Fallout: Equestria - The Ranger of Seamane

“The fog hides many things and distorts the world. Maybe it is not the fog that distorts and hides things in the fog but the psyche of those who walk in it. A mirror into the mind.”
-Unknown

I awoke early again despite having a comfortable mattress to lay on even if it was a bit tight between Sil and Riptide. The upside to sleeping with the two mares sandwiching me was I wasn’t cold.

The window displayed a frosty foggy morning. It was only mildly cool inside and I wasn't getting the best view from bed but I could at least see a coat of condensation on the inside of the window, thankfully without a trace of ice on the window sill. I lay in bed and let my mind wander.

Riptide had wanted to share the bed because it was going to be a cold and I had been good at helping her feel safe enough to let her guard down for sleep. Sil on the other hoof was used to sharing a bed during sleepovers from our youth as well as enjoying the warmth I put out. This way we also didn't need to unpack our sleeping bags and it kept us together instead of being separated from the herd in the last bedroom across the house. This had been the second safest option for us as a group. The safest while maintaining privacy for Winter and Ocean.

Riptide hadn’t been the quietest sleeper. Throughout the night she had woken me up a few times with her whimpering. I couldn’t tell if she was awake or not during it but my heart had gone out to the mare, causing me to hold her close. I had to admit she was made of some strong stuff to not decide to curl up for a few days or months in the safety of Saint Clover before going on this trip. Or worse, to disappear into the wasteland like others who had lost it all. I had… seen that before.

It had been a few years, half a decade maybe since I lost anyone close. I knew ponies who died, but didn't really know them. It had been a while since I had felt loss like she had but I had seen in others and in myself how debilitating it could be. It heartened me to see her try her best to press on.

Riptide shifted against me. I realized I had been holding her and my mind froze as I worried she might get the wrong idea. She just nuzzled her head in under mine against my neck, barely above the thick comforter. I felt relieved that I could have a bit more time to think of a way to make this less awkward.

Then I felt Sil press against me from the other side, her head coming into view as she looked over my shoulder.

“My my…” Was all she said before getting out from under the covers. Sil crept to the master bathroom and politely closed the door with barely a click. The muffled sound of running water began a bit later. It wasn’t hard to figure out Sil was getting her turn with the warm water. I frowned as Riptide stirred more, wondering if it was because she had heard the water.

“Moonlight?” Riptide asked in a half-awake tone.

“Yes?” I answered.

“Why are you snuggled up with me?” She asked.

“Because you were whimpering in your sleep and when I held you, you relaxed,” I explained.

“Oh.” She said before she yawned. “Mind if I stay here for a bit? You're nice and warm and I can feel how cold it is out of bed on my horntip.”

“Yeah, go for it,” I said looking at the wall while Riptide pressed herself against me for my warmth.

I heard the bedroom door open and I turned my head to see Winter coming in. He stopped and gave me a smirk before quietly backing out. Really, my empathy is going to make this awkward? I rolled my eyes. Whatever, momentary embarrassment that was coming was worth helping a heart mend. It was the right thing to do.

Sil came out from the bath and smiled at me. “Your turn, Riptide. It’s nice and warm in there.”

Riptide stirred and lifted her head from the covers. “Hot water?” She said groggily. She had a serious case of bedmane which made me giggle even as I got a faceful of it.

“Lots of it. A good way to warm up.” Sil answered.

Riptide rolled over me and slid out of the covers. She went into the bathroom and flipped into the tub and soon managed to get the water going after some fumbling and wiggling in the tub. I just lay there blinking in astonishment.

Shaking my head, I got out of bed, not needing to stay in it to warm or comfort anypony any longer. I trotted out of the room to check on the others. Downstairs I saw Ocean struggling with the old kitchen and Sil jokingly giving her advice on how to get the ancient stovetop to work. Winter was sitting at the back as he looked out a window.

“Hey Winter, what’s got your attention?” I asked.

“Hoofprints.”

I frowned as he pointed them out to me. There were several tracks, but I wasn’t certain what they belonged to. The hoofprints weren’t like ponies. Maybe a ghoul’s given the shape, cracked hooves and all. Didn’t know if hooves or anything even grew on ghouls. Whatever the case, the doors were still locked, as if somepony had looked in and then left.

“Well, we can’t stay here, that’s obvious.” I said, “Not that we had planned to.”

“Yep, looks like we’ll need to go as soon as we’re ready.” Winter nodded.

“I’ll check on Riptide," I said, turning to head upstairs. "She was pretty out of it this morning. You keep an eye on things down here.” We both winced hearing something metal break. We looked back to see Ocean holding a rusted valve in her hoof. I let out a sigh. “And keep a nose up for gas.”

“Can do.” Winter chuckled. “Sil, make certain there isn’t any gas coming out of there. We wouldn’t want to blow ourselves up.” I shook my head as I went up the stairs.

I entered the hot, steamy bathroom and looked at Riptide. I had to admit the warm, wet air was a nice reprieve from the cold in the rest of the house. The mare was lying in the tube with her nose just above the water. Her ears twitched at my hoofsteps.

“Okay, I know you were cold and wanted to relax some more but, seriously, you are just asking for trouble bathing like that,” I said staring at the mat of mane that floated in the tub. “Come on, let’s get you up so you don’t fall asleep and drown yourself.”

I put my hooves into the water and lifted Riptide only to find she was asleep. “Seriously…” I muttered. “I swear I am going to have to talk some sense into you…”

I woke Riptide with some gentle shaking. She was embarrassed at me finding her in the tub asleep instead of bathing. Despite her weak protest I soon started helping her wash down, making use of abandoned shampoo and conditioner, and my already wet hooves. She had a scent about her still and pre-war soap would attract less attention than her current smell. It would have been nice to find this place before I got clean in ice cold creek water. Oh well, when life deals you a hand and you have to play with what you get.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to.” Riptide said with a deflated look.

“Riptide, accidents happen. I should have thought to check on you before going downstairs." I sighed. "You were acting all dopey but I figured that was just you in the morning so it's my fault as well. You are my ward after all."

Riptide just sat quietly as I finished washing her. She could have easily done it herself, but sometimes the little things are the hardest to do. I drained the tub and helped her towel off.

“I think I smell food.” Riptide said as I finished drying her off.

“Guess one of them got the stove working.” I smiled as I rolled my eyes.

“Food? Or did you want to wash up?” She asked.

“I got plenty clean in the creek while swimming upstream the other day, I’m good.” I replied with a snort.

“Alright, well, let’s get down there. I don’t want to miss out on food," Riptide said before adding. "I have to keep telling myself to remember to eat. That's been hard to do at times.”

“Yeah, I can relate. Just do what you can and lean on the rest of us for what you can’t do on your own.” I said as we trotted back into the bedroom. I grabbed our three bags and headed downstairs after we got our barding on, Sil’s barding laid over my back.

†We ate breakfast with a side of joviality. We had crossed the Seamane range and now the real trip began. I didn’t like the idea of traveling in the fog but at the same time it would give us cover, which gave us some comfort given this was the last town until we hit Fillymath. Technically we had to go through Fillymath first but the map we had showed the two were basically one city now. Well, back then; growth had made Fillymath creep into Wayhill at some point.

We headed out not long after breakfast. Weapons checked and loaded. Feeds for our battlesaddles cleaned and connected. Barding tight and secure on us. Together we trotted into the deep fog that emanated from the trees on both sides of the valley.

The town was quiet, and I couldn’t really discern any scents beyond the cold dampness of the air. Shades of buildings haunted our path as we left, the fog leaving them just shapes rising and falling from the gloom.

There were a few reasons I disliked traveling through fog. First its shifting nature often tricked my eyes with the illusion of movement. Second was how it, like snow, muffled the sounds of the world. Third it made everything slick and wet, causing reflections to spring up and disorient us. Fourth and finally when it was cold enough the fog would freeze on everything while staying in the air.

This morning, thankfully it was only the first two plaguing us. While it was only an hour or two to travel to Fillymath and then to Wayhill I still had my worries as we moved into more and more formerly populated areas. Beyond that I still worried about those tracks that we saw around the house in the grass. I just hoped it was somepony checking us out to see if we were moving in or not and would be happy we were just passing through.

An upside though to the fog was the lack of rain so we were drier and kept warmer as we continued our trek.

The intact buildings we passed still offered up little. We briefly passed a small post-War settlement that had collapsed after they had consumed all that was left in the surrounding area. The place wasn’t rotten but it was clearly abandoned, or almost abandoned given the tracks we had seen. The upside to this was there were no signs of ghouls but given the distance from the big cities I wasn’t surprised at the lack of undead ponies.

Within half an hour of us leaving the house we had descended down into the valley that would lead us towards the Columbmane basin. The fog was thick here even though we were in the valley now. With only the fog-clad specters of trees and the clacks of our hooves on cracked pavement for company we pushed on.

I kept my holster unlatched, same with the sheath on my knife. Maybe it was paranoia from being used to good vision lines or the bad sense of sound. The rest were on the same page as me, a bit on edge and ready for a fight with anything coming out of the fog. Riptide however didn’t seem as on edge as I did about the fog.

One downside to the constant moisture in the air, and likely frequent afternoon rains here was the smell rot as we kept going along the Alsea highway to Fillymath. It apparently wasn't a common scent the closer one got to the cities and heartland of Equestria, the lack of protected wooden buildings out east the likely culprit. However, to even smell the rot like this it meant the moisture levels had been painfully high like this for days or weeks as of late.

The sky above remained its usual placid grey self when I could spot it among the breaks in the fog, the weather unmoved by my desire for the fog to burn off.

I had never seen sunshine on land before. Once as a filly we had gone out to sea a few miles and seen the blue sky and sun. It was a memory I treasured. It was before Silver had been born, so it was just Majar, Dad, Sil, and Mom out there. The sunlight had felt unreal to me then, even more so now as I reflected on the memories of its warmth and just how blue the skies were then. Even as I begged for the sun’s return to burn away this fog and warm up the day, I still felt that strange ethereal nature to it. Even the night sky I had seen back then felt unreal. To me the sky was just clouds, to see otherwise was odd.

The morning passed without incident or many words between any of us. Riptide seemed to glisten in the dew as it gathered on us while my mane and coat just flattened and looked depressed. The others were in no better condition. This made me more curious about Riptide and her seeming affinity for water. It was a nice change to have a non-depressive thought in the wilderness as we traveled.

Occasionally I caught Riptide humming something to herself. It was no tune I recognized but she kept it quiet enough that I only caught the occasional note or chord. Maybe it was her way of dealing with the drabness of the fog-smothered road we were on, or maybe it was to take her mind off of the past week. I didn’t mind it though; the occasional note or chord was nicer than the occasional spritebot blaring out some pre-war music, or advertisements. Some would even stop broadcasting music for a while, pausing in their path as if their programming had broken down upon seeing ponies once again. They would eventually make a pop and begin bobbing along like nothing happened. The entire thing was a bit unnerving but I shrugged it off since nothing came of it.

For lunch we went off the road for about minutes to an abandoned campsite. All we encountered were a few bloatsprites. Thankfully these were the variants that didn’t shoot carapaced, half-developed children at us, instead opting to vomit radioactive and tainted digestive fluids. Since none of us suffered any open wounds we were no worse for wear. The radiation and probably some taint exposure wasn’t great, but it was of a small amount and I didn’t notice anything sprouting off of us.

Lunch was a simple affair of dried foodstuffs and a mix of fresh food from Seamane supplemented with canned pre-war food, which didn’t help the radiation count. Not that we had any way to keep track of our radiation exposure levels.

“When we get to Dockland, or someplace with decent medical facilities we should get our radiation levels checked, possibly get some treatment if anypony’s levels are too high.” I said, more thinking aloud than directed at any of my companions. “I wish I had a chance to work on something to keep an eye on vitals while out here. Oh well, something to do when we get some down time.”

“What, do you have plans for some kind of mobile miniature hospital?” Sil asked.

I snorted at the thought of carrying a miniature hospital on my back. “Not quite. Do you remember pipbucks? Those things stable dwellers have?" I asked then continued after a pause. "Something like that. I’ve seen a few of them on ponies as they passed through while I was on and off duty. Those damn things have all sorts of useful abilities; medical readouts, friend or foe identifier, magical aim assist, built in radio, inventory manager, and hacking tools. Pretty complicated but very useful, those lucky flanks."

I paused to grumble then continued. "Anyways, even getting something to do a fraction of that would be damn useful.”

“Sounds like something anyone wandering the countryside should have.” Riptide said. “But what are you looking at doing if it is so complicated?”

“Medical, maybe friend or foe," I started listing the functions. "Radio is… debatable. I mean, seriously, a radio? I don't see a use for one other than to broadcast your position. Hacking tools if I could figure out how to do the interface or a way to store the cables.”

“Most of these things I could get from salvaging some medical equipment, pre-war robots, and finding someone’s old terminal tools," I elaborated. "But yeah we’ll see what happens. The real question is finding a place with all that equipment and the tools to work on all of it.”

“If you can, would you make me one as well?” Riptide asked.

“Sure, so long as I figure out how to get the systems to work in harmony,” I answered. “Easier said than done, probably.”

"Yay!" Riptide exclaimed as she cleaned up the remains of her meal. "That would be very helpful and a nice token to remember you by.”

“I’ll at least try to make them once we are in Dockland.” I said as I followed suit.

“Probably should look to make us all some of those,” Ocean said. “Sooner the better, given we have no way of knowin’ what’s comin’.”

“Yeah, you aren’t wrong. It’s on my priority list for the first town we hit." I glanced off to the side to a lone spritebot silently observing us, slowly bobbing in place. "I'm ignoring the spritebots for the most part because, well, I think if I shot one it would destroy everything in it.”

“Fair point. Was just about to offer to blow that one out of the air.” Winter said as he lowered his rifle. “Noticed that too?”

“Yeah. Might just be how they are.” I stated with a shrug. “I figure they're probably directed ads for any pony they see, but nopony was around to reset them after the ads expired so they error out and go back to their default routine is my guess from what I’ve seen.”

“Hmm, maybe. Best to keep an eye out for them. Y'know, in case they do anything… stranger than just watching.” He admitted.

“Agreed. Still unsettling.” I nodded with him.

With our lunch done we continued north again towards Fillymath. After that it was on to the old college town of Wayhill, supposedly named for how you could find your way by keeping the hills on one side and the Willmanemette on the other. From there we could either get some watercraft and go up river or north via the Five, depending on how bad things were around the pre-War cities along the river.

For the next few hours, our pace stayed the same, the fog staying thick and heavy to cover our advance. When the fog finally lifted we were met with the ruins of Fillymath. The suburb was a burnt husk, the mangled twisted remains of buildings left to burn in the aftermath of the bombs whistling and groaning in the late evening breeze.

We stopped and I broke out the binoculars while Winter used his rifle’s scope to examine the ruins for any movement. I saw no signs of current occupation; there were skeletons, graffiti, and even what looked to be raiders encampments due to the prevalence of cages with skeletons in them. The lack of tarps, barrel fires, random gunfire, or yelling spoke to me that they were likely abandoned. This place was a graveyard, which was fine by me. I didn’t know anyone buried here.

“I don’t see any activity,” I said putting my binoculars down. “Winter, I think it’s been cleared out for a while. Not hearing anything either. How about you?”

“I got nothin’ as well. This place is dead. Let’s let Ocean know so we can move on through.” Winter said as he got up.

I nodded as I put my binoculars back into their pouch on my side and sat up to rejoin the other three. Ocean agreed with our assessment so we formed up and began to move into the town using the old highway we had been following north. It cut right through the heart of the town but this way we at least had more options to scout ahead via accessible rooftops. Given we didn’t see or hear anything moving, nor any sign of recent fires it was an acceptable risk. With the density of the town’s buildings, we also had plenty of hard cover if needed.

“Jumpy?” Sil asked quietly, having long ago picked up more than a few of my nervous ticks.

“Mostly I just don’t feel comfortable in a place like this. Not used to it,” I replied as I glanced between buildings that I could make details out of through the light fog. “Woods, small towns of a few houses? Sure. This, not really.”

“I can relate, I’m feeling jumpy too,” Sil replied as she kept close but made certain not to brush against me.

“I’ve been through a friggen siege of our home, come on Moonlight, get it together,” I muttered to myself.

Sil looked apologetic for having not been there for me when we had been under attack but she had been out of the guard for years. It wasn’t her job anymore to run into the fire to save others.

We had done a decent job scouting the town from the hill outside and now that we were in it we had five sets of eyes and ears to keep track of everything. I didn’t need to be so jumpy, is what I kept telling myself.

We made it a few blocks into town, a lot filled with ruined autocarriages on our right and boarded-up homes on our left before we noticed it: a soft groaning and shuffling. I held a hoof out to stop everyone else silently and fished out my binoculars again, quickly scanning our surroundings. It didn't take me long to spot them. I had heard and seen a few of them before and unfortunately for me, the binoculars gave me a much closer look than I ever wanted.

Ghoul ponies. They wandered aimlessly in the street ahead, among them many half-eaten raider bodies, chewed armor, and guns. Now we knew where the raiders were; ghouls had swarmed and driven them off or at least into hiding.

“Silently, slowly, take one of my knives. Your revolver is going to draw much more of them than my pistol.” I whispered an explanation to Riptide beside me. My dad had explained to me how feral ghouls were entirely blind during one of his lectures on critters of the Wasteland. Sound was the main sense that remained for them and while some retained some sight it would be terrible in the twilight surrounding us.

Riptide pulled a knife out of my saddlebag while Winter and Ocean started heading south of us to creep along the fence of the ruined wagon lot. We slowed our pace from our four-beat pace to creeping along a single step at a time, checking around every corner. For the most part, it seemed that the ghouls only infested the north side of town. While this made our detour relatively safer the downside was there were no corpses to loot. I half wanted to go in and strip the gear off the dead raider bodies anyway due to the prospect of money once we found someone to trade with.

We made it another two blocks before we ran into a problem; the raiders had barricaded the street from one side to the other with wood and barbed wire. I couldn’t see any signs of a gate on the makeshift wall and the only option was to go up between buildings to the north again. Sliding out of the alley, I checked for anything moving only to be greeted with more corpses. Even if there were ghouls among them the number of bodies missing limbs certainly made for less of a threat.

To my right, there was a partial wall with a section that had collapsed forming a hole. I nodded to Winter and pointed a hoof at the gap before we carefully picked our way through the corpse field.

Once inside the walled-off area, we found ourselves standing in front of what remained of the fire department, a firewagon resting half out of the building, its wheels cracked. The station’s flagpole stood bent with two small bits of burned cloth at the top, likely the remains of the Equestrian flag.

Across the street, I could see another intact building with a postwar sign of a crudely drawn gun. To top it all off, the area was filled with cages, chains, graffiti, blood, limbs, and the assorted bodies of ghouls and raiders.

“Guess we’ll get a chance to pick up some loot after all,” I said to myself before I waved the other three to join us.

Carefully we picked through the corpses. It had been a few weeks at least which left the area smelling more of decay than rancid, decaying bodies. What was left of the raiders had scraps of garments in poor condition. A few had guns, though nothing I felt safe firing, as well as the more notable salvage: an assortment of knives and drugs. I kept some knives, they were always useful. The drugs we kept as they would be good for selling off later; though some had medicinal uses most were recreational such as Dash, Mint-als, and Buck.

As we approached the ‘gun’ store we stumbled upon some ghouls milling about the alley beside it. They didn’t seem the friendly sort if their sounds were any indication. Instead of waiting to see if they were feral or not I decided to pull out one of my knives, making a gesture to the others of my intent before pouncing on one. Sil followed my example and slammed her own knife into their soft skulls before leaving them in, moving silently with me to take the rest out. Ocean, Winter, and Riptide kept an eye out for any stragglers.

My heart thundered as the irradiated ghoul blood ran down my front and I checked for any more surviving threats. Seeing none I began recovering our knives as Sil stomped on ghouls to make certain they were dead. Riptide on the other hand began to work the door to the gunshop to get it open.

I felt awful in a way for killing the ghouls but from what the non-ferals had explained those who turned were in an eternal haze of unlife with memories of the past clouding their sense of reality. The pain, the confused sense of time and place, anypony not familiar to them was seen as a danger which generally meant they reacted violently. At least I could view them as creatures instead of ponies. They looked like us but they had lost who they were a long time ago. It was a mercy, not a crime.

“Got the door, noticed the board on the window was loose and unlocked it from the otherside.” Riptide explained as she pushed the door open.

I let out a small giggle. Sometimes all that was needed was good application of situational awareness. I drew a flashlight and my pistol with my magic as we checked the interior of the shack. I felt what small hope was in my heart crumble as the place was full of makeshift weapons. The guns looked like they were made of plumbing and tree bark with few signs of actual, intact old world guns.

“Well, I knew it was too much to hope for, but I'm still disappointed.” I sighed.

“Same.” Ocean said as she started to dig through boxes.

“Well, let’s grab what looks salvageable. At least we will be able to make some bits when we hit a town with someone willing to trade.” Winter said, looking at a pipe shotgun before tossing it aside with a grumble. “Half of these look as dangerous to the user as to anypony facing the other end.”

I turned around and closed the front door, locked it again before I joined the rest in giving the shop a good toss. However, beyond the pipe guns, knives, machetes, and other guns in desperate need of repairs the shop was a bust. It had been the Raider’s armory once but they had clearly gone through most everything to defend themselves.

I wagered their guns jamming was the main cause of their downfall for they had plenty of surplus ammo. A quick look in the back room showed plenty of gunpowder, primers, and casings along with reloading and repair tools. I sat down and decided to make as many thirty eight and nine millimeter rounds I could with what was left. We would always need spare ammo with Ocean’s submachine guns around. Once that task was done I set about repairing what remained of the raiders’ guns. Three out of four were good for nothing but parts and were jammed so badly I ended up having to use my horn to break their slides open. Not that it hurt the already ruined guns.

At some point Sil and Riptide had joined me in the small room and I was glad that there was enough space for the three of us to spend time together. Sil set to work on her barding, adding some more protective plates to it. Riptide on the other hoof seemed more curious as to how to go about taking care of guns and making ammo over the finer points of barding maintenance.

While I wasn’t the best mechanic I managed salvaged as much as I could out of the horrible piles of weapons we had found. I had also found an old map the raiders had been using, scribbled with barely legible notes.

The town apparently had a school and library, the former left empty while the latter they had repurposed to hold prisoners. I doubted anypony was still alive but I wanted to check out the library to see if any books had survived. It was a long shot but while the town was mostly burned down some buildings had still managed to survive, mostly near the fire department. The library, if I was placing it right, was another potentially intact building.

Once we gathered together again, Winter and I poked our heads out the door into the street, his head above mine as we scanned the street.

“Let’s go, the coast seems clear.” I whispered moving out from below Winter’s craned neck.

We slipped eastward down the street then turned into an alley which was the shortest route to our destination. It didn’t take long for us to find the Library. Being a brick building with its roof still intact it was in better condition than even the fire department. I didn’t spot any ghoul nor raider bodies and I’m guessing the lack of prisoners meant either there weren’t any at the time of the attack or the raiders decided they were better off as bait.

With haste we piled into the library and found it was about how I expected; the entrance hall was full of cages, open and empty. Ocean and Winter took up watch behind the check out counters while Sil, Riptide and myself volunteered to clear the rest of the building.

Further back were shelves of books turned moldy from water damage. If anything survived it would have to be further back, I reasoned, where there wouldn’t have been as much of a chance for water to have gotten in. As we travelled deeper into the musty library, I was rewarded with a few pre-war books that survived. Unfortunately most were trashy pre-war romance novels. I let out a frustrated sigh and packed them away anyways. While not the best source of knowledge they were still worth preserving given their condition. At least somepony else could use them for some escapism.

As we checked the furthest depths, Sil found a section on spells and among the weathered books only two proved promising. Both were unfortunately beyond my skill to make use of; one would let me repair things with just my magic, the other how to make a focused shield instead of a wall.

I packed the books away into my saddlebags and, seeing nothing else of interest, moved with Sil and Riptide back to the front of the library.

“Well not much left here, but some spoils.” I said upon re-entering the front room. “At least nopony was left to starve to death.”

“Yeah, and it looks like we’re clear to move on to Wayhill.” Winter stated as he poked his head up from behind a desk. “Most of the ghouls were by the gun store and beyond the barricade on that side of town.”

“Well we should get a move on. We only have a few more hours of daylight and it’s probably best to make camp far away from here and closer to Wayhill.” Ocean said as she moved for the exit. “If we’re lucky Wayhill will have nice ponies in it that’ll let us rent a room or two.”

“Just two rooms? So the three of us are going to be sharing a bed again?” Riptide asked as she looked at Sil then me

“We do what we must to survive.” I simply said with a shrug.

“That so?” Riptide asked, giving me a curious look.

“Winter and I rather not share a room with the three of you for pretty clear reasons. They might have a room for you three that is a couple of beds.” Ocean said as we joined her outside.

“I’d wager two beds for our room. One for me and one for the blooming couple.” Sil teased as she gave me a grin.

“Oh come on.” I sighed. “Just because I was holding her doesn’t mean there’s anything going on.”

“You lot are terrible.” Riptide added with a huff.

She fell back to keep up the rear guard with me, leaving Sil and Ocean as the middle of our formation. Winter, as usual, took point.

Riptide and I trotted quietly together as Sil and Ocean chatted ahead of us. She then regarded me for a bit before speaking up. “Sorry if my neediness is making things awkward.”

I shook my head. “Don’t worry, I’m still getting over some stuff and the dynamic with my friends has always been--” I paused, grasping for the right word. “Well within the realm of playful teasing. We tease because we care.”

Riptide smiled. “I can understand that.”

I nodded, happy that Riptide could understand that kind of friendship. “Plus they all know that I basically don’t have a barn door anymore.” I laughed. “I can just take a roll in the hay with anypony. To my own detriment of course; they can tease me about anything at this point because of it.”

Riptide looked at me. “Barn door?”

I facehoofed. Of course, not everypony had heard of that term.

“It’s a metaphor for what she likes,” Sil called back, apparently overhearing our conversation. “And by that, she means she doesn’t have a preference one way or another.”

I groused at her perceptiveness and prepared to give a more nuanced explanation that would keep my cheeks from feeling they were on fire when Riptide interjected.

“So... anypony?”

I let out a sigh. “Kinda, so long as I feel a connection to them. At least with the whole getting into bed for things other than, uh, what we’ve been doing on this trip.” I replied nervously. “Technically I have a preference for stallions but I haven’t done anything since my last relationship.” I looked up at the sky and repeated words from a book by some pre-war pony in the Ministry of Peace. I believe it was Heartmender? “Hearts take time to mend.”

Riptide was quiet as we trotted away from the ruins of Fillymath, steadily drawing closer to Wayhill. The clouds here were low and with the fog lifted I could see rain ahead of us. Eventually, the mare replied quietly to me.

“I think I can understand needing time for a heart to heal.”

Level up! Welcome to Level 3! Well for a minute Cherchez La Filly was in the cards for you but lacking a barn door means you’re disqualified from both it and Black Widow. However, given your continued aptitude for weapons and repairing them Gun Nut has been dealt to you as it is ever appropriate. Enjoy your bonus +5 to Firearms and Mechanics.