's some free pony meat!" he shouted as he galloped up behind the ghouls coming up behind Rosemary. Almost all of them turned to charge him.

"Get it? It's a dick pun!" He imminently began to realize a problem. While Rosemary was now free to continue chopping away at the ghouls in front of her, she still had a lot to get through, meaning she wouldn't be able to come to help him anytime soon, and now he was facing ghouls both in front and behind himself.

He turned to run to the side, possibly looping back around the ghouls behind him, but another good sized herd pushed through the tree line, cutting him off. He turned to try the other side of the road, but more ghouls were coming in from that side to. Now, with ghouls rushing him from every side, Selene froze in the middle of the road.

His mind shouted at him, you're a Pegasus, stupid! right as the first ghoul hit him from the side. He tried to leap up, but two more bit into his flanks and dragged him back to the ground as the ghouls washed over him from every direction.

Well, buck me...

4: Just your friendly Neighbourhood demigod

Selene had slept well enough, all things considered. His left wing was in a depressingly bad state, able to scoop only a tiny bit of air with each flap, far too little to hover in place let alone climb into the air. However, by holding himself in place with his left leg and flapping mostly with his right wing he was able to work his way up into a nearby tree, and spent the night curled among it's higher branches. When he woke up the next morning he almost made the horrible mistake of jumping down and expecting his wings to work, but stopped himself just before he jumped.

After testing his wing, and finding it just as useless as it had been the night before, he instead slid down the side of the tree using just his right wing as an air-brake while using the tree to hold himself level. He was able to hand surprisingly quietly, all things considered, and the mare had yet to wake.

She had spent the night cuddled in her cloak near the fire. At some point in the night it had gone out, and she didn't look like she had done terribly well beyond that point. Her lips had turned light blue, and she was shivering quite a bit. You'd think something so strong with magic would be able to keep herself warm: simple heat spells supposedly aren't that difficult.

Selene wasn't stupid: while she had scared the crap out of him last night, with the promise of his metal necktie killing him if he left her, he knew it was highly unlikely. It just wasn't realistic to keep that much energy pent up in such a small object without him being able to feel any heat, not to mention the complexities of maintaining an accurate trigger. In theory she could have the spell set up so if she didn't maintain it, it would activate, but how could she possibly keep that up if she couldn't even maintain a simple heat enchantment?

Selene stomped his hooves a few times as he approached her, seeing if that was enough to wake her. It wasn't: the gentle rise and fall of her side continued, as did her shivering. Selene sat a few feet away, and spent a few minutes looking around.

He was completely without any of his equipment or armor, but some of it was mixed with the mare's in a pile across the dead fire from where she lay. He spotted his compass, 10mm pistol and some of his ammo but his rifle, SMG, and his armor itself was missing, as was his maps, not that they would do any good: they were all of the Eastern half of Equestria, nearly 800 miles away. They were no longer near the road where the mare had knocked Selene out and where the Slavers corpses were likely still laying, but up the mountain a bit on what looked like a deer trail.

Selene looked back to the white unicorn mare, who had held him hostage just a few hours ago, now reduced to a shivering mess. I could just leave... This thing isn't actually going to do anything, and I'm sure I can get it off at some point... But, then I'd have an extremely powerful unicorn out to kill, or at least re-capture me... Killing her wouldn't be too hard, just crack her horn and she's a normal pony...

He couldn't bring himself to do it though. Not for any emotional reasons—I could gut her like a fish then sleep like a foal—but for pragmatic reasons. It seemed like keeping a hyper powerful Unicorn that had a vested interest in keeping him alive might be a good idea. If I ever feel like ditching or killing her, I'll have plenty of chances, and the protection she can offer while my feathers grow back is a good enough reason for now.

With his immediate future decided, he hopped up and shook her awake. "Good morning, dearest."

She snapped awake with an almost military swiftness, raising further questions in Selene's mind that he would have to ask at some point. She ignored him, quickly scanning the local area before finally looking up at him with a little grin. "Dearest? Has the Stockhoove syndrome set in already?"

"What?" Selene asked, stepping back as the unicorn tried to grab him with a hoof.

"You know, Stockhoove syndrome? It's when people fall in love with their kidnappers, darling." The mare batted her eyelashes at him for a moment, but was interrupted by violent shivers. "Brr! You know, you could help me up?"

"You could stop trashing my wings," Selene more stated than asked. Be careful... his mind warned him. Of course, he didn't listen.

"Hey, that was an accident... and I fixed it, as well as I could." She threw up her best pout face, and waved her hoof at him.

Fine. Guessing that she was going to try and cling to him for his warmth, Selene turned to put her on his right side, opisite of his wounded wing, and offered her a hoof.

Sure enough, she grabbed his hoof in both of hers, and jerked herself up, nearly pulling him over, then tried to wedge herself under his wing. Selene pulled his wing up before she could start ripping feathers out of it too, and kept it high away from her. After a moment of trying to borrow her way into his side, she looked up at his wing, then hopped up and bit the tip of his outermost primary, and with a flick of her head dragged his wing around her side.

"Hey!" Selene shouted, "be careful with my feathers, please!"

"Don't resist," she stated bluntly, rubbing the side of her head into his shoulder, still shivering slightly. "You silly Pegasus stallions, always so fragile."

Selene tried to let the insult wash over him, but he couldn't. His mind raced with ideas, ways of immediately getting back at the Unicorn. He settled on a somewhat direct approach: he started squeezing her with his wing. He intentionally started slowly, trying to trick her into thinking it was a sort of wing-hug.

She snuggled tighter into his side, twisting her shoulders back and forth in a way that rubbed her soft fur into his side and the sensitive underside of his wing. He nearly forgot what he was doing in the rush of sensation, but shook his head clear and focused. He brought his wing down and around her far side, reaching all the way down under her belly, then squeezed his wing closed around her with enough force to lift her off her hooves.

Wings may be fragile in some directions, but they are very strong in others. From this angle all the force he was putting into her belly and sides was using the bottom of his wing, in almost the same direction a hard pull out from a steep dive and the direction his bones and muscles were set up to deal with. It felt almost like flapping normally, but with his wing wrapped around soft fur instead of air.

When pulling out of dives he could reach accelerations of over six times standard surface gravity; this would put upwards of three times his normal body weight on each wing, and he could hold it rather easily for several seconds. Crushing the air out of the mares lungs and holding her slightly off the ground was rather trivial by comparison.

She squirmed around in the crushing embrace, and gave him a somewhat dirty look when he didn't put her down after a few moments. She slowly breathed out, and as her sides contracted Selene's wing followed, keeping the pressure up. As she tried to breath back in Selene's wing wouldn't let her, keeping her lungs squeezed half closed.

Her squirming slowly shifted to thrashing as she began to panic. She tried to speak, but she was only able to quietly mumble the last of her air away. Even after her lungs were squeezed empty her mouth kept moving as she tried desperately to speak, and she pawed at Selene's legs with her forehooves.

As her face began to flush red, contrasting brightly against her white fur, she suddenly stopped fighting, and lowered her head with her best sad pouting face. She held the pout-face as her flush slowly shifted to a darker red and her eyes began to water.

Selene cocked his head sideways, and flicked an ear at her. "I'm sorry? You need to speak up." He followed the comment by tightening his wing further, not that there was anything left to squeeze out of her.

Her pout face evaporated into a furious glare, and as her flush across her muzzle started to shift to a beautiful purple, she lowered her head further and her horn exploded into a swirling mass of dark purple energy.

...Oops... Selene expected to have his wing wrenched off of her with a near infinite magical force, probably damaging him in the process, or possibly something even worse, like being electrocuted or knocked unconscious again. Instead, the light sputtered and died as her focus failed. Huh... That's good to know.

She tried again, this time only able to raise a small glow before the light sputtered and died. She tired a third time to draw on her magic but she was not even able to generate a glow, just some small purple sparks that fell to the ground and dissipated. With her trump card failing her, she went still and slowly brought her eyes up to stare at Selene, defeated. Her face had flushed even darker than her deep blue eyes.

"You little Unicorns are awfully fragile... killed by a hug." The mare tried to struggle again at Selene's taunt, but she had become so weak she was easily controlled. "I'll miss you. Here lies... an annoying Unicorn. She lived a short life. She died by hug, delivered from a fragile stallion."

Selene could feel the muscles along her sides repeatedly tensing, fighting to draw air into her lungs, but he could easily overwhelm them. He gently lowered her to her hooves, and released her. She nearly fell as she staggered away from him, shaking violently as she doubled over in a coughing fit. As the color faded from her face, she looked back up at Selene, and narrowed her eyes.

As she galloped back over to his side, Selene tensed, mentally preparing himself for violent assault that was sure to provoke, but as she came up along side him she once again wedged herself underneath his wing. "Never call me a coward," she mumbled into his shoulder, as she squirmed into his side.

"Fair enough," Selene mumbled, trying to force himself to stop thinking about all of the horrible things she could do to him from a distance. "So... I believe I introduced myself already, before you decided to knock me out."

"No, you didn't," she mumbled without looking up at him. "You accused me of being a fan of you, then stared at me."

"Well... to be fair, you intentionally provoked that... Anyway! I'm Selene, Luna's only living descendant. I've lived my life in the Eastern Wasteland up until now, but I've just crossed the Irradiated Zone to explore the West, and you're the first pony I've come across that hasn't tried to kill me... right up until you tried to kill me."

"I never tried to kill you," the mare stated bluntly, giving him a demure, crooked, smile. "Unlike you..."

"Hey, I didn't even knock you out!"

"Because you couldn't," she goaded, running the tip of her muzzle up his heck to the base of his ear.

Selene suppressed the sharp flash of anger, forcing his expression and voice to stay neutral as he asked, "So what is your name?"

"Why, I'm gland you asked, darling—" her voice was cut off as Selene tensed his wing again, timing his squeeze immediately before she would take a breath, as her lungs were almost empty already. She reacted much faster this time, drawing an immense amount of power into her horn to prepare to cast something.

Selene reacted much faster too, clamping down with much more force than he had before. Rather than simply keeping the air out of her lungs, Selene squeezed with almost everything he had. Joints in his wing, as well as the Unicorns spine, began to pop, loudly, with little sharp cracks. He figured he could probably use a little more force before the tendons in his wings gave out, but he didn't want to break her ribs.

Her eyes bulged under the massive spike in pressure, and whatever spell she was preparing to cast was lost as the energy in her horn once again escaped her focus and dissipated into the air. With the spell lost, she tried a more direct action, and thrust her horn at Selene's head.

She telegraphed the attack, leaning her head well back before thrusting it forward, leaving Selene time to prepare. He leaned forward to catch the side of her horn across his forehead, rather than the sharp tip, and allowed his head to be pushed back to slowly dissipate the force. She tried the exact same movement again, but this time Selene caught her horn in his mouth.

He clamped down as hard as he could, and used her horn as leverage to force her head down. He then swept her legs out from under her with his own, and dropped her onto her side, still clutched and crushed under his wing as he knelt down beside her. She struggled to get her hooves back under her, but he easily held her head down, still holding her horn in his mouth. After few moments she stopped struggling, and relaxed in his embrace. He released her horn from his mouth, and loosened his wing just enough so she could take small breaths.

She sucked in as much air as she could in quick little gasps, eventually stabilizing into more normal although still labored breathing. She then muttered, with a small grin, "I'm still conscious, darling."

Selene wasn't quite sure how he should respond to this, so he decided to go with blunt. "I'm going to have to kill you, aren't I?"

She lazily hooked her forelegs around Selene's legs, and used them to pull herself tighter into his side. "I don't think you understand, darling. You can't."

Selene thought back to earlier in the morning, when he had contemplated shooting the Unicorn in her sleep. He thought about it again; about how much easier and simpler the morning would have been. If only I had known then. But he could still easily kill her now, it would just be a little more messy.

But another thought occurred to him instead. She thinks I care about her, which means she thinks she can control me. If she really means what she said about keeping me safe, I could really use her... He came to the same conclusion he had earlier in the morning: I can always just kill her later if this doesn't work out.

He eased the pressure off entirely now, simply leaving his wing draped across her under it's own weight. He did his best to look defeated, which honestly wasn't difficult: she may have been wrong about being safe from him, but she was going to gloat about it and rub it in his face anyway.

She did exactly that. "Oh, I was right, wasn't I!? The best slaves are the ones who self motivate." She twisted around to get her hooves under her, then slowly rose. Selene stood with her, dutifully keeping his wing tightly wrapped around her to ward off the cold. "Don't worry, we're going to get along wonderfully, darling. I'll show you all the sights, and be kind to you so long as you are deserving. I am a just master, after all."

"I'm not calling you that," Selene stated bluntly, already preparing to asphyxiate her again if she insisted too strongly.

She apparently felt his wing muscles tensing, and looked around in sudden fear.

Selene could see the mental struggle she was going through, and predicted it accurately. the cold or my mercy? I know me; I'd take the cold.

She came to a different conclusion, and looked back at him with a twisted smile. "It doesn't matter what we call each other, my dearest stallion. What matters is that we can trust each other."

"Then you can use my name."

"Oh, well then I get to chose what you call me, Selene?" she asked with a hopeful look.

"No."

"Oh," she mumbled, her ears drooping. "Well, I guess that means I can call you what I want, darling. You can't have everything all to yourself, you know."

Selene considered for a moment. ...I guess it couldn't hurt to at least ask. "What would you like me to call you?"

Her face lit up as a smile stretched all the way across her muzzle. "Oh, my, I'm so gland you'd care to ask. Well, lets see... you've made it clear you'd rather not refer to me as 'master,' and I admit it would be a little cruel to remind you of your status every time you speak to me.

"That's what this is for, after all," she added, flicking his metal collar. He had forgotten about it: she had done a good job fitting it, and he hardly felt it at all even when focusing on it.

"So," she continued, "I suppose you can use my name too. I'd rather something more endearing, like when you called me 'dearest' earlier. That was simply charming... but what makes that so special is that you chose too: asking you to would take the magic away, I'm afraid.

"I guess you can call me Neighbourhood."

Author's Note

Stockhoove syndrome is the ponified version of the real world Stalkholm Syndrome. Thank you Neighbourhood Fox (yes, the person Neighbourhood is directly based off of) for your contribution. You're becoming a real MLP fan... whether you want to or not...

7: Luckies Find

As Selene woke he took a moment to think about how successful his quest had so far been. He had intended to travel the Western Wastes to determine how likely his plan was to succeed here—it had failed rather spectacularly in the East—and he'd like to avoid the same results here. So far he had learned basically nothing, other than the fact that there were some free towns in the mountains inhabited by mostly Pegasi. There was nothing surprising about that: Earthponies and Unicorns didn't like the higher altitudes, or the cold, so it made sense that they would filter out if they ever lived up here at all.

Other than learning this one thing, he had been captured by a Slaver—of the near godlike Unicorn verity—lost almost all of his equipment—and what he still had, was technically the hers now—and been grounded by a wing injury that was likely to take upwards of six months to heal, but, at least he had a godlike Unicorn who apparently wanted to do everything she could to keep him alive: that was something.

As his considerations came to an end Neighbourhood began to squirm under his right wing. They hadn't moved any significant amount during the night, and Selene was still draped across Neighbourhood's left side, his good wing tightly wrapped around her side. "Good morning, dearest," Selene mumbled, nosing her in the side of the head.

She peeled her eyes open, and lazily looked up at him without raising her head. After a moment laying there, her eyes hunting for focus in the dark tree well, she began to shiver and leaned forward to bury her head in Selene's chest. She was still wearing her cloak, but the thin fabric did little to keep her warm, leaving her almost entirely dependent on Selene for heat.

Selene had slept rather well, laying on the relatively comfortable bed quickly cobbled together out of evergreen tree branches and needles (they may sound painful, but were actually quite soft). The soft mare he had used as a pillow admittedly helped quite a bit too, and the air in the deep tree well stayed livably warm—for Selene's high cold tolerance, at least—thanks to the two warm bodies breathing into the small space all night long.

Neighbourhood hadn't done as well: she must not be used to sleeping outdoors, and what was an acceptable temperature for Selene and his hot Pegasi blood was likely still far too cold for Neighbourhood. Still, she was alive: plenty of ponies had been trapped outside in these mountains overnight that could no longer make that claim, or at least Selene suspected as much if these were anything like the Appalachia Mountains on the other side of the continent.

"Hey, we should get moving," Selene said, nuzzling the back of Neighbourhood's head. "You'll warm up faster once you start moving."

"No," she stated bluntly, her voice muffled as she spoke into Selene's chest.

"Yes," Selene said back, and cut off any further arguments by raising his wing off of her back, and folding it at his side.

She almost immediately began shivering violently, then began trying to shove herself under Selene's side. "Put it back, put it back!"

"No, we need to get moving. You'll be fine then, I promise." He purposefully put all of his weight on his right side, stopping her from being able to squeeze underneath him.

"Put your wing back, or I'll tear it's feathers out too!" She did her best to hold still and level a vicious glare at Selene, but her constant violent shivering spoiled the effect.

Selene cocked his head sideways, and did nothing, looking back at her with a disinterested gaze.

"Oh... Please?" she smoothly shifted tactics, eyes going wide and lowering her muzzle. "...Please!?" she repeated, shaking his foreleg, her teeth beginning to chatter.

Selene sighed, and leaned a bit onto his left side.

Neighbourhood immediately dove under his right side, wedging herself between his belly and the evergreen bough beneath them.

Selene then brought his wing back around her.

Slowly her shivering stopped, and she sighed, sinking deeper into his side. "Thank you, darling," she mumbled. "...You know, this is a perfect opportunity for you to tell me more about your name...?"

"I already told you everything I'm willing to until you tell me something about yourself."

"Well, there's not much to tell, darling."

"I'm sure there's plenty," Selene returned, before going silent. Pig headed Unicorns.

They lay at the bottom of the tree well for quite some time. Selene eventually gave in to his more lazy side, and leaned his head across Neighbourhood's shoulders, letting himself slip back to sleep. By the time he woke again sunlight was shining through the branches above then, lighting the top half of the hole, and Neighbourhood had begun to squirm below him again.

"Are we ready now?" Selene asked through a yawn. When she didn't answer quickly enough he answered for her. "Lets get moving." Without waiting for her, he stood above her, then jumped up, pushing off of the tree with his hindlegs to throw himself out of the hole.

He made it out easily, and skidded to a stop in the snow just in front of the tree, staring a mid sized brown bear in the face. The bear took a few lazy steps back, surprised by the sudden appearance of the dark furred pony seemingly out of nowhere, but otherwise appearing unfazed.

Selene forced down his instinctual panic, and looked the bear over. The bears on his side of the continent were rather benign for the most part, but he had no idea what to expect over here.

The bear looked back at him, slowly tracing it's eyes up and down his frame, then, with a grunt, turned to lazily walk away, apparently completely uninterested. Selene couldn't help but feel a little rejected: I'm sure I'd taste wonderful...

"That's why I didn't answer!" Neighbourhood hissed up at Selene, her head slightly sticking out of the tree well.

Hearing her voice the bear stopped, and looked over it's shoulder back at them. It moved with the lazy and careless motions of a creature that had nothing to fear from anything in it's entire habitat.

Selene opened his wings wide, and flashed their full profile at the bear, waving them high above his head.

The bear, possibly seeing something that appeared larger than itself for the first time in it's life, quickly turned and ambled away.

"Oh, now I feel bad," Selene mumbled, folding his wings away and moving back to Neighbourhood. "He's just a big lazy dog."

"That weighs several times more than both of us," Neighbourhood countered, grabbing Selene's hoof and hauling herself out of the tree well. "I'd really rather you not damage my property being silly, if it can be avoided."

Selene ignored the jab, and began to walk back through the forest, Neighbourhood quickly following and climbing under his wing.

They continued over the mountain, eventually reaching the top of the ridge. Once they crested it they could see down into the high mountain valley, and sure enough the town cuddled up under the tallest mountain on the valleys eastern side. It didn't appear to be a terribly large town, maybe sixty ponies total, but it was there, and without the supplies to reach any further, hopefully they would be welcome.

It took about an hour to cross the valley and approach the town. It was built back into the mountain, surrounded by steep cliffs on three sides, leaving only one direction to approach from, and that side of the town was behind a tall wooden and stone wall.

"They must not like visitors," Neighbourhood observed as they approached.

"Or they just want extra defenses from raiders," Selene countered, followed by a silent prayer that he was right.

There was only one gate in the wall, large enough to take in the occasional caravan, but it was closed and there were no guards, at least not on the outside. They walked up to the gate together, and paused, both looking up to the wall above, then lowering their eyes to stare at each other.

"So..." Neighbourhood began, "should we just knock?"

As ridiculous as the idea sounded Selene couldn't think of anything better to do, so he stepped forward and pounded on the gate a few times. The wood was thick, and only produced a deep muffled thud, even as he hit it as hard as he could without hurting himself.

They waited a moment, and Selene was preparing to try again when he heard a set of wings flapping above them. A thin orange pegasus stallion fluttered down from the top of the wall, and landed a short distance away from them.

"Umm, sorry, we weren't expecting a caravan today, and aren't used to ground visits. Are your wings hurt?" His voice was surprisingly deep, coming from such a thin stallion. He was a touch taller than Selene although likely quite a bit lighter.

"Yea, got into a bit of a scuffle," Selene admitted, waving his damaged wing. "We talked to Dusty... crap, I forgot the rest of his name—"

"He's a Pegasi, Darling," Neighbourhood stated, pawing at his foreleg. "Like all of you fluttery creatures, he's named after something fleeting and evocative of freedom. Skies, in this case."

The orange stallion froze, his eyes suddenly sharply focused on Neighborhood, locked on her horn.

"Minerals sir name is Fortune," Selene pointed out with a shrug.

"Oh, so you remembered her name?" Neighbourhood fired back. "Besides, Fortunes are very liberating."

"I'm named after a god," Selene countered again.

"Who's no longer with us; fleeting."

"She lived for several millennia, and you call her fleeting!"

"Ok, fine," Neighbourhood relented, "but you are a very unique pony, for at least two reasons now, and I imagine you have more hidden away..."

Their short spat over, Selene looked back at the stallion: he was still staring at Neighbourhood's horn.

As she turned to look at him and noticed he was staring, she lowered her head and pressed against Selene's side.

"I hope this isn't going to be a problem," Selene stated, trying to force the other Pegasi to respond.

He stared a moment longer, then forced himself to turn to look at Selene. "Umm, I don't think so." He glanced up at the wall above them, then down at Selene, then spared a quick glance at Neighbourhood—again, eyes staring at her horn—then back to Selene. "Ok, I guess I'll just fly you two over. The gates take more ponies to open than we have on watch right now. I'll start with you?"

"Sure," Selene nodded, stepping forward, giving Neighbourhood a quick nod over his shoulder. He turned around and stood beside the Pegasi's side. "My right wing's still fine, so if you can balance my left I should be able to get myself up easily enough."

The Pegasi nodded, giving him a reassuring smile. He looked old enough that he must have tired this before at some point. Pegasi were always injuring themselves, usually on a botched landing, and helping another to fly with only one wing was a fairly common practice, for situations exactly like this.

Selene stretched his injured left wing out, and gently laid it across the other Stallions back, then pushed himself into the air with just his right wing. The other Pegasi carefully timed his own flap to push, with the force from both of his wings, under Selene's injured left wing, keeping Selene from rolling uncontrollably to his left.

Working together they managed to hover straight up rather easily, quickly climbing over the wall. Moving sideways to come down on the other side was a little more tricky: Selene eased off on his flapping, first in time with the other Stallion to stop them rising further then necessary, and then backed off further to allow them to lean to the right and begin to slide sideways over the wall. He then held steady as the other Pegasi reduced his flapping to lean them back to the left, to stop them moving further to the side and to begin their decent.

On the way down they began to wobble side-to-side, and Selene had to fight the urge to try and balance them himself, instead simply holding a steady rhythm and trusting the uninjured stallion to balance the both of them. As they approached the ground they both began to flap harder, to slow their landing to a gentler speed. Apparently the other stallion had a looser definition of gentle, and didn't flap as hard as Selene did: this resulted in them leaning heavily to their left just before landing, as Selene slowed faster than the other pegasi, and he ended up crushing hard against his side as they skewed to the side on touchdown.

"Ack, sorry," Selene said as he pulled himself up, off of the other stallions side.

"No problem. It was a better landing than if I had been carrying you without your help."

"Hey, I never got your name?"

"You never told me yours, stranger," the orange stallion returned, turning to face him.

Crap, I need to stop forgetting to introduce myself. "I'm sorry. Selene, distant relative of Princess Luna, and recent arrival in the Western Wasteland." He held out a hoof.

"You're not from the West..? Oh, I'm sorry, I'm Veiled Ember!" he said, taking and shaking Selene's hoof.

"Veiled?" Selene asked as they let go of each other.

"Yea, most ponies just call me Ember," Ember said, rubbing the back of his head. He suddenly pressed forward, very close to Selene. "Look, are you sure she's cool?"

"Neighbourhood?" Selene asked, stepping back from Embers sudden advance. "Umm, I guess that depends what you mean by 'cool.' She isn't going to kill anypony... well, at least if they don't try to kill her or me."

"I'm being serious," Ember said, stomping a forehoof.

"So am I," Selene returned with a shrug. "At the end of the day she's nice enough, although I haven't known her too long."

"Ok, fine, I'll go get her, but if she destroys anything you're paying for it!"

"What? Why!? She's her own pony and can pay for her own mistakes! Besides, technically she ow..." Selene was going to finish, owns me, but suddenly decided heavily against it. Neighbourhood's earlier words suddenly came back to him: not all groups in the Wastelands practice slavery, and many don't tolerate it at all. If there was a group that wouldn't tolerate it, it would be an isolationist town of Pegasi.

"Besides, she what?" Ember asked.

"She owes me, big."

"Oh, I gotcha, she owes you a life debt."

...What? Selene deadpanned for a moment, but recovered quickly "Yea... but don't grill her about it: she doesn't like to think about it."

"Yea, man, I know, it happens. It sucks, but it happens, although I suppose she's very useful?" Ember asked, raising his eyebrows in a very suggestive manner.

Selene completely ignored the sex reference, choosing instead to answer completely seriously. "Yea, she can field strip a rifle in seconds with her magic, and doesn't make bad backup in a fight. She can also heal basic injuries in just a few moments, although she can't do shit about feathers."

"Yea? Well, I guess I'd better get her," Ember said, crouching to takeoff. "Be right back," and with that, he sprung into the air and quickly climbed over the wall.

Selene took a moment to look around the town: the buildings were all various combinations of wood and brick, and the majority looked to be houses. It was also a lot larger than it looked from the distance, with most buildings being at least two stories and some being four, and possibly even more. He upped his population estimate from sixty to at least a hundred, and likely a bit more.

There was also no one at street level, and many of the homes looked old and worn. He considered the possibility that the town was partially abandoned, but then began to realize that the upper halves of all the homes were in much better condition. Oh, it's a town of Pegasi. I'd never move around at street level if I lived here either.

Sure enough, now that he was looking up, there were plenty of Pegasi moving around deeper in the town, flying above the town rather than using the narrow, poorly maintained streets. Other than the one main street, going from the one gate to the town square, the rest of the gaps between the buildings were nothing more than narrow alleyways, never intended to be used for more than heavy deliveries and waste removal.

Selene looked up and watched as Ember came back over the wall, Neighbourhood wrapped tightly across his back. Apparently she didn't enjoy flying very much. Ember flapped his wings furiously, but was unable to slow their decent much, and landed hard with a loud four hoofed thud, almost crumpling under Neighbourhood's extra weight.

"Oops, sorry," Ember mumbled over his shoulder, struggling back up to his full height. "...Rides over."

Selene moved up and grabbed Neighbourhood's hips, pulling her hind half off of Ember's back while also steadying her. She had locked up, and it took a little shake to loosen her grip on Ember's chest enough to pull her front half off too.

"I–I'm sorry," Neighbourhood mumbled, leaning into Selene's side. "I'm thinking it may have just been easier, and safer, if I had ripped the gate down myself." She punctuated the end of the thought by flaring her horn, casting dark purple sparks across the side of Selene's face.

"I'm rather happy you didn't, ma'am," Ember said, backing away. "I've got to get back to my watch. Enjoy your stay, and please, don't break anything or hurt anyone." He didn't wait for a response, just leapt into the air and powered himself back onto of the wall, moving far enough forward to be out of sight.

Selene wiped his hoof across his face. Neighborhood's small spark shower hadn't been enough to cause him any pain, but it did char the fur on the side of his face a little. His hoof came away with some soot smeared across it, which he quickly wiped across Neighbourhood's cheek. The black didn't standout much against Selene's dark fur, but it was extremely obvious against Neighbourhood's stark white.

"Hey, don't do that," Neighbourhood stated bluntly, wiping as much of the soot off her cheek as she easily could.

"I thought you liked cuddling?" Selene asked, rubbing the side of his face across the back of her neck, leaving a small trail of soot as he rubbed the last of it off.

"I do, but I'd also like to stay clean, Darling. I'm willing to accept getting a little dirty though, in this case, as long as you go a little lower~"

Selene immediately moved away as she began to purr, but she hopped forward and kept pace with him as he moved into the town, and began to lean into him with so much force he had to lean back into her to stop from being pushed over.

"So, we need to get something to eat, as well as something that will last long enough to travel," she began, speaking to Selene even as she looked around at the town as they moved deeper into it. They were alone on the main street, the few Pegasi traveling at this time of day flying well above the rooftops to get from place to place. "We'll also need to get some more canteens, and maybe something with a little bit of bite to put in them. I'd also like to stop at this 'Alchemists' Mineral Fortune mentioned: I may not have a clue how to mend your wing, but they very well may. Is there anything you'd like to look for, Darling?"

"I'd like a new set of armor, since somepony refused to let me go back for mine."

"Very well, and then maybe you could carry some of our supplies too, but trust me, Darling, those ponies would have put up far too much of a fight, and I was, and to an extent still am, very tired from having to mend your wing."

"My wing that you had broken!"

"Calm down: I've already apologized for that and I will not be again. I had not realized how fragile you creatures are. To make it all up to you I'll buy you a new set even better than it was, to make up for any sentimental value that has been lost. Besides, I'd like to keep my new pony as safe as possible."

They wandered deeper into the town, and began to come across the various shops lining the towns central plaza. It didn't take Neighbourhood long to zone in on a small shop in the far corner; it's sign was written in Old Equitish, and Selene didn't have a clue what it said.

"I take it this is the Alchemists?" Selene asked, stopping just outside of the door as Neighbourhood pushed her way through.

Hearing him she stopped halfway through, and turned to look at him over her shoulder. For a moment she wore an expression somewhere between shock and impressed, but it quickly faded as her eyes narrowed and she lowered her head. "You don't know what it says, do you Darling?"

"Of course not: that's how I know this must be an alchemists or a magic shop." Selene was rather proud of his logic.

Neighbourhood was clearly not as she sighed and moved into the store. "Ugh, street smarts; how the ignorant make sense of the world."

The stores owner was a dusty grey pegasus stallion, who was likely the only pony in town who was excited to see a unicorn. Before even introducing himself he began questioning Neighbourhood on all sorts of magic and alchemy facts, very rapidly exceeding Selene's own knowledge, and just as quickly losing his attention. As Neighbourhood began to ask her own alchemy questions and the back and forth exchange continued, Selene wondered deeper into the store.

Selene wasted an hour looking over everything in the shop, twice, and as their conversation continued, and continued to bore Selene to no end, he curled up in the back of the shop and quickly fell asleep.

***

It seemed like just a short moment later Neighbourhood was gently shaking him awake. "I'm sorry I've kept you so long, Darling, but I have so truly good news."

Selene forced himself to stand. "How long was I—"

"We've been here about six hours. I wasn't paying attention to you, so I'm not sure how long you've been asleep, but I guess you'll be up all night then hmm?"

"Umm?" Selene watched as Neighbourhood looked him over, suddenly feeling very uncomfortable, but not entirely sure why. "I tend to sleep quite a lot, actually, at least when I have the time."

"Oh..." she mumbled, looking very disappointed. "Well, Prophetic Radiance–such a luxurious name for a Pegasi, don't you think?"

"An old, grey stallion? I'm not sure the name fits."

"It's a radiance of the mind, my Darling. I doubt it is something you would understand." She carefully watched his face for a reaction, but when none came her ears drooped slightly, and she turned towards the door. "Now come along. We're in luck: Radiance is married to the towns blacksmith, and is more than happy to accept payment for your new armor here. Usually a blacksmith would have little use for the rare gems I have to barter with, and I would have had to exchange them for Caps here, but this allows us to cut out the middle mare, or stallion, as it were."

Selene had hardly been listening as he followed her out, not caring too strongly for economic issues. He was always hesitant to admit it, but he was generally a very poor barterer, and the overwhelming majority of his equipment was scavenged off of raiders, and he only rarely managed to convince an honest trader to give him anything worth more than what he could find normally. Some of his best equipment, like his armor he had originally arrived in, was even stolen, not that he'd ever admit it.

"So I'm going to drop you off and the armorer's, and then I'm going to go collect up some supplies for our journey. We'll figure out where we're going tomorrow, but we're only staying here one night. Agreed?"

"Yea, sure." Selene still wanted to explore and learn as much about this land as he could, so that fit perfectly with his own plans, and he didn't much care why she wanted to leave already.

"Oh, and one more thing," she said, suddenly turning around and walking up directly in front of Selene, getting uncomfortably close. "Drink some of this." She pulled a light blue bottle out from under her cloak.

Selene took it and pulled the cork. It smelled of thunderclouds and ozone. "Why?"

"It's from Radiance. He says it will help you re-grow your feathers much more quickly than normal, taking a week at most for them to be back to full length. I'm not sure how it works, to be honest, but it will only effect the feathers that are missing, in effect skipping over your molting cycle all together... or something like that. It cost me quite a lot, even more than your armor, so I'd appreciate it immensely if you'd trust me."

Selene considered it for a moment before asking, "how much?"

"Don't worry, my new stallions health is worth any cost. You should take about a sixth of it each day, although apparently it's not too specific as the results per Pegasi vary quite widely."

"...New stallion?" Selene asked, cocking his head sideways and staring at the light blue bottle in his hoof. "What happened to all your old stallions?"

"...Technically you're my first, although I suppose that depends on how we define my stallion..."

"Really?"

"I'm still quite a young mare, Selene dear, and not every mare throws herself at the first stallion to cross her path."

"...As far as I've seen—"

"No! You are not the first stallion to cross my path... I'm not that young... now drink!"

Selene smirked at her for a moment, then sipped from the bottle, approximating about a sixth of it's contents. He was expecting it to taste terrible, but it tasted mostly of water and dirt, like drinking from a freshly dug spring, and left a gritty texture in his mouth. "...That could be significantly worse," he commented, re-plugging the bottle and hoofing it back to her.

"I'm glad, now lets go."

***

True to her word, Neighbourhood had abandoned Selene at the Armorer's the moment they arrived. The blacksmith, an ironically light cerulean coated mare, was apparently not in a good mood over being called into work on her day off. She decided to skip measuring him, and just assemble the lower layer of his armor around him directly, cutting and sowing it together quickly out of thick cloth strips and pads.

She then added a few thin metal plates down his flanks and across his chest. On their own they didn't provide too much protection, but it could easily be enough to stop the tip of an arrow or knife after being slowed by the outer layer of leather, although it would do nothing against even a medium caliber bullet.

She then pressed the large sheet of soft leather across him, and quickly cut out the patterns, and then threw those patterns in a large pot to boil, and harden the leather. She didn't waste any time waiting for it to finish, instead taking the time to take some fine mail, and wrap it around his legs to create mail sleeves for all four of his legs, then cut them to be the right diameter and length.

She then used a pair of pliers, and with awe inspiring speed, clipped new rings into the mail to 'stitch' the sleeves closed. She then repeated the process all over again with a thicker, heavier sleeve of mail tightly around the outside of each, and finally stitched the bottom of each to the lower section of his cloth under-armor as he was still wearing it.

As she went to remove the leather from the boiling pot, Selene took a moment to wiggle his legs around to see what would happen. The mail was loose enough it didn't limit his motion as much as he was expecting, but it was tight enough it didn't jingle or chime either. His only complaint would be the color, as it was the bright shining silver of what he suspected was some type of steel.

The mare came back with the now hardened scales of leather, and began sowing them into his cloth under-armor, also holding the metal sheets in place underneath them. She worked incredibly fast, and not once poked him with the large needle she was working with at a blinding pace, sowing everything together with thick chord.

She made one last addition, adding another layer of thin chain mail in two patches, sown onto his armor along his back and draped over his wings. "Try opening your wings," she commanded bluntly.

Selene did, and as he unfurled his wings to hold them open at his sides the mail slid off and 'pooled' across his back between his wings.

"Now give us a full flapping motion."

He did, slowly moving his wings through a full flap although slowed down enough he wouldn't move too much air and lift himself off the ground. The mail jingled on his back, but otherwise stayed out of the way. He looked at the mare was was about to make an objection when she beat him to it.

"I'll sow on a thin bit of cloth on the underside, to separate the metal from your wing and keep it quiet. Now fold your wings away: you may need to lean them further forwards that normal before bringing them up."

Selene folded his wings, and after tipping his 'wrist' joints forward a bit, the mail slid into place over his folded wing, covering it entirely.

"It's not a lot of protection, but it's better than nothing," the mare said, coming up to stand in front of him. "Now move around and make sure it fits well enough."

Selene stretched around as much as he normally would while moving. He hopped in place a few times and walked in a tight circle a few times. The armor was a lot lighter than he was expecting, considering how much metal had been used inside it and with the mail, but it was hardly noticeable. It was a little thick around his sides and chest with all the thick leather compared to what he was used to, but not enough to snag unnecessarily on anything he was walking by. Other than the noise the mail over his wings made, that was going to be fixed, and the bright sheen of the mail, he had no complains. He was preparing to say so, when the mare interrupted him again.

"Ok, now lets get it off of you." She quickly undid the chord lace on either side of his chest piece, loosening it enough he could squeeze out through the now widened neck hole easily enough. His earlier armor had been nothing more than leather scales attacked to a loose leather strap harness. This was basically a full body suit, with leather and metal plates strategically sown to the outside. The multi layered fabric was thick enough it alone would give him some serious protection against blunt force and duller weapons, as well as some serious isolation, while the mail around his legs gave him excellent protection without limiting his range of movement. It was excellent work.

Once he was out of it, he was about to voice his final concern, over the metals bright finish, when the mare interrupted him one final time.

"Now get lost. I'm going to finish up some of the finer details, and paint it. It'll be ready first thing tomorrow morning... Go on, get," she finished, shooing him away.

***

Selene met Neighborhood back at the Alchemist shop, as they had planned. The sun had completely set at this point, and the Pegasi town lacked lighting at street level almost completely, leaving them mostly in the dark.

"It took you long enough," she taunted with a massive smile as he approached. "Lets go, I've already arranged for a room at the local inn. It's basically empty this time of year, although it supposedly fills up quickly when the caravans come through in the summer."

"Alright. Do I get to make some decisions for myself today, or..?"

"Oh course not, Darling. Now common: I'd like to get to sleep early enough you don't get mad at me because I'm not a morning pony."

"I thought you were excited about keeping me up all night?" Selene asked, following her across the plaza.

Neighbourhood began to sway her hips quite a bit more than she usually did as she lead him towards the inn. After awhile she turned to look over her shoulder at him.

Selene made a point to look into her eyes, ignoring her hips. He held her gaze all the way to the inn.

Neighbourhood, still looking over her shoulder at Selene, walked straight into the side of the inn. "Ouch... that was rude."

"Yea, what a rude building," Selene mumbled, coming up and rubbing her back.

"I meant you, for not telling me," she mumbled back, switching smoothly to her pout face.

"I think you'll live," he returned, pulling her with him into the inn. He was only slightly surprised to find it's downstairs bar empty. "So where is everyone?"

"I told you, it's normally empty this time of year, but I've already paid for our room."

"Our room?" Selene asked, separating slightly from her. "I thought cost wasn't an issue for you?"

"Cost isn't an issue for me because I don't waste moeny on frivolous things."

"A second room for a second pony is frivolous?"

"For us, Darling, of course it is." Neighbourhood pressed against Selene's side as she moved passed him, and began her way up the stairs. "We're on the top floor... common."

Without anywhere else to go, Selene followed her up, trying to stop his eyes from staring at her flank ahead of him.

Author's Note

That was a long one. I've always tended to write chapters in the 5-7,000 words range. I've been keeping them shorter in this one to try and quicken the pace, but I've decided to slow it a bit and fall back into my old habits for much of this.

Another very important note: you will notice I've added the sex tag to the story recently. This is because, well, there's going to be sex.

I know not everyone is into that (meaning not everyone can tolerate it) but I've decided to do some rather major character development in these scenes, and after making that choice it's become inevitable that I'd have to add the tag. For those of you who can not into pony sex, I will be trying to keep major plot details out of them, and will be clearly labeling them by both having them an in-between chapter (7.5 for example), and having a note at the top of each warning those who can't deal with pony snuggling off, to skip the chapter if they want to.

I'll make sure it's possible you can still understand the story if you skip these chapters, but it will take a lot of the personality out of the story, especially out of Selene's and Neighbourhood's relationship (which is going to be bumpy, to say the least).

They are going to be quite explicit, but I'll try to write them in a way that's not too over the top and reasonably grounded. Still, even written lightly, sex is sex, and you have been warned.

Side but somewhat related note: I've intentionally not revealed their exact ages yet, but both are over 20 (and I'm assuming they age in human years for story reasons/familiarity).