Inside the pharmacy was dark and musty, lit only by several flickering candles. The ground floor windows were covered by cloth or were boarded up, making it hard to see any details in the room.

Comet got the impression the pharmacy was absolutely filthy, making him not want to touch anything.

Squinting through the gloom, Comet realized there was nopony behind the counter. Clearing his throat, and moving to stand beside Comet, Ivory asked, “Hello?”

There was a shuffling from upstairs, and a loud thud. A pause, and the shuffling continued. The old floorboards above creaked alarmingly, and even through the gloom Comet could see them bending.

The three stallions watched with morbid curiosity as a pony appeared at the top of the stairs, and nearly fell down them.

The mare’s coat was so filthy it looked like it was brown, but highlights of the orange coat underneath the grime hinted at her real colour. Her mane and tail were tangled beyond all hope, and were just as filthy as her coat. Green eyes were glazed over and exhausted, red-rimmed and bloodshot.

Ivory went rigid, freezing in place. His breathing became more audible to Comet, who half turned to ask before the mare spoke.

“Who’re you?” Her speech was slurred, quiet, and hoarse.

“You Peachy Keen?” Thunder stepped forward, “We’re customers for her wares.”

The mare smiled sloppily, apparently not noticing the thin line of drool starting to drip from her chin, “S’me. What’cha want? Dash, Steady, Mint-als, Stampede, Med-X. All sorts of things.”

“We’re looking for medicine. Bandages, healing potions, Radaway. Have anything like that?”

“Prob’ly. Somewhere,” Peachy moved behind the counter, nearly smashing her head off of the sign above it. Muttering to herself the entire time, she bent down and began to pile chems on the counter.

Inhalers of Dash, bottles of alcohol, tins of Mint-als, and more soon joined the growing pile of things on the blackened countertop.

Apparently seeing so much at once unfroze Ivory, who took a ragged, sudden gasp of air. He took two, miniscule steps backwards. Only now, with Ivory seemingly pressed just a little closer in order to avoid touching a support beam, Comet realized Ivory was shaking.

“Hey, you-”

“Kid, why don’t you take Ivory to the fountain in the square? Pony watch and all that. I’ll deal with this, and be out as soon as I can.”

Ivory followed Comet out of the pharmacy without a sound, wincing as the dim sunlight stung his eyes. He shuddered hard, making his barding and jacket shake alarmingly. Quietly, and very monotone, Ivory spoke, “Sorry.”

“Sorry for what?”

“I couldn’t handle that.”

“Thunder has it under control, I’m sure.”

“I know he does. I just...thought I’d be over ponies like her by now.”

Comet didn’t say anything while the pair got settled on a makeshift bench near the marketplace.

“You don’t even know why she bothers me so much.”

“You don’t need to tell me.”

Ivory shot Comet a sad look, “I know. But it’s about time you learn about the ponies you’re travelling with.”

There was a pause and Comet stayed quiet, hoping to spur Ivory on.

“After Filly, after I’d escaped and recovered, I wandered the wastes for a while. I met up with a group of ponies, they were bad. I was desperate and starving, so I ignored the evil things they were doing. I was with them for a long time, and I did a lot of things I’m not proud of. I took lots of drugs to try to help me forget, to make me seem tougher so I would be left alone. There was a couple of years where I was addicted to lots of things off and on. I would be hooked on Mint-als, take some Fixer. Then I would take Dash or something else to try to help me out on the next raid. Then I would get hooked on that. The cycle continued for a long time, until I finally realized I was killing myself quicker than the heeves was. I left the group. A week or so later, I found Thunder in bad shape. I patched him up as best I could, then the last of my stock ran out. He nursed me through the withdrawls. Since his brahmin was slaughtered, we decided to stick together. I was still too weak to be on my own, and his injuries weren’t quite healed.”

“What kind of ponies were they?” Comet wasn’t sure he wanted an answer.

“We were a cross between raider and gang. At first we weren’t all that bad, certainly no worse than anypony else. Things escalated the less scavenging opportunities there were...they-we. We were cruel and did a lot of damage.”

Comet nodded slowly, “Thank you for telling me, but why not tell me sooner?”

“Not many ponies I know know about who I used to be. Nopony has seen much of the group in years, but there was a time when our name struck fear in everypony. Raiders, settlers, wanderers...everypony. I don’t like thinking about what I did.”

Comet wasn’t sure he was supposed to have heard the last sentence, but kept his mouth shut.

“I’ve been luckier than I deserve in life. Thunder doesn’t like to remind me about my past. I don’t know what it was like in the Stable, but up here survival is hard. Nearly everypony you meet will have done something unsavoury to survive, or help their friends and family to live. Life isn’t pretty; it’s hard and rough and lots of times it doesn’t continue.”

Comet stared down at the flagstones under his hooves, “I can’t judge you. I nearly killed a guard trying to get out of the Stable. If I hadn’t stopped to see if he was okay...he would have died. I used one of my healing potions on him.”

Ivory nodded, “You’re still a better stallion than I am.”

“Maybe,” Comet kicked at the ground, hoping to try to change the subject, “I’m sorry she bothers you so much.”

“I was her once. I was exactly like her. The few ponies I knew who weren’t terrible didn’t do anything about it. They could have tried to help, tried to make me see what I was doing. They didn’t, and some of them encouraged me. Like the ponies here. I bet you none of them have helped Peachy Keen.”

“You can’t know that.”

“If anypony here really cared, they would get her out of that pharmacy. As is she’s killing herself and robbing herself of profit by taking those chems. Her situation will not end well if she’s left by herself.”

Comet looked up, seeing the door to the pharmacy open and Thunder step out, “Oh! He’s out, and he’s seen us already.”

“Good. We can get out of this town for a while.”

Thunder muscled his way past a few ponies, lumbering to a stop before the pair seated on the bench.

“How’d it go?” Ivory asked cautiously.

“She didn’t have much that helps us. Cleared her out of her bandages and healing potions. Gave her a few spare Fixers though. I hope she got the hint.”

“She wouldn’t have gotten it if you plainly told her,” Ivory replied, “She’s too far gone to understand much.”

“I know...but she looks like she’s coming down. Maybe she’ll clean herself up.”

“Unlikely. Not with all those chems there.”

Thunder shrugged, “It’s a good thought. Here!” Thunder rummaged in his saddlebag for a moment, then tossed Ivory something.

Ivory caught it with his magic, one eyebrow raising in disbelief as he saw a package of cigarettes.

“You deserve something for stopping like you did. There was a time when you would have just walked over and taken everything she was putting on the counter. She probably wouldn’t have noticed.”

“Thanks,” Ivory stuffed the package into a pocket, “I’ll have one when we get farther from the falls. Can’t smoke with the mask on and breathing is important.”

“So...you’re addicted to cigarettes too?”

“Comet if you can name it I’ve probably at least tried it. With the exception of moondust. I could never bring myself to trying that. Seemed to dangerous.”

“Why did he reward you with another drug?”

“Cigarettes are what I used to wean him off everything else. Stupid maybe, especially considering his lungs, but I didn’t know that at the time. It was better than anything else nearby, and it worked for the most part. Helped take the edge off of cravings. Helped keep his damned mouth shut too.”

Ivory rolled his eyes, “Whatever. Let’s go. Tower Hotel?”

“Yeah. Let’s get out of here. Hotel like that probably has a bunch of first aid kits, and some might be untouched if the ghouls have been around long enough. Especially the upper floors.”

“Administrative rooms too, maybe. Chances increase if they’re still locked.”

“Got lots of bobby pins, Comet?”

“Yeah. Got plenty left after that salon.”

“Good. Let’s get out of here.”

Exiting the town was a cautious affair, as there were reports of raider fights nearby. It took some convincing, but eventually the three slipped through, and turned left, following the wall around.

“Why don’t they have another gate?”

“They probably do, somewhere. No point making a backup plan public knowledge if they can help it. They probably don’t want us ‘wrong-types’ to spread the word.”

“Fair enough, especially with all the fighting outside,” Comet gingerly stepped over the leg bone of a skeleton. The rest wasn’t visible.

“Exactly. It’s a pain for travellers, but not many get past all the fighting. It only makes sense. Anyway, any plans for the Tower?”

“Nope,” Ivory replied, pausing to peer around a corner in the wall. Finding nothing, he eased himself out of cover.

“Try not to die,” Thunder agreed.

Comet rolled his eyes, “So much for planning.”

Ivory shrugged, “There’s only so much planning you can do before you doom yourself to failure. We’ll figure out what we’re doing when we get there, until then-”

Thunder lunged forward suddenly, plowing Ivory into a fallen chunk of concrete. On instinct, Comet dove behind the nearest bit of cover available: a too small chunk of ruined sidewalk. It was better than nothing though.

Over the sounds of Ivory’s coughing, a gunshot rang out. It impacted where Ivory had been standing, spraying dust and flakes of concrete everywhere.

“What now?!”

“Get over here! I’ll cover you!” Thunder pulled his gun out of his holster, risking breaking cover to take shots at their assailant.

Taking a deep breath, Comet galloped over to where they were hiding, trying not to make his ‘worried face’ at Ivory, who was still struggling to breathe.

Thunder ducked back, “I think there’s only one. A sniper. They’ve got a good vantage point.”

“Would they see a little white flag?”

Ivory snorted, “Don’t know if they’d know what it meant.”

“What now?”

“Not die,” Ivory replied in a deadpan tone, earning Comet’s ire.

“Seriously!? Now’s not time for sarcasm!”

“If I’m going to die being sniped, I’d much prefer to do it while cracking a sarcastic one-liner.”

“Ugh!”

“Anything else about them?” Ivory choked out, glaring as another bullet struck crumbling concrete.

“They’re yellow,” Thunder replied, shooting a few more times before ducking back into cover.

“Real helpful, anything else?!”

“Why does it matter, they’re trying to kill us!”

“They don’t know if we’re raiders or not! They’ve got us pinned! Diplomacy couldn’t hurt!”

“I can’t see a damned thing, genius. What are we supposed to do? Poke our heads out and hope we don’t get killed!”

“No!” Ivory choked again, taking a heavy dose of his medication, “Alright, alright…” His eyes lit up, and he levitated a broken piece of mirror from a nearby car.

Sliding along the concrete he was using as a shield, Ivory used his magic to bring the mirror up in the hopes of catching the reflection of the sniper, “Alright. He’s yellow, black mane maybe...holy shit he’s a pegasus-wait a sec…”

Ivory dropped the mirror shard, and began to dig into his saddlebags.

“What are you doing!?”

“Saving our plots, I think! I think I recognize this ass-oh there!” Triumphantly, Ivory levitated a length of yellow cloth into the air. He waved it in the air above the concrete slab. Several heartbeats passed, and Ivory slowly eased himself out from the cover, still holding the yellow cloth.

“You know this guy!?”

“Considering we can’t go anywhere without Thunder recognizing someone, it’s time for me to return the favour,” Ivory bit back, still breathing hard. Clearing his throat, he called out, “Yellowjacket!?”

There was a pause, and faintly, “Blackie!?”

“You son of a bitch, it’s been what, 8 years, and you’re still gonna call me that?!”

Laughter was the only response. Carefully, Thunder got out from behind the slab of concrete, Comet following his lead. As they straightened up, Yellowjacket glided down from his perch to land smoothly in front of Ivory.

Yellowjacket was surprisingly short and slender for what Comet had pictured in his head. When he was a colt, he’d read the few remaining books in the Stable. The pegasi described, and pictured, within their pages had been tall and strong war machines.

Yellowjacket looked no less deadly, but was diminutive in height comparing with everypony else Comet had ever met above-ground. This, added with a natural lean physique, made it hard to realize this was the same pony who had just been shooting at them moments earlier.

A yellow coat was mostly covered by leather barding, not unlike Ivory’s own. Unlike Ivory, Yellowjacket had forgone any other clothing overtop the armour. A bandana was wrapped around his neck, clearly meaning to act like a makeshift breathing mask if the need arose. A bandolier was wrapped around his barrel, almost like a belt. A holster was at his left hip, holding a .22 pistol.

The sniper rifle was resting along Yellowjacket’s right side, strapped into place with a special harness and partially hidden by a folded wing.

Trying to take in Yellowjacket all at once, Comet finally looked up to meet the pony’s eyes face to face. Dark, sunken eyes stared back, bloodshot and curious. A greying, black mane was cut short, and out of the way. A nasty scar crossed over his left eye, which was milky and white. A tip of an ear seemed to have been shredded away.

“Who in the hell are these people?” Yellowjacket’s voice was gruff, and Comet had to try hard not to wince at the smells of stale cigarettes and whiskey on Yellowjacket’s breath.

“The kid you’re staring down is Jackpot Comet.The big guy here is Thunder Hooves.”

“Hm. Good you finally got some ponies to travel with you that weren’t complete idiots.”

“Aside from you, of course.”

“Nah, I was just as big of an idiot as the rest. We should’ve just moved on when the pickings got slim, but it was my bull-headedness that nearly killed us.”

Yellowjacket backed away from Comet, turning to fully face Ivory instead. Lips twitching, Yellowjacket looked Ivory up and down. There was a moment of silence as Ivory returned the favour.

“The years haven’t been kind to you, Blackie.”

“At least I’ve still got all my parts. How in the hell did you lose an eye?”

“Lost a bet with a griffon.”

“Goddesses you haven’t changed.”

Yellowjacket quirked an eyebrow, “Clearly you have. I never thought to see you alive again.”

Ivory shrugged, “What can I say, I found a good a good reason to stay sober.”

Yellowjacket nodded, “Good. As much as you know I love small talk, we really should get out of here. Too many raider patrols come through here.”

“We’re heading toward the Tower Hotel. Feel like joining us?”

Comet blinked, feeling uneasy about letting some stranger join them.

Yellowjacket shrugged, “Sure. Nothing better to do.”

Ivory half-turned to Comet and Thunder. Thunder looked about as shocked as Comet felt. Thunder nodded slowly, and Comet repeated the action. If Ivory trusted this stallion, then chances were they would be fine. Ivory barely trusted Thunder and Comet themselves.

Ivory stuffed the yellow cloth back into his bag, and Yellowjacket smiled.

“I can’t believe you kept it.”

“Of course I kept it. It’s damned handy.”

“Looks like it’s been through hell.”

Ivory snorted, “Like me.”

“Can’t’ve been that bad,” Yellowjacket replied, leading the way to the Tower Hotel, moving at a pace that was comfortable for everypony, “I thought Filly was hell.”

“Equestria is hell. No point sugarcoating it,” Ivory replied, eyes scouring broken buildings for potential threats, “Just different circles.”

Yellowjacket laughed, “No kidding!”

“So...how do you two know each other?” Comet butted in.

“Remember how I told you I was a raider?”

Comet’s mouth dried at the casual usage of the term, but nodded.

“Yellowjacket was...not a leader but he would give advice.”

Yellowjacket snorted, “I was the only sniper worth his salt. I did lots of recon too. I actually had some brains in my head, and used them regularly.”

“Without frying his brain with whatever chems were available.”

Yellowjacket rolled his eyes, “Sometimes, Blackie. Not so much now.”

“Which is why I can smell the whiskey coming off of you.”

Yellowjacket looked taken aback, then smiled, “Goddesses, I’d forgotten how smart you are when you’re sober.”

Ivory winced, and Yellowjacket lapsed into silence. Comet cleared his throat awkwardly, “We’re taking a left up here.”

“Oh good, you’re practising with your Pipbuck. Let us know if your EFS picks anything up,” Thunder said quietly, ears swiveling around to hear anything coming.

Comet nodded in response, “Will do.”

Yellowjacket lowered his voice, “So...which one is yours?”

“Pardon?”

“Which one do y’like? I know you always had a thing for these old bones, but-”

“I’m not interested. They’re travelling companions.”

“One of which is big enough to carry you, your stuff, and probably me too. Do you have a thing for size differences-”

“They are my friends!” Ivory’s tone left no room for argument.

“Do you still like these old bones?”

Ivory sighed, ears drooping, “I’m...it’s complicated.”

Yellowjacket snorted, “Should’ve known you’d want a partner with two eyes.”

“That’s not it. You’re as handsome as ever...it’s me that’s the problem.”

“Uh huh.”

“They don’t know,” Ivory looked back at Comet and Thunder, who seemed to be staring at a faded billboard and trying to figure out what the advertisement was for, “They don’t know about my preference. Or about Ma, Midnight, or Emerald.”

“Oh.”

“It’s too painful. Thunder knows some of the story, but I haven’t told the kid much.”

“Any reason why?”

“Any time I think about it, I just imagine the pity on their faces. Thunder knows Filly broke me, and knows enough to piece it together. Comet knows there’s something wrong with me.”

“Nothing’s wrong with you.”

“It’s been over a decade and I still can’t let them go. Red Eye’s men...they’re lucky I didn’t do worse to them.”

“They deserved worse.”

Ivory sighed, “They’re dead and I’m alive. Sort of. I don’t know if you’d call this,” Ivory gestured around and then at himself, “Living.”

“It’s better than Filly.”

“How is it down there?”

Yellowjacket grimaced, “Not good. Really not good. He’s taken over almost all of Filly. He’s built it up, and overtaken just about everything. Areas he can’t overtake he’s filled with trash and corpses.”

Ivory looked down at the ground, his ears drooping, “Did you check-”

“I moved them for you. Red Eye’s men were going to just...do unspeakable things. I buried them on the other side of the river.”

“Thank you.”

Yellowjacket shrugged, “It was the least I could do. I should’ve gotten you out of the group myself.”

Ivory shrugged, “I’m...existing. That counts for something.”

Yellowjacket nodded in agreement, “It does.”

“We’re coming up to the hotel,” Comet announced, “It’s on the right, past these buildings.”

“I’ll fly up to the roof-wait that’s a Pipbuck isn’t it?”

“Yes?”

Yellowjacket rummaged through his saddlebags, then produced a small box full of wires, tubes, and what looked like spare parts, “I picked this up forever ago. Wanted to wait til my next stop at Tenpony to sell it, but if you’re a friend to Blackie here you deserve it more than those stuck up snobs.”

“Thank you,” Comet began to sort through the box, and smiled, “Here! I’ve been meaning to find these, but haven’t been able to yet. They’re called ear blooms. They’re connected to my Pipbuck here and we can talk to each other and listen to recordings I’ve picked up without needing to worry about anypony overhearing us.”

Yellowjacket put the ear bloom in his undamaged ear, flicking it uncomfortably as he tried to adjust it. Ivory rolled his eyes, and used his magic to fix the placement. He helped Thunder with his, though Comet pulled one from his bags with ease.

“You gotta press the little button here, and the microphone will activate. We’ve got to stay within around 100 meters of the Pipbuck. Otherwise it won’t work.”

Ivory nodded, moving his ear and trying to get a feel for how it could impede his hearing, “How do we know if it works?”

Comet was fiddling with his Pipbuck, his tongue sticking out from his teeth with concentration, “I’m doing that now. Let me know when you can hear anything.”

There were several seconds of silence before Sweetie Belle’s sweet voice sounded in Ivory’s ear, “I hear the radio.”

“Same,” Yellowjacket said scant seconds later.

It took time for Thunder’s to be patched in, but soon all could hear the radio, and DJ Pon3 talking about hope.

“I’ll fly to the roof and let you guys know what’s up,” Yellowjacket sprung into the air.

There was a tense moment of silence, before Comet cleared his throat, “So...you know him?”

“He was the one that tried to help, but I was too gone to see it.”

“I thought you said no one helped you before Thunder.”

Ivory shrugged, “He didn’t do enough. He never cut me off or really tried to change my habits. He just...made sure I didn’t die.”

Soft static crackled in the ear bloom, “We might have a problem.”

Author's Note

Sorry this took so long. School, and moving, and all that good kind of stuff.

Some backstory for Ivory too, which is nice.