Chapter 4

We have been on the road for several hours, semi-urbanistic ruins of Golden Horseshoe changed to the vast emptiness of the desert. Despite being on route for so short I’ve already felt how melancholy and apathy that haunted me in Horseshoe, completely went away, giving a way to familiar sense of tension and awareness.

“Hey, Midnight!” Blue unicorn slowed down, letting me catch up to her.

“Aurora,” I nodded.

“How long have you been doing this?” She asked with a soft smile.

“Three years.”

“That’s quite a lot.” She raised her brows, and gave me a long, thoughtful look.

“You probably have a lot of stories to tell.”

“A few.”

“Care to tell any?” She cocked her head, blinking.

“Later.”

“Oh.” Her ears drooped, “Well, I am looking forward to hearing them then!” After walking in silence for a minute she sped up again, returning to her position.

The road itself was surprisingly quiet. Too quiet even, even bloatsprites usually roaming around in this area disappeared somewhere. Not that I was complaining, but the whole thing gave me an uneasy feeling in my chest. Judging by Lily’s posture she was bothered by something too. I wondered if she noticed it as well. Another ruined city showed up on the Horizon. Suddenly Lily motioned us to stop.

Smoke.

That was a very bad sign. Chester usually was very quiet, and used as a camping place for traders. Although I have to admit it was an easy spot for an ambush too. So I guess it was only a matter of time before some shit will go down.

“We need to go around.” Lily’s firm tone was rather refreshing. “There’s a nice abandoned village south-west from here, if we hurry we can use it as a cover for the night.”

“I think we should check what happened.” Aurora pursed her lips, looking at the smoke in the distance.

Oh for the love of… “We can’t. Too easy to get in trouble, Lily is right.” Ace turned to me, his ear twitching.

“Look, there might be some scrap we can find to sell, come on, I’ll pay you extra.” I huffed, trying my best to hide the irritation.

“Look, it is a bad idea. Especially when wasteland is suspiciously empty.”

“So you’ve noticed.” Lily muttered quietly.

“I’m paying two hundred caps each.” Me and Lily exchanged glances. The pay was good. The danger was greater.

“We also get to keep some of the stuff we find, if any.” Ace frowned for a moment, but eventually nodded.

“Alright, let’s move until somepony else notices the smoke and get there.” Lily let out a sigh and looked at me. Well, at least the pay was good. I nodded, readying my carbine, Ace and Aurora already were at their positions, so we quickly took ours.

I have no idea what was waiting for us, but definitely nothing good.

***

Three ponies were looking through bodies, scattered around the sight of the crash of what remained from what seemed like another caravan or convoy. Knives and steel pipes seem like we’re lucky. Probably just wondered here to investigate just like us. Ace and Aurora closed their distance. Please don’t do anything stupid I put the barrel of my carbine on the window frame. Note to buy a scope for the damn thing later. Ace said something to them, but it was hard to read his face from this distance. I took the scavengers in my sights feeling like every muscle of my body tensed. One of them unsheathed his knife. A shot ranged through the ruins. Before the buck managed to fall on the ground Lily jumped from behind the wagon and unloaded her double-barrel shotgun into the dark brown stallion standing in the back. Before the third scavenger could understand what was happening she was stroked by the energy beam, and fell on the ground, joining her comrades. I had to admit, Aurora was a pretty good shot.

I walked down the stairs of the pre-war store, to join the rest of the crew. Places that are easy to ambush always were a double edged sword for scavengers.Which also meant that we should be quick if we don’t want to repeat their fate.

“What happened here?” Aurora was looking at the remains of a wagon in shock.

“Same as what happened just now, but on the bigger scale.” I approached her and got a better look at the wagon myself. Looks pretty expensive, even after it was burned down to a crisp. no wonder somepony wanted to target it. “We don’t have much time before others might arrive, do your scavenging and let’s go.” With the silent nods from Aurora and Ace I decided to walk around a little myself and look for something valuable.

It was hard to say which bodies belonged to attackers and which to the guards, in this mess. I wonder what happened here? Most of the dead ponies had nothing useful on them, whoever did this was pretty thorough. But I was happy to at least get some ammo and a pretty nice looking pistol, not exactly my style, I couldn’t complain all things considered.

“Hey, I think she’s alive!” I Jolted up at Aurora’s call, aiming my carbine in her general direction. “Come here.”

After a short hesitation I finally walked up to her, and Lily who was much quicker to act. Aurora was tending to the white unicorn, who at first glance didn’t seem any different from countless other ponies laying around, but upon closer inspection it was clear she’s still breathing.

“So what do you want to do?” Part of me wanted to help that poor soul as well, but we couldn’t afford to stay here for much longer.

“First we should be getting her to our brahmin, then I shall see if I can help her.”

“Are you sure?” Lily’s skepticism was so thick I could almost feel it in the air, “She might be the one who instigated this mess for all we know.” Aurora stood up. With her brows furrowed and lips pursed like that she almost looked like a Ministry Mare, prepared to scold her subordinate. I never would have thought, she can look so intimidating.

“I’m willing to take the risk.” Aurora said matter of factly. “Now please let’s hurry up, the longer we stay here the more chances more raiders will come. This time with something more serious than a bunch of pipes.”

Me and Lily nodded, and helped her carefully pick up the unicorn with our magic. Leaving Ray with the brahmin behind so we won’t get found out, seemed like a much better idea when we didn’t had to carry an unconscious pony all the way back.

“Of course, now she thinks about security.” Lily muttered so only I could hear her.

“Well, better late than never.” I liked this as much as she did, but now was not the time to argue.

***

“So is now a good time for stories?” We were camping a few miles away from Chester. As much as I would love to stay in the town itself it was way too dangerous after what we have seen today. The pony we saved was still unconscious, so Aurora decided that the next best thing she can do after tending to her wounds would be to continue our morning discussion.

“Yeah, now would be the perfect time.” I took a small sip of water from my flask, “Well, What would you like to hear?” Ray and Ace were already in their beds (if you can call those dusty, ragged mattresses that) and Lily was keeping her watch on the opposite side of our improvised camp. “There’s always a lot of stories in our line of work.”

“Well, maybe you can tell me about your last route?” She smiled slightly cocking her head, ears perking up. I froze, Out of all things to ask, you just had to choose that one. Expression on the unicorn’s face changed to the one of concern. “Everything alright? I’m sorry, if…”

“It’s fine, just… the last route didn’t go so well.” I closed my eyes, memories flooding my brain again. Damn, I hoped being on the road again would help me to get over it, not bring it back.

“But you’re alive, so it couldn’t have been that bad.” No amount of concern in her voice could push those memories back into my head.

“Well yeah, I’m alive.” I took a deep breath. “I’ve been asked to do a little side job for an… acquaintance of mine.” Lump of pain and anxiety came to my throat, as I struggled to keep my composure. “Long story short, we got ambushed by slavers, and my friend died in the fight.” I felt a hoof gently touching my shoulder.

“I’m sorry, I know it has to be very hard for you, let’s…”

“Aurora.” The unicorn frowned at Lily.

“Yes? Did something happen?” She was doing a pretty good job at hiding her irritation. Lily Nodded towards the white unicorn.

“She’s awake.”

Author's Note

Well, another chapter is done. Sadly this one is a lot more rough around the edges because all of the people who usually help me with editing were very busy with life and other projects. But I hope the result will still be enjoyable and fun to read. Also now the story has a cover! And I love it. As always I welcome any and all feedback. See you in the next chapter.
As usual thanks to Kkat for creating this amazing universe and to Heartshine for helping me to flesh out the story.