Chapter 9: A Light in Darkness

My shadow's the only one that walks beside me
My shallow hearts the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there would find me
'Til then I'll walk alone....

We walked, heading northwest. Tenpony tower was our ultimate goal, but we needed to resupply first, and make another little stop. A couple of days later and we were strolling into the town of Dodge. According to the signs around the place, it had been called Dodge City before the war, but lets face it, when you could probably fit the entire town population into a single large building, there wasn't much use calling it a city. The locals still liked to call it Dodge City, but that seemed mainly so newbies to the caravan might make trips here to see the "City". I didn't bother, it was just Dodge to me. I came here semi-regulary during scavaging runs. It was the best place in these parts to trade, especially since the alternative was Old Appleloosa. It wasn't much, just a collection of old buildings from before the war, all in a style called "western", for some reason. All were in various stages of decay, being held together by random scrap. roads through town had all been barricaded to keep out raiders except the one we headed in on.

"Hi Chestnut, hi Tiller." I said with a nod to the two ponies on guard detail at the small checkpoint on the road into town.
"Hey Scrounger," Said Chestnut, a, well, chestnut colored earth pony stallion. Tiller, a grey unicorn stallion, merely waved and kept his gaze towards the wasteland. "So, get any good hauls this time?"

"Eh, might have." I said, passing them and heading into town. "You'll find out if you got the caps."

Chestnut rolled his eyes. "Guess I shouldn't have spent so many last night at Tappers huh? Don't suppose your up for a drink later?"

I raised an eyebrow. "You know I don't drink anymore." I replied.

"Right, since you got so drunk you bedded a hellhound." He said, rolling his eyes. "You know, you really need to tell me the real reason you stopped sometime.

I just rolled my eyes, and headed into town. I passed Tappers, the local bar, and instead headed into Quick Deals trading post. Inside, junk of all flavors was stacked with no particular order on the shelves. Guns were piled with golf clubs, toys with grenades. I rolled my eyes and sorted the few grenades out of the toy chest and put them onto the top shelf, hopefully out of reach of any foals. Seriously, Quick Deal was a bit odd, but this one took the cake. I spotted the cluttered counter at the back, quick deal, a dull purple unicorn stallion with a dark blue mane, was in the middle of taking appart a vaccum cleaner. With a hacksaw and blowtorch.

"Hey Quick Deal!" I called out. "Set fire to yourself later, I got trade."

Quick deal looked up, flipping off the welders mask he was wearing and grinning widely. "Hey Scrounger!" He said happily. "Just let me clear you a space." He shooved everything off the counter. Including the blowtorch. It was still lit. As the shelf behind him caught fire, he motioned for me to place my goods on the counter. I motioned to the blow torch with a raised eyebrow, then started piling my goods on the counter. Quick Deal looked surprised to see it setting things on fire, and finally turned it off. Then we got to bartering. Finally, we settled on a pile of caps and supplies for me, and a rifle and several boxes of ammo for him. I had to give it to the stallion, he may be... odd, but in bartering, he knew what he was doing. I waited a bit as the kid bartered his own goods for some food and radaway, then turned to go. As we left, the kid had his eyes on Quick Deal, who was grinning as he got back to using the blowtorch on the vacuum.

"I don't think he's all there." He said once we were outside the door. It wasn't a question, but I could hear the question in his voice. Smart, not actually asking me. I decided to answer anyway.

"Eh, he's harmless enough." I said, smirking a little. "Decent enough at barter at any rate. And occasionally he figures something decent out of his tinkering." I looked back, seeing flames spreading inside again. I hoped he had remembered to refill the emergency water bucket. "When he doesn't just set his shop on fire."

We hadn't gotten more then a few steps though when Quick deal came trotting out after us. "Oh, Scrounger, almost forgot, some folks are looking for you two." He called out.

I stopped, wondering who in Equestria would be looking for me. Wait, us two? Ok, that was even odder. And he said folk, not ponies. So, griffens? But I hadn't ticked off any talons lately, and not after I got kid... "What folk?" I asked, after realizing Quick Deal was waiting for me to say something.

"Oh uh...." He tapped a hoof, looking deep in tought. "Right!" He said, brightening. "All of them."

.....

We got the buck out of Dodge. I didn't want to spend a single moment in any pony settlement now. Not after what Quick Deal had told me. He had a hoof-full of posters with a few bad scetches of me and and kid on them, each from a different mercenary group. Apparently they had been delivering to any large trade center. I had been an idiot. The kid had told me that the computer had sent out some sort of alarm. I just figured it meant to every ministry hub in Filly got a message. No, it was every hub. Every, nag-nipping freaking hub with a functional terminal still conected to that one had gotten a message. A message with our picture.

I guess it made sense, considering just what was hidden in the location we hacked out of that terminal, I would have wanted some major security on it. But now I had a serious problem on my hooves. Quick Deal hadn't been kidding, everyone was after us. Red-Eye, the Steel Rangers, several Talon companies, and various other groups were all after us. The good news was, they wanted me alive. The bad news was a bunch of really nasty groups wanted me alive.From what I found out later, jist of the message was that we had stolen top level classified information. No details on what of course, hense why we were wanted alive. A sudden message to hundreds of terminals across equestria saying we stole info? Yeah, a lot of folk were going to want to know what we had. We had to get scarce, fast.

So, we headed out into the plains around dodge, heading north. We stuck to areas with as much scrubby brush as possible, obscuring the sight of us at a distance. Well, me at least. The kids colors made blending in a bit of a problem for him. As evening turned to dusk, we had entered a series of low hills, and set about to making camp before it got dark. As I ate, I pondered the question of what to do with the kid. I didn't really need him anymore. The door was open, and I knew I could get someone else to both help move the megaspells and guard the place. He was good with terminals, well, better then me anyway, but I could find someone even better. Heck, he couldn't even reprogram robots. I really didn't need a foal around, slowing me down and, lets face it, he was near useless in a firefight. Heck, he couldn't even carry enough gear to be useful for pack work. But at the same time, I couldn't get rid of him. It wasn't just that he was dead if I just dumped him in the wasteland. Hey, I wanted him off my hooves, but he didn't deserve to end up as a slave, or worse. But he knew where the megaspells were, and how to get in. If someone caught him and got the info from him... Well, that wasn't going to happen. Like it or not, I was stuck with him.

As I looked at the posters however, I knew I had to do something about him. The scetches on each poster were bad. I was thankful for the lack of ability to reproduce images. I ended up pictured as ether a horribly mutated pony, a zebra, and in one case, a brahmin. Only one poster, that from the steel rangers, looked like me. The kid however, was recognizable. If only by his coloration and stable barding. I was going to have to do something about that. I looked over at the kid, who was reading papers taken from the megaspell facility. His navy blue coat was ok, it could blend in, at least in a dark area, but his mane was far to bright, and of coarse, that stable gear had to go. Just then, he looked up at me.

"I know why they had balefire bombs!" He half exclaimed.

I stared. "Kid, they had a war. Kind of used a lot of them."

He actually rolled his eyes at this. "No, ZEBRAS used balefire bombs. Our megaspells were cast." He looked thoughtfull. "Well, they were suposed to."

"Huh?" was my brilliant response.

He sighed. "I was told we could cast the spells in special chambers, like we found. But zebras had inferior magic that had to be bound to an object, hence the balefire bombs or missiles." He paused, then continued. "So I couldn't figure out why then, we had a stockpile of zebra-type megaspells. I just found that out."

Meanwhile, I had just figured out a plan. "Sure, fine kid. Tell me. Just hold still, your getting a manecut."

He raised a fuss about that. Especially when he realized I was just going to hack it off with my gauntlet blades. But a bit of threatening got him to hold still and talk while I worked.

"Equestria realized that megaspell chambers would be a big target if the war got bad enough the zebras decided to use theirs." He explained as I hacked away, trying not to cut him with the rediculously sharp blades. "Something called the ministry of arcane sciences figured out that the zebras would try to destroy as many megaspell chambers as possible, and even assassinate any unicorn assigned to one so that the spell couldn't be cast. So they made a plan to develope megaspells that didn't require a megaspell chamber or unicorn to cast, and would be portable. They had a few captured zebra megaspells, and had been studying them. They managed to recreate a few, and figured since zebras could use them, then that meant that even earth ponies and pegasi could to." He winced as I nicked an ear, but kept talking. "They figured they could manufacture the megaspells and keep them all over Equestria, so that if they ever had to be used, zebra spies couldn't take them all out."

"But we found them all in one place." I interrupted.

"Yeah, it turns out a couple of officials decided later that having megaspells that a zebra could set off already inside major cities all over Equestria was a bad idea. So they started moving them to storage sites further away, but then they worried about sabotage. So finally somepony named Crabapple came up with a plan to put them all together in a place kept incredibly secret, staffed with just enough ponies to launch them if needed. Since they weren't unicorns, no one would be able to figure out they were guarding megaspells. But everything was destroyed before they even got all of the megaspells in place."

I blinked. Seriously, everything in there, all that power, and they weren't even done stocking it? It boggled the mind. And before you ask, yeah, I made what the kid said a lot briefer and les sciencey. Hey, I didn't even understand half of what he said. But I had gotten the jist of it. And I had to grit my teeth over that mention of my thrice-cursed ancestor. So, it had been his idea all along. Made since, he had settled Bray. He would have known just how out of the way it was, how unlikely to be hit. And he had used us all to shield weapons of mass destructions from the world, never telling anyone that the power to remake a world lay under their hooves. Even after everything, he had chosen to obey two dead princesses over the loyalty he owed his own kind.

I finished hacking away at the kids mane and tail. I didn't entirely shave him, I couldn't without risking scalping him, sharp as the blades were. Instead, he had a short raggedly cut mane that stood up frizzily on end. His tail had been cut short as well, and I even left a tuft at the end. So now, if one was really drunk, or had the intelligence I found in most wastelanders, they might actually think he was my foal. Plus, cutting his mane and tail so short that the bright colors were a lot less pronounced, and his navy blue hide would do well enough blending in. I would have to do something to replace his stable grab though. It was to bright. But that would have to wait until I coulod get my hooves on some material to make foal-sized barding with. But for now, we needed to rest and get moving in the morning.

....

Hours later, something awoke me. I wasn't sure what it was, but suddenly I was awake, and looking around. Nothing seemed to be stirring around the camp, at least, nothing my limited night vision could pick up. Still, something had awoken me, so I got to my feet. The campfire was still completely out, even the ashes were cold. I walked the perimeter of the camp, peering out into the darkness. Nothing, the land seemed empty, and even my hearing wasn't picking up anything. I turned around to go to sleep when just the faintest sound reached my ears. A slight clink of metal on metal as, somewhere in the unknown dark, someone moved. I headed back to where the kid slept, trying to act like I had heard nothing. Someone was out there, trying to keep quiet, likely as they snuck up on us. I had slept in my pack saddle, as was my habit when out amoung the waste. So I was armed, but the kid was fast asleep, and we didn't have the best cover from a firefight here. If I woke the kid, they would know something was up, and move in fast. However...

I lay down by the kid, snuggling against him. I nuzzled him, looking for all the world like a caring friend, or possibly adoptive mother. In reality, the kid awoke, looking really confused at my sudden caring. "Kid, we are surrounded." I whispered in his ear, still faking a nuzzle. "Act natural, keep quiet, and get out your gun."

I never should have expected the kid to be able to do this. Once more, his uselessness was demonstrated by him peering up at me blearily and asking "Huh?" Before peering around. "I don't see anyone..." And no, he wasn't whispering.

I heared movement, hooves moving in, fast. I growled and sprang to my feet, shoving the kid out of the way and diving for the cover the nearest boulder would provide. I had just pulled myself behind its cover when the first pony came into sight. Unfortionately for him, he hadn't spotted the gray rocks in the darkness, the ones I used to hide the mines when I set up camp. The earth pony made the mistake of pausing when he heard the first beep. He tried to run, but with a loud "Fwomp!" Most of him was sent flying through the camp, aside from a limb or two. Unfortionatly, that blast had cleared a way into the camp. A dark green earth pony rushed in, a revolver in his mouth, heading for the kid. He never saw me behind the boulder. With a "Crack!" the cup I fired smashed into his jaw. The raider roared in pain as several teeth flew, and the gun dropped. I figured his jaw had been broken, judging by the blood spewing from his mouth. But he wasn't stopping. He turned, lunging at me, weaponless but enraged. A rubber duck fired out the muzzle, heading straight into his open mouth. Wait, when had I loaded that? I was going to fire again to finish him off when he dropped, droll and blood gurgling out his ruined jaw as he gasped for air, the duck firmly wedged down his throat, squeaking loudly as he tried to inhale.

I ignored the rapidly axphixiating raider to look for new threats. I saw no one. Wait, I saw no one. Where the heck had that kid gotten to? I listened, and heard frightened whimpering from behind the other boulder. Great, kid was probably having a panic attack of something. I stepped out from the boulder to check on him, and froze as another pony, the black shape of a unicorn stepped out from the shadows, the kid dangling in red-tinged magic at his side, steel colar around his neck and chain dangling to the unicorns hoof. "I got the colt." He sneered, raising the kid in front of him to block any possible shot. "Now kick off that battle saddle or I start breaking limbs."

I had a choice, fire, probably hit the kid at least once before I downed this buck, or do as he said and hope we could escape from an obvious slaver. I glared, and took careful aim. Then my ears perked, and caught the sounds of several other ponies I heard moving in on multiple sides. Great, even if I took him out, I was surrounded, and practical as my choice in weaponry was, it wasn't meant to take out this many enemies in open combat. With a growl, I unstrapped myself from my pack saddle, letting it fall heavily to the ground next to me. I could make out the unicorn grinning, and several more unicorns and earth ponies moved in, all bearing the typical slaver armor, with chains and collars at the ready. "Get us some light to look at our prizes." The unicorn, obviously their leader, ordered. Someone lit a lantern, and the unicorn, who I could see was black, with a dark green mane, perfect for sneaking up on somepony, came into full view.

When he saw me clearly for the first time, his eyes widened in surprise. Mine did to at his reaction. Yeah, most ponies had never seen a donkey before me, but seriously, most just though I was an unusually ugly earth pony, or a near-stripeless zebra. With eyes wide and a smirk begining to play across his face, this buck was acting like he had just found the haul of a lifetime.

"Oh, I just earn myself a bonus!" The buck half shouted, practically dancing in glee. "Oh, careful with the little mare boys, boss has standing orders, not a hair touched." He glared at a few who did not seem at all happy about this. My coat tried to get up and crawl away at the though of what they probably had planned before this order. "You got that?" The stallion barked. The other slavers glared, but nodded, trotting about to their various tasks. Two earth ponies trotted into the darkness and returned, pulling a large cart with a rusted cage made from various wire and metal scrap to the camp. "Now my mare, would you kindly step inside?" The stallion asked with a bit of a grin. "The boss would like us to be civil, after all." I glared at him, and he raised an eyebrow, raising the kid again by the chain. The kid chocked and kicked as he was raised only by the collar. "Or we can see how many bones of the foal I can break until you do." He sneered. "Oh, and get out of that barding, I don't want any surprises."

"I'm a jenny you piece of manure" I growled under my breath.

I kept up my glare as I stripped, taking off everything, even the gauntlets. Then I stepped up and into the cart. It felt a bit odd, I was never this naked, except to bath. Yeah, us equines didn't normally wear cloths once, but in the wasteland, protection was nessesary. The buck swung the kid in next to me, uncaring of harming him. The kid tumbled, chocking, drawing in several harsh breaths as the tension on his neck was released. The unicorn used the padlock on the cage door to both secure the door and the end of the kids chain, then barked out for the earth ponies pulling the cart to get moving. They grunted, pulling the cart as the whole group began moving east. The kid tried to brace himself as the cart jounced and jostled, but the walls were jagged and kept scrapping his hide. I had better luck due to my higher weight, but even I had to simply stay lying down in the center of the cage and try to predict the bumps.

I had a pretty good idea of what was going to happen to us. Like Quick Deal had said, everyone was after us, and they all had wanted us alive. Obvously this buck's leader was out for a reward on us. As they were slavers, we were probably heading straight for Red-Eyes for "Questioning". At least, that was what I assumed until, instead of heading north, we turned south.

The journey took two days. The kid and I resorted to bracing against each other in the center of the cage, both for warmth at night and a slightly more comfortable ride. They fed us. Well, they fed me. They seemed content with giving the kid water so he didn't die on the way, but they made no effort to feed him. I got tired of his rumbling stomach keeping me up at night, so I spared him a bit of my rations the second day. The food sucked anyway, slavers didn't make the best cooks. I kept glaring at the earth pony mare who had been tasked with carrying my pack saddle. Oh, she was going to pay if I didn't get that back.

On the evening of the second day, we entered the hayseed swamps. The slavers were following a track that winded through the grey moss-covered trees, around pools of deep murky water. Every once in a while I heard splashing around us in the water, and several times I saw yellow eyes peering out at us from the brush. The slavers showed no fear, they obviously came by this way often. The few times I heard anything big near us, the slavers simply fired rounds in its direction, and whatever it was would flee. A couple hours into the swamp, we came to what could only be described as a moat. A large trench had been dug into the ground, running to the east and west until trees blocked my view. Swamp water had naturally filled it, and I could see several radigators scurrying away in the water. On the other side of the moat, a truely inpressive wall of every kind of scrap was set, complete with a drawbridge that I was guessing would span the moat when lowered. I could see other slavers peering over the fortress wall at our approaching party. The drawbridge lowered at our approach, and we entered the fortress.

Inside, I could see that a truely massive area was enclosed behind the walls. I could see several barracks set up near the gate campfires burning in front, along with a reinforced little building I assumed to be an arsenal. Off to the side were several large pens made of mesh wire with a few tumble down shelters inside. I didn't need to see the thin and hopeless looking ponies inside to realize these were the slave pens. Around the pens and taking up most of the rest of the space inside the fence, were fields. Someone had taken a lot of time to set up a center of agriculture in the middle of the swamp. I now realized that the moat wasn't just for defense, it was to drain the water from this island of agriculture. I could see dozens of slaves tending the fields, carefully watched over by slaver guards. Great, a slaver with a bigger plan then just buying and selling ponies, wonderful. Like the wasteland needed another red-eye, even in miniature. However, the building that dominated the compound was a small fortress unto itself. Three stories high, it was constructed like everything else, with various scrap, but this one had been reinforced, covered in metal, its windows barred. A balcony extended from the thirs floor, allowing whoever was up there to look down on the whole complex. It likely was the home of whoever was in charge here. And we were being taken right to it.

The wagon stopped right in front of the small fortress, and the unicorn buck opened the cage door, grabbing the kids chain. "Would you kindly come with me?" He said. "The boss is waiting." He smirked. "Or we have fun with the kid."

I glared, but stepped down from the cage. He opened the door, and we trotted into the building. Inside the door, several guns were aimed at us from outside a large cage set around the door. Outside the cage, several gun emplacements had been set up and maned by slavers, guarding the door. The unicorn waved at the guards, and they lowered the guns. The cage door opened, and we moved further into the building. We wound through the building until we reached a large metal door set on sturdy hinges. The unicorn nocked, and a slit opened in it, eyes peering back. It shut, and the door opened to a smaller guard point at the foot of a set of stairs. We were again waved through, and went upstairs. Upstairs was like an entirely different world. Instead of gun emplacements and slavers, we entered a large study, with bookshelves on every wall, and several large comfortable chairs and sofa's scattered about the room. A large fireplace dominated one wall, though no fire was set in it. The slaver yanked the kid along as he went to a sturdy wooden door at the other side of the room. An intercom was set next to the door, and he pressed it before speaking in.

"Boss, could you come down to the study, we have a special order that's come in."

"I'll be right down Shade." A voice responded. The unicorn, Shade apparently, turned away from the intercom and trotted to a highbacked chair, seating himself. The kid cowered next to it, restricted by the chain, looking like nothing so much as a beaten puppy.

"Would you kindly take a seat?" Shade asked, guesturing to a plush, though somewhat faded sofa with a hoof. "The boss will be down in a minute." I just glared, turning my back to him. I looked around the room, hoping for a weapon or possible escape route. There was nothing, no weapons helpfully sitting out, no other doors. The only way out was down through several guard posts, or up past a slaver lord. Neither was a good option. Behind me, I heard the heavy door open, and began to turn.

"Alright Shade, what is this special delivery?" I heard a masuline voice ask. We both saw each other at the same time. He stared, I stared. There, in front of me, was the first living donkey I had seen in over fifteen years.

Level Up!

New Perk Added: A long road. You done much, seen much, and kept going. +1 to endurance.

New Trait: Hope Arises. You have found the rarest thing in all the wastes. Hope. +1 to all stats, so long as you can keep it.