Fallout: Equestria - The Ranger of Seamane

“After every fight comes the inevitable phase of cleaning up. Sometimes it’s just washing up some blood and teeth. Other times it is patching up bullet holes and burying some bodies. Sometimes, it goes on for months.
-Equestrian Royal Guard Manual On Disaster Response

Our five sets of hooves clattered against the metal of Saint Clover’s decks as we left home for the last time in what would likely be a very long time. Winter in the lead as usual; he was the one with the best eyes. Ocean was half a length behind him. Behind them Sil and Riptide trotted side by side. As per usual I fell in behind the rest to guard our rear.

When we left Saint Clover the scent of the Ocean and smoke greeted us. It was then that it struck me that this was something I was going to have to get used to: no more noises and smells of the ship. Instead we would be all day and night from here on living out in the open. It was like an indeterminately long patrol duty. My gaze went to the sky as we trotted down the gangplank. The sky above churned and spun as we walked to the dock, windy but not a lick of rain on the horizon.

As we passed my library I had us pause for a minute as I checked it. Winter let out a small chuckle as he sat down waiting for me to return. Sil though went with me to help check on the repairs.

As we checked the repairs I turned a corner and bumped muzzle to muzzle with Riptide who had wandered in. I was too distracted looking for leaks and she was too distracted with her mind elsewhere.

“Sorry.” She muttered as I helped her up.

“It’s fine, just follow my tail, alright?” I informed her and she nodded.

After another half hour Sil and I nodded in agreement as the entire building seemed to be in good shape and for once dry. As such I let out a whoop as there was no sign of needing to do any further work. It felt nice to leave the place in such good condition.

While we had been checking on the Library, Ocean had gone and informed Dispatch we were heading out for the Sea Lion Caves. Given Ocean had more gear than when she left she had clearly scrounged up a few bits more of equipment.

We pushed out into the ruins of the town itself, past the battle torn palisades to where the fighting had been the worst. As we continued down what had once been the coastal highway and main street we could see the depths of the siege to our home. While we had long ago abandoned much of the town to live within the hull of Saint Clover, Seamane itself was as much our home as the ship was. We knew many of these buildings as places we had explored when we grew up, places we had trained. Beyond that a good number of buildings that had survived the tides of time had now succumbed to the meaningless destruction of the siege, places that were slated to be refurbished and re-inhabited over the next few decades as we finally resettled the town itself. Instead much of our home was an ashland, a dreg heap. It only filled me with despair to see. So much senseless destruction. Of course, that’s raiders in a nutshell. Not that any of that mattered now. By the stars, if you listened to some of those still around now all that mattered was click click bang bang.

The devastation kept us quiet company with the smoldering ash and warped metal blowing in the wind as we left our home headed north on the coastal highway. As we kept going we got to the worst of the new scars on the landscape, the front-line. Here ponies we knew, well besides Riptide, were out working checking for ‘presents’ as well as battle salvage.

The carpet bombing by our air support had made a mess of things here. While it was effective it gave me insight on the cost of warfare. When the battle was over you had to pick up the bits and pieces and find a way to make things whole again. It wasn’t just about healing ponies, it was about more than that. Something I had never thought about given every fight I had prior was a skirmish in some ruins or some place I didn’t have to care about.

I was left with my thoughts as we continued onward. Our scenery gradually changed, the overgrowth from the hills had subsumed parts of the outskirts of Seamane and now that we were trotting out of Seamane the transition from ruins to grass, ferns, and short trees was gentle. The gentleness of this change was such that one not paying attention likely would have thought the grown over buildings had been merely hills that ferns and trees were growing out of before the terrain smoothed out again.

Doing my part I kept my head on a swivel and looked to the west where the coast lay and the more normal trees that books of the past documented. Keeping an eye on the east as well I saw the swampy low lying land where the river regularly flooded, that we had trotted around the other day. Even from here I could smell the fetid water, hear the distant buzz, chirps, and caws of the life that lived within. As we approached the hills that blocked Seamane’s valley we lay in from the next. The bodies were still laying out in the open from where we had put them down. The tents had finished burning hours ago and not even embers remained. The smell of blood, smoke, and burnt bodies made me gag as I smelled it again, I had hoped not to.

As we continued to trot uphill the swamp to the east ended and the forest began. The half bent trees formed by the everblowing coastal winds as if pointing to tell us to go back as we headed towards the Sea Lion Caves.

Riptide broke the silence that had been over us as we trotted towards likely the last raider den.

“It’s so alive up here.” Riptide gasped shattering the silence we had all quietly agreed to embrace so far on the trot out to the Caves. “I haven’t seen this much green since visiting a seaweed farm.”

The change was enough from the constant rustle of grass, leaves, and branches in the wind that it made me jump. Given I was looking along the hillside when she spoke I didn’t spot if anypony else had a mild heart attack at the silence ending after somewhere near an hour of trotting.

While I caught my breath with my hoof against my chest to force my heart back down my throat Sil carried the conversation for us. “It is rather pretty, I’ll agree with that. My father talks about how barren things get the further east you go, or south. Also, a seaweed farm?”

Riptide nodded. “Yeah, a town down to the south near where we used to live farmed kelp offshore. Unlike out here the beach doesn’t drop off a sheer underwater cliff.” She shook her head and I caught a glimpse of a smile on her muzzle as we continued to trot. “While it isn’t the best tasting food, it is better than pre-war food. Was about the only thing that grew too in the area besides some small shrubs.”

Hearing Riptide talk about something other than what had happened to her and smile was a good sign from what I knew. It put a small smile on my muzzle as I was happy to see at least there was still some life in her heart. I knew all too well how loss could break a pony.

My mind turned to the information that had been provisioned to us though and I quickly digested it. “Huh, well that explains where the shipments of seaweed come from. Always could tell when one was coming, the smell was unmistakable.”I snorted. “Also it makes sense somepony would start farming it too. I think even pre-war it was considered a crop.”

I continued, feeling a bit of mirth filling my chest. It was nice to have a conversation with a bit of levity in it. I had hoped things with Riptide wouldn’t be constantly morose.

Sil nodded to me before she chimed in again. “So down south, is it pretty brown?”

Riptide nodded. “Mhm it is, it’s not totally barren but you’d get your occasional tall tree with leaves on it with lots of scrub grass and dry dirt. As we came up north I saw the coastal hills getting greener and greener, more and more tall trees.”

While I was happy to hear more about Riptide’s trip up I wanted to head it off before she got to the bad part, so instead I decided to educate her on some of the local flora. “Well, not all of this is a good old growth forest. We got some weird plants out here that aren’t in the pre-war books. Case in point, the swamp has what we call corpse trees. Smells like decomposition, glows in various places, and has openings that lead into a trap. They seem to have mutated from a rare carnivorous plant that existed here pre-war.”

“Carnivorous plant?” Riptide nervously laughed, her steps a bit more cautious and hesitant. I could see her looking around for things readying to go after her. “As in, it eats ponies?”

That made me snort. Thankfully I didn’t know of any highly mobile carnivorous plants. “Not quite, it is a passive eater, has a trap of some kind in it that lures in small critters. They go in and then due to some mechanism they can’t come out. Apparently there were a lot of different types of them back in the day, all of them had trouble growing to grow outside their natural habitats.” I shook my head. “Then there are harder one's to pin down how exactly they work.” I started then hummed to myself. “To put it bluntly you have some that react to things interacting with them, like bear traps.”

“We’ve documented some big enough to enclose around one of us.” Sil added with a wince.

“That’s terrifying.” Riptide whimpered.

“Yeah, but from what I gather unless we were roaming the south on the other side of Equestria we’re not really going to bump into anything like that. Also I could point out from the books I have, most samples of plants that ate insects and what not back then were passive partakers. So even if we do find them there’s very little chance of us being in danger. More at risk by what it eats than the plant itself.” I informed Riptide. “Of course that’s assuming the books I have are the grand sum of knowledge about plants of Equestria, which it cited itself to be.”

“Well, now I’m less worried about running into horrible plants that want to eat us.” Sil giggled.

Riptide shook her head. “And what exactly would they eat to get as big as those trees?”

“Probably bloatsprites and other carrion eaters, so generally nothing to worry about. More worried about eating bodies than making them.” I informed the two. “Still have to worry about ponies wanting to make us into bodies.”

“Or worse.” Riptide muttered.

“Or worse.” I affirmed Riptide’s statement as it seemed like Sil didn’t pick up on it.

It was a while until we got to the Sea Lion Caves, the uphill climb and the wind from the ocean breeze forced up the hills slowing us down. It was pleasant though to smell the ocean again instead of the swamp, or smoke, or most other things. Reminded me of a lot of relaxing times throughout the years. Uneventful patrols that turned into more of us just lazing on the beach watching the waves roll in. Wasn’t like a pre-war resort and sunning but beyond that boat trip out to the ocean, I hadn’t gotten to feel the sunlight, or for that matter, moonlight.

“I will say though, it is nice to go up here in the hills. Haven’t in a long while. The air is refreshing.” I smiled, taking in a deep breath. “Heh, one would think I grew up underground with how much I complain about the air in Saint Clover at times.”

“I don’t know how different it would be between growing up in a Stable with its door open and growing up in Saint Clover.” Ocean said. “I mean at least they have hydroponics according to the Survival Guide but they face the same threats nonetheless. Of course there aren't that many Stable Towns out there to compare.”

I nodded, then again our news from the rest of Equestria was rather slow to get to us. We had a radio station from up north but it mostly played some... ‘lo-fi’ I think it was called as well as weather reports.

“Still all of this is a nice change from the burnt out forest I grew up in and around.” Riptide said before she stopped to eat some grass that was growing between the cracks in the pavement. “And that was not as tasty as I had expected or hoped, yuck!” She spat.

I let out a giggle as she wiped her tongue off. “Well, magical hellfire did burn most of the world. Then came the radioactive snow and rain. I imagine whatever grows up here was either planted after the fact or didn't present much of a target to get bombed.” I explained and punctuated my uncertainty with the shake of my mane. “Though I go and say there isn’t much around here and yet Dockland has three craters in it... Well, I guess my point is, the coast was probably too lightly populated to have been targeted where we are and whatever ensuing wildfire just failed to burn all the way out here.”

“I guess that makes sense. It is just nice to see it so green and alive out here.” Riptide stated. Growing up everything was grey, brown, and black as if the whole world had been charbroiled.”

Because of her pause to sample the grass, Riptide had fallen in with me at the back of the pack. Sil decided she wanted to be part of the talkative group and slowed down until she was with us letting Ocean and Winter get a few lengths ahead of us.

“Well, glad to break that illusion, though once past the Seamane range it’s going to get a lot less green.” I explained. “I know there is some kind of forest to the east of Dockland, but well we won’t be going out there, obviously.”

“Ah, well, I’ll enjoy it while it lasts.” Riptide said. “On a different note, how do the other towns make it out here? Seems like everypony would just come to Seamane and stay where it’s safe.”

Sil spoke up before I could. “Because of family. Or being stubborn in the case of those who are descended from preppers." When Riptide gave her a confused look, Sil went on to further explain. "Uh, ponies who had seen the writing on the wall a long time ago and started 'prepping' for all this by building their own shelters." Sil elaborated. "Anyways, most other towns around here are a lot smaller so they generally get by without all the trade we need. Tend to be more… how to put it.”

“They tend to trade us for our purified water for in return whatever they scavenge or grow. Be it animal or plant. Given we have a small population of non-ponies meat isn’t… uncommon, nor unwelcome.” I answered. I knew there were some ponies who didn’t like the idea of eating meat. But, if it couldn’t talk generally it was considered fair game. Lot less kind than things used to be but we had to eat as well. “Generally fish, radhog, mirelurks; those are those crabpony things. Blame the Wasteland Guide for the name.”

“Oh, so you have meat up here too?!” Riptide beamed as she seemed to take the news in the opposite direction I had thought, given her elation. Sil and I gave her a nod. “That’s good to hear, though we’re leaving. We’d have fish every now and again since the seaweed farm was also really good for cultivating various fish.”

I nodded and pondered that. "Answers a few questions I had on how a town with no deep sea fishing ships came to trade regularly with so much fish and seaweed."

Riptide nodded. “So, something I’ve been wondering: how bad does it get with raiders up here? Do you ever have towns completely go raider? Like the one to the north?” Riptide asked. “Well, other than the one to the north.”

“It’s not that common but towns do get wiped out by raiders every once in a while given most of them are composed of preppers and folks they let into their family. We have over the years had a few go dark and when checked everypony is just gone. Nopony enjoys those trips, the place always feels off. The biggest worry for those of us who knew anypony then becomes having to fight them if they went full raider and turned up at our doorstep.” I informed Riptide. “Thankfully that was more common a hundred years ago when things weren’t as well off as it is now. Then again, maybe that’s only because there are less ponies to deal with.” I let out a sigh, not liking that kind of thinking, even though it was rational at times.

“Any idea what caused the one up north to go raider?” Riptide asked. “And they certainly did, I got more than my share of time seeing it.”

“And bullets in your hide to prove it.” I added before inquiring about the town itself. “I don’t remember you mentioning that you got to see the town itself. Then again, I’m not privy to what you told everypony else.”

She went quiet for a bit, her face carried a look of hurt. It wasn’t directed at us, but to me it was likely the hurt was at the memory of what she so recently faced in and around that town.

Given my experience with unfortunate things I knew how hard it could be to talk about them and put a consoling hoof on Riptide’s shoulder. “You don’t have to tell us right now what it was like in the town if you told somepony else already.” I told her.

She nodded before she began to speak once more. “I want to though, to get my thoughts straight and because we’re headed there.” She took a sharp breath then started speaking, I half expected her to launch into a long winded explanation. “The town was all kinds of wrong. I’ve never seen so much gore out in the open.”

I nodded. “That definitely sounds like Raiders. Almost like a curse makes them enjoy it. Too bad no way to properly study raiders to figure out what makes the most broken of them so broken.”

“Probably the lack of hope.” Sil offered. “What does it matter if I make that stallion’s face into mush, the world is toast!” She mockingly exclaimed, Riptide winced a bit but nodded.

I gave a small nod to Sil as I had considered her point before. “Then of course there are the more sane and rational ones.” I began more to myself thinking about what we could encounter. “The Bandits you can actually talk to who mostly go for caravans,they try to extort a tax of some kind. The run of the mill Raider who just swoops in, beats up who they want and takes what they want. Generally more nomadic.”

I thought for a moment. “Well outside of fall and winter; they either migrate south or find somewhere to bunker down.” I paused and felt the gears in my mind turning. “By the sounds of it, we lost a trade partner to our north to some nomads coming in and slaughtering the place. Part of why we are going this way to clear an outpost. Then again, I wonder how many they have left given the numbers thrown at us...”

“Probably half of what came down. Throw the weaker or less stable at us, let us thin the herd so they have less mouths to feed over winter.” Sil said. ”According to Dad, that happened to his family. Part of why it ended up breaking down and scattering across the east past the Unicorn range.”

“Oh, well, that makes sense.” Riptide said, then pointed with a hoof. “Is that the shop up ahead?”

I looked forward and saw that we were getting close to the top of the hill, the roof of the large tourist gift shop looming over the rise.

“That would be the tourist shop for the Sea Lion Caves. Alright, let’s stop.” Winter said with a nod as I trotted up to catch up with him.

“Hey Winter? Let’s get looking for trouble!” I giggled at him with a smirk on my muzzle as I caught up with him. He smirked back as we skulked ahead.

Ocean left us to do our thing and guided Sil and Riptide off the road into the bushes.

“With three of them they should be able to handle any stragglers running up the hill from town.” Winter started while we hid behind a rusted out autocarriage. ”Well, two, I don’t know how good Riptide will be in a fight.”

I gave him a nod as I pulled out the five five six rifle.

The minutes dragged on as we scouted out the shop from range. The number of ponies there had to be small given there was never more than one pony on watch outside. Said pony was smoking while keeping watch; their hooves were cracked, blood stained their coat, a patchwork of tires, leaf leather and metal plates making up their barding

“Moonlight, you sneak on up there. I’ll come on up once you take him out. We don’t know how many more are inside," Winter said. "Those windows are boarded up so I'm not getting a good view of the inside"

I nodded as I felt a degree of pain at having to get close for this. My pistol had a suppressor on it now, but this had to be quiet which meant the knife. “Alright, if anything happens, try not to shoot me in the ass.” I sighed.

“I try to only hit that with other things.” Winter teased. I felt my cheeks go warm, and not from the emotion of anxiety or guilt.

I trotted off through the bushes, keeping low. Every now and again I stopped to get eyes on the pony on guard. He was certainly strong given his size and he had a cricket bat on his back with barbed wire wrapped around it with nails to hold the wire in place. The handle of the bat had a guard for his muzzle, and a leather strap that was loose. I had seen how that could be used before as a way to swing the bat around. He had the reach game on me unless I used my magic but, floating a knife over to a pony looking in my direction was one of the worst ideas I could think of. Instead I shuffled further back into the bushes to make certain my hornglow wouldn’t give away my position and used my magic to make a carriage next to him ping as if a rock hit it.

The raider grunted as he turned to look at where the sound had come from. I eyed him carefully and launched a small rock to land at the corner of the building to draw him in the other direction. The sound of the rock made him curse as he trotted off to the corner I had thrown it to. I pushed through the bushes and pulled my knife out with my muzzle. He had to go down fast and quiet. If he didn’t die quickly anyone inside would come out and then things would get messy given we still didn’t have a number on how many there were.

I cantered across the distance between us and angled my head at the last second as he turned, having heard my hoofsteps on the broken pavement. I slid to a stop and slid my muzzle up under his, the knife locking his jaw closed as it cut through skin, muscle, bone and finally puncturing his skull to slice into his brain. He went limp on top of me. I pushed his body against the wall and pulled the knife out, wincing as the blood got onto my muzzle and chest. At least this time it had been quick, taking out a pony up close and personal. Even as I pulled the knife out I could see exactly how I had killed him, and knew how I had violated his physiology.

I tried to blink away the images of ponies being torn open from the previous time I had to do this. The memory of the wet heat of their organs falling out after cutting their gut open stuck with me as the scent of blood washed over me.

I shook my head and wiped the blood off of the knife onto the stallion’s coat. I quickly checked his saddlebags for anything of use. All he had were more cigarettes, a lighter, and some bandages. Once the quick toss of his bags were done I then dragged his body out of sight and kept the blood in him with my magic. Winter joined me shortly after and we got back to casing the backside of the gift shop.

At some point the backdoor of the shop had left its hinges. I didn’t even see it inside the shop itself. The carpet within was a matted mess of moss and plastic in a struggle to coexist. I peeked in to see a lamp on a table surrounded by cards and ashtrays. Between the light outside and the lamp inside, the contrasting light levels were making it hard to see any details. I could only make out two figures within the structure, mainly due to a two way conversation going on between them.

Winter leaned up against me. “How many do you figure?” He asked.

“I can hear two,” I said. “I’ve got a shadow around the cashier stand.”

“Well, want to sneak in or shoot ‘em?” Winter asked, tapping my rifle on my back.

“You know what, sure. If more are in there I’ll duck in and you put down some suppressing fire.” I said, laying down on the ground as he stood over me. “Got the one on the right.”

“Got the one on the left. On three.” Winter said as I took in a deep breath. “One.” I started to let out my breath to even my aim. “Two.” I got a good crosshair on the mare chatting to the other raider. “Three.” He said and we both fired. The sound of the guns going off into the doorway echoed through the building leaving me half deaf as the flash from both of our guns lit up the darkened interior.

I heard another shot and stood up to get out of the way, Winter was still over me making the feat impossible. He let out a startled whinny as I pushed up on him, both of us stumbling back from the doorway. I felt a bite of heat against my cheek, quickly tapping it with a hoof only to find blood as I pulled it back. I had barely missed taking a bullet to the skull. Now bullets were now flying at us in bursts accented with profanity.

“Winter, stay here and fire some shots through the door, I’ll go around.” I said before I pulled out my pistol from its holster. He looked at me dazed and confused for a moment. “Winter, covering fire.” I ordered.

Winter nodded and fired a few rounds into the building; it didn’t matter where they landed, so long as it spooked our last remaining unwelcome guest. I got to the front of the building and threw the doors open with my magic to reveal a single stallion who had retreated to hardcover from Winter’s position.

“Fuck!” He shouted.

The shotgun held in his magic spun. I dove and fired. His shot missed. My shots went through his chest, shoulder, two in the neck, one at the back of his head. It was hard to miss at such close range.

He gurgled at me as I pulled my knife out with my magic and slammed it into his head, cracking his horn off. I put two more rounds into his chest where his heart should be to make certain he wasn’t getting back up. I stood from the cover I was at, my shoulder hurt from hitting the low wall, but it was better than bullets.

“Clear!” I called out to Winter.

He poked his head in from the back door and saw me and gave me a little wave with his hoof then ducked back for a moment. For a moment I wondered what he was doing until he popped back in with my discarded rifle slung over his back.

“Shit, Moony I haven’t seen you go that hard before.” Winter exclaimed as he examined the body of the stallion I had shot and stabbed. “Are you alright?”

My gaze lingered on Winter as to not look at the stallion whose blood stained my hooves and parts of my barding. “Not really. I’m getting flashbacks to when...” I took a moment to ease my racing heart. “To when I first had to use a knife on a pony.”

He nodded as he drew closer to me.“I remember you crying in my hooves when you got home from that.” He said before he gave my mane a pet to test the waters. “Don’t know how I would fare doing it myself.”

I leaned into the petting of my mane as I spoke again. “It’s why I preferred to do things from behind a rifle or at least a bit back with a gun. It’s not as…” I took another gulped breath. “Less chance of all that.”

We were quiet for a minute as he hugged me and I got a face full of his neck fur. He ended the embrace and opening my eyes I winced seeing his snowstorm coat stained red from the blood off of me.

His hoof gently brushed my mane again. “How about you go and get the other? I’ll double check that the shop is secure, alright?” Winter offered.

Getting the others meant fresh air and getting away from the slaughter house we had created, something that was a good idea so I nodded and headed off.

As I trotted down the road back to where the others had last been it was Ocean that spotted me. I had failed to spot her as my mind was still too wrapped up in what had just happened, that shook me a little as I had expected my perception to be sharper than my knife’s edge after a fight, instead it was duller than it’s pommel. Ocean waved me down to where she had hidden herself and the others.

“How bad was it?” Ocean asked.

“Four ponies. One outside, three inside. We didn’t spot the third until we dropped two of them from the outside. Got a little…” I fumbled for words.

“Given the blood on you, guessing it got up close and personal.” Ocean said regarding my coat and hooves. “Given how you’re reacting, let’s get us all inside. I think you need some time to calm down.”

The comment made me wince as I was pulled fully into reality and made aware of how my body was reacting not just my mind. Given my state my reply to Ocean came in the form of a nod as the other two came out from the foliage. Sil was regarding me with concern, concern that was echoed in Ocean’s face and now I realized it had been painted across Winter’s as well. I was still visibly shaken, and while not physically shaking from adrenaline bleeding out of my system the look I was likely giving them probably told them everything. That and having not had the good sense to wash the blood off of myself after a fight.

As the four of us trotted back to the giftshop my senses began to feel a bit more normal, my anxiety beginning to decrease. I looked up at the sky. I could really go for some rain to wash the blood off of me, I thought, as the smell of blood clang to me.

Once back inside the gift shop I beelined for the restrooms. Inside I found shattered mirrors, broken open medical boxes. The stalls were knocked over. I tried the sink and found no running water. I didn’t know what I had expected. I held back the urge to try to scrub the blood off of my hooves. I looked into the shattered mirror, half a dozen partial me’s looking back. Tired, bloody, cheek cut. My eyes were wide, I had no idea if it was shock, adrenaline, or exhaustion. I bit my lip and walked away.

Winter was gone when I left the restroom. Ocean looked at me and directed me to what was left of a sofa. Sil I didn’t see, nor did I see Riptide. A single push of my hoof was enough to incite me to sit on the floor instead of the moist sofa. Ocean gave me a funny look before testing the sofa herself and settling for the floor as well.

“Where’s everypony else?” I asked.

“Sil and Riptide are taking care of the bodies. Best to dispose of them before their smell attracts anything. Winter is checking the stairs down to the caves. Elevator itself is long gone.” Ocean explained. “No running water?”

“Yeah, no running water. Think he’s okay going down there?” I asked.

“Should be, the door was barred from this side. If anything is down there he’ll spot it and hoof it back to us.” Ocean assured me.

Though we had both known him for almost as long I had known Winter a bit more than a year longer than her. Regardless, considering we had all known each other close to two decades, that didn’t matter much.

I closed my eyes for a moment and took some time to calm down, images of death still lingering in the back of my mind. I could hear Ocean move about the building. It wasn’t a large space, enough to hold forty ponies at best. Two registers had been on the counter when we came in, the counter itself faced the main door out to the road. Behind them was a wall that had like once held small gifts for sale.. This lower pit area had chairs and sofas likely for ponies resting or waiting for the elevator down to the caves. Maybe there had once been a projector for films.

Despite being covered in moss near the rear door, further in the carpet revealed itself to just be stuff brittle plastic aged with time. Still, it was better than a soggy rotten sofa. More hooves sounded on the floor as they entered the building from the rear entrance. I figured it was Riptide and Sil given the lack of reaction from Ocean. I tried to stop focusing on the sounds around me, tried to relax my body and focus my mind on relaxing, driving out all other sensory inputs.

* * *

I felt as if something slimy slithered by me, brushing around my hooves as it passed. I opened my eyes. The colors were off, the wind sounded wrong, like a single tinny note held. I looked around as I lit my horn. It was dark. I must have messed up my meditation and ended up passing out instead. My green light bathed the inside of the gift shop. I tried to blink away the blur of sleep in my vision but it persisted.

“Is anyone awake?” I asked quietly, not wanting to be too loud incase everypony was already asleep. There wasn’t a response. I didn’t like that, somepony should have been on watch. I hadn’t been woken up by anyone I could see to take my turn.

I trotted outside and felt the wind on me as singular constant pressure pressing against me. There was no turbulence in the wind. I could smell the sea from up here but something was wrong with the smell, as if some other scent was buried below it. I looked up and felt a mix of awe and terror. The clouds were gone and I could see the stars again though there was no moon in the sky. The cold of the air hit me as I stared out towards the bluff to the north where the sky kissed the sea. The sea glowed, corpses floated on the waves. The wind’s constant breeze stuttered and shuffled as the stars watched on.

* * *

I pushed the dream out of my head as I ate. Any thought of it left me feeling cold. Winter had woken me up before dawn during his shift of guard duty. He had with him a deck of cards. I had thanked him for waking me up out of the strange dream before it had become a nightmare. I never did enjoy my dreams. They were always visits to strange places, impossible dreams that left me melancholic upon awakening to the world I had, or outright nightmares. My mind had a surrealist touch at times.

“Feeling better?” Winter asked as we sat out front under what remained of the awning.

I swallowed down the food. “Bit, didn’t mean to fall asleep. Anything of note in the caves?”

“Lurk nest. The Raiders tried to clear it, but failed. Explains why there were just four here.” He said. “Though Riptide says the next town went raider.”

“Did Ocean send off the flare?” I asked.

“Yeah, she did. You were out like a light so we let you be.” He chuckled. “You did a lot of heavy liftin’. Even if you didn’t do several stories of stairs back to back.”

“I shouldn’t have passed out,” I sighed. “If I hadn’t we could’ve moved on to check the roads ahead of us.”

“No worry, I did that.” He replied. “We’ll take a cart with us but first we have some cleaning up to do.”

“Clean up?” I asked, feeling some worry.

“Yeah, Riptide’s family. We brought them up here and tomorrow they go back to Saint Clover. It felt right to us to bury them in our cemetery.” He explained. “Riptide agreed to it too. It was our best option for giving them the respect they deserve, after all some respect now is better than maybe more respect later. And it's not like we really have a timetable for this whole trip anyways so we figured we could afford to take the time to give her family the respect they deserve.”

“Ah, no point in all of us going back. I’ll take the cart and Riptide.” I offered.

Winter nodded. “She’d appreciate that. We’ll do some poking around to figure out a good route through the range.” He paused then pulled out a folded square of canvas. “Oh, and Wraps dropped off a new map; she apparently went flying out to check trails for us and spot any sign of raider camps.”

“How far north is the site?” I asked.

“It’s a few hours. Gregor’s Cauldron.” He explained, unfolding the map for me. “Agate Point’s still abandoned so Riptide’s attackers must have come from further north.”

“Ah, well, guess we’ll be cutting inland around then won’t we?” I asked as I looked over the map.

“Probably, for the best.” He chuckled. “I don’t envy the folks who’re going to be stationed here. There's still lots of work that needs to be taken care of. A new transmitter and tower, one of those fancy portable generators, not to mention the roof leaks as bad as your library’s.” He snorted as he gave my side a jab, making me roll my eyes. “But that is for other ponies to deal with. We got our job to do, they got theirs.”

I let out a long sigh. “Yeah, I guess.”

“In the name of security.” He sighed with me. “Not how we expected the town to grow, is it?”

“Yeah, but that's always something to keep in check.” I offered.

“Mmmhm.” He nodded.

We sat outside for a few more hours before dawn broke. Riptide was quiet as we left with the cart. I didn’t push for any conversation; we had the bodies of four of her relatives in the cart. I hadn’t seen them, didn’t want to. A few days out in the open would have left them a terrible sight.

While it had taken us hours to arrive at the caves going up hill one would have expected it to take less time to get home by going down hill. Unfortunately this is not the case when hauling a heavy cart full of things you desperately wish to gently carry to their destination. The worst of it wasn’t the strain of keeping the cart under control going downhill. No, instead the worst of it was the wind at our backs blowing the scent of days old dead ponies that also casually carried the scent of the ocean and dead fish with them.

Riptide for her part kept quiet the entire trot back but beside me with her head at least level instead of her eyes locked on the cart or her hooves. I had unfortunately made the trip to bury others a few times and been in her hooves before as well as my current position. Both situations were not easy and my heart went out to her, sympathy was one thing the Guard hadn’t robbed me of even if they warned us of it being used against us.

When we arrived at the cemetery my eyes scanned over the unfortunately familiar markers. Too many friends were buried here, lost before getting their cutiemarks, snuffed out before getting to really experience life. In more than a few cases even their parents wandered off and disappeared. I didn’t understand why when I was a filly but I could now.

It was not easy to lose your reason to go on. It had taken becoming older to realize that hopelessness. Hopelessness could easily become terminal. Part of me even wondered about the wisdom in bringing a foal into the world as it was. There were places like Saint Clover across Equestria, on my more bleak days I felt it was a pointless existence.

Regardless, today was a day I needed to be there for somepony else. I had to remember life wasn’t just a series of losses and pain, that our kind was just circling the drain waiting to be finished off. There were happy moments, tender moments, fleeting sparks of life that defined what it was to be alive over the malaise emotion of the world. In these moments we were our best, and I did what I could to be a shoulder for Riptide to lean on, a pony who had lost everypony dear to her. I helped her bury her family, helped her focus on the good times, and remind her already she had some genuine joy.

To lose others was never easy, but friends could help you find the light. Find the light in the depths of darkness our own hearts and minds can sink to in that ocean of sorrow.