Fallout Equestria: The Walking Shadow

I suddenly woke up from the dream. My eyes were wide open, but my vision was too fuzzy to recognize anything. Coughing gently, I rubbed my eyes with my hooves before trying to look around again. This time, my vision cleared up. Looking around, I saw that I was in bed inside a room, though unlike the clinic in Stable 15, this room looked like it was made with junk. Then my gaze finally landed face to face to a dark green mare with a puffy, bright red mane who was sitting at the side of the bed.

“'Ey dare lassy, yer gran' so?”

I frantically back away from her in fear. From what I learned from my first encounter with the stallion, this mare could also want to kill me. I was backing up so much in my panicked state that I fell out of bed, then got up immediately and tried to run away. After seeing me in panic, the earth pony mare chased me around the room. The chase ended when she stopped, then jumped where I was running and pounced me. We rolled a bit until she managed to hold me down, just like how the stallion did. She tried to speak to me, but couldn't hear her as I struggled and screamed, trying to get away from her.

“Let me go!” I screamed under her. “I just want… I just want to go home!” I kept struggling with the mare, then suddenly felt a hard slap across my face.

I looked to see that the mare used her hoof to smack me. It was at this moment that I realized that besides the slap, the mare on top of me doesn’t seem to want to harm me. I rubbed my cheek with my hoof as the mare got off of me, and I saw that she was wearing an old duster with some kind of light leather armor underneath. She then lent her hoof for me to grab. After hesitating for a second, I grabbed her hoof and she pulled me up to my hooves.

Now that I was calm, she finally was able to speak to me. “Geez lassy, yer were really panickin' loike yer were in a mouse inside a barn full av cats.” As she spoke, I could tell from her voice that she was kind and calm. She even sounded like my sister, with the exception of her bizarre accent.

“Oh.. ah.. Sorry about what just happened, miss...”

“Red Daisy, an' yer don’t 'av ter be sorry lassy. Seein' dat you're a Stable Dweller, dis must al' be new ter yer.”

I raised my eyebrow as she said ‘Stable Dweller’. I was about to asked her about that when I noticed further detail about the room we were in. Both the floors, walls, and ceiling were made out of sheet metal. Other than that, it still had features of a room with a bed, wardrobe, a small table and other things you would find.

“How did I get here?” I asked as my eyes returned to Red Daisy.

“Well that’s a bit av a scayle, so I’ll jist tell yer de short version.” She said, taking a seat in one of the chairs. “Oi wus deliverin' a package ter dis town we’re in, but den Oi saw from a distance av yisser err… wee struggle wi' dat bandit.” Then she pulled out a small silver canteen from one of her pockets in her duster. “Oi pushed 'im aff av yer. After Oi saw wat yer bandit did ter yer, Oi tried ter keep yer awake.” She then took a sip from her canteen, and from the smell of her breath after she breathed out, I’m guessing it wasn’t water. “But whaen yer passed oyt, Oi 'ad ter shenanagans yer 'ere, after lookin' through wat yer 'ad on yer. Oi used wan av yer 'Healin' Poshuns ter 'ayle yer wounds.” She took another drink, but noticed it was empty as she looked into her canteen. From the new viewpoint, I saw that one side of the canteen actually had small purple and red gems embedded into it to form the shapes of a grape vine and a strawberry next to each other. “As for de room, we’re in de town’s motel, Oi payed for wan noight 'ere.” She put away her canteen and just looked back at me. “Ah an' de wee town is called Derdy River.” I kinda giggled at that which she obviously noticed. “Aye yes Oi nu, silly name, but de river nearby is derdy.”

Nodding at that, I realized that because she payed for the room, I have to pay her back. I levitated 10 bits to to her that I brought before leaving the Stable, though in response, Daisy stared at the bits and then me with a strange look.

“Why ye givin' me dees for?”

I blinked at her reaction. “They’re bits…” I calmly explained to her. “It's to pay you back for the room."

Daisy blinked at that, then started to snicker before laughing softly shaking her head. “Oi completely forgot dat yer Stable ponies still use dohs bit things.” I felt I was being the butt of a joke as she pat my head with her hoof but tried to keep my composure. Because of my history, I didn't enjoy being the butt of a joke. She saw my face, so she stopped laughing as she coughed a few time before explaining. “Listen, unlike in dohs Stables, we ponies above don't use bits as a way ter pay anymore, instead we use dees.” She reached into another pocket and brought out a bottle cap.

“Bottle caps?” I looked at her with an odd expression.

“Yep, dees bottle caps, or yer can jist call dem caps, are used ter pay for services.” She observed the bottle cap in her hoof before letting out a small chuckle. “Oi nu its seems silly ter yer Stable Dwellers, but dis is 'ow Equestria weurks nigh.” She put the bottle cap back into her bags. “'Eck I’m juicy sure dat bandit dat tried ter kill yer wud 'av bloody taken dat pouch av caps yer 'av bloody than de kip av yer gear.”

“Yeah…” I said as I put my hoof to my neck. “That stallion would of killed me if I… I…”

The stallion… I started remembering my encounter with the stallion again, only this time I remembered the outcome. Why did it take me so long to remember that moment? Was my mind that broken after falling like that? I touched my horn, feeling how smooth and sharp it was, and how easily it stabbed into his neck. Then I began hyperventilating, as the memory of me stabbing the stallion played over and over like a broken record. Tears formed around my eyes asI started to sob heavily.

Daisy looked at me with a worried expression as she got of the chair and walked close to me.

“What's de matter, lassy?”

I looked at her as I kept crying, harder than I had in my whole life. “I… I… I killed...” Daisy put her hoof on my shoulder to calm me down. It wasn’t working. “I..... I killed a pony…” I looked at the ground with tears running down my face like a waterfall. “I am a murder!” I fell to the ground, sobbing very hard into my forehooves as I covered my face with them. Seeing me in distress, Daisy went to the ground as well to wrap herself around me. She nuzzled my head with hers, which got me to calm down a bit but couldn’t stop my crying. She looked straight into my eyes and spoke with soft, but blunt tone.

“Luk lassy, Oi nu for yer Stable Dwellers are new ter de outside an' so everythin' dat yer experience is traumatic ter yer, especially wat 'appened wi' dat bandit, but….” She rubbed my back as she kept talking. “It wus either you or 'im, yer wanted… naw yer needed ter live on, an' so you 'ad ter kill 'im.” She pulled back, and was now looking at me with pity. “I’m sorry for wat 'appened ter yer, but dis is unfortunately 'ow de warrld werks. Equestria is not a peaceful lan' anymore, I’m afraid.” Daisy got up, extending her hoof to me again. “Nigh enoof cryin', an' 'ow aboyt you gie me yer name, Oi failed ter ask yer dat before.” I finally calmed down, grabbing her hoof. She picked me up, and after rubbing my puffy eyes, I gave a very weak smile.

“Silent Whisper.”

“Silent Whisper 'uh… nice name, it really suits yer,” Daisy complimented as she smiled back. I was a bit surprised: no one, not even my family, has ever complimented my name, and because of that, I hugged her again. Daisy chuckled at my reaction. “By de goddesses, Oi got meself a 'ugger.” I hugged her for a bit longer before letting go.

“Daisy, you helped me so much... is there anything I can do to repay you for your kindness?" She seemed to be thinking about it in her head for a moment and finally shook her head and swayed her hoof at me

“Aye don’t worry aboyt it Silent, Oi 'av galore av caps.”

“Well how about I help you with something?” I persisted.

“Aw naw, Oi canny 'av yer 'elp me wi' me problems.” She shook her head. “Besides, Oi can’t let yer folly me ter a raider stronghauld.” She gasped and put her hoof to her mouth to shut herself up, and then I stared at her with a bit of a concerned look. While I do know from schooling of what the word ‘raider' means, I never payed any mind. So I calmly asked,

“What are raiders?”

Daisy looked at me, and for the first time in our early friendship, I saw her with so much fear in her eyes as she shuddered. She shifted her hooves and felt that something was wrong to explain to me what these ponies or creatures are. She paced a bit, wondering if she even wanted to tell me, but it seemed hard for her to talk to me about it. Then she finally answered.

“Raiders… are ponies… if you even can call dem dat.” She spat as she started describing them. “Save ter say, they tend ter kill an' murder any ponies they clap.” She sat down again, bringing out her canteen, most likely wishing she had more inside it. “Dey usually rape ponies den kill dem, an' sometimes dey jist kill ponies ter rape their corpses, after dat, den they use de bodies av ponies ter ‘decorate’ their 'ide oyt, loike put their noggin on a spear or spike or somethin' fucked up.” Daisy got back up and walked to a bucket of water and with a cup, then dunked it into the bucket. “They rip apart de bodies an' flay dem in such a gruesum way ter show every part av dem an' den paint de walls wi' de blud av de ponies themselves.” She drank some of the water before giving it to me. “A few gangs, loike at de stronghauld Oi mentioned, are even cannibals. Sadly, wi' 'oy Equestria is nigh. Der really nasty creatures, they don’t even deserve ter be called ponies.” She looked back at me with pity again. I don’t like when other ponies see me like that. “Oi fale really brutal for yer Silent, yer shud 'av never lef yer Stable.”

After hearing all what Red Daisy told me, I began to have second thoughts again, I felt scared, if the bandit was bad, I can’t even imagine what monster these raiders are. Then I realized something that didn’t make any sense, so I asked.

“Daisy, why do you need to go to this stronghold?”

After asking that, her she became a bit nervous, as her eyes looked around the room. “Ah well… it's… cos... Oi got a package for dem!” She pointed to a small box at the corner of the room. “Yer clap I’m a courier, an' Oi wus 'ired ter brin' a package ter dohs raiders as a peace offerin' for another town. I’m 'opin' they 'ill accept it an' not 'urt me.” She tried to give me a fake smile as she explained her story, but I could see through it.

“Daisy, that doesn’t make sense.” I walked closer to her and stared at her with my purple eyes. “You just told me these raiders are blood thirsty monsters that would kill anyone they find, and how you talked about them, I doubt that you would accept this job.” I was trying to get her to break.

“They nade a package… they... they…” She stared into my eyes and I could tell she was trying to think of more lies. I may be poor at magic, but I can tell when a pony is lying. After she was backed into a corner, unable to think of any lies that would make sense, she gave up and sighed. “Dead on, you got me… jist gie me a moment.” She looked around, and even though I wanted her to tell me what was wrong, I wanted to make sure she was ready to speak. As I watched her walk away from me to the other side of the room, she put her forehead on the wall as she softly spoke. “Oi nade ter go dare cos they 'av me friend… she’s a pegasus an' 'er name is Azure Star, an' they tuk 'er ter their stronghauld.” While she was facing me, I did saw teardrops falling to ground. “Oi don't nu 'ow she is, but they're dohs kind av raider's dat ayte other ponies…” Daisy’s voice was now more shaky as she kept talking. “Goddesses, Oi wus only pissin' for a sec whaen they jumped 'er… Oi should've 'ad 'er back!”

I noticed her distress, so I walked up to her side and hugged her again. After a moment, she calmed down and turned her head towards me with tear marks below her eyes. “Yep, you're definitely a 'ugger… tanks.”

“Don’t mention it.” I backed up a bit so she could continue.

She took a deep breath before speaking again. “Whaen Oi saw dem takin' 'er, Oi couldn’t chucker anythin' cos al' av our stuff wus in de camp, whaich they stole as well.” I levitated the cup she gave me back to her. She grabbed it and drank some. “Fortunately, they lef de package, so me plan wus ter deliver de package ter Derdy River. After Oi got paid, Oi wus gonna use de caps ter buy a lorge arse gun, lots av ammo an' meds, an' Far Cry’s largest bottle av whiskey, den storm de place… well dat wus 'til Oi foun' yer underneath dat stallion.” She drank all the water in the cup, then put it down on a small stove. “Lookin' back on it nigh, Oi wouldn't 'av even made it past de first dure if Oi did dat.”

After hearing Red Daisy’s story and the trouble her friend might be in, I started to feel awful at myself. Daisy wasted her valuable time in saving me while she could be saving her friend. Guilt filled my body. I felt my heart breaking, knowing that she chose to save me instead. Closing my eyes, I told myself not feel guilty.

“I want to help you."

Daisy turned looking at me with surprise, her eyes full of worry as she stared at me. “Naw Silent, yer ain't used ter dis warrld. Yer from a Stable, yer canny chucker dis. Oi 'ill in me brown allow a Stable Dweller loike you ter cum wi' me.” There was much fear in her eyes.

I thought about it, yes I was new to this world, and so far my combat experience is below average compared to Daisy, but then I thought of something that could change her mind. “Daisy, you said that just assaulting this stronghold is suicide right?” When I saw her nod I continued. “Well that leaves you with one option and that is to sneak inside, and that I can help you with.”

“Naw offence Silent, but dis stronghauld is 'eavily protected, de only way ter sneak is if we were invisable, an' dis town doesn’t exactly flog stealthbucks.”

My mouth curved into a smirk, feeling that it's now my chance to prove myself to help Daisy for saving me. “Well, I know something much better than a stealthbuck.” She looked at me, her brow raised up, showing she was getting interested. “I may not be the best at magic, Daisy, but I do have a special talent that I can help you with.” My horn calmly glowed, and with that, I vanished before her. Daisy’s eyes went wide as she tried to look for me, her eyes darting around the room. I easily snuck passed her. Calmly, I went through her pockets with my telekinesis, lifting the canteen and with my magic. I jiggled it, which caused her to turn about, only to see the canteen floating as I was hidden with my magic. “See?” I mockingly asked. I removed the spell, my smirk never leaving.

Daisy stared at me with a shocked expression before shaking herself and grabbing her silver canteen from my levitation. “Oi 'av ter admit Silent, dat is a impressive talent, but Oi still canny 'av yer cum wi' me, there’s aboyt 200 raider's at de stronghauld, Oican’t be responsable if somethin' 'appened to—”

“Red Daisy!” I cut her off, which seemed to surprise her. “You can't stop me from helping you… Stable Dweller or not, I am coming with you to save your friend. You can't do this alone, you know that."

I could see the turmoil in Daisy; she clearly did not want me to be put in danger, but after a minute, she finally gave a nod. “De raider stronghauld is called Big 'Orn 'Otel. Its coordinates is-”

Then my Pipbuck made a strange beep sound. I pulled up my left hoof that had my Pipbuck strapped to it and I went through it with Daisy looking over my shoulder. As I searched my Pipbuck, I noticed I gotten a new quest which was the rescue. After I select it, I pulled up the map and noticed that Big Horn Hotel was marked on the map, along with Dirty River that was about 10 miles away from Big Horn Hotel.

“Never mind then, too brutal dat tin' can’t teleport us dare,” she chuckled.

I laughed a little as well. “Yeah, that would make things easier.”

I after the short laugh, I went to close the map screen when I noticed that the Stable-Tech Warehouse was between the way to Big Horn Hotel. Seeing this I looked up at her with a smile.

“Hey Daisy, can we go to this warehouse on the way back after we rescue your friend?” I asked, hoping she would agree. “I need to go there.” Daisy looked at the map, seeing the location was on the way to Big Horn Hotel, and after thinking a moment, she nodded. “Thank you.”

“Naw menshun it, in fact, Oi tink we shud actually go dare first.” After Daisy said that, I had mixed feelings; on one hoof I wanted to form a large smile on my face, but on the other I knew this would waste more time, time that Azure Star has little of. Daisy saw my confused state and explained. “I’ll be 'onest Silent, I’m not really optimistic aboyt findin' Azure, an' I’m afraid dat if we fend 'er… Oi don’t want ter tink aboyt.” She took a deep breath before continuing. “Plus dare might be a few things at dat warehouse dat cud 'elp us in dis matter. A Stable-Tec buildin' usually 'as somethin' av 'igh value.”

She did have a point, with how she described these raiders and the amount of time that had already passed, Azure’s chances are slim, and we need any advantage we can get for Big Horn Hotel.

“Alright Daisy, if you think that’s for the best, I trust you.”

“Gran'.” At that, Daisy started putting her saddle bag on her back. “We’ll first go raun de town first, we nade ter buy as much ammo an' meds, an' most importantly sum whiskey... though cos 'ow much dis room costed, Oi only 'av 'alf av caps Oi wus payed.” She walked up to the room’s drawer, opening it and bringing out my Stable-Tec jumpsuit. Upon seeing it, I finally noticed that I wasn’t wearing anything. “By de way, whaen yer were bein' sleepin' beauty, Oi decided ter chucker sum craftin' on yer jumpsuit.” As she extended it to full mass, I saw that it was drastically changed: there were armor plates on the torso and shoulder areas, line belts that seemed to be used for storing bullets, and on the right sleeve was a pistol holste. “Loike it? Oi used a broken leather armor set to upgrade yer wears.”

Looking at the now armored jumpsuit, I grabbed it and began putting it on. After I got it fully around me, I went to a full body mirror. All the armored plates seemed to cover vital areas, and while the jumpsuit was a bit heavier, it was still flexible enough for me to be agile. I turned back to Red Daisy and answered,

“I like it.”

Hearing that, Daisy put my saddle bag on me with a thump which caused me to wobble before steadying myself as she walked to the door.

“Well den Silent, let’s git oyt av 'ere.”

She opened the door left the room with me following behind her.

As we left the building, I looked around the town as we were walking through it. It was a pretty strange town, and built in strange ways. I looked at how the town was set up; most of the buildings, like in the room, were made out of sheet metal and were supported on metal stilts. Some buildings were even built upon others with some of the roofs being connected to catwalks. We climbed one of them and into a building called ‘Far Cry’s Saloon’. Inside was what I pictured, a regular saloon, only difference is the metal sheet walls. As we walked closer to the bar counter, the bartender behind the counter, a brown-colored earth pony with a grey mane, was cleaning a glass, but when he looked up and his expression turned into a sour look when he saw Daisy.

“We’re closed,” he said sternly. In response, both me and Daisy looked around and saw that half of the saloon was full before looking back at the bartender. “To you, Red.”

“Oh cum on Far Cry, wat 'av done ter deserve dis treatment?” Daisy asked in a playful tone, most likely knowing what she done to the bartender, who I’m guessing is also the owner because of his name.

“Let me think?” Far Cry asked sarcastically, holding a hoof to his chin, pretending to be in deep thought. “Oh yes, last time you were here, it was at my daughter’s party for having my first grand filly.” Then he suddenly put his hoof down on the counter hard. “And at the end of the party, you drank my entire saloon dry! It took me three weeks to resupply only half of what you drank!”

“Not me fault yer gave me 80% aff bonus for de job.” Red Daisy walked up to the counter and hopped on an empty stool, despite the scowl Far Cry was giving her. “Besides, chucker yer nu 'ow 'ard it wus ter fend dohs ingredients for de chef you 'ired in Buffalo Teepee ter bake dat authentic chocolate cake for yer daughter’s 'ooley?”

“That doesn’t justify what you did to my saloon or her patrons that couldn’t get a good drink for weeks. So no, you aren’t allowed to buy any drink.”

Daisy tossed her head back and groaned, but then curled into a smile seeing me. She turned back to Far Cry with a smirk. “Well 'oy aboyt me mucker behind me?” She pointed to me. “Can she buy me drinks?”

Far Cry looked behind her and directly at me, after looking me over a few time before looking back at Daisy.

“Limit for her buying is only 3 bottles, nothing more.”

Hearing that, Daisy groaned again before speaking. “Jeez Far Cry, ye tryin' ter torture me 'ere?” She crossed her hooves for a second before Far Cry put out his hoof, a smirk on his face. “But gran', 'tis a dayle.” Daisy disgruntledly shook Far Cry’s hoof before turning back to me. “Cum on Silent, 'av a sate an' i’ll gie yer de caps ter buy me tree lorge bottles av whisky.” I hesitantly walked towards the counter and sat into the stool next to Daisy, and she drops a small pile of bottle caps on the counter in front of me. “That’s 45 caps ter buy de whiskey.” She got up from the chair. “I’m gonna buy ammo an' meds wi' de kip av de caps, you in de meantime shud enjoy yerself 'ere, spake ter de locals for stories or jist craic cack blather till Oi cum back.” Daisy walked to the saloon door and before she left she said one last thing. “Bye.”

Like that, she left. I was now by myself, surrounded by ponies that for the most part kept to themselves as well. As I stared at the door I heard metal jiggling, I turned back in front of me to see Far Cry using his hoof to push the bottle caps off the counter and into a bag.

“I’ll bring you the bottles in a short moment.”

As he left into another room, I decided to take Daisy’s advice and so got up from stool and walked around. I saw a table with four seats, three of them being occupied by a mare and two stallions, who were laughing and joking around. I walked up to them and politely asked,

“Is this seat taken?”

The trio of ponies stopped laughing and turned to me, now with a scowl on each of their faces. The mare, who was also a unicorn, levitated her saddle bag onto the empty seat.

“Yes it is, Stable Dweller.”

With that clear answer, I walked away with my head down. I tried to find other seats where ponies were sitting, but like the trio, ponies simply put belongings on any empty seats. I was about to just quit and go back to the stool I had been on until a mare’s voice called me out.

“This seat is free.”

I turned my head to the direction of the voice and saw at the corner of the saloon was a white earth pony mare, with a coal black mane. Just like Red Daisy, she was also wearing a duster with leather armor underneath, the only difference is that this pony was wearing a old cowcolt hat on her head despite being inside. She was was lounging on her chair with her hind hooves on the table while drinking from a beer bottle, and she made a gesture to come. Seeing that she is the only pony willing to let me have a seat next to them, I walked up and sat in the seat at the other end of the table.

After the mare stopped drinking, she put down her beer on the table and looked at me, extending her hoof out with a smirk on her face. “Name’s Jane, I’m Dirty River’s sheriff.” I shook her hoof, and after shaking it a bit, I let go and she continued. “I have to admit, it's been a long time since I saw a Stable Dweller.” She put her hoof under her chin. “I think when I was only 15 years old, so that would have been about 12 years ago.”

Stable Dweller. Ever since I left, ponies including the stallion that almost killed me call me that and it's been nagging at me since Daisy called me that. With the topic being about the name, I asked.

“What’s a Stable Dweller?”

Jane gave a soft chunkle and answered. “A Stable Dweller is one of you folks from those Stables that leave their home to have a ‘grand adventure’.” She took another drink from her bottle. “But after a few days of seeing what the world really is, most of them run back to their Stable and beg to be let back in. So what’s your excuse?”

“I didn’t have a choice.” I said almost as a whisper, though Jane still heard it and this cause her eyebrow to raise. “Short story, something bad happened to my Stable, and I was chosen to go outside to ‘save my home’.”

“Well that takes the meaning out of the name Stable Dweller.” Jane was thinking for a bit before she brightened up. “Wait, I know what you should be called… The Chosen Dweller.”

“Umm thanks, but my name is Silent Whisper.”

Then I saw a large bottle whiskey being set on the table, I looked and saw Far Cry standing at the table, setting down the last two bottles. After he did that, he looked at Jane with a loving smile, like how my brother or sister would give me.

“Good to see you today Jane.”

“Nice to see you too, pop.”

I blinked at that, I looked at both of them and then to Jane. “Wait… you're his daughter?”

Jane chuckled at that and answered. “Yep, I’m the daughter from the story.” She then turned her gaze to her father. “And dad, don’t be so hard on Red. Like she said, you did give her a 80% discount.”

In an instant, his smile turned into a frown as he grabbed an empty beer bottle from the table. “Hey, when she learns respect, I could consider letting her buy here again.” He then walked to a nearby table and used a cloth to wipe away any mess that was left. “I also saw that the water flow from the pipes is low, is the purifier still working?”

Hearing her father, Jane sighed before answering. “Barely, I don’t know how long it will last.”

Far Cry puts his hoof on his daughter’s shoulder. “Don’t worry Jane, I’m sure you’re going to figure out something.” After his reassurance, he left the table, I looked back at Jane and asked.

“What did he mean about a purifier?”

“Oh, well as you can guess from the name of the town, we have a river right next to the town, but it's polluted as hell with muck, radiation, and other nasty things that makes it undrinkable. That was until 30 years ago when a group of ponies which actually included my pop, found a derailed cargo train near the highway and found a P-6000 water purifier inside a large boxcar.”

“You found a P-6000?” I knew what that was. In case of a water talisman being repaired or like in Stable 15 broke, a P-6000 water purifier would be use to recycle any kind of wastewater, and most likely Stable 15 is using the emergency one for the next couple of months until the wastewater in the Stable dries up.

“Yep, my pop and the group of ponies brought it to this the river and got it working, and after 10 long years of planting, gathering scrap metal, and ponies settling down, Dirty River was made.”

“So what was the problem your father mentioned?”

Jane sighed and answered. “Well, 10 years ago, a couple hundred raiders occupied a large hotel called Big Horn Hotel and since then have been using it as a front for raider parties to attack caravans or other settlements, including this.” Jane took one big drink of her beer until it was empty and set it down on the table. “Those raiders tried attacking this town a few times in the past, but we manage to defend it, but last time was different. A few weeks ago, a group of raiders from Big Horn attacked us. It ended like the other times, but before the rest retreated, one of those damn raiders with a grenade rifle decided it would be funny to shoot at our only water supply. At least that raider’s head now resembles mashed-up jelly.” She was now scowling at the table as she continued. “Ever since then, the purifier has only been producing a quarter of what it was producing before and still declining.” She looked around her, making sure no pony was listening before she quietly spoke. “And despite what my pop said, I don’t know what to do.”

I can tell that Jane was stressed out as she put her hoof between in temples and groaned a bit. Then an idea popped up in my head. “Jane, I think I can fix your problem.” She looked at me again, yet again intrigued. “The P-6000 is issued in all Stables. Daisy and I are going to a Stable-Tech Warehouse by Big Horn Hotel, so maybe we can find something that can fix your water purifier?” While the prospect sounded interesting, Jane wore a worried look on her face, most likely because I mentioned Big Horn Hotel. “Oh, me and Daisy are going to Big Horn Hotel to rescue her friend Azure Star, and she thinks we should search the warehouse first to find anything useful for the rescue. I also need something there to save my Stable as well.”

“So that’s why I didn’t see Star with Red when she came here with you… well, I was thinking of going there or sending someone to that warehouse, but it's was too dangerous because it is close to Big Horn Hotel and I need as many ponies defending the town as I can get in case another raider party comes.” I saw Jane smirking again. “But knowing Red, and I imagine you had to convince her pretty hard to bring you along, I guess both of you are dead set on going.” She then pulled out a piece of paper out of a pocket, unfolding it and showing me a picture of a mechanism and the name of it above. “The piece crucial to the purifier is a ZSP Filter, and if you manage to grab a hold of schematics for the purifier as well, that will be a bonus for you.”

I smile and this time was the one to extend my hoof. “Deal.” She grabbed ahold of my hoof and shook, and at the same time, I heard a beep from my Pipbuck, most likely marking this as a quest.

Then right on cue, Red Daisy barge in with her saddle bag full. She walked up to the table and looked at me and then to Jane. “'Ey dare Jane, 'ow’s de filly?”

“Oh she’s good, in fact she said her first word… mommy.”

“Ah, 'ow juicy.” Daisy said as she looked up day dreaming. “Believe it or not, Oi mind me first ward, though de first tin' Oi said wus whiskey.” Daisy looked down at me. “Silent, 'ow aboyt yer wait for me for de moment at de town’s gate? I’m gonna 'av a friendly cack blather wi' me mucker 'ere.”

I nodded, and left the chair with Daisy now sitting down on it. I walked to the exit, and before exiting I looked back and saw the two mares talking to each other with Daisy grabbing one of Jane’s beers and drinking it all in one gulp which caused her to burp loudly. With that, both of the laughed. I smiled at that two and left.

As I walked up to the gate, I looked up saw a large locomotive pointing downwards on the other side of the gate. I went up to a gate guard stallion.

“Hey, a friend of mine and I are going to leave town for a bit, can you please open the gate?”

With that, the guard called two unicorn mares up top and they disappeared behind the barrier before coming back into view, though now with them wielding flamers in their magic. They aimed the flamers down at the locomotive’s fire chamber, where the coal would go into to fuel it, and fired two large streams of fire down into it. I both heard and saw the old locomotive’s pistons move, which caused the train wheels to start spinning with both smoke and steam coming out from the exhaust tubes from the front of the train with a loud whistle noise. Then the door was slowly being lifted up until it was high enough and stopped moving, I and heard a locking mechanism to keep it up even though the locomotive was still active with the wheels constantly moving. I have to admit, it must've taken these ponies a while to figure out how to keep the locomotive running while the gate would still stay open.

Then I felt a hoof over me and saw Daisy right by me. “Yeah Oi nu, 'tis a bit over de top an' it wud be lashings simpler jist ter 'av a regular gate, but 'tis became a signature av de town an' so makes it stan' oyt against others.” She pat my back before moving onward, with me following.

As we stepped outside the the gate, I saw a robot ponytron guard. I walked up to it and looked at the robotic guard. It looked like a normal ponytron robot like in the books, though like Jane, it had a cowcolt hat on its head, most likely just for decoration. Then I heard the locomotive stop for a moment. I looked back up, and saw the wheels now slowly going the opposite direction with the gate now being lowered back down. As the gate touched the ground, the two ponies up top stopped using the flamers and the wheels of the locomotive slowed down till they finally stopped and no more smoke or steam was coming from the train. The two unicorns put away the flamethrowers and went to both sides of the train, now picking up sniper rifles in their magic, looking out in the distance with the scopes. Looking away from the gate, I could see that the outer entrance is a parking lot, and not too far from us there was a building that was half blown up, the sign above it was also in half saying ‘ore’s Kayaking’ but from a nearby poster on a old electric pole said the full name of ‘Rocky Shore’s Kayaking’. Looking at the full map on my Pipbuck, it confirmed that like I saw on the cliff,, Baltimare had a large portion of the city underwater, with the majority of the city still at ground level. I learned in geography that Batlimare was in a harbor, so it was on unstable ground and because there was no maintenance to pump water beneath the ground, the city was slowly sinking into the ground. Because of this, the city was never going to heal. I then looked up and saw Daisy walking on the road towards the direction of the raider stronghold. I followed her, and I looked back in the map again and from the distance between Dirty River and the Stable-Tech Warehouse, it was going to take about a half hour to get there. So maybe this a chance I could ask her about her story.

Galloped to her side as we kept walking. “So um… Daisy, have you always been a courier?” She turned her head towards me, though only for a second before looking forward again.

“Listen Silent… you’re nice an' al', an' Oi wouldn’t mind yer bein' me mucker, but ter be blunt Oi don’t trust yer enoof for me ter tell yer aboyt me past. Oi'm sorry but, naw offense ter yer, but Oi don't wish ter blather aboyt yet.” With Daisy’s answer, I felt my heart shatter a bit but then I felt her bump my side with her hoof. “But dat doesn’t mean we can’t blather aboyt other things.”

“Oh, well…” I asked hesitantly, I didn’t expect that. “What’s… your favorite food?”

“Chocolate cake!” She cheered, as I looked at her with a puzzled expression. “Wat? Yer didn’t tink Oijist drank liquor at Jane’s 'ooley ye?”

I shook my head, then became curious about it. “How was the party?”

Daisy chuckle as she laid her hoof on my neck as we kept walking. “Ah, yer wouldn’t believe 'oy wild it went. It al' started whaen Oi came.”

“An' whaen we woke up in de mornin', Oi foun' meself actually breastfeedin' Jane’s filly while she wus tryin' ter breastfeed wan av 'er father’s cats!” Daisy laughed hard while I awkwardly chuckled as Daisy described the outcome of Jane’s party. “Nigh don’t tell Jane, unlike me, she doesn’t 'av a immunity ter 'angovers. Promise?”

“Promise.”

Then we finally saw the Stable-Tech Warehouse, I looked at my Pipbuck’s clock and saw that it took us 34 minutes to finally made it to the warehouse. While Daisy’s story of the party did help to distract the long journey, it still felt like it took forever to walk here. With how physically weak I was, I was not used to walking long distances. I sat down on my hunches for a moment and rubbed my hooves together in attempt to massage them. They were so sore that they felt like they were going to break off my body.

“Nigh cum on lassy,” Daisy said as I looked up to see her staring at the entrance while taking a sip from her decorated canteen. “We still 'av a warehouse ter plunder.”

With that, she was now walking inside, so I followed her. As we both made our way through the entrance that once was used to fit boxcars through, as I followed Daisy through the warehouse, I noticed that it seemed pretty calm, until I saw both giant rats and those giant cockroaches behind a large crate. In reaction, I pulled out the 10mm pistol and aimed it at the group, but before I could shoot, Daisy grabbed the gun with her hoof.

“Silent, yer don’t 'av ter pull yer gun on everythin' yer clap. Oinu yer never seen a ROUS or a Radroach, but loike any animal, if yer don’t 'assle dem, they won’t 'assle yer.”

“What’s a ROUS?” I asked as she rolled her eyes.

“Rodents Of Unusual Size, duh.”

Following what Daisy taught me, we walked passed the varmints and continued searching. We spent 10 minutes looking through some parts of the ground floor of the warehouse, but because of how big it was, we might as well be looking for two needles in a haystack. Then something caught Daisy’s eye as she looked into a fallen crate. As I watched her rummaging in the crate, Daisy pulled out a strange saddle. She sat it on her back and attached a old assault rifle on the side that she also found in the crate. She called it a battle saddle, and it apparently is for non-unicorn ponies to hold rifles and larger guns that were too big for the mouth to hold. She put what I assume to be the trigger in her mouth, which was connected to the saddle by a cord. After gathering ammo she found in the crate, Daisy turned to me.

“Besides dis battle saddle an' assault rifle, we still 'aven’t foun' wat yer came 'ere for, or de filter de town needs.” Daisy took another sip of her canteen. “Got any ideas?”

I looked around the warehouse trying figure a way to find what we need, then spotted the main office on the second floor.

“Daisy, look.” I pointed my hoof towards the main office, and she looked in that direction. “That’s the main office. If there’s a terminal up there, then we can use it to find both a ZSP Filter and a Water Talisman.”

Daisy jerked her head back to me with a surprise look. “Wait a minute, that’s de call yer nade ter root dis place?”

“Heh.. heh.. Forgot to tell you, the reason I left my Stable was to get a new Water Talisman, ours broke.”

“Gran' so den, we better 'urry up, not only we 'av a mucker an' town in nade, but nigh we 'av a Stable ter save!” she said out loud in a heroic manner before walking past me towards the stairs.

I chuckled at her at humorous tone as I followed suit. “Yeah, let’s do that.”

We got to the stairs and walked up to the second floor, walking into a hallway that stretched between the main office that was in the middle of one side and a few other rooms on the other side. We walked into the hallway and into the main office. Besides everything being covered in dust, the office looked orderly, as if it was never disturbed. The was a desk at the middle end of the room, facing away from the windows overlooking the warehouse, and in the chair was the skeleton of a unicorn pony.

I walked up to the desk to get a closer look and saw that there was a bullet hole at the right side of the skull and a old rusted 9mm pistol on the ground. I also noticed that the terminal was still working, despite it being 200 years old. Seeing no other option, I regretfully pushed the skeleton that I presumed was the manager of the warehouse out of its chair and hopped into it as Daisy was looking for potential supplies in the room. I tried to look through the files of the terminal, but it blocked me and said I needed a password or an ID card from the former manager. Seeing that I wasn’t not good with terminals yet, I began search for a ID around the desk. I looked back at the skeleton and noticed the ID card was still around the manager’s neck. Grabbing the card in my telekinesis, I closed my eyes and hesitantly yanked it off of the neck of the skeleton. After blowing some dust off it, I inserted it inside the terminal, unlocking it. I looked through files, though most of it was corrupted with the exception of notes that the manager wrote. I looked through the rows of notes, and decided to look into the last entry for any information and read.

Forgotten Shipment- October 17, 1044

I can’t believe those idiots forgot the extra ZSP Filter for the P-6000! I mean it, they got everything on board the train, yet those idiot ponies on the train forgot one simple filter! After I found out, I had some workers put it in a small blue container near the boxcar entrance. Though seeing that it wasn’t enough, I decided to write ‘IDIOTS’ in red for those stupid train ponies to see when they come back.

Good, the filter is somewhere near the entrance where we came in. I went back to the notes again, and clicked one in the middle.

Power Armor devices- October 9, 1044

Just got two experimental devices, both involve power armor. While the board didn’t say what they do, I did saw them. One looked like a visor and the other a power armor disc card. Other than that, I have no idea what they're for. So I decided to just throw them into the safe in the filing room along with the other experimental weapon.

A safe? Hopefully if it's not difficult to pick. We might find something useful, though that will have to wait. I still need to find a Water Talisman.

I went on reading titles of other notes to find where a Water Talisman would be, then I saw one note called ‘Got an extra Stable’ and the date was May 11, 1044. Hoping that this could have answers, I read it.

Well this is a surprise, this morning the cargo train arrived with materials to build Stable 15 in the mountain side dubbed Snow Fall’s Sky Diving, but when the train arrived, it had twice as much material, enough to build a second Stable. I tried contacting my superiors in the Stable-Tech office in Baltimare, but they only told me it was classified and to have the materials in storage for the time being. I can’t believe it, the warehouse is already full as it is with Stable 15 materials, now we have to store an extra Stable for no reason? Something seems off.

Another Stable is here. Well, technically pieces of a Stable, but if that’s so, then a Water Talisman would still be here. I eagerly opened up the next note entry.

August 23, 1044

I just gotten new orders from headquarters in Fillydelphia, from the president of Stable-Tech, herself, Apple Bloom. That unknown Stable material that I was told to have it stored here, now it's going to be transferred to some other place. Tried to ask where, but was told that it too was classified. Goddesses, if I have to deal with these things all the time, I’m going to shoot myself one day.

I felt my jaw just hanging as I re-read the note. For a second, I felt like breaking down again, but then something else replaced the sadness with rage. In a fit of anger, I violently pushed the terminal off the desk. After 200 years of laying here untouched, the terminal landed on the screen and made a big cracking sound as the glass broke. The crash caused Daisy to jump and look towards me as I cursed out loud.

“You gotta be fucking me with your horns, Goddesses.” In a normal situation, I would be surprised of the way I cursed the Goddesses, but right now I didn’t care. Not only was there no Water Talisman, but knowing that there was a second one here that got moved, steam may as well be whistling out of my ears.

“Silent, ye ok-”

All of a sudden, we heard a click and next thing was the sounds of alarms screaming all around us. I looked at the broken computer and realized I must've triggered some kind of security protocol. Then we heard sounds of sliding doors opening and smashing noises, so we ran to the window and looked to see that dozen of ponitrons have awakened from their stasis pods or are just simply smashing their way out of a crate. With large stomps from ponitrons, they began firing at the giant rats and radroaches, with most of them simply dying or turning into ashes from the lasers coming from the heads of the ponitrons. As the last of the varmints were killed, one of the ponitrons looked up and saw us.

“Intruder detected: Lethal force authorized.”

With that, the robot and others around it started firing at us. Both me and Daisy immediately ducked below the window, as most of the glass was being shattered by the barrage of lasers. We crawled far enough away that the angle of the robots’ lasers couldn’t hit us. We got up and ran out of the room, but when we did, I saw we were trapped by two ponitrons on both sides of the hallway. I heard multiple gunshots as Daisy used her new assault rifle to fire at the ponitron on the left, continuing till the ponitron’s head blew up. With the other ponitron on the right getting closer, I quickly lifted my gun and brought up S.A.T.S. for a more accurate shot. I picked the head of the ponitron with six shots andfired each bullet in slow motion. Two completely missed, while the rest made direct hits. As I fired the last bullet from S.A.T.S., the ponitron shot a laser and hit my gun. The laser quickly heated it up and in reaction, the ammo inside it exploded, completely destroying the pistol as it fell to the floor with a thunk. Fortunately, the last bullet from S.A.T.S. managed to hit the ponitron and with that, it fell to the ground. While I would be glad about that, the only thing I was doing now was holding my right shoulder in pain. One of the bullet casings from my pistol got lodged into my flesh. Daisy came up to me to treat my wound, but then we heard metal hoof steps from the stairs, I looked at Daisy.

“We need to hide, let's get into the other room.” She nodded, and we both rushed into the other room and closed the half blown-off door. We sat at the sides of the door, listening to the multiple hoof steps of ponitrons looking around. Then one of them opened the door, and in a quick reaction, I activated my invisibility spell not just on me, but on Daisy as well. While both of us were invisible, it was hard for me to concentrate on the spell with two of us, causing the invisibility to wave a bit. The ponitron stepped inside, looking around the room for anything.

“Scanning… Scanning… hostiles gone.”

Then finally both the ponitron and the others began going downstairs again. I released the spell, then took a deep breath as I tried to tolerate the pain in my shoulder. After a moment or so of trying to cope with the pain, I decide to just get a healing potion from my saddle bag, but when I was about to unscrew the top, Daisy grabbed it. “Sorry Silent, but 'tis better ter save dees things for as long as yer can.” She put it back into my saddle bag again, then she went into hers and pulled out a syringe that had a purple liquid inside it. “Try dis instead.”

Then she stuck it into my wound I would have screamed, but she also held her hoof to my mouth. Just as quickly it started, she took out the needle and dropped it to the floor. I wanted to scream at her for what she did, but then I got a sensation through body. After the sensation was over, I noticed that I now barely feel the pain from my shoulder any more, I even touched the casing in my shoulder and it only felt like someone was just pinching me. I looked back at Daisy who was reloading her assault rifle and asked.

“What did you do to me?”

She looked back at me with a smirk. “Oi injected yer wi' sum Med-X.” I heard a clicking sound from her battle saddle as she threw an empty clip out of it. “It 'elps numb de pain av a woun'.”

“Oh… thanks.”

Daisy nodded, then we looked around the room. There were a few desks and chairs, but it had a lot of filing cabinets. Wait, this must be the filing room the note mentioned. I began searching for a possible safe, when Daisy walked up with a magazine in her mouth. She set it down on the table, and as it was laid flat, it read ‘Today's Locksmith’.

“Oi foun' dis under a desk. Wonder if yer wud nade it.”

I was about to thank her, but when I noticed a safe partially covered by a sheet, I quickly rushed passed her to it. I held a bobby pin and my lucky screwdriver, and I started picking the lock. As I stuck the screwdriver in the keyhole, I then inserted a bobby pin inside as well and gently turned the bobby pin-.

*Snap*

Yet another safe that I can’t pick! I sat there, looking at the safe, eyes full of hate at the steel grey box, but then suddenly the magazine from earlier was in my face, with Daisy holding it in her teeth.

“Try readin' dis.” She said with the magazine in her mouth. “It might teach yer 'ow ter chucker dis 'ard wan.”

Looking towards the book, I grabbed it in my telekinesis and opened it up and started reading. As I speed read through the magazine, I felt that I had more experience for lockpicking for some reason. After reading it, I placed it into my saddle bag and started picking the safe again, and this time it felt a bit easier. It was still hard, but the bobby pin at least didn’t break instantly. I took me a few tries until I heard a click as I was finally able to get into it. I had to admit, that magazine did helped more than I thought.

I saw a couple objects inside once I opened it, one of which was a gun. It looked like a strange type of revolver, and a powerful one no doubt. I lifted it up with my magic and examined it more closely. The mouth grip was made of smooth wood, the barrel of the gun looked like it had two barrels, though when looking closer, it was only the barrel below the first that had the actual gun barrel. I looked at the ammo cylinder and saw that it was covered in a casing on both sides, with the left side having a little glowing yellow gem. As I kept looking at it, I saw the side of barrel again and this time noticed that it had and an engraving on it which said ‘This Gun’. I looked back into the save and picked up a note that was next to it. I levitated it and read it.

Description of This Gun.

This Gun is a heavily modified, pared down .223 pistol. This Gun can only be use by one individual by recognizing their DNA. It has a motorized cylinder and crane for quicker shooting and reloading than a typical revolver. Ammo type changed to 5.56mm for more damage. The green gem on the left side turns yellow while reloading, then turns green and makes a ringing noise once the weapon has reloaded.

This Gun? Really? The pony who made this couldn’t think of a better name? There was another section of the note.

How to use This Gun.

To use This Gun, you first must put the grip into your muzzle; unicorns are no exceptions. This is to gain the DNA from ponies so only they could use it. Same applies to unicorns, where only their magic can use This Gun.

Following the instructions, I placed… This Gun... into my mouth. It felt strange actually holding a firearm in my mouth. In the Stable, we all used our telekinesis for everything, so this was—

A tiny blade of some kind sliced the tip of my tongue. I yelped and dropped the revolver on the ground as I held a hoof to my mouth. Daisy came back to help.

“Silent, yer gran' so?”

“My tongue…” was the only sentence I could moan out.

“Let me clap.” She forced my mouth open and looked inside. “Ah yeah, there’s a cleave on yer tongue.”

Then I heard a beep noise from the gun. Wanting to know why that gun just nipped me, I levitated the note back to me again.

Be advised, the DNA sampler will have to extract DNA from the tongue.

“Oh now you tell me.” If I knew it was going to do that, I would have just left the gun, but seeing that it now has my DNA, I might as well continue.

To effectively reload faster, This Gun has six bullet cylinders, and each can hold five bullets. When This Gun is out of ammo, it will automatically reload one of the six cylinders with a full row of 5.56mm. A red gem is used as a recover maker for empty cylinders to be reloaded later, the gem has a pin and can be attached to any fabric.

I looked back into the safe and levitated out six cylinders and the red gem. I attach the red gem in the inside of a large pocket on my saddle bag. Then I looked at Daisy and asked. “Hey Daisy, can you possible spare like… thirty of your bullets?”

Daisy, went into her battle saddle and pulled out only fifteen bullets. “Sorry Silent, but Oi’m gettin' juicy dry for dis gun.”

“Oh, don’t worry.” I levitated the bullets to me. “This will do.”

With my magic, I pushed five bullets in one of the cylinders, and immediately, it floated by itself and I saw it going towards This Gun. This Gun’s cylinder casing flipped opened, and the ammo cylinder was placed in the slot and the casing flipped closed again, with the yellow gem now emitting a green glow and making a ringing sound. Seeing that it was fully loaded, I placed it in my pistol holder and quickly loaded two other cylinders before placing them back into the pocket.

“‘Uh… fancy gun yer got dare, though what’s in de kip av de safe?”

Daisy was right, while this gun is cool and all, the note in the terminal explained that there were other valuable objects inside. I looked back inside and like what the manager wrote, it was a visor and a small chip, each with a note attached to them. I decided just to throw them in my saddle bag, and wait to read the notes later. Then I saw at the very back were schematics, and when I levitated it to me, I saw it was the P-6000 purifier schematics! I put it inside my saddle bag, and with that we were finally ready to… go.

Stupid! I completely forgot about the dozens of ponitrons down below. With how limited our ammo is, a full fire fight would be suicidal. While I could sneak out of here, Daisy can’t unless we’re both…

“Daisy, I have a plan.” She stared at me, full concentrated on what I have to say. “I can maybe get us out of here by what we just did a moment ago of me turning us invisible... but problem is that, this was the first time I did that and it took a lot of energy for me to do that.”

“Oi clap, well 'oy long wud yer last?”

“Honestly, I don’t know. My longest time of being invisible was 15-20 minutes, but that was just for myself.” I gulped before speaking again. “Daisy, I know I asked a lot from you, but can you trust me?”

She gave a big smirk and nodded. “Oi trust you Silent.”

I smile at her as I closed my eyes, trying to gain power in my core again to envalp both of us in my spell. Just like the first time, it was hard to do with two of us, but both of us were soon hidden from the sight. Though, like before, it caused the invisibility to shimmer, hopefully these ponitrons can’t tell the difference. I opened the door as we slowly walked through the hallway and down the stairs. We had to backtrack carefully, and we nearly got caught when three ponitrons were walking down the same aisle and we barely squeezed past them. We tried to move as fast but also quietly as possible, as it was getting harder and harder to concentrate on the spell, and I started getting a headache.

We finally were getting closer to the exit, though we had to stop, because I still had to find the filter. I looked around and after a bit of searching, I finally saw a blue box. We carefully walked to it, and to make sure it is the one, I looked at the lid and saw ‘IDIOTS’ in bold red letters on top. I opened it up and there it was, the ZSP Filter. I levitated it out and put it in my saddle bag, but for some reason, fate decided that one box would cause a chain reaction to drop a larger crate above me. Fortunately, I got out of the way but caused me to lose concentration on my spell, and now both of us were being sighted by every ponitrons.

“Intruder alert: Lethal force authorised.”

We quickly hid behind the fallen crate as three ponitrons blocked the exit. As we hid from the ponitron’s lasers, I saw a ponitron coming out of a corner on my right. I quickly pulled out This Gun and activated S.A.T.S.. I fired five shots, and by my surprise, the first two bullets caused critical damage, and the robot fell with a thud.

“Nice shot,” Daisy commented, but then I saw her pulling something out of her saddle bag. “But remember when I was buying supplies?”

“Yeah.”

“And the tale of that asshole raider?”

“Yeah…”

Then I fully saw what she pulled out. A grenade rifle. “A little gift from the raider who started Dirty River’s trouble.” She then popped out from cover and aimed it at the three ponitrons, and with a pull of the trigger, all three of the now scrap metal robots lay in ruins after the explosion.

A few more ponitrons came in view, so we started to make a run for it as the ponitrons began firing at us. As we got close to the train doors, I felt a stinging sensation hitting me in the left side of my flank. I kept firing the rest of the bullets from This Gun till it was out, and like what the manual said, the empty cylinder flipped out and floated into the pocket while a full one to replace it. I decided to put it away and just kept running with Daisy. Then we finally jump to the outside world.

Outside, I was sitting down looking at the ground while Daisy was gathering her medical supplies to heal our wounds. We barely made it out of the warehouse, and fortunately, the ponitron’s programming was to only to kill intruders from inside the building. But even when we were still open targets to the robots, the ponitrons stayed in the building and continued patrolling. Despite having successfully escaped with a couple pieces of equipment we got, my mood was sour. Not only was there no Water Talisman, but with no source to guide me: I was now at a dead end in my search. Daisy noticed my mood as she was wrapping her right forehoof with magical bandages. Her eyes wandered a bit until she smirked and said,

“Luk on de bright side, Silent.” She pointed her hoof to my flank. “At laest yer got yer cutie mark filled in.”

“What?” I looked at the left side of my cutie mark and saw that the stinging feeling was from a ponitron shooting me on my cutie mark. By my surprise, the scorched fur filled in the entire outline of the star without it obscuring of the outline, making it look like a black star. “Huh, so that what it looks like when filled in.”

“Yeah, maybe yer cud rename yerself ter Black Star?” Daisy got closer to me. “Wat chucker yer tink aboyt dat?”

Finally, I manage to chuckle. “Yeah, that does sound like a good name.” That’s when I noticed Daisy was now in front of me, with her lowered down to my chest. What was she doing— “Ow!” She plopped her head up, and in her teeth was a 10mm shell casing that was embedded in my shoulder. She spit out the casing and got out another strip of magical bandages. “You could have at least warned me first, you know.”

She shrugged and lifted my left sleeve until it was all the way up, then wrapped the bandage around my shoulder. While magical bandages weren’t as effective as healing potions, I could still feel the bandage on my shoulder starting to heal my wound there.

“Gran' so Silent.” I looked at Daisy as she rolled out another large strip of magical bandages. “Oi nade ter touch yer flank nigh.”

I blinked from shock as she said. “Wha… What?” She didn’t answer, instead gently pushed me on my right side. She then walked over to my left flank, lifting my left hind hoof onto her shoulder and started touching me. Safe to say, I was completely embarrassed with another mare touching me down there. I could feel her hoof touching me and occasional rubbing, I then felt the bandage wrapping around my left flank before being tightened.

“Gran' so, you’re al' patched up.” I got up and looked to see that my entire upper left flank was completely covered in magical bandages, and once again, I felt it healing my wound. Then I heard Daisy snicker. “Jeez Silent, you’re scarlet brighter than de sun risin'.” At that, I finally noticed the heat in my cheeks. “What’s de matter Silent, yer into mares?”

The heat in my cheeks got hotter. “What? Of... of course not!” I blathered out, I tried to keep a calm face, but my blushing wasn’t helping. “I’m just as into stallions as you are Daisy!”

Daisy snickered again with a grin. “Well den in dat case, jist loike me, yer must av also 'ad 'undreds av stallions up yer 'oles.” She said as she was now laughing.

“What… no!” I yelled, the blushing still there. “Hell, I’m still a virgin!” I quickly covered my mouth, but Daisy already heard and so she laughed even harder than before falling down backwards. I groaned from the humiliation; I needed to think of a come back. Then an idea popped into my head. “Well Red Daisy, if you did do those hundreds of stallions, I imagine that you must be very loose now.” That’s when Daisy stopped laughing and got up, now with a shocked look. “In fact, I bet half of those stallions you did barely felt anything.”

“'Ey!” Daisy barked at me, now standing on all fours. “Oi 'av yer nu dat me 'oles are jist as tight as yer virgin 'oles!”

Now I was laughing hysterically with Daisy pouting, but to my surprise, she also started laughing alongside me. We laughed for a good moment before finally calming down. Then I saw Daisy bringing out one of the whiskey bottles, pouring some of it in her silver canteen. After that, she drank the rest of it in one continuous gulpes in less than 10 seconds. As she drank the last drop, she then threw the bottle to the ground as it smashed to pieces.

“Ell Silent, dis 'as al' been craic, but nigh we nade ter git gonna de stronghauld.”

With that, she head out to the direction of Big Horn Hotel, with me following her lead to our quest. I didn't know what to expect on our journey, but I finally felt safe with my new friend, which I thought I would never find in this wasteland. Hopefully, our path lead us to hope for a friend, rather a path to our deaths.