“Courier work is dangerous. Ponies see you carrying stuff and always want to take a look. It’s exactly why I got out of the trade.”

We were finally done. My poor brain was burnt out and given how it felt, so was my horn. By Tartarus, my horn was practically glowing from overuse as I pulled my muzzle out from the last of the roboponies. On top of all that my coat was also caked in grime from digging around the robotic guts but at least we now had the last of the viable talismans.

Sil, my partner in crime, decided that this was a good stopping point, worriedly staring at my horn as it refused to stop glowing even when I wasn’t doing magic. Honestly, I didn’t know what to make of it either but blowing on it felt nice at least.

“Alright, we’re done for the day.” I sighed in defeat, plopping my rump down in exhaustion.

“Let’s get you both to those showers we saw on the second level so I can hose you off,” Riptide said as she helped me back to my hooves. “Seriously I’m surprised at how fast you two managed to get so dirty.”

“It comes with the territory,” Sil replied dryly.

We took it slow and easy for the evening, consisting of a shower and a dinner of scavenged MRE’s. The MRE’s themselves were surprisingly good, even if they were all apple-flavored. The little bags even had some kind of chemical heater in them; you just had to press down on a metal disk to get some kind of gel in the bag to crystalize and heat up. Sil decided we should keep a few intact so she could figure out how to reverse-engineer the crystallization process so we could have heating packs on demand.

Before bed, the three of us decided to do a final check to make certain the bunker was locked down for the night. It was also nice to just walk off the stiffness from contorting myself inside the bowels of machines all day.

I spent the last bit of downtime stretching and laying with my partners, my body still sore despite the shower and walk. I knew part of it was due to my injuries but hopefully, it wouldn’t be long till I was back to full strength, or close enough that it didn’t matter.

As the three of us lay huddled together with the lights off, my mind started wandering towards our plan. If it worked I wouldn’t even need to be on the front lines until- no, not until. I wouldn’t even need to fight if all went according to plan.

This wasn’t my fight nor were they my people but we were doing all we could to help them anyway. Maybe a few centuries back I would have had some baked-in loyalty to my fellow Equestrian but I didn’t consider myself nor anyone else in the wasteland to be one.

After all, it was hard to be an Equestrian when Equestria didn't exist anymore. Regardless, the long and short of it was that until things were resolved here we couldn’t move north. Thus I was doing what I could to stack the deck in favor of us getting out of here without being shot at or chased for our tasty flesh.

Morning came swiftly and, after an equally quick breakfast, we lifted the lockdown on the bunker, starting the process of moving the gathered salvage. It took a few trips but we managed to move all the heavier crates up to the surface level, the process taking up most of the morning. My horn still ached from the strain and barely helped with the heavy lifting but I still did what I could. Didn’t sit right with me to sit this one out as much as I enjoyed watching them work. At least the manual labor kept me limber.

Now we would need to find a way to haul all these boxes of supplies back to town. I really didn’t fancy shoulder-checking a convoy of heavy boxes without wheels several miles.

Just the thought of doing that made my shoulder hurt.

“Alright, let’s find something to get this crap back to town,” I told the two.

“So… any ideas on that front?” Riptide asked.

“Anything with wheels that doesn’t run on combustion.” I quipped, then added. “I also managed to figure out most of a Repair spell last night so if you find something banged up I can probably fix it. Well... so long as it isn’t one giant block of rust.”

“Alright, I’ll go trot about and see if I can’t find us a set of wheels.” Sil nodded, trotting off out of the pit. “You finish hauling the crates up in the meantime.”

It took a good half hour to get the boxes up and out of the rocky hole the bunker was sitting in. It wasn’t so much the exertion as it was the distance and squeezing the crates past the rubble. My magic was enough to keep things balanced on my back for the most part but I still had to watch my step as I navigated the slippery, rocky slope.

That said it was a bit misty out this morning so while it wasn’t raining the ground was still slick with moisture. By the time Riptide and I had finished moving everything up, Sil had come back around to check on us after searching the yard. She even had bandages on her forelegs where her investigations had bitten back.

We quickly ran through our options. One was a massive earth mover. It had no obvious power supply until I found out it ran on unicorn magic which was an odd feature for a Ministry of Technology backed company. It would have made more sense for their technology to work for anypony. As it was, the earth mover was rusted solid and would take forever to magically restore due to its size. Even if we could restore it, I’d have to keep it fed with magic which meant I’d be beyond exhausted by the time we got back to town.

The second option was some kind of auto carriage in the parking lot. As I looked it over, I found that all it required was a magical battery, something that we were in short supply of. I could just power it with my horn but that would hit the same snag of the first option.

The last option was the most promising; a few unpowered carriages sitting in the back lot. Though missing wheels or parts of wheels, there were more carriages than we needed given their carrying capacity so it would be an easy repair job between Sil and myself. We would also be able to take turns resting and acting as lookouts on the trip back.

“Let’s go with the regular carriages, everything else is too much work,” I said finally, patting one of the carriages. “Looks like we’ll see just how much Draft Pony we have in us today.”

Riptide and Sil nodded in agreement and began to load the two carriages that looked in the best shape. “How about you two lend me a hoof to fetch the spare parts?” I went on, horn sputtering to life. “We still have to repair these before we go and I don’t want to get a headache casting two spells at once.”

With their help, we managed to get the carriages moving again within an hour, swapping in the good parts from the other derelicts to the two we were taking. With a bit of magic long rusted parts began to move. It took much less time to get the now-repaired carriages loaded with the spoils of our expedition. Unfortunately, we now had to contend with the muddy yard and the three of us spent even more time just pushing both laden carriages up onto the paved road outside the work yard.

With that ordeal over with, Sil and Riptide got themselves hitched up to them.

“Okay, now for the hopefully easy part.” I groaned. “Back to Four Corners.”

I was going to take point when Sil held out a hoof to my chest, shaking her head. “Sorry, Moony but we only let you help because it would go faster with the three of us.”

“Also because we didn’t want to have the extra weight of your rump to deal with.” Riptide snorted. “The mud was already making it hard enough.”

“Hop on in, we’ll get us back,” Sil said comfortingly. “You just rest your body and keep an eye out for trouble, okay?”

I thought better than to protest and simply nodded to the two before climbing atop Sil’s carriage. These weren’t luxury rides but at least they were big enough to carry what we had scavenged.

As we began to roll I simply nodded to myself. They were both right, I was better off resting on the trip back considering I was still in the process of healing. I needed to rest and it was something easy to get while guiding us back and keeping an eye out for any threats.

Progress was slow as Riptide and Sil were unable to go faster than a trot. They made up for the lack of speed with the endurance to keep going, even if at an undoubtedly sedated pace. The trip that had taken us an hour to do yesterday took two the other way around, taking into account the detours around collapsed bridges and buildings that we had walked over on our way.

By the time we returned to Four Corners, I could smell the sweat from Riptide and Sil even through the earthy smells of rain. I smiled at the tired duo, thankful we didn’t face any trouble on the way back at least.

-=O=-

“Hey! They made it back everypony! Get over here so we can help unload their carriages!” Shouted the same guard who generously opened the gate for us yesterday. I hadn’t even had time to ask the guard to open the gate before he had done it for us.

Before we had even made it fully through the gate a crowd of ponies, more than those living in town, had gathered, clamoring to get their hooves on our supplies.

“Hey! No touching the saddlebags.” I demanded when I felt somepony’s hoof brush against me as I gingerly climbed down from the carriage.

With a frown, I regarded the crowd as the desire to address them swelled within me. Viewing the throng of equids, I spotted Sil struggling to escape her harness and the crowd as it swarmed us. Riptide gave me a pleading look before I lost sight of her.

It didn’t take a genius to ascertain that the three of us were deeply out of our element. Even with riot training in the Guard, I wasn’t really used to facing a crowd this size. Ten to twenty? Sure. This? Frankly, I didn’t know nearly a hundred ponies lived in Four Corners, but now I did and it did not fill me with happiness.

With a rough push through the crowd, I waded my way to the two mares, got them out of their harnesses, and swiftly dragged them back up onto the driver’s seat of one of the carriages, the crowd milling about unpacking the goods like a ravenous swarm of worker ants. For the moment we were safe from being carried off or separated.

I stood to my full height and took a breath to address the crowd, only to cough, killing the swelling boldness in me.

"You can do this." Riptide encouraged me.

Her words strengthened my resolve and I shook off the anxiety. So I took another breath and began to address the crowd.

“Four Corners!” Everypony paused to look up at me but I didn’t falter. “The Steel Rangers have indeed left but they unintentionally left a gift for you! I have gathered a portion of it and brought it here. This is what we could find after a day of going through their records, sifting through all those crates they left behind.”

I paused and pulled out a bundle of talismans from my saddlebags for dramatic flair. “Now we have the means to make turrets, a surplus of MRE’s for food, and a small ammo dump. As of now, we have more weapons to protect the town; forty-four caliber rifles and revolvers! Perfect for punching through those Viper's scales and shattering their skulls!”

I had barely finished my speech when a cheer went up and I found hooves going around me, lifting me into the air. I found Sil and Riptide had been pulled from the crates as well. This was a first for me but as much as I was amused by it, constantly being volleyball-tossed was not helping my bruised body. The hooves touching my rear were also not welcome, though I was certain it was by accident given they shifted to better support me before passing or tossing me. It was, all in all, a strange but positive experience.

-=O=-

“Alright, you go on down there.” The guard said to me, patting the turret beside him. “Now that we got these set up I’m going to start tuning them.” He turned to Sil. “You, uh? Sil? Go and check on other parts of the wall to see how they’re doing. Maybe then we can rest easy for a bit.”

“Just remember to load them after you get them to shoot the target and not Moony,” Sil replied while I snorted in amusement. “My marefriend is not to be perforated.”

She trotted off to help set up turrets on the north side of town while I ventured out to where the mock target was.

Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a spritebot floating about, warbling out itswartime music and ads. I tried to tune out the tinny music and voices as I kept an eye on the turrets. The targeting talismans, their operation indicated by a small light that cycled between green, yellow, and red, were what I was watching for. As the minutes dragged on and each turret was brought online I found I could barely make out the color from where I stood.

Out of exhaustion, I wound up plopping my rear on the wet street as I waited out the calibrations. Suddenly there was a crack in the air that broke me out of the stupor before the pavement next to me exploded, shards of it biting into my neck. I dove to the side of the street and I grabbed my guns out of instinct, remembering my shield spell and rapidly casting that too.

“Sorry! looks like one of the turrets wasn’t cycled to empty the chamber!” One of the ponies on the wall shouted. “You okay?”

“Fine, just a couple of nicks,” I called back as I put my guns back into their holsters.

I dropped the shield as I caught my breath. Adrenaline was a good way to bypass the exhaustion, pain, and tenderness of my horn and body but they had a nasty habit of returning. I was tempted to take some painkillers, already retrieving my water bottle but decided against it in the end. The dull aches and constant re-bruising were frustrating but they didn’t warrant more medication. Once we got going again I could just rest and recover, or at least that was my hope.

“Why.” A tiny, synthesized, emotionless voice asked.

I yelped and fumbled the bottle as I turned to look at the spritebot.

“Fucking Tartarus! Since when the fuck do Spritebots talk.” I snapped, narrowing my eyes at the intruding machine. “Then again, I have seen them pause their broadcasts before…”

“Why did you help this town?” The machine asked again in the same tone.

I stood up and trotted around the Spritebot, prodding it carefully with a hoof. I then pushed on it from the side, sending it spinning for a moment before it looked at me again, the cameras whirring as they focused on me. If I didn’t know any better it looked almost frustrated.

“Curious. Looks like somepony hacked into the old broadcast system.” I pondered, ignoring the question for now. “No exterior tampering. Wonder where the piggyback is from?”

“Perceptive, but not you didn’t answer my question. Why did you help them?” The spritebot asked again. “Why did you cooperate with those raiders? Why did you share your invention in Wayhill?”

The last question got my attention. I hadn’t seen a spritebot in Wayhill. Wait, no, there had been one, it just wasn’t fully functional. Curious...

“It’s in my nature, as it used to be in all ponies. You know, help out anyone who looked like they needed help, let alone those who asked.” I stated, still staring inquisitively at the spritebot. “We pack bonded nearly instantly back in the day and some of us still have that good-natured disposition, I suppose. It was mutually beneficial in all those cases; sometimes just in the short term like with those bandits but in the long term you get this.”

I raised my Pipbuck Zero to emphasize the point. “This wouldn’t exist without help from others, my marefriend’s too to boot. Also with its design spreading out? More and more ponies will have the tools they need to survive in the wasteland. So what if I don’t get a single cap out of it? By the Sisters, I had to pay for it.” I huffed, then smiled. “I happily paid for it. I would rather something useful be added to this world for the sake of others than hoard it for myself like those arrogant Steel Rangers.”

“I see.” The Spritebot said.

“Now then, if you’ve been watching me you already know who I am. What should I call you?” I probed.

Silence, then. “Watcher.”

“Fitting.” I deadpanned, pinning my ears back against my head and glaring at the floating robot. “Well, is there something more you wanted other than picking my brain, Watcher?”

“For now, no. You already beat me to the punch about helping ponies. And making friends. You’re a curious pony.” Watcher replied, then after another short pause. “I’ll be... watching.”

“Of course you will.” I frowned as the music returned with a pop and the spritebot started to bob away.

It then promptly exploded as one of the turrets shot it.

“Oh for FUCKS SAKE DID YOU NOT CHECK THE REST FOR AMMO?!” I barked at the ponies on the wall as I summoned my shield once again. “Or do I have to go up there and do that for you?!” My left eye was twitching slightly as I finished dressing them down from range.

Maybe the instructors had been wrong, I’m not half bad at being intimidating when I need to be.

The ponies on the wall shrunk at my shouting and then made good on checking the turrets for ammo before we continued testing them. I just rested a hoof on my face and sighed.

A moment later a few more shots rang out, this time from behind me, plinking against my shield. I turned around with a snarl, drawing my guns to see raiders charging towards me.

Oh, come on. Really, more bullshit today?

“Fuck the friend or foe recognition. Give the turrets ammo, NOW!” I barked at the wall when I saw that it wasn’t just a couple of raiders looking to pick off a pony. Instead, they were just the tip of the spear.

“Who the fuck did I piss off to deserve this?” I begged the sky before firing off the first few rounds of the revolver rifle into the oncoming ponies, watching the leg collapse out from under one of them. “Well, at least the gun works. I really should have checked that when we found these… too late now!”

I aimed again and kept plinking.

The turrets behind me finally opened up, firing indiscriminately between me and the raiders. The upside was that this halted the raider's advance for the moment. However, as soon as the raiders ducked into cover I was the only target that remained for the turrets. I changed tacks and dashed to the nearest piece of cover, using my shield to deflect the worst of the volley coming at me as I put a physical barrier between the turrets and myself.

I peeked over at the now stalled raider advance. Well, the advance here. I have no idea how the rest of the town is faring.

Then came a familiar whistle, one I had heard when Saint Clover was under siege; mortar fire. Like before, I was certain the mortars weren’t on the so-called friendly side.

“Well, fuck. Okay, this isn’t a raid, this is a siege.” I pondered to myself before being interrupted by gunfire chipping away at my concrete cover. I fired a few blind shots in return. “They said the raiders lurked mostly out to the west and so did the Vipers. Something must have happened to push them out. Maybe… yeah that would explain it. Cart did mention the entire town would have to leave if the Vipers and Hydra kept harassing them so it would follow that these raiders could be in the same situation as Four Corners.”

“Bitch get out here and fight us!” Cried one of the raiders.

“I’m figuring out what your fucking motives you fuck face!” I shouted back.

“I want your house and to fuck you!” Another shouted back.

“I don’t live here and I’m spoken for!” I shouted back.

Lovely, but that answered a few questions. Mentally patting myself on the back, my focus shifted to moving through the ruins in hopes of flanking my attackers. I crept through the abandoned house that currently served as my shelter, staying low, slow, and quiet. Coming upon a hole in the wall of what was once a single occupancy bathroom, my focus switched to memorizing the locations of all visible hostiles outside. As I did so, I swapped from my very loud revolver rifle to the silent pistol; the latter held in my magic and combat knife in my muzzle.

Time to kill. I felt my shoulders slump a bit as that thought washed over me. Well, it’s a good thing the thought of killing another person doesn’t feel good. Still, that enthusiasm is a bit unsettling. Oh well, address it later when not in a combat zone. Therapy later, slaughter now.

I steeled myself mentally for what was about to happen; to spill blood up close, to take lives, and watch the terror and life drain from their eyes as they understood that moment would be their last.

I kept with the tried and true slow approach as I crept to the next piece of cover, which wasn’t as much of an issue as the raiders were still shooting where I had been.

That was until one spotted me out of the corner of his vision. Thankfully he wasn’t aimed at me from the start so I had time to dive into the cover of another ruined house before he could get a bead on me.

Well, of course, they would notice, they have peripheral vision; they don’t have fucking stupid helmets on.

Falling back to the other tried and true method, I began blasting. Of course so did they with bigger, meaner, and louder weaponry; armaments that decided I didn’t need cover and started punching holes through it, chewing away at the building’s facade like metallic beetles. Obviously, this wasn’t good for my health, so I scooted away keeping low enough to be hidden below the blown-out window sill.

Repositioned, I looked for a swift way to end the firefight while the dense raiders continued to chew away my old cover. Unfortunately, the characteristic metal apples and sticks with volatile cans on the end failed to materialize. This was disappointing because even if I hated the chunky leftovers from explosives I couldn’t argue with the results. This was a horrible day to have been saddled with raiders who didn’t also enjoy explosions.

Fuck, why don’t any of them have grenades?! Raiders love explosives! Okay just think!

Another part of the wall fell away next to me. Okay, think faster, no pressure. They just want to, you know, kill and or rape me and I am fairly uncertain of the order. Actually, they had just expressed interest in taking the town and raping me so honestly that’s kinda worse.

I crawled on as the shots caused a wall to collapse at my old position, quietly moving to another spot even as the raiders roared. I had to stay unseen with the hope that I could maneuver to a spot where I could get an angle for a surprise attack. I paused as a sudden thought hit me.

That’s right, there was a spell for area denial. What was its name? Right, it was Wall of Elements! Ugh, who the fuck named these spells pre-War? The writer of Ogres and Oubliettes? Actually no, most of these combat ones date back to pre-Equestria mages like Starswirl and his forebears. Wow were we just that bad with naming shit? I paused for a moment and nodded. Yeah, we probably are.

Prior to today, I hadn’t had any use for the spell but area denial was on the menu today. Grasping the magic in my mind, I pictured the area I was looking at, visualizing it turning uninhabitable. Then I felt the strings of magic and played them like an instrument, feeling the magic spring forth and take form. I finally opened my eyes and gasped for air.

There was a rush of noise and then I heard screaming. I quickly peered at the area I was aiming for and was taken aback at what I saw, much worse than what I had projected. I had certainly made the area perfectly uninhabitable as pure chaos raged, the raiders caught in the area horrifically maimed as wild elements coursed through them, destroying them slowly.

Fucking Tartarus, I have truly failed. Discord would be proud.

A shudder ran through me as I sat there looking at my failure. With a sharp exhale, I pushed the conflicting emotions out of me. It was time to clean up and soon suppressed shot after suppressed shot filled the air as I executed the poor, unlucky raiders. Even in death, I watched ice encase and crack flesh, the fire burned and melted fur, flesh, and fat. Electricity made their corpses convulse, and pure magic atomized what remained.

Note to self, practice that spells more. I never want to see that again.

Suppressing lingering thoughts about the small atrocity I had committed, my hooves found themselves moving once more. A quick hop through a blasted-out window left me in an empty street away from the throng of raiders. With the wind blowing how it was and a building between the scene and me, it was as if there was no evidence of the thaumaturgical atrocity.

Those from before forgive me for what I have done. May Luna take your souls to eternal slumber and rest from this painful end.

I wasn’t a spiritual pony but in times like this, when I felt like I had pissed off something to cause Tartarus to come down on me, it felt right to reach out as I struggled with what I had done.

Dashing down the alley and then climbing up a mountain of half-collapsed buildings, I finally claimed a vantage point of the battlefield. Part of me knew that I should wait for backup but every moment lost waiting meant another mortar in the air. Wasted time was wasted lives. From the east, the sound of gunfire continued, a good sign that the ponies of Four Corners were still putting up a fight.

Reflecting as I plotted the course to the mortars, I felt like I should have returned to gather a group to drive a knife into the side of this assault. I reasoned that this would only make things worse; for all the extra firepower it would have it meant less on the walls to hold the line. There was only one certainty for now: those mortars needed to be gone, now.

The very fiber of my being shook as the world roared.

Ah… Fuck me with a battleship.

The hydra and its ilk had been drawn by the sound of gunfire, and likely the scent of blood. I couldn’t afford to waste more ammo on the raiders. I needed to get those mortars pointed at the hydra and vipers one way or another. A temporary truce or just nabbing them would have to do; the monsters were a larger threat than the raiders right now.

While I hated the thought of using the raiders, ponies that they were, as living shields to help the town, they admittedly wanted to kill or do worse to those inside. They had a chance to do better, they still did, and they could prove themselves here and now. Not that I could convince them with words of course but maybe they could see the danger coming and realize they could only survive by doing the right thing.

Raiders are not being idiots, well. I’ve already seen stranger things on this trip.

As I took in more of the battlefield, I could see the hydra visibly lumbering back towards Four Corners. It might be big but it seemed to be in no rush as it slowly made its way towards the river. Smaller, darker forms of the vipers were already advancing across the said river, gunfire chattering away from the mortar teams on the banks as they tried to hold the creatures off.

Further east where Four Corners sat, fires were obscuring the town from sight, blind gunfire from the walls shooting through the smoke to pin down the raiders. They in turn fired potshots while waiting in vain for the mortars to land home and open up a hole so they could flood into the town, unknowing that they were gradually being sandwiched on two fronts.

The clock is ticking, Moonlight.

With the click of the cylinder of the rifle shutting and a fresh magazine sliding home in my pistol, I was reloaded and ready to get back in the fight. I made a mad dash towards the mortar position. An idea struck me as I regarded the pile of rubble and remains of metal roofing I had to descend. With a piece of sheet metal in my magic, I took the plunge down the mountain of rubble and enjoyed the safest form of freefall I expected to experience within my lifetime.

The surrounding raiders looked on as I approached them surfing upon the metal. Most looked on in confusion and others even cheered on my display of rubble surfing. I paid them no mind since they weren’t shooting me. I hopped off the metal once it started skidding across the pavement and galloped towards the thumps of mortars and the sounds of somepony barking orders. Thankfully I had picked the right path to go.

Author's Note

This chapter was originally twice this length but it felt right to split it here, don't worry it just means you get two more manageable chapters to consume. Chapter 13 will be out in August, and then Chapter 14 will wrap up the first arc of the story.