Fallout 3-questria

by TheDawgKing

Rating: mature
Tags: Princess Luna, Gore, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Romance, Adventure, Derpy Hooves, Princess Celestia, Crossover, Alternate Universe
Length: 229960

A hellish wasteland awaits you. Do you have what it takes to survive? Will you survive the terrors of an irradiated hellhole?

A hellish wasteland awaits you. Do you have what it takes to survive?

Will you survive the terrors of an irradiated hellhole?

These are questions that anypony willing to face off against the wasteland has asked themselves.
So, Will you survive the wasteland or die on your first day?

Published 2016-10-11 05:00:01 UTC
Last updated 2019-05-31 02:24:56 UTC

The Ups and Downs

Now my introduction won’t be as long because I am nowhere near as gifted at the complicated art of speech.

So as I was saying... Unlike my travelling companion I was not born and raised in a stable. As a young colt I had to endure all of the tortures the wasteland could send my way.

At the age of six I remember walking along a trail with a group of merchants. My father had hired us an escort so we could reach Manehattan safely. It had cost us all of our possessions minus one a .32 caliber pistol and a box of bullets.

(Shocker right.)

We were about half way to Manehattan when a group of raiders attacked. My dad held the line against the raiders as long as he could.

He gave us enough time to get away from the raiders.

I turned around once and as I did I regretted my choice. I had spun around to see my father the brave stallion I always looked up to had been decapitated and the raiders were defiling his corpse.

My mother turned to me and told me to run.

Anger took control of my body. A surge of magic hit me as the revolver was lifted into the air and killed three raiders. I remember looking to my mother to see if she was the one controlling the gun.

Her horn was not glowing and I knew immediately that I was the one in control. I turned back to the raiders to see them galloping towards us.

A new emotion hit me. I realise now what I had felt was fear. The fear not of me dying or worse but of my mother being captured, killed, and raped by these monsters who called themselves ponies.

A second glow surrounded my horn. A shield formed around the raiders. I felt strained at the effort it took to keep the shield from falling as we ran for our lives.

We had managed to get a 30 minute head start on the raiders before my body finally gave out from exhaustion. My mother picked me up with her telekinesis and put me on her back.

I woke from a deep sleep that I had fallen into 12 hours later. I tried to rapidly sit up after I woke up. I had a nightmare of watching my father be killed over and over again. I smacked my horn into the ceiling of what I’m going to guess was a crawl space.

As my vision returned I saw slivers of light pour in from tiny cracks in the wood. I heard my mother screaming. I knew the sound all too well. My mother was screaming in pain and fear. I knew that the raiders had caught us. I was unable to move for most of a day. All the while my mother was screaming.

After I could walk again I checked over my body to see if I had been injured in any way. I was surprised as I looked to my flank and saw I had a Shield as a cutie mark. I had always asked my parents when I would get my own cutie mark. They said it might take many years before I found what I was good at. At the age of six my destiny had been laid before me.

I walked forward a few more steps before one of the boards I stood upon creaked. The sounds stopped. My mother screamed again but this time not in pain. I looked around but I could not see her. Then I heard her right below me.

“Keeping moving forward.” She said “Get out of here before they catch you. I’ll be fine honey just go.”

The emotions in her voice betrayed her. I knew that I would never see her again.

I ran towards the wall in front of me. A hole had been cut in the crawl space big enough that I could fit through with no problem. Any other pony would be stopped before they could wriggle through the crawl space.

My father had always tried to teach me how to fly. I was new to being able to support myself but I knew with his guidance I would be able to fly faster than any pony could gallop. I shot out of the hole at top speed and spread my wings. I fell for a few seconds before my wings finally supported my weight.

I turned my head and watched as three raiders burst through the door of the building aiming small weapons in my general direction. I was lucky enough to escape the encounter unscathed.

I flew for about 30 minutes before I had to land out of fear that my wings would fail and I would fall to my death. As soon as I landed I was greeted by an unfriendly looking face.

The ghoulish figure stood before me like she had been waiting for me. I had seen too much today. The last thing I saw was the the creature slowly moving toward me before everything faded to black.

I grew used to the sight of the ghoul-pony who had adopted me. She didn’t talk to me and I assumed it was something to do with the damaging alterations they suffered.

We lived happily until I turned 21.5 years old. Looking back on that day, I now know that was the same day that Miss Midnight decided to leave her stable.

I remember it so well. It was the first time my adoptive mother ever spoke to me. Her words still rattle around in my head all too clearly.

“I love you. Though I may not be your real mother, I love you with all the love that is left in this world.”

I did not know what she meant until she took a pistol out and slid it across the table to me.

“Words cannot describe the joy I have experienced raising you from a young colt to the strong stallion you are now. But I can no longer hide the truth from you. You and I have both seen what eventually happens to ghouls when the wasteland finally claims them.”

Somehow I knew this day would come, but I could never have prepared for this moment. I was too stunned to reply.

“I just don’t want to become another one of those undead freaks.”

Tears were welling in both of our eyes. I had lost all my family and now I had to kill the only companion I had in this world.

“Just please before you leave this place, make sure I can’t harm anypony.” She broke down into tears, and neither of us moved.

I was completely petrified, I just couldn’t think nor fathom what would happen after I killed her. There was no real time to wait and find out, as I noticed her movements becoming somewhat sporadic. She uttered no more sounds of sadness, rather slow guttural coughs.

She slumped over the table, all while I watched in horror as her transformation took place. She raised her head bearing an expression on her face that changed from sadness to a desire to rip the flesh off of anypony

I felt that now was the time to do as she told me, and not let her inflict a terrible fate upon anypony.

I hated seeing her this way, so weak, vulnerable, but I had to take advantage to complete her wish. Heavy heartedly, I levitated the gun and tried to point it at her head. It was hard see through the tears now pouring out of my eyes, but I focused on her eyes, watching them staring back at me with possibly the last bit of sanity left inside of her.

“I’m sorry” I whispered before pulling the trigger. She fell from her chair.

I broke down and sobbed before she hit the ground. I was once again alone.

From that day on, I knew I would never be the same pony again.

An Unknown Cause

After I watched the stable door shut behind me I noticed it was dark. Not a dark that I had ever experienced in the stable even when I had my lights off. Even when the main generators were down for repairs it was never this dark. I had to resort to the lamp feature on my Pipbuck just to see anything.

A long tunnel led to the stable door. Scattered sporadically throughout the sides were skeletons. Some of them belonged to creatures I had no clue existed.

I was both fascinated at the discovery and sick to my stomach as I had just seen actual death for the first time. I had to look away before I puked.

I guessed from the skeletons around the hall that some creatures out here were not simple dangers but ones that could probably cut me to shreds.

The end of the tunnel was a 15 second trot away from the stable door. Part of me wondered if these ponies entered just as the stable door began to close.

I shook the thought of the terrified ponies running from bombs out of my head knowing that I possibly faced much worse as soon as I left this tunnel. It was best not to make the situation worse.

The tunnel ended in a staircase leading upwards to a door. One side of the door was already open. I carefully inched my way towards it as if something was waiting for me on the other side.

The good news at this point was that I knew that Onyx had indeed escaped the stable. I was only slightly relieved to know my best friend didn’t die in this tunnel.

I slowly inched my way out the door, and was greeted with more darkness. It was clear that I was in a structure of some sort, as slivers of moonlight slipped through the cracks in the walls and shined on the ground in front of me.

I glanced down at my Pipbuck to see many small lights flashing at me. Most of them I had never seen activate before. Wherever I was my Pipbuck was not happy about the radiation levels. If I were to stand in place for one more hour I would become ill.

The dim light that was available from my own Pipbuck and what was coming through the walls was enough to uncover a few unlocked ammo crates. I looked inside of them for any supplies, that could possibly help me survive the night.

I found bullets for a much larger weapon than the one I carried. As I looked around for more supplies, I noticed that other than the cracks, the building I was in seemed to be fairly untouched.

“Maybe Onyx was attacked and needed to leave quickly.” I spoke out loud without even thinking about it.

I was so used to talking to people, and was almost surprised when no one replied.

I pulled my Pipbuck again only this time to find what it called my Eyes Forward Sparkle.

Lighting up with red dots all around me. The E.F.S had marked them as hostile entities.

I drew the .32.

The door two yards to my left burst open.

The moonlight shined on a creature that resembled the old world cockroaches. I heard its thin little legs scuttle in my direction. The only problem I had with the sight of this bug was that it was a lot bigger than the tiny insect I remember reading about.

My Pipbuck informed the creature was highly radioactive. I took aim, and gently pulled the trigger. I was not expecting the sound or the kick that the little .32 had.

I had never fired a gun before this point, and my lack of skill caused the first bullet to miss. It fell short about a foot from the target. I adjusted my aim and fired the gun once again.

The creature made a squelching sound after the bullet penetrated the exoskeleton. It was dead.

A red light flashed on my Pipbuck informing that there was a way to be more precise with my shots. The new feature was called S.A.T.S. The Stable-tec Assisted Targeting System.

Time slowed around me a little bit. Two more radroaches burst through the door. I didn’t know what I was doing. I got lucky and was able to line up three more or less perfect shots.

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

The radroaches exploded into piles of goo. Many of the other red lights had winked out of existence while I had been dealing with these roaches.

My Pipbuck flashed me a warning. If I didn’t leave now I would start to suffer from minor radiation poisoning. I galloped out the open door.

My Pipbuck informed me I was leaving Apple Farm 24. I didn’t have time to wonder how it was coming up with these names before I knew where I was.

I was halfway across an orchard of deadened and sickly apple trees before I heard the same noise I had made from killing those roaches.

I yelped as I felt a burning pain running along my left flank. The pain was excruciating compared to anything else I had ever felt before.

I looked back to see another pony charging at me with a gun held in it’s mouth.

A thought passed through my head. ‘What do they shoot with their tongues’. I was in fact correct as I saw him tense a little bit as he used his tongue to fire at me again. This time the bullet slammed full force into my flank. I hit the ground and rolled behind a tree.

I opened up my saddlebags and grabbed a healing potion. I was about to drink it when I realized the pony could still shoot me. It would be a waste to drink this potion if I were to get shot again. I levitated my gun up as he came around the corner. I hesitated long enough for him to turn and see the gun.

I could see the despair in his eyes as I pulled the trigger. I stopped and stared at the lifeless form before me.

A few seconds ago this had been a living breathing pony. As far as I knew I was invading his home. He could have thought I was a raider looking to kill him and take all he owned. In a way he was right. I looked away long enough to drink the health potion.

After recovering from being shot twice I trotted over to the dead raider. I was glad I was alive. I thought to myself what if I lose all my equinity and sacrifice everything and become one of them. I shuddered at the thought. The raider had a holotape in his pocket. I grabbed it and played it.

“Find yourself. Who you once were.”

I was confused but knew exactly what that meant. If part of the old me was still alive then I could never become one of these ponies who are a burden on all of ponykind.

I searched the raiders corpse for any supplies I could find.

The gun he had was a bigger more powerful version of the gun I carried. I had a tough time tearing the gun from his teeth. His jaw had clamped down on the gun after the bullet passed through his brain.

I checked his saddlebags for bullets to the gun. He had one bullet in reserve. His method to leave the world wouldn’t have worked for him. Ponies can’t shoot themselves easily unless they are able to levitate a gun. The revolver was a .44 magnum.

I stripped the armor off of him. The armor was made of leather of some sort. I was unsure how well it would protect me but I guessed it would be enough to stop small caliber bullets and at least prevent larger caliber rounds from complete ripping me to shreds.

I put on the armor. It was a tight fit on the bulkier stallion, but hung very loosely on me. Luckily enough the armor was easy to adjust to fit ponies of different size. The armor was a little worse for wear but would stop bullets from doing so much damage to my body.

I looked to my Pipbuck. I had spent a little less than an hour outside the stable and had already sustained worse injuries than I ever had before.

“If I stay out here too long I am going to get myself killed.” I spat the words out of my mouth realizing how morbid that sounded.

My gun had been emptied of live ammunition. I used my telekinesis to look over the gun until I found a way to reload it.

The cylinder rolled out the side and I was afraid I had broke the gun. The cylinder stopped rolling and I tilted the gun backwards. Six empty casings fell. I reloaded the shells one by one wishing that I had a faster way to reload this stupid thing.

I holstered my guns and trotted north east of the barn I had left.

I sat down once my Pipbuck alerted me I was safe from radiation.

I played around to see if I could access the radio. All the radio use to play down in the stable was the same eight songs all day. I wondered if the wasteland had anybody talented enough to make music. One radio station was available to me that wasn’t just a mess of static. I tuned in to see what the wasteland had to offer.

The voice of a stallion played through. The voice was familiar. Onyx had made it out of the stable and was trying to warn others not to follow him.

“To anypony in stable 24 if you can hear this don’t leave the stable to come find me. I am doing just fine on my own and don’t want to go back to the little hole in the ground that you call home. Please do yourself a favor and stay inside. No pony needs to die trying to find me. Midnight if you are hearing this. I’m sorry for leaving you trapped. I knew I could get myself out and stay out. If I were to bring the Overmare’s daughter with me I would be dragged back into the stable and punished for wanting to be free. You can’t chain a pegasus to a place with low ceilings. We need to be free. If you are out here then go back to the stable. For you the Overmare would do anything. She will want you returned to safety as soon as possible. Please go home. You deserve a better life than you’ll find out here.”

“Message Repeats.”

I chuckled to myself. My best friend was not only alive but was telling me to leave all hopes of finding him behind.

Part of me wanted to listen to my friend. He had been outside the stable for longer than I had. The part of me that was still sensible knew that I would be unable to find my friend even if I stayed out here forever. I was a bit depressed that I might never see my friend again.

I started to trot away from the one home I had ever known. It dawned on me shortly after the outside was a vast open expanse unlike anything I had ever seen in the stable. I started to freak out a little bit.

Everything I had known up to this point was small enclosed spaces that held out all of this craziness. I had to calm myself down before I passed out. My Pipbuck flashed a health alert. I hadn’t noticed the ticking of the Geiger counter. I had absorbed enough radiation to become sick from it.

My Pipbuck pulled a Radaway potion up to the top of my saddlebags. I swiftly drank the potion and watched my radiation levels dissipate. I was intrigued that my Pipbuck knew when I needed to use different types of potions.

I knew that with enough of a tweak it would automatically administer the potions. I unfortunately was not able to make that tweak without the blueprint of my Pipbuck. I took a note to remind myself to upgrade my Pipbuck when I could.

I stood up to walk away when a familiar voice stopped me.

“Hey kid hold up.” The voice was of a stable 24 guard. He had been one of the ponies who had bullied me back in school.

I couldn’t remember his name.

I waited patiently as he trotted up to me. “The Overmare has sent me to see that you are brought safely back to the stable. So if you wouldn’t mind coming quietly.”

I glared him down and said “Come quietly. I can, but not for you.” I had to suppress a laugh.

The guard was a little confused at what I meant but he eventually understood what I meant. “You have got a sick mind kid. Now move on back to the stable.” He said prodding me with a baton.

“Make me” I said sliding the baton out of his grip and smacking him across the face with it.

He went down and didn’t get up. I checked his vitals to make sure he was alive. He was still breathing.

I gathered some materials and made some camouflage knowing that if I left him as he was he would die. I couldn't bring myself to let one of the ponies I had known growing up die, even if he had been a jerk.

I decided to continue to the northeast in hopes that I could find my friend. My Pipbuck gave me a general direction in which the transmission had come from. Unfortunately for me the point of transmission could not be precisely pinpointed. The best I could get was northeast.

A message appeared on my Pipbuck. I opened it up surprised to see a message could be sent to a Pipbuck.

“Dear sir or madam, we humbly request your presence at military outpost BS3. We have need of you and your special talents. Be safe on your trip here. The road is long and dangerous. Many bandits and raiders will block your path. If and when you do succeed at reaching us we will brief you further on the situation at hand.” The letter was signed but the print was too small to read.

I started to walk towards the coordinates they had given sent me. The coordinates pointed northwest of the stable. If I was lucky it would be less than a day's trip to the unknown location.

“I best get started if I am ever going to get there.” I said trying to stay calm.

The night had progressed on without any problem. I had made it about halfway to the coordinates I had been sent. I came across a small town. My Pipbuck labeled the city Ponyville.

The city looked mostly undamaged. Although a few buildings had been destroyed in a very explosive manner.

Garbage covered the streets and a few buildings were full of bullet holes. The sun was setting on the horizon and I knew I needed to find shelter. I picked a small house at random as my place for the night.

The house had not been raided or even entered as far as I could tell. I pushed a sofa up against the door to prevent anyone from coming in while I slept. After securing all doors and windows I explored the house. I came upon a locked door.

It cost me two bobby pins but I managed to open the door. The room beyond seemed to be a storage room. Boxes upon boxes of pre war artifacts. One box drew my eye.

The box was labeled “Important, Fragile”. I opened the box and found inside a glass display case.

I pulled the case out. Inside the case were creatures I had never seen nor read about before. They stood upon two legs and all of them had close to the same color of flesh. I opened the case and pulled one out.

I felt an immediate rush of power as if I had grown stronger from just sitting in place. I flipped the trinket so I could read the text on the base.

“Be Strong. You are powerful and unwavering even in the face of danger.”

Underneath the main text were words I couldn’t quite make out. I placed the trinket back in it’s place. I lifted all the others out of the case. They were in bad shape. I didn’t feel the same rush as when I had picked up the Strength Bobblehead.

In some of the other boxes were prewar clothing. I pulled out a beautiful dress. Even in the stable I had never laid eyes upon a dress that was so stunning.

I was lucky enough that the dress did fit me. I was ecstatic. I had found something in the boring, dull and ugly wasteland that was still beautiful.

I picked up a few of the other dresses so if ponies out here still traded I might have something to barter with. Nothing else in the room was worth taking. I left the room and headed to the second floor.

I entered the one bedroom upstairs. I looked at the table and saw a pile of… Somepony had a collection of caps. I had no idea why anypony would save a worthless scrap of metal for.

A new message appeared on my Pipbuck. “Take those bottlecaps. I know it may sound weird but the ponies of the wasteland trade using those little scraps of metal. The aluminum ones are worth less than the steel ones. There are other bottle caps made of different materials but you are very unlikely to find any of those. Take those and any you find while wandering the wastes. Signed C.”

I was still totally confused about why people would use caps as money but I thought no more of it and dumped them all into my saddlebags.

I found the one and only bed in the room that did not have a corpse in it. The bed was designed for a colt. It was small but it would do for one night.

I woke up the next morning with a start. I had a nightmare of killing that raider. I was watching myself do it from an outside point of view. I saw myself becoming a monster. I was starting to lose faith in myself. I turned to myself. The look in my own eyes was horrifying. With one quick motion the hammer fell.

I got out of bed feeling sore from sleeping in such a small bed.

I glanced at my Pipbuck to see it was already past noon. I had slept way longer than I had intended to. I was also informed by my stomach that I was hungry.
I hadn’t eaten since I left the stable. I pulled an apple I had in my saddlebags out. The apple wasn’t the greatest. None of the food in the stable was ever very good. It would stave off the hunger and allow me to continue my journey.

I headed back downstairs. In the darkness the house had looked as though it had never been touched. In broad daylight I could see the walls were covered in profane language and pictures that to this day still make me shudder.

I looked over the walls. Some of the writing was fresh. A few days old at best as best as I could tell. I found myself snickering at a few of the phrases. I knew I would have to use them some time.

As I reached the front door gunshots rang out. I hit the floor as quietly as I possibly could trying to avoid being seen by anypony who may have been looking for me. I peeked quickly through the closest window.

A group of well armed bandits was searching the town. One of them was fast approaching my door.

I caught part of their conversation.

A smaller stallion was on his way to the house I was in. “The hoofprints lead over here.”

A bigger stallion easily twice my size called out to the little stallion. “I doubt anypony would be stupid enough to stick around a dump like this. Especially this late in the day.”

I was hoping that the bigger stallion had convinced him that nopony was hiding inside.

The stallion stopped right in front of the door. He turned around and nodded. “I still say we should search around more. If anypony is around here they probably haven’t gone very far.”

The group left heading in the exact direction I needed to go. I thought about yelling one of my new profane phrases but held my tongue just incase they could hear me.

I snuck outside of the house through an open window in the garage. The hole was small but I could squeeze through easy enough.

I slipped as I came out the window hitting the ground with a solid thud. I got back to my hooves and hid for a few minutes. None of the bandit ponies came running. I assumed it was safe to continue on.

I poked my head around the corner. I was met with a gun to my muzzle. My first instinct was to grab the gun and kill the pony where he stood.

“Do’t” The pony was trying to talk with a gun in his mouth.

“It is rude to speaking with your mouth full” before I could utter one more word. I was face first laying in the dirt.

The stallion didn’t shoot me. He had bucked me in the face sending me to the ground hard.

I tried to get up but was met with the underside of a stallion. I turned to see him looming over me. I was terrified of what he might do to me.

I lashed out with my magic hoping to get a lucky strike on him. He countered by moving a brick into the path of my magic. His eyes widened terrified. He dropped the gun to the ground.

As fast as he could without messing up he told me “Wow kid I was just trying to stay alive. I mean you no harm really. I just had to make sure you weren’t going to kill me. I thought a buck to the face would do it but you handled it pretty well. Most ponies are knocked unconscious from a hit like that. Now please don’t kill me. I… I…” The stallion almost burst into tears before I spoke

“Woah woah woah. Easy there. I am not going to kill you. Believe me when I say if I was going to kill you I already would have.” My words seemed to put him a little at rest.

He was still on the verge of tears.

“Now before you start crying. What’s your name” I asked him in the gentlest tone I could muster.

“Sorry miss” He returned to what I guessed was normal. “My name is Emerald Ace. Most ponies I know just call me Emerald” He spoke like he was royalty.

“Ok what are you doing out here...”

He put a hoof to my mouth. “I am looking for a mare. A specific mare. I have a message which I am supposed to deliver. Maybe you have seen her. She has a blood red coat and a purple and blue mane. In fact I think you are the mare I seek.”

I was a little creeped out that somepony was looking for me. “Is there a name to this mare?” I asked questioning if he knew my name.

“Why yes. Says here she goes by many names. Her actually name is Midnight Mane” uh oh “She will also accept Miss midnight.”

I was stunned not only because he knew my name. I was also stunned that somepony knew of my escape from the Stable. Somepony must have been watching me the entire time I was out here. I opened my mouth to speak but no words accompanied my action. Ace stared at me for a few seconds before floating me a letter.

“Dear Midnight,

I am contacting you to inform you that the wasteland needs your help. I can’t tell you much at this point. I need you to do a few things for me.

Get your hooves on many weapons. You will need them to survive this journey.

Get armor. The best anypony has ever laid their hooves on.

Find your friend. Make more if possible. You will not be able to do this alone.

If you are reading this because you killed the courier Ace just know I wouldn’t not be disappointed in you. Ace has a way of sneaking up on ponies that honestly creeps me out. If he is still alive thank him and tell him to return to me. I shall further require his services. You have little time Miss Midnight. All of equestria depends on you.

Signed C,L”

I read the letter over three more times before I stopped to gaze at Ace.

He knew what was on the letter. He had read it before and did not need me to tell him what to do. I was about to speak when he interrupted.

“I hope we may meet again someday. Under better circumstances. Good bye Miss Midnight.” He galloped off into the distance faster than I had ever seen anypony move.

I stood there for a few more seconds before continuing on my journey to the unknown signal.

If I wasn’t interrupted I would make it to the origin of the message before the sun went below the horizon.

The trip was a four or five hour trot from Ponyville. I was lucky enough to not run into anything on the trip.

The sun was low on the horizon making the sky a beautiful mix of red and orange. It took all the might I had and a little knowledge of the wasteland to not stop and just stare at the sunset.

My Pipbuck indicated the entrance to an old donut shop was where I needed to go. I shrugged off the ridiculousness of going into a mostly destroyed building to locate whoever sent me that message.

The inside of the shop looked a lot better than anything in the wasteland did. Some of the lights still worked. The worst of the graffiti was pictures that were, pornographic enough to scar even Celestia.

I shuddered a little bit at the sight and averted my eyes. I kept giving quick glances back to the picture while I was still in the room.

I progressed further through the building following the waypoint my Pipbuck had set for finding the origin of the message.

A trapdoor opened up as I stepped on it. I fell for a second before slamming hard against the floor. I slowly got to my hooves. I stood in awe and pain. In front of me stood the door to a stable.

The waypoint on my Pipbuck pointed me to the door. I was torn for a second. Do I enter the door to a place that reminded me of home and leave behind my friend.

I stood contemplating this for minutes before I realized the door had swung open and somepony was trying to talk to me. The mysterious pony was clad in armor I had not seen before. I shook the thought from my head.

“Ok. Look if you aren’t going to talk to me at least come inside. It is dangerous out there. I can see you have learned that a little too well.” The stranger said making me look backwards.

A trail of blood led from where I had fallen to me. Some of the shrapnel had cut me up pretty bad. I nodded my head wincing as the pain finally hit me.

I opened my mouth to talk “Sorry. Just a little bit injured from that fall.” I knew I needed a potion or a doctor. “Do you have somepony who can fix me up a little?” I asked trying to stay on my hooves.

“Yes we do. You just need to get in here. The door has already been open longer than anypony inside likes.” He was talking really quickly.

I started to hobble forward. I couldn’t stay on my hooves all the way to the door. Magic enveloped me as I slipped to the floor. I heard somepony else speak.

“We need to get her to the doctor now!” The voice spoke with more urgency than I had ever heard.

I drifted into a deep sleep.

Harmony

I was unconscious. I could feel all the ponies around me making sure I stayed alive.

My dreams were not filled with anything pleasant. My mind kept going back to the drawing I had seen. It was the most offensive thing that I had ever seen or hoped to see.

One of the ponies broke away from the rest. “You will never save your friend. He is dead, You are as good as dead. You will never be able to save anypony much less yourself. Everypony you know or meet will eventually meet their doom because of you Miss Midnight.”

The creature kept taunting me. The message looped on for a long time. I was starting to believe it.

“No. I will never become what you say I will. I will save my friend. I will live to see everypony I know survive and be happy.” I lashed out at the creature.

I struck it directly. The wall it covered was destroyed. It moved around the room as I let my hooves fly at it. I grew tired. I was being restricted from moving.

I awoke suddenly from my fever dream. I was soaked in sweat. I had been tied down to the bed.

I looked at the walls around me. A few blood splatters covered them along with many hoof sized holes. I realized that I had probably smashed the holes in the wall while I slept.

A stallion in armor marched towards me. “Miss Midnight. I am sorry that we had to tie you down but you would not stop destroying my infirmary. Before you ask. I know your name because you talk in your sleep. Must have been some dream to make you lash out.” The stallion managed a little smile.

He was missing a few teeth. Blood dripped from his muzzle. I had so many questions to ask that I didn’t know where to start.

“Did I… Did I hit you?” I was afraid of the answer he would give me.

“Yes you did. We had to restrain you because of that. We weren’t sure that anypony could manage anything of that caliber while they were unconscious. You proved us wrong. No hard feelings though. I’m actually more impressed than I am hurt. You have one strong buck. Stronger than some stallions. Stronger than me.” The stallion was being as polite as possible I could tell he was a little worried about his teeth.

“Are you going to be ok missing a few teeth?” I was hoping he would be.

“Oh. Don’t worry about that either. I’ll have somepony use magic to put them back in.” He was distracted.

“Wait you mean ponies can do that? That is amazing.” I tried to sit up.

He nodded.

A nurse walked up to him and whispered in his ear. His eyes widened and he galloped out the door.

The Nurse walked over to me. “Don’t worry about him. He is a strong stallion even if he won’t admit it. For now I need to change the sheets on your bed. They are filthy. We can’t have anypony live in such conditions.”

She whistled and another nurse came over with a wheelchair. I was moved over to it.

The second nurse wheeled me behind a curtain.

She spoke to me. “You need to stay here for a while. We will make you up a new bed. While you are here I would suggest cleaning yourself up. No offense but I have seen radroaches that are cleaner than you.”

I looked down to see my coat was caked in blood and sweat. I grimaced at the sight. I looked over the rest of my body for bandages. I was free from anything that might need to stay dry.

I looked up to see the nurse was leaving the room. I was glad that I had left the stable. I could now admire any mare who I pleased. I caught myself staring at her flanks as she was walking out.

She turned around. I snapped my gaze to hers. “You might want to try to control yourself. You are on camera. You wouldn’t want the stallions to see you eye humping me. Don’t worry though I don’t mind. If you weren’t in such bad shape right now I might consider it. But until you get yourself cleaned up that is a no go darling.”

I looked at her shocked at what she had said. “I..I” I couldn’t speak my mind.

“Now don’t tell me a mare like you has a special somepony. Seeing as how you were staring at me. I would say it is either that you do and you wish you didn’t or you are looking for a mare you can call yours.” She was not making my life easy.

“I.. I don’t have a special mare of my own.” The words fell out of my mouth like a dam had just burst.

I felt better than I ever had. My feelings were out there and I was happy. I was starting to realize she might not like me if I played right into her hoof. I opened my mouth to speak but no words came.

“I understand your surprise. It’s pretty hard to find a mare who likes mare out here. I have been out here for years and have not found one mare who would admit she liked mares. You are very brave to admit that. I’m Harmony. It is a pleasure to meet you.” She was making it really hard to concentrate.

“Nice to meet you Harmony. I am Midnight mane. Most people just call me Midnight.” The words did not come to me easily.

“Well Miss Midnight. I hope I can get to know you better later but for now you need to clean yourself up. Be thorough about it. I will know if you were thorough. Find me later. We have a few things to discuss.” She turned to leave. “Stop staring at my flanks and clean yourself. You will have plenty of time later to stare at them.” She winked at me and walked out of the room.

I was sitting there stunned. I was amazed that I had found a mare out here who might actually like me. I was stuck between sitting there and not believing here and jumping into the air with a shout of joy. I looked down again the only thing that was different...

Harmony walked in again. “Geez Midnight are you just going to sit their. Do you need me to clean you?” She asked me but I was still staring down. “I will take that as a yes. So get up and let me help you. Do it now before I have a good reason to leave.” She was walking over to me.

I quickly got out of the chair and faced her. “I.. I don’t.. I don’t need you to clean me. I just need some time. That’s all I swear.”

She forced me farther into the room. “Good. You can clean up here. Don’t use too much water. Our water talisman is not in the greatest condition. We have somepony working on it but it will take time to fix. For now don’t take longer than 15 minutes. Remember you are on camera so don’t get any ideas. The only rooms without cameras are where we sleep. You can get ideas there. I am leaving now. Until you are clean don’t come looking for me.” Her gaze shifted and she walked out.

The room had a timer telling me how long the water had been running. It didn’t take me long to clean myself up from all of the sweat and blood. I dried myself off and took a look at the timer. The water had been running for 12 minutes. I switched it off and started walking towards the exit.

Harmony waited for me at the door. “Hey. You actually were able to listen. I came down here after you finished up with the water.” She winked at me.

“Wait how did you know that I had finished…” I didn’t need to finish my sentence before realizing she had been watching me. “You were watching me weren’t you.” The statement was true I knew that much but I said it with a hint of anger.

“Well I had to make sure none of the stallions were watching you. I made sure nopony watched you as you showered. I thought it was the least I could do. Trust me you do not want their attention. I have had to deal with them for years. It is not fun.” She was trying to protect me.

“Thank you. I’m sorry for how I acted.” I was on the verge of crying.

I had just told off the one pony who I had actually liked since leaving the Stable. I thought she might not want to be with me anymore.

She sensed what I was feeling. “Hey now. I forgive you. No need to apologize for your behaviour. I would have reacted the same way if I knew somepony was spying on me while I was showering. It is only natural.” She put a hoof on one of my shoulders smiling at me.

“Now come with me. I have managed to get the doctors to allow you to stay with me. They were reluctant but seeing as you are able to do things on your own they will allow it. Besides if not I am a nurse and can always come to the rescue. Now let’s get some food I bet you are just starving. You have been asleep for over a day after all.” Harmony trotted towards the door.

I was getting over the sadness but was thrown right into shock. “I’ve been asleep for over a day!?”

“Yes you have. You are just adorable when you aren’t trying to kill the doctor.” She laughed a little and we left for the mess hall.

It was a short walk to the mess hall. Ponies in different styles of armor were seated at different tables eating apples and something else. I couldn’t tell what it was but it looked different than apples.

“The different armor styles are based around the type of pony who is supposed to wear it.” Harmony was answering a question she knew I had. “Pegasi, Unicorns, and earth ponies all have different armor. The armor for Unicorns usually doesn’t include a helmet. For those of us who have horns we are the ones who stay back and make sure all goes to plan.”

I realized I hadn’t even asked Harmony what type of pony she was. “You don’t have to ask. I am a unicorn. I am a little offended that you didn’t catch that but I will forgive you. Be a little more on top of things.”

She brought me over to a table. I sat down glad to be off my hooves. I hadn’t realized before but I was not at my strongest. I had barely been able to sit down before my legs gave out. Harmony hurried along to go grab me some food. I looked around a bit more looking at all of the ponies gathered here.

Most wore armor. It was magically powered armor. The spell matrix that surrounded it was similar to that of my Pipbuck. I knew only because Harmony had explained the armor on the way over. She returned quickly carrying two trays of food with her magic.

“Have you tried meat before? I bet you probably haven’t seeing as most ponies are vegetarian. We are able to eat it when other food is in short supply. That is how we have survived out here. This meat is crab I think. For ponies who did eat meat this was a delicacy back before the war.” She sat down and started eating.

I looked over the delicious meal. I tore into the food forgetting that I was in the company of other ponies. I had about finished the food before Harmony Spoke up.

“Slow down Midnight. Nopony is going to steal your food. They might think about it but they won’t. Trust me. After the incident with the doctor the stallions are wary of you.” Harmony smiled anc continued eating.

A big stallion walked up to the table and sat down. I looked up momentarily before continuing to eat slower because of Harmony.

“Hello. So you are the mare that everypony has been talking about. The one strong enough to make the doctor order to have you strapped down. Good job kid. You have proved worthy enough to be kept alive. Now screw the formalities we need you to do something for us. You have a Pipbuck 3000. I believe that is what I was told. You are the only pony out in the wasteland that can help us. So what do you say.” He was clad entirely in armor.

I looked up from my plate having finished my meal. I nodded my head before asking “What is it you need me to do?”

“Inside this Stable there is a room. The door is locked and can’t be opened by any method other than completing a simulation. This simulation requires a Pipbuck like yours to work. Our armor is different just enough that the machine will not accept us. You however it would accept.” The stallion’s voice shuddered as did he.

“Ok what is in it for me if I risk my life in this simulation of yours?” I was curios to see what they would offer me.

I was hoping they might offer Harmony and I a place to stay away from the horrors of the wasteland. No such offer was made.

“We want to know what is behind the door. You can have anything that is in the room. If what is back their is what we think it is then it will be a terrible loss for us but an acceptable one. So do we have a deal.” He put out a hoof.

I looked at Harmony. She smiled and nodded her head.

“Ok. You’ve got a deal.” I outstretched one of my one hooves to meet his. The deal was set.

“You may have the night to yourself but first thing tomorrow you are helping us with this. Do as you wish. Just keep it down. Don’t want anypony to see something they shouldn’t.” He stood up and walked away. I had a feeling he had winked at me underneath his helmet.

I checked the time seeing it was about 9:00. Harmony grabbed me by the hoof and led me away from the mess hall. She lead me down a hallway that lead to the living quarters of the Stable.

I had been looking the stable over. It seemed that all stables had been designed the same way. I didn’t know how many Stables there could possibly be but I knew it had to be at least 24.

Harmony opened a door which I assumed was her living quarters.

The room only had one bed in it. I was wondering if they were going to bring in a second bed or if I was going to have to sleep on the floor. So many thoughts raced through my mind I almost didn’t realize what was happening.

Harmony had shed her nurse outfit. I still wasn’t putting two and two together. She hopped onto the bed which I realized I was laying on.

“Do you remember what the doctors told you.” Harmony laid down next to me. “They said to take it easy. Nothing that might cause your injuries to become worse. Usually I would listen to them but I have a few things that I want to try. So what do you say.”

I looked a bit confused. I could see Harmony realize a few things.

“Oh, so you are new to this. Well then let me show you how it’s done.” She started to move.

I was still super confused as to what was happening. Harmony had disappeared from my sight I started to look around the room.

My gaze was suddenly shifted to my nether regions. Harmony was about to do what I had always dreamed somepony would do.

I shudder. “This is going to be fun.”

Author's Note

If you want to write clop of this, go for it.

An Old Friend

An Old Friend

(Midnight you know I can forgive you for all of that. Try to tone it down with that. You are lucky I was here to intervene. You could have seriously scarred my little ponies.)(I know princess but it is just so much fun to relive those memories. I know harmony had fun reliving that. Even if it was at my expense. Now if you don’t mind I am going to take a seat and tell more of the story. You can stay if you want to. I would understand if you had to leave. Just remember we may need you to put an end to something before it starts. Now where was I.)

I woke up the next morning embracing Harmony. Today I was greeted by her smiling face. It was a welcome change of pace from the previous night. A clock sat on the opposite wall. I strained my eyes reading it. All I knew for sure was that it was 6:00. I wasn’t able to tell if it was A.M or P.M. I couldn’t care less what time it was. As long as I was here with Harmony nothing could ruin my day. Harmony stirred next to me.

“Morning miss 29.” She smiled and went back to sleep. If she had been fully awake she would have been able to see I wasn’t in great shape. I was getting use to her trying to embarrass me. I had to fight back the urge to wake her up. I shifted over to the edge of the bed and slowly set my hooves onto the ground.

The first thing I noticed was numerous bottles scattered across the ground. From the headache I had I assumed we had gotten drunk last night. I didn’t regret it though. “Must have been one hell of a night huh. Hey Harmony. You are going to have to fill me in on what happened last night. I am a little fuzzy on the details. Far as I can tell. We both got blackout drunk. I don’t regret it though.” “Both of us. No darling. I offered you a sip of whiskey. Let’s just say you are not going to be happy with yourself. You drank more than most of the stallions down here can manage. You are not a lightweight that is for damn sure.” Harmony had gotten to her hooves much easier than I thought possible after last night.

I stood there for a few seconds before Harmony was able to make her way over to me. I took a look at my PipBuck. It was 6:00 pm. A note had been left on the bedside table.

“You two have overstayed your welcome. We will allow one more night here. You will be under surveillance. Any behaviour we disapprove of will have the two of you separated for the night. Go back to sleep. From the looks of it you need a good rest to get over that hangover. First thing tomorrow morning you two are being evicted from this Stable until further notice.”

I read the note a few times before I gave up and sat down on the bed again. Harmony tidied up the room a little bit before joining me. I wanted to talk to her about last night but couldn’t bring myself to open my mouth. Every moment I was awake was another moment I had to deal with this hangover.

Finally after what seemed like an eternity Harmony started to talk “Look I know you are wondering how I could have let things get so out of hand last night. I honestly tried to stop you from drinking all of that alcohol. After you took that first sip something awoke inside of you. I can only describe it as a burning desire. You opened up about your childhood and everything that had happened to you. You drank down bottle after bottle of beer, wine, and the last of my whiskey. I had to join you. I couldn’t just let you go through all that alone. It didn’t feel right. I remember more than I think you do about yourself. So yeah it was one hell of a night.” She fell silent for a little bit before her beautiful voice rang out again. “38. The alcohol gave you some sort of boost. I don’t believe I have ever orgasmed that much in one night."

(Midnight darling I know you want to document the whole story but could you skip this part.)(Princess we both need closure on this. Please let us have this.)(Ok. For you I will.)

“Well done Midnight. I hope that cheers you up. If not I don’t have much more I can do for you. Well I do but you need some rest. I know we just woke up but let’s go back to sleep. We have an early start to make tomorrow.”

Harmony laid down for a few seconds before pulling me down with her. I had mixed feelings for the day I was living through. I loved Harmony for accepting me and all of my faults. I loathed the fact that I had been allowed to drink so much alcohol. I hated myself a little bit for drinking the last of Harmony’s whiskey. I somehow remembered that it was a gift she had received before her previous partner had died.

I so desperately wanted to find words to say to the mare who had made me happier than I had ever been in my life. I simply could not bring myself to speak. My mind was a mess thanks to the alcohol and I was going to try anything that might hurt Harmony. In the end I laid down with her and cried. She was there with me until the sweet embrace of sleep overtook me. I didn’t dream that night.

The next morning I woke up without Harmony holding me. I jumped out of bed and started searching desperately for her. I was afraid that I had done something last night to make her leave. Many thoughts jumped to mind of why should we want to leave me and not come back. The stallion from the drawing came back. He started taunting me. I hit the floor hard. I curled up into a ball and sat there. I wanted to cry but no tears came. The door to the room opened with a creak. Harmony stepped through the door and saw me on the floor. She galloped over and grabbed me. I looked into her eyes. I could see she was worried about me.

I opened my mouth to talk surprised that words actually accompanied my action. “Harmony I am so glad that you are still here. I was so afraid that you had decided to leave me. I did so many things over the past couple of days that were so out of character for me. I just. I’m just glad you are here.” She stared at me a loving look in her eye. “Midnight. I love you. I am not going to leave you over a little awkwardness. There is nothing in this world that is going to tear me away from you. I was getting some supplies gathered up before we headed out. Now I need you to go back to bed. It is around 3:00 in the morning. You need to be well rested for this journey we are about to embark on. I have a place we can go. A place we can call home. Please go back to bed for a little while. I will reveal the plan after we leave this Luna forsaken place.”

She pulled me to my hooves and hugged me. We walked over to the bed. I climbed back up and laid down. Harmony gave me a kiss before she walked out the door. I forced myself to calm down and go back to sleep.

I dreamt I was walking in a field of chaos and death. Harmony stood next to me. The graffiti pony returned to my sight. Harmony moved slightly into a battle stance. Before the graffiti pony could speak Harmony destroyed it. He had stood tall over me but in one shot Harmony had destroyed him. I was free of him. I felt a burst of magic surge through my body. Together Harmony and I were able to repel the darkness of the world. We were only able to do it for a short while. We would need help to complete purge the world from evil. I felt a charm around my neck. I could not see it when I looked for it but I knew it was there. The ground started shaking gently.

I woke up from my sleep. I wanted to tell Harmony about my dream but felt that I shouldn’t say anything about what I had seen. She knew I wasn’t feeling great so she simply gave me a hug before donning her armor. I followed her after putting on my own suit of armor. She was showing me all the gear she had managed to get. I wondered how she had managed to acquire so much with so little to trade. I dared not inquire in fear of the answer.

The armor had an advanced knowledge of the wastelands. It updated my PipBuck with locations all across Equestria. Harmony had marked one in particular. Tenpony Tower. “I own a room at Tenpony. I also inherited a business from my parents. They ran a Winery inside of the tower. They made the equivalent of about 10,000 caps every four months. They never had a shortage of wine. Now they have a shortage of wine. All the ponies crave it. They are addicted to it. The doctors would cure them but they refuse treatment. I don’t want to take advantage of them but we need the caps if we want to settle down one day. I traded one of those old dresses you found to a mare who is a nurse for 5 bottles of wine. It isn’t much but it will get us started.Don’t worry I saved the dress you gave me and the one you kept for yourself. They are beautiful by the way. You must look divine in yours. Promise me one day I will get to see you in it.” “I promise.” I laughed a little bit as we exited the Stable.

I spent three hours looking over some of the new gear we had acquired. One of my favorite new weapons was a Gauss rifle. Aurora had managed to sweet talk the pony in charge of weaponry into giving her the most powerful weapon he had. I realized how awesome the Gauss rifle was after firing it at a bloat sprite and watching it explode into a million pieces. The ammo for it was rare and we would be incredibly lucky to find any. I had to not use it unless absolutely necessary. A few of the weapons we acquired would be impossible to shoot without support. No amount of magic could hold a minigun firing at top speed for any longer than a second. Aurora and Harmony had informed me my armor had a built in battle saddle. The saddle is used to fire weapons that would normally be too big for anypony to fire. I was not able to figure out the saddle on my own. Harmony promised me she would teach me how to use it.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Thanks to our early start we were able to cover most of the distance between us and Tenpony before the sun was low in the sky. We stopped to watch the sunset. It was the most beautiful thing I had seen since I had left the Stable. (Well. The second most beautiful thing I had seen since I left the Stable.) We had just reached Appleloosa when the sun had set. A few ponies were out wandering the streets. I was confused as to why anypony would just wander out in the wasteland without armor or a weapon.

“They live in a town close by. Well half of the town has been transformed into a sanctuary for lost ponies. I am not welcome there. I tried to trade with one of their trader caravans. The leader of said caravan ended up with a bullet hole in his head the size of my hoof. They thought I did it. A pegasus pony shot at me while flying but missed me just barely and killed the trader. He flew away. They don’t trust me. I will never be allowed to set one hoof inside that city. I hope you believe me when I say that I did not shoot him. I had a hard time accepting this armor. It reminded me that I could still kill ponies. I don’t want to kill anypony if I don’t have to. Now let’s seek shelter for the night I am tired. Tenpony tower is still about a half days trot from here.” Harmony started to drag me towards an abandoned building.

“Do you have to drag me everywhere? I am perfectly capable of walking to the house. Any reason you don’t want to be out after dark?” We both stopped. Harmony looked into my eyes as best as I could tell she was looking into my eyes. “Dangerous creatures stalk in the night. Every heard of a changeling or a vampire fruit bat? Thanks to radiation they have become much more dangerous. The bats are easily the size of a full grown stallion and have a desire to eat flesh. The changelings are masters of taking the form of ponies you love. They look identical but act differently. It is usually pretty easy to tell when one is trying to fool you. Be careful though. Some of them are much more intelligent. They become the pony they are copying. Everything is the same. Nopony has figured out how to beat them. So please just get inside the house.” “Ok” it was the simplest answer I could give but was filled with fear.

We entered the house just as the sun went below the horizon. Harmony turned on a light that had been built into her suit of armor. I face hoofed realizing I could have done the same thing with my PipBuck when it was dark.

We made quick work of barricading the doors and windows. I was amazed that anypony could survive wearing this armor for more than a few hours. It chafed all over my body.

“Aurora. Is this how this armor is supposed to fit? I don’t see how anypony could survive prolonged combat in such a suit. I mean they are great for protection.” I tapped on my helmet a few times. “But they are not great for much else.” Aurora was quick to reply. “That armor is Mark 4. The lower the Mark of armor the less well of you are going to be. That suit of armor doesn’t have the function built in to resize it at will. It was meant for my daughter in case of emergency. I wanted her to be protected. This was the only suit of armor I could afford. For protection it will suffice. It might be able to stop a few high caliber bullets but a well placed shot will kill you. Now if you had Mark 12 armor you would be pretty much invincible. Unfortunately Mark 12 is rare. If a suit still remained it would have been split into pieces to prevent the boars from making similar suits. We needed armor but didn’t want it to fall into their hands. All suits were decommissioned by being sent into the center of a megaspell. All traces of a suit were disintegrated. You would be more likely to find a set of Mark 8 armor. If you do manage to locate armor that is not in use I would suggest disassembling it and stockpiling it somewhere. Those suits are protective but not indestructible. Once it needs maintenance it is pretty much a pile of scrap until it is repaired. You might as well paint a sign on your”

(Wow. Did Aurora actually say that?)(I recall saying something to that effect. I didn’t remember it quite like that. Oh well can’t change the past.)

“Now you need to rest. Also maybe eat something. After the past couple of days you had. I’m surprised you haven’t eaten a radigator whole.”

Aurora was right about a lot of things. She seemed to know what I needed before I even realized it. Harmony had heard everything and handed me an apple. I tried unsuccessfully to eat the apple nine times before I realized a suit of armor was between me and my apple. Harmony laughed a little bit before helping me out of my armor. Aurora took control of the armor after we had exited and turned on the radio.

“Do AI like listening to the radio or something?” “No we don’t but I think there is something you should hear.” Aurora had a seriousness in her voice that I had never heard before. It was a slight bit terrifying.

“This message goes out to Midnight. The pony who left Stable 24 to come looking for me. Listen I know you are loyal to your friends. I know you want to see me alive and well again but I need you to return to the Stable at once. Your mother has descended into alcoholism in you absence. The entire Stable needs you. I have eyes on the inside so I know everything that has happened since you left. It has been one week and the entire Stable has fallen into chaos. None of the essential systems are running. Everyone has started to go insane. Actually on second thought do not I repeat do not return home. You will be killed. A bandit by the name of Tri Tear has been seen camping outside of the Stable. No doubt within a few days he will have full control over the Stable and all it’s residence. I am doing fine out here on my own. So don’t come looking for me because even if you do I have wings so I can outrun you any time. I need to work a few things out by myself before I see you again. I hope you have made yourself some new friends. Celestia knows you need them out here.” “Onyx we need to get out of here. There is a horde of them they won’t take long to get in here. We need to leave right now. Finish up your recording and let’s get the hell out of here.” “Goodbye Midnight. I hope to see you again one day.”

I was vivid my friend had survived to see another day. By the sounds of it his was in trouble and really needed my help. I knew I couldn’t find him with so little to go on but I had to have hope that one day I would see him again.

“Thank you Aurora. I have to ask. How did you find this?” “I searched through all radio transmission frequencies. Your friend has gotten his hands on some powerful equipment. He has hijacked multiple radio stations and used them to broadcast messages to you on an infinite loop. I downloaded his message to take the guesswork out of when to start playing the recording. I hope this helps you to find a purpose in life. Continue on this path and one day you will find him again.” “Thank you again Aurora. Watch over the house with the armor while we sleep.”

Aurora put the armor into sentry mode. Any hostile entity would be scanned and assessed for a threat level. If the threat was high enough we would be alerted. Harmony and I proceeded to go to bed.

I slept soundly that night. It was the first time since I had left the Stable that I actually had a good night's sleep. A lot of sleeping was not done that night. I again awoke not to Harmonies face but to her...

(Midnight you might not want to finish that sentence. The Princess just got back and is not it the mood for any of our horsing around. After yesterday I am not actually in the mood to horse around.)(Yeah. I could understand that. After all last night definitely would have broken any ponies recommendations on how far you can actually go. I wonder how long it is going to take to clean up that mess. I don’t envy the pony whose job it is to clean that up. Oh hi there Silver how are you? I haven’t seen you since last night. What have you been up to?)(I was the pony who got tasked with cleaning up your night of fun. Now I am not going to blame you for taking time to have some fun but could you go a little bit easier next time. I have to clean up after you two permanently. I mean seriously how did you manage even half of that mess. Did you like… You know what I’m not even going to ask. How was your day at the spa Princess?)(Oh it was just excellent Silver thank you for asking. I suggest that you go down there some day. They take care of everything. I haven’t felt this great since well. You had to clean up the mess so you know exactly how everything went. That reminds me you might want to get more janitor ponies to help you out tonight. I have a feeling tonight is going to be ten times as sloppy.)(Sorry Silver but you heard the Princess. I hope you are ready for the best night of your life Harmony, and you too Princess.)(Now please finish your thought. Or don’t right now I don’t have a care in the world. I would like to ask one question before you continue. Do you still wake up like that. Or is it only certain days?)

(Oh Silver Um... I know you have been spying on Harmony and I. I am very perceptive you know. So fess up to watching us.)(Oh um Midnight.)(Not now princess. I am putting a stop to this behavior Silver.)(You might want to listen to the princess. I wasn’t spying on you two. I leave any room you two might be in alone after the sun goes down.)(I know that’s a lie. Somepony was watching us. I have reasons to believe it was you.)(It wasn’t Silver. Midnight, it… It was me.)(Wait. What. Did the princess just say she was watching us?)(Yes she did and here is how I know that it was her. I woke up last night to the sound of something squeaking. I made my over this way to knock on your door telling you two to knock it off. I saw Celestia had the door open watching into your bedroom. I immediately left to go back to sleep because I thought I was seeing things.)(What time was it?)(I don’t know. Well past midnight. Maybe around three.)(Well by that time we had stopped. We can’t live without sleep. That is why we start at nine o’clock.)(Well if it wasn’t you two than who was it. Where are Onyx and D… Ok that makes things a lot weirder. Now princess I think you and I need to talk. Come with me please.)(Ok Silver. Goodbye Midnight. See you soon.)

We promptly began our journey to Tenpony Tower as soon as we could. I wish I could say that the journey there was filled with excitement and danger. I wish I could say that. The journey was a boring one. Three hostiles flashed onto my hud for a brief moment halfway to Tenpony but disappeared immediately after.

By noon the tower was in sight and we stopped for lunch. The food we had procured before we left the brotherhood was mediocre at best. Among some of the finer more aged sweets was a pack of Fancy Foal Cakes. A foal was on the side of the package happily enjoying his wonderful treat. “I really hope that these snack cakes were as good as they advertised.”

I took one small bite of the treat before deciding to not try those ever again. The flavor was appalling and I had to force myself to keep down what little food I had in my stomach. Harmony suppressed a laugh. “You know the food is supposed to be swallowed right? You don’t just spit it out and nearly heave up your lunch. Also I wouldn’t recommend vomiting in here. Some of the creatures from the wasteland can smell really well. They would be on us within a few minutes.” The entirety of what was taking place was almost too much for me. Thanks to and also not thanks to Harmony’s warning I refused to vomit while we were here. It took me a few minutes to get back to a state of not being sick to my stomach.

“Midnight. I have found another transmission from Onyx if you would like to hear it. The message is uncomplete.” “Aurora you surprised me. Another transmission? Let’s hear it.”

“Hello Midnight. Onyx again. I am recording this message to tell you I have settled down out here in the wasteland. It is not so bad once you get use to corpses and the fact that somepony probably wants you dead. I have made a new friend much like you have. I am in Tenpony Tower if you wish to visit. I already know you do so get your flank over here as soon as you can. Tell Harmony that I wish to meet her. I know many things Midnight. I have friends in high places. Friends who can get me information I want. I wanted to know how you were doing and I made sure I found out. Also this is aimed at Harmony. Wine prices here are beyond outrageous. One bottle might cost me 50 caps, and that is for a cheap bottle. An old Britalian wine might sell for thousands of caps. Although I doubt you have such a bottle on you. A delicacy such as that would earn you a place amongst the highest ponies in this tower. I must go……”

“The intelligible part of the message ends there. What follows is various sounds which might be a language I do not know. I would play them for you but I do not believe you need any further reason to continue to Tenpony. As soon as you two finish with lunch you should probably make your way over fast. Nopony is allowed into the tower after sunset. And as Harmony said it is dangerous out here at night. Being near the tower would certainly make it safer but you wouldn’t be invulnerable.”

With that we packed up our belongs and headed off at a full gallop towards the tower.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

We arrived well before the sun had set. A pony was talking over an intercom to someone inside the tower.

“We don’t allow your kind in here demon. All you ponies bring bad luck wherever you go. Nopony in here wants anything to do with you. I am going to say this one more time slowly so you can understand alright. Get the Buck outta here before we send the guards down to deal with you. Trust me you won’t like what they do to you.”

The pegasus pony trying to get in was obviously distressed. We were approaching her at a rather fast pace. I would have slammed into her were it not for Harmony wrapping me in her magic and pulling me back towards her.

“Midnight I don’t know what you have seen out here before but I need to tell you a few things. One you don’t sneak up on ponies like that. Two that there is a Ghoul pony. Have you ever heard of them? They have survived more radiation than any doctor pony you find would say survivable. She seems ok but others are beyond the point of salvation. Those are known as zombie ponies. They will attack you on sight and are unrelenting in their assaults. So be careful.”

“Well sir. I realize you don’t allow ghouls in to this establishment but I have a really important message to deliver. If I am not allowed in can I atleast send the message up with somepony?” The mare had a sweet tone to her voice even though she was annoyed “First off we allow ghouls into the tower. We allow all manner of ponies into the tower as long as they pass our tests. You on the other hand Derpy. You bring bad luck wherever you go. I am not allowed to let you in. If you can find somepony willing to deliver your message then I will allow the message through. Until then you can sit there and consider what brought this about in the first place.” The guard on the other end was rude.

“Well I guess I’m never going to deliver this message.” The gray mare sat on the ground defeated. “Hi. Derpy was it. I’m Midnight. I might be able to deliver that message you’ve got to whoever it needs to go to.” The mare shot upright and stared at me. “You would. That would be so much help. Nopony let’s me into important places like this tower. I have a history of not being the best at being careful.” The mare looked at the ground before smiling at us. “We will deliver that message for you. Who does it go to?” “It goes to a stallion named Demo. I would usually deliver to DJ Pon3 but nopony is sending mail.” “Ok Derpy. We will not fail in finding this Demo guy and delivering your message. Have a wonderful day.” Derpy got to her hooves and trotted off into the distance.

“She seemed nice. A little odd but nice nonetheless.” “Well Midnight that was a very good thing you decided to do. I have heard tales of Derpy. She was alive before the war started. She wasn’t the best at handling delicate situations but nopony could ever make her feel bad. She owned the way she was and made sure that she would stay happy. Probably why she hasn’t gone Zombie yet. Anyway let's go into the tower. I’m sure that letter needs to be delivered quick and I don’t want to keep you from your friend.”

Harmony dragged me along as she walked over to the intercom.

“Go Away Derpy. We aren’t going to let you in here. Oh wait you aren’t Derpy. My apologies Miss…” “The name is Harmony. I own a house in Tenpony. I am sure you have heard of me. My friend here is Midnight. She will be allowed in with me.” “Oh yes ma’am. I will send down a personal escort for you.” “That won’t be necessary. We can manage just fine thank you.” “Understood. Welcome to Tenpony Tower enjoy your stay Miss Harmony.”

The guards pony opened the front door remotely and we entered Tenpony Tower. I was on a mission to find my friend and also to deliver this letter to a stallion name Demo. I wasn’t going to let anything get in my way.

(Well. You did let a few things get in your way. Me mostly. But please continue the story.)

The inside of the tower was breathtaking. The walls had been painted to look like a sunset. This one room brought back memories of my life before the chaotic hell of the wasteland. I was so happy to be back into a place where civilization thrived. We were stopped by a guard before we reached the elevator.

“I am sorry but you two need to relinquish all of your weapons and armor before you head upstairs. We have had problems in the past with ponies going on a rampage and murdering a few of the residence.”
I looked at Harmony. She had already taken off her armor and was clearing her saddlebags of weapons. I removed my weapons and armor reluctantly.

“I will get these back before I leave right?” “Yes ma’am you will. We just can’t have ponies running around upstairs murdering the fine ponies of this tower. That’s just bad for business. If they die I don’t get paid and if I don’t get paid how am I going to get all the mares to” (Wow this guard is crude. We have lived in the wasteland for a long time. I am still not used to such profanity. Even though I have times when i can be just as profane.) “That’s just how life works here. He who gets paid the most gets laid the most. Oh and I would watch yourselves two attractive mares like you are going to be turning lots of heads. As for me I don’t care what happens to you. Long as I get paid I don’t care.”

I hadn’t lived long enough to be able to find the words necessary to describe the way that guard made me feel. It was a mixture of disgust, hatred, and honestly homesickness. Ponies like him were few and far between in the stable. A few of the ponies who were older than me acted just like him as if that would make them look tough and cool. It was a real turn off. The guard pointed us to an elevator. I had to force myself to not gallop at full speed over to the elevator to escape this nightmare of a stallion.

The elevator was completely empty when we stepped inside. Harmony hit the button to take us to the 15th floor.

“Our house is on the 21st floor. Floors 10-15 are the areas where you can purchase pretty much anything. 16-22 are residential. The top floor is reserved for the most important ponies meeting area. The two floors below that are a radio broadcasting hub. A pony named DJ Pon3 resides there. He plays some decent music but on an endless repeat it gets rather boring. If you want news of what is going on out in the wasteland you might want to tune in. He is pretty much always correct on whatever he is reporting on. He has eyes everywhere so watch yourself he might take a liking to you.”

We arrived on 15th floor just as Harmony finished explaining how Tenpony Tower worked. When the doors opened we were greeted by a bleak looking room. The entire floor was one big room. Shops were set up all around the floor in no particular order. We walked over to a wine store that looked like it had been out of business for years.

The boards fell away with a small bit of magic. For not having been in use for years the shop was clean. Not a single speck of dust coated anything. A few bottles of wine remained shelved. I walked into the back room of the shop believing I would find something. A shelf of wine that looked untouched and in pristine condition was the only thing in the back room.

“That was my parents ‘secret’ stash of fine wine. They had a few bottles of Britalian wine if I remember correctly. Unfortunately for us I am not going to sell those.” Harmony levitated one of the bottles towards us. “May I ask why we aren’t going to sell those bottles? We could be rich beyond our wildest dreams.” Harmonies response was short. “These are the only things I have left that remind me of my past life. And besides this is some of the finest wine ever made. I’m not letting go of this when you and I could have so much more fun if we kept it.”

It took all of five seconds after her finishing that sentence for her to make the situation.. For lack of a better word sexual.

(If I remember correctly this was a fun time. Let’s skip that.)(How long… Wow.)

I awoke with Harmony in my embrace. We were laying on the floor of her parents… Our wine shop. An empty bottle of wine had been discarded some distance to our left. Well my left her right. The little bell that hung near the door rand as somepony entered. I gave Harmony a quick nudge and we were both to out hooves.

“Hello you two… I am interrupting something? Is now a bad time? I can come back later if you want me to.” The stallion in front of us turned an unusual shade of red. “No… No. It’s fine. What do you need good sir.” Harmony found her words before I could find mine. “Well my name is Demo. I was wandering the tower when I saw that this shop had been reopened. I was delighted to say the least. I was wondering if you had a bottle of wine or two that you would be willing to part with. I am throwing a party. My partners old friend has just arrived here at Tenpony. I wanted to throw them a party for surviving the wastelands. Any friend of his is a friend of mine. Wait…”

The stallion looked the two of us over before shaking his head. “Well you are the pony he spoke of. You must be Midnight. The mare with eyes for mares. You need not worry. I am not looking to steal away your lover. Whose name is Harmony if I recall correctly.” I nodded my head blushing just a little. “Yeah. That’s us. It is a pleasure to meet you Demo. Can we go see Onyx?” “Why certainly. Follow me and I will take you to him.”

Demo turned to leave before I remembered the letter that Derpy had said needed to go to Demo. “Hold on. Derpy had a letter for you. She didn’t say what it was about but she said it was important. Here you go.” He grasped the letter in his hoof before tucking it underneath his wing. He nodded and continued on his path to the elevator.

The elevator ride to the 22nd floor was a ride full of anticipation and fear. I was so happy that I was about to see my lifelong friend again. A thought nagged at my mind. What if Onyx has changed so much in the time that he has been out here that he doesn’t want to see me. What if he wants to kill me for following him out of the stable. I was barely able to stay on my own hooves. As the door opened I collapsed down onto my forelegs and just sat there. A familiar face was there to greet me.

“Midnight. I am so happy to see you. I know it has only been a week and a half but I missed you so much. I would ask who the mare you brought with you is but I already know. It is nice to meet you face to face Harmony. I am glad to see somepony finally found a lover that suits her tastes.” “How did you know that I liked mares? Maybe I liked stallions but nopony in the stable fit my tastes.” Onyx stared at me. “Midnight I’m not an idiot. Everypony in the stable was trying to set you and I up. They wanted us to become the leaders of the stable. That’s why I announced that I liked stallions. I knew nopony would bother us. They all thought you were in love with me and that’s why you not only didn’t find a new coltfriend but that is also why you left the stable. Now let’s not discuss anything so morbid. Get on your hooves and get out of the elevator. There are better places to sit than the floor.”

I got shakily to my hooves and we headed into a hallway. The doors to rooms didn’t pass by quickly. The doors were few and far between. “These are the presidential suites. Best rooms in all of Tenpony. Minus maybe DJ Pon3’s place. You are welcome to stay here if you’d like. I suspect that Harmony has a room of her own. A place you two could have a little more privacy than say the floor of a wine store.”

The look he gave me was one that made me feel like I knew better. One of those looks my mom would give me if I did something that was inappropriate or unbecoming of the daughter of the Overmare. I hated that look. It reminded me of the home I no longer had. It also reminded me that I had found a new home. A home free of judgment based on my preference of mares. I had found Harmony and now my best friend. Nothing else mattered.

“Take a seat on one of those couches. I know for a fact that they are more comfortable than the ground.” I did as I was told.

(And that is why you make the best slave ever. You do what you are told and do it better than anypony else.)

“Now I would offer you a glass of wine but seeing as you are already about halfway to drunk I think you should hold off.” Harmony nearly got the bottle of wine he was holding. “Now Onyx I don’t know what you have been told but she is nowhere near drunk. I have seen her drunk and trust me it is going to take a few more bottles before she is drunk. So let’s all just have a drink.” Onyx was reluctant but poured me a glass anyway.

“Now don’t go overboard with that. That wine is at least 50% alcohol. A few glasses usually makes an average stallion drunk. That and we have very little alcohol around here anymore. I suppose you two will probably be changing that. Nevertheless go easy on the alcohol or you might regret it in the morning.”

I nodded knowing just how bad a hangover could be. We sat in silence for a few minutes before Demo finished reading the letter.

“Well shit. This is not good.” The words were barely audible. I didn’t skip a beat. “What’s wrong? What did the letter say?” “An old friend of mine is in trouble. A group of slavers are holding him hostage. They demand that I pay 10,000 caps or else they will kill him! I can’t let this happen.”

A fire somewhere in the depths of Demo’s soul had been ignited. His every motion conveyed just how determined he was to make sure no harm befell his friend. Before I knew it he had leapt across the room. He tore a painting down off the wall to reveal a safe. He unlocked the safe. Onyx had moved to his side.

“Demo look. I know that we can’t let him be injured, but don’t you think that is going to be overkill. You know just how powerful those things can be. I still can’t believe you have one here in Tenpony. How did you even manage to sneak that in here?”

Demo turned to Onyx flaring his nostrils. “It helps when somepony owes you a favor. Also relax this is just a backup plan. Until he is freed from those ponies who don’t deserve to be alive I will not use this.”

Demo was holding what looked like an egg. I had read up on all kinds of creatures when I was in the Stable. Never once did I stumble across an egg that looked like that.

“What is that?” Demo was quick to respond to my comment. “Oh right you haven’t been out here long have you? This is a Balefire egg. It is a much smaller and much easier to control version of the bombs that destroyed all of Equestria. These create massive explosions and radiation. Anypony within a few miles will be killed within a minute of this exploding. Those less fortunate will live through the explosion. Unfortunately for them they will become ghoul ponies. Too much radiation can kill you, but when you absorb just the right amount you don’t die. Your body transforms. Most ponies say it is a fate worse than death. Derpy doesn’t seem to think it is that bad. She is practically immortal. Until she goes insane she will be just like any other pony. Once they lose it though. They become evil monsters bent on killing anything that is still breathing. Avoid those ghouls if at all possible.”

I noted to myself that Demo didn’t seem to be the biggest fan of ghoul ponies. I wondered what was so different about Derpy that she would be the only ghoul that Demo liked. It took me a few seconds to realize that we had started walking towards the elevator. It took us about one minute to descend to the first floor of the tower. The guard on duty smiled at us and directed us to our gear.

“That’s a fancy set of armor you got there. Full body protection, auto administration of potions, and fully powered by magic. If I had to guess I would say that is a prewar Mark 4 suit of armor. Not the greatest suit every made but it will keep you safe. You could upgrade it if you wanted to. It would take a lot of high grade materials though. Anyways keep safe out there. We wouldn’t want anything to happen to you.”

His last sentence was the one that finally made me realize he had been flirting with me. He took notice of my ignorance and shook his head before walking away.

“So what is the plan. I mean I’m all for going in shooting. Unfortunately if this slaver camp is well armed we will probably be torn to shreds before we can even get close. Also how far is it to this slaver camp? We don’t have the supplies to be making more than a day or two trip. That’s even if we don’t rescue anypony. If we rescue them we aren’t going to have enough food or water to make it back here. Or to make it anywhere for that matter. As for plan B. I don’t think we should kill all of the slavers. Even if they have lost the right to call themselves ponies they are still living breathing beings. I don’t know about you but obliterating an entire city seems to be a little bit overkill.”

Everypony was staring at me with a funny little look. Harmony was the first to speak.

“We have transportation to and from the slaver camp. A Sky Bandit will be waiting for us outside after we free the slaves. So supplies won’t be a problem. And darling we aren’t going to go in and shoot the place up. We are going to infiltrate their camp.” “How do you propose we do that?” “Well it’s simple we have this armor and I managed to get these from one of the traders upstairs.”

Harmony produced two little cartridges. I took the one she was offering me. Stealthbuck. The simple word painted many pictures in my head. I slid the cartridge into the slot on my armor.

I lifted a hoof to in front of my face. I could see right through where my hoof should be. I quickly removed the Stealthbuck from my armor and deposited it into my saddlebags.

Footnote: Level up
New Perk -- Life of the Party: You are a party animal. You are much less likely to become addicted to alcohol. Also.. Good Job.

Author's Note

Another chapter for you to read. Editors are unfortunately not doing their jobs very well and well I hope it doesn't show to much in this chapter.

An Unknown Friend

I woke up the next morning embracing Harmony. Today I was greeted by her smiling face. It was a welcome change of pace from the previous night.

A clock sat on the opposite wall. I strained my eyes reading it. All I knew for sure was that it was 6:00. I wasn’t able to tell if it was A.M or P.M. I couldn’t care less what time it was. As long as I was here with Harmony nothing could ruin my day. Harmony stirred next to me.

“Morning miss 29.” Harmony smiled and went back to sleep.

If she had been fully awake she would have been able to see I wasn’t in great shape.

I was getting use to her trying to embarrass me. I had to fight back the urge to wake her up. I shifted over to the edge of the bed and slowly set my hooves onto the ground.

The first thing I noticed was numerous bottles scattered across the ground.

From the headache I had I assumed we had gotten drunk last night. I didn’t regret it though. “Must have been one hell of a night huh. Hey Harmony. You are going to have to fill me in on what happened last night. I am a little fuzzy on the details. Far as I can tell. We both got blackout drunk. I don’t regret it though.”

“Both of us? No darling. I offered you a sip of whiskey. Let’s just say you are not going to be happy with yourself. You drank more than most of the stallions down here can manage. You are not a lightweight that is for damn sure.” Harmony had gotten to her hooves much easier than I thought possible after last night.

I stood there for a few seconds before Harmony was able to make her way over to me. I took a look at my Pipbuck. It was 6:00 pm. A note had been left on the bedside table.

“You two have overstayed your welcome. We will allow one more night here. You will be under surveillance. Any behaviour we disapprove of will have the two of you separated for the night. Go back to sleep. From the looks of it you need a good rest to get over that hangover. First thing tomorrow morning you two are being evicted from this Stable until further notice.”

I read the note a few times before I gave up and sat down on the bed again. Harmony tidied up the room a little bit before joining me. I wanted to talk to her about last night but couldn’t bring myself to open my mouth. Every moment I was awake was another moment I had to deal with this hangover.

Finally after what seemed like an eternity Harmony started to talk

“Look I know you are wondering how I could have let things get so out of hand last night. I honestly tried to stop you from drinking all of that alcohol. After you took that first sip something awoke inside of you. You opened up about your childhood and everything that had happened to you. You drank down bottle after bottle of beer, wine, and the last of my whiskey. I had to join you. I couldn’t just let you go through all that alone. It didn’t feel right. I remember more than I think you do about yourself. So yeah it was one hell of a night.”

She fell silent for a little bit before her beautiful voice rang out again. “38. The alcohol gave you some sort of boost. I don’t believe I have ever orgasmed that much in one night.”

“Well done Midnight. I hope that cheers you up. If not I don’t have much more I can do for you. Well I do but you need some rest. I know we just woke up but let’s go back to sleep. We have an early start to make tomorrow.” Harmony laid down for a few seconds before pulling me down with her.

I had mixed feelings for the day I was living through. I loved Harmony for accepting me and all of my faults. I loathed the fact that I had been allowed to drink so much alcohol. I hated myself a little bit for drinking the last of Harmony’s whiskey. I somehow remembered that it was a gift she had received before her friend had died.

I so desperately wanted to find words to say to the mare who had made me happier than I had ever been in my life. I simply could not bring myself to speak. My mind was a mess thanks to the alcohol and I wasn’t going to try anything that might hurt Harmony. In the end I laid down with her and cried. She was there with me until the sweet embrace of sleep overtook me.

I didn’t dream that night.

The next morning I woke up without Harmony holding me. I jumped out of bed and started searching desperately for her. I was afraid that I had done something last night to make her leave. Many thoughts jumped to mind of why should we want to leave me and not come back.

The stallion from the drawing came back. He started taunting me. I hit the floor hard. I curled up into a ball and sat there. I wanted to cry but no tears came.

The door to the room opened with a creak. Harmony stepped through the door and saw me on the floor. She galloped over and grabbed me. I looked into her eyes. I could see she was worried about me.

I opened my mouth to talk surprised that words actually accompanied my action. “Harmony I am so glad that you are still here. I was so afraid that you had decided to leave me. I did so many things over the past couple of days that were so out of character for me. I just. I’m just glad you are here.”

She stared at me a loving look in her eye. “Midnight. I love you. I am not going to leave you over a little awkwardness. There is nothing in this world that is going to tear me away from you. I was getting some supplies gathered up before we headed out. Now I need you to go back to bed. It is around 3:00 in the morning. You need to be well rested for this journey we are about to embark on. I have a place we can go. A place we can call home. Please go back to bed for a little while. I will reveal the plan after we leave this Luna forsaken place.”

She pulled me to my hooves and hugged me. We walked over to the bed. I climbed back up and laid down. Harmony gave me a kiss before she walked out the door. I forced myself to calm down and go back to sleep.

I dreamt I was walking in a field of chaos and death. Harmony stood next to me. The graffiti pony returned to my sight.

Harmony moved slightly into a battle stance. Her horn started glowing brightly.

Before the graffiti pony could even speak Harmony destroyed it. He had stood tall over me but in one shot Harmony had destroyed him.

I was free of him. I felt a burst of magic surge through my body.

Together Harmony and I were able to repel the darkness of the world. We were only able to do it for a short while. We would need help to completely purge the world from evil.

I felt a charm around my neck. I could not see it when I looked for it but I knew it was there. The ground started shaking gently.

I woke up from my sleep. I wanted to tell Harmony about my dream but felt that I shouldn’t say anything about what I had seen. She knew I wasn’t feeling great so she simply gave me a hug before donning her armor. I followed her after putting on my own suit of armor.

She was showing me all the gear she had managed to get. I wondered how she had managed to acquire so much with so little to trade. I dared not inquire in fear of the answer.

The armor had an advanced knowledge of the wastelands. It updated my Pipbuck with locations all across Equestria. Harmony had marked one in particular. Tenpony Tower.

“I own a room at Tenpony. I also inherited a business from my parents. They ran a Winery inside of the tower. They made the equivalent of about 10,000 caps every four months. They never had a shortage of wine. Now they have a shortage of wine. All the ponies crave it. They are addicted to it. The doctors would cure them but they refuse treatment. I don’t want to take advantage of them but we need the caps if we want to settle down one day. I traded one of those old dresses you found to a mare who is a nurse for 5 bottles of wine. It isn’t much but it will get us started. Don’t worry I saved the dress you gave me and the one you kept for yourself. They are beautiful by the way. You must look divine in yours. Promise me one day I will get to see you in it.” Harmony opened the stable door.

“I promise.” I laughed a little bit as we exited the Stable.

I spent three hours looking over some of the new gear we had acquired. One of my favorite new weapons was a Gauss rifle. Aurora had managed to ‘sweet talk’ the pony in charge of weaponry into giving her the most powerful weapon he had.

I realized how awesome the Gauss rifle was after firing it at a bloat sprite and watching the sprite explode into a million pieces. The ammo for it was rare and we would be incredibly lucky to find any. I had to not use it unless absolutely necessary.

A few of the weapons we acquired would be impossible to shoot without support. No amount of magic could hold a minigun firing at top speed for any longer than a second.

Aurora and Harmony had informed me my armor had a built in battle saddle. The saddle is used to fire weapons that would normally be too big for anypony to fire. I was not able to figure out the saddle on my own. Harmony promised me she would teach me how to use it.

Thanks to our early start we were able to cover most of the distance between us and Tenpony before the sun was low in the sky. We stopped to watch the sunset. It was the most beautiful thing I had seen since I had left the Stable.

We had just reached Appleloosa when the sun had set. A few ponies were out wandering the streets. I was confused as to why anypony would just wander out in the wasteland without armor or a weapon.

“They live in a town close by. Well... half of the town has been transformed into a sanctuary for lost ponies. I am not welcome there. I tried to trade with one of their trader caravans. The leader of said caravan ended up with a bullet hole in his head the size of my hoof. They thought I did it. A pegasus pony shot at me while flying but missed me just barely and killed the trader. He flew away. They don’t trust me. I will never be allowed to set one hoof inside that city. I hope you believe me when I say that I did not shoot him. I had a hard time accepting this armor. It reminded me that I could still kill ponies. I don’t want to kill anypony if I don’t have to. Now let’s seek shelter for the night I am tired. Tenpony tower is still about a half days trot from here.” Harmony started to drag me towards an abandoned building.

“Do you have to drag me everywhere? I am perfectly capable of walking to the house. Any reason you don’t want to be out after dark?” I stared curiously at Harmony.

We both stopped.

Harmony looked into my eyes as best as I could tell she was looking into my eyes. “Dangerous creatures stalk in the night. Every heard of a changeling or a vampire fruit bat? Thanks to radiation they have become much more dangerous. The bats are easily the size of a full grown stallion and have a desire to eat flesh. The changelings are masters of taking the form of ponies you love. They look identical but act differently. It is usually pretty easy to tell when one is trying to fool you. Be careful though. Some of them are much more intelligent. They become the pony they are copying. Everything is the same. Nopony has figured out how to beat them. So please just get inside the house.”

“Ok” it was the simplest answer I could give but was filled with fear.

We entered the house just as the sun went below the horizon. Harmony turned on a light that had been built into her suit of armor.

We made quick work of barricading the doors and windows. I was amazed that anypony could survive wearing this armor for more than a few hours. It chafed all over my body.

“Aurora. Is this how this armor is supposed to fit? I don’t see how anypony could survive prolonged combat in such a suit. I mean they are great for protection.” I tapped on my helmet a few times. “But they are not great for much else.”

Aurora was quick to reply. “That armor is Mark 4. The lower the Mark of armor the less well off you are going to be. That suit of armor doesn’t have the function built in to resize it at will. It was meant for my daughter in case of emergency. I wanted her to be protected. This was the only suit of armor I could afford. For protection it will suffice. It might be able to stop a few high caliber bullets but a well placed shot will kill you. Now if you had Mark 12 armor you would be pretty much invincible. Unfortunately Mark 12 is rare. If a suit still remained it would have been split into pieces to prevent the boars from making similar suits. We needed armor but didn’t want it to fall into their hooves. All suits were decommissioned by being sent into the center of a megaspell. All traces of a suit were disintegrated. You would be more likely to find a set of Mark 8 armor. If you do manage to locate armor that is not in use I would suggest disassembling it and stockpiling it somewhere. Those suits are protective but not indestructible. Once it needs maintenance it is pretty much a pile of scrap until it is repaired. You might as well paint a sign on your”

“Now you need to rest. Also maybe eat something. After the past couple of days you had. I’m surprised you haven’t eaten a radigator whole.” Aurora was right about a lot of things.

Harmony had heard everything and hoofed me an apple.

I tried unsuccessfully to eat the apple nine times before I realized a suit of armor was between me and my apple. Harmony laughed a little bit before helping me out of my armor. Aurora took control of the armor after we had exited and turned on the radio.

“Do A.I. like listening to the radio or something?” I bit into my apple.

“No we don’t but I think there is something you should hear.” Aurora had a seriousness in her voice that I had never heard before. It was a slight bit terrifying.

“This message goes out to Midnight. The pony who left Stable 24 to come looking for me. Listen I know you are loyal to your friends. I know you want to see me alive and well again but I need you to return to the Stable at once. Your mother has descended into alcoholism in you absence. The entire Stable needs you. I have eyes on the inside so I know everything that has happened since you left. It has been one week and the entire Stable has fallen into chaos. None of the essential systems are running. Everyone has started to go insane. Actually on second thought do not I repeat do not return home. You will be killed. A bandit by the name of Tri-Tear has been seen camping outside of the Stable. No doubt within a few days he will have full control over the Stable and all it’s residence. I am doing fine out here on my own. So don’t come looking for me because even if you do I have wings so I can outrun you any time. I need to work a few things out by myself before I see you again. I hope you have made yourself some new friends. Celestia knows you need them out here.”

“Onyx we need to get out of here. There is a horde of them they won’t take long to get in here. We need to leave right now. Finish up your recording and let’s get the buck out of here.”

“Goodbye Midnight. I hope to see you again one day.”

I was happy my friend had survived to see another day. By the sounds of it he was in trouble and really needed my help.

I knew I couldn’t find him with so little to go on but I had to have hope that one day I would see him again. “Thank you Aurora. I have to ask. How did you find this?”

“I searched through all radio transmission frequencies. Your friend has gotten his hooves on some powerful equipment. He has hijacked multiple radio stations and used them to broadcast messages to you on an infinite loop. I downloaded his message to take the guesswork out of when to start playing the recording. I hope this helps you to find a purpose in life. Continue on this path and one day you will find him again.”

“Thank you again Aurora. Watch over the house with the armor while we sleep.” I tossed away my apple core.

Aurora put the armor into sentry mode. Any hostile entity would be scanned and assessed for a threat level. If the threat was high enough we would be alerted. Harmony and I proceeded to go to bed.

I slept soundly that night. It was the first time since I had left the Stable that I actually had a good night's sleep. I again awoke not to Harmonies face but to her...

We promptly began our journey to Tenpony Tower as soon as we could. I wish I could say that the journey there was filled with excitement and danger. I wish I could say that. The journey was a boring one. Three hostiles flashed onto my hud for a brief moment halfway to Tenpony but disappeared immediately after.

By noon the tower was in sight and we stopped for lunch. The food we had procured before we left the brotherhood was mediocre at best.

Among some of the finer more aged sweets was a pack of Fancy Foal Cakes. A foal was on the side of the package happily enjoying his wonderful treat.

“I really hope that these snack cakes were as good as they advertised.” I took one small bite of the treat before deciding to not try those ever again.

The flavor was appalling and I had to force myself to keep down what little food I had in my stomach. Harmony suppressed a laugh.

“You know the food is supposed to be swallowed right? You don’t just spit it out and nearly heave up your lunch. Also I wouldn’t recommend vomiting here. Some of the creatures from the wasteland can smell really well. They would be on us within a few minutes.” Harmony put a hoof over me.

The entirety of what was taking place was almost too much for me. Thanks to and also not thanks to Harmony’s warning I refused to vomit while we were here. It took me a few minutes to get back to a state of not being sick to my stomach.

“Midnight. I have found another transmission from Onyx if you would like to hear it. The message is uncomplete.” Aurora appeared in front of me.

“Aurora you surprised me. Another transmission? Let’s hear it.” I put the fancy foal snack cake away.

“Hello Midnight. Onyx again. I am recording this message to tell you I have settled down out here in the wasteland. It’s not so bad once you get use to corpses and the fact that somepony probably wants you dead. I have made a new friend much like you have. I am in Tenpony Tower if you wish to visit. I already know you do so get your flank over here as soon as you can. Tell Harmony that I wish to meet her. I know many things Midnight. I have friends in high places. Friends who can get me information I want. I wanted to know how you were doing and I made sure I found out. Also this is aimed at Harmony. Wine prices here are beyond outrageous. One bottle might cost me 50 caps, and that is for a cheap bottle. An old Britalian wine might sell for thousands of caps. Although I doubt you have such a bottle on you. A delicacy such as that would earn you a place amongst the highest ponies in this tower. I must go……”

“The intelligible part of the message ends there. What follows is various sounds which might be a language I do not know. I would play them for you but I do not believe you need any further reason to continue to Tenpony. As soon as you two finish with lunch you should probably make your way over fast. Nopony is allowed into the tower after sunset and as Harmony said it is dangerous out here at night. Being near the tower would certainly make it safer but you wouldn’t be invulnerable.” Aurora disappeared.

With that we packed up our belongs and headed off at a full gallop towards the tower.

______________________________________________________________________________

We arrived well before the sun had set. A pony was talking over an intercom to someone inside the tower.

“We don’t allow your kind in here demon. All you ponies bring bad luck wherever you go. Nopony in here wants anything to do with you. I am going to say this one more time slowly so you can understand alright. Get the Buck outta here before we send the guards down to deal with you. Trust me you won’t like what they do to you.”

The pegasus pony trying to get in was obviously distressed.

We were approaching her at a rather fast pace. I would have slammed into her were it not for Harmony wrapping me in her magic and pulling me back towards her. “Midnight I don’t know what you have seen out here before but I need to tell you a few things. One you don’t sneak up on ponies like that. Two that there is a Ghoul pony. Have you ever heard of them? They have survived more radiation than any doctor pony you find would say survivable. She seems ok but others are beyond the point of salvation. Those are known as zombie ponies. They will attack you on sight and are unrelenting in their assaults. So be careful.”

“Well sir. I realize you don’t allow ghouls in to this establishment but I have a really important message to deliver. If I am not allowed in can I atleast send the message up with somepony?” The mare had a sweet tone to her voice even though she was annoyed

“First off we allow ghouls into the tower. We allow all manner of ponies into the tower as long as they pass our tests. You on the other hand Derpy. You bring bad luck wherever you go. I am not allowed to let you in. If you can find somepony willing to deliver your message then I will allow the message through. Until then you can sit there and consider what brought this about in the first place.” The guard on the other end was rude.

“Well I guess I’m never going to deliver this message.” The gray mare sat on the ground defeated.

“Hi. Derpy was it. I’m Midnight. I might be able to deliver that message you’ve got to whoever it needs to go to.” I approached slowly.

The mare shot upright and stared at me. “You would. That would be so much help. Nopony let’s me into important places like this tower. I have a history of not being the best at being careful.” The mare looked at the ground before smiling at us.

“We will deliver that message for you. Who does it go to?” I took a few more steps towards the door.

“It goes to a stallion named Demo. I would usually deliver to DJ-PON3 but nopony is sending mail.” Derpy smiled at us.

“Ok Derpy. We will not fail in finding this Demo guy and delivering your message. Have a wonderful day.” I took the letter and deposited it in my saddlebags.

Derpy got to her hooves and trotted off into the distance.

“She seemed nice. A little odd but nice nonetheless.” I pushed on the door.

“Well Midnight that was a very good thing you decided to do. I’ve heard tales of Derpy. She was alive before the war started. She wasn’t the best at handling delicate situations but nopony could ever make her feel bad. She owned the way she was and made sure that she would stay happy. Probably why she hasn’t gone zombie yet. Anyway let's go into the tower. I’m sure that letter needs to be delivered quick and I don’t want to keep you from your friend.” Harmony dragged me along as she walked over to the intercom.

“Go Away Derpy. We aren’t going to let you in here. Oh wait you aren’t Derpy. My apologies Miss…” The guard hesitated.

“The name is Harmony. I own a house in Tenpony. I am sure you have heard of me. My friend here is Midnight. She will be allowed in with me.” Harmony nodded towards the door.

“Oh yes ma’am. I will send down a personal escort for you.” The guard's voice was a little too happy.

“That won’t be necessary. We can manage just fine thank you.” Harmony trotted towards the door.

“Understood. Welcome to Tenpony Tower enjoy your stay Miss Harmony.” The guard pony opened the front door remotely and we entered Tenpony Tower.

I was on a mission to find my friend and also to deliver this letter to a stallion name Demo. I wasn’t going to let anything get in my way.

The inside of the tower was breathtaking. The walls had been painted to look like a sunset. This one room brought back memories of my life before the chaotic hell of the wasteland. I was so happy to be back into a place where civilization thrived.

We were stopped by a guard before we reached the elevator. “I am sorry but you two need to relinquish all of your weapons and armor before you head upstairs. We have had problems in the past with ponies going on a rampage and murdering a few of the residence.”
I looked at Harmony. She had already taken off her armor and was clearing her saddlebags of weapons.

I removed my weapons and armor reluctantly. “I will get these back before I leave right?”

“Yes ma’am you will. We just can’t have ponies running around upstairs murdering the fine ponies of this tower. That’s just bad for business. If they die I don’t get paid and if I don’t get paid how am I going to get all the mares to”

“That’s just how life works here. He who gets paid the most gets laid the most. Oh and I would watch yourselves two attractive mares like you are going to be turning lots of heads. As for me I don’t care what happens to you. Long as I get paid I don’t care.” The guard trotted back to a chair.

I hadn’t lived long enough to be able to find the words necessary to describe the way that guard made me feel. It was a mixture of disgust, hatred, and honestly homesickness. Ponies like him were few and far between in the stable. A few of the ponies who were older than me acted just like him as if that would make them look tough and cool. It was a real turn off.

The guard pointed us to an elevator. I had to force myself to not gallop at full speed over to the elevator to escape this nightmare of a stallion.

The elevator was completely empty when we stepped inside. Harmony hit the button to take us to the 15th floor.

“Our house is on the 21st floor. Floors 10-15 are the areas where you can purchase pretty much anything. 16-22 are residential. The top floor is reserved for the most important ponies meeting area. The two floors below that are a radio broadcasting hub. A pony named DJ-PON3 resides there. He plays some decent music but on an endless repeat it gets rather boring. If you want news of what is going on out in the wasteland you might want to tune in. He is pretty much always correct on whatever he is reporting on. He has eyes everywhere so watch yourself he might take a liking to you.” We arrived on 15th floor just as Harmony finished explaining how Tenpony Tower worked.

When the doors opened we were greeted by a bleak looking room. The entire floor was one big room. Shops were set up all around the floor in no particular order. We walked over to a wine store that looked like it had been out of business for years.

The boards fell away with a small bit of magic. For not having been in use for years the shop was clean. Not a single speck of dust coated anything. A few bottles of wine remained shelved.

I walked into the back room of the shop believing I would find something. A shelf of wine that looked untouched and in pristine condition was the only thing in the back room.

“That was my parents ‘secret’ stash of fine wine. They had a few bottles of Britalian wine if I remember correctly. Unfortunately for us I am not going to sell those.” Harmony levitated one of the bottles towards us.

“May I ask why we aren’t going to sell those bottles? We could be rich beyond our wildest dreams.” I looked at the bottles of wine.

Harmonies response was short. “These are the only things I have left that remind me of my past life. And besides this is some of the finest wine ever made. I’m not letting go of this when you and I could have so much more fun if we kept it.”

It took all of five seconds after her finishing that sentence for her to make the situation... For lack of a better word sexual.

I awoke with Harmony in my embrace. We were laying on the floor of her parents… Our wine shop. An empty bottle of wine had been discarded some distance to our left. Well my left her right. The little bell that hung near the door rand as somepony entered. I gave Harmony a quick nudge and we were both to our hooves.

“Hello you two… Am I interrupting something? Is now a bad time? I can come back later if you want me to.” The stallion in front of us turned an unusual shade of red.

“No… No. It’s fine. What do you need good sir.” Harmony found her words before I could find mine.

“Well my name is Demo. I was wandering the tower when I saw that this shop had been reopened. I was delighted to say the least. I was wondering if you had a bottle of wine or two that you would be willing to part with. I am throwing a party. My partners old friend has just arrived here at Tenpony. I wanted to throw them a party for surviving the wastelands. Any friend of his is a friend of mine. Wait…” The stallion looked the two of us over before shaking his head. “Well you are the pony he spoke of. You must be Midnight. The mare with eyes for mares. You need not worry. I am not looking to steal away your lover. Whose name is Harmony if I recall correctly.”

I nodded my head blushing just a little. “Yeah. That’s us. It is a pleasure to meet you Demo. Can we go see Onyx?”

“Why certainly. Follow me and I will take you to him.” Demo turned to leave before I remembered the letter that Derpy had said needed to go to Demo.

“Hold on. Derpy had a letter for you. She didn’t say what it was about but she said it was important. Here you go.” I levitated the letter over.

He grasped the letter in his hoof before tucking it underneath his wing. He nodded and continued on his path to the elevator.

The elevator ride to the 22nd floor was a ride full of anticipation and fear. I was so happy that I was about to see my lifelong friend again.

A thought nagged at my mind. What if Onyx has changed so much in the time that he has been out here that he doesn’t want to see me? What if he wants to kill me for following him out of the stable? I was barely able to stay on my own hooves.

As the door opened I collapsed down onto my forelegs and just sat there. A familiar face was there to greet me.

“Midnight. I am so happy to see you. I know it has only been a week and a half but I missed you so much. I would ask who the mare you brought with you is but I already know. It is nice to meet you face to face Harmony. I am glad to see somepony finally found a lover that suits her tastes.” Onyx offered me a hoof.

“How did you know that I liked mares? Maybe I liked stallions but nopony in the stable fit my tastes.” I extended a hoof to him.

Onyx stared at me. “Midnight you told me so. Everypony in the stable was trying to set you and I up. They wanted us to become the leaders of the stable. That’s why I announced that I liked stallions. I knew nopony would bother us. They all thought you were in love with me and that’s why you not only didn’t find a new coltfriend but that is also why you left the stable. Now let’s not discuss anything so morbid. Get on your hooves and get out of the elevator. There are better places to sit than the floor.”

I got shakily to my hooves and we headed into a hallway. The doors to rooms didn’t pass by quickly. The doors were few and far between.

“These are the presidential suites. Best rooms in all of Tenpony. Minus maybe DJ-PON3’s place. You are welcome to stay here if you’d like. I suspect that Harmony has a room of her own. A place you two could have a little more privacy than say the floor of a wine store.” The look he gave me was one that made me feel like I knew better.

One of those looks my mom would give me if I did something that was inappropriate or unbecoming of the daughter of the Overmare. I hated that look. It reminded me of the home I no longer had.

It also reminded me that I had found a new home. A home free of judgment based on my preference of mares. I had found Harmony and now my best friend. Nothing else mattered.

“Take a seat on one of those couches. I know for a fact that they are more comfortable than the ground.” I did as I was told.

“Now I would offer you a glass of wine but seeing as you are already about halfway to drunk I think you should hold off.” Onyx picked up the bottle of wine.

Harmony nearly got the bottle of wine he was holding. “Now Onyx I don’t know what you have been told but she is nowhere near drunk. I have seen her drunk and trust me it is going to take a few more bottles before she is drunk. So let’s all just have a drink.”

Onyx was reluctant but poured me a glass anyway. “Now don’t go overboard with that. That wine is at least 30% alcohol. A few glasses usually makes an average stallion drunk. That and we have very little alcohol around here anymore. I suppose you two will probably be changing that. Nevertheless go easy on the alcohol or you might regret it in the morning.”

I nodded knowing just how bad a hangover could be. We sat in silence for a few minutes before Demo finished reading the letter.

“Well shit. This isn’t good.” The words were barely audible.

I didn’t skip a beat. “What’s wrong? What did the letter say?”

“An old friend of mine is in trouble. A group of slavers are holding him hostage. They demand that I pay 10,000 caps or else they will kill him! I can’t let this happen.” A fire somewhere in the depths of Demo’s soul had been ignited.

His every motion conveyed just how determined he was to make sure no harm befell his friend. Before I knew it he had leapt across the room. He tore a painting down off the wall to reveal a safe. He unlocked the safe.

Onyx had moved to his side. “Demo look. I know that we can’t let him be injured, but don’t you think that is going to be overkill. You know just how powerful those things can be. I still can’t believe you have one here in Tenpony. How did you even manage to sneak that in here?”

Demo turned to Onyx flaring his nostrils. “It helps when somepony owes you a favor. Also relax this is just a backup plan. Until he is freed from those ponies who don’t deserve to be alive I will not use this.”

Demo was holding what looked like an egg. I had read up on all kinds of creatures when I was in the Stable. Never once did I stumble across an egg that looked like that.

“What is that?” I took a closer look.

Demo was quick to respond to my comment. “Oh right you haven’t been out here long have you? This is a Balefire egg. It is a much smaller and much easier to control version of the bombs that destroyed all of Equestria. These create massive explosions and radiation. Anypony within a few miles will be killed within a minute of this exploding.”

It took me a few seconds to realize that we had started walking towards the elevator.

One minute later we were back at ground level..

The guard on duty smiled at us and directed us to our gear. “That’s a fancy set of armor you got there. Full body protection, auto administration of potions, and fully powered by magic. If I had to guess I would say that is a prewar Mark 4 suit of armor. Not the greatest suit ever made but it will keep you safe. Anyways keep safe out there. We wouldn’t want anything to happen to you.”

His last sentence was the one that finally made me realize he had been flirting with me. He took notice of my ignorance and shook his head before walking away.

“So what is the plan. I mean I’m all for going in shooting. Unfortunately if this slaver camp is well armed we will probably be torn to shreds before we can even get close. Also how far is it to this slaver camp? We don’t have the supplies to be making more than a day or two trip. That’s even if we don’t rescue anypony. If we rescue them we aren’t going to have enough food or water to make it back here. Or to make it anywhere for that matter. As for plan B. I don’t think we should kill all of the slavers. Even if they have lost the right to call themselves ponies they are still living breathing beings. I don’t know about you but obliterating an entire city seems to be a little bit overkill.” I slid my helmet on.

Everypony was staring at me with a funny little look.

Harmony was the first to speak. “We have transportation to and from the slaver camp. A Sky Bandit will be waiting for us outside after we free the slaves. So supplies won’t be a problem. And Midnight we aren’t going to go in and shoot the place up. We are going to infiltrate their camp.”

“How do you propose we do that?” I tilted my head to the right.

“Well it’s simple we have this armor and I managed to get these from one of the traders upstairs.” Harmony produced two little cartridges.

I took the one she was offering me. Stealthbuck. The simple word painted many pictures in my head. I slid the cartridge into the slot on my armor.

I lifted a hoof to in front of my face. I could see right through where my hoof should be. I quickly removed the Stealthbuck from my armor and deposited it into my saddlebags.

Author's Note

Yet another chapter for your enjoyment.

Depression City

The trip over on the Sky Bandit had been a quiet one. Demo had offered to pull the flying transport.

He said ‘This was designed so that one pegasus could pull it by themself. This one has been modified for two pegasi to pull it. With twice the wing power we can move faster but our maneuverability is decreased. Both pegasi have to move in synchronization for the best results. The good thing about having the ability to let two pegasi pull is that if one is injured the other can take the burden off of the injured flier.’

The Sky bandit was used during the war. The pony who found it restored it to it’s former glory as best he could. Unfortunately as best he could meant that there were still holes in the sides of the transport. The wind howled through the holes as we flew through the sky. Since I’m not a pegasus the wind chill got to me. I was unused to such cold temperatures. Even in the Stable during winter the temperature never dipped as low as we faced.

“How are you enjoying the trip Midnight? I would expect that you aren’t exactly happy. It must be pretty cold back there. Demo and I can take this. If you need us to we can fly lower to the ground. It might not be as cold down there. Then again.. We would be easier to see. Maybe you can use your magic to make yourself warmer.” Onyx called.

Harmony whispered in my ear less than a second after Onyx finished talking. “I know what might warm you up.” She winked at me.

I was glad that I had my helmet on. If it hadn’t of been I probably would have given into Harmony’s flirting. I remembered that the Sky bandit wasn’t ours. If we returned it with rust spots caused by Harmony and I… Let’s just say the owner probably wouldn't be happy.

“We should be passing over Appleloosa about now. We should be to the slave camp in about 10 minutes. Think about it this way Midnight had we walked this would have taken us at least two days compared to the few hours we have taken.” Onyx was yelling just so we could hear.

“Does anypony have a town or something where lots of ponies live? I mean other than Tenpony. I wouldn’t exactly call that a town.” I looked out a window.

Onyx slowed down the chariot.“There are a few strongholds of pony civilization across the wasteland. Not many ponies can be trusted anymore. Settlements are few and far between. Well settlements that won’t murder you if you get to close. Appleloosa once was a great place even in the wasteland. A group of well armed raiders took them down. The group still exists. I think they go by the name of The Brotherhood. Not all of them are bad. Harmony is the one exception I have seen in my time out here.”

Harmony gave a look of disappointment towards Onyx. She looked like she wanted to say something but she kept her mouth shut. It was probably for the best that she hadn’t gotten into an argument with Onyx. We all needed a little bit of time to prepare for the battle that we were heading into.

We flew for a few minutes in silence before Harmony prodded me in the side.

“You are probably going to need this.” A knife surrounded by her cyan aura was floating in front of me. “Stealth works a lot better when you don’t announce your presence with gunfire. If we are going to do this we both need to be as silent as possible. Only resort to using one of your guns if it is absolutely necessary. I would prefer we all get out of this with as little harm to ourselves as possible. If you happen to find the armory grab everything that you can carry. If they have no weapons to kill us with we are at least a bit safer. Your armor will help you to carry more than you usually would be able to but you still have a limit. And as I’ve seen your magic isn’t exactly the strongest so even with that you won’t be able to take everything.”

“Also another plus off that armor is it will keep the aura of your horn from being seen. Makes it much easier to free slaves when you can’t be seen using magic.” Aurora flicked into existence.

I wanted to say that I already knew these things. Before I could speak Onyx spoke up again.

“We are going to land in this field. You will have to sneak into the compound. If we get any closer we will be spotted and they will kill us. Those stealthbucks will last for at most half an hour. So don’t waste time. Get in and free the slaves and then get out.”

The Sky Bandit came to a stop in a field. Harmony and I hopped out and started making our way towards the slaver camp. We had the cover of darkness to make sure we could get closer to the camp without having to use our stealthbucks.

As we approached the camp spotlights became an issue. The guards were very disciplined in the use of the spotlights. Most spots didn’t go uncovered for any more than a few seconds. A few places were safe for around ten seconds every minute or so. Unfortunately those places were armed with mounted guns. We would be torn to shreds before we could even get close.

I noticed a few slaver guards moving towards the spotlight crews. I knew that in a few seconds we would get our one good chance to get into the camp unnoticed. The lights stopped moving.

Harmony and I galloped as fast as we could to where the spotlights would not be able to get a lock on us. We made it just as the lights started there patrols.

We took a second to breath before moving along the wall to one of the open areas in the wall. The openings were big enough for a train to fit through. The tracks that entered the camp were blocked off down the line by a wall. I returned my focus to getting into the base. We had planned for Onyx to make a distraction to try to draw the slavers out of there camp.

The distraction he made was a little more than I thought he would have done. The wall down the tracks exploded. All that was left was a heap of burning rubble. The entire camp lit up with sound. Slavers were rushing around preparing themselves for a battle. Not one of them left the safety of the camp.

“Dammit. I hoped that would have drawn at least a few of them out. Now we have entire base of assholes to deal with. If I wasn’t afraid of getting perforated by a lot of bullets I would usually say buck it let’s kill them all, but since we don’t have that kind of firepower I think we need to stick to the original plan of stealth.” I struggled to keep my voice quiet enough that nopony would hear us.

We snuck around to the other side of the base in hopes that the explosion had at least drawn them away from the other entrance. We were in luck. Most of the slavers had been moved over to the other side of the camp to protect from an onslaught that would not be coming. This side of the camp had bigger weapons but only had two guards on duty.

“Ok let’s take these two out with our knives. Hide the bodies outside after they’re dead.” Harmony nodded and we snuck forward.

The guards had their backs turned to us. One quick motion silenced their talking for good. I used my magic to almost catapult the corpse outside the wall. I realized my mistake after I had made it.

The dead slaver was flung all the way out to where the spotlight could see him. I acted quickly to bring the corpse closer to the wall. I was to slow and the light caught sight of him. One of the guards jumped down off of the wall. He was closing the distance between us quickly. He hadn’t seen us yet but in a few seconds that would change.

A bolt of lightning came down out of the sky. The bolt hit the guard in the chest. The strike was enough to knock him to the ground. Harmony jumped at the opportunity and slit the slavers throat. Even though he was far away from me I heard the gurgle of blood as he tried to gasp for breath. Within a few seconds the gurgling stop and he lay dead on the ground.

I unloaded the turrets to make sure nopony could shoot us. We then continued on sticking to the shadows moving farther into the camp. Most of the slavers were out of the way. The slaves were being held at the center of the camp. One of the guards noticed us before we got to the center of the camp.

“Well look what we've got here. A couple of mares. You two will make for excellent sex slaves. One day we might let you die. But until then I think I am going to enjoy the both of y…” His voice was cut off when a knife lodged itself into his skull.

His death hadn’t gone unnoticed. Harmony activated her stealthbuck. I followed her action and had vanished from sight a few seconds later. The slavers were starting to catch on that no attack would be coming and that somepony was trying to free the slaves they had captured.

It took less than thirty seconds before I was forced to seek shelter inside of one of the many buildings. Slavers were everywhere combing the area looking for the pony responsible for killing some of their friends.

The building I had entered appeared to be where the slavers slept when they weren’t doing whatever horrific thing they usually did. Many of the beds were unoccupied. A motion stopped me dead in my tracks. One of the beds was occupied by a couple of ponies.

I thought for a second before floating the knife over and slamming it through both of them. The sounds of pleasure were silenced and quiet took over. I yanked the knife back out and sheathed it at my side.

I waited for a few minutes before I looked out the door to see if the coast was clear. I was about to open the door when a Pegasus mare burst through the door. Her coat was orange. She looked around the room before her eyes fell upon the two dead lovers. She looked away with a tear in her eye before leaving the building.

Going outside even if I was invisible was a deathtrap. Somepony would run into me before I made it halfway to the next building. Another door was on the other side of the room. I trotted over to it as quietly as I could.

When nopony was in sight I opened the door. The room was empty. I entered the room and closed the door so nopony would be suspicious. The room I entered was dark except for an oil lantern. The room was illuminated in a bright orange glow.

Guns were hung on the wall. Boxes of ammo were separated by caliber. I had stumbled upon the armory. Without thinking I began to stuff my saddlebags with all the ammo and guns that would fit.

After about two minutes of greedily grabbing ammo and guns most of the walls were bare and most of the ammo sat in my saddlebags. One of the guns that still hung on the wall caught my eye. It was a rifle with a large magazine. It was a tan or maybe a light brown color.

A stallion burst through the door. “Where’s my boar rifle?” I barely managed to get out of the way as he made his way over to the rifle hanging on the wall. “Best damn gun in this whole place. I’m taking in it before somepony gets the idea that it belongs to them and not me. You hear that you old bastard? The rifle is mine.”

He reached out for the rifle. A knife that was not my own found its home in the old stallions skull.

Harmony uncloaked and pulled the knife out of the stallion’s skull. “Thought I might find you here. Now hurry up and grab that gun. We might need it before this day is through.”

She disappeared into thin air and the door to the outside world was flung open. I grabbed the boar rifle and followed in Harmony’s tracks.

A few of the slavers lay dead around the entrance to the barracks. I assumed that was the work of Harmony. I turned and started to gallop towards the center of camp. A few slaver guards mingled around the cages.

Inside ponies sat looking at the ground in defeat. Many were unconscious, some were dead. It took all of my strength not to uncloak myself and kill every single slaver in this goddesses forsaken town. A light tap on my shoulder made me jump.

“Midnight. It’s okay. We need to get rid of these guards before we can free those slaves. That new rifle of yours has a silencer. Go up to that guard tower and start picking them off. Try to keep the bodies out of sight. We don’t want to get into a firefight. Now go I will wait until most of them are dead before I start unlocking the cages.” Harmony put her hoof back on the ground.

I nodded even though I was invisible.

I climbed the guard tower. The guard was nowhere to be seen. I took position and looked down upon the guards that milled about the cages. I considered using S.A.T.S. to make sure the shots would be perfect, but at this distance S.A.T.S. had a difficult time lining up any sort of shot.

I took aim at the guard farthest from the others. I pulled the trigger. To my surprise the gun was almost thrown out of my grasp by the recoil. The bullet found its home inside the guard's throat.

I took a second to look at the rifle. It had a different style of grip. It was meant to be mouth fired but was supposed to be secured into a pony's shoulder before firing. With this new information in mind I took aim again.

One by one I took down the guards. After the second shot they started to become suspicious. Ten shots later and the center of camp was clear of any guards.

Harmony made short work of the locks on the cages. A few times I saw little chunks of metal fly away. She had broken a few bobby pins in trying to free the slaves but in the end it was worth it.

I made my way back to Harmony and the cages. Most of the slaves were unable to bring themselves to their hooves.Those that could immediately tried to make a run for it. I stopped them before they could get far.

“Everypony stop. We will help you get to safety but you need to do exactly as we say. Now help those who can’t move alone. We will clear a path out of this place. Once everypony can be moved we will lead you out of here.”

Harmony tapped my flank. “Why don’t we allow them to take this camp as their own? It is easily defendable. They would have lot’s of supplies. Plus nopony really dares to mess with any place slaver ponies might inhabit. If we help them out for a few days then leave they will be fine on their own. How does that sound to you ponies?”

A stallion stepped forward. “If that is what you think is best then we will follow your plan. Thank you for saving us. The name is Emerald Ace. I don’t think many of us are fit to lead. I am in the best condition so I will step forward to lead these ponies. Maybe one day we will have a thriving city that doesn’t profit from slave trade.” He stopped and turned to me with a smile. “Nice to see you again Midnight. I wouldn’t exactly call this better terms but I am still happy somepony freed us from those goddesses forsaken slavers.”

“How did you get foalnapped?” I tossed aside my used Stealthbuck.

“I was trying to defend another pony from what I thought was a single slaver. After I knocked the one out his friends came out and held me at gunpoint. After that they brought me here.” Emerald rubbed a hoof on the back of his head. “I guess I looked as though I could do work. I suppose they could have wanted me to help grow food. That is what ponies believe earth ponies are best at, but not me.”

“So what are you good at?” I looked at a few of the other enslaved ponies.

“Well. I’ve always thought my cutie mark meant I would be some sort of gem collector. It is a big emerald. Seeing as I lack unicorn magic I have a hard time with knowing right where they are. However I can tell you we are sitting on top of a giant gem field. I’d say probably enough gems to feed an adult dragon for a year or two.” Emerald looked up for half a second.

Harmony broke into the conversation. “That’s a lot of gems. Maybe you could dig those up and trade them to the caravans. Word shouldn’t take long to spread that this place has been liberated from slavers. A trader caravan should be here with in a week.”

Demo was galloping towards us, Onyx followed a few strides behind. “Where is he?”

Emerald took a stride forward. “Who is it you seek? I know most of the ponies here by name.”

“I am looking for a stallion. He usually goes by the name Stone. His real name is Moonstone. Always hated that name. Have you seen him?” Demo was panting.

“I have seen the stallion you speak of. He was put onto a train yesterday. They were headed for Ponyville. I hear the slave trade up that way is less about profit and more about freeing ponies that end up in places like this. Unfortunately you can’t run a business when you just give away money like that. They could only afford to buy a few of us from these monsters. If you hurry you might be able to catch them. I’ve seen the tracks before. If you could fly fast enough you might be able to catch them before 8:00 A.M.” Emerald pointed a hoof down the tracks.

After Emerald finished talking Demo had bolted in the other direction. I smiled and gave Emerald a wave goodbye before chasing after him. We had just arrived at the Sky Bandit to see Demo had already strapped himself in and was ready to fly.

“Get on. I am not going to lose Stone.” Demo flapped his wings.

“Didn’t you hear Emerald? Stone should be perfectly fine. Ponyville has no reason to harm him. We can take our time in getting to him. I know that is hard to hear. I know what it feels like to want to see your friend alive and well. Trust me on this, you can wait. We don’t have to get ourselves killed in the process of trying to reach him. Now take a deep breath and let’s go find him.” I stepped into the Sky Bandit.

Onyx went up front and got into his harness and we took flight soon after.

Stone

“Where is he.” Demo was being rough with the guards.

The mare hit the wall with a solid thud. “I don’t know. I let the train carrying him in but after that I have nothing to do with it. Please just continue inside.” The mare curled up into a ball just before the front gate slammed open.

“Now what in tartarus is going on out here?!” The stallion in a cowpony hat looked down to the mare on the ground. “Now you better hope she isn’t hurt too badly. Or I swear to Celestia that I will not hesitate to kill you. Take her to the infirmary. I will deal with them.”

We were barely able to hold Demo back. “Sorry about this. He’s not thinking straight. We are looking for a stallion named Moonstone. I hope you have seen him or at least heard of him. Otherwise I don’t know if he will calm down.”

The stallion grabbed something from his saddlebags and turned back towards us. Before I knew what was happening a dart had been fired at Demo. The dart found its mark and was embedded into Demo’s shoulder. Onyx ducked underneath him before he collapsed.

“What the buck was that for?” Onyx was struggling to keep Demo from falling onto the ground.

“I was just doing my job. I’m the sheriff around here. Your friend was disturbing the peace so I had to make him stop. Seeing as he wasn’t going to yield to reason I used a tranquilizer on him. He should wake up in a few hours.” The sheriff slid the blowgun back into his saddlebags.

“Ok. Can we enter the town please. It would get him out of your mane if we found Stone.” I took a cautious step forward.

The sheriff looked at us for a second and then made a motion for us to follow him into Ponyville.

The city wasn’t in great shape. The few buildings that were still intact were made of scrap metal. Holes riddled the buildings. Pipes that I guessed moved water around the town were leaking. Everypony looked a little bit depressed.

A statue sat alone in the center of town. I was surprised that the statue still stood. The statue was made of many gems. Each one sparkled in the light.

“Welcome to our little sanctuary in the wasteland. We used to have a thriving community before a group of raiders attacked the place. Made off with most of our supplies. They killed off quite a few of the good ponies who stood up and tried to defend this town. I won’t even say what they did to the mares or the children. It was terrible. Now that you are thoroughly depressed what do you seek out of our town?” He stopped just shy of the statue.

“Well sir….” I wasn’t sure what to call him.

“Just call me Comet. Crimson Comet’s the name. Protecting what is left of the city’s my game.” Comet tipped his hat to us.

“Ok. Well Comet we seek our friend Stone, and maybe a stiff drink. This place is already bumming me out.” I looked around the depressing town.

“Tavern is over there. That’s where you can find a drink. Nothing to stiff though. Might want to talk to Shine. His actual names Moon but he took on the nickname Shine ever since he started to make alcohol. Strong stuff. Best to go easy on it. Don’t want to have another citizen complain that somepony has gone and over done it with the good stuff. As for Stone you might want to check Carousel Supply. It’s where the newly freed captives go to look for work. Ponies wander in from around the wasteland looking for supplies and Snowflake takes care of them. That’s all I can tell you about Ponyville. Enjoy your stay and don’t cause any trouble.” Comet trotted off towards a group of ponies.

I nodded my head and made my way towards the tavern.

Onyx looked to the store for a second before following. “Uh Midnight. Don’t you think we should go and look for Stone? He could leave here at anytime.”

“Onyx I swear we will go and look for Stone right after I get a drink. This place is depressing.” I kept on trotting.

The tavern’s front door was wide open not from somepony being lazy but because the door had been ripped off its hinges and tossed to the side. We made our way inside.

“Now listen here you ghoul bucking pig. I am the only pony in this town allowed to sell the good stuff. If I catch you selling my booze again I will tear off your forehooves and shove them up your ass.” Two stallions were fighting at the bar. The one closest to us looked like he was about to kill the stallion behind the bar.

“Listen Shine. I don’t know where you got the idea that I was selling your booze but I haven’t touched that stuff since the last incident we had in town. Now if you’ll excuse me I have a few customers who look like they need a drink.” The stallion motioned for us to come over. “So what will you have today. We’ve got an assortment of alcohol. Pick your poison and we can begin.”

Harmony stepped up to the bar and took a seat. “I’m not one for this type of drinking scene but set me up with a whiskey if you’ve got it.” I took a seat next to her.

“Make that two.” She smiled at me before turning to face the bar.

“This isn’t over. I will have my revenge and you will get what's coming to you.” With that Shine kicked the bar and headed back outside.

“Sorry about him. He thinks that I've been selling his alcohol. I wouldn’t sell that shit in here. Not even if my life depended on it. It is good strong alcohol but I’ll let you in on a little secret. That stuff kills you. Not a slow death either. It is quick and painful. Imagine being shot repeatedly in the flank. Not enough to kill you right away but it will get to you quickly. Heres your whiskeys enjoy.” He set a few shot glasses down before us.

“Well Midnight let's hope that he doesn’t follow through with those threats. Sounds like a horrific way to die. Being new in town we would probably be the number one suspects of such a thing.” Onyx took a seat.

“Whatever Onyx. Have a drink.” I passed a shot glass his way.

“I think I’ll pass for now. I need my wits about to keep Demo here under control. You saw how poorly we handled him at the gate. Just imagine what he could do if we got wasted.” Onyx pushed the shot back towards me.

I finished off my shot considering his words. I motioned for the barkeeper to come back. “Thanks for the drink. How much?”

“First timers get one free drink. So put your caps away I don’t need them. I’ll pay for those two drinks within the hour.” He waved a hoof at me and went back to cleaning glasses.

I put my caps back in my saddlebags and headed for the door. Harmony followed not too far behind.

I took a quick look back at her. “If you don’t stop staring at my flanks you might give somepony the wrong impression.”

Her response was quick. “Or maybe I would be sending them the right one.” She winked at me.

A nearly fell on my face after missing the next step. It took me a few seconds before I was fully on my hooves again. I turned and started to make my way over to Carousel Supply.

Harmony galloped for a few strides before matching my pace as she walked next to me. Her horn ignited as she picked Demo up off of Onyx’s back.

“Thank you Harmony. I hate to say it but he is heavy.” His next few words were lost to me as he lowered his voice to avoid being heard.

“No problem Onyx. I wouldn’t want you to pass out and have to carry you both. I figured this is the best way to prevent that.” Harmony kept pace with me.

The door was closed but a nice little open sign hung on the wall.

The inside of the shop was painted bright colors. A stage stood off to our right. A suit of armor stood alone on the stage. The suit was almost a perfect match of mine but looked better and more suited to a pegasus than a unicorn.

Harmony had gotten in front of me and was talking to the mare behind the counter. I was so intrigued by the suit of armor on the stage that I wasn’t paying any attention to where I was going. I turned my muzzle forward again to be greeted by a soft and warm wall of flesh.

“Wow. Watch your step there Midnight. We are out in public you know. So what you are doing right now will have to wait until we find a place to call home for the night.” Harmony gave me a quick look.

I took a quick step back as the mare behind the counter leaned over a bit to see me. She giggled for a second before returning to the customer who sat in front of her.

“You're looking for Stone. Well I just sent him out five minutes ago to deliver a package. He should be back here in about fifteen minutes if you want to wait.” She looked over at a broken clock.

Harmony nodded and then motioned for me to come up to the counter. “Starry Diamond I would like you to meet Midnight. She has collected a few things out in the wastelands that are worthwhile for trading. We need a few things.”

“Well nice to meet you Midnight. We’ve got so much here at Carousel Supply. So what are you in the market for? Ammo, guns, maybe some food. We also have special items that are not to be discussed anywhere outside of my store.” This mare was very pleasant.

“Well we could use some ammo. We seem to have burned through most of the ammo we have acquired out in the wasteland.” I grasped at my guns with my magic.

“Well you are in luck. What type of ammo do you need?” The mare smiled warmly at me.

I levitated out the boar rifle and the two pistols that I had.

“Well by the looks of it. You are going to need some .32 caliber bullets. I’ve got a lot of that. That rifle shoots what looks to be a modified 5.56 cartridge. Lots of gunpowder to launch such a small projectile forward. Should prove deadly against unarmored ponies for quite a long range. Those are rarer shells. Boar weapons usually are though. I’ve got two boxes of ammo in the 5.56 variety and one or two boxes in the .223 variety. As for the other pistol. That looks like a .44 magnum. A rather heavy gun for a mare like you. I have a few bullets for that. So if that is all that you would like that will be. Carry the one.” She did a bit off math in her head. “100 caps.”

I nodded and grabbed the cap pouch out of my saddlebags. I presented the caps to her and she slid me the boxes of ammo.

“Thank you for your business. Unless you want to sell me something then you can take a seat anywhere on the floor.” She waved a hoof around the room.

Harmony was looking over the bullets we had just gotten. “Well this should last us for a week or so. Depending on how much gun fighting we do. I would like to sell you a few things.”

I went and took a seat on the floor looking towards the counter. I couldn’t hear the conversation between Diamond and Harmony but from the looks of things Harmony had quite a bit to sell. A few minutes passed and she walked over and took a seat by me.

“I was able to sell the guns we got from the slaver camp. Most of them were in bad condition and wouldn’t have lasted too much longer. I couldn’t get much for them so we are only about 100 caps better off. We’ll work it out though.” Harmony leaned her head on me.

I sat there just enjoying the fact that I had fulfilled many of my dreams since I left home. Something was nagging at me but I decided to push it out of my mind and just enjoy my time with Harmony.

A bell above the door rang as a stallion walked in. The stallion’s face turned grim as soon as he saw an unconscious Demo. He rushed over to him. “What happened to him?”

Onyx answered. “He was causing a scene at the gate so the sheriff knocked him out with a tranquilizer. He said it should wear off in an hour.”

“Ok. It’s a good thing he's not dead. That would imply a few things that I am not going to mention. I am just glad to see he is still alive.” Stone looked Onyx over. “No offense to you but you don’t seem to be the type that Demo would go for. We used to be… Well partners before I was foalnapped.”

“Well he did tell me about what happened. He thought you were dead and he has gone through tartarus looking for you. It’s nice to finally meet you face to face.” Onyx extended out one of his hooves.

Stone looked at him for a second before copying the motion.

Demo had come to and was trying to get to his hooves. Onyx lent himself to Demo. Shakily he got off the ground and was able to look Stone in the face.

“It’s been too long Demo. I’m glad to see you moved on. Now before you go trying to get back with me I need you to know something.” Demo merely nodded before taking a seat on the floor.

“I moved on to and things have happened. I’m not the stallion I once was and my tastes have changed. So to tell you the truth I’m a little more interested in mares lately.” He glanced back towards us before shaking his head. “I hope this doesn’t change things between us. Now let’s go find you a place to rest before you lose consciousness again.”

“That could happen?” I was curious as to why.

“Oh yeah. The sheriff ain't exactly the best chemist in the world. I’m surprised the dart didn’t wear off sooner. For all we know Demo here could be addicted to some drug that he used to make that dart. He’ll need to go see a doctor sometime in the near future. For now that can wait. Come with me I will take you to my house and you can rest for a while.” Stone turned towards the door.

“Thank you Stone. This means a lot.” Demo made his final statement before falling into the sweet embrace of sleep once more.

“Alright let’s get a move on. We don’t want to trouble Diamond here.” He gave a quick glance back at the mare. She smiled a little bit before returning to work.

“I can use my levitation to move him. Again we don’t want Onyx here to have the same fate as Demo.” Harmony’s aura surrounded Demo as he began to hover in mid air. Stone opened up the door and we started towards his house.

“What does it take for somepony to get a house here?” I looked around at the mostly abandoned houses.

“Well. I’m sorry I haven’t asked your names yet.” Stone stopped to look at us.

“Oh I’m Midnight that’s Harmony and you already meet Onyx.” I gave a quick glance down our ranks.

“Well It’s nice to meet you Midnight. To answer your question, a pony doesn’t have to do much to get a house around here. Hardwork and determination is how I managed to get my house. That and the previous owner had made enough caps to leave here and seek some place better. I think she liked me more than she should have. I walked into town one day and she offered me the deed to her house. After a day or so I accepted her gift. She left town quickly and nopony has seen her since.” We had reached the house by the time Stone had finished with his story.

The house he had brought us to was built into a large tree. Many of the branches on the tree were just barely hanging on to there place. As the door opened three or four large branches fell to the ground with a solid thud. Stone looked to me and shrugged.

The inside of the house looked much better. It needed some work before it would be the perfect place to call home. Shelves lined the walls and a few books and various items occupied them.

“What did this place use to be?” I took a closer look at one of the shelves.

“Well the lady who gave it to me said that it was a library before the war. Said some princess used to live here. I don’t have all the details memorized. She just seemed like a crazy fanatic looking back to the past like some dumb fan pony. The place has started to decay and some of the walls have gone down. Most of the time I’m on getting this place repaired within a day or two but caps are short now. Can’t do to many repairs or I might lose the house all together. Take a seat and we can talk.” Stone pointed to a few makeshift seats.

I took a seat on one of the makeshift couches that looked like they had been built by a foal. They were just as uncomfortable as they looked.

“I would like to know why you are out here in the wasteland. I like to know what has driven somepony to try and live out here. I like to know what it is that makes them do what they do. So would you please explain.” Stone took a seat facing us.

“I suppose I can while we wait for Demo to come to.” I thought about where to start.

Welcome to the Wasteland

After escaping the bandits I met her. She was a ghoul pony. I guessed before she was just a regular old earth pony. She reminded me so much of mom. She was kind and compassionate.

I’m not sure whether it was losing everything I had known or just the fact that she felt like she could actually be my mom, but I started to call her mom. She wasn’t happy about it at first but after a week or two she seemed happy that I was in good spirits.

She didn’t speak to me so it was hard to communicate what she wanted me to do but eventually I understood. She taught me what most fillies and colts learn when they go through school in addition to helpful tricks to surviving the wasteland.

I was about ten before she allowed me to be anywhere out of her sight for more than a few seconds. Before then she had actually watched over me as I slept. It was kind of creepy but also it was what helped me to sleep many nights.

We went out to scavenge for food one day and we got more than we bargained for. A large super store was the target of our expedition. From what I could gather she had been to and from this store many times searching for supplies. We had been running low on supplies for a few weeks and without a stockpile of food we would not survive the wasteland much longer.

The store seemed mostly abandoned. A few fires had burned out in front of the building. I was hopeful that anypony who had been here had left the area. I was young and dumb and didn’t know what exactly to expect from this world.

The door swung open and a large stallion walked outside. He was holding a large chunk of metal that looked rusty. He swung at Rose and missed the first few times.

About the fifth swing he connected with Rose’s foreleg. His victory was met by a small caliber bullet to the head. He was dead before he hit the ground.

I rushed over to Rose who looked badly injured from her fight. She shook her head and pushed herself to her hooves. She walked with a limp but continued on into the store.

The inside had been all but picked clean by whatever had been living here. What little that remained would be able to keep us alive for a few more weeks at the very most.

I rushed forward not paying any attention to my surroundings. Hunger drove me forward and I was a slave to one of my most basic needs.

Rose’s hoof caught me just before I left the cover of the entryway. She shook her head and pointed to ponies who had vantage points all around the inside of the store.

I looked to each one individually. Most were armed with rifles. I looked back to Rose and nodded my head.

We got as low to the ground as we could and started to crawl towards the shelves with food on them. Every so often Rose stopped me and held me close to herself.

I was more scared for her than I was for myself. I didn’t want anypony who I knew to get hurt. I knew that I would always try my hardest to protect the ones I loved.

It took us around fifteen minutes to get to the shelf unseen by those ponies that were guarding this place. We made quick work of the shelves with food on them. We were almost caught when I accidentally dropped a can of beans to the floor.

We had to hide under a shelf that was barely held up for 5 minutes before the pony who was looking for us left. Rose crawled out before me and after a few seconds motioned for me to come out.

She motioned for me to head for the exit. I flopped down onto my stomach and started to crawl my way to the exit. I was small enough that the little bit of cover that made a wall to the exit hid me from sight entirely.

I had made my way to the exit in time to see Rose hop over a small counter and then disappear entirely from my sight.

I stood where I was petrified as thoughts raced through my head. After a few seconds she appeared again with a weapon in her mouth. It was a long slender bladed weapon. I had seen guards carry swords before but I had never seen a sword anywhere near as cool as the one Rose had.

It took all I had in me to not shout to her that the weapon she had gotten was amazing.

I took a longer look at Rose. A look of horror that I had never seen from her was all that I could see. She nearly dropped the sword as she began galloping towards me. I turned around towards the exit to see what could possibly have scared her so much.

As I turned around to see one of the raiders lift a sword above his head with magic and bring it down towards me. I flared my wings and jumped to the side. The sword smashed into the ground sending a high pitched ringing throughout the building.

My left wing felt a little weird but I had little time to think about it as Rose scooped me up and smashed through the door taking us both outside. She didn’t stop running for what seemed like hours.

As soon as we stopped Rose grabbed my wing. I looked over to my left wing to see that half of it had been sliced off by the raiders sword. Rose was barely able to contain me as I pushed all of my weight away from my injured wing. A calming hoof wrapped around me and we sat there for a fair amount of time.

Rose had managed to bandage my wing stub before she tended to a wound of her own.

Rose had been badly burned on both of her front hooves. I didn’t recall ever seeing a source of flame or anything else that would have possibly burned her so badly.

She drank a potion before getting to her hooves. It was obvious even to a young me that she was in horrible pain.

She looked into my eyes the way she did when I had a nightmare. The look was kind and made me feel a little better. I took another look at my wing before Rose put me up on her back and carried me home.

Hearths warming

When we got home Rose had put me into my bed. She started to organize the food and other supplies we had managed to scavenge from the raiders. We didn’t get too much but we did get enough to survive for another couple of weeks.

She never showed how worried she was about anything. When I woke up she was sitting in her usual chair watching over me.

I got out of bed and walked over to her. She had fallen asleep.

I walked around the house for a while so that Rose could sleep.

One major problem was still in the forefront of my mind. Every now and then I would flare my wings to try and hover off the ground. Every time that I did I fell onto my left side. My right wing overpowered my left one causing me to crash back to the ground. After about eight times doing this I just stopped trying to use my wings.

The house was one of the better ones. There were only a few holes in the walls and the walls still stood. I had seen the condition of a few of the other houses and they weren’t pretty.

The sun was about halfway through the sky before I headed back to my room. Rose was still asleep. I walked over to her and climbed up into her lap. This seemed to bring her back to the world of the living.

Her gaze jumped to my bed. She saw that I was missing and almost tossed me across the room as she got to her hooves. I tried in vain to stop myself from slamming into the floor again. I was really starting to hate the fact that my wing was useless.

Rose walked over to me and lowered herself to the floor. I thought that I might be in trouble for scaring her so badly. She simply dragged me into a hug. I didn’t try to fight her embrace.

For once since my mother had died I felt happy to be alive. We stayed on the floor for a few minutes before Rose took one of my hooves and started to lead me outside.

She lead me to a little shack outside. Inside it was really warm. A furnace took up a large part of the rear part of the shack. A few tools that I had never seen before covered the walls. I recognized some of the tools. I had seen them when I was 3 or 4. Dad had been forging a sword.

Rose had walked farther into the shack. She returned with a box on her back. She grabbed my hoof again and made me go back inside.

We made our way into the living room. A small tree was situated in the middle of the room. It was interesting to see a tree of that size that was still alive. Rose sat me down right in front of the tree before taking a seat across from me. She slid the box over to me motioning with her hoof.

I was a bit confused. When I was young my family did their best to preserve the tradition of Hearths Warming. We didn’t have much so we usually just slept out in the living room in front of a tree.

The box had a latch on it. Rose was still motioning for me to open up the box.

I opened the box and inside was a metallic object. It looked a slightly like it might be a bladed weapon minus the fact it didn’t have a mouth grip. I looked up at Rose a little confused. She smiled before walking over to me.

She grabbed the object in her mouth and grabbed my left wing. The metal was quite cold as she placed it to the stub that had once been my wing. After a few minutes of fidgeting with straps the metallic object was firmly attached to me. It was heavier than my wing had been but only slightly.

Rose gave me a hug before she used her forelegs to make a gesture that most would recognize as flying. I gave the prosthetic wing a few test flaps before attempting to hover.

I gave a strong flap to both of my wings and to my surprise I didn’t fall harshly onto my left side. The new prosthesis weighed me down a little bit but I was able to hover easily for 15 seconds before my wing grew tired and I had to return to the ground.

Rose had found a piece of paper and had been writing something down on it. After she was satisfied with her writing she held up the slip so I could read it. It was hard to read like most earth pony writing is but I got the gist of the message.

I was happy about the fact that I would be able to at least fly a little bit if the need arises. It took me a few seconds before I realized that I had nothing to give to Rose. I looked up to her with a few tears in my eyes before practically throwing myself into her. She didn’t push me away. We sat on the floor for a long time. She had been scribbling something on the backside of the paper.

It said: Don’t worry about it my little colt. I don’t blame you for not remembering what time of year it was. Besides it wouldn’t have been a surprise if you had tried to give me something. I keep track of everything that comes into this house.

I let up on the crying a little bit but would not let go of my hold on her. I was determined that I would not let go of her unless I absolutely had to. I don’t know how long I had embraced her but eventually I had fallen asleep.

Author's Note

Sorry everyone for the long time since I last updated. things have been busy and I've been hard at work with more of the story way down the line. I'll continue to upload certain chapters every day until I reach about 50,000 words. After that I'll upload every Friday. Thanks for your patience and enjoy.

A New Home

“That about sums it up. What do you think Harmony? Did I forget anything?” I looked over to Harmony.

Harmony nodded. “Only the best parts. Of course you might not want to let others know what we do behind closed doors.”

Stone took half a second before speaking. “I suppose that means you sacrifice ponies trying to bring Nightmare Moon back. We have a few people around here who wish to see her return but they haven’t killed anypony. Well at least not anypony I am aware of.”

The stare Harmony and I gave him was very obviously one that he was not use to.

Stone snickered. “What I was just kidding. Nopony around here is anywhere near that level of insanity. Most wouldn’t even if they wanted to. The city has stranges effects on those who stay here to long. Most descend into alcoholism in a few days. Nopony comes here if they don’t absolutely have to.”

“Yeah we know. Everypony keeps saying that we should get out of here. We can’t leave without you otherwise I think we’ll be back again to pick up a corpse. Demo there doesn’t know how to keep his cool all the time.” I waved a hoof in Demo’s general direction.

“Buck you. I can hear you. Also could you keep it down. Whatever that stallion shot me with is doing a real number on my head.” He was rubbing his hooves around his head.

“Well looks like he’s awake. Best get him to the hospital for a checkup. Might need to get him unaddicted from whatever is causing that horrible headache of his.” Onyx was hovering over him blocking Demo’s eyes from the light.

“Ok. That sounds like a good Idea. Stone can you show us where the hospital is?” I rose to my hooves.

“Why certainly. They will be happy to see somepony come in for something other than needing to get their system clean of radiation. Let’s go.” He pushed open the front door and trotted off.

The hospital was less than a minutes trot from Stone’s home. I felt like you could trot to anyplace in this town in less than a minute.

I was all for the small town life but something about his town in particular made me feel like I was both at home and very far from it at the same time.

Home.. My home had been destroyed and all I had left was the ponies who were with me right now.

The door to the hospital practically fell off its hinges as I ran into it. Harmony snickered at me for a few seconds. “Honestly Midnight. You need to pay a more attention. I swear one day you are going to walk in front of an enraged manticore. We can’t have that now can we. Now get up we have a friend to take care of.”

I got to my hooves and walked inside giving a quick glance to the broken door. I walked a few more steps before running muzzle first into the rear end of a mare. By the gasp that escaped her muzzle I guessed she hadn’t felt anything like that in a while.

“Oh sorry. I’ll leave now.” The mare took flight and was out the door before I could apologize.

“I swear I am going to have to teach you a thing or two.” Harmony pushed me off to the side a little bit.

I stared at the ground ashamed of my inability to pay attention to what was in front of me.

“What can I help you with?” A stallion stepped forward.

“We came here because our friend here was shot with a tranq dart and we don’t know exactly what effects it’s going to have on him. So we were hoping that you could look him over.” Onyx brought Demo forward.

“Well son that is my job. Bring him this way and I will begin my inspection immediately.” The doctor made his way into a small back room.

We laid Demo down onto the table before he collapsed again.

“Well. I’ve seen this before but not to this extent. Your friend could be suffering from withdrawal from as many as ten drugs at the moment. Somepony really should tell that fool to get better tranquilizers. He’s gonna end up killing somepony with one of those stupid things. Luckily we have quite a bit of prewar treatments for addiction. He will suffer from withdrawal for a week or so but after that he should be back to being himself. If not bring him back here and I will see what I can do to make his death painless.” We all stared at the doctor for a few seconds before he smiled at us and laughed.

He poked Demo with a needle. “Just horsing around. We can just give him more treatment and he’ll be good to go. Now I would advise you to not partake in anything that may have to deal with these substances.” He floated a piece of paper up to Demo. “Otherwise you could relapse and be in even worse shape than you already are. Now go home and rest. I have a door to fix.”

The doctor smiled at me. I turned around and said one thing under my breath before leaving.

“Yeah will do. Go buck yourself.” I realized I had said that a bit louder than I had intended.

“What was that. Nevermind just go before I have to deal with you myself.” I didn’t need any more reason to leave than that.

We returned to Stone’s house so that we could all get some sleep. It was a little weird trying to go to sleep at 2:00 in the afternoon but we had been in need of some sleep. The day passed by quickly.

I didn’t dream at all during the day and following night. The nights in Ponyville were very peaceful. Nothing made any noise and the few ponies who were still awake sat quietly in their homes. The only reason I woke up the next morning was because of a gunshot.

The pony who lived next door had fallen into the depths of depression and insanity. His home was a mess and the decorating was a little bit too… brainy for my tastes.

“Ok that is not pleasant. What would drive somepony to do such a thing to themselves?” I had to turn away from the corpse.

“Like you’ve heard before nopony in this town can manage to stay happy. All joy is wiped from them and they become empty shells without purpose. This happens around here about once a month or so. Makes everypony a little worse off when stuff like this happens. It’s a surprise this place hasn’t been wiped off the map entirely.” Stone was shaking his head.

“That is really morbid.” Harmony had a hoof over me.

“That’s how life around here is. If you don’t like it I suggest leaving here quickly.” Stone pushed us out the door.

“That was the plan. We just need you to come with us back to Tenpony Tower.” We stood outside waiting for somepony to show up.

“Yeah. I think it would be best if we left. I don’t exactly feel the greatest about this city.” The sheriff arrived as Stone finished his inspection of the house.

We left the building when the sheriff arrived to clean up the remains. When we got back to Stone’s house Demo was on his hooves again and walking around. He walked as though he was a little foal who had just learned to walk. I had to throw a hoof to my muzzle to prevent myself from laughing.

“Oh hi Midnight. Good to see you are back here. Listen can we leave this place? I would like to get back to my apartment in Tenpony. This town is simply dreadful.” Demo was trotting around propping himself up on chairs.

“Yeah. Onyx grab him would you. I feel like if we let this go on he is going to injure himself in a fall.” As hilarious as I thought it would be to see Demo walk I knew he couldn’t walk on his own.

“Ok. Come on Demo it’s time to go home.” Onyx trotted over to him crouching down a bit.

“Ok. Let’s go home.” Demo collapsed to the floor. “Whoops. I need some help.” He sounded like he was beyond drunk.

I shook my head and enveloped him in my magic.

“Woah I’m flying. Take me higher. I want to go higher.” I had a sudden urge to slam him into the ceiling.

I was about to drop him on the ground from about the height of the roof. Onyx glared at me not saying anything. His gaze said enough.

“Midnight. Do you think Celestia is watching us. I think she might be. I just saw an alicorn flying above us. They seemed pretty cool.” Demo was waving at the unseen alicorn.

“Demo I think you are a bit delusional. Nopony has been flying above us. I would have known if somepony had been flying anywhere near us. Just try and take a nap. You should feel better in a few hours.” Onyx patted Demo’s head a few times.

Demo managed to struggle free of my telekinesis. He landed squarely on Onyx driving them both to the ground. “No offense to you Demo but you could do with losing some weight. Seriously how much do you weigh? I swear no more junk food for you until you get down to a manageable weight.”

“Oh you know you love the extra weight when we”

“Demo shut up before I leave you here.” Onyx had one of his hooves smashed squarely in the middle of his face.

“Fine. You’re no fun you know that?” If I were seeing this from the outside I would have figured that this group was carrying a drunk stallion to a hospital and away from his bottle of booze.

The trip back to Tenpony was by chance one of the worst of my life. I had to prevent myself from tossing Demo outside the Sky Bandit and letting him fall to his death. Luckily the trip was short and I only tried to throw him outside once we landed.

“Come on Harmony. I need something to help me relax let's go.” I was about to smack Demo across the face until he quit speaking.

“Well as long as you aren’t the only one getting to relax then I think I’m ok with this. I have a great Idea follow me.” She pulled me away from Demo before I could smack him.

She trotted off ahead of me. I looked back to Onyx and Stone. Onyx waved a hoof at me before helping Demo onto his back.

I smiled and made my way back to Harmony. We took the elevator down to floor 12. The door opened and a dark gray stallion greeted us.

“Welcome to the spa ladies. We here at Tenpony spa are always looking for ways to please you. So what can we do for you today?” I got the feeling this stallion wasn’t really looking for some new mare to chase around.

“Hey platinum. The usual for me and my friend.” Harmony trotted forward dragging me along with her.

“Welcome back Harmony. Long time no see.” He motioned to a few of the other ponies who were on break.

“I’ve been out doing other things. I have to say it is nice to be back.” Harmony paid no attention to the ponies beginning to surround us.

“Well if you two will follow me we can get you a day of relaxation.” The stallion pushed open a door and disappeared inside.

We followed him into the depths of the spa.

Enhancements

I had been training to fly again as often as Rose would allow. I had become pretty good at hovering and was getting very close to be able to fly for more than a few minutes at a time again.

The wing Rose had made we was slowly starting to rust from how much it was exposed to the elements. Rose had set about making me another one but progress was slow since we didn’t have many things to melt down into material for my wing.

Rose had given me a note a day or so ago telling me that we would be going to a professional to get me a wing that would last for a much longer time. The trip would take us a couple of days assuming we weren’t attacked by bandits.

The day had progressed along and the sun was about to set. We had to make sure our house was secured as best as we could make it with what we had. Truthfully I had very low hopes for the defenses we put up. Most ponies would be able to give a good buck to the door and it would fly off it’s hinges.

I gave a not very hopeful look to Rose. She returned my gaze before tossing me a snack cake.

“Thanks.” I smiled a little as I unwrapped it and ate it. Rose nodded her head a little before turning and trotting off.

We trotted through the night and into the early morning before we stopped. What little food we had left had been gathered up for the trip. Over the years of living together Rose had somehow managed to obtain thousands of caps while she watched over me. I had no clue how she had managed to gather so many since she never let me out of her sight.

Our breakfast was a quick one but did give me time to relax. Walking for so long straight was not a fun task. I knew it would be worth it if I could get a wing that would last me for a long time. All I could think to myself was that one day I would be able to fly like I used to. I would be able to conquer the skies and get away from anything that tried to hurt me.

I smiled a little bit. Rose tilted her head backwards. I had lived with her long enough to know she was offering me a ride on her back. I nodded and jumped on her back. She whimpered a little. I had grown a lot heavier since the last time she carried me.

“Sorry. I forgot I’ve gotten bigger.” She smiled for a second before shaking her head and began to trot again.

I don’t know how long we had been walking but before too long had passed I fell asleep. I slept through most of the day for when I awoke the sun was about to go down.

“Wow.” I yawned. “How long was I asleep? Also where are we?”

“Welcome kid this is the place where you are going to get yourself a new wing.” I jumped backwards. My instincts had fully returned to me and I was in the air.

“Well almost seems like you don’t need a new wing at all. Seems the one you’ve got works just fine. But seeing as how you traveled all this way only seems fair to at least try to make you a new one. Come on in.” The stallion wore a black cloak that covered most of his body.

The stallion trotted off. Rose was sitting nearby. She looked like she was about to fall unconscious. She pointed in the direction of the smith and smiled. I smiled back and headed inside.

It took me a few seconds to catch up with the full grown stallion.

“Well kid. I have been tasked with making you a wing that isn’t going to rust. I figure that if you are paying for it I might as well make you what you want. Now the lady outside has already paid me to make you a wing much like your own. Except I will make your next one out of skysteel. It is much better and lighter for stuff like this. Now I am going to need your wing so I can make another like it.” He grabbed my wing and took it off.

“Now you can stay and watch me make this or you can go explore for a little while. You seem mature enough not to buck anything up.” He grabbed a key and unlocked the door in front of us.

“I think I would like to stay and watch you make it. I always wanted to be able to do stuff like that.” I stayed close.

He trotted over to a small table with what looked like a cloud on it. He pointed at a chair and I went over and sat down.

“Now I’m not going to explain everything to you just what you might need to know if you need to make something like this someday. We start with raw clouds. Trade secret on the type so just experiment if you get the chance. Next we pound this bit down by hoof until it is hard enough to withstand many things. Now give me a few minutes to work and then you can see what it looks like as we progress.” He continued working.

I sat quietly and watched him turn the cloud into something that generally resembled a wing. Every now and then he would show his work to me before returning to his craft.

After an hour or so he presented me the final design. “Now kid you need to be careful with this. It is made of skysteel and it has some pretty cool properties. For one it should be much lighter than that old iron wing you had so take it easy with flying until you get used to the weight. Secondly there is a sword blade here on the end. Your guardian or whatever she is asked me to make it so you had a way to defend yourself. Because apparently your magic is let’s say not fully under control. Let me help you to put this thing on.”

The metal touched my flesh. I was surprised that it was actually not burning me when I touched it.

“It’s a fine piece of work and should serve you well for a long time to come. Now I've got a question for you. Have you ever heard of the magic pegasi use?” He stood up.

“You mean the magic that makes us fly? I have heard of that. Rose taught me stuff that I should know.” I was still looking at my new wing.

“Well that isn’t the magic I was referring to. I was referring to empatha.” The stallion began trotting back towards where we had left Rose.

“Em.. Empatha?” I stopped looking at my wing to stare at him.

“Pegasi have special magic that allows them to do some very cool things. If you work at it you can make ice or fire pretty easily. Lighting is a hard one to do but you might be able to do that someday. Back to the point. This wing of yours will allow you to channel your empatha into it. This could potentially light it on fire or some other interesting things. So be careful and try not to get angry. I can’t have my name been tarnished because some kid that light himself on fire with one of my creations. Understand?” The stallion stopped.

I was too busy looking in amazement at my new wing.

“Hey kid.” He tapped one of his hooves on the ground.

I snapped out of it. “Yes sir. Understood.”

“Good. Now why don’t you go to Rose was it? And we can see about getting you to a place to stay for the night.” We resumed our trot.

“Ok. Thank you sir.” I glanced back at my wing as I folded it back to my side.

I threw myself into a hug around one of the stallion's legs.

“Little personal don’t you think?” He tried to pry me off.

“Oh sorry. I’m just so happy that my wing won’t rust anymore.” I didn’t let go.

“Yeah you're welcome kid. Now if you would refrain from doing something like that again that would be great.” He finally pried me free.

“Why? Do you not like hugs? I didn’t think that was possible.” I stared at him.

“It’s not that. Rose over there is giving me the death glare. I don’t think she is comfortable with you hugging me like that. Run along.” He pointed to her.

“Ok.” I returned to Rose.

She smiled warmly like she always did whenever I was happy.

“Thank you. Please don’t hurt him. It was me. I promise you that he wasn’t doing anything.” I gave Rose a hug.

She shook her head a little bit before yawning.

“The stallion said we could sleep here for the night if we like. I think we should. You seem really tired.” I grabbed one of her hooves.

For once I was the one to look into her eyes and not be the one who was subdued. She nodded tiredly before turning to the stallion.

“We have the barracks this way. It isn’t exactly the comfiest place but it’s all we’ve got left. So if you will follow me this way.” He turned to go and we followed him.

The barracks were small but had enough room that we would be able to sleep comfortably.

Rose flopped down onto one of the beds. I giggled for a few seconds thinking that was what I looked like everyday.

Another thought jumped into my mind. I reached into one of my saddlebags with my magic. I pulled out a book that I had always loved reading before bed.

I crawled up on Rose’s bed and presented the book to her. She looked at me a little bit confused.

“Would you like me to read for you. It always helps me to go asleep. I figure it might help since we’re in a place you aren’t use to.” She smiled at me and nodded.

“Ok. Chapter 1.” I smiled and looked to see she had fallen asleep. “The end. Goodnight Rose.” I curled up close to her and slowly drifted off to sleep.

An Ultimatum

“That was wonderful. Most relaxing day ever.” I was a bit sad to leave the spa.

“Yeah. I wasn’t exactly happy with the service. They had five or more mares sitting around doing nothing. I would have much preferred a massage from one of them.” Harmony rolled her shoulders a bit as we left.

“Hey. What’s that supposed to mean?” I was a bit annoyed.

“Oh nothing. I just prefer the touch of a mare to that of a stallion.” Harmony leaned in and whispered in my ear. “But you understand that already don’t you?”

I was getting use to the way Harmony made me feel but I knew I wouldn’t ever get over having to stop for a second so I didn’t fall on my face.

She giggled and grabbed my hoof. “Let’s continue this conversation back at my room.”

I love that mare but damn sometimes she makes it hard to not drop to the floor.

The elevator opened up and Harmony whisked me inside. The elevator music was calm and relaxing. Something felt off about it though. The music made me want to do a few things that are… Let’s say not foal friendly.

The elevator stopped on our floor. The door opened and Onyx was sitting in front of our room.

“Can you two please come out here. I need to talk to you about a few things.” He tapped weakly on the door.

I crept right up next to him. “Oh hi Onyx. How long have you been here?”

“About fifteen minutes. Now that you are here we need to talk.” The seriousness in his voice was stressing me out a little bit.

“Ok can you come in and sit for a while?” I grabbed his hoof as Harmony opened the door.

“Sure.” He moved out of the way.

I had never been in Harmony’s personal suite here at Tenpony. It was a rather large room with a window overlooking the wasteland. The room was spotless. No dust had gathered on any of the furniture. Somepony must have been hired to clean up while Harmony had been gone.

I sat down on the bed. “Now what do you need to tell us?”

“Demo, Stone and I have been listening to frequencies from all across the wasteland to see if we could find anything interesting happening.” His face shifted.

“Anything important?” I was concerned with his sudden seriousness.

“Tons. The most relevant I think that we have found is an ongoing interaction between the Crimson Skull and Tri-tear. They have been coordinating an attack.” He looked around the room.

“Where are they planning to attack?” I was starting to freak out a little bit.

“All over Equestria. Any town that will not comply with their demands will be destroyed.” He stood up.

“Aurora.” I tapped my Pipbuck.

“Yes?” She appeared as a full body hologram in the center of the room.

“Listen in on any plans that you can. This might be a matter of life and death.” I smiled at her before returning my gaze to Onyx.

“Understood.” She disappeared from sight.

“So what can we do to stop these maniacs?” I looked around for my gear before realizing it was downstairs.

“The best thing to do would be to make sure all the towns can defend themselves.” He looked down at the ground.

“But?” I was interested as to why this was a huge problem.

“We simply don’t have the time to warn all of the cities in the wasteland. There are so many civilized areas that we couldn’t get to half of them before the attacks begin.” He raised his head back up before dropping his gaze back to the floor.

“When will they begin attacking?” I hoped we had time to think up a plan.

“One week.” His tone was somber.

Harmony jumped off the bed. “I have an idea. Midnight.”

“Yes?” I was hoping she had a good plan.

“I have to do something. I need to know that you are ok with what has to happen.” She looked deep into my eyes.

“What is it?” I was scared.

“I have to call in a favor with DJ-Pon3. Unfortunately this means I have to do a few things that I normally wouldn’t do.” She looked to the ground ashamed.

I think I knew what she had to do but I refused to believe it.

“Do you understand?” She returned her gaze to me.

“Yes.” A tear rolled down my face. “I do.”

She kissed me. “I will be back before the sun sets. Onyx. Stay here and comfort her.” She trotted over to the door.

“Ok.” Onyx trotted over to me.

Harmony walked out the door. I could hear the elevator door open and seconds later close.

“Harmony.” I laid down on the bed and curled up into a ball. The love of my life was about to do the unthinkable.

Onyx trotted over to the side of the bed. I rolled away from him. He climbed onto the bed and sat down next to me. I felt his hoof gently tap me a few times. I looked at him through a wall of tears.

We sat there in silence for over an hour. A knock sounded shortly before the door opened. My gaze drifted over to the open door. Harmony stood in the doorway. Every fiber of my being screamed to gallop over to her and embrace her. My body did nothing of the sort. I rolled back over and threw the covers over myself.

“Midnight? I would like to talk to you.” I could hear the desperation in her voice.

“I don’t think now is the best time Harmony.” Onyx motioned for her to get out.

“But.” The desperation clawed at my heart as tears began to roll down her face.

“No buts except yours out the door.” Anger surrounded Onyx’s voice.

“Ok. I’m sorry Midnight.” I heard the door click.

Harmony left the room. The whole tower was silent again as the mare I loved walked away from me.

Onyx didn’t say anything but I knew that he wanted to. He wanted to say something so desperately. He wanted to help me to be happy again. He knew that he couldn’t say anything that would help. So instead of trying to use words he laid down and put one of his wings over me.

I whispered in a voice that I wasn’t sure was even audible. “Thank you.”

The Truth

I hadn’t slept much that night. My head was overflowing with so many thoughts. I knew Onyx was asleep and I didn’t want to bother him but I was just losing my mind. Just before I would try and wake him I stopped myself reminding myself that it wasn’t his fault this had happened. Or was it. This might have never happened if he had never brought me this news. Then again I wouldn’t know that so many ponies were in danger if he hadn’t.

My emotions were tearing me to pieces when I heard the door open.

“Onyx. It’s Demo. I was just coming down here to tell you I need to speak with you.” Demo was whispering loudly.

Onyx stirred a little and picked up his head. “What… What is it?”

“Follow me.” Demo had trotted up the bed.

“Ok. Midnight you stay here and get some sleep. You need it more than I do.” He was almost certain I was asleep but thought he needed to remind me anyways.

I had been trying to sleep all night but couldn’t force myself into my dreams. I was afraid of what might await. I poked my head out from underneath the blankets that were covering me. The clock next to the bed said it was 3:30. I crawled back underneath the covers and decided that I needed to sleep no matter what was going to plague me in my dreams.

I jumped out of bed and nearly smashed into one of the walls. I’m not sure whether it was out of anger or fear but I knew that I was awake and probably wouldn’t sleep for the next week.

Somepony had knocked at the door. When I didn’t answer the door they slipped a note underneath the door.

I was not in control of my emotions and almost tore the door off its hinges to see if anypony was waiting outside. Nopony was there so I slammed the door and grabbed the note with my magic. The first thing I noticed is that the letter was from Harmony.

I stood there in that moment contemplating every single thing that I would rather do than read that note. Reluctantly I opened the letter as carefully as my emotions would let me.

Dear Midnight. (Oh great this was going to be wonderful)

You have all the right in the world to be upset at me for what you think I did. However I would ask you to hear me out because I have not explained what it is I had to do. I personally believe that what you think I did is much worse than what I actually did.

(Yeah I totally believe that.)

I ask you, no beg you please come down to the wine shop when you are ready to speak with me again.

Harmony

P.S. Turn on your radio if you wish. I have requested that some of what I have learned to be your favorite songs be played.

I actually felt a little bit better about receiving this letter but I was still fuming. I didn’t truly believe that Harmony had done what I believed she had done but I still assumed the worst.

Something about the wasteland makes you like that though. It’s a terrible thing to lose your faith in equinity. I had lost all my hope. Even after we had seen so many things and done so many things to right the wrong I still had lost my hope.

Part of me wanted to give up. Just quit and be done with it. Stop trying to do anything that might help ponies. Part of me wished to become a monster, to destroy anypony I met simply for the pleasure of it. The other part of me wished to see my life return to the way it had been before I left all my family and friends behind in the stable.

And one tiny part of the me that I had become wanted to march down to see Harmony and see what exactly she thought would make up for the atrocity she had committed. That one fiber of my being was overwhelming. Whether it wanted revenge our to make amends with Harmony I didn’t know. It felt like the right thing to do to go and see her.

I’ll tell you I knew before I would do any of that I was going back to bed. I was still tired and getting an hours worth of sleep was not going to help me.

“Well. Do you guys think that this will work?” Harmony was pacing around the room.

“Yes Harmony. I do believe that if the Midnight that I know shows up and sees this she will without a doubt take you back.” Onyx was trying to stop her pacing.

“Are you sure? She seemed really upset with me. I really don’t want her to think that I would betray her like that.” Her pacing slowed a little bit.

“I know. She did seem really upset but trust me she will come around. It might take a few days but eventually she will get over this.” Onyx finally managed to stop her.

Harmony’s mane was a mess. She looked like a tornado had picked her up and carried her for a couple of miles before slamming her into the ground a few times. A tear hung on the edge of her eye.

A knock came at the entrance to the store. The door was flung open to reveal one of the residents of the tower.

“Oh. Um. Hi. I didn’t think you opened this early. Can I come i..” The door slammed in his face. “Rude!” The stallion barged away.

“Yeah I’ve got to agree with him. That was quite rude.” Onyx was still holding onto Harmony.

Harmony’s eyes glowed her breathing came to her in short enraged breaths.

“Ok. I’m just going to go over here and um. Avoid my painful death if I cross you.” Before he took two steps backwards he was floating in midair.

A light blue aura surrounded him. The intensity of the light was blinding and Onyx had to squint and look away to avoid damaging his eyes.

“I don’t care. Nopony is to enter this store before Midnight is happy. As for the rest of the ponies in the goddesses forsaken tower I could care less. I would do anything for her.” Harmony was gripping Onyx very tightly.

“Maybe putting me down and talking to her would be a good step.” Onyx barely managed to get his words out and point to me.

“What do you mean?” Her eyes traveled to the door to see me standing before her. “Midnight!?”

I was heading down to the store. My hooves carried me at a quick pace considering my current emotions. A stallion with his nose in the air looked at me.

“If it is that wine store you are headed to I say don’t bother. The mare who is running that place nearly killed me with the door.” A few drips of blood leaked out of his nostrils. “Now if you’ll excuse me I need to ge take care of this.” He tilted his head back a little more.

“Wait before you go. Take this.” I hoofed him a small bag of caps.

“Well this is not necessary you have done nothing to cause this.” He attempted to give me back the bag but I shook my head and used my magic to put it into his saddlebags.

“Trust me I’m more responsible for this than you truly know.” He gave a look of confusion before realizing he was make a large mess on the floor with his blood. He nodded and was on his way.

I trotted closer to the store. Every step was a small and unsure step. I wanted to see her just so I could scold her and also so I could kiss her. My emotions were a mess as was my mane. This past few days had made me more stressed than I had been before we went to the spa.

I reached the front of the store and looked inside. Harmony was surrounded entirely by the aura coming from her horn. Onyx was in the air surround by that same light blue. I opened the door and stood there.

“Maybe putting me down and talking to her would be a good step.” Onyx barely managed to get his words out and point to me.

“What do you mean?” Her eyes traveled to the door to see me standing before her. “Midnight!?”

Onyx fell to the ground with a thud and Harmony’s magic dissipated. My magic surrounded her holding her in place.

“Well this place is a mess. Now you are going to stay right where you are and tell me exactly what you did. There is to be no holding back I need to know what you did so I can decide whether or not to forgive you. So what did you do?” I decided that scolding her first was the best idea.

“Well I. Uhh.” She hesitated.

“The truth or I will have no choice but to not forgive you.” I gave her my sternest look.

My words were forceful. I had a feeling that they hurt me more than they hurt her. I showed no signs that this was the case.

“I gave information to the Crimson Skull about how to take this tower over. I needed to talk to DJ-PON3 in order to give my message to them I swear I did not do anything else.” Tears rolled down her cheeks.

“I would suggest you listen to her.” A unicorn walked up to me from the backside of the room.

“Who in tartarus are you?” I turned away from Harmony to see this new stallion approach.

“I’m DJ-PON3. Harmony tells the truth. Now while I think she is a gorgeous mare I knew she had found somepony. Believe me if she hadn’t I might have done something. However she tells the truth about what she did. She also convinced me to tell the wasteland about the incoming threat from those groups of raiders. Unfortunately she has put us all in danger and now she has to leave this place. She is not welcome back here until both of those factions of raiders are killed or not a threat anymore. You have today to enjoy here in the tower and then you have to leave.” His words were forceful.

I looked at Harmony for a few seconds before releasing her from my magic. She sat there on the floor for a few seconds before she realized that she had been let go of. Her eyes met mine. I could tell that she was on the verge of bursting into tears.

“I forgive you.” I spoke gently.

“What?” She was questioning if her ears had heard me right.

“I forgive you Harmony. Now this doesn’t mean that I am going to accept you back right away. You have a week to think over what has happened here. After that who knows. Now get up and go clean yourself up. I’ve seen radroaches cleaner than you.” I smiled.

Harmony got up onto her hooves. I could see in her eyes that she was trying to hold back from crying and laughing at the same time.

“Onyx get her to her room and make sure she gets cleaned up. As for me I’m going to make sure we have got everything in order for tomorrow.” I trotted out the door leaving my marefriend crying on the floor.

Author's Note

Also if I forgot to mention it, some of the previous chapters have been updated as they have been rewritten little bit. Either way I'll be uploading frequently for a little while.

The Race

One week. For one entire week I was under strict watch. I was allowed an hour of sleep for every ten hours that I trained. Each day, each hour, each minute two thoughts persisted in my mind. One I was going to enjoying being back in my bed at home and two that I was going to kill that bitch Spitfire.

“Good. Now just give me another two hundred and you can be done.” She yelled up to me.

Like I had done so many times over the past week I hurled a fireball at her as I passed. She avoided it. She always avoided it.

“Not going to work you little shit. All you’re doing is digging yourself into a deeper pile of shit. Make it three hundred laps. Unless you think you can beat me in a race.” She grinned smugly.

I had trained for a week on less than twenty hours of sleep. I was in no shape to attempt a race with her. Against my better judgement I landed in front of her.

“Oh. Feeling bold are we?” She grinned.

“Might as well hear you out. Not like I’ve got anything better to do.” I sat down.

“Well then. The race is around the outside of this training camp. I’ll go over the course with you once. After that you are on your own to beat me.” She looked me over.

“Alright.” I brought myself to my hooves.

She turned her back to me and for a split second I considered trying to attack her. A smug little grin passed over her face.

“Don’t even try it. I won’t hesitate to make you clean the latrines for the next month with your tongue. Now move it.” She jumped into the air.

I lagged behind her by a few seconds but for the most part was able to keep up with her. As we exited the training grounds everything in my sight changed. This world wasn’t a wasteland. In fact it was the farthest from a wasteland that you could be. Spitfire had stopped just on the outskirts of the base.

“Yeah. Yeah. How about you take a picture it’ll last longer.” She smirked. “Now get your flank over here. I am only going over this once so if you fail out here then it’s back to the track.” She continued flying.

I didn’t hesitate. I was not going to let myself get beat because I didn’t know the course. The course was about two or three miles long. I knew that I would be able to make my way through this course easily enough. I was unsure whether or not I would be able to beat Spitfire.

“So that’s the course. You have twelve hours to prepare yourself. If you are late to the starting line then the race is off and you go back to the track. Understood.” She landed back in the base.

I saluted her. It hurt me to do it but everytime I failed to I got a strong kick to the face. The first thing I did was head to my bed. I was going to tell Rose about everything that had happened.

I woke up in my bed at home. Rose was sitting in her usual chair watching over my bed. Her face filled with delight. She nearly killed me once she got her hooves on me. She had dragged me into a hug and I could barely breath. After she released me she smacked my flank a few times before hugging me again.

“It’s nice to see you.” She held up a note.

‘Where in tartarus have you been. I have been worried sick about you.’

“I was in another world. Somepony took me over there because they had been contracted to make sure I got trained in a safe environment. It’s a long story but I have been allowed to come back here for a few hours so I can be rested up for a race.”

A look of confusion and fear was spread across her face.

“So here is the short version. For the last week this bitch.” She gave me the death stare. “Sorry. This mare named Spitfire has been training me to fly and control my empatha. She didn’t let me come back here so that’s why I’ve been gone this entire time.”

She set me down. ‘You know I’m not happy about this right. For all I knew you were dead somewhere in the wasteland.’

I looked at her. A tear rolled down my cheek.

She quickly wrote up another note. ‘I’m not mad just disappointed. Now rest up and go win that race.’

“Thank you.”

I went back to sleep. Instead of being teleported back to the other world I had a pleasant eight hour nap.

When I woke back up Spitfire was standing over me.

“Welcome back. Now prepare yourself because here in about one hour I am going to whoop your flank into submission.” She stepped over me.

“Good luck with that you.. You.” I was trying to think up a new insult.

“You what? I’ve heard worse than you can come up with kid.”

“Go get bucked by a boar. I’m not going to take your shit any longer. So good luck and maybe don’t buck with me.” I stood up.

“Or what?” She smiled at me. Her eyes dared me to do something.

I smiled for a few seconds before the tip of my wing came to rest at the base of Spitfire’s throat. I gave her a wicked grin and then slasher her face with my wing. I small stream of blood started to drip down her face.

“Or you’ll get another one of those. Now leave before I make you regret being here.” My horn started to charge magic.

Spitfire didn’t let any fear show in her face. She simply flew out the door.

“Thought so.” I released the magic I was preparing.

Crimson Skull stomped on the ground a few times. “Well well well. Excellent work. You just made yourself a powerful enemy.” He trotted over.

“Oh so you’re here to. Thought you might stop in to tell me I couldn’t do it before I went out.” I glared at him angrily.

“Oh, no no no. I heard a commotion and walk in to see you give her a good smack across the face. I thought I’d congratulate you.” He smiled.

“Why?” I was confused as to why I would be congratulated for something like that.

“Because if you lose I get to watch her beat you into the ground. That is going to be fun.” A devilish smile crossed his face.

I looked at him for a second before walking out the door. I walked towards the track. Ace was flying around. He spotted me as I walked up.

“Hey Silver how are you doing?” He landed next to me.

“How do you think? I have to beat Spitfire in a race or else she’ll be riding my ass forever.” I kicked the ground a few times.

“So you would rather be riding her ass?” He smirked.

“What?” These ponies never really made sense to me.

“Nothing. Let me tell you something. She isn’t the best pony in the world but she gets the job done. I bet if you can beat her she might actually respect you. Maybe she’ll give you a celebration prize.” He winked.

“Like what?” I had no clue what he was trying to do.

“You are hopeless kid. I might explain it to you one day.” He shook his head,

Spitfire landed next to me. I was expecting a hoof to strike me. Nothing of the sort happened.

“I tell you what kid. I respect you for standing up for yourself. If you beat me then we ease up on the training. If you lose it’s five hundred laps a day. At least for the first few weeks. Then it will be one thousand. And after two or three months I might let you try again. Might.” She took off again.

The speakers across camp came to life with noise. “Attention to all soldiers. We are having a race in less than an hour. If you want to place bets come to HQ and place your bet.”

A group of stallions passed by. “Like anypony is going to bet that kid will win.”

“I bet you fifty bits that he doesn’t.”

“Agreed.”

“Hey Silver.” Ace snapped his talons to draw my attention back.

“What Ace?” I was really uncertain about this race.

“You got this and you know why.” He put a claw on my shoulder.

“No.” I put it in the simplest manner I could.

“With the amount of training you’ve done you’ll be able to win easily.” He took his claw off me and sat it back on the ground.

“Well it is just a straight race to the finish nothing too complex.” I shrugged.

“Wait did she not tell you?” His voice was somewhere in between anger and confusion.

“Tell me what?” I stared into his eyes.

“You will have to use your empatha a few times. I suppose she wouldn’t tell you. She is afraid of you after all. Watch out though you’ll need to use fire to light a few targets on fire and Spitfire is one of the best fire empaths.” He was giving me as many tips as he could.

“Ten minutes until the race. This is the last call for bet placing.” The speakers were really annoying. I considered blowing it up with a fireball.

I took to the air and headed towards the starting line.

“Anypony at all want to place a bet that the kid will win?” The stallion behind the counter was getting ready to shut the cage.

“Yes actually.” Violet dragged Blaze along.

“Violet, Blaze what are you doing here?” The stallion was surprised about the appearance of Violet and Blaze.

“We are placing our bets.” Violet grabbed a bag full of bits.

“Alright how much?” The stallion looked over his charts.

“100 bits on Silver winning.” Violet dropped the bag on the counter.

“Well that is your choice. Let me tell you the odds of him winning are a million to one. But I guess if you are willing to lose 100 bits then I suppose that's your choice.” He slid the bits under the counter.

“He’ll win. We believe in him.” Blaze looked up at the screen that was capturing the race.

I stood at the starting line. I was reassuring myself that I could beat Spitfire and rub it in everypony's face. Spitfire landed next to me.

“Ready for this kid?” In response I simply called upon on my rage and lit my wing on fire.

“Well seems Ace told you about that then didn’t he?” I nodded. “Choosing to stay quiet huh? Good choice. Bragging isn’t really a good thing to be doing before a race.”

“Then why are you talking?” I put my wing as close to her as possible.

“Intimidation you little shit. Now shut up.” She was tempted to smack me.

“Is everypony ready?” We both nodded. “Three. Two. One.” A whistle sounded.

As I took to the air a hoof struck me in the chest. “Good luck winning now kid.” Spitfire shot off into the distance.

“Did she just do that?” The mare with the whistle looked at me.

“Seems she did.” Ace was standing there waiting for me to get up.

I took off in a flash. Each ring that I passed went by in a blur. Every ten or so hoops a target was stationed next to it. Without a second thought my empatha kicked in and took the target down.

I had just finished the first lap and Spitfire was starting to lose her lead. Something told me she wasn’t really trying. I was slowly catching up to her but I wasn’t sure that I could even clear the distance between the two of us.

Time seemed to stop before me. Rose stood in front of me. Her smile was as bright as I had ever seen it.

Her note was there in front of me. ‘You can do it Silver. Beat her.’ A grin overtook my face as I found speed that I didn’t know I had. A bolt of lightning shot out from my hooves and I was almost upon Spitfire.

Her head twisted around to see me speeding towards her. I saw her mouth ‘what the buck’ just before I flew past her.

I didn’t dare to look back to see what she was doing. I completed the second lap and was over a quarter of a lap in front of Spitfire. She must have snapped out of her shock and started flying faster than she had been. She was slowly catching up to me.

I was on the last lap of this race. I looked back to see that Spitfire was trying to catch me so she could throw me to the ground.

“Come here. I will not be beat by a little piece of horse shit like you.” Her hooves reached for me menacingly.

I again kicked my back legs and unleashed a little bit of lightning. The action tired me out a bit.

“Get back here so I can snap your pathetic little neck.” She dodged and pulled back a small bit.

“How about no.” I kicked my back legs again but no lightning accompanied my motion.

I flipped over so I could look into her eyes. “Hey I hear you are into some weird things. You like the taste of things that most ponies don’t. So tell me after the race how this tastes.”

I hit the last hoop and landed. Spitfire landed just barely out of reach a few seconds later. She spat a few times before speaking.

“I am going to kill you I hope you know that.” She was drying her face off with a towel somepony had tossed her.

“Bite me.” I spat at her hooves.

“Is that a challenge?” She spun towards me.

“I thought you didn’t swing that way Spitfire.” Ace stepped forward putting a wing over me.

“Shut up Ace. Did you see what that kid do to me?” She was grinding her teeth.

“What you mean release his bowels because you were trying to kill him? Oh yeah. Nice job by the way Silver.” Ace held out a claw. I hoof bumped him.

Spitfire was nearly out of control of her emotions. One of her wings glew a bright orange and the other was covered in ice.

“It could have been worse you know.” Ace drew his wing down a bit lower.

“How?” Her wings both erupted in flame.

“Well I could call you shithead instead of pissface.” I knew he wanted to stick his tongue out at her but was afraid to. So I did it for him.

“Well it seems that Silver has won this race. That means that he is free from your tyranny as a teacher.” Ace was gloating.

“I would have won if he hadn’t pissed in my face.” Spitfire spun towards him.

Crimson was being brought up in a balloon. “That is debatable. I do however agree with Ace. Silver did win and has therefore passed through his flight training.”

Crimson Skull landed on the platform.

“From here on he has earned the title of Private. He is to be treated accordingly.” He grabbed a small badge and levitated it to me.

“But he is just a child.” Spitfire was speaking in a low voice.

“Yes and he beat one of our best fliers in a race. That and he has officially received the base training we give to any other pegasus who wants to join our corp.” Crimson was done with this conversation.

Spitfire did not take him seriously. “Are you serious?”

“Yes I am Lieutenant. Dismissed.” He tapped a hoof on the ground.

“But.” Spitfire was searching for her words.

“Did I stutter Lieutenant!?” Crimson got right up into Spitfire’s face.

“No Sir.” She saluted him.

“You may take your leave now. You too Ace. I need to talk to Silver here. Alone.” He waved them off.

“Understood Sir.” Ace saluted and took to the air.

Both of them left us alone. I started giggling at Spitfire. Her face and uniform were drenched. Crimson caught me giggling.

“Something funny?” His voice had taken a much less authoritative tone.

“Um. Um.” I didn’t want to say why I was laughing.

“Let me guess you have something to do with why Spitfire is angry don’t you?” He raised an eyebrow.

“Ye- Yes Sir.” I saluted.

“What did you do?” He pushed my hoof to the ground.

“I kind of pissed in her face.” I shrunk down.

“That’s what happened?” He broke out into a full blown laugh.

“Uhm.” I was certain I would be punished.

“Oh sorry. She needed to be taken down a peg or two. I just never thought that somepony would have chosen that as the way for it to happen.” He laughed a little bit more before stopping.

I was very confused at what was currently happening.

“So I’m not in trouble.” I was super confused. If I had done something like that when Rose was present I would have been punished.

“Son you are now a member of our army. You are a Private here and must start acting like it. I will give you some time to adjust seeing as you have been a civilian up to this point.” He was very to the point.

“Ok.” I was still confused but went with it.

“Now come with me. I have something to show you.” Crimson hopped into the balloon and descended.

We went back to HQ. Outside Blaze and Violet were kissing.

“I knew he could do it. I just knew it.” Violet wrapped her hooves around Blaze.

“And did you see that last little bit. Spitfire had to have swallowed some of that. That was hilarious.” They both started laughing.

We trotted over to them. “Oh hi Silver. Excellently done. You beat Spitfire that is a major accomplishment. Nopony has been able to do that to date. Well nopony who is still alive.” Blaze pushed Violet away.

“Also nice little trick with the golden shower.” Violet was giggling again.

“What?” I was getting really tired of not knowing what was going on most of the time.

“We’ll explain when you’re older.” Blaze waved his hoof.

“Why does everypony keep saying that?” I was getting really annoyed.

They both looked at each other smiling. Blaze turned around to grab something. When he turned back around a large bag was dragged in tow.

“What is this?” The bag tipped over.

“Just a little something you earned since you beat Spitfire.” Blaze turned back to Violet.

I cut open the bag with the tip of my wing. Little golden coins spilled out. “Uhm.” I was unsure what I was being given.

“Oh you must not use bits where you come from. Well these are bits here they act as our currency and that is about half a million bits right there. We won big betting on you.”

Crimson gave them both a disapproving look. “You two bet on this kid?” He shook his head.

“Had to keep it interesting somehow. Besides no harm would have come from it.” Blaze waved his hoof at Crimson.

All I could do was stare in awe at all the money that was before me. “What do I do with all of this?” The question had been meant to stay to me but apparently I was talking louder than I thought.

“Well kid you can do anything you want with it. Personally if you were a bit older I would take you to a” A hoof hit him in the side. “Ow what was that for Violet?” He clutched his side.

“I know what you were going to say and I don’t approve.” She gave him the death glare.

“It was just a joke. Lighten up.” He laughed a little bit bringing himself pain every time he did.

“He doesn’t understand some of the stuff we say so don’t you think you should explain stuff to him before you even go suggesting stuff like that?” Violet’s voice calmed down a small bit.

“Fine. So Silver when two ponies love each other very much they.” He would have gone on but Violet tackled him.

“Shut up.” Violet punched him again.

“But I want to know what he was going to say.” I was intrigued.

They both spoke in unison. “Ask Rose.” Blaze continued to grasp his side.

“Ok.” I made a mental not to ask Rose about this once I got home. The sun was still pretty high in the sky.

“Hey Violet.” I tapped on Violet’s leg staying away from her just in case.

“Yes Silver.” She reached out and drew me closer.

“Can we do some magic training. In my time here I haven’t gotten to train any of my alicorn magic.” I hoofed at the ground.

“Well I suppose we could do a few things today.” She tilted my head up to look at her.

“Can you get off of me?” Blaze was trying desperately to get out from under her.

“Oh you know you love it.” She stood a little bit and then dropped back down onto him.

“Dammit.” He growled.

“Let’s go Silver. We have some magical training to do.” Violet was eager to get me away from Blaze.

We walked for a few minutes before we reached a building where unicorns were practicing their magic.

“Ok let’s start out simple. Try and levitate this rock.”

The rock was about half my size. I knew that with my strength I could lift it easily. I tried once to lift the rock but to no avail. I tried again and again before I eventually just had to stop.

“Thought so. That rock absorbs magic. It seems to be almost overloaded. That is a good sign. Most unicorns can’t even get to this point. A few extremely well trained unicorns can but they are rare.” She tapped the rock.

“Can you do it?” I looked at the rock.

“I am one of the few who can overload it. Now then try to lift this rock.” The rock was of similar size but was gray instead of black.

The rock lifted off the ground with almost no resistance. I held the rock in midair for a few seconds before putting it back down. Violet pointed to another rock and I lifted it. We eventually made it to rocks that were about the size of most of the ponies around here. That rock had proved to be my match.

“Well. Most unicorns your age might have been able to lift that second or third rock by themselves but after that well.” She shrugged.

“So what that means I did good right?” I was excited.

“Well we don’t have any accurate data on the limits of alicorns but given what I have been I would say yes you have.” She smiled and patted my head.

I looked at the horizon. The sun was setting and I wanted to go home.

“Go ahead Silver. I bet Rose will be beyond happy to see you.” She pushed me towards the barracks.

“Thank you.” I galloped off in the direction of the barracks. I couldn’t wait to go home.

Close Encounters of the Bullet and Blade Kind

“So what is the plan?” I was looking at the map.

“Well the way I see it is we can only protect one town from these two groups. There is only one place where multiple squadrons of ponies will be attacking.” Onyx was looking the map over.

“Where is that?” I looked over the map looking for the biggest settlements.

“New Appleloosa. It’s one of the bigger settlements that has actually managed to stay strong for this long.” He pointed to a town on the map.

“So why defend them they seem to be well off. At least enough that a raider attack shouldn’t collapse the city.” I could actually see the city in a holographic form. I spun it a few times looking over the defenses.

“They have held out against small groups of raiders not full sized platoons of soldiers.” He pushed the hologram away.

I was looking at the map. We knew where they would be attacking and where they would be sending troops from. We had the entire battle plan laid out before us but we knew that plans could change.

“So all the other places don’t really matter?” Harmony had been sitting quietly scooching closer to me.

“Well I wouldn’t say that Harmony. They are of less importance to us at the moment. New Appleloosa is a center for trade in the wasteland. We would be in a better situation if we were to help them out.” Onyx looked over the plan again.

“Ok now that makes sense.” Harmony had gotten within reach of me. I scooched out of reach.

“I knew you would come around. If we are going to help them out we need to leave immediately. Unless we can get a sky chariot or two we will have to trot all the way there.” He grabbed the map and slid it into his saddlebags.

“Well that’s no fun.” I was not excited to have to walk that distance.

“It isn’t meant to be. Most ponies ride in wagons or fly if they have to make that kind of a trip.” Onyx turned back towards us.

One of the guards trotted over to us. “You were suppose to leave over an hour ago. I need to ask you to leave or else things might get violent.” He grabbed a baton in his magic.

“I wouldn’t recommend that.” I slid out the boar rifle.

“And I wouldn’t suggest that.” An automated turret slid out of the wall. “That will tear you to pieces before you can find cover.” I slowly lowered my gun. “Good choice. Now out the door.” He pointed to the open front door.

We trotted outside. I was the last to leave the tower. As an insult to our pride the guard slammed the door hitting me in the flanks.

“Ow. I swear to Celestia you will regret doing that one day.” I kicked the door.

The guard spoke through the intercom. “We’ll see about that.”

“Well we better get started if we want to get there on time.” Onyx pulled me away from the door.

I glared at the camera for a few seconds. “Ok let’s go.”

(Skip. Nothing interesting happens for quite some time.)(You say that because I refused your advances for like a week after this.)(Well yes and the only interesting thing that happened that day was just past midnight.)

The day progressed slowly. We eventually had to stop for the night and set up a camp.

“Let’s stop here we have covered plenty of ground today. We all need to get some rest so we can start early tomorrow.” I yawned.

Camp consisted of a few sleeping bags and a small fire for cooking and warmth. I situated my sleeping bag across camp from Harmony. I could tell she was trying to move closer to me without me noticing. She was doing a terrible job of it. After ten minutes she was right next to me.

“You know I’m not happy with you right now.” I rolled away from her.

“Come on. I need you.” Desperation crept into her voice.

“No.” I rolled back to face her.

“Please I know you are mad but please just please.” She was pleading.

“The answer is no and that is final. I need some time to get over this.” I rolled back over.

“Ok. Can We at least be close. It is quite cold out here.”

I knew she was just trying to get what she wanted. “We can be close but no cuddling or anything of the sort.”

I kept my back turned to her but she still insisted to get as close to me as you possibly could. I simply accepted it and dozed off. I would have slept the entire night through had a sky chariot not crash landed just outside of camp.

“What the buck was that?” I tried to hop out of my bed. Harmony had rolled away from me.

“It looks like a sky chariot. It still seems pretty much intact. We might be able to use it to get to New Appleloosa in less than one day.” Onyx was looking over the crashed chariot.

“Yeah that’s all well and good but who crashed this here? Where did they run off to?” I prodded Harmony. She rolled back to me.

“Best not to look a gift horse in the mouth. Best to use them for other things.” Onyx winked at me.

“Gross.” I cringed a bit.

I slowly crawled out of bed. Harmony clung to me but I shook her off. She winced a little as she hit the ground. I mouthed ‘Sorry’ before walking over to the chariot.

Minus a few scratches and a large dent in the right side the chariot was in perfect condition.

“So you think we might be able to get to New Appleloosa before sunset tomorrow?” I was looking at the dent a bit worried.

“Probably. It won’t be a warm ride but it will get us there quickly.” He tilted the chariot upright.

“Good. For now I am going back to sleep.” Harmony laid back down.

“How about you just get in the chariot. It is big enough that you should be able to sleep somewhat comfortably in it.” I nodded.

I trotted back over to camp and started packing my things. I tapped Harmony on the shoulder a few times to make sure she hadn’t gone back to sleep.

“Hey get up.” I kept prodding her.

“What is it?” She rolled over to look at me.

“We are going to use the chariot that crashed outside of camp to get to New Appleloosa.” I spoke softly.

“Aren’t we going to do that in the morning?” She rubbed her eyes.

“No. Now get on the chariot you can sleep there.”

She crawled out of her sleeping bag. “Fine.”

Demo and Onyx agreed to pull the chariot and let the rest of us sleep.

“I don’t know what we would do without you two.” I hugged Onyx.

“You are welcome.” Onyx smiled at me. “Get in the chariot. Try and get some sleep.”

“Ok mom.” I chided at him.

I had mostly gotten over the death of my mother but every time I thought about her I remembered the stable. All of those innocent ponies had died. They were friends. They were almost my family. I wouldn’t stop until the wasteland was free of Tri-Tear and his tyranny. I would make sure he would pay for having killed all of my family and friends. That was for a future day. For now I went back to sleep.

I woke up to a prod in the side and the gruff voice of a stallion.

“Get up.” The stallion prodded me again.

“What? Where are we? Who are you?” I sat bolt upright.

“You are going to be floating through space here in a few seconds if you don’t get up.”

I considered for a second before rising to my hooves. The stallion looked me over twice. He seemed pleased with me.

“You will do perfectly. Should sell for about one hundred caps right now. Might even get somepony to buy you for a two or three hundred caps.” He nodded looking me over again.

“What are you talking about?” I had suspicions.

“What I’m talking about is you are going to be sold as a sex slave.”

I looked around for my friends but saw nothing. I looked the stallion in the eyes and tried putting on my most seductive voice.

“Are you sure you want to sell me. I bet nopony could please me like a big strong stallion like yourself.” I traced a hoof over his chest.

“Well nopony said I was going to sell you immediately. I had planned on keeping you around for as long as I felt you would be fun.” He grinned.

“Trust me honey. I can be fun for the rest of your life. You just have to give me a chance.” I loathed the words coming out of my mouth.

I didn’t take me too long to realize exactly how long this stallion had gone without somepony. I had the same effect on many of the ponies back home. I wiggled my hips.

“Now before we begin I would like to know where my friends are.” I pulled just out of his reach.

“They have been escorted back to the camp. Now if you’ll just follow me we can get down to business at camp.” He was eager to get back.

“Can I see my friends before we do it. I would do so much better for you if you would let me see them first.” I kept up the charade.

“How much better?” He looked me over again.

“Enough that if you did want to sell me you could get easily seven hundred caps. How does that sound?” I winked at him as I rubbed up against him.

“Worth my while. Alright you can see your friends.” He turned off towards his camp.

“You won’t regret it.” I knew he was going to regret all of this here in a few seconds. I reached out with my magic to find the weapons that had been stored in my saddlebags. My saddlebags were not on me. The stallion turned around to see my horn glowing.

“What exactly do you think you are doing?” He was very suspicious.

“I was um.” I had to make one final effort so that I wouldn’t get killed here and now. So I did the one thing that came to mind. “I was just trying to see exactly how big you were. I like to know so I can be prepared.” I drew closer to him.

“Well you could have just asked. I would still be much happier if you waited to do that until we got to the camp.” He gave me a small glare.

I sighed. “Fine. I guess I can wait.” I pouted a little bit just to put him at ease.

He smiled and turned back in the direction he was heading. I hoped that my friends were ok.

The trip back to his camp was a short one. We had been trotting for about two minutes before the camp came into view. It was a much smaller camp than I had expected to see. I guess not everything in the wasteland can be large. That was entirely true for the stallion walking next to me.

“Midnight is that you?” Harmony was looking at the stallion.

“Oh so your name is Midnight. Well nice to meet you for the first time. Here in a few minutes I think I can meet you for the second time.” He winked.

Oh Celestia did he think he was being smooth. I had seen fields full of rocks smoother than him. I smiled at him anyway. I walked over to the cage my friends were being held in.

“So how long have you been here?” I kept my voice down.

“I’d say about two or three hours. He seems to be the only pony around.” Harmony slid her hoof over her throat.

“No weapons. I could ask him where they are.” I looked backwards.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Onyx joined in.

“Well it is good to see you are all alive and for the most part unharmed.”

The stallion tapped the ground a few times. “Midnight. Hurry up my little stallion would like to meet you.”

“Has he been saying things like that while you were here?” I nodded and turned back to Harmony.

“Yes.” She grimaced.

“I’m going to go take care of this. I will be right back.” I trotted over to the one tent out here.

The stallion had already disappeared inside. I could only guess as to what he was doing in there. I shuddered. I really did not want to go in that tent. I swallowed the lump in my throat and entered the tent.

The stallion was laying down on the bed. He had rid himself of what little armor and weapons he had on him. Out of the corner of my eye I caught a little bit of movement but decided to ignore it. I had to find a way to kill this stallion before I had to.. Ugh ride him.

“Come now don’t be afraid. I have seen unexperienced mares before. I know that whole rock my world stuff was just you trying to not let on that you hadn’t mated before. I care not if you have or haven’t. It is my job to show mares like you a good time before I give others the opportunity to do so as well.” He tapped the bed.

“You know I saw one mare out there. Don’t you think we could make this more interesting and fun if we got her in on this?” I looked over my shoulder.

He shook his head. “Best not to waste your time on her. She refuses to do anything with stallions.”

“I think I could convince her. Let me try.” I gave him my best pout.

“Fine. If you think you can convince her to get in on this here's the key let her out only if you can get her to lighten up a little bit.” He waved me off.

“Thank you.” I spun around and slapped my flank as I left the tent.

I trotted out to the cage waited a few seconds and unlocked it. “Harmony come with me. The rest of you stay here. I have only been allowed to free Harmony for now.”

“Ok but why?” Harmony stood up.

“Because I said she would help me get that stallion laid.” I unlocked the cage.

“Absolutely not.” She shook her head.

“Just play along I think this is the only way to get us out of this. Now make yourself look as sexy as possible and follow my lead.” I thought to myself that no mare could look sexier than her.

We trotted very seductively back into the tent.

The stallion seemed very pleased. “Well I didn’t think it could be done but now we can have double the fun.”

We trotted up to the bed. I hesitated at the edge before stepping up onto it. I waved my hips in front of him. He was really pleased with what was happening. Harmony was much closer to the stallion. She was doing her own seductive dance. He smacked her flank smiling.

“I think I’ve seen enough. It is time for the main event.”

A new voice sounded from off to my left.

“Whatever you say sicko.” The voice seemed to be disembodied.

“Who the buck are you?” A pair of eyes opened.

“Me? I’m the angel of death and I’ve come to collect your soul.” A dark blue stallion stepped forward.

“Yeah whatever can it wait. I would like to have some fun before I die.” He looked back to our flanks.

“How’s this for fun.” I jumped out of the way as a blade swung through the air a few times.

Each stroke of the blade added another laceration to the body of the stallion. After twenty or thirty swings the blade rested against the stallion’s throat.

“So. Was that enough fun for you or would you like me to continue.” The mysterious stallion lifted the blade away.

“Dammit. Kill me already.” Our captor was in excruciating pain.

“No.” His voice was stern.

“You have damned me to a slow and very painful death you bastard.” He coughed blood a few times.

“Don’t move. If you do I might have to shove this blade through your throat and kill you.” The blade came down a few inches.

“Do it.” The stallion laying on the bed lifted his neck up.

The blade moved with the stallion. “Eventually but not yet. Are you two mares ok?”

I responded a little unsure of this shady figure. “Yes we are. Who are you?”

“A topic to be discussed after I deal with this sick motherbucker. Now have you learned your lesson?” The stallion pushed the blade down against the other stallions throat.

“What lesson? The lesson that you are out of your goddesses damned mind? I think I’ve learned that lesson.” He coughed up a bit of blood.

“No. The lesson is that if you mess with innocent mares you die.” The blade tore into the stallion.

His body twitched for a few seconds and then was still. I’m not sure what this new stallion had against him but he cut the stallion’s head off.

“Now I believe you asked my name. I’m Silver. It is a pleasure to meet you.” Silver slid the blade away from the dead stallion.

“Why did you cut his head off?” I was still very wary of this stallion.

“It’s a long story and I’ll explain later for now we need to leave here. Slavers come here about once a week to look for new playthings. If we don’t leave soon they will find us.” He trotted to the tent entrance.

“I’m not leaving without my gear.” I looked around for it.

Silver pointed his hoof to our gear. “Right over there grab it and let’s go.”

I trotted over to the gear and put on my armor and saddlebags as quickly as I could. After doing so we exited the tent and freed Onyx, Demo, and Stone. They grabbed a few things from around the camp along with the gear Harmony and I gave to them and we left the area quickly.

After we had a second to slow down and make sure everything was where it should be I got a good look at our new friend. I had originally guessed that he was a unicorn seeing as he had the ability to move a bladed weapon so quickly. I had gotten that part right, he did have a horn. What I had failed to see in the tent was the fact that he had wings.

“You’re an alicorn.” I tilted my head.

“Yes I am.” He turned towards me.

“What happened to your wing?” I looked to his metal left wing.

“A bandit cut it off when I was younger. So I traveled all over equestria trying to find one that fit me perfectly and I did.” He flipped the bladed wing out.

“Maybe we should talk later. We could still be in bandit territory.” Harmony looked behind us.

“Agreed. Silver can you take us to New Appleloosa.” I kept looking at his wing.

“I suppose I can. Follow me.” He trotted off and I couldn’t tear my eyes away.

He was deep blue with a mane of pitch black. It was no wonder I hadn’t seen him sitting in the tent. He was practically invisible in the dark. During my inspection I had also gleaned one more bit of information about him. He had a shield for a cutie mark.

While I had been distracted looking at his cutie mark I had neglected to see the threat that had presented itself.

I was brought back to the world when Silver’s wing held me from moving. “What do you think you are doing?”

I looked around and we were surrounded by bandits. “I was.”

“Not paying attention again. She tends to do that.” Harmony levitated out a gun.

“Thanks Harmony.” I drew one of my pistols at random.

“Any time Midnight.” Harmony looked around and started counting the bandits.

“So what are we going to do?” I shifted my eyes around.

“Well I figure there is probably about fifteen or so of them. If you were to kill five of them I should be able to take the rest.” Silver was looking around.

“How?” I kept looking around.

“I’m an alicorn. I’ve got more to me than meets the eye. Now prepare yourselves. I can keep up one big shield for a long time but enough small shields to protect all of you is something I haven’t had to practice in a long time. On my mark.”

“3. 2. 1.”

The shield dropped and we opened fire. Harmony had pulled out one of the smaller handguns while Onyx and Demo had gone with the bigger ones. Stone had a gun all his own. It looked similar to my boar rifle but a little less bulky. We had taken out four raiders right after the shield dropped. Now came the challenge of picking off a few more of them before they could kill us. That was easier said than done.

I had been the target of most of the gunfire from the raiders. Their aim was terrible and most bullets flew past me and into the distance. The rest of them had hit me. Fortunately most of them were small caliber and couldn’t pierce my armor. The two or three that had rifles on them had managed to puncture my armor. The shots were not fatal if we treated them quickly.

Aurora spoke to me. “You need to drink a few healing potions and get what little of those bullets that are left in you out.”

“Yeah. I had planned to do that as soon as we were safe.” I was laying down avoiding the gunfire.

“I don’t know if you’ll make it that long.” Aurora manifested in front of me.

“Thanks for being so reassuring.” She stayed silent after that.

In the time I had been talking with Aurora another shield had been erected around us. The rest of the raiders were scattered across the ground. Some were in pieces, others had simply been decapitated. Silver was tending to a few minor scrapes where I suspected he had been grazed by bullets. My armor was being taken off of me by Harmony. She looked very displeased with me.

“You could have dodged a few of those you know.” She looked me over to see how bad the shots had been.

“Sorry. I was paying more attention to making sure Silver didn’t die.” I looked over to see Silver standing over me.

“Well bloody good that would have done us if you died. Be more careful next time.” Harmony was rummaging around through her saddlebags.

“Will do. For now can we get me patched up. I think I have a few too many bullets in my body.” I laughed coughing up blood.

Harmony rolled her eyes and helped me out of the rest of my armor. She looked over my wounds for a few seconds before charging her magic. What happened next was awful.

The pain was excruciating as Harmony pulled the little bits and pieces of bullets out of me. I was writhing in agony and had to be held down. I slipped in and out of consciousness. I eventually woke up and was being carried by Silver.

“So how long have I been asleep?” The pain was intense but I was still alive.

“A few hours at most. You had Harmony worried.” Silver was readjusting my position on him.

“Yeah she tends to worry about things a little more than she should.” I laughed and had to stop before I passed out.

“Now look I’m not one to spread rumors but I think she likes you. Seems she has a pretty big crush on you.” Silver seemed to be a little more innocent than he appeared.

“Yeah I know. We are in a relationship.” He seemed a little surprised at that but just shrugged it off.

“I would like to know what was your problem with that pony you saved us from.” I was clutching at where the bullets had hit me. The pain was still horrible.

“I have had a problem with ponies like that since I was young. Raiders foalnapped my mother and I was forced to listen to them have their way with her for hours. So I swore to kill anypony who was like those raiders.” He was... open about his past.

I had no response to that so I choose to stay silent. The rest of the group seemed to be doing fine. They looked a bit bruised and had a few scratches but were no worse for wear. Except for Harmony. She seemed like she was suffering from withdrawals. I didn’t think she had been addicted to anything but I could be wrong.

I decided to call out to her. “Hey Harmony can you come here.”

She picked up her pace and caught up to Silver. “What do you need.” She was very eager to do whatever she could for me.

“I just wanted to talk. If you would be ok with that.” I let go of my wounds.

“Why certainly.” She stayed as close to me as she could.

“Hey Silver do you think you could let me down? I am pretty sure I can walk on my own again.” The pain in my side was dulled.

“Fine. I have no problems with carrying you if you can’t keep up though.” He looked me over.

“Alright.”

We stopped long enough for Silver to set me down and let me try and walk on my own. I was still in shock from all the times I had been shot. I couldn’t walk more than a few steps at a time.

“So I take it you won’t be walking by yourself for a while.” Silver watched as I tried to walk.

“Yeah. I don’t think we would get anywhere if we let me walk on my own.” I sat back down.

Silver went to pick me up by Harmony stopped him. “You need a break from carrying her. I’ll do it.” Harmony stepped towards me.

“Are you sure you can handle carrying her?” Silver raised his eyebrow at Harmony.

“Trust me I can support her easily. I do it more often than you think.”

I would have facehoofed did my sides not hurt. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea Harmony.”

“Nonsense. I don’t want to worry the stallions here with carrying you when I am perfectly capable. Now get on.” She lowered herself to the ground and waited for me.

It was very reluctantly but I got on her back and allowed her to carry me. If she was uncomfortable with carrying me she did a great job of concealing it. Now we had time to talk.

“How have you been Harmony?” I tried my best to not move.

“What do you mean Midnight?” She tried to look back at me while she walked.

“Well you seem to be out of it almost like you are suffering from withdrawal. I got to see Demo when he was going through that and you are displaying some of the same symptoms.”

“Well to be honest with you I think I might be suffering yes.” She looked to the ground searching for words.

“What from?” I was certain she hadn’t changed anything since we left Tenpony.

“Well I think I am suffering from withdrawals from not being able to be close to you. It isn’t anything that I can’t handle. I know you need time to forgive me.” She looked back to the ground.

“Harmony?” I had a plan.

“Yeah.” She turned her head around to look at me. I planted a kiss on her lips for a few seconds before breaking away. She smiled her eyes pleading me for more.

“That’s all you get for now. I might give you some more later if you snap out of your little bout of depression.” I smiled.

“Whatever it takes.” She seemed happier.

I whispered in her ear. “Once I feel you’ve had enough of me playing hard to get I am going to buck you so hard.”

Her face turned red. The others had stopped and were looking at us. Just for effect I nibbled on her ear a little bit. I could tell she wasn’t exactly holding it together well.

“Come on you two we have quite a bit of ground to cover. We need to get going if we want to get to New Appleloosa before the sun sets.” Silver had been the one to speak.

I returned to my whisper. “Yeah Harmony. Wouldn’t want to delay your reward would we?”

“You make it really hard to concentrate.” She had rid herself of her armor to make my ride more comfortable.

“Oh I am only getting started.” We continued walking forward and I continued to tease Harmony.

Keeping her prize just out of reach. We were just outside of New Appleloosa when I got caught.

“What are you doing to her?” Silver had turned around.

“Oh I’m just teasing her. I have been for the entire walk here.” I nibbled Harmony’s ear a bit more.

“Well that is a bit cruel don’t you think?” Silver turned away from us.

“Maybe just a little bit. Harmony I think you have earned this.” I tapped her shoulder.

“Earned what?” She turned to look at me.

“Why another kiss of course.” I planted another kiss on her lips.

“Stop where you are. State your business here in New Appleloosa.” The guard had to yell just to get his message to us.

“We are here to warn you about an incoming attack from Tri-Tear and Crimson Skull. They plan to attack here and turn this into a slave camp. We have come to help protect you.” Silver decided to do our talking.

“Alright. Enter through the gate and then stop. We will have guards down there to talk with you further.”

While they talked I teased Harmony the entire time. “I really hope you know that this is not fun for me. I wish you would just finish the job already.”

“Oh I don’t think so. Not quite yet at least.” I had teased her all the way here.

“Are you two coming or not.” Onyx was standing in the open gate.

“At this moment I am not. Thanks Midnight.” Harmony’s voice was filled with discontent and a hint of anger.

I smiled. “You’re welcome.”

Harmony trotted inside with me in tow. The stallions gawked at her a little bit but otherwise paid us no attention. They had a guard station inside where they checked all ponies equipment and stored it away if it was deemed necessary.

“So are you two here to put on a show for the guards or what?” The stallion behind a glass wall stared at us.

“Why do you ask good sir?” I was being polite even though I knew what he was talking about.

“Well everypony was watching you as you approached. Seemed like you might be practicing for a show. One of those private shows that happens every so often.” He was rubbing his hooves together.

Silvers bladed wing rested a few inches from the stallion guard’s throat. “I would lay off of these two if I was you. Wouldn’t want to have a guard killed because he was harassing some mares now would we.”

“Look kid I suggest you take that blade away from my throat or else we might have to kill you.” He pointed around us.

Every guard had their guns pointed at Silver. He let a laugh escape from his mouth. A shield of blue appeared around him and the guards weapons were ripped from them. In unison each gun fired sending lead flying towards Silver. Every single shot bounced off the shield and into the ground.

“Now do you truly think you can kill me without me taking out all of you first.” He dropped their guns back at their hooves and walked away. “Come on we have a meeting with the leader of this town.”

Harmony had hit the dirt and was currently waving her flanks in the air. I had landed a few feet to her left and was trying to get back to my hooves. I saw one of the guards approach her from behind.

“I don’t think so bub.” I was levitating him in the air. “Better go away before we have some serious trouble.” I was considering slamming him into the ground just to see how hard I could make him hit the dirt.

“Ok just put me down. I’ve had enough of this shit. I am retiring as soon as possible.” I let him fall to the ground. He got to his hooves and trotted away.

Harmony had finally chosen to stop waving her flanks in the air but it was obvious she needed something to help her along.

“Harmony do you mind I’m having a little bit of trouble getting back to my hooves. I might need you to carry me for a little while longer.” I stopped trying to return to my hooves.

Harmony stopped just out of reach. “Only if you promise not to tease me anymore.”

I knew it was the only way to not be stuck here. “Promise.”

She lifted me onto her back and galloped to catch up with the others. The town was a lot bigger than I had expected it to be. We trotted for almost ten minutes before we finally reached the town hall.

A guard opened the doors for us and led us to the office of the mayor. The doors opened and we were face to face with the mayor.

“Welcome to my beautiful city.” A mare spun around in the chair.

“Oh it’s you.” Silver knew this mare.

“I hoped you hadn’t forgotten me you pile of shit.” The mare slammed her hooves on her desk.

“Never in a million years bitch.” Silver spat on the ground.

Author's Note

Now posting should happen on an actual schedule. Might be once a week might be twice, I don't know yet. Anyway continue to enjoy the story and leave comments where appropriate.

New Appleloosa

“I thought I had seen the last of you after I left your world.” Silver planted his hooves on this mare’s desk.

“Well guess what I am back and you are in my town. So I challenge you to a race. I still have a score to settle after that first one.” She was right up in Silver’s face.

“Wait you’re telling me you know her. And what was all that about traveling between worlds?” I was looking at Silver in confusion.

“I will explain in time. For now, Spitfire you still like the taste of weird things. I have a few I would like to share with you.” Silver dropped down off Spitfire’s desk.

“Do it and I will kill you where you stand.” Spitfire reached underneath her desk.

“Oh really?” Silver cocked his head sideways.

“Try me.” Neither of them were backing down.

I had gotten off of Harmony and onto my own hooves. I trotted slowly between Silver and Spitfire before saying anything.

“Somepony explain to me what in tartarus is going on here!” I looked between the two.

“I use to know her. She trained me to fly and was a huge bitch to me.” Silver pointed at Spitfire.

“And I used to know this piece of shit. Had to teach him to fly to get him out of my hair.” Spitfire scoffed at Silver.

Harmony ask one question. “So why are you two at each other's throats?” She was standing nearby just in case I needed her.

“That little shit you call a friend pissed on me during a race.” Spitfire’s face contorted.

“You had it coming you were trying to kill me.” Silver put his front hooves back up on the desk.

“No I was simply trying to win so you would have more time to train before you got sent out on missions.” Spitfire raised her hooves to the desk.

“I could have done so much worse. I hope you know that.” Silver was a little bit reserved with his words.

“If you had you wouldn’t be standing here today.” Spitfire loomed over Silver.

“ENOUGH!” I grabbed them both in my magic and dragged them in front of me. I didn’t let go of them while I talked.

“You two are going to drive me insane if I have to listen to you and your bullshit for any longer. Now Silver tell her what we are here to do.” I turned towards him and gave him a death glare.

“Ok. We are here to protect your city from the incoming threat of two groups of raiders.” Silver sighed as he spoke.

“We don’t need your help to defend this city. We’ve got everything under control.” Spitfire struggled to slap Silver.

I set Silver down before pinning Spitfire to a wall. “Now you listen here. We have come here to protect this town and we aren’t leaving until we do so. You can either let us stay here of your own volition, or we can stay here by force.” I push her harder up against the wall.

“GUARDS!” Spitfire yelled much louder than I thought possible unassisted.

A few guards burst through the door just as a blue wing was thrust in front of them. They slammed into it nearly suffocating themselves. They hobbled backwards and the door slammed shut.

“Thank you Silver.” I nodded to him.

“My pleasure.” The smile on his face was a pleasant sight.

“Now I’m going to give you a few seconds to decide whether or not this city burns to the ground or is saved.” I pulled her away from the wall before slamming her back into it.

“Fine. You may stay here but only if you put me down this instant.” She struggled against my magic.

I dropped her and let her hit the floor. She glared at me and got to her hooves.

“Now then if you don’t mind I have a city to run.” She sat down in the chair and spun away from us. “That is your cue to leave.” She waved at us.

“I don’t think so. I still have to humiliate you one last time before I leave.” Silver had left something for Spitfire near her desk.

“And what do you think you are going to do to me.” She spun around as Silver opened the door.

“I left you a present. Goodbye.” He took a few steps forward.

Spitfire got up from her desk and looked at the floor. “Silver!”

“Bye.” Silver trotted on out of the building leaving a pile of shit in Spitfire’s office and a trail of piss as he walked.

“We need to get that stallion some training in manners. I don’t exactly like having to walk out of this building following a trail of piss.” Harmony stepped over the trail of piss and trotted well clear of it.

“Agreed. We should talk to him about this. For now though we need to prepare for the incoming assault. We have a day or so at most to get ready for…” A large explosion stopped me mid sentence.

We galloped out into the street and towards the front entrance. A hole big enough for a fully grown manticore had been blown into the solid steel. An army of raiders was flooding in killing anypony in their path.

“We need to protect the city. Everypony ready your weapons we have some raiders to kill.” We galloped down to the entrance of the city picking off the few raiders that had gotten to us.

Most had knives or swords and were no threat to us as long as we kept our distance. The ones with guns proved to be more of a challenge.

The closer we got to the entrance the more we were under fire from ponies with guns. A bullet grazed my flank and I rolled for cover. My armor had been practically destroyed in the gunfight earlier and I had nothing on but a few bandages.

I peeked out of cover and before getting shot at I counted at least thirty raiders. Dammit we have to kill all of these idiots if we want to survive.

A raider rounded the corner I was hiding behind. “Come here and let me kill you.” The unicorn had a small pistol by his side.

“No.” I blew his head into pieces. “I don’t think so.”

I ducked in and out of cover taking down the raiders as I could but they just kept coming. Their army seemed nearly endless. I wondered how the others were doing.

Silver’s POV

The raiders had broken in through the gate and were pouring in in waves. As much as I hated Spitfire and wanted to see everything she had worked for fall to pieces as she watched I knew I couldn’t let all these innocent ponies be slaughtered.

“Dammit. I need to help out and save this shit hole from burning. Even if it means working with that bitch again. For now I think there are a few raiders who need to die.” I took off staying low to the ground so I wouldn’t be seen flying overhead.

A group of raiders came charging at me. I flipped my wing forward sending a knife into a stallion’s throat. He went up in a fireball scorching a few of his friends. They stopped only long enough to put out the fires that were killing them.

I flicked another knife but the raiders had learned from their friend and dodged it. The knife went hurtling off into the distance eventually sinking into a wall.

One of the raiders had cleared the distance between us and was readying his sword. I grabbed it with my magic and turned his weapon against him. I shoved the sword through his chest and all the way through him.

He tried to breath but only found blood where air should have been. I ripped the sword out of him and swung at the next foe. His head rolled to a stop about ten feet to my right.

“So. Do you want to die today scum?” A raider stood before me.

“I’m not afraid of you. I’ll eat your entrails for breakfast.” He started to move but was stopped in his tracks by a bullet.

One of the stallions I had come here with shot the raider in the head.

“Thanks.” I looked back down the hill to the gate.

“No problem. Look out.” He ducked below an incoming spear before firing his gun.

I grabbed the spear and hurled it into the crowd of raiders. I landed the spear through two raiders killing the first one instantly and leaving the second to a slow painful death.

“Nice throw.” This stallion had apparently never been in too many firefights.

“Thanks. Living in the wasteland your entire life does have some advantages.” I was scanning for the next raider stupid enough to attack.

“Yeah remind me not to get on your bad side.”

More raiders were pouring into the city. Most of them had guns and not some crappy spears and swords. I tossed a shield over Onyx. I think his name was Onyx. I tossed one over him just as the raiders opened fire. I had to dodge a few bullets before putting up a shield around myself.

“Hey watch this.” I called out to the stallion before using a trick I hadn’t had to practice for a long while.

I focused my magic and tore the skulls out of the raiders who had guns. This provided a momentary distraction for me to throw another knife at the raiders.

“That is awesome and gruesome. Seriously remind me not to get on your bad side.” He stared in awe at the skulls levitating in front of us.

“I’m just getting started.” A group of raiders were engulfed in flames. There screams echoed in my mind. I had seen many ponies burn to death before but it was still absolutely horrifying to watch. Onyx had a harder time keeping his lunch in his stomach than I did. “Yeah, I don’t do that unless I absolutely need to. Takes a lot of magic and concentration. We’re lucky I didn’t drop the shields.”

The raiders had regained control over their bodies and were charging us again. I heard gunshots from behind us. I turned to see the light blue maybe cyan mare charge at the raiders. If I was going to stick with this group I seriously needed to learn their names.

A few paces behind her was the blood red mare. Her face showed no fear. It showed the exact opposite, anger. The last time I had seen rage like that I had watched the growing fireball of a pissed off pegasus mare.

“Hey Silver would you mind giving us something to hide behind.” My mind finally snapped back to what was happening and I threw a shield around them.

“Thanks. Onyx where are Demo and Stone?” Midnight leaned on Harmony a little bit.

“We got separated. They ran this way when I saw them last.” Onyx was looking around for his friend and I thought his lover.

“Silver have you seen them?” My gaze snapped back to Midnight.

“No. I’ve been a little preoccupied killing off these raiders.” I looked down the hills to the next group of raiders.

“Yeah. Do you want to show them a few of your tricks?” Onyx had seen my concern.

“I think that would be best saved for another time. Besides I’m out of throwing knives. I need to make sure to replace those things more often.” I shook my wing a few times.

The two stallions they had been talking about were flanking the raiders. Fortunately for them none of the raiders had noticed them or they would be dead. I pointed a hoof at them. The others followed my gaze to the two stallions ripping the raiders to shreds.

“Well what are we waiting for I think they might need some help.” Onyx readied his weapon.

“My feelings exactly. I’m going to drop the shields for a few seconds. Prepare to fire your weapons.” They nodded. “Three. Two. One.” I dropped the shields hurling the sword laying at my hooves into the nearest crowd of raiders.

After they started to open fire again I threw the shield back up. My magic was growing weaker and I knew I wouldn’t be able to hold the shields for long. Midnight was on the ground. One of the bullets had struck her in her front right hoof.

The bullet had passed cleanly through so I levitated her a healing potion. She grabbed it and drank it in one go. Her hoof started to return back to its normal state. She took pressure off of it for a few seconds before putting her hoof back on the ground.

“We need to get down to them. If we don’t do something soon they could get themselves killed.” I whispered to myself. “Come on dammit Silver you have been trained to deal with situations like this. What would they do?” I looked to the others. “Advance towards the enemy I will be able to keep the shield around you up for another minute or two but once it drops you need to be ready to kill these buckers quickly.” I looked around for my opening.

“What are you going to do?” The cyan mare was tending to Midnight.

“What I was trained to do.” I jumped into the air like a phoenix rising from the ashes.

The raiders tried to take me down but were too slow avoiding my first attack. I rained fire down on them not trying to hit one target in particular. I was throwing fireballs bigger than most foals. They trained their weapons on me and I flew out of the way to avoid being shot down.

They were slow, stupid and really easy to kill. From the air I could see most of the ponies outside of the gate had entered in and were wreaking havoc anyway they could.

I dropped down a few feet to avoid a barrage of bullets heading directly at my head.

“Well now you’ve done it. You’ve pissed me off.” I knew they couldn’t hear me but this didn’t stop me.

I dive bombed the raiders hitting as many groups with fire as I could before having to land to avoid more gunfire.

The raiders surrounded me. Fortunately most of the ones I had landed next to had swords instead of guns. “Perfect.”

The first raider stepped up to the plate and galloped towards me with a sword held in his mouth.

I lifted my wing hitting the sword in his mouth. The sword spun out of his mouth and to the floor. The strike had stunned him and almost certainly broken his jaw.

“Hasn’t anypony told you not to run with sharp things in your mouth. You could hurt somepony or worse yet yourself. That is reserved to me.” I could have used his sword to kill him but I loved the feel of my wing whistling through the air just before it came into contact with my foes.

I stopped just before his head so he could see what would cause his death. He stared at me terrified. I grabbed his sword and rammed it through the skull of the unicorn approaching me with her weapon.

“Now aren’t you lucky you didn’t die right then. So tell me who's next? Nopony’s going to volunteer. I don’t really care I just wanted to see if anypony was brave enough to face me.” I smiled readying my wing blade.

I cut the raiders head in two and flung the blood at the other raiders standing around me. They were shaking but were still not convinced to leave. I shrugged before killing another two raiders before they could react.

“Still want to fight me?” A few dropped their weapons and turned to run but were stopped when the voice of a mare sounded.

“Stay and fight you cowards or I will personally kill you.” They grabbed the weapons they had just dropped and lunged at me.

I spun in a circle slicing through most of them easily. Bits and pieces of them scattered the ground. A leg here and head there.

I jumped back into the air avoiding another volley of gunfire. I turned to see the group I had been with fighting to keep the raiders at bay. The shield had dropped when I was fighting these assholes. I was about to come to their aid when another alicorn floated down in front of me.

“Well well well. You seem to be skilled in the ways of combat child. Let’s see how you do against a real opponent.” The mare was a dark green color. Her mane was the color of the ground below me dark and ugly as if she dyed it with blood.

“So you think you can kill me? I’m not certain about that but what do you say we get out of here.” I had learned a few tactics to deal with mares while I was being trained and from the smell of things I could easily distract this one.

“What are you talking about you foal?” We both hovered in the air.

“I’m just saying we could leave these ponies to fight and we could go have some fun.” I accentuated my sentence with a wink.

“And what do you suggest?” The mare knew exactly what I meant.

“Oh I don’t know. Are you in heat?” I licked my lips a few times for effect.

“Very confident in yourself. Sounds fun but I’m afraid I must decline. A stallion such as yourself has no chance in tartarus of pleasing me.” She brushed me off.

“Now are you sure about that?” I had to try to get her back into the distraction.

“Ok let’s see what you’ve got pipsqueak.” She smirked at me.

“If you insist.” While she had been distracted talking I had grabbed three of the swords scattered about on the ground. They drew closer to her.

“Well. What are you waiting for?” She tilted her head slightly.

“Just making sure we have a few ponies watching. I like being watched while I dominate a mare.” I just hovered smiling.

“Well aren’t we just full of surprises.” I could tell she was ready.

“You could say that.” I levitated the swords higher.

“And what am I going to be full of?” She had played perfectly into my trap.

“I’d say swords.” A large grin spread across my face as I looked down just enough to shade my eyes.

“What?” She only realized what I had done after three swords pierced through her making her fall to the ground.

I called out to her before she hit the ground. “It’s not me it is most definitely you. So sorry babe but I’ve got other mares to save.” I flew towards my friends erecting another shield around them.

They had sustained some serious wounds but nothing a few healing potions wouldn’t heal.

I thought for a second before grabbing the body of the alicorn I had just killed. I tossed it down in front of the raiders surrounding my friends. Their mouths opened and many of their weapons clattered against the dirt. I landed inside the shield.

“What never seen a dead alicorn before? Well you are in luck because that is a once in a lifetime opportunity and not one you’ll be getting again. So” I grabbed the weapons on the ground. “Who wants to die?” I stood tall.

The raiders started to slowly back away from me before deciding it was high time that they got out of here. They didn’t make it far as swords, spears, knives, and whatever else had been laying around was shoved through their skulls.

“Are you all okay?” I turned to the rest of my group assessing their injuries.

“Yes we are. Thank you for saving us. We might have been dead if you hadn’t come along when you had.” Midnight was trying to stand but was having a hard time doing so.

“Anything serious?” I leant a wing to her.

“Just a few scrapes and scratches. A couple of gunshot wounds that we were lucky didn’t hit home anywhere serious.” She grabbed my wing and returned to her hooves.

“Good. Now then we need to make sure anypony who is left is alright and make sure these raiders know not to come back here.” I started to trot farther into the city.

“I will kill you.” The alicorn outside the shield wasn’t quite dead.

“Is that so? Well I would like to see you try after this.” I dropped the shield and cut her head off. “Try and get back up after that I dare you. What having trouble surviving without your brain? It’s not like you used it much before.” I chuckled a bit to myself.

“Silver if I was you I would clean yourself off after this is all over.” Midnight was staring at me.

“Why?” I looked back to her.

She waved her hoof vaguely in my direction. “Just look at your wing.”

My wing and whole left side for that matter were covered in blood and lit bits of bone. I flicked my wing a few times to clear off some of it. “Yeah. I had planned on it. Now let’s go.”

Spitfire landed a few strides in front of me. “Impressive kid. Still, we would have been able to handle this without you.” Spitfire was still the absolute bitch that I remembered.

“Can you stop calling me kid. I’m every bit as old as you were when we first met.” I stared her down.

“Calling me old now.” She raised one of her hooves.

“No just experienced in the ways of the world. I would say experienced but I don’t think anypony would want to mate with a bitch like you.” I was still trying to bring her down.

“Watch yourself kid. I might just have to teach you a lesson one of these days.” Spitfire pointed her hoof at me.

Midnight spoke up. “Would you two just shut up and kiss already.”

Spitfire and I snapped back. “What!”

“Nothing. You two just seem like you would be a cute couple.” She shrugged and smiled.

I had an urge to smack her across the face but I remembered my wing was a blade. I lowered my wing back to my side before speaking again.

“You’re lucky I don’t want you dead.” I had to resist even tapping her.

“What, everypony was thinking it I just said it.” Midnight was a bit wobbly on her hooves.

“No. I have had too many bad experiences with this mare to let anything like that happen.” I looked Spitfire dead in the eyes.

“Are you sure about that? Seems like you want to show her your little friend.” Midnight was on the verge of crying she was trying not to laugh.

“What are you talking abo…?” I stopped realizing what she was talking about.

“It would be less noticeable if you hadn’t jumped into the air.” Midnight smirked at me.

I touched down on the ground turning away from her in embarrassment. Unfortunately Spitfire was in the other direction. She was giving me the death glare.

“Who says I was thinking about you? Maybe I was thinking about somepony else.” I countered her glare with one of my own.

“Oh yeah you the big hotshot with mares. I’ve seen the way you get around mares. I know everything so there is no use running from me. Remember we went on that mission and you saved that mare and nearly fainted after she kissed you.” Spitfire prodded me in the chest.

Midnight laughed for a few seconds before shutting up.

“I was young back then. I’ve grown up a lot since that mission.” I blushed a bit.

“We will see. For now thank you for saving my town. I... Celestia, did I just thank you? Where's a bucket when you need one?” Spitfire spat a few times.

“Just let it all out on the ground.” She threw up on the ground in front of me. “And not on me. I won’t hesitate to humiliate you like I did during that race.” I was entirely ready to humiliate her again.

“Do so and I don’t think you’ll walk for a week.” Spitfire wiped her muzzle clean.

“Sounds kinky.”

“Midnight would you shut up!” Spitfire and I both were about ready to give Midnight the business.

Midnight’s POV

“Well now that we are done protecting the city I guess we should probably go find a new place to call home.” I was still a bit wobbly on my injured hoof.

“What do you mean a new place?” Silver held out a wing for me.

“Well Silver we got kicked out of our old home because of some mare and her ways. Isn’t that right Harmony.” I glared her down.

“I had to do that in order to save this place. Can you stop punishing me please?” Harmony gave me her sexiest pout.

“Maybe tonight you will get something for being a good girl. But tonight will not be the night you get my sexy plot back.” I tapped my rear end a few times.

Spitfire peaked out of her office motioning for Silver to go in.

“Go get her tiger.” I tapped Silver in the side a few times.

“I’m not going to buck her just give up already.” Silver looked very irritated.

“Never.” I giggled.

He sighed and then walked into the office.

Silver’s POV

“What did you want to talk to me about?” I was sitting in one of the chairs in Spitfire’s office.

“I wanted you to know that I’m still not your biggest fan and would really like to punch you but I think some compensation is due since you saved my city.” Spitfire was looking at a painted portrait of herself.

“What did you have in mind?” I spun in the chair a little bit embracing my inner foal.

“Well a few things but how does a house in this city sound? Sounds like your new friends could use a place to call home. At least for a little while.” Spitfire slid a piece of paper towards me.

I picked up the deed looking at it. “Ok that seems fair enough but what other things did you have in mind?” I was going to push this as far as I could.

“Well for one I figured I could stop calling you kid and actually use your name. And secondly I heard what they were saying so you want to make them stop?” A devious smiled crossed Spitfire’s muzzle.

“Oh you’re not actually suggesting what I think you are. Are you?” I was a bit disgusted at what I thought she was offering.

“No. I doubt I will ever come to a place in time where I feel like I could. But I figured we could make them think we are doing it. Just to mess with them a little.” She kept a small chuckle to herself.

“Sounds fun. Let’s do it.” I facehoofed.

Midnight’s POV

The walls of Spitfire’s office started shaking and moaning could be heard from inside.

“Well I didn't think he had that in him. Seems like he’s more of a stallion than I thought.” We listened to the sounds for a long time before I decided to go knock on the door.

I heard Silver and Spitfire talking through the door.

“Well that was fun but we really should keep this a secret if they find out then they’ll harass us for sure.” Spitfire was pacing around the room.

“Yeah. I think we should keep this us time behind closed doors until we find a way around all of the political nonsense that will follow.” Silver was talking a little off pitch for where he usually was.

“Now go out there and show them the real you my big sexy stallion.” I could only imagine what they were doing in there.

“With Pleasure my sweet mare.” It sounded like they kissed.

The door opened and Silver walked out leaving Spitfire looking a little disappointed. He looked back and winked. She smiled and waved him off.

“So what happened in there?” I wanted all of the details I could get.

“Oh you know just a few fun things. Also we now own a house in the city.” Silver pulled out the deed and hovered it over to me.

“Wow a house and a roll in the hay. Such a productive day for you.” I winked at him.

“Yeah it was.” I knew he was hiding something from me.

“So when will you have foals?” I wanted to make sure he had a full story.

“Not sure. Whenever she wants them. She seems to be the type to have lots of fun though so not long until she’s pregnant.” He tilted his hoof back and forth a few times.

“Well aren’t we just the oddest stallion ever.” I stood inspecting him.

Silver shrugged. “Follow me our new home awaits.”

Harmony and I exited the building and met up with the rest of the group. We all started trotting up a small hill a few minutes away from Spitfire’s office.

“Any idea where we’re going? You didn’t really specify when you asked us to follow you, Silver.” Onyx commented.
“That bitch was nice enough to allow us a place to stay while we are here. Don’t know what to expect though.” Silver kept trotting forward.

We arrived at the location on the map Spitfire had given me.

“This is it?” The house was in a decent condition.

“This is it. Something wrong with it?” Silver approved of the house.

“No. It’s just so big.” I was a little surprised that we got such a big house for saving the city.

Harmony whispered to me. “I bet that’s what she was saying earlier.” I hit her flank and laughed.

“Can you two not talk about my sex life. It’s pretty awkward hearing somepony talk about that. How would you feel if I talked about your sex life?” Silver was blushing a small bit.

“Honestly a little turned on.” Onyx stopped in front of the door next to Silver.

“Onyx, not helping.” Silver facehoofed.

“Sorry Silver. I had to.” Onyx laughed.

“Whatever let’s go inside.” Silver pushed open the door and trotted in.

I trotted inside. The place was pretty big. Harmony had run ahead to go claim a room for us. I explored the house looking for the bathroom. I finally found it after Harmony dragged me to the room she had claimed as ours.

“So what do you think?” Harmony had gotten us one of the two rooms upstairs.

“I think this room is a bit big for us. We should have plenty of room if we want to make sure we have place to expand one day.” I looked around the room. I was certain this would have been enough space for a small family to live.

“Thinking about foals are we?” Harmony was laying on the bed.

“Maybe just a little, but we can’t make a foal even if we wanted to.” I stopped right at the edge of the bed.

Harmony rolled onto her stomach. “Won’t stop me from trying.” She smiled warmly.

“You are odd Harmony but it only makes you more attractive.” I kissed her.

“So are you finally going to let me have it?” Her eyes were begging for release from my torture.

“Not yet. One more day of this and then you can have me back.” I gave her a wink.

“If all I have to wait is one more day than I think I’ll be okay.” Harmony had her back legs held tightly together.

Footnote: Level up

The Birds and the Bees

I spent the next week or so at home sleeping in my own bed and not some weird dream world. I had a few questions to ask Rose about what I had heard in the dream world.

We were sitting in what Rose had made into my classroom.

“So Rose I have a few questions to ask.” She nodded her head. “Well in my dream everypony kept saying they would explain things when I was older. And Blaze started saying something like.” I put on my best impersonation of Blaze. “‘When two ponies really love each other they’ and then Violet smacked him. So what are they talking about?”

Rose stared at me for a few seconds before turning around and writing on the board. She wrote for about one minute before finally nodding her head and stepping away from the board.

I read what was on the board out loud.

“When two ponies love each other the do some crazy stuff. Just know I don’t want you to do any of this until you are much older.” I looked at her but she was just looking away from me.

“After they get to know each other they will eventually rut. What is rutting?” No response. “Rutting is when.”

I read a few sentences in my head. “Um Rose can we go back to learning about something else?” I was not happy about any of this.

She shook her head.

“Please.” I was begging for this to stop.

Another round of shaking her head.

“Well now that I know what they are talking about I am very grossed out. Please tell me this is all we are going to talk about on this subject.” I put my head down.

Rose walked up to the board again and erased everything she had written. She went about drawing something for about the next fifteen minutes. Once she was satisfied with her work she stepped to the side of the board and I had to try not to puke.

She had detailed the process on the board very thoroughly. I tried to look away but she had walked over to me and was making me look at it.

“Let’s just stop. I think I know enough for now.” I was super uncomfortable with all of this.

She shook my head as her response.

“Ok so you just want me to read all of this and remember it?” I knew I wasn’t going to get out of this.

She nodded my head.

“Ok, but after that we aren’t going to talk about this anymore right?” I had hope that this would be the end of my lessons.

She didn’t do anything.

“Ok.” I started to read.

“Ok. I’ve read everything on the board so can we be done now.” I was desperate to get out of this.

She shook my head.

“Ok what else do we have to learn.” I was really reluctant to stay in my seat but I knew that I wasn’t going to get out of this.

Again rose drew on the board. After she finished I stared at the picture in confusion. She pointed to me and then pointed to a drawing labeled penis. The other drawing she pointed to herself. I nodded my head showing that I understood. She smiled and went back to drawing.

I flopped backwards onto the ground and stayed there before Rose tapped the board a few times. I rolled back into a sitting position to see what she had drawn this time.

At the time I wasn’t sure how to feel since I was just a kid but I now had a lot more information to remember. After about another hour of this Rose decided I had learned enough for the day. Thank Celestia I was about to lose my lunch. I walked out of the room and went and sat down in a corner. Rose eventually found me and grabbed a hold of me.

“Why did you go into so much detail with those drawings? That was disgusting. I am never going to do anything like that ever.” I rocked back and forth.

She smiled happily and put me onto her back. I was uncomfortable up there having seen what I just had.

“If it’s ok with you I think I’m going to keep my hooves on the ground from now on.” I knew she was testing me.

She nodded her head before walking away.

I walked outside to get some fresh air and think over the things I had just learned.

“Why would anypony want to do that? That seems like it would be no fun. Well maybe it would be. I don’t know about any of this. The more I think about it the more I am both disgusted by it and drawn to it.” I stopped after I had walked aimlessly for a few minutes.

The house wasn’t too far behind me but I didn’t want to return there for a little while. So I sat down on the ground and looked up to the sky.

I knew I had one place to go that wasn’t home and that was to my dream world. Weird things happened there but I knew I could at least escape from this for a while. The sun was low in the sky and I was getting tired. I got up and trotted back to the house to get some sleep.

“Maybe I can avoid talking about this in my dreams.” I laughed and then cringed before walking back into the house.

Rose had a plate of food ready for me on the table. I ate the food quickly before heading to my room. A quick time later I was asleep.

“Well there he is, the prodigy who beat Spitfire in a race. How are you doing Silver?” Blaze was sitting in one of the chairs in my room.

“I’m doing alright.” I swung my hooves towards the edge of my bed.

“Why just alright?” Blaze stood up from his chair.

I planted my hooves on the ground. “Well I asked Rose about what you had been talking about.” I kept my eyes to the ground.

“I see. A little more than you were ready to know I assume?” Blaze had trotted over and knelt down beside me.

“Yeah. I don’t want to talk about it.” Despite Blaze’s efforts I kept my eyes pinned to the ground.

“Well I can respect that. Somepony your age usually doesn’t know anything about that. Most ponies wait to educate fillies and colts on that until they’re a few years older. But enough of me talking. Do you want to go on a mission?” Blaze had stood back up.

“A real mission?” I looked up to him.

“Yeah. You are part of the army now so you need to go on a few missions to get the feel for it.” He smiled contagiously.

Violet and Ace trotted over to us. “Hey Silver. Been awhile since we last spoke.” Ace was clutching his side a bit.

“He hasn’t exactly had a good day.” Blaze did my talking for me.

“Well what happened?” Violet had a worried expression on her face.

“Rose gave him the sex talk.” Blaze was staring into Violet’s eyes.

“Oh so he learned a lot today.” Violet looked down to me.

I muttered. “I don’t want to talk about it.” I kept my eyes on the ground.

“Good because we are going on a mission and I’m taking the lead.” Spitfire had landed behind me.

“Oh great just one more thing to ruin my day.” I wasn’t even trying but I continued to mutter.

“What was that private?” Spitfire had a hoof raised.

“Oh sorry I forgot to call you a bitch. So how have you been bitch?” I threw a shield in front of her oncoming hoof. She slammed her hoof into and I knew she was regretting it.

“So how did that feel. It looks like you hated it.” I smiled.

She tried to hit me a few more times before realizing it wasn’t going to happen. I smirked before leaning right to avoid another punch.

“Ok you two knock it off. We have a mission to go on and we can’t have you two trying to kill each other.” Ace stepped between us.

Crimson Skull walked over to us. “Welcome back Silver. You have been assigned to go on a few missions with these fine soldiers so you can learn the ropes.” Crimson knew what had been going on. I saw him waiting just outside the door.

“Do I have to be in a squad with this bitch?” I pointed a hoof towards Spitfire.

“Yes you do. And don’t complain about it. You’re going to have to deal with quite a few ponies you hate. Now all of you get going.” Everypony saluted before trotting away.

I caught up to them and remained silent. The last thing I wanted was to have to deal with Spitfire for even one more minute much less an entire mission.

“So what is it we have to do?” If I was stuck here I might as well know what we were doing.

“Well Silver we have to go save a few people from a group of bucked up stallions. They’ve been experimenting with drugs to make them better soldiers. We need to stop them before they can sell these drugs.” Blaze took a soft tone with me.

“Yeah these ponies are not what you might consider to be the bearers of Harmony.” Violet was keeping her eyes on me.

“Ok so how far do we have to go?” I had seen lots of bad ponies so I just thought of them as raiders.

“We have to go into the city to stop them. That’s about a fifteen mile trip.” Blaze thought about it for a few more seconds.

“Well we should be there in a day's time then.” I knew that most trips I made were by hoof and we stopped quite often.

“Silver we have better technology than you do. We should be there in less than an hour.” Violet stopped me from going any farther forward.

I had to stop for a few seconds to comprehend that. The fastest I was able to go even when flying was less than half that fast.

“That’s amazing. How did you make things that fast?” I was still a bit stunned.

“Again better technology. Your world might have had something like this before the war.” Blaze pointed to a metal box thing.

“What is this?” The object he was pointing to was like a rounded box with a harness at the front.

“This is a Sky carrier. It is designed to carry a small group of soldiers into battle quickly. This isn’t even the best of our equipment. I doubt you’ll ever need to use anything of that caliber. Now climb aboard we have a mission to complete.” Violet slid open the door.

“Ok.” I stepped into the carrier.

Spitfire and Ace took to the front and strapped in. The carrier took off and we headed into the city.

The city was quiet. Most ponies had already gone home and to sleep. It was about midnight when we landed onto a rooftop.

“So this is the city? It looks pretty.” The night sky illuminated the city in a vibrant blue.

“Yeah it is pretty beautiful at night. And this is one of the crummier cities across Equestria. One day we might show you one of the better ones.” Violet knelt down next to me.

“I like the sounds of that.” These ponies had a way of confusing me and making me feel happy at the same time.

“Quiet you two we have a job to do. On me.” Spitfire’s voice was a harsh whisper.

“I bet Silver would like that.” Ace had to bite his paw to not laugh.

I really wanted to punch him. Fortunately Violet got to him first.

“Shut up Ace.” Spitfire had spun around and was staring Ace down.

“I would prefer to keep talking it’s funny to see you all worked up and to see Silver not understand anything I’m saying.” Ace was wheezing as he spoke.

“I hope you explain these things to me because I’m lost.” I was sitting staring at the scene unfolding before me.

“Yeah I had hoped so.” Ace pushed Violet off with one of his wings.

“Shut up and follow me. They’re below us. They haven’t heard us yet so this might just be easy.” Spitfire opened the door on the roof and we started to make our way down the stairs. We walked down many flights of stairs before Spitfire stopped us.

She whispered. “They are through this door. Prepare your weapons. Silver you can just watch if you want. You are only here to learn the ropes.” Spitfire put heavy emphasis on me just watching.

I nodded. Spitfire bucked the door open and opened fire on the ponies inside. They fired back but in the end they had no chance against us. After the gunfight was over I walked into the room to see if anything was left.

I looked around and saw a filly about my age sitting in a corner shaking. She was scared. I walked over to her.

I reached out to her with my wing. “Hey are you alright?” She spun around and hugged me.

“No. I’m scared.” Her voice was sweet even with the tones of despair.

“It’s ok. We are here to help. So you don’t need to be afraid anymore.” I wrapped a wing around her.

“Thank you.” She pulled away from me to look me in the eyes.

To my surprise and discontent she kissed me. I froze up and didn’t know how to react.

“Are you ok? You look a little red.” She wiped a few tears from her eyes.

I looked back at her before falling to the ground. She giggled a little bit.

“What never gotten a kiss from a mare before?” The filly stood next to me.

“No he hasn’t. Oh by the way I believe he thinks you’re cute.” Spitfire was the one to metaphorically kick me while I was down.

I was blushing really hard and trying to find words to express myself.

“Well thank you for the compliment.” I had a feeling she was going to kiss me again.

“Do you have a place to go? A home maybe?” Blaze joined in.

“I was foalnapped by these stallions when I was young. I don’t remember my parents.” The filly sat back down.

“So no.” Blaze shook his head a small bit.

“Do you think we can bring her with us? She does seem to get along with Silver pretty well.” I saw Violet smile brightly at me.

“I don’t know Violet. Do you really think Crimson Skull will actually want a new recruit so soon?” Blaze looked to the both of us.

“I don’t think he has a choice if we choose to adopt her. So what do you say Blaze? You ready to have a foal?” Violet nudged Blaze.

“Well if it makes Silver happy then I think we owe him that much.” Blaze held Violet’s hoof.

The filly looked to me again. “What do you think? Want me to come back with you?” Something in her voice had me hypnotized.

I finally found my voice. “Yes.” It was all I could say.

“Well then it’s settled we are bringing you back with us. What’s your name?” Violet stepped closer.

“I’m Amethyst Rose,” She grabbed my hoof. “It is a pleasure to meet you.”

Author's Note

Uploads will be twice a week for a while.

A Year Gone By

“So Silver how did you sleep last night?”

“I didn’t. I don’t sleep anyplace I haven’t gotten familiar with. That and I think somepony spent the entire night bucking.” For not having slept Silver seemed very aware.

“Well that would explain where Onyx and Demo are. Anypony want to go wake them?” Everypony shook their heads.

I rolled my eyes and trotted off towards their room. I knocked on the door and waited a few seconds before going in.

“Hey you two time to wake up.” I tried to keep my gaze away from the bed.

“Not now Midnight. We have something to finish.” Onyx had a blanket thrown over something.

“Ok well breakfast is ready downstairs whenever you are.” I backed out of their room.

“Yeah, yeah. Please leave now we need to be alone for this.” He waved me off tossing something at the door.

I shrugged and headed back downstairs. Everypony was eating except for Silver.

“Something wrong Silver?” Harmony spoke through a mouthful of food.

Silver was eyeing his breakfast over. “No. I just haven’t been cooked breakfast in a long time. Just appreciating it before I eat it.” He nodded his head.

“Ok because I could cook you something else if you wanted me to.” Harmony levitated out a pan and waved it at Silver.

“This is ok.” Silver started eating his food.

I smiled and started to eat my own plate of pre war pancakes. They were about as good as I thought they would be. Dry and really bland but other than that they were great.

“How are you doing this morning Harmony?” I continued to eat my food.

“Really getting tired of not being able to sleep with you.” Harmony set her fork down.

“You only have to wait a few more hours. Trust me it will be worth the wait.” I winked at her.

“I hope you’re right.” Harmony was about to pick up her fork as Stone stepped to his right.

“Harmony can you control yourself? You are making a mess on the floor.” Stone stepped twice more towards Silver before stopping.

“I’m sorry. I just need Midnight so badly. I can’t help it.” She had both of her front hooves at work below the table.

“Midnight would you mind taking care of her? I don’t think the floors of this place can take that for long.” Stone trotted over to one of the other chairs in the kitchen.

“In time Stone. We still have a few hours before I think she is truly ready to have a piece of this.” I smacked my own flank.

If she had less control I think she would have been drooling. I smirked before kissing her.

I whispered in her ear. “Just a few more hours. Then you can have the most amazing night of your life.” I accentuated the whisper with a nibble on her ear.

“Any reason you chose today as the day to forgive her completely?” Stone was still trying his best to stay a part of the conversation.

Before I could explain Onyx walked downstairs carrying a box on his back.

“Happy birthday Midnight.” The package he carried moved a small bit.

“That’s why. It’s a birthday present to myself.” I smiled and winked at Harmony.

“Had I known I would have gotten you something.” Stone shifted some of his pancakes around a bit embarrassed.

“It’s alright. I elected not to tell you so you didn’t have to worry about getting me something. So Onyx what did you get me?” I gave Onyx my full attention.

“Open the box and you’ll see.” He set the box down on the floor.

I went to open the box before Demo jumped out of it. I smiled at him.

“Surprise. You see Onyx that’s how it’s done.” Demo landed next to Onyx.

While they were talking I opened the box up the rest of the way. Inside was my suit of armor. It had been fully repaired.

“I managed to find the parts to repair it and even add a few upgrades to it.” Onyx stepped forward and ripped a large patch of the box away.

“Ooh. So what did you do to it?” I started pulling it out piece by piece.

“I added some armor plating so bullets would have a harder time getting to you.” Onyx tapped the side a few times.

“Well that sounds worth my while to wear now. Thank you.” I had most of the pieces assembled in front of me.

“No problem. Hey where did Harmony go?” We all looked around for a second.

“Probably off to get me something for my birthday. I told her she didn’t need to. I think she believes she still needs to make it up to me.” I put the armor fully together.

“Well are you going to go look for her?” Onyx was looking over his own handiwork.

“Not right now. I still have a breakfast to eat. I suggest you eat yours. They get worse the longer you wait to eat them.” I sat back down and continued eating.

“Yeah. Ok. Thanks for cooking breakfast.” Onyx stepped away from my armor and trotted over to the table.

“No problem. I don’t want today to be treated like anything special. It’s just another day in my book.” I hoofed him a fork.

“Whatever you say. I remember back in the stable you were always so excited for your birthday.” Onyx cut the first pancake before stuffing one half into his mouth.

“What pony wasn’t excited for their birthday? It was the one day a year that we got to be a little less mild mannered. You’ve got to take advantage of that. Those were fun days. I remember the time you were sick for a week because you ate too much cake.” I had to stop eating before I choked from laughing.

“Oh goddesses. That was just the worst week.. For the first couple of days I did nothing but lay in bed and throw up. It was absolutely horrible. I think you actually came to visit me a couple of times.” Onyx stuffed the second half of his pancake into his mouth.

“Yeah I did. I just wanted to make sure my only friend was feeling better. I hated it when you were sick. I had nopony to talk to at school. Any time I tried they all asked if my coltfriend had decided to leave me for a better mare. Looking back those other mares were evil.” I took a more reserved bite of my pancake.

“Yeah but they only teased you because you were the Overmare’s daughter. They knew that one day you would be the leader and they wouldn’t be able to talk shit. Would have been a good place if you had been our leader.” Onyx picked up a whole pancake and crammed it into his mouth. Demo was very distracted by this.

“I don’t think that I would have been the best leader to lead over anypony.” I set my fork down.

“Well you’ve lead us this far. So why are you doubting yourself?” It was harder to understand Onyx as he talked through a mouthful of pancake.

“I just never really liked to be in a position of power. I saw what that did to my mother. After dad died she had every stallion chasing after her. Didn’t seem like something that I wanted my life to become. Then again that could be because I didn’t like stallions. Whatever it was I just didn’t want to lead those ponies.” I picked my fork back up and stared at it.

“Well I still think you make a great leader for our group. So keep up the good work.” Onyx swallowed down the pancake he had in his mouth.

“Thanks.” I raised my voice and called out. “Harmony. Where are you?” I knew exactly where she was when the floor squeaked.

“Upstairs. I’m just taking care of a few things. Don’t come up here yet.” Her voice was a bit muffled.

“I told you that you didn’t need to get me anything for my birthday. Even if you feel like you need to make up for the past just wait until tonight. I’ve got plans for you.” I figured she had found a few toys she wanted to try out.

“Just don’t come up here. I’ve got plans of my own.” Her voice was a bit less muffled.

“What do you think she’s got planned for you?” Onyx put a hoof on Demo’s jaw and closed it.

I wanted to say what we were all thinking but decided it a bad idea. “Probably something romantic. I would suggest that you steer clear of our room tonight.” I started to twirl my fork around.

“Alright. I don’t think I want to interrupt whatever it is you two have planned.” Onyx turned to Demo and raised his eyebrows.

“Also you might want to cover your ears. I think things are going to get loud. I mean have you seen her? She is in desperate need of me.” I nearly dropped my fork.

“Yeah I kind of guessed so. Seeing as how she left a little trail on her way up to your room.” Onyx pointed a wing towards the little trail.

“Hadn’t noticed that. Might have smelled it but didn’t actually notice the trail. Looks like she needs me more than I thought.” My eyes followed the trail up the stairs. “Hey Harmony can I come upstairs yet?” I stabbed my fork into my remaining pancake.

“Not quite. Just a few more things to sort out. Just keep eating your food. I’ll call you up when things are ready up here.” Something fell to the floor.

“Yeah steer clear for sure. If she has to prepare this much then tonight is definitely going to be interesting.” I lifted up my pancake and watched it crumble.

“Understood. Silver are you going to find a place to sleep tonight?” Onyx had returned to his own pile of crumbly pancakes.

“I have gotten acquainted with this place enough that I should be able to sleep tonight. Although I think it might be best if we go sleep at the local hostel. I don’t believe we would be able to get any sleep here even if we couldn’t hear anything.” Silver put his plate down into the sink.

“Yeah you’re probably right. So I guess we won’t be here tonight.” Onyx wrapped a hoof around Demo.

“Ok Midnight I’m ready for you.” I heard the floorboards creak as the bed upstairs shifted.

“Well sounds like you should all get out of here. I doubt it will take us long to get down to it.” I dumped the rest of my pancake crumbles into the trash.

“See you tomorrow Midnight. Don’t have too much fun now.” Onyx was pushing Demo out the door.

“Oh if there is a scale for fun I think this is going to break it.” I giggled.

“That’s what I’m worried about. Whatever just have fun and take it easy on her. We don’t want the whole place to need cleaning.” Onyx pushed Demo out the door and dragged Stone out as well.

Silver simply trotted out the door.

I waved them off before climbing the steps to our room. The door was slightly cracked open and I could see candles on a few of the dressers.

“Going all out I see.” I pushed the door open and trotted in. I looked in the hall one time before shutting the door.

Harmony was laying on the bed waiting for me. I trotted over to her making sure to look over the entire room. She had gone to great lengths to make this as romantic as possible. She grabbed a record and set it down on the record player. The music turned on and just added to the mood.

“Excellent choice. I can’t say that I would have picked anything else. Now are you ready for me to give you the best night of your life?” I put one hoof onto the bed.

“Oh I’ve been waiting for so long for you to say those words. Now come here. I want to make this the best day of your life. At least until your next birthday.” She smiled seductively at me.

I stepped up into the bed. The first thing I noticed is that it was slightly wet.

“Oh have you been preparing yourself for me? Or is that just from thinking about me?” I leaned in really close to her ear.

She shuddered. “It’s from thinking about you. Now how about we stop talking and just do it already.” The lust was strong in her voice.

“Wow aren’t we forward to night? I thought I might tease you a bit more before I let you have it again. How does that sound?” I nibbled on her ear.

“Sounds like if you wait to much longer I might soak this bed before we get started.” Harmony could do nothing but shudder as I nibbled her ear.

“Well that’s good to hear because that’s what I had planned to do. Now let’s see how long you can hold out before you start begging for it.” I started teasing her in as many ways as I possibly could.

The next morning Silver’s POV

“Hey Midnight is it safe to enter your room?” Onyx opened the door before turning back around and walking out.

“So was it safe to reenter the house?” Stone was sitting on one of the stairs kicking the dirt at his hooves.

“Not for another day at the very least Stone.” Onyx sat on the grass next to Demo.

I was still having trouble remembering their names, but the longer I spent around them the more I started to remember.

“Well they can’t keep this up for too much longer so I say we wait here for a few hours before we check on them again.” Onyx kicked a small rock.

We passed the hours by sitting and talking. Most of the questions were directed at me. I told them a bit about my personal life.

“You think those two are done yet?” Onyx stood up and stretched his legs.

“I’ll check.” I jumped into the air and flew over to the window that was inside Midnight’s room.

I could tell before I reached the window that it wasn’t safe to go inside the house yet.

“So can we go back in?” Demo had gotten up and gone for a walk taking Stone with him.

“I wouldn’t recommend it. Those two are still at it. I think we might have to break them up or they might go until they die.” I sat down stretching my wings out.

“No pony can go that long can they?” Onyx dropped down on one of the stairs.

“Some are able to. I don’t speak from experience on that.” Buck. Why did I say that?

“Yeah from what you’ve told us I suspected you wouldn’t be the one to die doing something like that. Tell me a bit more about the wing of yours.” Onyx pointed towards my metal wing.

“Alright.”

That night hours later MIdnight’s POV

“Well that was fantastic. I think we might want to let our friends come back inside. I don’t think they’ll be happy if they have to wait another day to return home. And I think both of us need a break.” I broke away from Harmony and spun so I could see her face.

Harmony was panting. “Yeah. I think.. I could go for a break. Maybe a little nap.” Harmony closed her eyes.

“You’re cute like that. I think I might have to make you like this more often.”

She couldn’t respond as she had already fallen asleep. I kissed her before trying to get to my hooves. I was not able to stay on my hooves but luckily for me the ground was padded with a rug.

“Really glad you put this here. It would have hurt a lot worse had this rug not softened my fall.” I continued talking to Harmony even though i knew she was asleep.

“Not a rug Midnight.” Silver’s voice sounded a bit strained.

“Oh sorry Silver. Your wing is just so soft I thought it had to be a rug. Would you mind carrying me downstairs?” I could have fallen asleep on his wing if he let me.

“Yeah. As soon as you can both of you are taking a shower and cleaning those sheets. It stinks in here.” Silver had a mask made of his own magic around his muzzle.

I sniffed a few times. “I hadn’t noticed it. Guess that’s what happens when your muzzle is buried in a mares nether regions. Anyway..., yeah bring me downstairs I would enjoy something to eat other than Harmony.” I snapped my eyes open.

“Don’t give me any details. I think I would be scarred if you gave me to much more information.” Silver lifted me off his wing.

“Alright just take me downstairs already. See you in a little bit Harmony.” I rocked on my hooves.

She smiled and continued to sleep.

Time for A Change-(ling)

“What did you want to see me for?” I had just slipped into Spitfire’s office.

“Well Silver I want you and your new friends to do some work for me. We have plenty of work around here that needs done. You can make some caps to buy a few new throwing knives for that wing of yours.” Spitfire was fiddling with a safe in the wall.

“I make them myself. Nopony gets to deal with the wing unless it is their death that is happening. I just need a forge and some clouds to make more.” I stood in front of her desk avoiding the chair that was there.

“Well a good forge isn’t going to be cheap. You’re going to need enough caps to buy that at the very least. Besides I think that group of yours has plans to settle down eventually. I doubt they want to stay here though. Think about the offer alright.” Spitfire put a painting on the safe before turning around to face me.

“I’ll think about it. In the end it isn’t up to me. I’m not the leader of that group I’m just a well trained angel of death.” I shuffled my wings a bit.

“We did train you to be an unstoppable killing force. But don’t get cocky you’ve seen what happens when soldiers get cocky. Much as I still dislike you I don’t want to see you dead.” Spitfire stood pushing her chair backwards.

“The feelings mutual. Don’t get yourself killed. I don’t think this town is ready to lose it’s leader.” I stood at attention.

“Dismissed.” She saluted me then went to work with a few papers on her desk.

I walked out of the office to the group waiting for me.

“So what did she say?” Midnight was the one to greet me.

“She offered us many jobs. There are many things to do around this town to make sure that nothing like what we’ve just lived through happens again. So what do you say Midnight? Are you willing to stick around here long enough to prove your worth?” I raised an eyebrow at her.

“I don’t need to prove anything, but we could use the caps. Well I guess we’ve got nothing better to do at the moment so we might as well work for her. But don’t you still hate her?” She raised her own eyebrow at me.

“I don’t hate her anymore. I dislike a few of the things she has done but I do not wish death or harm upon a former commanding officer.” I would never wish any harm upon them.

“Sounds to me like you are developing feelings for her.” Harmony stepped forward.

“Harmony I would suggest you hush yourself on talk like that. Silver here has other mares chasing after him. I doubt he would even want a mare of my age.” Spitfire pulled open her office door and stepped out.

“No offense Spitfire but yeah. You are at least twenty years older than me. I’m all for a mare who is a little older but that is stretching it to the extremes.” My instincts kicked in and I stood at attention.

“So what do you have for us to do?” Midnight stepped forward nudging me.

“Well Midnight we have a problem with raiders around here as you’ve seen. I would like you to take out a few of the surrounding camps. This would be a strategic advantage to us if we could hold these bases and use them as outposts for our soldiers.” Spitfire rolled out a map on the floor in front of us.

“What’s the pay like?” I stopped standing at attention and went to work looking the map over.

“What do you expect me to short you for your work or something? You know I’ve got a higher code of honor than that Silver. You worked with me for over five years. I always keep my promises.” Spitfire put pins on all of the outposts surrounding the town.

“For once you’ve said something that I agree with entirely. You do manage to make sure all of your promises are fulfilled. So I ask again. What’s the pay?” I knew she was on the level.

“One hundred caps for each base you take out that we can use. Twenty for any base that you completely destroy. You might want to get to work. There are over thirty bases surrounding this place.” Spitfire had pinpointed all of the bases with pins.

“How many miles out are they?” I kept an eye out to see if she was going to place anymore pins.

“Most are less than five miles out. Some are farther than that. Leave nopony standing.” Spitfire saluted.

“Understood.” I saluted her back.

“Dismissed” She grabbed the map and took it back into her office.

We walked out of the main office area and found a map to look at.

“Twenty bases. That’s what she said right?” Midnight was programming a few waypoints into her pipbuck.

“Thirty. These raiders obviously have something they want from this city. It is well defended and would serve well as a main base. Could use a bit more defense from aerial assaults but other than that anypony would be lucky to call this place their home base.” I thought over where the best place to place turrets would be.

“So which camps are we going to take out first?” Midnight looked up from her pipbuck and waved me over.

“Well any of these camps will be hard to take down alone. We need to be in groups of two or three. With proper stealth we might be able to take the first few in groups of two.” I pointed to a few of the bases she had waypointed.

“Alright. I’ll go with Harmony. Demo and Onyx you up for a mission into enemy territory?” A hologram of the map appeared and she pointed to one of the waypoints.

“They won’t know what hit them.” Onyx nodded and started hovering.

“Good. Now Stone you're with me. We leave in fifteen minutes. We need to take out as many of these camps as quickly as possible so they can’t attack us again.” I pointed to one of the camps and Midnight nodded.

“Understood.” Midnight made the hologram disappear.

“Alright everypony you’ve got your orders. Now get to taking down those camps.” I pushed open the front door.

They all nodded and trotted out the door.

“You sure I can be of help to you?” Stone was standing off to my right and behind me.

“Seeing as how you tore into those raiders I think you’ll make a fine soldier. You just need a little training and some new weapons. You’re in luck though. We are marching into an enemy base and you can take all the weapons you want.” I put a hoof on his shoulder.

Stone’s eyes lit up. “Then what are we waiting for?” Excitement was creeping into his voice.

“That’s what I like to hear.” I took off into the air and pulled Stone along with me

Midnight and Harmony’s POV

“That’s a lot of them.” Harmony had a pair of binoculars she was using.

I was staring at her flanks while she wasn’t looking. “Nothing a couple of badasses like us can’t handle. I’ll start picking them off from here. You sneak down there and kill off as many as you can. If you get spotted just shoot a flare into the air. I’ll be down there in less than a minute.” I kissed her. “Good luck.” I tapped her flank.

She started making her way down the hill towards the camp. We had been looking over the camp for an hour or so before we decided to attack.

“Let’s do this.” I looked the camp over once more before taking a shot at one of the three ponies in towers.

The closest guard tower was empty at the moment. The tower farthest from me was the shot I took first. The guard had moved just slightly so the bullet shot past him. I followed up with a second shot. This time the guard dropped.

I looked down to the edge of camp. Harmony was hiding behind a wall preparing to go in once the towers were empty. I took aim at the second tower. I pulled the trigger and the guard dropped. The third tower guard had seen what had been happening. He jumped off the tower and was heading for an alarm.

“No you don’t.” Another shot and another dead guard.

After that one the entire camp was alive with movement. Harmony leapt over the wall she was hiding behind. Raider after raider fell to her. She was an unstoppable force. I snapped out of admiring her and started down towards the camp.

The trip down to the camp was short. The entire time I was coming down the hill I could hear nothing but the gunshots coming from the camp. I really hoped that nothing had happened to Harmony.

“Why did you send her down here alone?” My voice was filled with anger and disgust.

The gunfire stopped for a few moments. I stopped to listen for anything else. After what seemed like eternity the gunfire started up again. I was hopeful and charged on into the camp.

Bodies were scattered around the camp. Harmony had made short work of most of them but it was evident she couldn’t win this battle by herself. I wandered through the camp looking for her. She was nowhere to be seen. I felt a hoof grab a hold of me and as I spun around I found nopony there.

“What the buck?” I looked around for anypony.

“It’s me. Come this way we need to hide for a few minutes.” Harmony dragged me towards a building.

We retreat into the closest building. Inside ponies were laying dead all around us.

“Did you cause this?” I was staring at all the corpses.

“Midnight I only killed three or four ponies so far. All of these raiders have been killing each other. I don’t know why they have been but if this is what’s happening at all of the camps then we will have an easy time capturing them.” Harmony kept a hoof on my shoulder.

“Well that should be a good thing. As long as you don’t get hurt I could care less about anything else.” I leaned in to kiss her.

The door behind us burst open.

“Midnight don’t trust that thing.” A second Harmony burst in.

“Harmony.” I looked at the two copies of my lover. “What the buck is going on here?” I looked back and forth between them.

“It’s pretty obvious that she is a changeling. We need to kill her before she kills us both.” Both of them were in unison.

“Don’t listen to her Midnight. I’m the real me and she is a changeling.” The Harmony closer to me tapped her chest.

They were standing staring into the other’s eyes. I was worried about having to decide who was who. I had to think for a second. I came up with an ingenious plan to figure out which one was the real Harmony.

“When’s my birthday?” I waited but no answer came.

They both stared at me confused for a few seconds.

“I have to figure out which one of you is real somehow. I figure this is the best way to do so. When is my birthday?” I tapped the floor a few times.

The second Harmony spoke. “You never told me when your birthday was.”

“Two days ago. We had so much fun that night.” I saw her wink at me.

“Ok one point to Harmony number one. Next question. What happened when we first met?” I smirked as did the Harmony who had dragged me in here.

“Umm.” The second Harmony was starting to back away.

“I spied on you while you showered. It was a very good time for me.” Her smile only got wider.

“Well that settles it. Harmony number one is the real Harmony.” I drew out my pistol and aimed it at Harmony number two.

The second Harmony changed back into it’s natural form. It made a few noises that I guessed would be words to us if we could understand the snarls and growls of changelings.

“Now look it’s not you. Actually wait it is you.” I shot the changeling in the head. A few bits of brain scattered across the wall behind him leaving a very interesting mural.

“Well you knew exactly how to get out of that. How did you know I would remember those things?” Harmony stepped over the dead changeling and trotted over to me.

“I knew you would because you are a caring mare. You are one of the most loyal ponies I know.” I hugged her.

“Well thank you. Now what do you think about getting out of here before we have to deal with more of those things?” She broke out of the hug.

“Sounds like a plan to me.” I leaned in and kissed her.

Silver and Stone’s POV

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Stone was looking over the diagram I had drawn in the sand.

“Stone I wouldn’t have suggested it if I knew it wouldn’t work.” I was flicking my left wing around.

“Still seems like I should actually help you out. But if you want to do this alone then I suppose I can only ask you not to.” Stone sat down and stopped looking over the diagram.

“I’ll be back in a few minutes you stay here and cover me.” I tossed him a rifle that I had pilfered from a corpse on the way here.

“Alright.” He opened up the bolt and then slammed it closed.

A few minutes later.

“Well that was fast. Did you roll in their blood or something?” Stone deposited the rifle into his saddlebags.

“No I didn’t that’s what happens when you use a wing as a sword to cut ponies heads off.” I looked myself over.

“Well you do look quite intimidating. Might come in handy someday. So how are the others doing?” Stone looked off into the distance.

Onyx and Demo’s POV

“That is quite a few of them. Might be best if we call the others to help us out here.” I set the binoculars down at my side.

“Silver said we should be able to take this base by ourselves.” Demo was looking at the base through a scope he had pulled off of a rifle.

“Well Silver is a highly trained combat ready soldier. How much military training have you had Demo?” I looked over at him.

“None. But how hard can it be to actually kill these ponies.” He set the scope back in his saddlebags.

I raised my eyebrow at him. “Much harder than you think. I’ve had to kill a few ponies before and I’ll tell you that it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. I don’t think I can kill ponies like Silver does. I hope to never have to.” I pushed a bit of dirt out as I stood up.

“Understood but don’t you think we should try. We might not be highly trained soldiers but we have worked well as a team. You know how well we work together when alone.” He stood up smiling.

“Not the time for that.” I pushed him away.

“Then when is the time? We haven’t done it in weeks.” Demo tapped his hoof on the ground waiting for my response.

“I know that. It’s just.. I haven't been feeling up to it lately.” I hung my head.

“You can talk to me about these things. I am your partner in this crazy world.” Demo put a hoof over me.

“We’ll talk about this once we get back to New Appleloosa. Until then we’ve got a job to do.” I looked down to the camp.

In the few short minutes we had been talking many of the ponies in the camp had been killed.

“Onyx I don’t think stuff like that is supposed to happen.” Demo had grabbed the scope and was scanning the camp.

“Agreed. Follow me. We need to figure out what happened down there.” I started down the hill.

“Follow you. With pleasure.” His response made me stop.

I hit him playfully before walking over to the camp. The bodies were mutilated. Parts of them were hung up like trophies. In the center of town a pony like creature stood.

“What the buck are you.” It turned around and hissed at us. “You are the ugliest looking motherbucker I’ve ever seen.” I stared at it disgusted.

It stopped for a second before charging at us. It was on top of me before I could pull out my gun. The creature tried to bite my throat out and I had to use all my might to prevent him from killing me. Demo had been a bit stunned but respond quickly by smashing into the thing on top of me.

“That spot is reserved for me you bastard.” Demo slammed one of his hooves into the creatures face.

“Again now is not the time Demo just shoot it. Also who rides who again?” I grabbed my gun from my saddlebags.

Demo stared into my eyes as he shot the stupid thing. “You know who rides who.” I winked at him.

“Yeah I do. I just wanted to make sure you knew it as well.” Demo kicked the creature once before returning to my side.

“You two are disgusting.” A stallion was standing staring at us.

“Did we say anything to a boar bucking raider like you?” I spun towards him with my gun.

“No I just wanted to let my presence be known before I kill you.” The stallion levitated his gun out next to him.

Demo and I looked at each other. We turned to the raider and shot him.

“Seriously you two are gross.” Midnight’s voice sounded behind me.

“Oh hey Midnight. What are you doing here?” I had my gun in my hoof.

“Preparing to eat your soul.” The mare’s voice turned dark.

“Ok so you aren’t Midnight then. So what are you called?” I held my gun in my hoof and waited.

“We are changelings. No more questions please. I need to eat you two.” The changeling bared it’s fangs.

Demo had snuck up behind it. “Nope.” The bullet went clean through the changeling’s skull.

“Ok so are any other changelings present? I don’t believe that Silver is standing before me.” I watched Silver carefully.

“Well if I were a changeling I would have killed you by now. So I think that proves my innocence.” Silver stood unmoved by my questioning.

“That is to be determined later. For now lead the way to our meeting spot.” I put my gun back into my saddlebags.

“Follow me.” Silver took to the air and we followed shortly behind him.

One hour later at determined meeting spot.

“Midnight I need to talk to you over there.” I grabbed ahold of Midnight.

“Ok. What’s the deal Onyx?” She shook free of my grasp.

“I think the Silver who we brought back might be a changeling.” I kept my voice to a whisper.

“What do you have to base this on?” She looked over my shoulder at Silver.

“He just seems off to me.” I looked back at Silver myself.

“Well maybe you just haven’t gotten to know him well enough. He might just be starting to warm up to us and now you accuse him of being a changeling.” Midnight poked me in the chest.

“I just want our group to be safe. I don’t want anything to happen to any of you.” I looked into her eyes.

“One second.” She called Silver over. “So Silver I have a question for you.” Midnight looked back into my eyes.

“Ok go ahead.” Silver shifted his wings around.

“What did you hear when Harmony and I were in the house?” She glanced back at me every few seconds.

“A lot of disturbing noises. I could tell before I got to the window that you two were doing it.” Silver shook a little bit while he remembered the sounds.

“Well that settles that. Silver is not a changeling.” Midnight glared at me.

“I’m still not fully convinced but if you say it’s him I’ll listen.” I looked him over before looking back to Midnight.

“Good because I’m not a changeling. So now we need to take out a few more of those camps. We’re going to need ammunition and some new gear. We’ve barely made three hundred caps. To keep ourselves well armed we’re going to need at least double that. Unfortunately we can’t take on the rest of the camps in groups of two.” Silver trotted back towards the rest of the group.

“Yeah we almost got killed.” I spoke for Demo and myself.

“Same here.” Midnight seemed a little more calm than I thought possible.

“Well that settles it we are not going to split up for the rest of the camps. Now follow me I have one more camp that needs our immediate attention.” Silver trotted off towards a large cliff.

Midnight’s POV

The last camp Silver wanted to take out for the day was about half a mile from the meeting location. This camp was built into a cliff making aerial assaults useless.

“So we have to take this one out purely by ground. That cliff is going to make any attacks from the air easy to counter. I’ll hold this hill and use it to snipe a few of the ponies down there.” I was looking at the camp through my rifle scope.

“Onyx and Demo should move in from that side of the camp while Harmony and Stone attack from the left.” Silver hoofed the binoculars over to Stone.

“And what about you Silver?” I took a second or two to look at him.

“I’ll go up the middle. If I can distract them enough for you all to get in this should be an easy takeover. Any objections to this plan?” Complete silence. “Perfect. Everypony get to your positions and let’s make quick work of these assholes.” Silver stood next to me.

Everypony split off and headed to their places.

“So Silver I have to ask why stick around with us?” I was looking the camp over seeing what shots would be wise to take.

“Well Midnight I saw something in all of you. Something I haven’t seen in many years. You remind me of ponies I use to know. I saw most of the ponies who I grew to know die. I was devastated as each of them was slowly ripped from my hooves. I didn’t want to see another group of ponies like that to die for no good reason. I couldn’t just let you wander the wasteland alone.” Silver’s voice was somber.

“Well I appreciate you staying with us.” I drew closer to him.

He brushed me off with one of his wings.

“I can’t lose another group.” The fear in his voice shone through like a diamond. He wrapped one of his wings around me. I smiled.

“You won’t lose us. I promise.” He didn’t do anything for a few seconds.

“They’re all in position. Time to do some work.” Silver folded his wing back down to his side.

“Ok. Get down there and create a distraction. I’ll see what I can do from up here.” I got my rifle back into position.

As soon as Silver had descended down the small hill I was overlooking the camp. There was no guard towers to speak of but the walls were heavily defended. A few large machine guns were spread around the walls. Nopony was currently using them but I would have to take anypony who was trying to use one down. The main gate opened up and a few ponies covered in magical power armor stepped out.

“What? That’s not good.” I looked down as Silver approached the gate.

The ponies in armor had very heavy weapons in their battle saddles. The one on the right had a minigun and what I guessed was a rocket launcher. The other two had interesting looking miniguns.

Silver had stopped and was waiting for me to take the shot. I aimed for the pony wielding a rocket launcher first. Silver’s wings flared as I pulled the trigger. The armor seemed to slow the bullet down but I could tell I had scored a good hit on him.

“I would suggest you stop shooting if you want to keep your head in one piece.” I turned around to see a mare standing over me.

She had a bat grasped in her magic. I set my rifle down on the ground and turned to face her fully.

“And if I don’t stop shooting you’re going to bash my skull in.” I was laying on my back.

“Ye-Yes.” She stuttered a little bit.

“I’m going to call your bluff.” I was very to the point.

She swung the bat at me and I dodged it easily. I slipped the bat out of her magic and hurled it down towards camp.

“Now I suggest you leave unless you want to die.” She stood there staring at me. I pulled out my .44. “I said leave. I don’t want to kill you if I don’t have to.” I had the gun right at the base of her horn.

“No. I will not sit idly by as you kill ponies who don’t deserve it.” Her voice didn’t carry any weight.

I pulled the trigger. “Sorry but I have friends to protect and you’re keeping me from doing that.” I grabbed the rifle again and went back to overlooking the camp.

Silver had pulled his shield up to avoid being killed by the dual minigun wielding stallion. The gun fired bursts of brightly colored what I guessed was magic. I pulled the trigger hitting the guard in the throat. He fell to the ground and started struggling to get up. I took a second shot and this one hit him right between the eyes.

Silver looked back and dropped his shield diving further into the base.

I checked how Harmony was doing. She was hiding behind a wall as one of the large guns was firing at her. One second later the gunner was sliding backwards to the ground in a puddle of his own blood. A few more raiders exited the camp heading her way. Stone had her flank and killed the raiders as they charged her.

Onyx and Demo weren’t having such good fortune getting into the camp. While there was no guns on that side most of the raiders had shifted to that side to make up for the lack of guns. Twenty or so raiders were shooting at them as they ducked between what little cover there was. I had three or four bullets left before I had to reload. Out of those four shots I killed two ponies and wounded another.

Reloading this rifle was slow but understandable since it fired a large bullet. In total the rifle could hold ten shots before needing to be reloaded. I slammed the bolt closed and started shooting again. Shot after shot found their marks hitting some raiders in the chest and others in the head. Out of the next ten shots I only missed once and killed five more raiders.

I loaded and unloaded the rifle two more times before the raiders stopped firing at Onyx and Demo. I was down to a box of bullets for my rifle. I stowed the rifle for now and drew my .44.

I galloped down to the opened front gate. One of the guns had been destroyed and the wall around it was currently burning.

A raider jumped out in front of me and I shot three times hitting him once. The raider stood his ground for a few seconds before falling dead.

I continued into the camp before more raiders jumped out in front of me.

I ducked behind the closest cover and started taking shots. Shooting from behind cover I was lucky that I actually hit any of them.

Harmony came to my rescue killing two of the three remaining raiders as I reloaded. The raider had tackled her and was preparing to shoot her. I shot the raider twice to make sure she was dead.

“Good to see you Harmony.” I offered her one of my hooves.

“Likewise. Where is Silver at?” She graciously grabbed my hoof.

“I think he made his way over to Onyx and Demo. They needed some help since most of the raiders had been moved to that side. Let’s go they might still need some help.” I pulled Harmony back onto her hooves.

“No need. Silver got over to us and killed the rest of them. He needs to clean himself off desperately. Have you seen how much blood he gets covered in? You would think that he just rolls around in pools of blood for fun.” Onyx was applying a bandage to Demo’s right flank.

“It’s not that bad Onyx. If I do go and roll around in puddles of blood it would be much worse than this.” Silver’s entire left side was covered in the blood of ponies he had killed.

I had to agree with Onyx it did look like he had been rolling in puddles of blood.

“Not to side against you Silver but it does look like you flopped down onto your side in a puddle of blood. The color doesn’t fit very well with your coat.” I looked for any spot on Silver that wasn’t covered in blood.

“I don’t care let’s go back to New Appleloosa and get paid for our work.” Silver took to the air.

“Let’s go then.” We left the camp.

Young Love

It took me a few minutes before I could actually walk again. I took this time to process exactly what I was going to do now that I had this new filly to deal with. I was still unsure of what I wanted to do or say. Even just being near her made my brain temporarily shut down. I felt very strange and nervous every time she got anywhere within ten feet of me.

“Hey Silver.” Oh great time for my brain to shut down. “Are you going to say anything?” Rose stood just out of reach.

“Yes.” I thought of the simplest thing I could say.

“Is that all you can say when I’m around?” Rose inched closer.

I wanted to be smart but my brain just wasn’t allowing it. “Yes.” I really did need to make my brain work.

“Well maybe you should just pretend I’m not here. It has always helped the other colts I hang out with. They all seem to have the same problem whenever I’m around.” Rose was pouting.

“I. I think that might help.” My voice faltered as I spoke.

“Good because I want to talk to you alone once we get back to your home.” Rose sat down next to me.

“Ok.” I was still drowning in a sea of emotions that I didn’t understand.

I was sure of one thing though. I was certain that I liked this filly.

We touched down a few minutes later. I finally found the strength to get to my hooves. Rose grabbed onto one of my hooves. I fell back onto the ground.

“Now I know you’re having a hard time around me but can you stay on your hooves until we get to someplace we can talk? No offense to you but I don’t think I could carry you.” Rose was tugging on my hoof.

“No offense taken I am a little on the heavy side.” I rose to my hooves.

“That’s not what I meant. I don’t think ponies around here would be exactly comfortable with that.” She smiled looking around.

“Well why not?” I really need to stop being so innocent.

“Are you seriously this sheltered from the real world?” She tilted her head sideways.

Every look she gave me made me jittery. I looked down blushing a tiny bit. “Yeah. I’ve been sheltered from most things my entire life.” I kept staring at the ground.

“Well that explains a lot. Now come on we need to talk.” She started to trot off but didn’t get far since she was holding my hoof.

“I don’t know if I can actually walk at the moment.” I had stumbled forward a few steps.

“Fly if you have to. You do have wings after all.” Rose released my hoof.

“Oh yeah. I do have wings don’t I?” I flapped my wings a couple of times.

She face hoofed before walking off.

My eyes were drawn to her flanks. “What the buck is wrong with me? I shouldn’t stare at her like that, but I just can’t help myself.” I tried to keep my voice down.

I apparently hadn’t. “Yeah that’s how life is kid.” Spitfire was standing next to me.

“Spitfire. Uhm how much of that did you hear?” I kicked the ground.

“All of it. We can hear everything you say when we are in such a small space you know that right?” Spitfire raised an eyebrow at me.

“Ok. Wait. Don’t listen to my conversations. Those are personal and I don’t want anypony much less you listening to them.” I was trying to make myself look tough.

“Maybe don’t talk in such close proximity to other ponies then.” Spitfire shook her head.

“Hey Silver are you coming?” Rose was off in the distance.

I shouted back. “Yeah just give me a minute.” She nodded and took a seat on the ground.

“If you don’t mind I have a conversation I’m actually looking forward to. So I must go.” I spun around to leave.

“She wants you.” Spitfire put a hoof on my shoulder.

“I know that.” I brushed her hoof off.

“Are you sure you know the exact meaning of that?” Spitfire was at eye level.

In truth I wasn’t sure about half of these new emotions that I was feeling. “Well no but I plan to figure it out.” I turned away from her.

“Better figure it out quickly kid. Otherwise she might not be around for long. She might go find another colt who is more of a stallion than you’ll ever be.” Spitfire smirked.

My body didn’t go numb but I felt the cold set in. I didn’t even really know this filly but I had developed feelings for her. I didn’t want to see her go and leave me. Instead of my wings lighting on fire or freezing over I felt a tingling sensation go through my body.

“I’ll make sure she doesn’t.” I pointed my wing at Spitfire and a small amount of electricity shot out at her. The extent of what it did was floof up her coat a tiny bit. I turned and walked away.

“So are you ready to talk now?” Rose got to her hooves.

“Yeah I just had to take care of a few things with that mare.” I pointed to Spitfire.

“It seems to me like you two are not the best of friends. What exactly happened between you two?” Rose grabbed my hoof and I had to try my hardest not to fall face first into the ground.

“Well she was tasked with training me and she was a huge bitch about it.” Rose cringed a tiny bit when I cursed. “I’m sorry that just slips out from time to time.” I hung my head.

“You don’t need to be sorry. I’ve heard a lot worse from the stallions who had foalnapped me.” She hung her own head.

“I don’t think I’d actually like to hear that.” I was still wondering exactly what had happened to her.

“Trust me you don’t. So continue with your story.” Rose brought her head back up and we continued our walk.

“She taught me how to fly almost as good as her. She allowed me to challenge her to a race and if I beat her she would no longer be training me.” I stood a bit taller remembering that I beat her.

“Well that might explain it. Did anything else happen between you two?” Rose stopped for half a second before continuing forward.

“Well I.” I would have continued but Spitfire landed in front of us.

“That little bastard pissed in my face.” Spitfire spit on the ground at my hooves.

“Silver did you actually do that?” Rose looked to me for the answer.

“Well yes I did but she was trying to kill me.” I lowered my head.

“No I was simply trying to hurl you at the ground. We were up high enough that you could have stopped yourself from impacting the ground.” Spitfire put a hoof to my face.

I thought for a second before realizing she spoke the truth. “I probably could have but I wasn't going to chance it.” I stood tall making myself as big as possible.

Rose hit me a little harder than I think she meant to. “Well that’s gross but I guess I might have done something similar if I were in that situation.” She giggled.

Spitfire whispered in my ear. “I’m going to ruin your chance with this filly just because I can.” I looked at her for a few seconds and then just acted like she didn’t exist.

“Come on Rose. I have a place that we could go to talk alone.” I turned towards my quarters.

“Ok you lead I’ll follow.” I turned to Spitfire and stuck out my tongue.

She pulled out a paper. I wasn’t sure what she was trying to tell me. All I saw was a circle and a line.

We went into the barracks. I had my own special area that nopony else entered. I pushed open the door to find somepony was inside my room.

“Who are you?” I saw a gray mare sitting in my favorite chair.

“Hello soldier I’m the general.” She stood up leaving the chair rocking as she did.

“Oh sorry I didn’t realize you were the general.” I saluted her.

“At ease soldier. You don’t need to salute me when you are here in this room or in your world. Do you wish to travel back home?” She looked to Rose.

“No I was just coming in here to talk to Amethyst.” I looked to my side to find her.

“Is that the filly who is standing behind you?” The general pointed to Rose standing behind me.

I turned around to see that I was blocking the door entirely. “Yes it is.” I moved out of the way to allow her in. “Sorry about that. I’m use to being the only pony to be entering this place.” I allowed her to enter my home.

She looked over the place for a few seconds before nodding her head. “Well it isn’t the greatest looking place but it will do. It just needs a few things and I think I could call this place home. Oh that reminds me where is the little filly’s room.” I pointed over to a small door. “Thank you.” She galloped over to the door.

“She’s cute.” This new mare seemed to think for a few seconds. “Do you mind if I stay in here for the night? I don’t have a place here to sleep.” She sat back down in the rocking chair.

“I wouldn’t mind you staying here for the night. I don’t know how long we’ll be up so if you want to sleep just tell us.” I trotted towards one of the other chairs.

“I’m not tired quite yet. I think I’ll stay up and maybe hang out around here somewhere.” She flew off into one of the corners of the building and sat down.

Rose had come back out and was standing in front of me. She sat down on one of the cushions that were on the floor. I grabbed one with my magic and slid it over to me.

I sat down on the cushion as she asked a question. “What did she mean by other world?” Rose was sitting right next to me.

“Well I’m not one hundred percent certain about that. I’ve thought this entire thing has been some sort of weird hallucination or dream or something. The best way I can explain it is that I’ve been travelling back and forth between this world and the world where I’ve lived most of my life.” I turned towards her.

“That sounds exciting.” Rose grabbed ahold of my hooves.

“Yeah it kind of does. Travelling between worlds. I don’t think we’ve ever done that in our history.” I stuck out my tongue and looked to the roof.

“Well this isn’t a dream so do you think that I might be able to go and visit your home?” Rose leaned in a bit closer.

I thought about it for a few seconds before my blood started running cold. How was I going to explain this to Rose. I had promised her I didn’t plan on doing anything with anypony. Rose had caught on that I was nervous.

“Do you have somepony back home?” A hint of anger stood at the edge of Rose’s voice.

“Well not anypony my age.” Why did I say that?

“You mean you are dating somepony and they’re older than you.” Her voice was filled with anger. “I should have known you were just trying to play me.” She stood up but I stopped her with one of my wings.

“Just let me explain ok.” I tried to make her sit back down.

“You’ve got thirty seconds.” She stayed standing.

“The pony I have at home has been taking care of me.” I tried to find the best way to explain this.

“So what you’ve got a mother back home?” Rose seemed a little less on edge.

“Well she isn’t my mother. She more or less adopted me after my parents were killed.” I looked at the ground a bit sad about my parents.

“Ok so to be clear you aren’t dating anypony.” Rose sat back down on the cushion.

“I’m not dating anypony. I hardly know what exactly to make of my feelings lately. Everything has been turned upside down and I’m not sure if it was what Rose told me or if it’s because I met you.” I flopped onto my back and stayed that way.

“Rose? My name is Rose. Are you sure you aren’t hallucinating this other world of yours?” Rose grabbed one of my hooves and dragged me back up.

“Her name is Rose. She doesn’t talk but she wrote it out for me. I could barely read it but that’s the name I got. Would you prefer I call you Amethyst?” I stayed sitting so I could look into Rose’s eyes.

“I much prefer Rose. It sounds more like who I am. Just a simple pony trying to get through life.” She grabbed ahold of my other hoof.

“I don’t think you’re simple. I think you are extraordinary. You are anything but simple. And the feelings that come along with you are anything but simple.” That second part I had whispered to myself.

“I. I don’t know what to say.” She stopped for a second. “Thank you.” She kissed me again.

I froze up and fell to the ground again. I was really glad I had a cushion to soften my fall. I looked back up at Rose who was shaking her head.

“I hope you eventually stop doing that. It ruins the moment when you fall to the ground so suddenly.” Rose made no attempt to lift me up.

I looked at the ground blushing again. “Yeah I need to work out what I’m feeling.” She sat down in front of me.

“Maybe what you’re feeling is called love. I think I might feel the same. It’s a feeling of nervousness and just wanting to spend time with you.” She stopped talking.

In that moment nothing else mattered to me. A small amount of moonlight was seeping in and illuminating her face. I had no words to describe how beautiful I thought she was. I’m certain that if my jaw wasn’t attached it would have fallen to the floor. She turned to look at me. My heart skipped a beat. I was speechless and wanted to say so many things at once.

“.....” I opened my mouth to speak but not a single word came out. She smiled at me. I scooched closer to her. She didn’t move away from me but instead moved closer. I was unsure of my next actions but I kissed her.

“Do you have a place to sleep? I’m getting tired.” She yawned.

“Yeah. I’ve only got one bed so you can have it if you want it.” I pointed my wing to the bed.

“I was thinking we could sleep together.” She smiled warmly.

“I’d be ok with that.” I stood up. “Follow me.”

In reality my bed was easily big enough that two full sized ponies could sleep in it with room to spare. The general was watching us as we walked over to the open bed. I had a feeling that she did not approve of what was happening. Rose used me as a step to get into the bed. I flapped my wings a few times and landed on the bed.

“You two are going to sleep right?” She kept one eye on us.

I didn’t understand much of anything anymore but I was pretty sure that if I was climbing into a bed I was going to sleep. “Yes.”

“Good.” The general laid her head back down.

Rose was already laying down on the right side of the bed. I stepped around her and laid down facing her. She was mostly asleep by the looks of it. I curled up next to her putting my right wing over her. She smiled. I was happy about this world. Most of the time I was anything but happy but in this moment I felt a happiness that I didn’t remember. I smiled and drifted off to sleep.

Lover's Reunion

“Thanks to you we know have a few forward outposts to use for defense.” Spitfire seemed a bit distracted.

“No problem. Now I think you have a payment for us.” Silver put a hoof on Spitfire’s desk.

“Yes I do.” She reached back and grabbed a bag. “Four bases that we can still use means four hundred caps for you.”

Silver grabbed the bag. “Thanks. We’ll be on taking the rest of those bases for the next few weeks. So I suggest making sure you have enough caps to pay us for our work.” Silver tossed me the bag of caps.

“I always pay my debts Silver. All of you are dismissed for today.” Spitfire turned away from us.

We all started to leave except for Silver. “Silver are you coming?” Spitfire mouthed something but I didn’t quite catch what she had said.

“I have a few things to discuss with Spitfire. You go on ahead. I’ll be back home in ten to fifteen minutes.” Silver turned back towards Spitfire.

“Ok then. Bye Silver.” I waved.

He said nothing more and walked into Spitfire’s office.

“Did something seem off to you?” Harmony and I were left to ourselves.

“Yeah. Something is troubling Silver. I’m not sure what it is but I know that something is bothering him. Do you think we should ask him about whatever it is?” Harmony seemed really worried for Silver.

“For all we know he could be staying back to buck Spitfire. We could try to convince him to talk to us about what is wrong but that could be harmful to his trust for us. I don’t think he trusts us completely yet anyways so it’s probably best to just leave it be.” I turned my gaze forward as we reached the door.

Harmony shrugged and we continued walking. The house was a short three minute trot from the center of town hall.

The sun was setting as we entered into our home. I was surprised to see a mare standing next to the oven.

“Who are you?” I reached out with my magic for one of my guns.

“I’m Rose. It’s nice to meet you all.” Rose had a way of putting me at ease.

“It’s nice to meet you too Rose. Now I would like to ask how you go into our house.” I still had ahold of my gun.

“Does a stallion named Silver not live here? I was told that he lived here and that if I wanted to surprise him I should be waiting here for him.” Rose stood up.

“He does live here but he never mentioned you.” I let go of my gun and stood in a normal way.

“Let me guess you’ve only known him for a few days haven’t you?” Rose sat back down.

“Yeah we have. How did you know that?” I was still quite suspicious of this mare.

“I know Silver really well. I knew that if you had known him for longer he probably would have told you about me.” Rose motioned for us to come closer.

“Well I suppose I should introduce the rest of us. That’s Harmony, Onyx, Demo, Stone, and I’m MIdnight.” I extend a hoof to her.

Rose reached out with a hoof of her own. “Well it is a pleasure getting to meet the ponies that Silver calls friends. I hope you don’t mind I made some food since I had the time.” She waved a hoof over the food on the table.

“It’s fine. Thank you for cooking for us.” I took a seat on one of the stools.

“I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t being rude since I am in your house without your permission.” Rose waited for all of us to join her before she grabbed some of the food.

“It’s fine Rose. Welcome to our home. How long do you plan on staying?” I was tearing into a couple of biscuits.

“Well I hope to stay here as long as I can. I don’t have a place of my own to return to. I came looking for Silver because I knew if I could find him he would have a place for me to stay. He made a promise to me over a year ago that if I were to find him he would let me stay with him.” She was taking small bites as she spoke.

“Well I wouldn’t have guessed that he made a promise like that but if he did you are welcome to stay here.” I tossed the rest of a biscuit into my mouth.

She smiled before turning back to the oven. “The pie is ready.” Her voice was a little sing song.

“Where did you get the ingredients to make a pie?” I continued to eat but slowed way down knowing there was desert.

“I looked around town for the best of what little food they had left. Eventually I found enough apples that were in good condition to make this pie. Silver loves apple pie so I figured it would be a great thing to go along with me returning.” She levitated the pie out of the oven.

I smiled at her. She was a earth pony. Her coat was a light purple color and her mane and tail were burgandy. She seemed a little too happy to be just an old friend of Silver’s. Silver walked through the door and immediately stopped.

“Rose.” I saw something I had never seen before at that moment. Silver was on the verge of tears. It was an odd sight to see this stallion who was always putting on a tough face actually break down and prepare to cry.

“Hello Silver. Long time no see huh?” Silver had jumped into the air and soared towards her. He was currently holding her in midair.

“So what’s going on here?” I was watching them twirl around in the air.

“Silver honey put me on the ground we have a few things to tell your friends.” He said nothing as he set her down. He never let her out of reach of his wing.

“So Silver do you want to explain who this mare is?” He was trying to stop his tears. It was a losing battle.

“Don’t worry about him. He’ll be better in a few minutes but for now I will tell you about who I am. Any question you want to ask before we start?” Rose put a hoof over Silver.

“Just one.” I had raised my hoof like I was in school.

“Ok.” She smiled as she patted Silver.

“What exactly is Silver doing right now?” I was referring to his wing being wrapped around her.

“Oh he’s just not letting go of me. Wrapping a wing around somepony is one of the best ways a pegasus can show that they care about you. Anything else?” She stopped patting Silver.

“No other questions.” I sat and watched them silently.

“Well as you know I’m Rose. I have been looking for this fine stallion for a year now. He has been a hard one to find but I’m glad I found him.” She nuzzled Silver.

“Rose.” Silver’s voice was very shaky.

“Yes honey.” Rose kept her muzzle at the base of Silver’s neck.

“I’m so happy to see you.” He wrapped his head around hers.

“I would never leave you on purpose but when you took off I couldn’t begin my search for you until my service was up. I would have come sooner but.” She was cut off as Silver kissed her. “I thought you had problems with that?” She was barely an inch away from Silver.

“Not in situations like this.” They both laughed.

“Do you two want to sit down and talk? Seems like it might be more comfortable for the both of you.” I got up from my stool.

“Lead the way. Do you have a couch? I don’t think you’re going to get Silver to let go of me.” As much as Rose tried she simply could not get more than a foot away from Silver.

“Yes we do. Follow me.” I lead them to the livingroom and sat down in one of the chairs.

Harmony sat next to me. Demo, Onyx, and Stone sat anywhere they could.

“So Silver do you think you’re up to talking?” He didn’t respond. He had buried his face into Rose’s side. “I’ll take that as a no then. So anything else you need to know?” Rose put a hoof on Silver.

“Yeah what was with him breaking down and crying when he saw you?” I scooched my chair closer to Harmony.

This time Silver actually responded. “I didn’t think I would ever see her again. I up and left her alone one day and didn’t return to find her. I thought she would be pissed at me and not take me back.” He returned his face to her side.

“Well I was pissed at you but I couldn’t just let you go out on your own. I had made a promise to you not to let anything separate us if I could help it.” Rose just let him be.

Silver was resting his head on her flank. He looked like he might fall asleep at any moment. He was just like a little dog with his owner.

“Are you two married or something?” Harmony grabbed my hoof.

“No we never did get married. I wanted to but we couldn’t do so in the position we were.” Rose looked back to Silver’s smiling face.

“So you two were dating? Did you ever?” Harmony liked trying to make ponies uncomfortable.

“Harmony that is not an appropriate question.” I gave her a small tap on the shoulder.

“I don’t mind answering. While we grew up together Blaze and Ace were always making rude comments on stuff like that. You just get used to it after a time.” Rose laid her head down on Silver’s wing.

“So did you?” I was about ready to punch her for real.

“To put it simply yes.” Rose raised her head as Silver started to move.

“Can we not talk about this anymore. I am very uncomfortable with this.” Silver pulled Rose as close as he possibly could.

“You always were.” She laid a hoof on Silver’s chest.

“Yes but I knew those ponies a whole lot better than I do this new group. I would much prefer to wait for enough time to go by that I actually know these ponies. Where did Onyx and Demo go?” Silver made us all look around.

“I have an idea of where they went but I think we should leave them be.” I looked down to Stone watching as he pointed towards the stairs.

“Why is that?” The floor above us started creaking. “Oh that’s why.” Rose snuggled up closer to Silver.

“Yeah. I bet they thought it was the perfect time to do this. So as not to interrupt Harmony and I tonight.” Harmony lifted my chair and brought it closer.

“Silver and I need some time to talk. Honey do you have a bedroom?” Rose lifted her head just as Silver put his down on her flank.

“Yes I do. It’s upstair but I would like to stay here for a few more minutes.” Silver kept his head down.

“Silver after we get reacquainted you can spend all night with your head right there.” Rose giggled.

“Not funny.” Silver opened up one of his eyes.

“Yes it is and you know it.” Rose poked his nose.

“Whatever let’s go upstairs.” Silver jumped off the couch.

She said nothing else as she followed him upstairs.

“Well that was interesting to say the least.” I was still trying to figure out a few things about Silver and his marefriend.

“Well I’m happy for them. Now I think it’s time to go to bed.” Harmony dragged me out of my chair.

“Sounds good to me.” I caught my hoofing and we went upstairs

The General and The Displaced

I woke up multiple times during the night hearing. I don’t know what it is I was hearing but it did not sound pleasant. I did manage to get two or three hours of sleep.

I had a few choice words for Silver the next morning. I could not talk to him that day since he stayed in his room the entire time and I wasn’t risking walking in on them. I rolled over to talk to Harmony.

“How much sleep did you get last night?” I yawned and closed my eyes.

“I didn’t sleep at all. I was kept up by whatever they were doing.” Harmony tossed the pillow she had on her face into the air.

“Same. I think we could probably get some sleep now if you wanted to.” I smiled and pulled her close.

“No. I’m not going back to trying to sleep right now. I don’t think we are going to do anything today anyways.” She put one of her hooves around me. She started to fall asleep. “I’m. I’m not going to fall.” She fell asleep. I teleported out of her grasp and onto the floor.

“Sleep tight. I’m going to go for a walk.” I was whispering just in case she was actually still awake.

I ventured downstairs. Onyx and Demo were sitting at the table drinking coffee.

“Onyx don’t you think you should just go to sleep?” Demo was staring longingly into his coffee cup.

“No. After last night I don’t think I’m going to be able to sleep for a while. So I’m just going to drink coffee to stay awake.” Onyx’s eyes were wide open as he rocked on a stool.

“Don’t you two think you could have just gone to the hostel for a bed?” Stone had been sitting not too far off eating an apple.

“Could have but I wasn’t leaving the house to go stay there. I had enough of that harassment after the last time we stayed there.” I couldn’t tell if Onyx was shaking from the coffee or from his own will.

I rolled my eyes and walked out the front door. The city was still not quite in full gear for the day. It was just after eight and most ponies were just walking into work. I hadn’t been to the stores around town so I decided that if I wasn’t going to get any sleep might as well go shopping.

“Morning Midnight.” Spitfire was sitting on a bench not too far away.

“Hey Spitfire. How are you today?” I trotted over to her.

“I’m doing fine. Is there any chance that Silver will be coming out of the house today?” Spitfire looked up to the second floor.

“No I don’t believe he will be. Most of us were up all night listening to whatever it is he was doing.” I closed my eyes.

“That bad huh?” Spitfire leaned forward.

I was partially asleep but snapped out of it. “Yeah. I barely got two hours of sleep.” I shook my head a bit.

“Do you want me to help wake you up?” Spitfire got off the bench.

“Yes please.” Her idea of waking me up was to slap me across the face a few times. “I was better after the first one. The rest of those just hurt.” I rubbed my cheeks.

“Sorry. I’m not use to waking up ponies who aren’t trained for stuff like that.” She looked at my face where she had hit me. “You’ll be fine. Might be a little bit of bruising but other than that nothing.” Spitfire smiled nervously as I looked at her.

“Yeah thanks for that.” She shrugged. “You know the town pretty well. Do you know where I might be able to pick up some new gear?” I yawned.

“Yes I do. The best place for that would be Bits and Bobbles. It’s off over there. I’m not one hundred percent certain where since I don’t go there often.” Spitfire waved a hoof towards the center of town.

“Thanks. I’ll try to get Silver to talk to you whenever he isn’t trapped in his room.” She saluted me and I headed down in the direction she had pointed.

It took me a few minutes but I eventually found Bits and Bobbles. The town itself wasn’t beautiful since most buildings were rebuilt out of sheets of metal.

Bits and Bobbles was a small building with an actually cheery front. The store stood out from the rest of the town due to it’s bright colors. The inside was of an entirely different caliber. The inside was painted a shade of bright pink that was a slight bit displeasing to my eyes.

“Hello. Welcome to Bits and Bobbles. We have everything you might need and some stuff you might not. We also have special orders but talk to me about those in private.” The stallion that had greeted me was loud and filled with joy.

I was surprised that he had survived this long. “Hi. I was told I could buy some new weapons and gear here.” I was still trying to wake up fully.

His voice wasn’t grating but it was very loud. “Oh yes ma'am. You can buy anything here from a bobby pin to this sniper rifle.” He held out a sniper rifle and a bobby pin and shook them at me. “So what can I help you for today?” He slipped the merchandise back under the counter.

“Well I was looking to buy some ammo and weapons.” I was shying away from him just in case.

“Well of course silly, but what kind of weapons and ammo?” The stallion spun around on a stool. As he spun it rose higher and higher.

I had nearly sat down trying to lean away from him. My flank finally hit something but it wasn’t the ground. A pillow had appeared below me. “How did you do that?” I was looking between him and me.

“I didn’t he did.” He pointed off behind me. I looked but nopony was there.

“Nopony is standing there you know that right?” I was seriously starting to consider shooting him.

“You just can’t see him. I know he’s there though. He always is.” His mane changed style for a few seconds before he snapped back to normal. “Anyways I bet you are probably in need of some ammo for an assault rifle. One that’s been chambered to fire bullets with more powder behind them. I’d say a boar rifle.” His smile didn’t waver.

“Yes. How. How did you know that?” I pulled out my rifle.

“He told me so.” He pointed to the wall behind me.

I looked around again to see nopony in the store but us. I was about to draw out my .44 when I found it had already been taken from me. “How did you do that?” I grasped at it with my magic.

“It’s best not to ask questions you don’t want to know the answers to. I have a few boxes of bullets for your guns. They aren’t cheap weapons to fire so you are going to have to pay a lot for these.” He dangled the bullets in front of me. I reached for them but he kept them just out of reach.

“How much for the bullets?” I was hypnotized.

“Fifty caps for these bullets. Anything else you want?” Something in his voice kept pushing me to buy more.

“What kind of weapons do you have in stock?” I drew closer to the counter.

“Well we’ve got small caliber pistols, a few large rifles, a couple of melee weapons, a few weapons you’d need a battle saddle to use.” He started listing off weapons and putting them on the counter.

I had started drooling about halfway through the presentation of weapons. So many cool looking weapons that I probably couldn’t afford.

“So what are you in the market for?” He waved his hooves over the weapons on the counter.

I pointed at one of the pistols that he had shown me. “Ah good choice.” He picked up the weapon. “A .50 caliber pistol. You could make any earth pony jealous if you mouth fired this thing without flinching. It packs a mighty punch and will kill most ponies in a single shot.” He held it out of my reach.

I made a few noises and curled my hooves towards me like a foal would do if they wanted a toy. He drew back the weapon.

“You can have this gun for one hundred caps.” I almost threw the caps at him. “Woah there nelly. You should also note that the bullets for this aren’t cheap. One shot is ten caps.” I drew back my caps for a second before snapping back into my mind.

“So I can only get a few bullets for it if I do buy it. Ok give me five bullets for that the gun and the other bullets for my guns.” I dropped two hundred caps onto the counter.

“Are you sure that’s all you want? I do have a few other weapons that might suit you.” He put the gun into a small pile of stuff for me.

I stopped and thought about how many caps I had. Without drawing into the caps Harmony and I had save for our life down the road I had five hundred caps. One gun on the counter caught my eye. I grabbed a hold of it and floated it out in front of me.

“A shotgun? You don’t seem like the type of pony to get up close and personal with your enemy. But if you do want it that will bring your total up to two hundred seventy five caps.” He looked at me expectantly.

“That little for the gun and bullets?” I was looking the gun over. I had seen a few shotguns and knew that this was a pump action.

“Oh you wanted bullets for it as well? Yeah that makes more sense. A box of twenty five shells will be seventy five more caps. So three hundred fifty caps in total.” He started shoving merchandise back under the counter.

I reached into my saddlebags and hoofed over the rest of the money I needed to pay.

He slid the bags off the counter and hoofed me the bullets. “Thank you.” He simply smiled as I got back to my hooves.

I stepped outside and started heading back home. “That was really weird. I wonder if he’s insane. It would explain a lot of that about somepony who isn’t there actually telling him something.” I shook my head trying to clear myself of the experience.

“Ah I see you met the shopkeep.” One of the guards stepped out from the shadows.

“Yeah I did. What is up with him?” I slid the rest of what he had handed me into my saddlebags.

“Nopony really knows. He says he’s seen a creature from beyond a screen or something. I would steer clear of him unless you absolutely need something from him. I’ve seen many things out in the wastelands and he creeps me out more than anything else I’ve ever seen.” The guard shuddered and backed away from the shop.

“Yeah he seems like he might have that effect on people. Now if you don’t mind I need to get home.”

He stepped aside and I continued my walk home. Spitfire was sitting on a bench not too far from the house.

“Are you just going to sit there until Silver comes out?” I trotted up next to her.

“I saw him look out his window earlier. He saw me and closed the curtains. So I decided to sit here for a while before going back to my office. It’s much nicer to come out and do something rather than sit in an office all day.” Spitfire took a deep breath and sighed.

“I could try to convince him to come out of his room.” I trotted over to her right side.

“Don’t bother. I think he just needs another day or so to get readjusted to having Rose around.” I turned to leave but she reached out to me. “Could you stay here for a few minutes? I’m bored out of my mind.” Spitfire pulled her hoof back.

“Yeah I guess so.” I sat down on the bench with her. “Anything you want to talk about?” I leaned back and yawned.

“Not much really.” She stopped for a few seconds. “Do you ever miss the place you came from?” Her voice was a bit shaky.

“Yeah. Sometimes I do miss my home and all the ponies I grew up with, but out here I’ve made a new life for myself. What about you?” I looked to her.

She was silent for a few seconds before speaking again. “I do miss my old life. All of the ponies I used to live with and fight with. They made me who I am but I had to leave them.” She stopped again before changing back to her normal self. “Tell Silver that once he leaves his room he is to report to me immediately.” She got up and flew off.

“Ok.” I stayed on the bench for a minute before heading inside.

I opened the door and nearly tripped over Onyx and Demo. They were laying on the floor asleep. Harmony was walking down the stairs. She seemed a little bit better than she had been this morning. Meanwhile Stone was sitting in one of the chairs just watching everything. I trotted up to him.

“Hey Midnight where have you been?” He looked like he had just woken up from a nap.

“I’ve been out buying a few things. What did I miss while I was out?” I watched Harmony slowly walk down the stairs.

Stone waved a hoof across the house. “You missed these two falling asleep after doing it on the floor. Harmony just woke up a few minutes ago. She seems to be looking for you. I got enough sleep last night that I have just been watching out for everypony while they do whatever they need to do to cope with the sleeplessness. As for Silver and Rose. I don’t know what they are doing. They have been upstairs all day. They became really quiet a few minutes before you showed up.” Stone sat up a bit.

“Do you think it’s safe to go check on them?” I levitated my saddlebags into a chair.

“I would hope so. I don’t think anything they could be doing would be too unsafe. Especially not for you.” He winked at me.

I shook my head.

“Don’t play dumb with me. I saw a few of the things that came out of your room after your birthday.” He smirked at me.

I was blushing because I knew just how bad some of that would look outside of my room. “I think I’ll go check up on them know. Hi Harmony I’ll be back in a minute or so have some coffee.” I levitated a cup onto the table in front of her and trotted up the stairs.

I knocked on the door to Silver’s room. “Are you two doing stuff?” No response. I opened the door a small crack. No noises assaulted my eardrums so I threw the door the rest of the way open. I was fortunate and they weren’t bucking.

“Hello Midnight. How are you this fine afternoon?” Silver looked to be asleep and Rose was awake to greet me.

“I’m doing fine. I just came to check on Silver. Spitfire says she needs to talk to him about a special mission of some sort. When do you think he’ll be awake?” I crept farther into the room.

“I’m actually awake Midnight. I was just pretending to be asleep until I knew what you needed.” Silver lifted his head up.

“So when are you going to leave your room?” I stopped about halfway between the door and bed.

“Tomorrow morning. I suggest you all get some much needed sleep. I’ve heard what everypony has been doing since we kept them up last night.” Silver laid his head back down on Rose.

“Alright but don’t keep us up tonight. If not for me do it for them. Onyx and Demo are passed out on the kitchen floor and Harmony could be passed out in the toilet for all I know.” I was getting a little bit angry at him.

“Well if you want to you could go to sleep right now.” He opened one eye to look at me.

“It’s about noon Silver.” I tapped the ground impatiently.

“Yeah and if it is as bad as you say you are going to need all the sleep you can get.” Silver closed his eye again.

“Fine but no doing anything tonight. If you want to do stuff go rent a room somewhere.” I trotted back out the door shutting it behind me.

“I have a special mission for all of you. We have been getting some strange readings from this location here.” Spitfire pointed to a map. “I need you to go investigate and recover whatever it is that is making these readings.”

“Anything we should be aware of in that area as a threat?” Silver was looking intently at the map.

“Our scouts have seen nothing in that area. Should be a safe trip. I would suggest leaving a few ponies behind. We have a few things that are being delivered to your house and we need to be able to get in without destroying the door.” Spitfire turned away.

“Understood.”

“Dismissed.” Silver saluted and we left the office.

“Anypony want to volunteer to stay here?” Rose and Stone raised their hooves.

“Don’t worry Silver I don’t have eyes for your mare.” Stone stepped cautiously away from Rose.

“I wasn’t worried I was just thinking about tactical advantage.” His eyes shifted between Stone and Rose.

“You do like to do that. How about I take your mind off of it.” Rose had a really seductive voice and it took all my might to resist ogling her.

“Another time Rose. For now we have a mission to go on. So You two will stay here just incase something happens.” They nodded. “Well then we should leave here quickly if we want to reach the area before dark.” Silver kissed Rose and we were off.

I shiver went down my spine. “Anypony get the feeling we’re being watched?” I looked around.

“I have a feeling something might be watching us but it would have already tried to kill us if it could. So we should just ignore it for now.” Silver kept trotting casting glances off into the distance.

“If you say so Silver. I don’t like it one little bit.” I shuddered again.

We continued walking for another two hours before we reached the sight that Spitfire had labeled for us. Silver pulled out a small device designed to pick up whatever had been off with this area.

“So what exactly are we looking for here?” I checked my pipbuck to make sure we were in the right area.

“Well if I’m correct we are searching for an entrance to a stable. At least that’s what it looks like. It could be potentially anything since nopony has scouted this place very well.” Silver levitated the device around.

“So we could find alien technology here?” Harmony had convinced herself that aliens might be watching us and have technology that we could use.

“More than likely, no, but I suppose anything is possible.” Silver paid little attention to anything but the device in front of him.

“See Midnight I told you there could be aliens watching us.” Harmony stuck her tongue out at me.

“Whatever. Let’s just keeping looking for whatever this thing is.” I walked for a few more steps before putting one of my hooves down on a chunk of metal. “What the buck is that?”

“That would be one of the things we are looking for. If it were active you would have been blown to a bloody pulp.” Silver levitated my hoof off of it.

“So I repeat what is it?” It was floating right in front of me.

“That is a deactivated mine. Common weapons to use as traps in the military. They can do quite a few different things. Incendiary, freezing, magical explosions, or just an explosion. Most ponies here in the wasteland would love to get ahold of them. Watch your step.”

I slowly back pedaled running my flank into Harmony. “My my are you sure we should do that here in the middle of a minefield?” I didn’t blush but did turn my head away from her. She giggled before wrapping a hoof around me.

Silver was pushing ahead pulling mines out of the ground and making sure they were deactivated before putting them into his saddlebags. We continued on this way before the device Spitfire had given him started flipping its shit.

“So I take it we’re close to whatever we were sent here to find?” The machine was beeping very rapidly.

Silver pointed to a metallic console sitting in the open. “That is what we came for. It is much more advanced technology than anything you have here. That comes from Spitfire’s world. We need to retrieve it so she can study it and see what it is doing here.” We cleared the rest of the mines out and got within a few feet of the box.

“Stop right there.” A stallions voice boomed over the entire field.

I looked around before I spotted a grey blur flying at the console. I was trying to reach for it with my magic but it escaped me. We galloped after the mysterious figure. We gave chase for a few minutes before the figure seemed to vanish through a solid steel door.

“Ok so does anypony want to explain what just happened?” I was panting a little bit. Running had never been my strong suit.

“I have an Idea as to what just happened but I need to investigate further to be certain.” Silver approached the door. He knocked a few times before speaking again. “General I know it’s you.” He paused. “I just want to talk to you. Please come out here and talk to me.” He waited for a response.

The stallion's voice sounded through the door. “I can’t do that Silver. I need to get this package back to base.”

“You can do that later for now I need you to talk to my friends. We just need to know why this technology was brought here.” Silver stepped away from the door.

A mare stepped through the door. I was stunned. All stable doors were solid steel and three feet thick and I had just seen a mare step through it.

“You might want to close your mouth.” The mare had a deep voice. “So who told you about this?”

Silver had saluted this mare. “Spitfire sent me to figure out what it was doing in this world. Usually things don’t travel between the worlds. So why is this here?” Silver held up one of the devices Spitfire had give him.

“We have been testing to see if we could bring equipment through to this side. We figured out we just needed to dumb down the technology a bit. Things that exist here and there can be brought between the worlds.” She looked over the rest of our group.

I whispered to Harmony. “Do you find this a little weird. I mean a mare with a stallions voice just walked through a solid steel door and Silver doesn’t seem to be affected by this.” I stayed close to Harmony.

“General if you would please remove your mask. These ponies deserve to know who you are so they can start calling you by your real name.” Silver waved a hoof in our general direction.

The mare took off her mask. I was astonished as to who was standing before me.

“Derpy. Is that really you?” I rubbed my eyes just to make sure I was seeing things correctly.

“Yes it is Midnight. It’s good to see you again. How have you been since we last met?” Derpy’s voice started to shift back to the one I remembered.

“I’ve been good. So wait you’re a general?” I nearly jumped towards Derpy.

“Yes she is Midnight. I would like to formally introduce you to General Derps.” Silver froze up for a second. “General Derpy. Most ponies call her General Derps.” Silver lowered his head.

“Chin up soldier. You have not offended me. I know what everypony calls me. I’ve been called worse before so I don’t mind anymore.” Derpy put a hoof under Silver’s chin.

“Thank you general.” Silver smiled as Derpy removed her hoof.

“At ease soldier.” Derpy returned to her normal stance.

“So how did you walk through a solid steel door?” Harmony was the one to ask.

“Well I do not have a place in that world or this world so I can travel freely between the two as I wish. We are called the displaced and I believe you can see why. We are kind of like gatekeepers between worlds. We can lead ponies in and out of their home world and into another world. That is what happened with Silver. He was born in this world and trained in the other.” Derpy stepped past Silver and towards us.

“Ok that sort of answers my question but how come Silver didn’t move through the door when he knocked on it?” I was still astounded seeing Derpy walk through a solid steel door.

“Well this is a gateway between the worlds. Those who are not displaced cannot move through it by themselves. If they have a displaced to help them they can move through the door and into a pocket world.” Derpy stopped a few feet in front of us.

“Pocket World?” I cocked my head to the right.

“A small rift in time and space that has been set up so that we may travel between the worlds easier. I could show you if you’d like to see it.” Derpy held out a hoof.

“I don’t know. Is it safe for us to travel inside?” I was reluctant to take her hoof.

“One at a time. If I were to try and escort more than one pony at a time I’m not sure I would be able to keep them safe on the journey to the pocket world.” Derpy waved her hoof a bit.

“I would like to go but I don’t want to leave my friends behind and vulnerable.” I looked around.

“Easy fix. Silver use your magic and put up a shield over this area.” Derpy kept her eyes pinned on me.

“Yes ma’am.” He saluted and put up a shield.

“Now Midnight grab my hoof and I will take you to the pocket world.” She pushed it towards me a bit more.

I grabbed her hoof and she dragged me through the door. The best way to explain what I saw next was just to say it was a bunch of bright colors that generally resembled objects that I knew. We were in this state for a few seconds before the ground rematerialized underneath my hooves.

“I hope that wasn’t to rough on you. Most ponies experience a little disorientation and nausea after doing that the first few times.” Derpy was standing next to me.

I stumbled around a bit before getting back on my hooves and staying there. “I’m ok. A little bit nauseas and that’s it.” I looked around. “Wow this place looks a lot like my stable.” My vision was still a bit blurry.

“It was designed to look like a stable. We don’t know who exactly created these pocket worlds but we do know that they are scattered across the galaxy.” Derpy let go of my hoof.

“So does anypony else have the ability to do this?” My vision was slowly starting to unblur.

“Yes. There are a few of us that you might know. Other species can travel between the worlds like I can. I have met a few very interesting creatures in my travels.” Derpy set her mask down on a table.

“There are other species that can do this. Are any of them dangerous?” My vision finally returned to full focus.

“We usually choose the kindest and gentlest of our species to represent us when we meet.” Derpy set a few other things down with her mask.

“You meet with these creature regularly?” I sat down.

“For us it is about every two years. Other species only come to the meetings every ten or more years. And there are some that haven’t been seen in millennia. I think the next meeting is in a few days. So some of the delegates will be arriving shortly.” Derpy trotted over to me with a pillow.

“They meet here. All of them meet here in this place.” I grabbed the pillow and sat down on it.

“Not all of them. Usually just the ones who aren’t too far away from our own planet.” A fizzling sound started and abruptly stopped. “Sounds like a few of them have arrived.” The sound of hooves on steel resounded through the stable.

“So who has arrived?” I was afraid of the answer.

“Hard to say who has arrived. I’d put my money on.” A pair of dice rolled into the room. “Thought so. How you doing Dice.?” Derpy turned her head to look at the new arrival.

The stallion peeked his head around the corner. “I’m doing as fine as I can. How about you?” The stallion stepped out from behind the corner.

“Just blowing the mind of a mare who didn’t know anything about this.” She waved her hoof around the room.

“Cool.” He pointed at me. “You can keep those die. I’ve got quite a few pairs like them.”

“Thank you.” I levitated the dice to myself and tried depositing them in my saddlebags. To my surprise they fell to the floor. “What?” I looked back to see I had nothing on.

“Most of the time we don’t bring the stuff that ponies have with them here. Especially if we have a meeting coming up. Wouldn’t want to spark an interdimensional conflict because somepony was freaked out by one of us.” Derpy was speaking to Dice without making any noise.

I grabbed the dice and held them in my magic. “So his name was Dice?”

“Diamond Dice is his name. I still don’t know much about him other than he throws those dice at people he likes.” I looked at the dice again. “I would keep them if I was you. It’s good luck to meet somepony like us. We are few in numbers and we can help out if you really need us to.” Derpy held out a hoof.

I kept ahold of the dice and sat down. “This is confusing.” I grabbed her hoof.

“Don’t worry most ponies say the same thing when we tell them about this. Some don’t believe us and deny that we are anything special. I would find it pretty hard to see something like this and not believe it. So what do you think?” Derpy pulled me to my hooves.

“I’m a little bit stunned to say the least. I don’t know if this is just some weird drug trip or what but it’s awesome.” I was really considering being drugged out beyond belief.

“Ask Silver about this. He’s seen this so many times I think I finally broke him into believe in this whole place. Now do you wish to return to your friends?” I nodded my head. “Alright. Dice hold down the fort I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

“Alright. I’ll greet whoever comes in next. Don’t take to long though. You are the life of the party after all.” The stallion didn’t make another appearance.

Derpy grabbed ahold of me and dragged me back out into the world I knew. My friends had sat down on the ground and were waiting for me.

“Welcome back Midnight. What did you think of the pocket world?” Silver dropped the shield.

“I’m not sure what to think.” I saw that the dice had been brought back with me. “But I think I should probably believe that it is true.” I smiled.

“So what are the dice about?” Silver was the only one to question the dice I had gotten.

“A pony gave them to me while I was in the pocket world.” I took a closer look at them. “They seem to be made of actual diamonds.” I slipped the dice into my saddlebags.

“Wow somepony gave you a diamond huh? They beat me to the punch.” Harmony watched me keenly.

“What do you mean Harmony?” I looked to her making my vision a bit blurry again.

She backed off a little bit. “Nothing. Nothing at all.”

“I’ll accept that for now but later you are going to tell me everything.” I took on a seductive tone. “No matter what I have to do to get it out of you.” I gave a little wink.

“Knock it off you two. I swear if you were even a slight bit more like this than you are I would probably puke.” Onyx gagged a little.

“Get used to it. We aren’t going to change for you.” Harmony poked him in the side for emphasis.

“Whatever. Just tone it down a little would you. I could stand it if it wasn’t so blatant.” He grabbed my hoof and pulled me to my own.

I sighed and smacked him. “Shut up.”

“Rude.” Onyx rubbed his cheek.

“You’ve had that coming since the stable and you know it.” I waited a few seconds for my vision to unblur.

He stayed quiet. I nodded and smiled. “So what are we going to tell Spitfire.”

“I’ll tell her that the general came by to do some testing. That simple.” Silver waved to Derpy as she walked into the pocket world.

“Alright. Sounds good to me.” I looked back to my friends.

Unknown POV

“So are you going to tell them about this?”

“Maybe one day they will know. Some seem to know about me already. Best to not mess with the world more than need be.”

“Sounds good to me.”

Sweets

It had been a few weeks since Rose had joined us at the base. Today was the day that she was to begin training.

“Are you nervous?” I was trotting along next to Rose.

“A little bit, but if these ponies are as nice as you say then I think I’ll be okay.” Rose looked down to the ground.

We had made our way over to where Blaze was. “Morning you two.” Blaze had a clipboard sitting on the ground.

Rose greeted him happily. “Morning Blaze. How are you?” She took a seat on the ground.

“I’m fine, thanks for asking. Are you ready to begin your training?” Blaze picked up his clipboard.

Rose was a little bit less enthusiastic. “Yeah. I think I’m ready to begin my training.” She stood up.

“Good. Silver you can stick around if you wish. I don’t think anypony needs you for anything pressing right now.” Blaze threw a hoof to his head in a salute. I spun around and did the same.

“At ease soldiers.” The general looked to Rose. “So we are beginning training today huh? I thought she had a few more days before we would require her to be trained.” The general looked between the three of us.

I was quick to respond. “She does have a few more days general but she wanted to start training early.” I had one of my wings out in front of Rose.

“Is this true little one?” The general pushed my wing back to my side.

Rose gulped. “Yes. Yes it is ma’am.” Rose didn’t cower as the general approached.

“Good to see you taking initiative. As you were. Silver I would like to speak with you. Follow me.” The general turned and trotted away.

“Yes General.” We walked out of earshot of the others. “What did you want to talk to me about General?”

“Well first off call me Derpy. I much prefer my real name to my title. Second off I would like to ask what you have done with the money that you were given.” Derpy took a seat on the ground.

“Ok. Well Derpy I haven’t done anything with that money. I placed it in that safe that you gave me and haven’t thought about it since.” I sat down.

“Alright. I just wanted to make sure you hadn’t wasted all of it. I trust you with that money but you are just a colt. Did you have any plans on how you were going to spend it?” Derpy started drawing in the dirt.

I sat there in thought. “I hadn’t planned on spending it. I did want to buy some candy the other day but decide against that. To tell you the truth I kinda forgot about that money until you brought it up again.” I couldn’t tell what Derpy was drawing.

Derpy was thinking intensely about something. “Well if you wanted candy I do know of a few shops nearby. I could go buy you some if you would like.” She wiped away her drawing.

“I would like that.” She turned to leave. “But could you also get some for Rose. I think she deserves something sweet after all she’s been through.” I couldn’t explain why but I wanted for Rose to be happy beyond her wildest dreams.

Derpy smiled. “I don’t think she needs anything sweet since she has you but I’ll get her some anyways.” She flew off.

I watched her for a minute before she disappeared outside of the cloaking field. I trotted back over to where Blaze and Rose were.

Rose had a rock lifted onto her back and was slowly trotting across the field. I stopped next to Blaze and watched as Rose finished with her baseline test.

“Well done Rose. We know have a baseline to use for your training.” Blaze scribbled on the clipboard.

“How did I do?” Rose had sat down and was resting.

“You did about as well as I expected you to do.” He looked down to me. “Since you’re still here Silver how about you do a little training?” Blaze dropped the clipboard onto the ground.

“Alright I suppose I’ve got nothing better to do.” I trotted down the line of rocks until I found the one I lifted the last time I did this. I got underneath and lifted it much easier than I had expected to. “Feels lighter than last time.” I lowered myself to the ground and pushed back up easily.

“Well you have done a bit since you last tried lifting these. Try the next rock up.” Blaze pointed to the next rock.

I dropped the rock to the ground and moved onto the next rock. It wasn’t as light as the first but it wouldn’t slow me down too much.

“Well it seems you are quite a bit stronger. Try the last rock.” Blaze pointed down the line to the largest rock.

I dropped the rock on my back and trotted over to the final rock. It stood twice as tall as Blaze did. I tried to move the rock. I moved it slightly before backing off. I moved down a few rocks before finding one that I could lift.

“Good now to the end of the field and back.” Blaze waved his hoof across the field.

I slowly made my way down the field testing out just how heavy the rock was. I reached the end of the field and was satisfied in the fact that I could take the return trip at double the pace I had gone up at. I sat the rock back down and walked over to Blaze.

“So how was that?” I sounded cocky.

“Well I’ve learned not to be impressed at what you can accomplish. But I think our new guest is absolutely dumbfounded.” He pointed to Rose. Her mouth was wide open as she stared at me.

I trotted over to her. She was just staring at me in awe. I used my wing to close her mouth.

I waved a hoof in front of her. “Are you still there? Equestria to Rose. Come in Rose.” She didn’t speak so I sat down next to her. After a few minutes she snapped out of it shaking her head.

“Did you just lift that rock?” She pointed to the rock I had lifted.

“Yeah I did.” I lifted my wing off of her.

“How?” Rose continued to stare at the rock.

“It just comes naturally to me I think. Being an alicorn I’m much stronger than I would be if I was just a normal pony.” Her eyes were piercing into my soul.

Rose stared at me. “Are there any other cool things you can do?” Her eyes glimmered in the sunlight.

“Well I do know a few things about my other magic. Would you like to see them?” She simply nodded her head. “Ok. Can we get up though? The grass here is a little bit wet and I would prefer not to sit in it for any longer than I have to.” I rose to my hooves dragging Rose along with me.

I looked at Blaze and he was shaking his head. He waved us away. Rose followed me to where the unicorns trained. Violet was training a few recruits about some advanced magic. She saw us and trotted over.

“Hey Silver what are you two up to today?” Violet knelt down to look at me.

“Rose asked if she could see me do some magic. I thought it would be okay if I practiced a little.” I drew Rose closer with my wing.

She looked back to the recruits. They immediately got back to training. “I suppose it couldn’t hurt. A little target practice maybe?” Violet pushed herself back to full height.

“What do you think Rose?” I turned my head towards her.

“I just want to see you do some magic.” Rose looked into my eyes.

“Target practice it is then. Hey you new recruit!” Violet poked one of the unicorns who were training with her magic.

“Yes ma’am.” He saluted her.

“I need you to launch targets in the air for him.” She pointed to me. “He needs to practice a little bit.”

“Yes ma’am” He hurried over to the controls.

“Have fun.” Violet turned and trotted back to the recruits she was training.

“Will do Violet. Take a seat Rose we might be here a while.” I lifted my wing off of Rose.

“Ready when you are.” The stallion sat behind a desk.

“Ok.” I charged my magic. “Begin.”

Targets were launched into the air one after another. I hit most on the first try but those that I missed I threw fireballs at. Out of every target that had been launched only two fell to the ground untouched.

“Not bad kid.” The stallion stepped away from the controls.

I called back. “Thanks.”

“That was amazing.” Rose stood up and trotted towards me.

“I mean I’m nothing special.” Before I could continue she had locked me in a hug. “If anything you are the special one.” I kissed her. “My special one.”

I would have been fine with living in this moment for the rest of my life. Unfortunately Violet had to interrupt.

“Seems somepony has a crush.” Violet was trotting over quickly.

“I um.” I blushed.

She smiled. “Alright you two it’s time to get back to work. Rose how about you go clean up I need to talk to Silver for a few minutes.” Violet knelt down.

Rose pulled away from me before heading towards the barracks. I waved to her.

Violet grabbed ahold of me with her magic and dragged me into the nearest building. Violet looked around for a few seconds before barricading the doors.

“What are you doing?” She was mad about something. I wasn’t sure about what though.

“I was just hanging out with Rose. She wanted to see me do some magic. Did I do something wrong?” I tilted my head to the right.

“You didn’t do anything wrong.” Violet lowered her voice to a whispered and I could barely hear her. “In fact you are doing a few to many things right for your lack of experience.” She shifted her eyes around the room.

“What was that?” I took a few steps towards her.

“Nothing to concern yourself over at the moment. I don’t want you and Rose to be in the same room tonight without somepony watching you.” Violet held me in place with her magic.

“Why?” I teleported out of her grasp.

“A few things that I thought were explained to you already.” I wasn’t one hundred percent on what she meant but I had my suspicions. “I hope you understand. You have done nothing wrong I just fear for what could happen if you aren’t careful.” Violet patted my head.

“Ok I guess. I won’t spend time alone with Rose where others can’t see us.” I kicked the floor a bit glumly.

“Good now run along I think the general just got back and I hear she has something for you.” As soon as she unbarricaded the doors I ran out in search of Derpy.

Derpy had just landed inside the base and was talking to Spitfire. I slowed down to a trot and made my way over to them. Spitfire watched as I approached, a scowl across her face.

“Am I interrupting something?” I stopped around ten feet away from them.

“I was just talking to the general about a few things. We just finished so you can talk to her now.” Spitfire took off cursing under her breath as she went.

“Hi Silver. Sorry I took so long I had to sort out a few things in town.” Derpy shuffled a few things around in her saddlebags.

“It’s alright. So what did you get me?” I winced a little realizing how rude that was. “Sorry I’m just excited.”

“It’s quite alright Silver. Everypony here treats you like you are a soldier but at the same time are also just a foal.” Derpy sat down and started drawing.

“I’m starting to get use to it. I do have more of a childhood here than I do anywhere else even if it means that I have to act like a soldier.” I sat in front of her keeping a keen eye on Derpy’s drawing.

“This is why I didn’t want to bring you into this. I wanted you to grow up for a few more years before we trained you. I’m not an animal. Am I?” Derpy stopped drawing and hung her head.

“I don’t think you did anything wrong.” I scooched closer avoiding the drawing she had made in the dirt.

She smiled at me. “Ah to see the world through a pair of mostly uncorrupted eyes. I envy you Silver. I think I would do about anything to relive my childhood. That’s why I don’t want to steal yours away from you.” A tear rolled down her cheek. “But anyways I decided it would be a good investment for you to not just get some candy.”

“What do you mean?” I saw she was carrying a small bag. She pulled a few pieces of paper out of the bag. “What are those?” I put my full attention on what Derpy was holding.

“Those are the deeds to the candy stores I visited today. You had more money than you knew what to do with so I helped you spend some of it.” She hoofed me over the deeds.

I was in a state of utter confusion. “So I own candy stores now?” I looked the papers over.

“Well the deeds do belong to you since it was your money that bought them but I figured I would have Blaze and Violet hold on to these for you. How does that sound?” Derpy took the papers back putting them away carefully.

“I think that sounds ok. I think I need to take a seat.” I sat down trying to process all of today’s events.

“Do you want to go take a nap? I can carry you back if you want me to.” She lowered herself to the ground.

“I think that sounds good.” I flapped my wings and got onto her back. I yawned. “I could use a nap right now.”

Out of the corner of my eye I caught Violet mouthing something to Derpy. I wasn’t the best at reading lips but I figured it was something about watching over me. Blaze stopped us and slipped something into my saddlebags.

“You’ll thank me for this one day Silver. Just don’t tell Violet about this or she’ll kill me.” Blaze stepped backwards.

“I doubt she’d kill you. I think she likes you.” He smiled and waved us on. The last thing I saw before entering my room was the extreme look of anger on Violet’s face as she trotted at Blaze.

“Do you want me to set you on the bed? Or would you like to go there yourself?” Derpy closed the door behind us.

“Please set me down on the bed. I don’t want to walk there right now.” I saw Rose sitting in a chair next to the fridge. “Heya Rose how are you doing?”

“I’m fine Silver.” She was really upset about something.

“What’s wrong?” I sat down on the corner of the bed closest to Rose.

“Nothing.” Rose crossed her hooves.

“I know when ponies are lying to me Rose. Please tell me what’s wrong. I want to help you.” I was laying on the bed trying to keep from falling asleep.

“I’ll tell you later. For now take a nap. You need it.” Rose gave me a compassionate look.

“What about you?” I yawned.

“I’ll stay up and talk to the General. Just go to sleep Silver.” Rose waved her hoof at me.

“Alright.” I laid my head down and drifted off to sleep.

While I was asleep I could vaguely hear a conversation between Rose and Derpy. I didn’t remember a single word of it when I woke up an hour or so later.

“You’re up. I thought you would be asleep for a while longer.” Violet was sitting next to my bed.

“Hi Violet. When did you get here?” I stretched my wings.

“About twenty minutes after you fell asleep. I needed to talk to Rose.” Violet shifted her legs.

“Where is she?” I yawned a little stretching my front hooves.

“Didn’t you notice she was curled up next to you?” Violet pointed next to me.

I looked down to see Rose was sleeping silently next to me. I laid one of my wings over her and drew her closer. I had never realized before now that this room was cold. I had also never realized how warm Rose was.

“I can’t say I did. I’ve just gotten use to having her by my side. It feels weird to be away from her and I don’t like it.” I pouted a bit.

Violet giggled a little bit while looking off to my left. Blaze was standing there going through my saddlebags. I was slightly offended that he was going through my stuff.

“What are you doing?” A hint of anger entered my voice.

“Violet forced me to get back what I gave you earlier. I don’t know why she was so freaked out though. I just gave you some brownies.” He pulled a box of brownies out of my saddlebags.

“That’s not what I told you to do.” Violet scowled at him.

“I guess it isn’t I just wanted a brownie while we were here.” Blaze opened up the box of brownies.

“You silly stallion. We have dozens of brownies at home.” Violet shook a hoof at him.

“Yeah but these are different. Somehow they are even better than the ones we have at home.” Blaze was about to take a bite of one.

“Put them back.” Violet got to her hooves.

“Do I have to.” Blaze was whining like a little foal. I was having a hard time not bursting into a laugh. “What? Come on Silver back me up here.”

“I would but Violets got that look in her eyes.” I pointed towards Violet.

“Oh so she does.” He laid the box down on the table, but not before he snuck one brownie out of the box. “Now what were we here for again?”

“We were here to get the little gift you gave to Silver back.” Violet trotted to the end of my bed.

“I still don’t see why we have to.” Blaze trotted over to meet her.

“Because he is too young for that Blaze. Is that how you want him to grow up?” Violet pointed a hoof to me.

“Being awesome all the time. Yes of course I do.” Blaze took a step forward.

“Not what I meant Blaze.” Violet waved her hoof at him.

“Maybe not the entire time he’s growing up but he should at least experience it once.” Blaze forced Violet’s hoof to the floor.

“That is gross and weird Blaze.” Violet turned away from Blaze.

“You have no room to talk Violet. You know just how bad you wanted to while we were waiting for him to wake up.” Blaze put a hoof on her flank.

“Low blow Blaze low blow.” She put her muzzle into the air.

“I know but you see what I mean.” He trotted in front of Violet.

“I do see what you mean but he is too young for that.” She let her muzzle come back down.

“Weren’t you like eight when you first.” Blaze stopped to put a hoof up.

Violet had her hoof clash against Blaze’s. “Shut up Blaze. We are not having this conversation in front of Silver.” Violet pointed her raised hoof at me.

Rose stirred at my side. Violet and Blaze had awoken her with their arguing. She wiped the sleep from her eyes before laying her head back down using me as a pillow.

“What did I miss while I was out?” Rose yawned a small bit.

“Not much that I really understand. So I guess you didn’t miss much.” I laid my head down next to hers.

“I suppose I didn’t. So why are they here?” Rose pointed a hoof in Violet and Blaze’s general direction.

“They came looking for something that Blaze gave me. I still don’t even know what they are looking for.” I brought my head closer to hers.

“I know what they are looking for.” Rose lifted her head off of me.

Blaze and Violet were both in sync. “You do. Where are they?”

“I threw them out. I hadn’t planned to do anything that would require those. Silver’s still to innocent for that. I can wait a few years before I rock his world.” Rose laid her head back down.

It finally snapped in my mind what has been going on here. I remember Rose talking about something like what Blaze was looking for. The last part of my innocence slowly drifted away from me and I had started to understand all the jokes that had gone over my head since I got here.

“You seem like you had a revelation Silver. Care to inform us on what.” Violet stepped towards us.

“I think you should leave. I just want to go back to bed and what you’re looking for is gone so you have no reason to be here.” I pointed a wing towards the door.

“Fine but Derpy is staying to watch you two.” Violet shoved Blaze towards the door.

“I’m ok with that. I just can’t talk with you two right now.” They both left leaving just Rose, Derpy and I.

Derpy walked over to the bed. “So did you actually get rid of them?”

“No. I just hid them under Silver when they weren’t paying attention.” Rose pulled out the package that was laying underneath me.

“Sneaky and very clever. I like it. Do you wish to be alone with Silver?” Derpy turned away from us.

“Only if he is ready.” Rose gave me her most seductive smile.

“I. I think I am.” I still was unsure of many things about all of this.

Things are a Change(ling)

Harmony and I were standing outside the base waiting on the go ahead from Silver.

“Did I do the right thing?” I had been talking to myself since we left the last camp.

“You need to stop beating yourself up. I respect why you made the choice you did. Please stop beating yourself up.” Harmony laid a hoof on my shoulder.

“I don’t think I can. I just don’t know if I can do this anymore.” I put my head into my hooves.

“We’ll take a few weeks off after we finish with our work. I can understand not wanting to do this anymore. I’ve lived my entire life having to deal with stuff like this.” Harmony lifted my head up.

A flare was fired off in the distance. “Looks like Silver is ready. Let’s get this done.”

Silver’s POV

“How does that armor fit?” Onyx, Stone, and Demo had been given armor to fit in with the raiders.

“It is uncomfortable and too tight in all the wrong places.” Onyx was shifting around uncomfortably in his armor.

“Well I don’t think Demo minds seeing you like that.” Stone nudged Demo.

“Shut up Stone. I might just have to beat you up for saying that.” Onyx turned towards Stone.

“You won’t do it. At least not here and probably not for a few days seeing how Demo is eyeing you.” Stone put one of his hooves up.

“What I can’t help it. You put him in a form fitting suit and you expect me not to look. That is some bad thinking right there.” The entire time he was staring out of the corner of his eyes at Onyx.

“Well try not to get too lost in his flanks we still have a job to do.” I was levitating a flare gun. “Be ready. After I shoot the flare all of you are going to infiltrate the raiders ranks and kill them off stealthily.” I shot off the flare.

“Looks like we aren’t the only ones killing them stealthily.”

“But I thought we had an agreement with the others that these were our camps.”

“They went back on their words. They must die today and we'll make sure they die by our hooves. For the Queen.”

“For the Queen.”

Midnight’s POV

Two stallions were talking.

“Did you hear?” The first glanced around.

“Hear what?” The second stallion looked around for anything out of the ordinary.

“One of our other heavily armed outposts just got attacked.”

“Did anypony survive the attack?”

“No. All of the raiders there were killed.”

“Who did it?”

“Reports say it was a small group of ponies from New Appleloosa.”

“How many?”

“I don’t think the reports are accurate but last I heard six ponies.”

“Any reinforcements?”

“No. It was them and them alone that took down the outpost.”

“That sounds like horse shit.”

“Now you see why I think those reports aren’t accurate.” A donkey walked over.

“Oh hey fred how are you?”

“I’m doing fine how are you?”

“Another day in paradise. Well as much of paradise as we know.”

“I hear that. So what are you two talking about?”

“We were talking about how those reports must be false.”

“What reports?”

“Haven’t you heard?”

“Heard what?

“One of our outposts was wiped out by a group of six ponies.”

“Sounds like a load of shit.”

“Yeah glad to see we’re on the same page.”

A stallion yelled out in the distance. “Penis!”

“What the hell was that? Fred? Fred what are you doing?”

“The names not Fred. I’m death and I’m here to collect.” The two stallions in front of me dropped dead.

“Really. Why did we choose that word as the code word?”

“Because I thought it would be hilarious. Now back under cover.”

Silver’s POV

“Ready up you idiots. The changelings are attacking again. Do you remember the code word?”

“No I don’t.”

“Well you die then.” The two engaged in a gunfight ending in both of them dying.

“You are morons. If you had remembered the code word you would be alive. But I suppose it helps me if you don’t remember. I do need a few of you alive to take back to the queen so refrain from killing each other.”

“How many did she request we bring back?”

“She said we need to bring back two or three for her and one for the rest of us.”

“A bit greedy don’t you think?”

“Yeah and do you have to take that form? You look stupid like that.”

A new stallion trotted over. “Penis.”

“What?”

“Well I thought you might find that funny. But since you didn’t time to die.”

The two changelings erupted into flames. A scream more horrible than the sound of one million ponies crying out could be heard for miles.

“Well that’s one way to alert everypony to your presence. If you see the queen before you are gone tell her I said hello.”

Harmony’s POV

“Well that was horrendous. What the buck makes that kind of sound?”

“I don’t know of anything but I did see smoke so I’m going to guess something being burned to death. Somepony is trying to invade our outpost.”

“Well then we need to be prepared for them.”

“Who are you?”

“My name is. Hey what’s that?”

“Nice try I’m not falling for that.”

“You might want to listen to her.”

“And who are you?”

“I’m the angel of death and I’ve come to collect your soul. If you even have one.”

She unloaded into the raiders surrounding me. The raiders couldn’t see the armor she was in. Not one of the bullets pierced her armor.

“Good job. Next time try not to be late to the party.”

“You could have survived. They do only have small caliber weapons. Your armor is good at stopping bullets.”

“I still prefer not getting shot. It might not kill me but it still hurts like a motherbucker.”

“Well we better go back under cover so they don’t suspect us to be working against them.”

“How many do you think are left?”

“At least twenty maybe more.”

“Let’s get this over with.”

Midnight’s POV

A voice sounded over a speaker. “Everypony to the center of the outpost. We have ponies among us who are going to kill us if we don’t kill them first.”

“Well shit.”

“What was that for?”

“We have ponies trying to kill us. We need to work together to kill them. Keep your eyes peeled.”

“Well I don’t think that will be a problem.”

“Why?”

I drew closer to him. “Because I’m one of them.” I rammed a knife through his skull. “Pay more attention.”

Everypony was gathered in the center of the outpost. Everypony had their weapons drawn and was ready to kill anypony who stepped out of line.

“I have an important announcement to make. I like penis. That is all.”

I walked up to the microphone. “Well that was weird. Does anypony have anything else to add? Well if not we need to decide who needs to die. So I would like to make something known.” I decloaked. “I’m in charge now.”

“If you don’t give me one good reason not to kill you I’m going to shoot you in the skull and rape your corpse.” One of the raiders drew his gun on me.

“Well Silver if you wouldn’t mind dealing with him.” I looked around for Silver.

A bullet slammed into the stallions skull sending him spiraling. His body skidded to a stop and his gun levitated towards me.

“Thank you Silver. Does anypony else want to die?” I grabbed the gun and put it into my saddlebags.

“Do we have a choice?” A raider mare stepped forward.

“Well I mean you could be sex slaves for us. Or maybe we could make you mine in irradiated areas.” I smiled.

“Kill me now.” The mare dropped to her knees.

“Ok. Silver.” I cast my glance over to Harmony.

The mare died. The rest of our group trotted up next to me.

“Now then you will relinquish all of your guns or you will die.” I stepped to the side of the podium.

A mare stepped forward. “I’m calling your bluff.”

“Don’t make us kill you. You would make such a good sex toy.” I winked at the mare.

“Hey.” Harmony gave me dirty looks.

“Oh don’t worry she wouldn’t be just my slave. Oh she shot at us didn’t she?” I noticed the blue shield around us.

“What was your first clue?” Silver facehoofed.

“The fact that you had a shield over us. Or maybe the way the air around us has a blue tint. Either way thank you. Now do we want to continue bucking with them or kill them now?” I drew my .44.

“This is cruel and unusual so I say we just put them out of their misery.” Silver looked down to the crowd staring at us.

“Alright drop the shield after you take their guns.” I motioned for the others to draw their weapons.

“Alright.” All of the guns levitated towards us.

The only resistance Silver faced was the unicorns having stronger magic than he expected. The shield dropped and we opened fire. We left nopony standing.

“Alright one less base to take care of and we still have some daylight left. Call in the group who is supposed to defend this place and let’s go.” I trotted towards one of the gates.

“Can we please choose a different code word?” I sat across from Silver.

“Midnight we are not changing the code word for the rest of the mission. Do you have a problem with penis or something?” Silver had decided to sit with us instead of flying.

“Well seeing as I am not attracted to the thought of bucking a stallion I do happen to have a problem with penis. So yeah in conclusion buck penis but not actually.” I facehoofed.

“You’re no fun.” Harmony was sitting next to me.

“Harmony you should be backing me up here. You have a problem with penis as well.” I looked straight into her eyes.

“Well I have no problem with confusing ponies by yelling it out at the most random of times. So I say we don’t change it.” Harmony kissed me.

“Good because we are keeping the code word until our next mission. So shut up and focus we have to plan our next attack carefully.” Silver motioned for me to pull up the hologram.

“Well just looking at that place I’m not so sure about this.” I had the map pulled up and zoomed in as close as it would go.

“Silver do you think Midnight and I could be dropped down inside the camp?” Harmony was standing inspecting the outpost carefully.

“Well that armor will keep you from breaking limbs for a while longer than without it but we would need to drop you from less than fifty feet.” Silver rose to his hooves to get a better look at the map.

“We could do a couple of bombing runs with the grenades.” I checked my saddlebags for the grenades Demo had given me.

“We would only get one good shot at that. We have three grenades left and after that it is just guns.” Silver looked satisfied that this plan would work.

“Sounds like a plan to me. Unless somepony else has a better idea.” No responses. “Alright let’s do this.” I stopped the projection of the hologram.

“Who will be flying you two over the outpost?” Demo and Onyx trotted over.

“I think I’ll have Silver fly me over. You two get to fight over who flies Harmony over.” I pointed my hoof at both of my friends.

“Why is Silver flying you over?” Harmony was putting the helmet of her armor on.

“Because on the first pass over I will be tossing grenades upon the enemy. After that we will both be dropped into the base.” I grabbed my helmet.

“I guess that makes sense. Onyx you’re going to carry me.” Harmony was double checking all of the seals on her armor.

“Why me?” Onyx stepped towards her.

“Because I said so now shut those lips and let’s get a move on we’re running out of daylight.” Harmony pushed Onyx aside with her magic.

Onyx mumbled to himself. “How about I have Midnight shut your lips?”

“She opens them up more than you ever will.” Harmony kept walking.

I face hoofed. “Let’s just get going the sun is going to set in less than an hour.”

Silver hovered over me and grabbed ahold of me. “I’ll take Midnight over the base once and then we’ll drop them.”

“Alright.” Onyx trotted over to Harmony.

Silver lifted me into the air. I was levitating all three grenades next to me. We flew over the wall and I pulled the pins and dropped the grenades one by one.

The grenades exploded as Silver banked back towards the camp. A few pieces of ponies flew into the air leaving bloody messes where there body’s had been a few seconds before. I had a hard time not hurling thinking about how those ponies last few moments were.

“Three seconds to drop. Be ready.” We continued down towards the camp.

I pulled out my .44 and boar rifle and prepared to shoot anypony who decided to fight me.

“Dropping.” Silver dropped me as he buzzed over the top of the camp.

Harmony had been dropped on the other side of the outpost. The raiders were distracted with her and didn’t notice me until I started firing.

A few of raiders busted out of buildings dressed in full suits of power armor. “Shit.” I slid the .44 and the boar rifle back into me saddlebags switching them out for my .50 and the revolver.

“Do you think you have a chance against all of us? If you surrender now we’ll go easy on you for the first few days.” The biggest of the raiders was in a battle ready position as he talked to me.

“I don’t think so.” I called out to Silver. “Silver burn this bitch to the ground.”

“What the buck are you talking about?” He was able to turn his head just in time to see the fireball smash into him. He was thrown to the ground.

I galloped up to him bringing the revolver to bear on the side of his skull. “Do you want to keep talking?” I pulled the hammer back.

“You don’t have the balls to do it.” The stallion drew closer to me.

“You really want to take that chance?” I slowly started squeezing the trigger.

He looked off behind me. I almost missed it. “Yeah I think I do.” I could tell he was smiling underneath his helmet.

I spun the .50 caliber towards the raider sneaking up behind me. “I don’t think so hun. Stop right there unless you want to be full of lead.” I made a quick glance back to make sure I was on target.

“I will kill you if you lay a hoof on him.” The mare behind me had a sword drawn.

“Good thing you both die at the same time.” Both of my guns fired simultaneously killing both raiders quickly.

“Come in Midnight.” Harmony’s voice was urgent.

“Is something wrong Harmony?” I stopped and looked around to make sure I wouldn’t be attacked while I was talking.

“I’m pinned down in one of the buildings. Most of the outpost is trying to get in here.” I heard a loud thud on Harmony’s end. “Shit. They’re breaking down the door. Get over here quickly.” Harmony’s mic shut off.

I started galloping towards where I had last seen Harmony. I was stopped as a hoof slammed into my side. I was tossed into the wall of the building I had been galloping past.

“Running low on health potions. Stop using these up so much. Those potions are expensive dammit.” Aurora flashed into existence in my helmet.

“Understood Aurora. Great another power hoofed pony.” I turned to face my target.

An earth stallion stood before me wearing a small amount of armor. His front right hoof was held where it had hit me.

“Well I expected you to take a longer time to get back up. I suppose that armor probably saved you from death. I like that. A pony who can take a pounding. You might just be useful if you surrender.” the stallion returned his hoof to the ground.

“I don’t think I will.” I put the barrel of the revolver up to the stallion’s skull. “Now just die.” I pulled the trigger.

The stallion quickly rolled off to his left. He had planned to let that bullet slam into me and kill me. I had moved out of the way as the bullet slammed into my front right leg. I had to give it to Onyx the armor did slow the bullet down quite a bit but it still went completely through shredding my leg to bits.

“What the buck did I just say Midnight? Am I just talking to get myself off or something? Never mind, I’ll administer the last health potion we have. Don’t get hit again and next time maybe shoot him in the face.” Aurora was shaking her head.

I got back to my hooves putting very little weight onto my front leg. The wound healed up quickly leaving me feeling weak.

“Well well well. You just don’t want to go down. I’m going to put a stop to that.” The stallion took a few steps forward.

“No you aren’t.” Silver landed in between us.

“Says who?” The stallion was preparing to attack.

“Says the pony who can do this to you.” He ripped the head off of one of the dead raiders and slammed it into the stallions gut. He dropped to the ground with a solid thud. “Now then.” He put the blade on his wing up to the stallion’s throat.

“I’m going to help Harmony.” I put as much weight back onto my leg as I could.

“Ok. I’ll be along shortly.” Silver’s eyes never left the stallion on the ground.

I spun around and galloped as fast as I could without of tripping. The raiders still hadn’t broken through the door to Harmony. I slipped out the boar rifle and started firing upon the group. Every shot was slightly painful for my newly healed leg. I took out three of them before they started shooting back.

“How are you doing out there?” Harmony’s voice was a bit staticy.

“About as good as somepony who just about lost her leg can be. How are you doing?” I slowed down and put a little more concentration on talking.

“Did you just say you almost lost your leg?” Concerned entered Harmony’s voice.

“Yes. I took a large caliber bullet to the front right leg.” Thinking about it made it hurt worse.

“Are you ok?” I could tell she about ready to make a run for it to get to me.

“Yes. Aurora is taking care of me.” I watched as Aurora appeared on my hud again.

“Yeah and again do not take another hit we don’t have any more health potions.” Aurora flashed a little counter onto my hud.

“Understood. Now then how do we go about killing the rest of these morons?” I ducked down behind some cover.

“I think Silver has it covered.” Aurora looked up as Silver fly overhead.

Silver dropped out of the air and landed in cover next to me. A few bullets had hit his wings leaving small holes.

“Are you going to be okay?” I pointed to his wings.

“Yeah. A few bullet holes never stopped me before. Do you have a health potion?” Silver fluttered his wings.

“All out. Harmony do you have a health potion?” I peaked over the half wall.

A hint of annoyance entered Harmony’s voice. “Did you get hit again?”

“No Silver has quite a few holes in his wings.” I ducked back down.

“I’ve got one or two left if you get me out of here. Shit they broke through the door. Hurry up and kill them please.” Harmony’s mic went silent again.

“You ready Silver?” I shut off my mic.

“Let’s kill these motherbuckers.” Silver jumped out over the wall.

I peeked over the debris I was hiding behind. Silver had sent most of the raiders running with a well placed fireball. Those that were left were burnt and trying to get back up. Silver was quick to put them out of their misery.

“I did say I could use some help right now didn’t I?” Harmony’s voice was full of urgency.

“Sorry we’re on our way.” I rolled over the small chunk of wall and trotted over to the open door.

Silver had thrown himself at anypony who had lived through his fireball. The raiders had smashed the door in with a battering ram that they discarded just inside the door.

“What the buck was that?” I pointed to a corpse that was different from the rest.

“A changeling. I had my suspicions about these little bastards being around here. This just proves we need to be more careful in the future.” Silver was knelt down next to the corpse.

“So what exactly happened in here?” I looked around the room. The walls were scorched and full of holes.

“Well Midnight we are no longer dealing with just stupid and insane raiders. Now we have to deal with these changelings.” Silver kicked the corpse as he got up.

“It seems you dealt with that one well enough.” I stared at the burnt corpse.

“Have you ever dealt with these buckers?” Silver lifted the corpse outside with his magic.

“Once before. It was really easy to figure out which one was the changeling. I just had to ask a question about my personal life.” I looked around for Harmony.

“They always travel in small groups. So any way you killed them before the entire hive knows how to counteract that. Better start thinking up new ways to trick them.” Silver trotted farther into the building.

“Ok. Harmony are you ok?” I finally found her as she rose from cover.

“A whole lot better now that you’re here.” She trotted over to me and tried to kiss me.

“Might help if we weren’t wearing armor.” She stared at me. “Just a thought.” I shrugged.

“What are you talking about?” Harmony tilted her head sideways.

“If you’re trying to play a prank on me then you should probably stop.” I was beginning to be suspicious.

The Harmony before me started shifting. “This isn’t a prank you oaf. I’m a changeling and I have just used you.” The changeling put a hoof to my chest.

“What the buck do you mean?” I slapped the hoof to the ground.

“It fed off of your love making myself stronger.” A wicked grin crossed the changeling’s face.

“Oh. In that case.” I drew the .44 and plugged the changeling with three bullets.

I spun round to see Silver looking around suspiciously. “Is there something wrong?” I kept my gun out.

“Well I do have a few holes in my wings and Harmony is nowhere to be seen. So yeah quite a few things are wrong here.” Silver kept looking around.

A door in the back of the building opened up and a changeling dragged Harmony out. He saw us and looked very displeased.

“I thought you had taken care of the others.” The changeling dropped Harmony to the ground.

Silver transformed into a changeling. “I wasn’t the one supposed to deal with her. But I suppose I could just do this.” He stepped forward and smashed a brick into my skull.

“I’ll kill you.” I dropped my gun.

“Perhaps one day but today will not be the day. Now go to sleep.” The changeling grabbed another brick.

I slipped into sleep after getting hit with another brick.

A Proposal

“What exactly did you do to them?” The raspy voice of a stallion woke me from my unconsciousness.

“I knocked two of them out with the darts.” I kept my eyes shut so they wouldn’t know I was awake.

“And her?” Well shit. Where are Harmony and the others.

“I smashed a few bricks into her skull.” Yeah thanks for that.

The longer I sat there the more sensations came to me. I was tied up against either a table or a wall. I was still unsure of my senses having probably just been given a concussion.

“So what are your plans for them?” A softer much less raspy sounding mare entered into the room.

“These five have been giving us trouble at the outposts we use to feed off of love.” The raspy voiced stallion took a few steps my way.

“So you are going to kill them?” The mare’s voice was enchanting.

“No we are going to feed off of their love. We can use them for a long time before they lose their appeal.” The stallion stopped.

“So you’re going to rape us.” Silver had been listening in for a while. I was glad to hear his voice.

“Well maybe not you. You did kill off many ponies by yourself. We figure with the proper reconditioning you could be useful to us.” The mare took a few steps in the direction of Silver.

“Good luck with that. If I know anything about him he won’t allow himself to fall to the likes of you.” Onyx was still alive.

“Onyx shut the buck up.” Demo would have hit him if they were closer.

“Good to know you two are still awake. Now where is Midnight. I swear to Celestia if you laid a hoof on her I am going to rip out your throats with my teeth and piss on your lifeless bodies.” It was a relief to hear Harmony’s voice. That was a little bit farther than I thought Harmony had in her.

“Shut your useless mouth.” I heard a hoof connect with Harmony. “Save that mouth of yours for more important things.”

“Try putting anything in my mouth and I will bite it off.” Harmony spat at the stallion.

“Try it and you will be subjected to the worst of our torture techniques.” The stallion stopped.

I heard a gross squelching noise and a solid thud. I opened my eyes to see a skull roll across the ground.

“Why did nopony do something about that. I told you idiots that he had powerful magic.” The mare’s voice had a wicked edge to it.

“Step back or it’s your skull on the floor next.” Silver was fighting with all his might to break free of his bindings.

“Calm down there. All we want to do is feed off of your sweet love.” The mare stepped towards Silver.

I decided now would be a good time to do something. I grabbed ahold of one of the surgical tools next to my bed. A large knife was the first thing I could find.

“I don’t think so sweetie.” She grabbed the knife and tossed it out of the room. “Now would you idiots please deal with their magic.”

A few more changelings burst into the room carrying small rings. They slipped two of them over Silver’s horn and one over Harmony’s horn before coming over to me. I tried as hard as I could to stop them from placing the ring on my horn but in the end I failed.

“Is that all the rings we have?” The mare took a few more steps towards Silver.

“No. We have more if we need them but I don’t believe we will need them.” One of the smaller changelings shied away from the mare.

“We better not or it will be your plots on the line.” She gave a wicked glance towards the little changeling.

I tried to use my magic but whatever they had done to me was preventing me from conjuring up any sort of magic.

“I wouldn’t even bother with your magic.” The mare saw me struggling.

“What have you done to us?” Harmony fought against her binds.

“Well Harmony was it? We have placed loadstone rings on your horns. They restrict any magic that you might be able to use. So now we won’t have to worry about you trying to kill us with your magic.” The mare trotted back to the center of the room.

“What do you want with us?” I was still trying to use my magic.

“You must be Midnight. What we want from you is to feed off of your love to make us all stronger. The King has gone so long without any love to feed off of. The last mares we brought in were used up in a day or so. He is rather rough on his mares. That is why we find mares like you. He likes mares that will last longer.” Her face was contorted into the worst smile I had ever seen.

“Who is the King?” I stopped trying and stayed still.

“The King is our leader. He has protected us on our journey through the wasteland. We owe him our lives and we will do anything to please him.” The mare cast glances down to the other changelings.

“Then why not offer up your own plot for his enjoyment?” Harmony stopped fighting against her bindings.

“Harmony.” I couldn’t quite see her but cast my glance towards her voice.

“We do not offer ourselves to him because he does not ask these things of us. If he asks for me to give myself to him I shall do so for the good of the hive.” The mare put a hoof to her chest.

“So he does not take any of you as his wives, but you are ready at any moment if he asks to give your own fat plot to him.” Harmony was trying to seduce this mare. I was a slight bit offended.

“He is our king and we must do whatever we can to protect him from the dangers of the wastelands. If that means we must take mares from the wasteland for him to use then we shall.” The mare closed her eyes.

“Is there anyother way for us to live here without being your sex slaves?” Silver was deep in thought.

“Well for you the alicorn stallion I believe we may have use of you. If you prove yourself worthy we may only use you to please ourselves once or twice a week. As for them.” She motioned to all of the rest of us. “We have no use for them other than as slaves for the King.”

“So why do you need the other stallions? Is the King not entirely straight?” Silver opened his eyes.

“The other stallions shall be the playthings of the King’s personal mares.” The mare took one step towards Silver.

“I thought you said he had no personal mares?” I didn’t like how close she was to any of us right now.

“He does not take mares as lovers but as wives. He has chosen them to lead the hive as queens incase of his death.” The mare seemed a bit jealous.

“He has many mares to take his place as ruler of the hive?” I turned my head so I could get the best look of the room possible.

“The oldest of his mares will take the role of leader until her death. Then the next will take the place and the trend will continue until the last mare has become queen. After that she will choose her successor and die peacefully.” The mare motioned for the other changelings to start undoing our bindings.

A speaker in the room came to life. “Attention to the changelings down inside of the prisoner handling room. I have need of the newest slaves you have captured. Bring them to me post haste.”

“Well it looks like one of you will be killed by the King today. I have a few words of advice.” The mare stepped towards me.

“What would those be? Try not to get bucked to death perhaps?” My hooves were loose and I rolled to the floor.

She whispered in my ear. “Prepare thy anus.”

“I did mean now.” The voice on the speaker sounded impatient.

“Yeah whatever. Untie them and bring them to the King as quickly as possible.”

They untied us and used chains to bind our limbs so we could only use them to walk forward at an extremely slow pace. We had been blindfolded so we would have as little knowledge as possible as to how the hive was laid out.

“It took you idiots long enough.” The stallion's voice was different.

“Sorry your highness. These ponies caused us trouble.” I felt the changeling brush past me as he stepped away from the King.

“I don’t care for your excuses. If you step out of line again I will let my mares have their way with you. And you know they won’t go easy on you. Are we understood.” The King’s voice was powerful.

“Yes your highness.” I could hear the changeling shaking.

“Good now leave my sight after you remove the blindfolds from these ponies.” My sight finally came back.

The King stood a few paces in front of us. Unlike the other changelings he was colorful. Mostly green and yellow were the colors of his coat.

“What are your names?” He stood waiting.

“Why should we tell you?” I took a small step forward.

“Because if you cooperate I might have the chance to go easy on you.” He sat down.

“I’m Silver. That is Onyx, Demo, Harmony, and on the end is Midnight.” Silver cast a glance down my way.

“Well I did mean for you each to introduce yourselves individually but I do know your names so that is a start. Now do you have questions for me.” The King looked us over.

“I do have one.” I was trying my hardest to figure a way out of this.

“Well go ahead and ask.” His eyes rested solely on me.

“What is your real name?” I tried to use my magic to no avail.

“Nopony has spoken my real name in years. Nor will they speak my name for years to come. I will answer any question but that until you earn my trust.” The King shifted his eyes down the line.

“Is there any way for my friends to avoid your changelings from feeding on them?” Silver stood tall.

“I do not know what you have been told my alicorn friend but we do not take advantage of those who we capture. If they choose that as their life then that is their choice. To tell you the truth we have not fed on more than enough love to survive for many years.” The king stood up and took a few steps towards silver.

“Why are you different from the others?” I still had no plan on how to escape but I was put a little bit more at ease.

“What do you mean child?” The King turned back towards me.

“Well you are brightly colored while those who follow you are darker in color.” I sat down accepting this.

“That. Well many years ago before the war that destroyed Equestria, I was a changeling who did not like the way that our queen ran things so I fled. I sought refuge amongst ponies in the crystal empire. A small dragon befriended me and sent me down a path to being able to share love with others.” The King hung his head.

“What do you mean a journey so you could share love?” Harmony took a few steps forward before the chains stopped her.

“Normally changelings are unable to share love and must feed off of the love from the ponies. After a while a few ponies were kidnapped including the princesses. We went on a journey to save them. We realized that with a little help from those ponies we had just rescued we could learn to share our love with each other.” He looked back to us.

“You were alive before the war?” I scooched forward.

“Yes I was.” His face shifted into a frown.

“How did you survive?” Harmony was using her front hooves as a headrest.

“I was trapped in stone. I was sent forward in time hundreds of years without being killed. When I awoke I was in a small research lab filled with technology I had never seen before. I found my way here and the changelings took me in as their king.” The King retreated to his throne.

“How have you earned your reputation as being one to kill mares after you are done with them?” I was a bit sickened by my question.

“I killed a few mares who made advances on me that were not welcomed. The bodies were discovered shortly after they died and my reputation was born.” He stood for a few seconds before returning to his throne.

“So are we free to go then?” I had high hopes.

“No you are not. If it were my sole decision I would release you and let you live your lives. But the rest of my hive has heard word that you slaughtered many of our brothers and sisters. If I were to let you leave I would be killed and nopony would be better off for it. If I have you do some work for us I might be able to let you live.” The king took a step away from his throne.

“You idiot how much have you told them.” A mare smashed the door open and trotted up to the King.

“I have told them only what I must my queen.” He bowed to her.

“I should have come back for my throne and killed you when I had the chance.” The mare raised her hoof.

“Chrysi I do not believe now is the best time for this.” He cowered before this mare.

She slammed a hoof across his face making him bleed. “What have I told you about using my name?”

“That I shall only use it when we mate.” The King put a hoof to where he had been hit.

“What else?” The Queen still had a hoof raised.

“That if I use it in front of anypony I must be punished.” The King hund his head.

“Good it seems that you are learning. Now why do you think that these foolish ponies may be of help to us?” She pointed a hoof towards us.

“They have accomplished feats that not even our most skilled assassins could accomplish. We could have them eliminate the groups who give us the most trouble.” The King stood up leaving his cheek to bleed.

“You expect these morons to wage a full war on the Skull and Tri-Tear?” The queen eyed us over.

“One at a time but I think that they will eventually prove worthy of us.” The king stepped towards his queen.

“They will prove their worth quickly or they will be used as slaves.” The Queen pushed him away.

“Did you have a thought on how they could prove themselves?” The King took a step towards us.

“Why yes I do.” The Queen’s smile showed her many sharp teeth.

“You don’t mean?” The King muttered under his breath.

“I most certainly do. Two things can happen that way. Either they die in there, or they return alive and ready to serve us.” The Queen’s smile subsided.

“What are you going to have us do?” The queen turned to me and slammed a hoof into the right side of my face.

“You do not speak unless spoken to. Understand or do I need to hit you again?” She waved her hoof at me.

“Understood.” I couldn’t put my hoof to my cheek.

“You have two options. One, you go and fight to the death for our amusement. Two, you go infiltrate a stable.” The Queen turned back towards The King.

“May we have a moment to talk about it?” Silver held one of his hooves up in defense.

“No.” I was really beginning to hate this stupid queen of bugs.

“Stable.” Silver was done with listening.

“He speaks for all of you?” The King took a step towards us.

“Yes he does your highness.” Onyx brought himself to his hooves.

“Well if you prefer the option that will get you killed no matter what so be it. Give them the coordinates to the stable and let them on their way.” The Queen waved towards a few guards.

“Will we get any of our gear?” I continued to sit.

I received another smack across the face. “No you will not. All of your gear will stay locked away until you have earned the right to carry any of it.”

One of the changeling guards had been programming coordinates into my pipbuck. I looked at the screen to read the coordinates.

“Blindfold them and lead them out of here. If they return alive they may have proved themselves worthy of armor.” The Queen looked into my eyes before trotting back to The King.

In this place I felt extremely naked without even a scrap of armor to protect me. The blindfold was slipped back over my eyes and we were pulled to our hooves. We trotted along for I would guess about half an hour before they unblindfolded us.

“You are to go directly to those coordinates. If you are caught diverging to far from the path then you will be killed.” He smacked my plot. “Now get out of here.”

We walked towards the coordinates for a few minutes before I stopped the group.

“Why are we stopping?” Silver stopped after he got to the front of the group.

“I wanted to make sure if we were going to just go along with this.” I rubbed my cheeks.

“I understand your concern Midnight but we need to just go along with it. I’ve been in situations like this before and I’ve learned the only way to survive is to do what they say and hope they give you a chance to leave.” Silver took a look to the sky.

“Hope they give us a chance to leave? I really don’t like those odds.” I put my hooves back underneath me.

“Well you’re not supposed to like the odds. We need to wait this out and not do anything stupid. What day is it by chance.” Silver brought his eyes back down to look at me.

I looked down at my pipbuck. “It’s saturday.”

“Well Spitfire said she wanted those outposts captured by friday so she should send somepony to look for us in a day or so. If we leave messages for them then we shouldn’t have to live through this for long.” Silver smiled.

“Well if you two are done we should probably get a move on. I have a feeling they are watching us very closely.” Harmony nodded off to our right.

I saw a changeling hiding behind a rock watching us. It was a rather small one. “All right let’s get a move on we do have work to do.”

The General’s POV

The room became quiet as a voice played over the speakers. It was the infinity stables A.I.

“Derpy we have a situation on one of the worlds you are responsible for.” The A.I had been programmed to sound female.

“Son of a bitch.” I set my cup down.

“You will need to leave and go take care of it quickly.” The A.I. slid open a door leading away from the party.

“Are you serious if I leave now I’ll miss the best part of the fucking party.” I was looking at the ceiling for the speakers.

“The council doesn’t give two shits miss Derpy. Go and take care of this problem before something bad happens.” The speakers vibrated but were invisible to my eye.

“Fine but may I say a few words before I go?” I guessed as to where the speaker was.

The A.I. sighed. “I suppose.”

The crowd stared at me.

“This is a bunch of fucking horse shit. I have to leave the best fucking party of the century.” I took a few steps towards the open door.

“Well the fucking party comes later.” A griffon stepped forward.

“Shut the fuck up before I deck you.” I looked into his eyes.

“You need to leave now dammit.” The A.I. was extremely impatient.

“Spike you know what to do.” I waved a hoof towards Spike.

“Yes I do Derpy.” Spike saluted me.

“Goodbye everyone.” I took a few more step towards the door.

“Try and return before the end of the party. We still have some great fun planned.” Dice was standing next to the drink table.

“Thanks Dice. I’ll see what I can do. You know what Spike give me one of your spare shotguns.” I trotted over to Spike.

“Here you go. Bring that one back. I still have a score to settle using that gun.” Spike handed me the gun I was actually looking for.

I headed for the back of the stable with Spike’s shotgun in tow.

“So this stable we are headed to is how far away?” Silver was dragging his hoof across the ground.

“Well according to my pipbuck we should be standing right on top of the entrance. But this is a desert. The only way something could be here is if the entrance was directly below us somewhere.” I looked around.

“Well then we better start digging.” Silver started digging and I started to look over the group.

Most of the group was in good condition, a few bumps and bruises on their flanks but they were mostly untouched. Silver was missing his metal wing.

“What did they do to your wing?” I trotted closer to him.

“They took it away from me since it’s a real good weapon.” Silver flicked his wing a few times.

“Well that tears it. We are going to get into this place and see what we can get to wage wars against these bastards.” I was digging as fast as I could.

A brick landed in the sand next to me. I tried to levitate it to myself but failed because of the loadstone ring on my horn. I picked up the brick and took off a note that had been tied to it.

I read it out loud:

“The base is directly below you but unless you find the trapdoor you will dig forever. Dig in the sand five feet to your right. Also fuck you.”

“What the buck is that supposed to mean?” Another brick landed where we were supposed to dig.

“Just dig already before I hit you with one of these.”

“Thanks for nothing. I hate the pony that is throwing bricks.” I took a few steps towards where the brick told us to dig.

“I don’t trust the note, but if there had been a trap that would have set it off.” Silver was extremely wary of moving close to the area.

“Well if it kills us we can take solace in the fact that the changelings didn’t get to kill us.” Onyx took a step towards me.

“What the buck Onyx. That’s morbid.” Demo smacked him.

“I like to look on the bright side of things.” Onyx was rubbing the back of his head.

“Well keep your bright side to yourself.” Demo was contemplating hitting him again.

“Yeah will do. How’s the hole coming along?” Onyx trotted closer to Silver and I.

“We haven’t dug to much it would be easier if you got over here and helped.” Silver and I were the only ones focused on doing what we were commanded to do.

Another brick landed bouncing off of my back. “Dammit I’m extremely tired of this shit.”

“You shouldn’t have to dig very far. If you don’t find it after digging for ten seconds then you are digging in the wrong area.”

“Did I say how much I truly hate this?” I was sure that if I had to deal with much more of this shit I would lose my mind.

“Yes you did. Now shut up and dig.” Silver looked off without his wing.

We all started digging in the ground moving as much sand as we could as quickly as we could. After a few seconds Silver and I hit a solid metal sheet. We removed the rest of the sand on the hatch to the secret lab.

“Well let’s see if this will be nice and open for us.” I reached out with my magic again to no avail. “I really hate these stupid rings.”

“Well we can just open it without magic. You really should learn to do things without your magic.” Silver stepped over the trapdoor.

“Yeah I know. In this world you do need to know how to do things without magic.” I was staring up trying to get a better look at the ring they had on my horn.

Silver grabbed the handle to the hatch with his teeth and flapped his wings a few times. To my surprise the hatch actually opened up easily.

I stuck my head down inside and looked around. The inside was dark except for a few small lights that were flickering. I jumped down into the hole and waited. Harmony was the next to jump down followed by Onyx and Demo. Silver landed on the ground shutting the hatch behind us.

I heard a loud clang as something hit the hatch above us. “Silver would you mind blocking that hatch with something?”

“Yeah I think there is a latch to lock it from the inside.” He flew up and flipped a little lever on the door latching it shut. “It’s sealed up but we should look for other exits just in case we can’t use this one.”

“Yeah. Now what exactly do they want us to get from here.” I looked over my pipbuck for anything that they might have left us. Harmony tapped on my shoulder. She was holding a note in her mouth.

I turned the light on my pipbuck on. The room light up a weird and sickening green. I started reading the note. I turned pale.

“What’s wrong?” Silver knew something was up.

“They want us to bring back a bomb of some sort. They say it has great power. They plan to destroy New Appleloosa with it.” I continued reading.

“How much damage can a bomb built in this world possibly do?” Silver was looking around suspiciously.

“They say it wasn’t built here. It was built in another universe entirely.” I wasn’t sure about how they got this information but I was quite afraid of what they could do with that kind of power.

“Wait what? You’re telling me the displaced brought a bomb with enough power to destroy cities here. Dammit. We can’t let them have that kind of power over us.” Silver smashed his hoof into the wall leaving a small hole in it.

“Agreed, but what other options do we have?” I helped Harmony to deposit the note into her saddlebags.

“Well we are in a research lab with technology from another universe. Maybe we could find a few weapons to fight them with.” Silver found a little map and was inspecting it.

“I like the sounds of that. Let’s find out where they kept the guns and get ourselves some serious firepower.” I felt the tide turning in our favor.

“Well they do have an armory I think.” Silver was tilting his head sideways.

“What do you mean you think?” I trotted over to the map to look at the words. “What language is this written in?”

“Not one that you would know. It is written in a language from another race entirely.” Silver shook his head a few times.

“Who wrote it then?” I was still tilting my head back and forth.

“I don’t know what race of creatures wrote it. I do know that they write lots of meaning into each character. So the best chance we’ve got is just to explore the areas that we think might be the armory.” Silver put a hoof on my head.

“Alright. If that’s the only option we’ve got then let’s get to work. I would like to get out of here as quickly as possible.” I shuddered as I looked around.

“Agreed.” Most of the other’s were in unison with their responses.

Silver pointed out two rooms that he thought might be the armory. Looking at the map they were small rooms which did not bode well for us.

“Alright so we just have to visit those two rooms and hopefully we will have our weapons.” I trotted off towards one of the rooms. Harmony followed me and Onyx and Demo followed Silver.

The room we were going to was a few short minutes away from the hatch we had used to get in. The door was slightly open. I put my full weight into a push against the door. It slowly moved making a screeching sound as it slid. I finally threw the door completely open and trotted in.

Inside the room was a few weapons leaning up against the walls by corpses. The corpses were bipedal creatures and looked like the skeleton of whatever creature those bobbleheads I had collected were.

I grabbed one of the guns and slid it toward the door. I grabbed the next one but found that the ammo for the gun was missing.

“You noticed it too. These guns have no ammo or magazines to be seen.” Harmony tipped one of the guns onto the floor.

I grabbed one of the rifles and opened it’s bolt to find an empty casing inside. “Dammit none of these guns are going to help us.” A small explosion resonated through the ship. “Well we should probably go check on them.”

“Agreed.” We started trotting towards where Silver had lead Onyx and Demo. A small area around the entrance to an open door was scorched.

“Is everypony ok?” The smoke cloud was still clearing and I couldn’t really see anything.

Silver stood there in front of me holding up a small shield over himself, Onyx, and Demo. He let go of the magic and dropped to the floor.

“How were you using your magic?” I trotted over to them and started looking them over for wounds.

“I overloaded one of the rings shattering it and allowing me to use a small amount of my magic.” Silver was panting.

“Ok. So what caused the explosion?” Onyx and Demo were free of injury.

“We accidentally set off an explosive device. We had enough time for me to overload the loadstone ring and put up a shield.” Silver was free of any injury.

“Does anything feel broken?” I kept looking him over.

“No. I do have a crack in my horn though.” Silver tapped his horn.

“Well that isn’t something that I can fix. You’ll just need to not use any magic for a while. Now show me those bombs.” Harmony had been looking over Silver’s horn.

Silver stood up and trotted over to the corner of the room. A few cylindrical devices were contained separated from each other.

“So we’re supposed to bring one of these back to the changelings? How are we supposed to lift one of these? They have to weigh more than half a ton.” I was really starting to consider fighting for my freedom.

“I could lift one of those.” Silver examined the bombs carefully.

“Are you sure about that? Not that I doubt your abilities, but that is one big package.” I trotted up next to Silver.

“I’ve carried rocks triple that size when I was ten or so. This should be no problem for me.” Silver got into position.

“Alright. Let’s get this bomb onto Silver’s back and get out of here. This place is creepy.” I grabbed ahold of the bomb.

All of us grabbed ahold of the bomb and pushed onto Silver’s back. He sunk to the ground for a few seconds before standing up straight again.

“Well it is heavier than expected.” He took a few breaths. “Nothing I can’t handle. Let’s go we shouldn’t keep our captors waiting.” Silver started his slow trot towards the exit.

We followed making sure the bomb stayed on him.

Onyx flew up to the trapdoor and tried opening it. The door wouldn’t budge an inch. He flipped the switch unlocking the door but it still didn’t move. He put his full weight against it and got it to budge slightly.

“It’s no use we need something more than just ourselves to open this stupid door again. Any ideas?” Onyx landed next to me.

“I’ve got one.” I was not very excited about my idea.

“Well lay it on us. I really am getting tired of carrying this thing.” Silver was shaking a small bit under the weight of the bomb.

“Well we could blow a hole in the lab and exit through the hole that the bomb creates. I know it sounds a bit crazy but I think it might be the best plan we’ve got.” I took a few steps towards Silver.

Silver stepped towards the door and dropped the bomb onto the floor. “Get in cover. These are really unstable and go off easily. A few more seconds and this bomb should detonate.”

We all dived behind whatever we could. Silver threw himself into a room a split second before the bomb detonated. The explosion left my ears ringing. A small cloud of smoke was making it hard to breath. I dropped to the ground and took a few deep gasps of air.

As the smoke cleared I saw Silver returning to us with another one the bombs. He motioned Onyx and Demo to pick Harmony and I up and take us out of the ship. They nodded and wrapped their legs around us. After a few more seconds we were outside gasping to get as much clean air in our lungs as we could.

“We did not think that through.” I coughed a few times.

I hadn’t heard any of the words that I had just spoken. The explosion had deafened all of us. After a few minutes of sitting staring at each other our hearing started to return.

“We really should think things through more. Silver why didn’t you try to stop us?” I had a terrible headache.

He took a few seconds to respond. “I had a theory that since the hatch didn’t open easily sand had covered up the entrance. As much as we would have tried we would not have gotten out of there without resorting to some serious measures. I took the shortcut and used explosives to escape a sticky situation.” Silver stood there with the bomb on his back.

“Has that worked for you before?” I had my hooves on my head trying to ease the pain in my head.

“Well usually I would have cast a shield over all of us but since my horn is cracked I can’t use much magic. Not to mention this stupid ring.” He tapped the ring on his horn a few times wincing after each tap.

“Do you think we could stop here for a few hours before we return?” My head hurt a small bit less but I really needed some time to just rest.

“No you will go back now or we will kill you.” Two changelings landed on the ground next to us.

“Fine. Are you all alright to go back?” I rose to my hooves wavering a small bit.

Silver grabbed the bomb and put it on his back. “There ain’t no rest for the wicked. Let’s go.” He started his slow trot back towards the hive.

The day had progressed on and the heat was terrible. We had made it about halfway back before we stopped. I hoofed everypony some water and we drank it down greedily.

I checked my pipbuck. It was about three in the afternoon. I put my hoof down and started trotting again. The others took a few seconds but got back to their hooves.

I saw somepony out in the distance. “Does anypony else see that?” I pointed in the general direction of the pony I had seen.

Harmony looked over as the pony disappeared. “I don’t see anything. You might be hallucinating things. Now come on we shouldn’t stay out in this heat any longer than we have to.”

We were all extremely tired and did not know what awaited us when we returned to the hive. I hoped that having survived this we would be given back a few of our possessions. We walked for another four hours before we arrived back at the hive.

Two guards blocked our path. The first one spoke.

“You are going to be blindfolded and returned to the King. So gives us the bomb and anything else you collected while you were out there.” He took a few steps towards Silver.

“Be careful with this thing.” Silver set the bomb on the ground. “It is highly unstable.” He stepped away from the bomb.

“Shut up before I have you killed. Don’t tell me how to do my job.” The stallion swung at Silver.

Silver ducked under it and sidestepped the spear that was thrown at him. “You should probably not do that.”

“And why not you little shit?” The stallion took a few steps towards Silver.

“Well I don’t want to be in any deeper water with the King.” Silver took a battle stance.

“What are you going to do without you’re magic.” The guard charged Silver.

Silver kicked the spear up into his teeth. The guard slowed down too slowly and was impaled.

The King stepped out of the hive. “Enough!” His voice boomed.

Silver dropped the spear along with the guard.

“I would congratulate you but seeing as how you have just killed one of my guards I must punish you.” The King shook his head.

“What do you plan to do with him? I stood between them.

“He will fight to the death for our entertainment. The rest of you will be sent on missions to other places to retrieve us weapons and the like.” The King motioned for one of the remaining guards to put Silver in chains.

“Dammit Silver.” I made sure to keep my voice down. “We could have survived this.”

“Will I get a weapon to fight with?” Silver let the guards chain him.

“You will have only yourself. No weapons, nothing to give you an advantage above the others.” The King tapped on the door he had exited from.

“What others are you talking about?” I kept myself in between Silver and The King.

“He speaks of the other slaves that we have captured and those amongst us that are traitorous swine.” The Queen had stepped outside.

I wanted to speak but I really did not want to get smacked in the face again. I knelt down to show I respected the rule of the queen. She did take notice to me.

“You. Why do you kneel to me?” The Queen took a few steps forward.

“I kneel to show my respect of your rule.” I stayed down and bowed my head.

“If you are grovelling to save yourself it shall not work. You will not gain my favor by kneeling.” The Queen hissed in my ear.

“I had not planned to try and gain your favor. I simply meant to show respect.” I bowed my head down even more.

“Rise you foal. I will not have you kneeling before me unless it is to meet your doom.” The queen put a hoof under my chin.

I pushed myself back onto my hooves. “Understood.” I looked into her eyes and saw pain.

“Now then prepare the alicorn for a run in the pit. If he survives the tortures of combat then he may prove useful yet.” The Queen stared into my eyes for a few seconds before releasing me.

“And what of the others my queen?” The guard had just finished binding Silver.

“Give them some armor and send them off to gather for us. They have proved themselves worthy enough that we would not want them to die, yet.” The Queen turned and vanished back into the hive.

The King waited until The Queen had disappeared inside. “Take him to the pit at once.”

“Yes your highness.” The guard grabbed ahold of Silver’s chains and pulled him into the hive.

“You are damn lucky she didn’t kill you.” The King took a few looks around and dropped his voice to a whisper. “My name is Thorax.” He returned his voice to a normal level. “The Queen has deemed it necessary you be given gear. Follow me and I shall show you where your gear is.”

I kept quiet and followed him. I saw what it was Thorax was trying to do. The other’s followed along quietly keeping close to Thorax. We trotted around barely avoiding the guards for a few minutes before Thorax pushed us into a room.

I finally opened my mouth. “Why are you doing this?”

“To tell you the truth I hate Chrysalis. She is an absolute bitch who has been manipulating me for her own twisted purposes for years.” Thorax barred the door.

“Then why haven’t you done something about it? Maybe had her exiled or better yet executed.” I took a step towards him.

“I can’t do something like that without major backlash. The hive looks to her as the true leader of this hive that is hindered by me. If she were to die or leave I would be overthrown as leader and the wasteland would turned into a living tartarus. I don’t know about you but I think the wasteland is bad enough as is.” Thorax grabbed some armor off the wall.

“I can’t argue with you there but we do need to do something. Silver can fend for himself but I really don’t like the sounds of him fighting to the death without a weapon to protect himself with.” I reached for one of the rifles on the wall.

Thorax pushed my hoof to the ground with his magic. “You can’t be walking around here in anything more than the armor I will be providing you. If you were caught with a weapon or better armor the hive would use you as their personal playthings. Trust me you do not want that. I have talked to mares who have been damned to that fate and the only thing they ask for is death.” Thorax hung his head.

“This place is really bucked up.” Harmony grabbed one of the suits Thorax was levitating.

I grabbed one of the suits. “So since we can’t take out this entire hive we have to play along until our opportunity to escape arises. Since Silver is going to be fighting to the death we can’t escape now.” I started putting on the armor.

“I’ve got a plan. I think I can slip Silver one weapon while he is in the arena. So what weapon do I give to him?” Thorax looked down the walls covered in weapons.

“If you still have it around I would suggest giving him the wing he came in with. It would be his best chance to survive the arena unscathed.” I trotted down the room in search of the wing.

“You mean this?” Thorax pulled a wing that looked similar to Silver’s off the wall.

“That isn’t the one he came in with but if we can’t find anything better it will have to do.” I looked over the walls before finally laying my eyes upon Silver’s wing. “This one.”

Thorax trotted over. “You mean that wing belongs to your friend? I didn’t get a good look at the gear as it was moved here. That is an impressive piece of equipment.” Thorax pulled the wing off the wall. “Now this help isn’t free. I need you all to retrieve some weapons and armor so I can make sure this goes missing without a trace.”

“Alright. I don’t like the sounds of that but we will do anything to protect our friend.” I stepped forward placing the other wing onto the wall.

“That will do for now but you must all hurry out and search for weapons to fill this room up with. I don’t care how you get them but you need to get them quick.” Thorax rushed over to the door and unbarred it.

“Have your changelings retrieved weapons from the outposts we attacked?” I watched as Thorax slipped blindfolds over our eyes.

“The drones have not gone and collected the weapons you liberated from the raiders. The closest outpost is due north of here. You might want to send a team down south as well. The outpost down that way is a bit farther off but it has some better equipment.” Thorax opened the door.

We trotted outside before I spoke again. “Alright Harmony and I will go to the closer outpost while Onyx and Demo head for the outpost down south. We return here quickly with as much gear as we can carry. How long until Silver fights?” I blinked as the blindfold was removed from my eyes.

“One day at the very most. If you have not returned by the time the sun has hit its highest point in the sky tomorrow I can not guarantee Silver’s safety. Now get out there and return with weapons and armor enough to supply a small army.” With that Thorax retreated into the hive and we were left on our own.

Harmony and I had galloped off at full speed towards the outpost. Even at full speed four hours passed before we even laid eyes upon the outpost.

I slowed down panting. “We can slow down now. We still have around twelve hours before we need to be back. I need a few seconds to catch my breath.” I took a seat in the hot sand. I winced as I sat.

“So I take it the sand is not pleasant as a seat.” Harmony slipped off a piece of her armor and set it on the ground before sitting down.

“Yeah no the sand really is not a fun thing to sit in.” I pulled off the same piece of armor and sat down on it.

“You’re a goofy mare. All it does is add to your charm.” Harmony kissed me dragging me off my seat.

“Yeah.” I stood up and slid my seat closer to her. “I am aren’t I.” I kissed her back.

A brick landed at our hooves. I picked it up and unwrapped the attached note.

“We get it you two are a couple now get back to saving Silver. Also again fuck you.”

“We probably should get a move on. We do have to return gear to the changelings quickly so Silver can be protected.” Harmony got to her hooves and slid her armor back on.

“Alright. I still don’t like whatever is following us around throwing bricks.” I started to trot as a brick hit me.

I unwrapped the note. “Told you I would now move!”

I began to gallop again so that these bricks would stop being thrown at me. We galloped for five more minutes before we came into the base. The corpses of raiders we had killed still littered the ground.

Harmony split off to go search the other half of camp. I trotted over to one of the dead raiders and was horrified.

It had only been a few days since we were here and killed these ponies but their flesh was already degrading and letting off the worst most rancid odor I think I had ever smelled.

To make matters worse maggots had taken up home in the dead raiders and were slowly eating away the dead tissue. The eyes were completely gone and maggots crawled in and out of the eye sockets. A large hole in the raiders side exposed the rotting organs being munched on by the maggots.

I turned away and puked. I took a few minutes to empty out the contents of my stomach. I reluctantly turned back around. I kept my distance from the corpse with a feeling of sickness almost overtaking me. I pushed myself to take a step forward. Silver was in danger and the best way I could help him was to gather this gear.

I started pulling the armor off of the raider averting my eyes unless something got caught. I almost had the armor off of the stallion when I encountered resistance. I pulled as hard as I could and was rewarded with a squelching noise. I slowly let my eyes drift to the corpse only to see it ripped in half.

The rear end of the stallion still had the armor on it. The front half of the stallion was swimming in maggots and between them was a sea of organs overflowing with maggots.

I couldn’t help myself and threw up directly onto the corpse. I watched horrified as the maggots started swimming around in my vomit. Another round of vomiting hit me and I was forced down to my knees. I realized how close I was to the corpse and started backpedalling. I retreated until I found a solid object in my way. My momentum carried me backwards over the object.

It took me a few seconds to realize I had just tripped over another corpse. The one thing that told me it was a corpse was the feeling of little insects crawling along my coat as I lay there on top of the dead raider. I rolled over and got to my hooves tripping over the corpse as I went to trot away. My face landed inside of a hole. I took one sniff and realized I was muzzle deep into a raiders corpse.

Maggots crawled along my muzzle bringing with them the stench of death and decay. One of the maggots was making it’s way towards my nose. I jumped up and shook my body to toss away the maggots that crawled upon me.

My stomach was entirely empty of food and all I could do was throw up pure bile. I trotted over to a wall and sat down. I made sure I was out of reach of the dead raiders and cried.

I had started to get used to the fact that I was killing living creatures. But this. This was something I would not get used to. I saw the aftermath of what I had done laying all around me. The corpses seemed to stare back at me. Staring into my soul making me feel the pain they suffered.

I sat there sobbing as I thought about all the implications of what I had done to these poor ponies. I had killed them and left them to rot. I felt terrible. I slowly shut my eyes and drifted to sleep.

My sleep was filled with nightmares. Only one stuck out in my mind. It was the dream of me watching myself kill another pony. The only thing different this times was my other self did not shoot me on sight this time. She walked towards me keeping the gun down to her side.

“I see you have learned the truth.” She smiled wickedly. “I knew you would learn eventually. In this world we live in we have to kill anypony who stands in our way. We must take from them everything that they own and use it for ourselves.”

My perspective changed. I was the one in control of the gun. I had it pointed into the skull of the other me. My actions were not my own and I could feel myself slowly pulling the trigger.

“Do it. Kill me and become one with the wasteland. Let your wild side run free. Shed the old you and be reborn as the killer you need to be.” The other me put her horn in the barrel of my gun.

I felt my actions become my own again. I ripped the gun away from the other me and hurled it as far from myself as I could. I pulled the other me close.

“I will not lose who I was. Not to a group of boar bucking raiders and especially not to myself.” I stood tall as the other me shrank. “I am the one in control of this body. I will not let you run wild and kill anypony you wish. I control my future and you can do nothing to make me a sociopath.”

The other me vanished in a cloud of smoke. I was alone in my mind again. The ground beneath my hooves began to shake and my dream started to crumble.

“I will survive this.” I caught one final glimpse of the evil within myself before awaking.

“Midnight. I need you to wake up. Please wake up.” Harmony leaned down and kissed me.

“I’m awake. I was just having a nightmare.” I kissed her back.

“Well we need to get a move on. We’ve been here for three hours and I’ve only been able to collect a few suits of armor and weapons that were still intact. We need to get back to the hive and do what we can to get Silver out of there.” Harmony pulled me to my hooves.

“Alright. Please don’t make me ever live through anything like this again.” I threw my hooves around her.

“If it were up to me you and I would be living in a paradise away from all of these horrors. Until we find a place that we can turn into that though we have to continue fighting to stay alive. We have to continue on as long as it takes so that we can grow old together.” Harmony kept her hooves wrapped around me.

In her hooves I felt safe. My mind raced. I knew one thing I loved the mare I was holding more than anything else. “Will you marry me?” I kept standing in her embrace.

Harmony pushed me away so she could look into my eyes. “Midnight.” Tears were welling in her eyes. “Of course I will.” She hugged me even tighter. “Of course I will.”

I reached into my saddlebags after I felt something shift. I pulled out two rings with diamond dice as the stones. I slid one onto Harmony’s horn slipping the other one onto mine.

“Where did you find these?” Harmony was looking my ring over.

“Well when I went into the pocket world a stallion named Diamond Dice threw these at me. Except they weren’t rings when I first got them. I’m not exactly sure how that happened but all that matters to me is that you said yes.” I kissed her.

“Did you expect any other answer? What reason would I have to say no to you asking to marry me?” Harmony kept me locked in a hug.

“I didn’t expect a different answer. And I got the answer I so desperately wanted.” I didn’t let her go as a tear rolled down my cheek.

Surrounded in a field of death I found my new life. It wasn’t perfect but knowing that I had somepony who would always be there for me really made me feel wonderful. I could have been surrounded by all of the dead ponies I had ever killed and I wouldn’t be phased by it. I found the strength to carry on my journey.

“Let’s go. We need to get back to Silver and free him.” I looked deep into Harmony’s eyes and planted one more kiss on her lips.

Harmony smiled. “Alright let’s get a move on. My beautiful wife.” She spanked my flank and trotted out the gate.

I smiled staring at her flanks for a few seconds before following her.

We arrived back at the hive about half an hour before the sunset. Onyx and Demo were waiting for us.

Onyx looked at my horn. “So do you want to explain why you both have diamond rings on your horns?”

“Well Onyx. Harmony and I have decided that once we get out of this and find a good place to settle down we are going to get married.” I looked into Harmony’s eyes.

“Well that’s a good thing. I wondered when you would ask somepony for their hoof in marriage. Well congrats you two.” Onyx trotted over and hugged me.

“I see our looting crews have returned. What goodies did you bring back for us.” Chrysalis was standing over us.

“We brought back some weapons and armor. We brought back as much as we could carry and marked a turret for a few of your drones to bring back here.” Demo grabbed out a gun and hoofed it to one of the guards accompanying Chrysalis.

“You marked a turret to be brought back. How come you did not bring it back yourselves.” Chrysalis looked over a few of the weapons as Demo hoofed them over.

“We were unable to move the turret by ourselves. We did manage to make it so the drones would only have to grab ahold of the turret and transport it back here. I would say it is at least a three or four pony job depending on who you send.” Demo hoofed over the last of the guns.

“Well I will have a few of my stronger drones go and retrieve that turret. Now since you have done well would you like to watch the fight.” Chrysalis opened up a door.

“You mean the fight in the pit? Is Silver fighting yet?” I stepped forward hoofing the contents of my saddlebags to the nearest guard.

“Your friend is not fighting in the ring just yet. He will be fighting within a few hours. We have to reload the barrels to make the fight more interesting.” Chrysalis lead us to a small room.

“Will weapons be dropped into the ring?” I took a seat next to a window.

“Only if things seem to boring. We usually drop acid from the barrels. Sometimes bombs will fall from the ceiling. And on the rarest of occasions we will dump highly toxic or radioactive material into the ring. It makes the fighting interesting and much more entertaining.” Chrysalis took a seat.

“So how long until we get to watch the fighting?” Harmony pointed to seats for the others to sit down in.

“Well a few hours until the main event which is the event in which your friend will fight. Until then we will have fights between gladiators of the hive. These are the strongest of our warriors fighting to determine who is the strongest.” Chrysalis licked her lips.

“They fight to prove who is the strongest. Is there a prize for the changeling who takes the title of strongest?” I peeked out of the window.

“The strongest earns a chance to mate with the acting queen. Which means for me that I get to watch the stallions who all wish to mate with me fight. It is how we choose a king often enough. With Thorax acting as king I am only able to mate with the winner and not declare him the king unless Thorax steps down from his position as leader.” Chrysalis was looking longingly out the window.

“How often do you hold these fights?” I watched as a few gates opened and changeling stallions marched out.

“We used to hold them every three months. Now we are only able to hold them when we have enough ponies captured who will actually make for entertaining fights. So I have been eagerly awaiting for a new mate. Thorax has proven himself well enough that I will not kill him but I do often wish for a new lover to take his place. None of my children thus far have proven worthy as my mate.” Chrysalis was clopping.

I turned my eyes back to the fight. One of the changelings was face first in the dirt bleeding out of his muzzle. The other changeling tossed him to the side waving his front hooves for another opponent.

The fights continued along with the heavy breathing and moaning of the changeling queen for another two hours before one changeling was declared the winner. I was glad to hear Chrysalis finally stop moaning as she saw the changeling who had won.

“He will do. I was hoping for something more from my new lover but I suppose I can not be picky. I will leave you all here to watch your friend fight. I will return in a few hours once I have thoroughly experienced my new lover.” With that Chrysalis trotted out the door leaving us and her puddle.

“Well it sounds like it’s time for Silver to fight. All we can do now is hope that he can survive this. Maybe if he is lucky he’ll be one of the last fighters.” I stared out the window.

A speaker sparked to life. “Welcome to tonight’s death brawl. Our first fighters will be out shortly. The fighter you have all been waiting to see will be first up in our list. He’s the alicorn stallion that has killed off many of our brothers and sisters. Silver Thunder will be our first fighter.”

“Shit.”

One True King

The announcer continued talking. “We are lucky tonight and will have over seventy fights for you all to enjoy. And now what you have all been waiting for the fights shall begin. Release the first two competitors.”

“Well good luck out there. Don’t strain yourself too much you will have to survive until the very end of this. Your wing will be dropped in about fifty fights in. Watch your back a lot of these ponies were promised freedom if they won.” Thorax pushed me into the arena.

“Alright fifty fights using nothing but my hooves and empatha. I’ve been trained to fight like this. Kill them quickly and with no mercy.” I was really not looking forward to killing all of these innocent ponies.

A gate opened on the other side of the arena and a large stallion trotted in. He was covered in scars that I could only guess were caused by multiple stab wounds. He spotted me and dragged a hoof across his throat.

“Well it wouldn’t be any fun if I didn’t have to test my strength on a few of them.” I began galloping full speed at the stallion.

The stallion stood there watching as I approached. He took a battle stance a few seconds before I was on top of him. The stallion threw one of his hooves at me and missed just barely as I jumped over it.

I landed on his back and unleashed a single hoof into his skull. The stallion toppled below me collapsing into a heaving mess. I jumped away from him and looked to the crowd.

All of the changelings focused on me waiting for me to put an end to the miserable stallion. A few hooves were raised and as I watched on they were slammed to the stands.

I nodded and turned back to the stallion. “I’m sorry about this friend, but in the end only one of us can make it out of here alive.” I reared back and brought both of my front hooves down onto the stallion's skull.

The crowded roared for me to continue. I knew I had to keep this all interesting if I wanted to escape this place and live. I brought my hooves down upon the stallion’s skull until the only thing left was a puddle of brains, blood, and little bone fragments.

A hush slowly fell over the crowd.

The announcer returned. “Well folks that was entertaining but how about we turn up the challenge. An alicorn will find no challenge in defeating one worthless opponent. So how about we try two?”

Two gates swung open and two more ponies charged me. To my right a pegasus mare and to my left a unicorn stallion. Fortunately the unicorns were being regulated and I wasn’t the only one without my magic.

The two stopped well out of reach and started circling me. It was obvious that they had a plan to deal with me. This maneuver had been practiced many times before. They both stopped and the pegasus jumped at me first.

I ducked under her and threw one of my hooves into her gut sending her towards the ceiling. I spun around just in time to catch the unicorn's hoof with my side. I faltered a few steps before throwing a small fireball at the stallion.

The stallion caught fire and started rolling around to put himself out. I trotted over and gave one quick stomp to his skull to cease his movements. I heard him moan. I planted another hoof down on his skull to put him out of his misery.

“You son of a bitch.” The mare dragged me off the ground and into the air.

She had a much stronger grasp than I had anticipated. I struggled for a few seconds before I broke free of the mare’s grasp.

I remembered about halfway to the ground that my left wing was not going to allow me to fly easily. I looked to the ground and started flapping my wings. My efforts slowed my descent but wouldn’t allow me to land without injury.

The mare hit me from the side trying to throw me into the air. This time I rammed one of my hooves into her wing shattering a few of the bones. I waited for a few seconds before breaking free.

The ground was much closer now and as I flapped my wings I knew I would escape this unscathed. I watched the mare hit the ground below my hooves. The impact shattered a few of her bones and left her in complete agony.

With what little time I had in the air I maneuvered over her. I pulled my wings back to my sides and dropped down with one hoof onto the mare’s skull. Her skull did not complete evaporate but it did cave in enough that I knew she was dead.

The crowd did not erupt with joy. I looked around as many stared at me. A look of hatred filled their eyes.

“Well I half expected Silver to take a bit more damage than that. I suppose that we will just have to raise the stakes and make this a lot more interesting.” The announcer himself sounded pissed.

Five gates opened and five new challengers trotted into the arena. I looked up as barrels descended from the roof and were held twenty feet above the arena floor. I looked back down to the ponies who were already at eachothers throats.

I watched as one of mares ripped out the throat of the stallion on top of her. Blood splattered across the ground and onto her face. I watched as she returned to her hooves. I would have been scared if she weren't clutching at her side.

The other group had fought until the stallion crushed the windpipe of the mare he was fighting. Both of the remaining ponies looked at me knowing that I was their number one priority.

I looked up to the barrels and waited. The stallion was the first to step under a barrel. I threw a fireball at the barrel.

The stallion laughed. “If that is the best you can do with your aim then I might as well stand still and let you try again.”

I smiled and threw a fireball at the barrel nearest the mare. The barrel above the stallion exploded in fire. The stallion watched as the barrel fell apart and acid dropped in a sheet down towards him.

“Shit.” The stallion took the full force of the acid. He fell to the floor screaming in agony.

The mare had taken advantage of my distraction to grab the gear dropped by the other barrel. I turned to her just as she finished loading a small pistol. I galloped towards her.

I rolled to my right as the hammer on the gun fell firing a bullet at me. I jumped to my hooves and continued forward. I cast glances towards the hanging barrels. I continued galloping and dodging as necessary until the mare finally needed to reload.

I made a sharp turn throwing myself at the mare. She had grabbed a knife and was prepared to ram it into my guts as I flew over her. I dropped to the ground and smashed one of my hooves into her muzzle. The knife fell out of her mouth as she took a few steps backwards. I grabbed the knife and slammed it into the mare’s skull.

“Wait. I thought five ponies were forced into here.” I looked around. I looked up to see one of the barrels swinging. The chain shattered sending the barrel and a small stallion to the floor.

The barrel shattered open and I immediately saw what I wanted. My wing had found it’s way into one of the barrels early on. I galloped towards it not seeing the stallion preparing to ambush me.

I grabbed ahold of my wing only to receive a sharp pain in my gut. The little stallion had a knife held in his teeth. It was dripping with my blood. I slammed one hoof into the stallion sending him to the floor.

I got to my hooves and trotted over to the downed stallion. “You know just for stabbing me I think I’ll kill you slow.” I pushed a hoof down onto his throat. I slowly pushed down harder until I heard a snap. “And just to be sure.” I reared back and slammed my hooves down into the stallion’s skull.

I sat down and put on my wing without using my magic. The idiots who trapped me in here didn’t check to make sure I still had both rings on my horn. I stood up and flipped my wings out. I gave a few practice swings with my wing to make sure I had everything on right. I was satisfied with my work and trotted back to the center of the arena.

“Well folks our newest champion is injured. Will anypony throw him a healing potion?” The announcer waited for a few seconds. “Wait. Did somepony actually throw him a healing potion?”

I looked around until I saw a small glass window. My friends sat behind it watching me as I fought. Midnight had dropped a health potion out the window and was waving me over.

I trotted over as fast as I could. When I eventually got there Midnight had closed the window. I grabbed the potion and drank about half of it. The stab wound started healing slowly. I kept the other half of the potion right below the window.

“Well I don’t know about you but I think this is rather dull. How about we send in the rest of the slaves and watch an actual fight to the death?” The announcer cut out.

The crowd of changelings roared at the idea. They wanted to see me die in this arena one way or another. The gates were opened and ponies started spilling in. I stood and watched as well over one hundred spilled in and began fighting.

“Well shit. I guess know is as good a time as any. You ready old pal.” I flapped my left wing a few times.

Some of those that weren’t currently engaged in combat saw me standing in place like an idiot and charged at me. They had cleared most of the distance by the time I looked up.

I flipped my wing forward sending a knife into the closest ponies throat. The stallion erupted into flames not making a sound. I had punctured his windpipe leaving him without air. I took a few moments to prepare myself for the three that would arrive almost simultaneously.

Two of the three made themselves easy targets as they jumped into the air at me. One swipe with my bladed wing left them bleeding to death with three inch deep gashes across their chests. The third had managed to sneak around me as I cut his friends down.

The stallion held a large knife in his teeth and was preparing to stab me. The window behind him opened up and a hoof hit the knife out of his mouth.

“Why don’t we just jump out there and help him?” I heard Harmony and spun around to see the open window.

“We aren’t highly skilled fighters. If not that then I’m pretty sure helping anypony in one of these fights is not going to be a check mark of approval on our scorecard.” Onyx peeked his head out the window. “Good luck.”

I smiled and put my wing on the downed stallion’s throat. The look of fear in his eyes told me even though he was a skilled fighter that he only wanted freedom. I separated his head from his wretched shoulders and trotted off towards the action.

Many of those who had been forced in here had immediately picked fights so they could avoid fighting a battle they could not win. Corpses littered the floor, most with small stab wounds and others with parts of them ripped off. As I trotted along I killed two ponies who charged me. I stopped when I was twenty feet away from the bloodbath that these ponies were creating.

The fighting stopped as they looked to me. Each group parted ways and stood facing me. Their eyes were filled with malicious intent. One mare stepped forward.

“We’ve been waiting for you.” The mare shapeshifted. “Now we all get to kill you.”

The group behind her all started to shift. Most of the ponies in this arena were changelings who had a bone to pick. None of the unicorns among them had loadstone rings.

I thought of the one thing that always helped in a situation like this. I flipped my wing sending every knife that I had left hurtling towards any and all of the changelings. Four burst into flames immediately but held their ground so they wouldn’t light any of the others on fire.

They all stepped forward as one. Each step they got closer I knew was one step closer to my death. I took steps backwards until I hit a wall. I looked to my right to see an open window.

I looked around for my friends but did not see them. I watched as the changeling horde drew closer to me. I looked around again for my friends but nopony was there.

“Hey you changeling bastards let’s see how you like this!” Onyx was up above the horde opening up one of the barrels.

The barrel opened and a sea of acid spilled down towards the changelings. It was too late for those in the middle as they looked up to see acid rain down upon them. I jumped into the air flying towards Onyx.

“What are you doing in here? You could be killed or worse.” I looked into his eyes.

His eyes were filled with a mixture of sorrow and happiness. “I sat by and waited for long enough. I wasn’t going to let a friend of mine be overpowered and killed by a group of these filthy bugs.” Onyx held out a hoof.

I put one out accepting his apology. “So where are the others?” I looked down to the ground to see them waging war upon the horde.

“You tell me.” Onyx smiled. “Now let’s get that stupid ring off your horn.” Onyx moved forward and slipped the loadstone ring off my horn.

“Thanks but I won’t be able to do much magic with this stupid crack in my horn.” I tapped on my horn a few times sending surges of pain through my body.

“Well we don’t need you to. You’ve got your wing and your empatha so I think we’ve got all we need.” Onyx smiled as he dropped towards the ground.

I followed not too far behind landing in the center of all the chaos. Midnight and Harmony fought back to back tearing through the changelings as they attacked. Demo, Onyx, and Stone were all separated and fighting from the outside in. As I stood and watched the chaos a feeling I hadn’t felt in years came rushing back. I felt alive in the thrill of battle.

I let my instincts take control of my body like they once had. A shade of red tinted everything around me as my body took over. I lifted my wing and charged the first changeling I saw.

The changeling turned in times to see my eyes as my wing cut through his body repeatedly. I hit him repeatedly with the full of my blade driving it deeper and deeper until the changeling was a pile of body parts bleeding everywhere.

I continued into the depths of the chaos striking out at anything I didn’t recognize as a friend. The next changeling was a unicorn mare. She did not turn as I approached. She only reacted after I rammed my blade through her spine.

She opened her mouth but the only thing that escaped was a ear piercing shriek as I rotated around her cutting her almost perfectly in half. I put one last slash towards the changeling silencing her shrieking.

I looked for my friends. They were all cornered by a large portion of the changelings. The red haze over my eyes grew darker and my field of vision narrowed. I charged forward leaving the changelings who had surrounded me spinning.

I spun in the air as I passed over the changelings allowing my blade three or four slices for the changelings I flew over. I skidded to a stop next to my friends. We watched as the changelings lingered for a second before falling to pieces.

The red haze faded. “Are you all okay?” I kept my eyes pinned on the changelings.

“Yeah we are. Thanks for saving us.” Midnight stepped forward to my side.

Harmony stepped over to my left side while Onyx and Demo hovered over me. Stone trotted up next to Midnight shying away from me.

I looked around as the changelings regrouped for a final assault. “Well don’t thank me just yet. We still have to survive this and whatever Thorax and Chrysalis try to put us through.” I got back into my battle stance.

“Enough! I want this to be put to an end. Call back the horde and send it in.” Chrysalis’ voice sounded loud enough to deafen me for a second.

The changeling horde scattered towards the gates leaving us. The barrels overhead retracted until they were almost touching the ceiling. I watched as a large gate at the far end of the arena opened.

A suit of power armor stepped out of the gate. The suit was over triple the height of an average stallion. Twin miniguns were strapped to it’s sides with a rocket launcher positioned on it’s back.

“Witness the greatest warrior ever birthed from a changeling hive. He has survived countless run ins with fully grown manticores and walked away without a scratch. You stand before him as ants and you will be killed like you were a harmless bug. Good riddance you foals.” The speaker dropped silent and was replaced by the thudding of hooves.

I looked to my friends to see what kind of gear they had. To my surprise most of them had the weapons they had before we were captured.

“How did you get all your weapons back?” I kept one eye on the giant.

“Thorax has been dumping our weapons in using the barrels. He wants us to live but if he let’s us live we can’t kill Chrysalis.” Midnight drew out the revolver Spitfire had given her.

“Why exactly can’t we kill her? We have almost all of our weapons and gear.” I watched as the giant took a step forward.

The earth shook when the stallion’s hoof hit the floor.
“If she dies the whole wasteland could be thrown into chaos by these changelings. We can’t let the wasteland become worse. We are fighting to make it better.” Midnight fired a shot towards the armored giant.

The bullet pierced the armor but seemed to have little effect on the giant inside. Midnight pulled the trigger again and this time the giant roared in pain. The miniguns started to spin up as the giant turned towards us.

I started trying to use my magic. I was able to pull enough mana to use a weak shield but the pain in my horn was unbearable. I held the shield as the miniguns started to unloaded upon it. We waited for what seemed like eternity before the miniguns stopped firing. I dropped the shield and my friends charged forward.

Midnight’s POV

I shied away from the shield as the miniguns spun up. I kept my gun trained on the giant standing before me.

After ten seconds the miniguns stopped firing. I hoped they were out of ammo as Silver and his shield fell. I stayed back for one second before charging forward drawing out the fifty cal.

I got as close as I could to the giant and unloaded both of my guns into the armor’s underbelly.

The pony inside reared back in pain and brought his hooves down towards where I was standing. I rolled to the right just as the giant’s hooves came down upon the ground.

I reloaded both guns simultaneously. “Would you die already.”

Onyx and Demo were doing great at distracting the giant by hitting it at random with their hooves.

The giant swung slowly but that didn’t mean they were safe. I watched as Onyx got scraped mid flight. He spun out of control and slammed into the ground halfway across the arena.

That one action was enough to break me. I put both of my guns directly up to the giant’s helmet and unloaded. “Die you son of a bitch!” I stopped when my revolver stopped firing.

The giant staggered for a few seconds. He shook his head and fired off a single rocket towards where Onyx was.

Harmony grabbed ahold of Onyx and dragged him out of the way of the explosion.

After firing the rocket the giant slammed down to the ground bleeding from the numerous bullet holes in the armor.
I reached out with my magic and ripped the helmet off of the armor. The changeling stallion inside gave me a simple look. He knew that he was going to die and hoped that I would make it quick on him.

I put the muzzle of my fifty between his eyes. “You deserve a slow death after what you’ve done.” A dark grin crossed my face. “But I’ll put you down quickly.”

I pulled the trigger once and left the changeling.

Silver’s POV

I was in and out of consciousness. I heard my friends fighting the giant. I heard the gunfire stop and a large thud take it’s place. Midnight came and shook me until I woke up.

“Hey Silver. It’s good to see that you’re alive. We had to kill that stupid thing while you slept. Now get up.” Midnight pulled me to my hooves.

“What! They killed the gigalith! How in the buck did they do that?” The speaker was blown out by Chrysalis’ pure rage.

“Well that made my day. So now what?” I looked around.

Most of my friends were untouched. Onyx had a few holes in his wings. Demo was sitting next to him trying to get him to drink the last of the health potion.

The behemoth of a creature lay still on the ground in a puddle of it’s own blood. My friends had pulled off the helmet of the gigalith. The armor made up most of the stallion’s size. I was surprised that any bullet we had would actually puncture that stupid things armor.

“So how did you kill it?” I kept looking the gigalith over.

“I used two cylinders of the revolver and ten bullets from the 50 cal. That was enough to drive the thing down but not quite enough to kill it. We had to remove it’s helmet and shoot the stallion in the head.” Midnight turned around when Harmony tapped her on the flank.

“So we’re sure that thing is dead? I really don’t want to go through that again.” Harmony had a hoof on her right shoulder.

“Did you get shot?” Midnight was trying to get Harmony to remove the hoof.

“No I took a small bit of shrapnel after that stupid thing fired a rocket.” Harmony removed the hoof revealing a small chunk of metal.

“Demo if he isn’t going to drink that give it here. Harmony has a piece of shrapnel that is going to cause a fair amount of damage when we remove it.” Midnight waved her hoof at Demo.

“See I told you I didn’t need it. Now go give it to Harmony.” Onyx pushed Demo off of him.

“Fine.” Demo trotted over.

“This might sting a bit but trust me you’ll feel better after we get it out.” Midnight put a hoof on Harmony’s shoulder.

Midnight grabbed ahold of the metal chunk with her magic and yanked it out of Harmony. “Son of a bitch. Buck me.” Harmony would have continued but Midnight shoved the potion into her mouth.

“You’ll thank me after the pain subsides. Now then we need to get out of here.” Midnight looked around.

“That won’t be necessary. You killed my greatest warrior and have earned your place.” Thorax trotted towards us from an open gate.

“Don’t you take one step closer to them or I will kill you myself.” Chrysalis was hovering above us.

Thorax raised his voice so the entire hive could hear. “Listen here. I am the undisputed king of this hive. Not this piece of shit Chrysalis who you call your queen. If you have any problem with this then you can take it up with the barrel of my rifle. I will not have any of you try anything stupid while you are under my rule. And to prove it one of you guards bring me my sword.” Thorax looked to the closest guard.

The guard stood his ground in defiance of Thorax.

“Fine then. Derpy throw me my sword.” Thorax’s horn lit up.

A sword came seemingly out of nowhere. Thorax caught it as it came close to his face. He smiled swinging the sword at the guards head. The guard had no time to react and was left dead on the ground.

“Anypony else want to prove their loyalty to the queen? I really hope not because I will kill every last one of you that dares to defy me. Now to do something I should have done many years ago.” Thorax teleported the sword behind Chrysalis. “When you see cerberus tell him I said hi.” With that Thorax rammed the sword through Chrysalis.

Derpy flew over to us in her full armor.

“Hi derpy how are you doing?” Midnight took a step towards Derpy.

“Stop right there. I have a few things to say to you.”

Midnight stopped where she stood.

“Fuck you. You made me miss the best part of a party that only happens once every one hundred fucking years. I had to come save your stupid ass from this bullshit. Fuck you, and you, and you. Not you Silver you’re cool. But Midnight fuck you, fuck your life, fuck your wife. And lastly fuck all of this.” Derpy fired a shotgun into the air and disappeared.

“I’m not sure whether to be offended or not. She kept saying fuck. Silver any idea what that means?” Midnight sat down a bit confused.

Thorax responded. “Basically that’s a way of cursing when talking to one of the other species she talks to in the pocket worlds. It’s just another way to say buck.” Thorax was slicing Chrysalis’ body to pieces.

“So you know of the pocket worlds. When did Derpy take you there?” I trotted up to Thorax’s side.

“It wasn’t Derpy who took me. I think their names were Lyra and Bon Bon. They like to play pranks on the other displaced and thought I would be the perfect pony to bring to a party. That was the weirdest day of my life. Also ended with the worst damn hangover I’ve ever had. They really do like alcohol at those stupid parties.” Thorax shook his head and went back to slicing up what was left of the former queen’s body.

“So can we leave now?” Midnight stayed a ways back from Thorax.

Thorax rammed his sword through Chrysalis’ head before turning to face us. “Yes you can. I think we have held you here long enough. Go to the armory and grab the rest of your gear and the get out of here. I’ll no doubt have to kill more of these drones who think that I will not lead us to glory.”

“What will you do now?” I stepped towards my friends.

“We will continue to do what we were originally meant to do. With Chrysalis dead we will need less love to feast upon. Many drones will still go out into the wastelands to feed off of the love of other ponies but they will now be ordered to be nonviolent in their means of acquiring it.” Thorax trotted back towards the gate which he entered from.

It finally clicked in Midnight’s head what Derpy had said. “Wow. That was entirely too harsh. What the buck was all of that for. The party couldn’t have been that good.” Midnight’s face was a mixture of confusion and anger.

“Well it might have been but we should probably get out of here before any of the changelings try to kill us.” Harmony was looking around suspiciously.

“They will do nothing of the sort or I will kill them myself. Fear nothing when you stand with me.” Thorax pushed open a door and continued trotting.

We followed along in silence always shifting our gaze around to look for changelings. Thorax pushed open the armory door and we trotted in and shut the door.

“Take what little gear that is still here that belongs to you and leave my hive forever. You have caused enough problems that I have to sort out.” Thorax turned away from us.

Midnight and Harmony trotted over to their power armor and started putting it on. I trotted along the walls looking for any gun that might help us. I stumbled upon a large rifle hanging on the wall. I picked it up with my magic and looked it over.

“Oh you found the gauss rifle. I haven’t used that gun since I got it I think. I blew up a bloatsprite with it. That would have been helpful fighting the gigalith.” Midnight grabbed the gun and looked it over. “You could have it if you want. I really have no use of it. I will warn you that the ammo for it is scarce.” She held the gun out to me.

“I’m not that great of a shot so if I do get a gun it should be one that ammo is plentiful for. So you can keep it.” I put the gun into Midnight’s saddlebags.

Midnight nodded before continuing looking over the armory. Thorax was getting impatient and kept casting glances back towards the door.

Finally Thorax spoke. “You all need to leave now. I have let you stay longer than I should have. My drones grow restless and will soon break in here to kill you.” Thorax trotted over to a different door.

“How do you know these things?” Midnight finished looking for any of her weapons.

“I hear all of their voices in my head. Those that have accepted me as their king are always in contact with me and may tell me whatever they need to. It can be quite annoying sometimes especially when the mares are in heat.” Thorax shuddered. “But in the right situations it is helpful.”

I trotted over to the door and walked out into the light of twilight. The moon was just rising and the sun was setting.

“Hey Midnight what time is it?” I kept my eyes peeled for anything that might be a threat.

“Nine p.m. Monday. Looks like Spitfire wasn’t to worried about us. Suppose we did prove ourselves to be good enough warriors for her liking. Now let’s go home. I want to sit back and relax for a few weeks.” Midnight squeezed by me and trotted in the direction of New Appleloosa.

“Well Thorax if we do see you again I hope that we won’t have to kill each other.” I held out a hoof to Thorax.

“We won’t see each other again, and if we do it will end in one of us being left as a corpse.” Thorax swatted my hoof away.

“Well whatever you say. If we do see each other again I hope you’re ready to go to tartarus for your sins against all of Equestria.” I smiled smugly and trotted out.

The Knight's Bane

I woke up the next morning with Rose laying next to me. I thought about getting up and doing something but I really felt like just laying there next to Rose for as long as I possibly could. I looked around and saw Derpy was awake and making herself some coffee. I stayed quiet and just let things stay quiet.

Rose stirred at my side. “What time is it?” Rose rubbed her eyes.

I looked at the clock next to my bed. “It’s seven o’clock. I don’t think we have any work to do today.” I pulled Rose a bit closer.

“Well I think Crimson wanted to talk to you. Since we have a lull in action that we are needed to help clean up I’m pretty sure he want’s to send you back to your world. Nothing against you though. He has actually enjoyed having you around here.” Derpy took a sip of her coffee.

“He wants to send me back home? Would I be able to return here and see Rose?” I looked down to see Rose was partially asleep.

“I can always bring you back here if you want to come and visit. I do think you have an obligation to the Rose you live with in the other world though. She hasn’t seen you in a few days. I bet she would like to spend some time with you. Even if she isn’t your real mother she still loves you.” Derpy kept sipping on her coffee.

A knock on the door made me jump a little. “Silver I need to talk to you.” Like Derpy had said Crimson needed to talk with me.

“Alright. You can come in and sit down if you want to.” I stayed next to Rose.

The door opened and Crimson came in. Derpy hoofed him a coffee and went and sat down in her chair. Crimson took a sip of the coffee before heading over to a chair next to my bed.

“Well seeing as how Derpy is still here I bet she told you the basics of what I came here to talk to you about. So I’ll keep this short. You’re training here with us is complete and we have been paid. The plan now is for you to return to your world and stay there. We have nothing more to offer you here and Rose from your world has asked for you to be returned to her. I know you probably don’t want to leave your home here, but I must ask you at the very least to go home and stay with Rose for a few weeks.” Crimson took another sip of the coffee.

“You are correct in your assumption that I don’t want to leave my newfound home. I do realize that I have a home back where I was born to return to, but I do want one thing before I leave.” I put a wing over Rose.

“Well I usually wouldn’t allow a soldier to request anything if they were in the same situation as you, but I believe I can allow a ten year old one wish.” Crimson set his cup down on a table.

I thought for a second before realizing today was my birthday. “Well I don’t want to ruin my chances at getting my request approved but I’m eleven as of today.” I sat up.

“I see. I will still grant you your wish so that we can end on good terms. Now what is it that you wish?” Crimson grabbed his coffee again.

“I want to know that if I wish to come back here and visit that I will have a place to stay. As much as I want to go home and stay with Rose for a while I can’t abandon the ponies who call me their friends. And more importantly I can’t abandon Rose.” I looked down to Rose who was fully awake.

“I have come to realize many things since I first came to this world. The first is that I still have a lot of life left to live. The second is that I have found a mare who I love more than anything or anypony I have met.” I kissed Rose.

“That is a compelling argument Silver. You will need not worry about this place. Rose will stay here in your absence and make sure the place stays in good shape. When you return you will have a place beside her in this house. If that is the only thing that you are worried about then our business is concluded and Derpy will take you home.” Crimson stood up and trotted out the door.

“Well Silver you heard the stallion. You will have a place here whenever you wish to return and see all of us. Now you can gather your things and leave whenever, but I would suggest returning to your world before nighttime I have been in contact with the Rose of your home world. She would like for you to stay around for a little while.” Derpy took another sip of her coffee before placing the mug in the sink.

“What do you think about all of this?” I looked into Rose’s eyes.

“Well you are able to return here whenever you want to. I would be ok with you going and visiting Rose for a few days. I will find a few things to do around this place so I don’t lose my mind from boredom.” Rose giggled and kissed me. “You said it was your birthday, right?”

“Yeah I did say that. I really hadn’t been thinking about it. Back home I don’t really get to celebrate my birthday. The last time we celebrated anything was hearth’s warming. That’s where I got my metal left wing.” I extended my left wing.

“Well I would have gotten you something if I would have known. But now that I do know I can get you something special for the next time your birthday comes around.” Rose winked at me seductively.

“I think the best gift I could get would be to spend the day with you.” I smiled and gave Rose a small kiss on her cheek.

“Well I think we should wait at least another year before we spend an entire day together. I still have a few things to prepare for your next birthday. Now go on. Your Rose at home wants to see you.” Rose stood up and hopped off the edge of the bed.

I sat there for a few minutes before jumping off the bed. I grabbed my saddlebags and made sure I had everything. Once I was satisfied I had all of my stuff that I would need I trotted over to Derpy.

Derpy was doing the dishes when I trotted over. “Are you ready to return home Silver?’ Derpy dried her hooves.

“I guess I am. I still want to stay here for a long time, but Rose wants to see me back home. So yeah I suppose I’m ready to return home.” I grabbed a hold of one of Derpy’s hooves.

“Well then let’s go.” Derpy picked me up and trotted over to a portion of the wall. Derpy took one small step and then jumped through the wall.

I had been to the pocket world many times before. I didn’t remember most of them but I did remember the ponies who I met. Today Lyra and Bon Bon were plotting something. I guessed they were plotting another prank to pull. Derpy had told me that Lyra and Bon Bon liked to screw around with the way things worked in the worlds they visited.

“What are you two planning today?” I stayed with Derpy.

“Hi Silver. Today we are planning a prank to pull on a few of the displaced who are coming to the next party. They crossed us for the last time.” Lyra shook her hoof in the air.

“Don’t you two do anything to drastic. Some of those who will be attending haven’t come to one of these in a few millenia. We can’t make them not return to one of these. Some of them have the good alcohol that you two love so much.” Derpy trotted on by the two.

“You know just how to keep us in line. I guess we won’t play any pranks on those who have that booze. See you soon Derpy.” Bonbon waved us goodbye.

“Yeah, I’ll be back in a few minutes I just have to drop Silver off with Rose. Hold down the fort until I return.” Derpy found the door she was looking for.

I waved to Lyra and Bon Bon just as we exited the pocket world.

Rose was waiting for us on the other side of the door. She trotted over and grabbed me off of Derpy. She gave me a hug and laid me down on her back.

“He’ll be here for a while. Crimson Skull wants him to take a few weeks to relax here at home with you. I do need to be on my way. Can’t leave those two jokesters alone for long.” Derpy trotted back through the portal leaving me and Rose alone.

“It’s good to see you Rose. I’ve been busy for a while in the other world.” I jumped down off of Rose.

Rose produced a note. “Derpy has been talking to me about your adventures in that world. I know that you have a marefriend. I know you wanted to keep that a secret from me. I trust you not to do anything stupid, but I would like to meet this marefriend of yours when she has the time. For now though how about some cake. It is your birthday after all.”

“I’ll talk to her the next time I see her and see when it is she can come for a visit. Also I would like to have a piece of cake. So yeah let’s have some cake.” I slipped the note into my saddlebags.

Rose returned with a small cake. She set it down and then took a seat on the floor. This year the cake was made of old fancy foal snack cakes. It had been a while since I had one but I was eager to eat the cake.

Rose cut me a slice of cake and started writing a note. I silently ate my cake while she wrote. I was happy to be back home but I was sad that I didn’t have Rose by my side. I frowned and continued eating my cake.

Rose presented the note to me. “You truly love her don’t you? I’ve seen the look in ponies eyes before. I want you to know that I will approve of her no matter what because it was you who chose her.”

I finished the piece of cake I was eating before speaking. “I love her more than anything in this world.” I thought my next words through carefully. “I am glad you approve of her. I promise you we won’t do anything that you wouldn’t approve of. For now though I have my home here and I need to spend some time with you.” I crawled over and put a wing over Rose.

Rose was writing on another piece of paper. “I’m happy to see you home Silver. How long do you plan on staying?”

“Well I had planned on staying here for a few weeks and then spending a few days at a time with Rose. I hope that’s ok with you.” I looked up to her.

Rose nodded her head and smiled.

I was happy. That was a feeling that I was starting to feel more and more. Everyday I was happy most of the day. Most days before all of this I had been depressed. I didn’t want to do anything unless some special occasion occurred

“What has happened since I’ve been gone?” I took my head away from Rose.

Rose got up and walked over to an old radio we had. She started to fiddle with the dials until the voice of a stallion came through.

“Hello wasteland this is DJ-PON3 here with the news. The small settlement of Appleloosa has just gone quiet. If anypony is in the area how about you stop on by and see what happened. In other news a group of manticores has been seen heading for Ponyville. To my friends down that way, If you aren’t drunk of your plots then grab your guns and defend your city. That’s all for the news my little ponies. Until next time this is DJ-PON3. And now for some music.” The radio cut out before the music started.

“So nothing good has happened. That sounds about right for the wasteland I know. Anything interesting happen around here?” I stood up leaving the cake on the floor.

Rose thought for a few seconds before shaking her head. She walked towards the front door. I trotted over as she pushed the front door open. Rose walked over to the small shack she had made my original wing in.

Inside was a bunch of weapons that looked hoof made by somepony who wasn’t super skilled. Rose looked around the room before grabbing a sword whose blade was pure white. She hoofed me the sword.

I took the sword in my magic and shifted it in the air so I could look over the entire sword. There was an inscription on the blade just above the hilt.

I read the inscription out loud. “The Knights Bane.” I squinted to make sure that was what the inscription said. “What kind of name is The Knights Bane? And where did you get this?” I held the sword of to my left.

Rose held up a slip of paper. “While you were away I visited the blacksmith who made your wing. I asked him if he would teach me to make swords so we would always have weapons to protect ourselves with. He agreed and gave me one of the best swords he ever made as a gift for you. I gave him my thanks and then returned home to begin forging my own swords.” Rose was looking over her creations.

“So that stallion wanted me to have this?” I stared at the sword. “This is awesome. Does it have a sheath?” I looked the blade over remembering the soldiers my parent had once controlled.

Rose nodded and turned around. After a few seconds of digging she produced a sheath for the blade. She tossed it over to me and continued looking.

I grabbed the sheath and put it on. A few straps would hold the sheath to my body so I would have the sword by my side whenever I might need it. The sword slid into the sheath with a very satisfying noise. The blade sat underneath my left wing when it was sheathed. It was a slight bit too long and stuck out past my tail.

Rose giggled a bit before hoofing me a small box.

I opened the box to find three little knives inside of it. The knives looked like little feathers. I looked down to my wing to see it had a few slots in it where the knives would fit. I levitated one of the knives up and slid it into the first slot. The blade slipped into place with a small click. I levitated the other two blades and slid them into the two other slots.

Rose grabbed my hoof and dragged me outside. She locked the door and led me around the back of the house.

In the backyard stood a few practice dummies and a couple of targets. I saw a note on the targets and trotted over to it.

I read the note in my head. “Hello Silver. Rose dropped by and asked me for some help. I agreed and helped her to learn the basics of forging. Now you have access to a forge so you can try your hoof at smithing. I also allowed Rose to bring you a few training dummies so you can practice with the sword and the throwing knives I made for you. May the blade I provided you serve you well and I wish you a good life if I do not see you again.” I was happy to hear from the stallion again.

“So I can train here as well as in the other world. I like that. Thanks Rose.” I trotted over and gave her a hug.

Rose smiled and hugged me back. She grabbed me and set me down on her back. We went back inside and sat down in the living room.

Rose went and grabbed one of the board games that we had laying around. She returned and set the box on the floor. Before I could see what game she had picked Derpy trotted out of the pocket world.

“Hi Silver. Rose wanted me to see if it was ok for her to come and meet Rose.” Derpy rubbed a hoof on the back of her head.

Rose nodded. I spoke. “Yeah I think that would be fine. I have no reason to keep her a secret from Rose. So will you two return here shortly… or?” I waited for her response.

Rose walked around the corner wearing a beautiful red dress. It stood out as unique in this dull and boring wasteland. I realized my mouth was open and quickly closed it. I looked to my adoptive mother and found her eyeing Rose over.

“It is nice to meet you Rose. My name is Amethyst Rose and I am your son’s marefriend.” Rose took a few steps towards us.

My adoptive mother nodded her head and then pushed me towards Rose. I gave her a look and she simply waved her hooves for me to go forward. I did as she wished and went up and gave Rose a kiss.

“Good to see you again.” I stepped away a little bit unsure of my behaviour with Rose around.

“Well we have only been separated for a few hours. Oh and while I am in the company of Rose you may call me Amethyst. Now I would like to know more about Rose. Silver are you going to tell me about her or does she want to tell me about herself?” Amethyst took a few steps towards Rose.

Rose was writing on a piece of paper. She held up the piece of paper for Amethyst to read. After a minute or so of reading Amethyst seemed satisfied with what she had learned.

“Well Rose I don’t have a long time to spend here with you and Silver but I would like to learn a bit more about the world that Silver comes from. What would you suggest?” Amethyst took a seat on the floor.

I was a small bit worried about Amethyst’s dress getting dirty. Our house wasn’t exactly the cleanest place but it was better than sitting in the dirt.

Rose turned on the radio. DJ-PON3 was on and telling the news.

“Well this should be good enough to learn more about your world Silver. Now come take a seat and let’s listen to the radio.” Amethyst tapped a spot on the ground next to her.

I trotted over and sat down. Amethyst spun to her side and laid her head on me. I had very mixed feelings about this especially with Rose in the room.

Rose did not seem to displeased with this but did keep casting glances our way.

We sat and listened to the radio until the sun started to set.

“Time to go Amethyst. Crimson said you needed to be back before midnight.” Derpy was half way in the pocket world.

Amethyst got to her hooves and gave me a kiss. “See you soon Silver.” She trotted over to Derpy and they disappeared.

Leadership

We had walked all night to get back to New Appleloosa. When we eventually did arrive the sun was rising on the horizon. We were all tired with the exception of Silver who still seemed to be extremely awake for what he had just gone through.

“Silver how are you holding up?” I kept trotting next to Harmony.

“Well for everything that we’ve just been through I’d have to say I’m holding up pretty well. What about yourself?” Silver trotted up to the gate and knocked.

I looked over to Harmony. “I think that no matter what it is that I go through as long as Harmony is by my side I’ll be able to hold strong through most anything.” I kissed Harmony. “I would still very much like to take a few weeks off from our usually bloody work.” The gate opened and we trotted in.

“Understandable seeing as how we were just captured and had to kill many ponies just to keep our own lives.” Silver shrugged. “This world gets to even the best of us. For those of us who are lucky we find friends to slow down the process of inevitable insanity because of the wasteland. So let’s hope none of us go insane because that would probably end in total destruction. Now to be a little less morbid let’s go talk to Spitfire.” Silver headed straight for Spitfire’s office.

Harmony held me back so she and I could walk together. “What do you want to do when we take some time off?” Harmony whispered in my ear.

I looked into her eyes. “You know exactly what I want to do.” I kissed her.

“Well I don’t know if we can find somepony to make that official. Especially not here.” Harmony smiled at me.

“Not what I meant, but that does sound nice. Maybe once we actually find a good place to settle down we will. But until then I say we just relax and have some fun.” I gave Harmony a seductive wink.

We had just arrived at Spitfire’s office and everything was quiet. I was a little bit freaked out that this place was this quiet. We trotted up the stairs and into Spitfire’s office.

Silver was there with Spitfire looking at a map. The map looked unlike anything that would be here in this world. I trotted over and Spitfire made the map disappear.

“What was that all about?” I took a seat in one of the two chairs on this side of Spitfire’s desk.

“We have a few problems in my universe that Derpy has warned me about. I’m needed back there and I must leave immediately if I am to be of any help to my friends. Which means many things. First of all I need to turn over my rule of this city to somepony else. I was only here to vacation from my usual responsibilities. Secondly I am leaving you the Revolving sun.” Spitfire turned around and opened up her safe.

“Ok so we need to find somepony to lead this town. What is the Revolving sun?” I thought for a few seconds before it came to me.

“The Revolving Sun is the revolver I gave you. It was originally Celestia’s prized pistol and her own personal defense weapon. I earned her favor and she decided that I needed the gun more than she did. Since Luna had her own gun and they are never far apart Celestia figured Luna would be able to protect her. And seeing what you have done for me and this city you have earned the right to keep that gun and the last of the bullets I have for it.” Spitfire hoofed me two full boxes of bullets.

I grabbed the bullets and dropped them into my saddlebags. “Thank you.” I checked the Revolving Sun to make sure it was fully loaded.

“The box that is labeled Sun has bullets that are much more powerful. Celestia had a few of Twilight’s friends design special ammunition for guns. Those bullets were designed to look like a miniature sun had been fired after the gun was shot. Powerful bullets that will most likely melt through the armor of most of your enemies. You’ve got ten of those to use. No doubt the rarest ammo you’ve ever seen. Now then we need to decide who will be the mayor of this city.” Spitfire emptied the rest of the safe’s contents into her saddlebags.

“I could lead this town for you.” Rose trotted into the room.

“Rose. Why do you want to lead this city?” Silver turned around to face Rose.

“Well I wanted to surprise you with this but I’m not going to be going out on adventures for a while because I’m pregnant.” Rose kissed Silver.

“Pregnant? But how? I mean.” Silver was looking for the right words. “How long have you known?”

Rose laid a hoof over Silver. “When you left so suddenly I knew. I had planned to tell you when you returned but you never did So I had to venture here to find you. I’ve known for two months.” Rose kissed Silver.

“Well I’m happy for you. I’m happy for us. But i’m not letting you stay here alone with a foal on the way. We’ll need somepony to stay here by your side.” Silver kept Rose close to him.

Stone stepped forward. “I’ll stay here with her. I’ve seen what the wasteland has to offer and I think I’m ready to leave all of that behind and settle down and live my life as best I can. And don’t worry about Rose Silver. I have no intentions of hurting somepony by trying to bring a relationship into this shit.” Stone put a hoof on Spitfire’s desk.

“Well I’ll skip the formalities and all that shit. Do you both believe that you will be good leaders of this place and help the ponies of this city to survive?” Spitfire put one of her hooves on the desk.

Stone answered first. “Yes. I will do whatever I can to protect this city and it’s ponies from harm.”

Rose stepped forward. “I will do as much as I can and rely on Stone to do what I can’t. Along with the help from Silver we will keep this city protected.” Rose smiled at Silver.

“Then it is settled and you two will lead this city.” Spitfire turned on a speaker system hooked up all around town. “Fair ponies of this city, I have discovered that I must leave for personal reasons. Rose and Stone will now be in charge here and you will respect them. This is Spitfire bidding you all a good life.” Spitfire turned the speakers off.

Derpy flew in through the window. “Spitfire we need you to leave now. We are running out of time here.” Derpy tapped her hoof on the ground impatiently.

Spitfire nodded. “Silver I give you access to my own personal forge here in town. You won’t have to buy yourself a new one for the time being. Now I must go before the situation back home escalates any farther than it has. Goodbye.” Spitfire dived out the window.

“Well it looks like we are the leaders of this town now. Stone are you sure you’re ready for this responsibility?” Rose took a seat behind the desk.

“Well there ain’t no turning back now. Even if I wanted to I couldn’t leave you and this town alone with my conscience intact. So I guess that I am ready to help out where I can. Did Spitfire leave us any missions to go on?” Stone stepped behind the desk.

Rose looked through the drawers before producing a small packet of papers. “These look like missions she had for us.” Rose looked through the papers. “Nothing that needs to be done immediately. We do have a few days off before we’re supposed to go on our next mission. Also Silver you will be staying here in the mayor’s personal quarters. As for the rest of you we do have a few rooms that could be changed into quarters. Otherwise you do have a house that you can stay in.” Rose leaned back in the chair.

I got up from the chair I sat in. “Well we have some time off we should probably make the best of it while we can.” I turned around towards the door. “Come on Harmony. Let’s leave these three to attend to the business they have and we can go and take a break from the violence we have to survive in the wasteland.”

Harmony trotted up next to me and bumped my flanks with her flanks. “Yes my beautiful wife. I say we go and have ourselves some fun while we can.” Harmony winked at me and trotted out the door.

I looked back at my friends and waved before following Harmony. I was always happy when I got to trot behind Harmony because I always had time to stare at her glorious plot. I would have been drooling had she not turned around and dragged my gaze to meet hers.

“Did you hear what I said?” I stayed quiet. “I’ll take that as a no. I said if we do regain access to Tenpony Tower that we could get married there. The tower has a church of it’s own and we could get officially married there. I asked if you would be ready for something like that.” Harmony looked into my eyes.

My brain was processing what I had just been told. I was a bit nervous about getting married in the wasteland but I loved Harmony. “Yes. I do have my concerns but with you by my side nothing can get in my way.” I leaned in for a kiss.

Harmony leaned back and tsked. “How about you wait for a few minutes so we can have a bit more fun than just kissing.” Harmony dragged me out the door and towards home.

The next morning Harmony and I woke up to the sound of knocking on our bedroom door.

“What do you want.” I rubbed the sleep from my eyes.

“Are you two decent? Or at the very least covered up?” Silver was standing beyond the door.

I pulled the covers over Harmony and I before responding. “Yes you can come in now.” I tapped Harmony to make sure she was awake.

Silver walked in the door. “Rose wanted me to tell you that we only have another two days off before we have to go back to work. Spitfire had a bunch of caps ready for us when we returned.” Silver tossed me a bag. “Here’s your share. I think that’s about five hundred caps. That and this house is now fully in your names. You can do whatever you want to the place.” Silver lifted a deed out of his saddlebags.

I grabbed the deed and hoofed it to Harmony. “Well at least we have a place to return to now. That’s good news. Now are there any catches to all of this.” I sat up in bed.

“Well the only thing Spitfire wanted was for us to keep working for her. That was the one thing she specified in all of her notes that she left to us. You will continue to work and help out the city and in return you get to keep this house and earn a few hundred caps on the side.” Silver trotted back towards the door.

“Ok. So how big actually is this house?” I swung my legs out of bed.

“Well it has a basement in it which is a pretty large room. Some special technology is down there from what I understand. It’s not functional at this moment in time. I think I read something about it being able to record your memories exactly as they happened. But they need some high grade parts that you will probably never find. Anyways I have to return to Rose and do some more work.” Silver trotted out the door closing it behind him.

“Well Harmony we have our own house now. We can make it look any way we want. Any ideas?” I pulled a set of clothes out of the closet and put it on.

“Why don’t we ask one of the ponies in town who runs a store or something. They seem to know what it is that makes a house look good.” Harmony buried her face in a pillow.

“Well maybe we just stick with what we have now. I do like the look of the wasteland housing decor.” I nodded. “Yeah why go through the hassle of doing too much do this house if we’re going to find a place for ourselves somewhere out there.” I slipped out of bed and walked out into the hallway.

I went downstairs and looked around in the kitchen for some food. I smelt something cooking and looked around. Somepony had thrown something together and was cooking it for us.

“Woah Midnight would you mind putting that away please?” Onyx was behind me.

I spun around hiding my flanks. “Sorry I didn’t realize you were here.” I was blushing.

“Who else would be here? I don’t think anypony else lives here anymore. I was just cooking something for breakfast and I come in here to see a whole lot of you that I didn’t want to see. Why would you walk around the house with no clothes on?” Onyx was still not letting his eyes return to me.

“I thought Harmony and I were the only ones here so I thought I might try to do something sexy for her. That and I really didn’t want to wear clothes when I came down here. So sorry about that. I’ll get out of your way so you can check on whatever it is you were cooking.” I sidestepped Onyx and headed back upstairs.

Harmony had heard everything. “So you were going to surprise me with some sexy things down in the kitchen? I like the sounds of that but you should probably check to make sure nopony is around before you do it next time. I don’t think most want to get a face full of your plot when they don’t expect it. I might want some of that plot when I don’t expect it but most ponies don’t.” Harmony kissed me.

“Well maybe I’ll just start surprising you with sex everywhere. Maybe when it is the least appropriate time I’ll play with you so you have to keep a straight face while I do.” I leaned really close to Harmony.

“Well you’ve got to remember anything that you do to me I can do right back to you. And we both know that you can’t keep a straight face when I get started.” Harmony nibbled on my ear.

“Maybe I’d like you to do something like that. Maybe when we get into some sort of meeting you can just go down on me while we sit there. I’d like that. And maybe I’ll repay the favor at the most inconvenient of times.” I bit down on Harmony’s ear.

Onyx yelled from downstairs. “Would you two stop that. Or at the very least close your door so you can’t be heard.”

I slammed the door and turned back to Harmony. “So are you ready for a bit more fun?” I didn’t wait for her response.

“Fun with you is always welcome. So please do what you do best.” I didn’t see it but I knew Harmony was smiling

Las Pegasus

I opened the door. “Hi Silver. Is it time for us to go back to work?” I was not very happy about having to go back to work.

“Yes it is. Spitfire had a few more things she wanted us to do. Most of those have not arisen yet and Rose and Stone have decided they have a few things they want done.” Silver trotted in the door.

I shut the door and trotted over to a chair. “What exactly do they want done?” I sat down in the first chair I came to.

“Well Rose said we need some scrap metal for a few repairs around town. The bandit groups surrounding this place have been dealt with but the larger outposts need help to be secured so they don’t fall to the raiders in the future.” Silver took a seat on the couch.

“Onyx and Demo know a thing or two about fortifying things. Onyx did upgrade my armor with his own hooves. I don’t doubt that Demo helped him with that. They can help to fortify those outposts. As for the scrap Harmony and I can go out and do some exploring or if you’ve got a mission for us we’ll see what we can find.” I grabbed my saddlebags off the wall.

“We don’t have many missions that you need to go on so you could probably just explore the wasteland for a while.” Silver thought for a few seconds. “I would suggest going to large prewar cities. There might be some pre-war technology that you could salvage. I would suggest Canterlot as one of the better places. It might be a bit in ruins since it would have been a major target for megaspell strikes, but it would be a good a place as any to explore.”

“Are there any dangers we should know about before we go out and explore?” I looked to the stairs as Harmony trotted down.

“Rose has gotten reports of a new sort of contaminant in the air from her scouts. The scouts call it taint. It is almost like radiation but more deadly. If you are in exposure with it too long anything that you are wearing will stick to you and can’t be removed. So if you do find any then try to avoid going through it and if do have to go through it remove anything that you’re wearing.” Silver waved Harmony over.

“So what are we going to do today honey?” Harmony took a seat next to me.

“Well we don’t have a specific mission so we can go out and explore the wasteland as we see fit. So where do you want to go?” I had Aurora pull up the holographic map.

“Aurora would you please highlight some of the larger cities?” Harmony was looking at the map and rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

“Of course.” Aurora designated a few places that used to be large cities. “These were the largest cities before the great war.”

Harmony looked over the map and narrowed down her choice. “Well I like the sounds of Las Pegasus and Canterlot. Aurora do you have anything on the danger level of either place?”

Aurora appeared next to the map in her holographic form. “I have reports that Canterlot is covered in taint. As for Las Pegasus I have very few reports about the situation down there. Either location will have it’s dangers but if you really want to explore a trip to Las Pegasus would be ideal.” Aurora pulled up a few statistics on how long it would take us to get to either place.

“Well which place sounds good to you my gorgeous wife?” I turned and kissed Harmony.

“Well I’ve heard stories about Canterlot before the war. I heard it was a really cool place but I’ve always been a gambling mare. So let’s roll the dice and head for Las Pegasus. Maybe we’ll visit Canterlot one day.” Harmony jumped from her chair into my lap.

“Are you gambling on whether or not I’m going to play with you? Or maybe you’re gambling on how long we can stay like this before one of us can’t take it any longer.” I smiled as she turned around to face me.

“Or maybe I just like this spot. It is quite comfortable here. Might be the spot I sit from now on. And I counted on you playing with me at least once more before we leave to go to Las Pegasus.” Harmony kissed me.

“Well you two do have time before you need to leave. An hour at the very most though before you need to be out the front gate and on your way to Las Pegasus.” Aurora disappeared with the map.

“Well we have an hour.” I thought for a few seconds. “I don’t think that’s long enough to have a lot of fun. Why don’t we get our armor on and start making our way down to Las Pegasus?” I tapped Harmony on her flanks.

Harmony smiled. “Well you aren’t playing fair. You know that turns me on. Why did you have to do that and tell me we can’t have fun.” It was always really cute when Harmony whined.

“Oh you hush. You can get some lovin’ when we set up a place to sleep for the night. Now come on we need to get our gear and some camp making supplies together before we go.” I lifted Harmony off of me and set her down on the floor.

“I’ll grab our gear how about you go down and talk with one of the merchants. I would suggest avoiding the brightly colored store unless you want to be freaked out.” I took a few steps up the stairs.

“And why would you avoid that particular store?” Harmony was holding me back with her magic.

“I went in there to buy a few new guns and some ammo and the store clerk was extremely weird. He freaked me out and put some sort of trance over me to get me to buy some guns. But if you want to go see for yourself I won’t stop you. Goodbye for now my love.” I waved Harmony goodbye and trotted upstairs.

We had our suits of armor standing just inside our door just in case we needed to grab them quickly. I slid my suit on and levitated Harmony’s downstairs. I saw a flashing light appear on my HUD. I opened it up and saw it was a video marked in a language I could not read. I clicked on the video and played it.

Aurora appeared blocking my view of the video. “Uhm I don’t think you want to watch that video.”

I made Aurora disappear and continued watching the video. I watched for about five seconds before realizing that Aurora had been taping Harmony and I while we had sex.

I dropped the video down and pulled Aurora back up. “Would you mind explaining that video to me Aurora?” I was a little bit angry and a little bit turned on.

Aurora sighed. “When you’re suits go into sentry mode they have cameras that I can use to record footage and share it with you if the need arises. I hadn’t gotten to moving that video into a personal folder.” Aurora kicked at the air she stood on.

“So you’re telling me that you have videos of us having sex. Where do you store all of that footage?” I started rummaging through the files in my suit.

“I have a folder that I store it in so I may watch it when you do not need me. Give me one second to pull up the folder.” Aurora was looking down in shame.

“Why do you have all of this? What would you call this?” I looked through the hundreds of videos Aurora had of us.

“Most ponies before the war would call that clop.” Aurora kept her eyes on the ground.

I started watching one of the videos. “So why do you have all of this clop of us?”

Aurora sighed and dropped the video so she could look into my eyes. “I have it because I want to be a pony again. I’m just a conscious mind that has been stored in your pipbuck. It has been about two hundred or more years since I had an actual body. I long for the touch of a mare. I long to feel anything again. All I’ve had for this entire time is the sight of ponies who I was not able to make physical contact with.” A few digital tears rolled down her face.

Aurora pulled up the option for me to delete the videos. I thought for a few seconds before cancelling the delete process.

Aurora stopped crying. “Why didn’t you delete them? They deserve to be deleted and so do I.” She began to cry again.

“Hey Aurora you listen to me. I will allow you to keep those videos, if and only if you allow Harmony and I to watch a few of them. They turn me on quite a bit and I think Harmony might enjoy them.” I exited the folder.

Aurora smiled a small bit. “I forgot that ponies can be forgiving and kind. I guess it’s just been a long time since I was last truly equine. The videos allow me some semblance of being alive and having my own body again. Thank you for being so kind to me Midnight.” Aurora flicked out of existence.

I smiled and grabbed the rest of the gear Harmony and I would need for the trip. “I won’t lose my equinity and become a monster. I have to find my own ways to stay myself and keep my friends around. And hey as a side note could you only keep the really good videos of us? I think of few of those might not be the greatest videos to watch.” I pulled up the folder to see Aurora deleting some of the shorter videos.

“I found a few that I would describe as not very exciting and or pleasing to watch. I’ve already started to clear out some of the library so that I can record some better videos.” Aurora deleted a few more videos.

“So what have you two been talking about?” Harmony trotted into the room in her armor.

“Does she have the videos too?” I closed down the video folder.

“Yes she does. Do you want me to show her some of the videos?” I saw a little flick of electricity go between Harmony and myself.

“Yes please Aurora. I think she would like to see a little bit.” I rearranged the gear in my saddlebags while Aurora showed Harmony a few clips.

“Ooh. So it seems Aurora has been recording us. I like the looks of a few of these videos. Wait why are you deleting some of these?” Harmony had her eyes forward watching Aurora.

“You do need some room in your libraries for important details. Midnight has more because she wears a pipbuck but that doesn’t mean we have infinite storage capacity. So I have to delete the less exciting videos.” Aurora transferred herself back over to my suit.

Silver trotted in the door behind us. “You two should probably heading off soon. The trip down to Las Pegasus is a long one and you don’t want to get caught outside after dark. If you hurry you can reach one of the small settlements that have been abandoned.” Silver trotted back out the door.

“Well Harmony we can stop and watch a few of those after we find a place to set up for the night. So let’s go.” I tried unsuccessfully to kiss Harmony through my helmet.

Harmony giggled. “It does help if you don’t have a helmet on when you try to kiss me.” Harmony grabbed my hoof and led me downstairs.

Onyx and Demo were looking over the plans Silver had hoofed them. Onyx nodded and rolled the plans up before putting them in his saddlebags.

Harmony dragged me out the door and we trotted down to the front gate. The guards saluted us as we trotted by and opened the gate so we wouldn’t have to wait for it to open. We trotted out the door. I stopped and put a waypoint for Las Pegasus on my HUD.

I looked over the map to see the house Silver spoke of. “Alright we have a house that we can rest in for the night about seven hours travel from here. We should have plenty of time to reach that before the sun goes down.” I started my trot towards the house Silver had pointed out.

Harmony and I trotted for around three hours passing the time by listening to the radio. DJ-PON3 didn’t have too much interesting news but he had apparently started to follow us on our journey.

“This goes out to the ponies who saved New Appleloosa. Thank you. The latest reports say you all have just survived the terrible place that is a changeling hive. If you get the time stop by my studio I’d like to do a live interview with you. That is all for now my little ponies and now some music.” The music started playing and I turned the radio down.

“You know there is just something about listening to the same eight songs over and over again that just make the wasteland more enchanting. I used to hate listening to the same eight songs on an endless loop when I was in the stable. Out here it’s different. Those eight songs are better and carry me along.” I looked over to see Harmony had stopped.

“Do you want to stop for a few minutes? I really don’t want to continue walking for another few hours unless I get some rest.” Harmony sat down and took off her helmet.

I sat down next to her and took my helmet off. “Well we do have about six hours worth of daylight left and we should only need to trot along for another three or four hours.” I checked my pipbuck. “Says here we should arrive in less than an hour. Maybe Silver was off in his guess of how long it would take us.” I turned to Harmony and was surprised by a kiss.

“Well I hope we get there soon. I want to stop trotting for a while.” Harmony seemed off.

“Were you watching some of those videos Aurora recorded? You just seem to be a little bit out of it.” I grabbed ahold of one of her hooves.

Harmony stayed quiet for a few minutes. I was happy to hear her speak. “No I haven’t been. I’ve just been thinking about a lot of stuff lately.” She had a tear at the corner of her eye.

I got as close to her as I could. “What’s wrong?”

Harmony sat there not talking. Something was extremely wrong I wanted to know what I could do to help.

“Harmony please tell me what’s wrong.” I shook her a few times.

“I’ve been thinking since you asked me to get married about what I wanted out of life. And then Rose announces that she’s pregnant and will be having a foal sometime in the near future. I guess I’ve just been thinking about how you and I can never have a foal. It makes me kinda sad that I’ll never have a foal that you and I can raise.” Harmony kicked at the ground.

I thought for a few seconds before saying anything. “I hadn’t thought about that. I can see why you would be sad though. The more I think about things the more I actually want to raise a foal with you.” I hugged Harmony.

Harmony waited a few seconds before hugging me back. “Maybe one day we’ll find a way.”

I have no idea how long we stayed there like that. To tell you the truth I didn’t care about anything but the mare I had my hooves around.

“I hate to ruin the moment but we really should get a move on. You two have been sitting here for about half an hour and we still have some distance to cover before we reach the first safe place to set up for the night.” Aurora appeared next to us.

I didn’t let go of Harmony. “Well I hate to be the bearer of bad news but you totally did just ruin the moment.” I sighed. “You ready to go a little bit farther Harmony?”

Harmony let go of me and got to her hooves. “Yeah I’ve had enough time to sit here and relax. Let’s go.” Harmony grabbed her helmet and put it back on.

I grabbed my helmet and slid it on. Aurora was working on something but I couldn’t tell what because she disappeared as I went to look at her. I pulled the map up and took a look to see how long we would need to walk to get to the shack.

“Aurora are these numbers correct? It says we only have about another thirty minutes to trot before we reach where Silver waypointed.” I zoomed in on the spot Silver had marked.

Aurora appeared again and looked at the map. “Well I don’t think the programming of your armor or pipbuck are off. So the map shouldn’t be wrong about how far you have left to go.”

I closed the map. “Well then I guess we can take things slow if we want.” I watched as Harmony trotted forward.

I galloped to catch up with her. “Hey Midnight. How far do we have left to go?” Harmony kept her pace.

“According to the map we have less than half an hour before we reach our first stop.” I thought about pulling the map up so we could both see it.

Harmony reached out to my pipbuck with her magic and turned the radio on. “The music does make things a little better out here.”

We continued on listening to the radio until we reached the shack that Silver had pointed us towards.

In the front yard of the house was a small shack that I wasn’t sure what was in it. Out behind the house a few beat up target dummies were laying on the ground in pieces. Out next to the house was a gravestone that I was intrigued by.

I trotted over and read the name on the gravestone. “Here lays Rose. The greatest pony I ever had the pleasure of knowing. May she rest in peace and be escorted to the Summer Lands.” I knelt down and paid my respects to this unknown pony.

Harmony trotted up next to me. “I wonder why he sent us to this place. Maybe he knew this Rose before she died. I’m going to go see what’s in that little shack.” She trotted over to the shack.

I got to my hooves and followed her. Harmony opened the door and a wave of heat hit us. Inside the little shack was a fully functioning forge that looked like it had been used recently. On a small bench in front of the fire was a sword that had been split into three pieces.

I picked up the three pieces and put them into my saddlebags. “Maybe Silver knows how to put this sword back together. I figure we can bring him back a few things.” I looked at the walls for anything that could be of use.

“Well Spitfire did leave Silver a functioning forge to use. He probably has most of the tools he needs in New Appleloosa. But if we find anything of interest we can bring it back for our friends. After all we are going to a city where you could win big.” Harmony grabbed a few tools off the walls and slid them into my saddlebags.

I stepped out of the shack and trotted towards the house. “Well we should probably set this place up for the night. I don’t know about you but I don’t want anything creeping up on me while I sleep.” I pushed open the front door.

The inside of the house was not in great condition. The first thing I saw was a table that had been overturned in a puddle of blood. A small pistol sat on the ground in the puddle of blood along with a few prints were a pony had been kneeling.

Harmony trotted over to a door off to our left. She opened the door and waved me to come over to where she was. The room she had entered was a small bedroom with a bed sized for a small stallion in the corner.

“You don’t think?” I stared at the bed in the corner.

“I bet this was. I bet he didn’t want to come back here. Rose must have been his mother or somepony special to him. I don’t like the sounds of staying here tonight.” Harmony looked outside to see the sun setting. “But it looks like we don’t have a choice.”

We both got out of our armor and set up a place on the floor to sleep. This place was a small bit creepy to me but I knew we only had to stay here one night.

“Just one night.” I curled up close to Harmony and drifted off to sleep.

My dreams that night were filled with the ghostly figure of a ghoul pony. Out of the corner of my eye I watched as she went from what seemed like a normal enough pony to her becoming feral. I would have woken up but something kept me held firmly in my dreams watching this mare. Near the end of the night I saw a smile cross her face and she slowly faded from my sight.

I woke up when Harmony shook me. “Midnight did you see her too?” Harmony looked into my eyes.

I nodded. “If you mean the ghoul mare then yes. I saw her in all of my dreams just out of the corner of my eye. Right before I woke up she smiled and faded from my sight.” I shuddered.

Harmony nodded as she got to her hooves. “I don’t know why but the house feels empty now. I don’t really believe in the supernatural but maybe we helped her to move on. Whatever it was the house feels empty and happier.” Harmony slipped on her armor.

Aurora appeared next to my armor scaring me. “Well I do have video evidence of the entire night. I would like you both to watch the video I recorded last night.”

I slid my armor on and nodded for Aurora to play the video. The video played and out of the corner of my eye I saw her. The mare was standing there watching us. She smiled and stepped towards where we slept.

“Aurora fast forward to the end of the night.” I waited for the video to go back to normal speed.

Aurora returned the video to normal speed as the sun started to peek through the windows. The mare stood over us and mouthed something that I thought might have been ‘Take care of him’ before disappearing.

“I will.” I don’t know what possessed me to say that but I felt better saying it.

“Let’s go Midnight. We have a long ways to go before we reach Las Pegasus.” Harmony trotted out of the house.

I smiled and trotted after her closing the doors behind me as I went.

Las Pegasus was still over a day's trot away and we had already gotten a late start to the day. I looked at my map to see how long Aurora had calculated the trip to take. By her calculations we should arrive in Las Pegasus in about two days.

“Aurora is there a quicker way to get to Las Pegasus?” I looked around the map.

Aurora appeared on the map. “Well if we travel down the river we might be able to knock some time off the trip. The only problem being the wildlife in and along the river are not so nice.” Aurora started through the wildlife databases.

“What type of creatures live near the river?” I looked for the scarier looking creatures as Aurora scrolled.
“Manticores would be one of the main threats. Pushed out of the Everfree Forest they have taken up home wherever they can.” Aurora rotated the manticore around so I could look at it.

“Yeah that would be a bit of a problem. Anything else we should be worried about?” I started scrolling through the archives.

“Nothing else should be too much of a problem. Mole rats and radroaches would be the next biggest problems. Nothing a few bullets from any of your guns couldn’t kill.” Aurora pulled the database away.

“What do you say Harmony? Do you want to take a romantic river trip?” I bumper her with my flank.

“Well as long as it gets us there quicker and I don’t have to walk I’ll be fine. So which way do we have to go?” Harmony waited for the map to appear.

I pulled the map up and pointed north of us. “We should have to trot for about ten minutes before we reach the river.” I gave the map a second look before turning the hologram off.

Harmony started trotting north and turned on my pipbuck’s radio. DJ-PON3 was on with the news.

“Hello my wasteland friends. I’ve been given reports that the stable dweller is headed down Las Pegasus way. Listen kid, that place is deadly. But I think we can strike a deal. If you retrieve something for me then I can get you back into Tenpony. I’m sending you a message through your pipbuck.” I turned off the radio.

I opened my pipbuck to see a new message waiting for me.

It was an audio message. “Hey Midnight. I need you to retrieve a signal enhancing dish for me. Some of the ponies in the wasteland cannot receive my news and die because of it. The dish will be in a museum based around pre war technology. If you do return with it then I can get you back into Tenpony Tower. Signed the one and only DJ-PON3.”

“Well if we get back into Tenpony we can get married and maybe we can actually have a place to stay. What do you think Harmony?” She didn’t respond. “Harmony.”

Harmony had taken a seat next to the river. “I like the sounds of getting back into Tenpony but I’m not sure we’ll get to stay. I did kinda endangered the entire place. I think we would get a week at most in the tower and we’d have to make the most of it.” She kicked a stone into the water.

I took a seat next to her. “One week would be all we would need to get the things we want to do done. We’d just have to do things a bit quicker than we usually would.” I pulled both of our helmets off.

Harmony looked at me. “Yeah you’re right.” She kissed me. “Now let’s find a boat and make our way down the river.”

Aurora appeared as a hologram. “There is a boat that will ferry ponies around for a hundred caps or so. And if you would look to your right you would see it coming down the river.” Aurora pointed up the river.

Sure enough a boat was coming down the river. The captain waved at us and dropped down a boarding plank. When the plank got close Harmony and I jumped onto the boat.

“Welcome aboard me river boat. Where are ye two headed this fine day?” The captain jumped down to us.

“We’re headed for Las Pegasus. Can you get us there?” I took a seat on one of the ships chairs.

“Well I can’t take ye right to Las Pegasus but I’ll take ye lassies in as close as I can. Now we just have to work out the payment. Usually I’d ask ye two to entertain the crew but it seems you ar married looking at those rings on your horns.” The captain pointed at our rings.

“Harmony would you be okay with sharing a few of the videos with them?” I was already loading a few of the videos.

“Well I would be okay with it but. Captain what kind of entertainment do you seek?” Harmony tilted her head sideways.

“Let me take a look at some of those videos ye got.” The captain reached for my helmet.

I backed away. “Aurora can you project the videos onto that wall?” I pointed at the wall behind the captain.

Aurora said nothing and started playing one of the better videos on the wall.

The captain looked for a few seconds before nodding. “That will do just fine. Most of us haven’t seen many ponies in a while. Always helps when we can get somepony to give us videos like this.”

“Do you have a place for me to upload a few of these to?” I trotted towards the cabin of the ship.

The captain stopped me from entering. “I do have a computer but I’ll need to bring it out here. Ye mares don’t want to go inside of that thar room.” He pointed to the room I was headed towards. “The crew can be a little bit grabby at the sight of booty. If ye catch me drift.”

“Alright. Just bring the computer out here so I can give you a few videos as payment for our ride.” I decided on three videos to give them.

The captain nodded and trotted through the door. A few minutes later he returned with a functioning computer for me. I plugged my pipbuck into the computer and transfered over three videos.

“There you go. That should cover the payment for our trip. Do you have a place for us to sleep or should we set up a place on the deck?” I trotted back over to the chair I had been sitting in.

“The trip should take us less than a day lassie. Ye should be off me boat before the sun goes below the horizon. Just sit back and relax while we take a trip down this here river.” The captain climbed the steps back up to the wheel of the ship.

I put my helmet on the bench next to me and patted the seat on my other side. Harmony trotted over and sat down next to me.

“Are we going to do what DJ-PON3 asked us to do?” I wrapped a hoof around Harmony.

“Well even if we only get one week in Tenpony that will be plenty of time for us to get married and have our honeymoon. I suppose we could stop by the museum that PON3 told us to go to. We don’t have a time limit that we are under so we can still explore as we see fit.” Harmony turned and kissed my cheek.

“Do you want to have a foal someday?” I turned my head to look at Harmony.

“That is a difficult question to answer. Yes I do want to have a foal that you and I can raise as our own. Then again I’m not sure whether or not that I want to raise a foal in the wasteland. We’ve both seen the horrors that the wasteland can unleash upon us at any time it chooses.” Harmony looked down at the deck.

“Yeah we have seen what the wasteland can send our way, but we’ve gotten out of every single situation well enough. As long as we are together you and I can do anything. So if you do really want a foal to call ours then we’ll see what we can do to make that dream a reality.” I hugged Harmony.

“Yeah I know.” Harmony hugged me back. “You always know exactly what to say. Except for when you get flustered because of me.” She nibbled on my ear.

I gave her a little moan before pushing her off. “Save it for later. I don’t want to give these ponies the live action view. Giving them videos is good enough and that’s the way it shall stay.”

Harmony shook her head and turned on my radio. A romantic song was playing. The song was coming to a close and DJ-PON3 took back over.

“Well my wasteland friends wasn’t that just sweet. Alright and this next one goes out to a pony named Rose who has just returned to her coltfriend after five years serving.” DJ-PON3 kept it quick and sent us right back into music.

I took my armor off. “Harmony would you like to dance?” I offered my hoof to her.

Harmony though for a second before removing her armor. “Yes I would.” She grabbed my hoof.

I didn’t know much about dancing but I had gotten myself into this and there was no way I was going to back out of this now.

The music crescendoed just as we stepped away from our armor. It was abundantly evident after ten seconds that I had no damn clue what I was doing.

Harmony giggled. “Asking me to dance when you don’t know how? I like that, but are you sure that you wouldn’t rather just sit and listen to the radio?” She spun me around.

I waited until I had a better sense of direction to answer. “I asked you to dance and I’m going to give you a dance.” I misplaced a hoof and fell onto my stomach.

Harmony pulled me to my hooves. “Well if you insist on dancing then I’m going to teach you.” Harmony took a few steps back from me.

I stayed on my hooves and waited. “Are you sure I can learn to dance? Seeing some of the stuff you were doing I’m not to sure about my own abilities.” My legs shook a little bit.

Harmony smiled. “Of course I can teach you to dance. You’ll need to know at least two or three dances before we get married. Now then please be quiet and observe.”

For the remainder of the trip Harmony started teaching me how to dance. At the end of the river trip I was starting to get better at dancing.

“There you go. You’ll be dancing with me in no time at all.” I tripped for the hundredth time. “Maybe not.” Harmony giggled.

I got to my hooves and took a seat. “Ow. I didn’t think learning to dance would be this painful.” I had a few bruises from where I had fallen when the boat hit a wave.

Harmony took a seat next to me. “Well learning to dance on a boat like this isn’t the best way to learn without falling a few times. Or in your case I guess close to one hundred times. Nevertheless, I said you will learn to dance and you will before we return to Tenpony.” Harmony put a hoof around me.

I winced. “Be a bit more gentle please. I’ve got bruises all over my body and it hurts a lot.”

Harmony retracted her hoof. “Sorry about that love. Would it make it better if I kissed it?” Harmony leaned in a gave me a kiss on the cheek.

I felt like being a little snarky. “I have a few places for you to kiss.” I said that louder than I had intended.

“Oh so you want to be a naughty mare for me tonight? Well I suppose I could do more than kiss those places.” It was the ear nibble that got me.

I shuddered. “You know just how to do that to get the best effect.” I stopped thinking about my pain.

Harmony smiled. “Well of course I do. I know just how to work your body to get the best responses and sounds out of you.” Harmony continued to nibble on my ear.

If things had continued for much longer I think I would have begged Harmony to take me right there. Fortunately and unfortunately the captain dropped the plank and anchored the boat.

“Alright lassies. This be as far as I can take ye. Enjoy yer stay and hurry back.” The captain waved to us as we stepped off the boat.

I put on my helmet to see Aurora watching videos. “Aurora.”

Aurora changed to being in a standing position and smiling at me. “What do you need Midnight?” Aurora pulled up a list of possible actions.

“I need you to pull up the map and tell me how far and what direction we need to go.” I waited as Aurora fumbled through the list.

“Here you go.” Aurora pulled up the holographic map. “You have about a fifteen minute trot to the east of here before you reach the outskirts of Las Pegasus.” Aurora didn’t make eye contact with me.

“I did say you could watch those videos. You don’t have to be ashamed of that.” I smiled. “I understand that you want to be a mare again and not just some computer based version of one.”

Harmony and I began trotting east. “Fifteen minutes until we reach the outskirts. How long until we reach the museum that PON3 wants us to visit?” Harmony glanced at the map.

Aurora zoomed in on Las Pegasus and placed a way point. “This is the museum where you need to head. Some of the streets leading to it are covered in rubble that you won’t be able to get over. Highlighting shortest route. Now.” The shortest route was a twisty one.

“Any dangers in our way?” Harmony looked at a few buildings.

“The city is void of raiders as a danger. Manticores don’t roam the city during the daytime so you won’t have any problems from them. I just worry about the mutants.” Aurora pulled up the creature database.

“Mutants? Like mutant ponies?” I watched as the entries flew by.

Aurora eventually stopped on a pony like creature that was a sickly green with no fur. “These are Mutants. They are mutated ponies.”

“What caused this?” I looked at the sickly creature before me.

“Some genius back before everything went to shit decided to do some experimenting and try to force ponies to evolve into the greatest killing machines ever. After a few tests they realized what they were doing was terrible but by order of Celestia herself the project was pushed forward.” Aurora shuddered.

I read the information on them. “It says here that they don’t possess magic or the ability to fly. Did they only experiment on earth ponies?” I kept reading.

“No. They experimented on all ponies they could get their hooves on. Their evolutionary virus caused those with magic to lose their innate ability to use it and those with wings to lose their ability to fly. They were terrible experiments.” Aurora disappeared into the depths of my files.

“Who lead such a horrible project?” I closed the database.

Aurora pulled up a few more files for me to look at. “Twilight was the one in charge of the group who did these experiments. She and a few of her friends were leaders when it came to the war. They all did things they regretted and it’s because of Twilight that I no longer have my body.”

I scrolled through the files learning about these ponies. I found their lives to be interesting to say the least. I saved the files in a folder that I could access easily so I could continue reading about these ponies later.

We had just come into the outskirts of town when I heard the roars. “What was that?” I pulled out my boar rifle.

Aurora pulled up the picture of a manticore. “Possibly a manticore if we’re lucky. If not we might be dealing with a behemoth.”

“What the buck is a behemoth?” I ducked behind cover.

Aurora would have told be but it was quite evident when a pony well over five times the size of Harmony and I combined smashed through a pile of debris. “That is a behemoth. Use the Revolving Sun and those special bullets and torch this bitch.”

I pulled out the Revolving Sun and loaded the special ammo Spitfire had given me. I tossed the gauss rifle over to Harmony and rolled out of cover.

I hadn’t gotten a good enough look at the behemoth before I rolled out of cover. The behemoth was a sickly green with some of it’s muscles pulsating as it walked. I aimed the Revolving Sun for a headshot and let a bullet fly.

Instead of a usual bullet what came out of my gun was a ball of bright white. The bullet traveled much slower than I had expected it to. The behemoth moved just enough that the bullet didn’t melt it’s face entirely. I watched as the bullet skimmed it’s face melting the flesh down to the bone.

The behemoth took a few steps back before roaring again. It started after me. Each strep cleared so much ground that I had to begin galloping just to avoid getting crushed to death.

I aimed the Revolving Sun again and fired twice more sending two balls of light towards the behemoth’s chest. The first one found it’s mark hitting the behemoth square in the chest. The second ripped through the leg of the behemoth driving it to the ground.

I rolled out of the way as the behemoth fell to the ground. The ground shook and I was thrown forward a few feet. I turned around to see Harmony firing into the behemoth’s chest.

I trotted over to it’s head and put the revolver right between it’s eyes. “Goodnight, you son of a bitch.” I pulled the trigger sending a ball of light through the behemoth’s skull killing it.

“Well that gun works well, but you did lose four of your ten shots killing it. Try being more accurate next time.” Aurora flashed the number six on my HUD.

“Shut up. I can delete all of your clop anytime I want to.” I dismissed the flashing number.

“Fine but unload the good rounds and save them.” Aurora appeared on my HUD.

I opened the cylinder of my revolver and dumped out the empty casings and took the two full rounds and slid them back into the box. “There are you happy Aurora?” I practically threw the box back into my saddlebags.

“Yes I am. Now then since this idiot busted through that wall we have a much quicker route to the museum.” Aurora pulled up the map.

The museum was now only a five minute trot away. “Alright then let’s get a move on and find a place to sleep for the night. The sun is already setting.” I looked to see the sun on the horizon.

“Well a place to sleep yes but for you it will be a dance studio. You still need to learn a thing or two about dancing.” Harmony climbed over some of the rubble.

“Yeah don’t remind me of my horrible attempts at dancing.” Aurora pulled up a video of me dancing.

“I thought you might want to see this.” Aurora was giggling.

“Dammit Aurora. Just for that I’m going to restrict your access to the clop.” I pull out the folder.

“No please don’t I’ll just get rid of this video.” Aurora quickly deleted the video.

I smiled. “I knew you would. Now then unless anypony has objections let’s get to that stupid museum.” I crawled over the rubble and rejoined Harmony.

Not many of the original buildings of Las Pegasus were still standing. Many had been destroyed and what little remained was charred and crumbling.

I could see the museum and it was the best looking building here. Only one of the walls was charred and most of the windows hadn’t been shot out. As we trotted closer I could see scratch marks along the outerwall. Hanging above the main entrance was a pair of foot long claws.

“What are these?” I pulled the claws down off the wall.

Aurora appeared. “Those are Diamond Dog claws. A small pair.” Aurora pulled up what information the database had on them. “They are predatory creatures with claws sharp enough to slice through your armor.”

“And it would do you well to come with us.” A sharp pair of claws entered my vision.

“Midnight don’t do what you’re about to do.” Harmony had a similar set of claws around her helmet.

“Fine.” I let go of my shotgun.

I'm a Killer

I had spent the remainder of my week with Rose training with my new throwing knives and sword. I had gotten to be decent enough with the sword, but the throwing knives were tricky for me to use.

I tried to throw one of them forward into the target dummy. I succeeded in hitting a dead tree for the twentieth time today. I ripped the knife out of the tree and stabbed it into the neck of my target.

I trotted away from the target cutting off it’s head with my sword. “Rose why are the blades so hard to throw?” I sat down next to Rose.

Rose offered me a glass of water and shrugged. Rose stood up and grabbed one of my knives. She stood before the target and hurled the blade from her mouth hitting the target between the eyes.

I stared at Rose in amazement. “How did you do that?” I got up and trotted over to her.

Rose shrugged and wrapped a hoof around me. After a minute or so Rose trotted forward and pulled the knife out of the dummies skull. She hoofed me the knife and then went and sat down next to the house.

I put the knife back in place and thought for a few seconds how I had been throwing these before. I readjusted my body and threw the next knife off of my wing at the target. To my surprise I hit the dummy in the chest with the knife.

Rose clapped behind me. I flipped my wing forward again sending another knife into the target’s chest. I took aim one more time and threw the knife directly at the dummy's head. This time the knife struck the target in the throat.

I trotted up to the target and pulled the knives out one by one sliding them back into my wing. After I was done with the practice dummy I trotted back over to Rose who was fiddling with the radio. After the last time Amethyst had been here it had broken. Rose had been trying her best to fix the little radio.

I sat down next to her and looked at the radio myself. I noticed that the back of it was open revealing a spot where batteries should be. I picked up the small batteries next to Rose and slid them into place. I closed the back of the radio and tried turning it on.

“Hello my wasteland ponies.” DJ-PON3 was on. “I have some news for you today.” Rose set the radio down. “To those of you living down near Las Pegasus I’ve got reports of a large group of raiders making a mess of the surrounding area. So if you live within gunshot range of Las Pegasus be on the lookout and always have your gun ready. That’s it for now and now for some music.”

The music started and it was a fast paced song that I hadn’t heard before. I listened for a while before I realized that something was wrong. I looked around to see raiders surrounding us. My instincts kicked in and I put a shield up over Rose and I.

One of the stallions stepped forward. “Kid you’re just delaying the inevitable. How about you just drop the shield and become one of us? Then we won’t have to kill you.” The stallion smiled and extended a hoof towards me.

I flared my wings and stood tall. “I will not join you in your evil ways. You can forget about it you piss brained moron.” I pulled one of the guns off of him.

His smile turned into a frown. “Well I did say I would give the kid a chance to join us.” The stallion reached for his gun. “What the shit?” He turned to his right and was staring his own gun down.

I pulled the trigger. “Now I don’t want to kill anymore of you but I will.” I dropped the raiders gun onto the ground.

The rest of the raiders started laughing. “Kid you got lucky with that one. I could kill you with a hoof tied behind my back.” The stallion stuck his hoof back as far as he could.

I took my opportunity and grabbed the stallion’s hoof and rammed it into his guts. “Why are you hitting yourself? Didn’t anypony ever tell you that hurt?” I grabbed ahold of my sword.

The stallion stayed on the ground clutching at his stomach and taking very shallow breaths. A few of the raiders were dumb enough to fire their guns at my shield. The bullets bounced off with a few coming close to hitting the other raiders.

I drew my sword out of its scabbard and waited. The music was building behind me and I was getting ready to strike.

The first lyrics I had heard in the song sounded. “Drop it.” And with that I lunged forward at the raiders.

The first few raiders had no time to react and I cut them in two with the Knights Bane. I made sure to keep the shield up over Rose as I dived at the raiders. The next raider almost had his gun up when I rolled underneath him slicing open his guts with my wing. I stabbed him in the head just to make sure he died.

The music coming from the radio started to lull as I pulled a shield over myself. The raiders had enough time to get their guns up and actually ready to fire. I stood my ground analyzing the situation at hoof. All of the raiders were focused on me leaving Rose wide open. I smiled and shifted the shield over with her to the closest raider. I dropped the shield long enough for Rose to kill the mare and take her shotgun.

The music started to pick up again and I trotted closer to a group of raiders. I stretched my left wing out and prepared to throw a knife into them. The bass dropped on the music and I dropped my shield sending the knife into the group of raiders.

I had put some anger behind the throw and I watched as the knife sailed through the air glowing a bright red. The knife hit the raider in the center and light him on fire immediately. The group around him didn’t react very quickly and were light on fire themselves. It was quite funny to see them run around in circles as their tails burned.

I heard gunshots and turned around to see Rose unloading the shotgun she had upon the remaining raiders. I had dropped the shield around her without even realizing.

I looked over to the see the burning corpses of the raiders who I had light on fire. I was a slight bit sick to my stomach seeing them like this. I averted my gazes back to Rose just in time to see her get hit by a bullet.

I lost control of my body. I put a shield up over Rose and charged at the raider who had shot her. I prepared the Knights bane and lept into the air. I landed on top of the raider and swung my sword releasing the raiders head from her shoulders.

I jumped off of the mare and landed on the next raider. He turned around and I smashed a hoof into his face. I kicked off of him and slashed for his midsection with the sword. The sword found a soft spot in the raiders stomach and slid through him.

Two raiders remained and they were both aiming their guns directly at me. The haze over the world made it incredibly difficult to determine what I was dealing with. I jumped into the air throwing a shield over myself.

I landed next to one raider and slammed my rear hooves into her side. I could hear and feel the ribs I had bucked break. I took my sword and slammed it into the mare’s side pinning her to the ground with it.

The final raider stood there stunned at the destruction I had caused. He dropped his weapon and dropped down to his knees. “Please don’t kill me. I never wanted this to be my life. They made me do it or else they were going to kill me.” The stallion broke down and sobbed.

The red haze over my eyes lifted temporarily until I saw Rose patching up the gunshot wound she had. The haze returned and blocked my sight completely. I have no idea what I did to the raider but I know it wasn’t pretty from the sounds I heard. Before the haze disappeared I lifted the bodies of the raiders into a pile and light them on fire.

The music on the radio finally came to an end as I returned back to normal. I shook my head. “I really need to do something about that. I probably shouldn’t ever lose control of my own body to my rage.” I trotted over to see how Rose was doing.

Rose had a bandage over where the bullet had gone through. She was trying to open a healing potion. I opened the potion and helped her to drink it.

Rose waited for a few seconds before returning to her hooves. The bullet wound was healing quickly. Rose was a bit shaky on her hooves but waved me off when I offered to support her.

“Are you sure you’re okay? That gunshot wound looked pretty bad.” I stayed close to Rose’s side.

Rose nodded and started for the backdoor to the house. I took one last look at the pile of burning raiders before heading inside with Rose.

It donned upon me as I closed the door that I had just killed somepony. Many ponies in fact. I opened the door back up and stared at the burning heap of corpses. When I let my rage control me I was capable of killing most anything that tried to harm me. My brain was sending me so many mixed signals on what to feel about this that I could do nothing but just stand there and stare.

The haze over my eyes was truly gone but I wondered if it was still there ready to come forth at anytime and unleash itself upon those who were before me as enemies.

I looked over to the mare who I had left my sword in. She was coughing up blood and trying to pry my sword out of her. I pulled the sword out of her and cut off her head. I pulled my blade back to me putting the mare into the pile of burning corpses.

As my sword came back to me I looked at the blade to see that not a single drop of blood stood on it’s blade. Even after killing all of these ponies with it not a single drop of blood stained the blade red. I slid the sword back into its sheath and closed the door.

I didn’t notice Amethyst trying to get my attention as I walked back into the livingroom. I trotted along until my knees decided it was time to give out and send me to the floor. I went down to my knees and just sat there not hearing anything that was being said.

It took a small smack across my face to bring me back to reality. After the smack came a kiss on my cheek. I finally realized that Amethyst was by my side.

“Silver please talk to me.” I watched a tear roll down her cheek.

I didn’t speak but instead kissed her on the lips and didn’t let her go. After a minute or so I finally dropped the kiss and smiled at Amethyst.

“Glad to see you’re back. Now tell me what happened outside.” Amethyst smiled at me.

I looked at her confused as to what she was talking about. I didn’t remember anything happening outside that I should have been aware of.

Amethyst tilted her head to the side. “You know with all the loud noises and that giant heap of death.” Amethyst waited a few seconds as she pointed to the door. “You don’t remember.”

It all came back to me as I stared at the door. I could see it vividly like I was still staring at it. I watched on as the raiders all burned and my sword returned to me unstained by the bloody battle I had just survived.

“I..” I couldn’t continue and put my head down in my hooves. I struggled but finally managed to say what I knew to be true. “I killed them. I killed them all.” I started crying.

Amethyst and Rose both sat down next to me and tried to comfort me as I sat there sobbing. I remembered the stallion kneeling at my hooves begging me not to kill him. That only made my feelings of hate towards myself grow stronger. I refused to pick my head up and just sat there shaking uncontrollably.

Rose tapped on my shoulder and laid down next to me. I looked at her through my tears. Her face was filled with compassion for me even though she had just witnessed me commit the worst atrocity that I had ever committed.

I couldn’t look at her anymore and stuffed my muzzle back down into my hooves. I sat there for a few minutes before even daring to look at Amethyst. She was sitting next to me with one of her hooves wrapped around me.

“Why? Why do you act like I didn’t just do something terrible? I just killed ponies. One of them begged me not to kill him and I shredded him to pieces and forgot about him. Why do you both sit here and act like I did nothing wrong?” I buried my muzzle back down into my hooves.

Amethyst spoke with the sweet tone of voice that I loved to hear. “Silver I don’t know much of this world, but what little I do know says that you’re actions were justified. You killed those ponies to protect yourself and the ones you love. I don’t blame you for that. Silver are you listening to me?” Amethyst shook me a few times.

I got my crying under control to speak. “I. I wasn’t in control of that. My body took over and I let it run wild and kill all of those ponies. I don’t deserve such a loving mare by my side.” I pushed Amethyst away.

Amethyst didn’t return to my side but went and laid down in front of me. She stared at where my eyes would be if I looked up at her. Rose was on my left writing something on a piece of paper.

Rose slid the note in front of me and waited for me to read it. “Amethyst is right Silver. I know you aren't happy with yourself for letting things get that out of hoof but you’ve got to understand that you did what you had to do to survive. And sometimes that’s what it takes out here in the wasteland. I just want you to know that Amethyst and I are here for you. You just need to let us help you.” Amethyst had read the note for me.

I waited for a few seconds. “I need some time. I don’t know if I’ll ever forgive myself for this but I guess it wouldn’t hurt to let you try to help me.” I dared a look at Amethyst.

Amethyst was staring at me with those loving eyes she had. I looked for a few seconds before smiling. A few tears rolled down my cheeks as Amethyst returned to my side.

Amethyst laid down next to me and put a hoof over me. “Let it all out Silver. I don’t know what it is your feeling right now but I’m here to help you get through this.” She kissed my cheek and laid her head down next to me.

I spent the next fifteen minutes trying to pull myself back together. I wasn’t able to and eventually just gave up and let myself cry. I eventually stopped and felt a slight bit better.

Rose picked me up and put me on her back. She trotted over to my room and laid me down in my bed.

“Rose can I sit up there with him? I think he still needs me to be by his side.” Amethyst had her front hooves up on my bed.

I didn’t watch Rose but I knew she nodded when Amethyst jumped up onto my bed and laid down next to me. I lifted up my wing and let Amethyst cuddle up next to me.

“It’s good to see you. I’m sorry you had to see all of that.” I closed my eyes.

“Silver don’t beat yourself up. I don’t hate you for killing them. I understand what it is you did and I forgive you for it. You need to forgive yourself and move forward.” Amethyst’s voice was sweet.

I thought for a few seconds before letting go of the pain I felt. “I just need some time and I’ll be over it. Anything happen back in the other world?” I pushed the bad thoughts out of my mind.

“Well I did clean up the house a little bit and did some redecorating so that it isn’t so bland. That and I got my cutie mark.” Amethyst bumped me with her flank.

I didn’t want to pick my head up. “What is it of?” I kept my eyes closed.

Amethyst looked back just to make sure. “It’s of a rose. One petal is falling off of it.” Amethyst laid her head down close to mine.

“It sounds beautiful.” I said nothing more.

Amethyst kissed me. “I thought you would say that.”

I slipped out of the waking world into the dream world. With Amethyst by my side I had no nightmares that night.

Diamond Dogs

The diamond dogs kept a claw or two near us at all times to make sure we didn’t try to do anything stupid. As we walked through the museum I saw holes scattered along the ground along with bones of what I assumed were mutants that the diamond dogs had killed.

I looked into one of the rooms and saw what looked like the dish DJ-PON3 had spoken of. I made a mental note of where the room was so we could stop by quickly if we needed to get out in a hurry.

“Where are you taking us?” Harmony looked around at all of the holes.

The diamond dog behind me spoke. “We are taking you to see the king so he can decide your fate. It is our tradition here. If he let’s you live we’ll take some of your food and a weapon or two and send you away from here. We have enough trouble around here without outsiders coming in and ruining the way we live.”

We turned down a corridor that ended in a staircase leading down. The staircase looked like somepony had built it after the world went to tartarus. The stairs themselves were stone slabs placed on top of dirt. We didn’t walk long before we were at the bottom of the stairs and on the precipice of a throne room.

“Who have you brought me this time?” A single diamond dog sat at the end of the room on a throne made of solid gold and encrusted with many gemstones. The king unlike all the other diamond dogs we had seen was pure white with claws that might have been as long as my horn.

“We have brought to you a couple of ponies who broke their way in here. By the looks of it they also killed the behemoth.” The diamond dogs pushed us forward.

“They killed the behemoth? Well I suppose someone had to do it eventually. Tell me how did you kill the behemoth? The armor would help you to survive an indirect hit but you must have some heavy firepower if you two brought that thing down by yourselves. Show me the weapons you used to kill it.” The king leaned forward in his throne.

I hesitated for a few seconds before drawing out the Revolving Sun and the gauss rifle. “These are the weapons we used to kill it.”

The guns were taken from my magic and presented to the king. He picked up the gauss rifle first and put it to his shoulder.

“Interesting. And I take it the revolver had some sort of special ammunition. Couldn’t have possibly killed the behemoth without it.” The king tossed us back our weapons. “Now what is it that you seek here in my kingdom that is so worth dying for?” He leaned back in his throne.

“We came seeking a signal enhancing radio dish so that a friend of ours could send his message farther out into the wasteland.” I took the weapons and slid them back into my saddlebags.

The king laughed. “I know why it is that you came here. Like all the other groups before you, you came for that stupid dish to return it to DJ-PON3. We’ve had five or six groups in the last four months come and ask us for that dish.” He stood up from his throne.

“Then why have they not returned back?” I kept my eyes on Aurora as she targeted each of the diamond dogs.

The king took two steps towards me. “They went about getting the dish in the worst way possible. When my guards captured them they killed them and broke into this museum. When they went to try and get the disk my warriors dug the ground out from underneath the intruders and killed them. Then we used their bodies as food for ourselves. You would do yourselves well if you listened to us and didn’t try anything.” He put one claw beneath my chin.

I let my head be lifted so I was looking at the king. “All we want is the dish and nothing else. We’ll leave here immediately after we get the dish.” I cast a glance at Aurora.

The king shook his head. “You won’t get off that easy. We need you to do a few things for us and then you may leave this place and never return.” The king went back to his throne.

“What do you want us to do?” I was getting ready to shoot all of the diamond dogs in this room.

“What we want is many things but I’ll keep it simply so your small brain can comprehend what we want. First we want you to help us wage war against the mutants who plague this city with their existence. After that you can have the dish and take it to DJ-PON3. Deliver the message to him that we want none of your kind to return to this town. We have to much to deal with without morons like you waltzing into my kingdom and doing stupid things.” The king tapped on his throne.

“We kill some mutants and you’ll let us leave. Sounds like a deal to me.” I stayed where I was.

“Well it was that or you were going to be food so you don’t have any choice in the matter. Now you will need to clear at least four buildings that we have designated in order to leave. So get to work and I might not feast upon your intestines.” The king waved us away.

We stood up and were being pushed towards the exit. “How will we know which ones are the ones you designated?” I had a claw at my throat.

The king did not respond, one of his filthy guards did. “They will have large scratch marks around the doors. Now shut up and move.” He pushed me up the stairs.

The guards took us as far as the front door before leaving us on our own.

Harmony took a look back at the door. “We could have killed them. Now we have to do their dirty work. I’m so tired of always taking a backseat and having to play as somepony’s bitch.” She sighed. “Whatever. I say let’s get this stupid shit done for them so we can get the buck out of here.”

I had never heard so much profanity out of Harmony’s mouth at once. Even when we were together she never swore like that. I reached out to her with my hoof.

“Harmony. I don’t like this either but what choice do we have? I’ve read the information Aurora has given me on the diamond dogs and they aren’t something to buck with. If they had wanted to they could have cut our heads off like they were cutting a piece of string.” I shook her a few times for effect.

Harmony pushed my hoof of her shoulder. “I know what they can do. I do have the database as well. I am just tired of not being the one in charge. You’re a great leader and I would follow you to the gates of tartarus, but could I make the decisions for a day? Just so I can get it out of my system.”

I sighed. “As long as your plan isn’t to try and kill the diamond dogs then I will fully support you.” I looked around.

“Thank you Midnight. You won’t regret this.” Harmony hugged me.

I smiled. “If I do anything with you I know I won’t regret it.” I held Harmony in my hooves for a few minutes before letting go.

Harmony took point and started down the road opposite the one we came in on. We trotted for five minutes before Harmony stopped us at the door of a building.

I looked around the entrance to see that it had the claw marks that the king had spoken of. “So what is your plan on how to take this place?” I put a hoof on the door.

Harmony threw the door open with her magic and pulled the shotgun out of my saddlebags. “We go in guns blazing and kill anything that moves. Draw your .44 and the .32 if you still have it and let’s burn this bitch to the ground.” Harmony charged into the first room.

I trotted after her as I heard the shotgun fire multiple times in rapid succession. When I entered the room Harmony was in she had the shotgun pressed down on a mutant's face. Two more mutants that were alive were slowly sneaking up on her with piece of rebar with one end covered in cement.

I brought both of my guns to the back of the mutant’s heads and pulled the triggers killing them where they stood. Harmony looked the last mutant in the eye before pulling the trigger splattering his brains around the floor.

I looked around again to see that Harmony had slaughtered four mutants before they even had a chance to react. “Well that was something. Would you mind not charging into a room without me again? These ponies might not have good weapons but they might not need advanced weapons to kill us. They do have strength in numbers.” I levitated one of the rebar clubs away from the mutant closest to me.

Harmony looked at me and I could tell she was grinning. “I won’t charge off again but I am going to take out my pent up anger on these bastards. I’ve been just getting bucked sideways for too long to let it build up any longer. Today is the day I let it all out.” Harmony trotted out the door.

I followed her and stopped when I saw the large group of mutants that stood before us. I took a quick look around the room for anything that might help us. I didn’t have to look far as I saw a grenade that Harmony had in her magic. The pin fell to the floor and Harmony pulled me back into the room we had just exited.

I waited a few seconds expecting the grenade to explode. I took my hooves away from where my ears were as the grenade exploded. I looked out the door to see little bits of the mutants fly by and a puddle of blood start to roll over the floor.

I pulled myself up and trotted out the door. None of the mutants who had surrounded us had gone unscathed. For those close to the blast they had been killed instantly and ripped into a bunch of pieces. Those that were farther away had been riddled by the shrapnel and were slowly bleeding to death.

I pulled out my revolvers and started putting the mutants out of their misery. I stopped after I saw Harmony start trotting farther into the building. I galloped after her holstering my pistols and preparing to swing the rebar club.

I caught up to Harmony and jumped in front of her. Harmony simply pushed me out of her way and continued farther into the building. I sighed and started checking the rooms as we passed them by. Most of the mutants had come and tried to fight us after our initial wave of gunfire. The next time we saw a mutant was when we reached the staircase.

The mutant jumped out in front of Harmony and was greeted promptly with a shot to the face. Harmony kept trotting and smashed the mutants skull in with his rebar club. I stepped over the gore and kept pace with Harmony as she walked upstairs.

I kept my eyes peeled as we went just to make sure none of the mutants snuck up on us. We trotted through the rest of the building without seeing one mutant. Harmony stopped at a window in the last room we had to clear.

I trotted up next to her and looked out over the remains of the city. I could see a casino in the distance. “So. Do you want to explain what all of what just happened was about?” I kept my eyes on the horizon.

Harmony laughed. “We all have our own demons Midnight. Sometimes we have to let them win for a while so we can keep our sanity and not hurt those that we love. This was just me letting my demons win for a little while so I didn’t do anything that might make you want to leave me. As you’ve seen I’m not usually like this but every now and again I have to let my anger out and stop repressing it.” Harmony kept looking out the window.

I thought for a few second. “I guess you’re right. I haven’t really come to terms with that quite yet. Maybe one day I’ll be able to handle this stuff as well as you. Until then we should probably rest. The sun is setting and I’m not sure I want to be out in this city at night.” I stepped away from the window.

“Usually I would agree with you but today I’m in charge so I say we press forward and clear out a few more buildings before we quit. The sooner we get them cleared the sooner we can leave and go home.” Harmony trotted out the door and began her search for a specific room.

I followed Harmony not even thinking about what it is that she was looking for. When we reached the room Harmony knelt down next to the door and started to pick the lock.

I looked around for something productive I could do while I waited but saw nothing except for the lone mutants corpse. I levitated his body into one of the open rooms and closed the door. I looked down just as Harmony pushed the door open.

“Nice job.” I trotted through the open door.

The room was a small clinic. I didn’t expect to find much in here since this was a school but I figured looking around wouldn’t hurt. Harmony got right to work on hacking into a terminal.

I looked around and found two safes in the room. The one below the desk was probably linked to the terminal Harmony was working on. I trotted over to the wall safe and started to pick the lock.

The first time I tried to pick the lock ended in a broken lockpick and no knowledge of where the sweet spot was. I tried again and almost had the safe unlocked when my bobby pin broke.

I sighed and discarded the pieces. I pulled out my last bobby pin and unlocked the safe. Inside was a few bobby pins scattered about. I levitated them into the little box I had for them. A few health potions were pushed off to the side. I cleared the contents of the safe quickly.

I was about to close the safe when Harmony pushed the door of it to the wall. “You missed something.”

I looked into the safe to see I had indeed missed something. I levitated the little tin out and blew the dust off of it. The tin was labeled as mintels.

I read the slogan on the side outloud. “Guaranteed to make anypony tell you what you want to know.” I was compelled to face hoof at how bad that slogan was. The zebra on the side had a sparkle in the top right corner of his eyes.

I took off my helmet and set it on the desk. I opened the tin and pulled one of the little white mints out and put it in my mouth. After taking one bite of the mintels I wanted to do nothing more than shove the rest of the tin’s contents into my mouth.

“Midnight.” Aurora appeared next to me and gave me dirty looks. “You do realize that those are addictive don’t you?”

I thought for a few seconds before speaking. “I realize but as we’ve seen I’m not one to get addicted easily.” I felt like I could convince Celestia herself to do something she usually wouldn’t.

“Yeah I’m not falling for that. Harmony if you would please take those stupid things away from Midnight.” Aurora turned to see Harmony looting the floor safe.

I watched as she pulled out a few more tins like the one I had pulled out. I looked down at my tin again and put a few more mintels into my mouth. I slid the tin into my saddlebags and acted like nothing happened. I quickly grabbed my helmet and slid it back on so Harmony couldn’t see my face.

Harmony took one last look before shutting the floor safe. She deposited the remaining mintel tins into her saddlebags. “Now what was this about taking something from Midnight?” Harmony trotted over to me.

Aurora did that thing that she did with my inventory and brought the mintels to the top of my saddlebags. “She just ate about four of these.”

Harmony picked up the tin. “Look Aurora I understand your concern so I will take these from Midnight. But just to let you know the only thing I’ve ever taken from Midnight is her virginity. So this will probably be the only thing other than that that I take.”

I wanted to eat a few more of those mintels but knew I wouldn’t be able to talk Harmony into giving me any more. I pouted underneath my helmet.

“Midnight how do you feel?” Aurora appeared on my HUD.

“I feel pretty good.” I was trying to lie my way out of the amazing feeling I was currently feeling because of the mintels. “A little bit tired but pretty good.”

“Yeah I don’t believe you. From now on anytime you try and take an addictive substance I’m going to sound an alarm so Harmony can stop you.” Aurora played a little alarm in my ears.

“Yeah that’s not going to get annoying.” My voice was dripping with sarcasm.

Harmony shook her head and dragged me out the door. I began trotting and she let go of me. I trotted next to her as we trotted out the building.

“I like the looks of that building over there.” I pointed to a hospital building that I could see claw marks on.

“So do I. Let’s go and look for some more medical supplies. Aurora do ring an alarm if Midnight finds any more addictive drugs.” Harmony trotted off leaving me to stare down Aurora.

I whispered to Aurora. “This is all your fault. I’m going to restrict your access from those files.” I would have pulled the folder up but Aurora was blocking me from doing so.

“I don’t think so my dear. I wanted to make sure my daughter didn’t use the armor to hide something from me. I have authority over everything that this suit has in its databases. Good luck trying to block me.” Aurora disappeared off of my HUD.

I galloped to catch up with Harmony. I was not sure when this feeling would wear off but I knew I didn’t want it to ever go away. I felt so alert and ready for anything.

We reached the door and I wasn’t paying attention and ran muzzle first through the glass doors. I skidded to a stop and fell forward. I would have been worried about the glass if I wasn’t wearing a full body suit.

“Midnight you really need to watch where you’re going. Celestia forbid we have you run into another mares rear end again. Now get up and let’s clear this place out.” Harmony dragged me to my hooves with her magic.

“Yeah okay. I was just eager to get in here and clear this place out so we can go home.” I felt good, like I had just succeeded at something.

“Yeah so am I but you need to watch where you’re going.” Harmony pulled out the shotgun and pointed it at the tip of my horn. “Duck.”

I turned my head to see a mutant charging me. I slammed my body to the floor again. I could hear the pellets from the shotgun shell whizz by as I tried to stay as low as possible.

I pulled out the rebar club and swung at the next mutant I saw. The stun was enough to knock the weapon from his teeth and send him to the floor. I took the next swing and bashed the mutant’s skull to bits.

Harmony had trotted past me and was firing the shotgun at more mutants. I galloped over to her and slammed the rebar club I wielded into one of the mutants. This time the club smashed the mutant into a wall crushing his skull and killing him.

I continued to swing the club wildly until all of the mutants were dead. I had a wicked smile on my face and found that I was actually drawing pleasure from killing these mutants. I stared at one of the mutants as I pulverized his body with the rebar club.

Harmony tapped on my shoulder and grabbed ahold of the club with her magic. “Midnight I think you need to calm down just a little bit. I know you and this isn’t you.” Harmony waved her hoof towards the mutant that I had been pulverizing.

I looked between Harmony, the club, and the mutant before finally snapping out of whatever it was that came over me. I dropped the club and myself to the floor.

I had a bad feeling in my stomach. I felt like I was going to throw up. “Guess I let things get a little out of control.” I lifted my helmet off. “Just give me one second.

I throw up on the ground at Harmony’s feet. After voiding my stomach again I sat there trying to not look at the dead mutant to my left.

“Better?” Harmony dragged me back to my hooves.

I grabbed my helmet and slid it back on. “Yeah.” In that moment I finally felt the full effects of coming off of the mintels. “Just a little bit slow. I think whatever was in those stupid mintels is affecting my brain.”

“I told you those would do that.” Aurora appeared on my HUD again.

I wanted to tell her she didn’t but part of me told me that she did even though I knew she didn’t. “I guess you did. Probably should have listened to you.” I waited a few seconds before letting my brain slip. “Can I have another one?” I wanted to facehoof for asking that.

Harmony shook her head at me. “I’m not going to feed your addiction to these stupid things.” She shook around one of the tins. “I’ve seen what addiction does to ponies and it is not pretty. So you are not going to get ahold of these again.”

“I know. Part of my brain just craves them. Just need to not think about them.” I stood back up.

I regretted most of what had just happened. After standing up my world started to spin and I had the urge to puke again. I held it in and fought my way through my withdrawal symptoms.

Harmony saw me swaying and reached out to me with her magic. “Next time we get to a town you are going to a doctor so you can get cured of you addictions. I’m not going to have you like this for long though. Stay here and rest. Aurora.” Harmony kept me on my feet.

Aurora appeared next to me. “What do you need Harmony?” Aurora made my armor stiffen so I couldn’t move.

Harmony released me. “I need you to watch over Midnight while I clear out the rest of these buildings so we can leave. Can you use her armor to fight?” Harmony started to pull pieces of my armor off of me.

Aurora scrunched her one eye closed in thought. “If you give me a few weapons I can control her battle saddle and parts of the armor so I can cover her if you find a good spot to put her.”

I stepped out of the last bits of my armor and slid to the ground. My brain felt like it had been scrambled and any semblance of thought was not coming to me. I sat there not thinking much other than about taking a nap. I yawned.

“I can make a corridor for you to guard if that’s what you need.” Harmony started to move rubble inside the building around to build a fortified place for me to sleep.

Aurora nodded. “A corridor would be best. Without Midnight using the armor I can only rotate the weapons a small bit.”

Harmony finished building the corridor and started moving myself and my armor into it. She put me down on the ground softly at positioned my armor directly in front of me.

“Now you two just stay here. Midnight I’ll be back in a little bit.” Harmony turned her helmet flashlight on.

I tried to respond. “O.. K..” I couldn’t continue and went to sleep.

Harmony’s POV

I laid Midnight down on the ground as gently as I possibly could. I was surprised after all this time dragging her along that she was this heavy. From her frame I wouldn’t expect her to way anywhere near as much as she did.

I set up the armor in front of her and set it to sentry mode. Aurora flashed a small red light at me to tell me I had set everything up correctly so she could protect my lover to the best of her abilities.

“Now you two just stay here. Midnight I’ll be back in a little bit.” I turned on my flashlight.

Midnight tried to speak. “O… K…” She slid into sleep.

I shook my head with a smile. Aurora appeared and waved me off. I nodded and gave one last look to Midnight.

Midnight was always cute when she was asleep. My eyes were drawn to her flank.

I had known from the beginning that she came from a stable and that she was the overmare’s daughter but every night I wondered what her cutiemark meant. I had been with her enough times that I had almost memorized her cutiemark.

A stable door stood proudly upon her flank. I knew that Midnight if she stayed in the stable was destined to become the overmare but she absolutely hated being in power like that. Even in our small group I could tell that she didn’t like to be the one that we all looked to for what to do.

I trotted up the first flight of stairs. None of the rooms had doors on them and what remained was scrap heaps of old hospital beds and operating tables.

I found a map on the wall and stopped to have a look. If this place still had any medical supplies they would be located on the top floor in the administrator’s office. I kept that in mind as I trotted down the hallways looking for anything of use.

The last door on the floor before the staircase was closed. I looked through the glass window in hopes that the inside was untouched. I looked inside to see a slime like substance squirming around the floor.

The slime creature took notice to me looking at it. It turned around and bared a pair of fangs at me. The creature was entirely black and nearly invisible in the darkness.

I took a step back as it jumped towards me. It hit the door cracking the glass between us. I took one step to many backwards and tripped backwards into the room behind me.

I heard it before I saw it. One of the slime creatures was in this room and it was moving closer. I jumped to my hooves and pulled out the shotgun Midnight had let me use. I swept the entire room not seeing the creature before I saw a safe being moved across the floor.

As soon as I shined my flashlight on it the creature turned towards me with it’s fangs bared. I levitated the shotgun closer to it and fire a shell into the abyss that was the creature's flesh. The shot did nothing more than anger the creature. I continued firing until I had emptied my shotgun into the blob.

The repeated shots had slowed it but the blob was still moving towards me. I knew I had little time to figure out something. Out of desperation I pulled out the gauss rifle and fired into the blob. This time instead of becoming angry the blob stopped moving and started to melt.

I waited until the blob disappeared before I approached the safe. I went to work picking the lock. Every noise that happened kept me on edge as I waited for another of those stupid things to charge at me.

The lock on the safe was a bit difficult and cost me three bobby pins before I finally unlocked it. I swung the door open to find a treasure trove of goodies.

A few high strength health potions and some purified water sat at the very front of the safe. I swept them into my saddlebags and continued looking. A few small boxes of bobby pins were next. I put all of the bobby pins I had into a single box.

Somepony had gathered a large stash of drugs. I looked for a few seconds before moving on from the large pile of drugs. A few bottles of anti-radiation pills and some radiation purging liquid sat in the back of the safe. I gathered up the drugs and set them to the side.

“Holy shit.” In the back of the safe next to the anti-radiation pills was ammo for the gauss rifle.

Somepony had apparently been here before me and was looking to clear this place out. I swept the rest of the contents of the safe up and shut the safe. I took another look at the drugs.

“Buck.” I grabbed all the drugs and stuffed them into the bottom of my saddlebags. “Really hope Midnight doesn’t find those.” I trotted out into the hallway.

I trotted up to the locked door and kicked at it a few times. The door was unstable enough that I would be able to kick it down. I turned around and bucked the door as hard as I could.

The door fell off it’s hinges onto the blob monster that was on the other side. I pulled the gauss rifle up and fired once. The shot hit the door on top of the monster and I had to retreat when it lunged at me.

“Son of a bitch.” I put the gun low to the ground and pulled the trigger again.

This time the shot hit home and started to dissolve. I stepped away from the dissolving blob and trotted upstairs.

This time all of the doors were closed. I trotted up to the first one and nearly had a heartattack. One of the stupid blob monsters flung itself towards the window. I nearly smashed the door open swinging the gauss rifle towards it.

I sighed forcefully. “Stupid motherbuckers.”

I continued trotting down the hall jumping away from each door as I went. Behind every door was one or more of the stupid blob monsters.

I trotted about halfway up the stairs before I decided I wanted to put a name to these creatures. I looked through the entire database but I didn’t find any creature like the ones I was fighting.

“That is odd. Guess I’ll just make a new entry.” I started to make a new entry for these creatures.

“Let’s see. Gelatinous blob with two razor sharp fangs. Melts when you kill it. Weakness? Gauss rifle or energy weapons.” I looked over my entry, it was sloppy but it might do if somepony needed information. I hit the submit button and moved on.

The third floor of the hospital was for employees. At the end of the hall was a room which should contain all of the medical supplies that were left. With any luck the mutants and the diamond dogs might not have raided it yet.

I kept my eyes moving looking for anything that might try to kill me. Luckily all of the doors were open so if anything was in them I could find them before they ambushed me. I trotted down to the end of the hall without seeing anything.

I pushed on the final door to find it locked. I pulled out a bobby pin and a began to pick the lock.

Every few seconds I would look around because I was paranoid that something was going to sneak up on me and kill me. Because of my damned paranoia I lost one quarter of the bobby pins that I had.

I broke one last lock pick. “Son of a bitch, motherbucking, dick sucking, buck.” I tried one last time and got it. “Bucking finally. Celestia damn this whole bucking place.”

I slammed the door open and galloped inside. Nothing evil was in the room with me so I slammed the door shut and dropped a filing cabinet down in front of it.

I breathed a sigh of relief. “Now then. Just need to find the medical safe.” I looked around the room.

The one distinct thing in the room was a terminal that still worked. I trotted up to it and turned it on. I was hoping for a challenge with the computer being locked. The terminal opened up revealing all of it’s secrets to me like a drunk Midnight.

“Oh well.” I clicked the button and unlocked the safe.

A small door to my left swung open and a light turned on. The inside of the safe was illuminated by one small light bulb.

The contents of the safe were much like the one I had looted downstairs. I swept everything into my saddlebags not caring what it was. I almost closed the safe, but I saw something hidden in the back in a small black package.

“What the hay?” I grabbed the little package and opened it.

Inside the package was a pill designed to purge the negative effects of addiction. A small note was attached.

“Please daddy. We miss you and want you back. Please use this and come home. I want to see you again.” The note had been written by a filly.

I let one tear escape from my eyes. I slid the note into my saddlebags carefully before taking a closer look at the package.

I read the back. “Oh Midnight’s not gonna like that. She’ll just have to deal with it.” I kept the suppositories close to the top of my saddlebags.

I heard gunfire coming from downstairs. “Shit.” I threw the filing cabinet out of my way and rammed into the door.

The door was unlocked but something was blocking the other side. I tried to pry the door free but couldn’t.

“Shit. Shit. Shit.” I looked around.

The floors in this hospital seemed a bit weak. I picked up the desk and slammed it into the ground. The floorboards splintered but didn’t quite break. I picked up the desk again and slammed it through the floor.

I jumped down through the hole. I knew that the blob creatures were going to be down here so I pulled out the gauss rifle.

“What the buck? Where are they?” None of the blob creatures were anywhere to be seen.

All of the doors were closed and I could see bars on them from inside the room.

I shook my head and picked up the desk again. It was about to fall apart so I might get one or two more uses out of it. I slammed it into the ground twice before it shattered into pieces leaving a hole in the floor too small for me to jump through.

I was really not happy as the gunfire continued from where Midnight and Aurora were. I looked around for anything that I might be able to use to break through the floor. Nothing of much use was anywhere to be seen.

“Shit.” I pulled out one of the mines I had procured from that weird shopkeeper in New Appleloosa. “Hold on Midnight I’m coming.”

I armed the mine and slammed it down onto the floor. It didn’t explode. I grabbed a book off of a bedside table and slammed it into the mine. The explosion was mostly directed downwards finally blowing a hole big enough for me to jump through.

I jumped downstairs with the gauss rifle at the ready. My first sight was that of the blobs getting closer as Aurora kept firing. Midnight was stirring from her sleep.

I shot at the blob closest to my love. “Get away from her you bastards.” I let out a growl.

The blobs looked to me. All of their fangs were aimed towards me.

I reloaded the gauss rifle and fired at the next blob. The shot hit two of the disgusting bucks killing them both. Four remained and two of them were getting close to Aurora.

I fired twice more before the gauss rifle ran out of ammo. “Aurora there weakness is energy weapons. Do we have any?” I looked through my inventory.

Aurora jumped out of the armor and back towards Midnight. “Yeah the one you left with Midnight.”

I picked up the pistol laying near midnight. I didn’t have much ammo for it but nothing else was going to work against these buckers. I fired two times at each blob drawing their attention away from Midnight.

“Come get some you little shits.” I unloaded half of my remaining magazine into one of the blobs.

The stupid thing finally melted down leaving it’s teeth behind. I put my focus on the blob approaching me. I fired the rest of my loaded magazine into the blob.

It stopped for a few seconds before baring it’s fangs. I reached out with my magic and ripped the fangs away.

The blob scurried back away from me. I put the teeth on the ground and smashed them under my hoof. The blob melted into the floor boards leaving us.

Midnight’s POV

I was rudely awoken by the sounds of repeated gunshots. I had been having the worst fever dream I had ever had in my life. Harmony was by my side stroking my mane. Aurora was in front of me shining a flashlight in my eyes.

“What’s going on?” I blinked as the light blinded me.

“Just be quiet Midnight. I know you’re not going to like this but it’s going to help you.” Harmony grabbed ahold of my plot in her magic.

“What are you doing?” I yelped as Harmony shoved something up my plot.

“I found something to cure you of your addictions unfortunately for you it was a suppository.” Harmony kept me held down with her magic.

My brain was starting to clear up. “Who would make a pill like that? Nopony likes that.” I shook my head.

Aurora disappeared from my sight. “You’d be surprised how many ponies like that. Maybe you should talk to Onyx and Demo.” I could hear Aurora and Harmony giggling.

“Shut up and let me up.” I struggled against Harmony’s magic.

Harmony just pushed me to the ground. “Give it a little bit longer to take full effect. Besides it might be uncomfortable to walk with it if you get up now.” Harmony waited a few more seconds before letting me go.

I got to my hooves and was immediately uncomfortable. “Did you have to ram that stupid thing in there so hard?” I winced as I rolled my flanks and my legs.

Harmony held the package up for me to read. “It did say to get the pill up there as far as possible. I was just following instructions.” Harmony tapped on both of my flanks.

I winced. “Yeah thanks. Plots gonna be sore for a week.” I started putting my armor back on.

Harmony helped me into my armor. “I’m sorry. Would you like a massage?” Harmony kissed me before putting both our helmets on.

I grumbled. “You’re going to need to give me more than a massage to cover this.”

Harmony cooed at me. “How about we try anal. I’ve got a few toys you might like.” I could tell she was winking at me.

“Keep this up you aren’t getting any from me.” I flicked my tail at her.

I checked my pipbuck. An hour or so had passed since I had fallen asleep. I was still tired but I knew I could go on for a little while longer before I had to sleep.

“How are you feeling Harmony?” I looked back to her.

Harmony yawned. “Just a little tired. I can go for another building to clear before we stop.” Her head drooped.

“One more and then we stop for some well deserved rest.” I pushed open the front doors of the hospital.

Only a few more buildings still remained that had been marked by the diamond dogs. The closest one was next door and it was a small residential building.

I trotted over to the door. “After this house we are stopping for whatever remains of the night.” I looked back to Harmony.

Harmony was about halfway down to the ground before I caught her. I could hear her snoring as I held her in place with magic.

“You silly filly.” I shook my head and opened the door.

I found a place for Harmony to sleep and stripped her of her armor. I set it back up in sentry mode so Aurora could guard her.

“I’ll be back in a few minutes.” I trotted towards the only door inside the house.

The door was unlocked so I pushed it open and trotted inside. I turned on my flashlight and looked around. Somepony had acquired a fair stash of scrap metal.

I looked around and started stuffing scrap metal into my saddlebags. It took me all of one minute to fill up the remaining space in my saddlebags.

I trotted back into the livingroom. I stripped out of my armor and set it up facing towards the main entrance. “You know the drill Aurora. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.” Aurora turned off the last bit of light my armor was emitting

Silver’s POV

“Hey honey?” Rose was spinning in her chair.

“Yes dear?”I reached out with my magic and stopped her.

Rose pouted. “Midnight and Harmony have been gone for a while. Do you think we should send somepony to go find them?” Rose stepped out of the chair and towards me.

I scooched over on the desk. “You shouldn’t worry so much. Midnight and Harmony are stronger than you know. Together they’re damn near unstoppable.”

Rose hopped up onto the desk. “You’re probably right.” A devilish smile crossed Rose’s face.

I gave her a concerned look. “Rose what are you planning?”

Rose pushed me onto my back. “Something I’ve wanted to do for a while.” Rose kissed me.

Midnight’s POV

I woke up to Harmony licking my nether regions. “Harmony I don’t think now is the time.”

I flipped over to see Harmony was still asleep. I shook my head. I put a hoof on Harmony’s head and shook her.

“Wha. Huh. Oh. Morning Midnight. Why does my mouth taste of you?” Harmony rubbed her eyes.

“You were enjoying me while I slept.” I got to my hooves.

“Oh. That would explain a few things.” I pulled Harmony to her hooves.

“Namely why you’re tongue tastes weird. Or maybe the puddle on the floor.” I pointed a hoof to a puddle of what I hoped was drool.

Harmony licked her lips. “Well I don’t mind the taste. In fact.” Harmony leaned in close and nibbled on my ear. “It’s one of my favorite tastes.”

“We still have work to do you two. Save the sex for later.” Aurora appeared between us. “Now get your armor on.”

Harmony and I pouted. “You're no fun.”

Aurora had force behind her voice. “I wasn’t fun before the war and I damn sure ain’t fun now. Now get your armor on.”

I sighed and tore my armor down so I could put it on. “Fine. We’ll wait for another few days. Oh and Harmony if you want to grab some scrap metal that door over there leads to a lot of it.” I pointed a hoof in the direction of the only door.

“We don’t need more scrap. It looks like you got more than enough.” Harmony examined my overstuffed saddlebags.

I looked back to see they were about to burst at the seams. “Oh yeah. I guess I did grab a lot.”

Harmony shook her head. “Yes but we have no time to worry about that know. We still need to clear a few more buildings. Let’s go and get this done. Shall we?” Harmony offered me her hoof.

I grabbed her hoof. “We shall.” I let go and trotted out the door.

I was a bit blinded as I stepped outside. It was already about noon and the sun was straight overhead.

I blinked until my eyes adjusted. “Wow. Aurora remind me to set alarms. I really don’t like waking up this late.”

Aurora pulled up a clock on my HUD. “Yeah will do.”

Harmony was trotting off down one of the streets to my right. She was about to the behemoth before she stopped and turned around.

A group of diamond dogs stepped out from behind the dead behemoth. I watched them as Harmony trotted back to me.

I stood there and thought about all of the ponies I had met in the wasteland thus far. Everyone of them was usually a pleasant sight when I needed somepony.

And then there was these motherbuckers. They are the most stupid pieces of shit I have ever had the displeasure of meeting and I had to deal with them until they allowed us to leave.

“You stupid pony! You aren’t allowed to leave unless we say so.” One of the diamond dogs slapped Harmony.

“That’s it.” I called forth some of my magic.

“What was that you stupid pony?” The other diamond dog was crouched down looking at me.

“You heard me.” I pulled the hammer back on the gun behind the diamond dog’s head. “It’s time you bastards met your doom.”

Harmony had the other diamond dog surrounded by her aura. “Are you sure about this Midnight? You know fully well what they can do.” Harmony put a gun right between the diamond dog’s eyes.

A wicked smile crossed my face and even though Harmony couldn’t see it I knew she knew. “Yes.” I pulled the trigger splattering the diamond dog’s brains and blood on my armor.

I dropped the dead diamond dog and fired twice more into his corpse. I felt the ground below my hooves shake.

“MOVE!” Harmony pulled me forward as she went.

Half a second after I got moving the diamond dogs sprung out of the ground where I had been standing. I reached for my shotgun but didn’t find it in my saddlebags.

“Here you go.” Harmony tossed the shotgun over.

I reached out with my magic and grabbed it. “Thanks. Now let’s kill these buckers.”

I dug my front right hoof into the ground and pivoted around it until I was facing my enemies. The diamond dogs were much faster than I had anticipated and the first of the five chasing us was almost on top of me when I pulled the trigger.

“Urg.” The diamond dog clutched at his chest and fell forward.

I grabbed his corpse and threw it out of my way. I took aim at the next one and fired three shots before he dropped.

I pulled the trigger again and the gun clicked. “Dammit. Cover me.” I pulled out the one box of shells I had and started loading them.

Harmony had the gauss rifle out and was planning her shots carefully. The diamond dogs had stopped and were starting to circle us.

I finished loading the shotgun as Harmony fired at the diamond dog closest to her. The shot missed by just a few inches as the diamond dog rolled out of the way.

I was barely able to fire off my shotgun before it got to Harmony. Fortunately it hadn’t swiped at Harmony yet.

“That’s got some kick to it.” I spun around and ducked under the claw hurtling towards my head.

I spun back around and bucked the diamond dog in his stomach. I put the shotgun underneath of his muzzle and pulled the trigger. A satisfying amount of blood and brains exploded out the other side.

The last diamond dog watched us intently. He continued to circle us as if he was studying us and finding the best way to kill us.

I saw a small light flash from behind him. I cocked my head sideways and watched as a small slow moving ball of plasma hurtled towards us.

I rolled out of the way as the plasma shot through the diamond dog’s chest. The plasma ball hit a building behind me and detonated.

The diamond dog held a paw up to where the plasma had gone through him. He pulled a claw covered in blood up to his face. “Would you look at that.” He dropped face first onto the concrete and died.

Derpy was standing behind the corpse. “This is the last time I save your dumb plot. Now take this and go home.” Derpy tossed me the satellite dish.

Harmony picked up the dish and slid it into her saddlebags. “Thank you.”

Derpy scoffed. “Just don’t do anything stupid. I’ve missed enough cool stuff because of the dumbass stuff you two do.” Derpy took off and disappeared into the clouds.

I looked around in the sky but couldn’t find Derpy anywhere. “I’m not sure how to feel about her. Sometimes she is really cool but other times I want to do nothing more than buck her in the face repeatedly.” I shrugged and trotted towards the open exit.

Aurora stayed hidden. “Maybe you should buck Harmony more then.”

I sighed. “Not what I meant Aurora.”

Aurora giggled. “Yeah I know. Just messing with you.”

“Let’s go home.” I grabbed one of Harmony’s hooves.

“Agreed.” Harmony nodded.

And thusly we were off.

Home Sick

We had been trotting for a few minutes to get away from the town. None of the diamond dogs had followed us which was a large load off of my shoulders.

We kept trotting for a few more minutes before slowing down. “Well Harmony looks like we’re getting married soon. You ready?” we kept moving forward.

I awaited her response. After a few minutes of her being quiet I stopped.

“Harmony? Helloooooo.” I waved a hoof in front of her face.

Harmony shook her head. “Sorry what? I was talking to Aurora. What’d you say?”

I sighed. “I asked if you were ready to get married. Seeing as we can go and get married now.”

Harmony removed her helmet and smiled. “Do you think I’m going to get cold hooves? Of course I’m ready. I love you.”

I hugged Harmony. “Anything in particular you were talking about?”

Harmony shook her head. “Nothing of importance for now.”

Aurora appeared on my hud. “We need to keep moving. It might seem like they aren’t following us but they could be below us and just waiting for the right moment to attack.”

“Right.” I looked down at the ground quickly. “Let’s go. We have a lot to do.”

I let Harmony take the lead as we started our trip home. I was not amazed by the view I got. I guess that’s what happens when you wear armor.

I was a bit bored as we trotted along and decided to turn on the radio. I had been listening on and off to the different radio stations but the only one that played decent music was the one DJ-PON3 ran. I tuned in just as a song finished.

“Hello Wasteland. DJ-PON3 here and it’s time for the news. Today’s public service announcement is about the dangers of wasteland creatures. Now look even before the radiation some of these bastards were dangerous, but now you better bet your plot they’ll kill you in a heartbeat. So keep your gun loaded and at the ready. This concludes today’s announcement. Thanks for listening and now for some music.”

I listened to the song for a few seconds before turning my radio off. “I hate that song.”

I glanced at Harmony and it seemed like she had a question she wanted to ask me. “Something on your mind?”

Harmony kicked a rock. “Yeah. I’ve had a few questions that I’ve wanted to ask you for a while now.”

“Well no better time than the present to get your questions answered.” I waited patiently for Harmony’s questions.

Harmony took a few minutes in deciding which question to ask first. “What was life like in stable 24?”

I knew she meant no harm in the simple question but every time I thought about home I was overcome with grief. I knew I hadn’t completely moved on from the death of my friends and family.

“Well. Where to begin?”

Midnight’s POV many years ago.

Life in the stable was a bit odd for me for the first couple of years of my life. Mom was always busy doing what was required of her as the Overmare. Most days I had a sitter come to check on me every hour or so.

The mare walked in a few minutes earlier than she usually did. “Hello Midnight. Your mommy wanted me to bring you to her.”

Being about two I didn’t really have a large vocabulary. “Mommy?” I cooed.

The mare smiled. “Yes dear we’re going to go see mommy. Now come here and let me change you.”

I was levitating in the air. This feeling was always disorienting but fun. I giggled happily as the mare set me down on the table.

“Well I guess you’ll be getting out of diapers soon. You seem to be doing well.” The mare tossed away the old diaper and grabbed me a new one. “But mommy still wants you to look your best.”

I waited for the mare to put me on her back. She looked to a small dresser in the room next to my crib. I saw one of my favorite dresses being levitated out.

I reached out with my own magic to get it. I didn’t have great control yet so I simply slowed down the progress of the mare trying to dress me.

“Midnight I know you want the dress sweety but I need you to let me do this for you.” The mare pushed me down onto the table.

I started crying. The action hadn’t even hurt that much, I was just not happy that I didn’t get to help.

My sitter hushed me. “Come on Midnight. You’re a big filly now. Dry those tears and let’s go see mom.”

I sniffled. “Mommy.?”

“Yes dear.” The mare slid me into my dress. “Now then.” She picked me up and put me on her back. “How about we go see mommy.”

I let her past aggression go and giggled happily as I took my spot on the mare’s back. I liked being up here I felt like I was the queen of the world.

We walked past a few of the other stable dwellers who all cooed at me. I giggled and smiled at them as we passed.

My mother’s office was a three or four minute walk from her quarters. Time went by quickly for me and we were soon standing in my mom’s office.

My mom was dealing with a few of the repair ponies. She didn’t turn to see us but waved my sitter over.

“Mommy.” I jumped off of the mare.

Mom caught me in mid air and set me down in her lap. “Hi sweetie.”

I put my hooves around her stomach as much as I could. “Mommy.”

“Yes dear. It’s nice to see you.” Mom lifted me to look into my eyes. “Mommy needs you on your best behaviour today. There are many important ponies to meet with and I want you to start learning about your future position here in the stable.”

I had no clue what that meant so I smiled and giggled. “Ok.”

I saw a smile cross mom’s face. I rarely ever saw her smile. “You’re adorable sweety. Now how about I read you your favorite book?”

I clapped my hooves excitedly because I knew which book she meant. She always had one copy of it nearby for when she had some time to spend with me.

Present day

I pulled out the .32 and shot a few shots into an approaching radroach. “I hate those things. They’re freaky.”

“Yes they are. Continue please.” Harmony slid the shotgun back into her saddlebags.

Past

Time went on like that for a long while. I started to attend school when I was around six.

“Welcome class. Today we have a very special student joining us. The Overmare has enrolled her daughter to learn with us. So how about we give a warm welcome to our newest friend Midnight.” The teacher nudged me towards a desk.

“Hello Midnight.” The class was mostly in sync minus a few foals in the back row.

I didn’t want to be the center of attention so I quickly took a seat over by the wall. As I sat down a few of the colts scooched towards me.

The one closest to me sneered at me and let out a little growl. “You better not screw up the good thing we got going here. I swear if you do you will go home with some bruises.”

I shrank away from the colt. I wasn’t used to being confronted with threats of violence. The teacher took no notice but one of my fellow classmates did.

A hoof pushed the colt away from me. “Knock it off boulder. She’s new here. Give her some time to learn all of your rules.” The colt looked me in the eyes. “Come on I have a better place for you to sit.”

I got up and followed this colt to an empty seat. He sat down next to me and whispered to me. “Those are the class bullies. I’d avoid them if I was you.”

“Thank you. What’s your name?” I kept my voice to a hoarse whisper.

The colt smiled at me. “Mine name’s Onyx.”

“Midnight. Nice to meet you Onyx.” I smiled back.

“Alright that’s enough. Now did anypony do their homework?” The teacher went to work writing on the board.

Most of the class groaned and put their heads down. Onyx however pulled out a small sheet of paper and a pencil.

I looked over at the sheet to see it was mostly blank except for a few doodles. Apparently the class was supposed to go home and draw something.

The mare walked over to Onyx’s desk. “Onyx what is this?” She lifted the paper off the desk.

“Oh… I wasn’t really sure how to do the homework so I doodled on it a little bit.” Onyx kept his eyes on his desk. “I really did try this time.”

I felt bad for Onyx. I really didn’t know much about drawing but what I had seen on his paper I had liked.

“Well I can’t say I’m all that surprised. Sometimes I wonder if you even pay attention in class.” The mare dropped the sheet on his desk and continued on by.

Onyx sniffled a little bit. I put a hoof on his shoulder. “I really did try. I did everything she asked but I still couldn’t do it.” Onyx pushed my hoof away with his left wing.

I withdrew my hoof for a few seconds before looking at the paper. “Maybe I can help.”

Onyx responded by nodding his head.

I put my hoof back on his shoulder. “Ok then. After school you can come home with me if you’d like.”

Onyx smiled once again. “I’d like that.”

Present

We had reached the little shack that Silver grew up in. I pushed a couch in front of the door and trotted back to Harmony.

What little food we had left for the trip was laid out on a blanket. “I’m not hungry. I ate an hour ago. Go ahead and eat.”

Harmony nodded. “Ok. I’ll eat and you can finish telling me about stable life.”

I smiled. “Ok.”

Past

Onyx and I became best friends. We talked everyday after school. Today was an off day for both of us. I had been teased more than usual and Onyx had gotten in a fight defending me.

I shut the door behind us and went to grab a few bandages.

Onyx took a seat on the couch. “When will those morons learn? I’m not going to stand for what they do.”

I came back out into the living room and applied the bandages. “You really should stop fighting them. Celestia knows they won’t stop no matter what you do.” I tore the bandage end off and levitated the remaining bandaging back to the bathroom. “I don’t need you to defend me.”

Onyx sighed. “I know but I can’t stand to see my friends getting picked on.”

“We both know damn well that I don’t mind it. After all these years of it.. It no longer fazes me.” I sat down on the couch.

“Midnight I need your opinion on something?” Onyx was reluctant to continue.

“Well what do you need?” I turned to look him in the eyes.

“I think…” Onyx took a deep breath. His face was a very bright shade of red. “I think I might be gay.”

I giggled a little bit. “Yes? And?”

Onyx cocked his head to the left. “What do you mean and? Up until today I’ve never even let on about this.”

I looked around to make sure nopony was around. “I’m glad you came out of the closet. Now I have something to tell you.”

Onyx nodded. “Go on.”

I snickered. “I’m lesbian. I’ve know for a long time that I don’t like stallions that way. Might have been since those bullies when you first defended me.”

Onyx looked aghast. “But you’re the Overmare’s daughter. The Overmare passes her title on to her offspring. And Overmare’s are supposed to be married to a stallion.”

I laughed and playfully hit Onyx. “Save it. I won’t have to worry about that for a very long time. And who knows maybe the outside world will be safe soon. It has been a couple hundred years since the war.”

Onyx hit me back. “Yeah I guess you’re right. Maybe we will be able to see what the outside’s like soon.”

I nodded. “Yeah wouldn’t that be something.”

My mom walked into the livingroom. “Midnight what are you doing alone with a stallion in the house? I thought we talked about this?”

“Moooooom. I’m old enough to make my own decisions now. You need to stop coddling me.” I flipped my mane to the side.

“No more young filly. Now say goodbye to your friend and go to your room.” Mom tapped her hoof impatiently.

I sighed. “Well bye I guess Onyx. See you tomorrow at school.”

I trotted off to my room wishing that I could slam these stupid automatic opening doors.

Present

The sun was just rising as we stepped outside. I was really dreading telling Harmony about this next part of my story.

“Now we get to the day that I had to leave the stable chasing Onyx.” I shuddered.

Past

I had read the note over another ten times before I started moving. My head was racing and I could barely think straight as I trotted towards the armory.

When I arrived the entire place was destroyed except for a single gun laying on the center of the floor. I had no idea how to use it but I grabbed it and stuffed it into my saddlebags along with a box of ammo.

A note fell off of the box. I disregarded it and trotted out of the armory and sat there staring waiting for the guards to show up.

One of the smaller stallions trotted towards me. I couldn’t really recall his name. “Midnight what happened here?”

I shook my head to create the illusion of just seeing this. “I have no idea. I think Onyx might have left the stable.”

“Run along. I’ll have a few of my best do a little bit of investigating.” The stallion trotted into the room.

I trotted off quickly still pretending to be the innocent little filly the stable viewed me as. I returned to my home and started going through the kitchen. I took all of the food that I possibly could stuff into my saddlebags.

I cursed under my breath. “Bucking dammit Onyx. Why’d you have to up and leave? Now I’ve got to go find you. Buck.”

I slung my saddlebags over my back and walked out the door. Evidently somepony had been listening to me. A mare a few years older than me galloped down the hallway towards my mom’s office.

I had no time to think about anything else. I galloped in the opposite direction so I could reach the stable door.

I had traveled the stable many times over and had most of it memorized but that didn’t mean I remembered where the door was. I would always ask my mom why I wasn’t allowed near the door. She used to say it was dangerous for a filly my age to be wandering around alone.

I shook the thought from my head as I rounded a corner. Before me sat two doors. One the door blocking me from the stable door, and too the Stable 24 door. The one thing that kept the outside out and the inside in.

I opened the first door easily and slammed it behind me. An alarm sounded as I shut the door. “Damnit.” I tossed anything and everything I could down in front of the door so I could have a bit more time.

I looked at the slip of paper and punched in the code as fast as I could. I was astounded as the door to the stable let off a puff of steam. The door slowly rolled out of the way to reveal the outside.

I quickly trotted down the stairs and out the open door. I looked back to see my mom banging on the door.

I couldn’t hear her but I did my best to read her lips. “Please don’t leave honey. I’m sorry for not being as good a mother as I could have been. I promise if you come back I’ll dedicate all of my time to you.”

Tears welled in my eyes. I picked up a small rock and levitated it over the button. “I’m sorry mom. I have to go find Onyx. I love you.” and with that I let the rock fall closing the stable door behind me.

Present

The gated opened wide welcoming us back to our home. “And now you know what life in the stable was like. Do you have any other questions?”

Harmony held back a tear. “Not for now.”

“Alright. Let’s go see Rose.” I waved at a few guards as they closed the gates.

As we trotted down the street I felt that something was different about New Appleloosa today. I stopped when one of the ponies ran into me.

I wasn’t sure what it was he had taken but it was obvious that he was on some sort of drugs. “Do you have mintels? Just one? Please I need ‘em. I need ‘em bad.”

I pushed him away. “No. Those things’ll mess you the buck up. Go see a doctor and get yourself some help.”

Harmony and I continued trotting along. The more we looked around the more evident it became that something was very wrong with the town. Half of the ponies we saw were staring into thin air and the other half had their faces buried into the ground.

“What the buck is going on here?” I pushed open the door to the town hall.

Rose was standing inside looking out a window upon the town. “Well aren’t we just a sight for sore eyes? What took you two so long?”

“We had a run in with some diamond dogs. That and we did have a lot of scrap to haul back.” I emptied my saddlebags of scrap so Rose could examine it.

“Well you’re trip wasn’t an entire waste of time I guess. Go rest for a day and we’ll discuss your next job.” Rose trotted upstairs.

The Birthday Party

Nothing of much importance happened for the next few years. My best memories during this time were of birthday’s.

Each birthday marked a special day that Amethyst would come out and visit me in the wasteland and we could eat a cake that Rose had made.

Today was my 14th birthday.

“Rose can I go and visit Amethyst and the other’s today?” I tugged at Rose’s leg.

Rose looked down at me. She smiled and nodded.

“Thank you Rose.” I hugged her leg.

Rose nodded and dragged me along with her into my room. I let go and Rose trotted over to my closet.

I trotted over to my bed and jumped up onto it. I sat patiently while Rose dug through my closet.

Eventually Rose turned around with a suit on a hanger in her teeth. Rose trotted over to me and sat the suit down next to me.

I looked it over before looking back to Rose. “Do I have to wear it?”

Rose nodded and moved the suit closer to me.

I sighed and put the suit on. Rose trotted away as I finished putting the suit on.

“Well Silver another year gone by and another year older. You ready to go see Amethyst?” Derpy was standing over me.

I jumped forwards away from Derpy. “Oh yeah I’m ready.” I blushed a bit.

“I don’t see why you’re so embarrassed. You look good in a suit. I guess you could say it suits you.” Derpy giggled.

I sighed. “Was that a pun?”

Derpy nodded. “Now come on we don’t have forever. The others only got one day off for this.” Derpy grabbed ahold of my hoof and dragged me through a wall.

I was getting used to moving through the pocket worlds but I was still a bit nauseous after entering. I had no time to think about it as Derpy dragged me through another door.

It was very dark. Over the years of coming to and from here I had almost memorized the layout of my home here. From what I could tell I was next to the bathroom door.

I guessed about where my bed was and trotted in that direction. I was about halfway there when I ran into something.

“Ok. I guess Amethyst must’ve rearranged.” I felt my way around and moved to the side of whatever was in my way.

I found my way to the bed and jumped onto it. I sat there and waited patiently for my friends to join me for about five minutes before I got bored.

I sighed. “Well I guess I’m going to be here awhile before they get here.”

I called forth my magic and made a small ball of light. The light let off by the ball was the same color as my coat so I didn’t receive much light to see by. I maneuvered the light ball towards the light switch.

I stopped the light right in front of the switch. “Here we go.” I flipped the switch and the lights came on.

My friends jumped out. “Surprise.”

I would have jumped back if Violet wasn’t holding me there. I took a few seconds to realize what happened and I relaxed. Violet let me go and they all trotted over to my bed.

I looked around to see everypony except Amethyst was here. “Where’s Amethyst?”

“She had something special that she wanted to get you. She’ll be here in a minute or so. Until then.” Violet directed her gaze to Blaze. “Get the cake.”

Blaze trotted out the door. The door stayed open long enough for Amethyst to trot in.

I swear my jaw would have fallen completely off was it not attached so well. Amethyst was wearing the red dress she had worn the first time she had come to the wasteland. Her mane flowed over the right side of her face and ended in a small curl. The light hit the dress perfectly and made the sparkles shine brightly.

I kept my mouth open and tried to speak but was to stricken with Amethyst’s beauty to even think of what to say.

My brain didn’t start working again until I realized Amethyst was walking towards me. I tucked my legs underneath and sat there watching as she approached.

Amethyst hopped up onto the bed next to me. “How are you doing today honey?” Amethyst kissed my cheek.

I said nothing and just sat there blushing really hoping that somepony would help me out of this situation. No such help came for me.

Amethyst waved a hoof in front of my face. “Equestria to Silver. Come in Silver.”

Buck buck buck. I couldn’t think of anything to say so I let my actions speak for me. I turned to Amethyst and kissed her deeply on the lips. That did very little to help me out of my current predicament. In fact it made it worse.

Amethyst pushed me gently away. “I’ll take that as good.” She giggled and hugged me.

Fortunately Blaze trotted back through the door pulling a small trolley behind him. He brought the cart inside and set it up next to the little table in the corner.

Amethyst jumped off the bed and looked to me expectantly. “Well Silver what are you waiting for?”

I sat there not moving. Amethyst knew exactly what was wrong as I blushed.

Amethyst shook her head. “Just get over here and enjoy your birthday Silver. Nopony minds. We all just want you to have some fun.”

I waited for a few seconds before jumping off the side of the bed. My blush didn’t fade as I approached the table where all my friends had found a place to sit. They left one chair open for me at the head of the table. I quickly took a seat and tried to act natural.

Amethyst was sitting directly next to me. I jumped a little as she put a hoof on my shoulder.

Amethyst sighed. “Look I know you were raised in the wasteland but you need to take it easy. Relax. Have fun.” That smile of hers was the most enchanting thing ever.

My blush faded and I smiled. “Ok.”

After a few hours of this awkwardness everypony decided it was about time for relaxing.

I trotted over to the couch and took a seat. Amethyst followed shortly behind and took a seat right next to me.

Blaze and Violet sat together while Derpy and Ace sat opposite of eachother.

Amethyst laid down next to me. I put a wing over her and laid down.

Blaze and Violet exchanged glances as if they were having a full blown argument without disturbing us. After a few seconds they looked over at Amethyst and then back to each other. They nodded and got out of their chairs.

Violet trotted over to the door. “Well Silver we’re going to go home so you can enjoy some time with Amethyst. Blaze leave him the gift.” And with that she trotted out.

Blaze set a package down on the couch to my left. “Happy Birthday Silver. Have fun for the rest of the night. Also don’t burn through that present to quickly.”

I smiled at him and was about to talk when Ace pushed him out the door. “Cya later Silver.”

“Bye.” I watched as Derpy got out of her chair.

Derpy smirked. “Well Silver we all have things to do so just enjoy your evening.”

“I will thanks Derpy.” I smiled. “You too.”

Derpy nodded. “Will do Silver. Bye.” Derpy waved a hoof at me as she trotted out the door.

Amethyst opened one eye and looked the room over. It took her only a few seconds to jump up and lock the door.

I eyed her over a bit confused. “Ummmm.”

“Don’t worry, follow me and bring that box.” Amethyst pointed to the gift Blaze had left me.

I jumped down off the couch. I trotted along behind Amethyst with the box in tow. Amethyst led me straight to the bedroom.

I was a bit surprised at how much she had actually managed to get done. The last time I slept here was about two weeks ago and the room had been not only rearranged but repainted as well. The color scheme set up a romantic mood.

Amethyst jumped up onto the bed. “Get up here and set that package down over there.”

I didn’t look where she was pointing. I dropped the package off to my right and jumped onto the bed.

“So what are we..” I would have continued but Amethyst forced me to the bed in a kiss.

“Something fun.” Amethyst kissed me again.

Sometime later

I was laying there with Amethyst. Her gift to me was without a single doubt the best gift I had ever received.

The room was dark and I couldn’t see all that much but after a few seconds I realized there was a loud banging on the door. I unlocked the door after I threw the cover up over us.

Blaze and Violet burst through the door slamming it into the wall. They looked around for us before looking to the bed.

Violet trotted over averting her eyes from me. “Why didn’t you unlock the door earlier?” The sternness in her voice was unusual.

I cocked my head to the side. “How long have you been knocking?”

Blaze trotted over beside Violet. “We’ve been banging on the door for the past half an hour.”

“Why?” I sat up a little bit.

“Well somepony decided to put bugs in your room. So your little session was heard across the entire base.” Blaze pushed Violet towards a chair.

The blood drained from my face. “Wha.. What!?” I resisted the urge to jump out of bed.

Amethyst moved her head from my lap. “Just stay here Silver. Somepony just wanted to embarrass you. It’s better to not run out there right now and do so even more.” Amethyst pushed me back down to the bed. “Now just go to sleep.”

I glanced at Blaze and Violet. They nodded their heads and continued looking around the room.

I shrugged my shoulders and laid my head down. “Goodnight Amethyst.” I kissed her forehead.

Amethyst smiled. “Goodnight lovercolt.”

Drugs

Rose laid a few maps out on the table. “I don’t know exactly where they're coming from, but what I do know is that they’re getting into the city in massive quantities and it needs to stop!”

I looked at a few of the drugs laid down on the table before us. “So what? You want us to find out where all of these drugs are coming from and then kill the ponies responsible?”

“That is exactly what I want Midnight. I’m tired of dealing with these ponies whacked out on so many drugs they couldn’t tell their plot from a hole in the ground.” Rose slammed her front hooves on the desk.

I caught a glimpse of a can of mintels. “Ok. Do you have any leads.” I grasped at the tin with my magic.

Harmony tore the tin away from me and tossed it out the closest window. “Don’t even think about it.”

Rose rolled her eyes. “Now I have a general idea of where the drugs are coming from. I’ve had a few of our pegasi do recon and one pony has been travelling between here and an abandoned city. He leaves with a briefcase full of caps and returns with enough drugs to put the entire town on it’s plot.”

I looked at the map on the table and tried to locate the city on my pipbuck. “I don’t see a town anywhere near where the maps say it should be.”

“Aurora.” Harmony tapped on her helmet.

“I’m looking for it. Give me a few seconds. Here it is.” Aurora laid a virtual map over the top of the map on the table.

Without a doubt there was a town where Rose had said. “Whatever. So that’s where the drugs are coming from?”

Rose nodded. “I’m not one hundred percent on that but it seems like the most likely place for them to be coming from.”

I programmed in a waypoint on my pipbuck. “Alright then. We’ll head there right away.”

Rose rolled the maps up. “All of you should go. My recon squads haven’t brought back very good information. We have no idea what kind of danger might be out there.”

I nodded and trotted towards the door of Rose’s office. “Come on Harmony.”

Harmony trotted fast to catch up with me. “Well I guess this gives us a bit more time to practice your dancing.”

I sighed. “Yeah. That.”

Harmony tisked at me. “Fret not my love. Now that we are on solid ground you won’t fall as much. And even if you do I’ll be right there to catch you.”

Onyx was hovering above me. “So…. I hear we might get to see you dance. That sounds interesting.” That stupid smile I saw occasional was plastered on Onyx’s face.

I pushed him down to the ground with my magic. “Nope. You will see no such thing. Now go bother Demo or something.”

Onyx snickered. “I was just fooling around Midnight. We both know you can’t dance.”

I punched Onyx in the shoulder. “And why is that?”

Onyx tilted his head to the side and raised an eyebrow at me. “Remember the one and only dance you went to in the stable?”

I thought for a few seconds before slamming Onyx to the ground. “Don’t remind me about that.”

Onyx pushed me off. “You asked how I knew and I told you.”

Harmony dragged me away from Onyx. “Care to explain that?”

I shook my head furiously. “No.”

Harmony nodded. “Fine. Would you like to hear a few tales of my experiences out here?”

I realized only know that I didn’t remember asking Harmony about her past. I guess I just had a problem with the past. “Sure.”

Harmony age 8

It was a typical day in Appleloosa. A group of raiders had been seen camping outside for the past few days. Something was wrong though. The entire group of raiders had left without giving us trouble.

“Do you think we’re safe? Maybe they left because they don’t know what we can do.” A few of the local foals were talking about the raiders.

I stayed close enough to hear what they talked about but not close enough to be asked to join in. I was a bit shy when it came to meeting new ponies. There were rare circumstances where I saw somepony and immediately had no problem talking with them. It was usually the fillies about my age I had no problem talking to.

“Harmony what are you doing out here?” Mom was standing over me.

I kept my voice to a whisper. “Hi mom. I was just listening to the other foals talking.”

My mom shook her head. “Harmony you really should learn to talk to the other foals. They won’t bite.”

I peeked my head around the corner to see the group trotting away. “It’s not getting bitten I’m worried about.”

Mom picked me up with her magic. “Well come on let’s see if they want to play.”

Knowing mom there was absolutely no way I was getting out of this. “Ok.”

Mom carried me along until we caught up with the other foals. Usually they would be playing tag or something but today they had just decided to sit around.

“Hello. Would you mind if my daughter came and played with you?” Mom set me on the ground.

I tucked myself behind of one of mom’s legs.

The other foals talked amongst themselves for a few seconds before they nodded. “We don’t mind. What’s your name?”

Mom pushed me out to meet the foals.

“My names Harmony. I’ve been wanting to play for a while but I’ve been too shy to ask.” I glanced at the foals occasionally.

The colt took it all in tow. “Well Harmony it’s nice to meet you. Let’s go.” The colt turned around and trotted away with the other foals.

Mom pushed me along. “Go and play honey. Just be back before five.”

I smiled weakly and waved. “Ok mom.”

I looked between the group of foals and mom for a few seconds before going with the foals. I trotted quickly to catch up with them.

“So what are we going to do?” I kept pace with the colt who was the leader of the little group.

He shot me a glance and then pushed me into an alleyway. “What we’re going to do is something you must tell nopony about.”

I shied away from the colt. “What are we going to do?”

He smiled. “We’re going to go outside of town and go join the raiders.”

I shook my head and stared in awe. “Wha.. What?”

“Life around here is boring we want to live not just survive. If you don’t want to then you’re not going anywhere ever again.” The colt motioned to another foal in the group.

The filly he had motioned to pulled out a switchblade and stepped towards me.

“So. Do you choose to join us or to die?” The colt held one hoof out across the filly’s chest.

I ripped the switchblade away from the filly and slashed at the air in front of the group. “Stay back. I won’t hesitate.”

One of the colts reached out with his magic and took the switchblade back. “That’s not going to work.”

“Don’t kill her. Maybe we can get somepony to pay for her.” The leader stepped towards me.

I lowered my body into a fighting stance. I hurled myself at him and swung my right hoof at his face.

He ducked and slammed me to the ground. “What do you think that was going to accomplish?”

I had a blade to my throat. “What do you want from me?”

The colt above me laughed. “We want you to join us. And if you don’t I’m going to rape and kill you.”

I sat there staring at the colt for a while thinking and hoping. “I’ll join you.”

The colt smiled and let me up. “I hoped you would.”

I watched as one of the foals was hurled down the alleyway. She came to a stop with a broken neck at the end.

My mom stepped into the entryway to the alley. “You’re going to step away from my filly or I’m going to kill you all.”

The colt with the switchblade galloped towards my mom. It all happened in a blur and the next thing I knew I was sitting next to my mom who was wielding the switchblade.

The last two of the foals stared in fear at my mom. “This is the life you’ll get if you seek to be raiders. Remember this day if you ever think of becoming raiders again.”

I didn’t know what happened so I just hugged my mom and didn’t let go.

Present day Midnight’s POV

Harmony had just finished telling me more about herself. I knew that I knew oh so little about the mare who I was engaged to. I looked to the sky to see the sun was getting down towards the horizon.

“Maybe we should find a place to hold up for the night.” Silver looked around and pointed towards a building. “That place will do for the night.”

The building used to be an old school from what I could tell. The second floor was missing two of it’s walls and the roof had collapsed leaving behind sharpened rebar.

I push on the front door and it fell off the hinges. The inside of the building looked to be somewhat safe. I really hoped that the rest of the building was reinforced with rebar.

Silver pushed further into the school looking for a suitable place to set up camp for the night. Eventually he stopped in a small commons area.

Three classrooms surrounded the small area. “Harmony and I’ll take the room on the left. Demo and Onyx can take the room on the right.”

“What about Silver?” Harmony started setting up a small camp fire.

“Like I said before I can stand not sleeping for the night. I’ll keep watch for anything that might wander in.” Silver went and took a seat in front of the third classroom door.

I nodded. “Alright thanks Silver.”

“No problem. Anything to protect my friends.” Silver said nothing more as he attended to a few things.

The rest of us sat around the fire for a while talking and eating a small portion of our food.

I checked my pipbuck to see what time it was. “It’s getting late. We should probably go to bed.”

Harmony and I headed for the room we had claimed.

Onyx and demo headed to their room and Silver extinguished the fire and sat in the dark.

Silver’s POV

The others had gone to sleep. Well gone to bed not to sleep. I couldn’t hear much from them but I knew neither group was sleeping.

Something felt off about this place. I wasn’t sure whether it was the thought that fillys and colts had died here or something else. Maybe it was a small bit of both the more I thought about it. I shook the thoughts from my head.

I liked the darkness. I fit in here. When all was dark I blended in to the point where most ponies couldn’t even tell I was there if I was standing a foot in front of them. That made me feel calm and at ease knowing I could always retreat into the darkness and hide.

A few floorboards creaked somewhere towards the entrance to this area. I couldn’t see anything but I kept my ears open and listened carefully for anything else.

No noises except those of the two groups of lovers flooded my ears. I relaxed again and continued to sit in the relatively silent night.

I liked times like this. I got to sit back and reflect upon my life and think of the many things that I still wanted to do.

As of late my life had become a whole lot more complicated than I ever thought possible. I knew I still wasn’t completely over the loss of my adoptive mother. No matter what, I knew that somehow she was still watching over me. Guiding me to do what was best.

I had a foal on the way with the love of my life who I hadn’t seen in forever. Many thoughts swirled in my head about this. What was I going to name the foal? How was I going to protect it from the wasteland? And how could I be a father to this foal? All my life I had been trained to be a killing machine and not somepony who lived a simple life as a father.

“Oh shit. What am I going to do?” I sat and stared at the floor for a few moments.

A set of floorboards off to my left squeaked. I snapped my vision towards that spot and listened. Whatever was making those floorboards squeak knew how to avoid being caught.

I hoped that it was just the building settling down with the new weight of ponies walking here again.

As time went on the floorboard squeaks got closer and closer to me until they were within range of my wings.

I light up my horn and made the area around me glow a vibrant blue color. I looked around for whatever was causing the noise but found nothing.

I let my guard down just a little bit and that’s when it happened. A small rag was pressed up against my muzzle and as I breathed in my vision become blurry and I slipped out of consciousness.

Midnight’s POV

Harmony and I laid in bed together just listening to the other breath. It was very nice for once just to sit there and not worry about anything except for the mare you had your hooves wrapped around.

I had my muzzle buried into Harmony’s chest. I listened as her heartbeat started to slow down as she recovered.

I had been hearing the floorboards squeaking every now and then and assumed that Demo and Onyx were doing something. Now everything was quiet and I heard the floorboards creak and a very light thud as something slid to the ground.

I paid no attention to it and sat there cuddling Harmony. I could have stayed like that for the entire night and I would have had I not heard what started off as quiet moaning. After a few minutes moaning the likes of which I very rarely heard were happening.

“You hear that right?” I shook Harmony a little.

“Yeah I do. We should probably go check that out.” Harmony rolled off of the table we were laying on.

I followed shortly behind her. When we opened the door I couldn’t see anything so I used my magic to relight the fire in the center of the room.

Standing there in the middle of the room was Silver. Below him lay a zebra mare. They were ... connected.

Silver’s POV

After getting knocked out all I could hear was moaning coming from on top of me. I have no idea how long I was out for but it felt like an extremely long time.

Eventually my eyes opened up again and I was greeted by the familiar sight of darkness. A heavy weight was on top of me so I rolled over.

My brain was starting to getting moving again and I felt something. A warmness down in my nether regions I hadn’t felt in a long time.

I looked down just as the fire got relit behind me. I stared into the face of an exhausted zebra mare laying below me. I stared for a few seconds before tracing my eyes down her body and towards my own.

I was really hoping what I thought had happened hadn’t. I slowly traced my sight backwards until I could see that my fear was true. This mare had drugged me and raped me while I was out.

Midnight whistled. “You just going to stand there or are you going to finish the job?”

I looked between the mare below me and Midnight a few times before retreating from the mare who I was inside of. “You were really just going to stand there and watch? What the buck is wrong with you?” I heard a slight pop as I stepped backwards.

Midnight shrugged. “I’m never sure about your faithfulness to one pony. I thought you and Spitfire had sex a few times. And after Rose came to New Appleloosa looking for you I figured you two probably bucked.”

I shook my head. “We’ll discuss this later. For now I’m going to kill this stupid bitch.” I put the blade of my wing against her throat.

The mare simply smiled. “I wouldn’t do that if I was you.”

“And why not motherbucker?” I sneered.

“You’re in possession of a sword that has been torn into pieces. I know how to return it to it’s former glory.” The mare pointed towards Midnight.

“What sword do you speak of?” I lifted the blade an inch away from the mare.

The mares smiled faded. “I speak of a sword capable of slicing a pony cleanly in two and coming out without a stain on it. A blade of pure light that can harness the sun and turn the tide of battle.”

I knew what blade she spoke of. “Where did you find the Knight’s Bane?”

Midnight floated the pieces to me. “I found it in your old home. We grabbed some gear for you to use at your forge and found the pieces of it.”

I looked back down to the zebra. “You get to live until you fix my sword. After that I’ll let the others decide your fate for your crimes.”

I pulled my wing back to my side and moved away from the zebra.

The mare simply nodded her head and got back to her hooves. “When can I get started on fixing that sword?”

I thought for a few moments avoiding eye contact. “Midnight give the sword pieces to Onyx and Demo. They can escort this bitch back to New Appleloosa.”

Midnight floated all three pieces in front of herself. “Are you sure about that?”

I nodded. “Demo and Onyx have the least amount of armor out of any of us. We have no idea what we’re trotting into and I would prefer to have a smaller chance of losing somepony.”

Midnight nodded and slid the sword components into Onyx’s saddlebags. “Alright. Onyx as soon as the sun rises head back to New Appleloosa and make sure everything is ok.”

Onyx nodded and yawned. “Fine. But for now I’m going back to bed.”

Midnight nodded. “Sounds like a good idea. Silver are you going to sleep?”

I shook my head. “Tonight shows why I don’t sleep in places I’m not comfortable with. Let your guard down for one second and everything goes to shit.”

Midnight’s POV

After the sun had come up Onyx and Demo departed for New Appleloosa. Silver, Harmony and I all continued forward towards the city.

I checked the map again. “It says we should be getting close to the city. But I don’t see anything.”

Silver looked around before nodding. “We’ll find it.”

“How do you know that?” Harmony looked at the map.

“Same sort of technology used to hide where I trained from the public eye. With any luck that waypoint is in the center of town and we’ll walk through the shield in a few minutes.” Silver eyed the area in front of us.

We kept trotting forward. I kept looking around for anything that might give me a clue as to where this city was.

Silver whistled. “Over here.”

I watched as Silver trotted through an invisible wall and completely disappeared. “Well that’s interesting. I’ve never seen anything like that.”

Silver stuck just his head out of the invisible wall. “Are you two going to stand there all day? We have a job to do you know?”

I trotted through the barrier. Inside was a small city that was mostly destroyed. “Why would anypony want to keep this place hidden?”

Harmony shrugged. “Beats the shit out of me. Let’s just take a look around and see if we can find the pony responsible.”

Out of the corner of my eye I saw a shadow dart across the street. “You saw that right?”

Silver nodded. “Ready your guns. I’m not sure what that was. Could be anything.”

I pulled out my 44 magnum. “It went into that alleyway.”

We moved slowly towards the alleyway. When we reached the entrance to the alley we saw nothing.

I trotted further into the alleyway. About halfway down there was a small slip of paper stabbed to the ground.

I picked up the note and read it. “Welcome. Welcome?”

Silver and Harmony stood next to me looking at the note. “What the buck does it mean by welcome?”

The voice of a stallion sounded behind us. “It means many things.”

A lightsource made the stallion a silhouette. “Who are you?”

The unicorn stallion spoke. “My name does not matter. What matters is you stop following this drug lead. It will lead you to death.”

Silver stepped forward. “You want to try and kill me?”

The stallion laughed. “I don’t seek to kill you. An alicorn such as yourself might be helpful to my cause.”

I shook my head. “What?”

The stallion thought for a second. “You’ve been doing a good job at killing the raiders who harass me for my drugs. So I propose a deal to you.”

Silver took a step back. “Oh do tell.”

The stallion chuckled. “You stop following me and I stop sending drugs to New Appleloosa. That way both of us get what we want and nopony has to meet an untimely doom.”

Silver looked back to us. “What do you two think?”

I looked into Harmony’s eyes. She nodded.

I nodded. “We’ll accept.”

The stallion nodded. “Good choice. I really don’t like killing ponies unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

The stallion began to fade. “Oh and one last thing.” He tossed a bag our way. “Take these you might need them.” And with that the lightsource dimmed and the stallion faded from existence.

I stared at where he had been for a few seconds. “That was weird. Wonder what he left us?”

I picked up the bag with my magic. I looked for an opening but didn’t find one. I grabbed a small chunk of sharp metal laying nearby and cut a small hole in the bag.

The contents spilled onto the ground and I was amazed at what I saw. “Are those all stealthbucks?”

On the ground was twenty stealthbucks. They looked a bit different from the ones that I was used to seeing.

I levitated one up and read it. “Stealthbuck mark 2.”

I flipped it over and a note was attached. “These should make you a bit more stealthy. I gave you enough to last most ponies a lifetime but I have a feeling you’re going to burn through these quickly. Signed R.F.”

I shrugged. “He didn’t kill us and we shouldn’t have a problem with the drugs anymore. I guess we can go home now.”

Harmony deposited the stealthbucks in her saddlebags and we started the journey home.

Getting Hitched

The entire trip back to New Appleloosa only one thought occupied my mind. I’m going to get married soon. “PON3 better come through on this.”

Silver shot me a glance. “Come through on what?”

I thought for a second. “You weren’t there with us for that. I forgot.”

“Forgot what Midnight?” Silver stopped and tapped on the gate.

“We kinda sorta got kicked out of Tenpony Tower.” I rubbed the back of my head. “We have business we need to do there and PON3 said he could get us back in.”

Silver nodded and trotted through the gate. “So I take it that we’ll be heading there immediately if we have no work to do.”

I nodded. “Yeah if Rose has no more work for us I think we’ll be heading that way. Might stay there for a few days.”

Today a few less ponies seemed to be whacked out on drugs. Those that weren’t were leaning against buildings throwing up. I shook my head and kept walking.

Demo and Onyx were working up on the roof of town hall installing some weird gun. I had no clue what it was but it looked bucking amazing.

Rose opened the door for us. “So I take it you solved our little problem.”

I nodded still trying thinking about that gun. “Yeah we solved it. Should have no more problems.”

Rose nodded. “Good. I want this city to be at it’s best. I have reports from the last attack saying if you hadn’t come along when you did this place would no longer exist.”

“Yeah we did show up at a good time.” Harmony took of her helmet. “Do you have any more work for us?”

Rose trotted back into her office. “None that I am aware of. Demo and Onyx should get finished installing that laser cannon soon enough. You can have a few weeks off.”

“Well that settles it we’re going to Tenpony Tower and making it official.” I was ready for this.

Rose cocked her head to the left. “Make what official? Oh wait. You’re getting married aren’t you?”

Harmony and I both nodded. “Yes we are.”

Rose studied a board sitting behind her chair. “Have you got this all planned out?”

I shrugged. “We’ve got a general idea.”

Rose tsked at us. “You really should have it more planned out. Can I come with? I haven’t seen much of the wasteland and Tenpony sounds like a nice place to visit.”

“The more the merrier. No reason you can’t come along.” I smiled warmly.

The door behind us opened and the zebra mare walked in with a case on her back. “I’ve been waiting for a few hours to return this to you.”

Silver levitated the box. “You finished the sword that quickly?”

The mare nodded. “Yes I did. It was no challenge whatsoever.”

Silver opened the box and brought the Knight’s bane out. “It looks brand new. Well done. Now then it is time to decide your fate.”

The mare nodded and took a seat on the floor. “Do as you must.”

Rose put a hoof on Silver. “What do you mean decide her fate?”

Silver sighed. “While we were out looking for whoever has been dealing drugs to New Appleloosa this mare raped me.”

I couldn’t tell how Rose was feeling. Her face was a mixture of sadness, anger, and confusion. “So you’re telling me she raped you and you didn’t kill her immediately.”

Silver nodded and sighed. “Yes. She gave me a good reason not to kill her. So I let her live until my sword was finished.”

Rose thought for a few seconds. “Alright. Her sentence is not death, however she will be working for us forging swords and other equipment until I say she is free.”

The mare stood up a look of pleasure on her face. “If that is my fate than I shall work hard to arm your soldiers with the finest weapons I can make.” With that she walked outside and straight back to the forge.

“Ok then. Now if you want we can leave right away and go to Tenpony.” I trotted towards the door.

Onyx was standing at the door. “Why are we going to Tenpony?”

I smiled. “Because I’m getting married.”

“Oh right. Well I just came to tell Rose that we should have the cannon up in a day or so.” Onyx moved out of the way to let Demo in.

“Good. Maybe we can have this place ready before another bandit attack.” Rose pushed away from her chair and trotted over. “We do have a few sky chariots if you would prefer. Either way I’m not walking that far.”

“Well it would be best if we got there quickly. Stone do you mind taking care of the place?” Silver wrapped a wing around Rose.

Stone was looking over a few charts in an adjacent room. “Yeah I can take care of things here for a few days. Just try to be quick about this. We still have more work to do.”

“You’re now fun Stone.” Rose teased.

“It’s the wasteland Rose. I’ve got no time for fun and games. Far as I know we’ve got raiders ready to kill us right now. That reminds me Onyx have someone put that cannon up while you’re gone.” Stone waved us away.

“Yeah will do.” Onyx muttered the next part under his breath. “Bastard.”

I glanced between Onyx and Stone for a second before shrugging it off and trotting out the door. “Where are the chariots at?”

Rose kept pace with me easily. “Silver, Demo, Onyx, If you wouldn’t mind grabbing the chariots and meeting us outside the front gate that would be nice.”

They all nodded. Silver took the lead and headed for the chariots.

“As soon as we get to the tower we need to discuss plans for your wedding. I can’t believe you two haven’t already planned it out. We might be less than one day out and you only have a rough idea.” Rose sounded way too much like a mom.

I sighed. “You know you sound like a mother stressing over her daughter. You don’t need to worry that much. I’d be fine with a small wedding and then a night alone with my wife. That’s all I need. What about you Harmony?”

Harmony looked to the sky and thought. “What you’re suggesting would be nice but I think I would like a little more out of my wedding night than that. Maybe a medium sized wedding and then a night alone with you.”

I pictured what that would look like. “Yeah. I suppose that wouldn’t be too bad. Whatever makes you happy Harmony. We’re in this life together.”

Harmony slid up close to me. “There’s no mare I’d rather spend my life with. I love you.”

I smiled. “I love you too.”

I felt a sense of accomplishment. After leaving my home I had been able to do so much more in two months than I had ever been able to do in the rest of my life. And knowing within the next couple of days that I would be married to the mare of my dreams made me feel amazing.

Rose stopped us. “We’ll wait here. The chariots should be here in a minute or so. Now please tell me you atleast have dresses for the wedding.”

I thought for a second before pulling out the red dress I had found a while ago. “I found this after I left the stable. It fits me well enough. And Harmony should have one.”

Harmony rummaged through her saddlebags. “Yes I do. It’s similar to to the one Midnight has but it’s a stunning white.”

Rose looked us over for a few seconds. “I could see Harmony in white but Midnight I really do think you should go with a different color. Nothing against the dress. It is quite stunning but it wouldn’t work so well with your coat. If we could find it I would suggest maybe a dark blue perhaps gray.”

I put the dress back into my saddlebags a bit depressed. “Maybe you're right. I’m still keeping that dress around.”

Rose smiled at me. “Fair enough. Oh look our chariots await.”

Silver landed close to Rose. “I’ll take Rose so you two can talk on the way to Tenpony.”

“Alright sounds good to me.” Harmony and I hopped into the other chariot. “Let’s go.”

Tenpony was quite a long trip even flying in these chariots. I knew it would give me some time to talk to Harmony.

Harmony slid her helmet onto the floor. “How long do you think we’ll get to stay in Tenpony?”

I took off my helmet. “Hopefully we’ll get a week or more. I don’t know though. I don’t know how much influence PON3 has over Tenpony. So we could be able to go back whenever or we might get a few days. As long as we're together it doesn’t matter.”

Harmony kissed me. “I know. With you by my side I think we can do anything. I would like to spend some time in the tower just to avoid the wasteland.”

I thought back upon all that I’d been through with Harmony by my side. “Yeah we’ve been through alot together. If we can convince PON3 I say we stay in the tower for a few days. Relax, get married, and maybe go to the spa. That spa sounds amazing after the last few weeks we’ve had.”

“Yeah. It would be nice to go and get a hooficure and maybe a massage.” Harmony rolled her shoulders. “You know this armor does a good job protecting us but I’m a little sick of it.”

“Let me guess. It chafes doesn’t it.” I shifted around in the chariot.

“Yeah. At first it was fine but know it just sucks. One second.” Harmony slid the rest of her armor off.

I followed suit and breathed a sigh of relief as the last piece hit the floor. “That’s better.” I slid super close to Harmony. “Now I can be closer to my beautiful wife.”

Harmony booped my nose. “We aren’t married quite yet. But that’s going to change just as soon as we can find you a new dress.”

“I mean I get that the dress doesn’t exactly go well with my coat but where are we going to find a dress that will work?” I didn’t recall any shop in Tenpony selling dresses.

Harmony looked at me. “I think I know a place inside Tenpony that might have a dress that would look stunning on you. I just hope it’s still open.”

I cocked my head to the left. “Still open?”

Harmony nodded. “Yes, one of the oldest residents of Tenpony used to know a dressmaker. If he’s still in business then we might be able to find a dress for you.”

“That’s sound great.” I knew very little about weddings. I had only been to two my entire life. “Have you ever been to a wedding before?”

“I went to one when I was three or four. My mom was getting remarried after dad had died. Other than that no I don’t know anything about weddings. What about you?” Harmony put a hoof on my thigh.

“I went to a few when I was in the stable. Mostly friends of mom getting married. I don’t remember them all that well. All I remember is how stunning the dresses looked.” I chuckled. “I pretty much always wanted one of those dresses.”

“Well soon enough you can have one. Aurora can you send a message to PON3?” Harmony lifted her helmet off the floor.

Aurora appeared as a hologram. “I suppose I can send him one. Try to keep it short though I don’t know how good the radios in these helmets are.”

Harmony set the helmet down. “Ok tell him we’ll be at Tenpony before the sun has set and if he wants his radio dish he’ll have to meet us on the roof to get it.”

I heard a little click as Aurora finished recording. “Anything else?”

“I think that will do it.” Harmony leaned back.

I leaned back with her and just enjoyed the moment. It was midday so it wasn’t very cold in the air. Laying there with Harmony I considered just taking a nap.

“Midnight we’ve got a response from PON3.” Aurora simply flashed a light on my helmet.

“If it’s an audio message go ahead and play it.” I pulled my helmet off the floor and held so Harmony and I could hear the message.

“Took you two long enough. Unfortunately now might not be the best time. We’ve got a large group of raiders preparing for an assault on the tower. Unless you’re bringing an army with you I suggest turning back. PON3 out.”

I sighed. “Do you think Silver could hear me if I yelled at him?”

Harmony shook her head. “Probably not. You could toss a rock at him or something. Maybe float a ball of light in front of his face.”

I looked around but found nothing to throw at Silver. I lit my horn up and levitated a small ball of light towards Silver.

Silver paid it no attention and kept flying. Rose however saw it and tapped Silver on the flank. They talked for a brief period of time before Silver descended towards the ground.

Onyx and Demo followed closely behind. After about a minute we landed on the ground and Silver trotted over.

“Why did we stop? Is something wrong?” Silver put a hoof on the edge of our chariot.

“PON3 just sent us a message saying raiders are surrounding Tenpony right now. Said we might want to turn back unless we’re bringing an army with us.” I sat up.

Rose had trotted over. “It’s now or never if you two are going to get married. We have a few days without anything to do. If we take any longer than that we might be in over our heads. No you two are getting married.”

Silver shook his head. “I’m not risking your life and the life of our foal in this. If what PON3 has said is true we’ll be lucky if we get into the tower without getting injured. We’re going back to New Appleloosa.”

Silver turned to trot back to the other chariot but Rose stopped him. “Silver we have an obligation to these ponies.”

“I owe nopony anything. I have to keep you and our unborn foal safe.” Silver took a few more stops but Rose held him there.

“How many times have Midnight and Harmony saved not only your life but other ponies lives. You owe them this Silver. If nothing else you can put a shield over all of us as we get there and when we leave.” Rose put her hooves on the ground.

“No. There is too much at stake here. We’re going back.” Silver returned to the other chariot.

“Midnight scooch over.” Rose put two hooves onto our chariot.

Silver looked at Rose. “What are you doing?”

“I am going with them so I can help them to get married. You can come with us, but either way I’m going.” Rose was about to hop into the chariot when Silver stopped her.

“I don’t like this. The odds are against us and we have so much to lose. I can’t lose anypony else, Rose.” Tears streamed down Silver’s face. “I just can’t let another pony I care for die. Especially not you. I love you too much.”

Rose cut him off with a kiss. “You don’t need to worry Silver. This group will keep me safe. You will keep me safe.” A few tears welled in her eyes. “I know you will.”

They hugged. I felt a little bit awkward being one of the ponies that caused this. I did nothing and just let them stand there embracing each other.

Silver let go of Rose. “Ok. We’ll go but if anything goes bad I’m getting us out of there.”

Rose hopped back in the chariot Silver was attached to. “Let’s go we’ve got business to attend to.”

With a few flaps of their wings Onyx and Demo had us back in the air. Silver followed shortly behind. All I could see was him talking to Rose as we went.

I leaned back in the chariot again. “I think I’m going to take a nap. I would like to just enjoy the sunbeams and relax.”

Harmony pulled me close. “That sounds wonderful to me. I think I’ll join you.”

I kissed Harmony and then buried my face into her chest.

Most of the time when I dreamed anymore it was just a weird state of floating through the air. Right now though I was actually in a vivid dream.

I was standing in an altar of some sort. Harmony was next to me in a bright white dress. A crowd of ponies was behind us sitting in chairs watching us. I figured they were here to attend my wedding.

The door behind me burst open and a pony in full armor trotted in. I couldn’t hear what he was saying but somehow I knew how to react. I called out to Silver.

Silver looked over to me and nodded. Just after he nodded the window closest to him shattered as he jumped through it.

I relaxed and nodded my head at the pony in front of us.

My dream faded as I was thrown into another one. Unlike the last one this one actually had sound.

“What makes you think she’s good enough for you? You’ve barely know her for two months.” The voice was familiar.

My voice was shaky as I called out to the pony I could not see. “Mom?”

My mom came into view. “Yes honey. I wanted to talk to you.”

“How is this possible?” I looked around.

Mom shook her head. “That doesn’t matter. Right now what matters is that I talk with you. I wanted to say that I’m sorry for not being the best mother I could have been. I know you probably don’t want to hear it. Being the Overmare was a tough job on me. I always wanted to spend more time with you.”

I stood still but lashed out with my words. “But you never did. You never spent anytime with me.” Tears welled in my eyes.

“I know and I regret that more than anything else. Please talk to me.” Mom took a few steps closer.

“Why should I? You never talked to me. Never cared about how I felt. You didn’t know anything about me.” The tears rolled down my cheeks.

Mom giggled. “Honey I knew more than you thought. I’d known for a long time you didn’t want to lead the stable. I knew you liked mares. I knew so much but you would never open up to me. I tried many times to discuss these things with you. I wanted you to be happy.” Tears rolled down her face.

I had never seen mom cry before. Not once in the entire 18 years I had lived in the stable. “Mom… Mom I’m sorry. I never meant to hurt you. I just thought you would be angry at me. At who I really was.” I dropped to the floor.

Mom came up and hugged me. “No. Midnight look at me. I would never be mad at who you are. I would have embraced you and let you blossom into the best mare you could be. I always wanted the best for you. My job got in the way and I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you.”

I heard a little pop. “What was that?”

“Nothing for now. I don’t know much about what happened after you left so I’d like to know how you’re doing now.” Mom sat me up.

I calmed my mind. “I’m getting married in a few days.”

Mom hugged me. “My daughter's getting married. I’m so proud of you dear. Who are you getting married to?”

Here in my dream a photo of Harmony appeared. “I’m getting married to Harmony.”

Mom looked at the photo. “She looks like the perfect mare for you. I’m proud of you Midnight. Has anything else gone on since you left home?”

I nodded. “I made new friends and found Onyx. Right now we’re flying to Tenpony tower so Harmony and I can get married.”

Mom ran a hoof over my mane. “I’m glad to hear that. I know you had a hard time making friends in the stable. Now I have a surprise for you.”

“What is it.” I laid down.

Mom pulled out that book I had always loved. “I thought I might read to you one more time. I remember just how much you loved this book.”

I felt a little old for that but didn’t complain. “Ok. As long as I get to spend more time with you.”

Mom smiled and laid down next to me. “Ok. Let’s start from the beginning.”

I smiled. I felt better now about my past knowing that mom loved me no matter what. I felt a weight lifted off my shoulders as my mom began to read my favorite story.

“Chapter one. A princess. My princess.”

I didn’t hear anything else as the dream faded. “I love you mom.”

I woke up seeing the sun was low in the sky. Harmony was laying next to me. She had tossed a blanket over us so we wouldn’t get cold.

I didn’t want to disturb Harmony if she was asleep. It seemed I did not have to disturb her as she was awake.

“How was your nap Midnight?” Harmony sat up a little bit.

I thought of my dream and a single tear rolled down my face. “It was great.”

“Why are you crying?” Harmony pulled me close to her.

“I had a dream where I was talking to my mom. She told me she was sorry for not being there when I needed her. Sorry for making me feel like I wasn’t good enough. Sorry. Sorry for everything.” I let a few more tears escape me.

Harmony wrapped her hooves around me and held me close. I felt her hoof run down my mane a few times as she held me.

Onyx called back not knowing what was going on. “Tenpony tower. We’ll be there in about five minutes. So hold on tight we might have a rough landing.”

I wiggled a little bit and Harmony let go. “Thank you.”

She nodded and looked over the edge of the chariot. I did the same and was a bit afraid of the sheer number of raiders surrounding the tower.

The entire tower was surrounded by rows of makeshift tents. A few turrets were stationed facing away from the tower to defend against outside forces.

Rose had taken my helmet over to her chariot so we could communicate. “Right back into the thick of it.”

Silver called out through the microphone. “Hold on tight. We’re going to have to make a rough landing. Get you armor on just incase. I’ll throw a shield over us in a minute or so once we are just outside of their range.”

“Well shit. Out of the frying pan and into the fire.” I grabbed my armor and slid it on quickly.

Harmony had already put her armor on and was waiting. “Well we’ve come this far. Only a little bit further. Silver you got this.”

The shield formed around us. I kept one eye on the ground to see what the raiders were going to do. To my surprise not one of them even tried to shoot us. We descended quickly towards the roof.

PON3 was on the roof next to a doorway. He waved at us as we made our final descent and came to a halt on the roof.

“Welcome back. You chose the absolute worst time to come back. We’ve been having meetings with the raiders trying to negotiate. Nothing has worked so far and I’m not sure they’ll leave without force.” PON3 looked around.

“We didn’t bring an army. Just a couple looking to get married and a very protective soon to be father.” I trotted over to Rose to get my helmet back.

“Perfect. Absolutely bucking perfect. Now we’re stranded up shit creek without a paddle and you brought nothing to help.” PON3 turned away from us.

“We brought you your stupid ass dish that almost cost us our lives. Maybe you can be grateful for that before I kick you off this bucking roof and into the hooves of the raiders below!” I tossed the dish over to him.

“Yeah thanks for that. Doubt I’ll get to use it seeing as we’re about to be killed.” PON3 trotted back towards the door.

“Midnight give me one good reason not to drop his ass off this PON3.

“He’s the only reason we’re allowed back into the tower. Kill him and we might have made this trip for nothing.” I trotted up to the door.

“Yes our deal.” PON3’s eyes shifted about.

“If you tell me that the deal is off I will personal tear your front hooves off and ram them up your ass and then drop you down for the raiders.” I was about ready to kill this bastard.

“Deal still stands. Might want to watch yourself though. I can cancel it at anytime.” PON3 pushed the door open. “Now get inside.”

I could see the rage in Silver’s eyes as he shot me a glance. I shot him one back. He nodded and trotted inside.

The rest of us followed closely behind. This part of the tower was dark right now but we moved along quickly. After less than a minute we arrived at an elevator.

PON3 opened the door for us. “After we exit this elevator I don’t know you. I have a bad rep just for convincing everypony to allow this.”

Rose sighed. “That’s a shame I wanted to have you Dj at the wedding.”

PON3 looked at Rose. “Well if we’re talking caps I suppose I could do a little bit of Djing.”

Rose hoofed over a bag. “That’s what you’re going to get for your work. How does that sound?”

PON3 lifted the bag a few times. “Sounds like we’ve got a deal. I’ll Dj after the wedding. Anything you want to hear?”

Harmony jumped in. “Have to have a slow song to start it off. I still need to dance with my wife.”

I chuckled nervously. “After that I think most anything will do.”

PON3 shrugged. “Alright. I’ll put together a little something. When’s the wedding?”

Rose butted back in. “I’ll have to get back to you on that. Still have a few things to plan.”

“Well if you want I could pull some strings and have the ceremony and what not ready by tomorrow.” PON3 looked up at the number counting down. “It’ll cost you a little bit more but you won’t have to worry about anything.”

“Well we have some stuff to talk about. Harmony go see if you can find Midnight a dress. Silver and I will make sure everything goes well.” Rose took a shy step away from PON3.

“I guess Demo and I’ll just hang out around the tower. I think I still have a key to our old room. Hopefully they haven’t changed the locks.” Onyx rocked back and forth on his hooves.

The elevator stopped. The doors slid open with a hiss of steam. We were in a small armory. “You’ll need to deposit your weapons here. Can’t have ponies in the tower with weapons on them.” PON3 waved a hoof at us and trotted off.

Harmony and I dropped off our gear.

“Come on Midnight. We’ve got to find you the perfect dress.” With that Harmony dragged me out of the room and into the elevator. “Let’s see. I think his shop was on floor eight.”

The doors closed and the elevator started descending once again.

“After we get this dress we’re going to the spa. Hopefully this time we get some mares to give us massages.” I smiled and scooched closer to Harmony.

“Of course. I hadn’t planned to put that off for too long. You just need a dress. After that the spa and then maybe we’ll discuss wedding plans with Rose.” Harmony kissed me.

We held that kiss until the door slid open. Harmony led the way as she looked for the dress shop. It took Harmony only a few minutes to find it and drag me inside.

A stallion was sitting in a rocking chair. “Welcome. What can I help you two mares with today?”

Harmony dragged me onto a pedestal. “We’re here to get Midnight a dress.”

The stallion got to his hooves. “What’s the occasion?”

Harmony took a seat nearby. “Wedding.”

“Oh a wedding. It’s been a long time since anypony in the tower got married. Well then this is truly a special occasion. So we can’t just give you any dress. This dress has to be perfect.” The stallion hobbled over to a doorway.

I watched as he pulled out an entire cart lined with dresses. He wheeled it over to me. Dress by dress he looked between them and me trying to decide what was going to work.

“Well I’ve got a few dresses in the very back that might suit you.” He pulled out a measuring tape. “Just going to need your measurements.”

I stood there and waited until he was done measuring my frame. “So do you have something?”

“I’ve got one dress in the back that will fit you. What color will your partner be wearing?” The stallion hobbled back towards the door.

I answered simply. “White.”

The stallion nodded and I knew he was smiling. “Perfect. This dress will fit you perfectly and look stunning.”

I waited eagerly for the stallion to bring the dress out. Eventually he brought out a shade for me and a box.

“Come here and try the dress on. I just want to be sure.” The stallion waved me over.

I trotted over and went behind the shade. I opened the box to see the dress. “It’s beautiful.”

The dress was a dark blue with black tints that mimicked the sky on a clear night. It looked like somepony had taken the sky and formed it into a dress.

I slipped on the dress. It fit me perfectly. “Harmony do you want to see?”

The stallion looked me over. “Perfect it fits.”

Harmony trotted over and stopped to stare at me. “It looks absolutely gorgeous.” She trotted up and hugged me.

“How much does this cost?” I twirled around once.

The stallion pushed the shade away from us. “Two hundred caps. I’ve still got a few years left before I kick the bucket. Need all that I can get.”

Harmony pulled out caps and counted them. “Here’s two hundred caps. Thanks for the help.”

I slid the dress off and put it gently in the box. “Thank you good sir.”

The stallion smiled. “No problem. Just doing my job.”

Harmony grabbed ahold of my hoof and trotted towards the door. “Goodbye. We’ve got other business to attend to.”

The stallion said nothing more and retreated back to his chair.

Harmony dragged me out the door. “Now we can go do anything we want to. So I say we go to the spa.”

I smiled catching my hoofing. “I agree. It’ll be nice to relax and not worry about anything.”

We trotted to the elevator. A few ponies walked on by make rude comments. I couldn’t hear much but I knew they were pointed at us.

The elevator door opened and we trotted inside. I watched three or four ponies turn around and whisper “Buck you.” at us.

Harmony kissed my cheek. “Pay no attention to them. They live down there. The tower is divided into the rich half and then the poor half.”

“So they hate each other. Ok. Well buck them. I don’t care I just want to go to the spa and relax.” I considered sitting down.

Harmony wrapped a hoof around me. “What’s wrong? I can tell something is wrong.”

I sighed. “I’m tired of the wasteland life. I don’t want to continue on killing and stealing just to survive. I want more out of my life than just being a murderer and a thief. I want to settle down and not have to worry about any raiders or wild creatures or stupid bullshit anymore.”

Harmony held me close. “We’ll settle down soon. We just need a little bit more money to live off of and then we can forget about the wasteland and just relax. No more raiders trying to kill us no more killing. No more of the evils we have seen.”

The elevator doors opened. A mare greeted us as we approached the spa. “Welcome. How may we assist you today?”

Harmony answered for the both of us. “We would like the full package. And if it’s possible mares to help us today.”

The mare nodded. “We can most certainly do that. Follow me and we’ll go ahead and get you two onto the massage tables.”

We trotted along following the mare into the spa. Very few ponies were here today. I paid no attention to that and just kept trotting along.

It took very little time for the mare to lead us to the massage tables. “Go ahead and get comfortable. I’ll go get our finest mare masseuses and be right back.”

I nodded and jumped up onto one of the tables. “I’ve been looking forward to this.”

Harmony jumped onto the table next to me. “So have I. This week has been a long time coming. Now we get to relax for the day and then get married.”

I heard a door open. “Yeah. It’ll be nice. One more thing to keep me sane.”

The mare from early trotted between us. “They’ll be just a minute or so. Sorry for the wait.”

I waved her off. “It’s no problem. Thanks for the update.”

“Mhm. Oh I’ve got to go.” The mare trotted out of the room.

Harmony and I sat in silence waiting. After what I guessed was about a minute the door behind us opened again and two sets of hoofsteps approached us.

A mare spoke to us. “Good afternoon ladies. We’ll be helping you out today.”

“Alright, sounds good to me.” I relaxed my shoulders.

One mare got right to work on me. “So what brings you to the tower?”

I let out a little gasp as a few things popped in my back. “We’re here to get married. Oh yeah right there.”

“It’s been awhile since we last had a wedding here in Tenpony. So I take it you two are here to get ready for your stallions.” The mare moved her hooves up to my front shoulders.

“Actually I’m getting married to Harmony. The mare that I came here with.” I was feeling a bit better.

The mare let out a little gasp. “Oh I see. Is that why you specifically asked for mare masseuses?”

“Yeah it is.” Harmony held out her hoof to me.

“So you’re the couple DJ-PON3 was talking about. Interesting.” The mare kept working wonders.

“Yeah he said something about having to talk to the entire tower about letting us back in. Luckily for us he came through.” I rolled my shoulders feeling how much less tension they had in them.

“So when are you two getting married?” The mare put her hooves back on the ground.

“Should be tomorrow night. Are we done already?” I sat up on the table.

“Yes we are. If you’ll follow me I’ll take you to the sauna and you can spend some time there.” The mare walked out the door she had entered from.

“Come on Midnight. We’ve still got some things to discuss.” Harmony grabbed my hoof and led the way.

The spa took up most of this floor. As we continued farther in I could see that nopony was here except for those who were working.

The sauna wasn’t too far away and the mare already had the door open for us. “Step right in. After this we’ll get you two a hooficure. And then we can discuss whatever else you might want.”

I smiled and trotted into the sauna. “Thank you.”

“It’s my job. I’ll return to get you in a little while.” The mare smiled and trotted away.

“How are you feeling Harmony?” I took a seat and leaned back.

“I’m feeling a bit better after that massage. Still really excited for tomorrow.” Harmony took a seat close to me.

I let out a breath as I popped my back again. “It’ll be nice to finally be married. But the best part comes after the wedding.”

“And what would that be my wonderful mare?” Harmony scooched closer.

“The honeymoon of course. A night of uninterrupted time with you. Nothing could be better than that.” I looked over and kissed Harmony.

Harmony put a hoof on my plot and dragged me close. “You keep that up and I might have to take you right here. Lay you down and go to town.” She nibbled on my ear.

“Dammit you really know how to get me in the mood. I don’t want to get kicked out though. Dammit Harmony.” I pulled back from her.

“You know you love it. You know you want me.” Harmony smiled and kissed me.

I held that kiss for a solid minute. “Yeah I know. You really do know how to make me feel better. As soon as we’re done with the spa I say we go and have some fun.”

“With pleasure.” Harmony smiled.

“Always.” I leaned back again and just enjoyed the warm air around me.

I closed my eyes. I knew that I could easily fall asleep in here.

Fortunately I didn’t have enough time as the mare came back and opened up the door. “Come on you two. You’ve still got hooficures to get through and we’re only open for another hour or so.”

I jumped up and trotted towards the door. “Alright then. Lead the way.”

Harmony jumped up after me and followed behind me. “You’ve got a nice looking plot. Wouldn’t mind burying my face there for a while.”

The mare in front of me shook her head and kept walking. She lead us right into a room where four mares were waiting eagerly for us.

“Take a seat in those chairs and we can get to work on your hooves.” The mare trotted away leaving us alone.

I shrugged and hopped up into the chair. “Work your magic please. Today has been great.”

The mares all nodded and got to work. They all stayed silent as the worked on my rear hooves first.

“Harmony where are we sleeping tonight?” I closed my eyes.

“I doubt that we can still access my old room. Demo and Onyx have an extra room I think. We should be able to stay the night there if nothing else.” Harmony let out a sigh.

“We really should have thought about that before we got here.” I opened one eye.

“Probably should have yeah. Whatever though, we’ll figure something out.” Harmony rolled her head to look at me.

I yawned. “Yeah we will.”

I sat in silence with my eyes closed waiting for the mares to say we were done.

“We’re going to close in five minutes girls. Hurry up but still do a good job.” The mare from earlier had come back.

The mares said nothing and just continued to work. They had just finished up with my rear hooves and we’re beginning work on my front hooves.

I let my mind wander as I sat there enjoying this pampering.

I’m not sure why but I was drawn back to my mom. I had been avoiding thinking about her because it was painful. Mom really was always looking out for me and doing what she could. Maybe I was wrong to leave home. If I hadn’t thought I might have died. The world’s a confusing place.

Harmony tapped on my shoulder. “Come on Midnight. We’re done here.”

I opened my eyes a slid out of my chair. “Alright. Thank you ladies for the wonderful day.”

They nodded and waved us towards the front desk. I smiled and trotted away.

The mare who had greeted us earlier was spinning around in a chair at the front desk. She saw us and attempted to stop spinning.

I giggled as she stopped and fell out of the chair. “Are you ok?”

She jumped up to her hooves. “I’m fine. Are you two done with the spa for today?”

I nodded. “Yes we are. We’ve had a lovely day and we need to go prepare a few things.”

Harmony tossed a bag of caps onto the desk. “That should cover everything. Have a nice night.”

The mare smiled still a little bit wobbly on her hooves. “Thank you. Have a pleasant stay.”

Harmony and I trotted out the door and to the elevator.

“Do you remember what floor Onyx and Demo’s room is?” I called the elevator.

“I think it’s the twentieth floor. I’m not a hundred percent on that though.” Harmony looked off to our left.

“Well maybe we’ll run into them somewhere. If not I suppose we could just go back to our armor and see if PON3 has a place we can stay.” The elevator dinged.

Rose was standing inside. She looked like she had been looking for us. “There you two are. Did you have fun at the spa?”

I nodded. “Yes we did. It was very relaxing.”

Rose smiled and dragged me into the elevator. “And what about the dress? Did you find one?”

I levitated the box up. “Yes. Would you like to see it?”

Rose nodded and smiled. “Yes please.”

Harmony trotted in and closed the door. “Do you have a place to sleep tonight?”

“Demo and Onyx have a few spare rooms. They said we could stay with them for the night. Now Midnight I would love to see your dress.” Rose gave her full attention to me.

I opened up the box. “The stallion who sold it to us said it should go well with Harmony’s dress.”

Rose stared at the dress. “It looks very nice. Couldn’t say I would have picked a different color for you.”

I closed the box and returned it to my side. “What floor are we going to?”

Rose pushed the button for the twenty first floor. “Their room got moved so we’ll be meeting them next to the elevator.”

The elevator music was oddly disturbing. Unlike most of the music that was usually played in the tower this music was dark and depressing and sent chills down my spine. I was glad when the elevator stopped and the door opened.

Onyx was waiting there for us. “Hello. How was your time at the spa?”

Harmony pushed me out the door. “It was relaxing thank you for asking. So I hear we’ll be staying with you tonight?”

Onyx nodded. “We’ve got two bedrooms. Demo and I are going to sleep on the couch while the rest of you sleep in beds.”

“That’s very kind of you Onyx but are you sure you wouldn’t prefer to sleep in your own bed?” Rose trotted out and gave Onyx a kind look.

“We’ll be fine. We’ve slept on the ground before. Besides we’re giving up our bed to a couple who are soon to be married or a mare who is pregnant.” Onyx turned around and trotted down the hall.

“Well thank you for this then.” Rose smiled and trotted along with Harmony and I.

“How did the planning with PON3 go?” Harmony kept close to me.

“We got everything planned out. The ceremony starts at noon tomorrow.” Rose smiled warmly at us.

“So where are we going in the morning?” I stopped as Onyx did.

“The tower has a chapel on floor twenty. In the morning we’ll go there and make sure everything looks perfect.” Rose pushed us into the door.

“How many ponies are going to show up?” I trotted over to the couch. Harmony wasn’t too far behind me.

“PON3 assured me there’ll be enough ponies there to fill up most of the chapel. So no worries about nopony showing up.” Rose took a seat in a chair across from us.

I looked at my pipbuck. “Wow we spent a long time in the spa. It’s already eight o’clock.”

“We arrived here at Tenpony at like five thirty or so. It’s not too big of a surprise that you spent that long. I’m actually surprised it didn’t take longer.” Rose yawned.

“Either way it was a nice day. Now I think I’m about ready to go to sleep.” I yawned.

“Well then goodnight you two. I’ll go find Silver wherever he may be. I’ll make sure to get you up so we can be prepared for the wedding.” Rose hopped out of her seat and trotted towards one of the bedrooms.

Harmony and I got off the couch and trotted towards the other room. “Goodnight Onyx. Thanks for letting us stay here.”

Onyx waved a hoof at us. “It’s no problem at all. Get some sleep you’ve got a long day ahead of you tomorrow.”

I smiled and trotted into the room. It was a mostly barren room with little more than a bed. “Not the prettiest but with a mare as gorgeous as you I don’t need anything more.”

Harmony smiled and closed the door behind us. “I’m going right to sleep. We’ll get our chance to have fun after the wedding.”

I nodded and jumped into bed. “Sounds like a good plan to me.”

I curled up next to Harmony and slowly drifted off sleep.

Tonight was a peaceful night. No dreams really stuck out in my mind as anything of importance. Most of the time I was sitting in a hallway just enjoying life.

I awoke to Rose flipping the lights off and on. “Wake up you two. It’s your wedding day and we have things to do.”

I opened one eye to look at Rose. “Give me five more minutes.” I laid my head back down.

“I let you two sleep until nine. You have less than three hours to get ready. Now get up and let’s go.” Rose trotted over and pulled the covers away.

I sighed. “Fine. I’m getting up. Harmony? Where’s Harmony?”

Harmony was already out of bed trotting to the bathroom. “Don’t worry about me. Just get up and get ready.”

I slid out of bed. “Ok I’m up. Where are we going?”

“We’ll be going to the chapel on floor twenty one after you two are ready to head down there.” Rose smiled and trotted out the door.

I levitated my saddlebags over. “Where’s my dress?”

“Already down in the chapel. You can put it on when we get down there. Can’t have a dress that nice getting dirty.” Rose was in the kitchen.

I shook my head to wake up. “Ok. I’m ready to go.”

Harmony trotted out and looked at me. “No you’re not.”

“What do you mean?” I looked myself over.

“Your mane looks a little untidy.” Harmony levitated me a mirror.

My mane was a mess. “Oh it is. Pass me a brush please.”

Harmony tossed a brush my way. “No need to rush it. We’ve only got like two things to do before the wedding. Neither one should take very long.”

I started brushing my mane. “Is my mane always that way when I wake up?”

Harmony nodded. “It usually is but you’ve never had a problem with it. Today we do have to look our best.”

I grimaced as I pulled a few hairs. “Yeah. Oh buck that hurt.”

Harmony sighed at me. “Try not to pull out any more of your mane. I’m going to go eat breakfast.”

I looked in the mirror again. My mane was starting to be back under control. “Mane why do you have to be like this?” I pulled the brush through again.

I kept brushing my mane as I trotted into the kitchen. Rose was still cooking. I trotted over to the table and took a seat.

“Your mane is looking better. Could still use something though.” Harmony set her fork down.

I pulled the brush through once more. “Like what?”

Rose put another plate of pancakes on the table for me. “I was thinking a ponytail.”

Harmony looked at my mane. “I like the sounds of that. You’d look super cute with a ponytail.”

I shrunk back a little bit. “I like my mane the way it is.”

“You always have your mane that way. You really should do something special for our wedding.” Harmony dragged me close.

I really did prefer to just have my mane down. “Well…”

Harmony had a pleading look on her face. “Please.”

I tried to not give in but I failed. “Fine. Just this once I’ll wear my mane in a ponytail.”

Harmony smiled. “Thank you. I’ll go ahead and start giving you a ponytail right after I finish breakfast.”

I returned to my own plate of pancakes and started eating. Onyx and Demo had already left apparently. Silver was staring out a window.

“Honey you need to step away from the window.” Rose put a hoof over Silver.

“I’m going to keep an eye on them as much as I can. I can’t take any risks here. Not with so much at stake if they do manage to get into the tower.” Silver’s voice had no hint of emotion.

Rose sighed. “Could you atleast eat breakfast?”

Silver levitated a few pancakes over. “I’ll eat but I’m not stepping away from this window.”

Rose trotted over to us and took a seat. “He’s been up all night staring out that window. I know we risked a lot coming here but he needs to relax.”

I finished eating one of my pancakes. “It’s Silver. He won’t rest easy until we’re back home and not under threat of a raider attack.”

“I know. That’s one of the reasons I love him. He’s always at the ready to protect his friends and family.” Rose sighed. “I just wish he would take his own health into consideration.”

Harmony finished off her pancakes and started working on my mane. “He’ll start to take his health into consideration after he gets tired.”

“No he won’t. I know Silver better than anypony else. Once he sets his mind to protect his friends nothing can stop him.” Rose grabbed a mug. “Would you two like some tea?”

“No thank you. I’m not a tea person.” Harmony kept working on my mane.

“I’ll pass. The last time I had tea I swore it off forever.” I tried to keep my head still.

“Let me guess it was chamomile wasn’t it.” Rose took a sip of her tea.

“I think that’s what mom called it. She said it helped her to relax after a long day.” I held up the mirror to get a look at my mane.

“I could understand that. This is green tea though. It’s different than chamomile.” Rose held out a mug to me.

“I suppose I could try some. It’s not going to kill me.” I levitated the mug over and poured myself some tea.

I took a small sip just to test it. I was pleasantly surprised when the tea actually had a rather sweet taste. “What do you put in this?”

“I put in a little bit of honey. That’s how I’ve always made it.” Rose smiled and kept sipping her tea.

“Well I like it. Thank you for making this.” I smiled and took another sip.

“No problem Midnight. Your manes looking cute.” Rose pointed a hoof at my mane.

Harmony had just finished up. “I did my best. What do you think Midnight?”

I took a look at my mane using the mirror. I wasn’t use to seeing my mane up in a ponytail but it did look good. “I like it. Might have to wear it like this more often.”

Harmony kissed me. “I think you look beautiful.”

“Of course you do my wonderful mare.” I kissed back.

Rose giggled a little. “Well it’s about ten we should probably head down to the chapel here soon. Whenever you two are ready I’ll lead us down there.”

I was curios as to where Demo and Onyx were. “So where is everypony at?”

Rose thought for a few seconds. “Demo went with the guards to set up some explosive traps for the raiders outside. Onyx I think went to the roof to get some fresh air. PON3 should be preparing a party somewhere near the chapel.”

“Will Onyx and Demo be going to the wedding?” I slid my plate into the sink.

“If they aren’t too busy helping out around the tower. Onyx doesn’t have anything to do that I know of so he’ll be there.” Rose set her mug down.

“You look like you just thought of something.” I gave Rose a concerned look. “What is it?”

“Did either of you think about wedding rings?” Rose’s face was a display of horror.

“No. No I didn’t. Harmony?” I turned to face Harmony.

“I had thought about it last night. I thought PON3 was going to take care of that.” Harmony took a little shift in tone.

“Ok. We need to go check with him right now. If he didn’t think of that then we’ll have to find a set of rings.” Rose trotted quickly towards to the door.

I gave a last glance to Silver. “We’re leaving Silver. Don’t stare out that window for too long.”

Harmony grabbed one of my hooves. “We need to go Midnight. We’ve still got to make sure everything goes correctly.”

The elevator was about a fifteen second trot from Demo’s apartment. We halved the time by galloping.

Rose pressed the call button. “How are you two so laid back about this?”

“Neither of us have been to weddings really. We don’t know what the buck is going on.” I felt a lot more stressed now.

Rose stopped for a few seconds before speaking again. “I can’t blame you for that. I’m just glad we’ve got PON3 watching our backs. This would be a lot less smooth if it weren’t for him.”

I was glad that Rose was on top of these things but it did stress me out more than I liked.

The elevator opened up and Rose shoved us inside. “Now then.” She pushed the button for the twenty first floor.

“Do you have any idea where PON3 is?” I took a slight step back from the door.

“He is supposed to meet us in the chapel at ten or so. He said he was going to bring everything that we paid for to the chapel. Hopefully that means rings.” Rose looked like she was about to have a mental breakdown.

We rode down in silence. Each passing moment I could feel Rose getting more anxious and impatient. After about thirty seconds of the elevator being slow the door opened.

PON3 was there to greet us. “You’re late. It’s ten fifteen. Where were you?”

I couldn’t tell how he was feeling, mostly because of the glasses on his face. “We were getting ready.”

PON3 sighed. “Fine. Come with me and I’ll take you to the chapel.” He turned and trotted down the hall.

We followed shortly behind. Rose did not keep silent for long. “Did you get rings for them?”

PON3 nodded. “Yes I took care of everything minus dresses. You need to worry about nothing else.”

Rose seemed a bit more at ease. “Ok. That makes me feel a lot better knowing nothing should go wrong.”

The doors to the chapel opened as we approached. A few ponies were already inside waiting for the ceremony.

“I thought the ceremony was supposed to start at noon.” I looked around the room.

“No later than noon. Ponies here do have lives to live. I promised the party would start no later than one thirty. Everything is ready for you to start when you are ready.” PON3 shook his head. “Whatever go get dressed and let’s get this show on the road.”

Rose grabbed ahold of my hoof. “Midnight you’re coming with me. Harmony you’ll go with PON3.”

I started trotting behind Rose. “Ok so what are we doing?”

Rose dragged me into a room. “You are going to walk down the aisle and meet Harmony at the altar. So we got a few more things to get you dressed in.”

My dress was hanging up. A veil was hanging with it. “So I’ll be meeting Harmony out there?”

“Yes you will. Now go ahead and put your dress on.” Rose pushed me towards the dress.

I did as I was told and slid my dress on. “So what is the veil about?”

“In a traditional wedding the bride would wear a veil so we called you the bride and now you’ve got to wear the veil.” Rose picked up the veil.

I shrugged and grabbed the veil with my magic. “Alright I guess.”

Rose helped to make sure the veil went on correctly. “You look gorgeous. Now go out there and get married to the mare of your dreams.”

I opened the door. Music started and all the ponies present stood up.

As I started to walk down the aisle a few fillies fell trotted in front of me tossing rose petals on the floor.

Harmony was standing at the altar along with another pony. Her smile was contagious and pushed me forward a little faster.

When I arrived next to Harmony those present took a seat. Harmony and I turned to face the stallion behind the altar.

“Thank you all for coming here today. Today I have the great pleasure of joining these two ponies so they may live their lives together.” The stallion opened a little book. “So Harmony do you take Midnight as your wife to love and care for in sickness and health?” The stallion waited.

“I do.” Harmony smiled.

“And do you Midnight take Harmony with the same care?” He was smiling.

My heart skipped a beat as I realized I was finally living one of my dreams. “I.. I do.” My voice was shaky.

The doors behind us burst open. A guard stood there panting as he tried to speak.

“We’ve” Another pant. “We’ve got raiders advancing on the tower.”

Silver was standing over next to Rose. He immediately took a step forward.

I nodded. “Silver go deal with them.”

Silver gave me that devilish smile that told me he would leave none alive. “My pleasure.” He dived out one of the stained glass windows letting the true light of day in.

I nodded at the stallion behind the altar. “You may proceed.”

Silver’s POV

Midnight nodded. “Silver go kill them.”

I smiled. “My pleasure.” I hurled myself through the closest window.

We were up quite a ways but I could still see the situation progressing down below.

Turrets on Tenpony’s walls were glowing bright red as their barrels spun unleashing a hailstorm of bullets.

The raiders were holding strong behind barricades. A few sticks of dynamite were tossed over landing close to the tower.

I held my wings firmly at my side and dived straight at the ground. I waited until I was less than ten stories up. At the last second I flared my wings and prepared to hit the ground.

I smashed into the ground kicking up a small cloud of dust. I stayed concealed knowing what my enemies were planning. I tossed one knife forward.

“Ugh.” The knife had found it’s home in one of the raiders.

I put a shield up over myself and trotted out so I could be seen.

“That’s him boys. He’s the one we want. Five hundred caps to the idiot who brings his head to me on a pike.” The stallion was wearing a suit of power armor minus a helmet. Unlike the other he had a distinct color pallette telling me he was definitely a pony of importance.

I drew out the knight’s bane. I held it so it would absorb the sunshine.

The raiders stared at the sword in awe.

As soon as the sword charged I sent a surge of magic through it activating it. A thousand small beams of light shot forward blinding the raiders in front of me.

They faltered backwards unable to see. A few rubbed their eyes trying to restore vision.

I took my chance and lunged forward swinging both the Knight’s bane and my wing at the stunned raiders. Like most of the time I wasn’t able to see the full amount of damage I was causing. All I had to go off of was the amount of blood being flung around.

I skidded to a stop facing the door to Tenpony. Around ten raiders lay dead or dying on the ground. Multiple stab wounds causing them to bleed everywhere.

Raiders positioned themselves around me. They waited for me to drop my shield.

I dropped it for half a second and then pulled it back up.

Many of the raiders fired sending bullets flying in my direction. None of them even came close to hitting me.

The sound of gunfire was something most ponies feared. Sometimes though they came together to form a symphony of sorts. Different calibers made a variety of noises that were almost music to my ears. I was especially happy since the bullets had ricocheted killing a few of the raiders.

“Look I’ll give you one chance to live. You leave and nopony else has to die.” I stood there observing.

The stallion who I guessed was second in command started talking. “Surrender to one pony.” He laughed. “If you had an army maybe but just you I think not.”

I saw one of the raiders sneaking towards the tower. His world was spun around as I picked him up. “Oh goddesses help me!”

I held him above my shield a few seconds before hurling him into the air. I waited for a few seconds before poking the tip of the Knight’s bane outside the top of my shield.

The raider fell towards his doom screaming liking a little colt who didn’t get his way. His screams were silenced as his body impacted into my shield shattering every bone in his body instantly.

Blood dripped down the sides of my shield. I smiled and looked back up to the raiders. “You sure you don’t want to take that offer?”

The raiders held their ground. A few took a shy step back but did nothing further to retreat.

I quickly decapitated a small line of raiders standing off to my left. Their heads rolled for a second before their bodies collapsed.

Where they had been a new group took their place waiting for their moment.

I watched the skies as a group of pegasi flew over us dropping lit sticks of dynamite. “Hey you might want to look up.” I pointed a hoof toward the sky.

The one raider who did looked up just in time to see a live landmine smash into his face. Nothing remained of him from the shoulders up.

This work has always been a bit bloody but I do it for my friends. I will not let these raiders lay a hoof on anypony ever again. Not after what pain they’ve caused me already.

I flared my wings channeling energy for my next attack. As soon as the explosions stopped I jumped out of the shield at a line of raiders.

They reacted quickly firing every gun they had at me. Their bodies split in two as the Knight's bane sliced through them.

A few of the bullets had hit me. By the feel of it only one had been a good hit. A pair of holes was in my underbelly. One raider had fired low and nearly split my stomach open in the process.

I had a few healing potions on me. I drank a whole one and waited for the hole to be fixed.

“Just for that I’m going to kill you all.” I waited another half second for the raiders to get into formation.

All their attention was on me. I looked around to see what my best attack plan would be. After a few seconds I realized I might be bucked.

All the raiders were ready to attack me if I moved even slightly. Even with their numbers thinned down I couldn’t kill off many before they could kill me.

I kept searching for anything that might help. I heard a slight whistle and looked up.

Demo was hanging out one of the windows a long ways up. In his hooves was a balefire egg.

I put a shield over him as he started to descend. “Are you insane?”

Demo landed next to me. “Seems like we’ve got no other option.”

I looked around at the raiders again. “Dammit. What’s your plan?”

Demo set the egg down. “Do you think you can contain a balefire blast inside of a shield?”

“I’ve never attempted something of that caliber. I might be able to stop it from leveling the entire area instantly.” I started searching for any other way out of this.

“Well if you think you can hold a shield long enough that we won’t die I can detonate this balefire egg from about halfway up the tower.” Demo pulled out a little button.

I sighed. “We’ve got no other option. Shit. What you’re asking will require a shield around all of the raiders. Are you sure we don’t have more explosives that aren’t going to require such a dumb plan?”

Demo nodded. “We used all of the stockpiled explosives and none of the guards are going to risk their lives leaving the tower.”

A few of the raiders looked down at the egg. Their eyes went wide and then took a few steps back.

An idea popped into my mind. “Keep that egg close. I’ve got a plan.”

Demo nodded and picked the egg up. “Ok.”

I took a few steps towards the raiders. They slowly backpedalled trying to stay away from me.

I took advantage of their fear taking a few weapons. “Demo get that egg back into the tower. I can handle things from here.”

Demo looked down at me like I was insane. “You sure about that?”

“I’ve got a better plan than blowing us all to bits. Get inside and I’ll take care of these bastards.” I levitated the guns behind the raiders.

Demo nodded and flew back towards the tower. I kept the shield over him until he was safely inside the tower.

I smiled. “Who’s ready to die?” I fired all of the guns at once.

Most of the raiders in front of me dropped dead from a single shot. An unlucky few had their brains splattered everywhere by shotguns.

I spun around gathering as many guns as I could. I stepped slowly towards the raiders. I had an assortment of twenty guns held in my magic.

These raiders held their ground waiting. I could see in their eyes that they were scared.

“Nopony is going to threaten my friends and live.” My face dropped all emotion and all of the guns fired.

Time slowed down as I fired. I could track a few of the slower bullets on their trip at the raiders. I watched on as half of the bullets found flesh and tore into it.

The raiders hobbled for a few seconds before falling into the dirt dead. Those that remained took a few steps backwards to avoid their fallen friends.

Bells rung out from somewhere up above. I gave a quick look back up to my friends. I smiled and lunged forward firing every single weapon I had control of.

Midnight’s POV

“If there are any objections speak now.” The stallion waited. “I pronounce you two married. You may now kiss the bride.”

Harmony looked into my eyes as she lifted the veil.

My heart skipped a beat and I had butterflies in my stomach. Harmony and I were finally married. Now what were we going to do. I would have continued thinking but Harmony brought me into a kiss.

Bells started ringing. Somewhere off to my right somepony was planning a piano. I let those noises wash over me as Harmony and I kissed.

Nothing in the world had ever felt better than standing here in this moment kissing my wife. Harmony pulled away and smiled at me. I smiled back feeling on top of the world.

“You ready to go and have some fun my beautiful wife?” Harmony pulled me close to her side.

I smiled. “Yes I am.”

We trotted down the aisle and towards the door. The ponies here watched as we trotted along waving at us.

I remembered as we trotted through the door that I still owed Harmony a dance. Even with our practice sessions I still couldn’t keep up.

Harmony bumped me with her flank. “Relax. I asked for a slow song for a reason.”

I giggled nervously. “I know. How long are we going to stay at the reception for?”

Harmony dragging me into the middle of the room. “As long as we like. We’ve got all the time we need to do whatever. So let’s just dance the day away.”

“As long as I’m with you I could care less what we’re doing.” The music started up.

The lights in the room dimmed and a spotlight shone directly on us.

Harmony held out a hoof to me. “Shall we my love?”

I took her hoof and spun her in a circle. “I’m ready if you are.”

Silver’s POV

I had just finished off what remained of the raiders surrounding the door to the tower. The rest kept their distance.

I went over and knocked on the door.

“Is it safe yet?” One of the guards was on the intercom.

“It’s as safe as it’s going to get. Now get your fat lazy ass down here and protect this goddesses damned place or I will cut your heart out with a toothpick.” I left it at that and flew up to the open window I had jumped from.

The window had been a stained window depicting something I don’t remember what. I didn’t care as long as everypony inside the tower was safe.

Everypony had left the room while I was busy fighting those stupid asshole raiders. I walked towards the open door.

Inside Harmony and Midnight were dancing together in the middle of the room. I had to admit Midnight had gotten better from the last time I saw her dance.

I saw Rose standing in the corner of the room watching the newly weds. I trotted over to her.

“Hi honey. How are you?” I kept my distance knowing I was covered in blood.

“I’m doing well. Are you hurt? Did anything bad happen outside?” Rose looked me over.

“I got the raiders away from the door and gave the guards enough time to prepare if the raiders launch a second assault.” I shrugged.

“Did you get shot?” Rose brought my muzzle down to hers.

“I try not to but with that many raiders it’s hard not to get hit at least once. I drank a healing potion or two. Oh also I might need to set a bone back into place.” I lifted up my front left hoof.

“You broke a bone. How did you manage that one?” Rose grabbed ahold of my leg rather roughly.

I winced at the pain. “I slammed into the ground from about a hundred feet up.”

Rose shook her head at me. “I know you were trying to go for the intimidation trick but you really should stop doing that. How many times have we had to set one of your legs before?”

I thought for a few seconds. “Too many to count.”

Rose had already started applying the splint. “And that’s why you need to stop.”

I kissed Rose’s head. “I’ll try but no promises.”

Rose shook her head and pulled the splint tight. “Well it would be nice if our foal got to meet his father.”

That hurt a little. “Hey no matter how reckless I might act I’ll always come back. I’ll be there for you and the foal when it’s born.”

Rose sighed and kissed me. “I know you will.”

The music came to a stop and light returned to the floor. “I guess Harmony and Midnight had their dance.”

Rose dragged me into a hug. “Yes they did. Now you are going to get off of that leg. Can’t have you injuring it anymore than you have already.”

I lifted my hoof off the ground. “Lead the way.”

Midnight’s POV

I saw Silver trotting off with Rose. “Harmony.”

“Yes?” Harmony glanced quickly across the room.

“Do you want to stay and just enjoy the party?” I watched PON3 do what he did best.

“I wouldn’t mind staying and listening to some music. This isn’t exactly the music I would dance to anyways.” Harmony trotted off towards a small couch.

I gave one last look to the party before following. I could tell that some ponies present were already drunk off their asses.

I had to avoid a puddle of puke as I trotted over to meet Harmony. “So this has gone to shit quickly.”

“Just a little bit. It’ll be fun to watch for a while. Then we can go and do something a bit more fun.” Harmony pulled me onto the couch on top of her. “What do you think about that?”

I smiled seductively and lowered my voice to a whisper. “I think we might need to leave early.” I nibbled on Harmony’s ear.

Harmony quivered. “Keep doing that and we might not leave. We’ll make them leave.”

I reached out with my magic and grabbed a bottle of wine. “Well let’s get to work then.”

Harmony looked at the bottle. “I admire the choice.”

I popped the cork. “I figured you would.”

“Now did my wife remember some fancy glasses to go with that wine?” Harmony gave me a wink.

“No I just remembered to grab the wine before we left.” I grabbed the glasses with my magic.

“Well I knew what you were planning so I made sure to grab a few.” Harmony took the full glass from my magic.

I lifted my glass. “Cheers.”

Harmony pushed me off of her. “Cheers.”

We both took a sip. “So did you get us a room for the night?”

Harmony nodded and took another sip of wine. “PON3 set us up with the honeymoon suite. Nopony is going to be bothering us tonight.”

I took a large sip of wine. “Just the way I like it. Nopony to bother us.”

Harmony set her glass down and kissed me. “Let’s just stop talking and get down to business already.”

I jumped off the couch. “Let’s.”

Author's Note

I know it's an early upload, but I loved this chapter. So gave early chapter.

Times Forgotten

When I returned home the next day Rose was waiting for me. She didn’t say anything like always and just gave me a hug.

“Hi Rose. Do we need to do anything?” I took a seat on the floor.

Rose nodded and produced a note. “Nothing super important. I’ve been meeting with a caravan so we didn’t have to go exploring to find food but they are late.”

“What do you thinks keeping them?” I thought of many ways they might have met their doom.

Rose shrugged and trotted towards the door. She gave me a look as she reached the door.

I hopped onto my hooves and trotted over to her. “I’m ready.”

Rose gave me the warm smile she always had. She pushed the door open.

On all of our trips when we were walking I justed followed Rose as we went. Most of the time I was left to my own thoughts. I always had something on my mind. Raiders was the big one today.

The last time I had dealt with raiders I lost control. They died by my hooves. Reliving what I remembered was terrible. That sight of their corpses burning was seared into my mind as a constant reminder I was capable of killing. Capable of losing who I was to this world.

Rose shook her head at me. She stopped and put a hoof on my shoulder.

I looked away. “I’m fine.”

Rose shook me. She wrote ‘No’ in the dirt.

A few tears burned my eyes. “I was just remembering killing those raiders. I’m not over it yet.”

Rose nodded and put me on her back. She started humming to me.

It was a calming noise. The one noise I had ever heard Rose make. And it was always used to make me feel better about life.

I curled up on Rose’s back. “Thanks Rose. I feel a bit better.”

Rose continued humming. The tune sounded like it was a song whose lyrics had been lost to time. Nothing remained of those who made that song except Rose’s rendition of it.

Of course what really did remain of life before the war? What was life like before shit hit the fan? I put the thoughts aside and pursued a different train of thought.
I turned my head to look at the sky. Today the sky was cloudy. We never got rain around here, but these clouds looked a bit different than usual. “Hey Rose. Do you think we might get some rain?”

Rose took a look to the sky. She took half a second before galloping back to the house.

We were in the door before I could even ask what was going on. “Is something wrong?”

Rose nodded and wrote on a piece of paper. “Acid rain.”

“What’s acid rain?” We rarely had rain, so what was acid rain?

Rose went back to writing. “It’s rain that is corrosive and hurts to be out in. It’d be best if we just stayed inside today.”

“Oh. How long do you think it’ll last?” I sat down on the floor.

Rose shrugged. Best I could tell she thought it might last all day.

I levitated over the radio. “Want to listen for a while?”

Rose nodded and smiled.

I turned the second dial until the static gave way to music. I’m not sure why we even tried to find a different station ever.

The only station we got was the one DJ-PON3 broadcasted with. “Hello wastelanders. Today we’ve got an acid rainstorm overhead. Seek shelter and don’t leave it. I’ve also gotten word of some bad things going on somewhere near here. If anypony’s looking for work bring a gun and let’s talk. That is all for the news.”

“Well I guess we’re just staying in today.” I pouted.

Rose patted my head and hugged me. One of the many things she did to make me happy.

“Thanks. Can we do something else?” I loved listening to music but not much played on the radio. Nothing extremely good anyway.

Rose trotted over to a filing cabinet and looked around before pulling out a small board and a bag of pieces.

“Oh I love checkers.” This was the one game I could actually have a chance at beating Rose at.

Rose laid the board down and then set up the pieces. She got first move.

I focused on the game entirely letting nothing else into my mind as Rose and I had a fierce battle to see who would be the victor.

When it came down to the final pieces I was outnumbered four to one with almost no conceivable way to win.

Rose moved her piece. I took a look at that move and realized I could end this swiftly.

“Well Rose it was a well played game but.” I jumped all four of her pieces placing mine on the last line of squares on her side. “I win.”

Rose looked astonished at the little board between us. She looked so confused yet so proud that I had figured that out.

“I did learn to play from somepony who is really good.” I smiled and laid a wing over Rose.

She started to hum again. Except this time a different tune. It sounded glorious. Like something you would play after winning a major victory against an enemy far superior to yourself.

I felt proud of that accomplishment. I had only beaten Rose a time or two before. And I think she let me win those. But to beat her with only one piece was incredible.

“Hi Silver. How are you and Rose on this fine day.” Derpy was perched atop our couch.

“Hi Derpy. We’re doing just fine minus the acid rain outside.” I smiled at Derpy before going back to enjoying Rose’s humming.

“Amethyst would like to come see you and Rose.” Derpy waved a hoof to somepony around the corner.

Rose continued humming her beautiful song and nodded as she did.

“That’s fine by us. We’ve got plenty of time to sit and talk.” I retracted my wing.

Amethyst wasn’t wearing a dress today. Instead she carried with her a pistol in a holster on her front right leg.

“Hello Amethyst. How are you doing today?” I got to my hooves to go hug Amethyst.

She wrapped a hoof around me as soon as I was close enough. “I was bored and had nothing to do in the other world. I figured if you were here I could come see you.”

“Why are you carrying a gun today?” I kept her in my embrace.

“A little accessory they’ve given me for coming here. Protection from whatever might try and attack.” Amethyst pulled me over to the couch.

“Well you won’t have to worry about anything attacking us today. We’ve got an acid rainstorm passing over. Nopony is going to be risking their lives out in weather like that.” I sat down on the couch next to her.

Rose gave us a cute look. She apparently thought we looked adorable together like this.

I levitated the radio over. “I’m hoping PON3 isn’t on the air right now. Maybe we can catch some music.”

Rose trotted off into another room. I could hear a object being lifted off a shelf.

I turned on the radio to see what was playing.

“In other news this acid rain should be clearing up here in the next day or so. Until then stay inside and listen to some sweet music. That’s all for now.”

The music kicked in. It was one of the softer wordless songs that played every now and again.

Rose and Amethyst both loved this song. We listened to the music together until it finally ended a few minutes later.

Rose trotted over and set a device down on the floor. It looked similar to the radio but also quite different. Rose deposited a little disk into an open tray before closing the top and pushing one of the buttons.

There it was. That sweet melody Rose always hummed for me when I was feeling blue. She began to hum along.

I had to resist crying. I had only ever heard Rose’s rendition of this. But now I was hearing the full piece. It was beautiful. And Rose had always hummed it spot on to how the song actually went.

Amethyst laid my head down so I could look into her eyes. “It’s a beautiful song. I think I’d like to listen to it with you more often.”

I smiled happily and just lovingly stared into Amethyst’s eyes. Such a lovely shade of blue. Enchanting one might say. I kissed her.

She kissed me back dragging the kiss out until the song slowed to it’s conclusion.

“That was an amazing song Rose. Do you have anymore like it?” Amethyst moved me just a little bit.

Rose trotted off into the other room. After a minute or so she returned with a little box full of the disks.

We spent the rest of the day listening to the music of the time only Rose remembered and the time I dreamt about.

Agony

I woke up with a slight hangover but still feeling alright. I was in bed with Harmony. My head was below the covers and I was kind of glad. I could tell that the sun was already out and shining right into the room.

I let out a breath and turned away from the lightsource. I turned bumping my muzzle right into Harmony’s stomach.

“Morning Midnight. How are you feeling?” Harmony put a hoof down on my head.

“I’m feeling alright. A slight hangover but nothing that shouldn’t pass by here in a few hours.” I opened my eyes for half a second before closing them again.

“Do you remember last night?” Harmony shook me a little bit.

I shook my head. “Not all of it. Some parts are there and some aren’t. I just remember it was an amazing time.” I buried my face farther into Harmony’s stomach.

“Well it was a good time. Nothing sticks out in your mind though?” Harmony moved her hoof off my head.

I thought for a few seconds. “I remember something about a bottle and some plan you had. The details are still fuzzy.”

Harmony slid under the covers with me. “That was before we went to bed. Anyways I think we might have another day in this suite if we want it.”

I yawned. “I could go for some food. Do we have anything here that’s already cooked?”

Harmony light up under the sheets with her aura. “I think we’ve got a mini fridge or something next to the bed. There’s probably some fruit or something in there.”

I crawled out from underneath the sheets. There indeed was a mini fridge next to our bed. I opened the door and it was full of nothing but booze.

“Anything?” Harmony rolled around under the covers.

“Unless you want more of a hangover then no. The entire fridge is stocked with booze.” I was about to close the door when Harmony pulled her head above the covers.

“Anything good?” Harmony quickly looked over the room.

“Mostly just beer. A few bottles of” I looked at the battle. “Atomic cocktail. No idea what that is but it sounds good.”

“Let’s stay away from alcohol for the time being. I’ve got a hangover as it is and the last thing I want is to tempt fate even more.” Harmony slid out of bed.

Somepony knocked on the door. “Room service. Can I get you two something to eat?”

Harmony didn’t think twice. “Yeah just bring up some breakfast if you could.”

Whoever was behind the door simply trotted away.

“I wonder what breakfast is going to be.” I yawned and rolled to the edge of the bed.

“I’d be okay with anything. I’m hungry after eating nothing but you for the past twelve hours.” Harmony jumped back onto the bed.

“Have we not eaten in that long? You’d think we would have noticed by now.” I put a hoof around Harmony.

Harmony simply shrugged and laid her head on me. “Time flies when your muzzle is buried in a mares nether regions.”

I giggled. “Yeah I suppose it does. Especially when I’ve got mine buried in the most beautiful mares nether regions.”

Harmony kissed my thigh. “Keep those compliments up I might just have to plow you before breakfast.”

“Oooh. A bit more aggressive now are we?” I smiled and kissed Harmony’s horn.

“You know you like it when I take control.” Harmony pinned me to the bed.

I smiled and rolled so I had Harmony pinned. “I do, but I also like to be in control.”

A little elevator door opened in the wall next to the bed. “Food’s here.”

I looked at the little elevator. “That’s really cool. Is that some sort of prewar technology?”

Harmony nodded and pulled the food out. “Dumbwaiters were common before the war in places like this. Have you never seen one before?”

I shook my head. “No this is the first time I’ve even heard about them.”

Harmony put a little tray on the bed for me. “Well there is a few of those in the tower. We’re lucky enough to have gotten one of the rooms with a dumbwaiter. This floor and the floor above it are the only ones that get access to those.”

I shrugged and opened up the tray. Inside was a bunch of fruit, some toast, a cup of coffee, and a stack of pancakes. “They went all out with this.”

“PON3 set it up so we would be treated like queens after our wedding. Wouldn’t want anything to be less than perfect.” Harmony took a bite of her orange.

“Well I say no matter what this entire trip went perfectly. I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world.” I started to eat.

Another knock on the door. “Are you two busy at the moment?” Rose was outside.

“No we’re just eating breakfast. Come on in.” Harmony opened up the door.

Rose trotted in. “Wow he really did go all out for you two. So how did you two enjoy yesterday?”

I swallowed my mouthful of food. “I think we both thoroughly enjoyed it.”

Harmony spoke through a mouthful of pancakes. “It was amazing.”

“Well I’ve got some bad news for you two.” Rose stared out the window.

“What is it?” I set my food off to the side.

Rose sighed. “Well I know how much you two wanted to relax for an entire week but we’ve got to get back home. I got a message from Stone saying he wants us back there as soon as we can be.”

“Anything serious?” Harmony moved closer to me.

“No just says that we should return home quickly. Something about a trade caravan. I’m not sure. His writing was terrible.” Rose pulled up a chair.

“Well it’s the wasteland. What are you going to do?” I picked my food up again.

Rose shrugged. “Can’t do anything except hope that the wasteland plays nice.”

“So what did Silver do to his leg?” I stabbed my fork into a pancake.

Rose sighed. “He smashed into the ground from around one hundred feet. He does that to spread fear into the hearts of his enemies. I think it’s pretty dumb on his part.”

“So did he not drink a healing potion?” Harmony set her food aside.

“He did drink one but he had already messed his leg up and kept fighting on it so it didn’t heal. He has to have it in a splint for a few days before the magic fully restores that leg.” Rose stood up from her chair.

“How’s everypony else doing?” I set my tray back on the dumbwaiter.

“Silver’s been resting keeping all pressure off his hoof. I’m not sure about Demo and Onyx though. I haven’t talked to them since before the wedding.” Rose trotted towards the door.

“Well if you see them tell them we’ll be leaving tomorrow morning.” Harmony tossed her tray away and sent the dumbwaiter back down.

Rose trotted out the door. “Alright. I’ll tell them when I see them.”

I closed the door as Rose trotted out. “So Harmony.”

Harmony didn’t let me finish and pinned me to the bed again. “Yes.”

The next morning.

Harmony and I had gotten up early and were preparing for our return trip to New Appleloosa. We had just gotten our armor on when a knock sounded at our door.

“Midnight. Are you awake?” Onyx was behind the door.

I opened the door up and let Onyx in. “Yeah we’re just getting ready for our trip home.”

Onyx trotted over. “Alright. I woke Demo up before I came up here. He’ll be ready soon.”

Even having worn this armor as long as I had I was still unused to it. Normally I was a bit shorter than Onyx when we stood side by side. In my armor however, I didn’t tower over him but I was a good eight inches taller. “Alright. Could you go and wake Rose and Silver? We’ll still need them to come with us.”

Onyx nodded looking up at me. “Yeah sure.” With that he trotted back out the door.

“Sizing yourself up compared to a pony not clad in armor?” Harmony took her place beside me.

“Yeah. These suits are weird. I’ve been shorter than Onyx my whole life but when I wear this.” I shook my head.

“Whole different story. The armor was designed to be big and intimidating.” Aurora appeared as a hologram in the room.

Even she seemed small. “Yeah. They are impressive.”

Aurora pulled up the map. “I’ve been getting readings from an area somewhere between here and New Appleloosa. I’m not sure but I believe another stable may have just opened up.”

Home flashed into my mind. “Another stable? That might be worth investigating.”

Aurora took a look at the map. “I’m not sure that’s a great idea. That area was a bad place before the war.”

“We passed over it but it seemed no different than the rest of the wasteland. What’s so bad about that area?” I tried to read the small print of the map.

“That was Everfree Forest before the war. A dark place that held nothing but danger. Also you were asleep for that part of the journey.” Aurora zoomed in on the forest.

“Is there still a forest there?” I inspected the large area.

Aurora shook her head. “When the bombs fell that area was wiped out instantly. The boars didn’t want anypony to hide from them. Everfree would have been the best place to defend if all major cities fell. So they bombed it off the map.”

“How much do you know about the war?” I pulled up the folder of prewar knowledge.

“I was alive before it all happened. I had just left college when I was recruited for a special project to save equestria. That’s how I ended up as a computer. That bitch Twilight transferred me over to a computer and left me like this.” Aurora was visibly pissed.

“I think I read about her from the files you showed me.” I looked through the folders until I found the one I was looking for.

Aurora took the file and deleted it. “Bitch deserves to be forgotten after what she did. After what they all did.”

“Aurora are you ok? What did they do to deserve this?” I closed out of our database.

Aurora sighed. “They were the ones to create Stable-tec. All of the horrible experiments that were the stables. Everything bad that happened they caused. The world is the way it is because they bucked the world sideways playing with forces they couldn’t control.”

“The stables were experiments?” Home hadn’t seemed like an experiment.

“Not all of them were experiments. Some of them were dedicated to helping ponies survive the war so that we would survive to live another day. More than ninety percent of them were experiments. You got lucky to be in one of the ones that wasn’t an experiment.” Aurora flashed out of existence.

I was a little uncomfortable. “We should probably go round up the others and leave. Rose did say we were needed back home.”

Harmony nodded and opened up the door. “Alright. Let’s go beautiful wife.”

“With pleasure.” I trotted behind Harmony as we headed for the elevator.

Nopony was around to tell us we couldn’t have armor on in the tower. We trotted up to the elevator and called it.

We all sat in silence waiting for the elevator to arrive. Apparently the elevator had been a floor or two down because it arrived quickly.

Onyx and Demo were waiting for us. “No offense but I’m not sure we can all fit in this elevator. You are wearing full suits of power armor.”

I wasn’t sure about the elevator. “Couldn’t you two just fly to the top floor?”

“We could do that. Onyx do you want to fly up?” Demo took a step out the door.

“Well they can’t fly and we can. I suppose we owe them that. Come on we’ll fly and they can take the elevator.” Onyx pulled Demo out with him.

Harmony trotted in and pulled me along. “We’ve got no time to waste. The wasteland waits for nopony.”

I slid into the elevator. “Do you get off from pulling me around? Because you do it a whole lot.”

Harmony looked into my eyes. “Maybe I do. Maybe I don’t. Leaving you guessing makes it more fun.”

I shrugged. “I guess it does. What do you think awaits us once we return home? Raiders? Adventure? Or maybe just some home improvements?”

Harmony glanced at the floor number. “Probably all of the above. Never know what the wasteland’s going to throw at us next.”

“All we can do is stay by each other's side and hope it all turns out well.” The elevator dinged and I took a step forward.

PON3 was waiting for us on the other side of the door. “I hope you two enjoyed your stay here. You’re welcome to return anytime you please. Keep an eye out though. Most ponies here don’t trust you after our little encounter with the raiders.”

I nodded and stepped out of the elevator. “Where’s everypony?”

PON3 turned towards a staircase. “Already on the roof getting things prepared for your journey home.”

We followed PON3 as he took us back through that poorly lit area we had entered from. I’m not sure how but he led us through there without having to use a light of any source.

When we got to the roof Silver was just hooking himself up to the chariot. His front leg was in a splint and he held it off the ground.

“Hi Silver. Did you kill all of the raiders that were around they tower?” I took a step towards him.

Silver shook his head. “No. I only cleared out enough of them so the tower guards could defend this place again.”

Demo and Onyx pulled our chariot over. “We would have killed them all if Silver had used my idea.”

“What was your idea Demo?” I turned to face him.

Demo put a hoof to the back of his head. “I suggested we blow them up with a balefire egg.”

I cocked my head to the right. “Are you bucking insane?”

Silver jumped in. “Right? That’s what I said.”

“Well I never said it was a good plan. I just said it would kill them all.” Demo sighed.

“You just want to see shit explode don’t you?” Harmony jumped into the chariot.

Demo nodded. “A little bit.”

I sighed and jumped in next to Harmony. “We’ll blow something up with that egg one day. For now I say we just keep it as a backup plan.”

Demo looked at the ground. “Alright.”

“Don’t be too sad. I’m sure we’ll have reason to blow shit up here soon enough.” Onyx gave Demo a kiss.

“You know just what to say.” Demo hugged Onyx.

I chuckled and levitated Rose my helmet. “Just in case we need to talk. Can’t hear much as far apart as we fly.”

Rose nodded. “Alright.”

“Aurora didn’t you say there was a stable somewhere between here and New Appleloosa?” Harmony set her helmet on the floor.

Aurora pulled the map up. “Somewhere about halfway between. This technology isn’t the best at pinpointing shit. So the best I can tell you is somewhere in this general area.”

A little ring flashed on the map. “How accurate is this map?” I watched as the ring kept flashing.

“Shit if I know. That circle might be a mile across or it could be a couple hundred feet. These stupid pieces of shit can’t track something like that easily.” Aurora disappeared along with the map.

“Well ok then. I guess if we see it we’ll go investigate.” I gave the signal.

Silver nodded and took off. “Tell them to follow close.”

“Got it. Go on Onyx and Demo let’s get this show on the road.” Harmony tapped on the chariot twice.

Onyx and Demo were in perfect sync as they jumped off the roof. For the first few seconds we free fell before they decide to pull out of the dive.

I really wanted to hit both of them. “Did you two really have to do that?”

Onyx laughed. “Yeah. Had to make sure you two hadn’t completely forgotten about the wasteland.”

I sighed. “No. We haven’t forgotten.”

Onyx glanced back and smiled. “Just had to make sure.”

I shook my head. “Not exactly the way I wanted to return to the wastes.”

Harmony pulled me closer. “But you’ve got me here.”

I kissed her. “That I do. And I’m never letting go of you.”

Harmony smiled and tapped on her helmet. “Aurora how close do we need to be before our armor gets a better pinpoint on that signal?”

Aurora appeared as a little hologram. “If we get within a mile or so Midnight’s Pipbuck should start shrinking the circle. Basically if we fly anywhere in the direction we are we’ll find it.”

“How far out is it?” I pulled up my pipbuck.

“Four or five miles from here. At current speed we should be there in less than thirty minutes.” Aurora disappeared again.

“Did you hear that Onyx?” I leaned forward a bit.

“Most of it. I take it we’ll be landing if we find whatever it is that’s causing the signal.” Onyx’s voice was a bit hard to hear.

I nodded. “Yeah. Whatever it is might be important. Maybe somepony survived from that stable.”

Onyx didn’t say anything else and just simply nodded his head.

Harmony pulled me back to her. “So what do you want to do as the first thing after our honeymoon?”

I thought for a second before pulling up Harmony’s helmet. “Aurora que up something good.”

Aurora pulled a few videos over to my Pipbuck. “I’ve got a few ready for you. Just keep the noise down.”

I pressed the play button on my Pipbuck. “Alright.”

We had just finished the second or third video when Aurora interrupted. “We’re within a mile now. Keep your eyes peeled.”

I nodded. “Harmony radio over to Rose and tell them to keep going. We’ll meet them back home later.”

Harmony put her helmet on and started transmitting my message.

I looked at my Pipbuck to see if the circle had shrunk any. “Well it’s starting to become smaller. Onyx, Demo fly us lower to the ground and slow down.”

Onyx and Demo slowed the chariot down and started descending.

“Well I told them what we planned on doing. Rose said she’d send a recon squad out if we weren’t back before sunrise tomorrow.”

I nodded and looked back down to the ground. It took only a few seconds of scanning before I saw something down below. “There.”

Onyx nodded and turned the chariot slightly to the left and brought us down.

I hopped out of the chariot when we touched down.

Harmony followed shortly behind. “A hole in the ground?”

I checked my Pipbuck to make sure. “That’s what my Pipbuck says. It pinpointed the signal. And that signal leads right here.”

“But still a hole in the ground? I was expecting a stable or something.” Harmony took a few tentative steps towards the hole.

I shrugged and started descending into the hole. “Either way it’s a place to explore. Maybe we can find something cool down there.”

Harmony called to Onyx and Demo. “You two stay up here. Come looking for us if we aren’t back within an hour.”

I couldn’t see what they were doing but I guessed they had nodded as Harmony was at my side again. “Harmony would you please turn on your light.”

The light switched on and we trotted further into the depths. From what I could see we still had a ways to go before we reached level ground again.

The light of day started fading as we dived deeper. The walls were held up by pillars of what I guessed were steel. “Why would they need steel pillars to hold this place up?”

Aurora turned on my Pipbuck lamp. “Possibly a secret research lab. Something like that would have been protected and kept secret like this.”

“That still leaves a few unanswered questions. What were they doing here, and why did it need to be so secretly guarded?” Harmony looked around the room.

“Balefire bombs, MPA M12 maybe.” Aurora suggested. “Could be a number of things like that. Something we wouldn’t want our enemies getting ahold of.”

I looked down to the far end of the room. “Harmony shine your light down that way.”

Harmony fixed her light on where I was pointing. An open stable door greeted us.

“I don’t like the looks of this. Open door, no lights, and not a sound indicating the generators are running. Either the ponies inside are dead or they’ve been gone for a while.” I peeked my head inside.

Nothing inside that I could see screamed danger at me. I stepped inside never letting my eyes stop moving. My lamp light the room up with that puke green color that I hated.

The stable door hadn’t just been opened it had been completely blown off of it’s track. What little remained of it was scattered about in small pieces.

“Explosive entry. Designed the way it was nothing short of a balefire egg would have blown that door up like that.” Aurora took a look at the pieces. “Either well armed raiders looking for some new toys or, somepony trying to destroy this place.”

I moved away from the debris and towards the open door leading further into the stable. Inside looked only a tiny bit better. Burn marks covered the walls in black.

I examined the pattern closely. “Laser weapons?”

Harmony trotted up beside me. “Probably a laser gatling gun. As many burn marks as there are I wouldn’t expect them to have used anything less.”

“So well armed raiders looking for new toys.” I shuddered. “Let’s hope that’s not the case.”

What was left of a map lay on the floor burned in half. Harmony picked up what little remained. “What’s left of the map suggests if we want anything of value we need to continue on down.”

“How far?” I took a look at the small map fragment.

“All the important valuable things would be down on the bottom floor. Anything worth protecting this much would have been stored far away from the light of day.” Aurora pulled up a small map on my Pipbuck.

From what Aurora had constructed this place looked enormous. “That’s a lot of places to explore.”

Aurora put the map away. “Yes and we won’t be able to explore into the depths without power.”

“The generators would have supplied power to oxygen pumps so that those farthest down could breathe. If this one is designed the same as Stable 24 we should have one generator every five floors or so.” I looked at the little map piece we had. “Follow me.”

I took off down the hallway making note of what colors ran along the floor.

Harmony kept pace with me easily as we trotted along. “You know where the generator is?”

I shook and nodded my head. “I don’t know it’s exact location, but I do know if I follow the yellow line on the floor we should find it easily.”

“So all stables have a color based travel network?” Harmony looked down at the lines beneath our hooves.

“Stable 24 did. I saw the lines and gambled that maybe this place was designed the same.” I took a left turn.

“Let’s hope that gamble pays off.” Harmony kept her light focused on the lines at our hooves.

The yellow line kept us on a straight path to the end of this hallway. A door stood between us and what I hoped was the generator. “This should be the power room.”

Harmony reached out with her magic to open the door. “No good.”

I looked at the door for a few seconds. “The lock’s still intact, but that’s not our problem. Aurora how good are you at hacking into systems like this?”

I saw a little bolt of energy as Aurora transferred herself over. “Give me ten seconds and I’ll have the door open.”

I smiled. “Good. Sometimes growing up in a stable has it’s advantages. We have little to no power here but that doesn’t stop these terminals. They should have a battery that keeps them running for a couple hundred years.”

The light above the door turned green. “Try it now.” Aurora transferred back over to my armor.

Harmony and I worked together and opened the door. “Now then we just need to start the generator again.”

“Do you know how to do that?” Harmony stepped in and looked at the massive generator before us.

“I don’t know that much about the generators. I did read a book on how they work for a presentation in one of my classes. All I know is they’re nuclear powered and can produce a massive amount of power.” I looked over the generator to see if I could figure out the problem.

A little terminal light up next to the generator. “Welcome. Generator inactive. Status intact. Missing one fuel rod.”

“Okay well that’s the problem, how do we solve it?” Harmony looked around for me. “Midnight where’d you go?”

“I’m over here. Just looking for a fuel rod.” I climbed over a fallen bookcase.

On the other side was a locker labeled radioactive. I pulled on the handle and to my surprise the door opened for me. Inside were fuel rods, although most of them looked depleted.

I searched around inside before I found one that had a slight glow to it. “I think I found one.”

“Then bring it back and let’s get this generator started.” Harmony’s voice was faint.

I turned around and started climbing over the debris that separated us. It was odd seeing this much debris scattered around the generator.

“I hope this stupid thing actually runs.” I muttered to myself as I jumped over the last hurdle. “Aurora.”

“Yes I know how it works. I did some interacting with the terminal to see what this powers.” Aurora opened a little hatch on the side of the generator.

“So what does it run?” I slid the fuel rod in and closed the door.

“Elevators, lights, vital systems. Pretty much everything you’d expect it to run. It also looks like this is one of two generators in this facility.” Aurora turned the generator on.

“Fuel rod inserted. Restarting generator.” The little robot voice faded away as the generator stirred.

“Oh and I’m disabling her from talking. I’m a bit tired of her sass.” Aurora shut the terminal down.

“Ok now that the generators working we should be able to explore the rest of this stable without any problems. We passed an elevator on the way here.” I trotted out the door as all the lights came back on.

Harmony turned off her flashlight. “Alright. Lead the way my wonderful wife.”

I blushed and trotted down the hall. The elevator was less than a fifty foot trot.

I pushed the call button and waited for the elevator. “How far down does this place go?”

Aurora responded quickly. “About seven hundred feet. We’ll be able to head straight for the bottom using this elevator.”

The elevator dinged. As the doors opened I heard a whirring noise start.

We jumped out of the way as a turret started firing at us. “What the buck. Aurora can you deal with that?” I put my Pipbuck close to the elevator terminal.

“It’s got a better encryption than the generator but I’ll try.” Aurora got to work hacking.

I pulled out my .44. “Well if you can’t shut it down I’ll just destroy it.”

Aurora kept quiet as she worked. After a few seconds she spoke. “Just blow it up.”

I put my gun around the corner and fired twice. The second shot exploded the little turret sending shrapnel into the hall.

Harmony peeked her head around the corner to make sure it was safe. “It’s gone. We can use the elevator now.”

I got back to my hooves. “Alright. Keep your guns at the ready. I have a feeling we might have to deal with more of those.”

The elevator panel had only two options. I pushed the button to take us to the bottom floor.

The doors didn’t close and a little terminal flipped out of the wall. “Access code.”

“Son of a bitch. Alright Aurora help me hack this stupid thing.” I trotted up to the terminal.

The boot phase was quick and soon enough I was staring at a lot of little symbols.

“Midnight you need to guess the correct password so we can continue onward. I can cross off a few of these because I tried them already.” Aurora sat on my shoulder.

I looked at the panel for a few seconds before Aurora’s changes took effect. “So did they have anything in common with the password?”

Aurora nodded. “A few letters were the same.”

I looked over the possible list before randomly guessing. “Did that work?”

“Access granted.” The terminal slid back into the wall and the doors slammed shut.

“I guess it did.” I waited for elevator music.

No music played. Not a single sound could be heard for the entire trip down except for the whir of the elevator.

When the doors opened again we were inside of a laboratory. “Ok so this is what we came here for. Now what is it?”

Aurora appeared as a hologram beside me. “It’s a prewar research lab.”

“Do you know what it was dedicated to?” I trotted further into the room.

“From what I got out of the computer we are dealing with a sort of weaponized virus of sorts. Something used to turn ponies into killing machines.” Aurora flipped on the lights.

The whole room light up. I looked around in horror. All around the lab were ponies bodies in test tubes. They were transforming and turning a sickly green color as they lost their fur.

I couldn’t help myself and threw up on the floor. “What the buck. Aurora what is this shit?”

Aurora sat in a stunned silence. “This is the remnants of the mutant experiments.”

I threw up again. “The what?”

“The mutant experiments. They turned ponies into the mutants that roam the wastelands. This is where that all began. They were trying to create soldiers far superior to even the most well trained pony wearing power armor. They failed and ended up with this mess.” Aurora trotted over to one of the consoles.

“What are you doing?” I got shakily back to my hooves.

Aurora turned to look at me. “I’m going to destroy this place. None of this technology can be recovered without doing further harm to this world.”

“How do you plan on destroying it?” Harmony took a step towards Aurora.

“I’m going to set up a nuclear detonation. That generator upstairs is going to explode and destroy this whole place. We’ve got twenty minutes to leave the area after I set the meltdown in progress.” Aurora trotted back to me.

Harmony surrounded me in her aura. “Come on then. We need to get out of this place.”

I tried my best to keep pace with Harmony as we trotted back into the elevator. “When are you going to activate the meltdown?”

“As soon as we leave this place. Once your hooves leave this elevator I’m triggering it.” Aurora closed the doors behind us.

I took a few steps to readjust myself. “Alright then. Once these door open we haul ass out of here.”

The trip back up was short. The doors opened and I bolted out of them galloping as fast as I could back to the exit.

Aurora started the meltdown. “We should have twenty minutes before this place explodes.”

The robot voice came on again. “Meltdown activated. Ten minutes until detonation.”

“Well buck me sideways I guess. Also run!” I didn’t have time to see what Aurora was doing.

I almost slammed into the wall as I made a quick turn towards the exit. The door was insight.

The voice sounded again. “Nine minutes until detonation.”

I paid no attention to it and galloped even faster as I approached the exit. I looked back to make sure Harmony was following me.

Harmony nodded at me and kept even pace.

I jumped through the two open doors leading to the outside world.

Onyx had just descended to come looking for us. “Why are you two running?”

I barreled past him. “Big explosions. Get your ass to the chariot and prepare to get us the buck out of here.”

Onyx looked at me and then flew straight out of the hole.

Harmony and I cleared the ground between us and the chariot quickly. Onyx and Demo were ready to take off when we hopped into the chariot.

I panted. “Aurora how long before meltdown.”

“Seven minutes. We need to leave right now to escape the explosion.” That tone off urgence was impossible to miss.

Onyx and Demo took no time after we jumped in to take off and start flying. It took less than a minute to get up to full speed.

“Do we need the full seven minutes to escape that explosion?” I looked back at the disappearing hole.

Aurora pulled up a map. “The explosion will kill anything within a mile radius. We’ll be in the radiation danger zone after that seven minutes pass. We’ll still need another minute to get out of that so we don’t take on a deadly amount of radiation.”

“Aurora can you give us a countdown?” I looked back.

A small timer was projected before us. “It’s the best I can do.”

The seconds kept on ticking away as we flew as fast as we possibly could.

Silver’s POV

Rose had been listening to what the others were doing through Midnight’s helmet. “Silver take us down.”

I turned my head so I could see Rose. “Are you sure?”

Rose’s face was deadly serious. She didn’t have to speak and I brought the chariot down.

I spoke when my hooves hit the ground. “What’s wrong?”

“Go back and get them.” Rose’s face never conveyed this type of seriousness.

“Why? Is something wrong?” I unhooked myself from the chariot.

Rose tossed the helmet over. “Listen for yourself.”

I held the helmet up so I could hear what was happening.

“Shit. One of the harnesses broke. The chariot’s going to go down. Hold on you two I’ll try to make this landing as survivable as possible.” Onyx was the one talking.

“Buck. Alright. Come on Midnight stay close. This armor’s designed for impact but this might be pushing it.” Harmony’s voice was the loudest.

I heard a loud snap. “Son of a bitch. Hold on.”

I heard what little remained of their chariot crash into the ground. I looked at Rose.

Aurora talked directly to me. “Get your ass back here. These two are going to need you. Bring that helmet and be prepared for a shit storm when you get here.”

Rose nodded. “Go they need you more than I do. Just leave me a gun and I’ll be fine.”

I tossed her a pistol and bolted back towards where my friends were.

Midnight’s POV

I didn’t remember much after we hit the ground. I did remember the chariot had broke midflight sending us hurtling towards the ground.

“Hang in there Midnight. Aurora status report.” Harmony’s voice sounded really funny.

“She’s not in great shape. That fall no doubt broke half of her ribs and both her front legs. We’ll need some time to fix it but she should survive. Just keep her awake. Silver’s on his way back.” Aurora’s voice was faint.

Harmony finally came into view. “Come on Midnight stay with me. We just need to wait for Silver to get here and then we’ll get you fixed up. Stay with me.”

My vision started to fade. “Harmony.”

“Save your strength. You’re going to need it after this is all said and done.” Harmony leaned down and kissed me.

I coughed a few times. “You’ve made me the happiest mare ever. I love you.”

“Midnight? Midnight! Aurora do something!” Harmony was the last thing I saw before my vision fully faded.

It was a weird feeling. I no longer felt my body but I could see it. I watched Harmony trying to revive me.

I felt a little sad that I was doing this to her. The tears in her eyes were what sent me over the edge. “No. NO! I’m not going to leave her.”

I tried fighting my way back to my body but I couldn’t move. “No. Come on. I need to get back to her.”

A thunderous voice stopped my movement. “Enough!”

“No. I’m not letting you take me now. I still have a wife who needs me. Let me go now!” I could finally feel my limbs again.

“Calm down and let me speak. I’m going to let you return to her. The wasteland still needs you. Your journey is far from over my little pony. When the time comes we will meet face to face.” The voice took on a sympathetic tone.

“I don’t care. Just let me return to her side. I can’t let this be her last memory of me.” I took a step towards where the voice was.

“If you accept my deal you’re going to have to help me to achieve my goal.” The voice turned serious. “Deal.”

I looked back at Harmony cradling my body. “Anything. I’m not leaving Harmony.”

“Very well. You may now return to your body. We will meet soon enough. Until then continue on living for yourself.” The voice faded.

The lights around me dimmed. “I’m coming Harmony.”

My world was spinning and my ears ringing. I tried to speak but couldn’t.

“Wait vital signs returning. It worked. Just keep her there.” Aurora’s voice returned louder than ever.

I looked at Harmony as she looked back to me. “Harmony.”

“I’m here Midnight. Just hang in there.” Harmony’s face was stained with tears.

“I’m not leaving you. I’m never leaving you.” I tried to smile.

Harmony hugged me. “I know you’re not. Aurora how long until Silver gets here?”

“Less than one minute. We’re going to have to move her to somewhere safer before we even try to fix this.” Aurora leaned over me.

“How long until the generator explodes?” Harmony looked into my eyes.

“Less than two minutes. We made it just out of the deadly area. Now we just have to worry about the radiation.” Aurora looked into my eyes.

“How bad?” I coughed a few times.

“You’ll be fine. We just need to get you out of here. The potion Aurora gave you should heal your broken bones and repair any damage they may have caused. Now please don’t scare me again. I thought.” Harmony started to cry again. “I thought I had lost you. I wasn’t prepared for that.”

I would have put my hoof up to her face if my legs weren’t broken. “You’re not going to lose me. I promise.”

“I love you.” Harmony kissed me.

“Harmony can you hear me?” Silver’s voice sounded through Harmony’s helmet.

“Yeah I can hear you.” Harmony picked her helmet up off the ground.

“Is Midnight still alive?” I had never heard so much worry in Silver’s voice.

“Yeah I’m still here. My current situation hurts like a bitch, but I’ll live.” I tried to move my legs again.

“Thank the goddesses. I can see you two. I’ll be there in ten seconds.” Silver came down towards the ground.

My legs felt a little like jello but felt like they were back to being normal. I rolled over and put my legs underneath me. The pain in that nearly made me blackout. “Shit, buck, dammit, son of a bitch that hurt.”

“You just broke most of your ribs and both of your front legs. Of course it’s going to hurt rolling over so soon after that kind of injury.” Aurora was standing over me.

I fought through the pain and pushed myself to my hooves. “Buck you.”

Harmony kept close to me. “Are you sure you can stand?”

I nodded. “Yeah. It hurts a little bit but nothing I can’t handle.” I was lying. The pain was absolutely excruciating.

“I don’t believe you. Now take a seat before you hurt yourself.” Silver landed next to us.

I didn’t think twice. The shock of falling back like that hurt but not as much as standing. “Yeah you’re right. Aurora how long until.”

The generator exploded in the distance. “Silver put up a shield now!” Harmony threw herself between the explosion and me.

The shield went up just as a gust of wind hit us.

My Geiger counter started losing its shit. “Well I guess that still works.” I looked down to my Pipbuck to see that the screen was cracked. “Well shit.”

“You’re worried about that little trinket. We just survived a nuclear explosion. How can you be focused on something like that?” Silver looked into my helmet.

“I don’t know. I guess this thing is more important to me than some stupid explosion.” I realized now how much I actually appreciated my Pipbuck.

“Well either way we need to get out of here. My shield will only protect from radiation for so long. Now I know you can’t walk so let me carry you.” Silver lifted me with his magic.

“Ok but we stay on the ground so I can be with Harmony.” I held a hoof out to her.

Silver nodded and set me down on his back. “No problem. How far do we need to go before we’re out of the radiation zone?”

Aurora pulled up my map again. “Less than a mile at most. The area will be mostly clear of radiation by then.”

I brought my head up to look at Harmony. “Wait. Harmony are you alright? You’re armor had to have sustained similar damage right?”

Harmony shook her head. “My armor is a Mark 5 set. It gave me just enough extra cushion so I didn’t injure anything. Maybe a sprain of some sort but nothing a little bit of time won’t heal.”

I sighed in relief. “Good.” As long as Harmony was fine I could have cared less about my current state.

“So what did you give her to fix all of that?” Silver adjusted where I was sitting.

“It was a mixture of a few things Midnight had on her. A healing potion mixed with an atomic cocktail and some hydra.” Aurora pulled up a few files in my helmet.

I looked over what she had given me. The only thing that really worried me was the hydra. “Where did I get hydra?”

“Don’t know. Best just to keep it that way.” The files disappeared.

We kept a fast pace as we trotted. About twenty minutes had passed before my geiger counter stopped clicking. “Sounds like we’re out of the radiation zone.”

“We’re still a ways off from where I landed. Rose will be waiting for us there.” Silver stopped only momentarily.

“Can you set me on the ground? I think I can walk now.” I moved my forelegs slowly.

“Mmmm. Aurora what do you think?” Harmony looked at me.

“I’m not sure what to think. Most ponies even in armor would have died in that kind of accident. Seeing as Midnight came back.” Aurora paused for a few seconds. “If she can keep up let her walk.”

Silver set me gently down onto the ground. “Whatever you want.”

I slid to the ground and waited for a few seconds. I slowly put the weight back onto my forelegs. “My legs still feel a little like jello, but I’ll be fine.”

“Well they aren’t going to be working as well after an injury like that. Oh and you might walk with a limp for the rest of your life.” Aurora flashed a few lights on my hud.

“Well that’s just bucking perfect. A limp for the rest of my life.” I hung my head.

“Might. Might is the key word there. If you let your legs heal properly you might walk with a limp for a few weeks. If you strain yourself you’ll walk with a limp forever.” The little lights stopped flashing.

“Well buck walking then. Silver do you mind carrying me?” I took a seat.

Silver lifted me again. “I don’t mind. You're not that heavy.”

I simply accepted this. “Thanks.”

Silver shrugged and started trotting again. “Like I said. I don’t mind. You’re alive and that’s what matters.”

“Anypony want to listen to the radio?” I started flipping through the four radio stations we could access.

“Why not. Might as well have something to help pass the time.” Silver didn’t look back.

I flipped through the channels before settling to listening to DJ-PON3. “With any luck we won’t catch a news broadcast.”

“Hello wastelanders.” PON3 was on.

“Son of a bitch.” I considered turning the radio off.

“As you may have heard Tenpony is no longer under threat of destruction. Thanks to a couple of crazy mares and their one stallion army. And now we’ve got an even larger group of ponies who can listen in. If you see the mares responsible consider buying them a drink. I know I would. That does it for the news. Now time for some music.” Music began playing.

I enjoyed this song but I turned the radio off. “Looks like somepony changed their mind.”

“I don’t have a doubt in my mind that he still hates us. We just so happen to be useful to him. Under any other circumstances he would probably leave us to the hooves of raiders.” Harmony avoided eye contact.

“Nopony said we had to like him. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t help us out.” I turned my head to the ground.

Harmony sighed. “Yeah you’re right. Whatever though. We’ve got more important things to worry about now.”

I thought for a few seconds about what I had heard when I was dead. “I think we might be heading towards something big.”

“What do you mean?” Silver stopped almost sending me to the ground.

“I mean when I was dead I talked with somepony. I’m not sure if it was Celestia or not, but she said she required our help. Something about us meeting face to face soon.” The details were a bit fuzzy in my mind.

Silver lost all expression. “Then it must be important. Did you agree to this?”

I nodded. “It was the only way she was going to let me return to Harmony. I had no other choice.”

Silver sighed. “Then I guess whoever you talked to has plans for us.”

I readjusted how I was laying down. “Whatever. For now just get us home. My everything hurts.”

Harmony shook her head at me. “Well we’ll do what we can to make the trip comfortable. No promises though.”

I let my body go limp. “Just don’t throw me around too much.”

“I wouldn’t sleep if I was you. You might still be in shock from your injuries, and we barely brought you back.” Aurora played some music in my ears.

The music was loud enough to deter me from sleeping. “Fine. I’l avoid taking a nap. If I’m going to be awake anyways why don’t you play something good.”

“Alright. Let me see if I can find a good radio station out here.” Aurora’s voice was dripping in sarcasm.

“Yeah well buck you too. Just play some music.” I lifted my head up a few inches.

Aurora tuned into PON3’s channel. “It’s the best I can do.”

I sighed. “I guess something’s better than nothing.”

“Welcome back my wastelanders.” His voice was starting to get annoying.

“How many bucking times are we going to tune into this dumbass talking? All I wanted was music. Not this horse shit.” I dropped my head back down.

“I’ve just gotten news of a detonation. Not just a small explosion folks. We’re talking a big one. I could feel the shockwave off this one.” The radio turned off.

“Sorry I just couldn’t listen to another word without tearing my own ears off. I bucking hate him.” I let the glow from my horn fade.

“Credit where credit’s due though. He keeps the wasteland informed.” Harmony put a hoof on me.

“I know. That doesn’t change the goddesses damned fact that I hate him.” I would have been up if it weren’t for the pain I was in.

Harmony sighed. “Midnight, focus on something else. We’ll never have to go back there unless we truly want to. Now we’ve got a bright future out here for ourselves.”

I smiled raising my head a tiny bit. “That’s something I can look forward to.”

We both giggled. That tiny little giggle made my day a million times better. “Silver when are we going to be back at the chariot? I think Midnight would appreciate a better seat.”

Silver shrugged moving me around. “Shouldn’t be too far away. This looks somewhat familiar.”

I closed my eyes. “Let’s not take too long. I really want to take a nap.”

“No. No naps. Not until we get some time to make sure you’re better.” Harmony reached out to me with her magic.

“Then we should hurry it up.” I yawned. “Silver could we pick up the pace?”

“Only if we had another pegasus to carry Harmony. Otherwise she’d have to walk back alone.” Silver trotted ever so slightly faster.

“Not happening. I’m not leaving her side.” Harmony sped up to keep pace.

“I thought so. So we’ll just have to move fast on our hooves.” Silver broke into a light gallop.

The sudden change in speed threw me around for a few seconds. I kept quiet and tried to focus on something other than the sharp pain everywhere. No such thoughts helped me.

“Silver why are we galloping?” Harmony kept pace easily.

“I just remembered I left Rose alone. I’m a bucking moron. I shouldn’t have left her alone.” With each word his pace only increased.

I wrapped my hooves around Silver. It took most of my might not to get thrown off. “Could you slow down a little bit?”

Silver didn’t respond to me. I had to readjust my grip as he jumped into the air and started flying.

The higher we got the farther away Harmony got. “Silver slow the buck down. At least bring Midnight back down to the ground.”

Silver paid no attention to Harmony and kept flying at breakneck speed.

I think I heard Silver curse a few times underneath his breath but couldn’t quite catch what he had said. The pain started to subside as I was hit by another wave of adrenaline.

I didn’t think it possible but Silver put on a little more speed and began diving towards the ground.

Onyx and Demo were on the ground with Rose. They were fighting a few raiders.

I pulled out my magnum and shot blindly at the raiders. I got lucky and struck one in the skull killing him instantly.

Silver smashed into the ground tossing me to the side. The whistle of his wing met the crunch of bone.

My vision darkened as I lay there on the ground. I could hear both Harmony and Aurora’s voices ringing in my head. The message seemed urgent even though I couldn’t understand shit.

Harmony eventually was at my side and sat me up. “Midnight?” Her voice started to get louder the longer I sat. “Midnight? Midnight are you ok? Silver I swear I’m going to break your neck for this.”

“I had a feeling that Rose needed me so I had to get back here. Look I’m sorry about that but I had already left them alone for longer than I should have.” Silver looked into my eyes.

“You’re lucky she’s not any worse for wear. Be more careful. I almost lost her once I’m not going through that again.” Harmony enveloped me in a hug.

I mustered a little laugh. “Don’t beat him up too much. You’ve got me to fix up for the time being.”

Rose trotted over after hugging Silver. “Midnight are you alright?”

I nodded wincing as the adrenaline started to wear off. “It hurts a lot, but I’ll live. I would appreciate some painkillers or something.”

“Unfortunately we’ve got nothing traditional for painkillers.” Silver put a hoof to his head.

“So you’ve got something that might work?” I scooched closer sending jolts of pains up my legs.

“What are you suggesting?” Harmony took my helmet off.

“You’ve got alcohol right? Why not just let her drink that?” Silver put his right wing over Rose.

“I don’t approve of that idea but it might actually help. Since you’re the one suggesting it, how about you cough up some alcohol.” Harmony knelt down next to me.

Silver shook his head. “I don’t carry any alcohol on me. I don’t find that I have a reason to most of the time.”

“You don’t drink? Well then, luckily I brought some of the alcohol we got from the tower.” Harmony uncapped a bottle.

I reached out and grabbed it with my magic. “Thank you.” I tipped the bottle back and drank about half.

“No problem. I can’t do anything else about this. So I might as well try to make you feel better.” I heard a subtle hint of guilt in her voice.

I set the alcohol aside and hugged Harmony. “I’ll feel better as long as I’m here with you.” I grabbed the bottle and drank the rest.

Harmony giggled at me. “Yeah I know. Do you want another?”

I nodded my head frantically. “Yes I would. If it helps me to stop being in this much pain.”

Harmony pulled out a second atomic cocktail. “It’s all we’ve got. So here you go.” She held the bottle out to me.

I graciously accepted the bottle. The cap got tossed aside as I took a large swig of the drink in my magic. “Well the pain is a little bit less noticeable now.”

“Well that settles it. Hook up that bottle with a nipple and let Midnight have it for the ride home.” Onyx smirked at me.

“While I would enjoy more alcohol there's only one ni.” I hiccuped.

“Yeah alright. Let’s get her in the chariot and head for home.” Silver levitated me onto the floor of the chariot.

“Wait all I was going to say was.” Hiccup.

“We know, we know. Just sit back and relax. And don’t get too wasted. I don’t want to deal with your drunk ass.” Silver strapped himself to the chariot.

“But if you’d just.” I shut up as Harmony shoved the bottle in my mouth.

“I know Midnight. Just take a few more drinks. Soon enough we’ll be home and you can take a nap.” Harmony sat on the floor with me.

Rose sat on the seat watching over us. “Harmony let me know if you want to sit up here at anytime. Onyx, Demo, go ahead we’ll be home shortly.”

They took off and disappeared.

“Alright Silver. Take it a tiny bit slower than usual. I’ll make sure Midnight stays put.” Harmony put a hoof over me.

“Can’t I just take a nap.” Hiccup. “Please.”

“I’ll keep an eye on her and alert you if she needs to woken.” Aurora appeared on my Pipbuck.

I didn’t wait two seconds before closing my eyes. “Thanks Aurora. I’m going to enjoy this.”
______________________________________________________________________________

I was standing there in my dream. Every time I entered this place something was different.

Mom was there drinking tea waiting for me. “Hi sweetie. It’s been awhile since we last spoke.”

I smile and galloped over to mom. “Hi mom. How have you been?”

Mom set her tea down. “I’ve been doing just fine. The goddesses have blessed me so that I may watch you live your life. I’m very proud of you. Oh and please, as much as I want to spend time with you, don’t get yourself killed again.” Tears rolled down her face.

I hugged her. “It’s a dangerous life I live mom. I can’t promise you that we won’t be meeting face to face soon. I’ll try my best to live my life to the fullest.”

“I understand Midnight. I wish I could protect you and do more for you but I can’t. I love you, I have very little time left here I must leave. I will talk to you soon.” Mom started to fade from my dream.

“Bye mom.” I let a few tears roll down my cheeks. “I love you.”

Mom left behind a book. It was the book she had read me last time we had talked. I picked the book up and held it close.

I stayed like that for awhile before I dared to open the book. Inside the pages were blank.

A note had fallen to the floor when the book opened. “Midnight, I’m leaving you this book. When we meet again I want this book filled with your life. Everything that has happened I want to know. Just make sure you don’t return to quickly.”

“I won’t mom.” I spun the book around. This time the cover had changed to a simple leather one.

The dream fade with a gentle shake.

“Midnight. Wake up. We’re home.” Harmony had a hoof on my back.

“Huh yeah yeah. I’m awake.” I yawned. “How long was I out?”

“A few hours time. I was laying here with you.” Harmony pulled me to my hooves. “Another dream about your mom?”

I nodded. “Yeah. She’s in a lot of my dreams lately.”

“I know. You talk in your sleep, so I got a bit of your conversation.” Harmony guided me down off the chariot.

“I still miss her. I’ve started to get over her death, but it still doesn’t feel right. So many years and she always knew everything.” A few tears rolled down my cheeks. “Why did I ever push her away? She was the one pony who loved me.”

Harmony kept a hoof on me as we trotted home. “It’s going to be ok. Your mom said she was proud of who you are. Do you remember that?”

I nodded still crying. “Yeah, but I still shouldn’t have pushed her away. She only wanted to help me grow.”

Harmony stopped me to look into my eyes. “Look at me. Your mother loved you. She let you walk your own road. That’s a damn lot in this world. It’s because of her that you are where you are today. I never knew your mother but from what you’ve told me she would have wanted you to move on. I’m sure she’s still watching over you. You’ll have a chance to make amends, but for now you need to focus on your life. She doesn’t want to see you again so soon.”

I sniffed a few times before meeting Harmony’s gaze. “You’re right. I know you’re right, and I know I need to move on. I just need some time.” I lowered my voice to a barely audible whisper. “I’m sorry mom. I love you.”

We kept trotting towards home. Once we hit the little hill at the one which our house sat I had to stop.

Harmony didn’t stop and lifted me with her magic. “Come on. We’re getting you a place to lay down. I want to make sure everything is healing properly.”

I relaxed as I flew through the air. “Alright. Don’t set me down too fast.”

Harmony pushed the door open and pulled me through. “No problem. Help me out with your armor.”

I slipped off a few pieces of my armor as Harmony held me there. “Well that’s most of it. Can you set me down now?”

Harmony kept me in the air until she had opened the door to our room. “Now I can.”

I landed softly on the bed. Nothing really stung from the impact. “Well nothing feels broken anymore.”

Harmony shed her armor and jumped on the bed. She began inspecting me looking for the tiniest sign of injury. After a few minutes she seemed satisfied. “Well everything looks like it healed correctly. We won’t know until tomorrow whether it all healed well though.”

I laid my head down on a pillow. “Alright. I’m going back to sleep.”

Harmony nodded and hopped down off the bed. “I’m going to go talk with everypony and see what’s next.”

Silver’s POV

Stone was sitting in his little office working on a plan of some sort. “What kept you?”

Rose took a seat in the main office chair. “A nuclear explosion, some raiders, a few unexpected injuries. You know, the usual.”

“Nuclear explosion huh. Let me guess, Demo?” Stone set down his plans.

Rose shook her head. “No Midnight and Harmony. Blew up some sort of prewar complex.”

Stone looked around. “So where are they?”

“Probably resting. It’s been a long couple of days for them. So what happened here in my absence?” Rose spun her chair to face Stone.

“A new caravan has started moving throughout the wasteland. They offered to trade with us. I brought them in and the locals have been trading. Other than that not much.” Stone trotted out and took a seat.

“I saw that the cannon finally got fixed to the roof.” Rose offered me a chair.

I took the seat. “Is that a laser cannon or something?”

“Plasma cannon actually. It’s short ranged but it does a shit ton of damage. I had to do some bartering to get the parts to fix it up.” Stone took a seat opposite Rose.

Harmony trotted in. “Hi everypony.” Her smile was a bit contagious.

“Hello Harmony. Take a seat and we can talk about what we’re doing next.” Stone pointed a hoof to a chair.

Harmony trotted over and sat down.

“Alright now that a fair amount of us are here we can discuss plans.” Stone pulled out a folder.

“So what are we trying to accomplish now?” I looked over at Stone’s notes.

“Well I’ve been looking to put up new defenses around town. Turrets on the walls, barbed wire to top the wall, and fields of landmines on our weakest areas.” Stone rolled out a building plan.

“That would make this place more defendable. Long term that’ll be helpful to defend from attacks, but we’re going to need to train our soldiers to use them.” I looked over the plan. “What about the rear area?”

“Minefield. I don’t think we’ll have enough resources to put turrets up back there. We’ll also have minefields in a few other areas.” Stone pointed to a few other locations.

“So has the zebra mare made anything useful since I spared her life.” I looked around.

Stone shrugged. “She’s made some swords and a few other weapons. We haven’t given her anything particular to do so she doesn’t really have a goal.”

I nodded. “Tell her to produce swords, knives, spears, some plating to reinforce weak spots. Anything that might help us she needs to be making.”

Rose put a hoof on me. “We’ll make sure she gets right to work. In the meantime we need to decide what we’ll be doing.”

“Well New Appleloosa has been threatened by the Enclave, Tri-Tear, The Skulls, and just raiders in general.” Stone brought out another set of papers.

“What do they want?” I scooched my chair closer.

“Everything we own. What all raiders want. I don’t think they’ll go through with it if we have the turrets up.” Stone tossed a packet of papers to Rose.

Rose started reading. “Well, we’ve got plenty of workers around here that can put the turrets up. As for the raiders. Midnight might be out of commission for a while. Harmony you’ll no doubt stay by her side.”

Harmony nodded. “Yeah we’ll both be taking a break until Midnight is fully healed. But the process is going quickly. She’ll be back to normal in two days time.”

Stone looked pleased. “So our best soldiers won’t be out of commission for too long. Rose sound the message out and get the workers here so they can begin construction.”

Rose pushed a button on her desk. “Attention workers of New Appleloosa. We’ve got a new project for you. Report to the town hall for your orders.”

“So that’s that taken care of. Now I suppose we just wait and hope all goes well.” I stood up.

“Let’s get to work then.” Stone picked up his plans and trotted out the door.

Duty

“What?” I had just dropped back to the earth.

“Like I said Silver. They’re going to make me join their corps as a soldier here in a few months. There’s nothing I can do about that.” Rose hung her head.

I stood there staring at Rose. This was big. Bad things had started happening recently and now she was getting drafted. “What the buck is wrong with them?”

“I’ve had all the training necessary. Besides I need to start pulling my weight around here. I’ve gotten a free ride for years. Not to mention a proper schooling that everypony gets. Now they’ve called upon me to do my duty. I can’t say no to that.” Rose put a hoof onto my shoulder.

I put a wing over her. “I know you can’t say no to that, but I’m not letting you fight alone. It’s time for me to take this shit seriously.” My wing retracted to it’s spot.

“What do you mean?” Rose kept pace as I trotted towards our house.

“I mean I’m going to start doing what they trained me to do. I’m going to be a soldier so I can protect you.” I slammed the door open. “Now where did I leave it?”

“Leave what Silver?” Rose closed the door behind us.

“The suit of combat armor I was given. I don’t usually wear it, but if I’m to fight in their ranks I need it.” I swung open a closet door.

There it was. That tan colored suit they wore for desert operations. “I still prefer stealth to this stuff but it will suffice I suppose.”

“You don’t have to fight to protect me. I know how to protect myself.” Rose pouted at me.

I let one tear escape my left eye. “I’m fighting because I have an obligation to. They trained me to be a soldier. Now you’re going to become a warrior for them and I’m not leaving you alone to do that.”

Rose put a hoof on my flank. “Silver I know you don’t want to do this. You’re not a killer.”

I lifted the armor out of it’s place. “I may not be a natural born killer, but at heart I’ve always had the potential to kill. I’ve seen what I can accomplish under the right circumstances. I’m not letting you go to war alone. That’s final.”

Derpy trotted in behind us. “Courageous words Silver. A damn fine speech if I’ve ever heard one. Now if you’re serious about this you’re going to be put under much more stress.”

I slipped into the suit. It wasn’t all that bulky and consisted mostly of a bullet proof battle saddle. “Like I said, I’m not letting them take Rose to war without me. I’ll do what it takes.”

Derpy nodded at me. “In that case I’ll see if I can get you into a leadership position.”

Rose looked aghast at Derpy. “No. We’re not putting him into that position.”

Derpy held up a hoof. “I know what you’re thinking and no. I’ve got my own obligations and we’ve got a squadron without a leader. Silver will be taking charge.”

I stepped forward to meet Derpy. “I’ll do it.”

“Well then. You’ve just been promoted. Sergeant.” Derpy held out a hoof.

I put my own up and we shook hooves. “Understood General.”

“Alright. Private Second Class Amethyst Rose. You are now on the squad under direct call of Silver. When the time comes you two will be deployed. Now I’ll leave to go get Silver his new uniform.” Derpy trotted out the door with an easy stroll.

“Silver. You didn’t have to do that.” Rose wrapped her hooves around me.

I relaxed. “Yes I did. I have friends here that need me to do what I can. And above all else I’ve got to make sure you make it out of this. Nopony will lay a hoof on you if I have something to say about it.”

Rose didn’t let me go. “I love you.”

I bent my neck around hers. “I love you.”

“Is that really what I’m going to have to wear?” Rose brought her head away from me.

I shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not. It’s been awhile since they gave me this. They might have different armor now. I guess we’ll just have to wait until Derpy gets back.”

The door opened up. “Speak of the devil.”

Derpy carried over a similar uniform to the one I wore. “Standard issue to our sergeants. It’ll protect you from bullets, grenades, and a myriad of other weapons. Don’t push it too much.”

I shed the old uniform. “Why’s the color so different?”

“You’re a higher rank now. Besides I thought a gray might fit you more.” Derpy tossed Rose a different suit. “Silver do you want to train with guns?”

I shook my head. “I’ll stick to what I know. If I need to use a gun I’ll be able to use it.”

“Cocky attitude will get you killed. But I was the same way when I first went to your wasteland world. Thought I could slip by without killing.” Derpy hung her head. “That’s not the way it works.”

“We weren’t born to be killers. The world just demands we do what we must to protect those we love. If that’s the case, I think it’s a damn honorable one to kill for.” I put one hoof on Derpy.

Derpy brought her eyes to meet mine. “Fine words. It’s the most valiant cause I’ve heard of.”

The door was open but nopony walked in. “Who’s there?”

“Silver I’d like you to join me in my office for a few seconds.” Crimson Skull was standing outside the door.

I trotted out to meet him. “What do you need?”

“I need to ask you one question, and I need an honest response.” Red Skull glared at me.

I nodded.

“If it came down to it would you lay down your life for your squad?” He awaited my response.

I nodded. “If it came down to it, I would lay my life down a million times if it meant my friends were safe.”

Skull nodded. “Good. Then you are fit to lead a squadron in to battle. I trust you to lead them forward into battle.”

“No harm will come upon them. If it does I’ll personally kill the bastard who thought he could hurt my friends.” I flared my wings.

“A fine soldier. Sergeant Thunder.” Skull saluted me.

I returned his salute. “Thank you.”

“As you know the war has been picking up recently and if we are to win we’ll need to destroy the enemy before they can strike any lethal blows.” Skull put his hoof on the ground.

“Send us out there and we’ll return one group of enemies fewer.” I stood tall and proud.

“That’s what I like to hear. But you won’t be deployed for a few more months, probably.” Skull tossed me a pack of papers.

I opened and started reading. “We’re going after a high security complex?”

Skull nodded. “We’ve got no other squad more equipped for the job. Your squad has two stallions trained and clad in power armor. Finest equipment we’ve got in our arsenal. I’m trusting you not to buck this up.”

I closed the folder. “Understood Sir.”

“Prepare everything before you leave. Once you go there’s no turning back.” Skull saluted and trotted off.

Rose pushed me. “This is insane. But I love you for it.” She kissed me.

“I love you too. I couldn’t stand by knowing you were going to war.” I dragged Rose into a hug.

“I know. Go see your Rose in the wasteland. She’ll need to know what’s going to happen.” Rose kissed my cheek.

“Derpy!” I waited for her to come running.

“Yeah I heard. Come on I’ll bring you back home.” Derpy poked her head out of the door.

I let go of Rose. “I’ll be back soon.”

The door was wide open calling me home. Derpy waved me over. I trotted through the door.

Derpy pulled me into the pocket world. “You’re pretty ballsy Silver. Most don’t take on a role like that if they don’t have to. You’re going to be leading not only your squad but around half of our soldiers into battle.”

I nodded my head processing this. “I couldn’t let Rose do this by herself. If anything happened to her I don’t know what I’d do. I’m not ready to lose her.”

Derpy put a hoof on my shoulder. “It’s not her time. I’ll be watching your back when it’s time to fight. For now go tell Rose about this.”

“Oh shit!!! She’s gonna be pissed at me.” I looked cautiously at the door to home.

“No fucking duh!? Of course she’s going to be pissed. You just turned 16, you shouldn’t be doing this.” Derpy shook her head. “Listen I know it’s too late to change anything, but think more before you make decisions alright. You’ve got too much potential to go and die this young.”

I lowered my eyes to the floor. “I should have thought it through more, but I couldn’t just sit idly by and do nothing. The mare of my dreams was getting pulled into a war. Who was I to say no. I should be the one risking my life not her.”

Derpy smacked me across the face. “Shut the fuck up. We’ll discuss this in detail later. For now.” She shoved me through the door.

I was standing face to face with Rose. “Hi mom.”

Her smile was as bright as ever.

Even in my current state of nervousness I couldn’t help but smile back. “I have some bad news from the other world.”

Rose looked at me with worry in her eyes. She nodded her head for me to go on.

“Amethyst got called upon to go fight a war.” I waited. “And I… I…”

Rose put a hoof on my shoulder. Her eyes begged me to tell her what was wrong.

“I volunteered so she wouldn’t fight alone. Now I’m going to be leading an army into battle.” The weight rolled off my shoulders, but I was still scared of what Rose might think.

Rose stopped to stare at me for a few seconds. Her eyes evaluating if I was serious about this. After coming to the conclusion I wasn’t joking her face went stiff and cold.

“I wasn’t thinking about anything else. I couldn’t let her go alone. I love her.” I looked away from Rose. “I’m sorry.”

Rose pulled my head up so she could look into my eyes. She looked deep into my eyes trying to convey her messages of sorrow, anger, and understanding.

“I know I should have thought about this world and you more before I made such a reckless decision. I promise you I’ll come back in one piece.” I kept my eyes firmly held in place.

Rose nodded and went to work writing a note.

I sat down waiting scared of what she might have to say. I felt horrible having made these rash decisions without ever thinking about my adoptive mother. What type of bucking moron was I?

Rose placed the note face down in front of me and trotted away.

“Silver I know what you’re feeling. I too used to make stupid decisions for the one I loved. I never thought about what this might bring about. In the end it doesn’t matter what I think of your decision. You’re a stallion now and as much as I’d like to hold your hoof and continue to teach you about this world. I can’t. I’ve taught you everything you need to know to survive. I’ve outlived my usefulness.” I couldn’t keep reading.

I hurled myself towards where Rose was sitting. “No. You’ll always have use. You’ve taught me so much but I still have more to learn. Please don’t leave me.”

Rose dropped down to the floor putting a hoof over me. After a few seconds she began to hum that wonderful melody from a time long gone. It was her way of saying she accepted my apology and wanted the best for me.

“I love you mom.” I laid a wing over her.

Rose kept humming that song.

I waited a full week before returning to Amethyst and the others.

“Welcome back Silver. I’ve got some bad news.” Ace was standing in the door to my house.

“What now?” I looked around for Amethyst.

“War just picked up. We’ve got no choice but to deploy all of our available squadrons. That means all of us here are getting shipped out. Go meet with Derpy she’ll take you to meet your squad.” Ace walked out the door.

“Son of a bitch. Fine. Let’s get this over with.” I trotted out the door.

Derpy was standing on the other side of the base with a small squadron of ponies.

I flew over inspecting my squad as I went. “Afternoon.”

All the soldiers jumped to their hooves and saluted. “Sir.”

“At ease. Welcome back Silver. This is your new squadron.” Derpy waved a hoof at the group before me.

“I had a feeling. Sound off.” I stood tall.

They went down the line. “Private Second Class Amethyst Rose.”

“Private First Class Comet Wing.” A white pegasus with yellow mane and tail.

The next was a stallion in power armor. “Specialist Steamroller.”

“Tell me about your weapons Specialist.” I looked to his battle saddle.

“Twin laser gatling guns Sir. Along with capabilities for a rocket launcher.” The stallion stood a good half a foot taller than me.

“Heavy weapons specialist.” Derpy was sitting waiting.

“And what about you soldier?” I moved down to the next power armor clad soldier.

“Specialist Balefire at your service sir.” This stallion stood just about at eye level.

“Demolitions expert?” I eyed him over.

“Yes sir.” Balefire stomped a hoof onto the ground.

I stepped in front of the last pony on my squad. “And you?”

The unicorn mare gave me a glance. “I ain’t got a name. You can refer to me as Freedom.” She was an off shade of blue.

“And why is that?” I inspected the tattered armor she wore.

“Because I make freedom ring.” The mare pulled out a sniper rifle.

“Sir if I may.” Comet took a step forward.

“Proceed.” I glanced back at him.

“Freedom is our one mare sniper crew. A damn fine shot with a fifty caliber rifle to back it up.” Comet stepped backwards.

“What he said.” She pulled the rifle in close.

“I’d like to see this. Derpy do we have a place for this mare to show me her skills?” I turned around.

“We’ve got a firing range on base. Doubt she’ll find any enjoyment in that.” Derpy shrugged.

“Damn right I won’t. I could hit any of those targets with my eyes shut. Buck, I could piss farther than that.” This mare had a way of getting on my good side.

“Alright. I’m Silver and I will be leading you into battle.” I saluted the entire squad. “Is that understood?”

“Sir yes Sir.” They all saluted back.

“Alright then let’s get a move on.” I put my hooves back on the floor.

“Not so fast shit for brains.” Spitfire landed behind me.

“Well buck you too.” I spun around just in time to catch a hoof to the face.

“You’re under my lead. I’ll be calling the shots.” Spitfire poked my chest.

“What bucking rank is she?” Rose was behind me.

“Sergeant first class. She outranks Silver.” Derpy trotted past.

“Hello General. How have things been?” Spitfire stood at ease.

“Might I remind you I outrank your ass. At attention or I will pound you into the ground!” Derpy spun around slamming a hoof into Spitfire.

Spitfire hit the ground but shot right back up. “Yes General.”

“Better. Now then, Silver will not be under your control. His squad is operating under a special mission and thusly will have little to do with you after hooves are on the ground. Now get the buck out of my sight before I kick your ass!” Derpy spat in Spitfire’s face.

“Yes General.” Spitfire flew off into the distance.

I stood at attention not saying anything.

“At ease Sergeant Thunder. I have a soft spot for you but don’t let that keep you from respecting those who outrank you.” Derpy trotted over to me.

“Thank you General.” I relaxed a little.

“The carriers will be leaving in less than an hour's time. Get your asses on board and don’t come back until you’ve sent the boars to tartarus.” Derpy saluted.

I returned her salute. “Yes General.”

Derpy flew off leaving me with my squad.

“You heard the general. Get a move on. We’ve got a war to win.” I turned back to my squad.

“Sir yes Sir.” They trotted off to the carriers.

“Buck. Alright I can do this.” I had my doubts but I still trotted behind my squad.

MPD

“How’s the construction coming along?” I sat up in bed still a little sore.

“The turrets have all been placed around the walls and two of the minefields are getting finished today.” Harmony kissed me.

“Good to hear. I suppose it’s about time I got out of bed and went for a walk.” I crawled over to the edge of our bed.

Harmony nodded. “Probably for the best. Your bones have had enough time to heal properly.”

I slid out of bed and stood on my own. “Everything feels like it should. Any word on the new screen for my Pipbuck?”

My armor whirred to life as Aurora woke up. “No. Not many ponies still have access to such technology. Your best bet would be to find the headquarters of Stable-tec.”

I yawned and took a few steps. “Any idea where that is?” I kept moving testing my legs.

“Not a clue. Probably got destroyed during the war. Nopony wanted that information to get out.” Aurora opened my armor for me.

“Let Midnight walk on her own for a while. She needs a little while to readjust after all that trauma.” Harmony trotted over closing my armor.

“I’m not to eager to get back in that suit after my encounter with death.” I shied away from the armor.

“It’s the reason you survived that fall.” The helmet of my armor lit up. “But I can’t force you to wear it.”

I opened the door to the rest of the house. “Give me a day or two and I’ll think about it.”

Harmony ushered me out the door. “Let’s go for a walk. I’d like to just take some time to talk.”

I smiled turning to face Harmony. “Of course. Shall we?” I held a hoof towards the door downstairs.

Harmony grabbed my hoof. “Let’s go.”

The front door opened as we reached the bottom of the stairs. “What are you two doing?”

“We’re going for a walk.” I pushed past Silver.

“Alright. I was just coming to check and see if you were feeling better. Seeing as you're walking around I suppose you are.” Silver trotted along with us.

“Yes. I’m feeling much better. Now if you don’t mind I want to take a walk with my wife.” I kept moving forward.

Silver took to the air. “Alright. I’ll come find you two later. Rose wants to talk.”

“Yeah, yeah. We’ll talk later.” Harmony waved Silver away.

I waited until Silver had left. “So what did you want to talk about?”

“Well for one I just wanted to see how you felt. I hoped you were ready to get back on your hooves. It’s been really boring not having you to talk to during the day.” Harmony brushed up against me.

“I’m feeling a lot better after that couple days rest. I feel as strong as ever.” I hopped a few times.

Harmony giggled slightly at me. “Well I’m glad to hear that. Now I have another question for you.”

“Sure shoot.” I smiled keeping my hooves on the ground.

“I was wondering where you wanted to live for the rest of our lives. I know it’s a big decision but I’m starting to like living in this town. Now that everypony is more or less over their drug addictions they’re actually quite friendly.” Harmony waved at a couple as we trotted.

I took a few seconds to contemplate this question. “Well I don’t think we’ve got too many choices. Tenpony would be the next best place, but I don’t really like the tower. Something feels off about that place.”

“Ok so that’s one less place to choose from. That leaves Ponyville or some place out there where we can build our own home.” Harmony pulled me over to a bench.

I sat down thankful to get off my hooves. “Ponyville is out of the question. I hated being there for the short time we stayed. And while building our own house does sound appealing I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”

“That settles it. We’ll live here for the time being. If it gets safe enough out in the wasteland I think we should consider building a place for ourselves.” Harmony rested her head on my shoulder.

I ran a hoof through her mane. “I’ll keep that in mind. For now I’m perfectly fine with spending my days with you here.” I kissed Harmony’s horn.

Harmony let out a small giggle. “I love you.” She returned my kiss with one on my lips.

I didn’t pull away and just let the kiss last. We held the kiss for minutes before Harmony broke away and laid her head on my lap.

I played with Harmony’s mane for a while appreciating our time alone. Ponies past us by smiling and waving at Harmony.

“Looks like you’ve made some new friends while I’ve been laid up.” I took my hoof off Harmony.

“Yeah. We’ve made a reputation for ourselves around here. The ponies here are thankful for all the things we’ve done to protect this city.” Harmony sat up.

“They look up to us that much. We’ve done barely anything.” I kept a hoof around Harmony.

“We’ve done enough for this city. Time and time again we’ve saved this place from destruction.” Harmony waved at another stallion as he trotted by.

I shrugged. “I mean I’m fine with that. I was just wondering.”

Silver landed on the ground beside us. “Hello.”

“Hi Silver. I guess Rose wants to talk to us.” Harmony got to her hooves.

Silver nodded. “Mmhm.”

“What about?” I got off the bench with a small grunt.

“She said mostly just about our next move. Shouldn’t be anything super drastic.” Silver flared his wings and started hovering.

I nodded and started trotting for town hall. We were about a minutes trot at most.

Harmony trotted up next to me. “Well looks like our time off is over.”

I sighed. “Yeah. Right back into the fire where we live.”

“Our time will come to be done with this. We’ll make it through.” Harmony kissed my cheek.

I blushed and smiled. “Yeah I know we will. Thank you.”

“Anything for the mare I love.” Harmony whipped my plot with her tail.

I turned to whisper in Harmony’s ear. “Wait until we get home. Then you can do that all you want.”

Silver rolled his eyes at us. “Calm down you two. We’ve still got some work to do before the day is over.”

I tossed a small stone at Silver. “You’re no fun. Seriously lighten up. Not everything has to be as serious as you want it to be.”

Silver gave me a death glare before shaking his head. “Can’t do that.” He shook his head again. “Sorry. I’ve just got a lot on my mind.”

I pulled Silver down to the ground. “I understand. You’ve got a lot to worry about with Rose around here. For you everything is a life and death matter.”

Silver sighed. “Not quite everything is that serious but when it comes to stuff like this.” He paused. “Yeah.”

I lightly tapped Silver’s shoulder. “It’s fine. We’ll do what we can.”

A slight smile crossed Silver’s face. “Thanks.”

“What are friends for?” I smiled and pushed open the door to town hall.

Rose and Stone were sitting there waiting for us. “There you two are. Midnight how are you feeling?”

I trotted over to Rose. “I’m feeling fine. Everything feels like it healed properly. Maybe a little bit weaker than before the fall but other than that I’m great.”

Stone butted in. “Good to hear. Unfortunately that means you’ll need to get back to work.”

I sighed. “What’s next?”

“New Appleloosa has been threatened by many ponies over the course of these past few weeks. Now we’ve got bigger problems than that.” Stone searched around in a his saddlebags.

“Bigger problems than raiders looking to use our entrails as decorations? Sounds like kind of a stretch.” Harmony pulled a chair over for me.

I graciously took the chair. “Thanks.”

Harmony pulled over a second chair for herself. “No problem.”

Stone laid out a map on the floor. “Recon shows we’ve got raider groups trying to make new outposts. This is a problem but I think if Silver takes Demo and Onyx they should be able to kill them all before they get any traction.”

Rose trotted over and looked at the map. “Our teams have also shown that the Enclave has been setting up shop wherever they can.”

“The Enclave?” I scooched closer to the map.

“Think the Brotherhood but a little bit more sinister. Bigger guns, better armor, and a thirst for blood. Generally not the nicest ponies to come across in the wasteland.” Rose rolled the map away.

“So what do they want?” Silver trotted over and put a wing over Rose.

Rose smiled. “They want to take New Appleloosa as their own.”

“Anyway to convince them not to take this place?” I looked down to my Pipbuck.

“Not unless you’ve got a place for them to call their own. They’re looking to conquer the wasteland and put it under their own rules. So anyplace that might have influence is on their hitlist.” Rose brushed Silver’s wing off.

I had a devilish thought. “I might have a place to send them.”

“We’re not sending them to Tenpony.” Harmony put a hoof on me. “You don’t hate everypony in that tower.”

“No I just want to see PON3’s world burn.” I blinked my eyes a few times. “That was weird.”

“Agreed.” Harmony ran her hoof down my back. “Now what do you Midnight and I to do?”

“Simply put we want you to destroy everything the raiders and enclave are working towards. Anything they call theirs we want destroyed or brought back to us as fuel to defend this city.” Stone kicked the map to the corner of the room.

I purred quietly as Harmony kept running her hoof down my back. “Kill all the raiders? Sounds like a plan.”

“Then we have a plan. As soon as you’re ready go out there and get to work.” Stone trotted upstairs.

“Alright. You heard the stallion. We’ve got work to do. Let’s go.” Silver trotted out of the building.

Rose trotted over to me. “Midnight are you feeling alright? You didn’t seem like yourself.”

I shrugged. “I’m feeling fine. I can’t tell you what happened.”

Aurora appeared on my cracked screen. “Multiple personality disorder most likely.”

I jumped a little as Aurora spoke. “Hi Aurora you scared me. Now what did you just say?”

Aurora sighed. “Multiple personality disorder. A piece of your brain has made itself it’s own entity. Completely aware of everything that goes on.”

Harmony tapped my Pipbuck. “And there’s nothing we can really do about that, unfortunately.”

“So what? I’ve got a second pony living in my head? Is there any way to trigger that part of my brain?” I stood up.

“Well it’s seems when every PON3 is mentioned you have a miniature period of time where the other personality is in control.” Rose put a hoof on my shoulder.

Just hearing his name set me off a little. “That might be it. I really bucking hate him.”

“I would bet what little bit of my equinity I’ve got left on saying that’s probably what triggers it.” Aurora shut my Pipbuck off.

Harmony kissed me. “Let’s not worry about it too much. Come on we’ve still got some time left in the day. Rose we’ll be taking today off.”

Rose nodded. “Understood. I’ll make sure Silver is ready when you two are.”

I waved goodbye and trotted outside. “Alright my lovely wife. What do you want to do for the rest of the day?”

Harmony corrected my course towards home. “Relax at home with the mare of my dreams wrapped in my hooves.”

I smiled happily. “I’d like that.”
______________________________________________________________________________

“Hello me.”

I was standing in a dark room unable to see anything. “Hello?”

A small beacon of red light shone through the darkness. “Good to see you again.”

“Oh it’s you.” I was pissed to see her again.

“Yeah it’s me.” This mare did look very similar to me with a few key differences. Scars riddled her sides and large portions of her fur had been burnt away. She was one ugly motherbucker

I took one step towards her. “Why don’t you just buck off? I thought I told you that I’m in control not your bitch ass.”

Her smile faded and she pulled out a dagger. “I can’t do that. I’m just as much a part of you as you are. I’m your anger, your hatred, your sociopathic tendencies. I allow you to survive in the wasteland. You need me.”

I tore the dagger away and hurled it into the distance. “I need you as much as anypony needs a bullet to the skull. All you do is make me look like a dumbass.”

She shrunk back searching for something. “Lots of ponies need bullets to the skull. We both know all raiders deserve death. Not a swift death either. A slow and excruciatingly painful one. Just give in to me and I can make sure it happens.”

I considered her words as I trotted forward pushing her ever deeper into my mind. “It’s a tempting offer, but I think I’ll decline and save myself from becoming what I hate most.”

She lunged forward at me with a dagger in her grasp. “There’s one thing you hate more than raiders. You hate PON3 so much more. We can bring him to his knees and make him pay.”

I smashed a hoof into her jaw. “Listen to me you little shit. I’m the one who makes the decisions around her. If you don’t like it I’ll find a way to eradicate you from existence.”

The mare before me staggered back putting a hoof up to her jaw. “You know I’m useful. You know you need me to keep what little sanity you have left. Without me you have to face all of the consequences of your decisions.”

I charged forward slamming another hoof into her nose. “I’ve faced the consequences of my decisions. I’ve died before for the life I’ve chosen.”

The blood started pooling on the floor. “You’ll never learn will you? I’ve kept you alive this entire time. Every time you pulled the trigger I was there calling the shot. You couldn’t even manage to pull the trigger when I put my head to the gun. How could you do it elsewhere?”

My horn light up holding the other me in place. “I can do as I want. You are just a piece of me. A piece that I can’t change.” I rammed her to the ground.

“Do it. Bucking kill me.” She spat at me. “Come on. End this and prove you’ve got it in you to kill somepony without me.”

I glared down at the mare. All my feelings of anger dissipated. “What the buck?”

“That’s who you are without me. A weak, pathetic excuse of a pony.” She fought against my magic.

I held her down. “No.” One swift movement had her puking on the ground. “You only control my anger and hatred of PON3. I’ve still got the rest of my anger at my own will.”

Through the blood and puke the other me managed to speak. “You only have control of it because I let you.” Another wave of blood puke. “Do it again.”

“What are you?” A took a few small steps backwards.

“I like pain. Whether it’s caused to myself or others. I love it. Hit me again and let me feel that ecstasy.” Her eyes started to bleed.

I lifted her off the ground. “No. The more I do what you want the more I let you have control. I’d like to propose a deal.”

“I won’t agree. I want to see you suffer.” She spat blood in my face.

I calmed myself down not letting her take control. “I’ll let you live on if you agree to let me have control.”

“Why would I do that? I love watching the suffering of others. That reminds me.” She grabbed the dagger and shoved it up her own plot. “Oooh.”

I shook my head. “Listen we’ve got work left to do in the wasteland. There will be plenty of pain we cause to other ponies. You just have to let me stay in control.”

The other me consider this will twisting the dagger around inside of her. “I’ll do it only if I can have my fun once in awhile.”

“Deal, but I get to decide when you can have your fun.” I released her.

She smiled tearing the dagger out and stabbing herself in the chest. “Deal.”

I relaxed. “Good.”

She jumped at me pulling the dagger out. “I couldn’t agree more.”

I rammed my hooves into her stomach throwing her into the distance. “Buck off.”

I awoke from my dream being shaken. “Huh wait what?”

Harmony was shaking me holding a knife at bay. “Please stop.”

I overpowered the magic on the knife sending it hurtling into the hallway. “What happened?”

Harmony rolled over and kissed me. “I woke up to you talking in your sleep. I hadn’t caught much of the conversation but it sounded serious. After a few seconds you pulled a knife out of your saddlebags and tried to stab yourself in the throat.”

“That bitch! I agreed to let her live and she tried to kill me.” I sat bolt upright.

“Who are you talking about?” Harmony sat up with me.

“That stupid alternate me. We talked about her getting to live and then she tries to kill me. What the buck!?” I hammered on my head twice with my right hoof.

Harmony restrained my limbs from moving. “Midnight please.” A few tears rolled down her cheeks. “Please stop this.”

All my anger faded in that moment. I felt like I was more in control of my body than I had been in weeks. My voice shifted and took on a sensitive tone. “Harmony It’s me.” Everything in my body started to hurt.

Harmony looked into my eyes. “Stare into my eyes and tell me that you’re not going to try and kill yourself.”

“The thought of doing that makes me sick. Why would I ever want to do that and leave you behind?” I stared deep into Harmony’s eyes.

“OW! Son of a bitch! Why is there a bucking dagger in the middle of the floor!?” Onyx trotted in.

“Hi Onyx. Sorry about the dagger. Midnight here just finished giving me the scare of my life.” Harmony let me loose from her magic.

“What happened?” Onyx trotted over and put a hoof on my shoulder.

All over my body the pain became excruciating. “The other me got control. She likes pain.” I laid back down.

Onyx was shaking his head to make sure he heard that right. “What?”

“I have a separate personality and she really likes pain. It was sickening some of the stuff she did to herself in my dream.” I rolled over throwing up onto the floor.

Onyx jumped onto the bed and patted my back. “Harmony can we do anything about this?”

Harmony stayed quiet for a few seconds. “If we found somepony who knows a lot about magic we might be able to get this under control. The doctor here in town might know something about this. What time is it?”

I looked at my Pipbuck. “Just past five.” I threw up again.

“Onyx help me to get her down to the doctor. We might be able to get a temporary fix for this.” Harmony jumped off the bed carrying me in her magic.

Onyx held a trashcan in front of my face. “Don’t be afraid to throw up if you have to.”

I waited no longer than a second before throwing up yet again. “Thanks.”

“What’s going on he..?” Silver stepped out of the way.

“Not now Silver. We’re taking Midnight to the hospital.” Onyx left the trashcan to me.

I couldn’t catch the rest of the conversation as Harmony started galloping forward. It took only a few seconds for Silver and Onyx to burst out of the door galloping behind us.

Harmony held me a few paces behind her as she went.

She took a quick turn causing me to puke again. “This sucks.”

“Hang on Midnight. The doctors office is just up ahead.” Harmony got quiet as the sound of splintering wood filled my ears.

I came to rest on a table. I sat there not moving. I really didn’t want to puke again.

“What seems to be the problem?” An old stallion trotted over giving me the once over.

“Her split personality tried to kill her.” Harmony panted as she sat down next to me.

I noticed a few splinters sticking through her coat. I reached out with my magic and removed a few of them.

Harmony smiled at me with concerned eyes. “Can you do anything?”

The stallion trotted into a different room and started searching for something. “Where is it?” Papers were moved around as he searched for something very important. “There it is.” He returned holding a small orb.

“What is this?” Harmony grasped at the orb with her magic.

The doctor shook his head and put a hoof to Harmony’s horn. “It’s a memory orb. While an unconventional thing to do we can have her transfer that little bit of her mind into this.”

“And that’ll stop her from trying to kill herself?” Harmony looked at me with deep concern in her eyes.

The stallion nodded with a cringe on his face. “It should allow her to control that portion of her brain. Maybe not eliminate it entirely but at least give her control over it. I just need her to channel that magic into the orb.”

I lit up my horn bringing the orb to touch the tip of it. “Alright.” I let the other personality through forcing it into the orb.

I could hear her screaming at me. “This won’t stop me for long you stupid bitch. I’ll find a way to be in control. Just you bucking wait.”

I forced more magic into my horn sending as much of her into the orb as I could. “GET OUT OF MY HEAD!” The orb fall as my horn cracked.

Harmony got up gently lifting my head. “Midnight?” Tears welled in her eyes.

I let out a sigh of relief. “It’s me. She’s gone.” I let a few tears escape my eyes. All the pain I had been in started to subside, other than the crack in my horn.

“Would you like something for your horn?” The stallion lifted up a small vial.

I nodded. “Yes please.”

The stallion poked the tip of my horn into the vial. The liquid slowly dripped down my horn. “Now just stay still.”

“What is this stuff?” A small drop rolled down on my muzzle.

“A special formula to speed the healing process of horn cracks. Your horn should be back to normal in a few hours time.” The stallion trotted over to a desk. “Now what’s your name?”

“I’m Midnight.” I blinked my eyes trying to get the pain to subside.

“Oh you’re the mare that works to defend this city. I’ve heard good things about you.” The stallion trotted back over a smile on his face.

“What’s this going to cost?” Silver addressed the elephant in the room.

The stallion shook his head. “Since you’ve done so much for the city this is free.”

I brought my gaze to meet the stallions. “Thank you. I really appreciate this.”

He nodded. “It’s my job to make sure the ponies of this town are healthy. It’s been my pleasure to be of service. You can stay here for as long as you need to.”

Harmony pulled a chair over to sit with me. “Are you sure everything is fine?”

I nodded sending a few drops of the liquid down my nose. “I feel a lot more at peace without her in my head.”

“So now “she” is inside that orb?” Onyx rolled the orb around on the floor.

“The portion of Midnight’s mind that was evil still lives in her head. It is just less prevalent now. She’ll still have to deal with that, but it will be much easier to do so.” The doctor was leaning back smoking a cigar.

Onyx kicked the orb into another room. “Alright then. How are you feeling Midnight?”

“My horn hurts like a bitch. Everything else is alright.” I closed my eyes for a few seconds.

“If you want I have a room made up in the back. You can stay there for the night while I keep an eye on you.” The doctor brought his hooves down to the ground.

“Let’s do that. I’m tired and I don’t want any of you to have to carry me back.” I opened my right eye for a few seconds.

The doctor waved a hoof at us trotting into the back room. “It’s not the prettiest room but it will do for a night.”

Harmony set me down gently on the bed. “Go ahead and sleep. I’ll keep an eye on her.”

“Thanks Harmony.” I slid back into dreams.

This dream was similar to the one I had just had. The other me was extremely tiny. I could have crushed her under my hoof if I hadn’t seen her.

I could barely hear her voice as she cursed at me. Her voice grew louder as I drew her closer. “You stupid bitch, I’ll bucking kill you. You hear me?! I’m going to stab daggers into your plot and let you bleed out your anus.”

“That’s enough of you.” I created a little bubble and shoved the other me into it.

Even this close to my face her voice no longer made sound. I could guess she was still cursing at me.

“Goodbye. Maybe we'll meet again someday when you aren’t such a bitch.” I blew the bubble into the distance bidding my alternate personality goodbye until she was needed again.

The room I was in lightened. Around me were the faces of ponies I had seen before. Each one of them I had put a bullet in.

I shook my head trying to dispel these dead ponies. Only a few of them disappeared. “No. I’m not the evil creature you want me to be. I did this to protect my friends.”

A bright white light surrounded me. The dead around me faded from my mind. I knew they still existed but they no longer mattered.

The voice of the other me grew loud in my head. “The dead lost to time will come back to haunt you. So much they never got to do because you killed them. You didn’t even stop to think for one second about who they were. You just killed them flatout with no questions asked.”

The white light grew brighter as I charged my magic. “Come here.”

The other me was suspended in her tiny bubble staring at me. “What are you going to do? Kill me?”

I charged my magic increasing the light to be blinding. “No I’m going to overpower you. You’re going to be part of me again. A part that I can change.”

I released the magic. The other me stared at me like I was insane. “So what? Is this supposed to do something?”

I watched as she started fading from existence. “Yeah. Yeah it is. In a few seconds your body will no longer exist in here. After that you’re just a silly little voice that means nothing.” I smiled. “Goodbye.”

War

The vehicle we had been given was just barely big enough to hold all of us. During our flight I read over the instructions of what we were supposed to do when our hooves hit the ground.

One of the two pegasi flying talked through a little mic. “We’re five minutes from the LZ. After that you’re on your own until this is over.”

“You heard the stallion. Get yourselves ready we’ve got a job to do.” I positioned the earpiece so I could hear everypony else.

Rose whispered into her mic. “Equipment check. Everything good?”

Everypony nodded. “Yep everything works properly. Three minutes till hooves on the ground.”

I unholstered the .45 they had given me. It held just under ten bullets when fully loaded and packed a shit ton of power. I pulled the slide back and chambered a round. “Let’s bucking do this.”

The doors opened up as we made our final descent. “Five. Four. Three. Two. One. Go go go!”

The two stallions in armor jumped first. I could hear the colossal thud as they hit the ground.

I grabbed the others with my magic. “Hold on to something.” I dived out the back letting the wind catch me.

With the ground rapidly approaching I opened my wings up and slowed down. I touched down a few seconds later making no sound at all.

“Could you put us down.” Freedom was holding her rifle tightly.

I set them all down. “Alright everypony clear on the plan?”

They all nodded. “Sir yes sir.”

“We’ve got a few minutes until we’ll be close enough to split. When that time comes I want Comet to escort Freedom to a vantage point. If things look bad contact us before taking that first shot. I don’t want them to know what’s coming until we’re on top of them.” I holstered my pistol.

“Alright.” Freedom nonchalantly trotted away from the group.

“I’ll go after her Sir.” Comet followed close behind.

“Alright that part's done. Balefire.” I turned to my remaining three soldiers.

“Yes Sir.” He stood perfectly at attention.

“At ease. If shit goes south I want a backup plan ready for us.” I drew the compound in the sand. “I want you and Steamroller to get into this place and set up explosives. Here, here, and here. If we need a distraction for our get away blow the charges and send the bastards to tartarus.”

“What about me Sergeant?” Rose took a half step forward.

“You and I will be sneaking into the compound to retrieve what we were ordered to. Everypony else is our backup if things go wrong.” I considered kissing her.

“Steamroller we’ve got our orders. Let’s move.” Balefire cloaked.

“Good luck.” I saluted them.

“It’s all skill Sir.” Steamroller cloaked as well.

I picked Rose up. “I’ll fly us closer, but as soon as we’re in sight it’s straight to the ground.”

Rose nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”

I went quiet listening for any word from Freedom and Comet. Nothing immediately caught my attention.

I had to reassure myself that I could actually do this. Every time I had killed up until now I wasn’t in control. I know I can do this. They’re trying to kill those who are my friends. I can kill them because of that. My doubts were through the roof but I kept pushing forward.

A small whisper sounded in my left ear. “We’re in position. The compound is crawling with boars please advise.”

I heard a small smack followed by a few quiet curse words. “Pick off those that you can without being noticed. If that’s not an option wait until we get in there before going loud.”

I heard a single shot. “Got em. One less boar for you two lovebirds.”

“Can it Freedom. We’ve got work to do.” Comet went silent.

“Shit buck.” I heard some shuffling and a second shot. “Come on Comet get your ass up.”

“What the buck happened?” I brought us down to the ground.

“Boar motherbuckers shot him. Looks worse than it is. I’ll tend to him, you two get in there and get what we came for.” A potion bottle opened. “Open your mouth and drink this.”

“Oh buck that hurt.” Comet moaned in pain. “Next time warn me before you go and draw attention to us.”

“Boars aren’t that skilled with detecting us. I’d bet they’ve got a few traitors on there side.” Freedom tore a bandage. “And keep your voice down. They could still send one of them to look for us.”

I could see the compound not to far away. It was surrounded by a large wall topped in barbed wire. No doubt there was a bucking minefield that surrounded this place.

“Balefire, Steamroller report.” I pulled out a pair of binoculars and took a look at the camp.

Steamroller answered me. “Just passed through the first minefield infiltrating now.”

A neck snapped over the radio. “Stupid boar. Just had to go and look here didn’t you.” A closet door opened and shut quickly. “The first area is just up ahead. We’ll plant the explosives and move on.”

I shut my mic off. “That’s a great way to start this off. Sounds like the minefield won’t be to hard to traverse. Follow my lead and if you hear beeping hold on.”

We trotted forward sticking to what little cover we could. After a few hundred yards the compound was right at our hooves. The last bit of cover before the wall was well over a hundred meters out.

Rose ducked behind it pulling me down with her. “Guard towers. Snipers along the wall and a big bucking gun right there.”

I followed her hoof to the big gun at the door. “Balefire I have a new target for you.”

“You mean the big gun next to the door? Already armed it with explosives. We’ll be moving to a secluded spot and waiting.” His mic cut out and all was quiet.

“Freedom report.” I waited a few seconds for her mic to come on.

“We moved to a new area. I’ve got eyes on you and the stupid guard towers in your way.” I could barely hear the shot without my earpiece.

One of the guard towers went silent after the shot. “Nice shot now keep that up and draw their attention away.”

“Understood.” Another shot came in quick sending another tower out of commission.

“Come on.” I trotted forward keeping a watchful eye on the towers.

The minefield wasn’t complex. The mines were easily visible from the surface. I examined one of them carefully.

“They’re not armed. These mines aren’t armed.” I bolted for the wall.

Rose fell a few steps behind me. “What do you mean the mines aren’t armed.”

I lifted a mine out of the ground after stopping. “I mean they aren’t armed. Something’s not right here.”

Freedom’s voice came back. “Did you two just run through the minefield?”

“They’re not bucking armed. Not a single goddesses damned one. Something’s not right here.” I crept slowly towards the main entrance.

The door burst open unleashing the large gun. It was mounted on a moving platform with enough armor to stop pretty much anything.

A stallion in a dull red trotted out. “I take it this stupid thing works. Because if it doesn’t I’ll sell you to the slavers.”

A rather agitated mare trotted out behind him. “Yes I’m sure it works. We just need to do some testing with it to make sure it does exactly what it was designed to do.”

The behemoth of a machine moved slowly forward. “How long of a range does it have?”

The mare tapped on the back a few times. “Enough. Under the absolute worst conditions probably no less than 25 miles. Nothing can stop it either. A yard and a half thick armor plating. Good lucking getting anything short of a balefire bomb to touch this.”

I cursed under my breath. “Buck. Alright Balefire this might sound crazy but I want you to plant more explosives on that bastard.”

Balefire came back quickly. “On my way Sir. I’ll see what I can do about destroying it.”

“Good.” I inched closer to the main entrance.

The guards didn’t notice me as I crept right behind them. Every moment of this was pure torture. Just waiting for them to turn around and shoot us down. Buck I hate this.

I slid through the open door making sure Rose stayed right behind me.

Balefire uncloaked for half a second to talk with us. “Steamroller’s waiting inside the compound for you. I’ll rig this thing to blow.”

I nodded. “Keep quiet guards everywhere out there protecting that thing.”

We parted ways. Rose and I trotted as quickly and quietly as we could into the heart of the compound.

“Sergeant I’ve got a clear shot on the bastard in red. Do you want me to drop him?” Freedom faded in and out.

“Do not take that shot. Balefire is doing his damndest to rig that machine to blow.” I pushed open a door.

“We’ve got a problem.” Comet came in loud and clear.

“What’s wrong?” Rose joined in on the converstaion.

“They’ve got Balefire sitting at their hooves.” Freedom lined up her shot. “Can I take the shot now?”

“Blast those bastards as fast as you can. Balefire if it’s safe to do so blow the bucking charges.” I pulled Rose into the room slamming the door behind us.

In that moment all I could hear was explosions. The first was that of a fifty caliber bullet being fired. The second was the charges around this compound detonating. And the last was the tank out front firing off it’s main cannon after getting hit hard with explosives.

“Everypony go loud. Kill them all and take no prisoners.” I galloped forward slamming through doors heading towards the sound of gatling gun fire.

Steamroller was fending off a small wave of soldiers clad in the most basic armor ever. “Glad you two are here.”

I unsheathed my sword swinging at the closest soldier. The blade sliced cleanly through him spilling his blood and guts on the floor.

I was almost sick to my stomach at the thought of what I had just done. Under my own power I just killed someone.

My sword whistled through the air again cleaving a sow in two right down the middle. I looked away and kept swinging at anybody that charged us.

A minute passed before the gunfire stopped and all was silent once again. “Everypony report.”

“Freedom and I are still alive and kicking.” That was a slight relief to hear.

“Specialist Balefire report.” I waited for a few seconds. “I said report.” Another few seconds. “Dammit.”

His voice came through a staticy mess. “I’m here. The explosions damaged my mic.”

I let out a sigh of relief. “This isn’t over yet who knows what type of reinforcements they’ve got here.”

“Sergeant I disabled the tank it won’t be going anywhere.” Balefire began his trot back to us.

“Is it still in working condition?” I looked around for any enemy soldiers.

“From what I can tell the main cannon might still work. Other than that the thing crumpled in on itself just trying to lift the gun.” I could see Balefire round the corner, one side of his armor was scorched.

“Good to hear. Now then let’s find their headquarters and get what information we can.” I went silent.

“Is something wrong?” Everypony kept their eyes moving.

I shook my head. “Nothing. Keep moving and leave nothing to chance. Check everywhere. I don’t want a single boar left alive.”

Rubble was scattered around the compound from the numerous explosions. It made traversing this place a little more dangerous but it made a large portion of potential hiding spots disappear.

A sow trotted out of a door. Both of her tusks were shattered in half and she was bleeding profusely from a gaping hole in her side. “You buckers did this.”

I gave her a quick look before stabbing the Knight’s Bane through her spine.

The last noise she made was an ear piercing shriek. The shriek gave way to the sound of blood soaking into the ground at our hooves.

“Don’t stop. Get a move on and make sure this place is clear.” I looked around for a few seconds. “Maybe consider getting a team in here to clean this place up. Maybe make it into a command center for further assaults.”

Comet came through on the radio. “I’ll send a message back to base. We should have their opinion soon enough.”

“Stay low to the ground if you’re going to fly back. At least for a good mile or two so you don’t give away my position.” Freedom’s voice was still coming through but very quietly.

“Alright colonel bitchface.” Wings flapped and his mic went silent.

I shook my head and trotted forward. Everything was silent as I moved over rubble heading to the one small building left standing.

It wasn’t much to look at but I hoped it had what we were looking for. I threw the door open.

A lone boar was there looking over what little documents he had. He said nothing and charged at me.

I levitated the Knight’s Bane up and waited for the boar to reach it. When he did the sword pierced his skull killing him.

“Dumbass.” Steamroller trotted over to the pile of documents. “Nothing special here.” He shuffled through the papers. “This looks interesting.”

I trotted over to look at the piece of paper he had isolated. “Part of the plans for the tank outside? Why only one part of it?”

“And why so little information? I thought this place was supposed to be top secret.” Rose picked up all of the papers and deposited them in a little folder.

“We’ll take what we can get. If it helps to stop this war from getting out of control then it’s worth it.” I trotted over to the one functioning terminal along the wall.

An encrypted message had been sent here not long ago. “Anypony know anything about their encryptions?”

Balefire trotted over and looked over the message. “It’s a request for a sow to return to a research facility. I think it’s due north of this compound.”

“Think or know?” Steamroller trotted over to give the message a look.

“Beats me. I haven’t studied their latest encryptions. I’ve got a little knowledge of how they encrypt things though.” Balefire moved aside.

Rose looked around the terminal before putting a USB into the side. “They gave us a special set of decoding software. Give it a few minutes and we should have the message decoded.”

“You four better hurry it up in there. We’ve got reinforcements inbound.” Freedom was galloping.

I looked out a window. “Steamroller I need you to get set up outside and prepare for an onslaught.”

Steamroller galloped out the door leaving the rest of us. “Balefire I’m going to need your help for this.”

Balefire galloped through the door breaking it off it’s hinges. “Buck me.”

“How long do you need to get that message decoded?” I unholstered my gun.

“Two maybe three more minutes. Just give it some time this stupid terminal is bucking old.” Rose drew out her own pistol.

Twin gatling guns spun up just outside. I peeked out to see another wave of boars jump over the rubble and towards our position.

The frontline of their soldiers wore heavy metal plating. Those behind them wore less armor but were heavily armed.

The gatling gun fire slowly whittled away the front lines but it wouldn’t be enough. “Damnit. Balefire light these bastards up with some explosives.”

A few small packs of explosives found their home at the ground just at the hooves of the boars. “Goodnight buckers.”

The explosives tore the tough frontline apart leaving a hole for gatling gun fire to tear into the soldiers within.

The boars started dropping like flies. What little armored boars remained move towards the middle in a last ditch effort to stop the death of the more well armed soldiers.

I lopped three of the boars in two creating another gap for Steamroller. “Rose.”

“Just a little bit longer.” A window broke near Rose.

I shot a few times at the boar that had just jumped in. “Get away from her!”

The boar looked once at me before stumbling backwards. His every move drew me closer.

I stopped when I was standing next to Rose. I put a bullet in the boar's skull and helped Rose to her hooves.

“Thanks.” Rose plucked the drive from the terminal. “That’s it we can get out of here. We’ve got everything that we are going to get.”

I slammed the door open and galloped out. Steamroller was fending off the boars with his hooves. Balefire was preparing to blow up a few sticks of dynamite. A single shot fired from somewhere outside camp struck one of the boars in the skull.

I fired twice more before my gun clicked. “Damnit.” I unsheathed the Knight’s bane and started swinging.

Rose followed not far behind firing her assault rifle into the boar ranks. Her words were muffled but I could tell she was cursing at the boars and the gun she was firing.

What few boars that remained were laying on the ground slowly bleeding from multiple gunshot wounds.

I took what little pity I could on them and made their suffering end. I knew this wasn’t right. No matter how much danger they were causing there had to be some other way to stop this. “What’s wrong with your gatling guns soldier?”

“They stopped firing sir. Might be a possible weapons malfunction or I could be out of ammo.” Steamroller tapped on his guns a few times.

I trotted over and gave a quick look over the guns. “I don’t know a lot about these guns but I think you’re out of ammo.”

Steamroller nodded. “I thought I might be.”

I popped out the fusion cell lodged in his gun. “Might find some around. Until then we’ll need to find a different weapon for you.”

Balefire trotted over quickly. “I have an idea Sergeant.”

“Well anything will work. What do ya got?” I pulled the other fusion cell out.

“Well I was thinking. This armor is high quality and most weapons shouldn’t pierce it. So why not put some spikes on the armor and make a moving wall of death.” Balefire grabbed a few nearby pieces of rebar.

“In the wasteland we’ve got a piece of technology that is basically the same thing and might be easy enough to make.” I looked around for what I needed.

Inside the tent we had just left was the one most important part, an actuator. It was about the perfect size for making a powerhoof. I grabbed it and a few other rusty pieces of metal and trotted back out to my squad.

They looked at me like I was crazy for thinking I could build something with that. “Are you sure we couldn’t just strap different weapons to his battle saddle?”

I shook my head. “We’re going to need those to stay with us. Can’t let the enemy get ahold of this type of equipment. Does one of you have a welder by chance?”

Balefire pulled a welder out of his saddlebags. “It’s not got much left in the tank but it’ll do work.”

I grabbed the welder and started putting pieces together. It took very little time to put together something that resembles the weapon I was trying to make. I levitated the rebar into place and attached it.

“What exactly is that?” Rose was looking over my shoulder at the weapon I had just made.

I slid the powerhoof on so I could test it out. I levitated up a corpse at random. “Now let’s see if it works.” I threw my hoof forward at the target.

The powerhoof actually worked the way I had intended. The actuator was a little slow but it still fired the rebar forward tearing holes into the target.

“That’s what you want me to use?” Steamroller inspected the weapon.

I slid the hoof off and fiddled with the actuator. “After I fix it so it works the way it should.” After a few more seconds I hoofed Steamroller the powerhoof.

“If I’ve got nothing else I suppose I can use it.” Steamroller put the hoof to the ground.

“Does the rebar slow him down when he walks?” Balefire looked over the hoof I had created.

“If I made it correctly it shouldn’t slow him down at all. If not it won’t be enough to notice.” I turned my mic on. “Freedom where are you?”

Her voice came back loud and clear. “In one of the guard towers. Everything looks quiet from up here.”

“If everything looks clear get down here we’ve got more work to do.” I pulled the radio command had given me out of my saddlebags. “Private Rose radio command and deliver that intel.”

Rose nodded and started fiddling with the radio.

Freedom vaulted over a wall. “Well aren’t you all just a sight for sore eyes.”

“How bad were Comet’s injuries?” Steamroller looked over the powerhoof I had given him.

“The bullet nearly tore his wing off. Damn lucky he’s still able to fly.” Freedom holstered her rifle at her side.

“It’s a bitch not to be able to fly. Good thing he’s fine. We still need him.” I trotted off to sit down and think.

I could hear the rest of my squadron talking. Nothing of importance as far as I could tell. Rose was the only one with anything important to do right now.

I shut the door to the tent behind me and sighed. “Buck.” I kicked one of the terminals on the ground shattering the screen. “Why?”

The corpse in the center of the room stared at me. Those lifeless eyes were haunting. I knew that he was dead. I was used to seeing death. Everywhere around me it was always happening. What made this worse was the fact I had done it.

I had been trained to be a killing machine, but why? Why was it that I had made it this far and others hadn’t? I had met with a few of those who returned from battle before we left.

They were horribly disfigured from the combat. Many were missing legs or eyes. Shit some of them didn’t have their horns anymore. Why was I still unharmed and they weren’t?

I had just walked into a shitstorm without thinking about it and was still untouched by the madness of war. A few of those I had talked to were brought to tears when Spitfire had asked where the rest were.

I couldn’t remember the private’s name but I remembered his face and message so clearly. “They killed him. They made me watch while they slowly tore his hooves off. He was bleeding to death before I could even break free.”

I had to leave before I could hear anymore. How was I the lucky one in all of this? What did I deserve to trot into this war and become a killer?

I sat on the ground. All was quiet once again and I sat and stared at the ground. I let a few tears roll down my cheeks.

No. I can do this. I still have an obligation to keep. I can’t let those who have given their lives for our cause just die in vain. I stood up and trotted towards the door.

A small knock stopped me in my tracks. “Sergeant are you alright?” Rose’s voice was quiet on the other side.

I leaned my head against the door. “I’m fine. Just thinking.”

“Well we don’t have much time left if we’re going to leave today. We could set up here and move out in the morning if you’d like.” Rose’s voice was the most calming thing I had heard all day.

I pulled the door open. “What say you ponies? Are we going to give those boars more of what they deserve today?”

“Yes Sir!” They all saluted me.

“Then what are you all waiting for? Move out!” I kept Rose close to my side.

“What is it?” Rose looked into my eyes.

I brought her in close and kissed her. “I just needed something to take my mind off this.”

Rose smiled and brought me back into the kiss. “Just you wait until we get some time alone. I’ll give you something better to take your mind off of this.”

Freedom was within earshot. “If you two are going to do something like that I suggest you stay far enough away that we can’t hear you.”

“I’ll have your ass if you don’t keep up with the rest of the squad Freedom!” Rose and I started trotting forward.

“I wouldn’t mind that. Seeing as Comet’s gone back to command I’ve got nopony for that.” I could see her smile.

“Shut your mouth or I’ll get that rifle of yours destroyed.” I sent back my own devilish smile.

Freedom’s magic enveloped the rifle. She stayed silent and galloped to catch up with the rest of the squad.

“Come on Silver we’ve got some ground to cover before we can do anything.” Rose pulled me forward.

I hopped into the air wrapping my hooves around Rose. “Hold on.”

I flew forward as fast as I could to catch up with the rest of the squad. They hadn’t gotten much of a headstart but that armor those stallions wore made it easy for them to move quickly.

When we eventually caught up Freedom was riding atop Balefire as they galloped along. “Good to see you can keep up Sergeant. Now we’ll see if you can keep up with Private Rose in your private time.”

“Your ass is going to be getting some private time with command’s dick.” I couldn’t help but laugh at Steamroller’s comment.

“So who’s command in this situation? You or Sergeant Thunder?” Freedom laughed at Steamroller.

I called back. “Both if you really want it that way.”

Rose hit me in the stomach. “What the buck!"

“I was just kidding. I’ve still got a mare of my own to take care of. Nothing’s gonna get between you and I.” I pulled Rose in tighter.

“You damn well better make up for this.” Rose sighed.

I whispered into Rose’s ear. “I’ve only got one mare I want. No other mare has a more appealing plot than you.”

“Wow calm down there Sergeant. Nopony said I wanted you right now.” Rose pushed away just a little bit.

“Can you blame me? I’ve got the sexiest mare who ever lived wrapped in my hooves. I can’t help that I want to show her a good time.” I smiled and gave Rose a kiss on her cheek.

Rose sighed. “Dammit. You do know how to make a mare feel loved.”

“Anything for you.” I brought us low to the ground. “Slow it down you two.”

Steamroller and Balefire came to almost a grinding halt. “Yes Sergeant?”

“Rose do you want to trot on the ground?” I set Rose’s hooves on the ground gently.

“I like the feeling of the wind flowing through my mane. I’d prefer to stick to the sky if it’s all the same to you.” Rose rolled over to look into my eyes.

“Don’t be getting any ideas up there.” Freedom sighed and leaned back to keep an eye on the sky.

I flapped my wings faster and rose to a decent height. I liked it up here. I could see everything for miles around me. It usually was a very pretty place this world. Our line of work seemed to forget that and destroy what beauty the world held for us.

I had a weird feeling stemming from beneath me. “Rose what are you doing?”

Rose giggled. “Just trying to take your mind off all of this.”

I had to try my best not to let my face change. “That feels great but it is really distracting.”

“I know you can handle it. You are a big, strong, stallion after all.” Rose kept at her teasing.

I waited a few minutes before finally losing it. “Don’t just tease me. Just hurry up and buck me.”

It took her a few seconds to respond to me. “Are you sure you can handle that in the air? On the ground I know you can handle anything I throw your way, but up here I’m not to sure.”

“It’s a long ways up, but I won’t drop you.” I kissed her dragging the kiss out as long as I could.

Steamroller’s voice sounded in my ear. “Sun’s setting Sergeant. Do you want to keep moving forward through the night?”

I flipped my mic on a little annoyed they were interrupting. “We’ll keep moving for a few more minutes. If you find a good spot to set up camp radio up to me.”

“Understood Sergeant.” All radio communication went silent.

Rose whispered in my ear. “In a few minutes we’ll get us a place set up for the night and you can do anything you want to me.”

“Sergeant I think I’ve got a good enough place for us to camp out tonight.” I could see the glint of a scope down below us.

I dived towards the ground gaining speed as I went. There was a small building surrounded by rubble. “Well I don’t exactly like the looks of this place, but I suppose it will do for the night.”

I set my hooves down after letting Rose get down on the ground.

“I thought I told you two not to get any ideas.” Freedom had her rifle shouldered.

“Were you?” I would have continued but Rose kissed me.

“Yes I was. I told you two not to get any ideas. We’ve still got work to do and we can’t have you to fooling around and getting us killed.” Freedom slid to the ground off of Steamroller.

I kept my voice low. “Yeah keep talking like that and I’ll buck you until you feel otherwise.”

Freedom and Rose both gave me looks but said nothing further on the subject.

I pushed open the door to the small building. Inside it was a mess but had plenty of room for all of us to hold up for the night. “Stay away from the windows and lock this place down.”

Rose pushed me into the back room and shut the door. “Take me.”

“Ok.” I shed just enough of my armor.

“Oh my goddesses. Are those two going to stop anytime soon?” Freedom rolled over closing her ears as much as possible.

“Doubtful. If we’re going to be up anyways, yall wanna play some poker?” Steamroller sat up.

“Deal me in.” I sat up discarding my helmet.

“Balefire how are you going to play cards? Your a bucking earth pony for Celestia's sake.” Steamroller discarded his own helmet.

“Same way I use explosives you dick. I’ve got a built in sort of magical generator. Not super powerful but still good enough.” I tapped my hoof on the ground.

“Fine, but if you run out of juice for that generator don’t coming crying to me about it. You won’t get very far.” Steamroller began dealing.

“I would prefer to ask Freedom. Afterall she is the one who's supposed to supply my magic.” I picked up my cards.

“If you buck me just right I might help you out with your generator.” Freedom looked her cards over.

I tossed a few bits into the area between us. “I bet two bits.”

Steamroller eyed his cards. “I see that and raise you five bits.”

Freedom dropped a bag of bits into the center. “I raise you both fifty.”

“Buck it I fold.” Steamroller tossed his cards to the floor.

I looked over my hand. I had a full house. “Alright.”

That pot was looking good. “Are you ready then?”

I nodded. “Full house queens high.”

Freedom giggled at me. “Four of a kind.”

“Dammit. Well played.” I pushed the bits her way.

“Thank you.” Freedom pulled the bits into a bag. “We’ve still got time before those two are done.”

“Steamroller you up for another hand?” I picked all the cards up and shuffled the deck.

Steamroller muttered a few words under his breath before turning his attention back to me. “Yeah. Deal me in.”

I dealt out the hand hoping I could kick Freedom’s ass into the ground this hand.

Steamroller threw a few bits into the center. “Three bits.”

Freedom tossed three bits into the center. “I’ll see that.”

I was happy with my hand. “I raise you both fifty bits.”

They both looked between each other. Freedom tossed all her bits into the middle. “That’s all I’ve got. So are you enough of a stallion to see that.”

I tossed what I had left into the pot. “You in or not Steamroller?”

“Nope.” Steamroller tossed his cards away and trotted towards the closest window.

“Lay em down.” Freedom presented two pair.

I laid down my cards. “Royal flush.”

“Well shit. Guess I lost.” Freedom pushed the bits my way.

I deposited them all into my saddlebags. “So is that bucking you just right?”

Freedom sighed. “What do I need to do to recharge your stupid generator?”

I opened a small compartment on my armor and pulled out the electrode that needed to be charged with magic. “Just stick this on your horn and let your magic flow through it. Nothing more than that.”

Freedom hooked up the little electrode and sent magic flooding through my armor. “How long do I have to have this thing on my horn for?”

I looked down at the little battery indicator. “At most an hour before it’s fully charged. Or a few minutes if you overcharge your horn.”

The room light up in that bright purple aura we so rarely got to see. “Let’s get this over with then.”

“For the love of Celestia couldn’t you warn before you do that? Damn near blinded me you bitch.” Steamroller’s voice was strained.

“Well buck you two asshat. I want to get this over with. Maybe just avert your little virgin eyes from the glory that is my aura.” The aura grew even brighter.

I couldn’t hear what he muttered under his breath, but I assumed it was something bad. “Just another minute or so before my armor’s fully charged.”

The glow started to fade. “Shut up and let me concentrate.” Freedom slumped to the floor. “That’s all I’ve got.”

She was bucking cute this way. I knew I didn’t have a chance with her though. She and Comet had been bucking since they got grouped together. “Well that’s fine. I don’t need a full charge to use my armor effectively.”

Freedom was already asleep on the floor. I removed the electrode and shut my armor.

“Sounds like they finally stopped. Maybe now I can get some shut eye.” Steamroller shed his armor.

I followed suit. “Let’s hope so.”

“Aren’t you going to take watch?” Steamroller looked at me.

I shook my head. “Armor sentry mode.”

Two rifles slid out of my armor and aimed at the door we had entered from. A single red light lit up in the helmet.

“You got one of the model’s that does that? How?” Steamroller looked the piece of work.

“It’s supposed to compliment your armor if we run out of explosives. It’s usually standard but you have a special set don’t you?” I took a seat on the floor setting up my bed for the night.

“Yeah Phoenix armor. Specially designed for pegasi.” Steamroller tapped the flank of his armor.

“I can’t remember what you said was so cool about it. Shit.” I laid my head down.

“After taking enough damage it lights on fire burning everything in the generally area. It’s a self defense mechanism and should give me enough time to activate self destruct need be. Command really doesn’t want this armor to get into the enemies hooves.” Steamroller went quiet.

I gave him one last look before going to sleep.

We got up early in the morning to cover the distance between us and our next target before the sun got high in the sky.

I let Rose sleep for a little longer while I woke the rest of the squad. “Everypony off their plots. We’ve got boars to kill.”

Steamroller and Balefire jumped up and into their armor. “Yes sir.”

Freedom opened one eye to look at me. “Yeah alright.”

It took all of a minute for the two stallions to be battle ready. “So how were the trenches last night Sergeant? They sounded a bit rough.”

I had to think about that for a second to make sure I heard that right. “Buck you.”

“Not me. Private Rose on the other hoof.” Balefire ducked below an incoming hoof. “What the buck Steamroller? You asshole. That was bucking funny.”

“Both of you are about to be face first in the dirt if you don’t shut your mouths! Is That Understood?!” I kept an eye on both of them.

The both went to attention. “Yes Sir.”

“Good. Now get your asses out the door. That goes for you too Freedom.” I cast a glance her way.

Freedom shrugged at me and trotted out the door. “Come on you dumbasses. We’ve got work to do still.”

I thought for a half second. “Steamroller.”

“Yes sir?” He stopped to look at me.

I tossed him a fusion core. “It’s got a little charge left. Not much but it should be enough to power one of your gatling lasers for a while.”

“Thank you Sir.” Steamroller slid the core into his left laser.

“Now get a move on. I want this next outpost destroyed before noon today.” I waved a hoof at Rose.

Rose trotted up next to me giving me a devious smile. “They did get that part right. It was quite rough.”

I had to stop myself from blushing. “I know it was. I’m just not comfortable with them talking about our sex life. It’s weird.”

Rose grabbed my hoof and pulled me out the door. “Don’t worry about it honey. Live your life the way you want to.”

I jumped into the air and grabbed Rose in my hooves. “Let’s go. Our work on this mission is almost over. Just one more outpost.”

“How far until next outpost Sergeant?” Steamroller panted as he galloped along.

“Just a small distance. Keep your eyes peeled.” I pulled out a set of binoculars.

In the distance I could see the outline of our next target. A small outpost that recon squads said had something of interest inside. They gave me little information to work with. All I knew is they wanted the outpost taken with as little damage done to it as possible.

Freedom’s voice was as quiet as ever. “We’ve got an incoming squadron of boars. Get your asses in cover and stay quiet.”

“Shit.” I dived towards the ground looking for a good place to hide.

Rose tapped at me with her tail. “Right there.”

Down below us was a tan tattered tent. “Alright. Hold on cause this might get dicey.”

“Go ahead and do what you need to.” Rose held on as best she could.

I brought Rose and my wings in close to my body. All at once gravity did what it does best and dragged us down towards the ground.

It’s really bucking hard to tell how far off the ground we are. Shit. Alright stay calm dumbass and just be ready to flare your wings. I waited one more second before unfurling my wings and slowing our descent.

I was just a little bit off in my judgment on how high up we were. Luckily I was still a few feet above the ground and not buried slightly in it.

Rose jumped to the ground and galloped towards the tent. “Come on.”

I flew forward catching up instantly. “Let’s hope this works.”

I slid into the tent catching one of the posts that held it up. “Son of a bitch.” I looked down to see a nasty gash on my front right leg.

Rose put a hoof up to my mouth. “Hush. Give me a second and I’ll get you something for that.”

I nodded wincing at the pain. I had managed to bring the post down when I hit it. I grabbed two of the other posts and broke them bringing the tent down.

“What are you doing?” Rose shoved the potion into my mouth.

I drank the potion as swiftly as I could. “I’m trying to make this place less noticeable. If I leave just one of these posts up it might look like this has been abandoned.”

Rose shook her head bandaging up my leg. “Now don’t move your leg for a while. And be more careful. We’ve got medical supplies but not many.”

I grimaced. “Understood. Now quiet down we need to wait these boars out.”

I could hear their hooves hitting the soft sand outside. They were no farther than a few yards off to my right. The hoofsteps drew closer.

I readied my pistol. Alright you bastards take one more step and I’ll personally end you. Do it I bucking dare you.

The final tent post came crashing down burying us in the thick sheet of canvas. “All clear sir.”

“Good send word to the outpost and tell them to get that machine rolling.” A rough deep grunted followed.

“Yes sir.” The sow planted something on the ground. “Everything’s clear. Send the tank through.”

Another one? Great, just bucking great. One more stupid thing to avoid and probably to destroy. I gave Rose a look.

She shook her head ever so slightly at me.

I holstered my pistol and waited.

The boars outside stood around waiting for something. A thunderous roar emanated from the direction of the outpost.

Oh shit they’ve got another one? That's fine. We’ll just blow the bastard up and leave nothing of it for them to salvage.

Time froze for just have a second. I glanced towards where the boars were standing. The first bullet plowed through the sow’s skull killing her and splattering her brains onto our improvised shelter. “Get out of there!”

The second shot sent the boar spiraling over the canvas tearing a hole in it with his tusks.

I grabbed ahold of Rose and shot out of the tent at high speed. It was an amazing feeling moving that fast. I got to a high altitude before pulling a shield around us. “Alright you boar bastards it’s time to die. Balefire blow them to tartarus and leave nothing standing.”

“Yes sir.” Balefire galloped head first into the dangers of battle.

For the first time I saw steamroller fly. His armor was engulfed in flames and I thought I could see wings sticking out of his armor.

Freedom was on a hill just a few hundred yards behind them. She kept that gun firing as fast as she could even with the bolt action slowing her down.

I stared down at the chaos below me. Boars in the hundreds were charging at my squadron.

One of the boars below was wearing a suit of armor similar to Balefire’s. He was surrounded entirely by a dull brown aura.

I focused my magic on that boar. I had one shot to take him out before he could harm anypony. “Come on magic don’t fail me now.”

Crimson had taught me how to do this just a year back and I still had trouble focusing enough magic to pull it off. It took me a good thirty seconds before my horn finally started to use the magic the way I wanted.

The boar in armor let out a ear piercing shriek as I began to pull his skull out. The armor made it more difficult to accomplish but he finally stopped shrieking as his entire head pulled free of his shoulders. I held the skull high for all the boars to see.

Some stared on in astonishment at what had just happened. Their guns fell to the sand and they knelt down before the skull. “We’ll avenge you.” Their words were loud enough to be heard from this high.

“Silver the ground!” Rose hit me to get my attention.

Shit she was right. In my attempt to keep the shield up and kill the boar I had slowed down on my flying. We were falling towards the ground at an alarming rate before I finally got my wings back in working order.

I set Rose down on the ground panting. “Sorry. I’m a little tired after doing that.”

Rose propped me up. “It’s alright honey. Now just take a break for a few seconds and get your breathing under control.”

I took a few deep breaths to restore the natural order of things. It took all of my concentration to stand on my own hooves. “I’m fine. Come on they still need us.” I flipped my mic on again. “Status report.”

“Pinned behind a piece of debris. That damn tank won’t let me get close.” Balefire’s voice was in and out.

“I’m trying Balefire just give me a damn minute. I have to find the armor piercers.” Freedom was scrambling searching through her saddlebags.

“Ran out of gatling laser ammo. Currently trying to pry a roasted boar off of this powerhoof.” Good to hear Steamroller was making the best of a bad situation.

I picked Rose up again and bolted towards the action.

The tank was a lot bigger than I had thought. The first one was dwarfed in comparison to this thing. It looked like it had lighter armor plating but more guns to make up for that. Flak cannons lined the sides and I could see several big machine guns pointing out the sides.

“Command’s going to want that thing back in as few pieces as we can get it. Do not try to destroy it. Disable that main cannon if possible and I’ll do what I can to rid the rest of the boars inside.” I set Rose down and flew towards the tank.

The main gun was slowly spinning towards where command was. Dammit did these assholes have to be pulling out the big guns.

The closer I got to the tank the more dangerous things became. The flak cannons started firing at me. My shield deflected all of the shrapnel but I wasn’t very sure it would last all that long.

I hit the ground and started galloping trying to confuse the flak cannon operators. They kept their guns trained on me until I was within one hundred yards.

The tank started to make a whirring noise. “What the buck type of cannon does it have?”

“Plasma cannon. If we don’t redirect that shot it’ll hit command and everypony there is gone.” Balefire was galloping towards the tank.

I pulled a shield up over him. “Then get your ass over here and rig that cannon to blow.” I ripped one of the hatches off of the tank and dived inside.

Inside was a tight area but that didn’t mean anything for the boars. They all jumped out wielding weapons of all sorts.

I threw a grenade amongst them and jumped behind cover. The following explosion nearly deafened me and covered the floor in a puddle of blood.

The tank rocked back as Balefire’s explosives detonated. The entire tank turned just a few degrees to the right. The main cannon followed in rocking the tank backwards just a few seconds later.

I swear this thing needed to be supported otherwise it was going to tip over and leave this as a worthless endeavour.

“Dammit you morons. Realign the main cannon and fire again.” It was a sow in charge.

I made my way further into the tank looking for a way up. A small hatch separated me from the boars. I tried unsuccessfully to open it. I pulled a grenade out and held it close to the hatch. The pin fell to the floor and it was only a matter of a few seconds before the hatch opened for me.

A boar poked his head through the gap wielding a pistol. I pulled my own and used the boars brains as paint. The last grenade I had went into the main cannon area.

I held it there trying to keep the boars from surviving. The explosion painted the upstairs with blood and smoke.

All noise stopped from the tank. I peeked upstairs to see if it was no longer operational. None of the boars had survived the explosion and neither had the controls.

“All clear. This thing isn’t firing ever again.” I tore apart what little remained of the consoles.

I think it was Balefire who spoke next. “That’s great Sergeant but we’ve got bigger problems.”

I jumped out of the tank putting a shield around the entire tank. Everypony except Freedom was here.

We were surrounded on all sides by boars in bulky armor. They all had us in their sights.

“What’s the plan?” Rose kept her rifle close by.

I saw the glint of Freedom’s sniper rifle. “Just give Freedom a few seconds to do what she does best.”

The bullet pierced the first boars skull sending his rifle to the ground just outside of the shield. The shot bounced off of my shield hitting a sow in the leg.

I took my opportunity and grabbed the discarded rifle and opened fire upon the boars. They took a lot of damage before they fell.

The gun clicked after I killed the third boar. I picked up all the guns on the ground bringing them to bear on the remaining boars.

I stopped being an idiot after the second gun ran dry and started shooting the boars where they had no armor at all.

They retreated back towards the outpost. “That’s right you bastards.” I charged forward at the outpost. “Now get back here and die.”

I wasn’t sure what the others were doing but it didn’t matter at this point. If I could finish the mission and be done then that’s what mattered.

The gates were closing slowly but that wouldn't stop me. I slid through the gate a few seconds before it closed.

The boars stared at me keeping their guns trained on my skull. I could see the fear in their eyes as I lashed out with the Knight’s Bane.

It took only a small amount of time to kill off the boars guarding the gate. I flung the gate open and let the rest of my squad in. “Kill ‘em all.”

A few seconds later and I slammed the gates shut behind us throwing myself into combat once again.

I’m not sure how to explain the carnage and death I caused within just a minute. But really I wasn’t too sure exactly what it was I was doing. That entire time all I knew is I was crushing through the bones of boars.

The next thing I remember I was sitting on the ground putting my wingblade back in place. “Get back on there you bastard.”

“You want a hoof with that Sergeant?” Balefire trotted over.

I held the blade in place and strapped it to my side. “I’m fine thanks. Now where is everypony?” I looked around. “Sound off.”

“Private Rose alive and kicking sir.” Always a good thing to hear her voice.

“Specialist Steamroller just a few rooms ahead of you two.” I could hear the mighty crunch of bone from where he was.

“Give me a second. Also you might want to duck.” The shot sounded loudly.

Something above us exploded. “Good to hear from you Freedom. Everypony back to work.”

“Sergeant I’ve found their HQ. Working on extracting what we came for.” Rose worked quickly.

“Copy. Balefire and Steamroller I want you two to secure the rest of this outpost. None of the boars get left alive.” I trotted towards where I had last seen Rose.

“Understood.” The two stallions trotted in opposite directions.

Come on me. Just a few more hours of this and then hopefully we’ll get some time off. The thought of a break seemed so foreign anymore. Everythings was go, go, go all the time and I had to stay alert and ready for anything.

I swung at the boar charging me cleaving her in twain. Yeah buck you too bitch.

All I had was my squad of highly trained soldiers to keep me company. Truth be told while I liked them for who they were, I wanted nothing more than to just stop. All I wanted was to quit this military business and go home to Rose and live happily. Amethyst was all that was keeping me here.

The next few boars cowered as I trotted forward unfazed by the devastation they thought they had caused.

Their heads rolled along the ground for some time as I continued my path.

Without her what was I? Was I just a well trained killing machine whose only purpose was to kill? Or was I a pony looking for a way to be normal in a world full of hatred and anger? Shit, what were any of us without something to fight for?

I came to one conclusion as I reached the building Rose was in. Without her I was nothing. Just a machine that did one thing and one thing only, and that was to kill.

Rose wrapped her hooves around me. “It’s good to see you. You wouldn’t answer any of us and we were worried about you. Where were you?”

I looked around the room to see everypony but Comet and Freedom were waiting there for me. “I just got caught up making sure this place was secure.”

“We’ve been waiting for a few hours. Like Private Rose said, you’re a sight for sore eyes.” Balefire had a hoof on his helmet.

I managed a small smile. “Did you get what we came for?”

Rose presented a small drive. “All of the secrets they were keeping here are now in your capable hooves. I’ve already sent word to base and we’ll have a carrier here in a few hours time.”

I pulled over a crate and took a seat. “Good. Steamroller is this place secure?”

He nodded. “Yes Sir.”

“Good.” I yawned. “Wake me when the carrier is here.”

“Yes Sir.” Steamroller trotted over to a window to keep watch.

Rose’s POV

I was worried for Silver. He never sounded like this. Even when he had a bad day he was never this melancholy. What’s gotten into to him?

Balefire put a hoof on my shoulder. “I know what you’re thinking. Something’s not quite right with him. It was painfully obvious he was trying to hide it.”

I tapped on Balefire’s hoof a few times. “Thank you for your understanding, but if I know Silver as well as I think I do, he won’t talk about this. It’s best just to keep an eye on him and hope he opens up about it.”

“Are you sure that’s the best idea? I’ve seen ponies hit this stage before and the results usually aren’t pretty.” Balefire took a seat next to me.

I nodded. “If he’s not comfortable talking about it and you push the subject he’ll retreat inwards and never open up about what’s bothering him. Besides, I think as soon as command gives us some time off he’ll perk right back up.”

“I hope your right. I’ve seen too many ponies lose their minds to stuff like this. I don’t want to lose such a damn fine CO.” Balefire trotted back over to a crate.

“And you won’t.” I lowered my head and voice. “You’ve just been too strong for too long. You need somepony to help you whether the storm. Isn’t that right my big strong stallion?”

Silver’s POV

Rose’s voice flooded my dreams. Her words were distant but they sounded as cheery as they ever were. She always did know how to make me feel better when I got like this. Her final words before I woke did reach me. “I love you.”

I started to wake up. “I love you too.”

“Sergeant.” Balefire shook me a few times. “Sergeant wake up.”

“Yes what is it?” I sat bolt upright.

“The carrier’s a few mikes out. We’re heading home.” Balefire put his hoof back on the ground.

Rose was curled up next to me sound asleep. She made a few little noises that resembled that sweet tone shook took when she was comforting me.

I kissed he forehead. “Don’t wake up. You need your sleep more than I do.”

Steamroller slowly opened the door. “Carrier’s here. Come on.”

I picked Rose up keeping her as stable as possible. “Go ahead Balefire. I’ll be right behind you.”

The stallion trotted out the door. The sound of his hooves on metal made Rose stir.

“Shh shh shh. It’s fine honey. Just getting you to a more comfortable location.” I sat her down in the chariot.

“Did you get what we came for?” Comet was standing tall strapped to the carrier.

I nodded. “We got everything right here.” I produced both drives Rose had given me.

Comet nodded his head back to the carrier. “Get in and we’ll be home in no time.”

I trotted inside closing the door behind me. “Good to see you Freedom.”

Freedom smiled at me for the first time since we started this. “Well if it ain’t the stallion calling the shots. Never have I ever been so happy to see a CO.”

Her voice was loud and smelled of alcohol. “Are you already drunk?”

Freedom leaned back. “Drunk? No. Just a slight bit buzzed. You want some whiskey? I’ve got a fifth or two left.” She levitated a bottle to me.

I looked the bottle over. “Well…”

“What?” Hiccup. “Has the big bad CO never gotten drunk before?”

I looked the bottle over before giving Freedom another look.

“Oh my goddesses. That’s hilarious. A sergeant like yourself has usually been drunk off his plot more times than a foal can count.” Freedom hiccupped again.

Well what could be the harm right. Maybe I can get this mare to stop riding me if I drink it. I opened the bottle and drank about half of what was there.

It burned going down and about twice as bad as it almost came back up. “Ok. Happy now?”

“Not until you have that all gone. And this time don’t be a pussy about it.” Freedom dumped the rest of the bottle down my throat.

It still burned like a bitch going down but wasn’t all that bad the second time around. I set the bottle aside and took a seat next to Rose.

Freedom giggled at me. “Wow just cuddling up to her? I thought you would have gone ahead and had your way with her. Seeing how much you wanted her earlier.”

“Freedom shut your mouth before our CO slaps the shit out of you.” Comet provided the voice of reason.

“Just you wait till I get my hooves on you. You’re in for the bucking of a lifetime.” Freedom slumped back against the carrier walls.

I ignored her and put a wing over Rose. “Keep sleeping honey. We’ll be home soon enough.”

The carrier hit the ground with a thud and the rear door opened up. “Come on you drunk jackass let’s get you cleaned up and presentable before Skull finds you like this.”

“I don’t want to get cleaned up. I want you to spank my flank like I’ve been a bad filly.” Freedom waved her flanks in the air.

Comet picked her up and trotted out the door. “Sorry about that.”

I looked out into the world a little bit drunk. The light burned my retina and I felt sick.

Rose propped me up. “Are you sure you want to talk to Skull like this? I could go talk to him for you.”

I shook my head. “No. I’ve got to live up to my actions and hope that I get off easy for showing up drunk.”

Rose helped me towards Skull’s office. “Alright. I just don’t want you to get court martialed or some shit for this.”

“And I won’t. I’m not all that drunk. A little bit out of it yes, but not drunk off my plot like Freedom.” I knocked three times.

“Come in Sergeant Thunder.” Skull opened the door for us.

“Thank you.” I took a seat across from Skull.

“Would you like something to drink? Perhaps a fifth of whiskey?” Skull slid me the exact bottle Freedom gave me.

“How did you know?” I shook my head.

“You came into my office smelling like a bar and expected me not to notice that you were buzzed. Next time you do this I will have you court martialed. For now just give me what your squad was sent to extract.” Skull slid the bottle under the table.

I levitated over both of the drives Rose had given me. “This is what we were able to gather.”

Skull placed the first drive into a terminal and went to work looking at what we had gathered. “Partial plans for a machine capable of leveling our outpost. Did you encounter a working model of this.”

“We encountered two more or less working versions of the machine. Both are no longer operational, but you might be able to learn something from their wreckage if they can be recovered.” Rose spoke for me.

“Very impressive. I take it the other drive contains what little is left of the full blueprint?” Skull deposited both drives in a safe.

“Yes Sir. From what we saw, I would bet bits on the entire machine being quite devastating in the right hooves.” Rose stood up.

“Then our business is done here. Take him home and make sure he comes back not an inebriated mess.” Skull turned away from us.

“Yes Sir.” Rose pulled me out of the building. “Now what did I tell you?”

“You told me bad things were going to happen if I didn’t listen. I get that. Can you just get me home and to bed? I think I’m going to hate myself if I don’t get more sleep.” I slumped down a little.

The door to home opened up and Rose dragged me inside. “I’ll do what I can to make you feel better but you’re going to need to be honest with me.”

I nodded as I laid down. “Anything.”

“Why were you gone for so long at the boar outpost?” Rose laid down next to me helping me out of my armor.

“I was thinking.” I kept the answer vague hoping she wouldn’t pursue it.

“That’s too vague of an answer. Please explain what about.” Rose got close.

“I was thinking about who I really was.” I thought carefully before putting these thought into words. “I wanted to know who I was without you. Because who really am I without you? Just a well trained killing machine? Or something more sinister?”

Rose shook her head. “That doesn’t matter because together we can do anything. It’s that simple. Who you were before is who you were. Who you are now is who you are and nothing is going to make me think less of you.”

I brought Rose in close. “Thank you for always being there for me.”

“Who else is around to be a rock for the strong stallion who always seeks to keep his friends safe? Nopony else could handle the job so I took it because I knew I could help you.” Rose hugged me. “Now go to sleep. You need your rest more than I do.”

Enclave

“Midnight Please take a seat.” Rose offered me a chair.

I gladly accepted. “Thanks. Now what did you call us here for?”

“Nothing very pressing. I wanted to see if you were up to working again and if so I’ve got a job for you.” Rose waved Silver over.

I thought for a few seconds. “What can I do to help?”

Rose smiled. “Glad to hear you made such a quick recovery. What I have for you is just a short escort mission. We have a group of ponies camped out just a few miles away but as you know the wasteland’s becoming more dangerous with each passing day.”

“So just escort a group of ponies back here if they’re willing to come here? That sounds relatively simple.” I was about to hop out of my chair when Rose stopped me.

“Well that’s not all of it.” Rose leaned back in her chair. “The group only agreed to come if we sent out a few of the guards. Now I really don’t like insulting them but the guards are... chicken shit.”

I giggled for a few seconds before regaining my composure. “So we're just going to escort a few guards who aren’t stallion enough to get these ponies. Alright.”

“Thank you both. Now Silver I have business we must speak about.” Rose waved us away. “The guards are waiting down next to the main gate.”

I jumped out of my chair. “Come on by gorgeous mare. We’ve got a few guards to escort.”

Harmony smiled at me and followed closely behind. “And you’re sure you want to wear that armor instead of your power armor?”

I had entirely forgotten about switching to a smaller set of armor like the guards wore. “It’s nothing fancy but it should still protect me.”

Aurora flickered into existence from my Pipbuck. “A bullet proof vest and a few pads aren’t going
to protect you all that much.”
“You’re just mad because you have to stay in my Pipbuck. Otherwise you wouldn’t really care about how effective my armor is.” I turned the screen off.

Aurora remained. “I do like the power armor better than your Pipbuck. There’s no room in here. It sucks.”

“Then just transfer over to Harmony’s armor. There’s got to be plenty of room in there.” I slowed down to trot next to Harmony.

“I transferred all your clop over to her armor. It’s not too much better over there.” Aurora flickered away.

“Then don’t bucking complain. I’ll go back to wearing that armor in another day or so. Until then you’re stuck in my Pipbuck or Harmony’s armor.” I shot a glance to the group of stallions waiting at the front gates.

“Are you the guards were supposed to escort?” Harmony came to a stop at the gate.

It was bucking awesome seeing the armor from my normal perspective. I was a good foot shorter than Harmony when she was in that armor.

“Yes we are. Now where’s the other mare in power armor?” The first guard glanced at me.

I stepped forward. “Not wearing my armor today but that shouldn’t be a problem.”

The stallion shot me another glance. “No offense but you look like a strong gust of wind my push you over.”

Something in my mind snapped in that moment. “Do you want a demonstration of what I can do!?” The area light up a dark shade of red as did my horn. “I’d be glad to show you.”

The stallion cowered back a few paces. “No thanks. I uh.. I retract my former statement.”

The glow stayed for a few seconds before dying down. “Good. Then let’s get a move on.”

“Follow me and we’ll take you to the camp. Try not to fall behind.” The stallion galloped out of the gate.

I hopped onto Harmony’s back. “You don’t mind. Do you?”

Harmony shook her head and began galloping. “I’ve carried you before. I don’t mind carrying you now.”

I was happy that I was with Harmony. Everyday was an adventure with her. Something new and exciting to do and nothing could stand in our way.

I relaxed a little bit taking a better position atop Harmony. I noticed her mane was sticking out of the helmet. Not much was there just a few strips of white and teal.

Did mine do that aswell. Shit that must look like a bucking nightmare. On her it doesn’t look so bad though. She keeps her mane so well that she could go through tartarus and still come out looking amazing.

I kept a close eye on the stallion out front. He did his best to stay out in front of Harmony but was fighting a losing battle to do so. I could hear him panting as he tried to push himself just a little bit more to not be shown up by a mare.

As we crept ever closer to the stallion I couldn’t hear a sound from Harmony. The armor was a big help when it came to that though. A longer stride and the feeling you're almost weightless. Made me miss my armor a little bit.

The guard skidded to a stop displacing a twenty foot area of sand. When he finally got back to his hooves I hopped off Harmony and dropped down next to him.

“So is that the camp down there?” What I though was the camp looked awfully pitiful.

“Yes, but something is wrong.” The stallion levitated out a pair of binoculars. “What the buck!?”

I pulled out my own set and looked down to the camp. A lone soldier was sitting next to a fire over which was a group of unfortunate ponies being roasted alive. “Ah buck no! Harmony let’s go!” I jumped back on Harmony as she took off.

The soldier looked over at us expectantly. He sat there waiting for us. Like he didn’t even care about what was happening. Seriously what the buck was wrong with him.

When we reached the camp’s edge I already had almost my full arsenal drawn and ready to fire. “What the buck are you doing to them?”

The soldier cast a glance up at the ponies roasting. “I found them like this.”

“Then why haven’t you helped them?” I snarled at him.

The soldier discarded her helmet. Her voice became much sweeter. “I would have saved them but I knew they were already gone.”

I looked over the corpses. She was right all of them were riddled with bullet holes. “Buck! And how do I know it wasn’t you who did this?”

“You see those tracks on the ground?” The mare pointed to a series of large hoofprints. “Those are way bigger than I could create. Even in a fancy set of armor like that.”

“Point taken.” I holstered a few of my guns.

“Besides the enclave did this. Those bastards wanted what this poor family had. They refused and the stallions killed them.” The mare placed her helmet back on.

“Where are you going?” I kept one gun trained on the mare.

“I’m needed elsewhere in the wasteland. Always more enclave pricks to kill. Oh and if you want I left their armor in the tent.” She trotted off into the sunset.

“A courier out in these parts? You two ever heard of something like that?” The guards were having a conversation in whispers.

I slid down onto the ground. “Let’s take a look at what she left us.”

Inside the tent was a few sets of functioning power armor. Everything was intact without a scratch on them, minus the helmets. A single hole was in each one.

“Right between the eyes.” The guard chuckled. “Serves of ‘em right. Bastards had this coming to them.”

I ignored the guard and examined the armors closely. All of the weapons tech was in good shape. A few guns were scattered about in the tent. “Grab the guns and armor.”

“Excuse me?” I didn’t particularly like the tone of his voice.

“Did I stutter?” I turned back to the guard. “I said take the guns and armor. If I have to come out here to escort you assholes because you’re too afraid to step out of the gates then you obviously need some better equipment. Now grab the bucking armor!!”

The guard cowered back before doing as I said. “Yes ma’am.”

I relaxed a little bit. “That’s better.”

Harmony was waiting for me outside the tent. “It’s a shame they died. It’s always nice to meet a new group.”

I let out a small sigh. “Yeah. I suppose it would have been nice to know them.”

Harmony levitated me onto her back. “Let’s go home.”

I smiled. “I appreciate you carrying me. But for the record I can walk.”

Harmony began her gallop home. “I know you can. I also know you can do much more than walk. I just want to get home quickly.”

“I understand. I couldn’t keep up with you since I’m not in my armor.” I holstered my pistol on my foreleg.

Even though it was an irradiated place full of death and destruction, this wasteland was a beautiful and intriguing place. For once the sky was clear of clouds and the sunshine shone brightly down upon us.

The sky was an ugly green color but that didn’t matter all that much. I think if birds still inhabited the area they would have been singing on a day like this.

I kept my eyes moving until I saw something way out on the horizon. I pulled out my binoculars to get a closer look.

There a couple of miles away was a pair of manticores going about their daily life. I wonder what they’re up to. I thought zooming in a bit closer.

“Wait…. Gross.” I put the binoculars away trying to erase what I had just saw from my mind.

“What’s wrong?” Harmony slowed down.

“I just saw a pair of manticores bucking in the distance. That is not what I wanted to see today. Or ever.” I shook my head but the image remained.

Harmony let out a small laugh before speaking. “Must be mating season.”

“With you two everyday’s mating season.”

“What was that Aurora?” I looked down to see Aurora fiddling about on my pipbuck.

“Hmm. Oh nothing. Go back to watching manticores bucking.” Aurora waved a hoof at me.

I lowered my voice to a whisper. “Yeah, I’ll watch a manticore buck you in the ass.”

“Knock it off you two.” Harmony picked up the pace again.

“Yeah ok.” Aurora and I sighed in unison.

Silver’s POV

“Silver could you come here?” Rose was in the main office working.

“One second.” I laid down the attack plan. “That should work.”

“Hopefully so. They’ve got a lot of firepower and much better armor.” Stone looked the plans over still worried.

“When I get the chance I’ll talk to Midnight and Harmony and we’ll round up a few of our better soldiers and kill what little forces the enclave have stationed.” I trotted towards the door.

“Thanks Silver.” Stone rolled the plans up and went to work on his next project.

“No problem.” I trotted into the main office closing the door behind me. “What did you want to talk about?”

Rose was on the floor. “Come over here please.”

I rushed over and helper Rose up. “What’s wrong?”

“The pregnancy is finally catching up to me.” Rose took a seat and waved me off.

“I thought you were only a few months in. It seems a bit early for it to have already caught up to you.” I stayed close by Rose’s side.

“That’s because I’m not just a few months pregnant.” Rose let out a sigh.

“Then how far into your pregnancy are you?” I pulled over a chair.

“Truth be told I’ve known I was pregnant for a very long time. Remember the last mission we went on before you came here and never returned?” Rose waited a few seconds.

I nodded my head. “Yeah. The one where we almost lost Balefire right?”

“Yes that’s the one. Just before that I took a test and it came out positive. I meant to tell you before we got deployed again but I had no time.” Rose looked away from me.

I turned her head back so I could look into her eyes. “How long have you known?”

“I’ve known for about nine months or a little more by now.” Rose pushed me away.

Wait what? She just said she’s known for nine months now. Has that much time really past? How? Oh buck me sideways. I can’t be mad at her though. She had her reasons for not telling me. Only one thing to do. Be a stallion and be strong for her and our foal. “I’m not mad.”

“I know you're not. I’m mad at myself for not telling you sooner.” Rose drew me into a hug.

I enveloped her in my wings. “It’s ok. It’ll be fine. I’m here for you and we’ve got a wonderful group of friends who’ll help us out.”

“How do you know that though?” Rose looked into my eyes.

“Maybe you should ask them for yourself.” I waved a hoof towards Midnight and Harmony.

“Hi Rose.” Harmony always did have a sweet and gentle voice when it came to stuff like this. “How are you?”

“How much did you hear?” Rose rubbed the tears from her eyes.

“We got here about the time you said you were nine months pregnant. We didn’t want to interrupt.” Midnight rubbed a hoof to the back of her head. “But Silver’s right. We’re here for you if you need us.”

“Thank you both. How was the family that you went to rescue?” Rose returned to her own seat.

“They were slaughtered by the enclave. It wasn’t an entire loss though. A courier came in and killed the enclave soldiers and left us their armor. We left the guards to bring it back.” Midnight dragged Harmony into the office.

“Well I hope they made their way back here.” Rose spun her chair to face Stone’s office. “Stone bring out the plans.”

Stone peeked his head out. “One second.” After a few seconds he brought out the battle plans.

“Plans? Plans for what?” Harmony trotted over to the desk.

I laid out the plans. “For a war. A small one mind you, but a war nonetheless. We need to stomp what little enclave soldiers are here into the ground before they get a chance to attack us.”

“Sounds like that armor might be pretty damn useful.” Midnight smiled at me as she looked over the plan. “Are you sure about the aerial assault?”

“I’m just supposed to make enough of a distraction for you two and whatever other soldiers we can gather to break in and kill off as many as you can before they catch on. And besides.” I threw a shield over myself. “I can handle a few morons with guns.”

“I’m still a bit worried. I’ve seen their arsenal and would not advise a firefight with them if possible.” Midnight continued scanning over the plans.

Demo and Onyx trotted through the door. “Did I hear something about war plans?”

“Yes you did Demo. Now take a seat and we’ll talk about what can be done.” Rose spun back around to face all of us.

“That looks pretty complex. I know what you’re capable of but that seems like it’s a little bit much.” Demo put a hoof on the table.

“Do you have a better plan?” Harmony cast a glance towards Demo.

“Do we need their gear intact for any reason?” Demo simply discarded the idea of the plan.

“It would be a great asset to have but if you have an idea that’s less dangerous I’m all ears.” Rose leaned forward in her chair.

“I say we just blow the bastards to bits. I’ve got plenty of explosives to level that area.” Demo smiled wickedly. “Just give me a bit of cover and some time.”

“You’re gonna balefire them aren’t you?” Onyx gave him a concerned look.

“The detonator will work from outside of the blast radius. I just need to get in close enough to plant the balefire egg or even drop it into the base.” Demo put a detonator on the table. “It’s not that complicated.”

Onyx trotted over to Stone. “Stone I know your work when I see it but just let him have this one. If all else fails we’ll go in guns blazing and kill them that way.”

“If you think that will work better than this then so be it. But be careful, they do have major defenses surrounding that place.” Stone shook his head. “It’s almost an impenetrable fortress. But nopony said anything about balefire bombs while I was making that plan.”

“And you're sure that will work?” Harmony shot Demo a look.

“You’re thinking about it too much. It’s very simple. I drop the bomb, hit a button, and then they die.” Demo stopped talking for a few seconds. “And yes I’m sure it will work.”

“When are we headed out?” I charged my horn bringing out a box of throwing knives.

“The sun will set in an hour or so. If we leave now we’ll have a few minutes of daylight left. The other option is we attack at dawn.” Stone rolled up the plan.

“I’ll only need a few minutes.” Demo trotted out the door.

“Midnight are you ready to step back out onto the battlefield in your armor?” I slid a few blades into my wing.

“It’s as good a time as any to get back to doing what we do best. Besides I know the armor won’t kill me.” Midnight tapped Harmony with her flank. “We’ll meet you at the front gates in a few minutes.”

They exited leaving Rose, Stone and myself. “Stone I want you to keep an eye out and keep plenty of guards around here while I’m gone.”

“I’ll have more guards posted around this building in a few minutes.” Stone pushed me towards the door. “You have nothing to worry about. She’ll be safe. She’s easily the strongest mare I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing.”

“Military training does that for you. Just make sure she’s safe. I want nothing happening to her or my unborn foal.” I put a hoof on Stone’s shoulder.

“I won’t disappoint. Now get out there and do what you must, but make sure none of them escape.” Stone trotted back into the office.

Alright let’s do this. I trotted out the front doors and headed for the gate.

The town wasn’t very lively at this hour. What few ponies were still trotting about looked well armed and ready for a fight. That being said I knew the guards were already stationed on the walls and only my friends walked the streets.

Midnight and Harmony were about halfway to the gate. Demo and Onyx followed shortly behind in the air.

I bolted down towards where they were.

We all came to a stop at the gate. “Demo do you have the package?”

Demo pulled a balefire egg out of his saddlebags. “Let’s kill these buckers.”

I grabbed ahold of Midnight bringing her into the air. “Carry Harmony if you can. We’ll get there faster that way.”

Onyx looked at me like I was insane. “I’m not sure I can lift Harmony and her armor. No offense Harmony.”

“None taken. Give it a try though. The armor’s actually lighter than you would think.” Harmony waited for Onyx.

Onyx wrapped his hooves around Harmony and flapped his wings hard to gain altitude. “Well the armor doesn’t weigh that much I suppose. How far do we have to go though?”

“Just a few miles out. If you need me to I could carry Harmony with my magic.” I charged my horn and lifted Harmony up a little.

Harmony shook loose. “We don’t have to be right there when that bomb goes off. Midnight and I can hoof it that distance easy enough.”

Midnight shook free of my grip and landed making little noise. “Let’s go.”

I pushed the gate open for them. “Keep us in sight as best you can and don’t fall far behind.”

Midnight tossed a radio up to me. “It’s hooked up to the frequency of our helmets. If you need to contact us don’t be afraid to.”

I deposited the radio in my saddlebags. “Thanks. Now let’s get a move on. We’re burning daylight.”

Midnight and Harmony bolted out of the gate gaining a lead on us.

“Come on you two.” I shot straight into the air a few hundred feet before leveling out.

Demo and Onyx followed not shortly behind me. “Right behind you.”

Speed wasn’t exactly what I was good at but I could still keep up with Spitfire if I really tried. Even with our delayed start we were gaining quickly upon the mares below us.

Midnight’s POV

I turned on the radio to see what was going on. For once I was hoping for PON3 to actually be on the radio.

“In other news the enclave has started setting up shop around the wasteland. Now I’m usually one to advocate the destruction of a group this powerful but this time don’t even think about it. If you see an enclave soldier give them what they want and you might keep your life. Now let’s have some music.” The music started and I shut my radio off.

“Did you hear that broadcast Harmony?” I looked up to make sure Silver was still in sight.

“I got the last little part of it. He’s probably right about them. They sound dangerous from what the brotherhood told me.” Harmony was a few strides out in front of me.

“Well we’re going to show them who really rules around here.” I laughed. “And it ain’t buckin them.”

“Are you sure you two don’t want me to carry you?” Silver slowed down in the distance.

“How far until this outpost of theirs?” I pushed myself to go faster.

“Maybe a mile or two at the most. They set up in one of those outposts we took down a while back.” Silver made his way to the ground.

“We can keep this pace for another mile or two. Might be able to go a little faster if we really pushed it.” I called back. “Wait one of the outposts we took out? Aren’t those supposed to be secured by some of our soldiers?”

“They’re supposed to be. The enclave makes short work of any that stand in their way. Those that got away from the enclave warned us.” Silver went silent.

I pushed myself even harder. “Dammit. I might not like our soldiers but dammit nopony bucks with us.”

Silver and the other’s were still well insight. This pace was starting to weigh on me. Each stride was stealing away my breath and I was about to black out when Silver called back.

“Slow down. The outpost is insight. I’ll cover Demo as he gets into position. You two get closer but try not to be in the blast radius.” Silver put a shield up around Demo.

I brought my front hooves down and rolled. The pursuing slide had me twenty feet closer to the outpost. I panted for a while to regain what breath I could.

Harmony stopped next to me. “Now we wait. Hopefully we won’t need to go in and shoot them.”

“Yeah.” I panted a few times. “Hopefully… Hopefully the egg gets them.”

“You really shouldn’t push yourself that hard. Before your accident I might have been able to see you running like that. Now I don’t know how well you’re going to be able to push like that.” Harmony nuzzled me.

I knew she was right. She was a nurse after all. That part of her special talent I understood but the other part I wasn’t sure about. Her cutie mark featured the big medical plus along with a syringe filled with black liquid. So what did that syringe represent? Was it her affinity to kill those that stood against her?

I had no more time to think as Silver came back on the radio. “You two are out of the blast radius. Demo drop that bomb and let’s kill these buckers.”

Thirty seconds or so of silence followed before the blast happened. In just a few seconds the sky light up a bright yellow color and the mushroom cloud formed.

I turned my mic on. “What’s it look like inside that outpost?”

“Too early to tell, but I don’t think they survived that.” Silver’s voice was strained.

Silver’s POV

I waited for that balefire blast to die down before looking back at that base. “Dammit that egg is more powerful than I thought.”

“It’s a balefire egg. That’s actually less of a blast than I was expecting.” I could almost hear an evil laugh coming out of Demo’s mouth.

“You really are batshit insane aren’t you?” I squinted and took a quick look to where Demo was.

He hovered there in place an evil grin plastered across his face. “I just like to see shit explode.” The light from the explosion faded, as did that grin. “Nothing more.”

I looked down to the outpost below. Or what little actually remained of it.

I’d seen some pretty messed up shit in the wasteland before today, but this. This took the bucking cake. Bodies fused with the ground, suits of armor on the ground with goop coming out of them. Nothing down there was salvageable. Good thing too. I wasn’t gonna stick around much longer to look at this.

“Come on Silver.” Demo put a hoof on me. “They’re dead and our job is done. Let’s go home.”

I flew a few feet away as I pulled out the radio. “The blast worked you two. No need to come in and clean this place up. Start your walk home. We’ll be by to pick you up in a few minutes if you’d like.”

Demo and Onyx were whispering behind me. “Good going Demo. I think you scared the piss out of Silver. I wouldn’t blame him for being a little jumpy around you after that display.”

Demo answered back quick. “I had a job to do. So I might have gotten a little out of control but it’s alright. Nopony got hurt that didn’t have to get hurt.”

“Yes, but what happens if you lose control again? I saw what little remained of that town after you hit it. I’m just saying be a little bit more careful. We don’t want a shitstorm of explosives rolling around on the loose. Especially not one that doesn’t know when to stop.” Onyx flew by me.

“Hey um.. Silver?” Demo hovered next to me. “Sorry about all of this. I have a tendency to go a little overboard when it comes to things like this.”

I thought for a few seconds before putting a hoof to his shoulder. “You do what you do for those you care about. I don’t blame you for that. I encourage you to embrace your ability to do that. I had to make the decision long ago whether or not I would let the side of me that was like that control my actions. And here we are today, living in a world that is the product of my decision.”

Demo gave me a weird look as if he only understood a few words of that. “Thanks for the advice Silver. Are we cool?”

I nodded. “Yeah. I’m not gonna hold that against you. It was a beautiful display of explosives after all.”

Demo smiled and we started back towards home.

Rose’s POV

“Good evening my fellow wasteland dwellers. I’ve taken over this radio station to inform all of you about the Enclave. Now I realize some of you will be against this change in your lives. Ponies always are when we take control of an area. But please note that this is for the betterment of the wasteland. Give in and accept us as your new leaders.” The voice stopped.

“Are you bucking serious?! What is this bullshit?!” I slammed my hooves down causing the radio to jump.

Stone changed the channel.

“Listen up you little shits. This is the commanding officer of this detachment of Enclave soldiers. You will do as we say or your hide will be hanging from a tree. I know you assholes are going to try and resist our takeover. Make it easy on all of us and don’t force the Enclave’s hooves. We will kill you if you so much as look at us the wrong way.”

I changed the channel again.

“Sorry for the nerve of that crass moron. We are not looking to fight or kill any of you that will simply lay down your guns and join up with a cause more worthwhile than whatever it is you do now. I implore you to join the Enclave today so that the future may once again be bright for all of us.”

I slammed a hoof into the radio sending it to the floor a pile of scraps. “I don’t bucking think so.” I fell backwards into my chair.

Stone was immediately at my side. “Are you alright?”

I brushed him away. “Yeah I’m fine. Just overdid it a little bit.” I took a deep breath. “Give me a minute.”

Silver and the others opened up the door and trotted in. “Honey what happened here?”

“The Enclave is broadcasting on all of the radio stations we get around here. Those bastards are threatening or way of life and I’m pissed.” I got back to my hooves.

“Yeah we heard.” Midnight trotted over.

“What of the soldiers I sent you to kill? I hope you have come back having killed every last one of them.” I was fuming.

“They’ll prove to be no problem anymore. Unless you want to try and scrape them off the ground. Then that might actually be a problem.” Demo tossed the detonator on the table. “Keep this thing hid away. I won’t need it for a long time.”

I opened up a safe below my desk. “Are you sure you aren’t going to need it?”

Demo nodded. “Keep that thing out of my hooves.” With that he left.

“Anypony want to inform me what the buck that was all about?” I shut the safe.

“I’ll put it very simply. What I saw because of Demo scarred me.” Silver shuddered. “Bodies melding with the ground and the smell of their corpses burning because of that blast.”

“They’re all dead Rose. Demo dealt with them swiftly and we should be watching our backs. Something like that couldn’t have gone unnoticed.” Harmony trotted up next to Midnight.

“Yeah about that.” Midnight slid her helmet off. “Aurora turn on the radio and play it loud.”

The radio on Midnight’s Pipbuck sparked to life. “And to those jackasses who thought it would be a good idea to destroy one of our outposts and kill all of those soldiers. You are dead. I have all the time in the world to find out who you are and where you live. When I do it’s not going to be a pretty sight. I’ll kill every last pony in your settlement except for you and then I’ll torture you for years. And when I think you’ve had enough I’ll send you out into a different part of the wasteland to die.”

“Shut up you moron. We are not here on the goddesses damned warpath. We are here to create a new order. A place where all who follow us might have a chance to live a proper life rebuilding what was once our great nation. Now get out of my sight before I have you dishonorably discharged.”

“Midnight turn the radio off. I’ve heard enough.” I spun away from the group.

“What’s the plan now?” I hated hearing Silver’s worried voice.

“We do what we can to make sure they don’t find out it was us. If any of them come knocking we’ll kill them.” I turned around to face them. “What else are we supposed to do? We’ve pissed off one of the most highly armed groups in the wasteland.”

“I’ve got an idea.” Harmony stepped forward. “I know a group who hates the Enclave. They’ve had a feud since this all began. I just need to send them a message and we’ll have some new soldiers.”

“You don’t mean?”

“Yes I do Midnight. This is the one time we might be able to call upon them to help us to survive something. They don’t like us but they hate the Enclave more.”

“Who are you two talking about?” Silver cast me a glance.

“We need to enlist the Brotherhood. They’ve got better guns and armor than we do. Along with a burning passion to burn the Enclave to the ground. I think that’s our best option here.” Harmony projected a virtual map.

“The outcasts we know live a good distance away from here. We’ll have to be on high alert until they get here.” Midnight looked at the map.

“Aurora send the message. Tell them to get here as soon as possible. That is a direct order from me.” Harmony plotted a line on the map.

“Transmitting message and shortest possible route. Now we wait for a response.” Aurora flickered.

“How long should their response take?” Silver took a seat next to me.

“With any luck they will respond within the next few minutes. No longer than a week for a response.” Aurora flickered away.

“Keep an eye out for the response. Let’s hope it isn’t a week before they respond. In the meantime we’ve got little else to do. So keep on your guard and be ready for action.” I waved Midnight and Harmony away.

“Thank you. We’ll check back with you when we get word from the outcasts.” Midnight pushed the door open and took Harmony home.

“Is there something you want to talk about?” Silver put a hoof on my chair.

“I have quite a few things on my mind that I need somepony to talk with about.” I sighed.

“I’m here for you.” That smile was adorable.

“Most of my concerns right now aren’t the Enclave. Midnight and Harmony are strong mares willing to do almost anything for this town. I have faith that they’ll come through if we need them. What I’m worried about is our foal.” I paused for a second to compose myself. “I want our foal to have a decent upbringing away from the dangers of the wasteland.”

“That’s going to be difficult but I’m sure we could figure something out.” I knew he was just as worried. Maybe even more so.

“Well I’ve thought of one solution. You may not like it but it might be best for our foal.” I took a deep breath.

“What are you suggesting?” He looked deep into my eyes.

“I’m suggesting we get Derpy to help us out. Maybe take you and the foal away from this world and to somewhere you’ll be safe.” I waited for Silver’s anger to show it’s ugly head.

Instead of anger he responded calmly. “I’m not partial to the idea. I don’t want to abandon my friends if I have the choice. I think they need me here to help fight. But if that is what would be best for the future of our foal then I can’t argue. I only want what’s best for you and the foal. So I think if we follow through with this plan you should be the one to go. Derpy’ll make sure you have a safe haven to raise the foal and when the time comes maybe move back here.”

“We still have time to figure things out before I give birth. A few months time should be enough to figure out what we want to do.” I kissed him. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” Silver picked me up with his magic. “Now come with me. You need some rest.”

Devastation

Years passed with us doing secret special missions. In that time I learned there were always a few things that were certain no matter what we were doing during a mission.

Once shit went wrong there was nothing to do about it other than just roll with it.

Two Freedom gets drunk off her plot every time we finish a mission. Mare gets crazy after a few drinks. You’d swear she was the goddess of lusty looks and lewd noises.

Three Spitfire was always going to be a huge bitch to me no matter what the buck I did.

“What are you doing Sergeant Thunder?” Of course she was behind me as I made this damn list.

“Making a list of things that happen no matter what. You’ve earned yourself a spot on the list. And before you raise your hoof to strike me I’d like you to know I outrank your ass.” I smiled smugly.

“I don’t believe it. What rank are you?” She snarled at me.

“I just got promoted to the general of the entire army. Now buck off before I have you cleaning the latrines with nothing but your tongue for the next month.” My world started to shake.

“Wake up Sergeant Thunder. You’re getting deployed.” Crimson Skull was hovering over me.

I jumped to my hooves and into my fatigues. “Yes sir. Where are we headed this time?”

“The last stronghold they have before we reach the heart of their military operations. A heavily armed outpost with enough guns to level Equestria. The rest of your squad had already been briefed. Take this and read over you orders.” He hoofed me a packet. “Dismissed.”

I took the packet and trotted out the door. A carrier and my squad were waiting for me. “Morning Sergeant.”

“Morning Balefire. Looks like this might be our last mission together. If all goes well we’ll have a clear shot at the heart of the boars.” I stepped aboard.

Balefire nodded at me.

“Let’s hit ‘em hard and leave ‘em spinning. No mercy, none live, and we end this war before anything happens.” I started reading over the orders. “We’re armed with what now?”

“Twelve balefire eggs. Enough of a blast to level a large city. Might as well be what we’re destroying.” Balefire looked over the plans. “Strategically placed eggs will leave the boars nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. It’ll also blow a hole in their defenses and allow our soldiers to flood in and overwhelm those that remain.”

“It’s an ambitious plan. More ambitious than we’ve ever tackled before.” I didn’t like putting all of our eggs in one basket. “We’ll get the job done. For one reason and one reason alone. I’ve never seen a group of soldiers more well equipped nor better trained than the soldiers with me now. Now ready yourselves. We’ve got a long mission ahead of us.”

Rose sat opposite me looking out a window longingly. She had been acting strange lately but any time I asked her about what was wrong she said nothing was amiss. It bothered me seeing her like this. She looked so vulnerable.

Snap out of you, dumbass. Rose is the strongest mare you’ve ever met. She’ll be able to handle herself. But keep an eye on her just incase.

I loved her. I had loved her from the first time we had met. That day was still fresh in my mind even though years had passed. Back then I didn’t think we’d come so far together. I’m glad we did though. Maybe I should ask her to marry me after we get done with this war. She’d be so happy.

But what if I buck things up? What if the reason she’s acting different is because she doesn’t love me anymore? Oh goddesses help me.

Alright just calm down. She still loves you. You’re just tired of all this stupid military bullshit. One last mission and we’ll retire from this. That’ll be nice. We’ve got enough assets in this world to lean back on and live the rest of our lives in peace.

But is that enough for her? She deserves so much. More than I could ever hope to give her. I’ll give it my all for her.

I looked out the nearest window. Daylight was slowly fading as the sun started to set. “How long have we been flying?”

“Most of the day. You stared at the plans pretty intensely. We didn’t want to disturb you.” Balefire was staring out a window of his own.

Shit. Most of the day? Well alright I guess. The cover of darkness gives us a much easier time sneaking into their outpost.

“How long until we land?” I called up to the two pegasi out front.

“When the sun sets we’ll land for the night. The outpost is within walking distance from where we’re going to rest.” The stallion spoke effortlessly as if he wasn’t really carrying us.

The rest of my squad was sleeping. Rose looked extra peaceful. “Balefire why aren’t you sleeping?”

“I’m keeping watch. I know how much sleep they’ve all had lately. It’s not very much. They needed to sleep more than I did. And besides. I hate to miss such a beautiful sunset from this altitude.” Balefire seemed like a hopeless romantic.

“We’ve found a good place to land for the night. Once we hit the ground your squad can depart. We’ll stay on the ground for a few minutes but after that you’re on your own.” The chatter went silent and all was quiet again.

“Everypony on their hooves. As soon as we land we are to march on the boar outpost. The cover of darkness will be our ally when we plant these charges. As soon as the charges are planted we will retreat to a safe distance and burn this place to the ground.” I opened the door. “Understood?”

“Yes Sergeant.” Everypony jumped up and readied themselves for landing.

“Steamroller.” Balefire waved his hoof to the door. “After you.”

They jumped out. A second passed before I heard their suits hit the ground.

I grabbed Rose. “We’ll see you on the ground Freedom.” With that I leapt out.

“Sure thing Asshole.” Freedom waved a hoof at me as she waited for the carrier to touch down.

I set Rose down a few feet from Balefire. “We know what the compound looks like and we know where to plant the charges. We just need you three to keep a watch over us.”

“Sure thing. Now stealth in there and get those charges planted.” I touched down and waited for Freedom to trot over.

“You’re a dick. You know that right? Biggest asshole I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with.” Freedom stopped just out of reach.

“It has been a fun run hasn’t it?” I shook my head. “Don’t get distracted we’ve still got a job to do.”

“Then what? What will you two do then?” Freedom took a seat and poured herself some whiskey.

“Might settle down somewhere. Live off of what we’ve got and hopefully not have to work ever again.” I took a seat on the ground across from Freedom. “Pour me a shot of that would ya.”

“I thought you didn’t like to drink.” Freedom smiled.

“Yeah yeah. Just hurry up and give me the shot already.” I took the shot glass she had.

“To our final mission.” Freedom lifted her glass. “May it be short, quick, and may nothing go wrong.”

“I can drink to that.” Tink. “Cheers.”

“So what now? We just wait for them to plant the balefire eggs?” Freedom set aside her whiskey.

“That’s what the plan is. We destroy this outpost with the balefire eggs and clear a path for the rest of our army to march in and destroy what little remains of the enemy.” I looked at the night sky. “We’re just a sort of insurance. If something happens to Balefire and Steamroller we’re here to finish the job.”

“Nothing will happen to those two. Together they’re practically unstoppable.” Freedom took her own look into the night sky.

“I think that’s only because of circumstance. Very few of the soldiers we’ve had to fight so far were very well trained. All they had going for them was numbers.” I laughed. “But numbers do have a quality of their own. It doesn’t matter if you’ve got the best soldiers ever. Eventually a million soldiers would kill even the best.”

“We’ll make it out of here alive. We’ve faced riskier situations before.” Freedom chuckled.

“Planting charges one and two.”

“Well that was quick.” I suppressed a laugh. “They do get the job done quick.”

“They aren’t the only stallions who get done quick.” The alcohol was already starting to kick in with her.

“Don’t get too drunk on me. I don’t want to have to carry your ass back home.” I took the whiskey away from Freedom.

“You’re no fun.” Freedom pouted at me.

“Well neither is dealing with your drunk plot. And I’d prefer you stay at least a little alert here. As much as I trust Balefire and Steamroller to get the job done they could need us to help with something.” I thought for a few seconds. “Balefire status.”

“There are a shit ton of boars in this place. With a little bit of luck we might not be detected. Keep an eye out though. If we get spotted I’ll shoot up a signal flare.” Silence. Minutes ticked away before Balefire’s voice returned. “Sorry about that. Stupid boar poking his snout where it didn’t belong.”

“Most of the charges have been set sir. Only two left and those will be on the far side of the outpost.” I heard a small click as Steamroller placed one of the bombs.

“I’ll let command know.” I changed channels. “Command do you copy?”

“We read you loud and clear Sergeant.”

“Setting the last few charges. Are our soldiers ready for this?” I looked to the heavily armed outpost.

“Recon says they outposts are the only heavily armored target. After this is destroyed our army has a clear shot at the heart of the enemy.”

“As ready as they can be then. You’ll know when we blow the charges.” I waited for their final transmission.

“Roger that. Command out.”

“Steamroller, Balefire report.” The sun was starting to rise.

“Last charge has been planted. We’re starting our retreat out of the outpost.”

Their transmission was interrupted by gunfire. “What the buck was that?”

“Son of a bitch. The boars know we’re here. Steamroller ready up that detonator. We might have to blow this bitch before we get to a safe distance.”

“Working on it. Just get a little farther out before I do this.”

“Buck it. Blow the bucking charges now. I’m getting overrun and without those charges detonating I won’t survive.”

“Oh buck.”

All twelve balefire eggs detonated simultaneously creating a blinding light. I threw a shield over us.

Oh goddesses this hurt. We were out of the deadly zone but that didn’t mean the shockwave didn’t have effects out this far. I couldn’t keeping going much longer.

My magic had been strained too far and I blacked out.

I wasn’t out for very long. I heard the rumble of the explosion continue on it’s way.

I opened my eyes and looked around.

Freedom was sitting on the ground next to me. She hadn’t sustained any serious injuries.

“Balefire, Steamroller report.” Nopony responded.

Freedom spoke up. “Steamroller made his way back here. He’s dealing with a few burns.

In the distance I saw a stallion clad in armor limping back towards us. The closer I looked the more I saw. The stallion’s armor was still mostly intact minus the left side of his helmet.

“Balefire?” Steamroller galloped over and helped Balefire back.

Balefire was in bad shape. He had taken a shit ton of damage from that explosion. The left side of his mask was destroyed and his entire face was burned.

“Buck man. That hurt like a bitch. I think my armor might have fused with parts of my body.” He was on the verge of blacking out.

“Get him back to our medics.” I looked around. “Where’s Rose?”

“Sergeant. I saw the boars dragging her away. They took…. They took her deeper into their defenses.” Balefire breathed heavily.

“Did they kill her?” My anger was building.

“I wouldn’t hold out hope for her.” Balefire hoofed me a torn and bloody portion of her uniform.

I had my sword drawn. That little scrap of fabric changed everything. I stabbed my sword deep into the earth and held that little chunk of cloth.

What was this feeling. I should have been pissed off at what the boars had just done. But I wasn’t. I felt numb. Like nothing really mattered anymore. Without Rose I had nothing keeping me here in this world. I had no reason to live without her.

I yanked my sword out of the ground. The air around me darkened. Not like it normally did with my aura. It was near pitch black near my aura.

“What are you going to do?” Freedom put a hoof on me.

“You can all retreat now.”

“What?”

“You heard me. Call off the assault. I’m going it alone and I’m not coming back.”

“Sergeant you’re not suggesting.”

“I’m going to kill every last mother bucking boar I can before I get killed. I’m not letting them kill Rose and get away with it.”

“What did he just say.”

“I told you and the army to go home. This is something I have to do alone.”

“We’re not letting you do that Thunder. This is our one shot at this. We can’t risk a loss.”

“Fine Then this is for every last stallion and mare that can hear me. Charge forward and leave none of them alive. And don’t get in my way.”

I jumped into the air charging straight through the destroyed enemy outpost.

The warcry sounded behind me. Not one soldier in our army hesitated to follow me. I was who they were going to follow to tartarus. And I’d be damned if I was going to go down without a fight.

The outpost went by quickly. I saw what little forces remained alive retreating.

“You assholes will go no further.” The Knight’s bane sliced through all of them without leaving my side.

The normal vibrant white blade was glowing a deep black. Charged with every last bit of rage I could muster.

The army stopped behind me and stared in awe.

“What are you idiots waiting for?” I pointed the Knight’s bane to the final area. “Kill them all.”

I surged forward once again. The town they were using for cover was closing fast.

Fire’s were light in the city. None of them looked like they were intentionally placed.

As we approached the city I could see a mare running through the streets. She wore scraps of our colors. “Rose?”

I dive bombed into the city. A group of boars had the mare pinned down.

I slammed into the ground sending debris into the air around me. I growled deeply.

The boars around me dropped their weapons from fear. The darkness cut them to bits sending blood everywhere.

The mare was crouched behind a rock trying to avoid me.

I threw the debris out of my way. I looked down at the red mare at my hooves. “Rose.”

The dark light faded from my horn.

She looked up at me. “Silver?”

I hugged Rose. “It’s ok. I’m here for you.” I looked into her eyes. “Are you ok?”

“I’m fine. Just happy to be back with you.” Rose kissed me.

I showed her the scrap of her uniform. “I came here on a suicide mission to avenge you. I thought they had killed you.”

The city erupted in gunfire. “Sounds like the rest of our troops our here.”

“I believe they would have followed me to tartarus. Now let’s get you out of here.” I picked Rose up and moved her to the rear lines.

“Sergeant what are you doing?”

“I’m making sure my squad gets out of this alive. I killed off quite a few boars and led the entire army to their final stand.” I continued back to base.

The flight back to base was a long one. We finally touched down right before the sun was going to set.

“I’m going to go to the infirmary for a few minutes and see if I sustained any injuries from slamming into the ground.” I smiled and trotted away.

“After that I need to talk to you.” Rose waved me away.

“I’ll be right back.” I limped my way over to the infirmary.

Nopony was in here except for a few of the doctors. “Sergeant what are you doing back so soon?”

“I need you to tell me if my legs are broken or sprained.” I sat down on one of the tables.

The doctor’s looked me over. Their poking and prodding hurt like a bitch.

“Well you have a few fractured bones. Drink this and you’ll be better.” The doctor hoofed me a healing potion.

I chugged the potion in one go. “So how long do I have to wait?”

“A few hours should suffice to mend the fractures. I would recommend not returning to the battlefield.”

I shrugged. “I guess I’ll just take a nap here for a while.”

“Silver wake up.” General Derpy was shaking me.

“What? Is something wrong?” I sat bolt upright.

“Well I came to inform you that the war is over. The boars were defeated. The second thing I came to tell you is that Rose wants you back home immediately.” Derpy moved away from me.

A million thoughts raced through my mind. I was happy that we had defeated the boars and now no more ponies would have to die for a stupid cause. But I wondered why Rose needed me back home so suddenly. She had never required me to be back home in any sort of rush.

“Get your ass up we need to go now!!!” Derpy dragged me to my hooves and towards the door back home.

Amethyst was waiting for me at our little home. “There you are Silver. Where have you been?”

“I was at the infirmary getting fixed up. But I can’t stay to talk Rose needs me to go see her back home.” I was halfway through the door trying to stop Derpy.

“Sorry Amethyst this is of the utmost importance. I’ll be back to talk to you after I take Silver back to his world.” She pulled me inside of the pocket world.

“Hi Lyra and Bon Bon.” I waved as Derpy pulled me through the other side.

I hadn’t been home in a good few months. Everything looked more or less like it should. A few things were not where they belonged and the walls had visible bullet holes in them.

Rose was sitting at the table waiting for me.

“Go talk to her.” Derpy pushed me.

I trotted over to the table and took a seat. “Hi Rose. I’ve got good news from the other world. We won the war and it’s over. I can finally come back home and relax and not worry you.”

Tears were welling in Rose’s eyes. She moved her mouth like she was mouthing words to me.

After a minute or two of her mouthing words at me I finally heard something. A beautiful if not almost angelic voice speaking to me.

“Silver I’m sorry I waited so long to actually speak to you. I had hoped to talk to you for the first time when I figured you were ready to move off into the real world and be able to take care of yourself. I guess in a way I am.” Rose suppressed a laugh.

It was an amazing thing hearing her speak. I would have expected a voice like her’s to be on the radio singing beautifully to please the ponies of the wasteland.

My mouth hung open.

Rose closed it for me and continued to talk. “Like I said I wanted to talk to you in a few months when I let you leave here and become your own stallion. But I have to let you go earlier than I planned. But I need you to do something for me.”

I nodded my head. “Anything.”

Rose smiled very warmly at me but the smile didn’t last very long. “I’d like you to know that I loved helping you to grow up. When I found you I wasn’t sure I could ever bear to lose you. But seeing you mature and grow up to be the amazing stallion you are now. These have been the best years of my life helping you to learn about the world. Now I’ve seen you get a marefriend and I believe you’re ready to start a family of your own.”

I nodded. “I love Amethyst. I think I’m ready.”

“I’m good to hear that. Now.” Rose turned grim. “I need to ask you to do something very important for me.”

“What do you need?” I scooched closer.

“We’ve both seen and know what happens to ghouls who live out in the wasteland for long enough. You know they go feral and start hurting other ponies. I’ve lived a long life as a ghoul and it’s been the happiest life I could have hoped to live. But I can feel myself slipping. My thought’s are sometimes not my own and I’ve almost hurt some of the ponies I care about.” Rose grabbed a little box.

I had tears in the corners of my eyes. “You can’t mean?”

“Unfortunately Silver I do.” Rose set a pistol between us. “I love you but I need you to make sure that I can’t ever hurt anypony that I cared about. That’s not who I am and we both know it.”

“I..” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I’m not sure I can.”

Rose slid the pistol over. “Please Silver honor my final wish. I know it might be hard to do so but I need you to promise me you will put me down before I can kill anypony.” She started to cry.

“Rose. I love you. I.. I can’t do it. I love you too much to shoot you.” I slid the pistol back her way.

Rose slid the gun back. “Silver you have to do it. I’m sorry to make you do this but it needs to be done. Don’t let me be one of those things. I don’t want you to remember me as a terrible creature. When you remember me I want you to remember the good times and one simple thing.” She kissed my forehead. “I love you.”

I held the gun down on the table not wanting to move. This was almost too much for me to deal with.

Rose slumped back in her chair. Her breathing became erratic and she uttered slow guttural coughs.

I picked up the gun.

Rose sat up and looked at me. Her eye’s had changed from that usual gentle brown to near blood red. She bared her teeth at me.

I hated seeing her like this. She looked so weak and fragile. She wasn’t anything like herself. She slowly started to move my way.

I pointed the gun towards her head. I couldn’t see anything through the tears streaming down my face. I wasn’t even sure that the gun was on point. But I knew I had to do this for her. I had to honor her final wish and not let her harm anypony.

“I’m sorry.” I pulled the trigger.

We both fell to the ground. Me in tears and her no longer in the world of the living.

I sat there and cried.

Goddesses

“Midnight let me see the Revolving Sun.”

I unholstered the gun and let Celestia look at it. “Here.”

Celestia looked the revolver over for a few seconds before opening the cylinder. “It’s a shameful condition this gun is in.”

I cocked my head to the side. “What do you mean shameful condition? I’ve barely had to use the Revolving Sun.”

Celestia shook her head at me. “It’s not the use that the gun has seen. It is in near pristine condition. What I mean is you don’t have it set up as I would have.”

“What would you change about it?” I was quite curious as to what was wrong with that faithful revolver.

“Well for one I would have a seven shot cylinder not a six. The gun was built to have a large cylinder. The second thing is you have a snub nose barrel on this.” Celestia started to dismantle the gun. “Better for close range and also for making a bigger bang.”

“Do you have the parts to upgrade it?” I watched with a little worry as she continued to tear the revolver apart.

“I do have them. Also it’s missing the gold inlay. And lastly I would have it look less like it does. No mouth grip? Seriously who got ahold of this thing? What happens when you can’t use magic? Then how are you supposed to fire this thing?” Celestia shook her head as she started to reassemble the gun. “It doesn’t matter. I don’t have a grip ready for this gun. I suppose it will go on as a unicorn or alicorn only gun.”

“So what creature was it designed for. If not truly for us?” I reached into my saddlebags looking for something I had found long ago.

“Creatures we rarely talk about. There name has been lost to time. Even from what I know I simply can’t recall.” Celestia fell silent as I pulled out the little bobblehead. “Yes. Those are the creatures this gun was really designed for. Where did you find this? Did somepony give it to you?”

I shook my head causing the bobblehead to shake as well. “No I found it after leaving the stable. I’ve been curious as to what type of creature they are.”

“Friends. Odd creatures they are. They mean us no harm. But you should stop pursuing knowledge of them.” Luna trotted over and inspected what I held.

“Why?”

“They are an evil race of creatures. While they mean us no harm they can cause it without trying. It is just in their nature to be terrible creatures.”

That was weird and creepy. “Alright then.”

“So what’s next for us?” Harmony slid out of her chair.

“Well as we’ve said before we need you to do what you do best in order to restore order to this land. If all goes well you’ll have happy lives. If not…. Let’s not discuss the more morbid side.”

I nodded. Yeah that would be nice if you didn’t treat us like we were just nothing. We do know what we’re doing after all.

Celestia tuned our radio into a channel of chatter. “Listen.”

“Have you found where it is they call home?”

“Yes sir.”

“Well out with it soldier. I don’t have the whole day to sit here with my dick in my hooves.”

“They inhabit New Appleloosa. And there’s more sir.”

“More. Well it must be my birthday. Except you keep stopping in the middle of telling me important information!!! So I’ll ask you one more time, what else do I need to know shit for brains?”

“The high value targets Celestia and Luna and residing inside the town.”

“The princesses who have been causing so much trouble are hiding out in that city? How did you get this information?”

“I went on a recon mission sir. I saw them land before quickly disappearing into a building.”

“Are you sure it was them?”

“Yes sir.” The stallion’s voice was shaky.

“What was that? I couldn’t hear you over the sound of you pissing yourself! Say it again soldier.”

“Yes Sir!”

“Good. Now get out of my sight.”

“Yes sir.”

“Oh holy buck. They know where we are.” I looked at the princesses.

“Indeed they do. What they don’t know is how well armed this place is.” Celestia looked over to Onyx and Demo. “Does that plasma cannon on the roof of town hall work?”

Demo nodded. “Onyx helped to set it up. I’m certain that it will fire.”

“I did what I could to make sure it works. We never did test fire it though.”

An explosion shook the ground. “Well here’s to hoping it fires. Get out there and look to the skies.”

I threw the front door open and jumped outside. “Holy buck!”

A massive airship was hovering over us. It was a mixture of what looked like metal and clouds. One large gun pointed directly at the center of town.

“Onyx get up to that gun and work your magic.” I saw him bolt forward towards the turret.

“If you surrender now and give us the princesses you will not be harmed. As long as we get what we want none of the ponies of this town have to die.”

The Revolving Sun flew out of it’s holster at my side. “I’ll die before I let them take me.”

“Well if it isn’t the mare who has caused me trouble in the past. So Celestia.. How are you these days? Still chasing the ghost of a dead mare?”

“I’ll kill him.”

“Well come on. Speak up. I don’t have time to waste here. After all, if you’d just give yourself up and fly up here I could tell you where she is.” Everything went quiet. “And before you ask, no, we haven’t been torturing her. All though it would be fun to hear her scream for you. Beg for us to return her back to you.”

The Revolving sun unleashed a single shot. One of the special bullets with a sun on the side. For the first time I noticed that after firing the air around the barrel filled with the bright white and yellow of Celestia’s cutie mark.

The shot found its mark on the ship. The bullet sunk deep into the cloudy portion. The air inside started to glow as Celestia charged the bullet inside the ship. “Onyx fire now!!”

The plasma cannon fired a single slow shot towards the ship. It seemed painfully slow. Like I myself could reach the ship before that shot hit.

I was mistaken and awed as the shot hit quickly. The cloud portion of the ship faded away in a bright flash of light. The metal part of the ship was left charred and black. “Retreat you morons.”

The airship was still able to keep in the sky even after a shot like that. Holy shit what did they make these things out of. “What the buck was that?”

“The sun bullets when combined with a large shot of plasma will create a powerful explosion similar to that of a balefire egg exploding. Any sort of water in a close proximity is vaporized. I knew that would work well against that specific ship.”

“Ok. But how?” I watched as the ship slowly crawled away.

“That one has been chasing us for the past couple of years. I needed my gun to stand any chance against it. But now that they’re gone we can discuss what we will do next.” Celestia slid the revolver back into my holster.

I had a deeper appreciation for these mares after seeing that. Part of me believed they were just simple and ordinary. Not unlike the rest of us. But after a display of such power. I couldn’t help but feel honored to be working with them.

“Don’t bother firing again Onyx. That ship won’t be damaged any further by that cannon.” Celestia trotted back inside.

Onyx looked dumbfounded at us.

I couldn’t hear what he said but I guessed something along the lines of ‘Is she bucking serious?’ He probably was right. That was a plasma cannon he was shooting.

I stormed after Celestia. “So why is it we’re just letting them escape? We could have killed them right then and there. We could have made it easier on ourselves when we go to war with them.”

Celestia held up a hoof to silence me. “We let them go because we need to know more about where they call home.” She turned to face me. “You see Midnight I had a plan. I knew they would be coming for us. Along with the bullet from your gun I fired a tracking beacon at their ship.”

“It’s active sister. Soon we’ll know where they call home.”

“As was the plan all along. I did enough damage to their ship to scare them away. In doing so they’ll be heading back to home base for repairs.” Celestia continued to the basement.

I hated waiting. Especially when we could have flown up there and killed off no doubt a platoon or more of soldiers going home to tell command about us. Now we weren’t safe here. Not a single damned pony here would live if those assholes came back in force.

Harmony tapped on my flanks. “Relax. I know what it is you’re going through. I would have preferred to kill off those Enclave soldiers before they could leave. But the princesses have a plan for us. They’ve seen more in their last hundred years then we could in our entire lives.”

I hated the fact that she was right. I hated that I knew the princesses actually were right about what we should do. Maybe they would send us in to destroy the whole Enclave fleet in one blow. “Alright. I’ll try to stay calm. No promises though.”

I followed the princesses into the basement.

They had taken their seats and were waiting for us to sit down. “Now I know what you’re thinking. I would have thought the same thing myself if a mare just told me to not slaughter the group that was probably going to kill me.”

I scoffed. “Yeah, yeah. Get to the bucking point.”

Celestia ignored my harsh tone and comment and continued on. “When the time comes we’ll send Silver, Onyx, and Demo to the Enclave’s outpost and have them level every single ship they have.”

“So what are we going to do in the meantime?” I flopped down onto the couch.

“In the meantime we make a name for ourselves. Midnight and Harmony to be specific. The wasteland looks up to you two. They’ve heard of your work and have taken quite the liking to you. If we do enough good out there…” I interrupted.

“We might be able to raise an army for our cause. Not just a few soldiers of fortune either. Ponies who can truly help us to win.”

Celestia nodded. “Very astute Midnight.”

“And we know exactly who to talk to.” Harmony looked into my eyes.

“PON3 would be able to get our message out into the wasteland. Maybe it’s time for one last trip back there.” I sat up.

“Do you have your message prepared for the wasteland?” Celestia charged her horn.

I looked at Harmony and nodded. “I think we’re about as ready as we can be to deliver our message to the ponies of the wastes.”

Celestia smiled deviously. “Then go forth and do what must be done.”

That light was blinding as Celestia unleashed the stored energy in her horn. We swirled around for a few minutes before we finally came to a stop sitting on a cold stone floor.

I looked around. We were on the roof of a building, and judging by how far I could see a tall one. “Did she just teleport us to Tenpony?”

The door to down below burst open and a few armed guards galloped out. “What the buck?”

A blue shield went up around us. Silver must have gotten teleported here with Harmony and myself.

I grabbed ahold of Harmony’s front hoof. “Come on.” I pulled both of us up.

Harmony looked herself over before finally speaking. “That was an odd feeling. For a second I thought I had a dick. I don’t know how that happened.”

“Are you two quite done? If so could you tell me what you want from me this time?” PON3 was standing in the doorway staring at us.

“We need your help to deliver a message to the wasteland.” Silver pulled us towards PON3.

“Well delivering a message to the ponies out there is what I do best. So what do you need to tell them?”

“We need to call upon them to go to war. Every single radio and station we can reach.”

PON3 looked at us like we were mad. “Every single radio and channel huh? That’s doable. It’ll take some time to configure the network to transmit that much and to not draw attention to this tower.”

“You wanted an interview and we’re here to provide.” I eyed the guards over.

“Guards you’re dismissed for now. I know what these ponies are capable of. I’m not worried about what they’ll do.” PON3 turned around and trotted downstairs.

We galloped to catch up so we wouldn’t get lost in the labyrinth that was the dark area between the presidential suites and the roof.

PON3 navigated the hallways quickly as I assumed he had done many times before. After less than a minutes time we reached a large door. “This is where the magic happens.”

I expected a glorious suite on the other side. An entire floor dedicated to one of the most influential and powerful ponies that lived in this wasteland.

My expectations were shattered by what I saw. While it was a luxurious room no doubt it wasn’t large like I expected. “It’s um….”

“I swear if you say what I think you’re going to I will smack you across the face.” PON3 wavered for a few seconds. “Now go take a seat over there while I get everything worked out the way I want it.”

We followed the stallion’s instructions and went and sat down on one of the few couches.

I sunk into the first couch I laid down on. Not one bed that I had ever laid in felt this damn good.

Harmony plopped down next to me. She didn’t sink nearly as far into the couch. “These are wonderful. I never would have expected anything to be this soft.”

Harmony was right. No furniture we had ever laid our hooves on had been this soft. Only a few things could match this sort of softness. And Harmony made up a myriad of my favorites.

I laid my head down and slowly shut my eyes. It had been a long time since I had last gotten a nap during the day. But now felt like the best and maybe last time I would get a nap.

Mom was sitting in a really comfy looking recliner waiting for me. “Midnight. I’ve been waiting for you.”

I trotted over and gave her a hug. “We’ve been busy doing what we must.”

“I can see that. Not only did you bring back the journal full you brought along a whole crate of memory orbs and a few other journals.” Mom pointed to the giant stack of items behind me.

“Yeah, we spent some time recording our memories for ponies in the wasteland to learn from our mistakes. I guess they’ll help you to be informed about what’s been happening with your little filly.”

Mom smiled and kissed my forehead. “She’s not my little filly anymore. She’s grown up and matured into a very kind and caring mare who’ll do great things out there. And that I’m sure of.”

I sat down in a chair right next to mom. It was nice to just sit there and be with her even if we didn’t talk. “Thanks mom.”

“I try my best for my daughter.”

“Hey mom?”

“Yes sweetheart?”

“What was dad like?”

Mom lost all expression in her face.

“I’m sorry I didn’t mean…”

Mom put a hoof to my mouth. “I know you didn’t mean to hurt me. You didn’t mean it when you left to find Onyx so I know you don’t mean it now. I just haven’t thought about your father in a very long time. I had to shift my attention away from him and to you so you could grow up the way you should have.”

I sat up and looked at mom expectantly.

“Your father was an interesting stallion. He wasn’t the most talkative pony in the stable but when he did talk he always had something of importance for you to hear. Every time that we talked he would be so open about himself and so willing to learn about me. It took no time at all for me to fall in love with him.”

“So he was a good stallion?”

Mom smiled. “He was an amazing stallion. When I told him I was pregnant with you he was ecstatic. He started preparations on making sure you had a good room and plenty of toys to group up with. He had planned so many fun things for you two to do together.”

I hung my head knowing. Knowing what she would say next.

“Don’t hang your head sweety. Your father loved you. He would have been there and always have been ready to help you to become a beautiful mare.”

“Have you..?” I let a few tears escape my eyes. “Have you met him? I mean here wherever we are?”

Mom shook her head solemnly but her smile never dimmed. “I haven’t seen him yet. But the way it’s going here I’m sure I’ll see him soon enough.”

“What?” I held back the tears. “What do you mean?”

“I’ve been reliving old memories. Memories of before you were born. With each one I feel closer to him than I have before. And I think one of your friends is helping me along.” Mom produced a little note.

It was addressed to me. “Midnight I know you’ve been coming here in your dreams to speak with your mom. And I know you would like to meet your father but I need some time to track him down. The place you are sitting in is larger than you could comprehend. But I’ve been having your mother remember him to act as a sort of beacon for him. I’ll make sure you see your father. And he’ll see you. Signed ~C”

“The princesses are important ponies to call friends. Celestia’s been helping me to remember who I was. Who I should be. And I’m almost there.” The world started to shake. “Seems like Harmony is trying to wake you. I’ll see you again soon enough.”

I wanted so desperately to stay with her there in that place forever. But I knew I was needed back by Harmony’s side.

“Come on Midnight wake up. We’ve got an interview in a few minutes. It’s time for us to deliver our message to the wasteland.” Harmony’s voice was quiet and soothing.

I sat up rubbing the sleep from my eyes. “Sorry about that. I was just dreaming of mom.”

“I know. It sounded important so I tried not to snoop on your conversation too much.” Harmony slid off the couch and began to trot towards a small door near the back of the room.

I followed close behind trying to stay on my hooves as my body began to wake up again.

“Now wastelanders I know it’s an odd time for me to be broadcasting. And I know it’s even weirder that I’m hitting you from every single channel I could get my hooves on to broadcast with. But I’ve got a couple of crazy mares and their one stallion army here in the studio for an interview. That’s right my little ponies I’ve got the two mares crazy enough to fight the raiders out there and win. The two mares that fought a changeling hive and won. Now for those of you who don’t know their names I let them introduce themselves.”

Harmony waved me into the room before speaking. “Hello to anypony out there that has heard of us. My name is Harmony and with me I have Midnight Mane. And we’ve been trying to make this wasteland the safest place we possibly can for all of you.”

I stepped up to the mic. “And now we’ve got something to ask of you. But first we’re going to let PON3 ask us a few questions that you might have about us.”

“Well I’ve heard rumor from a fair number of ponies that you two are not entirely ponies. I’ve gotten word you might have a few cybernetic enhancements.”

“I speak for both Midnight and myself when I say we are free of any such implants. We’re one hundred percent pony and that’s the way it will stay.”

“So you’re saying anypony with proper training can be a pony that can help?”

I jumped on this one. “With the right armor and guns anypony can make a difference in this wasteland. Good training comes into play to keep you in the best shape so you can do more for the wasteland and your friends in need.”

“One that I get a lot about you two is to ask if you’re committed to anypony. But before you speak I’d like to tell the good ponies to stop asking if they should even try to get with you. These two are a happily wed couple. Now my final question. What do you want from the ponies of the wasteland?”

Harmony and I were in sync. “What we want is for anypony who has the ability to to rise up and fight for this wasteland. We’ve got an incoming threat of Enclave soldiers who seek to destroy all that we have created. If you can help us to fight back we need you to help us fight. Because even if we are trained and skilled fighters there simply is too many Enclave soldiers for us to kill. But with your help we can stop them before they take over this area. We can stop the violent manners of the Enclave and any raider group that gets in the way. We just need you to help.”

“Well you heard that right folks. These two mares are trying their best to protect you all from the creepy crawly baddies out there. Now I’ve gotten to know these two very well. I’ve seen them taking on outposts that I would have thought impenetrable by even the Brotherhood. But they’ve done it. However they do have somepony else to help them out.”

“The alicorn stallion. A fighter skilled enough to level hundreds of enemies without taking a hit. A badass that walks with us.”

“So Silver would you mind saying a few words for our audience?”

“Well I don’t know much about everypony out there, but I do know one thing about every one of them.”

“And what would that be?”

“That they can make a difference. If they join together with us we can stop the Enclave in their tracks and free this wasteland of these dangerous and evil ponies.”

“Well my little ponies. You’ve just heard from some of the most dangerous ponies I have the honor of calling friends. And they need you to go to war. I know I’ll be doing what i can to help them out. And I’d like to call upon anypony who may have just stumbled upon this broadcast. Rise up and fight for a free wasteland. Fight for the world these two and all of us deserve. That is all for this very special interview. And now for some music.”

We trotted out of the radio room and back to the couches. “So do you think we got there attention?”

The ground started shaking below us. “Ummmmm?”

The door to this place burst open. A large crowd of ponies were looking at us. They looked delighted to see us. “We heard your message on the radio. We’re in.”

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

Author's Note

I think the upload schedule will be every other week for the time being. I've been quite busy with college and haven't had much time nor inspiration to write, but I promise I'll finish uploading this story just as soon as I've finished it.

A King

“Well folks it’s been quite the productive week for us hasn’t it? A couple of crazy mares and their one stallion army gave me my interview and gave a few of you a purpose. Now news has spread like wildfire of this recent surge of pony power running around. The Enclave are bound to catch on, so keep your gun at the ready and be sure to kill any of those bastards you see. The wasteland is better with them gone. That’s all for the news.”

I managed a small laugh. A productive week it had been. But they weren’t ready yet.

“Early morning training session?” Harmony trotted over to the window.

I nodded keeping my eyes pinned on the makeshift gun range below us. “If we’re going to win this war we’ll need them to be crack shots. But…..”

They were at the very least knowledgeable about the weapons they carried, but seeing as that shot had missed its target by a foot they still had a ways to go.

“They’ve got a lot of training to do.” Harmony looked closer at the field below. “Is that Silver down there?”

“Yeah. He’s trying to figure out that pistol he carries. From what little I’ve watched him shoot I know something’s wrong.” I gave Harmony a smile.

“He’s had trouble with guns ever since we were in the military.” Rose was sitting behind us eating an apple.

I jumped slightly. “Do you have any idea as to why?”

Rose shrugged. “He never received proper training with guns. He trained himself on the field to use his pistol. Always looked a bit off the way he shot it.”

Aurora flickered into existence. “It’s a possibility that he’s shooting with the wrong eye. I’ve known soldiers without training to shoot with the wrong eye for years before figuring it out.”

“That seems…. Oddly simple, but plausible.” Rose tossed her trash into the nearest garbage can. “I’ll go see if I can help him out.”

I stared out that window at the ponies training in the city. They needed a lot of training before I would even trust them to fight the Enclave. Much less win a war of this scale against them.

Harmony laid her tail over mine. “Give them time. All good soldiers need time to get acquainted with their weapons.”

That soft tone eased me a little. I was still not sure that this would work out for us. “I…”

Harmony gave me a concerned glance. I guess I had stepped before I had really started to speak. “Is something wrong?”

“I… I don’t know anymore..” I dropped to the floor. “I want to help them. I really do. But I would rather just lay down my weapons. I’ve seen too many horrible things in my life. I don’t want to fight anymore.” I sat there and let the tears flow.

Harmony sat down in front of me. Waiting for her moment to console me. “I know you don’t. I don’t want to fight anymore either. But they need us. Just a little while longer honey. I promise you. We’ll be finished with the fighting and be living for ourselves soon. You just need to stay with me. We’ll make it through this together.”

I kept crying. The words were what I needed to hear. Even if I wasn’t going to internalize them yet. I knew Harmony was always with me. She had always had my back. Even from the very beginning when we barely knew each other. She’d always been there for me. And I felt horrible for never returning the favor. I was always leaning on her for support. But I had never once been there for her when she was in need. “Why?”

“Why what?” Harmony looked into my eyes. The caring look of a mother.

“Why is it that you’re always here for me? But when you need me I’m not there for you.” The words hurts. They hurt worse than any gunshot ever did. Because it was true. I was never there for her.

Harmony swept me up into a hug. “You do more for me than you could ever realize. I’ve needed you everyday since we met. I just never let on.” I could feel the warmth as she started to cry. “I need you more than anything else in this world. I’d be lost without you.”

Silver’s POV

I fired the gun again. And just like the last ten shots I missed the target by a good foot. “Son of a bitch.”

The magazine fell to the ground and I slammed a new one in. I pulled the slide back and let it crack forward. It hadn’t been that long since I had used a pistol had it? I might have been a little inaccurate with my old .45 but I could still hit a target from this distance.

I emptied my mind and put the gun up so I could look down the sights with my left eye. With a steady grasp on the gun I squeezed the trigger again. The bullet missed by a few inches instead of a foot. “Buck me!”

That hoof on my back felt amazing. Only one pony knew how to do that. “Hi honey. What are you doing down here? I thought you were meeting with Midnight and Harmony today.”

“I was going to talk to them but they said you might need some help with your weapon.” Rose moved up slightly to move the gun. “Just tell me when you can look down the sights with your right eye.”

I opened my right eye and closed my left. I waited until I could see clearly down the sight of the gun. “Right there.”

“Now try to hit the target again.” Rose moved back a good ways from the firing range.

Ok what the actual buck? I’d always shot like that. I might have been inaccurate but I could still hit the target. What was this going to do for me? I pulled the trigger again.

“Bullseye?” I had hit the target square in the middle. “What. The. Buck?”

Rose was smiling at my side with a gun in her mouth. She waited until I took the pistol from her. “You’ve been shooting with the wrong eye. Aurora suggested that you might have not gotten the training you needed with guns. She figured that you might have not been shooting with your dominant eye.” She stepped back a ways. “Now try it again.”

I didn’t understand to much of that. How was my left eye not dominant? I did everything else with the left side of my body. Always had my left side more towards the enemy so I could use my wing to block or kill.

The next trigger pull yielded close to the same result as the last. And then another one finished off a small group of three bullets within an inch of each other. “I think I’ve got it.”

Rose was smiling happily behind me. The one thing that was always shining so brightly in my world.

I emptied the rest of the magazine without missing the bullseye by more than an inch. I set the gun down and returned to my wife’s side. “Now let’s get you off your hooves.” I lifted her up and set her atop my back.

“Woah. Silver you know I don’t like being up here. And the foal.” She was right. I knew she didn’t like being off the ground all that often.

“Are you sure? I could carry you back to our room.” I sat her back down on the ground.

“I know you don’t want me to be walking. I’ll be fine though.” Rose bumped me with her flank. “As long as my knight in no armor opens the doors for me.”

I flung the door open on our approach. “After you.”

Rose giggled. “Why thank you kind sir. Perhaps I’ll have to repay this kindness.” The meaning was all to clear with that wink.

“I think a kiss would suffice for now.” I smiled bringing Rose into a kiss.

After she broke the kiss Rose bit my ear. “Just you wait until the foals born. Then you’ll get more than that from me.”

The blush was hard to hide. “Still not comfortable with you talking about that out in public.”

“I know you’re not.” Rose tapped my face with her tail and made sure to stick her flank out as much as possible as she walked away from me.

That was always a great sight. The one good thing about her never wearing any armor outside of combat. I shook my head. Dammit not now. I could do a lot better without having to deal with my damn dick right now.

“Silver are you coming?” Dammit Rose not helping.

“I’m on my way.” I didn’t know if it was out of respect or fear but the guards suppressed their laughter.

I kept my head held high. No matter what I wasn’t going to let these guards think I was embarrassed in any way. I closed the door as quickly as I could behind me.

I heard the guards laugh a little through the door. Bastards deserved a sharp kick to the face. For now I had to deal with the two mares on the floor near the window and Rose who was trying to comfort them.

Rose waved me over just to be there. Saying nothing we just sat there as Midnight and Harmony cuddled on the floor.

They had been there for me when I was at my lowest. Now I was here for them if they needed me.

Is this what friendship was supposed to be like? I had never had many friends growing up, so I had no idea what the actual buck was going on with this whole thing. I’ll just sit here and be ready to offer my two cents.

No such opportunity arose as after a few more minutes Harmony helped Midnight to her hooves and she led her home.

Rose opened the door to our room. “Come here.”

I followed Rose into our room. The pleasant scent of the candles Rose like filled the air. This room was very nice on all the senses. Especially the amazing silk sheets we had.

Rose was sitting down on the bed looking at me. “Snap out of it.”

I shook my head. “Sorry. What?”

Rose sighed. “I’ll ask again since you seem to have been lost in thought. What were you doing?”

I looked back on everything that had just happened. What was it she was talking about? Couldn’t have been the gun. Couldn’t have been the journey back here. It finally clicked. “I was comforting Midnight. I’ve done that before.”

“You’ve never held your wing over anypony else. That’s the first time I’ve seen you do that with anypony.”

I shrugged it off. “I do that to show I care. Midnight knows that from past experience. I just wanted to let her know in my own way that I cared.”

Midnight’s POV

There it was. The front door. The two way portal that could lead me to either a day of relaxation or a day of this life.

I pushed on the door. To my surprise the door was locked. I pulled the spare key out from underneath a rock. I liked to imagine that’s what ponies did before the war. Hid spare keys under things just incase they got locked out. Maybe somebody was planning something for me. Wouldn’t that be wonderful. Some good food, friends, and the love of my life.

The door swung open and I was greeted by two of the three things in my mind. Harmony stood there beside me equally confused. Demo and Onyx were already in the house. Now the only thing missing was food.

But it seemed Demo had found himself a meal on the table. That meal being a dressed up Onyx. He saw us. “Oh bloody hell. We didn’t expect you back for a little while.”

I didn’t know whether to laugh or be grossed out. One the one hoof it was hilarious seeing Onyx dressed up in such fancy clothes. On the other, I did not need to see his dick now or ever.

In the end I settled on laughing for a few seconds before scolding him. “Ok for one what are you wearing? And for two why the table? We eat there.” I tapped my hoof trying to hold back the laughter.

Onyx blushed as he tried to find the words. “I…. um….”

“I always wanted to blow a high class stallion. Especially on the table.” Demo was looking between us and his prize.

Ah dammit. I really didn’t want to see his dick. Maybe it had been a thought in my mind at one point but I never really wanted to see it or any other cock. “We’ll leave you too that then.”

Onyx was still looking for words to say. He eventually just stopped and laid back down.

“Enjoy your breakfast Demo.” Did she actually just say that. A little racy for my taste, but it was still funny.

“With pleasure.” And with that we left the two to themselves.

I got about halfway into the room before everything went dark. “Power outage?” I looked around for the lamp.

“Guess again.”

“Time for my favorite thing in the world?”

“Closer. Now come here.”

I put a hoof on the bed. I knew Harmony was there waiting for me. I could see the faintest aura being emitted from her horn.

The room light up as all but a few of the candles were lit simultaneously. That romantic lighting was always amazing.

And it made Harmony look enchanting. She beckoned for me to join her.

I did as I was told and laid down next to her. I was about to speak. To tell Harmony how much I loved her.

“You don’t need to. I already know.”

“Where do you think she’s gone this time?”

“I have no idea. We’ve looked everywhere we possibly can for her.”

“She must be hiding from us. Trying something.”

“It is a possibility she is still trying after all these years to bring them back.”

“I hate to know that she’s suffering like this. If only I had told her earlier.”

“Do not blame yourself sister. We are both at fault for this.”

“Our sins outweigh our righteous deeds. What has become of us?”

“We are still who we once were. We will be here for years to come sister. Someday we will find her and set this problem to rest for good.”

“And then what? Our kingdom is destroyed. All of our subjects have chosen a life of chaos. All we have is this group of ponies.”

“Calm yourself sister. They are more promising than any who have come before. They’ll soon prove themselves worthy.”

“But what of our kingdom? Our former glory? What will we do after they win this war?”

“We might one day wear our regalia again. But only if Silver permits it. After all we did make him the new king.”

“Thousands of years and we finally declared a king. Princesses for millennia and finally a king and a queen.”

“Will we still be princesses sister?”

“By the oath we took we will still be princesses. Always ready incase we have something like Sombra happens again.”

Author's Note

Sorry for the late upload. Been busy with graduation and all that comes along with that. I'll still try to post every other week.

Air Superiority

Morning time. I was up early again. The sun had yet to rise all the way. It was just a blip on the horizon. I shifted towards the edge of the bed. Nopony else was ever awake at this hour. Except for her.

She was always up at this hour. Whether or not that’s what woke me up is debatable. She must have been making something. That was her punishment after all.

Two hammer blows and then silence for a few seconds. She must have been working on some sort of sword.

I took a peek inside her little forge hut. Weapons were hung up on the walls. All marked with a small x on the blade.

The mare shook her head. “Not good enough.” Another blade was added to the wall. And that same red x was branded upon it.

I sat and watched as she started on the next blade. A stiletto knife. Was she making wing blades? Last I checked those weren’t completely gone yet. And why of steel? Does she know something I don’t.

“It’s not that I know what you do not. It’s that I only have the material I can get my hooves on here.” How in the buck did she know what I was thinking. And furthermore had did she know I was here? “You’re not as quiet as you think. I heard you approaching here about a minute before you arrived.”

I entered into the hut. “Why are they marked like that?”

“They are shameful blades. Not worthy of existence much less battle.” She pulled the next blade out of the fire. Two hammer strikes and back in it went.

I pulled one of the blades off the wall. It was a long sword incredibly sleek. “What is so wrong with them? This one seems to be perfectly balanced.”

“As they should be. I have worked for many years doing this, but I’ve still yet to perfect the blade I look to imitate.” She looked around the shack for something. “Oh for fucksake. Where did I put it?”

I hung the blade back up where I had grabbed it. Half of the blades were of this same design. Long slender blades. From the looks of it a few might have even been double sided.

“Here it is.” She rolled out the design on a table away from the fire. “A katana. Once wielded by royalty as a symbol of honor. Now it’s an assassin’s blade.”

I looked it over. The title was partly obscured but I could see bane in the name. “Another Bane sword?”

“The sister sword to the one you carry.” The mare lifted the last part of the paper up so the full name could be seen.

“The Light’s Bane. But why is it the sister sword? They look nothing alike minus the gemstones they bare.” I unsheathed my sword.

“These two are special swords. Just as your sword was meant to be carried by Celestia, The Light’s Bane was meant for Luna. A sleek blade, dark like the night, and with a power set opposite yours.” She looked over the blade I held. “As different as the sisters themselves they were both meant for different fights. Luna’s was made for stealth. A quick powerful slice was enough to tear an enemy in two.”

As different as the sisters themselves huh?

“And the gemstone carried with it a dark power. When charged no light can escape from it. Everything surrounding it becomes darkness. Often times concealing the princess from sight.”

I looked between the sword and her. “But can’t both be charged with either energy? I’ve seen this sword absorb the light and use it as a weapon, but…”

She hushed me. “Only those who are not entirely sound of mind or in a fit of extreme sadness or anger can reverse the purpose of the sword.” She edged away from me. “And I can tell from the way you stand that you have unleashed such a power.”

“I might have years ago. But that’s when I thought Rose had died.” I slid my sword back into its sheath.

The mare nodded. “And now the weight of the world ways upon you. Cursed by the darkness inside you know of things others do not. It is both your curse, and your salvation.” She pushed me out of the shack. “No more of this. I must return to my creations.”

The door slammed and I slammed back. “What do you mean by that?” No response “Dammit! Alright then.”

I turned back around. The back door to town hall was less than fifty feet away from here. Maybe Rose was up by now. That would be a welcome change of pace from the current situation.

The door opened on my approach. “Rose would like to see you in her office Sir.”

“Thank you. Now as you were.” I trotted through the door and up the nearest staircase.

It was quiet. Even the guards who were awake looked half asleep. I hated that fact but I couldn’t expect much more from these ponies.

A guard opened the door for me. “Silver is here to see you Rose.”

I trotted through the door.

“Thank you.” Rose motioned me to her desk. “Now we can begin.”

Demo and Onyx were both here. By the looks on their faces I was sure this was the big day we had been training for.

“It’s time Silver. The Enclave have congregated around a small settlement a ways north of here.” The map Rose had was impressive. Everything around here for miles was plotted out.

“Hold on one second.” I examined the forward outposts closely. “We’re sending all of our forces out there? Who will stay to guard you?”

The door flew open. Midnight skidded face first to the desk.

“Sorry we’re late. Midnight wanted to sleep a few more minutes.” Harmony dragged Midnight off the floor.

Midnight didn’t make eye contact as she put a hoof up to the back of her head. “Yeah. Sorry about that.”

“It’s fine. You’ll need all the sleep you got because it’s time for us to strike first. What few ships the Enclave brought are all in the same area. Silver, Onyx, and Demo are going to fly to those ships and blow them away.” Rose moved a few small pieces to the outpost.

That set Midnight off. “I’m not going to stay here while these three go out there and risk dying.”

I lifted a wing over her. “I know you don’t want us to go alone but you’re needed here. All of our forces are going to be advancing towards Enclave HQ. If anything happens this place is defenseless without you two.”

Midnight looked into my eyes and sighed. “Goddesses dammit. Fine. Just make sure to come back safe alright?”

I let out a small chuckle. “We’ll come back in one piece. The Enclave won’t be able to say that once we’re through with these ships.”

Midnight relaxed a little. “Alright. If that’s all Harmony and I’ll go get suited up.”

Rose nodded. “The last guards will be leaving in less than an hour. Silver you can leave whenever you’re all ready.”

I cast a glance over to Onyx and Demo. “You two ready for this?”

The both smiled.

I liked that. They were warriors at heart and just the kind of ponies I needed for this mission. “Then let’s get a move on.”

The large window on the other side of the room shattered as we smashed through it. Come to think of it. Why was that stupid thing still there? Oh well.

We hovered just outside the gate for a few seconds. “Let’s give these bastards something they’ll never forget!”

The soldiers below cheered and took off in a gallop. That damn yell could probably be heard for a good mile.

“Well what are we waiting for? Let’s go!” I shot forward as fast as my wings would let me.

I slid my helmet on. “Aurora bring this suit of armor online.” Slowly the lights lit up.

Aurora appeared as she was going over the last of the armor’s system checks. “Everything is functioning perfectly. Where’s Midnight at?”

“Probably in the bathroom. She had to take care of some business before we suited up for the day.” I trotted over to the door.

Midnight walked out just as I raised a hoof to knock. “There you are.”

Midnight smiled and kissed my armor. “Yeah. Give me a minute and I’ll be ready.” She trotted on by and stepped into her open suit of armor. “Aurora if you wouldn’t mind.”

Even when her mane was that messy she was still the most gorgeous mare I’d ever laid eyes on. I smiled happy that we were together.

“Alright Harmony. We’ve got work to do.” Midnight opened the door for me. “Let’s not disappoint.”

She left without saying anything else.

We took turns going first. Although I got the short end of the stick this time. I couldn’t stare lustfully into her flanks with that armor on her.

Aurora flashed onto my hud and gave me a dirty look. “I thought you were a professional.” She shook her head. “Shameful.”

I was about to speak when she flashed something onto my screen. I opened it as directed. “Ok why do you have pictures of Midnight’s flanks?”

“I know you two well. I have seen the way you do things and figured you might not be happy getting the raw end of the deal this time. So I used the armor to get you some pictures before she closed it.” She smiled and disappeared.

I wasn’t sure how to feel about Aurora.

Midnight was waving for me to get up on the wall. “Come on.”

I hurried up so I could see over.

Aurora had been with us since the beginning and yet we still knew so little about her. It was scary to think she had so much control over these suits. Maybe we should disconnect her from some of the systems just incase.

“Ponies on approach.” One of the guards had a rifle at the ready.

I snapped back to reality. I took a closer look at the armor they wore. “Three targets all equipped with power armor.”

“They’ve got regalia.” Midnight had her rifle up.

“What colors?”

“Blue with a trio of dots on the flank.”

“Tri-tear. Why is he sending troops here?”

“Well I guess we’ll just have to find out. Lower your rifles but keep them ready.”

The three raiders stepped within a hundred feet of our wall. “Hello. Am I talking to the leader of this town?”

“No. You’re talking to the guards of this city.”

The front stallion looked around. “And you’re it? I expected more from a city of this size. Oh well. Thank you for your time.” He turned and walked away.

The other two however stayed at attention watching us.

The lead stallion turned back for half a second and whistled. “Kill.”

The two stallion’s got a couple of steps into their advance before being gunned down.

The last stallion trotted away. I knew he was smiling. This is what he had wanted from us.

“He just sacrificed two soldiers. Why would anypony be stupid enough to do that?”

“Likely testing us. Probably nothing more than a few goons in some shitty armor. Either way they know where we are and we need to be ready.” I trotted along the wall to the nearest guard tower.

Only three or four guards were still here on the wall. This one had a sniper rifle mounted on his tower. “He’s just gotten out of range.”

“Any others that you can see?”

After a minute or so of scanning the horizon he had an answer. “No. Looks like just the three of them.”

That was the most action we faced for a few hours. Eventually we watched birds fly over head.

Midnight let out a sigh. “I’m bored.”

“I know. Didn’t think we’d fight an army today but this? This is some bullshit! I figured we’d have at least a caravan or something come through.” I shook my head. “Probably could have gone with the others. Doesn’t seem like we were needed here.”

“I wonder how they’re doing.”

“Probably a little less bored. And maybe a little more in danger of dying.”

“So the usual if you aren’t safe in a city.”

“Pretty much what I’d expect.”

“Aurora.”

“No I will not.”

“Come on. We’re bored.”

“Absolutely not you two. I’m not getting into my life before this. I’ve already got enough shit to deal with thanks to the two of you.”

“Boooooooooooooo.”

“Boo me all you want. I can mute the both of you at will.”

“I can mute the both of you at will.”

“Still practicing her voice?” I rolled back over. “Come on. That’s a bit childish don’t you think?”

“Hey, if it staves of the boredom. And besides I can’t do what I really want to right now. Too many stallions hanging about. Not to mention this is the worst place to be lying down. We’ve slept on ground softer than this!”

She was right. The deck for the wall was quite uncomfortable. “Just think about it like this. A few hours from now we can be off this wall and back at the house. Then we can have some fun.”

“Holy shit!”

I kept my voice to a harsh whisper. “Yeah I know. Keep your voice down.”

“I know. But… Just look at those bastards!” Demo was eyeing the airships eagerly. Like he had just found a cache of explosives he wanted.

Son of a bitch! Not again. I reached out and grabbed him. “You stop right there. We can’t rush in there. For all we know they’ve got the crew to not only man those things but to also shoot us down before we get the chance to advance.”

Silver trotted over. “The guard I killed had a radio on him. I’ve been listening for any chatter, but nopony seems to be talking.”

“Really? I would have expected them to not leave a fleet of this size unguarded.” I counted the ships for a third time just to be sure.

“A fleet of twelve might not be all the really have. Might be just a first wave. Our intel might say this is it but I’ve had bad intel before.” Silver looked back at the ships suspiciously. “Kill any guards you find and take whatever you can from the ships while you’re planting the charges. We’ll want everything we can carry.”

I passed the first ten balefire eggs to Silver. “Demo says this should be enough to blow three or four of those things apart. But if I were you I’d make sure to damage whatever power supply they have running those and use that as fuel for the explosion.”

Silver nodded. “You might want to get going. Demo took off just after you let him go.”

“Goddesses dammit Demo. I knew we should have put a leash on him.” I began my trip towards my designated four.

“Sounds kinky.”

“Not helping.”

With that we split ways. Demo took the right while Silver handled the left. And I went straight up the middle.

To be truthful I hadn’t expected this many ships to be just sitting here. 12 ships here seemed a little excessive after the one surviving the equivalent of a balefire bomb.

Either way we had a mission to accomplish.

The first ship I flew to had an open hangar bay. What few ships were here had been heavily damaged.

I trotted over to the stairs and planted the first egg where it would be impossible to see.

I heard them trotting over head. Three guards. One of which was closing the hangar bay.

That’s what I wanted. The more in between me and these stupid eggs when they went off the better.

After a few minutes two of the guards left leaving me and the asshole who closed the hangar bay.

I readied my knife. Turn around you bitch. I kept a close eye on him and waited.

His radio started to chirp. “What the buck are you idiots doing?” He turned.

I jumped over the railing and slit the stallions throat. “Stay there.” I slid the knife back into its sheath. “Now then. Where is the armory?”

Luckily I didn’t have to move to far into the ship before I found it. The door slid open as I approached.

A few boxes of ammunition were scattered about. What little was there I slid into my saddlebags. “Not worth it. How have these idiots survived with so little supplies?”

The next place to plant the explosives was the reactor.

Deeper and deeper the ship drew me. Confusing corridors and terrible tracks to follow. I didn’t run into any guards on my way.

“Finally.” I pried the door open. “It’s already damaged? How?” I shook my head. “Doesn’t matter.”

I planted the second egg not far from the reactor core.

“One ship down. Three to go.”

Two small ships remained. One of which was the ship we had encountered before. The last ship that was my target might have been the flagship of the fleet.

I flew out through the closest window and into the command deck of the next.

“Looks like a good enough place.” I slid one under the captain's chair.

Traveling around the ship gave me a few more boxes of ammo and two more dead stallions.

Chatter on the radios seemed to indicate they were starting to catch on to what we were doing.

“They haven’t checked in. Shit.”

“You never know with those two. Might be using their special bathrooms. Lucky bastards pretty much live with a mare around at all times. Even when everypony’s gone.”

“Gross.” I planted the second charge and found my way to the hangar.

Two ships remained docked here. One of which was currently being loaded with weapons and gear.

“Hurry up. We need to get this gear out of here.”

“And what gives you the authority over us?”

“I’m the one with weapons training here. You make a wrong move and I kill you.”

One of the two loading the ship saw me. “Fair enough.”

I nodded and mouthed a thank you and a warning.

The stallion bossing them around turned around just after I had disappeared from his sight.

“No.” I slammed the knife through his spine.

He made no sound as the blood started pouring to the ground.

“Oh my goddesses you killed him.” The small mare eyed me with gratitude and fear.

“Get this ship to these coordinates and you’ll be safe.”

“How do I know I can trust you?”

I threw him a radio. “When they ask you for the code word just get low to the ground and say banana.”

The stallion weighed his options for a few seconds. “Fine. Get in the tank and we’ll go.”

I shook my head. “I’ve got a mission to see through. I’ll see you two back at base.”

The mare hopped into the tank and waved her friend over. “Lets go. It’s about time somepony freed us from this place.”

I dived out the hangar towards the last two ships.

“Onyx you about done planting those charges?”

I picked up the radio as I landed. “I’ve got two ships left to rig to blow.”

Silver landed next to me. “I’ll take the smaller ship. You go up to the flagship and make sure it never flies again.”

I nodded and hoofed over two eggs. “I’ll take the last four and make sure that ships is destroyed.”

I flew over to the other ship. Demo was waiting for me. “Let’s get these charges planted.”

I nodded and trotted over to the nearest hatch. “I’ll take the top of the ship. You go down below and find a good place for those charges.”

“Keep an eye out for the armory. They don’t seem to be in the same place on any two ships.” Demo dived off the side.

I flung the hatch open and jumped inside. “Alright. One for the bridge and one for the reactor.”

Most of this ship was made from metal. The outside was mostly clouds but inside was entirely steel.

The bridge and the reactor were separated by not more than one hundred yards. “That should do it. Now where is the armory?”

I found a small map drawn in the blackened steel. It made little sense. From what hadn’t been worn away I could see the clear route to the armory.

Following the map was simple. After just a couple minutes I had located the armory. The door would be the big problem. It was welded shut and would take a while to get through if I had the tools to do so.

Demo skidded around the corner and nearly took me to the floor. “We need to get in there right now!”

I looked down the hall just as a rocket hit the wall. “It’s been welded shut. We can’t get in there without destroying the door.”

Demo looked at the door for two seconds before planting explosives on it. “Follow me. I know how far away we’re going to need to be to survive this.”

“Where’d you get that?”

“I’ll tell you later. For now we need to get out of the blast radius.” Demo rammed through the next door and pulled me in with him. “And 3. 2. 1.”

The ship shook as the charges detonated. Thankfully they didn’t cause anything else to explode.

“Let’s go. That door should be open and that stupid robot should be dead.” Demo opened the door.

Outside even the parts that were clouds had been stained black. “That was risky. How did you know that would work?”

“I’ve had more experience with explosives than you realize. That was planned. If I had wanted to I could have blown the fleet up by setting of something like that.” Demo galloped down the hall. “Now come on. We’ve got some new gear to collect.”

I followed close behind. To Demo’s credit he did get the door open and destroy the robot.

Demo surveyed the open door. “The door was a bit thicker than I expected, but it is open.”

This armory unlike all the others actually had a fair amount of weapons and ammo.

While I went for anything and everything I could carry Demo sat down and started making bombs.

“Why are you making those here? I thought we had enough to blow these ships to bits.”

Demo waved me off. “It’s easier to build them here than to carry everything back home before I get to work. Besides, We’ve got a few minutes before we need to leave.”

“How long are you going to take?” I pulled out the radio.

“Five, six minutes. Hard to say. As much as they’ve got here I could spend hours making things. Alas we have but a few minutes.” Demo stuffed a fresh grenade in his saddlebags. “Radio Silver. We might need some help getting all this back home.”

“On it.” I pressed the button. “Silver. Come in.”

“I read you loud and clear.”

“We’ve found the armory and are in need of some assistance. How long until you can be here?”

“Give me a minute or so. I’ve been looting what little I could. Are you pinned down?”

“No. This ship has the most gear out of all the others. Demo and I won’t be able to carry it all by ourselves.”

“On my way. Over and out.”

I set the radio back in my saddlebags and started shoveling more guns in.

Demo had finished about twenty grenades by the time Silver arrived.

“Those might come in handy.” Silver gathered the rest of the guns and ammo in his magic. “Let’s go. Demo you got the detonator?”

Demo stood up and produced the little device. “We’ll need at least five minutes to escape the blast radius. After that we should be good.”

“Then let’s get out of here.”

“We should be out of the blast radius by now.” I held out the button. “Yall ready for some fireworks?”

Onyx nodded. “Let’s see it.”

I hit the button.

Nothing seemed to happen. “Are you sure that worked?”

I put the button a few inches closer and tried again. This time it worked.

The light would have been blinding to stare into. And that wave of heat was a little stronger than I wanted it to be. “I might have added a few too many eggs to that plan. We might want to get a move on before anything really bad gets to us.” I took off towards base knowing that they could see the cloud from there.

I was about to fall asleep when I heard it and felt it. The ground shook and the explosion was loud.

“Harmony get up here.” Midnight was looking in awe towards where the ships should have been.

I jumped to my hooves and watched as the cloud grew taller. “That’s!... HOLY SHIT!”

“I don’t think those ships are going to be any problem to us anymore!” Midnight hugged me.

I didn’t take my eyes off the explosion for another couple of seconds. When I did Midnight drew me into a kiss and didn’t let go.

“Is that what they were planning to do?”

“Yeah. They used a lot of balefire eggs to do that.”

“Where in equestria did they get their hooves on enough eggs to do that?”

“I wouldn’t question it. Demo has his ways. It’s best not to question somepony who can orchestrate that at will.”

Midnight let me out of the kiss. “You two I want contact with the forward outposts. Make sure everything has gone to plan and report back when you’ve got the good news.”

“Yes Ma’am.”

Midnight stepped into her armor. “Come on Harmony. Rose will want to know of the success.”

I did what Midnight said and stepped into my armor. “Aurora can you get a better look at those ships from here?”

Aurora appeared and began scanning the horizon. “The ships are out of a good viewing range. I do however detect multiple stallions and a tank of sorts heading for one of the forward outposts.”

“Well they made it out alive. That’s a good sign.” I pulled my vision away from that cloud of smoke. “Let’s just hope they put an end to it.”

We trotted along the wall as far as we could. Luckily we wouldn’t have to walk far after jumping down. Rose’s office was only a hundred yards or so from the wall.

What few stallions who had stayed to take up the roll of guards opened the doors upon our approach. “Rose is waiting for you.”

“Thank you.”

We trotted upstairs and opened the door to Rose’s office.

She stared out the window at the massive fireball on the horizon. “I take it they’ve done it? Destroyed the ships that is.”

“I could not get a good enough view of the area to definitively say they won’t fly anymore. But from what calculations I could run with my limited data, I’d say there is only a 1 percent chance that those ships could have survived anything of that nature.”

“A small chance but one we must be worried about. If even one of those ships survived we could have a massive problem on our hooves.” Rose turned to face us. “Now have the forward outposts reported back?”

I had been listening to the radio chatter since we had left our posts. “It seems that all but one outpost has sent us back a message of good favor. The one outpost that hasn’t sent anything back might have been a little closer to the ships than intended.”

“How many soldiers?”

“No more than ten were sent to make sure that outpost was secure. With any luck they made it out alive and are on their way back to the next outpost.” I slid my helmet off.

“And of Silver, Demo and Onyx?”

Aurora jumped in. “I did see the three of them escorting a tank of sorts from the ships to one of the outposts closest to us. They might have recovered enough weapons from the ships to arm our forces much better than they are now.”

“A tank of sorts you say? So they’re on the ground?”

“No. The Enclave often travel with a few tank slash troop transports amongst a fleet that size. Just like pegasi the tanks can fly. With a little work we could make use of the tank as a weapon if need be. Or if we want to that main cannon might make a excellent defense if we were willing to annex a few buildings in the center of town to set it up.”

Rose weighed the options carefully. “If the buildings are of some use to us we will use the tank as is as a weapon for destroying outposts. If not we can use it as a layer of defense.”

“Understood.” Aurora disappeared.

I could see something in Rose’s eyes. Something had her on the verge of tears. “Are you alright?”

Rose nodded in response. “I’ve felt the foal kick a few times today. I’m just appreciating the quiet moments I have with my unborn foal.”

Midnight ditched her helmet. “What are your plans for when it’s born?”

“Hopefully by that point the wasteland will be safe enough for us to be in without having to worry about raiders or mutants. If not, I’m sure Silver and I’ll find a way for us to raise it safely somewhere else.” Rose stepped out of her chair and towards the fridge.

“Where would be safe enough to raise your foal? This world even without the raiders and mutants is still quite dangerous for a foal to be running about.” I opened my armor.

Rose opened the fridge. “Would you like something to drink? I’ve got some tea if you’d like.”

Midnight ditched her armor at the mention of tea. “I’d love some tea. If it wouldn’t be too much for you to handle.”

Rose nodded politely and brought out the tea. “And to answer your question, Harmony. We’d probably raise the foal in the world I was born in. After the war ended and I was allowed to chase Silver down that world has been a very pleasant place. We even have a business that we could run there. It wouldn’t be the most luxurious life, but it would be enough for me to be comfortable raising the foal.”

Midnight sat down eagerly awaiting her tea. “So you’d leave this place to who?”

“Why you two of course. I’ve meet no other mares capable of leading this city as well as I know you two would.” Rose set a cup of tea down for Midnight.

That was a bit shocking. I wasn’t cut out for leading a small group of ponies much less this city. Midnight on the other hoof… Maybe that’s what she was destined to do. “We’d gladly lead this city, but are sure there’s no one more qualified?”

Rose shook her head. “Oh no. Out of all the ponies I’ve seen do here It’s been you two who have always taken up arms against the wrongdoings of the wasteland. And the only other pony that I would dare suggest is Stone. But he’s expressed many times a dislike for leading ponies. He’s much more proficient at making plans. He’s a tactician and a very good one at that.”

Aurora flashed a light at us. After a few seconds delay she finally showed herself. “I’ve gotten word that Silver, Onyx, and Demo are on their way back right now. With a tank and several hundred weapons with them.”

Rose set her tea aside. “Wonderful. Tell what few guards stationed here to be ready for the delivery. And get that mare from the shack outside ready. We might have need of her services.”

Author's Note

*In response to title* ..."Or not"

Draconian Suffering

“Are we sure all of this is necessary? I mean.. I know we need a place to store all of this, but couldn’t we store it in the basement of city hall?”

“No. Putting it there would result in the worst outcome if we fall under attack.” Stone had chosen this building. Although he seemed a little perturbed that it wasn’t in a slightly different position. “All of my calculations say that this building will serve as the best and most efficient armory. It’s positioning allows all the guards and soldiers here to easily access it and defend the city. Anywhere else and we might not get defenses ready for several minutes after we fall under siege.”

“That’s a really nerdy way of explaining it, but alright.” I guess everything he said just made sense. I didn’t really care enough to pay much attention.

“Midnight.”

“Yes Rose?” I snapped to attention.

“What did the stallion at the gate say?”

“The one who came on behalf of Tri-Tear?”

“Yes.”

“He asked if we were the leaders and then remarked how few guards we had for this city. After that he ordered the two slack jawed morons he had with him to try and attack us.”

Stone looked intrigued. “An interesting strategy, but not one that doesn’t make sense. He most likely brought some prisoners or ponies that were ready to die.”

“He was testing us?” I looked at some of the new guns being delivered.

Among the weapons was a fifty caliber rifle. Can’t say that rifle didn’t make my marehood quiver for a second or two. It was everything that you could ask for in a rifle and then some.

“Surely. He’s planning to attack this place in the next few days. With what little time he spent here the forces must not be far away.” Stone started pacing. “How fast can we get the tank here?”

“A couple of hours. We just need to send word to the outpost that it’s sitting at. After that it’s just a matter of time until it arrives.” Silver already had the radio ready.

“I want that tank brought back and all of the soldiers as well minus the ones at the outposts less than five miles away.” Stone stopped and grabbed the fifty from the guard carrying it. “And stop staring at the rifle and take it.”

I caught the rifle with my magic as Stone tossed it over. It was a heavy rifle, but it had to be for the punch it packed. From what little amount I had used the fifty cal pistol I knew that they packed a punch. This however was on a whole new level of as kicking. “Do we have armor piercing rounds for it?”

One of the guards set down two boxes. “Forty shots of ap. After that you’ve got maybe fifty of standard rounds.”

I pulled the rifle up and sent one bullet skyward. “Forty nine.” Like I had expected the rifle kicked like a mule. “Gonna have to get use to that kind of kick.”

“Well get used to it when you’re shooting at enemies. We don’t have the ammo to waste on stupid bullshit like that.” Way to act like a dick Stone.

“Yeah ok.” I set the rifle down. “Do we have anything else we need to talk about?”

“Well If you want you can explore the armory once we’ve got everything moved in. Might do you some good to find some new equipment. Never know when you’ll need something out there.” Stone trotted into the armory.

I picked up my new rifle. “I’m going to go put this thing in the house.”

Harmony nodded. “Alright I’m going to see about getting us some more ammo for what guns we have and maybe see about some new ones as well.”

“Alright. I’ll see you at home.” I started to trot away. “Love you.”

Harmony smiled and called back. “Love you too.”

The walk home was short, but as always the bucking hill was the worst. Why oh why did we get the house on top of the hill? The one hill in town and we decide to live on top of it. Great.

I could hear noises from inside just as I stepped up to the door. “Oh great. Are those two bucking on the table again? They better not be.” I flung the door open.

“Perfect. You’re just in time to try this out.” Demo slid around from behind the door and presented me a box.

I set my rifle down on the counter and opened the box. “Why in the buck is there a dildo in this box?”

“Trust me. Walk outside and push the button on the end of it and hold it away from yourself.” Demo pushed me back outside.

“I’d rather not show the entire world a dildo. Especially not one that I’m holding.” I closed the box.

“Fine. But can you at least push the button and hover the box in the sky. I’ve worked hard to make that damn thing work. And I think I’ve finally perfected it.” He was waaaaaaaaay to excited about this dildo.

I looked for the button. Once I found it I pressed it and shut the box. “Fine.”

The box floated upwards and Demo began a countdown. “3. 2. 1.”

The box did not explode. “Well I guess you can try again.”

Demo’s eye twitched as he stared at the box. “I spent two hours trying to get that to work! Goddesses dammit! Fine bring the dumb box back down.”

I brought the box down and opened it.

Demo’s eyes grew wide as he looked at the open box. “It did work. I just couldn’t hear it.”

I looked in the box myself. To my surprise half the dildo was gone and the box itself was charred.

“It worked Onyx. It finally worked.” Demo trotted back inside. “You can dispose of that now.”

I threw the box over the wall and closed the door behind me.

Onyx was sitting in the living room with a pile of grenades sitting beside him. “Demo decided we didn’t have enough grenades. So I’ve been making them as he tinkers with the several dildos around the house in an effort to make them explode.”

I grabbed my rifle. “Yeah. I kind of guessed. Where’d he get those anyway?”

“I saw him take a few things from you room but other than that I don’t know.” Onyx shrugged and set another grenade down.

That son of a bitch! “I’m gonna kill him!”

“Don’t worry. He left you enough money to go but another one.” Onyx cringed at the thought. “Nice rifle by the way.”

I forgot momentarily about Demo being an asshole. “Thanks. It was one of the new toys I picked up after you guys liberated them from the Enclave.”

Onyx fell backwards letting the last grenade roll away from him. “I’m done. That’s all of the parts that we brought back home.”

Demo peeked his head out of one of the rooms down the hall. “Good. That should be enough to supply us for a while.”

“I’d hope three hundred grenades would be enough to last us. IF it’s not, we need a better way to make them. I don’t want to have to do another three hundred by hoof.” Onyx stood up and trotted towards the stairs. “I’m gonna lay down.”

I let him by before bringing my rifle upstairs. The last room up here had been turned into our makeshift armory.

The door swung open and I could see clearly how much we actually had. Rifles and shotguns lined the walls while pistols had their place in boxes on the floor.

“I didn’t realize we had this many guns.” I set the rifle up in the one open spot left.

Aurora appeared on the floor. “It is an impressive collection. Minus the ammo.” Aurora swept a hoof around that somehow lit up only the ammo. “It averages out to just a few shots per weapon. After all this time I would have expected better from you.”

I closed the door. “Well we don’t make our own ammo here. We’ve only got what we scavenge or buy.”

“That might have just changed.” Harmony trotted past with saddlebags overflowing with ammo. “I managed to convince stone that we didn’t need so much ammo in the armory. So now we’ve got plenty of ammo for the guns we use and a few new toys to play with.”

I trotted back. “Like?”

“Like. A grenade launcher, a multiple shot grenade launcher. Including some incendiary grenades.” Harmony set up the new guns anr set the ammo in its place.

“Anything else of interest?” I retreated as she closed the door.

“Mostly just ammo. What other weapons they retrieved will be left in the armory for the guards to use.” Harmony grabbed my hoof. “Now come with me. I did promise you a little us time.”

I followed remembering about Demo. The frown on my face was met with a similar one after Harmony read Demo’s note. “That son of a bitch.”

“I did leave you money to go buy a new one.” Not helping you idiot.

I put a hoof up so Harmony couldn’t leave. “It’s fine. That’s the only one he took.”

Harmony sighed and flopped down onto the bed. “Yeah. It’s also the one I was hoping to use today.”

I shut the door and flopped down next to her. “Come on. We don’t need that to have a good time.” I kissed her.

She pushed me away just slightly. “You do know how to cheer me up.” With that she pulled me back into the kiss.

Why here? It had been years since I had last seen this place. But when I last saw it the beauty had been wiped away.

“Today.” I grabbed one of the nearby ponies. “What day is today?”

“It’s the thirty first.” he pushed my hooves to the ground. “I thought you out of all ponies would know that. After all the ceremony is today.”

No. No! NO NO NO!!! I’ve got to stop them. They’ll attack in less than an hour.

I broke into a gallop towards the barracks. Maybe Shining would know what to do. I had made it about twenty feet closer when the first explosion threw me to the ground.

“No.” I rolled over to see the next one hurtling towards the castle. I took to the sky but was dragged back down. “Let me go. She’s still up there.”

Luna dragged me back to the ground. “No she’s not. She wasn’t there the day they attacked us and she isn’t there now. Neither of us. You’re dreaming.”

The dream started to fade and I was in that familiar dreamscape once again. “But it was so real. Why? Why Luna? Why can I not forget about that day?” I fell to the floor in tears.

“So many emotions that made you operate. You were willing to valiantly give your life to protect us and for that I’m gratefully. But sister you must realize that we could not have saved them.” Luna opened a door. “Follow me.”

I begrudgingly got to my hooves and trotted through the door. “Why are we here?”

“You’ve forgotten who we are. And I must remind you the only way I can.” Luna unsheathed her sword. “Through our defense of our nation.” She tossed me over the Knight’s Bane.

I caught the sword. It felt good to have it back where it belonged. I felt the gun fly from it’s holster in response to my magic.

Luna beckoned for me. “Come on Celestia. We’ve got ourselves a battle to win.”

I galloped over. There below us, just like that day two hundred seventy years ago. Standing below us preparing to charge into battle with the last of our soldiers.

“But it was only us. They didn’t realize that.”

“And we rained death upon them like we were thousands. And at times I think we were.” Luna dived off the cliff sword at the ready.

I smiled slightly and dived after her. The air swished past. We were alive. And they were about to not be.

Our swords swung slicing through the boars like butter.

When we hit the ground the ground the boars surrounding us fell to pieces.

“You’ve bucked with the wrong nation.” I sliced three more in half. “And we’re here to make sure you do no more harm to our home.”

Luna tore into the next group of boars.

Without hesitation I galloped forward sword by my side. The next slice slit the throats of the boars in front of me.

The Revolving Sun lit up with my aurora as I readied the one shot I’d need to end this. “Take this you sons of bitches.” I pulled the trigger.

Luna pulled me from the dream. “Now do you remember who you are? What you once stood for?”

I had a smile on my face as I watched the memory of the bloodbath. “We stood upon the burnt remnants of an empire. All we had was each other and the hopes of finding Twilight. But that was all we needed.”

Luna put a wing over me. “I’m glad you remember. I’m always here for you when you need me.”

“Thank you Lulu.” I left the memory behind as Luna faded from sight.

“Another day will dawn soon, and I must be the one to keep the sun where it belongs.” I lit up my horn. “It’s time to raise the sun.”

“Well wastelander we have done it.” PON3 hadn’t been on the radio in a while. Must have something important to say. “Yes you heard right we’ve defeated the Enclave. Yesterday twelve of the best ships the Enclave had were blown to pieces by our very courageous wasteland mares and stallions. And thanks to them we can live our lives the way we want to again. But I do advise you to keep those guns ever ready in case of more raider attacks.”

“Word spreads fast Midnight. You have done well with this first task.” Celestia was standing over me.

I turned my head to look at her. “We aren’t the ones you should be thanking. Silver, Demo and Onyx got the job done. Harmony and I sat on the wall and watched for bandit or raider attacks.” I trotted a few steps away.

Celestia smiled. “You’ve done more than you know my little pony.”

I smiled awkwardly. “So what’s our next move? With the Enclave defeated we have just the local raider gangs and changelings to worry about.”

Her smile grew dim. “The changelings? Is Chrysalis leading them?”

I shook my head. “No. Thorax killed her and took control of the Hive.”

“Good. Although I fear under his rule things may take a dark turn.” She turned away. “I suppose we will see what happens in the next few days. Soon enough our course will be determined.” With that Celestia left.

I noticed Harmony when she bit my flank. “Morning sexy.”

I tried my best not to moan. “Morning my sweet. How are you doing?”

Harmony kissed me before speaking. “Well I’m doing fine. And I expect after that kiss you’re doing a bit better.”

“Such a naughty mare Harmony. I might have to do something about that.” I licked my lips for affect.

“Oh please do.” That voice was angelic.

“Oh please don’t!” That voice not so much.

“Goddesses dammit Onyx what do you want!?”

“”Bite my head off why don’t you?” Onyx stepped back as I threw my hoof at his face. “Ok that was uncalled for. I was just coming to get you.”

I let out a puff of breath from my nostrils. “For WHAT!?”

“Rose has something she wants to tell us.” Onyx peeked over my shoulder. “But it seems she couldn’t wait for us to come back to her office.”

Rose was downstairs sitting in the kitchen. “I wanted to make sure they were alright and you were taking forever to get back.”

I trotted downstairs. “How are you doing today?”

Rose smiled and motioned for me to come over to the living room. “I’ve been doing fine. Just been thinking about the foals.”

“Foals?” I sat down on the couch.

Rose nodded. “I went to the doctor for a checkup and he delivered the news I was having twins!”

I smiled. “That’s amazing. And how is Silver taking the news?”

“I think he might have snapped inside a little bit. He’s been really worried that he won’t make a good father and this has just thrown everything out of whack for him.” Rose relaxed in the comfy chair.

Harmony sat next to me. “I still don’t see why he thinks he won’t be a good father. He’s got all the qualities of a good one.”

“He’s afraid of giving the foals a bad example. Not being the best role model for them to look up too.” Rose sighed. “I’ll try to talk him out of this weirdness but I don’t know what will happen.”

“Any idea on when they’ll be born?” Onyx dropped down into the last chair available.

“Less than a month from what the doctor said. Might be as early as next week sometime.” Rose smiled happily looking to her belly.

“I would have thought another two months or so. But I guess that means we get to great the little ones sooner rather than later.” I smiled.

“So have you gotten any word from Celestia as too what she wants us to do next?” Onyx cast me a glance.

I shook my head. “No. She talked to me just a few minutes before you got here. But she only congratulated me and said our next course of action would be shown to us in the next few days.”

Rose sat back up covering her nether regions. “Well we do have a few local groups of bandits that we could start dealing with. Might want to stop them without killing them all. Hopefully ending their leaders lives will result in surrender and a more peaceful wasteland.”

“Crimson Skull and Tri-Tear?”

Rose nodded. “Those are the two. We haven’t had much contact with Crimson Skull, but Tri-Tear’s forces have tried many times to breach our walls.”

“They came in a small group when Silver and the others were gone. They were testing our response time.” Harmony Shifted slightly.

“No doubt they will come for us again and in greater force.” Rose got to her hooves. “Well I’ll leave you to your own devices.” She walked towards the door. “And I’d suggest you check your room in a few minutes. I think a new present may have been dropped off for the two of you.”

The door closed behind her and we got to our hooves. “I swear to Celestia if it’s another exploding one I’m going to kill Demo.”

Demo turned tail and walked away from the stairs. “I promise it’s not one. I just don’t want to be near you for a little while. Things are already awkward as is.”

“It better not be.” I whispered under my breath. “Or you’re one dead stallion.”

Harmony brushed my face lightly with her tail. “Come on then. I want to see what Rose was talking about.”

I followed Harmony upstairs and into our room, where to my surprise a box the same size as the last box was sitting on the floor with a note attached to it.

I grabbed the note and read it. “Demo wants you to know he is sorry. He just felt it might be awkward and a little bit off if he were the one to buy this for you. I hope it’s not overstepping my boundaries but I went ahead and found something a little better than your last one. Signed Rose.”

“Weird, but ok. I guess if it got replaced then there’s no problem.” Harmony opened the box. “She wasn’t lying about this being an upgrade. Midnight get in bed I think I want to try this thing out.”

I slammed the door and jumped onto the bed. “As you wish.”

Harmony smiled deviously. “This is gonna be fun.”

“So are we just going to leave them alone for the next day or two?” I looked out the window. “I mean It certainly is possible for them to go that long. They’ve done it before they’ll probably do it again.”

Demo tap on my shoulder. “Just let them have their fun. They’ve earned it after all.”

“And what about us? What have we earned?” I brought my gaze away from the window.

“Well you’ve earned this.” Demo kissed me. “And if you’ll head up to our room I’ve got a better surprise than that waiting for you.”

My cheeks turned bright red. “Do you mean?”

“You know exactly what I mean.” Demo smiled seductively. “Now let’s go buck until the sun rises on a new day.”

“Good enough for me.”

“So where are we going today?” The gate opened as Demo asked his question.

“Rose has a few places that we might want to check out. A local Stable has opened up but nopony has been seen entering or exiting the facility. Other than that there might be a few small raider camps scattered about the nearby wastes.” I put away the map.

“So it’s either go explore some random probably dusty old stable and hope we find something interesting or go kill some raiders?”

“That’s about the gist of it Onyx.” I waved at the guards to close the gate after we had all crossed through.

“Well shit.” He looked between us and the other stallions. “Let’s go kill some raiders. Sounds more exciting than exploring a dumb stable in my opinion.”

“With more of a chance of death.” Way to be super optimistic there Silver.

“She did say we are supposed to eliminate the raiders and explore the stable.” Harmony kept pace with me as we gained a slight lead on our friends. “So either way we’ll have to go to the stable at some point. And who knows. Maybe some of the raiders are calling that place home now.”

“Or maybe we’ll find a million caps so we can be rich off our plots for the rest of our lives.” The sarcasm had and edge to it just like his blades.

“Ha ha. Real funny Silver.” I laughed. “But let’s not bother arguing to much. We’ll take out the small camps along the way to the stable and clean up the rest after we get done exploring.”

Everypony seemed happy with that. “Lead the way.”

There we stood about a quarter mile from the first camp.

“You really think you can do that?” Harmony was looking through binoculars at the raiders.

“500 caps says you can’t do it.” Silver smiled as he looked at me.

I had been watching for five minutes waiting for the bastards to line themselves up and my chance was coming. “Watch me.”

The rifle rang out and three raiders fell to the ground. “Bucking told you.” I dropped the mag and loaded another bullet.

Silver smiled. “Well then.”

Shots rang out coming back towards us.

“You mind.” Silver dropped the shield so I could return fire.

And return fire I did. “Two more down.”

“Three to go.” Harmony fired. “Make that two.”

I slid the fifty back and grabbed the boar rifle.

Harmony and I fired simultaneously and both raiders fell.

I stood up and stretched. “Let’s go see what they had.”

We trotted forward weapons drawn. All but one raider was completely dead.

“You buckers.” She coughed up some blood. “You’ll pay for this. Tri-tear doesn’t deal with raider scum like you.”

“First time I’ve heard that one.” I drew out my knife and slit the mare’s throat. “Now shut up and die.”

Silver tapped my flank. A grin was plastered on his face. “Pay up.”

“What are you?” I looked down at the raiders I had stepped over to kill that mare. “Son of a bitch.” I sighed. “To be fair she would have died after a couple minutes.”

“Doesn’t matter you killed her with a knife not the bullet.” He held his hoof out. “Now pay up.”

I tossed over a small bag of caps. “Now can we get back to looting them?”

Silver nodded and went to work on the nearest corpse.

After a few minutes I had the armor stripped off of the three raiders I had shot with the first shot. “Most of their armor was shredded by the fifty. We might be able to reuse the metal parts for other things.”

Silver eyed the little scraps of iron that were scattered about the armor. “Perhaps we could see about something. But so little iron will make for a very small object. Nothing really worth much without an enchantment.”

I tore the scraps free. “What if we made a shield out of it?”

Silver looked over the scraps that I hadn’t deposited. “A couple of different shields could be made.” Silver tapped a hoof to one piece of iron. “Could make an old fashioned one like knights used to use. Or might make a deployable one that you can stick a rifle through so you can shoot without having that armor on or the fear of death.”

I shrugged and shoved the rest of the scraps into the bottom of my saddlebag. “We’ll make use of it.”

Harmony frowned as she looked over the pitiful collection of weapons. “A few 10 millimeter pistols and some worn out hunting rifles. Other than that about one hundred bullets.”

Silver grabbed one of the rifles. “I’m taking this one. Might do me some good to do a bit more than just stand around and shield you two.” He opened the bolt and loaded the rifle to full.

Harmony nodded and separated out the last couple of .308’s from the pile. “Only about twenty left. Should be able to find more of them though. These raiders always have a few of these around.”

Silver nodded and deposited the bullets in a small bag on his flank. “I’ll be sure to be on the lookout for more.”

“We have two more camps along the way. With any luck they’ll have some better weapons on them.” I put my rifle back in my bag and drew my revolver. “The next camp probably heard the gunfire. Be ready.”

Harmony took two steps forward before stopping. “Silver do you think you’d be a good shot from the air?”

Silver aimed down the sights of the rifle. “These sights are pretty shit but if I was high enough in the sky I could probably get off a couple of shots without trouble.”

Harmony nodded. “Take to the air. We’ve got raiders inbound, and a lot of ‘em.”

I slid the Revolving sun back into its holster and pulled out the boar rifle.

Silver jumped into the air. He went up three hundred or better feet before stopping to take aim.

The first shot gave me time to ready my own rifle. “You ready for this Harmony?”

Harmony gave a slight nod. “As ready as I can be, but just wait for the raiders to get closer. Silver might.”

A shot rang out from above us, followed by another and another. Three raiders fell to the ground dead. “Guess not.”

I slung lead down range striking one raider hard enough to flip him backwards onto another one. After another shot I had killed three raiders. “Their numbers are thinning out.”

A shot hit my armor and bounced off. While it did stop the bullet from penetrating it didn’t stop it from stinging. “Eat shit you assholes.” I fired three times in rapid succession. This ended the last of the raiders who had chosen to stay and fight.

The raiders laid scattered about the battlefield. Only a few still managing to draw breath.

What little armor and weapons that had that were worthwhile got stuffed into our saddlebags. The encounter left Silver with twenty more bullets and Harmony and I with twenty less.

“The last outpost is a quarter mile from the stable. We might want to watch out for some raiders that might have gone inside.” Harmony holstered her rifle and trotted north towards our meeting point.

Silver looked to his back. “Hey Midnight?”

“Yes Silver?” I trotted in the same direction as Harmony.

“Do you have an extra saddlebag at home? I kinda don’t have one to store my weapons in.” Silver awkwardly held onto his rifle.

I smiled and managed a little laugh. “I’m sure we can work something out when we get back home. I would suggest one of these raiders bags, but they are kinda shitty.”

Silver scooped up one of the more intact bags and set it on his back. “I guess this will do for now. Least until we get back and can get me a proper one.”

“Hey why don’t we slow down for a few minutes? We’re ahead of schedule after all.” I dived towards the ground looking for the best spot to land.

Onyx wasn’t too far behind me. “I guess we can stop for a couple of minutes. No harm in going a little slower.”

I touched down underneath a small clearing of trees. “This looks like a good enough spot. What do you think?”

He landed and immediately took a seat. “As good a place as any until the sun moves our shade.”

I sat down next to him and laid my head down. I kept quiet as Onyx went to work with the sand and sticks at our hooves.

After a few minutes a portrait of me was drawn in the ground. For what he had to work with it looked amazing. Guess that’s why he had a paintbrush as his cutie mark.

He looked quickly between me and the portrait. “What do you think? Personally I think I could’ve done better. Too many details are wrong.” Onyx quickly went to work on the art again.

“I think it looked perfect just the way it was. Just like all of the art you make.” I smiled and laid my head on his lap.

Onyx stopped and set the stick down. “Thanks Demo. Sometimes I need that. Somepony telling me I’m good enough for them. Not what everypony else used to say.” His smile turned into a frown.

I hugged him. “It doesn’t matter what they said or what anypony else says. I love your art and you just the way you are.”

Onyx smiled and gave me a kiss. “Thank you.”

I laid my head back down. The shade was nice and I wouldn’t have minded taking a nap. Nature had other plans as the sun slowly started to take away the shade.

Onyx sighed. “I guess we should get a move on.”

I got up and stretched. “Probably ought to. Midnight’s probably worried about us.”

Onyx shot upright and took to the sky. “Shit I forgot she was waiting for us! She’s gonna kill me for this.”

I got a running start before jumping into the air. It was going to take a bit of work to catch up but I knew I could before we reached our destination.

I tapped my hoof on the ground and looked at my pipbuck. “They should have been here an hour ago. What do you think happened to them?”

Silver set down the binoculars. “They had a longer distance to travel. Might have not been given enough time to take out the outposts and get here at the designated time.”

I sighed and sat down. “They better get here soon or they won’t hear the end of this.”

Harmony giggled and sat beside me. “They’ll be here. It’s a possibility they took some time for themselves. Everypony does need some time ‘alone’.”

I nodded. “You’re probably right. I suppose we can wait. Besides, it’s a nice day, might as well enjoy it.”

Harmony nodded. “Looks like we won’t get to sit here and enjoy it for long though.” She pointed to the east.

Onyx hit the ground fast. Fast enough to skid his hooves on the ground for twenty plus feet before going face first into the dirt and rolling to a stop at my hooves. “Might have been a bit fast.”

Demo landed and helped Onyx to his hooves. “I told him to slow down. He just thought it was a better idea to get here as fast as possible to avoid your wrath. He knows you don’t like him being late.”

I got to my hooves bringin Harmony with me. “I don’t like him being late for things. But it’s better he be a little late rather than injured in some way.”

Onyx avoided eye contact. “Sorry. I got caught up in the moment with Demo.”

I smiled and put a hoof to his shoulder. “It’s fine, Onyx. I understand entirely. I’m just glad you got here in one piece and.” I looked him over for any scrapes from that landing. “More or less uninjured.”

Onyx dared a look at me. He quickly realized I wasn’t mad. “Thanks Midnight.”

I nodded. “No problem. Now let’s get a move one. We’ve still got some work to do.”

I trotted over to the ridge. “Anything else we should be aware of Silver?”

Silver shook his head as he scanned the area one final time. “I just watched the last pony retreat into the stable. Seems like they only use the camp for supply deliveries and not much more.”

Harmony trotted over. “Anything we might want?”

Silver shrugged. “I’m not sure. Most of what had been delivered was taken into the stable. The crates didn’t look that heavy, so I’m going to guess they got some food and maybe a couple of guns.”

I thought for a second. “So not much of great use to us.”

“With the way the armory looks, I’d say not. But whatever we get ahold of might be able to provide us some sort of value. It’s always nice to have spare parts to fix up something or to make a new weapon need be.” Silver put the binoculars into his saddlebags.

“Anyway we can get down there without being noticed?” I sat down and watched the stable below.

“The best way would be a stelathbuck, but we might be able to sneak down there if the guards aren’t watching us?” Silver began his trot down the hill. “Now come on. We ain’t got all day.”

I got to my hooves and galloped to catch up.

Harmony stayed right by my side. She readied her shotgun for combat.

We closed the distance quickly and without detection. Luckily there was a low wall right outside the camp to hide behind.

Silver peeked his head over to see what was left in the camp. “One lone guard standing by the door.” He looked around for a few more seconds. “The turrets on the walls are destroyed.”

I nodded. “Anypony have a silenced gun?”

Everyone shook their heads. “Nothing. Shit.”

“Fine.” I pulled out the Revolving Sun. “I’ll deal with this.”

One shot was all it took to send the raider to the ground. He crumpled with a bullet hole right between his eyes.

I jumped over the wall. “It’s safe. Let’s see if we can’t get in there.”

The rest of the small camp was deserted. A few small crates were lying about with the lids ripped off.

I looked inside to see if they had left anything. “Nothing but a few scraps of paper. They must’ve already taken anything of value inside.” I trotted towards the door. To my surprise there was no terminal or any means of security to keep us from walking right inside.

Silver scanned the scene before us. “It’s likely they have a few more guards inside that are on alert after that gunshot.” He drew his pistol. “Just be ready for anything.”

I pushed the small door open.

Nopony immediately opened fire on us, so that was a good sign. The ground was devoid of any traps as were the walls.

We trotted inside closing the door behind us. The entry hall was bare. All the windows to the room had been blacked out. The doors minus the one on the far side had been barricaded with the heavier supply crates.

“Wonder what they’ve got trapped inside?” My gaze shifted back and forth between the windows as I eased my way through the room.

“Prisons, weapons, mutants. Who's to say. Could be they just didn’t want anypony sneaking off into those rooms.” Silver put a hoof to the only door that we could go through. “3. 2. 1.”

The door flew open and we charged through, weapons drawn and ready to fire.

Nothing. This room was empty as well, but instead of the far door being unbarricaded it was the door ten feet to our right.

“Are they leading us through a maze? What kinda bullshit is this?” I walked over to the door. When I pushed on it nothing happened. “Locked.”

A small terminal sprung to life to the right of the door. “Looks like we’ll need to hack our way through.”

I saw the flicker as Aurora jumped from my armor to the terminal. “Give me a second. And, done.” She jumped back as the door opened.

Behind was another room that seemed to be leading us further and further into this labyrinth of madness. However, a whirring noise sounded as a set one hoof into the room.

I held the Revolving Sun close until I got a look around the room. “What in the bucking name of Celestia?”

A blender was sitting in the center of the room blending up nothing. I took my hoof off of the plate that it was attached to.

“Pressure activated, blender? Is this whole place just meant to buck with us?” Silver trotted forward. “No, there’s got to be a better reason than that.” He seemed lost in thought as he opened the next door.

Yet another room filled with nothing but a small appliance in the center. This time it was a toaster with the numbers 3 4 5 next to it.

Silver’s eyes lit up as he saw the terminal on the next unblocked door. “It’s a code. Not a very cleverly hidden one but a code nonetheless.” He stepped up to the terminal and punched in a short five digit code.

The door swung open revealing a tunnel. “Odd. Why would they have a tunnel leading away from the stable? With one this close to the surface getting rid of waste would have been easy.”

“Maybe they needed more room.” Harmony trotted through the open door.

Onyx and Demo followed close behind. “Maybe they didn’t finish construction of the stable before the bombs fell.” Onyx looked thoughtfully at the tunnel walls. “Seems they had good tools to make a tunnel like this. Look at it like this. It doesn’t matter why it’s like this. We know that whatever they were storing in this stable is going to be down this way.”

Onyx was right. Whatever they had of worth had to be stored this way. All the other doors we had seen had been blocked off and almost surely were unable to be opened. “Let’s go then.”

I took to a light trot to catch up with Harmony. She wasn’t far ahead so it took no time at all to catch up.

Harmony was quiet. An unnatural quiet for her. She could have been lost in thought or just talking to Aurora.

I didn’t know which one was the more preferable option but I knew something was wrong. “Harmony?”

Harmony looked over at me. “Yes Midnight?”

“You’ve been quiet. Is something wrong?” I scooted a little closer.

“Nothing’s wrong right now. I’m a little tired and a little creeped out by this stable. Something seems wrong about what’s going on with it. All the barricaded doors and random clues that led us to this corridor seem like they could be a trap. So I’ve been having Aurora keep track of all movement that goes on in this stable to make sure we aren’t being led into a trap of some sort.” With that she turned her head from me and was silent once again as she and Aurora continued their discussion.

This corridor felt wrong. Not the fact that it was stone all the way down, or the bodies that were on the floor occasionally. Something about the atmosphere felt off. I could feel it through my armor. It was incredibly warm in here.

The further we continued the more the walls become scorched. Like a great fire had burned here once, and might still be burning deep down.

For once in my life I managed to notice everypony stop. I stopped just shy so nopony would have to stop me. “It just ends?” I edged closer to the giant hole in the ground. “Where are all the raiders at?” I kicked a small gemstone into the pit.

It tumbled downwards for what felt like an eternity hitting the walls along the way. When I finally stopped hearing it the ground shook for a moment.

I looked around for anything that might have caused that. All I could find were drawings lining the walls of an Alicorn. Nothing else, no machine that might have caused it, nopony around to set off some explosives.

A burst of smoke trailed up from the depths of the pit. Closely behind it followed a bright green trail of flame.

A purple dragon poked its head up to look at us. A single large eye careful scanned us carefully, making some sort of judgement. He stared intently at us. But it seemed he was waiting for us to do something, say something, anything at all really.

I was about to speak when the dragon shook his head. A single trail of flame shot towards a small lever.

I looked at in and then pointed to myself.

The dragon nodded. He wanted me to pull the lever.

Surprisingly the dragon made no effort to kill us. I believed if he put forth even a small amount of effort he could end us before we got the chance to react. When I reached the switch I looked back to the dragon before grabbing it.

He nodded. His eyes looked tired. Like he’d been here for hundreds of years waiting for someone to kill him. Waiting for his service to be over.

I grabbed the switch and pulled it down with all my might. It had rusted for years but it gave way and flipped.

The dragon breathed a sigh of relief and spoke. “Thank you. My time on this world has come to an end. But she’s still out there.” A few tears rolled down the dragon’s face. “I’d near forgotten her name after all these years. She’s been on her quest for far too long. If you find her, please I beg you, tell her that her number one assistant is waiting for her.” With that the dragon let out a puff of fire and lit the entire hole he was in on fire.

No screams of pain. No sense that he wasn’t ready. Just silence as his enormous body shrunk before falling into the depths below. The fall no doubt would kill him.

I couldn’t help but feel sad for the dragon. His eyes betrayed his size. I kindness was behind them that no dragon of his size should have had for anypony.

Silver grabbed me. “We’ve got to go!”

The cave started to crumble around us. I broke into a gallop back towards the door.

The cavern lit up a purple behind us as we ran for the one exit that might give us a chance to survive whatever was coming to kill us.

The door at the end of the tunnel was open. I put forth what more energy I could to get through that door before the fire got to us.

I slid around the corner from the tunnel and was immediately greeted by a wall of raiders. “Silver, Shield NOW!!!” I called out waiting.

The shield formed as the inferno tore into the vault. The air superheated and anything outside the shield burnt to a crisp in an instant.

I reached out with my magic and slammed the door in an attempt to stop this fire. To my pleasure the door held the flames at bay for the time being. “How you all holding up?”

Silver let the shield fall and panted. “Pretty good now that I don’t have a wall of fire trying to kill me.”

Harmony looked between us and the door. “Well you might not want to speak so soon.”

The center of the door was starting to melt. The rest was glowing a bright red. “Let’s not wait for that door to fail.”

Onyx and Demo were already almost out of the room. “Don’t need to tell us twice.”

I gave the door one good luck before trotting out of the room and closing the door behind all of us.

Silver trotted on by looking a little lost in thought. He waved a wing for us to come along.

Harmony and I stayed a ways back avoiding breaking his concentration. Luckily we could communicate through the armor without being too loud. “Any idea what that was all about?”

“Not a clue. I’m not sure who he was talking about before you fulfilled his wish. Maybe Celestia knows something about it.”

Aurora flickered into our view. “She knows quite a bit about who he was talking about. As do I.” With that she went silent.

“Who is it?” Silence. “Dammit Aurora.”

“Let her be honey. We’ll ask Celestia when we get back and she can shed some light on who exactly he was talking about.”

I nodded. “Alright. For now let’s just get out of this death trap. I’ve had enough fire for today.”

Silver stopped in the doorway in front of us. “How?”

I cocked my head to the right. “What do you mean?”

He spun around and pointed one wing towards one of the barricaded doors. “Where did they go? How did we miss them as we came in here? There was no possible place to hide from us. Everywhere but the path we took was blocked off. And not a single one of them was left outside or anywhere we wouldn’t have seen them. There’s no way that any of them should have stopped us on the way out.”

I didn’t know how to respond to that. “I don’t know. Maybe those that we followed in were killed by the dragon and that group that just got incinerated followed us in here.”

Silver looked displeased with that. “It seems to convenient.” He shrugged and trotted through the door. “But it’s the explanation I have to deal with.”

Harmony waved for me to follow as she trotted behind Silver. I did as I was commanded. Not like I really wanted to stay in a room that could turn into an incinerator at any moment.

The rest of the stable was silent. It was an eerie silence, almost unnaturally so. Our footsteps echoed for a while before finally stopping. Lucky we had reached the outer doors to the stable.

Unluckily the door had caved in on itself blocking our path. “Silver can you lift away the rubble? Or do we need to find some other way out?”

Silver looked at the rubble for a few seconds before moving a small chunk of the door away. Seeming satisfied with that he lit his horn up and shifted most of the pile towards us and then flattened it out into a walkway. “I think that’ll be good enough for now. Let’s go finish off those last camps.” He trotted along the new path out the door.

“I wonder why they keep building camps so near to New Appleloosa? After as many times as we’ve kicked their asses into the ground, you’d think they’d shift to a different location for this.” I looked back to make sure everypony had gotten out, and indeed they had.

“Strategic advantage? That’s what Stone said at least. Something about how this area is full of resources and valuable equipment that all the big raider bosses want a piece of it for themselves so they can win control over the wasteland.” Onyx had to gallop to reach us.

I shrugged. “I suppose that makes a fair amount of sense. They should have brought in better forces by now if they wanted to take over. So it still seems odd that they come here.”

“Maybe they’ve been training better soldiers. Using what little gear they could get due to our harassment of these camps. They could have soldiers, actual soldiers on the way to take over.” Harmony chimed in.

Silver nodded as he hovered above the ground. “Likely what they’ve been planning to do. Either way we should all be prepared for more well armed opponents in the future. Whether it’s just raiders or militaristic groups, we’ll need whatever we can get.”

“Maybe I’ll be able to put the fifty cal to use. More effectively than trying to line up a triple kill with one bullet that is.” A thought back to our armory. “Maybe we’ll employ some of those explosive weapons we just got. A few grenades from Demo and Onyx as well as that grenade launcher might help to chew through some more heavily armored targets.”

A little static sounded as the small radio on my armor came to life. “Silver if you’re hearing this respond.” It was a stallion’s voice calling.

Silver hit the ground and trotted over. “What is it you need soldier?”

The radio responded quickly. “You are requested back at New Appleloosa Sir. Mayor Rose has asked for you to return a little early.”

Silver’s eyes widened. “Is she alright? What’s happened?”

“Nothing sir. She requested you come back. A few raiders were seen outside, but nothing came of them.” The voice sounded reassuring.

Silver sighed. “I’ll be back in a few hours time.”

I turned off the radio as no new noise came from it. “Go on Silver. We’ll handle the last of the raiders on our way back.”

Silver said nothing as he shot off back home. At that speed he must have thought something big was about to happen.

I turned to my friends. “You guys ready to kill the remaining raiders?”

They all nodded. “Let’s.”

Author's Note

Sorry for late upload, pulled an allnighter for fun and didn't have much time to think about uploading.

Happy Birthday

The trip back took a little while. The raiders had slowed us down more than anticipated, but seeing those gates to town and Silver waiting for us was reassuring.

Silver trotted out to meet us. “It looks like everything went well. Any problems with the last of the raiders?”

I shook my head and hoofed over a nice set of saddlebags. “No, but we did manage to find this for you.”

He took it with a nod of thanks. “Rose would like to see all of you.”

“Is she in the hospital?” I trotted along following Silver.

“No she’s still sitting in her office watching through that window.” Silver looked slightly concerned and it was obvious no matter how hard he tried to hide it.

None of us spoke another word about this. After a few short minutes we reached the door to town hall.

More guards than usual were stationed around. “Is this many guards necessary? I get that it’s not just Rose they’re protecting, but this seems like overkill.”

Silver shook his head as he trotted up the stairs. “I wouldn’t allow there to be less guards than this on sight. Not just for Rose’s sake but for the sake of some valuable information and machinery. Rose can handle herself, she can probably match any one of these guards even if she’s pregnant.”

The door to the office opened and Rose was staring at us with hooves on her desk, a small puddle of water at her back hooves. “Silver, I think my water broke.”

Silver sat in stunned silence for a second. “I…”

In a blur of motion Rose no longer was standing behind her desk. She was instead about halfway down the stairs in Silver’s telekinetic grasp. “Here we go, I guess.”

“I didn’t think he could move that fast. That’s incredible speed, even for an alicorn.” Harmony jumped down the stairs after Rose and the unseen Silver.

“Maybe he used teleportation magic.” I suggested as I leapt down the stairs myself. “Nopony can move that fast on their own.”

“Either way we need to get to the hospital quick. No telling what Silver’s going to be like in there.” Harmony broke into a gallop as soon as she hit the door to outside.

Rose was already inside the hospital when we got outside. We galloped as fast as we could.

Inside the hospital was a bit of a mess. A telekinetic fit had gathered up almost all of the supplies and torn doors of there hinges as Silver bolted into the nearest room.

“Now calm down there son. What seems to be the issue?” The old stallion was putting on gloves.

Rose was trying to talk through her breathing. “Contractions…. Baby.. It’s coming…”

The stallion shoved Rose into a room that Silver had already prepared. “Come along you two. No doubt we’ll need some help controlling the eager father.”

We did as we were told. To my surprise Silver actually seemed relatively calm for what was going on around him. It looked like he had set up the room in the few seconds he had been in it. “Yes. Now hurry. She’s gonna need something for the pain.”

The doctor gave him a look before nodding. “Son I’ve delivered more than my fair share of foals. I can’t move as quick as you though. Good thing we’ve got good help here.” He waved me towards a cabinet. “In there should be some painkillers. Get those ready for me.”

I opened the cabinet and looked at the instructions. I had never done this before, but it seemed like a simple enough recipe. After a minute or so the fluid was being given to Rose.

“Remind me to kick Silver’s aSs!!! For doing this to mE!!!” Rose yelled out still in pain.

The doctor calmly nodded, his years of experience showing in the way he worked. “Get over here and hold her hooves. Be prepared though, she might grasp a little hard. Don’t blame her either, this is never pleasant.”

Silver stayed on Rose’s left always reassuring her. “You’ve got this honey. Just focus on your breathing and we’ll get you through this.”

She seemed a little bit better off with this, but it didn’t help much to calm the pain she was in. Her breathing continued to be ragged.

“One last push Dear. You’re almost through it.” Silver said as he kissed Rose on the forehead.

With that two high pitch screams sounded. Two new foals had entered the world. Happy and healthy.

The doctor took a few minutes to clean up the new foals before returning them to Rose. “Congratulations, a beautiful colt and filly.” The doctor let Rose hold her children.

“They’re perfect.” Rose lifted them so Silver could get a better look.

Tears welled in his eyes, but they were tears of joy. He kept his mouth open as he looked for the right words to say. “They’re the best thing that’s happened to me. I love you Rose.”

“I love you too Silver.” Rose kissed him.

The colt was a unicorn sporting a coat a few shades lighter than his father’s with a two tone mane of silver and black. I couldn’t see what the filly was, but I guessed pegasus due to the small bumps at her sides. She was a topaz in color, with a multitone mane of light purple and blue with a single patch of platinum. Which was odd considering neither Rose or Silver had any hint of a green to their coats.

The doctor brought out a few slips of paper. “Not that you need to sign these, It’s a pre war formality. Nopony’s going to ask to see birth certificates for them, but I figured you two might like to fill them out.”

Silver set them down next to the corresponding foal. “Well Honey. It’s time to make those names final.”

“Well I think our daughter will be named Platinum Topaz and our little boy will be Morning Glory.” Rose nuzzled her new foals.

Silver wrote down the names while nuzzling Rose’s neck. “They’re perfect honey.”

I didn’t want to ask what happened next. I knew that the wasteland wasn’t safe for the foals, and I didn’t want them to get hurt, but I also didn’t want to see my friends leave. We still needed them here.

But Silver took a notice to my concern and gave me a calming look. One that told me he wasn’t leaving and neither was Rose. He had a plan in mind that would keep us safe.

Harmony tugged lightly on my tail. “Let’s give them some alone time with the foals.”

I couldn’t help but smile as I gave the family one last look before trotting out the door. I shut it quietly behind me as we went on our way. “That was an ordeal, but I’m glad we could help them out.”

Harmony didn’t return the smalltalk. Something was on her mind and she wasn’t going to talk about it until we got home. She just gave me that look when I tried to coax it out of her while we walked.

When the door to our house finally shut behind us she sighed in relief. “I’m happy we could help too, but this made me think.”

I trotted up the stairs dragging Harmony along with me. “Is it about foals? I said we’d figure something out, and I don’t plan on breaking that promise.”

Harmony stopped me at the door to our room. “I know. I just don’t think I’m ready yet. I still have places I want to see, things I want to do before we try to raise some foals.” She let a tear or two escape. “I thought you might be upset if I told you this.”

I cupped her face in my hooves. “I’m not upset with you. In fact, I completely understand. I’m not ready either. After witnessing that, I don’t think I’ll be ready for a while.”

Harmony smiled slightly. “I was hoping you’d understand.”

“We still have to make the wasteland safe after all. Maybe then we can be comfortable with raising foals of our own, until then” I kissed her. “We’ve got each other, and that’s what matters.”

Author's Note

Work is swamping me, so this is going to be the last upload for a while. Don't worry, I'll be back with more once I get some time to actually write and not just sleep as soon as I get home.

War Plans

It had been quiet lately. Way too quiet for the wasteland. No raiders, no gunships, no bullets being fired at us, nothing. So every single day had felt off since the foals were born. Today was no different. But, I suppose being half awake and running on just about three hours of sleep over the past two days doesn’t help much.

“You feeling alright Silver? You’ve been staring out that window for a few hours now and I’m not sure if you’re awake or not.” Midnight waved a hoof in front of my face.

I nodded. “I haven’t had a whole lot of sleep lately. The foals have kept the both of us awake. Rose is currently sleeping, with the foals in their own cribs now. I said I’d stay up to take any questions ponies had for us.”

There was a short pause. “How are they doing by the way? I thought one had caught a bug?”

“Morning Glory is doing just fine. The doctor said it was nothing to really worry that much about. If anything happens we can take him back and get some medicine for whatever it is. Platinum has been a bit fussy when we try to get her to go down for naps. So it’s been hard for either of us to do much besides tend to our foals. It’s actually quite nice to stand here and talk without worrying about the foals.” I blinked my eyes sleepily.

Midnight nodded as she took a seat. “I’m glad to hear that and I hope you’ll be able to get Platinum down for naps easier here soon. But, that’s not what I came here to talk to you about. I had news from our guards out in the wastes.”

I nodded and turned from the window. “Well I’m all ears. But don’t try and take it to fast, I’m not all here right now.”

Midnight laid some files down on the desk before speaking. “We’ve noticed recently that the old raiders have been retreating to a few seperate places. Three to be specific, one for each of the major raider factions. Crimson Skull’s troops have retreated to the north of us, Tri Tear’s to the south, and Red Eye’s troops to the west. The only routes that are clear right now are the ones towards Tenpony Tower. This in and of itself is odd, we’ve seen them stay close by for far too long for this to seem like a good strategy, the worst part of this is the raiders we’ve seen look more dangerous.”

I nodded. “In what way are they more dangerous? Bigger guns or some less crappy armor?”

Midnight sighed. “Both. The raiders we’ve gotten reports of are wearing power armor and carrying high caliber and explosive weapons. I believe you see the danger in this?”

I nodded a little confused. “Power armor? Are we certain that these are raiders and not just some Steel Rangers? All signs so far point to it being rangers and not raiders.”

Midnight shook her head. “We’ve tried talking to a few and when they started shooting we fired back ending the gunfights quickly. Upon tearing the armor off we found raiders and not the military Rangers. No tags to identify them and the armor itself seemed more shoddily built than anything one of these military groups would be caught dead in.”

“Scrapped power armor? Or is it worse than that?” I saw it in her eyes that she had the same thought. “They’re building their own suits now. Not quality ones that last like prewar gear, but ones that make them no less as deadly as Steel Rangers.” I planted my hooves on the desk. “We’ll need armor piercing ammunition if we’re going to be going against them. Anything less and we might not have the ability to kill them quick enough.”

Midnight smiled sliding over a file. “We’ve got workers on that already. As well as ponies working on other projects to help us combat them.”

I opened the files and skimmed them. “Magical as well as mechanical enhancements to our gear, better bullets, and more firepower than we carried before? These buckers don’t stand a chance if this all works out.”

Midnight nodded and pulled out one more file. “We’ve also got a project under way that the princesses wanted you to see. Something special from their memories of prewar technology and the like.”

I opened the file to look at it and was immediately shocked. “Why would they want to build this for me? I prefer to be unarmored. It makes it easier to be more agile. Being bogged down by that weight wouldn’t help in combat.”

Midnight shook her head. “While the armor is for you. I’ve been assured that it won’t slow you down once everything is implemented correctly. Special magical enhancements by the princesses themselves as well as rare if not one of a kind parts that they’ve managed to save for hundreds of years in perfect condition.”

“It’s a suit of power armor. It’ll slow me down even if it’s enhanced to feel weightless.” I set the file down and rubbed my eyes. “Buck I’m tired.”

Midnight picked up the file. “Well, the option is always there if you want to test it out. It was being specially designed just for you. But it is still like a month out from even being in the testing phase. Until then we do have something for you that won’t slow you down.”

I looked at the gear as she placed it on the table. A set of saddlebags, a customized .308 rifle with several boxes of ammo, and a strange looking double barrel pistol. “Ok, I’ve got one question.”

Midnight picked up the pistol and pulled the slide back. “It’s a modified .44 magnum. Luna hoofed it to me and said to give it to you. Said something about your magic meshing well with it. Even gave you some specialty rounds for it.” She place down two magazines with markings on them and about five 50 round boxes of magnum bullets on the table. “Only fitting that you have a few ranged weapons for punching through armor.”

I nodded and set the stuff aside. “Thank the princesses for me.” I heard the wail just as I finished. “For now, I think Platinum just woke up. Won’t be long before Morning Glory wakes up, and I’m not letting Rose deal with that by herself.”

Midnight nodded getting up from her chair. “I’ll let them know when I next see them. I’ll be back to talk later if you or Rose are free.” With that she left.

I opened the door to our room. Rose was still half asleep tending to Platinum. Morning Glory was surprisingly still asleep, although being sick probably wasn’t helping him. “Silver honey… Could you hold Morning for a bit? I think we might want to take him to the doctor again, just to make sure he’s getting better.”

I nodded and picked up my son. “He feels a little warm. I can take him to the doctor if you think you can handle Platinum for a while.”

Rose nodded. “Thank you. I’ll see what I can do about calming her down. Now go, the doctor did say to not keep him waiting very long.”

I trotted out the door shutting it quietly. “Come on bud, let’s go see what the doctor can do to make you feel better.”

“How were they doing? It’s been a while since we got to see them outside of that room.” Harmony trotted up and hugged me.

I smiled. “Rose was taking a nap. Silver said he’d had relatively little sleep, but it doesn’t seem to be affecting him that much. He did say Morning Glory wasn’t well, so we might see him outside for that.”

“Oh that poor colt. It’s gotta be bad if we’re going see him outside of the safety of his home.” Harmony frowned. “Well, I know Silver will be taking him to the hospital soon. I’m gonna go see if the doctor needs my help with anything and maybe see if I can’t help out with the foal.” She kissed me and trotted out the door.

Onyx and Demo had left for the day, so I had the house to myself. My question was, what should I do? Maybe I’d relax and take a nap. No, I’m not tired. After a few more seconds of thinking I decided that I wanted to be clear on what was in our armory.

The door wasn’t locked, doing so would just delay us if we needed to get inside to access our gear. I swung open the door and was immediately hit with the smell of gun oil. “Aurora. When were these weapons last serviced?”

Aurora was nowhere to be seen. “A few hours before Onyx left. He cleaned them before taking a few of them out on his mission.”

I nodded. “Do you have a list of what we have in here? Something so we can keep track of our equipment? I want to be sure everything is in order, cause we’re gonna need the heavier firepower to punch through the more heavily equipped raiders.”

Aurora flashed into the room for a second before disappearing. “I’ve been trying to get Onyx to install a terminal in here. He’s been to busy to build one though. We’ve got all the parts to do so, but he seems to be the only one with knowledge of the blueprint. Other than that, I do have a complete mental list of all weapons and ammo stored here. Would you like me to read it for you?”

I looked around the room. “Yes please. I’ll be taking weapons out to inspect them and for use once we go back out there.”

As the list was read to me I plucked guns out of their spots around the room. Anything that looked like it packed a punch and all the rounds we had for them. It took a few minutes for me to gather all the gear into a small set up in the center of the room. In total 6 guns and several hundred rounds of ammunition.

“I think this is the best we’ve got in our arsenal.” I said opening the slide on the .50 caliber pistol. “The only problem is ammo, but the princesses are working on making something special.”

“Still, more bullets means you have more chances to put something down or to put multiple things down. You’ll have to keep track of your ammo, and only use the big guns when absolutely necessary. You do only have two mags for that big rifle of yours.” Aurora chimed in marking things off her list.

I sighed. “I would have liked to find more ammo for that thing. But I really don’t want to go to that one store and buy them. That stallion creeps the shit out of me.” Shudder. “Besides, We’ve got plenty of amped up 5.56 rounds for the boar rifle that should punch right through. Hopefully I won’t have to close enough to use the Revolving Sun or any of my other big pistols.”

“Ah yes. Did you grab the .44 magnum? Or has Harmony already gotten ahold of her weapons? I do seem to recall a few more guns going missing sometime today.” Aurora showed me a list of our equipment with several weapons I hadn’t grabbed left unchecked.

“I’ll ask her the next time I see her. She’s probably getting ready, for…, whatever comes next I suppose.” I stopped to think. “What does come next? I mean, I know that we’ll be trying to decimate the waves of raiders so we can put an end to this madness, but what then? My life has become little but explosions, and gunfire.”

Aurora nodded. “Questions that you must answer in time. Ones that will no doubt affect the whole wasteland. But it is not for me to tell you what path to follow. That is your decision and it may come down to a difficult one.”

I gave a slight concerned nod. “I suppose we’ll cross those bridges when we get there. Until then we’ve just got to make sure we have everything in order for when the time comes to fight.” With guns in tow I left the room closing the door behind me. “We’ll be ready when the time comes.”

I should have seen this coming, honestly. It’s not like we had the firepower or armor to be able to take these idiots on in a firefight. But noooooo, we just haad to fight these assholes. “I’m gonna try and flank them. Lay me down some covering fire with whatever you got left in that damn minigun!”

The stallion I was talking to nodded and hopped over the barricade between us and the broken down wagon. He took a few bullets on his way but made it to the gun alive. As the gun spun up a few of the raiders stopped firing at me.

“Now’s your chance. Let ‘em have Onyx.” Demo fired a grenade launcher blindly over the barricade.

I knew I had just one shot at this. Oh buck, Celestia please let this go right, I prayed as I shot out of cover at top speed.

Bullets, grenades, and many other firearm projectiles whizzed by me as I made for the missile launcher on the ground. Luck was with me and I only took a small caliber round to the wing before grabbing the gun and sliding into cover. “Ow! That bucking hurts ya know! Well, let me return the favor!”

Simultaneously the minigun stopped firing and I spun out of cover and unleashed a missile on the defenses that were pinning us down. The resulting explosion sent blood and body parts everywhere for a good fifteen meters. Unfortunately that didn’t mean these idiots were done. More soldiers poured out, taking the places of thoses we just killed.

“Oh goddesses dammit!” I heard Demo yell. As I turned to look at him I saw several explosives fly over his barricade towards the enemies.

I had to duck back into cover as more bullets were fired in my direction. The shots stopped after just a few seconds due to the extreme amount of explosives used on them. “Is it clear!?”

A few more seconds passed before Demo returned with a shout “Yeah! They’re all gone! Let’s see what we can salvage!”

I trotted out of cover bandaging my wing to stifle the bleeding. It felt better, but I thought a visit to the doctor after this might be warranted.

The battlefield was a mess of corpses, both friendly and foe alike lie dead. “That’s a damn shame. Too many good stallions died today. We’ll have to send our condolences to their families.”

Demo nodded with a sigh. “But we’ve still got a job to do and a few soldiers left to work with.” He said pointing to the few living stallions tending to their wounds.

I trotted through the small mess of debri that was left searching for the cargo we came for, but to no avail. “Goddesses dammit! How are they always one step ahead of us? We’ve been following this same caravan for weeks now and every time we get so close to securing that cargo, it slips away.”

Demo took a look around as I ranted. “Well, it’s not a total loss. They do have some rather expensive and rare equipment here.” He said picking up one of several missile launchers. Even have the special branding too. They might not be worth the loss of so many good soldiers, but they will help out in our war to stop this.” A few more steps and he was upon a crate. “Not to mention the specialty missiles and all the normal ones they’ve been carrying.”

I frowned. “I still want to get my hooves on that experimental suit. It’s likely shoddily built, but if intelligence is right, it’s got the blueprints on it for making better suits with actual technology.” I kicked one of the dead caravan guards. “As it stands this stuff doesn’t hold up to enough. I just want it to be worth the dozen or so stallions we’ve lost in search of it.”

One of the remaining soldiers from our squad whistled. “Sir, I think I found something. You might want to come take a look.”

Demo and I trotted over to see what had been uncovered. Underneath the sand was the trade wagon we’d been chasing for a week. “They’ve been hiding it under the sand? Clever tactic, but how do they know…? They’ve got a tracking beacon in the wagon! Get this thing dug up and get what little you can out of it. We’re going to need to leave asap if we want to fight another day.”

The soldiers did as they were commanded. Demo and I set up waiting for the counterattack. No such attack came. “There’s no suit in here sir. Looks like they left some blueprints and whatever they didn’t need to fight back inside.”

I peeked my head in and immediately saw what I was looking for. “Get this equipment back to base. We’re going to need it, and we’re going to need all of you. So Alpha formation, Lightning you take point. Everypony makes it home and so does all of that gear.”

“Sir yes Sir.” They grabbed all that they could and bolted.

I unrolled the blueprint to be sure it was what we had been looking for. “We’ve got what we came for. Let’s head home, but first.” I pulled out one of the satchel charges and set it inside. “Let’s make sure they get none of their assets back.”

Demo smiled. “That is the best way to cripple ‘em. No sales, no resources, and a business starts to fall apart.”

“We’ve got them on the ropes. Just a few more decisive strikes on the right cargo wagons, and we’ll send the investors packing.” I took to the air. “Now let’s not waste time, we do need to get back and report our findings to the Princesses and Silver.”

It wasn’t much of a war room and we weren’t completely here, but dammit if we weren’t both gonna be up to do this briefing. “Alright. If everypony is ready, we can begin the mission briefing.”

Onyx nodded setting a blueprint down on the desk. “We found what we were looking for Silver. Plans for their power armor. I even took the liberty of upgrading the design on the way back.” He said lifting out another blueprint.

Rose set Platinum down. “Good, we’ll want that to get to Celestia and the engineers right away. Anything that they can do will either level the playing field or give us a slight advantage. And by the looks of what Midnight brought us, we’re going to need all the advantages we can get.” She paused for a second to yawn. “Now, Harmony. Have we gotten the full support of the Brotherhood?”

Harmony shook her head. “Unfortunately not. After we kicked most of the Enclave out of the wasteland they decided to send us less and less firepower. We’ve got a small detachment that decided to stay with us. Not but a few suits of power armor and the ponies to run them.”

“Armaments? Anything big?” Rose rocked the little cradle that Platinum was in.

“One is equipped with twin .408 sniper rifles. The other wields dual miniguns. Somewhere in there they have a missile launcher but only three missiles to spare.” Harmony counted as she went. “But I believe the latest shipment of weapons into the city held several crates of missiles. Enough to level a small army if used correctly.”

Demo nodded. “Several crates of standard and a full crate of high explosive. Not much will be able to stand in the way of that kind of blast. Not to mention the three launchers and several other explosive weapons we managed to salvage from that battle.”

“So we aren’t lacking in firepower. We are however outgunned and outnumbered. Three raider groups that we need to keep in check all at once otherwise this city will be a sitting duck just begging to be overthrown.” I waved Stone over. “Any ideas?”

Stone pushed the blueprints on the table aside and laid out one of three maps he had. “I have plans for how each battle can be decisively won. They won’t be true victories as we’ll only push them back and thin their numbers, but it will start to give us the advantage we need to win.”

Though the map was simple the plans on it we’re difficult to pull off. Even if we had highly trained military professionals. “It’s ambitious. Rose and I only ever pulled something like that off once, and we had a big military to support us.”

Stone nodded. “It’s the best we can do given the amount of time we have. All three groups are gearing up to come destroy us and we’ve got limited resources to push them back. I know it seems impossible, but just hear me out. This plan works if and only if we have the element of surprise. Which is where you two come in.” He pointed to Midnight and Harmony. “I understand you have stealthbucks at your disposal.”

Midnight nodded. “Quite a few of them. What should last most ponies their entire lives.” She paused for just a second. “But I have a feeling we’re going to need them now.”

Stone nodded. “It’s simple for the most part. All of our forces lie in wait. Pegasi above the clouds led by Onyx and Demo. Silver will lead the rest of the forces on the ground.”

I interrupted. “That seems like suicide. These bases no doubt have machine guns lining the walls that will tear us to shreds in seconds.”

Stone shook his head. “The plan is for the pegasi to make a bombing run. What the have in machine guns makes them lack air defense. So while the pegasi assert air superiority and tear down what defenses they can, you and several other power armor clad unicorns push the front lines with shield spells to absorb whatever bullets they can still fling at you. If nothing else Midnight and Harmony should have created a rather large and possibly explosive distraction that should draw attention away from you.”

I nodded. “Hit them from so many angles they don’t have a chance to react to the one that is the most important.” I continued to look over the plans. “From the looks of it this plan involves everything we can throw at them. What if we lose soldiers?”

Stone nodded somberly. “Each successive base that we attack loses us much need firepower. That is why Midnight and Harmony are the key to this whole thing working. They need to sneak in and do whatever they can to stop the defenses and raiders from doing anything. Silence the guns, stop our soldiers from dying, move on to the next base. It is key that the move quickly and take whatever weapons they can to assigned drop points for extraction teams to take before moving towards the next base.”

Midnight looked concerned. “So you want us to teleport around the wasteland from area to area? I don’t know if I told you this, but I’m not super confident in my abilities to do that. I’ve only had time to practice a little bit since I got out here.”

Stone sighed. “You won’t have to teleport very far. Just far enough that one of the Princesses can meet you in relative safety and send you to the next base.”

Both princesses trotted through the door. “Pardon our late arrival. We’ve been rather occupied with the engineers. Progress goes well with the manufacturing of ammunition and the repair of weapons and armor to ease the troubles of war.”

“So you both know the plan?” I asked taking my eyes off of Stone for a few seconds.

Celestia gave a slight nod. “I’ll be the one to teleport Midnight and Harmony where they need to be. Luna will provide long range air support where she can.”

Midnight actually looked slightly stunned at that. “You’ll be fighting alongside us? I thought you were diplomats, not trained soldiers?”

Celestia and Luna both giggled. “Oh Midnight if only you had seen us back in our prime. We took on hundreds if not thousands of soldiers as we fought back to back gun and blade striking down our foes. We are fearsome warriors for our lost kingdom and we’ll fight to get back what was stolen from us.”

“No strangers to killing those who dare threaten the peace. Even if that’s what the police and military were for.” Stone muttered under his breath. “So we will have enough fire support to terminate the forward outposts once. Beyond that we’ll have to seek more soldiers from settlements around the wastelands. We might be able to convince PON3 to send out another message, but that in itself could give away our plans.”

Luna shook her head, “No matter. We have a few tricks up our sleeves and we can call upon mighty friends. Celly, you still have the beacon for them do you not?”

Celly? Really?

Celestia nodded. “They do still owe us a favor. Though this will be the last time they help us. After that we do return to being sworn enemies for the crimes they committed against our ponies.” After a second of confusion she spoke again. “The last remaining pack of Diamond Dogs owe us a favor since we save them from annihilation and transformation into hellhounds.”

Stone smiled. “Extra support is always appreciated. Though waiting for their help during a final push to silence one raider faction would be more advisable.”

Both princesses giggled again. “You sound much like all our military advisors in the past. Always warning that we’ll need them later. Every time somepony has said that we’ve call upon our support and destroy whatever threat is thrown our way. Not to mention this time we’ll have our functional suits of power armor to protect us.”

I looked at them a little unsure. “You two have power armor? Since when?”

Celestia scoffed. “We’ve kept our suits in storage since the day after Equestria fell. Still scratched and dented from the impacts of bullets, blades, and boar tusks. Nothing is going to stand in our way. Ten thousand boars didn’t, so a few corrupted souls won’t either.”

Midnight’s eyes lit up a little. “Interesting. Did you store anything else in there? Or is it just the suits of armor?” She knew something I didn’t.

Celestia sighed. “Unfortunately the rest of the gear from our past has either faded from relevance or has gone missing thanks to the displaced.” She muttered under her breath. “I knew sharing space with those displaced was a bad idea.”

“So when do we attack? All of these factors can work together but not if we don’t have time to prepare ourselves for battle.” I said shaking my head sleepily.

Stone nodded. “A rat on the inside has been feeding us information on the schedule for Crimson Skull. Apparently they’ll be having a change of guard in a day. Their forces will be lessened and we’ll have a better chance at striking a blow that weakens them enough that they can’t recover from it. But we’ll have to strike viciously and without hesitation to even have a chance against their firepower.”

I nodded. “I’d assume guns lining the walls and minefields?”

Stone took a second to think. “A minefield surrounds the main perimeter while .50 caliber machine guns line the walls ready to tear anything and everything that tries to advance to shreds. Getting into the compound to at the very least silence the machine guns is our one and only hope of punching through and killing these raiders.”

“Midnight and Harmony will be teleported in by Celly and then they’ll do what they can to silence the main defenses and maybe turn them against the raiders. After that we move on and do it again.” Luna lit up her horn. “Now go get ready. You’ll need everything you can carry if this is going to work.” With that she and Celestia disappeared.

Rose looked around the room. “Sounds like we’ve got a plan. I’d ask for objections but it seems that we no longer call the shots.” She sighed. “You heard the mares, go get ready. We’re gonna be on the clock soon and it sounds like we won’t be off the clock for a long time.”

Midnight and Harmony trotted out of the room talking about last minute preparations. Stone immediately went back into his office already drafting plans in his head. Demo and Onyx were the last to leave. Demo was whispering about explosives and a few new pieces of gear he had picked up.

Rose looked out the window without talking.

So I decided to leave. “I’ll talk to you later honey. I’ve got a few things to grab from the armory.”

She remained silent as she stared out the window, contemplating the world.

Author's Note

I finally got time to finish this chapter. Sorry for the long wait, work and school have both been eating up my time. I promise that more uploads will be coming after I get some chapters written. Thanks for your patience.

To the Death

Author's Note

I realized after uploading the last chapter I hadn't done a fuller version of the princesses final stand at Canterlot. I've had it on my mind for a while and wanted to get it out before I forgot. Hope y'all enjoy.

To the Death

“After everything we went through, all of our trials to be good leaders for thousands of years, it all ends in a bloodbath. We’ve never lost a war before, diplomacy and overwhelming force have held us over for almost 15,000 years.” I knew tears were rolling down her face. “Why did it come to this? Why must this be the way our glorious kingdom ends? Sombra, all of tartarus, even a war with the dragons, nothing ever threatened to end us. NOTHING!”

I put a hoof to the shoulder of her armor. “Lulu, there is nothing more we could have done. We tried diplomacy, we tried overwhelming force, we used almost all of our resources to fend them off. You can’t blame yourself, it wasn’t your fault, it was mine. I should have told Twilight about her parents sooner, about her friends sooner, maybe that would have prevented everything from going this far.”

“Celestia, Luna, your highnesses. They’re assembling at the base of Canterlot, preparing to march up here and tear down the castle. What should we do?” The last captain of the honor guard, his armor barely holding together, still fighting.

“We fight to the last, just like we have always promised to do. They took our kingdom from us, so we take their glory from them. If they want this castle, they’ll have to take it from or cold dead hooves. And killing US, especially with our honor guard is not a feat that is so easy to accomplish.” Maintain your regality to the end, even if we’re fighting to the death we have to show them that they can’t break our spirits. “What do you say sister? We show them the true might of the princesses, show them that no matter what, the spirit and soul of Equestria will never be broken.”

Luna brought her head back up drawing her sword and pistol as she did. “I’m out of rounds for my rifle, but I’ve still got hundreds left for Lunar Judge. Together we bring judgement day down on them, and none of them will escape the pits of tartarus for their crimes.”

“Captain, I’ll give you a choice, and it’s not an easy one. Fighting them head on is suicide and not something I can ask of you. If you or any of the honor guard wish to, you may live to see another day. Let us have our last battle, even if we’re overwhelmed, you will carry on our legacy for the future.”

The final few honor guard soldiers trotted through the door, armor trying to repair itself as they walked. “No. Not in a million years, we swore an oath to protect the both of you until our dying breaths. We’d all rather die with honor and with your names on our lips than to live our days out knowing we backed down when you needed us. We’ll show those boars what it means to be real soldiers, even with the odds 1000 to 1 Equestrians fight to the last.”

I looked over the rag tag group. Ten of us, including Luna and myself. “Prepare what heavy weapons we have, unleash them upon the army below, and set your suits to self destruct if your vital signs flatline. Fight to the last my little ponies, and let the afterlife accept you as soldiers and legends, let all who follow know that we fought to our dying breath and the we were fighters to the end.” I drew my sword. “And let those boars down there feel the wrath of the Sun, the Moon, and all of the ponies who they killed in this war. For Glory, For Honor, For Equestria! Send em to the grave!”

They all sprinted off, knowing they would die today. “Celly, are you sure about this? We’ve been through tough times, but we might die today. Immune to aging or no, mortal wounds will still kill us, I’m afraid. I know what the afterlife looks like, but I’m not ready to go yet.”

I put a hoof over her shoulder and rested my head against hers. “Relax you silly filly, we won’t meet our end today, they won’t kill us, nay can’t kill us. We stand together, as we always have and nothing can stop us. Right?”

Luna looked up and locked eyes with me. “Right… We can do this. We’re princesses, goddesses, the strongest soldiers to have ever lived and with over 10,000 years of wars to prove it.”

“We’re ready. Give us the word and we’ll kick this off.”

“Fire everything you’ve got. We’re ready when you are.” I trotted over to the door, 20 feet tall made of solid oak. “Ready yourself sister, it’s time.” I reared my back hooves and slammed them into the door. It came cleanly off its hinges and began its spiral down to the enemy below. “Kill them all, show no mercy!”

The first and only volley of explosives rained down, the explosions tore apart the boars in the rear, almost 2,000 wiped away in nuclear fire. Now began the work, tearing the remaining eight thousand apart.

Luna rocketed at the ground ahead of me, her sword drawn and ready, pistol unleashing magazine after magazine as she accelerated at the ground, her dark aura growing ever stronger.

My own aura of bright light followed closely behind, my sword ready and the Revolving Sun firing balls of supersonic superheated plasma, the barrel would give out before I finished firing them, but I wanted them to feel the wrath of the sun.

Rainbow Dash would have been proud if she was still around to see us, both of us pulling out of our dive and emitting a mini rainboom as we went. Our magic barely holding onto our blades as we crisscrossed mid air, tearing boars in power armor in half. Our explosive combo of auras came to rest in the center of the boars.

Luna was still firing her pistol behind me, swinging at anything that got too close. All I had was my sword, and I wasn’t going to let one of them get close enough to hurt her. I heard our final soldiers making their push, miniguns, grenade machine guns, plasma gatling guns. Every big weapon we had left, they were giving it their all to get to us.

“Come get some you stupid bucking boars! You took our kingdom from us, so we’re taking your lives from you!” She always did have a fighting spirit, even if she was a little childish from time to time.

My armor was absorbing most of the hits, but I was starting to feel some of them. “Dammit! Aurora is anything critically damaged on either of us?”

My display popped up, both of our armors were in the red. “I’m doing everything I can to keep systems online. There are too many of them, even if your armor was designed to handle a balefire bomb, it can’t handle this rate of sustained fire.”

A detonation akin to a balefire bomb rung over the battlefield. “Captain’s gone, but he took a few hundred with him, we’re thinning their forces. Just keep fighting boys, we’ve got…” another explosion, followed by six more spread all around us.

“Aurora, transfer yourself to auxiliary facility. Find somepony to rebuild, our great nation.” A bullet tore through my armor hitting the electronics where Aurora was. “Aurora!”

“I uploaded all the important information. Plans, everything, but that hit took most of me with it, goodbye Celestia, kill a few of them for me.” She dissipated into a cloud of pixels.

“One more good push Lulu, we’ve got them on the ropes. We’re gonna make it through!” The army was still collapsing on top of us, more than a thousand soldiers throwing themselves at us.

“Their starting to punch through my armor, I don’t think we can keep this up much longer!” She sounded tired, her vitals still holding steady enough. Too much more and her body might give out on her. Both of us were starting to feel the overuse of our magic, our horns about to explode from overuse.

I was beginning to think we might die, then it happened. She reappeared. A purple aura light up the sky around us, a spell targeting only the boars. “This is what you get for ripping my friends away from me!” A voice louder than even the royal canterlot voice, no spell boosting it, just pure rage.

The last thousand boars dropped dead around us, some unimaginably painful death. She may have been the princess of friendship, but after she lost her friends she became a monster. Equinity lost, no hope behind her eyes, the core of her very being shifter, even her cutie mark had been taken away. The mare that was my student no longer existed, a hollow angry shell remained. “Twilight, stop!”

As quickly as she appeared, she disappeared. The sky regaining the ugly green glow of radiation.

“Not again! Just one chance to try and talk to her is all I ask. I know it won’t be easy to do, but she needs to pass on, her friends are waiting for her, and soon enough she’ll figure out how to bring them back.” I kicked with enough force to send a power armor clad boar two hundred feet into the air and a half mile away.

“We need to go Celly, our armor is barely holding together and those irradiated… things, will be on us in a few minutes. We’re hurt, our armor is almost beyond repair, we’ve done everything we can, we’ll look for her, but for now we need to keep ourselves alive so we can find her another day.”

I nodded knowingly. “There is the last stable that was for us, we can rest there for a while before we make our next move. Hopefully we can start to rebuild our kingdom soon, we’ll need to find the elements again and not just their emodiements in ponies. The element of magic is still with Twilight. The rest are scattered, and I have no idea where.”

“We’ll find them and rebuild. Rebuild as we’ve done before, but this time it will last longer, and we’ll be better.”

Crimson Skull

The next few weeks I trained around the clock in both my world and my dream world. My magic and flying still needed work but my strength had come along. Each day after I fell asleep Blaze greeted me and we began training immediately.

“Well Silver I think I have done all that I can do for now. Go see Ace or Violet.” He looked over a clipboard satisfied.

“Who do you think I should go see?” I was use to training with Blaze and was unsure of what to do now.

“Well personally I would rather you not do anymore of that magic. So I think you should go see Ace. He’s one of the best fliers we have in our group. Comes in handy when you need an aerial assault to keep you alive.” He pointed towards where Ace was landing.

“Ok.” I smiled and trotted over to him.

“Oh heya Silver. I bet you’ve come here to train with the best flier of us all. I suppose I was paid to teach you so come on.” He flapped his wings a few times and then took off.

Ace was well over a hundred feet in the air in a few seconds. I looked timidly up at him before taking off at a much slower rate.

“Come on. You’ll need to fly faster than that before we can call your training complete. Honestly if you try at all you should be able to keep up with me in about a week or two. Just know this won’t be easy.” He hovered down twenty feet or so.

“Hey Silver if you are going to train up that high I think we should also train you on your magic.” Violet amplified her voice using some magic.

“Violet don’t you think we should take this slow?” Ace’s voice was not nearly as loud.

“We are already behind schedule Ace. Besides he is an alicorn. He should be able to handle a little bit of magic with his flying.” Violet dispersed her magic and motioned for us to fly lower.

“Fine.” Ace folded his wings to his sides and dropped rapidly towards the ground.

I again took the slower path. Just before I was level with Ace a target was thrown into the air in front of me. Instinct took over and I charged up my magic. I released a bolt of magic aimed at the target. I missed just barely. Ace took this opportunity to smash the target to pieces with his talons.

“Well for not being ready for that you did pretty well.” Violet was still shouting but didn’t have to use her magic.

“Not well enough.” Ace was nearby observing.

“Oh you are already going into a more advanced course of flying and magic. I hoped we wouldn’t see anymore of his alicorn magic for a while. This isn’t going to get crazy is it?” Blaze trotted over looking up to us.

“Only a little.” Violet teased him.

A second target came flying through the air directly at me. My reaction was slow but I still beat the target. It whizzed less than two inches by my muzzle. My reaction was not magic. I felt a little angry that these ponies were going to push me beyond what I thought was capable.

My left wing flicked towards the target. Fire erupted from my wing and engulfed the target. It’s fall ended in front of me as it was turned into ash.

“Holy shit.” Ace was staring in awe. An expression I had never seen on his face. “Nice shot.”

“Well if you keep that up we’ll be done in less than a week's time.” Violet was motioning for a few more targets.

A few ponies had gathered below me and were lightly tapping their hooves on the ground. I felt better. I watched the fire on my wing die down.

“Hey kid.” Ace drew closer to me.

“Yeah Ace?” I turned to look at him.

A look of disgust covered his face. “No one loves you. You are going to die alone. Look at all those ponies down there they are only applauding you because we get paid more if we do.” He pointed a tallon down to the group below us.

“No.” I sniffled a little bit. “No you’re lying. I won’t believe you.”

“Get used to it kid. That’s how the wasteland works. You’ll never be able to protect yourself much less anypony else.” He prodded my chest.

Something inside me snapped. I lashed out with my empatha and my horn. Through foggy eyes I saw three targets still rising into the air. All of the magic I had summoned up had entirely missed Ace and was headed straight for the targets.

The center one exploded as the other two were frozen solid. I shifted from being sad to being enraged. At my will the two remaining targets exploded into fireballs.

I looked around for a few seconds before my gaze fell upon Ace. I summoned up another wave of magic and teleported behind him. He jumped as I appeared behind him. He tried to fly away from me but found himself contained within a bubble.

“Hey Silver I would very much appreciate it if you let me out of here.” He was pressing up against the bubble trying to break it.

“After what you said I think it is safe to say when you get out of that bubble you will be nothing more than a pile of ashes.” My eyes shifted. A filter of red covered them.

“Silver this isn’t funny. Look I’m sorry about what I said but we needed to test you on your empatha. It wasn’t my idea I swear.” Ace’s face was contorted in fear.

“Keep talking. You might find yourself in a position to live longer.” I felt myself lose control. I tried to fight it but my body took over.

I brought both of us down to the ground. I shrunk the bubble around Ace as I touched down.

“Whose idea was this?” I could feel myself slipping.

“I’m not at liberty to disclose that information.” Ace responded trying to sounded strong.

The shield started shrinking.

“Tick Tock. The clock is running down. I say you have another minute or so before you are crushed to death.” I was fighting to regain control.

“That won’t be necessary.” Violet spoke calmly.

Violet and Blaze were approaching me. Two shields formed around them.

“Until I get answers these three are staying inside those bubbles. Now tell me if you would please. Whose idea was it to do that to me.” A small portion of the red filter was lifted from my eyes.

A new stallion stepped forward.

“The Celestia and Luna from your world have requested that we train you to use your powers. Not many alicorns are just born that way. Those that are have incredible power that must be used for good.” The stallion’s horn was glowing.

“Thank you. They are still not going free though. I think a little bit of pain is in order.” I was fighting as hard as I could to pull myself away from whatever was controlling me.

Before I could act a bolt of magic struck my side. The spell was meant to stun and knock me out. I hit the ground and everything went dark.

“Well thank you for that Crimson.” Ace was poking me again.

“Nopony threatens the Skulls and gets away with it.”

Instead of waking up in my bed at home I found myself lying on the ground in a prison cell.

“You caused quite the disturbance in our little camp. It is not wise to mess with Crimson Skull. I am a powerful pony you know. I could have you killed and nopony would care.” By my best guess this was the stallion who had stunned me with his magic.

“What. This is all I dream that I’ve been able to control so why haven’t I gone home yet.” i looked around.

“This isn’t a dream. This is the real world. You have been brought here because it is safer for you to be here than in your own world. You have been deemed important enough by those who can travel between dimensions, universes, worlds and have been brought here for training.” The stallion stood.

I looked at him and laughed. “Ok. So if this is an alternate world or whatever where is the me of this world?” I knew I had this all figured out.

“Let’s see the you of this world died before his mother gave birth to him. I may have been the one to cause that. Trust me though she deserved it. Do you want to see the skull? I’m pretty sure I still have it around here somewhere.” He looked around.

My wings began to burn as my hatred for this stallion grew. He simply looked at me. I let loose a little bit of flame. The cell I was in had been enchanted so that any attacks from inside would be bounced around inside. I narrowly avoided being burned.

“Well it seems you have a lot to learn.” The stallion charged his magic for a moment before hitting me with a bolt of lightning. “The first is to learn where you stand in this world. Anytime you step out of line you will be electrocuted. It will be excruciatingly painful.”

For the next thirty seconds he hit me continuously with bolts of lightning. I had collapsed after the first one and was writhing in agony every time I got hit again.

“I would hate to have to kill you. Your princesses can’t travel here alone so for now I am safe. Now get up we have more work to do.” He unlocked the door to my cell.

“Ok. Just don’t shock me anymore.” I got shakily to my hooves.

The door to the cell opened and I hobbled out. Thoughts were racing through my head. Part of me wanted to tear this stallion to shreds for what he had done to me. I understood why he had done what he did. I had nearly killed three individuals who were just trying to train me to use my magic.

We trotted into a room where Ace, Violet, Blaze and a pegasus I had never met before were sitting.

“So the kid seems more or less ok. I thought the mighty Crimson Skull would surely have killed him. Care to explain why you didn’t?” The mare pegasus looked rather irritated to see me.

“The princesses from his world can come here and kill me. They could kill us all. Remember? They only need one of the displaced to travel with them.” Crimson Skull was glaring at the other three present.

“So what if they do come over here? You can just rip their skulls out and hang them high on the wall.” The mare shrugged as she spoke.

“I could but not on two alicorns at once. I would be lucky if I killed one of them. We can’t risk it.” He glared at her.

I took a seat on the floor feeling a little bit weak from what I had just heard. Seriously this pony could rip skulls out of ponies.

“Now we are going to decide the future of this colts training. Ace for being so irresponsible in your training methods you are being demoted. You will not train this colt any longer. Violet and Blaze you two are only getting a minor reduction in how much you are getting paid. Ace you may leave anytime you wish.”

Ace cursed under his breath before flying out the nearest window.

“Now Lieutenant. You are tasked with training him. Do well and you might get a raise.” He spoke to the mare.

“Understood Sir.” The mare stood and saluted.

“Good. Dismissed.” Crimson turned to me. “Go meet your new teacher.” He pushed me towards the new mare.

I got to my hooves and trotted very very slowly over to this pegasus mare who would be teaching me.

“Hello?” She looked down at me.

“Never thought I would have to train somepony who is as hopeless as you.” Her voice was cruel.

“What?” I thought I had proved decent at most things that I did until this point.

“Nevermind. The names Spitfire. From now on you will do exactly as I say when I say it. Understood?” She glared at me.

I cowered a small bit. “Um.” She smacked me across the muzzle with her right wing.

“Answer the question you were asked.” She was standing over me menacingly.

“Yes.” I rubbed my cheek.

“This is going to be a long week. I hope you didn’t have anything else planned because you are getting a crash course in flying over the next week.” She turned and trotted to the door. “You coming or not?” She stretched out her wing again.

“Well.” I looked out the window. “The sun is setting and I was told that I would be returning home after the sun went down.” I was hoping I could escape and never come back.

“Well tough shit. You aren’t leaving here until you are able to keep up with me.” She flapped her wings a few times.

“But.” I cowered as she approached me.

“No butts except yours in the air now.” She slammed a hoof into the ground.

I leapt into the air. She eyed me over a few times.

“Now give me twenty laps around this place.” She pointed out the door.

I shot off into the distance. One thought occupied my mind completely. This mare is a complete bitch.

Big Guns and Bigger Assignments

The sun had set and we weren’t quite back to New Appleloosa.

“So do you guys just want to set up a camp here and stay out for the night?” I was a slight bit tired and extremely confused. After going into that weird world I was questioning everything I knew.

“I suppose we could. Did you bring anything to keep warm?” I was starting to reconsider who was in charge of this group Silver had really taken charge when it came to our operations.

“I brought a few blankets and some stuff to build a fire. That should be enough to survive the night even if it is a little cold.” I pulled out a few sleeping bags and some wood.

“Well I would like to stay out and watch the stars for a while.” Onyx looked up as he talked.

I looked to the sky. The stars were out and shining down upon us. I had been out of the stable for around one month and not once had I just sat down and stared at the sky. The sight was breathtaking. I just sat and stared out into the universe thinking how beautiful it was.

“Are you going to give us the stuff to set up a camp or not?” I levitated the stuff to Silver and continued to stare at the stars. “Thanks. Do you guys mind helping me set up camp so we don’t freeze to death? Midnight is a little out of commission at the moment.” Silver started the fire with his wing.

Camp was set up around me and all the while I just stared at the stars. A thought came to me. I knew that other creatures existed in the universe and some of them could come to this world if they wanted to. Any species that could travel between worlds had the technology to take over our post apocalyptic society. Fear controlled my mind and my body froze. Harmony had seen this happen and trotted over to me.

“Hey Midnight you need to snap out of it.” She laid a hoof on my shoulder. “What is it that’s got you frozen?” She dragged me to my hooves.

I snapped out of it. “Just had a disturbing thought about the universe we live in.”

“Aliens?” This question was simple yet terrifying.

“Yeah.” I kept my eyes to the stars.

“Don’t worry even if they could travel here we don’t have anything they want. We can’t leave this planet. Therefore if they can get here through space we have nothing they want. Do you feel better now?” She kissed my forehead.

Truthfully I didn’t feel too much better about this but I pretended I did. “Yeah.” I yawned. “Let’s go to bed. I’m kind of tired.” I trotted over to the blanket Harmony had set down near the campfire for us.

It was really warm next to the fire and I wasn’t sure I would need this blanket to keep warm. Harmony crawled underneath the blanket and beckoned me to do the same. I crawled under and was happy that the fire was there.

“The ground is freezing. The campfire makes it mostly better though.” I shivered a bit.

“Not to mention you’ve got me to cuddle up to.” Harmony wrapped herself around me.

“Oh so it’s me who cuddles up to you. I thought it was the other way around.” I stayed curled up next to her.

“Usually is but I figure I can repay the favor today.” She nuzzled my neck.

“Seriously did we not talk about this today?” Onyx was on the other side of the fire.

“We did Onyx but I told you to shut up. I’m going to show my love for this mare whenever I want.” I opened my eyes and returned to star gazing.

He tossed a rock in my general direction. “Just go to bed.”

“Fine.” I stayed up for about another hour staring into the sky. I then drifted off to sleep.

We were back to New Appleloosa in an hour or so after we woke up. We made our way to Spitfire’s office.

“I expected you all to be back last night. What kept you?” Spitfire had two hooves up on her desk.

“We decided to camp outside of town and watch the stars.” Nopony had been answering so I decided to answer.

“You sat outside and watched the stars. You realize you could have been killed right?” Spitfire dropped her hooves back to the floor.

“I suppose we probably could have been but I’m pretty sure Silver didn’t sleep last night.” I tossed a glance his way.

“Well Silver were you watching over them?” Spitfire was right up in his face.

“Yes I was. I don’t have an easy time sleeping in places I don’t know. I can sleep there if I really try but usually I just stay up and watch out for anything that might be trying to kill me.” He pushed her away.

“You are all lucky that Silver was there to watch over you. Anything could have been out there just waiting to pounce on you. Anyways I have tasked strike teams to pick up the slack since you all haven’t been attacking the camps surrounding us. We do have a few camps we want you to take down.” She stopped.

“We’re listening.” I was more sarcastic than I had wanted to be.

“I was just realizing that Silver hasn’t replaced his throwing knives yet. You might need a few of those to survive these camps we want you to take on. They are somewhat similar to that last camp you secured. A few of them are more well defended so you might need some heavier weapons.” She spun back towards her desk.

I presented the .50 caliber I had bought. “I think I’ve got big guns covered.” I was really cocky about that statement.

“That might work to take down the heavily armored guards. How many bullets do you have for it?” Spitfire glanced back at me.

I counted in my head. “I have five shots for it.”

“Well don’t miss if you have that few. Hold on.” She turned around and pulled a painting down to reveal a safe. She pulled out a few boxes of bullets and a revolver. “Here's a box of bullets for that .50 you’ve got there.” She hoofed me over the box.

“And what about that revolver?” I slid the bullets into my saddlebag after loading the magazine.

“That revolver is a special weapon. It shoots magically enhanced bullets. It was one of the only things that I was able to bring with me here from the other world.” She hoofed me the gun.

“You’re letting me have this?” I held the gun in front of me.

“You’re going to have to work for it but after a while yeah I’ll let you have the gun. For now you’ve got about fifteen shots for that .50 and two cylinders worth for that revolver. Use them only when you need to do so. Ammo for those things costs a fortune.” She shut the safe and put the painting back up.

“That’s an understatement. Is that all?” I slid the revolver into a holster.

“Yes. Dismissed.” Spitfire waved us off.

Silver saluted her and I had a strange feeling like I should as well. I didn’t and we walked out of the office. I looked at my pipbuck map. To see the camps she had marked.

“Well it looks like we have four more camps to take over.” I flipped over to a note on my pipbuck. “She wants this done by the end of the week.” I put my leg back down.

“She wants us to have all of these secured in two days?” Silver was really pissed.

“Silver. I have something for you.” Spitfire had opened the door again.

“What is it Spitfire?” Silver looked at her.

“A few blades for your wing. I did say you would need them to survive. Almost forget them.” She hoofed him a package.

He took out a couple of the feather like blades. “These look like the ones I usually make. How did you make these?” He slid the blades into spots in his wing.

“One of the blades struck a wall and didn’t disintegrate. So I had the best smiths in town reverse engineer that blade so they could make more. Cost me a fortune to get those made so don’t use them up too quickly.” She stood waiting.

“Understood. Any other mission objective I should be aware of?” Silver put his wing back down.

“Nothing else soldier. Dismissed.” They both saluted.

I waited until Spitfire had left before asking my question. “Do you always have to salute her? She seems to be just a normal mare here in this world.” We continued downstairs.

“Even if we are in this world and not the world I was trained in I’m still a soldier and she is my superior officer. I have to salute her. It’s been hardwired into my brain to do so.” Silver rolled his shoulders.

I nodded and we walked outside. I checked the map on my pipbuck to see where the camps she wanted us to take out were. They were out farther than the other camps were but they covered easily twice the area.

“Do you think an aerial attack would work?” I had stopped when I saw Silver standing in front of me staring into the distance. “Silver are you there?” I shook him a few times.

“I’m here. What did you need?” Silver was distracted by something.

“Do you think we’ll be able to attack these next camps from the air?” I stepped away from him.

“They might have some anti-air capabilities but if they don’t an aerial assault would be best. Have a sniper cover from a distance while the others sneak in and kill off those they can before everything goes to shit.” He stopped. “But that’s just speculation. I have to see the camp first before I decided the plan of attack.”

“We should get going if we want to reach one of these camps before noon. Unless you’ve got a quicker way to get us there.” I started towards the gate.

“Why don’t you just teleport us there?” Silver brought his eyes back down to look at us.

“Well Silver.” I hesitated and started whispering. “I’m not that good with magic.” I looked down to the ground.

“What was that I didn’t quite hear you?” Silver put a hoof to his ear.

“I said I’m not great with magic. I haven’t had time to practice new magic since I left the stable and inside they don’t teach you much magic. I learned levitation and a translation spell that’s it.” I kept my eyes pinned to the ground.

“What species’ language did you learn to translate?” Silver seemed genuinely curios.

“It should work for talking with most sentient species. Any that have a language that is vocal I should be able to translate back to equestrian. The translations might be crude but they usually convey enough meaning that you should be able to understand.” I finally brought my eyes to meet his.

“Well that could be useful one day. I think they have a couple of chariots here that we can use.” He yelled to Spitfire. “Hey Spitfire do you have a few chariots we could use?”

Spitfire called back. “Yeah. They are on the roof so you pegasi will need to get them. Have the others meet you outside the gates. It’s easier to land out there and not hit something.”

“Thanks.” No further response came from Spitfire. “Now then we have transportation so that should speed this up a bit. Let’s go.”

And we were off.

We had been looking the first camp over for an hour or so.

“So you think that you can fly over the camp without being shredded to bits?” I was setting my rifle up.

Silver had been studying the camp intensely. “I might be able to make one pass over the camp before they start to shoot at me. If you cover the other four while I make my pass over they might not notice them getting close to the wall. You’ll just have to pick off those trying to use those turrets.” Silver pointed to a myriad of turrets along the walls.

“And you’re telling me this is one of the less fortified camps.” I counter five or more turrets.

“Yeah this is the camp that is the least fortified. The last one we need to take out has turrets twice that size and more ponies guarding the walls.” Silver put his hoof back down and looked over his weapons.

“And you know this how?” I levitated my .44 down next to my rifle.

“I’ve had a few ponies scout them out for us. They have been giving me good information. Now are we ready to do this?” Silver levitated a revolver back into his saddlebags.

I flicked on my microphone. “Harmony can you hear me?”

She nodded before turning on her own microphone. “Loud and clear.”

Aurora flicked into reality. “Now remember you two this drains the power from your suits. Use too much of that power too quickly and you’ll be reduced to a crawl when trying to move.”

I turned off my microphone. “Yeah Aurora we know. We just need these to communicate when absolutely necessary.” I laid down next to my rifle.

“Good because I run off of this suit of yours. I need enough power to keep some of these systems running.” I was a bit surprised by that but wasn’t able to protest as she slipped away from reality.

“Let’s do this. We have three more camps better armed than this one to take out after all.” Silver was hovering in the air.

“Alright. Everypony get to work.” I pulled my rifle to my shoulder.

Silver made his pass over the camp.

Silver’s POV

The camp was a hundred feet or so below me. I channeled my inner rage and threw a few fireballs down at the camp. I dived down towards the ground and prepared to throw one of my knives.

A few ponies were pointing and shouting. I caught the last little bit as I got close to the camp. “Shoot that bastard down.”

I tossed a blade at the mare who had just been talking. She saw the blade coming a second before it her square between her eyes. She burst into flame and fell to the ground. She had been dead before the fire overtook.

“You’re going to regret that you piece of shit.” A stallion had jumped onto a large turret and was spinning it up.

I had a few seconds before that gun tore me to shreds. I channeled my mana and ripped his skull out. I faltered in the air for a second before regaining my strength.

A group of ponies were charging me. I hurled myself into the air as I hurled a fireball to the ground. The fire splashed against the ground and scattered to the ponies who had been charging me. Most got away without a singed hair. The unlucky few who had been next to the explosion were engulfed in fire.

“Holy shit. Don’t just stand there put them out.” A stallion galloped forward.

I was still not used to the sound ponies made when they were being burned alive. I had burnt so many ponies to death over the years that I had learned to ignore it, but every time I burned somepony I heard their screams as they tried in vain to put themselves out.

I knew that if all this did one day become a society where nopony had to kill anypony I would need some serious counselling to get over this.

I didn’t have time to think as somepony else was spinning up the turret. I was sure we’d get paid extra if that thing stayed intact. As a last attempt to kill the gunner without hurting the turret I pulled out the one gun I had. The 9mm was nothing to admire but it got the job done. A few shots later and the turret had only been hit once. I really needed to train with guns if I survived this.

I shot off into the distance avoiding gunfire as I flew. A few bullets grazed me but I continued flying ignoring the pain. I stopped just outside the wall and dropped to the ground.

Midnight’s POV

The turret had whirred to life a few times and I saw Silver disappear. I was almost certain that he had gotten hit a few times. I was worried but I knew he would survive. During his distraction the rest of the group had gotten up to the wall. They were all huddled close together.

I flicked on my mic. “Hey Harmony what’s going on?”

It was a few seconds before she responded. “We are preparing to breach the wall. I swear if we didn’t regulate Demo he would probably just blow this place up.” I heard a small thud in the background.

“Planting the charge now. Prepare to enter the camp.” Demo stepped away from the wall.

I watched as a small portion of the wall exploded sending debris into the camp. From my spot on the ground I could see over the wall a little bit. I started taking shots at ponies inside the camp. I couldn’t take out more than a few before nopony else entered my sights. I stood up and started galloping towards the camp.

The hole in the wall was just large enough for a fully grown stallion to walk through. Demo had a way with explosives that literally blew the minds of ponies. I trotted through the opening.

My friends were ducked behind cover a few yards into the camp. A few of the raiders caught on to my presence. I started firing taking a few of them down before I was forced behind cover.

“Well that wasn’t the heroic rescue I was hoping for.” Onyx was reloading his pistol.

“Shut up Onyx. I’m here now and we need to get out of this before they kill us or worse.” I peeked over the wall. A few bullets whizzed by and I ducked back down. “Any Ideas?”

“Take this.” Demo tossed me a metallic thing.

“What is this?” I rotated the strange device around.

“That is a grenade. It is an explosive device.” Demo took ahold of his gun and took a few potshots.

“Ok. Cool. But how do I use it?” I was still rotating the grenade around.

Onyx rolled his eyes. “You pull the pin and throw the rest of it towards the enemy. Now could you please kill them before they kill us?” Onyx took a few potshots of his own.

I pulled the pin and tossed the grenade over my hiding place. A few seconds later it exploded sending shrapnel everywhere.

A few bits and pieces of ponies flew over the wall and landed in front of me. I was slightly sick at the thought of what might lay beyond this wall. Onyx was saying something but I couldn’t really hear him. The blast had deafened me for a few seconds. My hearing started to come back to me.

“Equestria to Midnight. Are you there?” Onyx waved his hoof at me.

I turned to him. “I’m here just trying to imagine what the other side of this cover looks like.” I sat there waiting for the ringing to subside.

“Not pretty but you got the job done. I would have had Demo use those but he just won’t touch the things after his last experience with them.” Onyx peeked over the cover.

“Understandable. I don’t like them since they deafen me.” I put a hoof to my left ear.

“Yeah they do have that effect like all other explosives. Now we need to get moving before they swarm us again.” A fireball struck one of the buildings behind me.

“Well sounds like Silver is going to need some help.” I gestured with my head. “Let’s go our friend needs us.” I rolled out from behind cover.

After I stopped rolling I was staring down a stallion clad in a suit of power armor. He had no guns on his side so I thought I was safe. He lifted up one of his hooves and slammed it into my chest. I have no idea how far back I flew but after he hit me I was airborne for at least two seconds. I skidded to a stop outside of the wall.

Aurora’s voice filled my head. “Administering health potion. Hang in there.” The world started to come back into focus.

“What the buck just happened to me?” I had a large pain in my chest.

“That stallion has a power hoof.” Aurora pulled up a hologram database of weapons.

“What is that?” I pushed myself onto my hooves.

Aurora rummaged through the database before stopping on a weapon. “It’s a gauntlet strapped onto a pony's leg that can be used to administer damaging often lethal hits with very little sound.” I tried walking. “Stop. You need to wait a few seconds for the healing potion to have full effect. You’re lucky that blow would have killed you had you not been wearing this armor.”

I waited a few seconds and trotted forward as fast as I could. One of my guns had fallen out of my saddlebags while I was in the air. It was the revolver Spitfire had given me. I picked it up and spun the cylinder.

“Midnight are you ok?” Harmony’s voice swam in my head.

“I’m fine Harmony I just got the wind knocked out of me.” I slowed down for a few steps.

Harmony’s voice came into full focus. “Good. Can you hurry back and take care of this guy. He has almost killed me twice now.” Her voice disappeared.

In that moment my speed tripled and I galloped through the hole and at the stallion in armor. I was almost up to him as he almost landed a punch on Onyx. I jumped into the air and landed on his back.

“What the buck?” He spun his head towards me.

“Remember me you bastard.” I pulled the trigger firing a bullet into his skull. He froze for a second before falling to the ground.

“Don’t get up or I will kill you slowly.” I stood up and kicked his corpse. I looked down to his power hoof. “And I’m taking this.” I pulled the device of his leg and inspected it. I slipped it onto my front right hoof.

“Stealing from the dead huh?” Silver had landed beside me.

I spun around a threw my front right hoof at him. The power hoof activated and unleashed a devastating hit upon a shield that stood in my way. “Don’t sneak up on me damnit.” I pulled my hoof back.

“Sorry I was just making sure you were all okay. Nice piece of equipment you’ve got there.” He gestured at the power hoof.

“Do you have a problem with stealing from the dead?” I put my hoof on the ground.

“No I figured you might have a problem with it. Maybe you do but you were just forgetting about because somepony threatened Harmony.” Silver looked back to one of his wings.

I hadn’t stolen anything from those who I had killed until now. The more I thought about it the more I was disgusted by what I had just done. I was okay with killing to protect my friends but I wasn’t sure whether or not to steal from the dead.

“I.” I stopped. “I don’t know.” I looked at the dead stallion. “I haven’t ever really thought about stealing things from those I killed. Something inside me snapped after I heard Harmony say he almost killed her.”

Silver put his left wing over me. A soft clank happened as he did so. “I know how you feel. I had to decide about that a few years back. I have come to terms with it. Sometimes you have to take things from those who you’ve killed just to survive. It shouldn’t be easy to make your choice about whether or not to take that stallions stuff.” Silver lifted his wing off of me.

I thought for a few minutes on my dillema. If I take from those who I’ve killed doesn’t that make me just as bad as they were? Am I willing to descend to being nothing better than a monster. I was about to throw the power hoof away before another thought crossed my mind. What if I need it to protect my friends?

“I’ve made my choice.” I slipped the power hoof off and deposited it into my saddlebags.

“You made the right decision.” Silver laid a hoof on my shoulder.

“I’m not sure about that.” I put a hoof up to brush his off.

“You made the right decision.” Silver put his hoof back on the ground.

“How do you know?” I stared at my hooves.

“Because you took it just in case you need to defend your friends.” Silver stepped away.

I didn’t respond further. I trotted over to Harmony. She had overheard everything and hugged me. A single tear rolled down my face. I knew that I had made the right decision.

Royalty

“Any word on that brotherhood detachment?” Rose sipped on a fresh cup of tea.

“They have been delayed for a few days by dangerous conditions.” Harmony sighed. “In other words either one of them is unbelievably drunk or they’ve run into a few Enclave soldiers.”

“They’re allowed to drink?” Silver kept close by Rose’s side.

“Honey Freedom used to drink during missions.” Rose said putting a hoof on Silver.

“But still. A group such as the Brotherhood should not have drunken soldiers waltzing about.” Silver shook his head. “In other words we’re not safe.”

“With them here we are only a little bit safer. It’s not like the Enclave doesn’t notice a group of well armed stallions in power armor.” I shook my head. “I don’t know much about the Enclave but I know they aren’t idiots.”

“If need be we can send out a group of armed scouts to see what the problem is.” Rose slid out of her chair.

“We should have this place mostly secured if the Enclave does decide they want to attack us. A few scouts wouldn’t be enough to make a difference.” Stone was writing on a large sheet of paper. Possibly more battle plans.

“I’ll send out a few scouts to escort those soldiers here.” Rose waved away one of her personal
soldiers.

“So now what? We just sit here and wait for the Brotherhood detachment to get here?” Silver looked around.

“We need to lay low for a while. The Enclave might not know that it was us that annihilated their soldiers. If we’re lucky they won’t realize it was us until the Brotherhood arrives. If they get here before that we’ll need all of you to be here to defend this place.” Rose sighed. “We can’t take any risks dealing with brutes like these.”

Aurora flickered into and out of existence. “Well from what I can see we’ll have a plan no matter what course of action we take. Looks to me like Stone over there has been working on nothing but battle plans while we’ve been sitting here dicking about.”

“Battle plans they are not. More of a defensive structure to work no matter what type of assault the Enclave throws our way.”

“And how’s that working out for you.”

“Well you pesky A.I. if you must know, I’ve nearly completed the plan to account for thousands of enemy soldiers.”

“You think they have mere thousands? Don’t make me laugh.”

“Oh so miss I know bucking everything. How many soldiers do they have?”

“From what little I can gather off of some of their salvaged equipment. They outnumber us three thousand to one. That is if we assume only our soldiers fight.”

“Hmmmmmmm.”

“Your plan didn’t account for that many I presume.”

“Oh buck off you A.I. bitch.”

“If you’re going to plan always plan for the absolute worst situation.”

Stone muttered under his breath “Yeah, yeah. Now buck off.” and returned to his plans.

“Well I suppose a day or two without the Brotherhood won’t be all that dangerous. All the guards are armed and ready for an assault.” Rose sat back in silence for a long while. “And sending any of you out into the wasteland would be a bad idea. We’ll need everypony here if the Enclave does decide to attack.”

“You can have the day off, just keep your ears open and be ready for a fight.” Silver waved us away.

I grabbed one of Harmony’s hooves. “Let’s go and relax for a while.”

“That’s odd. The house is usually never this quiet. Maybe they’re not here after all.” I was about to go downstairs and leave. “I’d better at least check their room. Who knows. Maybe they’re asleep.”

I trotted back up the few stairs I had gone down. Midnight’s room was down a the smaller of the two upstairs hallways. I knocked on the door. “Hey you two.”

No response.

I shrugged. “Probably asleep.”

I pushed open the door. Even through the slight crack I could smell the room. I knew that smell.

Please goddesses don’t let them be doing it right now.

I pushed the door open the rest of the way. “Oh goddesses dammit you two!”

“OH buck!” Midnight quickly spun to face me. “Do you not know how to knock?”

I averted my gaze to the corner of the room. “I did knock. You two just didn’t hear me.”

“We did soundproof the room honey.” Harmony peaked her head above the covers.

“Oh.” Midnight sat back down. “Sorry about that Onyx.”

“Well I still didn’t need to see that.” I shook my head. “Warn me next time.”

“Do you need something.” Harmony seemed a little irked with me. Probably interrupted as she was getting close.

“Rose wanted me to tell you the Brotherhood will be here before the day ends. Goddesses dammit that was not what I wanted to see today.” I shook my head trying to clear the sight of Midnight’s flanks in the air from my mind.

“Well I didn’t want to be seeing anypony but Midnight for the next few hours. So I guess we both got robbed of our wish.” Yep definitely interrupted at the wrong time.

“Look I’m gonna leave now and go try and remove this from my memory.” I shut the door quickly. “And put a sock on the door or something.”

I heard something hit the door behind me. “Get out of here!”

“Fine. Buck me I guess.” I hopped down the stairs and left the house.

“Let me guess. They were bucking weren’t they?” Silver was standing just outside the door.

I leapt away from him. “Goddesses damn everypony today. And yes they were.”

“Did you tell them?”

I nodded. “Yes Silver. I told them.”

“Good. Now I want to show you something.” Silver spun me back around and pushed me inside.

“I’d rather not be in here right now.”

Silver pushed me to a door I had never entered. “Open the door.”

I opened the door. Dust filled the air as the door opened. “What the buck? Has this damn thing not been opened in a hundred years?”

“Longer still. Go downstairs. I think you’ll like what’s down there.”

I trotted down the stairs for a while before I finally hit the end. “Is there a light down here?”

Silver light up the area in a bright white light. “Don’t worry about it.”

“I thought your aura was blue? How are you lighting this area up that bright white?”

“The Knight’s Bane can store the sunlight for times of need.” Silver sheathed the sword returning the room to pitch black.

“Ok so did the sword run out of light or what?”

A small click sounded. After a few seconds lights came on illuminating the whole floor in light.

My eye’s took a few seconds to adjust. “What the…?”

“I was told this place had some interesting technology down here. Looks like it might still be functional minus a few missing parts.”

“This technology is ancient!” I looked around at the giant console before me. “I might be able to get this thing running again.”

“What do you need?” Silver set a hoof on the console.

“Well I need some electronic scrap from suits of power armor if we can get some to spare.”

Silver nodded.

“Maybe a few lightbulbs to keep the place lit while I work. A generator for sure to power this thing.” I looked about frantically. “And it looks like an A.I. might be able to run the whole system remotely. Talk to Aurora and see if she would be up to running this thing.”

I didn’t know how Silver had gotten the information of this place's existence but I was glad he did. Back in the stable I got to work on the technology that kept everything running, but this. This was something built back before the war. Who knows what they kept on this machine. Could be plans for something to run the entire wasteland. Or possibly great machines that would have made an entire civilization prosperous and wealthy.

So many possibilities and all I needed to unlock them was a few pieces. Soon I could have the entire world restored to something amazing.

“So what do you think of it?”

I looked at the ancient tech. “I think it’s interesting to say the least. I’m not sure entirely what the purpose of it is but if I can get it to live after all these years we might be able to see what they used such machines for.”

“I think I could shed some light on the issue.” That wasn’t Silver. The voice sounded so regal, so majestic. A voice so out of the realm which we lived in.

I spun around to see who it was.

“Silver leave us.”

Silver silently took off leaving me with this majestic Alicorn.

“It has been long since I saw something like this still this well intact.” The mare was dark like Silver was. Near identical in color.

I looked back at the machine.

“And while the parts you need are easy to scrounge I think I might be of some help.” She laid out a myriad of parts before me. “Now then. If you’ll be so kind as to work your magic with these parts. I’ll be glad to tell you who we are.”

I nodded slowly picking up the first piece. I wasn’t really sure how this would all fit together but I knew from what I had I could fix this machine.

After a few minutes of wiring things back together the machine I was working on beeped at me.

“Wonderful. Now all it needs is a source of power. No doubt this would have had a generator all it’s own. So where is it?”

I looked around the room for anyplace somepony may have hidden a generator. On the far side of the room was a little door.

The mare beside me opened the door and brought out the small generator. “She left this small of a generator to power this contraption? Well this simply won’t do. I’ll have to talk with.”

“Nevermind you that for now. I’ve brought the generator with me. It will suffice if Onyx here can get it running again.” Another regal voice. And another Alicorn behind it.

They looked similar to Silver. Almost like they weren’t special whatsoever. But their voices demanded respect.

I looked over the generator trying not to lose my mind over figuring out who these mares were they seemed so familiar.

“Well if you’ve got a couple of minutes I might be able to kickstart this thing.” I opened the first side panel. “And maybe a couple of fuses.”

As I asked for the parts they were delivered to me. “I think these are still functioning.”

My hooves flew around the generator as I tore away the old broken parts and placed the new ones into their place.

These Alicorns stared at me as I moved as quick as possible to repair this generator.

I closed the last side panel and plugged the generator into the machine. “Now let’s see this thing start.”

The switch flipped. And…… Nothing!? You’ve got to be bucking kidding me!? All of those parts were in great condition everything should have worked perfectly.

“That’s disappointing. Such promise. And yet..”

The screen powered on. On it was an old video playing.

“She left us a memory.”

The mare pushed me aside as the machine started playing.

A purple Alicorn much smaller in stature than these two was addressing them directly. She never used their names. Only knew that it was them finding this.

“She was busy.”

The memory stopped.

“That can’t be the end. You peasant make this damned machine work again.”

I snapped out of my trance. “I’m sorry to say but that’s all that was left on here.” I pushed a few buttons on the console.

No other files appeared as I searched.

“NO!! DAMMIT!!” The darker mare trotted around the room. “I thought we had her this time.”

“No doubt she doesn’t want to be found. Neither of us has been able to find her. Maybe it’s time to pursue a new goal.”

“Like what!!! We’ve spent nearly three hundred years trying to track her down. We’ve lived through more than this stallion could ever dream to. Yet at every turn we’ve missed her by a mile.”

“Maybe we can find her one day. But driving ourselves mad trying to find her isn’t going to help. And we can’t continue any farther without getting this wasteland under control. We’re already wanted dead by too many groups to count.”

“So what do you suggest? We just lay low here for another three hundred years and hope the assholes hunting us die?”

“No. Couldn’t you see it in his eyes? He’s the one.”

The darker mare went silent and looked as stiff as stone. “You mean?”

“Yes. The one we’ve seen in dreams The stallion with the power help us.”

“An Alicorn.”

“Yes. Not a regal one like us. But an Alicorn. He’s seen enough and trained under worse conditions.”

“A strong stallion capable of leveling armies.”

“Equipped with my personal sword.”

“And one of the mares a pistol belonging to an alternate me.”

“The Revolving Sun? How?”

“It matters not. They’ve got the tools necessary to return our home to it’s former glory.”

“But not even she could do that.” The blue mare pointed to the screen.

“She was driven by a need for bloodshed. Not a desire to help the ponies of this land. But the mares in the house above us want a safe wasteland. A safe haven so they can live a happy life.”

“Noble in their cause.”

“And decisive in their actions.”

“Nothing can stand in their way.”

“Not with an Alicorn on their side.”

“They’ve fought many battles together.” The blue mare thought for a few seconds. “What if they do not wish to help us?”

“They’ve seen much in this world. Enough to know what they want. And what they want coincides with what we want.”

“So they win if they help us.”

“And I do believe Midnight will recognize us. Better than our friend Onyx here does.” The taller white mare looked down at me. “Isn’t that right my little pony.”

Where had I heard that before? So familiar, yet so distant.

“Confused as to who we are. It is their in the forefront of his mind and yet he is unable to place it.”

“Maybe if we show him the memories of who we once were.”

“Strong and regal. Back before the war.”

The blue mare levitated over a small orb and a helmet. The helmet she put on me.

“What are you doing?” I didn’t try to fight this.

“After you see this memory you might recognize us. It may not seem like it now but you do know us.”

Wait. A few strands of their manes were flowing. Was it really them? “Princes…” The memory overtook me.

“It seems that was unnecessary.”

“Still something good for him to experience. I have a feeling they’ll all want to use this technology.”

“Agreed.”

I sat up. My muzzle was sticky and wet as always after times like this. Harmony had already disappeared into the bathroom.

I could hear the shower running. “She must be getting ready to go out.”

I slipped out of bed and trotted towards the bathroom. I was surprised this place actually had good running water. Must have a water purification area somewhere in town.

I opened the door. Harmony was in the shower. Her mane flowed down her sides. Like always she was beautiful.

“Well don’t just stand there and stare.” Harmony gave me a seductive look. “Come here.”

“With pleasure.” I trotted over and jumped in the shower with her.

A knock sounded on the bathroom door. “Rose wants to talk with you two once you get done in there.”

“Well I guess we’ve got no time to fool around right now.” I sighed. “Maybe after we get done.”

Harmony hopped out of the shower. “I’ll be waiting for you.”

I took as little time as I could getting cleaned up. After jumping out of the shower I trotted back into our room.

Harmony was sitting on the bed looking at her ring. “It’s almost as beautiful as you.”

I smiled and kissed Harmony. “Only the best for the love of my life.”

“An interesting choice for the diamond.” Demo was standing in the doorway.

“Hi Demo. How long have you been there?” I waved Demo in.

He shook his head. “About a minute or two. Got here just as you got out of the shower.”

I slid my ring on. “We were just about to go see Rose if that’s what you were coming to tell us about.”

He nodded. “Alright. I’ll leave you two alone. Oh and I’ll let Rose know to be expecting you.”

What had I just seen? Was that what these mares had seen in their time living in this wasteland? And were some of those memories from before this all turned to shit? So much hatred and anger, guilt and sadness. So many emotions built up after hundreds of years of living.

“Equestria to Onyx.” The white mare waved a hoof in front of my face. “Are you still there?”

“I think you may have broken his brain with your memories. Too many years for the average pony to understand living through. And yet to me it seems like a mere blink and that time has gone by.”

“It is true what my sister says. You have seen a small portion of our lives. Thousands of years on this planet. An astronomical number of years for you but for us simply another time period come and gone in the blink of our eyes.

Ok holy shit! This is so weird. I just experienced living through their lives. Every single emotion that they felt still weighed heavily upon. Oh goddesses why did that feeling have to be the one that resonated strongly.

“Well isn’t that something?” The white mare managed a slight giggle.

“Well a stallion has no control over such manners when appreciating fine mares for so many years.”

They scooched closer to me. “No. No no no no no nope nope no nope no no. I’m a happy stallion. I don’t need any of this right now. Demo would kill me.”

“Oh yes. I forgot. You are a gay stallion.” The white one held back the blue one.

“After all this time and you tell me that now!”

The white one rolled her eyes. “No wonder he has such a problem now. He got to feel your body and it’s feelings for a large portion of the time we wandered.”

“I have my needs dammit! Two hundred and seventy years since the bombs fell. Double that time since I actually had a decent lover. And you mean to tell me the stallion you show our memories to is gay!?”

“Yes. Even if he wasn’t you should have respected the fact that he is in a relationship.”

“Ugh. Fine dear sister. Now don’t we have business elsewhere in this town?”

“We do have some business. Onyx do you have any questions?”

I had so many questions on my mind. “Too many to ask.”

“A response that I would have expected from somepony who had just seen what we have. Especially after never having seen technology like this in his life.”

“I need to go find Demo.” I jumped up tossing the helmet off.

“Well then. I suppose we’ve just made two stallions quite happy.”

“I’d still prefered to have gotten that myself.”

“You know he would not have been what you expected. Nor would he have lasted long enough.”

“But so many years of….”

“I know what you are expecting and no. It may have been pleasureable for a while but not long enough to satisfy.”

“Well buck.”

“Language.”

“What? Are you serious? Are you still trying to act regal after all these years?”

“At least a small bit to impress these ponies.”

“Fine.”

“Thank you.”

“Onyx what are you?” Demo couldn’t continue as I jumped on him.

“Shut up and let’s buck.”

The sky was a vibrant blue today. Something we rarely got to see anywhere in the wasteland. In the distance the sky was the dull gray color it usually was. “That’s odd.”

“The bright blue sky?”

“Yes. It’s beautiful, not near as beautiful as you, but still amazing. We never get to see the sky like this.”

Harmony pulled me closer to herself. “Any day with you is a beautiful day.”

I smiled and blushed. “I love you.”

“There’ll be plenty of time to admire the sky and other things today.” Harmony winked at me. “For now let’s go see what Rose wanted.”

I pushed open the front door. Not many guards were down here on the first floor. Most of the guards were no doubt on the second floor keeping an eye out for anypony that might threaten Rose.

Harmony dragged me up the stairs. “We don’t have all day to sit here and dick about.”

Like I had thought quite a few of the guards that were stationed to this building were sitting upstairs looking out the windows and watching us on our approach.

None dared to move an inch in our way as we approached the door to Rose’s office. A few guards were sitting their looking through a small crack in the door.

I grabbed ahold of the guards sitting there. I made sure to silence them from screaming with my magic. “What the buck are you assholes doing?” I had to strain to keep my voice to a harsh whisper.

“Sorry Midnight. Silver and Rose were having a conversation that sounded heated. We wanted to make sure everything was ok.”

I dropped the guards and they headed for anywhere away from us. “I don’t want to spy on them but I think we should know what’s going on with our friends.”

The door crack was small but had plenty of space for the both of us to look through it at the same time.

“No. I’m not going to let that happen. Either you leave or we both stay. There are no ifs ands or buts in this situation.”

“You’re being stubborn. I mean I get not wanting to up and leave our friends. We would tell them that we thought it would be best for the foal if we left. I’m sure they would understand and actually support us.”
I turned away from Rose. “Amethyst I’m telling you that I can’t leave them. I don’t have it in me to leave them to the wasteland.”

“Silver? I know you want to protect them from everything that you possibly can but we have the chance to build something great for ourselves. We have a foal on the way and you’re being so stubborn about staying here. What if the foal gets hurt? What if I get hurt or killed before the foal is born? What then Silver? What then?”

I slowly turned to look at Amethyst. After all this time she still didn’t understand why it was that I couldn’t leave this world. The tears were already welling in my eyes.

Amethyst gasped. “Silver. Silver I’m sorry I didn’t mean.”

I put a hoof up to stop here. “I know you didn’t mean anything from it. I understand why you’re worried. This world is a terrible place for anypony to live. Much less a foal. But. But..” The tears started again.

“Silver you know you can tell me anything. What’s wrong?”

I shook my head trying to regain what little composure I could. I had never told her about those few weeks before she returned to this wasteland. I didn’t think I would ever be ready to tell another living soul about that time.

“Silver.” Amethyst began to cry. “Please answer me.”

“I’ve lost too much Amethyst. Over the years I’ve lost more ponies than anypony should ever have to lose. I lost my parents when I was just a foal. A small foal with so much to learn from parents that were robbed from him. I watched raiders desecrate the body of the one stallion I had ever looked up to. I had to hear them have their way with my mother for hours on end. I was robbed entirely of my childhood in a matter of days.”

Amethyst looked on in disbelief. I had never been this open about my past with her. “Silver…”

I put up a hoof again. “When I met you for the first time I didn’t know what to feel. It was the best feeling of my life. I was actually able to feel any sort of emotion again. I had lived through years of contemplating suicide. I didn’t want to live in a world that had robbed so much from me. But I didn’t because I had you by my side.”

“I’m sorry Silver. I had no idea.”

I silenced her yet again. “As time went on things got more serious in your home world. The war started and I knew bad things were going to happen once you got called upon to fight. I had to protect you because I couldn’t bear to lose somepony who had brought so much joy to my life. I knew no matter what happened I would die before I lost you.”

Amethyst couldn’t speak through the lump in her throat.

“Then we got ourselves that squad. They were all a bit different but I relied on each one a little bit to take the stress off of myself. I was killing myself trying to make sure nothing happened to you. After all that time with them I began to think that they were all part of a large family I was starting to be a part of. Ponies who cared about me and who would always help me through anything.”

I knew Midnight was watching. I could hear her slight muffled crying from outside the door.

“Once we finally had the boars on the retreat I knew it was about to be the most dangerous part. We had backed our foe into a corner they could not escape from. That was a day that I lost my family.” I started to well up again. “I almost lost Balefire to the explosions. Freedom was almost gunned down protecting the squad while evac. arrived.”

“Silver.”

“Then the thought of losing you. My body went numb. That day I considered doing a suicide run into the enemy encampment. I went for it. I believed that would be the day that I would die. I accepted death, welcomed it in fact. I wished for it’s sweet embrace to take me from this horrible life that was always robbing me of my happiness. That was until I saw you again. I saw you fighting to survive when even I felt useless. That made me realize I had a life to fight for. I had a reason to live even in this cruel and dark world that always robs us of happiness.”

I let out a deep breath that I had been holding. I dreaded telling her this next part. I was so reluctant to open up about it.

“Silver?”

It was now or never. Come on Silver tell her. You need this.

I opened my mouth to talk. The words were there in my brain. They were just stubborn in coming out.

“What’s wrong?”

“After we got back something happened. The reason I had to leave the world you inhabited. The reason I never came back to that world to get you.” Tears streamed down my face.

“What? What happened? Silver I need to know so I can help you.” Amethyst put a gentle hoof to my cheek.

“I had lost so much.”

“What?”

“I almost lost you and Freedom and Balefire. I almost lost them all but.”

“What happened?”

“It was Rose, Amethyst. Rose. I had to go home and talk with Rose.”

A look of horror crossed her face.

“She had been slowly becoming feral while I had been away. The thought of me fighting in a war and possibly getting hurt or dying was too much for her to handle.”

Amethyst’s voice was shaky and scared of what it might here. “Silver… No……”

“That day I got back to our house I found her sitting at our table. She was waiting for me to return to her. So she could say her final goodbye. She spoke to me for the first time and said she loved me. She acknowledged that I was ready to be my own stallion and to start a family.” I started to choke on my words. “Then. Then… Oh goddesses why?”

“You don’t have to.”

I silenced her knowing full well I had to so I could start to actually move on. “She told me she was starting to go feral. Everyday I had been away had been slowly degrading her mind. She had started to try and hurt those she cared about.”

“Please. Don’t.”

“She hoofed me a gun. Told me that she wanted me to shoot her before she could hurt anypony. And to only remember the Rose that had loved me and taught me about the world. I tried to reject the request outright. To try and find a way around it. But in the end I knew what I had to do.” I didn’t even try to stop the tears. “I shot her. I shot her so she couldn’t hurt anypony. And after I cried. An entire week. I sat in that house pretending she was still alive sitting with me. I had buried her but I still wanted to pretend she was there to teach me. To nurture me. To be the loving mother I had been robbed of.”

“Silver. I had no idea.”

“How could you? I kept it secret. I didn’t want to bring anypony into this. I didn’t want anypony to get hurt trying to help a stallion that couldn’t be helped.”

The door burst open behind us. “You’re wrong. No matter what you think you can be helped. We’re here for you no matter what. You just had to tell us and we would have helped.”

“Thanks Midnight, but I still don’t believe you. I need to work through this by myself.”

“Why? Why would you hurt yourself so much? We can help you?”

I spun around. The world darkened around me. “HOW!?!”

“Aurora play the video.”

A small projection appeared before me. There Rose was standing over these two mares as they slept on the floor of my old home.

“She was in all of our dreams that night. Trying to find out if we were there because of you.”

I saw her mouth the words ‘Take care of him’ before she faded. “She? She?”

“She asked us to protect you Silver. She wanted us to help you no matter what.”

I flopped to the ground a sobbing mess. My friends were there to comfort me. All sitting down next to me and surrounding me in a warm hug. Just like the one’s Rose had given me.

The floodgates had opened up. I had just confessed everything to Amethyst. No. Rose. I had just told her everything that had ever happened to make me the way I was. And after all that she was there at my side cuddled up with me trying to help me.

It was selfish of me to do that. I needed to confess all those things but I didn’t need to bring Rose into it. She deserves so much out of this world. What am I going to do to make this up to her? I’m just a stupid motherbucker with no right to even still be alive and kicking after all the shit I’ve seen.

“Silver honey?” Rose was slowly shaking me.

“What?” That came off more violently than I had intended.

“I think we should move to some place more comfortable and talk.” I could tell she was managing a smile. “We have been lying on the floor for hours.”

I picked myself up off the floor. “Lead the way.”

“Don’t be so mopey Silver. We still need you. And you need us.”

I trotted over to the bed as quickly as possible keeping Rose nearby. “Ugh.”

Rose laid down next to me. “Come on Silver. I still need you.”

My brain switched from this moping to a more productive mood. “And I need you. I realize it now more than ever. I need you more than anything else in this wasteland.”

“Silver?” Rose cocked her head to the right.

“I might not have much to my name here in this world. And I don’t have the money to keep you living in luxury for the rest of your life. But I know that I need you more than anything. So…. Will you marry me?” The last card I had to lay down. The question I had been meaning to ask for what seemed like an eternity.

“Silver!” Rose looked at me in awe. “Of course I will. I love you.” She kissed me. And for the first time since we had met my whole body went stiff from that kiss.”

I fell face first into the bed next to Rose. “Well I guess I still have that habit.”

“And it still ruins the moment like it used to.”

We both laughed. It felt good. It felt good to be alive for the first time since my ghoul mother had died.

“Surely something you could do. Isn’t that right sister?”

“Well if they so wish for me to marry them. I could marry them here on this spot.”

I held a shield around Rose and myself and had the Bane readied. “I’ll give you two about ten seconds to explain who you are, why you’re here, and why I shouldn’t kill you.”

The mares spoke in unison. “Midnight seemed to recognise when she spoke to royalty. Be it even if we are no longer regal in our appearance or manner. All we seek is a wasteland where you could raise a foal without having to leave.”

I lowered the sword but kept my shield. “Who are you?”

“I’m princess Celestia and this is my sister Luna. We were once rulers of the great land of equestria but know we chase only the dreams of our past and a mare who the world has long forgotten.” Celestia pointed to my sword. “A gift no doubt from a blacksmith from your youth. A sword I know well.”

I sheathed my sword. “It was a gift from a friend long ago. And you will have to earn my trust before I completely let my guard down.”

“Just as we expected from the stallion capable of similar feats as us. With that much power and your abilities I’m almost surprised you didn’t try to kill us when we interrupted your moment.”

“Did you say you could marry us?”

“Rose?” I shot her a worried glance.

“Indeed. If you will simply say I do and tell us you wish to be married then it shall be.”

“I do.”

I gave her a look. This isn’t how I wanted to get married to her but it did mean I was married to the love of my life. “I do.”

“Then let it be known that from this day forward you two are married under the sigil of an old kingdom. One that we leave to you.”

I tendril touched my mind. It was cold and dark but also enlightened. ‘I have gifted you with the knowledge of immortality. You as an Alicorn are immortal. Those you love may be gifted that same privilege but it will come at a cost.’

I shoved the thought from my head. Luna looked at me with a concerned look. I knew it was her. Celestia herself could not have made such a dark voice in my mind.

“Seriously Luna! That was uncalled for. Telling him those secrets after just barely introducing ourselves. Did you want to get us killed?”

“I only told him what he need to know.”

“Ok buck both of you for that. I could have and still have the choice to bucking gut you like the worthless bitches you are.”

“Silver!” The whole group was against me.

“It is what they might deserve after such reckless behaviour.”

“So that brings us up to what? Last…. Tuesday?”

“No Midnight. That was an entire month ago.”

“It’s been that long?”

“Yes.” Rose was laying down watching the memories with us.

“How are you by the way?”

“The foal is getting close to being born. I believe within a month we’ll see a new addition to our family.”

“That’s good news. I can’t wait to see what the foal looks like.”

“Well it should be a very good looking colt or a very beautiful filly.”

“And it will have a family that is always there to protect it.”

“Thank you Midnight. I know you’ll be there to help out when the foal is born.”

“I’ll try my best but I never know what’s going to happen next.”

“All will be revealed in time to you my little ponies. For now just enjoy this last day you get off. Soon enough we’ll be working toward our ultimate goal. And whatever may come of our work will be remembered.” Celestia pushed us towards the stairs. “For now give my sister and I some time alone. We have planning to do.”

Author's Note

I decided to upload the last of the 4th 50,000 word section. So I probably won't upload Friday. But I'll keep uploading at a slower rate until I finish the rest of the story. I hope you all continue to enjoy.

Last Minute Preparation

“Aurora, last minute check. Are all weapons and ammo accounted for?” I looked around the all but barren armory for any other gear I could possibly need.

Aurora flickered between Harmony and I for a few seconds before nodding. “All weapons are accounted for and you should have enough ammunition to wipe out a small army… Several small armies. I still think bringing in an assault carbine would be better than that sniper rifle, most of the enemies aren’t gonna have full suits of power armor.”

I knew where the gun was. “I’m already carrying a lot of weapons on me, run the calculations again, you know my physical limits. Tell me, would another weapon and several hundred rounds slow me down?”

Aurora shook her head. “No need to be so snippity with me. You could have just easily asked without having to be so snarky.” A few seconds passed before she spoke again. “You won’t have enough gear on you to slow you down any meaningful amount. Just watch your ass out there and don’t make me work so hard this next fight.”

“Yeah, yeah I know. Avoid gunfire and only engage when I have to. You’ve given this lecture so many times I don’t think I’ll ever forget it.” I sighed and grabbed one of the nicer assault carbines and 20 mags of ammo. “Now then, let’s make sure everyone else is ready. We’re walking into war and I’m not so sure you and I can take it on alone.”

Onyx and Demo trotted in wearing full suits of reinforced metal armor. “Well, I know we’re not supposed to be on the front lines, but isn’t this just a little too much armor plating for us to be wearing? I get the armor piercing rounds and long range rifles, but this much armor seems excessive.” Even just standing still they made enough noise to be heard from a mile away.

“There not bulletproof, but they’ll definitely keep you protected from a lot of the smaller caliber weapons and at least make it so you don’t get shredded to pieces if anything bigger than that starts firing at you. But do be careful, even with everything we’ve collected so far it’s not gonna be enough to sustain us if we take too much fire.” I dug around my saddlebags for a second.

Onyx nodded. “Trust me I know, you’ve been talking about this for a while now. Making sure everything is ready, you’ve even got Aurora working almost all the time to calculate our chances.”

“98.7% chance of winning. Room for uncertainty is low, as it should be when fighting a war. Midnight are you gonna throw over the… Oh I see, not the weapon I was thinking of but that will increase our chances.”

I pulled out a 40mm grenade rifle that I’d been storing for some time. “Demo, catch.” He caught it with ease. “There’s a pretty large box of grenades in the right hand corner of the room. I suggest loading up, we might need some grenade bombardment.”

Demo opened the rifle’s action and dropped the mag. “It’s a fine weapon. Have you tested it out?”

I shook my head. “I test fired it to make sure that nothing was broken about it. Beyond that I haven’t touched the thing beyond cleaning it before setting it on the shelves. I think there’s some special grenades in here, raiders carry odd ammo seeing as this is one of the rarer weapons I’ve seen.” I levitated the box out and set it gently down.

Demo pulled the lid off and smiled as he looked inside. “High explosive, plasma, shit I think there might be some cluster grenades here. Who did you kill to get your hooves on these! I’ve only heard about these through ponies who’ve lived out here for 80 years. Are you sure you didn’t merc some raider boss and steal his stash before we met?”

I chuckled. “Not that I know of, if any of the raiders I’ve killed have been the bosses of big groups. Then they weren’t very good at their jobs. Now don’t just stand there, load up.”

Demo stuffed all but a few lone grenades into his saddlebags with glee. “I’ll make sure they get used to their fullest extent. I might use some of these to clear the way for our soldiers. Might be able to knock down a stable door with enough of these. Just think of the possibilities.”

“Well we shouldn’t keep the princesses waiting. They’ve already sent a unit of soldiers ahead, they’ll be there soon and ready for the assault.” Harmony trotted down the stairs, her armor thudding lightly all the way. “Now put away what you can’t carry and let’s move.”

“She’s been on edge for a while. Does she know something about this mission that we don’t?” Demo slid the box back into the room with a concerned look on his face.

“Aurora’s been running the numbers for her, she’s been obsessed with our odds ever since the princesses told us we’d be doing this. Aurora said we’ve got almost a 100% chance to win off of our firepower alone, but not without casualties.” I sighed. “It’s been the casualties part that’s been worrying her. My armor isn’t quite the suit that hers is and that makes her worry about my safety, I’ve already had one close call wearing this armor and she doesn’t want me to get hurt any further.”

Demo nodded solemnly. “One time is all it takes for the love of your life to be scared about fighting. Seen too many ponies die to early because of stupid reasons, but you’ve got Aurora to guide you, and plenty of firepower to cover your asses.”

Onyx bumped his rear hips against Demo producing a loud metallic clang. “Do everything you can and we’ll take care of the rest.”

“Let’s get a move on, our forces are on the move, and we’ve got a long way to go before we go head to head with Crimson Skull’s forces. And we won’t get a better time to strike.”

Author's Note

I'm sorry this is a short chapter, but too anyone who stuck it out this long, know that I finally have time to work on this story again and am fully committed to finishing up this story before I go back to school. Upload schedule might be weird, but I will get it finished so both you and I can have closure with these characters.

Thank you for waiting so long and sticking around.

The Midnight Mare

I feel if you are going to understand the adventures of our misfit band you need to know more about us. To begin I will explain my life and how this all started.

I lived for a large portion of my life as a resident of Stable 24. My mother was the Overmare and my father died two months after I was born. Many say my father's soul was taken away from him because his filly was born blood red.

I try not to think too much about what actually happened. All I know is my mother was devastated by the loss of her faithful companion in life. I believe one day they will see each other again on another plane of existence.

The day I was born my job had already been determined even though I was many years from getting my cutie mark. As the Overmare’s daughter I would naturally grow up to take over as the next Overmare.

I was put under more stress than most people thought a filly could handle. I was expected to be the most well behaved and beloved member of the stable. I hated all of the pressure that my mother dropped onto me.

There are upsides to being the Overmare’s little filly. I could get away with almost anything you could imagine of doing in the stable. It has always been a limited list. I tried my hoof at anything my mother would allow.

When no one was watching I got away with things that most anypony would be punished for doing. Although most of the time I just sat in my room and read any book I could get my hooves on. Downside to being a bookworm was all the other ponies teased me even though they knew I was the Overmare’s daughter. The blood red of my coat didn’t do me any favors.

My social problems didn’t stop at being bullied by the others. Most ponies avoided me out of fear that I was a devil spawn or something ridiculous like that. You could imagine how hard it was for me to make friends.

I always had one friend who was near and dear to me. We met in school because no pony would be our partners. Fate decided that I would need at least one friend so I wouldn’t go insane. He was a pegasus pony and I was, well am a unicorn. Our differences drew us together to become almost inseparable best friends.

We were only allowed to see each other when someone was watching us, In stable 24 it wasn’t hard to have somepony nearby at all times. When we were young we didn’t understand why, but as we grew up we slowly started to grasp why we couldn’t have time together that wasn’t under constant supervision.

I was thankful to hear him announce one day in front of at least half the ponies in the stable that he only had eyes for stallions. After his bold statement we were allowed to be alone with very little attention. It wouldn't have mattered if we spent time together we would never get that close.

One of the things we had in common was neither of us like ponies of the opposite gender. A secret that I swore to myself I would take to the grave in the stable. It didn’t matter for long as we both got jobs and got to see each other less and less.

I shadowed my mom to see exactly what I would need to do as the Overmare.

My best friend, Onyx Star was a general repair stallion who worked in maintenance and knew a thing or two about the Pipbucks every pony had. The family of the Overmare had a better more well designed version of the Pipbuck, the Pipbuck 3000.

One day out of the blue Onyx started acting out of the ordinary. He was always on edge like he knew something bad was about to happen. We talked and he said everything was fine and that he was okay “just a little sleep deprived is all”.

I blew it off like it was nothing. The next day I found a note had been slipped underneath my door. Onyx had left me a note detailing how he planned to escape the stable.

I was petrified that my friend would even think of leaving after the horror stories we had been told about the outside. I hid the note from prying eyes as I planned to leave the stable and go find my friend.

I walked the halls of the stable towards the armory. On the way I found Onyx’s Pipbuck lying on the ground. I levitated it up and turned it on to see if he had left me anything else. The only note on the Pipbuck detailed the code to the stable door. The code, as he stated was MMLM3602. I picked up the pace to almost a gallop as I headed for the armory.

When I arrived at the armory the whole room had been either burned or destroyed leaving only a small revolver and a box of ammo for it. I quickly pocketed both items before gaping in awe at the feat my friend had accomplished.

Guard ponies approached at a rapid gallop. I stood there looking as stunned as I could to avoid getting in trouble. I knew that I had to go find my friend.

Armed with the code to the stable door, a .32 revolver and ammo I made plans to escape the stable under the cover of darkness.

I packed as many supplies as I could. At about midnight I made my way for the stable door. I had to pick a few locks with a bobby pin and screwdriver so I could escape.

I broke one bobby pin breaking into the clinic so I could liberate a few health potions that I might need more than the ponies of stable 24. Inside was also a box of bobby pins which I helped myself too.

I reached the door of the stable and input the code. With a loud roar the door to the stable began to open. An alarm rang alerting every pony to my presence. Their galloping sounded fast, at this point I figured they knew just who was opening the door. I barricaded the doors with anything I could so no pony could try to stop me.

As I walked out the door I turned to see my mother trying to open the door to get to me. Her efforts were futile as my makeshift barricade held her back . I levitated a rock over the button to close the door and let it fall. I gave my mother an apologetic look to let her know it wasn’t her fault I was leaving. I lowered my gaze suppressing the tears and turned to leave my home forever.