I ignored the kid on the way out the building, pretending to not notice how smug he looked. On the streets, I kept quiet, moving as steathily as possible towards the end of grey haze territory. Of course, this would be much easier if I didn't have an idiot stable dweller foal trotting along after me poking at everything he found remotely interesting. Which was nearly everything. Couldn't entirely blame him, usually I would be looking just as hard for loot, but not in the middle of extreamly hostile territory. Plus, he was being far to load, and of course, his coloring and bright stable barding also didn't help him blend into the surrondings. I was going to have to see about that later. I tried ignoring him for a while, but when we got into what was once the suburban area, he started jerking open every mailbox, and sent several coffee cups spilling from one into the street, where they shattered loudly.

"Kid, keep quiet." I growled. He looked back at me, startled, already looking to go through another mailbox. Then, he looked around quickly, like he thought something was going to jump out at us.

"What is it?" He whispered. I had to make an effort not to facehoof.

"Its called, we are still in the territory of the grey haze, you know, those ponies who tried to enslave you? And if don't want more to find us, you'll keep quiet."

"Slavery!" The kid squeaked, eye wide. "You pon..." He looked at me obviously thinking quickly, "You... wasteland dwellers have slavery?"
"Aint a supporter" I said, rolling my eyes. "And yes, you PONIES do have slavery up here. And the grey hazer's are one of the biggest bunch of slavers in the area. When they don't just go full raider and kill anyone they come across."

The kids eyes were bugging out, and I noticed he was following much closer now as I walked. "Please tell me your joking." He half whimpered. When I shook my head no... well, lets say it didn't help much. Hey, the kid needs to learn, out here, you got to be careful, you got to be quiet, or your going to get dead, or get someone else dead.

That lesson sunk in real fast when night fell. We weren't getting out of grey haze territory tonight, and needed a place to bunk down. We were still in the former suburbs, so I started moving house to house, looking for something suitable. The kid followed of course. the first few places were the norm, looted husks with nothing but a few odds and ends left inside. But one... well, I never did understand why raiders choose the decorations they did, but they certainly left an impression on the kid. Especially after he decided to ignore my warning, rush in first, trip over the doorjamb, and landed in a pile of intestines. Well, that would learn him. Not sure though what rattled him more, the gore or the fact I just stepped over it and went in anyway. Come on, its the wasteland, I dealt with this kind of crap every other day.

He stayed on the front steps as I explored the place, seeing if this was a loot stash or not. Turned out, it wasn't. Two streets down, and I found what I was looking for, a house with a basement, one that wasn't half full of radioactive water and still had a door guarding entry.

"We're camping down here for the night." I said, indicating the dark basement. It was completely empty, and, with only one entrance and exit, would work to our advantage if we were discovered. The kid just nodded and followed me down. Huh, looked like the reality of the wasteland was finally setting in. I should take him into old raider nests more often.

Setting up camp didn't take much time. I wasn't going to risk a fire, both because we were under a rotting ruin of a house, and because I didn't want any grey hazers seeing the light. So setting up camp simply consisted of me taking off my pack saddle and barding, setting out the lantern, and laying out a bedroll. I pulled a can of cram from my pack and began eating, and the colt looked up at me.

"What is there to eat?" He asked, barely whispering. Huh, figured he wouldn't have an appetite after how he had reacted.

"Whatever you can scrounge up." I replied through a mouthful. The colt moved towards my saddlebags, but I stopped him with a hoof. "Mine. Get your own stuff."

"But you said..."

"I would take you with me. Didn't say anything about feeding you."

The colt looked slightly panicked now. "So where do I get food?" When I motioned to the basement door, he looked more then slightly panicked. "Out there, alone?"

"Yup." I intoned, finishing my food. I packed the empty can away, and started getting ready for sleep. Seriously, I wasnt going to hold this foals hoof all across the waste. If he didn't like it, he could always leave. Hey, I hadn't exactly wanted to bring him along, I just needed him for hacking any more terminals that were in my way. He was a tool that, right now, I needed. When that changed, he was on his own.

The colt meanwhile, went through a whole range of panicked expressions as he looked up at the door, obviously trying to decided between satiating his hunger, and the risks of wandering outside alone. "Decide now, I need to secure us for the night." I finally said in exasperation. He shook his head, backing away from the staircase. I got back up and retrieved a mine from the saddlebag, setting it up just inside the basement door. Anyone trying to sneak in here was getting a not so nice surprise. I moved towards one side of the basement, where what was left of an old mirror had been left leaning against a wall.

Not much was left of it, but enough remained for me to get a good look at myself. I was a mess. You could barely make out my light grey coat under a coat of grime and dried blood from crawling through the ruins and the raider encounter. Couple that with the scar on my neck, ripped ear, and a mane style ponies always called a moehawk, and any wastelander would probably have shot me on sight as a raider. Well, I could take care of part of that at least. I brought of a bottle of water and a bit of rag and began washing myself. It took a bit of scrubbing, but I managed to at least get the blood off. For a moment, I thought I had damaged an ear some more, but it was just a piece of raider skin stuck to the black tip of my ear. I twisted around, making sure no more raider bits were stuck on me. Nope, clean.

I caught the colt staring at me, but he hurriedly studdied the wall when he saw me looking at him. I snorted. It was the stripes. They always confused ponies. Guess I shouldn't blame them. For 200 years stripes had simply meant evil zebra. But seriously, zebras were all stripes, I just looked like I was wearing striped socks on every leg. That, plus the "cross" on my back, meant I spent a lot of time convincing ponies I wasn't out to conquer equestria. Or, rather, what was left of it. After all, doneys had apparently been rare in equestria even before the war. Now most ponies didn't even know what we were.

Finally clean, I trotted back to my sleeping pad, settling in for the night. I raised a hoof when the colt tried to settle on the pad as well, and he scuttled off to a corner. Get the mesagge kid, you can follow, but its pay your own way.

I tried to sleep, but sleep wasn't coming. I tossed and turned for a while, until I rolled over and caught the colt staring at me. "What?" I demanded, and he backed further into the corner, sputtering. Apparently he couldn't sleep ether.

"Why do you have stripes if your not a zebra?" He spoke up after I had turned my back to him again.

I groaned, rolling my eyes. Oh yes, the question of my life. Seriously, I could forgive most wastelanders for this, most of them couldn't even read, but stables had to have a school right? "Donkey's can have stripes to kid." I growled, in a tone that made it very clear I was not about to explain further.

It was silent for a while, then the colt spoke up again. "My names not kid you know, its..."

"Kid." I interupted. "Its kid. I don't need, or want to know your name."

"But.." he started, obviously confused.

"Can it." I snapped. "Face it, your here because you might, MIGHT, be able to help me. Don't kid yourself, this isn't some grand adventure, and I'm not your friend. Once I'm done with you, your gone, and I don't need a name to remember you by." I meant it to, he was a tool. Give him a name, and I might just starting thinking of him as someone, rather then sometime. And I didn't need that sort of complication in my life.

The kid started tearing up again, though I could tell he was making an effort not to cry. "Why are you so mean?" He demanded, voice warbling.
I clucked at that, which just made him madder. "Mean? I'm positively pleasant for these parts. I'm just honest kid. How long do you really think you'll survive out of your nice safe vault? You almost got enslaved in your first ten minutes outside."

"Its not my fault!" He cried, tears starting to fall again. Seriously, did I get the biggest baby in the wasteland or what? "How was I supposed to know they would try to enslave me when I asked for help?"

I fell over laughing. "You.." I gasped. "Asked... grey hazers... for help?"

The colt was still crying, and now his face reddened, embarrassed. "Well how was I to know!" he repeated angrily.

"Uh, the bloodstained armor would have been my first clue." I chortled. "Seriously kid, you need some serious leasons in wasteland survival."
"Then teach me!" He demanded.

"Hey, do I look like a teacher to you?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Know a better one?" He retorted.

I opened my mouth to reply, and realized that no, I didn't know any better teachers of wasteland survival. Or any teachers at all. Dang it, I shouldn't have sold that book at the last trading post. "I have better things to do." I said at last. Dang, wasn't that a snappy retort?

"Like what? I'm going with you anyway."

Dang it, he was right on that count to. Dang it, how did I keep being talked into things by this kid? No, I wasn't being talked into anything else by this little annoyance. I had my pride after all. "No." I said simply.

"Why not!?" he demanded.

"Nothing in it for me." Hey, quid pro que and all. If you want something in the wasteland, you had to give something for it... or just find it in a box, or steal it. Whatever.

"I'll... I'll..." Seriously, the kid had nothing more I wanted, and now he was trying to barter. Pathetic. "Um, I ask you a question, you can ask me one?" He tried at last in desperation. Seriously, what on earth could I have to ask him. He was a colt that broke out of a stable, and could hack computers. That's all I needed to know. Come on, I had already told him I didn't even want to know his name. I told him as much, and he look crestfallen for a long moment, before perking up. "I can teach you to hack computers!" He cried victoriously.

I waved a bare forehoof at him. "And would I need a pipbuck for that?" I asked, smirking. he deflated instantly. I could seem him muttering to himself, obviously trying to figure out some other kind of information to trade. I didn't care, I needed sleep, weather my body realized it or not. I lay down, only to hear...

"What about magical energy weapons?' He asked.

"What the crap would you know about magical energy weapons?" I asked, jerking my head back up in surprise. He smiled, and I realized he got me. "Fine." I sighed. "You get a question for every one I ask you, deal?"

"Deal."

"Ok, what the freaking crap do you know about energy weapons?"

"My dad used them in the vault." He said proudly. "He showed me how to fire them once."

"You fired a magical energy weapon... once." I said. Oh joy, I had been conned by a freaking foal!

"Uh huh. So, how can I find food?" He asked, grinning like a shark. I was beginning to think his crying was mostly an act to get his way now.

"Look in fridges and cabinets." I said, might find stuff."

"How do I tell if its any good?" He asked. I just grinned back at him, and lay my head back down.
"Are all donkey's as mean as you?" He asked angrily.

"Find another one and ask them." I said quietly, it coming out sadder then I wanted. I rolled over, and, after a while, sleep finally claimed me.
.......
The next morning, I ate, disarmed the mine, and headed out, the kid trotting after me. Immediately, he went to where the houses fridge lay on its side and opened it. Empty. The cupboards were the same. Seriously, I had looted the place before setting up camp, and he knew that. Outside, he trotted straight for the nearest house. The door was locked, and he started for the next one before he turned back, realizing I had stopped. Locked house? Always worth a check. I brought out my tools. Screwdriver and bobby pins? Please, that was for amateurs. I lived off savaging, and bobby pins always broke when you really needed them. No, I was the scavenger that was smart enough to have spent the time to track down an old locksmiths shop and get the proper tools. That of course, made the job so much easier, and the houses lock wasn't hard. After a moment, it opened, and I headed inside. The colt burst past me, racing for the kitchen. He probably thought I would loot the place of everything if he didn't beat me to it. Smart kid, he was right. Then a shotgun went off, and the kid screamed.

I instantly fell into a crouch, readying my weaponry, My ears perked into full alert, but I could hear nothing but the colts sobbing from the kitchen. I crept forwards, peering cautiously around the corner, the colt was sobbing under the table, blood marring his hind leg. I could see and hear no one else. Then, I saw the tripwire across the doorway. With a sigh, I rose up and moved cautiously forward. After all, there was rarely only one trap. I was right, just around the corner, a bear trap lay, ready to spring. Seriously, how was a bear trap sitting on a bare floor ever supposed to get anyone? I disarmed it and added it to my gear. Always worth a cap or two. I stepped into the kitchen and examined the shotgun. Just a single shot deal, no one wasted good guns in booby traps. Still, free gun, even if it did have one of those stupid triggers only a cheater unicorn could use if it wasn't rigged in a trap.

"Thanks for finding the gun kid." I said, turning to look at the terrified foal. I could see were a the buckshot had just grazed his leg, no permanent damage, but painful. Lucky kid had been going fast enough it mostly missed him. "Oh get up, your fine." I said, moving to check the fridge. A can of cram fell out and rolled over to the kid, bumping his leg. He didn't even notice. I looted the fridge and cupboards, finding only a little food. Seriously, nothing so far was worth the traps. Then I tried the door to what I assumed was the closet, and instead found another basement. I brought out my lantern, and proceeded down. Beer. Kegs and Kegs of homemade beer, and a still. Figured. Valuable, but I couldn't move these kegs. There were only a couple of loose bottles, which I took, then moved back upstairs.

The colt was still under the table, his sobs having died down to sniffles. "Do you have bandages?" He asked.

"Yup", I said, before walking past him and into the main room. I heard him curse behind me.

"Your not giving my any, are you?" He called.

"Nope."

More cursing.

As I checked the main room, I saw him hobble out of the kitchen and cautiously head into what I assumed to be the only bedroom. Huh, looks like he was learning not to rush in unaware after all. Nothing good in the main room, and I was heading into the bedroom after him when I heard a load crashing and the shattering of glass, followed by a thump. I trotted cautiously forward. The kid wasn't in the bedroom, but I spotted an open door to a bathroom inside. In the bathroom, I found a medical case on the wall, hanging open, its contents all over the floor, the healing potion bottle smashed on the tiles. That was the crashing and shattered glass. The kid was lying amidst the mess, bandaging the leg, and a cut to his head sloppily with his magic, which glowed a soft green. It didn't take a genius to realize that he had tried to open the medical kit, only to have everything fall on top of him when his magic opened the latch.

"Your bandage job is sloppy." I said. "Your wasting to much bandage."

He simply glowered at me, sticking out his tongue.

I turned, and checked the bedroom. Only prewar cloths, but they were in ok condition, so I took them. The kid came out of the bathroom, looking a little like he was dressed as a mummy for nightmare night, holding a everything else from the medical kit in his magic. The bottle of purified water he was already drinking from greedily. Smart, now he wasn't going to have to ask for my water.

We left the house and headed down the road, the kid trailing a bit behind, still limping. Seriously, it was only a graze, it was like he had never been shot before. Well, true, he probably hadn't, but hey, time to learn pain tolerance.

"Um, can I have a bag for this?" He asked after a bit, gesturing at the random medical supplies floating next to him. He had only fit a few things in the few pockets his vaultgarb had, which left two rolls of bandages, another water, and some syringes of something floating in magic.

"No."

"But you have tons!" He said, pointing to the various bags tied around my pack saddle.

"Yup, mine." Was my simple reply.

The kid groaned, and headed for the nearest house. I followed, amused. Hey, the kid had to learn. This houses door stood ajar, and the colt proceeded inside, this time with caution. I followed. The place had clearly been long since looted. He searched, but didn't find anything better then a tin can. The same followed for the next house, and the next.

"Kid, we need to go." I said at last. "We can stay in grey haze territory this long." I was a little regretful of that, since this trip hadn't exactly filled my bags with caps at this point, but it wasn't worth the risk of encountering more of the gang to loot a few more houses.

"Just one more!" Was his reply, and he raced to the next house before I could argue. Inside was again, looted. Upstairs though, he disappeared into the room, then gave a cry of triumph. I followed, finding myself in what must have been a foals room. Not much raiding had been done here, after all, broken toys were pretty much worthless. But the kid had found one thing of value, at least for him. The saddlebags had once been brightly colored, but time had dulled the colors. Now they were a muted grey and purple, with dull yellow letters on the carry strap proclaiming "Go Shadowbolts!"

I blinked. Seriously, this kid had ether the best or worst luck in the world. I wasn't sure which. Although, I guess most of the grey hazers weren't going to be interested in a couple of foal sized saddlebags. The kid strapped them on and loaded his meager medical supplies inside. Then we finally got moving again. A couple hours later, we neared the edge of grey haze territory on this side of the city. I carefully moved through backyards and around what remained of houses, abandoning the road. Even the kid realized we needed to be quiet now. Except near their base, the best place to meet a grey haze patrol was at their border, where they charged a toll to anyone passing through, if they didn't just choose to murder them and steal all they had. At least their border wasn't hard to spot. It was marked at random points by pony skulls or body parts mounted on mailboxes or poles driven into the ground.

I heard voices, and flattened behind a dog house, the kid right at my side. I could feel him trembling violently as a pair of earth pony stallions trotted by, talking and laughing. They could have been a pair of friends from any place in equestria, is it wasn't for their barding being stained in multiple places with old blood, the excessive use of spikes and leather, and one of their cutie marks being a leg, broken in the middle and surrounded by blood. After several long moments, they were out of sight, and when even their voices had faded in the distance, I moved cautiously into the open again. A few minutes later, we were past the border, and moving rapidly, but still cautiously, away. An hour later, and I finally decided we were relatively safe. The entire time the colt had been so close I could feel his breath on my legs, and when I turned to look at him, he was still trembling like he had been caught out in a blizzard.

"Kid, were past them." I said, still keeping my voice low. "calm the crap down."

Apparently my words were of little help, so I just rolled my eyes and kept moving.

That night we camped out in an old grocery store on the very edge of Seaddle, where the city began to give way to what used to be forests and farmland, but was now just wasteland. The kid had finally calmed enough that, when we stopped for the night, beat me to looting the place. As such, he actually had food for dinner. However, his eyes when I popped some prewar money into the sparkle cola machine in the corner and actually got an ice cold sparkle cola were something to behold. He kept going on about his amazement that prewar technology was still working and blah blah blah. I ignored him and went to sleep.
.....
Next morning I was ready to get underway, when I caught the kid looking back at the city, ears low, eyes brimming with tears. I tried ignoring him, but finally, I had to ask. "Okay, whats wrong." I finally sighed.

"I... I've never been this far away from home before." He murmured, blinking away tears. "They think I'm dead, and I'm going away from them, and I don't know if I'll every see them again..." His voice drifted off, and tears were running freely down his cheeks. For once, I didn't know what to do. I knew what we should be doing was moving on. Grey haze patrols out here were rare, but they did happen. But deep inside, I couldn't help but feel for the colt. Yeah, his was a privileged little stable-born unicorn brat, who annoyed me at every turn. But he had just lost his home, his friends, and his family, and he might never see any of them again. Heck, he might not even see Seaddle again. Oh, don't look at me that way, I'm not a monster after all.

So, I did the only thing I could think of. I sat down next to the foal and put a hoof around him, giving him a brief tight hug. He turned, and sobbed into my stiff mane, and I was left patting his back awkwardly. After a minute, I pulled away, blinking hard.
"Yeah, lets go, don't waste daylight." I said, voice oddly tight. We walked away, not looking back at the city.
.....
We traveled for days, moving across the barren waste. Between Seaddle and this temporary storage site, their wasn't much. Mainly just a few scattered farms. After a few days though, we came across the only settlement that was on our was to the temporary storage site. The town, if you could call the few buildings made of barely held together scrap a town, was called rain. No seriously, that was its name. And it was apt, as it had been raining for two full days before we even reached the town. Ugh, there was a reason I didn't come to this part of Equestria this much. I freaking hate rain. On the only road into and out of town, we were stopped by a pair of earth ponies, a stallion and a mare, who stood inside a little lean-too. They had lowered weapons at us when we approached, and had ordered us to stop.

"Whats your business in Rain?" the stallion demanded.

"Trade!" I shouted back, jingling my rather full packsaddle. The stallion came out and circled us cautiously, the mare covering him from the shelter.

"All right." He said at last. "Keep all weapons holstered when in Rain. They come out, we shoot you, no questions asked. That building there." He pointed to one of the ramshackle buildings. "Is the store. That one" He pointed to the largest building in town "Is the common house. You can stay the night for a few caps."

"Yeah, thanks." I said, moving past him. The colt followed, and I could see the pair giving us an odd look as we entered town. Well, it was pretty obvious he wasn't mine, and a stable-pony wasn't a common site around here I was guessing.

I entered the town store, and was instantly relieved by the warmth given of by a small stove in the corner. What must have been half the town looked up at us from where they stood, gathered around the small stove. Well, looked like the store was also the local gathering hole, except whenever the bar I saw down the street opened. "Got trade." I said, heading for the counter at the rear of the small store.

Most ceased their attentions to me at that, but then they shifted, looking at the colt, who stood their, looking like a animal caught in a hunters sights. Then, he broke and ran after me, to the sound of much laughter.

The shop pony was a pale grey unicorn buck with a mane the color of old moss, a sort of sickly green. He waited while I unloaded the small mountain of good from my packsaddle onto the counter. Then, the dickering began. He wanted to pay as little as possible for my goods, I wanted to get as much as possible for them. He tried to talk down my wears, I tried to talk down those he was offering in trade. Finally, we made a bargain, and he took my pile of loot from Seaddle, minus a few things he refused as "trash" and I got a bag of bottle caps, some rope, medical supplies, and a set of prewar rain boots close to my size, something I never thought I would find. He tried to offer me a voucher for two free drinks at the local bar, in exchange for some ammo, but I turned him down.

"Quit drinking." I said, rolling my eyes. He of course, had to ask about that, and I gave him the stock explanation. "Last time I got really wasted I woke up in bed with a hellhound." That got quit a laugh from him.

Then, the stallion moved up closer to me and whispered, "So, how much you want for the colt?"

My jaw dropped for a moment before a look of utter disgust took over. "How dare you..." I hissed under my breath.

"What?" The storekeeper said lowly. "Its obvious he's not yours. And he sure as shooting doesn't supply security. Don't know why else a trader would be dragging a non-relation all over the wasteland. But I guess its your business."

"Yes, it is." I half growled. With that, I turned to go, half tripping over the kid, who had been practically glued to my side in an effort to get away from the stares of the townsponies. He fell back into a shelf, scattering canned food everywhere, to the laughter of the townsponies. I wondered if he had been paying enough attention to overhear anything. Well, it didn't matter in any case. He picked up the mess, apologizing profusely. We both headed straight out of town, passing by the hotel and entrance guards. No way I was spending any more time in this town then I had to, not when ponies in it would try to buy a foal. Hours later, we found what was left of an old barn to take refuge in for the night. This time, we had a fire, and I was taking my time drying my coat in front of it when the kid spoke up.

"Why didn't you sell me?" He asked quietly.

I turned, glaring daggers at the kid, he started backing away, mouth moving wordlessly. "You've been traveling with me for nearly a week, and still think I'm the kind of donkey that would sell a freaking foal into slavery?" I asked, my voice low and tense with the anger rising in me. "You really think I'm that heartless?"

The kid had stopped backing away when his tail ended up out in the constant rain, now he stood, head lowered and cowering. I hadn't moved from where I stood. "I... I..." He stuttered. "I don't know. You won't learn my name, you act like I'm an idiot, you won't even share food with me. I just thought... well, when you got a way to get money out of me, I figured... you would."

My glare only intensified. I stepped forwards until I was right in the kids face. "You get this straight right now. I am out for myself. I don't let ANYONE get in the way of me making it to tomorrow. Anything I give you, I loose for myself. I don't give away things that I might need tomorrow." I paused. "I already told you, you are useful. I don't throw out useful things. And yeah, I already told you, once your not of use, I will dump you like a sack of crap." Then I stepped up, so that we were literally eye to eye. I really hated that I didn't have to lower my head to far to get to his level. "But I will never, NEVER, sell anyone into slavery. Get that through your thick little head, or get lost." I turned, and walked back to the fire, lying down beside it on my sleeping mat.

The kid stayed where he was, looking confused. Then, he spoke up again. "So, your ok if I starve to death when you have a pack of food, but you won't sell me into slavery?"

"Pretty much." I murmured. "Sleep now."
....
The next morning, I awoke to find the kid fast asleep on the ground, suspicious looking bits of food surrounding his muzzle. I opened the saddlebags he wore. Several cans of differing pre-war foodstuffs were littering one case. I poked the kid, and studied my pack saddle to be sure, yup, missing nothing. The kid woke up slowly, blinking and stretching as usual. He froze though, when he saw that his saddlebags were open. He looked over at me, reaching out a hoof and shutting them, trying rather obviously to act natural. He put the bags back on as I ate my own breakfast. I noticed he ate nothing, still trying to act like he had no food. I underwent the rather more difficult process of putting back on my pack saddle, and we got underway again.

After we had been walking a while, I finally turned to the kid. "You stole from the shop, didn't you?"

The kid froze right in his tracks. It was a little funny really, him standing there, one foot in the air, eye wide. "I... don't know what your talking about." He said at last, obviously trying hard not to stutter.

"Right, because you totally don't have 6 cans of food just like those on the shelf you fell into in your right side bag." I remarked, rolling my eyes.

"I... I..." He stuttered. Then he sighed, lowing his head. "I'm sorry."

"What for?"

He blinked. "For... stealing." He said, acting like he was explaining a very simple subject to a very young foal.

"Bah, guy would have bought you as a slave. Should have taken more from him." I replied, pulling a small bag of caps from my pack saddle and jingling it.

"But... I... You..." He stuttered, looking confused. "Wait, your telling me its ok to STEAL?"

"Yup." I said, putting away the caps. "As long as they're jerks anyway. Or if survival depends on it." I looked at his shocked expression. "Oh come on, its the wasteland, thievery is practically an art form out here. Heck, why do you think I have locks on my packsaddle?"

He opened his mouth to speak, then shut it again, looking over at my packsaddle like he had just seen it for the first time. He seemed... oddly depressed. Weird.

We kept moving. We had several days of travel until we would reach this temporary storage site. As we started moving through the remains of a prewar farm, my ears perked up. I could hear... something, something at the very edge of my hearing. I froze, holding out a hoof for the kid to do the same. I listened, hard. Nothing but the sound of the slight breeze met my ears. Still, something felt off. "Lets move" I as quietly as I could and still have kid here me. We moved forwards as a semi-rapid pace, I tried to be as quiet as possible, but the kid, obviously nervous at my actions. I headed for a large boulder in the corner of the barely recognizable field, and a few feet before we reach it, a shot rang out, and a bullet struck the ground in front of me.

"Go!" I yelled, racing for the protection of the boulder. We ran, a few scattered shots striking the ground around us. We reached the boulder, and I leaped behind it, the kid following. The shots stopped, and a voice rang out.

"Oh, looks like were going to have some fun!" Rang out a creepily gleeful voice.

"Shoot, raiders." I growled. Great. Bandits would have been bad, slavers I could deal with. Raiders... you never really knew what they were going to do. They were obsessively violent, had no regard for their own self being, and tended to have the general intellect of a radhog. However, once in a while, one with a little intellect would pop up and pull a flanking maneuver or something. That always annoyed me. Either way, I could hear at least 4 voices either shouting or laughing as they approached our cover.

"Kid, if any of them get around the rock, hit them with everything you've got." A said in a low, urgent voice.

"Can't we try talking to them?" The kid asked in a voice tinged with rising panic.

I glared back at him. "You remember that house with the carved up pony bits?" He nodded, looking decidedly ill. "That's what raiders do to idiots who try and talk their way out of things."

The kid's legs started shaking so bad I was surprised he didn't fall over. "I don't have a weapon!" He squeaked.

I thought back to the shotgun I had taken, sold already at that store. Heck, I wasn't giving firearms to inexperienced colts anyway. "Your a unicorn, use magic or something!" I snapped. Then I bent down, flipping a catch and pulling a metal bit up from the pack saddle harness that ran across my chest. I Leaped out from behind the cover of the boulder, facing where my ears told me a pair of raiders were rushing towards me. My pack saddle wasn't anything special to look at. I didn't wear simple saddlebags, they didn't hold near enough barter goods, and without straps they fall off all to easily. My pack saddle, to most, looks like a simple frame supported by several straps, one each across chest and belly, and one around each of my rear legs. On the frame I had mounted a couple large ammo canisters, great for keeping goods safe and protecting my sides from fire. I could also tie bags and boxes to the frame, until I looked more like a moving pile of junk then a donkey.
But the more important side of my packsaddle most folks missed. Mainly because it was hidden. That part was what looked like a bit of old pipe sticking out from behind my left ammo can. I faced the first raider I saw, an earth pony mare with a knife, aimed, and bit down on the trigger. The first projectile shot past her head, not even making her pause. The second however caved in her face, sending her tumbling to the ground in a shower of blood and bone. And possibly coffee cup fragments. The second raider, this one an earth pony stallion, had used those seconds to aim a battered sawed off shotgun at me. I fired, sending a clipboard smashing into his fetlock, causing him to drop the gun as I heard bones shatter. The second shot had a ruined book smash his throat, crushing his windpipe, leaving him gasping out his last breaths on the ground. I looked up and saw the third raider, another earth pony stallion almost on top of me, this one holding... seriously, a pool cue? I took one step back, ducking under his swing. He stuck the rock, and the impact traveled straight up his unfortunate weapon choice, sending it and several rotted teeth flying from his mouth. My shot sent a thin piece of scrap metal right through his neck, sending his head flying several feet away, and covering me with his arterial jet of blood.

I looked around. I knew there had been at least four of them, and I had only gotten three. Crap, someone was getting smart. I turned just in time to see the fourth raider, a unicorn stallion carrying a revolver, race around the other side of the boulder. The kid had already been facing that way, but as I watched, he cowered down. I readied another shot, but before I could manage to get proper aim, the kid moved. With speed unlike anything I had even seen him do, he suddenly levitated several chunks of rock up from the ground around him. One after another, they slammed into the raiders head, sending him to the ground, dazed. The kid stood, panting, looking down at his foe as if uncertain what to do next. I knew what to do. I extended the blade of my gauntlet as I stepped forwards, and sent the blade into the raiders neck. Blood pooled on the ground as I pulled the blade out and wiped it on the raiders clothing.

I turned, just in time to see the kid being sick on the ground. Hey, kid had to make his first kill sometime. Those never did come easy. Though technically, he hadn't done any killing yet. "Good job kid." I said, retracting my blade. "Didn't finish him, but eh, I'll give it to you anyway."
The kid spent several minutes retching and shaking, while I got busy looting the bodies of the raiders. When I finally turned back, he looked up at me, shakily. "I... He's..." He was stuttering uncontrollably, still very green in the face. Finally, he seemed to find a thread of conversation to concentrate on. "Give what to me?" he asked shakily.

"That raiders loot." I said, gesturing to the dead raider he was trying so hard not to look at. If anything, that just made him look even more sick. Then, I saw him glance at the bodies I had already begun looting, and swallow hard. He shakily moved to the corpse and began looking through his pockets. He was smart enough to take up the gun in his magic, but dropping it promptly when I dove to the ground when he accidentally pointed it at my head. "Be careful with that!" I snapped. Great, now I was going to have to give him weapon lessons to keep him from shooting me in the... Well, I needed to give him lessons.

When he was done looting, I took everything else off the raiders body, then we headed off towards the tumble-down ruin of what must have been the farmhouse once upon a time. The raiders had obviously been using it as a base, at least, based upon the pony-part themed decorations. The kid took it much better this time, though I wasn't sure if he was starting to get used to the things the wasteland was throwing at him, or if he just didn't have anything left to puke up. We looted the house, the kid heading first towards the kitchen, myself looting everything of value from the rest of the house.

When we left and finally began moving on, I looked over at the kid. "Hey, how the crap did you move that fast back there?" I asked.
He looked confused, then, comprehension dawned across his expression. "Oh, in the fight, that was SATS." He said simply. Seeing my obvious confusion, he elaborated. "SATS is stable-tech assisted targeting system. Its a spell that comes with the pipboy that lets me speed up my personal time field, making everything else look in slow-motion and target enemies for a little while."

I stared. Seriously, he could speed up time for himself? I really needed to get one of those pipbuck things. If only they weren't so dang expensive, when I could find them for sale at all. "What else does that thing do?" I asked in curiosity. Sure, I had seen former vault dwellers with one, but as far as I knew, it was just a small terminal strapped to their hooves, and I wasn't good enough with terminals to know much of what they did.

"Well, I can manage inventory, check my health, store data, map the area, it has a light, and..." He looked startled, and started fiddling with the pipuck. After a moment, music started blaring out of it. "Radio!" He exclaimed.

"Shut that off!" I barked, and he hurried to comply. "Seriously kid, were still in raider territory, and we don't know if we got them all. So, no radio, no noise, ok?"

He nodded, learning, and we set off again. A couple hours later, well away from the raider base, I started to relax. The kid apparently noticed this, and took a chance to speak up.

"So I get to ask you a question now." The kid said with a grin. I looked down at him.

"Actually, you asked me why I didn't sell you into slavery, and if we could talk to raiders, so no, were even." I replied with a bit of a smirk. That sent the kid into another sputtering fit. I could tell he wanted to ask something about that, but didn't have a question of mine to leverage. For a while longer, we traveled in silence.

After a little while though, I kept seeing the kid glancing at me. The third time he did, he got me glowering back. That didn't stop it though, and I finally barked out "What?!"

The kid looked over, smirking, and I realized I had just asked him a question. Crap, yet again, conned by a colt.

"Oh, I was just wondering how you fired stuff out of your saddle-bag... things." he said, still grinning.

I had to work very hard not to facehoof at the one. Seriously, the kid didn't even know what a pack saddle was. "Its not a saddle-bag thing, its a pack saddle." I sighed. "And that's Practicality that fires things." I saw his look of confusion, and, seeing as he had done the same, explained. "Its a weapon I built from plans I got from this ghoul pegasus trader." I could see him mouthing the words "Ghoul pegasus trader?" but ignored him. "Work on some sort of magic built into a gem, causes any object put inside to get fired out at high speed. Modified it a bit to suit me. Built the ammo hold into my pack saddle. Its the ammo can on my left. As long as I load any junk I find in that one, I never have to buy ammo. And I can even load rocks in a pinch. That's why I call it Practicality"

This seemed to satisfy the colt. Or at least, he didn't have another way to get me to answer his questions on hoof. We walked on, until it began to get dark. Soon enough, rain started, and I started looking for shelter. Wasn't much of anything in this area, just mostly bare hills with the dried skeletons of trees. Finally though, I found a large boulder sticking out of the hillside, forming a sort of shallow cave just big enough to give us shelter from the rain. We bedded down for the night, looking out at the rain, eating our respective canned food. The kid finally remembered his pipbuck, and turned on the radio again. He looked at me to make sure it was ok.

"Just keep the volume low." I murmured, moving to set up the protection mines so I could sleep. The radio burst forth with music, a sapphire shores song I remembered hearing often when I was near a radio. Something about the sun not hiding forever. I only half listened as I finished setting up the mines and lay back down. I was about to tell the kid to turn it off, when the voice of DJ Pon-3 rang out.
I listened, waiting to see if any of the news was about the area we were headed. Nothing of course, DJ Pon-3 didn't give out news of this far corner of equestria often. The local radio station acted both as a booster for DJ Pon-3's signal, but would occasionally break in to give out local news. But the area must be relatively quit for now, which suited me fine. I told the kid to turn the thing off, and slept.

Level Up!
New Perk Added: Bloody Mess. Any character and creature you encounter has a higher chance of exploding in a gory mess. You also do 5% more damage to everything. Because you really need to get covered in gore more often.

Author's Note

Yay, new chapter! Still working on a cover image and decent summary, but I figured I needed to get this out first. Look for a cover image in a few days.