Having a hole in your leg fucking sucked. Vetta had given me a small bandage to cover the wound, but in 10 minutes it was soaked through. Right about then, was when I realized how unprepared we were. We had no healing supplies left other than half of a healing potion that we decided was for an emergency only, one pistol with 24 bullets left, and we were unarmored. We weren’t going to get anywhere if we didn’t get proper gear.

We were walking on the side of the road toward a light we hoped was a trading post. There was a part of the road where ‘Fuck NCR’ was written is some ponies blood and intestines. I guessed the victim was the shredded pony pinned to the ground by rail spikes.

The NCR were the ones trying to make a difference in the wastes. They had camps set up all over, anywhere you went you could most likely find a base nearby. They had a goal to try and establish government to ponies. They would enforce things they thought should be enforced. They didn’t really have the best approach all of the time however. Often if you didn’t comply, you would be shot. They had prisons, but detaining an armed pony isn’t always easy, and every pony is packing heat. Pretty much none of the other factions liked the NCR.

You had the Steel Rangers, who were disgusting. They wanted all of the wasteland’s pre-war technology, and they wanted to have it but not use it. Fucking monsters wear pre-war suits of heavy power armor, that in itself makes enough noise to alarm someone from miles away. They have enough firepower to punch a hole through equestria, if they put their mind to it, giant fucking anti-materiel rifles, rocket launchers, miniguns, name a heavy weapon and they’ve got it, they have rail guns for luna’s sake! I’ve seen the way they treat their gear, they shouldn't even be trusted with a service pistol, let alone all of pre-war technology.

The Caesar’s legion are the NCR’s main rival. I don’t know much about them, but I know they are bad news to come by.

Then you have the Khans, weird bunch of bastards if you ask me. They live in the mountains, that’s really all I know. They don’t seem to like anyone all too much though. They seem more reliant on melee weapons, which I admire. If you can take out a pony wearing armor with a switchblade, or a bat, I would want you on my side of the fight.

Then there’s The Raiders. I don’t really know where they stand on the scale of factions. I do know, they are ravenous. They don’t care who you are, they just want to see your insides become your outsides. Weapons for them don’t seem to be an issue, they always seem to have a gun or some sadistic homemade melee weapon on them. if they don’t they will come at you with bare hooves and teeth, just running straight into your bullets. You never want to find yourself near a group of ten or more raiders, the suicidal savages have poor technique, but if you have to keep shooting at them you have to reload, if you reload you give them the opportunity to swarm you. Then it’s over.

Basically, the NCR is vilified by all the factions that have any ties with Dise, mainly because they have a huge farm, right near the walls. They use it to feed their troops, and when troops are promised food they get waves of ponies lost and down on their luck to join their army. I don’t really care too much for them, I’m not going to go shooting them for no reason but I don’t care that they are usually in the way of anything fun. There are too many innocent ponies corrupt by the toll of the wastes.

My whole life I have just stolen what I needed. For a lot of ponies that is difficult. They don’t have the caps to pay for food, safety, or medicine, so they turn to groups like the NCR. They end up sacrificing their lives so they could live, the irony is so thick you could cut it. It could be worse, they could be being raider food by now, but could that be mercy? What is the worth of a life of fighting on someone else's behalf? To be a slave, just so you could live. Then of course there's the actual slaves.

Most of them come from Fillydelphia, but they are here too. Every time I see a slave, I can’t but cry for them, after murdering their slavers of course. They were ripped from what life they had to be forced to live a malnourished life of working to survive. They get whipped even when they are starved to the bone, worn of all their energy, just because they didn’t work hard enough. If they would get caught doing something considered breaking the rules, they got starved even more, and beaten more. Then there’s the born slaves, born into a life not knowing freedom, only knowing that they are supposed to work for their master, not knowing a life other than a daily grind of hard labor and bare minimums of food.

I always feel bad when I can’t take more care of ponies. I save them, but do I really? I protect them from their imminent danger, but what about in the future? They probably die of starvation, raiders, or whatever shit-storm the wasteland wants to throw at them. I am not making a difference at all, I have been prolonging their suffering. I push those I help to live on, to suffer through whatever, just to live a little longer. Am I doing the right thing?

“Are you okay darling? You look forlorn.” Vetta said breaking my line of thought. I nod, but was anyone okay? Okay was a prayer you would tell yourself, over and over, until you truly believed it. But that didn’t make it true.

“I think you are lying. There are tears in your eyes you know?” I didn’t. I wiped them away as swiftly as I could, in hopes it would make her forget they were there. “I wish you would talk to me, tell me you’re okay.” I did a half shrug, hoping it wasn’t too rude.

‘Better than I was’ Erase. ‘Now I have you’ Erase. ‘To keep me’ Erase ‘Smiling’ The wasteland wasn’t easy on anyone. Even the griffons had some code they stuck to for life, I thought it was too similar to slavery but apparently it's some sort of honor thing. The pegasi however, don't have the toll of the wasteland to be burdened with.

The pegasi live in the clouds above the broken world below. They don’t have to worry about raiders, or starving, or knowing that you are probably going to have a new scar every day. They even have the Grand Pegasus Enclave. It's apparently some kind of military. Since they are the only ones up there, I don’t know why they need near impenetrable armor and high-powered rifles. No pony likes the pegasi, the fucking chickens wouldn’t last a day on the ground. There is the rare ground born pegasus too, they are born into a life they didn’t ask for, constantly attacked just due to the wings on their sides. I don’t know why they don’t fly up and live in the clouds with their kind, but I still feel for them.

“Aww. That’s nice, but I can still see the pain in your eyes. The years of hurt, your eyes tell thousands of word about you, the pain and suffering, loss. You have scars that go far deeper than just physical. At least think it over for me?” Vetta lectured. I nodded to her question, I wasn’t going to think it over though, I had no reason to talk to her. I was fine.

I was not fine.

***

We had been walking for about four hours, when I saw the Pony Joe’s in the distance. This PipBuck sure was helpful, without it I doubt I would have known where my drunken escapades a couple nights ago had brought me. I was nearly hopping in anticipation of being reunited with my wonderful equipment.

When we got closer to the café there were several pony shaped figures, about ten or so, lurking around it. They were clearly ghouls, because in the five minutes we watched them they weren’t doing much but shuffling around. Ghouls were hard to handle because they would notice if one of their group was hurt, I had no clue how they knew but it frenzied all of the ones in proximity to it. Our best chance was to hope there were no more inside and take them out from farther away.

I wasn’t the greatest shot from a distance, so I handed Vetta the pistol. “At least it’s only ghouls. This is like a mercy to them right?” She asked almost pleadingly. I give her a knowing nod, it was hard to kill helpless beasts.

I watched Vetta as she held the weapon in her mouth and aimed with deft movements I couldn’t hope to match. She pulled the trigger with her tongue, and the bullet flew right into the head of one of the closer ghouls. Unsurprisingly the ghouls turned to their fallen comrade, and looked around to find a culprit to eat.

Ghouls were tricky in the sense that, if you didn’t handle them with a headshot or mutilation, they would come back more angry. The ghouls started running toward us, they were a good 50 feet away, but I needed to keep them off Vetta so she could focus. I did the most sensible thing and ran to the left to lure their attention away. It worked well for a little bit, then I remembered my leg wound.

Once I thought about it, every step hurt. I couldn’t just stop, but I couldn’t keep going very well either. A couple more ghouls collapsed to the ground, from Vetta’s impressive accuracy. I suppose, it wouldn’t be all that difficult to hit ghouls moving at a shambling speed at about 100 feet off, but it was still impressive for a breaking pistol. By now there were about four or five left, and they were dropping fast. I wasn’t paying attention to my steps, and I tripped over a metal peice of rebar.

Of course I tripped, why wouldn’t I pay attention to the task at hoof? The ghoul that was in front fumbled closer to me within hoof reach. It started to lean toward me. It’s breath was a mix of rotting corpse, and fresh corpse smelling not really something I was proud of knowing. It’s jaw opened to show off it’s impressively healthy teeth. They were still piss yellow, but for a ghoul that was pretty impressive. ‘I’m about to be eaten and I’m commenting on a ghouls hygiene’ I thought to my idiot self.

It’s head exploded in my face, and it fell slack on me. I was disgusted. Now I was covered in ghoul ‘blood’ and being drooled on. I shoved him off as well as I could and got to my hooves to turn and run. Except there was nothing to run from. Unless you count the rancid smell of rotting corpses that should have rotted a long time ago. There was a line of bodies leading to where I was from the café. I wiped off as much of the slobber and blood as I could, which wasn’t much because my legs were coated as well. ‘I just took a shower this morning dammit, why can’t I stay clean?’ My leg was in even more pain after I fell, it doesn’t help that ghoul spit and blood probably were soaking through the thin wrap I called a bandage.

I walked back to Vetta who was sitting and just staring at the trail of corpses. “I did this, huh?” She said somberly. “Such devastation, they never even stood a chance.” I thought I saw a tear run down her face but didn’t want to point it out. “Oh, look at you. You got all covered in, well, the usual. Could we rest in the café, we haven’t stopped walking in hours?” I nod, still looking at her with sad eyes. I was going to help her through this, it was my fault she was in this situation.

We just leave the bodies to rot outside, and trot into the Pony Joe’s. It was just as I left it. I kicked the wall a few times to see if any ghouls were inside. Since I didn’t hear any snarls I guessed it was vacant. I moved over to the loose tile in the floor almost at a canter.

I moved the tile away and saw my possessions, just where I left them nothing but a few grains of cobblestone to tell they had been stored. On top was my sleek black recon suit. I slide it on and it fits like a missing puzzle piece. The sleeve go all the way to my hooves, and the neck all the way to the base of my skull. It was so snug I felt like a bug in a rug. My saddlebags were next, they were a dark black as well, crudely painted by yours truly. The strap over my back was thick leather, so It wouldn’t snap, and the dye I used wouldn’t stick to the dark brown strip. Next was my most prized possession.

‘The Cure’ My 9mm, all black suppressed pistol, sat in the hole, almost looking like it missed me. I held it delicately in my hooves and just envied it’s look of beauty for a few moments before sliding it in the sewn in holster on my left foreleg. It fit so perfectly, like it was meant to be. I still had the wound so I had to be careful when I drew my beauty. The last thing in the hole was the mask I usually wore when I was out and about.

It was a leather cap that had studs embedded in the front in a tiara shape. It had 10 plumes sticking out from the top in an arch, the one in front was larger than the others. I wore a red bandana under my eyes as well. No need for ponies to remember my face. I had found it near a burned down village, I assumed it was tribal but I liked the shiny gems on the front so I took it. I noticed Vetta was watching me go through my things, like a foal who got their first gun.

“You just don’t stop finding ways to make you more confusing. I hoped to at least know something about you after 2 days, and here you are giving me more mysteries to solve.” Vetta said. I just shrug, it was probably better that way. It would take me a day to explain all of my problems back to back starting at dawn. “If I tell you something will you tell me something? I don’t see our relationship going anywhere, if we don’t know each other.” I give it a couple of moments of thought, and nod. I would just give her something basic.

She seemed to perk up at my response. “I don’t think I will ever fully get you, you are so solid and all of a sudden you agree to tell me something?” Again I just shrug, I do that a lot. “Again with the shrugging. You do that too often.” See? “Well. Once when we were traveling back to Tenpony from a trip to Dise, we were attacked by ghouls. They bit my brother and I was traumatized. Can you imagine watching a loved one just writhe in pain?” Thankfully not, that would suck. “Your turn now.” She said almost happily.

‘Killed someone’ ‘Didn’t mean to’ ‘Got in bullet path’ ‘Bullet to the head’ ‘Was a foal’ ‘Traumatizing’ I finished. That was one of the things I could say. It was simple not too exposing of the monster I am.

Vetta stared in shock at me. I had an indifferent look on my face, I had come to terms with this for the most part. I had a lot of time to cry when I was alone. “That must be terrible. I'm so sorry.” She said breaking out in tears. Again with the hugging, It didn’t feel so foreign with her though. As she finished crying and muttering sorries into my suit, I sat and hugged her back. She pulled out of the hug and looked at me. “We should probably get going, If we want to make ground before sunset.” She said and I nodded stoically.

Now that I was kitted out, minus the mask I only wore that for helping ponies, we walked down the road. I was happy as could be, I had my stuff and I really wanted to shoot some bad guys. I promised myself only to kill the bad guys, aside from the foal accident, I kept to my promise pretty well. Vetta however, didn’t look so good. She looked a shade lighter than her usual deep purple. I poked her with a hoof, and gave a concerned look.

“I’m fine, so-. I just feel so bad for that poor foal.” She was still whining about that? I guess, it took me two years and a lot of killing to get over that one. I gave her a reassuring smile. She perked up a little. “Thanks.” She said simply, and we continued walking.

***

“FUCKING SNIPER! GET THE FUCK DOWN!” Yelled the stallion named Shaved Steel. There was a feud going on between two small gangs of this part of what was a town. The Bandoliers and The Dusters. The Bandoliers were ballistic weapon lovers, with hunting rifles and assault carbines as their front line, they were a pretty fine group of ponies that never caused much trouble. They scratched my back, I would scratch theirs. We were even at the time, but I loved having ponies indebted to me, so I was going to help them.

The Dusters were tech freaks. They built their own laser weapons from scrap parts of others. Which made them unstable, but deadly. They were dicks. They often would rob caravans and poke their heads where they don’t belong. I would sometimes find them shooting merchants and looting their brahmin, so I had them high up on the bad guy scale.

The Bandoliers gave me and Vetta ammo so we could help fight off the bastard Dusters who fired on the Bandoliers for no good reason. The sniper had us pinned to a concrete barricade, on the side of the road. The Dusters were held up in the building across from our current held position. A bolt hit the rock near my head and melted the section of the barrier it hit.

By this point I had my mask on, mainly as a show of status but also because it felt right. It was closer to night by now, so I had the right light to get behind them and help get rid of the heavy firepower. But I couldn’t do anything from being behind a wall. I carefully slid as far down I could to the end of the barricade, so I could get to a spot they wouldn’t see me right away If I moved.

I focused on pulling the darkness around my brightly colored mask, and practically disappeared from sight into the cold pull of the shadows. In the middle of a fight, you wouldn’t be paying attention to the tiny details, you would want to shoot what was in front of you. Which makes this all that much easier.

I glide out from cover and away from the muzzle flashes, they could possibly give away my figure. It always felt a little strange to look at your enemy with a clear line of sight with them, and them not being able to see you. I slid closer to the building they were in.

It was a run down (even for the apocalypse) looking apartment building, that was about three stories high. The color it once portrayed, was lost to time and heavy rad-storms. Sniper flashes could be seen from two different spots on the third floor, the green bolts sounded quiet for the amount of damage they did. They would be my first target, it would make it easier to get extra firepower on our side of the fight. So I headed for the front doors.

I had no clue how many gangers were inside, and I knew there were gangers inside. They used the visible protection to resupply whatever ammo those energy rifles fired, it could also be used as a strategy center but I don’t think they understand the word strategy. They hit hard and fast, but their techniques are too different. With the right plan in mind, these guys could probably take over Dise. They practically moved in swarms in the building. It still wasn’t hard to sneak by them because they didn’t expecta an infiltrator with all that firepower in the front line.

I traversed the noisy halls until I found a staircase. The steps up were pretty uneventful, other than the occasional shout of someone getting hit. The stairs ended at the third floor, and there was a ladder to the roof. Through the thick white plastic door the hallways were the same as the first floor, in a different layout. I had my spell off, because this level sounded quiet, other than the occasional ‘kzzt’ of an energy rifle. I moved over to where I had thought the sniper was, and pushed open the door.

The room was empty, except for a bed with two skeletons in it. They were huddled together, probably out of fear due to balefire alarms going off. Their life was ending, but at least they got to spend their final moment in each other's grasp. I mourned them for a second, before going to the room next door. I knew the marksman was in here, because I heard him through the wall. I pulled out The Cure and carefully nudged the door open with a hoof. I strode over behind him and held the barrel inches from the back of his head.

Right as his shot went off, I fired mine. I needed a time frame to get to the other rifleman, if they noticed he stopped shooting for too long they might check on him. I took his weapon and ammo and shoved them in my bags, I figured Vetta would want a longer range weapon.

His weapon was strange, I wasn’t used to energy stuff so I had no idea how it worked internally. All I could decipher was the scope for aiming, the barrel where the energy came out, and the stock. I had no clue how the jumble of electronics, I assumed was the receiver of sorts, worked. Vetta said she would know, but I didn’t know how, there were so many delicate wires.

I made my way to the other sniper and sneaked in through the door. This one was different, she was a rather large mare with a red and pink mane. She had a blue coat, but that was mostly covered in dirt or barding. The thing that made me think twice was, she was young. I didn’t know if I could kill her. She was probably only about 14, but you wouldn’t have known it from her precision shooting. She was getting her rounds closer to our guys, but I couldn’t kill her, she was probably just trying to survive. Right? So I did the next best thing. I maimed her.

I used my spell to hide me, so if she turned to hit me, she would be at a loss for an enemy. Cure’s bullet tore through her right shoulder, the one she was holding the rifle against, and she cried out in pain. “Aaah! Fuck! I’m hit. Fuck!” She yelled. I wrote on my board and slid it toward her from the shadows.

‘Don’t die for this’ She looked petrified when she finished reading it. She looked around terrified, she knew something was there watching from the dark but she couldn’t pick it out.

“Alright, I’m gone. You’ll never have to see me again. If you catch me doing some shit like this, don’t think twice before putting a bullet in my head.” She shouted in the wrong direction and left through the door. She left her rifle against the window, I picked it up and aimed at one of the Dusters. I hoped I could fire this thing properly and pulled the trigger. There was close to no kick and the energy bolt melted his head. Damn, this was nice.

Shaved Steel shouted orders. “We’ve got their snipers down, focus on the main front!” I wanted to get rid of some of the backup inside, so I headed back down the stairs.

They didn’t seem to have changed much knowing their main force keeping the Bandoliers pinned was flushed out. They were just passing out what looked like battery packs, to anyone who wanted one. In the building, there were probably nine or so Drifters. I stayed under my spell, and shot from the dark. The noise outside, covered up any noise I made so they were confused. There were stammers of ‘what the fuck’ all around until I shot another from a different spot.

That was when they realized something was wrong and took to their weapons. I kept moving and shooting until there was only two left. One of them dropped his weapon and ran out the back door. I was grateful I didn’t have to add another young pony to my body count. The other however stuck to his guns and shouted at the dark, It was pretty funny to me.

“I’m not scared of you. I’ll take all of you on if I have to!” He shouted from the wall he was pushing himself against. I was in the mood to fuck with him.

‘Just me here’ I dangled my board from above him, in front of his face. His fear, made me grin. ‘Not so tough are you’ I thought to myself. After studying his weapon from over his shoulder, I found the battery eject. He was a unicorn, but he was scared, he wouldn’t be thinking straight.

I popped the power supply out and pulled the trigger to empty what was left of the reserves. He was trembling in fear now. “W-What-e-ever, I’ll j-just take you on with my h-h-hooves.” I decided I would humor him and stepped out of the shadows. “OH SHIT! Fuck me, it’s you! Fuck this, I’m outta here!” He shouted throwing his weapon at the floor. I barely stifled a giggle, before picking up his weapon and storing it. I would let him live for now, he wasn’t doing anything wrong that I knew of, so he got to live. Courageous, I’ll give him that.

I remembered that there was a fight happening outside, and went to the front door. I peeked out to see corpses. Body after body heaped up in the street. There were a couple Bandoliers pouring fuel over the heap, I wouldn’t want to be around when the started the fire. I turned to see Steel and Vetta walking towards me.

 “Is the building clear?” Steel asks me, I nod “How many?” I pull out my board. It was getting awfully worn, and I was running out of chalk.

‘14’ I wrote. I miscalculated the number that were on the bottom floor, 12 not 9.

“Fourteen?! I knew you were good, but damn, fourteen Dusters by yourself? Glad you’re on our side.” They should be. They were way out in the open, a couple of distractions and it would take all of five minutes to take all 20 or so of them. “Thanks by the way, now their HQ is down, we should be able to wipe the Dusters off of this part of the world. We owe you one” I had a small recorder on my PipBuck record the last part. Wait. HQ? I thought The Duster shot first. I shot him a skeptical look. What happened, happened and I couldn't change my actions so I let it slide.

“We’ll be on our way then.” Vetta said. “If you’re ready, Squishy?” She said with a malice filled grin. I face-hoofed to cover my shame.

“Squishy? That’s comedy gold.” Steel said between laughs. I blushed and tried to give Vetta a cold look. She just smiled at me. I nod as annoyed as one can nod, and we return to the road. It was getting late though.

“We should probably find a place to sleep, it’s getting late.” I nod. We find a building that is collapsed, but has enough cover for the night and set up camp. “Goodnight, dear.” Vetta says curled up not far away from me. I nod to her and she lays her head down on her hooves.

We drifted off to sleep.

~~~~~

“Eclipse, come downstairs.” Mom shouted to me up in my room. I hop down the steps two at a time with practiced ease, to meet my mother at the bottom. She had her neon red mane on one side in a ponytail. She was fairly dirty, but so was I, so her usually orange coat was nearly brown. She looked at me firmly with her silver eyes and smiled sadly.

“Now, I’ve got to go on a supply run. Promise me you won’t get into any trouble.” I nod. “Promise me.” Ugh, I hated when she did that.

“I Promise” I mutter softly, I always hated talking, nopony wanted to listen to my weird voice anyway.
“Good. If bad ponies come by, you know where momma’s pistol is right?” Again I nod. She sighs softly. “You take so much after your father.” She nearly whispers. I smile and give her a hug, she hugs back, but eventually I pull away. “Well I’m off then, momma loves you.” I kiss her cheek, and she accepts it and walks out of the door of our shack.

We had a small home, it was two stories but only had one room on either floor. Mom slept on the bottom floor, and I got the top. We were happy this way. Mom scraped by doing her job at the weapons market. She liked the big and loud ones, especially GL40’s, those were her favorite. She often had to go on supply runs, once every week or so. But we scraped by. She would teach me at home, because the fillies in the school house teased me.

Life was good.

~~~~~

I was woken to snoring. I was confused at first, until I saw Vetta, mouth slightly agape. It was weird to not have a nightmare, especially after a night of me slaughtering 11 ponies in a building, that didn’t stand a chance in the dark.

I nudged Vetta with a hoof to wake her up. “Eh, couple more minutes.” She mumbled, a little too quickly to have been asleep. I didn’t care, she was doing whatever, thinking was my best guess. I got up and stretched my body out to get blood flowing properly. I even walked around the building a couple times, before coming to rest in front of Vetta.

“Mmmf” Sleeping beauty was finally awake. I poked her again. “That isn’t a good way to wake someone up you know” She said still waking up. While she got out of bed I poked at my wounds. Which doesn’t make them heal faster, I’ve found. They were sore, but otherwise they were healing well.

Vetta stood up and slung the laser rifle over her back. “Let’s go then” I nod. We head out through the wall, and into the humid morning-ish. “How’d you sleep? I had a wonderful dream of weaponry, such beautiful weaponry.” I give a shrug, and she pouts. “Must you be so vague?” I pretend to think about it and nod with a cocky smile. “Oh, you were grumbling in your sleep by the way. It was weird hearing you make noise, it was so soft I barely heard it.” I nearly jumped out of my hide. That was bad, I couldn’t go ruining my reputation, yet at least.

“I won’t tell anypony but I thought you should know.” I gave her an appreciative nod and kept walking. I had to think for a bit.

I couldn’t keep doing the whole ‘Miss Fortune’ thing. It was great to help ponies, but I didn’t have the caps to keep up with survival, and the constant use of ammo wasn’t helpful. I planned to stop stealing so much, I felt that it was against me trying to help ponies. So eventually I would kick it, maybe make a cooler alias. Maybe even just use my name, I would destroy that bridge when it came to it.

If I stopped to think about my mistakes I would just sit and cry for days, since I couldn’t do that I decided to plan out my life. Maybe one of these days I would talk more. Not a lot, I would only really answer questions directed at me, but it would be a start. My train of thought hit a break in the tracks when Vetta spoke up.

“You like me, right? Romantically.” She specified. Did I? She had been the one to pull me out of the pit of loneliness, the one to be my friend. But Romantically? I wasn’t 100% sure, but I knew that I hoped to eventually like her. She was pretty, kind, and hurt. We were similar, aside from me being a mute, for now. I wrote the only answer I could think of.

‘You’re growing on me’ She smiled at the text. With a nod she turned back to the road, doing her own thinking I guessed. She was growing on me, I enjoyed seeing her smile, she always was smiling. Her mask had been cracked though, she smiled so much it started being a weaker, sad smile. The way she constantly fixed her hair made me internally giggle. She used her wits to get through a situation I would just cheat my way through. She was cute too, so that was a thing. I was smaller than her, but I was smaller than most everypony. I’ve seen foals bigger than me, which is just sad.

I don’t mind being petite, it helps in quite a few situations. Of course, I can fit in small spaces, but that is really not that helpful. I’ve never needed to squeeze through something to save my life. What was helpful, is that enemies tend to underestimate me. It’s pretty terrifying seeing a pony twice your size grinning at you, but it lets me be a little unexpected.

We had been walking for about half an hour when a few bugs showed up. They were good target practice at best. We walked for another 3 hours, until a real fight showed. A couple bandits showed up. Bandits were different than Raiders. Bandits were well armed savages, but they were meticulous. Some were con artists, and some just used weapons to solve their issues, all the same their strategies worked pretty well on the average trader.

“Excuse me ladies, but we’re lost. Could you help us get to the Rusty Spitoon?” Said the unicorn. So they were con artists. In all of Dise there wasn’t an area called Rusty Spitoon.

“I’m sorry I don’t know where that is.” Vetta said knowingly. She knew they were no good.

“Well, thank you for your trouble. Since you tried to help a lost feller, how about I sell you this brush gun for 360 caps. It may seem like a lot, but I assure you, you don’t find many in this good condition.” He was lying through his teeth. A brush gun in that condition would be worth about 110. His partner had his weapon drawn. It was a well built cowpony repeater in good condition, it would punch straight through me or even a half inch plate of steel at this range.

“I think we’ll pass, we have decent enough weapons” My lovely companion spoke. She drew her weapon and I pulled mine to show itself from the holster.

“Well of course, we don’t want any trouble. We’ll be on our way.” They would wait until we stopped watching them and shoot us. I’d seen enough of these guys to know that much. I couldn’t do much in this situation, they already had their weapons drawn, If they saw us making a move they would end it right there. I decided to turn around and start walking, but look over my shoulder as I went. They turned as well but they didn’t holster their weapons.

The brush gun pony turned and fired a round right next to my injured leg. We both turned quickly to exchange bullets. Neither group had anything to hide behind, but they had makeshift armor that would slow the impact of our bullets. I heard Vetta yelp as a bullet hit her in the chest. It had to have been from the brush gun because she wasn’t missing 4 inches of flesh. I was pissed. I aimed at the pony with the repeater, If we got hit by that it would be the end of this fight.

My bullet flew true and struck him in the leg, making him collapse from his shattered knee. I tried to hit the unicorn, but he kept moving, I needed Vetta. By now she was in a heap, same as the earth pony on the other side. It was unicorn on unicorn, magic vs magic, I could win this. I hoped.

I holstered my pistol, so I wouldn’t have to focus on two things, and tried my shadow walking spell. It was probably one of the brighter points of the day, so it wouldn’t work great but his shots were still going wide. I shifted to the side, and got as close as I could to him. He was shooting way farther left than I was so I tried to move as quick as possible and draw my pistol. My spell turned off, and Cure made a *pfft* of weapon parts sliding. The Bandit fell, but I realized I was close to the other one as well as a crack of a rifle sounded.

He had recovered enough to shoot me, but collapsed again right after. My fucking wounded leg had an even larger hole in it. It was just healing too! I fell to my side, and just bled for a minute. Then Vetta showed up in my blurry vision.

“You look like hell.” She joked, why was she making fun of me? I was kinda bleeding out here. “I used up that healing potion, sorry. I’ll check the Bandits for anything medicinal.” She walked over to the one with a shattered knee. I saw her laser rifle flash and her spit on him, I didn’t think she had it in her, before searching him. She took a couple of things, but I couldn’t see with my vision fading at the edges, stupid blood loss.

After she searched the other she was back over at my side. “They had two healing potions, but no bandages. I’ll give you one of the potions, but try to keep your leg away from dirt and other ponies blood.” She poured the magical fluid into my mouth, and I swallowed it’s refreshing goodness. I could feel my wounds closing up some, but none of them entirely.

Something I was really mad about, was my suit being ripped open now. It was stretchy, so the opening seemed rather small, but I knew once I took it off it would be horrendous. I nearly shed a tear seeing my poor pistol lying scratched up in the dirt. Why did my gear have to be so beat up? I tried my hardest to keep it in good condition. Just earlier I had killed 11, better fitted ponies and I get my gear dinged up from 2 Bandits? I was going to need to be more careful.

“Well, that's my fit of fun for the day. Can you walk?” I nod at her question, although I wasn’t sure that I could. “Well, let’s go then.” I nod again and let her lean against my side for support. “That was an awful lot of blood, are you sure you’re okay?” I give a less confident nod than before and she picks up on it. “If you need to rest, make sure you let me know.” I nod more assertively than before and we start to walk again.

I wouldn’t be able to truly fight for a while. I had a hole in my leg, and about 2 pints less blood than I did. That probably wasn’t good in the long run. We were still about a day’s trot to Tenpony Tower, I supposed I would just power through it. We still had about, 6 or 7 hours of walking for today, If we walked all day without stopping tomorrow, we would probably get there before my condition got too bad. Hopefully.

***

We walked for about four hours, before I couldn’t stand walking anymore. (No pun intended) Vetta carried me for about an hour, which was weird, before we decided to make camp for a little bit.

We were sitting behind a broken wall that was once part of a building, but there were only two partial walls to be found. There were slight gusts of wind against the wall from the other side, kicking up small rocks and dust. Some dust blew up in my nose and I felt a sneeze coming, oh this wasn’t happening right now. Oh it was, and it did.

I let out a sneeze, and covered my muzzle with both forelegs. Vetta had a huge smile plastered on her face. “That was the strangest sneeze I have heard in, well, ever. Oh it was so adorable, do it again!” I would never do that again. I fumbled over my board before she pushed it with a hoof. “I won’t tell anypony, but just so you know, that was a hilarious sneeze.” I wouldn’t have guessed by the way she was smiling and giggling through her words.

We sat there for a while, about half an hour, just holding each other. Her more than me, due to my bloody leg. ‘We should’ ‘Probably get moving’ I held in front of her face. She seemed to resent the idea.

“But i’m so comfortable. You are actually pretty squishy, you know?” I blushed, but didn’t know why. Perhaps I was just uncomfortable being called Squishy. “If we must,” She continued “then I suppose we should walk for about two hours before taking shelter for the night.” I nodded from in her hold and pushed out of it. I felt cold without her by me. “Promise me, there shall be more cuddling in the future.” I nodded. “Promise.” She repeated more firmly.

‘I Promise’ I wrote on my board, I shed a tear at how she made me promise but brushed it away quickly. She seemed content until she saw me wipe my face.

“Are you okay?” She asked suddenly looking concerned. I could only think to write the true answer.

‘I don’t know’ I scribbled with the last of my chalk. She looked sad, but saw that I was out of chalk as well. I really needed to get more, but usually it was easiest to find in schools. Schools were the saddest, darkest places in the wastes. So many bones of foals, strewn about haphazardly. So much youth in one place, so much wasted time.

“If you need to talk, I’m here for you.” she said pushing closer to my side. I nodded in appreciation, It was good to have friends. Or at least to have Vetta, she would be there for me, always. ‘That's what you thought about mom’ Shut the fuck up brain! I swore at myself, what an idiot.

***

We walked for another 2 and a half hours. It was about 20:00 when I checked last. I realized, while looking at my PipBuck, I didn’t have a tag for Tenpony. I was just blindly following Vetta. I shrugged it off, I trusted she knew where to go.

“Is this good enough?” It was a small metal shack on the side of the road, It had a roof and only one skeleton in it. It was perfect. I nod and levitate the skeleton out the door and lean it against the side of the shack. I walk back through the door and flop down on the bed like a filly, with my face stuffed into the mattress. Probably not the most hygienic course of action.

“Scootch, there is only one bed and you don't get all of it.” She said as she nudged me out of the way. I oblige, and move for her to get in as well. Not that I was taking up much space anyway. “Much better.” She said as she tucked herself around my petite body, holding me in her forelegs. “G’night Squishy.” She kissed the back of my head, and crooked her head into my neck. This needed to happen every night, it was peaceful. An oddity in the wasteland.

~~~~~

As I sat in my bed, reading a book, I waited for mom to get home. The pages were fuzzy, but I still felt like there were words. Downstairs I heard the door creak open and hoofsteps in the house. It was way too early for mom to be back, her errands would take an hour at least. I peeked down the steps and saw the shadows of two ponies.

I stepped as softly as I could to get a better view of the culprits. One was a blue coated unicorn stallion with a yellow mane. His cutie mark was a long curved blade, a sword of sorts. The other was a pink coated unicorn mare with a dark red mane. She had a large bullet with a flat tip on her flank. They seemed to be looking for something.

“OI’ll go and check upstairs, yew keep lookin’ round down here.” She said in a smooth fancy accent. She started walking toward the steps when she saw me. “Oi! There’s a foal up here!” She shouted, I simply stood in shock. I didn’t know these ponies, what were they doing in my home? I wanted to do something, but I didn’t know what.

“Wha’s yer name, hon?” The mare said calmly “This your house?” I nod, but it’s more similar to a tremble. “Yer name?” I pull out my board that mom had gotten me from one of her runs.

‘Fortune’ Was scribbled in childish writing. It was a lie, but they weren’t supposed to be in my home, so I figured it was okay.

“She must be Shade’s filly. Why else would she live with his ex-wife?” The Stallion said, his voice was raspy and deep. I didn’t understand who they were talking about, and I wasn't about to ask questions. I was scared, they both had weapons on their sides, small pistols but enough to hurt or kill me. Weapons! I could get the pistol under the mattress, that was in mom’s room. Right, so that option was cut.

“Wares yer mum, kid?” The mare asked gently, she was nice. It would be better if she hadn’t broken into my house. I didn’t know where mom was she could’ve been anywhere, really. I knew she was doing errands, and that was it.

‘Errands’ I tried to make it as legible as possible. They looked at it and groaned. I didn’t know why, they seemed patient enough.

“Thank’s kid” The Stallion said with a sigh. He ruffled up my mane and left. The mare followed after him and I was just left, scared and confused. What did they want with mom? Why did they have guns? So many questions without answers.

I went back to my room and continued to read.

~~~~~

I was being strangled when I woke up. Vetta was squeezing my barrel so hard, I think she cut off circulation. I tried to pull her legs off, but she had a good grip. Eventually I gave up and poked her in the face, that usually seemed to work pretty well.

“Mph, ow.” She groaned awake. “You should stop doing that.” I pointed at her legs that were currently clamped on my belly. “Oh, i’m so sorry. I had a terrible dream, I didn’t realize it affected my physical state as well.” She said somberly.

‘You okay?’ I wrote in the dim light from the rusted holes in the shack. She still had a sad expression on her face, but brightened slightly at the question.

“I don’t know,” Was she mocking me? “I will be though.” Maybe not. I gave her a peck on the cheek and slid out of bed to stretch. She just sat up watching me, which was really weird. She shook her head and stretched her forelegs. I hoped she was okay, I couldn’t have her emotionally collapse on me, I had no clue what to do if she did.

We made good ground the day before, and we would have to walk maybe 10 hours today to get to our destination, or so I was told. I had never actually been to Tenpony, so I didn't have a clue what to expect. Probably just a bunch of posh ponies, who lived in luxury all their life. We all had our pains though, so I shouldn't judge too much.

I nod toward the door in a questioning manner. “Of course. I’m coming. Never have been one for mornings.” I wasn’t usually either, but the mind bending pain in my leg made me want to get to a doctor as soon as possible. Wait. Did Tenpony even have a doctor?

‘Tenpony, Doctor?’ I hoped that she understood the question. It wasn’t the best way to phrase it, but it was the easiest.

“Oh. Yes, there are a couple doctors, but they aren't exactly cheap.” She said, the last part in a thinking tone, “I’m sure you could sell some of the junk you carry for enough to pay for a visit. Probably.” She finished. I had enough stuff for about 400 caps, according to my PipBuck at least. I would never quite know how that worked, it just knew the value of things 200 years after it was made? And in caps nonetheless, how did it know the currency? It was truly a strange device.

There were gunshots in the distance, but when wasn’t there? Although these sounded like they were from much larger than average weapons. They roared as the sound bounced off of rocks and rang far out in the distance. Whoever it was, was serious which meant they had to be important. As we got closer I could hear the one sound that I absolutely despised.

The clank and grind of power armor.

Of course It was the fucking Steel cunts, why wouldn’t they show up to ruin my day? Well morning I guess, semantics aside, I was curious what these metal fucks were doing here. From where we were now standing we could see them. They had about 5 or so troops, but that was more than enough to rip a town to shreds. Each one had different weapons.
The one in front had a large rocket launcher on one side and a light machine gun on the other. Behind them, It was impossible to tell gender through the armor, was a ranger with a grenade launcher and a VERY heavy rifle. It looked like it could punch through a mountain. In line next was a ranger with a minigun on either side, if you needed to literally rip something to shreds, that was one way to do it. Next was a huge set of armor, obviously the brawn here, who had two huge cannons that put the rifle from earlier to shame. They were nearly as big as Vetta, probably bigger. Last in line was a normal sized pony with two light machine guns.

There was no way in hell I would be able to help whoever was getting shot at, I would get shredded to pieces. Literally. I figured I would at least get to know what was going on.

I watched as each of the mechanized suits of armor shifted and moved mechanically in formation. The thick suits were strong enough to repel 5.56 mm rounds off like they were flies. My small pistol wouldn’t do shit, unless I got it through the gaskets that were at the joints. Even then, their suits were equipped with medical systems to keep them alive if the armor got dinged up. They were nearly invincible to any small weapon in those suits. Fucking cheaters.

They had been in a fight a few moments ago, although a slaughter is a better way to put it. Their armor wasn't scratched and there were over 15 dead ponies laying around a cave. What did they want with a cave, there wasn’t any tec-. I had heard rumours of things called stables, supposedly, they were huge vaults that kept ponies away from the wasteland underground and safe. They must have been filled with things to keep ponies alive from radiation, raiders screwing with the door and anything outside to be kept away from inside.

If there were ponies in there, they would be slaughtered. Rangers didn't care that they were in the way, they would pummel them to the dirt, just to get to what they wanted. There was nothing I could do. I had to let them die.

“What can we do?” Vetta asked from my side. I went through every situation, and was still at a loss for an Idea. We couldn’t do anything to help them live.

‘Nothing’ I wrote sadly. I felt a tear crawl down my face. I devoted my life to helping ponies, and I was hopeless. Without that to keep me going, I was nothing. I had no reason to keep going if I had no purpose.

“You can’t save them all, you know?” I did know, but I had to try. If I did something here I would die and so would Vetta, so would an entire vault of ponies. I felt absolutely terrible when I turned away and started walking. What else could I do? I wanted to survive as much as anyone, but maybe they deserved it more than me.

Vetta was at my side again, supporting me so I didn’t fall. “I’m sorry, but there was nothing we could have done. When we get my weapons hopefully we will be able to take charge of those situations.” I realized I had no Idea what type of weapons she had.

‘What do you have?’ The anticipation was killing me, if she had weapons to pierce armor like that I might have to kiss her.

“It’s a surprise,” She said evilly “but you will learn eventually, so don't give me that look.” She was right, I stopped scowling at her, that was a mean thing to do though. No kisses for her, she didn’t deserve them right now.

We walked in silence again. The destination got closer, as the trail behind got longer. A couple of bloat sprites bothered us. I shot them, because if Vetta did we would have nothing to eat for later. It was a boring 4 or so hours, until we could see the tower far in the distance.

 “There it is.” Vetta said blatantly. Neither of us had been talking for the walk, so it surprised me slightly. I nodded, and she turned fully to talk to me. “When we get there, you want to meet my family?” It was a weird question, but I understood the nature of it. She didn’t want to force me to do anything. I nodded firmly in response. She smiled. “Good. No time to waste then.” So we walked some more.

I was bored. I wanted to fight something, but with my bum leg I wasn't really sure that was a good idea. Still there had barely been any action this whole trip. I mean sure, we stopped a blood feud over territory, and killed some bandits, but that was about it. I need something to entertain me.

“I’m bored.” Vetta breaks the silence. I hoped she had an idea, because I was fresh out. We were getting pretty close to Tenpony, about 2 hours away. “You wanna play a game?” I wasn’t very good at road games, the only one I could easily participate in was charades and that wasn’t easy while walking. “I suppose that isn't all that easy for you. We have to do something." I agree.

We walked more. There wasn't much to alleviate the boredom shadowing us, so we walked, and walked, and walked. Until we stumbled upon a case of grenades stuffed under a broken wall. We probably should have kept to sell them, but I had a better idea. I hold one in my magic and shove it into her hoof.

'Throwing contest' I wrote. This probably wasn't the greatest idea, but I don't have good ideas often anyway. Vetta looks at me wearily but eventually, bounces the grenade in her grip a few times. I smirk and pull out the pin.

I chucked it a good 10 yards, and was impressed by myself. when the grenade blew up Vetta smirked. That wasn't good. She lobbed the grenade nearly 200 feet, and smiled at me. "I win."

With that we walked. I was still stunned by her ability to throw so far. About an hour later we stood at a goliath of a wall. One that would make the strip's wall look like an anthill. We were here.

We stood at the gates of Tenpony Tower.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Skill Note: Level Up! (3)

Wasteland Worn: You've had your share of the wastes thrown at you. Gain +1 endurance indefinately

Author's Note

Sorry It was delayed and a tad shorter than I hoped, my internet was stupid and I had to write in something that didn't show me word count. Thanks to Kkat for giving us FoE. If you leave a dislike, please tell why, I want to get better at writing, and feedback always helps.