Chapter 7

Welcome to Safe Harbor

“Be on your guard,” I whispered, glancing out of the window. I saw shattered concrete and glass blackened with age, but no movement. I took in a big lungful of the chilly, polluted air and instantly regretted it. The stench of the dead raiders piled nearby was overpowering, and it took all the willpower in the world not to gag and give my position away.

We took cover in one of the buildings on our side of the square. I thought we had as good a position as anypony could hope for, even if the smell clung to everything. Considering the circumstances, I was happy to take it.

While I looked out the windows, Lily kept her watch at the door. I pulled back from the window to lean on the wall, my ears perked forwards to listen to any sign of life outside.

“What’s the plan?” I asked.

Lily pursed her lips tightly in thought before she answered me. “Going all together at once is a death wish,” she remarked. Lily glanced over everypony in the room, as if to reassure herself that everypony was still there before continuing. “I’ll go to the gates and check if the town is safe.” She gestured in turn to the members of our group. “Midnight, cover me from this window. Ray and the rest of you, keep an eye on Scarlett. And as for you - ” she turned briskly to the shivering white unicorn in the corner. “You sit here and pray that the town is still alive.” She looked over the room again. “Any objections?”

That was pretty good for something she made up on the spot. I made a mental note to ask her how she came up with this stuff.

Before I could speak, my ears perked up as I heard a skittering noise from outside. Immediately I sprung up to the window with my carbine, ready to shoot at whatever raider was out there.

There weren't any raiders. A quick scan of the area showed me that the noise was coming from a lone radroach scurrying across the rubble. I caught Lily’s eye, seeing relief pass over her face when I shook my head.

“Just a bug,” I murmured. I definitely needed to work on my stress. Mistaking a radroach for a pony just wasn’t a mistake I could afford to make, especially not in a place like this.

Ace spoke up from his spot. “No objections here.” His voice was a little shaky, but I couldn’t blame him. Our route coming here had been pretty rough.“I’m sure you both know what you’re doing.”

Aurora and Ray just nodded silently.

With a curt nod, Lily checked her shotgun one last time before putting her hoof to the door and slowly opening it. As she stepped outside, I put my carbine on the low part of the window frame and took the area in front of the gate in my sights.

I watched Lily slowly approach the gate. She fussed around the intercom a little before giving up and knocking on the gate. I tensed the magical grip on the trigger, feeling as if every muscle in my body were turning to stone.

After what felt like an eternity, I finally saw her giving a sign to move out.

“Alright,” she called to us. “Looks like the coast is clear.” She gestured to our positions with a forehoof as her voice rang out towards us. “Ray, you go first. Aurora, Ace, you both take the brahmin and follow Ray once he reaches the broken bench in the middle. Scarlett, follow them after they reach the same bench. I’ll join you after you all are at the gates. Move!”

To my surprise, I heard no arguing. Caravaneers were usually pretty insistent on getting things done their way. Can’t say that surprise was unwelcome, though. The door behind me screeched as Ray went outside and began to slowly follow Lily’s hoofsteps. Soon the rest of our group joined him.

So far things had been suspiciously quiet. My eyes continued scanning the area in search of movement as Scarlett finally united with the rest at the gate. Now it was my turn.

I went outside and started crossing the square myself. The smell coming from the raiders intensified, almost making me squint my eyes. Finally, after passing the small fence I reached my companions and looked at Lily.

Lily addressed Ace in a firm voice. “The town just survived a raider attack, although you probably already figured that out. We can proceed after you confirm your status as a caravan owner.”

“And how am I supposed to do that?”

The gate opened with a loud metallic noise. “You’ll have to come with me and answer some questions.” A large pony in a full suit of combat armor approached us with a squad of guards. “It’s a new measure implemented in the light of this attack, but if you’re clean you have nothing to worry about.”

Ace frowned slightly. “And the others?”

“They can wait here. Don’t worry it shouldn’t take longer than a couple minutes.” Ace sighed and motioned for us to wait, as he followed the armored pony.

When Ace disappeared behind the gates, Aurora turned to me with a frown. “Don’t you find it odd?” she asked. “First an attack on a caravan in Chester, now another attack in Safe Harbor. I could understand if this were Manehattan or Hoofington, but you don’t expect that kind of thing in these parts.” She paused for a brief moment before looking over us in turn. “After all, that’s why we chose to go here over anyplace else.”

My mind raced back to the dead homeless pony and the armory. So much for trying to forget. I sighed, putting a hoof to my forehead and rubbing.. “Well,” I said, “something strange was happening in the Horseshoe as well.”

Aurora’s ears folded back against her head at the memory. “Oh, right.” Her tail whisked up with concern as she shifted her gaze away, gently pawing at the ground with a hoof. “I wonder if we chose the right time to travel here.”

To our side, Lily snorted. “Of course you did.” She gave her mane a brisk shake. “After this attack, locals will buy out your entire stock. Honestly, we lucked out.”

“I know, I know, you're right, it’s just…” the light blue unicorn sighed, “Maybe I’m getting too comfortable. This place is usually so calm.”

The gates opened again, revealing a familiar yellow silhouette.

“We may come in.” Ace said, waving us over.

I rarely had been to Safe Harbor, but it always surprised me how clean it was compared to other places. If not for the fact that they used freight containers for most of their buildings, you could almost imagine it was a pre-war city. We went to a hotel, conveniently placed near the town gates.

“Well, I think it’s time for you to pay us our share.” Lily said as we stopped in front of the long three storey building.

“Of course!” Ace went to the brahmin and opened one of the bags. “We agreed upon twelve hundred, if I remember correctly?”

“Don’t forget the bonus for the detour.”

“Oh, right. Fourteen hundred then.” He gave us the promised amount and turned to Scarlett. “ I hope you can find what you were looking for here, miss. Now if you’ll excuse us, we need to set up our shop.” After saying their goodbyes the caravan departed, leaving us three in silence.

I was the first one to break it. “So, we’re kind of stuck here, huh?”

Lily exchanged glances with me before answering.“Yeah. Want to continue at the bar? Thankfully it’s not far away from here.”

I nodded. “Sure, just let me grab a room in the hotel. We all should, who knows when they’ll be closing.”

Lily smirked, “I’m staying at a friend’s place.” Her smirk broadened into a mirthful smile. “It's been awhile since I saw him.”

I couldn’t help but smile back, waving a hoof in dismissal. “Well, don’t let me keep you, I’ll go dump my stuff in the room and join you in about ten minutes.”

“Deal.” We shared a hoofbump and Lily started towards the bar.

I felt a hoof tapping at my shoulder. “Hey… uh… Midnight, right?”

Right. I almost forgot about her. I sighed and slowly turned to Scarlett. “Yes, what do you need?” My voice sounded much harsher than I intended, and Scarlett shrank back a little

“W-well, I…” She pinned her ears back. “I don’t really know what to do now.”

Ah, I should’ve guessed.

“Right.” I cleared my throat and began. “So, to start I suggest visiting the local guard post and ask if they’ll pay you to clean up the bodies in the square. It’s not the most exciting job, but I think they’d offer quite a few caps if it means less chance of an ambush.”

The white unicorn folded her ears, before nodding sheepishly. “I see, I… I guess I’ll go ask them about it. Thank you.” She replied in a meek voice and slowly trotted away.

After watching her disappear through the barack’s door I turned away and hastily went to a hotel. Lily was not a patient pony.

***

Dark Lantern was a small bar on the outskirts of the city. It was fairly quiet, frequented mostly by town visitors staying at the hotel next door. Inside were a few small wooden tables chaotically placed around the floor, with a counter on the far side with a lonely broken fan on top of it. A tiny flickering lamp provided barely enough light to fill the room.

It was quaint, but I honestly liked it better than Bonds in Manehattan, or our own gaudy Junkyard. Sure, it wasn’t as fancy, but at least you could relax here without needing to zone out your surroundings.

I immediately spotted Lily in the far corner, and went straight to her, passing by the only two other customers in this place. The earth pony shot me a curious glance as I was approaching the table. Well, that’s something I’ll have to keep in mind for later. I took my seat right across Lily’s and took a glass of wine she bought while waiting for me. The wine was surprisingly good. Miles above stuff I usually saw in the wasteland, and more so much better than I expected from this place.

“So, how’re you feeling?” Lily asked, looking at me intently.

“Pretty good, although the prospect of being stuck here isn’t exactly thrilling.” I said with a dry chuckle before taking another sip.

“Quick thinking back at the square,” I smiled looking at her. “How are you doing that?”
She smirked right back at me. “Well, I was always good at improvising. And our line of work trains you to always consider every possibility.”

I silently nodded before taking another sip. “What are your plans, though? I doubt you’d be just sitting here waiting until caravans will feel safe enough to travel here.”

Lily shook her head, smirking. “You are right.I think I will go into the Lost Haven.” She leaned to me, putting her hooves on the table. “Want to come with me? Not like you have anything better to do in the near future anyway.”

The idea was pretty enticing, although it did have one downside. “It will take us at least a week to get there. Even after getting paid we can’t afford that many supplies.” I replied, looking into her eyes. “I’m not sure I want to spend my week in constant scavenging.”

Lily gave me a thoughtful look before nodding. “That is fair. but You like the idea of sitting here for weeks as much as me. So what are your plans next then?”

That was a very good question. What were my plans? So far I just went with the flow, just so I can keep my mind off of things, but clearly, it couldn’t last for too long. “Take a rest and see if any locals have a job that could occupy me for the time being. Then if caravans won’t show up by the time I'm done, return to Horseshoe.” I said with a sigh

Lily raised her brow, “But I thought you hated that place?”

I took a deep breath. “I still do, but that’s where most of my friend’s live, so sadly I don’t have much choice. At least for now. I do plan to visit Lost Haven one day and see if I can get something going, but I’m not quite prepared for that yet.”

“I see,” Lily leaned on the back of her seat, relaxing. “Now, could you tell me what happened? You seemed really off, back then.”

I sighed as the images of an ambush flashed in my head. “Long story short, Me and SIlver Rose went on another route from Shiva to Horseshoe. I’ve agreed to recover a flash drive in Serpentine Valley for a… friend, since we had to make a stop there regardless. There were slavers. You can piece together the rest.” I refilled my glass with more wine and downed it in one go. Only partially because I had a hoarse throat.

We sat quiet for a while, after I finished with only quiet murmurs from the table behind us breaking the silence. “I’m sorry, Midnight.” Lily said eventually, with a distinct notes of pity in her voice. “I know you both were very close. Why did you jump into another job so fast though?”

Because I was afraid to stay alone with my thoughts for too long?. “Sadly wasteland doesn’t give us time to dwell on things, you need to keep moving otherwise you’ll quickly find yourself broke and abandoned.”

Lily looked thoughtful for a moment. “I guess it is true for quite a lot of ponies, but don’t you out of all of them have the luxury to take a break?”

“No, that’s…” is actually very accurate. I’ve had quite a few good friends who’d be more than happy to help me sort myself out. But I didn’t want to burden them with my problems more than I already did. “I guess you're right.” I said after a short pause. “It’s just…”

“I understand.” Lily nodded, “I think it’s time for us to get some well-deserved rest.” She stood up, smiling. “If you change your mind, meet me tomorrow at the front gates at noon. Otherwise it was a pleasure to work with you, Midnight.”

“Same.” I gave her a short nod, watching as she slowly went out of the building.

I relaxed in my seat, looking at the remaining wine in the bottle. Well, I guess it’s better than letting it go to waste. I poured it into my glass and prepared to drink it, as a bright silhouette entered my view. The earth pony from before. I sighed looking at her. “Yes? How can I help you?”

She took the same seat as Lily, and looked me in the eyes. “Looking for a job?” Huh, her voice was much younger than I was expecting.

“Right now I am looking for a bed.” I replied firmly, downing the whole glass before standing up.

She seized me with her glance, a wide grin appearing on her face. “Impressive. Well, I can arrange that too.”

I couldn’t tell what I hated more: her tone, that wink or everything. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “I will pass, thank you.”

“Well, if you need some extra caps, swing by the book store and tell the shopkeeper that you’re looking for snake oil.”

I blinked at her a few times before turning around and quietly walking away. I can think about this with a sober head tomorrow. Thankfully the hotel was right next to a bar so it didn’t take much effort to stumble in my room, and fall on the bed, letting the sweet darkness consume me.

Author's Note

Well another chapter is ready. I finally begin to figuring out some stuff that should allow me to write chapters more frequently and can't wait to share some of the more exciting stuff I planned for this story. Anyway I hope you enjoyed reading it and I welcome all feedback and criticism.

Huge thanks to Pocketwatch who helped with editing this chapter and offered a lot of new and cool ideas I plan to use in my texts going forward.