Fallout: Equestria - Last Legacy

Chapters

Prologue
Chapter One: The World I Knew
Chapter Two: Hornstead
Chapter Three: A New Wasteland
Chapter Four: Two's Company
Introduction

Prologue

How far will you go out of faith?

Someone once asked me that question. And now I'm asking you.

How far will a pony go to protect the ones they love? To struggle against the darkness and fight the good fight? How far will a pony go to be a hero? Trust me when I tell you that the cycle of such things has long come and gone. Ponies are just ponies. We always have been. We're all united by the choice to make our mark on the world, in one way or another. And that's what defines us in the end.

Is that what you were trying to teach me, Littlepip?

If you are to understand my current situation, and how I got here, you need to start at the beginning. Before I lost so much of myself. It all began in a little town, with little ponies, doing their little, everyday things with their little, everyday lives. My story starts here, and it is here that you must choose to listen. The events that have transpired are my lineage, my mark on the world... my legacy.

But before I begin, I should tell you a thing or two about friendship.

Well, it's a nifty little idea, to be sure. It's got its ups and downs, and it packs a bigger wallop than a shotgun when it backfires. It's flexible, too. Comes in all shapes and sizes. Some friendships are loose and detached, while others are as tightly knit as kevlar. Some may be a bit of both, and some are neither. Friendship can be dysfunctional, it can be distrusting and even cruel. But above all else, it keeps the world together, keeps ponies sane. Even when it doesn't seem possible, it can still pull through so long as everybody involved is willing to work it out. Because no matter what, friends find a way.

But what is friendship in the face of the "right" choice? What if it's more? What happens when you're put between choosing your family or your friends? Are you a monster for choosing the latter? A saint? What is it about friendship that makes it so special?

It all comes down to one simple question: how far will you go out of faith?

It's my job to end this tale that she started. But all you need to know right now is that I'm a survivor of this world, and I have a story. My name is Everdawn. Pleased to meet you. This is my legacy.

Chapter One: The World I Knew

Chapter One: The World I Knew

”Grey.”

Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock.

I'd resorted to this yet again. How many hours had I been sitting here, doing little to nothing? Was this healthy?

I swung my hooves over the back of the futon, admitting defeat. The clock was drowning out my thoughts yet again. I muttered a line of gibberish as my eyelids pestered for a midday nap. Each moment that ticked by seemed to only add to an eternity of them. "Ugh!" I flopped backwards unceremoniously onto the couch again with a loud creak, and then proceeded to repeat the action five or six more times. The springs never did very well with sudden changes in weight. At least the noise was semi-entertaining.

And before long, it was back to staring at my ceiling again. As I counted the cracks, my ears were engulfed by the ticking of the clock, and I found myself counting along once again. I stopped.

"This is getting ridiculous." Six more hours until work. Goddesses help me.

I practically kicked my screen door open on my way out to the porch, grabbing the lawn chair nearest the door and promptly sitting down. My yard, comprised of clean-cut grass and two rather large hedges that my parents had given me as a housewarming gift, stared back. One of the hedges, whom I'd taken to calling Bert, was strangely misshapen. Rather than maintaining an upright posture, as most of the hedges around town did, Bert had a disposition to bend over. I liked to draw my conclusions about a possible past life Bert may have had. Somehow the idea of a promiscuous hedge struck me as good humor.

Ernie, my other trimmed hedge atop whom I'd stuck a straw hat (so that I could tell them apart; as if Bert's suggestive posture wasn't enough), had raised one of his 'arms' into a sort of half salute. He never lets it down either. What characters.

I smiled at them, waving a friendly hello. Ernie stared at me through his pink hay bans.

"I take it you guys are enjoying this nice day?"

"..."

"You should probably get some lotion, Bert. The full moon might start burnin' if you're not too careful." I looked a little closer, noticing that the shaded area underneath Ernie's straw hat actually looked a bit lighter than the rest of him. "Woah, I'm likin' that tan line, Ernie. Keep it up and you'll end up with some real twigs and berries." I added a playful smirk to let him know I wasn't trying to hurt his feelings or anything—Ernie's always been the sensitive one.

"..."

I sighed, licking the inside of my mouth and nibbling the walls of my cheeks. Over to my left sat a swing set beside my house. The hanging seats hadn't been used in years, but the old thing still looked just fine. I never fully understood why none of the townsponies had ever stopped by to use it with their fillies and colts. It was almost as if none of them knew where my house was... which was obviously untrue. 80 ponies in town; one of them (besides my parents) had to know where to find me.

I guess that's another thing about my humble abode: no visitors. Ever. Back when my parents used to live here we'd have the occasional guest to celebrate a birthday or something, but now it was like the old place had drifted completely off the known world.

I shouldn't complain too much. After all, an unpleasant visitor could just as easily show up as a welcomed one. Believe it or not, but not everypony in our town was as friendly as one could hope. In fact, some of them were just downright unbearable. But at least seeing somepony would be better than this. Anypony? It's not like the wrong kind of visitor had ever shown up before anyway.

The forest near the road outside was quiet. It had been that way for a long time. I still had memories of when the chirping of crickets and birds were notable, when the blissful splashing of the creek behind the treeline brought a kind of serenity. It was always so distinct, the way they sounded in unison. But after the millionth time of hearing it, any real spark was gone. Now it was just a gentle breeze and the rays of the sun that caught the attention of my senses. (That, and the ungoddessly clock in my living room.)

Some might say I was lucky to have lived that way for so long. But the boredom gets to you after a while.

Feeling jittery, I got up and stretched, my back popping a few times as I trotted out into the sun's welcoming embrace. The effect of warmth was immediate on my fur as I looked out to the horizon. Distant mountains. A land beyond this one. With wonders that nopony had ever seen before. I lived on a slope, which allowed me faint view of the many rooftops that formed our town. The houses surrounded the rocky shore of a small lake that served as our general townfare center.

For a moment the town seemed to beckon to me. I beheld a short moment of aspiration to wander, and then it cut off as sloth reared its slow and tired head. As if I'd practiced this step-by-step process hundreds of times before (which I had) my hooves turned me around and brought me back inside. Closing the screen door and locking the main one behind me, I tossed the house key onto my coffee table and headed to bed, casting my room in darkness as I lowered the shutters and closed the door.

I fell face-first into the pillows. Good 'ol Tranquility.

** ** **

Sometimes I wondered about what life would have been like if I hadn't worked here in this little store on the outskirts of town.

Truth be told, I’d have probably been doing something equally as boring. I mean, it's not like I had an entire foundation of exciting activities to choose from. I did have certain things that I did to occupy myself. Some I'd rather not share, but still, they occupied me. By the vast majority, my time was spent either staring outside or at a wall. But for now, it was spent waiting. Starting work each night at 7, and ending when the sun came up, I was pretty much alone for ten to twelve hours a night. I didn't see my manager more than twice a month, so I had all the time in the world to mess around. In the case of today, I'd already taken a midday nap, so I wasn't the least bit tired as I looked out to the darkening skies.

It should serve as a fun fact that I'm... was... afraid of the dark. Working the night shift always felt like such a challenge at first, considering the phobia I'd had for most of my life. Without going too deep into detail, I will say that it usually ended with me resorting to some pretty... unorthodox coping methods. By far the most common was standing in the middle of the store, right where the light was brightest, in hopes that if any happened to go out I'd still have another five or six to back me up.

But exposure dulls the senses. Now the most challenging part of my night was staying awake. Funny how things work out that way.

Every once in a while I actually considered leaving to go explore. Ponies never came here at night. They never just happened upon that lonely restock station during some nighttime adventure to catch up with a perfectly nice, perfectly respectable store clerk mare. Sometimes I would hear about ponies who would go out on nightly escapades. The ones who went always came back stoked. Rumor had it that after walking long enough, you just couldn't go any further. Was there a brick wall or something? I never really asked... to be honest the topic was kind of taboo.

Maybe I could try it. I could go out, "catch some fresh air", and nopony would ever know. I could pack my saddlebags and just leave, and there wouldn’t even be so much as a wayward glance.

Oh Everdawn, you crazy mare, you.

I looked around, surveying the empty shop. The only real noise was coming from the freezer to the left of the canned food isle. Its low, steady hum filled the store with an air of complacency. The white noise did a good job of producing its own atmosphere, and it actually formed a bit of a melody if you'd listened to it long enough.

I checked behind me. The clock hanging on the wall ticked steadily, filling my ears yet again with the deafening presence of blank sound. I had to fight not to count along with the the littlest hoof.

9:15

More waiting. More wondering when the night would be over. This was usually the time when I’d slump back against the counter and pass the time by counting a wink or two. But tonight I was at a disadvantage with the nap I'd taken earlier. So instead of letting my head rest, I stared blankly at my reflection in the window of the shop. I straightened my posture in an effort to look dignified in my position, and gave myself a mental hoof on the back.

The move was a tad bit prideful, admittedly. I mean, I was certainly no mayor, but I liked to think that my job in our area held some kind of importance. Besides, the store manager was the mayor, so at least I could say something to benefit my social status. Our town only had 80 ponies after all, so needless to say it wasn't that big a deal that I knew the stallion. Still, the fact that I was well-acquainted with him brought comfort in some small degree.

In technical terms, the noble titles of "cashier" and "clerk mare" described my position. Choose whichever you like. Heck, call me both!

With the perks of being an honorary clerk mare, I was privileged with the responsibility of keeping track of the store's supplies, greeting customers like friends (which most of them were, if you think about how considerably puny our town was), and notifying the mayor when the need for a change in stocks surfaced. This changed from season to season, but always came back around to the same old thing.

"Good sales means a good salary, Everdawn," he'd remind me on one of his blue-moon visits to change the products out. But what was the point of working if you were going to be fed anyway? "You seem like you're competent enough," he'd told me. For a while it was amazing that anypony trusted me so readily, especially with such easy access to Pay cards. But it was like the mayor said; I was competent, wasn't I? I sure hoped so.

A light bulb somewhere on top of my head flickered on. I was so engrossed by boredom that I'd almost forgotten! I looked around, checking for a spying set of eyes. None to be seen. Setting the keys down on the counter, I trotted around to the back of the store and opened the door. This was one of the perks about being the night shift employee.

I rounded the corner of the establishment and hopped up onto the dumpster, making a quick leap to the wall near the door as I scrambled onto the roof and trotted fervidly over to a small sleeping bag. I'd brought it up here some months ago. By now, this was pretty much routine, but it still didn't stop me from coming. I circled the spot of comfort, plopping down onto my haunches and looking up to the sky.

Nothingness! Just a dark, blueish nothingness. No vibrancy, no essential hue or shade out of place. This was the world I knew.

"Come on..." I prodded, "I know you want to." My eyes peered endlessly into the expanse, a sort of disappointed scowl beginning to make its way onto my countenance. I was a patient mare, but there were just some things that I didn't care to wait for. I'd almost looked away when they appeared.

The stars. Thousands of them. In such magnitude. A smile crept along my face as nature's blank canvas became freshly painted with starlight incandescence. My mouth hung open a little as I fell backwards onto the comfort of my sleeping bag. My head was met with the softness of a pillow as I continued to gaze upon the brilliant abundance of little lights that dotted the sea of darkening blue.

I beheld the sight with familiarity. A long-lost sibling, a family member I'd never actually had. A long sigh of contentment escaped my lips as I lay on my back staring into the vast array of lights that stretched across the horizon. This is what I looked forward to every time I came to work. Curious how a pony who enjoyed the nighttime so much had the cutie mark of a glistening sunrise. But I digress. While the ponies of the town were asleep, I remained, awake and in utter wonder of the world that seemed so far away, and yet so close. I reached out a hoof with longing as the moon appeared. Spontaneous, like it always was, the bright orb that swam through the stars with a grace unbeknownst to me kept alight the world below, simply doing its duty. There was a sort of feeling behind the night that I can't quite explain, something that made it so different from the day. The moon seemed lonely and... individual, while the sun was a constant ball of brightness and warmth. Nopony really relished in the moon's light.

I took a moment to ponder. Does it ever get jealous?

** ** **

The next day, I got home and locked the door behind me... which I didn't even have to do. I blame the bad habit on my parents. It was completely unneeded, but it had stuck. After all, what was the point of locking a door that would never be opened by anypony besides me? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Anyway. Despite the fact that it was six o'clock, my body insisted it was late-afternoon, and with each passing moment I felt the need to take a nap. I was rather tired from doing nothing all night long, and ready for a good ol' fashioned snooze. After a bite to eat, of course.

I looked into my fridge, yearning to sink my teeth into a nice cold sunflower sandwich. Some might argue that eating one cold is nothing short of disgusting, but I beg to differ. Everything is better eaten cold. Everything. And this particular morsel would have been no exception. I stared into my refrigerator blankly, looking at the neatly-packed grub in mild monotony. The sandwich sat amidst dozens of other snack food items, but suddenly it didn't seem very appealing.

I sighed. "Seafood sounds better anyway."

Rather reluctantly, I gathered my saddlebags and made my way onto the porch, the screen door swinging shut behind me as I casually locked it. I trotted past Bert and Ernie, nodding politely. "Hey guys, I'm just gonna be right back. Take care of the house for me, and if anyone comes by, tell them that I'll be back in a couple hours!" Ernie simply replied with his signature wave, Bert occupied with another stance altogether. What characters.

Sometimes I wondered what they did while I was gone. What if they tore the place down and rebuilt it before I got back? What if ponies visited me while I was away, but only while I was away? Thoughts like these were pretty frequent. Needless to say I've had my fair share of dives into the existential realm on these periodic walks. I hated it though, because soon enough it had me questioning who I was, and... well, let's be honest, nopony likes change, much less realizing how much they probably need it.

I looked down on the dirt road ahead leading into town. My mind traveled elsewhere, as it's always done. I can't remember what I was thinking about. I'm sure it wasn't anything too important, although I felt like I'd negated something.

Meh.

** ** **

My hooves clopped rather loudly against the road as I made my way to the town. The sound of the trees swaying in the wind provided a peaceful backdrop for my thoughts while my hooves formed a distracting cadence with the concrete. The steady flow of air around me only seemed to add to the multitude of noises, and every new step reminded me that I was venturing to a place that I was not so used to going anymore. Perhaps this sensation was that of dread or anxiety, but there was also a sprinkle of excitement at seeing a few friendly faces again. No doubt the townsponies would still remember my name.

Right? How long had it been since I'd visited them? A week? A month? Time was always so hard to keep up with.

When the buildings first came into view, my feelings were that of zest. But as I thought about what my visit to the town would entail, I slowly began to have second thoughts. Once ponies saw that I was back, word would spread to my parents that I'd returned. And, knowing them, it could only be a matter of time before my trip to the docks turned into an interrogation session.

"Are you staying out of trouble?", "Do you say your prayers before you go to bed?", "Have any stallions caught your eye yet?", "Don't you think you could stand to get a manecut?", "Have you been eating healthy?" Oh, and don't even get me started on their opinion of my job. "You ought to be the mayor's Advisor," they told me when they'd found out about the Dart-Mart. I assured them that I still got to meet him on a fairly regular basis, but that didn't seem to cut it.

Maybe I was looking too much into it. My parents may not have even been awake yet. What time was it again? Dammit, I kept losing track! Why am I even dreading this so much? They might not even see me today. I mean, it was a small town, but it's not like everypony was within direct line of sight. Maybe they were still in bed, sleeping in or... ew, no. I quickly dismissed the thought. Besides, they just want to talk to me when I happen to stop by. I'm their daughter. What could really be so bad about having a little family ti—

"Honey? Honey! Harold, come quick, our little sunshine's back!"

It felt like eating a lemon.

** ** **

"No."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"How do you know?"

"Ugh! Mom, I don't know! Can you just drop it already?"

"Honey, all I'm asking is if you... failed..." I could tell she hated saying that word, "... the leadership committee training on purpose! It's not a hard question."

"Mom, who honestly fails just to fail? What even makes you think that I —"

"Don't you use that tone with me, young mare. Harold!"

"Sunny," my dad piped up, "respect your mother." He didn't even so much as glance away from his book.

This whole day was going exactly according to plan, much to my chagrin. The interrogation had started when the subject of my involvement in the community came into question, and seeing as how I just couldn't keep my mouth shut, I had to go and have the last word that I hadn't been interested in the leadership committee anyway. And now, here I was, stuck alone with my mother in a boat just out of reach of the docks, while my father sat quietly reading by the edge of the water. As you could tell, she'd been wringing me out.

"Don't call me 'Sunny'!" I griped.

"Everdawn, did you or did you not fail on purpose?"

"No, Mom! I didn't fail on purpose!"

"... Are you sure?"

"Yes!!"

I facehoofed. The conversation had just looped around for a third time. It was time to go.

"Listen, it was nice seeing you and all," I quitted the boat hurriedly, making a leap up to the docks, "but I gotta go."

My mother gave a concerned look, "So soon?" She stared at me in disbelief.

"Yeah, sorry, got places to be," I hastily replied. Trotting past my father on the shoreline I issued one final good-bye. "See ya, Dad."

"Take care, honey," he replied without so much as lifting an eyebrow.

I guess my relationship with my parents wasn't bad, per say. It was just painful to sit through... particularly on days that I actually had to talk to them.

So I made my rounds at the Sea Shop, said hello to the fisherponies, and paid a couple of cards. No big deal. I gave my last few good-byes to old friends that I really wished I'd seen first, and I'd just gotten out of range of eyesight when I heard some faint kind of yelling on the wind. I couldn't tell where it was coming from at first; it was just kind of an omnipresence for the moment. But as I tuned in, I noticed that it got louder behind me. I turned around, spotting my parents some distance away, running toward me. They were carrying something.

I dropped the grocery sack to speak.

"What!"

"Unny! Weavasuriseferyu! Itaserbirdayaewaysago aneewerejusopingto stop by sometime, but we couldn't! I'm so sorry sunshine!"

"... What?"

I watched my mother yell again, my father trailing after her and closing his ears each time her shrieking voice came out. She gradually got clearer as she came along. I watched her little hooves shuffle down the road for a good long while, taking note of a box she had placed on her back just as a glint of sunlight reached my eyes from behind the swaying leaves of the treeline. Maybe it wasn't too late to reconcile. I had the rest of the day, and it wasn't like I was doing anything productive.

"WehaveyourBirthday present honey!" My birthday? My... my birthday. That's what I'd negated. I hadn't even so much as come by to see them. It had been over a year since I'd seen them? A whole year?! Of course it wasn't too late to reconcile! I had the rest of the day! With nothing to do but sit back and...

And then it happened.

I hadn't even noticed it at first. It just kind of felt like a bit of pressure, like when you hold your breath to go underwater. Only I wasn't coming back up. My mouth opened without warning, my lungs suddenly much more desperate for air. I kept an eye on my parents as a burning discomfort built up in my lungs, until finally it had stolen my attention away from them. I tried to ask what was happening, but no sound came out. The pressure grew. I made a move to yell for my parents' help.

"...!"

My mouth only moved. Not a peep.

Was this a dream or something? I gasped, looking around wildly in search of abnormal conditions. The gentle breeze pushed on my back one final time before I sank to my knees. I looked up to my parents, who had noticed my fumble and were now in a much more hurried pace. My eyes went wide as the first wave of oxygen deprivation hit me. Without warning, my vision flashed to a darker place, somewhere... else. It returned back just as soon as it had left. My parents reached my side as I collapsed on the ground. I couldn't breathe. What was this? This was like not being able to eat or sleep. How could I... not... breathe? My lungs expanded rapidly all of a sudden, and I really began to panic as the adrenaline kicked in.

Can you blame me? How could I have known what dying felt like?

My mother was yelling something as the second wave hit me. Whatever it was, it hurt! And this time, my vision went back to someplace darker again. The same place as before. It was blueish, although hard to see with little stars making their way into my peripherals. I barely got the chance to look around before I was hurled back into reality. My mother was standing above me, my father crouching right behind her. The light returned to my vision as my current setting began to slowly fade around me. The sky became darker blue, the trees started to wiggle erratically, vibrating in a sort of odd motion I'd never seen before. The only real point of relative peace was my parents as the world around me distorted in static. Their faces. Goddess, if they could've seen their faces. Those are the kinds of faces you look up at and shed a few tears to. The sun shining behind them, the dampness in their eyes. For a moment I couldn't even concentrate on how much it hurt to suffocate.

"Honey, we hoped you'd be dreaming, but..." Whatever that meant, she started to cry. My mother. The stick in the mud. The mare who had raised me with class, who had told me never to let somepony see you show weakness... couldn't control herself as she looked down on her little baby filly struggling for her last breaths. She finally caught herself. "It's okay honey... it's okay to let go... we're he—" she suddenly stopped, and her eyes went wide. She looked over to Dad. His focus darted between her and me as a somber sigh escaped his lips.

The world flashed to static for an instant. Then another.

He put his hoof around Mom, leaning down to my face and giving me a kiss on the forehead. "I'm sorry it had to happen this way, Sunny. Just know that we..."

"Be strong, baby."

"Be strong, Everdawn," they said.

And just like that, they were gone.

** ** **

I was in a state of limbo when the final wave of suffocation hit me, and believe me when I say that the past few rounds weren't even remotely close. It felt as if my ribs had imploded. My lungs probably had. I opened my mouth in a silent scream of pure agony, my vision fading a little as tears burst forth from my eyes. I was in the darker place again. My mother and father's faces disappeared from sight entirely as, for the first time in my known life, I opened my eyes.

I was inside a tube of sorts. There was some kind of television screen in front of me, but its contents were blank and lifeless. I hardly had time to look around. Every second was worse than the last as my chest was continually blasted with wretched fire. I just wanted to let go. I just wanted to go to a place where I wouldn't have to do anything ever again as long as I didn't have to feel this feeling. Whatever it was, I just wanted it gone.

My head spun violently around, looking for a way out as my hooves banged limply on the glossy surface of the glass tube around me. It had been fogged over. My feeble strikes were only wiping some of the condensation away. It felt like I was lying in a partly-upright position. Making these final assessments, my body began to convulse and shake, my chest constricting again and again and again. My legs all began to spasm out of control as my eyes rolled back a bit, my world growing darker and darker as I fought for something... anything. Everything became a blur—a really dark blur—as a tingling sensation raced across my skin with a boiling heat. My last two or three seconds alive were going to be a blinding ball of pain.

I hadn't even noticed the tilting of the glass. A deep electronic sound echoed through my thoughts without any real meaning. My eyes began to shut. My limbs went numb. I felt a rush of cold around me as the door to the cylinder opened upwards, the screen in front of me disappearing from sight as fresh air flooded in.

My body responded in an instant. I rocketed upwards, lungs filling with new oxygen as I slumped forward and fell out of the chair. The hardness of the floor, the wet slap as I made contact with the steel, I don't think I've ever felt so... alive. My veins pulsed with new life and energy as I breathed in the air around me, sucking it in like a sponge as I gasped like a lunatic. I gulped for it, twisting and turning in hopes of attaining more. I wanted everything to do with it. I wanted it forever, to never lose it again. A wave of dizziness hit me as I breathed in the holy essence of the atmosphere around me.

And then I threw up. All over myself. All over the floor. Over and over again, I heaved, until there was nothing left in my stomach. And then I heaved some more. My tongue stuck out, dry gagging and choking noises getting in the way of my attempts at respiration. I sucked in air between retching, just happy at how much I was getting now opposed to the tube. When my belly finally stopped contracting, a little bit of scarlet liquid dribbled out of my mouth. I couldn't be sure of what it was, but it had a particularly strong smell to it, almost like rock but... sharper? It tingled my muzzle a little bit as I stared at the small blotch on my hoof. I fell back, weary from it all.

Wait. Where am I?

My eyes made lazy motions to and fro around the semi-lit room. The dim glow of overhead lights illuminated the space around me, allowing faint sight of the rest of the spacious metal chamber as a number of other tubes surrounding me beeped furiously. Everywhere I looked there were stars, but at least I could see again. The ceiling looked particularly tall, with a strange pillar connecting it to the floor. It danced with blinking lights. Excluding that, the rest of the room appeared utterly destroyed.

A building?

"H-Hello?" My voice sounded weak and worn as I noticed just how dry my throat felt. My eyes began to droop just a little bit. So... tired. "Mom? Dad?" No answer. The silence gave its signature response.

Wherever I was, I needed to find a way out. I wanted to know what in the Goddesses' names was going on.

Well, easier said than done. I quickly noticed just how extraordinarily difficult it was to hoist myself up. Eventually I gave up and decided upon looking for an exit and crawling. I resented the thought. Why should I have to crawl to wherever I'm going? Haven't I done enough already? Behind me, some meters, was a hallway. A dim light shone across the room enticingly. The chill of the room seeped through my fur and into my skin, drastically cooling me down.

The floor was freezing! And crawling suddenly seemed like a very good idea.

I grunted loudly, putting my hooves in front of me in hopes of gaining some traction on the smooth metal floor. I had been reduced to near-nothing. I was spent. Done. Pooped. Dragged down and worn out. Couldn't I just stop now?

I clung tightly to the floor with my aching hooves, giving way to feeble inching across the large room and toward the entrance to the hallway. As I finally reached the corner of the corridor, my vision began to fade once more. I hurled. This time, there was enough fluid for it to serve as a projectile. It promptly splattered against the wall. I breathed heavily now, laying down next to the puddle as my last few moments of consciousness approached. Something was happening at the end of the hallway as I lay there, huffing erratically. Movement.

The darkness moved in from my peripherals to the center of my vision as my eyelids slowly forced themselves shut. My world went black with the sound of hooves and a resounding voice throughout the chamber.

"Quick! She's alive!"

Hoofnote: Level Up.

New Perk: Forbearing One — Years of living alone has taught you the value of thinking time and silence. Isolation now boosts your Perception and Intelligence skills by 1 point each.

New Soundtracks Unlocked: Prosaic

Stargazer

The World I Knew

Chapter Two: Hornstead

Chapter Two: Hornstead

"Nothingness!"

I was warm. The world lay still.

My cheek tingled. I lifted a hoof to scratch it. It didn't tingle anymore. Back to sleep.

My cheek tingled. I scratched it. Back to sleep.

My ear tingled. Okay, what the Dickens, dude?

There was a soft snicker behind me as I shot up in the bed. My bed? No, this was not my bed. Why was this not my bed? I looked around. Not my room either! Why was this not my room? I looked to the left. Not my wooden walls, or my dresser. I looked to the right. My eyes were drawn to the edge of the bed, where a gigantic pair of eyes were watching me... peering into my soul.

There was a moment when the pair of bulging pupils and I simply stared at one another, fixated, unmoving. The moment didn't last long.

The noise that escaped my lips was the shrillest sound pony vocal chords could make. I kicked back against the covers, tossing them over my stalker in a panicked fit. It (?) started to scream as well and scrambled around the room, blind as it ran. I threw the lamp next to the bed. It crashed against the wall. I threw my pillows, which fwoomped harmlessly off of the tangled sheets that had now made a rush for the door. I picked up the dresser nearby, lifting it clear over my head.

Wait, what?

At that moment my peripherals alerted me to the presence now standing in the door. A stallion. And not one I knew. I didn't like that, so I threw the dresser. The stallion shut the door just as the running bed sheets had escaped... but it didn't stop the dresser. The object in question soared straight through, knocking it clean off its hinges and crashing down a hallway in a splintery heap.

Wherever I was, it was time to go. I jumped out of the bed, soaring out the door and noticing a number of heads peering into the hallway as I ran past the crumpled pile of dresser and towards the only visible staircase. I lost coordination halfway down and fell flat on my stomach. Pushing up, I bolted toward the nearest door and threw it open. I was greeted with the sight of somepony sitting on the toilet. I screamed, and he returned the favor, throwing the book in his hooves at me. I didn't bother shutting the door behind me as I made a mad dash for the other door in the room. Upon opening it, the head of some kind of creature turned to me, staring me dead in the eye as it drooled dully. I screamed again, slamming the door shut. Just then, a silvery, transparent wall appeared around me. I crouched low against the floor, huffing erratically as the stallion from before walked slowly into view. "Woah now, hey! Just calm down!" He stared at me a moment, his horn alight with a silver glow as the dome crept closer along the ground towards me. "Just play nice! It's okay, you're okay! No need to worry, just... calm... down!" I tried to kick the shield away, but it was no use; the darn thing just absorbed the shock. "Calm down, Stablemare!"

Stablemare? The hoot?

I shook my head. "Where am I? Who the hoof are you!"

And for Goddess' sake, why hadn't I seen him before? Everypony in Tranquility knew everypony else. This... this was an impostor!

"Everything will be explained! But first, I just need you to... stay there." I pulled my hooves away from it as best I could, but it was no use. It touched my forelegs with a chill, and then worked its way up my belly, and then... it was gone. The wall disappeared, and the stallion was left in the middle of the room, looking concerned as I stared back at him. "Do you think you can do that for me?"

It took a little moment, but I nodded. He simply smiled, letting out a baited breath. "Okay. Good. Now, I'm sure you're just as curious as we are. So how about you just... settle down, and we can get some proper introductions?"

I nodded again. He slowly moved forward, sitting gently down beside me so as not to startle the crazy mare.

"Okay..."

The stallion's name was Preacher. He came from Let's Not Talk About That Yet. And my bedside stalker? A filly by the name of Lily. From what he'd told me, she wasn't actually allowed in my room. "For good reason, clearly," he'd said. He called it my room. But it wasn't mine. It was his room that I'd been using for the past few days. Confusing, right? I didn't really get it either.

After some getting acquainted, he told me that I'd been rescued. From where? "Let's not talk about that yet." But I was a patient mare. Except when I woke up in some stranger's house; that might set off some alarms.

He'd only wanted to ask me some questions. He said he'd helped me somehow, that he only wanted some help in return. I asked him what he meant by that. Same response as my last couple of questions.

"Do you know how you got here?" he asked.

I thought for a moment, remembering only the last time I'd been awake. Being taken away. Starved of air. Left alone to fend for myself. I shook my head. Let's not talk about that yet.

"And you don't remember the procedure?"

"Procedure?" I repeated.

"Thank Celestia. Trust me when I say that you're a lucky mare... erm... ah... what's your name, if I might ask?"

"Everdawn."

"Everdawn," he echoed, tasting the name on his tongue. "I apologize for any pain you may have experienced as a result. You were in a desperate state, and we did our best. Although, be advised, your body may not be used to its new... potential." What? "At least the anesthetic worked, so we didn't get off on the wrong hoof there. You don't seem to be feeling any major negative effects of the operation."

I shifted to a more comfortable position. "I guess not." I would have asked, but Let's Not Talk About That Yet was a place I was sick of visiting. A meadow sounded better right about now. I had that same feeling of needing an escape. I needed to run. Hard. Away. Back to Mom and Dad, the safety of my home.

"Do you even know your stable number?"

"I don't even know about half the stuff you're talking about," I remarked. "Listen, I like your house and all, but I'm not looking to stay any longer than I have to. When can I go home?"

He paused for a moment, then his eyes met mine. "Why don't we get you acclimated first? Come on upstairs, I have some ponies you should meet." Without another word, he stood and made his way up the staircase, over to the (former) door frame, and beckoned me with a tilt of his head. I followed, bidding an apology as I walked past where the door used to be. I still didn't know how I'd thrown something so large.

As he guided me toward a side-room that bordered this one, I heard a sharp ruckus followed by laughter. There were other ponies here! I practically leaped with joy as Preacher led me into a spacious living room. For some reason, as I rounded the corner I half-expected to see ponies from Tranquility. I was sadly mistaken. Sitting on various pieces of furniture around the living area were complete and total strangers... who looked like they hadn't bathed in years. The smell confirmed it.

"Everyone, I'd like to introduce you to Everdawn. She's going to be staying with us for a few more days, so I want you all to give her your warmest welcomes." The group stared at me as he spoke. I smiled as brightly as a fake smile can bright. "Remember... she's in our home. And while she's in our home, she's as good as family. Is that understood?" The ponies in the room nodded solemnly, some muttering small yeahs. Everything went quiet, and when I looked at Preacher he seemed to be glaring at one pony in particular who sat toward the back of the room.

"Aye-aye Cap'n," the voice spoke gruffly, scoffing. Preacher gave her one last look.

"We're leaving for Comms, so all of you better have your jammers active." A few members of the group reached up to their shoulders, pressing on something out of sight before they filed out what I presumed was the front door. After the last of them disappeared, he turned back to me. "In the meantime, feel free to look around. Don't mind some of the mess, but just... try not to touch anything that looks like it's connected to something else." He started toward the door, and then shouted, "Lily! Make sure you keep an eye on Miss Stablemare for me! Make sure she doesn't get herself hurt!" He turned back. "Oh. And Everdawn. Welcome to Hornstead." The door shut quietly behind him.

I gawked a moment before I heard but the tiniest of noises to my right. Sure enough, as I faced those gigantic eyes again, I couldn't help but jump. "Would you stop doing that?!" The filly simply kept her gaze aloft to me. Those pupils, so enormous in comparison to the rest of her head, only seemed to bulge further in my direction as I leaned away. "Seriously, you're creeping me out!"

Not so much as a blink in response.

"Okay, well, you just keep doing that. I'm going to go... take a look around, if that's allowed." Her head cocked. Okay, this was more than enough nightmare fuel for one day, thank you very much. I began to walk away, gaining distance as the filly casually turned those saucers in my direction. I practically jumped around the corner, putting myself out of view as I trotted up the stairs. After casually inspecting a few of the rooms, I decided to head back down. Bad move. Lily was at the top of the staircase, staring at me as if I'd never left her sight.

Preacher, could you do me a favor and hurry back?

I crept up the staircase towards her, never breaking eye contact (much to my dismay) as I scooted around her lone figure and headed toward the door to my room. From behind me I heard her voice say levelly, "We're not supposed to go outside without permission." Yes, and that certainly made me want to stay.

"Well, what am I supposed to do?" I pleaded, not really wanting to be around this pony any longer.

"Stay here, with me." No! No thank you! She began to advance towards me. "I have some toys that we can play with." Goddesses, those eyes!

"As... enticing as that sounds, I think I'll pass." She continued her advance. I made an effort to shoo her away. It didn't work. She kept getting closer. This kept getting weirder. I'll admit, it was one of the more uncomfortable 30 seconds of my life. "Aren't there kids your age to play with? Besides, shouldn't a filly like you have some chores to do or something? Friends? Anything?" Please. Oh Goddesses please!

It seemed to do the trick.

She paused. "Oh. Idea!" The little filly seemed to wander off into her own thoughts as she disappeared inside my room and out the door from the living room, leaving me completely alone inside the house. As the silence settled within the home, she appeared again, grabbed my hoof, and with some kind of freakish strength, pulled me along with her.

** ** **

I don't care who says otherwise, this place was not my home. This was not Tranquility Mane.

With buildings that practically toppled over one another and a crowd that dwarfed any other I'd seen, I was utterly bewildered from the moment I walked (dragged?) out that door.

Ponies left and right sold every ungoddessly arrangement of items imaginable. Products too strange to name littered the street in great abundance as every conceivable smell jumped up my nose and hid. From somewhere within the droves of striding hooves I spotted children running amuck. Voices chimed out across the expanse of livelihood, indecipherable from the multitude of others cramming the marketplace. The stores, serving as centers for thoroughfare, cluttered in a way that I'd never seen back in town. Hell, our entire population could have fit in two or three of these shops alone!

"What is this place?" I could only gaze in awe.

The buildings were brick, with a variety of windows that led to all manner of walkways and mezzanines to and fro across the plaza, practically dancing with activity as any number of ponies shuffled along in their daily activities. I even caught sight of a bird flock along the rooftops. Amidst all of this, the tone of this town's livelihood rung clear to me as a new sort of feeling took hold. It wasn't really nervousness, and it wasn't excitement. Nervoucitement? Whatever it was, I felt like I ought to see more before I passed my final verdict on the town I didn't even know.

Lily turned abruptly into an alleyway, cutting off my view of the wonderland now behind us. So encompassed were my thoughts that I almost forgot I wasn't alone. She spoke up. "I like the markets too. They're most kids' favorite place to play... but I won't tell you why. It's a super-duper secret." She'd slowed down to talk with me, looking back to the markets as we crept further down the alley.

"By the way," I started, "Why were you watching me earlier? Doesn't that seem kinda... I dunno, weird?"

She hmm'd. "Well, it's just that when they brought you in, everypony started freaking out. They said you were sick, so I couldn't see you. I had to be patient until Mr. Preacher finally left you alone. So when my daddy left for work and Mr. Preacher left you all by yourself, I crept into your bedroom and watched you sleep," she said unabashedly.

"And how long did you do that?"

"Oh, all night! I thought I should watch you till you woke up, so I did! You're a special one!" Oh Goddesses, I didn't need to know that.

"Hey... Lily?"

"Yeah?"

"How did I get here?"

"I 'unno. Daddy said we'd have that talk when I'm older."

"No, not like that! I mean, who brought me here?" Then the thought occurred to me: I was walking alongside a pony I didn't even know, through a strange new place with strange new ponies. "Wait, do you even know where we're going?"

"Of course I do. What, kind of dodo do you take me for? We're going to see Mr. Preacher and the others. You didn't want to play, so you must be boring like all the other adults, which means that you'll have more fun if you're with them instead. Plus, I can go see my friends instead of having to watch you!"

"Thanks, I think. But won't he be mad that you kinda... disobeyed him?"

"Nah, he never gets too angry at anypony. He's a nice stallion. All the other ponies like him, but I know I'm his favorite, 'cuz he told me so." She grinned. "'Sides, he told me to watch you, not ground you." She had a point.

"Well, you said you liked the markets. We should... maybe go there sometime. Hate to spend all day indoors, y'know?" Like you usually do, you hermit? Oh shut up. Might be nice to spend time with this little filly. She seemed sweet enough.

She answered with a harrumph, locking her eyes to the ground. "The ponies here are nice enough, and it's safer than where we used to live. But it's just... it's not like home. So many rules, so many responsibilities. And none of it makes any sense!" She frowned. "The ponies in the uniforms tell us to do stuff that we don't want to do."

"What kind of stuff?"

Lily opened her mouth, unsure of how to put it. As ignorant as I may have been, she looked little more than lost herself. Perhaps explaining it was the hard part. Her hoof tapped her chin as she pursed her lips. "The boss lady's not very nice. She doesn't like Mr. Preacher—told him herself. And Mr. Preacher says that because Ms. Stoopid Boss Mare doesn't want any of us here we have to work extra hard to make our place."

"Like how?"

"Well, it's a lot of things actually," she said. "Sometimes Mr. Preacher and the others have to go out into the bad parts, where ponies aren't allowed without permission. They walk out the gates and then I see them in a couple days. They say it's a secret, but Ms. Bossy Mare has almost caught them a couple of times. Daddy says that when he leaves I have to keep my head down and stay out of sight."

Daddy? Which one of the ponies I'd seen wore that title? It felt like every time Lily spoke, I had to ask another question about what she said, and I was getting tired of requesting explanations. What did she look like, a dictionary? It might just be better to keep my mouth shut and wait for Preacher to get ba—

"So then why don't you ask one of..." I thought back to the group, "... your friends to help you?" Wait. Was that another question? And about a question nonetheless!

She looked away. "Daddy's busy. He says I bother him too much... that I should..." she plastered a goofy look on her face, going into a deep Southern drawl, "... act more like a grown mare." Despite my giggle, I felt an almost unnatural sympathy for the filly. I'd never had very much responsibility thrust upon me, only a lot of expectations to live up to. And now, I wasn't even sure I'd see my parents again. But at least they'd looked after me, supported me when I needed it. Could her father be somepony that just didn't care? Was that even possible? I couldn't imagine.

"Hey," I piped, "it'll be all right. He's just so busy trying to look out for you that he doesn't have much time for anything else." I gave her the most sincere smile I could. "I don't know this place very well, but I'll bet that he's a pretty great dad for doing the things he does." Was this what she wanted to hear? I hoped it was. I didn't know these ponies well enough—a fact that was quickly spawning regret as I realized just how alone she must have felt. She nodded, as if hearing my train of thought.

"Yeah, I know that. But... all he's done since we came here is 'run errands' this and 'run errands' that. Things changed! I'm scared of losing him, and if he gets caught leaving I know something bad will happen to him... and he just keeps doing it." She looked more guilty than anything now. "I wish it'd been him instead."

Huh?

"What do you mean by that?" She looked surprised that I'd heard her. "Him instead of what?"

She looked over to the side. "Forget it."

For the rest of the way I thought about the morning, the events that had transpired upon my waking. No matter how many times I saw them, the new faces of the crowd just couldn't seem to click. Every new pony was just another from Tranquility, although in strange attire. Was this part of the acclimation Preacher had mentioned?

It took some time before we actually stopped. For the back half of our journey into this strange town, we'd gone through a series of alleys and cramped spaces in which I'd seen a few things I wish I hadn't. Ponies fighting over scraps of food, bickering about 'rations' and whatnot. Not only that, but there was something decidedly wrong with their bodies. They were skinny. Too skinny. Lily said they were 'starving', which confused me. 'Starving' was just another word for hunger, wasn't it? I saw what I presumed to be a family out on the streets, begging for something called 'caps.' A couple times I caught Lily staring off into space. How could anypony get used to seeing things like this?

I'd grown a general discomfort in my stomach some time ago, although it had turned into a sharp, spasmodic pain around four blocks back. Lily said it was because I was hungry. I asked her what the difference was between hunger and starvation, still bewildered. She looked at me like I was an idiot. To me, hunger was when hay sandwich sounded good for lunch. Hunger was when a little salted seaweed from the docks made you drool. At first glance, food didn't seem so good with pains like these, but when I really thought about it, I started to crave. I sure didn't mind getting the munchies, but this? I could eat a hor—

Haystack. Yeah. Haystack.

And not a moment later did Lily alert me of our arrival. I looked up at a building in front of us that strangely resembled town hall (albeit stuck between two sides of a larger building), hearing a great number of noises from within. There were silhouettes of ponies in the windows.

A few of the shapes seemed to notice us as well, and within seconds, the noise level inside spiked. I heard a number of shouts and hollers to indicate our presence. A few of the voices sounded angry, others simply hectic. It all died down when we walked through the front door. Lily seemed to take the opportunity to bathe in the spotlight.

"I'm baa-a-ck!"

Meanwhile, on the Everdawn side of the spectrum, time had frozen in place. I'd never seen so many ponies cramped into one room, except maybe for Town Game Night. There were hanging terminals and desks and monitors like the one the mayor had, and so many cords connecting all manner of electrical instruments together that weaved and bunched together like roots. It was a bit dizzying to look at it all. All of the wires I could see ran to a single port that fed into a large metallic cube covered in blinking lights. A slow steady hum filled the room in wake of the silence created by our entrance.

Why was everypony staring at me?

"Everdawn!" Preacher was now making his way over to us. "What are you doing here? Lily, she could have gotten hurt! What would have happened if you were taken?" The filly smiled innocently. He groaned. "Well, I suppose it's too late to turn back now. Welcome to HQ, Everdawn. Unfortunately you caught me at a bad time, so I'm afraid you'll just have to find something to occupy yourself with until one of us can escort you safely back to the house."

Safely? What did I need an escort for?

A pony from another room called his name, prompting him to turn face and hop over a few wires to get through a door. For someone of his age, I wouldn't have expected the leap to be taken so easily. "Everyone, take care of our guest! And for pony's sake, don't let her go wandering off somewhere." He looked apologetic. "Sorry Everdawn. Just precautions." For the second time today, the door closed gently behind him.

By now most of the ponies within the room had gone back to work. The few who had come in to investigate the sudden interruption returned to their work stations in different parts of the building. I was just about to head over to one of the couches myself when I heard someone approaching. I turned to look, and all I saw was somepony's mane and ear tucked against my head, a hoof around the back of my neck in a warm embrace. For such a sudden intrusion of personal space, I didn't mind so much. Where I came from, ponies nuzzled a nose to say hi. That, and a mane smelling of berries certainly helped. It was better than creepy filly eyes, at least.

"Nice to finally meet you Stablemare." She smiled brightly. "Hope you didn't mind the hug. I just don't much care for hoofshakes. Plus, if you're staying here, you're pretty much family."

"O-Of course not, I don't mind," I answered. I wished I'd returned the hug. "And... why does everypony keep calling me that?"

"What? 'Stablemare'?"

"Yeah."

"Well, 'cause that's what you are, silly. A mare from a stable, so ponies call you that. What else did you expect?"

"Well, my name would be a start," I said with a little smirk.

She smiled. I'd walked into a trap of some sort. "Well then, My Name, it's nice to meet 'ya." I giggled profusely. How clever!

A stallion nearby slammed his head on the desk, stealing my attention away.

"Oh, don't mind him," the mare said. "He's just being melodramatic. Poor stallion can't appreciate true comedic genius!"

He didn't even lift his head. "It's not genius! Never has been, and it never will be!"

The mare in front of me stuck her tongue out as the stallion got back to typing at the terminal in front of his face, adjusting his glasses. Her ears perked up and she turned to me. "Oh! I almost forgot. The name's Ukulele."

"Everdawn," I greeted.

"Well then, now that we've got the first part out of the way, you got any questions you need answered?" Only a million.

The stallion spoke up again. "Yeah. Like, 'Why aren't you doing your job?'"

"Nobody asked you!" This time he stuck his tongue out at her. They went back and forth for a moment before she turned back toward me expectantly.

"Well. For starters, I guess, where am I? What is this place?"

"You mean 'this place' like this place," she gestured around her, "Or do you mean like geographically? Or... maybe you mean the city? Or the district?" Sure. Yes. Any! All of the above!

"Um... whichever...?"

She chuckled to herself. "Well, little missy, I'll tell you where you are! You're in the capitol of Nowhereville, the creme d'la creme of the Wasteland's fuckery department, the city of Hornstead! Under command of the appointed oh-so-high-and-benevolent Commander Evangelica herself. You'll find no other territory in the Wasteland as efficient at maintaining pure, unadulterated sanity. Except for the NCR. And the Followers. And the Union. And the other fifty-something Sombra's Hoof outposts stationed around the Wastes. But hey, who's keeping track, right?"

"Um... the Wasteland?"

She blinked as her mouth hung open. "Shit, you're really as clueless as they say, aren't you? 'The Wastes'? 'Shithole Central'? Really doesn't ring any bells? Nothing?"

I shook my head.

"Well damn. And here I was thinking this would be easy. Hmm... where do I start? The Wasteland's a... well, I guess you could say it's whatever's left of a country that existed a long time ago. It starts down at the borders of the Badlands and ends up in the Crystal Mountains. You... do know what a country is, don't you?"

I'd overheard the word a couple times back when I lived with my parents. Needless to say I never had much of an education back in Tranquility. All the programs they offered were optional, and since I was never very good at paying attention to those sorts of things I just took reading and writing and got the hell out of there. "Big... piece of land?"

"Now you're getting it! Hornstead is just a little speck of pony civilization in the middle of it. Well... no, it's more to the left. But anyway! We've got a market, a housing district, plenty of fresh food and water, a hospital, and enough energy to go around. And if that don't float your boat, we've got 15-meter-tall concrete surrounding the entire city to keep out some of the bigger critters. Each gate is protected around the clock by sentry turrets and pony guards. Don't get me wrong, every once in a while you'll get a radroach infestation and a couple ponies get bitten, but at least it isn't something with bigger teeth. All-in-all, not too bad of a city, until you have to go out on one of the scavenging runs. We usually come back in one piece, but sometimes... sometimes one pony just doesn't come back."

Okayyyyy...

"And what about Preacher? Where does he fit into all of... this?"

"Preacher?" She put a hoof to her chin. "Preacher's... Preacher's special. Yeah. That's the word. He's convinced more than anypony that Sombra's Hoof is just a great big lie told by ponies who are up to no good. No matter how much or who says otherwise, he still believes in his heart of hearts that they're nothing but trouble."

"Then... why are you all living here? You said this was an 'outpost' of theirs, so why stay?"

"That's a good question, isn't it? Truth is, most of us aren't even permitted to be on this base. I won't point any hooves, but rumors say that Preacher's the only one who's actually allowed to live here." She looked back to the dozens of other ponies sitting at terminals, typing away. "But who's to say we're not doing our fair share of work to earn our keep? To answer your question though, it's all for Preacher. He gave us a place to call home, ponies to call a family, and in the end that's better than living out in the Wasteland. He's the reason we're all still here. He's a good stallion. Somepony we can believe in. So when he says that Sombra's Hoof needs to be shut down, it's fair game to say that they might. I've never heard him tell a lie in his life, and I've been here for a while."

"You've been talking for a while too." The voice came from behind me. Ukulele just smiled as I came face-to-face with Preacher. "Back on your head, soldier," he told her. She waved good-bye and returned to her work station next to Head Smack.

"I see you've met one of our office workers."

I could only smile. By now you're beginning to understand that I wasn't the most socially adept pony, partly due to my isolation in Tranquility, and partly due to the constant sense of astonishment that each new sight and sound presented.

"Come on," he said, "I have something to show you." He led me past the cables and into the room he'd entered before.

"I thought you were busy," I said.

"Sometimes things work themselves out," he stated. "After you."

As I made my way into the room, I spotted a great number of brightly-lit monitors that shone across various tabletops and surfaces. Together they illuminated the room in an eerie glow, casting long shadows against the walls from the four heads sitting in front of them. One of them looked back at us for a moment.

"What is this place?" I whispered, afraid to disturb the peace.

"This... this is where we watch."

"But for what?" He's convinced more than anypony that Sombra's Hoof is just a great big lie.

"Anything that catches the eye, really." He approached one of the screens apprehensively, mumbling to one of the ponies in the seats about 'camera three'. Within seconds, the entire collection of screens began to shift, and what I first thought was merely a series of lines and dots became the cityscape of Hornstead. The rooftops disappeared to reveal the central marketplace I'd seen earlier, although this time, there was a certain organization about the ponies. They stood on either side of the street, as if behind some sort of invisible line, while other types of ponies went through the center. The screens zoomed in to reveal the uniforms walking down the middle of the crowd. They marched in a single cadence with eyes hidden behind helmet visors. I'd never seen anything like it.

But the mood of harsh unity between the ponies in formation was cancelled out by the smiles and pleasant waves of the crowd as a single group of non-uniforms followed the marchers. They were unicorns. Every single one of them.

Back in Tranquility, we'd only had one unicorn in town—the mayor. It was his mark of leadership, his proof of worth to see that the town was taken care of. To see all these ponies with the same mark was doing a number on me.

As I looked onward into the monitors, I heard the door open behind us, and a pony notified Preacher that we were ready for operation. I didn't quite know what that meant, but the door closed and Preacher turned to me. "Everdawn," he said, "the ponies you are seeing on these screens here are part of a larger group. Much larger, in fact. And what you are witnessing is a ceremony. Their ceremony. It is meant to offer hope to those who live here, to help them all survive." If it was so good, then why was he frowning? "But it is also a lie; it's a sick, twisted, deceitful notion that only takes with the illusion of giving.

"Most ponies aren't aware of it. Most ponies haven't seen the truth for themselves. But once they do," I gave him a strange look, "there won't be a single officer dead or alive without some kind of a bounty on their head." He diverted his attention away from the screen. "We're going to expose them tonight. After all this time of planning and hiding, we've finally decided to make our strike. But it just so happens that you showed up." He smiled. "We'd be honored if you decided to come along."

I stuttered. "Me? Why me? What can I do; I don't even know what we're doing! What makes you think I can help?"

He took a rather long moment to answer. "Consider it a mutual investment. Everdawn... I don't think you understand what I meant earlier. Your body isn't the same as it was." I was getting some majorly bad vibes right now. "Before tonight happens, I think it's time we both found out what you're capable of."

** ** **

He walked me out to the back of headquarters, where an enclosed alleyway filled with strange equipment awaited us. All around us I spotted metal bars and poles held together by chains and what appeared to be steel cables of some sort. And all of it looked extraordinarily heavy.

I followed Preacher over to a small bench beside the orgy of machinery.

"Now, before we begin, I'd just like to tell you the purpose of the exercises we'll be conducting. Everdawn, these tests are meant only to gauge your physical strength and your stamina that have increased since the operation."

"You still haven't told me what you did to me," I reminded him.

"In time, dear Stablemare, in time." He strolled over to one of the machines, putting his hoof against it. "All right, why don't we try this one first?" I curiously approached the looming heap of metal crossbeams. Two bars stuck out in front of a series of wires that connected to a number of stacked blocks. I hooked a hoof around one of the bars, before Preacher corrected me. "Two hooves." I grabbed the other bar.

My front legs flexed in a way I'd never seen as the cords went taut. I pulled, but nothing happened. With a second tug, I only heard the heavy creak of the machine. Nothing.

"This is stupid!" I lamented. I'd never had to lift anything particularly heavy in my life. What was the point of doing it now? "How much am I lifting, anyhow?"

In anticipation of the question, he had already bent down over the weights on the other end of the bars. He waved a hoof to the other machines. "See each of these stacks?" I nodded. "This one is around fifty pounds. Think you can handle that?" Fifty pounds? Really? Well, no wonder it wasn't going anywhere! I hadn't been trying for something like that. Just over half my body weight. Preacher said something had changed, maybe that was it. Shouldn't be too hard...

"Fifty?" I planted my hooves and gave another tug, harder this time. "That shouldn't be too bad..." The cords all went taut at once, straightening to attention as I put a little more effort in. Slowly I began to feel a little less resistance as I put my full force into the pull. I closed my eyes, concentrating on keeping balance as the new weight stressed my body. My whole body began to heat up as I grunted, finally moving the stack of fifty. "How's... this?" I opened my eyes, looking over to Preacher and four other ponies who were now staring wide-eyed at the feat. I huffed, holding the weight in place as I turned around.

It wasn't fifty. I may not have been the smartest pony when it came to numbers and what they meant, but as the stacks hovered in front of my face, pulled upright by the cords, I read the number: 500. He'd left out a zero.

But that wasn't what caught me off guard. As I looked around, breathing more heavily, half a dozen other stacks raised up in the air. The metal cords from the bars I was pulling were connected to chains and other cords that branched out to a few of the other machines through a series of levers and pulleys that brought other blocks straight into the air. I wasn't just lifting a quarter of a ton anymore... I was lifting three of them.

The shock caused my grip to loosen, leading to an ear-splitting slam as the bars slipped and the weights all simultaneously dropped, some snapping their cables and others sending their bases sprawling off-balance. Meanwhile, another group of ponies had gathered around Preacher and were now gazing onward at the spectacle. I was more concerned about the fact that I'd just broken their machinery.

"I'm so sorry!" I shouted, "I didn't mean to break them, I just tried my best, I'm sorry!" Their jaws remained agape. "P-Preacher?"

"Everdawn," he started, eyes unblinking, "I think that's enough for the time being."

** ** **

It was that look again. The same look they used to give me back in Tranquility. The expression that knew another pony as a stranger; as an outcast, rather than a friend. There wasn't a single face in that crowd that didn't share it. As if I'd never left town, I felt a sort of estrangement. Me and them. They had numbers, and that meant I had amounted to nothing more than a foreigner. I was a freak. I was alone.

I frowned. "What?"

But they never answered. They just continued to gawk. It was getting irksome. If it weren't for Ukulele popping out from the front, I might have thrown something. "Guys, come on. At least ask her out before you go full mast on her." I could have kissed her, if the thought wasn't so repulsive. I mouthed out a 'thank you' as most of the ponies were snapped out of their stupor and trudged back inside. Ukulele winked before returning with the others.

I trotted up to Preacher. Beside him stood another, similarly aged stallion. "What in the hoof was that about?" I asked. "Why would you lie to me like that? Now I look like some sort of freak!"

"Why?" he repeated, stunned, "Because look what you did, Everdawn! I've seen a lot in my days, but I've never seen a thing like that before!" He put a hoof behind his neck, glancing back at the equipment in wonder. "I can't imagine anypony doing that without a little buck of... well, Buck," he exclaimed. The stallion to his right made a quick flick of his eyebrows over to me, and Preacher had the look of a foal with candy. "Oh, where are my manners? Everdawn, meet Abeth, my... associate." The two of them smiled warmly. "He's responsible for making sure none of us get caught by anypony we don't want to be. He's also quite the head of our scavenging party."

"Hardly," Abeth replied. "I just don't appreciate the thought of being dead weight." And once again, nothing was truly answered. I'd had enough of this. No more using introductions to beat around the bush.

"Preacher!" He whipped around to me, startled by the sudden loud noise. "What. Have. You. Done to me? I want answers, now." I advanced toward him, and he took a step back.

"Everdawn, you have to be patient. Information of that sort is dangerous if it gets out."

"Try me," I said. "I wake up, find myself in a stranger's bed, not knowing where I am, who any of you are, and for the remainder of the day the only pony who's had enough courage to really talk to me was a filly and a mare I didn't even know! I need answers!"

"Okay!" he said, meeting my eyes. "Okay. You want your answers? You'll get them when we get home. At least let us get out of ear range from everypony else."

And that was that.

** ** **

Hydra. Buck.

That's what he'd called them. The first was some sort of fluid designed to help ponies. It grew bones and even entire limbs (what happened to the first ones?), but seeing as how my body wasn't so much amputated as severely underused, it ended up having the effect of a strengthening agent to the bones and muscles instead. The second one helped to activate some 'hidden potential' in both of those things. Preacher said that if I hadn't had the special circumstances I did, I would have died. Apparently the drug was far too strong for any normal pony to take more than once a day. Which is when the important question came up.

"How much did I take?" He looked nervous when I asked.

"We... uh... kept you on a steady supply for about two days. One dose every twelve hours, plus a kick of Buck just in case your heart stopped. The third day we let you recover... to let it sink in," he explained.

"'In case my heart stopped'?!" I blurted. "How do I know I'm not just going to drop dead any second now?"

Now it was Abeth who spoke up. "Well, for one thing, each drug we injected was fast-acting and quick to exit your body. If anything had gone wrong, you wouldn't have woken up this morning. And two, we used half a carton of healing potions each time we fed it to your system."

Preacher primed his attention back to me. "Look at the bright side," he said. "It worked, didn't it?"

"But how did you know? What made you so sure I would be able to wake up?"

He sighed. "Everdawn. Sometimes you just have to settle for a happy hunch."

"You weighed my life on a 'happy hunch'?" I gaped.

"As I said before, we didn't have a lot of other options." Funny, considering all of the resources I saw you disposing at that headquarters of yours. At least I was getting answers though. So much for waiting until we got home. We'd walked under the cover of the market mezzanines for most of the way there. But unlike the marketplace I'd seen earlier, Hornstead suddenly looked like a ghost town. "Why is nopony around? Is there a curfew or something?"

"Has anyone told you that you ask a lot of questions?" Abeth quipped.

"No, I don't think so," I answered, earning a facehoof.

Preacher stopped him before he could say anything else. "Enough. Both of you, try to keep quiet until we get back." Before I could ask why, he told me not to. Maybe Abeth had a point.

We reached the house in a steady trot. Everything was dark when Preacher opened the door. He flipped a switch to his left, and suddenly the room lit up with the glow of a few overhead lamps that hung eerily from the ceiling. I jumped as I noticed the ponies within, sitting on various pieces of furniture. They were the same ones I'd seen this morning... I think. One detail of the room stuck out to me the most though, vaguely reminding me of home.

"The windows are shaded. Why?"

"It's a security measure," Abeth answered me, before Preacher could.

"Against Sombra's Hoof?"

"Everdawn," Preacher added, "there are a lot of spying eyes in Hornstead. You'll learn that soon enough, but for now, keep in mind that the things we do, we do for a reason. It can answer a lot of questions without them having been asked." I bobbed my head understandingly. "Good. Now it's time to introduce you, properly this time, to our little family." A few of the ponies rolled their eyes at that word.

They had assembled toward the front of the room. Although now there was something visibly different about them. Unlike the cold stares I'd received this morning, they simpered under the lamplight in a way that gave the impression of welcoming.

"Earlier you asked me why I lied to you. Well, this is it. It was because doing what you did has proven to all of us what you're capable of. Just like I knew it would. You gave us hope for somepony who might be willing and able to make a difference. You may not understand everything that's happening—and that's okay, you don't have to figure it out all at once—but just know that once we're done here tonight, we can talk about anything you like. You'll get all the answers you can ask for." I had to admit, that sounded pretty good. I wasn't so sure I could make as big of a difference as Preacher said though. "But for right now... you all need to get ready."

Abeth turned to them. "Everypony have their gear?" A round of check's sounded out. "Jammers primed?" Check. "Good. We have a couple of hours to prepare. Make sure you're all ready by then. In the meantime, Preacher and I are headed to the ceremony. Good luck, all of you."

"Everdawn," Preacher whispered, "stay with the others. No matter what, don't get separated from them. Do you understand?"

"Yeah, I got it. But Preacher," he stopped and faced me. "How do I know what to do? You're all depending on me, but I don't even know what you're depending on me for."

"They'll fill you in. Don't worry too much, just... go with the flow. Improvise if you have to. Oh, and one more thing... good luck. Make it back safely, then I'll answer your questions." He shut the door softly. Wait... had he just evaded again? Drabbit! Was I going to have to glue him in place?

The room was silent, but I knew the ponies were still there. When I finally got the courage to turn around, they were waiting for me. A mare was steadily walking toward me, analyzing from head to hoof.

"So, this is the fabled Stablemare who almost beat Burly? Almost hard to believe, isn't it?" She glanced back at the others, who watched her with caution. "Everdawn, isn't it?"

"Well, I wouldn't quite put it like that. I didn't know how much it would be. It just kind of happened."

"'It just kind of happened.' Listen to her. Sounding like a real stable dweller already. Besides, you got the augmentation, so it was to be expected. Because you're practically family now, aren't you? Do you even know who we are though? Do you even know the ponies you're trusting your life with?"

One of the stallions came forward. "Katana, that's enough..."

"Oh, but of course you do. We're Preacher and company, aren't we? Just another group of ponies. Is that what you think?"

"Enough, Katana," another mare spoke up.

"I'm trying to have a conversation, guys. Don't be so rude. After all, this little mare needs to hear what I'm about to say." She brought her face straight up to mine, paralyzing me for a moment as her pupils narrowed into pinpricks. "Listen up, Stablemare, don't think for one second that we'll so much as skip a heartbeat before we leave you behind. Preacher may have taken a liking to you, but those of us with half a brain know never to trust an outsider, stableborn or not. This plan has been in the works for months, and it's not going to be thrown to the chimeras by some outsider who got lucky! Got it?"

I nodded.

"Yeah. Rogue, get this newbie suited up." As she walked away, I heard her mutter, "She'll need it."

The others had stopped smiling and were now looking scornfully at the mare who had stormed upstairs.

"Sorry about that," one of them said as he reached out and pulled my hoof into a strong shake, "Don't mind her. She's like that to everypony. I'm Bronco by the way, and this is Waster, Gypsy, Burly, Brimstone, Rogue, Stim, Alloy, and that little gem of a wastelander was Katana. And despite what certain members of our crew would have you believe, we're all glad to have you here."

"Glad to be here," I lied, shaking his hoof. "Hope I'm as useful as ponies think I am."

He laughed. "Well, after nearly breaking Burly's record, I'm sure you can be."

The stallion in question was a single bulging muscle of a pony. I tried to offer a silent apology, but he didn't seem to notice. I smiled at Bronco. "I'll try."

"That's the spirit," he heartened. "By the way, if you're hungry, we've got some leftover food in the fridge. I know you haven't had anything except for water, so help yourself. We've got a canteen under the sink that's got filtered tap, but whatever you do, don't drink from the jug. You'll be in bed for another week." Katana yelled for him, giving way to some sort of subdued fear. "I gotta go. See you in a couple hours."

"Oh, I... okay..."

Meanwhile, the other ponies in the room had already separated, some gone to different corners and others most likely upstairs. A mare and a stallion caught my eye, so I decided to inch over and have a word. Hey, if Preacher wasn't going to answer my questions, at least I could try with one of these ponies instead.

I cleared my throat. "Um... hiya." They looked to one another, silently wrangling over who should speak to me.

"Hello," the stallion identified as Gypsy finally answered. The mare next to him—Brimstone, if I recalled correctly—sat silently, her hair covering a part of her face. "Is there something you need?" Helpful ponies! Yay!

"Gypsy, right?" I asked. He responded with a grin. "I was just hoping to get to know some of the ponies I'm working with." Despite recent exposure to so many new faces, Gypsy looked just like a stallion I'd known back in town. I had to take a second to clear my head of the thought.

He sat back a little, now looking amused. "Got something on my muzzle?"

"No, it's not that, I just... you look like somepony I know."

"Yeah, I get that a lot." He rubbed the back of his head. "So, erm, what would you like to ask about?" Brimstone suddenly huffed, turning to me impatiently. I must have interrupted something. But that wasn't what concerned me about her. The bottom of her face simply wasn't pony. Her jaw, all the way to her lips, was composed of a sleek metal that mended cleanly to her flesh. For the life of me I couldn't help but to stare. What would I like to know?

"What happened to you?" The mare's eyes grew fiery for a moment before Gypsy put a hoof to her shoulder, giving a shake of his head.

"Any other questions on your mind?"

I should have been more sensitive. Maybe a less personal question. "What's this group? Why aren't all of you back at headquarters?"

"Headquarters? With all those desk jockies? I think I speak for everyone here when I say ponies like us aren't cut out for Comp Sec or Programming. These days I hear it's been a nightmare, so it's better to be in Scav anyway. Besides, the job has more perks than any of those boring old office jobs."

'All those desk jockies'? 'Boring old office jobs'? Was having an office job the mark of a boring pony too? What about Ukulele? Surely she couldn't fit that description. She was the most fun pony I'd been around all day!

"What do you think about Ukulele?" He looked puzzled for a moment.

"Who?"

"Ukulele. Office pony? Short black mane, purple coat? She's really fun, you should try talking to her sometime. Might change your mind about having a 'boring desk job'."

"Ukulele?" He turned to the mare beside him, who shrugged. "I've never heard that name before..."

"You forget my name sometimes," Brimstone remarked. "Wouldn't surprise me if you didn't know somepony in Comms' name."

A voice chimed behind me, "Everdawn. Come on, let's suit up. You'll have plenty of time to chat after we get you some gear." The pony whom Bronco had identified as Rogue was now standing before me. Her eyes were a capturing sight—silver that blended into white and black around the edges. I hadn't noticed them before due to the poor lighting in the room, which I was now regretting.

"Oh, right." I turned back to Bronco. "Well, it was nice meeting you!"

"Yeah... you too..." For some reason he looked deeply troubled. Brimstone whispered something, and they resumed their conversation. Meanwhile, Rogue had disappeared. She was now waiting for me by the stairs. As I trotted over she gave me a friendly nudge.

"You seem to be quite fond of introductions. Hope you didn't take what Katana said to heart."

"No, of course not. I'm sure she had a good reason for saying it."

"Well, maybe, but don't let her boss you around like that. If you do, she'll just keep on doing it, and soon enough your name'll change to Doormat. Anyway, you wouldn't happen to know your own measurements, would you?"

Suiting up. That's right. I shook my head. "It's been years since I last put something on." Tranquility was too temperate to need any sort of clothing.

"Well, then I guess I'll have to double as a tailor," she said.

As we walked past the doors in the hallway, one in particular held something of interest to my ears. There were noises coming from the other side. Creaks. An orchestra of them. Two names written in marker adorned the polished wood. The first was written in cursive, with sharp curves that led on an aggressive tone. Katana. The one below it was all capitalized; it was a simpler feeling. Bronco.

"Rogue," I whispered, gesturing toward the door. A panic crept over her as she realized which one I had been pointing to. The creaking got louder. She cringed, grabbing me by the hoof and leading me further down the hall and into another room labeled with her name. The door shut gently behind us.

She gave a relieved huff. "Okay, just... choose an outfit. You're about my size, so the changes won't be too hefty. They're in the bottom drawer of the shrunk over there. Take your time."

I thanked her, making my way over to the large wooden cabinet and opening the drawer. Inside lay a collection of attire, the likes of which I'd never seen before. Metal rods traced like threads through the fabric of a dull green shirt that hugged a bulky saddlebag holster, while more solid black platelets gripped the hard inner fabric of a brown leather jacket. I dug through a few more, noticing a dress whose glory days had long passed. I took things from each outfit until I had what I needed.

"Hope you don't mind me cherrypicking a bit," I said as I turned around.

"Well, by the looks of it you've chosen everything that was too heavy for me anyway. And judging from your... talents... it shouldn't be as hard for you to carry. Come on, let's get you fitted." She tugged on a rope, revealing a three-way mirror behind a set of curtains. "Haven't used this thing in ages." Next she opened a dresser nearby, pulling out a ball of thick orange yarn and some dangerously thin piece of metal that looked unnaturally sharp. "Now just hold still. This won't hurt a bit."

** ** **

She lied.

The fitting was more alike to psychological torture than tailoring. Each swipe of the needle was another stroke of fear in my stomach, another skipped heartbeat. She'd jabbed me a number of times with the darn thing already; I was beginning to worry.

"How long did you say it's been since you did this?" I strained. She thought for a moment.

"Don't know exactly. Couple years, I think."

"How'd you learn?"

The question brought a smile to her face. "Preacher taught me when I was still new here. Told me I might need it one day when I finally make it out."

"Everypony seems to like him so much. You'd think he knew everything," I commented.

"Well, that's what happens when you're like a million years old," she joked. I laughed, only to be rewarded with the point of the needle again.

"Youch!"

"Sorry."

"... Rogue?"

"Yes, Stablemare?"

"Katana said I got something. Augmention. Augmation."

"Augmentation?" she offered.

"Yeah, that's it. What exactly does that mean?" I sounded like a child again, asking what this meant and what that was, and how foals were made... come to think of it, I still never got a straight answer to that.

"An augmentation is... well, I guess you could say it's just another example of Risk versus Reward in the Wasteland. On one hoof, the pony in question runs the chance of a horridly painful death. But on the other hoof, that same pony might gain a permanent improvement to their body. The price usually outweighs the benefits, but according to Lifeline you never have to worry about a single side effect." Hydra. An improvement.

I couldn't stop thinking about the way Katana had said it. Besides, you got the augmentation. "Is she... jealous?"

Rogue laughed. But it was replaced by a sigh. "Yeah. Maybe. I'm sure she knows that you can do good, but that doesn't stop her from wishing she could be in your horseshoes. For hours we argued. Debated. The only solution was to give you the hydra in hopes that it would open up your system a little bit. So many of your arteries were closing. The buck was for your heart. None of us knew for sure. Whatever mumbo-jumbo happened in that operation, it sure did the trick. And Katana... she feels like she could do a lot more with your strength. There've been some... concerns as of late."

"Like what?" I probed.

She quickly shook her head. "Nothing you should be concerned about yet."

"Aren't we on the same team here? I might be able to help." I smiled toward her. "I won't tell a soul."

"Ugh. Fine. Rumor has it there's a traitor in our midst. In the Scav team, I mean. Whoever it is, they've got connections to Comms, and they know about you. It could be any one of us. Katana suspects that she could find out who it is if she had some kind of an advantage... your kind of advantage." At my look of concern, she chuckled. "But they're just rumors. The only pony that seems capable of it is Abeth anyway, and he's done nothing but right by us."

The train of thought derailed via needle prick. A jolt of pain shot up through my leg, forcing an involuntary yelp. She quickly apologized. Finally Rogue stopped, looking me up and down as if I were the outfit itself. "Well, it looks like that's about it. Turn around and tell me what you think."

I gasped.

The three-way mirror revealed a pony to me that I had never thought existed. The light brown leather of the jacket was a perfect match to my color scheme. Mud-brown straps attached to some kind of holster, while the shirt tapered off into a crescent shape that folded nicely around my flanks. In the end, I looked good. Empowered. Competent. Strong! And for once, I asked a question that mattered.

"When do we start?"

** ** **

The plan was simple. The team would enter a restricted zone, plant some devices called cameras inside a building, and from there all I'd have to do was help get the team to the roof. They'd take care of the rest. We waited until late at night.

Drums were beating in the center of Hornstead. It was something I wasn't used to; something so primal, so unrelenting. An orange pyrelight polluted the view of any stars above as a rising plume of smoke melted into the moonless night sky. Now I knew why it had to be tonight: we had all the right cover in all the right places. No moonlight to set us apart from the buildings. Nopony in town to spot us on our trip to the rendezvous. There were still guards patrolling the walkways and scaffolding, but at least the ponies I was following knew what they were doing. Or, so I'd hoped.

A few of the guardponies roamed the streets, searching for anypony who may have looked suspicious, while others scanned the rooftops. I didn't even want to think about what would have become of me if we were caught. The thought made the heavy rhythm in the backdrop all the more ominous. It drowned out my thoughts as we leapt across the building tops. For some reason it reminded me of Tranquility, when I used to venture up onto the roof of the convenience store (with great exception to the rising ambiance).

I was starting to understand why Rogue had never wanted these clothes. True to her word, they were heavy, although this wasn't their disadvantage. The main downfall to particularly dense articles of clothing? They're loud. So when we finally hopped down from a nearly two-story drop, the crate that I landed on all but snapped into splinters, prompting the others to hurry along much faster than I'd anticipated. Katana had been right about one thing: they didn't even hesitate to leave me behind. I caught up, apologizing. She met me with a frown.

"Stablemare. You're coming with me. We're gonna take a detour... one that won't get us all killed if you fuck up. Follow. Now."

I did as I was told, allowing her to lead. She betrayed an acrimonious demeanor as the others continued on their route down an alleyway. "And for the love of all things good, at least try to be less of a klutz."

She led the way across a nearby street, cobblestone clopping loudly under my hoofsteps as I followed along. We crossed into another alleyway as she vaulted over a fence, looking back at me expectantly. And when I landed on my face, she just sighed a little. She stopped me as we got to a corner leading into an outdoor atrium between the buildings. There was a padlock on the only door leading into the open area; bars ran up the sides of the passageway, providing hook points for a fence that extended all the way up to the building tops. The door was the only way in.

"Lucky for us both, I've got a key," Katana exclaimed. Opening the padlock, she slid inside. When I followed her in, I looked around. There were no available exit points. The only openings were second story awning windows. And the door was now being locked behind me.

"Katana. What are you doing?"

"Sorry about this. Hope you don't mind settling in for a while." The padlock clamped shut around the locking mechanism, the door bolt sliding shut through the bars.

"But what about the mission?"

"The mission?" Her face became stern and angry. "I don't know if you've noticed or not, but you don't exactly belong here. You haven't earned the right to call yourself one of us, and if you really think that you can just waltz on in here and get the Princesses' suite, you've got another thing coming. How about we strike a deal, hmm? I will worry about the mission, and you just sit tight. Somepony will be back by morning to pick you up. Until then, shut your big mouth, and stay hidden. Nopony needs you getting arrested or killed."

I grimaced. But then she seemed to remember something. "Oh, and by the way, Preacher doesn't need to know about this. We sure would hate to see his oh-so-precious Stablemare have something awful happen to her, now wouldn't we?" My nod sufficed. "Good. Now stay put. I've got a job to do."

I hadn't been threatened very many times in my life. The few times I had were nothing more than warnings about losing dessert if I didn't stop talking back, but even then I had listened. To think, just a few minutes ago I had felt so good about myself. But as I looked around to the dull walls and picnic-esque tables, I felt a desperate need to get out. A house? Fine. A room? Fine. A cage? No thank you.

All it took was a simple kick to bend the iron. Another one actually broke one of the hinges on which the gate stood. Another one finally made some progress, but I felt my hoof do something it wasn't supposed to. The crack could have stirred the dead.

I screamed. I screamed a lot. And cried. Sobbed too. My leg contracted as I lay there on the floor, grasping it in agony. For a while it seemed to dull into a subtle throb, and then just like that, it was gone.

I opened my eyes to look at the appendage, straightening it out and feeling only the slightest bit of strain, and even that soon disappeared. Was this the power of hydra at work? Or was it buck? I couldn't remember which did what. As if it had never happened, I stood up, sensing nothing odd about my leg.

I didn't want to do that again. Not in a million years. But I had to get out of here. Maybe both hooves could do the trick.

I lifted my back legs in the air, balancing precariously on my front hooves as I reared up to buck the metal gate, this time with full force. I focused all of my strength as my legs flexed and connected with the cast iron. The hooks holding the chain link fencing into the walls of the building not only gave way, but pulled chunks of their attachment points out with them. The ground in which the gate was mounted cracked as the support beam for the door bent at an impossible angle. Speaking of which, the door... the sorry, sad little door that now lay warped into a concave figure at the end of the alleyway.

Whoops.

I stood up, hurrying to get to the rooftops as I raced down the passageway and took a look around. Nopony in sight, although one thing certainly set me off—the drum beats had gotten noticeably louder. As my head swiveled right, the flashlight of a guard rounded the corner and I tried to duck. Too late. With a shout that really didn't sound by accident, the stallion called out to me. "Halt! Come out and keep straight! No sudden movements!"

I didn't respond. I could only sit there, terrified of what was going to happen. Would I die? What if I never found out where my parents had gone? How would I get back to them if I was dead!

I sat there as the guard yelled for me, trying desperately to think of something. A few hoofsteps later, and his flashlight shone around the corner, illuminating the bawling mare in a fetal position. "I'm sorry," I kept saying, "I never should've left!"

"Hooves! Up!" he shouted. "Now!"

I looked up to him. "Please don't kill me! I just need to get back to the marketplace, and then I'll go straight home, I promise!" Great, I'd resorted to begging. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

"I'm only going to tell you one more time, civilian!" he snapped, grabbing me with his magic and lifting me up. I squirmed, kicking every which way as I panicked. He lifted out a pair of metal circles with a chain between them, fastening them around my back hooves as I looked frantically for a way to escape. His magic set me down, and we began to walk. "Now, come along, and don't struggle. It'll only make it harder on you." What would the others think?

"Can you please just let me go?"

"Just shut up already," he said, "I don't get paid enough."

"No, you don't understand! I have to —"

"I said shut up!" he barked, giving me a stinging pain in my backside.

Now, at this moment, I was only concerned about my own safety. The pony-shaped hole in the brick wall roughly twenty hooves behind me reminded me of that fact.

Whoops.

I stared for a moment before trying to run. The metal chain connecting my hooves had a different idea. After falling flat on my face, I picked myself up off the cobblestone street, tussling with the cuffs before they simply snapped. The chain now dangled loosely from each hoof, although the circular parts still clung tightly to my leg. That would have to do until I got back to Preacher.

"Oh sugar! The others!" In a rush, I scrambled to reach the rooftops, searching above for a possible path. One low window offered what appeared to be a sturdy iron flower rack. But it must have been at least two stories high. How would I reach it?

Planting my back legs on the ground, I thought back to lifting the bars. I thought about the energy I had to put in in order to get something out. It was a balance. When I opened my eyes, I was crouched to the ground, my legs trembling with the buildup of energy. With one great resounding hope, I bounded...

... and soared straight past the window. My rump broke the fall to the third story balcony, and I got up, immediately inspecting my surroundings. The edge of the rooftop was just above. Lucky me! Although... as I looked down over the edge of the balcony, the height suddenly seemed much more real. A simple hop was all it took to send me up a story and onto the roof. The shingles were wet, causing my back leg to slip off the edge. I gasped and held on to the flat surface, slowly pulling myself up to the safer part of the ledge. Within seconds I noticed another guard patrolling a few buildings over.

With unreserved panic, I raced across the building tops, jumping over gaps that I wouldn't have been able to clear before today. The squad was nowhere in sight. I had to find them, and quick; Hornstead didn't seem the kind of city to be lost in. I racked my brain trying to find a clue of where to find them. And then I remembered something. What you are witnessing is a ceremony... we're going to expose them tonight. The drums continued to beat as the plume of smoke rose into the night sky, and suddenly, I had somewhere to be.

** ** **

My hooves touched down hard on the sidewalk, the drum beats having reached yet another crescendo. A simple wooden fence stood between me and the ceremony, which meant Bronco and the others couldn't be very far away. But, of course, as I held onto that assumption and squeezed through the tight gap in the wooden panels, I realized just how wrong one pony could be.

The crowd was hundreds. Thousands, if I didn't know better. It made the marketplace look trivial and... chaotic. The mass was gathered in a sort of eerie order, with a single platform at the front that hosted the ceremony's main event. Upon it sat an assorted group wearing strange armor of black and purple. A single obelisk stood erect in the center, surrounded by an array of glyphs. They pulsed sinisterly in time with the drums.

Just then, a unicorn from a line at the front of the crowd stepped up to the stage, and the drums strained slowly toward a staccato. The stallion approached the crystalline obelisk in the center, and inserted his horn into a stone hole, causing the prism to erupt into a brilliant orange. Fires appeared from the glyphs on the floor, slowly enveloping the stallion, and the crowd began to chant. At that, the drums went crazy, pounding into an overwhelming bass that vibrated within the deepest cavities of my chest. I was almost ready to run for my life in the opposite direction...

... when somepony screamed. The explosion took a moment to register as the stage showered down broken stone and the remains of the crystal obelisk. The shockwave rocked the very cobblestones beneath me as the front of the crowd was all but obliterated in a single fiery blast. Those unlucky enough to be left alive at the front galloped wildly away, some of them alight and burning. And all I could do was stand there like a lost filly, frozen in the chaos. All around me ponies screamed and shoved, panic finally breaking out as I found my senses and kicked straight through the fence behind me, bolting down the street. The ponies who'd stood in front of me followed closely behind as we all scattered. The sound of sirens attracted any guards in the area as I turned into an alleyway and continued to run. Screams echoed behind me as loud bangs rang throughout the city.

How could this happen, what's going on?! How in the world is this real! There was little time to think. I had to get back to Preacher's house, no matter what. Of all the times in the past day I'd needed an explanation, now demanded one most.

My ears were still ringing as I sprinted down the road, following the trail of apartments we'd traversed before. The metal circles around my hooves jingled cheerily with my hoofsteps as I navigated. I lost track once or twice before I finally found the opening to headquarters. The doors were locked, so I banged on them until someone answered. The doors finally opened, and inside sat all of the ponies I'd seen earlier. At once, they turned, some pointing shiny cylindrical objects at me, others simply staring in shock. Preacher appeared through the door to the monitoring room, pushing past a stallion who had wedged himself between us.

"Everdawn! What are you doing here? Where are the others?"

Whether it was my inability to string words together into a coherent sentence or the fact that I'd just witnessed death firsthoof, I began to cry. I fell back on my haunches, looking to the ponies in the room who simply gawked, and bawled. I tried to ask why. I tried to shout. I tried to scream. But all my body seemed capable of was choking out sobs and gagging as Preacher sat and hugged me.

"It's okay," he told me. He picked my head up with his hoof, gazing deep into my eyes and leading me back into the monitoring station. The ponies inside shut the screens off and took their leave hurriedly. Preacher took me aside and sat me down into one of the chairs. "Just tell me what happened."

And I did. About Tranquility. About Mom and Dad. About Katana. I couldn't bring myself to talk about the ceremony at first. But after a little convincing, even that slipped out. At the end of it all, Preacher sat back and rested his neck against some invisible wall. He started five sentences, and then settled with one.

"I'm sorry," he said.

I sniffed. "Why?"

"Everdawn. You've been very patient as of late, and I'm sure that you've noticed that I dodged your questions earlier, but it's not because I don't like answering. It's because things aren't as simple as you ask them. In this place, there is almost never an easy answer to anything, so it's really better to show you an answer than tell you. And I'm afraid that what's happened here tonight is another instance of that. What you saw wasn't entirely by accident."

"What do you mean by that?" He sighed.

"I'd have to show you," he said. "You'd have to see it to know. But what I'm trying to say is that... we were responsible for what happened. The team you were sent out with, their job was to do what you saw. I'm just sorry you had to see it from the place that you did. I should have known Katana might do something stupid. But if it's any consolation, I'm glad you made it back safely."

I couldn't reason. I couldn't think straight. "B-But... all those ponies..."

"... were a part of something that should never have existed in the first place." He adopted a stern countenance. "That ceremony is a lie, Everdawn. It's an abomination to our pony way of life, and it mocks any sense of morality we might hold in the Wasteland. Sombra's Hoof is an embarrassment to Harmony! And as despicable as this may sound, what we did is justified by that simple fact. Ponies like that cannot be allowed to live!"

"Justified? Morality?" I remembered the ponies who ran away from the flames, burning alive. I couldn't fathom that anything that horrid could be reasonably called 'justified'. "You killed them! What could they have done that would deserve something like that!" I yelled, knocking the chair over as I stood up.

"I wish I could simply tell you, Everdawn! I really do! But this is bigger than anything I can explain in a couple of minutes. It's bigger than all of us! And that's why you have to see it to understand. Until then, I'm sorry, but you just have to take my word on it."

"No! Why can't you just explain this to me? Why do I have to live remembering the screams of those poor ponies until I understand? How long will that be?"

He fell his head. "I... I don't know."

I glared at him. "Then why should I! You've been avoiding my questions on purpose, but I still don't know what happened that brought me here... I don't even know where in the hay 'here' is! Hornstead is just a name! And now, I don't even know what to believe, and you tell me to trust you on... on faith?!"

"I know it's a lot to ask," he said. "But please. Just trust me."

I was considering him. I really was.

"Tell me how I got here first. Nothing complicated. Just what happened. Step-by-step," I ordered. "I'll decide if I can trust you after I know the truth." I paused. "The whole truth."

He was reluctant, but I had given him the right motivation. "It all started a few days ago..."

oo000~ * ~000oo

"Help me open this," Katana said to Burly, who made short work of the sliding metal door. They stood just past the giant gear-shaped hole that comprised the entrance to the hidden steel structure.

As the group crept through the rusted hallways of the interior, they scavenged, taking medical kits and and a variety of other supplies that still served some kind of function. One side of the network was closed off from a collapse that had happened over a century ago. Wires hung down everywhere, holes lining the walls in sporadic lines. Some doors didn't open so easily, in which case, Burly was called to work. Most were wide open, waiting for visitors as the ancient machinery inside sat dusty with decay.

"According to the map, the head pony's office is on the gardening level," Gipsy said.

"Which is...?" Rogue asked.

"Another floor down. We should find it soon," he said. "Just around the next left and down the stairs. The atrium is there."

The group followed him, weaving their way through a network of bent metal and broken steel. "Be careful around the pipes," Brimstone cautioned, "the water inside is still pressurized. If you're in front of a breach in the iron, it'll be a mess."

"Just space yourselves evenly so we don't put too much stress on anything," Abeth instructed as he stepped over a hole in the floor. "Keep your head on a swivel. Worry more about the variables we don't know." At that, they spread out, keeping even space between one pony and the next. Taking a left and descending a tilted stairway, they arrived at the atrium balcony overlooking a series of pods. The Overmare's office was to the left. "Fan out, but keep within ear range. Search whatever you can, however you can. We only have a couple more hours, so let's make it quick. And be careful."

The bunch split into teams of two, which separated into rooms along the balcony. Meanwhile, Abeth stood behind with Brimstone as she worked on opening the door labeled in faded paint, Overmare. Burly would be of no use here, they all knew this. The Overmare's office was always the hardest to open.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," she mumbled, plucking one of the wires from inside the opening panel and hooking it up with a small cube.

"You always do," he said.

"Yeah, but not like this. Something about this stable is..."

The door interrupted her. As it slid open, a control room lay deserted with a pony skeleton laying protectively over the primary console. Without a moment's notice, Abeth patted Brimstone's leg and made short work finding the key taped under the table. Placing it into the authorization port, he was greeted with a simple message: Oxygen levels critical. The speakers within the room suddenly blasted the warning over and over as Katana stood in the hallway and yelled for him.

Abeth made his way back onto the mezzanine of the atrium, no longer caring for the data in the computer as a whole new source of activity alerted him.

"The pods! One of them is —"

oo000~ * ~000oo

"..."

"— is what?" I begged. "Is what? What happened?"

He was silent as he looked behind me to the monitors. He bore the visage of pure horror, mouthing out only a single word. "No..."

A sound like the explosion at the ceremony shook the equipment in the monitoring room, and then there were screams. Pieces of metal tore through the wall as cracks and bangs opened into a symphony. And whatever calm Preacher had retained before was instantly lost. My ears, for the second time in thirty minutes, were ringing.

The wall in front of us blasted into pieces, and everything went silent. Preacher took my leg and pulled me after him.

But things didn't stop happening. As the door opened, I saw ponies running, holes appearing in the surfaces around them as they fell to the ground and stopped moving. Debris showered down as the computers were torn apart from some kind of invisible hailstorm. Everywhere there were holes, and everywhere those holes caused chaos. Ponies left and right hit the ground. Holes. Desks fell apart. Holes. The walls blew open. Holes. And in the midst of it all, one mare stood, watching the carnage unfold.

Ukulele. She was smiling.

Rumor has it there's a traitor in our midst.

Preacher unlocked a hatch in the floor, and dropped to the ground. There was a hole in his head. Scarlet fluid pooled on the floor as I fumbled back to one of the overturned desks. I was crying again. Again. I tried screaming his name, but he simply laid there. Maybe he couldn't move. That's when I finally realized it. The holes had killed him. They took life. I had never seen death before today; now I'd seen it twice. What ungoddessly place was this?

The cacophony continued as I witnessed a hoof desperately pulling the rest of its owner. The stallion who'd sat next to Ukulele this morning gasped for breath. The holes were in his neck, but they hadn't taken his life yet. My eyes flashed back to the hatch. Had Preacher been trying to lead me away from all this? Whatever was going on, I had to escape. The hatch lay open, waiting. I looked back to the stallion laying on the floor in front of me.

"I'm sorry."

From behind the desk to inside the hatch was one fluid leap as the ground and walls were violently ripped asunder, holes appearing all behind me. The drop was only a body length deep, but I was in a tunnel now, dark and lonely. A feeling of claustrophobia took hold. No time for that. Keep running. Don't stop. Not until you've reached the end. I could hear them shouting for me. I could hear the screams.

My breaths filled the silence that became of the tunnel as heartbeat after heartbeat thudded in my ears. I squeezed through gap after gap in the walls. Just keep breathing, don't stop. Don't stop, whatever I do, I mustn't stop now!

There was a light at the end of the tunnel.

I raced for the exit, nearly tripping over a stalagmite before at last, I was free. I could only catch my breath as I put a hoof up to my eyes. The light from the sunrise was nearly blinding. I looked onward in hope and desperation...

... but the world ahead was beyond anything I had known.

Hoofnote: Level Up

New Perk: Lifeline Augmented — Your body has been permanently enhanced by Buck and Hydra. You now experience enhanced regeneration when your bones or limbs have sustained more than 75% damage or become severely crippled.

Quest Perk added: Earth Pony Might — You have tripled the amount and duration of physical force you can exert.

Soundtrack Unlocked: The Morning After

Shattered Intentions

Justified

Chapter Three: A New Wasteland

Chapter Three: The New Wasteland

"Daylight."

The Wasteland.

As I looked out upon the vastness before me, I was reminded of Tranquility, where I often wondered what it could feel like to venture further than the town borders... if there were any dreams awaiting me in those mountains, or beyond. It was a thought heavily discouraged by the townsfolk. Nopony ever left town, so nopony talked about leaving, so nopony thought about it, so nopony did it, and so on and so forth. There were a lot of things that the townsfolk discouraged that I never understood; rules, regulations, restrictions that never really quite added up. But if there was one thing I did understand in that moment, as the sun peaked brilliantly over the horizon behind the endless waning hills, it was this.

I could do anything. Be anything. Pick a direction and keep running. There were no limits now, no borders to hold me back.

And just like that, the world became alive. Tragic and frightening, yes. But alive. And fighting. And hopeful. And for the first time in my life, I felt something stirring deep within me. A calling. A voice behind my thoughts, a power behind my will. At last, I had something to fight for. Because for once... I was free. Truly. Completely. The only thing that could stop me now were the holes kicking up dust from the ground around me.

So I fled. Ran faster than I'd ever run before. Each great galloping stride brought me farther and farther away from the bombardment of death and into the open arms of the world. Little did I know I was in for a rude awakening.

** ** **

The hills got rougher. The grass turned to stubble on the land, reduced to nothing more than weeds. And as the sun took its position high in the sky, I eventually lost the urge to run off into nowhere. A few of the guards had tried to give chase before I outran them entirely, and now I found myself completely alone. The land stretched out before me yet again, and this time, I didn't feel so alive. All around me was a topography I'd never been acquainted with.

Rocks. Rocks everywhere. The hills became stony cliffsides that sloped and twisted all around me, the entire panorama a series of crevices and indents. Suddenly, all at once, I realized that I may have jumped out of a frying pan. Maybe I should have thought this through.

I started thinking about Hornstead. My nerves bundled up when I remembered Ukulele. Her face as she stood there, smiling.

Something moved behind me. It skittered quickly, little feet tickling the road, but I turned and saw nothing. Another noise to my left, on the other side of a few large rocks. Pebbles shifting. Something was trying to get around me. Maybe a small animal. Or a foal. Maybe I wasn't the only one out here!

I jumped on the boulder, gazing down to what I had expected to be something resembling a pony, when I was greeted by another sight entirely. Below me, staring up with beady, bulging eyes, was a creature that looked like something between a rabbit and a small dog. Its fur had fused to its skin, the underlying muscle now clearly visible through its transparent outer layers. Before I knew what was happening, it leaped at me, gnawing rabidly with an overgrown pair of front teeth. However, its anatomy betrayed it, and the stubby claws on its scampering feet were too dull to make it up the steep side of the rock.

Backing away to hop down and run, I spotted more closing in from the surrounding rocky terrain. The one currently biting wildly in my direction was attracting them with the ruckus. In a blur, I heard the mutated creature's foot pads finally catch on the rock, and I faced it in horror as it climbed up near me. There was almost something peaceful in its eyes when it finally got up, as if eating me alive were some great triumph. Sadly, my hoof had other plans. With a swift kick, it bounced back with a meaty thud against a neighboring boulder, so hard that I heard a muted snap before it squealed and writhed. Its front legs kicked every which way, trying to drag its back half away as it stopped biting altogether. It was suffering. It was helpless. And it knew it.

That's all it took for me to change my mind. It no longer mattered to me what it would have done. I had turned its life into agony. And for what? Trying to nibble me? Its teeth weren't even that sharp! At most it would have been an inconvenience... but now, the creature lay there and whimpered as its head jerked every which way, trying to find an escape route, and all I could do was watch as the others of its kind surrounded me. Watch as blood came pouring out of its mouth. As its front legs gave out and it fell limply to the ground. It twitched and let out a long breath.

My cheeks began to burn.

The other deformities became more aggressive now, more desperate, as a member of their kin died. They erupted into a chorus of shrieks as they all struggled to push up to the front of the group. Little yammering jaws snapped at me as they climbed atop one another.

"Stop!" I yelled, "Please! I don't want to hurt you!"

But they didn't. Again and again they scratched and climbed, searching for a foothold to get an advantage. My circle of safety grew smaller and smaller as they made a steady progress to reaching me. Finally, one of them grasped the rock and pulled up into a kill-jump, when a hole appeared in its neck, flinging it a yard to my left and knocking off its head like a piñata. I looked toward the source of the sharp crack that corresponded with the hole.

A mare. Standing alone. A metal, cylindrical object floated at her side, smoking from the tip. So those were what made the holes. She flipped it expertly, bearing a wicked smirk as she pointed it again. I ducked, trying my best to cover myself as another one of the creatures fell dead. The others scattered after the third went down, rapidly burrowing into the earth. The mare kept the cylinder pointed towards me, her unicorn magic holding it incredibly still. Suddenly, a stallion approached from behind her.

"Who are ye?" he called.

I peaked up from the cover of my hooves, pretending to —

"Don't pretend like you can't hear me! Three seconds ta answer!"

"Um... Everdawn! My name's Everdawn!" I blurted.

"Don't care for yer name! What's yer business?" I was having a hard time answering as I saw the mare's young (and more than likely reckless) age. One wrong tug of her magic could kill me. "Speak!"

"I'm lost!" I answered. "Do you know where I could find somewhere to get my bearings?"

The stallion said something to the side of the young mare, causing her to drop the weapon. Again, he looked up to me. "You come 'ere nice and slow now! No sudden movements!" Apprehensively, I plopped down from the boulder, now just as wary of attack from ahead as below. As I made my way over to the duo, their faces became much more clear. Each bore a scar across their left eye, in the same strange pattern. "Town's just down the road and over that there hill. If you so much as think about makin' trouble, we'll be on you like rads on ghouls." Ghouls. Huh. Another word added to the list of vocabulary I needed to know.

"I'll... take your word for it."

"Get a move on," the stallion said without so much as a glance back at me. Sure enough, a sign lay a small distance up the road, advertising the words, "Welcome too Singe, home of the Star Cap!" and then under it, "No scavengers aloud!" By now my legs were feeling the wear and tear of the previous day. My eyes too. Pretty much everything, actually. Bruises hidden by my thickly padded leathers ached and burned as I walked on, and the constant pull of my clothes didn't help.

Two years later, when the path finally met the town threshold, I was reminded deeply of home. It was small. Remote. Quiet. When you've lived in a place like that all your life, you just know another one like it when you see it. To be honest, it was a welcome break from the size of Hornstead... not counting the added measure of not having to avoid hole-shaped death.

Trotting through what I presumed to be the center, I was graced with the sight of a bronze statue that poured out muddy brown water, erected in the name of some stallion named Brighter Star, the "Undesputed King of Bottlecap Collecting." Okay then. My ears perked up at the sound of commotion from a nearby storefront. An older mare told a younger stallion (with very adult words) that he would be missing certain exterior organs if he ever showed his face inside her store again. He cried out to give him another chance, and was met with a door slamming shut in his face. I watched him hang his head and plod down the street.

Against whatever common sense I possessed, I entered the store and immediately heard conversation. She was speaking to somepony. As I stood there to listen, I was suddenly greeted with a threat that I deduced was for the stallion I'd seen. Peaking around the corner of a bookshelf, I spotted the older mare, who seemed relieved that I wasn't him. Her shop was an interesting one, to say the least. After all my time in Tranquility, not much had ever changed in the way of the town buildings' interior designs. It was considered an oddity that my parents and I would often rearrange furniture to suit the need for a new look. So when I looked inside the shop and caught a glance at everything, I couldn't help but be caught off guard. The various tables and shelves that lined the store held hundreds—neigh, thousands—of trinkets. Medallions, pendants, necklaces, bracelets, tiaras. And that was just the jewelry side of the shop. The other side hosted any number of strange items. Feathered beads and little fur-and-bone ornaments. I felt like I could dance around a cauldron and chant. To the left of the store, a wooden staircase led up to a walkway that held primarily books, in stacks by the dozens. This was a... collector's shop of some kind. It was amazing. For a moment I stopped focusing on the task at hoof just to gawk at the sheer volume of the sight.

The mare sighed, letting her shoulders fall a little. "How can I help you, Miss?" I stepped into view, and she inspected me. She saw my hesitation. "I'm guessin' you saw what happened. Well, don't worry. I don't bite, unless yer that cap-hoarding scoundrel. I swear, that colt wouldn't know how to tell the truth if it jumped up and gelded 'im. Well... I guess I'm bein' a tad bit harsh, but..." She snapped back to reality. "Whaddya want, anyway?"

"I was just hoping to ask for some —"

"Ask."

"Directions." I approached her, standing in front of her desk. A dull metal rectangle pinned on her shirt read 'Marmalade'. "I'm looking for a town called Tranquility Mane." She gave a buggy look. "It's in the mountains. Forests. About 80 ponies. There's a lake. Do you know where I could find it?" She rubbed her chin.

"Only place I know that sounds anythin' like that is Brigmound. Up by the Delamare. But the folks there ain't exactly lookin' to make friends, especially with shoobies like yourself. They got their own problems."

"Brigmound?!" A sudden thought appeared. Did I get sent back in time? Maybe this was the future. I sure hoped it wasn't.

"And there ain't a lake there no more. Dried up ages ago."

My jaw dropped. "What?" Definitely not the past. "When did that happen?"

"Almost a... decade now! Whew, time flies," she muttered, then noticed my face. "Well, whatcha expect? With the water shortage an' all, ponies had ta conserve. Those poor folk up in the mountains probably ain't never fairin' much better'n we are, so how could ya blame 'em?"

This had to be a joke! This couldn't be real! The ponies of my town couldn't be in that bad of condition, so deprived of resources, as to take away the one thing we all loved so much. The lake was the source of activity for the town. It was the swimming hole, it was a host for our beloved seaweed delicacy, it was the place where the little fillies and colts skipped rocks! It was what made our home livable! How on earth could we ever let something like this happen? How would the mayor ever have allowed it?

"I have to get there right away," I said to her. "It's urgent. Do you have a map?"

"Sure do..." She held one out to me, but snatched it away when my hoof reached out. "... if you've got the caps for it."

I deadpanned, but then felt a sort of familiarity with the word, like I'd heard it before. "Caps?" It must have something to do with the Brighter Star statue. No... it had a larger implication. The poor ponies I had seen as Lily and I walked through Hornstead were begging for them. But I still didn't know what they were. A sort of food, maybe?

"Okay, you're a tourist, but I know ya ain't stupid."

"What if I am?"

She glared at me. "You're not. Why don't you come back when you have somethin' to bargain with? Otherwise, it ain't none of my concern where you gotta go." I sighed, and trudged out. She waited until I had almost left the store to add, "But off the record, I'd be happy ta give that flank o' yers a spin for a lot less."

I exited the shop a lot faster than a pony who hadn't just heard that, and soon enough my mind wandered to its newest objective. First, I needed to get a map, but in order to do that, I had to find these 'caps' everypony seemed to like, and if I wanted those, I had to... shucks, I don't know, ask for them? Or I could just go find somepony who would give me a map for free. There were enough ponies in this town that I was sure Marmalade wasn't the only one who could give me something useful.

Easier said, especially with how exhausting this day had already been.

After a half-hour of scouring the streets, all I got were wayward looks and the silent treatment. What in Tranquili—er, the Wasteland was wrong with these ponies? Did they not trust me? Well, why not? Couldn't they see my bright, hopeful grin? Was my deflated, berated spirit really that obvious? Another stallion leaned away from me upon seeing my fake smile, which brought me to a small vendor across the road. Strewn across the table were a few jars of colored powder, along with some plants I didn't recognize. However, one thing was missing from the stand—the vendor himself. Oh, no, there he was. Curled up in a bawling heap behind the counter.

My immediate instincts told me to keep walking, to escape the newfound awkwardness of the situation and find somepony else before my patience was tested thin. I was just looking for a map. Not a grown, sobbing stallion.

"Um... hello?"

He perked up, staring wide-eyed at me. "Oh hmm? Sorry... H-How may I help you?" His hoof wiped a stray tear.

"I was just looking to buy a map. I don't suppose you... I dunno, have one?" He shook his head. "Maybe you could give me a few 'caps' then?"

He glared daggers at me. "Lady, do I look like a stallion with caps to spare?" I took a step back. "I'm sorry. I just... you don't know the day I've had." Oh really, I don't know? "I'm dead broke. Again."

Broke? Wait. Currency! Caps were currency! The more you know!

"You were the stallion Marmalade was... speaking to." He nodded. Ugh! More introductions!

"Yeah? What's it to you?" But he sure had an attitude, didn't he?

"I need to buy a map from her, and I can't seem to find anypony in town willing to give me the time of day. Is there any chance you could talk to her for me? I've had a pretty long day myself, and it would mean a lot."

He scoffed. Then snorted. Then guffawed. "I think you'd have better luck getting something out of One-Cap Jack."

"Then point me in the right direction and I'll be out of your hair."

He repeated the bundle of expressions. "You can't be serious. Do you even know who he is?"

"Do I need to?" I didn't have time for this! I was tired and desperate and alone, and this stallion was just giving me more questions to ask!

His eyebrows almost disappeared into his mane. "Do you need to? Well, shucks, just as much as you'd need an antidote for radscorpion poisoning. One-Cap Jack practically owns this town. He's in charge of all the income, and believe me when I say that he's a cap-pinching bastard. He sends his goons out to collect monthly payments from us, and if you don't have any, you better make your stay in town a quick one."

"Sounds like a butt-munch," I said bluntly, earning a squint and a scrunched nose.

"Um... sure. But if you think you can actually get something out of him, you're welcome to be my guest."

"I'm not leaving until I have a map. Now either you have something for me or you don't. Either you talk to Marmalade or you don't. Either you show me where this... 'One-Cap Jack' is, or you don't. But I'd like it if you picked one of the three soon so that I don't have to regret losing my patience."

Was that a threat?

He seemed taken aback, but quickly recovered. "So long as you send me a postcard from whatever harmony-forsaken place he sends you to."

Maybe I should reconsider. If I was going to have to run errands, it would take time away from getting back, and if the ponies back home were really doing as badly as Marmalade had said, it was time I didn't have. Maybe try and get a map from the next town? Not when I could take a little more time to think it over. Mom and Dad could wait just a little longer, couldn't they?

Would they? If they were in my horseshoes? Would they wait?

"Take me to him."

It was enough. The stallion got up, stretching his legs a little. "I hope you know what you're getting yourself into."

I didn't. But did I really need to tell him that?

The walk wasn't long, anyway. In fact, I was surprised. Considering the distance I'd had to put between myself and Hornstead, this wasn't much more than a short stroll. Right down the road from town square was a small walking path that lead to a little wooden building. The stallion—named Basil—called it a chapel. He said it was used way back when when ponies would worship the Princesses. Funny, why didn't we have one in Tranquility? Mom and Dad used to tell me stories about the Princesses, about how they were always watching over us, even though they were in some faraway land. It would have been smart to have a place where we could learn about them... not that I would have gone or anything.

But this building didn't look like it still served its purpose. The windows had been boarded up, and the wood was old and decaying.

Basil stopped in front of the doors. "He's right inside." I took a cautious step toward the entrance, placing an ear up against the wood. "You sure about this? I don't want to see another body outside the town borders."

I never replied. "I don't hear anything."

It was like the last word of the sentence was the trigger for the knife to come through the wood. It missed my ear by half an inch. This prompted a scream, which was accompanied by laughter inside the chapel. I backed away from the entrance as a stallion opened the door. He was by far the most raggedy out of those I had seen in the past day, and now I was starting to get a feel of why Basil may have been afraid of him. Though absolutely filthy and harboring the most intense smell out of anypony I'd met, he was also scarred, burned, bruised, and downright malicious looking.

"O-One-Cap Jack!" my little voice piped, "I'd like to have a word with you!" The stallion's wicked grin turned into sincere confusion before giving way to cackling snorts. "What? What's so funny?"

Basil was the one to speak up. "Wrong one, Everdawn." He pointed me to the head of the chapel, where a strange-looking pony reclined on a couch, surrounded by a cloud of pink, arid smoke. His ears were long and dangly, almost hanging off the sides of his head at odd angles. The stallion in front of me was just an associate? An evil henchpony of some sort, if I had to guess. He stood aside to allow my passage, figuring that a mare must not be much to handle.

I watched Basil's face transform from expressionless to concerned just before the doors closed behind me.

"Boss'll see you now," the stallion said, glaring at me.

The (I don't want to say "pony") at the head of the chapel watched my approach with a calm gaze. He puffed out another cloud of pink, letting it stream from the sides of his mouth. His muzzle was longer, and his face was looser, leading the entirety of his features to turn into a frown. His head bore a strange resemblance to an egg, and once I got closer I noticed that he was, indeed, bald. The entirety of his features seemed to direct into a frown.

"M-Mr. Jack?"

"Just tell me what you want before I put one through your head." That didn't sound good.

"Everdawn. My name is Everdawn. I'm looking for a way home."

His goons laughed. "'A way home,' she says. Getting lost in the Wasteland? You retarded or something?"

"I-I just need a map, or a couple of caps," I told him firmly... sort of.

"Don't got any." He was lying. Even an idiot like me could tell. "Now scram."

I looked around, unsure of what to do with this behavior. A bar sat on the right side of the chapel, and rounded tables hosted a number of different ponies who sat smoking and drinking. The dim lights in the room illuminated them in a sinister glow. All eyes turned towards me, menacingly.

I stepped forward. "I just need your help! I've been looking everywhere and —"

"You are retarded! When I tell you to get lost, slut, you get the fuck lost!" he threatened. "Do you have any idea how many ponies I gotta deal with? Twelve! But that's eleven too many, 'cause the only mule I should have to worry about... is me!" Slut?! He didn't even know me! Why would he say something like that? What kind of a stuck-up jackass...? Did all mules look and act like this one?

I stared at him for a long moment. Would they have given up on me?

"No."

That didn't make him happy. "What did you say to me?" He looked around, meeting the gazes of several ponies in the room who went wide-eyed to their leader. "I'm sorry, but you're in my house, bitch! You're standing under my roof, and these are my rules, and you get the fuck out when I say you do! In fact," he pulled out a metal cylinder, "I'm gonna give you to the count of three to get that stupid ass out that door!" He held it in his mouth, rasping the word 'one'. I knew what the holes did. He was threatening to kill me. Put one through your head.

But then I realized it. When I was a filly, my parents always had the hardest time getting me to bed. I'd wave my toys around like weapons, and in the end, before my temper got out of control, they'd simply take the toys and sit down with me, sweeping me up in a great big hug. Now, granted, I wasn't about to hug this... mule... but if he was going to act like a child, why not deal with him like a child? I wouldn't have to use violence. Just take the hole-maker, sit down with him, and talk nicely, one-on-one. Simple. All I'd have to do was make it up there before he said three... or end up like Preacher.

The steps walking toward him were quickened as he readjusted to aim at me. "Twur!"

I hopped up near him as he aimed again, gaining a killer look in his eyes at the clear target in front of him. All I had to do was take the gun. I reached out my mouth, biting down to grab the barrel of the tubular device, when I heard a horrid sound. Well, two. One was a crunch accompanied by a wretched pain in my mouth that literally stunned me. The other was a squeak that left a picture of shock on Jack's once-smug face. I immediately let go and staggered backwards. I'd bitten harder than I thought.

As I looked over to where he was staring in horror, I met his eyes, and he almost seemed to guide me to the cylinder that was now completely bent and crushed halfway down the barrel. I felt a bit of liquid ooze out of my mouth as my tongue licked over the reforming curves of my shattered teeth. Looking down, I saw white bits on the floor, surrounded by mucous. It didn't even hurt—probably a delayed reaction that was due in the next couple of minutes. The look on his face now told me that he wasn't so focused on killing me as he was trying to get away. He backed up, dropping his smoke-filled pipe as I carefully advanced. The others in the room seemed equally surprised as they watched the scene unfold.

Upon closer inspection, the throne he maneuvered around was covered in a number of stains and rusty needles. And... was that a pair of dentures? I shook my head. At least I could have something to replace my destroyed teeth with... goddess-dammit.

"Lithen, I don't want to thtay here long. Pleathe, can we jutht talk?" I attempted with my recently destroyed teeth. If I was going to feel the brunt of it later I might as well make progress while I still could.

He backed away further. "You just bit my fucking gun! Who does that?!"

Then, another voice sounded throughout the chapel. "Chipper, get the hell off the altar." Everything went silent, and I stopped to turn around.

A lone figure stood in the doorway. Gruff, stout, is beard hung down to his knees, swaying back and forth as he walked towards me. I'd never seen so much facial hair on someone in all my life. He wore a ragged fisherpony's hat that practically dangled on top of his head, as if the slightest breeze might carry it away. It gave his face ample shade in the already-darkened building. As he drew nearer, it suddenly dawned on me. This was the real One-Cap Jack. 'Chipper' was apparently just a regular old jackass. (Pun intended.)

"Mithter Jack?"

"In the flesh," he said tiredly, walking straight past me and sitting down on the throne chair. "What did you do, Chipper?"

The mule came over. "She's fuckin' crazy, Jack! Bit my gun in tw—"

"You better siddown before I use this hoof to turn you into a pony-shaped lollipop!" he shouted, prompting the donkey to take a seat at the makeshift bar. Jack looked at the bent gun on the floor. "Damn thing hasn't even worked in years, you idiot!" A couple of Chipper's friends laughed and patted his back as he joined them on the bar stools. The old pony turned back around. "Never seen somepony actually bite a gun. What are those, aug'd teeth or somethin'? Nevermind, don't answer. What do you want? Why'd you want to see me?"

So that's what the hole-makers were called. "Pleathe," I said. "I'm jutht looking for home."

The answer surprised him. There was a pregnant pause from the room as he finally sat back. "Well damn. Where's that?" It sounded odd hearing an old pony curse. I had to fight back a smile, despite the recent tension.

"That's what I needed to know."

"Well, ain't no place in the Wasteland called Home. In fact, Home's a lot of places to a lot of ponies. So which place is yours?"

"It's a town..." I remembered what Marmalade had called it. "Brigmound."

He studied me, eyes roaming to my ears, my hair, my hooves, my jacket, and lastly to my eyes. Finally, he laughed, as if I'd told a joke. "I like you." He looked around, fervently searching around the altar. "Where the hell's my charcoal?" He dug through a nap sack behind the seat. He finally found it, and twisted back around. "I take it you've met Basil?" I nodded. "He's one of our cap-collectors. Been working for us for years. Some of the town residents don't take kindly to his job, but he never fails to generate income." He held out his hoof, and on it was a piece of paper folded in half, attached to a leather bag containing something that chinked. "There's a mare in the center of town named Marmalade. She handles most of the small merchandise for this town—trinkets, rare items and the like. Get Basil to show you where her shop is if you don't already know, and give this to her. She'll know what it means, and she'll send you on your way. Think you can handle that?" He smiled.

I returned it. "Yeah... thank you." And just like that, the tension of the day melted off my shoulders. "Thank you so much."

He waved a hoof. "Welcome," he grunted. "Now get outta here, before I'm sober and change my mind." He looked reluctant for a moment as I took the note and sack, as if parting with it may be a generosity he soon regretted. Before I left, he stopped me, looking into my eyes very seriously. "You owe me." I blinked. "Doesn't have to be now. I'll give you some time, since you scared the shit clean out of Chipper. But I'll expect you to come back to repay me somehow. Got it?" I nodded, suddenly much less appreciative of the 'favor'.

I walked out of the chapel, seeing Basil nowhere in sight. Following the trail back to the town was simple enough, and the view wasn't so bad. Most of the landscape was dry and rocky, with patches of grass here and there. Nothing special, but it was unique enough compared to Tranquility. After years of seeing the mountains over and over again, it lost its magic just a little bit.

My thoughts suddenly shifted as I remembered Ukulele again. Was she really the traitor Rogue had mentioned? One thing I knew for certain was that a pony who was about to be caught for doing something illegal didn't smile like that. She looked all too happy watching headquarters get blown away. She'd watched it happen, standing there, soaking it in like eye candy. And all I could do was run. What did that make me? She didn't seem like the type to betray anypony. But neither did Basil, and look how easily he tricked me. Was I really so gullible? I swear, that colt wouldn't know how to tell the truth if it jumped up and gelded 'im. Marmalade had been right. I would have to be more careful around the ponies I met.

Other matters aside though, I was now facing Marmalade's shop. The morning sun was brighter now, and I could see the letters of her sign more clearly. Real Rarities. Quaint.

I walked inside half expecting her to hurl something at me. If One-Cap was who Basil was collecting for, and the event with him and Marmalade wasn't just for show, then she wouldn't be happy to figure out that I'd been talking with him. Especially once I gave her the note.

"Marmalade?" I asked before I peaked around the corner of the bookshelf near the entrance. She was asleep at her desk.

I smiled as I walked over, placing the note and bag on the table with a soft chink. She woke up, eyes still clouded with a dream as she oriented herself to an overly erect posture, as if to pretend like she'd been awake the whole time. "Oh, you again. What's this? Come back to trade with something?"

"Actually," I pushed the bag to her side of the counter, "I do." I smiled, happy to finally be getting somewhere with this day. I'd be back in Tranquility—er, Brigmound (?)—in no time, and then this nightmare could finally be over.

Marmalade looked at the sack on the counter after having read the note, and gave me a skeptical glance, as if I'd just lost a piece of her trust. She suddenly seemed much more on edge.

"Jack send ya?"

"He did."

She looked to me with caution, then down at the bag. She sighed, putting it somewhere behind the counter before turning around and getting climbing up to a trinket above one of the bookshelves, getting on her hind legs and reaching. I couldn't help but try and see what the fuss was about before she flipped her head around. "Turn around," she ordered. I obliged, and heard a series of metallic clicks before some kind of locking mechanism opened. She got down off the counter, finally giving me permission to turn around.

In her hooves was something that I really can't describe all that well... but I'll try. Imagine a fat metal bracelet with a screen on top. Three buttons on the bottom, a dial, and some kind of a meter where a pointer faced the green area of a scale that went to yellow and red, ending in dark maroon. The object was old, worn down, faded. It had collected its fair share of scratches, dents, and dust, and looked more like a missing piece of clunky machinery than anything.

Marmalade beckoned me forward as she held it out, leaning over the counter. I looked at it closely before she told me to give her my hoof. The screen appeared to be more oriented to the right side of my body, so I stuck that hoof out. "I don't suppose you know what that is?" I asked sheepishly. She took the half of the object that swung limply and wrapped it around my leg to meet the side with the screen, clicking it into place. Just like that, the fat bracelet was rooted in place, as if held by my very skin. After a small eternity of silence, she finally spoke.

"Take care of that. It'll get you wherever you need to go."

We stared at one another. I looked down to check the screen. Maybe there'd be some directions on how to use it. I pressed one of the buttons, but the screen remained stagnantly blank. "How?"

"Follow the road until you see a town. And if you see anypony on the way... not a word about where you got it."

I asked how far it was, but she didn't answer. "Okay, well, thanks, I guess." I turned to leave the shop when she suddenly raised her hoof to her forehead at an awkward degree, sweeping her other hooves together in perfect unison. I could see the strain in her aging body as she saluted.

"It's been an honor." As she said it, a single tear fell from her eye. And just like that, I walked out of the shop and started on my way down the road.

"The hell was that about?" I asked nopony in particular. What was on that note? My leg's flexibility was left surprisingly intact, even with the big metal object stuck to it. I looked down, glancing down at the letters to the left of a turner that had been smoothed by use.

"'PipBuck'?"

** ** **

For yet another time today, I found myself walking. The road, it seemed as I trailed down the path further, only grew slimmer and more rugged. Soon, the only decipherable feature of the walk was the presence of boulders on either side of a certain direction.

My hooves fumbled with the occasional rock as I traversed the new terrain. In Tranquility, the roads were mostly dirt. Traveling was easy, made simple by the smoothed paths that wound through and around the town. They were clear-cut swaths that forked and bridged in between the treelines of Tranqility's borders. They were easy. But this... this was different. The shifting rocks were unsettling, completely defiant of my expectations. And once again, I found myself knowing what it felt like to be lost.

Could this really be the future? Somehow, it didn't seem so absurd, as if all the little details added up. Sure, I'd dabbled in fiction books back at the town library, but most of the old things were either ludicrous tales of a place called Equestria or cheesy love stories written by one of the Elders. I missed all that. And it only made this that much more real. All of the things I'd seen over the past day were a part of my life now. Tranquility might not ever be the same again. I certainly wouldn't be. But maybe that was okay. Maybe I didn't have to see the world the same way forever. Maybe I deserved to know something more. Really though... what more did I know? And better yet, what could I hope to do with it? It's not like I could protect those closest to me from the entire world. For all I knew, the ponies of my town were already long gone. But I couldn't afford to think like that now.

What did I know though? Weird animals. Bad ponies. Death. Hardly a book's worth of info. But it did lead to some interesting questions. For instance, what the hell did 'TRP' mean? The little letters were scratched into the surface of the PipBuck, just underneath the right side of the screen. I'd have to ask Marmalade if I ever returned to Singe.

My mind was left to wander for only a second before the first building of the town peaked up over one of the hills. Although, it certainly didn't look like any building I'd ever seen before. The chapel in Singe at least resembled some sort of house. The structure was shaped like a cone, with a skeletal frame. And that's when I saw it. The body hanging on top.

I stopped dead in my tracks, staring forward. It was a hundred yards away, but the smoldering remains of the corpse were clear as day. It was impaled by the framework of the hut. It barely even resembled a pony anymore, to be honest. I'm still surprised I noticed it.

"H-Hello?" I yelled, drawing closer. It was becoming even clearer what had happened. The wind began to pick up, scattering whatever ashes remained from the gruesome scene. It was enough to finally topple the structure, leading the body to crack loudly against the rocks and break apart, splitting several limbs off and rolling them awkwardly. All around lay more remains, burnt to a crisp. Several of them were children.

I threw up. Violently. There wasn't much to get out, but it was enough.

And then, out of the blue, I thought about it. Stinging pains in my stomach brought up the idea. I hadn't had a thing to eat since I arrived here, had I? Preacher probably found a way to feed me while I was asleep, but as I rose to my hooves on weak legs, I became fully aware that it wasn't enough. I finally knew hunger. Real hunger. And then I remembered what Lily had said as we were passing those ponies in the streets.

They're starving. A lot of ponies are.

Was I... starving? From what Abeth had said, they didn't have a lot of supplies to spare, which meant whatever they'd given me to tide me over couldn't have been very much. But it was enough to puke out now. I looked up to the picture of death and felt my breaths tripping over one another, nerves tense as I began to shake. The explosions at the ceremony, the ponies burning, the attack on headquarters, it was all coming back. All at once.

I inhaled deeply, tasting new bile. Where were my parents to help me through this? I just wanted Mom and Dad! I couldn't do this by myself! All alone! I would end up like this pony on the ground and no one would ever know!

No. Not now.

I had to peel my eyes away from the horrific sight to keep moving, when something crunched loudly under my hoof. I kept moving. I didn't need to know.

** ** **

It took another half an hour to run into something resembling pony civility. A mare holding the reigns for a... for the life of me, I couldn't describe the creature. It was big, hairy, and seemed oddly bovine. The two heads were where I stopped understanding what I was looking at.

I greeted her with great relief, and she took a step back, aiming a... gun... at me. "Please," I said, "I've been walking forever, and I just need directions to the next town." She didn't seem so obliged.

But she considered me for a moment. "Hooves grounded. No sudden movements." I obeyed her. "I don't know how you got this far away from the frontier, but if you're looking for the next town, you're headed in the wrong direction."

"What? What do you mean?" I almost approached her, but she readjusted her aim straight to my head. I fumbled back.

"Didn't you hear me the first time?"

"Please," I leveled.

She looked at me strange. "Little place by the name of Singe. Should be a quarter-day's walk from here. No more than 10 miles. Famous for cap-hoarders and chem traders. Wouldn't stay there too long if I were you though." She kept her gun pointed firmly at my face.

"No, no that can't be right. I just came from Singe, what about the town down this road?"

She looked puzzled, cracking a smile. "Town? There isn't a town in that direction for more than a hundred miles. All that's left after the desert is the Badlands."

"Badlands? But Marmalade said..." I trailed off while she kept talking.

"Don't know 'bout the Badlands?" she said, "I reckon you aren't from around here, are you?" Her grip on the gun loosened a little. I still couldn't believe I'd been lied to, twice in one day nonetheless!

"Can't say I am." Ponies in Tranquility didn't lie.

"Then you probably shouldn't stay any longer than you have to."

I grew solemn. "Believe me, I'm trying not to."

She stared at me a moment. "Look, if I were you, I'd head back to Singe and get to the frontier, go back to wherever you came from. Nighttime around here is when the raids happen. Just a little friendly advice." Raids? "Now, I'm on a bit of a tight schedule. Would you mind?"

I was in her way. I apologized and stepped aside. "I don't suppose you'd know the way to Brigmound, would you?"

"Nope," she said, and walked off without another word. My eyes followed her until she disappeared with the creature in tow.

More wandering, I suppose. This time in another direction; away from the 'Badlands'. Felt right. So long as I didn't have to keep going back to lies. I'd been told a fib too many to want to go back, no matter how hungry... or tired... or miserable... I was. If you can't trust anypony, why would you want to?

The rocks were getting more jagged, jutting out like sore spots. Their shadows grew longer. It must have been nearing afternoon by now. My heart fluttered in the heat of the day. Somehow, my jacket was just thick enough to keep the rest of my body sheltered while the exposed leather baked along with my face and neck. The sun had never hurt his bad back in Tranquility. Brigmound. Whatever.

Somewhere along the way I decided to take a breather under a rather large rock with some even larger skeletons of ungoddessly creatures. Extra limbs, heads, and eye sockets within. The corpses of the abominations almost looked more like props to a fantastical stage reading than anything that was formerly alive. It freaked me out at first, but the shade was cool and inviting enough to keep me rooted as I stared at the spectacle. I started to wonder when I might meet another pony again. Despite the lies, it was still exciting to see a new face, even if the feeling wasn't often returned. Something about meeting a pony you'd never met before just excited me, especially since I could walk forever and never get the opportunity again. The possibility of dying still lingered.

A cool draft blew through the rocky canyon as my break ended out of sheer boredom. Hard to believe right? How could a pony be bored at a time like this? Hours of walking through the middle of nowhere, that's how. I could practically hear the clock ticking from my living room wall as I sat underneath that boulder. I pictured the white noise, clicking my tongue to the imaginary cadence until I'd finally had enough. The pain in my stomach was getting worse. Could hunger kill you? I sure hoped not.

I walked for another hour. Then two. Then I lost track of time altogether, mostly due to a migraine that soon became a crippling throb in my temples. I lamented, asking the Princesses why such a thing was happening to me. It got so bad that I said a prayer. Which is a lot coming from me. Growing up, our town had been mostly firm believers in the Goddesses, Celestia and Luna. I'd learned a fair deal about them in fillyhood, but never had any real conversations regarding them. It was more peer pressure than an earnest desire for spiritualism. Nothing ever went wrong in Tranquility Mane. Ever. So the ponies of the town always thought it was a sure proof that our sweet Princesses were watching over us, keeping us safe. Even if we couldn't see them. Or hear them. Or know they were there at all. And my parents? They just told me to trust in whatever I chose to believe in, no matter what it was.

Where were my Princesses now, I wondered.

The sun began to wane. I'd been awake for a whole damn day. Now that was something, wasn't it? I'd lasted a day here, and yet it felt like so much more. Mom had always said time flew when you were having fun. How about when you were scared to death? It couldn't do the same there?

Before too long, I began counting in hopes of a distraction. Maybe looking for things of an odd color! Green... nope. Pink? Nope. Green? Oh, wait I said that already. Hmmm...

While looking around, I spotted something in the distance. I wouldn't have thought to look for it if I hadn't been color spotting. It was a patch in the winding rocky hills that looked darker, settled... like a camping area. Maybe they had food, or water! Water sounded good too! I approached in a jog, quickly making my way over. For a moment, I drew caution. What if this was like earlier? Would I find another horrorscape once I arrived? It didn't seem to be the case. I couldn't spot anything else around the dark spot. Good. Come to sweeten the deal was more shade casting over the area. My burning skin quickened my pace for me.

As I reached the abandoned site, I found several layers of blankets on one side of a collapsed tent. Ponies had been staying here. The firepit in the middle was cold and dry, all the way to the bottom. Whoever set this up was long gone. That was probably a good thing though, knowing what I did. I made myself at-home on one of the blankets, settling deep into the fabric as I felt security for the first time in a solid day. That was the last thing I remember before my eyelids won me over.

** ** **

I woke up shivering. For such a scorching place during the day, the Wasteland sure got cold at night.

I had rolled off of the blankets sometime during my "nap," and now found myself on a pile of rather uncomfortable stones. Shifting my back, I sat up, suddenly wide-eyed as my gaze met the endless abyss. Nighttime in the Wasteland. More stars than I could count. An explosive magnitude of twinkling starlight that dwarfed all of existence in its array. If I had died right there, I couldn't have cared less. The volume of the sight before me sent chills through my every nerve. And for a moment, my trivial little life didn't matter to me. All that mattered was this thing, this world, that held meaning like I'd never known. The answers were out there, written in the glimmering specks of the Great Beyond.

Somehow I got the courage to stand up, and for a moment it felt like I was more in danger of falling upwards. I was taken down to earth by an unearthly throbbing in my head. My temples screamed in pain as I realized just how dry my mouth was. I picked myself up, looking around for some source of water. Maybe a bowl or something. If hunger or thirst could kill, I had a feeling I might find out soon. I gurgle in my stomach told me I should get a move on. I searched the entirety of the camp site, only finding fabric and cartons of white paper cylinders before I finally struck gold. A canteen sloshed invitingly inside one of the bags in the tent, and as I took a desperate gulp, I realized that whatever was inside was not the fluid I was looking for. It burned going down my throat, making me cough and spittle as I reeled and shuddered, clutching my head.

Deciding I'd had enough of feeling like dung, I climbed up to the higher rocks illuminated by the moon. Sure enough, off in the distance, an orange light rose up from the ground, and my heart sank. The memory of what had happened yesterday, at the ceremony, jumped into my stomach instead of the water I needed. At this point, I'd take anything, so long as my temples stopped beating like drums, so long as my belly stopped stinging, so long as my throat didn't feel so raw. Whatever was in that canteen had made it worse.

I began my descent from the higher rocks before I realized that I could no longer see the light. I kicked myself. Climbing back up was dizzying, but I could see the orange glow again, which meant there was some hope of making the pain stop. The ponies of Singe weren't so willing to give up product without proper payment. Maybe these ones would be different. Or maybe I had another horrific ash pile waiting for me.

The rocks became unusually steep as I neared the source of the light, forcing me to jump down and scout ahead in the little canyons leading up to my objective. The throbbing in my head was keeping up with my hoofsteps now. I just squinted and hissed through it, focusing on what it would feel like to finally get something in my stomach. I looked down to the PipBuck on my forehoof. Still nothing. Clicking a few buttons elicited the same response. I pushed forward. I'm starving! I would say. Do you have anything to eat or drink?

As I pulled around another bend in the rocks, I finally spotted the flickering light of the fire on the wall of the cliffside. I thanked the Goddesses and picked up my pace. Fervently. Carelessly.

If I had rounded that corner saying my rehearsed lines, I would have died. Instead, I practically skipped around the corner to find a picture not worth describing. The first thing that reached my nostrils was the smell.

I would have cried a river if my eyes were capable of producing tears. The thoughts pounding in my head utterly drowned out my migraine, and my stomach? To say a butterfly knot wouldn't give it justice. I didn't scream though. What good would it have done? The likeness of burning hair soon became apparent as I turned around and started back down the trail, unable to process. I stepped on something, because just as my hoof hit the ground, I heard a chink and a snap as something hit my leg, hard. Looking down, I stared, mortified, at a set of metal jaws clamping firmly around the PipBuck on my right leg. Each 'tooth' had been sharpened, but the clunky piece of equipment hadn't taken so much as a scratch. So engrossed was I with the fact that I had almost lost a leg that I didn't even hear the ponies stop eating. I started hitting my nearly-snared leg against the ground in an effort to get the wretched mechanical device off, when I heard something behind me. Like a wicked snicker.

I turned around in just enough time to pull my leg free as the group of ponies closed in on me. One of them had a gun. Most were armed with what appeared to be sticks of jagged metal. The glow of the fire behind them illuminated just enough of their faces to give me nightmares for months. Red, twisted grins and cackling erupted as I faced them in pure horror, eyes dropping to something underneath each of them. I screamed as I realized they all had five legs—four regulars and a fifth that hung between their back two. They laughed, as if my knowledge of their common deformity excited them.

That was when I realized they set the metal jaws for me. Earlier. Before I got here. The device must have been waiting. I would have seen it if I had been more cautious. Just a little more aware.

"P-Please, we can talk about this!" I yelled, "You don't have to do this!" They responded by continuing their advance. It was enough of an answer for me to know what I had to do.

My left hoof fumbled with the contraption for a moment before I started backing up, trembling now. Would the same fate await me? Would I still be... alive for it? Of all the emotions flooding my mind, fear reared its ugly head the worst.

After backing up for a moment, I got an idea. If they could use this blasted device as a weapon, why couldn't I? It was genius! I would turn their sneaky ensnarement against them and escape! My mind reeled at its own brilliance as I thought of a way to get it off first. One answer stood most prominently: throw it.

Stepping back, I stood on my hind legs, winding up the pitch. If I could just swing my front leg hard enough, the contraption would be sent flying off and land on one of them instead! The plan came together as I put all of my strength into hurtling the thing off of me. I swung, the dangerous night wind whipping through my mane as I closed my eyes, fired like a cannon shot with all my might and...

... heard a heavy thunk on the ground a few yards in front of me. I opened my eyes. The ponies just stared at the iron jaws on the rocky floor of the canyon, dripping blood. I felt a small sting, and when I looked to my leg, I saw all I needed to before I let out a howl. The device had gripped the end of my leg when I'd thrown it, and all that slowed it down was my skin. Eight wide, identical gashes ran down my hoof, screaming with pain as it bled profusely. Genius.

There was only one option left: run. I could make it if I just didn't put too much pressure on my right leg.

They were waiting for it. The moment I took off, they cackled, as if they'd rehearsed this act a dozen times. Giving chase, the one with the gun began to shoot at me. Holes appeared in the walls of the canyons nearby. Clearly they were done playing around. It was time to ramp up my speed. I kicked my legs harder, generating more momentum as I leapt on top of rocks here and there, hardly making a difference; the trails I followed upwards were the only real ways out. They were still following me, although I'd gained a fair bit of distance.

And I just had to have hope, didn't I?

I hit a dead end. It was too steep. All rocks, small and unstable. The slope was near-vertical. I looked behind me, desperate as I began my ascent. The group caught up, sure enough. A shot here, a shot there. I was pushing harder and harder to get up the slope, but the force of my legs was pushing the rocks down faster than I could get up. They were grinding against the open wounds on my leg, and I couldn't help but notice when a pebble would lodge itself in the tissue. The ponies started to climb behind me as another shot rang out, this time hitting a rock right next to me. I tried evening my stance out a little, which only got me sliding downward. I could hear them behind me. They were gaining on me. Easy for them—they had five legs!

I kicked another hooful of rocks down under me, frantically searching for solid ground to kick off of when it finally happened. The small mountain of pebbles exploded at the top as boulders rolled down, each bigger than the last. We must have knocked them loose with all the commotion. I took the opportunity to gain some leverage and paid dearly, receiving a blow to the jaw that sent me sprawling. The ponies below me were too busy avoiding the rocks to focus on me now. I felt drops of blood down my muzzle as I looked up at one last big rock peaking over the crest of the pile. I waited for it. This was it. I heard a scream as one of the ponies below got his fifth leg crushed under a rather sizable boulder. He cried out in agony, flailing frenziedly in an attempt to get the boulder off. I turned back around. The big rock was headed straight for me. It looked a lot bigger in person.

Narrowly avoiding it, I pushed off of the pile and climbed on top. The rock descended even faster now, and I charged my legs up for a jump. It served as an adequate launch pad as I landed near the top of the pile. Struggling over the crest of the small mountain, I caught my breath, heaving as I heard another scream and then a heavy, distinguishable crunch. I was suddenly much more aware of my own injuries as I forced my leg to curl up against me protectively. Blood was getting everywhere now, dripping from my hoof and face.

The four others called after me, "Bitch!", "I'll fucking kill you, whore!", and other comments of similar nature. They started to climb, one aiming the gun at me and firing again. I'd already started in another direction by the time the shot rang.

Thankfully I was no longer confined to canyon walls. Instead, the rocky landscape was hilly and navigable. I began running at a three-legged pace away from the canyon walls and away from the continuous obscenities being shouted my way, most of which I'd never heard of before. I started looking for a place to hide. They must have been up the slope by now, even if they'd made up for half the time I had getting away.

I stopped, hearing nothing but silence. Then, "The cunt went this way!" I looked up to the stars, realizing how tired I was. My lungs were burning, my stomach was trying to find the strength to throw up, and me... I was ready to succumb to the pounding rhythm in my skull. Twinkling specks made their way into my vision as a cold heat crawled up my body, and my sight went red. Bright red. I squinted. Too bright. Then, out of nowhere, the red of my vision turned into a dot that crept along my nose, down my neck, and then to my chest. The fluorescent red point sat there, and then, just like that, it disappeared. That's when I heard company coming.

I heaved myself forward, trembling steps breaking into feeble stumbles. I was drawing hoofsteps in the dirt. The thought occurred to me: I'd have to stand on rocks to conceal my location. The biggest, most immediate presence of them was just ahead. So when I looked up and spotted the mouth of a cave surrounded by boulders, you could imagine my relief. I hobbled up the nearest rock, climbing to the next one, and the next one, until I reached the hill that rose up to the cave. The ponies were practically right on my tail.

Collapsing entirely, I began to sob, not a single droplet of moisture coming to my eyes as my fatigued form fought for life. I could just give up here, couldn't I? Looking at it from a rational standpoint, I'd come far enough to make any parent proud. I'd gone through hell and back to try and get home, and now I wasn't ever going to see them again. I'd been dripping blood all the way up here. They could track me. They would find me. I was going to die out here, alone, in the middle of nowhere, no matter what. Violently. Horrendously. Painfully. Somehow, I knew that if I wanted, I could just let go, and my body would do the rest. Maybe I would just go home again. Maybe...

Be a strong mare, Everdawn.

...

Maybe these worthless piles of dung could go narf themselves!

I'm gonna live through this, Mom! I will! And not just to get home! I'll make it through all of this, *all of it! And I'll survive because* narf this world and all its narfed up nonsense! I'm a stronger mare than this! I'm a stronger mare... you BULLIES!!

I willed my legs to pick me up, and when they didn't, I made them. Getting up to all fours on a slope was only the beginning. I began to climb, my ears ringing from my headache as the effort tested every fiber of my being. My body was breaking down though. Slowly losing consciousness. And just when I thought I might be wrong for having hope, the cave mouth greeted me. A veil of darkness was draped over the entrance, and I had almost gone in when I was met with the barrel of a gun. The ponies were searching all around the bottom of the hill for more tracks. They hadn't seen the blood. Thank you, Goddesses.

I didn't have another choice. "Please..." I gasped with a sob, "Please, help me..." The gun remained for a moment, before retracting into the dark of the cave. I waited for only a second or two, before pushing forward. The moment I entered, I heard a shuffling to my right.

And then everything went black.

Hoofnote: Level Up

New Perk: Passive Aggressive — Dealing with ponies isn't always easy, but you've learned that making your moves under a firm hoof and an even firmer tongue can make all the difference. You gain +2 Charisma and +1 Perception when facing enemies of a lesser Intelligence, nullified once they are 3 or more levels below you. (Note: This perk does not stack with the Smooth Talker perk.)

Soundtrack Unlocked: The Wasteland

Singe

Sent to the Next Town

Starstruck

Raiders

Chapter Four: Two's Company

Chapter Four: Two's Company

"Stupid!"

I woke up in another one. Another different bed.

For a moment, I was sure I'd died. The ceiling was of a dull plaster, the same for the walls, and the bed only continued the trend. A swarm of dancing motes gathered around the window, casting the tiniest of shadows as I lay awake and confused. Around the bed were empty drawers and cabinets, with one sporting a peculiar sack inside. It was zipped shut.

"Enjoying yourself?"

I jumped so hard I was sure I'd snapped the headboard upon impact. "AH! What the —" My voice trailed off at the stallion before me. Toned, tall, and darkened by the sun, he was like something from a fantasy. His long, powerful legs were a sight to behold, and the curvature of his neck was superseded only by the wide, chiseled jawbone that rested atop. And that horn. I could put that to good use.

"I had to be sure before I brought you," he said.

"... hay," I finished. "Er... what?" I then looked down, noticing he'd removed all my clothes. A blush crept into my cheeks. I stood up, feeling rejuvenated.

"Listen," he said, "I don't like repeating myself, so I'm only going to say this once: I don't owe you answers, so don't bother asking questions. I've given you the medical supplies needed to keep you alive, and I've treated your more serious wounds in the ways that I can." Wounds? Upon closer inspection, I noticed a few pieces of jagged skin along my legs and sides—scars, I believe they were called—as well as a few bandaged areas that felt oddly numb. Below all of that, underneath my new PipBuck, was a fleshy pink hoof. The skin zigzagged and protruded in the oddest fashion. And it was sensitive. But I looked at it with a sense of optimism. At least it'd make for a good story when I got back home.

"O-Okay. Thank y—"

"In exchange for this, you are going to take me back to wherever you got... that." He pointed down at my leg.

"Wait, this?" I held up my hoof.

"Once I've done what I need to do, we're going our separate ways. No bullet holes, no broken bones, just a calm walk from one place to another and you're free to go."

No holes? No broken bones? Were those the costs of noncompliance? Either way, I had a bad feeling about hoofing the device over. "Oh, this is nothing! It doesn't even work."

"Don't lie to me."

"No, really! It doesn't!" I pleaded. "I've tried to turn it on a bunch of times, but it doesn't do anything."

"It doesn't matter," he said.

I blinked. "Then what are you planning to do?"

"I don't like repeating myself," he repeated, dangerously. Oh... right. No more questions. "Now. Tell me where you got it." I hesitated, backing up a little. He was a big stallion. I probably couldn't run. Probably couldn't fight either. Even with my newfound strength... he looked stronger, somehow.

The idea came like a flash of light. "Brigmound," I almost shouted, excited by the prospect of something going off without a hitch. "A little town by the name of Brigmound. Heard of it?" He considered the question, deciding it was worth answering.

"No. But we can fix that." He walked to the door, holding it ajar just long enough to direct my eyes to the cabinet nearby. "Your clothes are in the bag. Once you're dressed, come outside. Don't make me wait." The door shut, and the thought occurred to escape through one of the windows. It seemed plausible for a moment, but there was a distinctive feeling in my gut that warned me against it.

Slipping into my heavy leathers and adjusting a few straps, I was ready to go. Only... one thing: the PipBuck on my leg was uncomfortably tight beneath the sleeve of the fabric. I decided to roll up, buttoning the sleeve higher up on my leg to go for the cleaner look. There was a mirror in the room. Not bad, me. Not bad at all.

Stepping outside felt like sticking my head in a refrigerator. The air was crisp and cold, stinging at my eyes as I was hit with a chilling blast of wind. I shivered as it dug down deep into the folds of my jacket, the door closing with a heavy wooden thunk behind me. The stallion was standing just outside, at the bottom of a small flight of stairs leading up to the front door.

There was something unusual I noticed about the town straight off the bat. A heavy fog crept along the banks of every building around me, meeting the sidewalks and connecting to them through a sifting white haze. I did a double-take. The only thing beyond the little huts that met side-by-side with my own and the buildings near us was the cool blue of the sky. No mountains? No hills? Not even so much as a rock beyond the stout little houses covered in shimmering morning fog? Another gust of wind hit me, giving way to a shiver.

"So you brought me... somewhere," I said to him. It technically wasn't a question.

"It's a quick stop before we hit the road. Stay on the walkways. Don't stray," he answered, gruffly.

"Okay?" I replied, unsure of what he meant. "Why is there so much —"

He turned, staring me down.

"... There sure is a lot of fog."

He just kept walking now, leading me down the sidewalk, which had rope guardrails on either side of it. I followed him past several lines of buildings before we reached a marketplace. It was tiny, compared to what I'd seen in Hornstead. The few vendors that were out had mostly trinkets to sell, although most of them offered food at half-price, a deal that I would have gladly taken... if I'd had any of these ponies' currency.

Instead, he brought me to one of the merchant stands on the corner, parting the swinging doors and slipping behind a curtain at the back of the selling space. He hadn't told me to stay outside, so I accompanied him in. We sat down, the pony who looked like the store owner spoke to my stallion captor, and we left with a few more wares than we'd come in with, including a gun that the stallion wedged into his saddlebags.

According to him, we were headed towards the docks. I was about to ask when the sidewalk suddenly... ended. Only the heavy fog remained ahead of us, with the rising sun to our left. The ropes that attached to wooden beams on either side of the edge swung loosely in the cool wind. Only fog laid ahead.

"I know this town has a name," I told the stallion, who was now patiently waiting for something.

He considered me. "The locals call it Barewood."

"Barewood," I repeated. "Seems like a nice town."

"No more small talk," he said frigidly.

And that was that. I shuffled my hooves until I heard a bell somewhere off in the distance, somewhere deep beyond the sliver of sidewalk we were waiting on, in the fog. I looked to the stallion, and he kept his gaze forward. I felt my cheeks heating up a little. Goddesses, why did he have to be so cute?

The bell sounded again, echoing eerily as the haze in front of us shifted and parted for a dark shape. It was getting closer, I realized. Whatever it was, it was big. Really big. Really big! I stepped back as the towering object hovered closer still, at last revealing a shape not unlike that of a boat. It looked like it was attached to some sort of larger, circular body that loomed overhead, casting a great shadow.

In spite of my uneasiness, the stallion next to me simply stared expectily onward. I pranced in place, wondering if I should get out of the way of the behemoth figure.

“Calm the hell down, mare.”

The object stopped just short of our slice of sidewalk when I noticed that it was indeed a boat, although less like the ones at the docks in Tranquility and more like the ones from library books—ships, they were called. It had several ponies on-board, most of whom looked to be somewhere between bored and exhausted, and a few others who were up and about, doing what seemed like chores.

The ship pulled up in front of us as I noticed something odd. The bottom didn’t seem to be touching anything. It wasn’t so much rocking as floating. The stallion next to me unhooked one of the ropes.

“You need to stick to me,” he said. “Got it? No straying, and no talking. Just get on and be quiet.” I thought about making a snide remark, but he might’ve gotten angry. I settled for nodding.

A platform lowered down to meet us as the previous group of passengers departed with their luggage items and saddlebags. The stallion waited before boarding, as if he’d already done this a million times. Meanwhile, the boat looked almost threatening in all its bulk. A part of me warned that this might be a bad idea. The other half reminded of what I might lose if I didn’t go. At that, the dilemma was cut short. I had a promise to keep.

The moment my hoof touched the bridge between the sidewalk and the ship, it wobbled. The boat was moving, and to make matters worse the wood of the platform was slippery. I put all four hooves up, squeaking as I shifted balance, but it was no use. It just wasn’t steady enough. And that wouldn’t do. I got down on the sidewalk, charging up and vaulting over the side of the ship. When I landed, I spotted the stallion near the mast. He was scowling at me.

“What?” I asked, approaching him.

This only made him angrier. “What did I say about sitting still? Unless you want to get us thrown off the ship, you’ll stop jumping around like that. Ponies in these parts are trigger-tongued as it is. They don't need some mare causing trouble.”

“Trouble? Don’t you think that’s a little bit of a stret—”

“What did I say about talking?” he interjected. Once again, I settled for nodding. “You’re lucky to even be here, so start following orders, or this is going to get a lot less pleasant.” A burst of wind caught his mane just right as he turned, giving me sight of a particularly nasty scar just below his ear.

“Fine,” I told him, “Have it your way.”

A bell at the back of the ship—the same as before—rang out before the wooden boarding platform to the sidewalk was lifted. On the other side of the ship, one last pony crossed over before we detached from the site completely. Once again, I noticed how unusually still the boat seemed. Having been on the lake in Tranquility thousands of times, I knew the rocking of water. This one seemed to wobble and occasionally shudder, as if it were more hanging than floating.

I got the chance to look around again, peering up to the mast which had been cut in half so that the larger circular body above the ship could comfortably connect by some means of rope and intricate wiring. A puff of smoke curled past my face, alerting me to the pipe in my new companion's mouth. It smelled. I wanted to ask about it. Wanted to ask about a lot of things. As far as I knew, he may not have been taking me to Tranquili—er, Brigmound, at all! Did that store owner even give him a map? I probably should have paid more attention.

The entirety of the ship pivoted one way as we left the little sidewalk to disappear into the mist. I looked over the bulwark of the boat, and noticed the fog starting to clear, when suddenly, it just... opened up. Dammit, something felt wrong about...

... about...

Oh dear Goddesses.

I could only gasp and tremble as the cloud opened up to reveal the drop. It must have been a mile down to the surface. My stomach lurched, ears spontaneously going deaf, eyes showing me stars, knees locking in place. What felt like a million goosebumps pulsed throughout my body, somehow getting under my skin and settling in my organs. I didn't dare check to see if I'd wet myself.

"First time flier, I see."

I gulped. My world spun. A warmth spread throughout in my gut. And then I passed out.

** ** **

A cold splash of water met my face, and my ears rang as if I'd just been smacked. My head was tossed to one side, then the other. Somepony was trying to get my attention. I sputtered, my eyesight still a blur as a set of hooves shook me. With a squeal, I was finally awake.

"Wake up, mare," the familiar voice said, "This is our stop."

"Ugh," I felt my cheeks. "Did you slap me?"

...

"Come on. We have places to be."

I wiped a bit of drool off my chin before standing up. The stallion was waiting for me at the boarding platform. I followed. The stop we got off next was on the ground. I thanked any deity that could have heard me.

The sand was like the beach in Tranquility, but coarser, drier. A little town stood just in front of us. Not like Singe. This was rustic, old. A harsher narrator may have called it decrepit if it hadn't been for the fair amount of ponies walking around. The town was surrounded by a steep cliff, with a little trail that wound down toward the mainland countryside covered in trees. We were sitting on a mesa. In the middle of a forest.

The stallion looked around before setting off in a straight line. Leading me through the town, we almost seemed to dodge in between the buildings. Line of sight with other ponies was mostly kept to a minimum, and any kind of straying triggered a harsh whisper. Was he hiding?

We disappeared within the deepest alleys of the buildings and my little friend took me down a flight of stairs to what appeared to be a cellar door. But he didn't open the door. Instead, he slipped past a steaming vent opening nearby, now bringing us both to sit under a pair of grates. Leaning up to a hole hidden behind pieces of trash, the stallion grabbed something out and set it on his forehoof. A PipBuck. I looked at him incredulously. "You already have one?"

He fixed it in place, adjusting a few of the knobs and dials. His screen booted up instantly, switching between different colors as he reformatted it. It had nowhere near the level of wear and tear mine did. The buttons below the screen also looked to be in better condition. As did the screen itself. And the attachment mechanism. And... everything else about it.

"I'm not obligated to explain anything to you," he replied. "You, on the other hoof..."

"What?" I asked. "What else do I need to —"

He suddenly stopped, ears perking up. "Shh!" he ordered, listening around us. The silence parted to allow an entire host of noises. Water dripping, a steady rattling from inside the cellar next to us, and... a set of hoofsteps approaching. They got closer and closer, until they stepped over the grates above us. A mare was struggling against a group of stallions, who laughed and mocked her as they led her to the corner and got very close. She sounded distressed.

What were they going to do to her? Was I really going to sit here and wait while they did it? My hooves moved toward the exit of the hidey space when my captor stopped me. He shook his head, looking back to the group. I could barely make out their features as I tried to angle myself underneath the grate.

“Stop!” she told them, and I heard her breath shudder as one of them whispered in her ear. “No! Please, no!” she said, this time with more zeal. They were doing something she clearly didn’t appreciate.

“Let. Me. Go,” I hissed to the stallion holding my leg. He didn’t budge, keeping a firm grasp on my leg as the group continued their antics. I remembered Preacher’s trick to the weights. What my body had been able to do. I figured I could throw this stallion a lot further than I could trust him. I made a move to fling him off my hoof, but he stayed grounded. I tried again, harder. No use. Okay, I knew he couldn’t weigh that much. I tugged again, and he put himself behind me so fast I could hardly process it. Holding my legs back and leaning up against the concrete, he spoke clearly into my ear.

“Don’t trust it.”

A voice broke my concentration.

“Hey, leave her alone!” Everything stopped. A stallion stood at the far end of the building, just past the staircase. I could see his hooves packed tightly together. He was scared stiff. My captor let me lean forward to get a better look.

“What did you say?” one of the thugs asked.

“I said...” I could practically hear the gulp. “Leave her alone.”

The group sat in silence, until the (presumable) leader chuckled. “Fine. You want her? Have ‘er!” She grunted as she was pushed to the ground in front of them, running over to the stallion for safety. I breathed a sigh of relief at seeing her hooves join his.

“Just wait,” I was told.

Looking back to their hooves, she suddenly knelt down, holding a small metal rod. It was raised out of view, and I watched as the stallion’s legs buckled out from under him. His face hit the ground, limp as his eyes frantically searched around him. The mare pulled his saddlebags off as the group approached. One of the stallions whistled. “Good hustle, Dew. Still not enough to buy you a better performance though.”

The mare was silent, but lifted a hoof and did something that prompted them to laugh. “Still not something your ugly mug could ever get.”

“Come on,” the leader prompted, walking away beyond our grate’s view.

Dew leaned down to the stallion, kissing his cheek. “Nothing personal, love.” And she was gone.

My hooves were let go of. I waited until the sounds of their hoofsteps faded into the background before I leapt up those steps. The stallion was skinnier than he had looked. He watched me with a keen eye. His chest picked up pace as a muffled grunt escaped his lips. My first instinct was to pick him up and see if he was alright. After all, that mark on his neck looked painful. But the pony I was travelling with disagreed. I had already been deceived before. Perhaps it was best to just walk away.

I left him lying there. “I’m sorry.” He just stared.

** ** **

By now, I was starting to wonder who my captor was. He had evidently saved my life, so I guess I owed him the quiet he asked for. He got his wish as we descended the mesa’s trail amidst a small throng of other ponies. We reached the woodlands, broke away from the trail, and hiked between the many rows of trees and brush that led into the countryside. This took a good three hours. But as we came across a small indent in the vegetation, no thicker than a body’s length but deep enough for three of me, he jumped down. Pulling out several old wooden stakes, we settled inside for a brief bit.

He offered me water from a canteen, which I gladly drank from. I took it as a chance to speak up.

“Nice hole we're in,” I commented, taking another sip. It felt strange, the canteen. Not like the one I’d found in the desert—this one hugged my mouth, like the opening was designed for lips.

I heard him snort. “The first thing you've said in hours, and you chose that.” Good, Everdawn, good, he's talking back!

"What? Nothing wrong with a little conversation." I started to lay back on the moss. That's right. Casual, cool...

"It's not that."

We sat there for a moment. "Then what is it?" I asked.

"I prefer silence over small talk. But I just wasn't expecting something so... earnest. By now, most ponies have either resorted to bargaining or shooting when running doesn't work. Kind of refreshing that you haven't tried any of those things."

"And the ones who shoot?" I'd imagine there would be a few.

"It doesn't end well."

"You sound like you take a lot of mares on these kinds of dates."

"Funny. The last one said that." I looked up, concerned, only to see a hint of a smile. Was that a joke?

"Heh," was all I muttered.

"Anyway, we need to get moving. Consider this conversation your only reward for good behavior."

I sighed. "Of course."

"It's only a day's walk or so. Come on." And with that, we packed up and left. At least he wasn't barking orders anymore.

** ** **

The walk was, for the large part, uneventful. The trees were trees, the brush was brush, the dirt was dirt. Everything seemed to be in order, and for once, it was starting to remind me of the forest back at home.

The only thing that concerned me was the weather above. In a short enough time, I'd witnessed a serious change in the tone of the sky. The white puffy clouds became a blanket of sinister, dark grey, hovering eerily over our heads. The forest turned dark as we reached a small clearing, where some particularly strong winds were whipping the tall grass every which way.

My companion stopped me. "The storm came faster than anticipated. We're heading to a shelter about a mile north of here. If you plan on staying dry, we need to pick up the pace."

"Storm?" I asked, having to raise my voice above the sudden winds.

He stared for a moment. "You really don't know what that is, do you?" I shrugged apologetically. "I'll explain later. We need to go." For a moment, he looked around, and then set off through the field. His legs carried him faster than I could've kept up with if Preacher hadn't done what he did. Our race through the field was cut short, however, by a brilliant flash of light, followed by a crackling boom that shook the very earth.

I stopped dead. "What the heck was that?!" The look he gave me was cause for serious concern.

"We need to make it to the trees, now!" He turned and booked it for the treeline.

I followed as closely as possible, making headway through the tall grass as something cold hit my cheek. "Um, something just hit me!" I called out. Whatever it was slid down my face coolly. I touched a hoof to the spot. Was this... water? That's right. Back in the town library. Rain. A few of the stories mentioned it, but we'd never had anything beyond a cloudy day or two. Was this a place where rain existed too?

My running had slowed to a trot as I looked up, noticing a few of the little droplets coming down. They were really falling. From the sky, no less. I suddenly felt the urge to jump and shout. Of all the things I'd seen here in just these short few days... this had to be my favorite. More and more of them started to come down into the field, and despite the frantic gushing of the wind against the trees, I found myself actually prancing a bit. I looked ahead, seeing the stallion standing at the edge of the treeline, shouting to me.

"Getotherees!"

I ran a little closer to him, "Huh?!"

"Get to the damn trees! Now!" He looked somewhere over us, and I followed his sight. Just above, sitting there, was the darkest cloud I'd ever seen. It was massive. Big enough to dwarf any of the little puffs that had been there before. The wind suddenly stopped, and the only sounds were the drops of water hitting the high grass. Then, from out of the blue, the entire field was nearly crumpled flat from a blast of wind that knocked me a good body length into the air.

"Run mare, RUN!!"

He didn't have to tell me twice. My hooves threw me into a full-on sprint toward him, throwing up debris from the soft earth of the field behind me as I fled toward the trees. Another onslaught of wind hit me from the right, threatening to topple me over. The grass was getting slippery by now, the raindrops heavier and harder. My companion kept looking to the sky behind me. And a moment later, I understood why. I got close enough to hear him mutter, "Oh shit..."

I stopped when I reached the trees. I was about to ask what he meant, when I felt something in my mane. I went to touch it, when I noticed the fur on my leg. It was standing straight up. My mane followed suit as I watched the stallion's do the same. Without warning, he turned high tail for the depths of the forest, leaping and bounding through the bushes. "Hey, wai—"

The sound of a sizzle got my attention as I turned back to the field, only to be bombarded with a bolt of light that nearly blinded me and set brilliant fire to a small tree that dared to jut out from the high grass. Within seconds, I was galloping through the trees in the same direction as my companion, sprinting for dear life as the smell of smoke faded. My heart throbbed in my chest as I pushed past low hanging branches and thick meshes of twigs, finally spotting the stallion running up ahead. It took all I was worth to catch up to him.

He was saying something that I couldn't hear, probably because of the rain and the combined sound of our running... or my ringing ears. Then, another flash, followed immediately by a crack that made my knees knock together. The ground shook again, and I suddenly got the urge to vomit. "Where are we going?!" I yelled between breaths.

He didn't answer, keeping his eyes forward and leading the way. I took the opportunity to slow down a little, just as a great howling wind resounded through the trees to swipe at our flanks. Another crack in the distance was enough to jumpstart my legs back into full gear. I was ahead of him by a nose length as the downpour continued to soak everything.

"Aren't we far enough away?!"

CRACK-BOOOOOMMMMMM!!!

It struck the tree directly in front of us, snapping the trunk three-quarters of the way up and leaving the rest to fall in a flurry of embers. I screamed, kicking and flailing for a moment before diverting around the roaring pyre. We moved past more and more trees as the forest around us began to bend and curve at awkward angles from the rushing air. Finally, I saw the structure we'd been looking for. It was an old stone home, without any sign of being inhabited. We reached the door in a hurry, but my partner was cursing.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" The house had no roof, and the entire back half was charred and black. "We have to find somewhere to hide!" I looked around desperately for a hole, a tunnel, anything. Under a tree? No. Maybe the house had a cellar! Running in a full circle around the structure, I found nothing. Our luck was running out. I could feel something moving towards us. The storm was getting worse and worse by the second, rain becoming more like pellets than droplets. My fur was drenched through and through, although it didn't seem to be soaking into my jacket.

Just then, I heard a beep from somewhere. Turning around, I saw the stallion clicking desperately on his PipBuck. The beep returned, louder this time. It was coming from my leg. Looking down I held up my foreleg. There was a small arrow on the screen that pointed at my 2 o'clock, at a wall of branches and twigs. When I glanced back at the screen, the arrow was gone.

"This way!" I called out to my companion. He ran over, spotting the twisted dead lattice that now stood between us and a small cave entrance. Thank the Goddesses! "Come on!" We dug and pulled at the tangled mess, stopping only for a brief second as something began to happen.

My senses exploded into clarity as my mane lifted into the air. It was coming. One last strike.

We both looked up to see the swirling clouds above, a single light dimly shining in the eye of the vortex.

"Get inside!" We scrambled past the twigs and crooked limbwork into the darkness, just as my ears picked up another sizzle and the entire world turned white.

** ** **

"Mom and Dad would have loved to see this." I was sitting at the mouth of the cave. There was barely enough room for both of us, but we found a way to get comfortable as the worst parts of the storm faded into the distance. A few of the raindrops occasionally sprinkled in, but it wasn't like before. The rain was softer now, more like tidal mist than a downpour. Easier to think with.

The stallion whose name escaped me sat with his head buried in his hooves. A strange air was about him. He didn't sleep, he didn't move. He just... sat, eyes squinting. After the first thirty minutes, I began to wonder if he may have somehow died. Until he met my gaze.

I breathed a sigh of relief. "Was beginning to think you..."

"No. Sorry. I drift off sometimes."

Sorry? We stayed silent for a while. The heavy mist just kept blowing. The trees rocked back and forth in the harsher winds.

"How did you do it?"

I looked to him. "Do what?"

"Do you know what this is?" He held up his forehoof, showing me the shiny black device. The screen glowed a soft purple.

"A... PipBuck?"

"SmartBuck," he corrected. "The most versatile tool in the Wasteland. State of the art mapping systems, enhanced detection nexus, S.A.T.S. 2.0... hell, even a translator. Everything a pony could possibly need to survive. And it couldn't find a cave that yours could twenty hooves away."

We stared at each other a moment. "Guess we just got lucky," I shrugged.

"No. Ponies don't just 'get lucky'. Your PipBuck has something on it that we could use later, without the risk of it crapping out. I'm going to need to run a manual scan." He scooted up to me, pushing my hindquarters (!) around so that my front right leg was nearest him. He popped open a small casing unit on the back of my PipBuck, exposing a few holes labeled 'Ports'. A thin cord deployed out of his device, allowing him to link the two. There was a sudden, sharp beep from his.

"Not even the first date yet," I rounded. He ignored it.

A frustrated look grew on his face as he swiped and scrolled on the SmartBuck's screen. "Whatever's inside your PipBuck doesn't want me getting access to it." More clicking and tapping. "Could be classified." He glanced up to me, face betraying suspicion. I must've had the stupidest look on my face. Goddess, why was he so damn cute?! In all his seriousness and pushiness and ordering me around all day, he was still just a giant piece of eye candy. I quickly looked away, cheeks nearly ablaze.

"Any chance you know when we'll be able to head out again?" I asked, face turned to the rain.

"It should be letting up here in a couple minutes. We need to keep dry until we've found this little town of yours." Another beep erupted from his SmartBuck, leading to a labored sigh. "You know, for somepony with all these scars, you sure don't seem to have the experience to back them up."

I gave him a telling look. He wasn't the first pony to say that.

"You might as well learn from them," he said with his head still buried behind the screen. It reminded me of Dad with his books. "But speaking of which, I need to change your bandages. It doesn't look like I'll be able to access your files with the tools I have anyway." He unhooked the cable and it withdrew into his SmartBuck. Then looked at my jacket expectantly. No need to tell me twice! With a tight squeeze and a push later, my jacket slumped to the side, and the wrappings around my stomach and my upper legs were slowly removed. They were stained red near the middle, and some stuck to my fur like glue. But as he detached them, one by one, in the cramped space of the cave entrance, I stopped feeling so... disjointed.

Truth be told, I hadn't thought very much about the fact that I was somewhere so very far away from home. Don't get me wrong, I missed my parents more than anything, and Tranquility was where my heart was. But the things here... in the Wasteland... they didn't seem to be like any of that. And that scared me, but even more than that, it made me feel... alive. It was a little exciting running for your life. Feeling scared. I'd only been here for a few days, but more had happened in that time than the rest of my life in Tranquility. Finally, I had something to pique my curiosity. Finally, I didn't have to stare at a clock every day! But my mom... and my dad...

I still had to get back.

He pulled away the last bandage and squinted. "One moment." He reached his hoof just outside the cave, filling it up with water before pouring it on the bloodied, matted parts of my fur. There were only a series of scars. He rubbed the areas down and checked again.

"Looks like the healing potions worked."

"Well, at least I've got that going for me, right?"

"It's not much, but I won't try and spoil the optimism."

I hadn't even noticed that the rain had stopped. He moved past me in the cramped entrance, and I was left alone. I grumbled to myself before putting my jacket back on and forcing my way past the branches. I ended up with a bit of my mane hooked. I yanked and pulled until the limbs gave way and tangled within my hair. To make matters even worse, my travel companion was nowhere in sight.

"Fine." I retorted. "Leave me then." The many dripping droplets around me became a symphony in the quiet dampness of the woods. Every noise, including my breath, was amplified.

Crack! The steady trickle of water from the canopy was unsettling when it broke branches.

"Noble?" Nothing. "Hello? Is anypony there?"

The forest around me became cold and constrictive with the coming silence. My legs grew twitchy as my eyes darted all around. More bad ponies? Had they finally found me? What if they'd followed me here? I remembered a few of the things they said they'd do to me. My breath ceased as the ground below me seemed much less stable.

"Mare."

"BALLS!" My hooves launched me in another direction. My stallion had returned. "Don't do that!"

"Are you coming or not?"

I sighed, walking over to him. I could've sworn he stifled a chuckle. "Jerk." With that, we began our trek again. Some more time passed as I looked down to the ground. It took a little time, but I noticed that his hoofbeats were off. He stumbled a bit every time his left hoof bent back. I wondered about that for a little bit, before a more pressing question emerged.

"So... you seem to be lightening up a little."

"Noble."

"... What?"

"Noble. You don't need to know anything about my motives or my mission, and I'm sure as hell not about to open up and have a one-on-one with some ditzy mare. But I can at least tell you my name. So... mare... it's Noble. Noble Shield."

I smiled. Progress. "Well, Noble. It's nice to meet you. Where I come from, ponies nuzzle a nose to say hi. But... I'm guessing you're not into that sort of thing, so... I'm Everdawn."

"Well, Everdawn... it's nice to meet you too."

** ** **

There was something about walking through these damp, muddy woods that had me crying on the inside. Maybe it just reminded me too much of Tranquility. Maybe it was the fact that I was finally walking alongside somepony I could trust.

I wasn't completely sure the pieces of the puzzle were ever going to come together, but the longer I spent out here, the more I wanted to get home. All along the way there were signs of wildlife, from footprints to... other leavings. Admittedly, it was a lot scarier when the prints were twice the size of my body. And sure enough, it wasn't long before I had an entire repertoire of questions for Noble. But alas, I quickly found that he didn't dedicate too much of his time to small talk. For the most part, he listened to my little comments and just kept walking. At least he wasn't telling me to shut up anymore.

At some point, we hit a spot in our path that diverged from what I would call okay.

The holes were everywhere. In the trees, in the ground, in the ponies.

In the ponies.

In the ponies!

My breathing skyrocketed as I backed away. They were all dead! It was Hornstead! They were dead! Dead, dead, dead! Ukulele's smile, Preacher as he lay still on the floor, even the desk pony trying to crawl away. It all came back at once, and I sunk to the cold, damp forest floor, just holding my head, shaking.

A hoof on my shoulder shook me hard.

"Hey, snap out of it!"

I broke out to see Noble standing there with a knife. Upon my noticing, he sheathed it. The look on his face told me that I wasn't acting like a pony should. I felt a bead of sweat go down my face before standing up. "... Sorry."

"Is this kind of thing normal with you?"

"I'm not sure," I answered. "I hope not. What were going to do with that knife?"

No answer. And the bodies were still there. The brown, decaying mess with an unusually foul scent. And the holes. The holes were everywhere.

I almost became absorbed in the thought again before my stallion companion knelt before the remains. The SmartBuck on his leg scanned one of them. For a moment, it almost looked like he was crying. But then, I saw his hoof reach into the folds of one of the pony's attire, only to appear a second later with a small, leather pouch... just like the one Jack had given me to deliver to Marmalade.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Do you ever stop with the questions, mare?"

"No, alright, I don't. What is that? What did you pull out?"

He hesitated a moment, striking some sort of taboo. "We need it more than they do."

"Need what, Noble? Need what?"

"I'm taking their caps, mare!" he shouted. "And any other possessions that we find valuable enough to sell later!"

I couldn't believe my eyes. Here lay a group of dead ponies, and he was leeching off of them like some kind of a... a leech! "That's terrible! How could you even think to do something like that? Just who in the haybiscuits are you?"

"I. Do not. Have to explain myself. To you. Or anypony else! I am just another soul in the Wasteland, so if you have a complaint, take it up with whoever the fuck invented scavenging! Or whoever the fuck cares!"

I grit my teeth. This big, dumb... I was about to say something my parents would have disapproved of, when Noble shushed me.

"Did you just—"

"Shhh!"

My jaw dropped. "Okay, no—" He covered my mouth with a hoof and got us low to the ground, into the knee-biting brush. "What are you doing!" I whispered.

"Trying to save your life."

I barely had a moment to realize what he'd said, but I heard it. The rustling. Something was moving nearby. Actually, a whole lot of somethings. Underneath the sound of raindrops hitting leaves, it was like the entire side of the forest was moving straight towards us.

"Stay low. Keep quiet. We're heading back."

Heading back? To what?! I shook my head. "They'll see us!"

"Did you hear me? We're going back."

"Mm-mm."

"Mare, so help me..."

Snap!

We stopped dead. It was less than a body length away. Close enough to feel its steps. Close enough to smell. It kept moving past us. Through the cracks in the underbrush, I saw the dark, mysterious shape of... a pony. But it had thorns. Spikes. Horns that curved at wicked angles from the many edges of its armor. It continued on its path, sneaking, as a hoof stepped right next to me. I turned.

"What?" I whispered.

But it wasn't Noble. Not even close. The set of red, glistening, wooden claws affirmed it. I hid a shriek as the gnarled hoof came out from the leaves, before being replaced by another. This one held more scratches, and somehow the bloodied talons looked even darker than the first.

Noble. Help.

My entire body screamed for me to run. But then I saw the real trouble I was facing. An entire wall of hooves was coming right at me. Even if none of them managed to find me, I wouldn't have anything else to hide under. I was a goner. And my "companion" had run off to hide somewhere else. This is what I got for talking so much. He abandoned me because I was too stupid to listen. And despite the knowledge of what would surely be a horrible death, my mind didn't go to my parents this time. It didn't go to Tranquility. It just went to the fact that I had made a mistake. One that I wouldn't get to make up for.

Until I heard a shout over to the right. The voice was deep, and hoarse, and for whatever reason, it was panicked. The wall of legs stopped, and as if the voice had ushered a command, the ponies all ran in separate directions, one or two even going past me.

There was a shot to the left. Then another one. And another. More shouting. And just like that, the world around me really was Hornstead. The rotting bodies, the gunshots, the guttural yelling. An explosion or two, just like the ceremony.

And screams. Wait... these ponies were shooting at something. And they were scared.

I was no longer surrounded by hooves, but rather, the heavy breathing and screams as a hail of gunshots rained from all around me. I wasn't in danger of being caught anymore, but it didn't stop the icy chill from coursing through my veins as I stood and saw what I did.

A black mass was drifting through the trees, like a single column of rolling smoke. Ponies that had gone ahead were being tossed left and right as the sound of tearing and popping filled the air in a sickening chorus. They screamed as a few of them were outright ripped apart, little yelps and whinnies coming out of each.

I backed up, away from the scene, when I made eye contact with another mare. Our eyes met as she turned to flee, and the realization hit her that I wasn't part of their band. Almost without a beat, she made a mad dash in my direction. I was paralyzed for a moment before my legs kicked into gear, catapulting me in the opposite direction. I tore through the many shrubs and bushes that adorned the woods. The same strategy didn't hold up to the next tree I met... head first.

Laying stunned against one of its roots, the mare's hoofsteps got closer. She drew her bone club and raised it high above her head to strike. With a fire in her eyes, she swung. Or she almost did. The weapon got airborne as a hoof connected with her face, knocking her out cold before she even hit the ground.

I was picked up roughly. "You're an idiot!" By a stallion. A handsome stallion.

My head still swam as I mumbled, "Noble? What's going on?"

"Shut the fuck up, and come on!" The guns were still firing a little ways away. It was as good a time as any to run alongside him.

He kept us moving through the forest until we were long out of earshot. After a few minutes, the guns had slowed down, but the occasional sharp crack still rang. At some point, we—and the shots—stopped. As always, I was the first to speak.

"What was that thing?"

"Shut up, you!" He flipped around with a stomp, breathing heavily as his nostrils flared. "Do you have any idea what you did back there! Do you even know who those ponies were! No! Of course you don't! You don't know anything! And yet you must know more than the pony who actually has a clue as to what he's doing!"

I made myself as small as possible.

"You're lucky that thing showed up when it did! Because if it hadn't, you'd be a dead mare! And then I would have to be held accountable for what's going to happen to all those innocent ponies!"

"B-But they would have killed us, right?" I spoke up, like an idiot.

"Not those ponies, you dimwit!" He parted a nearby bush, revealing a town no bigger than Singe. Sitting snugly between two hills, it looked like the happiest place in the world. "Those ponies!"

I stared for a second, trying to decipher what he meant. "What do you mean? What's wrong with those ponies?"

"Well, mare..." he sat down, rubbing a temple as he regained his composure. "Little do you know, those Dire Straight's Scavengers. And now, when the rest of them come looking for their lost group, guess which town is most likely to have any info."

...

"Guess, mare!"

"Th-That one?"

"That one! So congratulations, Everdawn, because you are now personally responsible for telling each and every pony in the town of Pepperseed that they're about to be targeted by one of the worst Scavenger parties on this side of Low Rock!"

** ** **

"But you can't make me do this! I don't even know how to talk to these ponies, much less tell them any of that!"

"Too bad. This is on you now. If you had just stayed with me and listened, you wouldn't be having this problem."

"Isn't there any other way? Anything?"

"No. This is the way it has to be."

"What if they try to hurt me?"

"You're the reason they have to evacuate their homes. You really think that's undeserved?"

"How! It wasn't my fault! That thing came out of nowhere and I —"

"Mare!"

"NO!" I stomped my hoof, blasting a small cloud of dirt from the ground beneath me. "I won't do it!"

He looked down at the missing piece of earth, and then back up to me. His eyes seemed to follow a direct path from my legs up to my face. "Are you...?"

"Am I what?"

Without skipping a beat, his magic emptied my pockets. But there was nothing to be found. "Where's your stash?"

"Stash? Of what?"

"It's no wonder you were able to keep up with me in the forest..."

"Hey!" I swung at the aura, hooves only passing through it. "Cut it out! I don't have any 'stash', alright!"

He finally came over, grabbing at my leather jacket and checking certain parts. I tried to push him away, but to no avail. He was like some kind of a rock. I heaved with all my strength. "Why... isn't... it... working!"

"I have certain countermeasures in place for ponies like you. So whatever you're hiding from me, it isn't going to help. You're going into Pepperseed, and you're going to tell them what happened. And after that, you're going to hoof over the drugs." Upon hearing this, I froze. He was crazy! The pony was crazy! I pushed harder and harder, stressing myself more than I should have. But he just stood there, as if all the strength in the world meant nothing. He finished checking my jacket before letting me go. "We're going. And that's final."

There was a rustle behind us, and then a click. "What do you mean? Leaving so soon?"

The mare—the one from before. She stepped out from the bushes, with a couple of friends, breathing heavily. One side of her sweaty face had a notable bulge, courtesy of Noble, so guess who she was pointing the gun at. I finally caught a glimpse of her cutie mark: three spikes. "These two were there when the monster appeared," she said to the stallions behind her. "She was trying to flee, and he gave me a headache when I was about to kill her. I'll be damn sure he suffers for that," she gritted.

"We don't want any trouble," Noble bargained at gunpoint. I was about to come over and take a bite out of the thing when I saw the look in her eyes. She was real. The hole would be in my head if I tried to do anything. Plus, I didn't feel like spitting out teeth shards.

"I don't give a fuck what you want, pretty boy! In fact... why don't we just make amends now?"

She grabbed the mouthpiece and aimed it at him. It fired.

Something came out of it. A small cylinder of metal. It moved quickly, but just slow enough for me to push Noble aside before it glided past. It made a hole in the tree behind us. The hole. The holes. That's what they were? A stupid shard of metal?

I looked back to the mare with the gun. She was still aiming, still standing there, still squinting.

"Um... hello?" They all stood motionless. Upon closer inspection, none of them even seemed to track my movements. I checked all around me. The wind had died. The trees were silent. I took the opportunity to grab her gun and throw it into the forest, zero resistance given. But after all that, something caught me off guard: Noble was still falling. I looked down at my PipBuck to see the last of an eerie green fading away.

Everything sped up. The gun popped. Noble hit the ground. And the look on the mare's face when she realized that her mouth was no longer holding a trigger...

She stumbled backwards, tripping over her own hooves. I knew little more than she did, but that little bit of difference meant that I had the upper hoof. And I was tired of distractions. A firm punch landed on one of her shoulders and elicited a solid snap. It was wholly accidental, believe me; I didn't mean to really hurt her! But with the trouble we'd had, all the guns that had been pointed at me, paired with the fact that I was about to evict an entire town's worth of ponies, it just kind of built up into that one little... jab.

Whoever she thought she was, she wasn't for long. The force of my hoof sent her sprawling backwards toward the open grass while the two stallions beside her rushed me, knives drawn. One went for my leg, and the other lagged behind. In an effort to dodge the first, I leaned up on my back legs, when the second pony appeared out of nowhere. The rusted steel dove toward my side. There was nothing I could do! There was no way I could move fast enough!

There was a desperate look in the pony's eyes for a moment, where nothing else in the world mattered but the thrill of the kill, where taking my life was the one thing he'd been born for. To top that off, the first had gunned it for me again. I was, for lack of a better term, spit out of luck.

Or so I thought.

From my right, all I saw was a wave of black. A column... of smoke. It engulfed them, hitting hard enough to bend their blades and leave a spray of red in its wake.

I screamed, when Noble appeared behind me and put a hoof over my mouth. My body tensed up in horror, but the glow from his horn told me the whole story. It was his. The smoke column appeared in front of us, dissipating with a flick of his horn. The lying stupidhead that was my traveling companion let me go, knowing that I'd figured out his little secret.

"What the horsebiscuit, Noble! You said—!"

"I know what I said."

"Why! Why would you lie to me like that? You were going to put the blame on me! We're supposed to be partners!"

The look he gave me would have been death if a certain saying held true. "No, mare, we are not partners! And you listen to me right goddess-damn now." He came forward, prompting me backwards. "We. Will. Never. Be partners! I am not your little adventure buddy! I am not your friend! I am not your companion!" Another step forward meant another step back for me. "Not your amigo, not your compadre, not your pal, not your chum," his hoof stomped on the next step, making me fall against the tree, "and I am not your fucking foalsitter! The only reason that I saved your ass TWICE back there is because that thing on your leg is more valuable than you can imagine! That is why you're still alive! So get that through your head right now, or so help me I'll cut off your leg and leave you for the forest to take care of! Are we CLEAR?"

I just bent my head in shame. I felt like a child... thinking he could be more. Who was I kidding? He was my captor, after all.

"Now, we're going into town, and you're going to explain yourself."

He was right. It was all my fault. He'd cast the smoke column to protect me... to protect the thing on my leg. And he wouldn't have had to do that if I'd just followed orders and gone with him. "Okay."

"Then come on."

The mare was limping down the hill toward the town, and had discarded a smaller weapon that looked more than rusty. "Help me!" she screamed at the houses. "Help me, or we're coming back! We'll kill every one of you!" She was hardly in a position to make threats, but she sounded sure enough to be intimidating. Her hobble gave way to whimpers and groans as she dragged herself away from us.

Noble began walking after her. "What are we gonna do with her?" He didn't answer. "Noble?"

His long strides were a running pace in their own right. It was barely enough for me to trot. "Can you please tell me? I'll listen the next time you boss me around, I promise!" The look in his eyes was tired. His horn began to glow as the mare turned around panically.

"You get the fuck away from me!" she shouted. "You don't know how deep the shit you're in is! You're dead, colt," she laughed, "you're dead!"

"Come on, Noble, she's already hurt. She isn't a threat anymore."

"She's going to tell her boss. And I can guarantee he'll have ponies out here by dawn."

"So? We can just run at night!"

"And leave a trail of blood with the ponies we pass?"

"No, we can... I don't know, do something! We can take her with us!"

"That's enough, Everdawn."

"But—"

"THAT'S ENOUGH!"

The shout stopped me dead in my tracks as he cemented me with a glare. Stepping right up to the mare as she made her last attempts to get away and yell for help, he pressed his horn to her temple, and she fought for a half-second before her eyes went blank. She flopped onto the grass. Noble got up, and began walking toward Pepperseed again.

"What did you do?" I asked when I caught up.

"Would it make you feel better if I called it a memory spell?"

"A memory spell? So, like, you made her forget to tell her boss. Smart move!"

"You could say that."

"Well, what else is there to it?" I inquired.

"You can't change some ponies' minds. Sometimes you have to use other methods."

"Like what?" There wasn't an answer at first.

"Like making her forget how her own heart works." There was a sort of deep sadness in his eyes. And then I understood.

"You... you killed her..." My eyes went back to the odd patch of orange on the hill, lying still amid the swaying grass. "You killed her! And all those other ponies! You just wiped them out!"

"And if I hadn't? Let me ask you something. Where do you think they were headed? Do you know?"

"Why does it matter?"

"Do you know! The only time Scavengers travel this far south is when there's a rival faction taking up room. That war party was on its way to kill ponies, Everdawn. Probably a lot. Do they deserve that? Do they?"

"I don't know," I barely got out.

"And what of the ponies who are now about to be evicted? Do they deserve that?"

"N-No..."

"No, they don't. And if you'll remember our little chat just a couple minutes ago, you'll remember whose fault this is. So don't be so quick to question what I do. Just do as I say, and we can go our separate ways."

The walk to Pepperseed was hardly bearable. Each step closer just made me feel sick. I'd wanted to go back for the mare to check, but a part of me knew it wasn't worth it. The sky should have been turning orange by now, but the grey of the distant clouds botched any hope of seeing it. I wondered what the ponies in Tranquility were doing. Were they watching a sunset right now, like me? I would have died to know.

The buildings stood low and humble as the cloud covering began to clear, casting dull shadows in their wake with the subtle light of the midday. The road was soft, pounded dirt, with puddles of mud here and there. Water gathered in mason jars and pots littering the streets.

"It looks abandoned." I went to one side of the main road, checking various vendors and shops. Nothing. The windows were boarded up, some even going as far as boasting a few painted words.

Noble stopped. "This doesn't feel right. Get behind me."

"But there's nopony here."

"Do as I say." I obeyed, falling in behind him and keeping a close eye on our surroundings.

"What is it?"

He was preoccupied with his SmartBuck. There was a rotating line around the central point of his screen. "I still don't trust it..."

"Maybe there's nopony here? Just like I've been saying?"

"It's too quiet to be abandoned. Can't you check your PipBuck?"

I tapped the button, the screen, even the edges. "It doesn't work."

"Dammit, mare, aren't you useful for anythi—"

Beep!

We looked at one another.

Beep! It was his SmartBuck.

Peering closer, Noble's head went on a swivel and flicked at (almost literal) breakneck speeds. Every which way. Every single direction. "We're surrounded."

"What? By what!" I whispered.

"Stay close. Keep your PipBuck safe."

I curled my hoof up as instructed, tucking it into my belly. "Don't you have a weapon or something?"

"Not at the present moment." Beep... beep... beep, beep!

"A spell?"

He'd stopped answering, instead bending down and readying his horn.

Beep, beep, beep, beep beep beep beepbeepbeepbeeee... "On top of us..."

My heart nearly burst out of my ribcage as we got flank-to-flank, eyes darting all around. Nothing. Nothing!

"Shit..."

I turned around, only to see his horn emit a light-bending orb that traveled outward from the tip until it had formed a radius around us. It was only when I looked back that I was met with a gun. Right on the tip of my muzzle. The rest of the long cylinder materialized out of thin air as Noble's spell traveled further. Soon, there was a head. And a body. And another next to that one. And another. We were surrounded.

"Stay right there," the voice of a stallion said. The voice was filtered. Metallic even. "What is your business here?"

"We're just spending a night," my captor answered levelly. "No harm meant."

"Hard to believe with all those shots we just heard, not to mention the body laying out on the hilltop." The deep voice grew threatening as the guns pushed us closer together. "Are you with the rebellion?"

"Not presently."

"... You will be searched for hazardous items, and anything deemed worthy of notice shall be confiscated."

He didn't like that. "Then we will find somewhere else to stay." My captor made a move to push past the soldiers, but they didn't budge.

"That will not be necessary. Hoof over any hazardous items. Anything deemed worthy of notice shall be confiscated."

"Get down," Noble told me.

The guns all clicked simultaneously, the rooftops lining up with a few extra ponies. "I wouldn't do that." For the first time I'd seen Noble, he looked unsure of himself. "That means you should stop trying to hide whatever it is you're holding," the voice addressed me.

"I said get down!" The ponies all looked down their sights at us, taking aim at once. I couldn't duck fast enough!

"Don't move!" the voice boomed.

"I—"

"Now!"

"Open fi—"

"WAIT!!"

There was a moment of silence as all eyes turned to the back of the regiment, toward one of the buildings as a door opened up. A mare stepped out, black mane highlighted with a silver streak as she recognized my attire.

"Everdawn?"

Hoofnote: Level Up

Quest Perk: S.A.T.S. — The mysterious device on your hoof is now capable of an ancient targeting spell. Not so defective after all!

Soundtrack Unlocked: Barewood

Storm

Introduction

Introduction

Once upon a time, in the barren land of Equestria...

... there came an era when ponies lived in torment and bloodshed, neighbors took up arms against one another, and hatred fueled the great fires of war that raged on during times of desperation and dwindling natural resources. Slavery, plunder, rape, murder, and all manner of atrocities were in abundant supply. The days of peace and prosperity were dead...

... But it was not, as some had predicted, the end of the world. From amidst the turmoil, some precious few arose to shed light upon the darkness of the wasteland above. These ponies, the Stable Dwellers, emerged from their underground shelters to bring about a new era that would change the very course of history. Wars ended, the radiation blanketing the lands washed away with purifying spells, and life began anew. War never changed, but ponies did. We call it the Age of the Lightbringer. And it is with great sorrow that I tell you that all good things must come to an end. Factions rose, tyrants returned to power, and everypony worse off either died in the streets or were viciously enslaved while the aristocrats of a "better" nation thrived in their towering monopolies. This was the New Equestria, the soiled fruit of the Stable Dwellers' labors. The light was cast into shadow once again, and this time there were no heroes to save us, no one to rise up and make a difference in our dying world.

Because war... war never changes.

And neither do we.

Fallout: Equestria

L a s t L e g a c y