I didn't stop flying until dawn broke. The jaded light of the sun peaked through the clouds and before me I could see a large collection of metal buildings on the horizon. Maremoros was usually a full two day's travel from Graymare, but I had made it in only twelve hours. The town was entirely post war. Who started it was a mystery, but every building was a collection of scrap metal at least two stories high, and the ones at the center three or four stories high. Before the slavers had taken over, it was a trading hub for the area. They only dealt with the respectable types of people and generally speaking everyone there was making a pretty good go of it. Then the slavers came. The town had made the mistake of acting as a sort of safe haven for slaves which obviously didn't sit well with the local slavers. They mounted a full assault on the town, killing any resistance and enslaving the others. The survivors of the Maremoros Incident could be found as far north as the crystal empire and none of them were free. Ever since then the town boomed even more than before. A large steel bulwark now surround the thirty seven building town, the central building were taller than before and more caps were being spent there than thought possible. However, ninety percent of this progress was made through slavery which makes the results a little hard to agree with. Regardless, I was hoping for two things; for the old doctor's office to be easily accessible and for the little raider I was hunting to be happy to see me. Neither of those two things actually happened though.

I touched down a few miles away from the walls and shifted my saddlebags around until they hid my wings almost completely. This was nowhere near comfortable, but the thing that sucks about going to a new place when you're a pegasus is that you never know how they're going to react. It could be anything from immediate execution to nothing at all. Given that the slavers had a pretty backwards sense of right and wrong already, I didn't plan on taking any chances. It still took me another hour to get to the place and find the gate, but that did allow me plenty of time to think about just how I was going to get in. After all, it's not like I expected this place to just have open doors. In front of the iron door that served as the entryway was a pair of brown earth ponies, one had a shotgun that had been pointed at me ever since I turned the corner to the gate and the other giving me a death-glare, so we were off to a good start.

"Hold up you little freak. Just where do you think you're going?" The one without the gun snarled when I got within ten meters of them

"Inside to see your boss, and you'd be smart to get that gun out of my face." At this, the one without the gun laughed.

"And just know does Mr.No-name think he is that the boss just has to see him."

"I think I'm the guy who's going to be kicking you two out of this dump for holding up my business. And if you really want to see just why I'm so important, get one of your superiors out here and I'll show them why." I spoke with much more authority than I really had, but I either had to bluff my way in or just turn around and leave.

The shotgun slaver somehow spoke perfectly through the mouth piece and looked at his ally, "Do you think we should do what he says?"

"Why would we? He's just trying to waste our time and piss of the boss. I say we kill him here and save ourselves the embarrassment." The other replied and I tensed my body to dive at him if things went wrong.

"But what if he is important? We only do guard duty twice a week so we might not have seen him before. For all we know he is important. Why don't we just call for Chains? It's not like we could get in that much trouble for it." Thankfully the one with the gun was going along with my plan, and ultimately he had the power.

"Or we kill him now and act like we never saw him. It's not like anyone would specifically blame us if he never turned up." That was what I was afraid of. That kind of thinking was going to end with me being fed to the hounds.

"How about I just show you why I'm here." I didn't make any sudden moves for my saddlebags until the one with the gun nodded in agreement. I then reached into the bag and pulled out the water talisman by a small rope around its end. Originally, I wanted this to be my hidden bargaining chip, but now I was going to have to use it just to get in, "Think of how happy your bosses will be if you let me give them this."

I didn't account for the ignorance of slavers.

"What's that?" The unarmed one asked, and they both looked dumbfounded.

"It's called a water talisman. One of these things and you'll never have to worry about fresh water again." Even now the small artifact was dripping a minute amount of clean water into the sand. "Go get any of your bosses and they'll probably know about it."

"And what if you're just being all talk? I think I would've heard about these if they were so important."

"I'm not. I already told you that I'm expected. Now go and go someone in charge before I kill both of you and get them myself." I dropped the talisman halfway through and glared hard at the colt. If I wasn't worried about my wings being seen, I would've flared them.

"As if you could kill us, now why don't you..." He never finished because I took a dive and slashed away most of the barrel on the shotgun. Technically speaking, it would've still fired perfectly fine, but the now three inch barrel wasn't going to have hardly any range or accuracy.

"Now just who could I not kill?" I said after sheathing the blade. The one that had the shotgun was frozen in fear and the other was still slightly awestruck at what I had done. After all, it only happened over the course of a second or two. "Now go get your damn boss before I actually do kill you."

The one furthest from me ran off inside without another word, leaving me with the one I had nearly killed. I would call that fiasco a major stroke of luck for me. I had been aiming to kill the one with the gun, but my lunge came up short and actually gave me a better situation than I had planned for. I stepped back and smiled shyly at the remaining slaver.

"Sorry about your gun buddy. I just needed to make sure my point got across." He made no response, but kept staring down at the end of his gun. He was far beyond conversation, and I grabbed the water talisman without pushing him. All things considered, it could've gone worse. Though now I wish I had just tried to bribe them into letting me in.

~\o/~

Within the next half hour, a slightly better mannered slaver, though he was still involved in one of the abominable jobs in this forsaken wasteland, came and guided me their leader. The building that the raiders had chosen for their headquarters was actually just one of the three story buildings, because all three of the four story buildings had been converted into storage for weapons and slaves alike. For the amount and quality of land they owned, the slavers were much less wealthy than I had expected. The average slaver I saw on my trip to the top brass' room wore only a tattered boarding of cloth and chains and the most expensive weapon I saw being carried was an assault rifle. However, compared to my simple harness and saddlebags, I envied the idea of having their armor, even if it was only some likes of metal.

I did not envy the slaves. Compared to the horror stories of slaves being bound in bloodied rags, being constantly tortured and raped before being tossed to the next pony to have the same done for a minor profit, these slaves had it slightly better. The ones in the cages were all in rusted shackles and stacked on top of each other like bricks to form the walls of some buildings. The purpose of this was both to make it easy to bring slaves out to the daily auction, and to make any do-gooder who wanted to attack, have to find a way to shoot at the slavers inside without killing the ponies they wanted to save. Both the state of their slaves and the efficiency of their operation impressed me, though that's not to say I wasn't repulsed by the idea of buying and selling lives. I'm just the type of guy who recognizes when things are being done in a... proper manner.

When my guide, a rust colored earth pony named Chains, opened the door to the headquarters, I began to see why the rest of the place looked fairly poor, despite the amount of caps that must've been flowing through the city. The place was immaculate. The first two floors on the way up had just been a store run by the top and a registration floor for buying slaves. The third floor was so much more. The walls were almost blindingly white and glass cases hung from the walls. Fluorescent lights lit the room, in contrast to the sickly colors of the sunlight outside. A pristine pre-war desk was at the opposite end with a pony who wore a flashy red suit behind it. In a holster at his side was a well kept combat shotgun. The yellow unicorn looked much more content and well-fed than the other slavers. On the desk was a pre-war terminal, a few various bullets and a leather bag. It was safe to say that I know knew where all of the caps were going.

"My workers tell me you put on the quite the show out there." His voice was smooth, but I could hear the malice at the end of every word, "I hope this talk of a water talisman isn't just a waste of time."

"It isn't Mr.?" I crossed the room to him and heard the door close behind me. Considering that they were willing to leave me alone with him after what I had done at the front meant that I wouldn't be able to just take him out without a fight.

"Just call me Shackles. And you?" He was very reserved, but I didn't forget for a moment that somewhere under that red mane and in those red eyes was the terrible pony who had managed to create one of the biggest slave operations around.

"Crimson Glow, and I'd like to make a deal with you."

"And so would I, it's not every day a pegasus with something as valuable as a talisman comes to trade with us."

"Then we're on the same page," I was surprised he had found out about my wings so quickly, but I made no reaction to it and pulled out the talisman and laid it on the table. "Fresh from a stable and it still has 70% purity. If you have this then think of all of the caps you'd save on bringing in clean water." I lied about the purity, but it wasn't like he could check.

"I'll be the judge of that." He got more aggressive and, as if on cue, Chains reappeared with a large tub of dirty, irradiated water dragging behind him. "That will be all Chains."

The earth pony nodded and left without a word. Shackles magically grabbed the talisman from the desk and threw it into the tub. Within the span of only a few seconds, the water turned clear and the small particles of dirt and mud were absorbed into the small pendant. A discerning eye, at a close range might've still seen some small particles remaining, but Shackles was neither close nor discerning. He smiled a very pleased smile and turned back to me.

"What do you want for it?" He surprised me this time. I hadn't expected to be the one to make the first offer.

"I want to be able to pick a slave for free from your supply, before today's auction and I want to be able to take five sets of armor and weapons of my choice from your store afterwards." This was a very hefty price given that a slave could sell for up to two thousand caps and that amount of armor and weaponry basically amounted to all of their reserves. However, clean water in the middle of a desert is extremely valuable and having room to negotiate is always needed.

"Out of the question. The slave you can have, but you're going to have to come down." Shackles was not somepony that was easy to negotiate with. If he had given me a counter, I would've known what he was and wasn't willing to budge on. In this case, I was going to have to show him that I was extremely reluctant to back down.

"Fine. The slave and four sets of armor and weapons." He was unimpressed.

"You can have the slave or you can have three sets of armor. You will not get any combination of both." He stood firm, but I still was more than happy to keep dropping my offer. The key was just going to be keeping him from knowing that.

"The slave and three sets of armor. It's either that or I walk." I stared him down as much as I could, but I think he was just as aware of the difference in our status as I was.

"What makes you think you can walk? If you try to leave with that talisman we are going to kill you and keep it for ourselves. I'm only offering you a trade because you're probably more useful to me alive. So I'll ask you again: three sets of armor or a slave. Hell, I'll throw in an extra shotgun either way. Make your choice." He slammed his hoof on the floor and I heard a few ponies enter the room behind me.

Now might be a good time to mention that I was developing a nasty habit of bluffing when I'm up against a wall. Logically I know I should just shut-up and take a deal, but I came in with an idea of what I wanted and I was damn sure going to get it.

"I wouldn't advise that Shackles. I doubt my friends would like that too much. We went through hell for this talisman and if you kill me, they're going to come for you. Will you survive the attack? Sure, there's only twelve of us, but think, if we kill two of your workers for every one of us, then you're going to lose almost a quarter of your force. And I know that some of the more righteous places out there would love to take you out while you were still weak." I stopped for a moment, and the cocksure unicorn stared at me aghast. He was imagining things, and that was what I wanted. I wasn't sure just how much people wanted to take out these slavers, but I could imagine it's been a looming issue, "All I want is some armor for my group and a little toy they can amuse themselves with. And trust me; we will be valuable to you."

"Bullshit," he spat back after an instant and I was afraid I had overplayed my hand, "just what makes you think that I'm afraid of some half-assed no name group who can't even give their fucking leader some armor?" He drew his gun and pointed it between my eyes.

"You're right we aren't anything great," I tried to appease his anger," but I think we can be useful to you if you take out offer."

"How?"

"There's still crap left in that stable. We had to leave it behind because of the security turrets. You give us what we want now, and we'll trade you the rest of what is in there. After that, we'll work for you." His face was stone and I had no way of knowing what was going through his head, but at this point all I could do was lie until he believed me.

"One slave and three sets of armor and weapons. You pay for the ammo you need, and you only get the third set when you bring us back our share of the reward. Given how valuable this talisman is, I'll let you stay in charge of your group when you join us. Agreed?" He finally conceded to my demands, but not getting the third set of armor was a minor blow. Then again, most of his conditions didn't mean a thing to me given that they were based off of the lies I had told.

"Agreed, but I am going to need to borrow one thing until I get back." His eyes narrowed, but I smiled a harmless grin. "Don't worry; all I want is a tool to interface with a slave collar."

~\o/~

After a quick hoof shake and a trot out of the building, it was over. I heaved a sigh of relief and Chains chuckled next to me. Shackles had assigned him to follow me around and help me get the things I had traded for. In all honesty, I was cheated out of so much of the real value of that talisman, but at the time I had only known that the thing was really valuable (a very vague idea) and I was happy to have made it out with my life.

"Not so puffed up anymore, huh?" He asked and I glared at him.

"I'm just glad you're all smart enough to make a deal. Now take me to where your newest arrivals are." He returned back into the silent guide that I preferred and led me toward one of the tall buildings.

In all honesty, save for the fact that he made his living selling lives, Chains wasn't a seemingly bad pony, but I had no time to pal around with the scum of the earth. I was looking for the scum that had made me get down on the level I was at and I was starting to grow excited at the idea of holding her life in my hooves. I didn't let that show though, being as the slavers preyed on any emotion. Still, revenge was at hoof.

Chains led me through an opening in the cage walls and all around I heard the resigned sighs and groans of the slaves in their cages. I scanned them all and say that these were not the types of slaves you might find in a raider hideout or in service to a wealthy merchant. These slaves were all clean and there was no bloody and stained hay for them to sleep on while dying of rape and disease. These slaves did not beg for help either; they just stared blankly at me, their spirits broken. They knew that anyone here was not here to save them, but to buy them. On the outside, they seemed like normal ponies that were even cleaner than a slaver, but every single one of them was going to end up either working themselves to death as a guard, being passed from raider to raider like a toy, or die in a futile attempt to kill their master. They all knew it and didn't even try to fight it. After all, no pony ever escaped Maremoros. I felt bad for them, I truly did, but they were not my priority. I had grown up knowing of the injustice of the wasteland, and I knew that I could only help myself.

"We keep the new arrivals over here." Chains led me to the far corner of the room where there were actually solid steel walls. I assumed that they did that so the new arrivals could only hear the resigned moans and groans of the already broken slaves. "We only have one though, and she is feisty. When they brought her in, we had to do some major work to get her to a level we could sell. Her mane was shaved and her tail had actually been dyed if you can believe that. But we have our ways of getting them up to par."

When I saw her, I couldn't believe it was the same mare from only a few days before. Her coat was still the same reddish-yellow that I remembered, but her tail was now a stark scarlet. This, and her mane, which before had been shaved, was now long and luxurious. If it wasn't for the sudden and fearful spark of recognition in her face, I would've thought that I had found the wrong pony. Silently, she mouthed the word 'you'.

"What do you think? Is she enough to keep your boys happy? You will have to make sure to keep her on a short leash though." Chains looked at me, not noticing or not caring enough to comment on the scene.

"She'll do perfectly. Just go get me that collar control tool." I said without thinking and the onlooker scurried away.

"What are you doing here?" After another solid minute of staring, she spoke first and I noticed that all of the bravado I had seen before was absent. Either that or it was hidden.

"Well," I started, but I had no answer.

Up until now, I had a plan of action. Find the raider, and make it to Maremoros to find the secret my mother had left for me. The latter part was still in the works, but, now that I had achieved the first part, I was clueless. I just looked at her. Of course she was the slave I wanted to pick, but once I had her life in my hands I had no clue what to do next. One voice told me to kill her in revenge for everything she had done to me. Another told me that I had killed enough in the name of vengeance. I saw the metal ring stuck into her neck, just below the explosive collar, and was reminded that she might still have some use. If not, I still held her life in my hooves.

"I didn't come here to find you, but since you're here I plan to make use of you."

"Screw off. I'm not helping you with anything, and I'm not about to be a slave either; so don't think I need your help to get out of here." My momentary pause had given her the time to compose herself again.

"Really, because from my point of view it looks like you could use a helping hoof." I tapped her cage idly with a hoof.

"It's a work in progress, love. Besides, I still don't know just how you even managed to get here so I'd bet your luck is about to run out. How about you just run along, and I'll forget I ever saw you." She was pissing me off, and she knew it. Though thinking back, she was right. The only reasons I had made it this far were luck and flying over most of the dangerous terrain.

"Just role with me for now. After all, I am your ticket out of here."

"And just how do you plan to get me out of here, love? Last I checked you were dirt poor." She taunted as Chains walked up with a small access tool in his mouth.

"Here you are, sir. Is she to your liking?" He asked after giving me the tool.

"Perfect, Chains. She'll be perfect." I put the facade of being overly important back into play and saw a look of fear on the mare's face. Just perfect.

~\o/~

"So, what do you know about this place?" I asked the mare beside me, who refused to give me her name at the time.

"Even if I did know anything I wouldn't tell you." She retorted from her place about three yards behind me.

Chains had pointed me to the shop where I could get what I was promised and left after explaining how to operate the collar mechanism. The collars could explode under three conditions; I could remotely detonate the collar, if the collar moved too far from the registered owner, it would explode then as well, and if my heart stopped beating, the same would happen to her's. Currently, I had the distance set to three yards, which was the lowest possible. Every now and again her collar would start beeping in warning when she lagged behind.

"The fact that I haven't killed you is already enough mercy on my part. You can at least tell me what I want to know."

"Look, I don't know where you get off thinking that I'm going to even act like I owe you. I didn't ask for you to help me and I'm not going to repay you for it. If it wasn't for this damned collar, I'd already have killed you and been on my way."

"Then why did you let me live then?" I reminded her of our showdown at my hometown.

"That was because I enjoyed the thought of you, alone and dying in a pile of sand while your home burned down around you. Putting a bullet in your head would've been too boring, love." She dashed in front of me, stopping me in my tracks.

"Then you underestimated my luck," I pushed past her, into the general store, Collars and Killers, "now pick yourself out some armor." I increased her improved range to fifty yards, plenty to survey the store.

"Excuse me?" She asked, dumbfounded.

"You heard me. If you're going to be of any use to me, then you're going to need some proper armor. You'll also be given these back once we are outside." I gestured to her pistols that I still had strapped to my sides.

"Just what is your game? You come into town, buy me of all ponies, and now you're even planning to give me back my guns. You must have some sort of plan."

"Not at all." I lied and walked away from her. I had slivers of a plan forming in my mind, but until I could learn of where the doctor's office once was it remained in slivers.

I distracted myself from my objectives and instead looked for some armor and weapons I could make use of. At first, I was very interested in the various small pistols, but I was turned off by the idea of having to share ammo with my unwilling compatriot. Not to mention the fact that if something was within range of a pistol, I was most likely going to want to conserve my ammo with the blade. No, I had been promised three weapons of my choosing and I was going to make sure both were fully usable. I searched around and found two weapons that I thought would be the most beneficial. One was a submachine gun, that, while somewhat cumbersome to aim at the moment, would work well at medium range and allow myself to use easily once I had the balancing down. My companion was going to get the second weapon, an assault rifle that I assumed would be much more useful to her if she found herself against a faraway enemy. My preference would've been more to the effect of a shotgun to kill armored ponies, but none were available. Whether they had been hidden, or there simply were none, I could not know.

I found my armor next. What I choose was not very special at all, but I was smart enough to recognize that wearing a full getup of metal armor, no matter who much it would stop me from being hurt, was not smart. I wasn't very strong and most of my fights thus far had been won by some manner of mobility. This did mean a fairly, hodgepodge setup, however. I found two pieces of pre-war combat armor that were meant for my fore hooves, a pair of leather guards for my hind legs and a few metal plates that I fit into my saddlebags to keep any bullets from getting though. It looked utterly ridiculous, but it was either that or wear raider armor and get shot at by any sane pony. The fact that I found nothing to keep my head safe except some pre-war sunglasses was disheartening.

My companion, however, had no such troubles. When I made my way back to the front, she was waiting in a full set of raider armor that had been slightly modified to look less threatening. There were no skulls adorning it, or blood caked onto it, but it was still the distinctive bronze color with small netting of rebar around the shoulders and chest. She was smiling, happy to be back in something that felt like a second skin to her, I guess. This did make me feel better. A happy mare was more likely to talk. Chains was behind the counter, explaining the situation to the shop owner.

"But those are some of my most expensive items! How am I supposed to make a living if you people keep taking the best pieces without paying?" He shouted, but Chains looked unshaken.

"Yours is the only shop we don't charge a rent from. Yours is the only shop we sell things we have no use for to. If you'd like to keep complaining about that, then I suggest you go to Shackles and renegotiate. Good luck with that by the way."

"But, but..."

"Look, you should count yourself lucky that we're still going to make them buy their ammo and general supplies from you. Keep it up and you'll be giving it to them for free." This was clearly a recurring conversation for them, the way Chains spoke was callous, but lacked the any real anger or emotion behind it.

"Fine." The shopkeeper said in defeat.

The shopkeeper then turned to me and my companion, and we were both slightly embarrassed at the fact that we had been staring quite obviously. I renegotiated the third weapon I was supposed to receive, and instead got thee mags for the assault rifle, two for the submachine gun and about a hundred bullets for each. This was still only after selling the scraps that nobody in Graymare had wanted and shelling out a few caps for the difference. After some healing potions and a couple of days worth of food, my store of bottle caps was dreadfully low, only about ten or so. However, I didn't do any real bartering with the shopkeeper, mostly because I felt bad for the extortion he was already under; so my sudden lack of funds was my own fault. That, and bullets and magazines are fucking expensive. Sure I could've just bought one of each and enough for the mag, but then I'd had to be praying constantly to find some raider using one so I could get more, and frankly, that just sounded stupid. I'd rather be poor, but armed, than rich and defenseless.

After that, Chains guided us to the exit quickly and kicked us back out into the wasteland. There was urgency to his step that I found unsettling. He kept pushing ponies out of the way and didn't stop to chat with any other slavers as he had before. When I walked past the still frozen guard at the door, I started to understand why. Before I was even fifty yards away from the base, I turned back and saw that the little compass that had been guiding me was filled with the usual non-hostile markers, but then slowly they all tinted to deep red. After consulting the help menu for my implant, I realized that this meant that in some way, I had just made an enemy I didn't want.

~\o/~

We walked for away from the place for two hours in almost complete silence. Between glances over my shoulder to make sure we weren't being followed, I tried in vain to get my partner to tell me her name or really anything. The last thing I wanted to do was have to call her 'you' or 'slave' in the next town. Hell, I still had to keep the distance set low on her collar because she wouldn't even be near me.

"Look, all things considered, you could have it a lot worse right now." I tried to reason as we stopped by a rock outcropping, which for some damn reason my compass actually marked as Lone Rock Pillar. The entire place had been graffiti-ed with everything from a picture of apples made with the dried blood of some long forgotten pony and a tasteful depiction of somepony impaling, themselves on Luna's horn. Regardless, it was our home for the night, and I did finally get a word out of her.

"Get me some food." Not the words I was hoping for.

"Excuse me?"

"Food you asshole. You're carrying all of it and I want some." She held a hoof out to me, but I didn't move an inch towards my saddlebags.

"And just what makes you think that I should give you any? I saved you from that hell and I think I deserve some respect for that." I pulled out a can of pre-war applesauce (Now with 200% more apples than before!), and started eating merrily.

"Oh don't act like you're a saint. You only brought be out of there to torture me. If you were really kind, you would've saved one of the other ponies in there and let them go free." I tried to ignore her, but that wasn't easy when the dying light of the wasteland makes no sound. "Do you know that some of those mares were pregnant? Sure those slavers don't deal in foals, but the little bastards are going to be raised as slavers. You could've saved two lives, but instead you chose me for your own enjoyment."

"Shut up." I grumbled, finding it difficult to swallow my food.

"What? Do you not like the facts? Little prince of nowhere comes to make something of himself and he's still just as selfish as the rest of us."

"I said shut up." I glared, but it was forced.

"Oh please. You know it's true. I bet that you're-" I stopped her.

"Shut up and take your god damn food, and if you so much as look at me again I will kill you!" I roared at her and threw a can of carrots at her face. She didn't speak again to my credit.

My first thoughts were that it was a stupid idea to have given her two complete hours to think of what to say to me and the second was how right she was. I had given the other slaves there absolutely zero consideration. They had all stared right at me and I had brushed off their looks casually. Just as I was beating myself up over it, a voice broke through the music on my radio.

"Now isn't that a great sunset out there children? Well I mean, we can't really see it, but I'd guess some of you night people are happy. Now my ears on the ground are telling me that right now you're all wondering just what I'm on here to tell you about this late in the day. Well what else would it be, if not the news? It seems like the little bat out of hell from yesterday just likes to make my job annoying and to ruin my track record. Remember how I said I was rooting for him? Well, not anymore. The little cunt just did a 180 and it's pissing me off. You know about the slavers out in Maremoros? The well armed ones that nopony can seem to kick out? Well now, we might never get rid of them! Some asshat decided that it would be a good idea to give the slavers a water talisman and now, even if we tried, there's no way we could keep them from having clean water. And I'm sure that by now, you all know just who gave them that talisman. Yes, it was the little bat, and now he's been seen leaving the place, with new armor, some actual weapons, and a slave of his own. I don't know children; I guess things are just weird like that. And if you hear this, wherever you are, I'd like you to stop and think for a second about what you're doing and what you plan on doing." The pompous, but still flat voice finished while the words echoed inside my head.

I turned down the music and starting thinking pretty hard about what my plans were while I finished my food. I already knew that I needed a way back into Maremoros. The plan originally for that was to try and find some of the ponies that wanted to fight the slavers and rally them to fight them with me. It was a long term plan and I knew it would keep me from learning about my mother for a while, but it also was going to let me keep from going too far down in the world. Now, I had a different problem. I hadn't thought for an instant that the deal I made for the weapons that would let me execute my plan, would be made public in less than a day. Now, I figured I would be shot at within any distance of a respectable settlement. I needed a new plan and I spent the last half hour of light creating that plan. I thought over what I could still do and what things I still had with me. By the end, I had a plan that only a barbarian would be proud of. However, it could work.

"Ready to get going?" I said, standing up and looking at my partner who was still busy trying to lick all the possible juices out of her can.

"Where are we going? There's not going to be any light for much longer." She spoke idly, which was more than I expected.

"Where else, back to Maremoros."

~\o/~

In the following three hours it took us to get back to the now glowing town (most of said time having been spent fumbling around in the darkness guided only by my compass), I had explained my plan to my unwilling follower. My plan was simple. I take out the two guards at the gate with my sword, easy considering the lack of lighting at the gate. Then, we would move inside, using the many empty buildings as cover and make our way to the central office I had been to. The reason, as my follower was finally so kind as to tell me, was because that building was what once had served as the clinic and I assumed that if we took Shackles as a hostage, we could convince the slavers to let us and the slaves go in return for their beloved master. I also assumed that the townspeople wouldn't help the slavers much, if at all, given the display earlier.

"It's suicide." She said as we waited a little ways away from the entry. "There's no way it would work without us being seen and even if we did manage to take him hostage, all they would have to do would be shoot you and they'd kill both of us."

"Just trust me when I say that I have a plan." I told her, not yet wanting to spill the beans about it.

"Come on, at least I'm talking to you." It was true, and I was about to tell her my plan when the guards finally changed shifts.

The two new guards were a unicorn mare and an earth pony stallion. One had an assault rifle while the other had a combat shotgun. They stood next to each other in the center of the lighted area near the entrance. I silently crept up the edge of the light by the unicorn and made my move. I ran headlong across the opening with the blade out; the unicorn fell without protest and the earth pony had to no time to fumble with his shotgun to save his head. After looting the body for the gun and a couple of caps, I grabbed a hoof on the headless pony and pulled it off into the shadows were it wouldn't be seen. Then I came back for the head. By that time, the unicorn had already moved the other mare's body and head away and tossed the sand around enough to hide the blood, what little there was.

"That explains how you were able to survive up to this point." She commented, pointing at the now sheathed blade.

"So far it's been better than any gun I've found." I said while passing her her pistols, the assault rifle and the ammo for both. I might mention that, while she did not say it, she looked more than extremely grateful to have her weapons back, and smiled in glee when I brought up the rifle.

"Well, love, I guess you can do some things right." I made no note of the comment and walked inside with her behind. I would've preferred to have flown in, but I was not strong enough to carry all of the weapons, her and myself over the barricade. I had a suspicion that they would be looking for a pegasus for a while.

Guided by my E.F.S., which I was falling in love with, I maneuvered us away from the patrolling slavers in the center of town and made it into the more abandoned portions. In that place was where I learned of a major flaw in this E.F.S.'s design. Things were going fairly smoothly for us. My partner was definitely louder than I was, given that she was being burdened by such heavy armor, but as far as I could see there were no slavers nearby. As we moved, we occasionally stopped to check a building for anything possibly valuable and look to make sure we were headed the right direction. I could've flown, but the eternal cloud cover was thinner that night, and I might've been seen. We were able to round about half of the distance we needed to be behind the HQ before we ran into trouble.

We stopped to go through a two story shack and check our location again, when we heard a crashing below us. We looked at each other in panic. Both floors had just been single, open rooms and if they came up here, we would be found. Wordlessly, I snuck over to the staircase, barely avoiding a pile of tin cans left by the previous occupants. A minute later, and I saw them come up. One unicorn stallion and an earth pony mare about as stuck on each other as they could get without having two backs, if you catch my meaning. I looked up and saw my partner curled against a corner, trying to act like a pile of scrap metal. The slavers, though distracted and most likely inebriated, still noticed the oddness of the shaking metal. The unicorn pulled out his revolver and the mare grabbed a loose board. I listened for a second longer to make sure nopony was still downstairs before I cut through the two of them. The unicorn died cleanly, but I had to take a second slash at the mare being as the first one only managed to separate her fore hooves from her body. She cried out just before the blade got to her and I felt my blood run cold. We were still a fair distance from the center of town, but considering that my E.F.S. Didn't show me these ponies, I was certain there might be more.

Dear Celestia, were there more. About a minute after the scream my compass was filled with flashing red markers. I pulled out the submachine gun and got ready for war. The stealthy approach had failed.

My partner levitated her assault rifle alongside her, noticing the seriousness of the situation, despite her inability to see the number of enemies. At least I had learned something; the E.F.S. only shows enemies that are actively looking for me. Whatever jackasses designed it needed to be fired and sent for psychiatric help.

"We ne'd to get moving, now." I mumbled through the mouth piece as two raiders walked into the stairwell. I fired about ten shots and they both fell before they could return fire. Half of those shots missed and I realized that shooting this thing was going to take some getting used to.

I didn't have the time to get used to it though. I did a quick spin to see if there were any openings in the encirclement, but there were none. I heard the window on my left break and a small metal apple fell to the floor. While I was busy wondering just what the hell it was, my body got me out of there. I grabbed the mare and flew through the open window as fast as I could, but not before the grenade went off with a deafening bang. I felt burning shrapnel rip through my hind legs, but I kept myself my screaming out. I landed on the roof of another nearby building, setting down my partner first. The upside was that we weren't being shot at yet. I imagined they were checking the last building to see if the grenade did its job. I checked my legs and found about seven small holes bleeding profusely. My instincts told me to gulp down a healing potion, but my experience with the dead doctor told me to dig out the shrapnel first. I pulled out a set of tweezers and set to work on them. My partner, if you could even really call her that, was busier looking around at the streets below with her pistols than whether or not I was fine. Her assault rifle, I realized later, had been lost in the escape. It only took a few minutes of work to dig out the metal shards and bandage my legs. Running would be hard, but workable.

"I'm gonna fly us down. We get down there, you follow me and we move fast. If we can get to their base, then we'll still be able to get a hostage advantage." I commanded and she nodded without speaking.

When we touched down, I began a hurried trot to the center. There were still a few targets in the way, but most were still focused on searching elsewhere. Our luck was pisspoor and we ran into two ponies before we had passed a single house. One took a wild shot with a shotgun, but somehow missed by a mile, and we were able to kill both without damage. However, that also meant everyone else knew where we were. I kicked the pace up, flying quickly over the earth and using the submachine gun to instant pelt any slavers I saw. We only encountered another three slavers on the way there, but I could still see the crowd on our tails.

The town center was deserted. The slaves had woken up and were staring wide eyed at us, but I ignored them completely. I had come to save them, but I had no time to be unlocking cages and disarming collars. We made it into the headquarters without further issue and found the place utterly deserted for the first two floors. We barged into the third floor and found Shackles at his desk with three other slavers at his side. Things went according to plan here and I sprayed down two of the guards while my follower killed the last one and shot Shackles at the base of his right foreleg. A few bullets had grazed by my stomach, but adrenaline had kept me from noticing at the time. The pony roared in pain, dropping his revolver to the ground. Without wasting time, we crossed the room and she shot him again in the other leg.

"Celestia damn it! Fuck off, both of you." He screamed and I slammed a hoof into his maw.

"Quiet," I yelled and stared into his eyes, "you kept your mouth shut and work with me and you might just survive." He nodded to me and I turned to my partner, "Keep your guns on him while I do this."

She nodded and I took my hoof out of his mouth. I fished the collar access tool out of my saddle bags and started working with her collar, much to his distain.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" She growled, but didn't take her eyes off of the crippled slaver.

"Getting this damn thing off." I said as the tapped the release and the collar popped off of her neck.

This was where my plan got very sketchy. I had no way of knowing how she would react and to be honest, things could have gotten very bad very quickly. Instead, she just looked at me like I was the stupidest stallion alive. I pretended to ignore her awe and grabbed the collar from the floor, quickly snapping it around Shackles. I set the distance to about the size of the room and stepped back.

"You make any wrong moves and you'll die. You get me?" He nodded again through pain and fear, "Good, now tell me the password to that." I pointed to his terminal.

"There isn't a password, only Chains and I could read to begin with."

I figured I still had time before the slavers came back to give their boss a report; so I logged into the terminal and found the oldest files I could. Most were just logs of needed medicines or of specific reports on injuries, but two actually told me something I needed to know. The files were titled "She's Alive!" and "Sorry.".

"Personal log: She's Alive!"

"I don't know how, but Scarlet is here. Last time I saw her was at the tower being crushed by rubble, but now she's here with the test foal. They both looked worse for wear, but she said that they didn't have to go far from here and now she's going to leave before nightfall. She told me a few things about what happened, but none of the details. Said she's been trying to break up her past as much as possible and gave me a few of her things to keep safe for the foal. I'm not sure what her deal is, so if she talked to you, Duster, I'd like to know."

From, Chems."

"Personal log: Sorry."

"I'm sorry kid, but I'm not gonna be there to tell you what she wanted you to know. And if any of you fucks don't know what that means, get off this damn terminal, leave it and if a black colt with a pink mane comes through here, you let him read this. I may be dead, but don't think I won't screw you over from the other side. Anyway, I'm not going to be there for you. Slavers are trying to break down my door as I type this out, but I figured you need to know what I do more than I need to struggle fruitlessly. So here's the story. Your mother, myself and a few others were Enclave. We left when what we thought might save the wasteland become something that might destroy it. We thought your mother died when we were escaping, but she didn't and somehow the two of you managed to end up at this far flung end of the south. But I can't tell you anymore than that. We all did things to ourselves to keep the knowledge of what we worked on from being exposed. One of those things was scrapping pieces of our memories. Even now, I can't remember what we were working on, or exactly what made it so dangerous. But I can give you the small clue that I do have. If you're in my office, then I need you to get behind the painting and into that safe. The things that are in there can help you get somewhere. Godspeed kid; you're gonna need it."

I processed the information as quickly as I could. Signs had already pointed toward my mom being involved with the Enclave, which severely dampened that blow, but the idea of her being involved with something so dangerous that she managed to scrap not only her mind, but the minds of everyone she worked with. Hell, I didn't even think that something like mind wiping was possible. I also knew just why the slavers had so readily turned against me; their boss probably remembered the message vaguely when he saw me, then clarified the message. I turned to look at the painting and found myself snout-to-snout with the yellow unicorn.

"Why?" She asked calmly, even though her gaze felt like I was going to get physical wounds.

"Why what?"

"Why I'd you take off my collar?" She clarified and I could see one pistol pointed at me.

"So he wouldn't be able to do anything when we traded him for our escape."

"And what if I killed you and made my own escape? There's nothing to stop me if you can't kill me."

"I trusted you," I grimaced. "I bet on the fact that you wouldn't till me because I had saved you from being sold and hadn't gotten any revenge on you for what you did to me."

"You trusted me, the mare who ruined your life?"

"Trust me, with everything I'm learning about my life right now, happened there is just s drop in the bucket," I shoved past her. "Besides, they won't just let you walk free if they find out that you're the one who got their leader killed."

She didn't like my answer at all, I could tell, but I was right in that she needed Shackles alive and I was needed alive for that. I walked to the back of the room and tore down the charcoal painting whose image had been blurred by time, behind it I found a cloud safe nestled into the wall.

"It's useless, we've all tried and nobody has been able to even touch that safe, let alone open it." Shackles comments just as I grabbed onto a lever and pulled it open.

"Seems to work for me." I smirked and his draw dropped a few inches.

What was inside, was underwhelming to me the, but I now find invaluable. There was another one of those odd magical energy cells like the one in my blade, a small microchip with a note that said "insert into eye implant when safe", and a folded up black skin suit. My immediate thoughts were that the microchip must be the important thing, but, after remembering just how important the mare had at least thought these things were, I gathered them all and put them into a pocket of the saddlebags where I hoped they wouldn't be damaged. Before I could turn around, I heard the door open and twin 10mm gunshots. I turned and saw a dead slaver on the floor, blood oozing from a pair of holes in her head.

"Please tell me you actually have a plan for this part?" The unicorn looked at me incredulously.

"Of course, from here on, it's diplomacy's job."

~\o/~

After half an hour of trying to calm down the slavers outside with their leader, I managed to get a proper negotiation going. Chains, who I learned was Shackles' right hoof man, negotiated with me in the office, both of us disarmed of weapons, and we came to an agreement that superiority benefited me. First, they had to release every slave and let them walk out the front gate of town with me watching from the tower. Second, I would set the distance on their leader's collar to a point that was far enough for me to walk out of town and afterwards they would be able to disable the collar. Nobody gets shot, and I accomplish what I set out for. The problem was that I had to send out their leader before I was allowed to walk out, which meant that I had to be fast or else they would disable his collar and end me.

"I'll be going out with the slaves. Consider this goodbye and don't look for me again." My partner said while helping herself to a combat shotgun that was on the floor.

"Any chance you're going to tell me your name at least?" I asked knowing full well I wouldn't get an answer.

"Not a chance, love. The last thing I need is you chasing me around like a puppy." She smirked.

"You know, you don't have to leave. It's not like I have any plans to kill you considering what help you've been here." I actually wanted to plead and beg her to stay, but I didn't want her to know that I was just afraid of being alone.

"You're too much of a goody-goody for me, love. Not that I don't like your way of doing things, but I'm a raider and you kinda cramp my style." She walked out the door and I felt sad now that she was gone. After all, I was alone again in the middle of a death trap.

I took a deep breath pushed the feeling aside and went to the window to watch the slaves leave. The last of them were by the gate when Chains walked in to get Shackles. The rust colored earth pony looked me up and down and I noticed a collar access tool, revolver and spear clamped at his side. That worried me more than anything else could have. Our agreement specifically said that he would not bring any weapons or tools with him.

"Woah, you know the deal; no weapons or I kill him." I pulled the detonator from my harness and he actually had the nerve to laugh at me.

"Go ahead if you want to, see if I care." He didn't move from the doorway, but that didn't make me like it.

"E'use me?" I mumbled through the detonator.

"I said, go ahead. You'd be doing me a favor honestly. I've wanted him out of the picture for years and now I've finally gotten a good opportunity." Shackles started to curse and scream through the gag I had put on him and I stared Chains down.

"Just wh't are you ge'ing at?" I narrowed my eyes.

"You kill him, and I let you walk. Of course, they'll all want to come after you, but they would do that anyway. I'm just asking you to do me this favor."

"And if I say no?"

"Well then let's just say that those slaves won't be making it any further." He grabbed the detonator and I felt my blood chill, "Come on kid, what's worth more to you that sack of shit or all of those slaves?"

I knew he was serious and I was stupid enough to listen, "Fine." I pulled on the mouthpiece of the detonator and watched as Shackles' head exploded into a violent red mess. "Happy?" I didn't feel bad about killing him, but it did piss me off that I had to do for somepony else's gain.

"Gullible idiot." He mumbled and I heard his detonator click. "And now to tie up the loose end."

I saw him draw the shotgun and I dived behind the desk on instinct, but I was still in shock. They were dead. I hadn't seen them die like I had seen Shackles die, but I knew Chains wasn't lying. I could hear a scream get cut off in the far distance that confirmed my beliefs when it was cut off. I was about to burst into tears when the first volley of buckshot pelted the desk and drew me back into the fight. I was sad, but unlike before the one I could be mad at was right in front of me. It was time to kill.

I waited for the next shot and then jumped out with the blade drawn. I made the mistake of lunging into the wrong spot though. Chains had moved to flank me and I had jumped where he initially was. However, we both took a moment to realize what to do, and mine was shorter. I jumped again and took a slash at him, but he turned and spearhead slashed across my neck. I flapped me wings quickly to avoid the fatal damage, but the cut still hurt like hell. The gun fired again and I felt lead pack into my right fore hoof. I roared in pain and rushed him with my wings. I knew it was a losing battle, but I had one shot. I ducked below the spear and felt it graze a line down my back, but I still went for the killing blow. Then the blade had other ideas. I heard a sudden popping from the hilt and the blade dissipated a mere inch from his neck. I cursed my luck and hit him head on. I didn't manage to budge the heavier earth pony much, but I did manage to push him to the window. He was still stunned when I made a final ram and sent him through the bay window. Wind gusted in and I heard a deafening thump as his body hit the ground outside. I heaved a sigh of premature relief. However, my luck had run out.

"Fuck, blow the damn place! He killed Shackles." Chains yelled and before I could make a jump out of the window, the floor suddenly shifted under me and the sounds of explosions filled the air.

I put the worthless blade back into its sheath and dived under the desk, praying for safety. Finally the floor gave way and I went into free fall. I saw the ground dropping beneath me and closed my eyes fearfully. Something punctured my left flank and went through my cutie marks. I managed to get a scream of pain out before I opened my eyes and looked down to see a concrete brick just as my forehead slammed into it and the work went dark. All in all, it could've been worse.

Footnote: Level Up
New Perk: Primal Instinct- You may not always know what's going on around you, but your body sure does. You now have a 20% high chance of dodging thrown weapons and melee attacks.
Quest Perk: The Bluff- Time spent in negotiations has taught you how powerful the right lies can be; both for you and against you. Your charm now makes all lies 25% more believable, but the consequences of having your bluff called are 30% more detrimental.

Author's Note

Round 4. That and I was soooooo tempted to just post this without even a spell check. I also realize that the whole partner/follower bit was annoying, but to this point, he didn't know her name for reasons I have thought out. But I will Pinkie-toe promise yall that I won't do it again. Now go read something quality, like the original Fallout Equestria.