Fallout Equestria: Darkest Hour

Chapters

Introduction
Betrayal
The Wasteland

Introduction

By now, the stories of Littlepip, Blackjack, and the Ghost of the big 52... Hired Gun... (I mean I know the story but seriously Silver?) and countless others were known. So as fate would have it, whatever the thing was that was in control of the cosmos, well, it decided to fuck with pony-kind more. The entire story ends with me about to be dead...at least that's what I'm thinking right now, but we will get to that part later. Perhaps I should start from the top. My name is Ross. Yeah, yeah. I know it's not very inventive, but I don't care because it sounds cool. So, shut up. Oh, also, I'm a Pegasus and a stallion. A stallion that happens to like mares. Blasphemy, according to the other stories, I know, but I just never could get used to the idea of... eugh... with another stallion. Plus, I rather like having my own... eh... setup... eheh. Okay, so enough about my genitals. You'd probably love to know what this fine example of a stallion looks like, now wouldn't you? Well, sorry about your luck, but I can't do that just yet. I kind of have to wait and let you imagine that via the story where I dramatically reveal my faults, strengths and devilish good looks or whatever. So, since I'm sure you want me to shut up now, I’ll move on. It all started with a colt.

Somewhere outside Manehattan: MoA building.

The skies were damp and grey. Everything nearby was soaked through and even inside the dark halls of the nondescript grey building there were small pools of water reflecting a dim glow from the barely working bulbs. A flicker and flash of the slowly failing electrical work every few moments seemed to make every shadow dance, and pony-like shapes seemed to spring out of nowhere. Deep within the confines of the dark and damp sea of grey, there was a single room with a bright glow radiating out of it. The only splash of true color, an oasis from the dreary and run down walls. The chipped walls and fissures seemed to not even touch this room. It was almost perfectly preserved for 200 years. If one could open the door, which would be difficult by the way, with anything short of a balefire bomb, they'd find a single stasis pod. But this pod was of a different design than most ponies would find in the wasteland. For one it was jet black, and the readouts were all in red. These colors being the two favorite colors of the colt sleeping inside. Secondly, there were wires running throughout the facility that connected to the pod from cameras outside and within the facility. Some still worked but most had been destroyed, lost to the passage of time. But the strangest thing of all was perhaps the colt himself. He was more of a slender athletic build, and he was clean which was insane for the wasteland. His red coat was only slightly ruffled, and even in the odd glow encompassing the room you could still see just how vibrant it was. His mane and tail were of a dark brown, almost black, both messy and disheveled. If you looked even more closely you could see his eyelids twitch and flutter revealing glimpses of light, hazel eyes. His flank bore no mark, and at his hooves lay one of the rarest artifacts of the wasteland. It was a small, cyan figurine with "Be Awesome!" on the base. Maybe it was that simple figurine and the magic it possessed that had done it, or maybe it was the technological difference of this particular stasis pod from all the others, but if one could decipher the readouts they would see that all of his vitals, and even brain activity pointed to that of a healthy, sane colt.
Now, on this particular day there was an odd sound emanating from that very room. It carried through the silent halls, disturbing the monotony of the sound of dripping water, and rain on the roof of the cracked facility. The sound grew until anypony passing by could hear the high-pitched whine. Even if one was outside the building in the silence of the wastes. But lucky for the colt, nopony was around, just then, to hear the noise. So, when it suddenly stopped and a voice cried out into the decrepit facility it would seem his fate had been sealed. The child was on his own but the voice had alerted the pony shaped figures that had seemed like nothing more than shadows.

"Subject seven-six-three. Stasis complete. Commence waking procedure. Checking vital signs. Checking neural activity. All clear. Desynchronize."

The child stirred, and a small squeak escaped his mouth as his eyes began to open for the first time in 200 years. It had felt only like moments, but there was terror in his hazel eyes. He had just watched the world explode and die, but he couldn't remember before that. His memories had evolved so rapidly that they had been fogged or destroyed by the sudden passage of time.

"What do I do now?" He asked the silent room.

All the colt knew was that for some reason or another the world had been destroyed. He couldn't even remember having been a part of it before. It was as though he'd just been born into this mess of a world, and he was afraid. He'd seen the beasts that existed here and caught glimpses of the ones that inhabited this exact facility. Although he still had no idea what they actually looked like. Only that they were there. Shadowy things, that, because of the warp-time he had been seeing life in, seemed to move unbelievably fast. At that exact moment, an unpony scream echoed through the halls of the building and into the room he stood in.

"Oh no! No, no, no! Please no. I don't want to die!"

Tears began streaming from his vibrant eyes as his pupils constricted in fear, and his heart thundered in his chest so hard he thought surely it alone would kill him. The colt had seen the world die, and he was convinced he would too. But he knew deep down that he couldn't get away and that he couldn't stay here, but what options were there? Either face whatever horrible death was waiting outside the door or stay in this room and starve to death. Was he supposed to let the building decay with him for eternity until they both matched the scarred world of the outside?

"M-m-m-mommy", he sniffled before gasping and retching as his tears became more violent.

She was gone. Just like the world, he realized. She wouldn't have survived the horrible flashes of death and destruction he had witnessed. As he thought of it, it was almost as if he fell into a trance. For a split second, images flashed across his vision of an explosion. No. Explosions. Death and blood. Ponies ripping each other apart in fear and anger, hunger and sorrow. It was at that moment he also realized that he didn't even know his mother. Had he seen her die in those visions? His rump hit the floor hard, and his body fell to the side as he cried long into the night. Crying out for a mother he couldn't remember and for a father he'd never seen. Soon though, sleep overtook the colt. His tears dried to his face and his breathing relaxed, but he dreamed and found no rest.

The child's dreams were filled with images of violence, and somewhere deep in his young mind he wondered. Why is everything this way? Why did everything die? Why didn't I die? Everything went so quickly he couldn't pick out one image from the next. It was just a blur of horrible acts and events. That day, a colt was born and his innocence shattered in one swift motion. In a matter of hours he was brought back into a world that he knew was here to kill him. So, when he awoke he decided in the way a child would, he wouldn't let it. He just simply wasn't going to die. Somehow. Slowly, the door to the room swung open and he began to take a step out before remembering there was a figurine in his pod. He turned back to look at it and wondered for a moment how it'd gotten there. A few more tears ran from his eyes when he decided one of his long gone family must have given it to him, and he picked it up. The second he touched it, he could feel something strange. It was a boundless energy, a strength that for such a young pony, would have sent him bouncing off the walls, but it also came with a calm resolve to do what he had to do. So, he took the first step out of the room clutching the small thing close to his side, cradled in a feathered wing. It was a figure of a little cyan pegasus with "Be Awesome!" engraved in the base. At that moment, something strange happened. Something flashed in his vision. It was only an instant, and the hall had suddenly become bright and clean again. Happy ponies were milling without purpose around him and a red exit sign was directly ahead of him. So the colt, knowing he had to get out of here as quickly as possible set off at a trot towards what should be the exit to the ruined nightmare building. The scream from earlier sounded behind him and very loudly. With his mane tingling and his legs shaking, he turned his head, eyes wide to look at the horror that had made that noise. Before him, or rather behind him, bathed in the ghostly light of the open door of the room he'd just left, was a ghoul. It was a pony alright, but sickeningly disfigured. The skin was peeling and one eye had fallen out. It had only wisps of mane hanging on its head, and every rotted tooth could be seen. So, he did what any rational colt would do. He screamed and ran as fast as he could. His instincts cried out for him to fly but he could only remember little bits of flying. They were flashes, like flickering lights going off in his brain. Above all, he felt that his small figurine held importance and he refused to let go of Rainbow Dash, as though she were the only thing that could keep him from the very real terror and danger he was being pursued by.

All the strength in the world wasn't enough to save the colt as he made it to the the stairs and fell straight down. The stairs, or lack thereof, had crumbled away hundreds of years ago. In his terrified dash, he'd neglected to pay any attention to the dark pit that could be seen in the low flickering light of the bunker. His head bounced off the concrete floor with a sharp crack. The small colt struggled to get up as tears began flowing freely from his eyes again, when he heard the voices. They sounded like ponies, which was odd because all the ponies were dead right? He tried to look up to where lights were starting to come towards him, but for some reason his vision blurred and he felt dizzy and sick. So, with a few life-savingly loud retches, he emptied his stomach of bile and sobbed. He was supposed to live. He made the decision to live and still he got killed by stupid stairs. It wasn't fair. He shouldn't have to die after escaping those stupid... things. But it would seem it didn't matter, for his world began to swirl into darkness at the same moment a bright light glared down into his face. He heard a few words moments before his world was encompassed in blackness.

"I found a colt!"

In the blackness he found solace...and a name that kept repeating inside his head. Ross. Over and over again he heard it. No rhyme or reason behind it, but the longer he floated in nothingness wondering why he hadn't died, he realized something. It was a mare calling to him. His mother? He tried to speak but no sound came out. He wanted to sob but no tears came. In the end he merely floated in the darkness knowing his name, the fact that he had a mother who he couldn't get to, and no way out of what he assumed must have been hell.

Author's Note

There should be cover art sometime soon, so it'll at least look nicer. Also huge thank you to Kkat and all other authors of the FOE fanfics I've read for inspiring me to write something like this. Also, big thanks to my wonderful girlfriend vihuff for helping me to edit this.

Betrayal

15 Years later. Tenpony Tower. Manehatten.

It had been a long time since I almost got murdered by ghouls, which by the way, they still suck. If the ponies who ran the tower would have let me, I would have gone back and killed every one of the stupid things. Okay, well, maybe not right now because I had just finished my guard training, but still. I'd always hated ghouls ever since then. I mean sure, Ditzy was okay and non ferals were fine, but those stupid zombie bastards needed to die. Like, all of them. Fuckers. Oh, and this view sucked. All the eye could see from atop Tenpony at night were black broken sillouhettes of destroyed buildings, like the corpses of the old world. Sometimes they'd even trigger a flash from the past for me... or was it a vision? Anyways those still happened but i'd gotten used to it as they were pretty damn useless. They'd put me on night guard, since apparently trying to do guard duty with a hangover all the time was frowned upon. It wasn't my fault that pretty mares came through often and guards were well paid. I mean, Tenpony had a great nightlife! But that's all beside the point and my thoughts are rambling. Night guard was usually pretty boring, and since I was one of the few pegasi around, my watch was primarily at the top of the tower. I had to fly down and run a short route around the tower periodically. Ninety-nine percent of the time it was incredibly boring because nothing happened. According to everypony, nothing of interest happened to Tenpony since the "heroes" all came through. By heroes, I mean Littlepip and Blackjack, but I'd read of others in "new" books which were mostly mouth-written on old paper and tied together with something that may have been hair, but I really didn't want to think of where it could have come from.

But still, all those stories had always pulled me in. What with being filled with action, adventure, romance, and booze. It had actually earned me the nickname "Rossjack" from some of the guards, but they only called me that when I showed up in places drunk. So, I got called that a lot. Again, not my fault that the biggest adventures I could have were getting hammered and attacking bloatsprites, radroaches and the occasional lone feral around the tower. Things remained boring most of the time, as I said earlier. According to the more senior guards, they hadn't had any raider activity in at least five years, which was why this particular night I was very interested to see a fire off in the distance accompanied by faint screams.

"Oh fucking finally. Celestia fucking shit, I've been waiting for some action."

I adjusted my battle saddle, with its shiny new .50 caliber Anti Material rifle. Then pulled my 12 gauge shotgun from its holster on my side, checked the chamber, the rounds and wiped some dust off of the bolt. Last, I checked my pipbuck to make sure I had ammo. Yeah, I have a pipbuck. Mostly, because I'm the only pegasus guard in the whole tower, usually Tenpony only gave important ponies pipbucks, but still it's awesome.

"Hell yeah!"

Red wings spread wide and I took off into the night air. Fuck what the other guards said about taking off without calling in, that'd take too long and they could be gone by then. So I went for it. Because reasons. Plus, it felt so good to put some speed under my wings. I loved the way it felt, it felt like home. I could almost feel the air currents in my blood, the precision of controlling the air and the urgency in the way my wings beat. Buildings and billboards all whipped by so quickly they were a grayish black blur. The small caravan fires I couldn't see from my perch on top of Tenpony flashed by silently in the night. I could faintly smell the smoke as I flew past each barely stirring wisps of smoke that lingered that high up. Soon however, I had reached my destination and perched on top of a building near the fire with all the shouting. I was close enough to see them but hopefully far enough away to remain undetectable.

I could see three or four ponies milling around with their heads down. There were four others making that eight in total. Unless my count was off and I had miss counted. See, I'm getting excited and not thinking already. Okay, deep breaths Ross. I counted a second time. Eight. Definitely eight. Four seemed silent and reserved, almost as though they were dead on their feet. The other four were screaming, laughing and drinking, and it looked like a great time. Now that I had a head count, I had to be epic about this. So I shifted my saddlebag and drew out that little figurine I'd found in my pod so long ago. I looked at it for a few moments. It was still in remarkably good condition. Scratch that. It still looked new, but then, it always did.

"Be Awesome, Ross"

I stowed the figurine back in my saddlebags and leapt from the roof to glide down and land in the middle of everypony. When I did, I instantly regretted doing it, for at that very moment I got a very good look at the barrel of a .357 revolver, and to my left there was even another 12 gauge. (Yay! We have something in common!)

"So, what are you guys doing out here?" I spoke confidently which may or may not have been a mistake. I couldn't tell yet.

"The fuck are you doing here? Who are you? Give me one good reason not to end you right now!" Oh, well wasn't that polite. I guess confidence was a mistake.

"Uh...ah...I'm from...Tenpony?" I said, like an idiot.

Good job Ross. Real fucking confident. You're so dead now. The one who had spoken was a unicorn stallion with a dirty brown coat and emerald green mane. His eyes burned like fire. They almost glowed in the flickering light of the campfire. Leader, judging by the way he instantly seemed to take charge. The one holding the shotgun to my left was a mare, blue coat with a purple mane. An earth pony. The other two had hidden while the polite stallion holding the .357 to my face had been speaking, but I thought I could just make out the barrel of a high powered rifle behind some rubble directly behind him. As for the other, I had no clue. But my assesment was interupted once again by Mr. 357.

"OH! Tenpony! Well I guess we should just leave you alone since you came all the way from your cushy tower, and we wouldn't want to upset those fearsome ponies, but you know our buyers would pay very well for a pegasus. Hard to come by seeing as all you flying fucks went and hid, Celestia knows where."

This was going badly, but at least I knew they were actually bad ponies. So, there was that. Fuck slavers. But now that the "leader" was talking I got a better look at the four defeated looking ponies in shackles. There were three mares and a colt. The mares had to have been related because their coats were all the same color. Pink, but it was a varying shade from dark to light, the colt was pure black with a bright pink mane. Poor kid. Also I had apparently taken too long examining them because the next thing I heard was the sound of a hammer being cocked back to fire. Unnecessary because the revolver looked like a double action. Idiot slaver jackass.

"Alright birdie. Get in the shackles nice and easy and I'll take that gun and saddle." Oh, so he thought I was giving up, but what he failed to realize is I'm fucking stupid.

"How about instead, you just shoot me before I become a slave. Just let me have a few last words and you can do whatever you want."

I feigned confidence, because honestly if I hadn't gone earlier I would have no doubt pissed myself right then and there. I had to do something though, or at least try. I never did anything. I mean all there was for me to do was chase mares, get drunk, and fly around a stupid tower. Now I had a chance to make a difference. Like a hero. Otherwise I'd be sold, I'd be a slave, and probably die one. The thought of not being free nor being able to taste the air in flight scared me more than anything.

"Have it your way you stupid fuck. You got two seconds and you're dead." His voice was dark and menacing. I got the feeling he was getting sick of my stalling. So I spoke.

"Make it count."

Just like that, I brought my shotgun to bear as quickly as possible. Without even leveling it, I bit down on the trigger. Perks of being a pegasus is the agility I guess. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as I made my first true kill. I watched the slug rip through his head directly under his horn. Every piece of bone, brain matter and blood seemed outlined as it exploded from the back of his head. The flames in his eyes were instantly extinguished as his head snapped back from the impact. Blood spattered my face and it made me instantly want to puke. Sweet Celestia I just killed somepony. But there was no time to dwell on the fact that I had just fucking murdered somepony. In what seemed like a split second, my left rear hoof rose and I hit Miss twelve gage in the face with my most powerful buck, before snapping my wings out and down and launching myself into the air. I heard three shots pass my face and felt the still hot air of each round as it spun past. Fuck. The sniper. I had initially planned to land behind shotgun mare but with the sniper firing, I had to retreat. So, instead of going back down I launched myself backwards with another snap of my wings and straight into a building. Well, it was a window in the building, so I got lucky.
Had I taken a second to notice, I'd have seen that it was nothing more than an office building. Filled with boring cubicles and shit I won't explain. All that mattered was the desk I dove behind, despite the obvious damage to my wings, and hid out of view of the now shattered window. It stung way more than they make it sound like in books. I still I had slaves to save, also me. I had to save me and now the sniper had foolishly given me distance to use my anti-material rifle. That's right, Tenpony has some pretty sweet guns. I rose from behind the desk and flipped the scope over my right eye. The sniper was no longer hiding, and he was a Zebra! I had thought ponies and Zebras still hated each other but apparently even they could coexist if there were caps and blood involved. Who knew? Although, that wasn't what caught my attention the most. In front of the Zebra stood the lightest of the pink slave mares. His barrel pressed into the back of her head. I knew how acurate I was and this shot would would be simple, inhale, exhale, bite. My shot rang clear in the night just as the Zebra hooked his foreleg around her right rear leg. She moved backwards straight into the flight path of my round. I watched my bullet tear through her face.

"MOMMA!" The colt screamed into the night air.

Oh fuck no. No. Fuck! I snapped. This fucker was so many different kinds of dead. He made me kill an innocent mare, she didn't do anything and now her colt was an orphan! For what? Fucking caps? Who cares about caps, I had thousands, fuck, I'd give him mine if he wanted them so damn badly. I charged straight out the window I had broken and became airborne once more. Only this time, I snapped my wings to my sides and went into a dive. Like a living projectile, I hit the zebra head on. I heard something crack, but I couldn't tell if it was me or him. It didn't matter. The fucker was so dead. As soon as we stopped tumbling across the ground, I found the barrel to my AM rifle was close to his face. I could have shot him, but that would have been merciful. I wasn't feeling merciful. Instead, I shoved the barrel of my rifle down his throat and pushed. I could hear him start gasping for air, his eyes pleading, but he was met with no such mercy as I glared into the constricted pupils of the Zebra. I pushed harder and saw the pleading on his face turn to fear. My eyes never left his as I watched the light die. The last thing the Zebra stallion saw was a small smile on my lips. Now to take care of the fucking slaver mare. I turned and saw her and the fourth slaver getting ready to flee.

"Not today." I said to myself.

The AM Rifle rang out once again and two more heads were demolished. Two more lives claimed. Two bodies felled. Two dying breaths. Turning to where the slaves were, I let out a breath I didn't realize I'd been holding.

"Get to safety." I told the remaining slaves.

Then my eyes started taking in the carnage. Seeing the eyes of the dead, and even the living as they raced passed me. There was no gratitude in their eyes, only fear, and that was fine with me. Maybe it would drive them to a safe place. But that wasn't for me to give a shit about. I had killed ponies and that was not okay. They deserved it. They were slavers. Even the two that ran away deserved it all. But did you have to like it? The thought stopped me in my tracks. I hadn't enjoyed that had I? It was satisfying to watch the slavers die. They deserved to be dead for selling ponies but I didn't actually like it did I? No. I didn't want to kill anyone, but they shot first didn't they? I thought they had. Did the last two shoot first? This time my head turned to the last two bodies that had fallen. They hadn't fired one shot. I'd shot them in the backs of their heads in cold blood. It was adrenaline. The whole thing had been fueled by adrenaline. I was afraid for my life! The lives of those others. I looked down and saw my chest and hooves flecked with still wet blood. I may have puked pretty violently at being covered in another's blood. I wasn't that bad right? I knew about all of the pain the wasteland had to offer, but there was no way it had affected me that much. No. No I wasn't a killer. It just wasn't me. I was just a partier and a constantly hungover guard. That's all.

"Ross you fucking idiot!" What? My pipbuck was talking to me?

"You don't think I can access the MASEBS towers and watch you? You think Homage wouldn't have taught me that or that I wouldn't notice your pipbuck tag left the tower?"

Now it was my turn to reply to the stupid voice in my stupid pipbuck.

"I don't know. While we’re on the subject of shit I don't know, I don't know who the fuck you are!"

There. That should do it. Stupid bitchy voice in my Pipbuck. Now it'll think twice before messing with Ross, the master of comebacks.

"Dawn Star you dipshit." Came the reply.

Oh really? Oh fucking really!? Before I go any further I should explain. Dawn Star was the closest thing I had to a real friend at Tenpony. She was a huge pain in the ass but you couldn't find a more loyal mare. She was also quite attractive, but she was always a little too out of my league and would take more than a bunch of drinks or some smooth lines to woo her and fuck that I’m just too lazy to give it that much effort. So anyways, she was being a bitch.

"I'm the dipshit? Well at least I don't spend all my time locked up in that stupid hub you guys have. That seems pretty stupid to me. Now leave me alone."

It's almost as if the universe had decided that at that precise moment, after killing a bunch of ponies, that I needed to have the whole world dropped right on my head. Which was great. Who doesn't like finding out you're good at killing? Only to be bitched at by an annoying hornhead and being on the verge of an existential crisis all at once? Of course she had to keep pouring it on.

"I will not leave you alone. I just watched you kill ponies. I need to know my idiot friend hasn't lost his idiot mind. So with that said. Are you okay? Idiot."

Yeah I was totally cool. Had just killed two terrified ponies (even if they were slavers) and an innocent mare. A mother at that, and a hoofful of slavers. I was just peachy.

"Yeah I'm fine now. Drop it." I replied.

There was silence for a moment.

"Okay…I'm sorry. About the mare I mean. I know you didn't mean to but....well, the higher ups want to talk to you when you get back. I'm sorry."

There was a click, then nothing. She was gone, and I was once again left alone. I tuned to the radio on my pipbuck. A favorite station of mine was playing, it was apparently new, judging by the way the DJ shoved it down my throat when there wasn't any music playing. Luckily, a song had just started. It was from a group called The Pony Mob. It was a slow, heavy, electronic beat that matched my thoughts, hoof steps, and heartbeat perfectly. I wasn’t going to fly back to Tenpony. I didn't feel like being airborne right now. I took one last look at the gruesome scene I'd left behind, and I retched a few more times. Nothing came up and I started the long walk home.

Everything had happened so fast I hadn't had any time to think. Yes, the guard training had kicked in as far my knowledge of how to move and react to the shooters and other hazards, but how had I been so willing to kill? Like it was just second nature, yeah it was either them or me, but it came so effortlessly. Was it just circumstance or did I really enjoy that kind of thing? I mean, I was always hot tempered. I got in fights, usually bloody, and liked to buck the system every chance I could get. So, maybe there were some more violent tendencies there but murder without question? Why not catch the last two and question them? I knew none of their names. I knew no reasons they may have been doing a thing like slaving. Even if it was wrong I could have at least tried to spare one. It's hard to come to grips with the knowledge that killing is effortless. Even more so when your family history is over 200 years old and you have no idea if there’s even killer blood in your veins or something. I just felt like it shouldn't have been so easy. My thoughts made the walk back to Tenpony entirely too short, which sucked because I hadn't even thought of what to say, or how to explain myself. I'd be lucky if I didn't get kicked out, or just... you know, not let back in.
So, with a heavy sigh, I clicked off my pipbuck and stepped up to the gate and knocked three times. (Because you just HAVE to know exactly the number of times I knocked apparently.)

"Arial Guard Ross, reporting!" I called in deflated voice.

"Fly over feather brain we know it's you!" Came the response.

Wonderful. They were waiting and I knew that was already a bad sign. It meant they had been tracking my pipbuck tag from the moment they realized I wasn't in the tower. So with another sigh, I flapped a few times and carried myself over the gate. There before me was the head guard. "Watchdog" he called himself, but I couldn't blame him. His fathers had named him cinnamon swirl because of his caramel and red mane. Those guys were a little...strange to me. I mean, I knew there were ponies who liked to keep it with the same gender, but they were very, very proud of that and just...I don't like watching stallions nearly screwing on a table in the bar every night that they're both off from their respective jobs okay? So shoot me. Also yes, he was adopted from the wasteland, so don't get any weird ideas about stallion anatomy. Also, apparently he was talking to me because he looked annoyed.

"Speak you idiot!" He spat.

"What? I'm sorry, I've uh...I've had a long night." I really had no energy for this.

"I said, you moron, what in the actual buck are you doing running around in the wasteland at night and why are you covered in blood?" He repeated, apparently.

He censored himself and I found that to be pretty funny so I chuckled a little. Judging by his face, that was pretty stupid, so I figured fuck it.

"Oh you know, just had to go on a murderous rampage. I get so bored here." I'm sure I won't get raged at for that.

I didn't. Huh. That was strange. Instead Watchdog let out a sigh and rubbed a hoof on his forehead.

"You know what? I'm taking you to the Twi-uh. Council."

Kay. That was weird. I have no idea what he almost just said, or if it was important, but I seriously didn't have the energy for this. So, instead of thinking up a witty comment or pondering what was almost said, I simply followed as he led the way into the tower. It was nicer than it used to be, or so I'd been told. The grimy, dirty floors and halls had eventually been somewhat cleaned with actual clean water from rainfall, the previously grimy carpets had been scrubbed and the walls, and everything anypony could reach so it wasn't actually too bad to look at, you could almost forget the wasteland. The small shops were now much better stocked thanks to the "new" trade lines. Everypony called them new still, but they had to be at least 10 years old. However when one looked closely, the windows still held the wastelands visage and the walls were still cracked. But speaking of all the shops and vendors, a dark brown earth pony stallion, very large and with a deep black mustache and mane was approaching me with...oh sweet relief a bottle of Wild pegasus. The stallions name was Slackjaw, an ex-raider turned merchant. He had made enough caps and got far enough from his past to wind up here, running The Number Seven bar, but you'd never have known what he was in the past as he trotted happily up to myself and Watchdog.

"Rossjack! You look like shit! I owe you this bottle from cards the other night, and I thought you looked like you could use it now."

Well he was right. I probably looked like shit, and I could totally use a drink. (I was owed it apparently, must have won a drunken game of cards for a bottle.) But, I never got said drink because puppydog, I mean Watchdog, snatched it before I could grab it.

"Sorry Ross, you too Slackjaw, but there'll be no drinking for this featherbrain until he's seen the council."

This brought an astonished look from the brown stallion. One which I decided to dignify with a response.

"Oops?"

But before the conversation could continue, Watchdog had me herded into the elevator leaving a shocked slackjaw behind and we were suddenly waiting for it to reach the upper levels of the tower. This gave me a very good look at myself in the mirrors placed on every wall of the little box. Everypony was right. I did look like shit. I mean, my usually spotless red coat was unusually matted and dirty. You could see the darker spots of dried blood, some of it mine from the window while some of it was .357's. Speaking of the window, I could see what looked like thousand cuts on my body. Two of them were still bleeding, which was probably not totally okay but i'd deal with them later when I could get to a healing potion. But lastly, my mane looked awful. I mean it was normally unkempt and windswept, but now it was totally matted and clinging to my face. The light security barding I wore was also shredded, which I could care less about. However my cutie mark was exposed now. It was a pair of wings. One was feathered, like mine only it was white, the other was black and leathery, like a bat’s. Also, no. Don't ask. I have no clue what it means either. I just remember getting it. There was bully picking on Dawn Star and I had beaten him up. After the fight was over and the bully was carried off to the infirmary (oops) she told me that she saw the white wing appear when I initially stepped in to defend her from said bully, but when I didn't stop hitting him and she had to pull me away, the black one appeared. The bully, well, it was Watchdog. He had never really forgiven me for breaking his jaw and cracking his ribs. You could tell by the disdain he always held for me in his gaze. He had never bullied again though, and he learned restraint that I didn't have. Which was why, even though he was only three years older than me, he was my superior by a massive margin. Suddenly the elevator halted with a small bounce and the doors opened, revealing a part of the tower I'd never seen before. It was clean. I mean, really clean. Like, spotless and I had no idea how to react other than.

"Oh....shit"

But the last thing I expected was a response. The voice sounded…very...very proper and addressed me as though I were beneath whoever the owner was.

"Now, is that any way for Tenpony's security forces to be speaking? A young Stallion of your caliber should be much more...astute in his speech. After all, you are the head of the fliers in the tower are you not?"

You could almost hear the smirk in the voice as the owner finally emerged from a shadowed doorway. Ooh dramatic. I bet he has mare parts. He was actually very tall, but that was due to the cybernetics he wore. All four legs were painted in a glossy black enamel to match his hide, contrasting with his purple eyes and dark-grey and purple mane. The longer I looked, the more I noticed. Aside from the obvious augmentations, his eyes were also cybernetic, they had a slight unnatural glow, he also had a strange exo spine looking thing that ran the length of his back. Its purpose? I didn’t have a clue.

"My name is Rutherford the third. I’m Head of the New Twilight society. If you will follow me, your hearing will begin."

New Twilight Society? What even was that and why was I going to a hearing? The atmosphere was heavy and serious. I was very confused as to what in Equestria was going on. I knew that there was once a Twilight Society, but I had no idea that they were still around. Or remade, or whatever. I only knew that Tenpony was run by a council. A council I never saw, nor did I ever hear anything about them other than if you saw them, you were either important or you were a dead pony walking. I guess that would explain why I didn't know anything about them. However knowing the events that had transpired earlier, I had a bad feeling that I was the latter, which really sucked, but I walked in silence. We passed pristine paintings, our hooves echoed loudly on the beautiful ornate marble floors, there were detailed sculptures of ponies passed as we trotted through the hall. When we reached the end of the hall, I was very shocked to see my figurine. Or well, the gigantic marble equivalent. I saw the same proud pegasus, wings flared out and with the same expression on her face, but next to her were the others. By now I knew who each of them were, I did actually go to a school and learned the history of equestria... or... what it once was. The statues were all of the ministry mares. This must have been a hub! I could pick them all out. There was Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, AppleJack and Twilight. The odd thing is, in all the stories I'd read, I had never heard this part of the tower described. Maybe it was recently fixed up, or recently renovated?

All of my thoughts came to crashing halt as we entered a chamber with several ponies sitting in a semicircle silently, all shrouded in darkness and nearly invisible, there was a single light was bathing the center of the room in a dim glow. Watchdog stepped backwards and shut the door as Rutherford took his place in the center of the semicircle which was farthest from the center of the room.

"Enter, Ross. Tenpony Arial Security."

Oh. Oh shit. I slowly approached the center of the room and everypony seemed to fade into blackness leaving only the faitest outline of Rutherford directly in front of me. This wasn't good, I felt as though I were a criminal on trial for a horrible murder, though all I had done was eradicate slavers. That couldn't have called for a criminal trial could it have? But as I was trying to make sense of the situation all of the assembled ponies spoke seemingly in unison, which made it even more unnerving.

"You stand accused of the murder of an innocent mare, and the murder of four other ponies of unknown origin."

Wait what? They were acting like the others were innocents as well! They had to have watched from the MASEBS like Dawn Star had, but wouldn't that have cleared things up? Why would they instanty act so accusitory towards me. I knew I had to defend myself, or at least try. For the second time tonight, I took a breath and let everything spill out.

"It was an accident! The Zebra pulled her into the flight path of my round and those other four were slavers! They were going to sell them all! They were going to shackle me and sell me too! There was a colt in chains for Celestia's sake! I know we're all safe here in this tower but I still know it's not right to let others suffer while we stay holed up and cozy! I cant stand by and let that happen if I can stop it!"

The silence following my words was deafening, and it was almost like the room was getting darker. The longer I stood in silence the darker the room seemed to be and the more I thought I was going to sentenced to death, and I really didn't want to be that.

"Your primary duties were to protect Tenpony and you have failed. In doing so you have become a murderer no better than a raider. You have failed the tower and you shall be punished."

They all responded in unison once again, but the verdict only confused me further. Punished for trying to save lives from slavery? They weren't even hearing me out! What the fuck? Something was wrong. It had to be. I knew it had to be, but what? Tenpony didn't have slaves or slavers so why would they be so adamantly against me? There was no reason for them to bring down any kind of harsh judgement upon me, or at least anything worse than cleaning the latrines for a month or something. I never got to figure out why because at that very moment they spoke again.

"You are sentenced to death. Take him and execute him."

Oh. Fuck. That wasn't nice of them. As if on command, no less than fifteen ponies came through the door that had just been closed as the New Twilight Society faded into the blackness. I was surrounded by half of the Tenpony security force, all wearing scowls. Then I was beat senseless. Batons and hooves all struck out at me. I felt my bones fracture, I wouldn't fight though, I knew these ponies as my friends, they were my coworkers, I drank and laughed with them and couldn't understand why they were so willing to do this to me, so I just let them do it. I could feel my own blood pooling around me as my consciousness began to fade. It felt like everything had been a lie. Like my life here had been a lie. I thought they cared about me to at least a small degree, I mean sure we weren't good friends, but as far as I knew they only thought of me as hotblooded and a drunk. I had grown up in this tower. I was raised by its inhabitants. I had been the poor orphan from the wasteland that nopony wanted to adopt because I was so troublesome. But it was always small offences. I never stole, and never went out of my way to hurt anypony who didn't deserve it. So why would they do this? Then I felt the rope being looped around my midsection. My wings were pinned to my sides along with my shotgun, saddlebags, and AM rifle. All of this just aggravated my now broken or fractured ribs after they had been kicked repeatedly. I felt blood in my throat and mouth as I coughed a few times.

They started dragging me and I was hauled up the stairs, I only know that due to the brief flashes of consciousness punctuated by severe pain. Soon, between the flashes of pain we were on the roof. I was bloody, broken, and alive enough to wonder what now. There were three other ponies at this point, two of which I couldn't recognize mostly due to the fact that my eyes were mostly swollen shut, but the third I knew well. Watchdog or Cinnamon or whoever the fuck was very, uncomfortably close to my face, and he was smiling.

"Well Ross. I'd say I'm sorry about this but I'm not. You never would play by the rules and you never will. Too bad, because you're such a fine specimen. We could have had a lot of fun you and I."

Wait, wait, wait. What was he doing? OH! Oh Celestia no, I am not that kind of stallion. I could feel him touching me. Oh no. No, no, no. Just throw me off. This was so very weird. I didn't even like stallions and he knew that, or he should at least. I thought he didn't either because of all the mare friends he had but apparently he had a taste for more. I coughed out some words to the tune of "what are you...?" but before I could close my mouth I felt his on mine. As soon as he started doing... that... there was a kick in a very sensitive part of my body and I was rolled off of the tower. I fell. I fell feeling betrayed, broken, and violated. (eugh)

The top of the tower seemed to inch away and the last thing I heard was a very familiar voice.

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU ALL DOING?! NO! ROSS!"

Everything turned black and I never even felt the ground. Mostly because I never hit it, but that's beside the point, or rather, it is the point. But still, I wasn't dead yet. What I was, was very much in pain. I don't know how long I was on whatever mattress I wound up on, but I was out most of the time. I do remember it being a small house, boarded up from all sides save for the top. I only knew this because I heard a winged thing come and go several times, which I assumed was another pegasus as I also heard hooves. The memories would become foggy as I'd lost consciousness shortly afterwards. In between each bout of pain there was the soothing blackness of sleep, only I kept hearing the same words repeat in the silence.

Be awesome! Make it count.

It was all I had to hold on to for the time I was ... recovering? I think? I knew I wasn't dead, so we will go with recovering.

When I did finally come to, I had a chance to take in my surroundings. An old decrepit radio playing the sounds of Velvet Remedy, sat on a crate next to me against a wall with its paint cracking. It was one of her jazzier tunes which at any other time I'd be tapping my hoof to while drinking wild pegasus at The Number Seven, which reminded me I needed to go back to Tenpony and kick the shit out of Cinammon for several things, including but not limited to, taking my fucking Wild Pegasus. However at the moment I couldn't even think about trying to move without pain. I simply turned my head from the radio and inspected the rest of the room. There was a fairly normal amount of ruined furniture and the only things that seemed out of place were my saddlebags and my guns. There was also a slightly dirty glass of what appeared to be clean water next to me. So I actually had to move, dammit, seeing as I was thirstier than I was in pain. With several grunts and a few soft cries, I heaved myself onto my side and took my wing and...oh...it was bandaged and had a splint on it. Okay, hooves it is. So with that decided, I slowly moved the covers off of me and checked myself over. I am happy to report that my...ehem uh...setup was still in one piece. I was basically coated in bandages almost everywhere else that all seemed fairly clean so whoever patched me up had to have been good at it.

"Hey Doc! He's up!" Who the hell is that? Also who is this "Doc"?

The voice belonged to a stallion of roughly my age who walked in as if to answer my internal question. He was a grey coated earth pony with a pitch black mane, pure blue eyes and crosshairs for a cutie mark. From behind him, in walked a griffin and had I anything in me besides a single glass of water I would have pissed myself. I had never seen a griffin up close and they were much bigger than ponies and this one looked extra terrifying. His head was cocked to one side and he was inspecting me very closely with one eye. Which let’s be honest, I was very uncomfortable with after Tenpony until I caught sight of his....well....her flanks. At least I didn’t need to worry about having another stallion uncomfortably close to sensitive areas. Plus if she was that kind of griffin I guess it wouldn't be entirely unpleasant. Not that I'm really into that kind of thing but it was still a "she".

"Well he looks okay. The bandages are looking well and his wounds are no longer bleeding. Safe to say he'll live." The she griffin said with a surprisingly rough voice. "The name's feather. Doc feather. Finest griffin doctor in the whole damn wasteland. Never worked on a pony before but I got lucky and came across you. Had been wanting some practice. Oh, the stallion over there if you're wondering, is Icewind. Just healed him up from mild radiation poisoning."

Uh...excuse me? Wouldn't that be the kind of thing you wouldn't want to tell your patient? There had to be some kind of rule against telling a patient you'd never performed a single medical task on their whole species. Don't get me wrong I was grateful but still, that put me in a little bit of shock. Understndably I might add. Apparently my shock had been transparent because she suddenly had a slightly annoyed look on her terrifying face. (Not like... ugly terrifying, but more like "Oh shit I've never seen a griffin before" teriffying.)

"Oh don't look at me like that! I saved you. What does it matter if I've never worked on a pony before? No harm, no foul. I could always bind your wings and throw you off another tower if you want to try your luck a second time."

Well that cleared that up, I was plenty grateful. So very grateful, just call me mister grateful, I was the gratefullest pony in the whole of gratefuldom.

"I'm sorry. It's just a lot to take in right now. First of all, thanks Doc. I appreciate it. I really do. Is there anything I can do to repay you? Oh yeah, also, Icewind your name is weird."

Wait why would I say that? Then I became acutely aware of warm numbness spreading through my body. So naturally I started giggling at Icewind...what a stupid name. He didn't look like ice or wind. Heh Icewind. Stupid. I'm gonna die, this griffin has drugged me and now I'm gonna die feeling all warm and fuzzy. Yay for death, I can't even move my legs, sweet, maybe I'm made of rubber now. RUBBER BONES!

"Oh I see you've had the water I set out for you. There’s a magic little pill I've put in there so that you can sleep comfortably. You could only take it now that you're fully conscious, wouldn't go shoving my chems into a pony if they're going to die anyways. It's not harmful in any way now that I know you're going to pull through. It's just to take the pain away. Med-x in pill form... Although I may have given you too strong a dosage. Hmm, that usually just numbs griffins."

The sexy griffin replied with her sexy rough voice, and I thought it was sexy. Don't judge me. I'd never taken a single chem in my life so I was a lightweight in the first place without the addition of Ms. Sexygriffon scaryface's crazy strong whatever this was. Now if it had been alcohol, they would have needed more than one drink. We would have had to make a day of it. Which I could use, I really wished I had my Wild Pegasus right now, I bet it would go really well with this. But Icewind approached with a scowl as if to ruin all of my fun, what a dick.

"They named me Icewind because of my eyes and agility. Jackass."

Well, that's not very nice. I thought as the light once again slipped away, this time more comfortably than it had all the other times. Yay for drugs!

Author's Note

Level up! Gained strong back perk: you can now carry an additional 25 lbs of gear. Icewind is available to be your companion for whatever reason. Plot I guess.

So I actually had a lot of fun writing this so far, it's been about a month since I started. Hope you all enjoy it, leave a comment, let me know if you guys like it! Once again thank you Kkat for writing the original Fallout Equestria and to all other authors for your various contributions to the universe. Again thank you Vihuff for helping me edit this!

The Wasteland

Somewhere outside Manehatten ruins.

Morning...well sort of. It was closer to mid-afternoon and apparently the chems that Doc Feather had given me kept me out for almost a full day. I felt like shit too, everything hurt. My wings and my legs hurt, even my chest. All of it was hurting but was a dull ache when compared to the torrent of thoughts going through my head. I didn't know what to do from this point. My life was suddenly upside down. Yes, somepony needed to get to the bottom of what was going on at Tenpony and why I was cast out. There was also the question of where the only other pony I might be able to trust had gone to. Homage. She'd worked up in the radio station atop the tower broadcasting DJ Pon3 for as long as I could remember. Homage had recently taken Dawn Star in as an apprentice. It had only been about four months and Dawn Star barely knew how to operate the station, but she kept DJ-Pon3 on air despite Homage's sudden disappearance last month. All just so the tower's residents wouldn't know anything was amiss, or that the wasteland's beloved DJ had lost his right hand mare. I needed to find Homage because the longer I thought about it the more I thought she'd know something about the society. She did work up in the top of the tower after all, and I had heard rumors that she was involved with the Council, or New Twilight Society or whoever they were. I just had this feeling that she would be as good a place as any to start looking for answers. The catch was that I had no idea where to even begin looking for her. Plus, even if I did know where Homage was, I knew nothing about the wasteland. Even more of a reason to find her was if the rumors were true, she was very important. Important ponies don't just go missing without reason or death.

"Fuck me." I groaned at the ceiling.

The more I thought, the more I realized just how much I'd been ignoring at Tenpony. I had caps, booze, and mares. I had nothing to worry about, and got away with anything. Well until... however long ago it was that I'd been kicked off a tower. Now look at me. I was stuck in the middle of nowhere with no clue how to survive without having a nice cushy tower around me. It was like whatever was in control of the world wanted nothing more than to fuck me over, which was fair since I had always wanted action. I guess I finally had what I wanted. My thoughts drifted back to the day I came out of the stasis pod and I frowned. The memories of seeing everything die and the feeling of hopelessness just pissed me off. I came into this scarred and shattered world with nothing but my figurine and was given a life. I had apparently fucked that up and now I had nothing again, save for a hoofful of random belongings and my little Rainbow Dash figure.

"Why, the actual fuck, does my life have to be so damn confusing!?" I shouted this time at the cracked ceiling. My head was hurting now.

Good thing I had a contingency plan for that. I rolled painfully to my hooves, and I achingly took a few shaky steps over to my saddlebags, dug through them for a moment and withdrew a half bottle of Manehatten Mischief. It was a brand Slackjaw had concocted and boy was it strong. I also withdrew the little cyan figurine. Turning, I shuffled agonizingly back over to the mattress I had been on for the past…however many days and flopped heavily back onto it. Once I had shifted myself back into a position that offered some semblance of comfort, I took my first pull in Celestia knows how long from the bottle. The figurine stood next to the mattress silently observing my self-medication.

I delved once more into my thoughts...and Manehatten Mischief. I needed to come up with a plan. I had to move and go somewhere, do something. Then suddenly it came to me. The SPP towers, they were used to broadcast Pon-3! If I were a radio mare I'd probably look to them for some form of comfort or hideout or something. It wasn't much, but it would be somewhere to start. Check the SPP towers, hopefully find Homage, and question her about the New Twilight Society. If I didn't find her there maybe I'd at least get some clues. I sighed. That sounded so stupid. Like it was really that simple. Just flutter on over to an SPP tower and poof, I get all my answers. If I couldn't find her then what? Just go back to Tenpony and fight my way to the top, just to ask questions? I couldn't do that. I'd have to fight all the ponies I had worked with. They were once my comrades and I couldn't do that to them. My thoughts were interrupted by the flutter of wings and the sound of hooves. Icewind and Doc feather must have returned.

"Hey! I hope you brought alcohol. I only have half a bottle!" I stopped and looked down. "Make that a quarter bottle!"

As they entered the room, I could tell right away something was off. The griffin had seemed irritable but more good natured than not when we first met. Now she definitely looked flustered and angry. Icewind, on the other hand, was very pale. Instead of flustered he looked scared and angry.

"No alcohol unless you're going to go into raider territory for it." Icewind said flatly.

"What happened out there?" I replied with a quizzical look at both of them.

"Raiders have decided to take the territory between here and New Appleloosa, so we're stuck, unless you'd like to go through Junction. Before you ask, I can't because I've made a few enemies. Even I am not a saint and have a past," Doc Feather said sarcastically.

Well, that would put a damper on things. We could go north, I surmised to myself.

"What about going around and through Shattered Hoof?"

My statement was met with two dumbfounded gazes. I had either said something insanely genius or really stupid. I went with genius and smiled a little. I may also have been getting a buzz what with the bottle being almost empty. As it turned out I was right about one of those things. I was definitely buzzed. One out of two isn't bad.

"You are aware that you have wings right?" Doc feather said dryly.

"Painfully." I responded sarcastically gesturing to the bandaged appendages.

"Pegasi aren’t exactly friends of the Talons. Even if the Light-bringer and that pegasus she ran around with had connections to them, the Enclave attacked them on the day of sunshine and rainbows and any pegasus they don't already know is likely to be shot on sight," Came the Griffin’s reply.

"Ah. Well...I guess there were some things I did not learn in Tenpony then. I know the only other direction is towards Maripony but I'd rather not become a ghoul." I said.

All of the talk of pegasi and Talons reminded me of the day of sunshine and rainbows. It was a good day, five years ago. I was...fifteen? At least I think so. From what all the doctors said I was around five when I came out of the pod, so the age thing is kind of blurry. But I remember that day well. It was beautiful and I'd never seen anything like it. I wanted to fly forever the first time I saw that vast expanse of color, but I never took to it. Tenpony was safe, keyword: was. Now that that was gone, however. I could do it, at least when my wings healed, but for the moment I was grounded. I wasn't getting anywhere sitting around reminiscing and I knew the only other way around would be for me to go back towards Manehatten and through Junction. But even then, I didn't want to leave Doc Feather hanging. She'd saved my life, so I owed her a little assistance. The least I could do was to help her travel to New Appleloosa, and I had an idea of how to do that.

"We go straight through." Again with the stupid looks. Were they going deaf or was I slurring already? I wasn't drinking that fast was I? I looked down. Oh...it was gone. My poor alcohol, drank before its time. “Seriously, all I need is a high point to use my rifle. I can provide cover if you two can fight up close," I said, my gaze flicking back and forth between each of them hopefully.

"Well...I guess that's not a terrible idea." Doc Feather agreed.

"Yeah, but there’s one problem, I'm not a close-quarters fighter. I'm the best damn sniper the Wasteland's ever seen. Bet I could even give that Calamity character a run for his money." Icewind added.

"Okay then, Icewind, you and I will set up in a sniper position. Doc, can you fight?"

"Of course I can fight. What? Do I look like a fledgling?" The griffin said irritably.

"Then it's settled." I smirked. "Let's go take out some raiders."

"Waaait. Wait, wait, wait." Icewind interrupted. "Why should I listen to you? For that matter why should the Doc? For all we know you're going to walk us right into a death trap."

I fixed the earth pony with a stare. "I can't give you reason to trust me, but honestly. I'm sure I'd be shot on sight in Manehatten so I can't go back to where I came from. I owe the good doctor here at least a little help for saving my ass."

"You know what? Fuck it. I don’t have anything better going on right now. I'm broke anyway, so it's not like I can pay my way through any tolls or buy any supplies and New Appleloosa is currently the only place within a day's walk with .50 Caliber ammunition. I'm in," said Icewind.

Doc simply nodded ascension and I grinned broadly. Now all that was left was for me to work all of my belongings onto my back and we could go- Oh...right...that. Everything still hurt. Shit, I hated being injured. Still, I rose painfully to my hooves once again and crossed the room. Stopping in front of my saddlebags I turned to Icewind.

"I guess we will need to wait until I've healed enough to walk without constant pain. You said you needed .50cal Icewind?"

His eyes widened. "Yeah. Do you have any?"

"Wouldn't be talking if I didn't, would I?" I asked with a smirk.

I turned back to my bags and toggled my pipbuck. I kept forgetting I had the stupid thing. I had only gotten it six months ago and I kept ignoring the damn thing unless I wanted the radio. Honestly, the only reason I had it on the night I got chucked off the tower was because we had an inspection earlier that day and I was required to have it on. Ever since the Council at the tower had given it to me, they wanted me to keep it on but I hadn't really seen the point. Sure it was useful, probably more so out here, but I had never cared for it before. I toggled it regardless and searched the menu for my ammunition. I had ninety-seven 20mil rounds for the AntiMaterial rifle, forty-nine for the shotgun, and a full one hundred for my 10mil pistol. I scrolled a little further. I also had two grenades, and...Ah! Forty-one .50cal rounds. I tapped my pipbuck and out came the box of ammo. Icewind's face lit up instantly before becoming a mask once again.

"What do you want for them?" He frowned.

"Weeeelll...how about a bottle of something stiff? I know you guys are holding out on me. I may be from security but I'm not a mare so I won't be castrating you while singing songs." I beamed at him and held the box of ammo tantalizingly close to his muzzle.

"Fine. I have two full bottles of Wild Pegasus left. Take them." Yet he had a strange look on his face and he honestly seemed confused. He looked like he'd just been given the deal of a lifetime.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" I asked.

"Well, normally it'd cost much more for that many rounds, and what in Celestia's name were you talking about castration for?" He questioned still looking at me in an odd way.

"Well, I can't use it, plus we are going to need it. Dude, honestly, you mean to tell me you never heard the story of the security mare from Hoofington?" I said, smirking again.

"Fair enough. I'll take the deal. And no, I don't read stories, they're full of lies. Something happened to Hoofington but I highly doubt it was one mare." He trotted out for a moment before returning with two bottles of Wild Pegasus...sweet nectar.

With the deal done and all interested parties satisfied I turned to the griffin. "So how long before I can operate normally again?"

"Well," she said with a close look at me, "you could go out right now. Your injuries are healed. The pain you're likely experiencing is nothing more than lingering soreness. You'll only be sore for however long it takes your body to finish the healing process. Get through today and everything should hurt less. You'll be fight worthy if you're prepared. Now if you'll excuse me. I'm tired."

I nodded to her, signaling my willingness to fight and with that, she left. Icewind followed shortly after and I was alone again. Three hours later, I had drank almost all of my trade by myself. I hated drinking alone. Faintly, the voices of Icewind and the Doc could be heard through the cracked walls. I hated that too. They were talking as though they were friends, and chatting about the wasteland. I was alone and I hated it. I was always alone. I patrolled the tower alone. Took my watch alone. Ate alone, and slept alone. The only social life I'd ever had were fleeting hours with mares, and drunken nights when the other regulars in the bar would get drunk enough to talk to me. Even Dawn Star and I hadn't had much contact. Just a few, mostly short, conversations. We were friends when we were young but she told me I had changed the older I got. “Colder,” was the word she used. We still cared for one another when it came to it, but it was never the same. I stared down at my pipbuck and turned on the radio.

"-Even though there was quite a fight, it seems the lovely little mares all escaped to safety. All thanks to Applejack's Rangers. Now my little ponies, DJ Pon3 is feeling a little sad tonight. Ya see kids, my lovely assistant here just lost a friend to some nasty business and asked me to dedicate a song to his memory. Well, here it is.”

My head fell back against the wall with a soft thump as the last of the Wild Pegasus was pulled from its bottle. This is totally what I needed. I knew that was Dawn Star dedicating the song. It was sad and sounded of loss, fitting for a dead pony, but it wasn't a song I cared for. I knew she had tried to give me a proper send off in the only way she could and for that I was grateful. At least she thought of me one more time before I slipped from her mind forever. My eyes snapped open in an angry glare at the ceiling and I smacked my pipbuck on the filthy floor. No one ever fucking cared to stick it out with me. Apparently not even Dawn Star. Sure she cared, but how much really? I got a song, but I was sure that in a few weeks she'd be counting her lucky stars that I was no longer a pain in her flank causing trouble all the time. She couldn't give less of a fuck about who I was. Nopony ever gave a crap. You know what? Fuck them all. When I got to New Appleloosa I'll tell feather thanks and fuck off to the nearest bar. Ponies really pissed me off sometimes, which was why I was surprised to see Icewind walk in once more.

"It's two words by the way. My name. You've been saying it wrong. My name’s Ice Wind. You were on her Med-x when I told you my name so I'll let it slide," He said softly. I realized I'd only been paying attention to their words and not how they sounded. Nor anything else about them really. They were simply shapeless things in my mind, just accessories to a world. "Just call me Ice."

"Oh. Sorry. I've had a strange couple of days. My name's Ross."

Suddenly Ice had a shape. He was an actual pony and a real being. Maybe I'm the one who doesn't give a fuck about ponies and that's why they didn’t care about me. He produced another bottle from the saddlebags he now wore. This one was "Applejack's finest" whiskey.

"I can see that," He responded. "I hate seeing a pony drink alone, especially downing that much so fast. You drink like you're running."

"I'm always running," I said, leaning back once again.

"You and me both." I heard him open the bottle as he spoke, and take a long pull. "Hoofington, by the way. I'm running from Hoofington."

I was silent for a moment, pondering what could have happened to him there. I knew it was a rough place. It would kill those who were not the toughest of the tough in an instant. I decided it would be best not to ask him about it. I barely knew the guy.

"Myself," I said simply, offering no explanation.

"Must've fucked up big time to get literally thrown off of Tenpony tower. If Feather hadn't seen you falling you'd be dead." Ice-space-Wind said with another pull from his own bottle.

So that's how I came to be here, Feather caught me. "Funny thing is, I tried to save some slaves and this was the thanks I got." I gestured to all of my injured appendages. I heard a snort, which turned to a laugh. I couldn't help myself and soon I was laughing as well.

"You…you mean…to tell…to tell me that…that you got kicked the fuck out...of TENPONY...for doing something good? Fucking priceless! Oh fuck this wasteland so hard!" He tried to take another swig and nearly choked on it in between laughs.

"Yeah, yeah. Fuck you too Ice," I said smiling again. It was a genuine smile. I was drunk, but Ice Wind had to be sober. He was only on his...whoa...that bottle was almost empty already.

I guess that meant I had two things on my list for Appleoosa. I had to help Doc Feather, outdrink Ice Wind in a bar, and then I could fuck off. We spent the rest of the night talking. I told him about Tenpony and he told me about the Hoof. (That's what they call Hoofington I guess.) Doc Feather was asleep long before we were. Our conversation took us long into the night, and we drank almost all of the alcohol Ice kept in his saddlebags. I wound up sprawled halfway off of the mattress I had been resting on for the past few days with a bottle stuck to my face. (No. I have no clue how it got there.) All too soon however the morning sun was peeking through the windows of the ruined home, where they let in little of the grimy, dusky light. It was truly the first dawn I had seen since the day I got kicked off of Tenpony. My head was aching a little, but nothing I wasn't accustomed to. I had had many a hangover and this was nothing new. I sat up and heard the sound of the empty bottle detaching itself from my cheek and clattering to the floor. I rose and stretched the best I could. My body protested the action but I told it to quit hurting. It didn't listen. The pain, however, seemed lessened just as the griffin doctor had said. Speaking of, there she was, stalking in with a very uncomfortable looking Ice.

"Time for your hangover medicine too," she said as though she were going to enjoy what was about to happen. My eyes widened as she withdrew a very evil looking syringe from her saddlebags and stalked towards me with a malicious grin. "Come here little pegasus. You want to fight well right?"

Nope. Sure don't! I would have just taken being shot over being stabbed with a gigantic fucking needle. So I did the only thing a sensible pony in my position would do.

"Pleeeeeease no! Please don't Doc. I'll do anything! I'll polish your beak and preen your feathers for life! I’ll clean your bathroom forever!" Then it happened. She stabbed me in the flank. "OHFUCKINGSHITFUCK! OW! OW! OW! CELESTIAFUCKMEWITHACASTLE!"

It hurt worse than being kicked and thrown off the castle for all of about one half of a second. But still, it was excessively painful and my words were one hundred percent justified. It also had the benefit of making me vomit instantly. Which by the way, it smelled just like pure alcohol. So it was super nice. I didn't actually care that I felt great until I had finally recovered from the harrowing ordeal enough to finally speak.

"What the fuck was that!?" I asked breathlessly.

"A cure for a hangover," Feather stated. "It's a Zebra potion. It works better if every drop is directly injected into a pony."

"So why would you inject it into my fucking ass!?" I shouted.

"Eh...wanted to see your face when I did," The griffin replied.

Have I mentioned how much I was starting to hate the wasteland? With all of that out of the way and my dignity shattered on the floor of the ruined home, everypony and griffin set about gathering our things. I dismantled and cleaned all three of my firearms, then checked the ammo once more. As I was taking stock of all of my supplies, I heard hoof steps behind me and turned to see Ice with a very well-kept .50 caliber sniper rifle in a battle saddle of his own. Upon closer inspection, I noticed an engraving on the barrel. Rose.

"Rose?" I asked, tilting my head. "Aww. We get drunk together one time and there you go spinning my name to make it sound feminine and putting it on your gun."

"Actually it's because it's a beautiful weapon, just like a rose, but roses have thorns. Thorns make a pony bleed and my rifle makes ponies bleed." Ice replied evenly. How lovely. "What's yours called?" He continued.

"It's...uh...it's a gun. I mean, it doesn't need a name does it?" My head cocked to one side in confusion. Why in Equestria would I name a gun?

He simply shook his head and muttered something about me not having been in the wasteland long enough. Apparently in the wasteland you named your guns. We had finally checked and double checked all of our weapons and were prepared to fight. I had taken off all of my bandages, and sore as I was, I had to hand it to Doc Feather. Whatever she had done to heal me had worked wonders. Either that or I had been fading in and out of consciousness for more than a day in recovery. Equestria may never know. All of that aside, I was ready to go out and do whatever we had to do to make it to New Appleloosa. It was easy with the slavers, so how much different could it be with raiders? I just had to kill them before they killed me right? I heard the aforementioned griffin glide in through a hole in the roof of the small ruined house, or rather I assumed there was a hole in the roof, otherwise this house was huge enough to have flying space for a griffin. She stalked into the small room I had been occupying for the last few days, dressed in armor. Most of it was made of junk though. It was just some steel plates hammered into a helmet and old cart wheels made into armor for her legs. A single 10 millimeter pistol hung at her side along with four knives. Two were quite large, more machete's than actual knives whereas the other two were of a more average size. They were sort of like kitchen knives, only these had wickedly curved blades.

"You all ready to take on some raiders? Since I guess it's the only way to get through this with all of our collective asses relatively intact," she addressed us gruffly.

Ice and I simply nodded in assent. Feather turned and lead us into the other room. All of its windows were boarded up, and the front door had a large pile of junk in front of it. It was effectively blocked from being opened. There was a large hole in the ceiling, however. (Called it!) Doc fluttered up a short distance before latching her talons onto Ice's shoulders, making him wince.

"I hate flying." He muttered as she carried him out of the house.

This left me standing in a shaft of sunlight, in a place I didn't know along with a griffin and a pony I didn't really know either. I knew what this was. It was a metaphorical precipice. I would fly out of the house and face a new life in the Wasteland, one that was quickly becoming soaked in blood. So now I would fly out, and add a few more quarts to the stream of crimson I had started. Funny thing is, I wanted it. I liked the fight and the adrenaline. I liked that it was them or me, black and white, simple. This was their blood or mine and I wasn't keen on the idea of loosing any.

"Guess it's time to see what Equestria's really like," I said as I spread my sore wings and prepared to exit.

I began to rise slowly, tentative of my wings, testing them to see how they would react to flight. They seemed okay, if a bit sore. Then I saw Equestria. It was beautiful. Although everything was ruined making it a nightmare wrapped inside a dream. The landscape was bright and sunny, with barely a cloud in the sky, yet everything was so desolate. There were broken trees and homes. It was like staring out over a graveyard of the past. For a split second, I saw the small village as it used to be. Ponies of all shapes and sizes were trotting to and fro. There were smiles on all of their faces. The vision changed and I watched flames engulf the happy neighborhood while ponies screamed. Foals died, and mares held their charred children’s remains in their hooves as radiation took their lives as well. The end of the world flashed before my eyes as though I were back in my pod.

"ROSS! HEY ROSS!" The voice snapped me out of the grisly vision and I shook my head.

"Yeah?" Ice Wind was looking oddly at me and Doc Feather seemed intrigued.

"You were screaming. Your eyes glazed over for a few minutes and you just started screaming."

Oh...is that all? I always thought that I just zoned out whenever that happened. Apparently not. Maybe that's why ponies avoided me. "Mister crazy who screams at nothing." Eeyup. That's weird enough that if I were them I would avoid myself too.

"Oh. Sorry. It's nothing, just...let’s just go okay?" I said stupidly.

They continued to stare at me as though I'd just turned into an alicorn before they shrugged and turned away. I simply followed in silence, examining the shattered remains of Equestria. The burned remains of the small neighborhood we trotted through seemed to call out to me. Every few steps another vision would flash through my head, but none as vivid as the first. I was happy to finally leave it behind as the visions seemed to lessen and eventually stop all together. Soon after leaving the small neighborhood and my nightmarish visions, we came upon a ridge. One side was covered with several outcroppings of rock and sparse underbrush, which we had to pick our way up. There was a sheer drop on the other side. We needn’t go further, however. It was pretty clear that we had found the raiders. Set up against the bottom of the cliff was a small town-ish...thing. It was mostly buildings constructed purely of junk. The makeshift township extended out into the burnt out wasteland maybe a few hundred feet to a junk wall. The wall had guards that were scattered along the top as it stretched from one side of town to the other and encompassed the community in a semicircle with the sheer cliff at its back. It was kind of ingenious actually. The only way anypony could take them by surprise is if they came from behind, but that would require flight. Snipers would also work as well. Good thing we had both of those things. I turned to Doc Feather.

"So, I have to ask, is this what you thought it would be? Because that looks a little bigger than I was expecting."

"Well kid, you ain’t wrong. I was figuring on a smaller camp myself. Problem is, they have patrols and this group is a little more organized than most. More like a gang than actual raiders. They have a leader and everything but they're too bloodthirsty to just be a gang. No moral code," Doc feather replied. I frowned at that.

So what was happening here was that I had just gotten us all in way over our heads and now, everypony…er…and griffin, was going to pay the price.

"So," I said, "you guys still in? We've come this far and I think it's worth a shot. Worst case scenario, we all die."

Ice snorted in response. "I think you must have been kicked in the head at Tenpony. There's got to be at least a hundred raiders down there. They're organized and they're protected."

Ice had a point. It was near suicide, but so was going any other route. So what if ponies died? It happened all the time. Yeah, I would still try and keep Ice and Feather from dying as well as I could, but unless they wanted to all split up then we were stuck right where we were. We could always go back the house but then what? Wait until they find us? Even if I owed Feather, it would be an easy way out of debt. We’d just go in trying to move and have my debt holder die, or I would. Win-win. Not like they would have anything to do with me once we made it to Appleloosa anyways. Not to mention, they apparently wanted to stick together, safety in numbers I surmised. Fuck it, let them stick together. I'll find answers alone.

"Well unless you guys want to split up, this is what we have to deal with. I can't fly far enough with injured wings to be out of range of their marksponys, and you can't fly at all Ice. So what do you say?" I responded with a smirk.

The reply came, dark. "Not like I have anything to look forward to anyways. Fuck it."

Without another word he dropped to his belly, braced his rifle, sighted and fired. A body dropped from the tower.

"There's your fucking fight. Go ahead and kill us Ross," Ice said coldly. He chambered another round, bit down on the trigger mechanism, and fired again. A second body dropped and the town went insane.

Doc said nothing and launched herself down the side of the cliff and off to the left of the wall. Waiting for us to pick off the bulk of the force, no doubt. So without another word, I braced my own rifle and looked through the scope. It was chaos, with ponies galloping to and fro. Some carried weapons and fired wildly, while others tried to hide from our sniper fire and pick out our position but it was to no avail. Each one that stopped in our sights fell. My rounds packed more punch than I really needed. I guessed Tenpony just gave us huge guns to be intimidating since nopony really needed this kind of firepower. So I sighted clumps of ponies under the walls. Some were running for the exit but I watched each come into view and drop. Two by two. My rounds would tear through one and annihilate the other. I was silent, as was Ice. We were focused on our work. Ice's face was a mask of anger and determination. I was calm, but could almost hear the hatred he felt for me in those moments, as if each blast of his rifle was a thought. Fuck you Ross, eject, reload, fuck you Ross. I ignored it and continued the onslaught for nearly an hour before they found out where we were firing from. At which point things got much more complicated. There was a dull thud and Ice stopped firing.

"Shit," I heard Ice grunt. I turned to see him lying on his side with a hole in his shoulder and a steady stream of blood flowing down his chest. "Ross, in my saddlebags I have a healing potion. Get it out for me."

Turning away, I rifled through his bags until I found the potion. With Ice slowly healing from the round I turned my attention back to the small town, vaguely aware that the shooting hadn't stopped. Feather must have begun her assault as well, but that was soon to be the least of my troubles. As I sighted my rifle, I saw a pony stand up on his hind legs and hoist a very large weapon onto his shoulder. Fuck. He had a missile launcher. We pulled our triggers at the same time. The raider dropped but his missile was already flying towards us. Without thinking, I rolled and hooked my hooves into the straps on Ice's saddlebags.

"Going down!" I shouted as we dropped off the ledge. I opened my wings to catch the air and yes, it hurt like hell. Trembling with effort, they stabilized enough for us to glide down to the top of one of the buildings and land, almost softly. We tumbled across the roof of a shack, and I heard Ice grunt in pain. "Ice, find a high spot. I'm going in. We're fighting down here now. I'll find feather," I said as I swung my shotgun around. Ice nodded and rose slowly to his hooves ejecting a spent magazine and began to limp for cover.

Time to die motherfuckers. I hopped from roof to roof, which made some convenient stairs I might add, until I found a place to get to the ground. A pile of junk and boxes gave me access to the narrow streets below. As soon I made it to the ground my world was lit up in a flash of blinding light, and I felt myself being thrown backwards to tumble across the dirt. I was dazed, and felt as though I had been bucked by an electrical cable, but as soon as I looked up I realized what had happened. A very large tan stallion holding some kind of electrified bat was standing before me with a manic grin on his big stupid face.

"Oh fuck you, and your big ass bat," I spat.

He simply laughed around the bat held in his mouth and struck out once more. I leapt backward and could still feel the heat and smell the ozone as the bat narrowly missed my face. Once I landed, however, it was different story. This time I was ready. I braced my shotgun and fired 3 rounds consecutively at the bastard. Once in the face and twice in the chest. I turned to continue my dash to find Feather, but I was stopped in my tracks by a gurgling sound. I turned to see the stallion standing once more. His once blue mane was still soaked in blood but his face was regenerating. My eyes widened in surprise and fear until I saw the Hydra at his feet. Of course Raiders would use chems.

"Oh, just fucking die already." I spat once more as I prepared a more thorough barrage of rounds for him.

"How ‘bout you die BITCH!" He screamed as he downed what appeared to be an entire bottle of buck. I saw him tremble for a moment before, with an almighty swing, he lit up my world once more and I was flung down the street.

Crack. I heard my head hit the wall I was flung into, which was followed by an explosion of pain in my skull. Everything was blurry. My vision swam, and so did the stallion. He came in and out of focus, trotting almost happily toward me swinging the bat in his teeth. I was only able to focus on him for a split second but I could see he was shaking violently. Apparently that much buck at once had side effects. He was probably on the verge of a heart attack. His heart! I chuckled as he approached and a little blood began dripping from my mouth. I had probably bit something in it. He grinned broadly as the bat came up, crackling with electricity. If he hit me I was done for, but I wouldn't go down that easy.

"Make it count." I said, flecks of blood dripping down my chin.

My rear hooves rose and moved toward him. Everything seemed like it was in slow motion, and I bucked him as hard as I could in the center of his chest. The electrified bat hit the ground next to my head, sparking, and sending small electric shocks into my face causing me to wince. He stopped as though he had hit a brick wall. His pupils dilated as the shock went through his system. The stallion fell sideways, bat forgotten, with both fore hooves pressed to his chest. I could hear him gasping for breath but I didn't care. It was time to finish what I had started. I left him to die, and galloped in the direction of the gunshots.

Small shacks flashed by and made me dimly aware of the life that thrived here. Vile and disgusting life, but life all the same. I saw mares pull their foals inside and slam doors. I even saw windows being closed in fear of the attack. All of this as I flashed by and I didn't care. Anypony who chose to live with raiders were scum. I galloped along, left turn, right, right, straight. The streets were a maze, more like alleys as they were so narrow but I cared little. I was running for the sound of gunshots and then I found them. I saw feather bloodied and beaten. She still fought with all of the ferocity I would have expected out of a griffin, twisting expertly and plunging a knife into a throat here, pulling her pistol and ending a threat there. She was poetry in violence, but I was not here to admire. I was here to fuck shit up, so that’s exactly what I did. Three raiders leapt at me. The first was dispatched with a single round from my shotgun, the other bucked into the rampaging doctor’s path. One knife to the throat and that threat was ended. The third however proved to be a little more resilient. It was a mare. She hit me while I was busy with the other two and soon, I felt a blade at my own throat. I smirked in her face.

"Don't bring a knife to a gun fight babe."

In her frenzy she had apparently forgotten that I had guns literally strapped to me. (How could someone miss a battle saddle?) There was a muffled thump as her insides exploded out of her back. I rolled to my hooves ready to fight more, but we were down to one. He looked young, barely out of foalhood. His features still carried that of a youth, his crimson eyes held hatred, and his blue body's posture held fear. He would die all the same.

"STOP!"

A voice called loudly and the raider froze up as though he were a soldier given a command. Confused, Doc Feather and I both turned our gazes to the direction of the voice, and there before me was a beautifully armored Zebra. I mean it was gorgeous. All hoof crafted magnificence. Glyphs and images adorned each curve and edge and glinted harshly in the sunlight. Sure, it wasn't anything as exotic as starmetal, but it was still amazing.

"You are worthy fighters!" She said in a strange accent. "You have bested my stallions and mares, as well as my compound. What is the meaning of your attack on us?" She queried.

I was dumbfounded so I answered in the most eloquent way possible. "You're between us and New Appleloosa."

The Zebra laughed. She actually laughed at me. That was, well, new. The leader of a gang of raiders laughed at me, but then, what wasn't new these past few days?

"I like you. You are very fierce. But you see, we are not raiders, though bloodthirsty my soldiers may be. We are but a humble settlement. I simply decided the best defense is a good offense, so I've created a ruthless army to keep my home safe. Welcome to Cliffside!" She proclaimed.

Wait what?

"What?" Feather said, echoing my thoughts. "Why would your ponies attack us when we were scavenging then?"

Once again the mysterious mare laughed. "Because in order to deter violence, we must BE violent!"

"Well that makes sense," I said sarcastically. “‘Let’s kill everypony who may want to be part of our settlement.’ I mean, I thought ponies were nuts in Tenpony, acting like the wasteland wasn't there. But you, you're batshit crazy lady."

"Well, since you believe that I am as you say, ‘batshit crazy,’ I will give you an insane proposition. You leave now, and take your sniper with you, or, I'll kill you both where you stand." Now that...was much better than anything I expected.

"Alright we'll leave," Doc replied, clearly eager to put this place behind us.

"Ah, but it's not that easy, for you have killed fathers and mothers. So I must give one of you a parting gift." The zebra said cryptically.

Almost as if on cue, Ice was brought out draped across the pack of a unicorn stallion of about my age. Ice was in really bad shape, however. He was black and blue and it looked as though they had broken almost every single bone in his body.

"This should get you to Appleloosa quickly, for if you don't, he will certainly perish." The Zebra smirked as Ice was thrown at our hooves. He didn’t even have the energy to cry out. All he could do was groan.

Look what you did Ross. Now he's going to die because you're a Celestia dammed fool. Just ignore it like you always do. Who cares if he dies. He knew what he was in for right? I balked at the beaten form of the stallion whereas Feather simply looked unamused.

"Oh! You beat him half to death," the griffin said with a crack of laughter. "Yeah, that'll be hard to fix. We're leaving, Ross let’s go."

Okay, now I was confused. Ice looked pretty bad to me, but Doc Feather acted as though it were a paper cut. Instead of voicing that, I simply watched as she gingerly hoisted Ice onto her back and trotted in a direction I assumed lead to the exit.

“I am Zula. Remember my name, for if you cross me again, you will not survive," the
Zebra called out to us.

I smirked. "Yeah? I'm Ross, and if I cross you again, we'll see who doesn't survive."

In only seemed like a tenth of a second before she was on me. She had both hind hooves planted on my back while one fore hoof was on top of my head, and the other holding something sharp to my back of my neck. I was forced to the ground and my face pressed into the dirt.

"The challenge has been issued then. If we meet again, the fight will be to the death,” she whispered in my ear. "You have made an enemy this day, Ross."

Zula shoved my face into the dirt once more before releasing me. I hoisted myself to my hooves and turned to spit the dirt the she'd gotten into my mouth at her hooves. She fixed me with a glare that could melt metal, and I returned it with one as harsh as I could muster. We simply glared at one another for a moment before I finally turned to leave. As I trotted over to where Doc Feather had stopped, to watch the fireworks I assumed, I simply got a shake of her feathered head and a look as if to tell me how stupid that was. Without a word from either of us we parted, leaving the town and its army of raiders to tend to their wounded and pick up the pieces. Soon the place was well behind us, and Cliffside was quickly fading into a memory. We walked for hours in silence before the doctor finally spoke up.

"I don't understand you, Ross."

I chuckled. "Not much to understand. I got thrown out of Tenpony, you saved my sorry hide and now I'm here. I'm with you ‘till Appleoosa at least."

The griffin shook her head. "That’s not what I mean. What kind of pony, new to the wasteland, would pick a fight with the leader of a town guarded by raiders?"

"Oh. That. Well, I don't appreciate being threatened. She told me she'd kill me, which means I'll have to kill her first. She told me she would so I told her the same," I responded pointedly.

"Yeah, well watch yourself Ross. If there’s one thing you don't want in the wasteland, its enemies," Feather huffed.

That was good to know. I just did the one thing I shouldn't do out here. Well, no use in crying over it. I would probably never even see her again. It's not like I ever planned to go back to Cliffside anyway. I simply shrugged and didn't respond. So once again, we were left trotting along in silence. My thoughts began to travel back to Cliffside and I started to wonder. Were any of those fighters truly fathers? What about mothers as Zula had said? Had I shattered families once more without even thinking about it? They were simply an obstacle when we went in. Why should I feel remorse now? I tried to just forget it. I couldn't allow myself to care. They would have killed us had we tried a diplomatic approach. It was nothing more than a necessary evil. At least, I kept telling myself that. We trotted in what seemed to be a meandering path for hours until my soreness from the skirmish finally started to get the best of me. I dropped onto my rump.

"Hey Doc, how much farther do we have to go? I'm starting to feel that fight," I said.
Doc Feather looked over her shoulder and Icewind who still lay unconscious on her back.

"Just over that rise should be New Appleoosa. You can rest there."

Damn, I was going to have to keep walking. I stood once more, shaking with effort slightly and began to trot on. Oh, how I'd love to just fly the rest of the way there, but I knew my wings would need a few more days of recovery if I was to use them again without serious injury. So I grunted my annoyance at nothing and mumbled about "fucking raiders" for the next half hour until at long last we arrived at the gate to the town. It was oddly open or at least odd to me, because Tenpony kept its gates closed. Maybe the rest of the wasteland was more open to visitors? I shrugged mentally and we trotted into town with Ice still draped across Feather's back. We headed for a larger building situated on one side of the street that looked to be a tavern. (Yay I could get a drink!) Hopefully they had beds too. I felt like I could sleep for a whole year. I followed the doctor inside and for the most part the place was empty. Considering it was mid afternoon, I imagined that was not abnormal, but the evening crowd would be coming in soon. Again, I was assuming, but who knew. This could have been the most underpopulated tavern in the entire wasteland. Feather was talking to a bartender. I think his name was something Whiskey? All I heard was whiskey. Soon though, the stallion turned to me.

"Your friend here says y'all need some place to stay. I got rooms if you got caps. Fifty per room."

"Yeah sure." I replied as I withdrew one hundred and fifty caps from the first equestrian bank of me. "Also, how much for a bottle of liquor? I'm thirsty."

"Now that I can do at a better price! Ten caps. All I got is Wild P though. The name’s Apple Whiskey by the way. Pleased to meet you!"

"Ross," I replied, "and Wild P is just fine."

Apple Whiskey seemed to have just noticed my wings because his eyes suddenly went wide and proclaimed, loudly I might add, "Sweet Celestia you're a pegasus! I haven’t seen a pegasus in months. Heard some say half of ya went into hiding when the skies cleared. Were you Enclave?"

At this point I just wanted my damn liquor and a bed. "Nope. I'm 200 years old. Now, if you don't mind, the bottle please?" I asked as I tossed ten caps on the bar.

"There's no way you're 200 years old," Feather piped up halfway up the stairs.

"Yeah, I am. I was in a stasis pod up until roughly twenty years ago," I replied flatly.

"We're going to talk about that once I have Ice Wind here patched up." Feather replied matter of factly before continuing up the stairs.

Whatever. I turned back to the bartender and extended a wing to pull the bottle off the bar when it seemed he had found his voice one more.

"Your friend is strange. I asked if she would like to take that injured fella over to see Candi, but she refused. Said she'd prefer to work on him herself," Apple Whiskey said.

"So you're saying I'm not strange? I'm pretty sure you've only just picked your jaw up off the floor, and she's a doctor. He's in good hooves...er...Talons." I responded.

"Are you really 200 years old? Do you remember the world before...well...it got like this? I heard it was quite a sight," Apple Whiskey asked.

"No. I remember the moment the door closed, and the next 200 years went by in roughly 200 seconds, then I was waking up. Now if you don't mind, I'm going upstairs to drink this whole bottle and sleep."

Without another word, I headed upstairs for one of the rooms I had paid for. I was going to get some much needed rest and relaxation. I locked the door to the room, and situated myself on the dirty mattress that had been set up on cinderblocks and boards so that it resembled an actual bed or at least somewhat. I tuned on the radio on my pipbuck, removed my battle saddle, and withdrew a healing potion from my saddlebags. I was about to down the potion when I heard DJ Pon3 start the news with an announcement that stopped me dead.

"And now for the news! It seems I've heard some shocking reports about a fugitive of Tenpony. Shouldn't be too hard to spot as he's a pegasus. Now your ol’ pal Pon3 has been told to inform the general public that if this stallion is found, he should be brought back to Tenpony for the authorities to deal with. Word is he's dangerous and to be careful, but now my little ponies, I think I'm feeling a bit rebellious tonight so I won't tell you that. What I'll tell you is that one week ago this pegasus flew from Tenpony to the aid of slaves taken by slavers and saved all but one, and today he and a few freinds launched an attack on the vicious gang at Cliffside. So I say to all of my listeners, if you see him, don't turn and run. Just keep an eye on him. A loaded gun may be some good insurance as well... just in case. And that's it for the news! Now you know what I love hearing? The wonderful tones of Velvet Remedy! Let’s hear one of her tunes shall we?"

So now I was a fugitive, Tenpony wanted me dead, and apparently somehow DJpon-3 found out I wasn't dead and knew about my fight with the slavers. I downed my potion and sat back on the mattress. My 10 Millimeter pistol rested on a makeshift table beside my right wing, just in case. It was light enough to handle with just a wing. I had trained myself for months to be able to pull off that trick. The look on everypony's face the first time I pulled it out using one wing at the range and hit three bullseyes had been priceless. Now it was nothing more than a useful tool. I sat up steadily taking pulls from the Wild Pegasus I had just bought and waiting to see how the townsponies would react to my presence. I didn’t have to wait long until I got my first sign that they had heard the news. There was a click at my door, a lock pick no doubt. A dark pony, almost black, wearing heavy barding that covered his features stepped into my room. Magic pulled a revolver from beneath his coat and aimed it, naturally, at my head. So I laughed.

"I'm not a murderer and you don't know what you're doing." I said.

"Shut up fugitive! You're coming with me!" The mysterious pony shouted.

"Oh sure, sure, but the name’s Ross." I climbed off of the mattress and took a few steps towards him. "Also, you really shouldn't let that gun shake so much." I said.

My right wing slipped expertly around my 10mm pistol and my other wing came down on the barrel of his revolver hitting it and the release to reload simultaneously. His gun cracked open in his magic and fell forward sending his rounds all over the floor of the room. My pistol swung around in the grip of my wing and aimed directly at where his horn would be if I could see it.

"Now who are you, and what do you want?" I asked.

He trembled as his magic fully collapsed and left the revolver to fall to the floor with a clatter. "I'm...I'm nopony. I just...I just thought Tenpony would give me a reward and I saw you come in here earlier. Please don't hurt me!" The pony was visibly shaking and every word he spoke trembled with fear.

"Oh, I'm not gonna hurt you. You don't look like you could injure a foal the way you're shaking. Hurting you wouldn’t be any fun. Get the hell out of my room and don't come back. Tell anypony else who thinks they're going to take me to Tenpony to meet me outside of town tomorrow. Tell them if they can kill me, they can take me. If they can't kill me, I kill them. Clear?"

The stallion nodded and ran out as quickly as he could, leaving me standing alone in my room with a newly acquired gun and three quarters of a bottle to finish. I shut the door once more and crawled onto my mattress. Well, I guess I'm going to see what this town is made of tomorrow.

Author's Note

Level up! New perk added: Gunslinger. Attacks with non automatic weapons now do more damage!

Sorry for the long wait, had to deal with some work stuff taking my time and had some editing trouble. Once again thanks to Kkat for writing the original Fallout Equestria and Vihuff for putting up with my shit through this.

Hope you all enjoy!