“Sandtown, I remember that place. I met some good ponies there as well as many bad ones, but that isn’t the thing I remember most. All I remember is Gold, my first true family.”

“Bloodlocke! Oh thank heavens your-“ The moment the mare with the bag covering her face opened the gate, she received an uppercut from Bloodlocke’s hoof. “-Ugh, what the hell was that for?”

“Ribs, you know damn well why I just did that,” He said as he put a hoof around her neck and pulled her away from the door. “Your job is to open the gate for anypony without needed request, and considering she found me, you fucked up on part of that. You remember what I do to those who don’t follow my code right?” I watched as purposefully stepped on her back right hoof, causing her to follow to the ground. “Be lucky I’m only letting you off on a broken leg.”

“Bloodlocke please AAAAAH!” I heard a snap as the mare’s leg weirdly bended, one that was more than satisfying. Bloodlocke had told me how tough raiders could be, but I guess even they felt pain. “Alright, I’m sorry! Please just… just leave me alone! I honestly didn’t think she was strong enough to let in, so I decided it was AAAH!”

Everyone else inside of Sandtown was watching this, some more terrified of it than others. Some of the more weirdly dressed ponies were cheering Bloodlocke on telling him what he should do next. He didn’t turn to them, instead turning back to me, and I gave him a nod in response. I had told him of what the mare, Shattered Ribs as she called herself, had done when I first arrived in Sandtown. He was pretty pissed at the idea of that mare not letting me in, so he asked me what I would like to have done to her as payback. I hurt leg was probably better than she deserved, but I wasn’t interested in hurting her.

He made her plead and do a lot more stuff afterwards, but my attention was drawn away to the different ponies in the crowd. Some were more weird looking than others, having metal legs and other things and covered in scrap metal and other strange clothing. Some on the other hoof looked a lot like ponies I saw before the war. They were the ones who wanted Bloodlocke to stop, but they would probably do the same thing Shattered Ribs did to me. Nopony good leaves a filly out in a sandstorm, and that makes all of them bad ponies in my eyes.

Gold walked past me, not interested in what was happening in front of us, and decided to follow him. He was weird, but not in the same way that certain ponies in here was. I wondered if he had ever been taught how to speak correctly, as most of his sentences weren’t even full sentences. I was also able to see how weirdly he waddle now, noticing how he was slower on his left side when walking than on his right. I’ve seen much older ponies walk like that, but Gold didn’t seem anywhere need that old. Not as young as me of course, but he didn’t have wrinkles or sounded like a granny.

As much as I wanted to enjoy watching Bloodlocke make an embarrassment of Shattered Ribs, I found myself following Gold. We walked a good distance from the crowd, and it was at that point I saw how out of place Sandtown was to the rest of Trauston. Most of the buildings were small and roughly made, and when it wasn’t made of wood it was a simple tent. The only few exceptions were buildings with signs on them, which I decided to check out later for fun. Gold was walking to one of those buildings, and looking up at the sign I read ‘Perfect Skull Saloon’ written on it.

“That’s a weird name,” I said to myself as I passed under the sign and tried to walk through the doors. I say try, because the doors decided to swing back in my face as Gold let go of them. “Ow, that hurt.”

After shaking my pain, which I quickly learned only made the pain worse, I got up and opened the door. The place was loud, and I mean stupidly loud to the point I want to cover my ears. Many ponies in here seemed to be pretty crazy, or at least not in the most serious of moods. I quickly caught back up with Gold who had actually waiting for me now. Guess that means my attempts to be sneaky weren’t very good. I followed him up to a large counter and away from all the noise, which was something I was not very use to. He took a seat as I jumped onto one of the stools, which I was still not tall enough to reach sadly.

“Mister Gold, it’s good to see you again,” The pony behind the counter said as he held out a hoof. Gold took the hoof in his talon and shook it, holding a stern expression. “Figured you’d be coming around so I already prepared your drink, non-alcoholic of course. Does the filly want a soda or something? I would offer water but it seems somepony here has contaminated the supply.”

“Nah, I’m just here because he is here,” I pointed to Gold. “I’ve never been to a restaurant before. Are they usually this loud?”

“No. Everyone is drunk,” Gold explained as he took a sip of a drink I couldn’t recognized. “This is normal. Pony buys drink, wants alcohol, goes loopy, and gets loud,” He pointed behind us with a talon, and I bared witness to the source of the wall of noise behind me. “Hate alcohol, especially the taste of it. Not good for job either. Lucky shouldn’t have alcohol. It can kill younger ponies like you. Being killed means you can’t find parents.”

“Oh, thanks for telling me,” That’s kinda sad, but at the same time it reminded me how stupid ponies were. Why would anypony use something that could hurt them, especially good fillies like me. “So, what do you do Gold? You don’t seem like most other ponies here.”

“That’s because he isn’t,” I turned to see Bloodlocke sitting down to my right. “Not hard to figure out huh? Gold is a mercenary - or gun for hire if you like - who found himself stuck in the city due to that damn sandstorm. You pay them, they do the dirty work that others aren’t able to, or at least that’s how they are suppose to work.”

“Pony can’t defend itself, no use doing the work,” Gold explained as he handed the now empty bottle of soda to the pony behind the counter. “They shoot a gun, worth working for. They don’t know how to shoot? Why bother. Those ponies quickly die.”

“Unless the damn Shadow Corporation picks them up,” Bloodlocke countered, though I noticed he wasn’t very happy about mentioning them. “They say we don’t need outside help from Steel Rangers or Enclave, and for all us raiders that’s means hearth's warming comes every fucking day. However, it’s not so fun when they take and hides the innocents that make it so much fun. Ponies with good intentions are so much fun to have around, especially when they don’t understand how naive they really are.”

“It’s how the cycle works little lady,” The counter pony said as he handed another bottle to Gold and some dark brown, bubbly drink to Bloodlocke. “Heroes wish for a world where everything is good, but that can lead to stupidity. You can’t have a perfect world when achieving it means death. That’s why raiders are around, to remind the stupid fu-” He shook his head as he started to say that word. By that point I already knew what it was. “I mean fricken heroes that heroic intentions are nothing but a fairytale dream. Even the ministers must have been barbaric when push comes to shove, I just know it.”

“But aren’t heroes suppose to be good?” I asked, the question ending with Bloodlocke slamming his drink on the table. “I see my mommy and daddy as my heroes, because they were the only ones who truly cared for me. Isn’t that what heroes do? Aren’t they supposed to do what’s right?”

“If that was true, then there would be no such thing as villains,” Bloodlocke told me, before deciding to invade my personal space and fill me vision with his eyes. “You see, the difference between doing what’s right and doing what a hero would do, is that the former is willing to do what others believe is right. The other thinks they’re so good that they think they deserve to be bowed down to and for everyone to become their bitch. I’ll tell you one thing: I ain’t bowing to some Stable-born idiot.”

The way he spoke about heroes were weird, and I didn’t quite understand it all, but I think I knew what he was trying to say. What is good to the hero isn’t good to somepony else… yeah, that sounds like what he meant. I still had a lot of questions for him, but in the time it took me to figure out which one to ask him Bloodlock had suddenly disappeared. His drink was completely empty, and my first thought was to look at the floor.

“Nope, not there,” I said to myself as I saw nothing but sand covered, wooden floors under me.

“Ha, sometimes it amazes me how quickly that bastard can down a bottle and walk completely fine,” The counter pony said with a smile. “Guess he has to drink quickly with everything he has to do these days. The Grand Pegasus Enclave make life a living hell, and it seems like somepony is dying every damn day.”

I’ve heard ponies talking about this ‘Grand Pegasus Enclave’ before, but I had no idea what it was. The way everyone talked of them made them seem like bad ponies, and if I was correct that means they were the weird looking ponies with the strange tails. Guess all the stupid pegasi decided to go completely evil since I was last here, but that didn’t seem right. Even stupid ponies know not to go evil, because they would be caught or put to sleep super fast. I looked to Gold, who seemed to know what I was thinking.

“Enclave are pegasi. Live in the clouds, say they are going to help, and do nothing,” He told me, as he handed his second bottle of soda back and motioning he was full. “They came here, made Shadow Corporation mad. Lots of fighting happened after. Enclave made treaty, they haven’t honoured it, but say they’re good,” He sighed. “Has caused Bloodlocke a lot of trouble. He can’t stop all of them. Called me in, but said I was only doing a day. Gin understands.”

“Mister Gold here doesn’t do long-term assignments unless there is a good reason,” The counter pony, or Gin I guess, explained as he leaned on the resteraunts counter. “You have to have a damn good reason for him to stick around more than a day, and threats or pleads won’t work. Most of the time he decides how long you get his protection.”

“Lucky is special. I’ll help her for time,” Gold explained to Gin, something that seemed to be a shock to him. “She’s looking for parents, and parents likely looking for her. Family shouldn’t be lost. I’ll make sure she has what I didn’t,” With that he got up, and said one last thing before walking away. “Her life needs protecting.”

With that, Gold left, leaving me with Gin at the counter who watched with me as Gold limped off. “He… didn’t have a mommy and daddy?” I asked, and I could feel something burning inside me as I thought about that. “He seems so much nicer than most ponies here, why did the abandon him.”

“Lost, not abandoned. Difference is your might still be alive while Gold‘s chances of finding his are slim to none,” Gin told me, sighing as he started to wash a dish with… something clearly not ketchup on it. “He’s one of the few residents that weren’t originally born in Trauston, but you don’t see many griffons for the same reason you don’t see a lot of pegasi. Gold is special in that he has found a way to easily fly through these endless fucking sandstorms, but his parents were not so lucky,” He saw my curious glance at the red stuff on the plate. “Oh, this happens a lot. You get one of Bloodlocke’s stallions or mares in here and they’re gonna try and crack someones skull open. Blood is frustrating as hell to get out of things.”

“Huh, sounds fun,” I said, which seemed to make Gin freeze in place. “What? The pony probably deserved it, right? Besides, there is something about blood that’s rather funny to me.”

“Next time Lucky, try to hold your likeness for blood back,” I quickly learned after leaving that Rere had not only been listening to me the entire time I was in the saloon, but had noticed how interested I was in that funny red stuff. “I’ve been tracking your reactions and stuff since we last talked and… I think your parents loss and the bug in Stable 71’s system might be the cause of your interest.”

“Nah, I just really like blood,” I told her as I walked through Sandtown, looking around at all the weird ponies, or raiders as they called themselves. “I was a little scared of it the first time I saw it when killing the Overstallion, but seeing it felt good. I felt like seeing it come out was a way of telling me that it was right. Kinda sad that he didn’t actually fall asleep though, I wanted to hear him plead for mercy,” Stopped walking as I realized something. “Wait, what is this bug you just mentioned?”

“The Shadow Corporation locked the device you were attached to so that the others in the Stable couldn’t kill you, but they had to actually enter the Stables mainframe to do such a thing,” Most of that went over my head, but I remembered the entire thing about Shadow Corporation saving me from all those mean ponies. “The server is fragile, so fragile that by simply hacking into it things got fucking weird inside the virtual version of Stable 71. I contacted some of my friends inside Shadow Corporation, a bit of a plus of being the radiomare, and asked if this might have caused any mental damage to those inside… it did.”

“No it didn’t. I’m totally fine!” At least that’s what I believed, because most of this made little to no sense for me. I was familiar with virus and stuff like that from my mommy telling me, but last I checked they couldn’t hurt a pony. “You’re just worrying Rere, I’m completely fine. Everything I did inside the Stable was completely on my own accord.”

“Lucky, it won’t change a thing anymore, but that’s wrong,” Rere told me, and just hearing her say that sent a chill of sorts up my spine. “They were watching you at the moment it all happened Lucky, from talking to the Stable door and yourself, acting even less like your age, and killing the Overstallion. Your personality was thrown off because of how badly designed the server was, creating a virus that might have changed yourself.”

“Well, I’ll just live with it then,” I said with a shrug finding myself at one of the metal walls surrounding Sandtown. “Besides, even if I wasn’t fine then I am completely back to normal now. It was all just a dream, and a really believable dream at that. Oh, actually Rere, I wanted to ask you about Gold and his… speech problem.”

“I figured you would ask that, and I’ll explain as much as I can without putting you in danger… oh, wait one second,” It has quickly gotten to the point where I can tell when Rere is or isn’t around. When she was watching me, I felt like someone else's thoughts were being stuffed in my brain, but it was really subtle. “Okay, back, had to start the next tune. Ever heard of the song Zebratown? Wait, of course you haven’t, you’ve been in a Stable for the past hundred and eighty years. Anyways, Gold. His family is from past the mountains boarding northern Equestria.”

“Um… what does that have to do with anything?” I tilted my head in confusion as I asked that question.

“It’s where he is from that explains why his equish is rather… bad,” Rere said with hesitation, followed quickly by a sigh. “They speak a different language, and as you can imagine learning equish is rather hard when things have been nuked to hell. The limp is from an injury he obtained when he was young. Flying is hard in this kinda whether, and despite how easily he can do it now, flying in a sandstorm is something I would advise against.”

I felt her presence leave my mind, and I looked up to the sky. I immediately regretted that, getting way more sand in my eye than anypony would want. If the sand wasn’t bad enough, just the sound of the storm was starting to get on my nerves. Stupid sandstorm, why don’t you just kick the bucket like the Overstallion was kind enough to do. My neck was really starting to hurt from having to look at the ground all of the time, but it was the only way for my eyes to not hurt horribly.

I suddenly felt something fall on my back and head, the cloth soon covered my eyes. I saw a talon pull it slightly over my eyes to the point where I could still see what was in front of me, and tie two strings attached to the cloth around my neck. I decided to look up, and to my surprise the sand no longer hurt my eyes, and turned to see who it was that had did this. It was Gold, looking at me with what I assumed was a smile, but that beak made it difficult to tell. I didn’t know how long he had been following me, but he seemed more than a little concerned despite that smile.

“You’re different. Never seen pony like you,” He told me as he sat on the hot, sandy ground beneath us. “I like that, being different. Most raiders are the same, but Bloodlocke is different. He cares… somewhat. Has a code, doesn’t harm foals, helps those who are different,” He pointed to a pony farther down the wall talking with a colt. I didn’t realize it at first, but the foal was actually missing one of his hind legs. “Ponies like her, left behind to die. Bloodlocke made her a raider. She is happy, and that is good.”

“So most raider’s aren’t nice ponies?” I asked Gold, and he responded with a nod. “I see, and thanks for the cloth. It’s uncomfortable from the sand and heat but I’ll take it. Better than having sand in my eyes at least.”

“Thank Bloodlocke, not me,” Gold said, and I saw him suddenly look up in the air. “You hear? Enclave. Bad ponies are here. Get ready.”

I tilted my head in confusion. “Ready for what?”

They were here, the Grand Pegasus Enclave that everypony seemed to hate or fear. The ponies didn’t show their faces as they were covered in black masks. Their tails were pointy, curling up and facing the crowd that currently surrounded them all. Raiders held guns of various kinds at them, and the Enclave did the same to the raiders. I still had the sight of the last enclave soldier I met in my head, and I wasn’t happy to see them. I wanted to rush forward and stab the one in front of the rest, show them how much better I was than them, but Gold held me back.

“In the name of the Enclave, we order all of you to lay down your arms,” The lead pegasus said, his voice quickly making me annoyed. “This settlement is our territory now, and if you want your lives surrender and point the way to the mare or stallion in charge.”

“There is no need,” Bloodlocke walked past us and tapped Gold on the back. He picked me up and held me to his chest as we walked in front of the crowd. As soon as Bloodlocke was visible to the five Enclave soldiers behind their leader pointed their guns at him. “You got a lot of guts entering here, and as you can see everyone here is absolutely pissed about it.”

“Like you care Bloodlocke,” The Enclave pegasus said stepping forward. It was then that he noticed Gold and me. “Well, seems like you aren’t the only thorn in our side that has finally showed itself. Gold, the merciless killer who has been killing my soldiers left and right. This day is only getting better,” Than he looked at me, and I could only imagine the scowl that was under his mask. “Who the hell is this?”

“Touch Lucky and Sandtown isn’t the only thing that’s gonna land a bullet in your head,” Bloodlocke warned the pegasi who was now looking back at him. “You know what Record does to anyone who tries to interfere with her orders or plans. That mare is everywhere, and you’ve probably heard about the last time one of your soldiers tried to attack her.”

“Ha, like a radiomare is capable of anything like that,” The pegasus told Bloodlocke, looking back at Gold and I. “Hand her over, a foal like her shouldn’t be around something as dangerous as you.”

“Try and take me and I’ll hurt you really badly,” I warned him, revealing the knife that I currently had clutched to my chest. “One of you meanies tried to kill me earlier, and that means all of you are bad ponies.”

“Sir, her eyes,” This wasn’t the first time somepony had mentioned my eyes, but the way that the Enclave soldier had said it to the lead pegasus made him seemed scared. Hearing how scared he was actually felt good. “You see it too, right?”

“Yeah, your right,” The lead pegasus suddenly placed a gun in my face, and I heard everyone else take out one as well. “Can’t have two of them around, it’ll just complicate things. Fire on my signal.”

As soon as he said that another figure rushed past us and threw the pegasus to the ground, and in a matter of moments all attention was drawn from me to her. A shot rang out, and before I knew it gunfire filled my ears. Gold was quick enough to jump backwards, his wings lifting us high into the air, and then dropping down behind a nearby building. It all happened so fast that I couldn’t catch everything that had gone on. What I was sure of, however, was that the Enclave soldiers wanted me dead. Bloodlocke soon joined us, behind the building.

“Get Lucky out of here while you have the chance, there were more Enclave waiting outside of the gate for shooting to start,” He told us as he picked me up and placed me on Gold’s back. “Only chance of getting out of here is going to be flying, understand? Me and my ponies will hold them off.”

“What is going on? Is there something wrong with me?” I asked, though I wasn’t really scared of that. In fact, I was actually rather intrigued to find out what was going on.

“Best you don’t know, now get the fuck outta here!”

Before I could say anything Gold took off, and in an effort to stay on his back I bit down on his neck fur. The sand had been bad enough on the ground, but even with the cloth covering my body this was horrible. I immediately wanted off, but one look at the ground told me it was not a good idea. My only option was to cling to Gold and hope that the sand would stop after some time. The sound of gunfire sounded far now, and I knew we were getting farther and farther form Sandtown with every second.

Then, something past my head, and then another one did. It was much bigger than the sand, and a look behind me told me exactly what was going on. One of those mean pegasi were shooting at Gold and I, a large gun attached to his back. Gold hadn’t seen the pony, but his sudden left turn told me he had seen the bullet. The griffon effortlessly dodge the bullets, and considering I could barely hear them that was impressive. It was then I saw him rushing straight toward the glass window of a building in front of us.

“Hold!” The griffon shouted, and I held his neck even harder than I had before.

The sound of the window shattering filled my ears as Gold collided with it, and I found myself thrown from his back and into a pile of papers on a desk. The sound of gunfire followed us, and as I shook the mountain of papers off of me I quickly made my way under the desk I had landed on. Gold dropped down for a moment in front of my hiding place and gave me a small bag. While I had left the bag that the gate mare had given me, I liked Gold enough to take it and see what was inside. What I found inside were throwing darts, lots and lots of throwing darts.

A shot sounded through the air, landing an inch away from Gold’s feet as the griffon took back into the air. Fire was traded by the two as they flew back and forth, using the multitude of desks in the room to hide. Both landed on the desk above me multiple times as they fought, and the continual drops of blood that formed as they past. I got an idea, and I checked quickly to make sure I still had my knife on me. I still had it close to my chest, though I hadn’t even noticed it was there till now.

I waited for the Enclave soldier to pass by again and land on the desk above me. He would fly from the desks from the left and right of mine occasionally, but never once did he land. I was growing impatient, wanting the bad pony to die at this exact moment, but it wasn’t coming. I rubbed the blade of the knife with my hoof, anticipating the moment he landed. I now understood why Gold had given me the darts, but I wasn’t going to need them.

Then it happened, and as he landed I came out from my hiding spot and jumped on him. I threw the knife into his back, getting a satisfying cry of pain from the pony as I did. He tried to get back up into the air, but Gold had grabbed a dart of his own and threw it into the Enclave ponies wing, instantly sending him to the ground. Before he could take a gun out or shake me off, I took the knife out of his back and plunged it into his neck. The blood that splattered on me as it happened felt wonderful, and I was urged to take the knife out of the ponies neck and throw it back in.

“You enjoying this?!” I asked the pony, getting no response. The moment I realized he was dead made me sad. I took the knife out, getting no joy out of stabbing a dead pony. “Come on~! Why do all of you stupid adults die so quickly?”

“Lucky’s okay?” I glanced at Gold, not seeing a single wound on his entire body. “No. I don’t see happiness. What wrong?”

“Why do they always die so quickly?” I complained, Gold being the first to have no reaction to me saying such a thing. “I wanted to hear him scream like the Overstallion did, but he died even quicker than that asshole did,” Threw the knife into the dead pegasus’ leg in anger. “What’s the fun in hurting a pony if you can’t hear them yell in pain.”

“Note: neck is fatale area. Will kill instantly,” He said as he pointed to his own neck. “Don’t encourage torture, but legs are good. No organs in legs.”

“Okay,” I nodded, with a smile. I took the knife out once again and put it in the bag Gold had given me. He strapped it around my waste since I’ve never had to do it before. “So I’m guessing we’re not going back to Sandtown, huh?”

“No. Not with Enclave there,” He answered as he lifted me onto his back. “I take you to place. A Stable, where Shadow Corporation was started. No longer there, but they left things,” He made his way back to the window, ready to take to the air again. “Things to get rid of Enclave. To make them run away.”

Author's Note

I had hoped to get this up yesterday, but a day doesn't make a difference. I just want to say right now that I'm going to be taken a little longer in terms of getting these chapter done and up, because I've learned writing a chapter every week with another story going on is way to hard. Still, hope you are all enjoy it so far! Please give me your feedback, it would help me improve this story more in the future.