Chapter 3: Black Cherry

“The worse decisions are the ones against the majorities wishes”

The orange pony trots through town, the trail she leaves growing ever vibrant.

She looks in buildings, filled with nothing, and she waves them off.

Stop in the largest building, in front of a scarred locked box.

It bled and shook yet stayed shut, the orange pony can not open it.

Meet with gray and blue ponies, lead them up a trail into ridges.

Enter a shack by her lonesome, to which legs collapse and the dream ends.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

The ruins of Our Town were worse than I originally thought, and I didn’t like the idea of getting used to a view like this, it made me feel sick. When I woke up, I was being watched by little Nyte Watch, acting like a little guardian angel watching over my rest. Her bland, colorless gray body sitting perfectly still till she saw I was awake, and she jumped onto me with the tightest hug her body could muster while sobbing into my chest.

“Dreamy..! You’re okay..! Sniffle… We were all so scared you wouldn’t wake up! B-But you’re awake now! Wait till the others know!”

“Can I… just hold onto you for a moment…?” I asked, to which she was more than happy to let me. I needed to think about… everything. Ponies were dead, and I played a factor in that, all these foals and colts were orphans now and needed a home, they sure can’t stay here, and I… I just need answers.

My stomach interrupted my thoughts, making me realize I hadn’t eaten since I was shot. I looked at Nyte and asked if they had found any food and her answer was confusing.

“Oh, yes! A lot! Let me take you to some!” We weren’t… raided for food and medicine then? That armored pony acted as if my shop was a bonus, and she sure didn’t look like a normal raider, everything wasn’t just strong, it looked new too. There must have been more of a reason than to kill us...right?

Walking showed how sore my body was, but nothing in comparison to how much it hurt to be shot. Nyte took me to all the other foals and got me a meal (Foal snack cakes and a sparkle-cola? Kids rule) while we asked each other questions. As it turns out, their mothers grouped together to teach survival methods. ‘Take advantage of your size, as you’re currently small you can hide within places like broken ovens’. They hid inside ovens, I didn’t think those ladies were that smart, and they lived because they remembered those lessons.

After a bit of talking, I told them all I wanted to look around town and decide what to do, even though I already knew. They wanted to argue but after I told them ‘you all have earned a turn to rest, I’ll get a plan’, they relaxed. Now here I was in a neighbors home and searching through it, trying to open this STUPID safe. I was tempted to try and rig the door to explode, and I was pretty sure I had the right equipment to do so, not the best looking safe… But I decided I should save my dynamite, instead, I had to go to my clinic and look inside my cabinet, it was completely untouched from normal medical supplies to useless things most ponies wouldn’t care about, like the false teeth. I crammed the only tool I owned behind some of this and… aha! There it is, an old screwdriver with a few bobby pins beside it, mine for the taking along with a few back up meds and even a few things of Med-X and a Rad-away.

When Doctor Wallow passed and I gained ownership of the clinic, I learned he left more than a few cabinets and containers locked! I had to go and buy an issue of... Oh, what was it again... Something to do with pegasi feathers, and how they had a lot of uses? I remember hearing how there was a section on using it to lockpick, and I was able to learn a bit and if I replaced the feather with bobby pins, I'd be able to open most of his lock containers, and had to pay off someone to crack open the rest. I haven’t tried to open anything locked since then, and I’ve already broken most of my bobby pins.

I felt a twang of guilt while messing with this darn lock, does this count as stealing? I’d believe that anypony who passed on wouldn’t mind what I was doing, but I couldn’t help but feel bad about it regardless, and I was three safes in already.

Click. Score! Finally, it opened for me, the guilting feeling fading and being replaced for the excitement of treasure, it was the hardest one I’ve opened so far and I could feel a large reward hiding behind this metal treasure chest.

“...Oh come- uh- are you serious?!” Almost nothing was inside, only a single shotgun shell, a small stash of caps, and a single note. I pulled the small loot pile to myself and checked out the caps, a measly twelve. Next, I grabbed my new double-barrel and cracked it open, and noticed something odd. I pulled out the other shell I found within Party Favor’s ammo box and compared the two… they were different sized. Great, just great, this was useless to me. What about the note? Why was this left inside a safe?

‘I’m writing this as a promise to myself because today I had to sell my pappy’s hunting shotgun. Wish I didn’t have to, but I had no choice, food for the youngin and us is more important. But I’m gonna start saving up my caps so I can buy my little girl her own gun to pass down. I’ve decided to leave my last shell with this note so I won't forget. If you’re reading this Stellar Point, daddy loves you.’

A drop of liquid fell onto the note, I finished reading it and was just… staring now. His savings were so small that he must have just started, and Stellar Point wasn’t with us... At least they’ll have each other…

“I hope the wasteland isn’t always this awful…” I know there’s a lot of killing and dying out there, but what other unimaginable things have yet to be found? I shouldn’t need to worry about it though, I know what to do; Find a new home. That should be the main concern I have, so why do I keep asking myself ‘why’? It’s a thought that hasn’t left my mind since I woke up, repeating more than the song the Parasprite-bots play.

I finally left the home and went to the next building, the mayor’s home. It was bigger than all the others, and it was the oldest building here, still standing after the attack. I haven't seen dewdrop since we were out of the town together, and prepared myself for the worse and opened the door.

It was strangely clean inside as if it was left alone. No blood or bullet holes, and the only thing that felt off was the open door leading to the basement as if it was thrown open. So without any other leads here, I went down to explore. Her basement was a small concrete room, it was dim from a lack of immediate light. Besides old and decayed furniture cluttered about, in the far corner was a safe with its door swinging from the draft coming in, the sides where the door met the safe were charred black and the walls beside it looked like they were damaged recently, the armored mare blew up this safe! She took everything inside, I even felt the back of it for any secrets, but found nothing.

Why was this the only safe that has already been opened? In fact, why does the whole building look fine? I could feel myself being flooded with question after question, trying to answer them with flimsy answers to try and find the reason for this all when I heard his voice in my head.

‘There are no coincidences in the wasteland’

No coincidences… So there was a reason for this safe like this, but what it could be, I had no idea. Just what was Dewdrop hiding in there!? I rested my head on the safe and groaned, I'm getting nowhere with this, I don’t think I can find anything else in here, or town in general… It’s time to leave.

I grabbed onto the safe as I stood up, still feeling weak, when I felt the safe wobble back and forth slightly, logically from the explosion, yet it strangely felt as if it was rubbing against something. I paused and started to look around the safe, finding nothing until I started to pull the safe from the wall to find another safe built into the wall, completely unscathed. My brand new treasure hunter side started to scream from within, and I couldn’t resist her screams. I pulled out my pin and screwdriver and got to work.

Snap! Already I broke a bobby pin and replaced it with another. This lock felt studier, stubborn, and harder to convince to open than all the others, yet I was dying to know what is- SNAP!

My bobby pin broke, and I reached for another to find I had run out. Frankly, even if I found more to try with, I don’t think I would be able to open this. Great, I can’t use my explosives either, I need to save them in case the mare comes back, if she finds new explosion markings she would know someone was here after her, and I don’t think her hunting me is going to help. Whatever she wanted might have been inside here… It didn’t matter, I have spent enough time searching around with not much to show for it. I was starting to feel like a sitting target with crosshairs on me just for being in town.

I left the mostly clean home feeling confident Dewdrop wasn’t there, the pungent smell of death that was lingering elsewhere was nowhere inside, and I sure wasn't going to scour over the corpses of friends to find her. It was time to leave home, where most of us will likely never set foot here again. We need to get to Buru and from there… I’ll plan something to do then.

Gathering up the kids was easy, and doing an inventory check was less than displeasing, minimal food (at least we had sugar bales, yum!), and even fewer ways to protect ourselves. My odd knife, double-barrel (using twelve gauge shells, it seemed. Torchlick called it a Sawed-off shotgun.) and the two pistols - some assembly required.

They were all quiet, the novelty of me being alive having long worn off. Not one of them had objected when I said we had to leave, but they kept glancing around on the way to the fallen gate, I would guess they didn’t want to leave, but too scared to stay, saying goodbyes maybe? They were just kids after all who had to grow up quickly, but they were handling it better than I would have at their age.

We passed the gate and I couldn’t help but look back at my old home. The past few days have been a war and I crawled out on top somehow, not by skill, power, or tactics…. But by the mistake of foes and luck. I don’t think It’ll happen again, I’ll need to learn how to survive. I decided to leave without saying goodbye, because I’ll be back. This isn’t goodbye, Our Town.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

I forgot to think of how long it would take us to get back to Buru, what with me feeling weak, and spending half the day searching. The sky above was starting to darken and I couldn’t tell if Buru was around the next corner or twenty away. This time it was Nyte Watch who asked.

“Miss Dreamrush? Are we close yet?” her voice was high and infused with hope, which I couldn’t bring myself to break…

“Well… we’re closer than before! Can’t be too far away now…” it was my second time telling them that specifically, and they looked like they were starting to see through me, I needed to get them there soon.

That’s when we heard a few small growls from across the nearby hills, a symphony of...some sort of animal. They were coming from the left side, in a bowl of the mountain with little cover and withered vegetation, it was a pack of wild canine creatures, patches of their fur was missing and smaller scars across their body that I couldn’t make out from here. These had to be wolves, and I couldn’t help but wonder if I passed by them running home and never saw them, though it doesn’t matter, I shouldn’t let us be seen.

Besides Olbreck, the rest of the foals followed my lead with a hint of confusion on their faces, but they seemed to get the idea. We were slow and in the open, but aways from where the howling was, as far as I could tell the animal, or animals, hadn’t seen us yet, but who knows for how long? Se should-

Crunch. Something stepped on what must have been a twig and made a sound from the protected, rock covered plains we were approaching. There were two sets of eyes in front of us in the darkness of cover, both leading down into a singular body, another orthros, lost from the pack, up against ponies with almost no firepower. My body felt like it was locking in place, and a cold sweat crept across my body, how did it get so close when it was so big? The panic overwhelmed me as I started to yank on the oddly shaped blade I had holstered, when it pounced, causing the children, and possibly myself to scream.

I used the knife as a shield, I expected something heavy to crash into my blade, with eyes closed out of instinct, yet I didn’t feel anything, only the sounds of hounds and snarls with one whine and yelp mixed in.

My eyes opened to reveal a pile of canines atop the now bleeding orthros, all biting into it from multiple angles, even at both its necks. It’s thrashing quickly began to die down, but not before it had sunk its fangs into one of the nearest wolves and was throwing it away.

Wordlessly I magically tugged on each of the foals to nudge them forward, making them walk so we could get away, thankfully none of the wolves seemed to care about us, too busy with the meatier creature. By the time we got to the next corner the wolves were digging into the corpse, we should be safe now…. Nyte Watch looked horrified and before I could figure out what to say to her and the others, something with old, ash-like feathers landed in front of us.

“Well don’t you look like absolute shit, Pony” it was him, the griffin I saw in Buru…! What was he doing out here? Was he here to help? Were we almost there? I had so many questions in my head, but I ended up just silently hugging onto him. I wouldn’t call myself super affectionate but I couldn’t help myself here. I just felt relief, and the foals seemed confused, and so did the griffin, yet I didn’t care.

“Okay… You’re not dead at least? There there? Don’t… start crying on me, aight? Please don’t…” he sounded completely unsure of himself, so yes he was confused over this. I let go of him and took a step back, everything felt lighter than it did a few seconds ago.

“Sorry, about that, are we… Close to Buru? At all?” I asked with a quivering voice, as he looked over us. He was silent for far too long that when he spoke, I could feel the thin suspension building shatter.

“Just around the corner, Pony. I heard the growling and came to look. Come on now, Miss and Mr. were upset you left, they’ll be happy to have you back. ...Oh, also, congrats on finding some ponies alive.” saying I was relieved was an understatement, what I was feeling was indescribable warmth that made me forget all the hardships of the last few days, realization that I was able to save kids and make a difference..!

“Come on already…” his voice shot clarity through me, bringing me back to myself (I really shouldn’t let myself get lost in thoughts like that anymore) and started to usher us along, and within just a few minutes we could see the little ‘town’ of Buru.

The two main buildings I saw before were bigger than I originally thought, flanked by a smaller building on each side. Buru was surprisingly small, but I have no idea as to how many might live here besides this griffin whose name I forgot to ask for, ‘Sir’, and ‘Miss’.

“Where is everypony? It almost looks like a ghost town here…”

“Do you see how late it’s getting, Pony? Workers like Mr and Miss sleep earlier than the others, they like to work early in the day with the crops” his voice was filled with admiration for those two, I couldn’t help but wonder just what kind of ponies they were.

“Alright… It’s Dreamrush, by the way.” the griffin stopped and faced me, staring into my eyes before he burst into laughter. He was trying to talk between the outbursts and his stone-cold personality faded.

“Y-you… Bwahaha! That is by far the most pony name I have ever heard! Dreamrush!?” at the very least, he tried to cover his beak in a futile effort to stop laughing. I knew it shouldn’t, but dang did this hurt.

“Excuse me, griffin sir?” I looked at the voice to see Stakeout walking up to him, and her soft voice was able to get him to stop.

“That ain't my name, kiddo. Geneval, call me Gene, you follow squirt?” his laughter was paused at least for the moment, and for some reason, I didn’t feel as insulted.

“Gene, can we have a place to rest…? My legs are tired…”

“Of course kiddo, follow me. As for miss... Dreamrush…” he let a few snorted chuckles, officially making him on my nerves. “You can take the small hut that you were in before, I’ll take these small ones inside where it won’t be crowded.” I wanted to tell him ‘no way, bird brain’, but thinking about it made me reconsider. If Gene, ‘Mr’, and ‘Miss’, were bad I wouldn’t be alive, and that I already trust the folk here.

“Alright…” I said reluctantly, which caused the kids to follow Gene away into the house, leaving me alone with deafening silence as I watched them leave. I stayed there in the dark outside longer than I should have, not thinking, just listening to the nothingness. I felt like a rock by the time my hoofs began to move, each crunch on the ground sounding like shattering glass.

While it wasn’t brightest out, the light was enough to give the structure more form than I could see before. It was indeed similar to a shed, and the quality of it was lesser than the two larger buildings, with a faded collage of bright colors, it felt pretty, even if visually all design had faded away.

The inside was almost the same as I had left it, with the sole exception that the bed wasn’t a mess, it was all ready for somepony to slumber, though I felt ready to sleep for goddess knows how long. I didn’t have time to wonder if I did right by both leaving Our Town, and letting the kids go with him, because as soon as I tried to relax, darkness overtook my mind, and the dream began.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

An orange creature is still

Unmoving and unchanging

Other colors walk to it, yet leave quickly.

Many small colors, one repeating brown.

Finally two, blue, shakey blobs approach.

It says till the outside light vanishes

Leaving the orange creature alone.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

I was bedridden, my limbs hardly wanted to move and screeched when I tried. Gene eventually came in to ask if I would like to come down for breakfast… is that ironic? I think it is. I told him what was wrong and decided that I was staying in bed with limited movement for three days, and it sounded heavenly, finally time to relax. I was brought food by Stakeout, and all the other kids came by to see me and thank me, which felt odd, what had happened feels like it was so long ago already. Not many other ponies came by, just a mare my size that seemed much stronger and capable. She asked mostly about yard work and farming, and I realized she was sizing me up for my usefulness as a farmer. I was without a doubt disappointing her, and the only thing I learned about her was her name: Bountiful.

The other pony who came to see me was a red and gray unicorn with a stubby horn. She introduced herself as Shady Berry and was actually worried for my health, it turns out she’s the closest thing to a doctor but knew next to nothing, and that she was the one who made me drink almost all of my health potions. When I pointed that out to her and that I knew what I was talking about, she began to assault me with medical questions, I had become a teacher for an hour.

After she left, my visitors were a blur of children sporadically until it was dark outside when two, not quite elderly but older than most ponies walked in. One was a stallion unicorn with a broken horn and a pale coat that had him blend into the faded walls, and the other was a mare unicorn with a surprisingly dark green coat, their cutie marks of complementary sets of trees. If I had to guess, these two were ‘Sir’ and ‘Miss’, and Miss spoke up first.

“Ah am ever so sorry how long it took us to come meet you…” she couldn’t carry a bigger accent if she tried, I actually had to take time to decode what she said. “We were so so busy you see…” Sir began to nod in silent agreement, not adding much to the conversation. “Ah’m just glad ya’re alright, Lil’ Pumpkin, welcome to Home.”

“But this isn’t… and I-” she didn’t let me finish, as if she knew what I was about to say.

“Oh we know, Pumpkin…” at this point I couldn’t help but realize I had no idea why she was calling me Pumpkin, what even is that, an insult? “Dat’s just what we call our little slice of heavenly hell. Now nuff bout us, how ya farin’ Lil’ Pumpkin? Gene was saying you wants to be in bed fo’ three days, issat true?”

I assume she wants to know so I can make up for their saving me, I’ve heard countless stories about the greed of the wasteland, and I’ve seen it in the ponies who all tried to barter with me while visiting, yet at the same time her voice was only full of concern, I couldn’t find any ulterior motives in her words… Well, not that it mattered, I’d be dead without them.

“Yes… I’m going to spend two more days in bed and walking in this room to make sure everything works fine. And my name is Dreamrush, not this Pumpkin thi-” finally Sir spoke up, in a surprisingly deep voice that didn’t fit his soft face.

“Oh-ho! We figured, you just have similarities to one!” I… Don’t follow, is a pumpkin a type of pony? A thing? “But besides that, Pumpkin, is that long enough? It seems so short, you were shot for goddess’s sake!”

Their caring reactions were overwhelming for me, and I didn’t know what to say. These two were being more worried than how much most of the Our Town residents would have been, and they wanted me to rest more?!

“O-oh. Well… I shouldn’t stay off my hooves for too long… I’ll rest more if it’s needed, alright?” This seemed to somewhat still their worries, and with the main topic finished we just started to chat. They were especially worried when Gene told them how I ran off as soon as I woke up, and how they were about to chase after, but Gene, their ‘level headed bird’ had them wait. He said they were too late to act, and that I was either dead or ok. The biggest thing I had learned was that just Gene calls them Sir and Miss, they are Rusty Coil and Vi, just Vi. They soon left after all that, and I realized I had one unanswered question.

What in the world is a pumpkin?

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

The last few days were a blur, and I was walking around with minimal strain. Shady Berry was teaching the foals about harvesting and farming while Gene taught them what to look out for. Once the three days were up, I finally got to leave that small shack and entered the main building with the same faded paint job. The interior decoration was almost non-existent as if they threw out the pre-war things they found not essential. Within the kitchen I found Gene just relaxing inside, leaning back in a chair with its legs lifted off the ground.

“G’day, Rushing. Glad you pulled through. How can little old me help you, hmm? Oh and no, we ran out of the stale snack cakes the other day.” I wasn’t sure if he was trying to humor me or not, at the very least he’s been rather consistent in her personality, excluding that rude outburst before.

“Well, I am hungry… But I need to find Rusty Coil and Vi. Happen to know where they are?” he nodded and jumped up, wordlessly walking out the door beside him. I figured he was leading me to them so I followed him, which rewarded me with Gene holding out a cracked, and leaking, bowl filled with a strongly scented liquid.

“Eat up first, before you waste it all.” he shoved the bowl into my hooves and let go, causing me to sit down and scramble to hold onto it. He returned to a cauldron behind him, grabbed one of the few nearby bowls, and dunked it in for himself and chugged.

Without much choice in the matter, I started to drink. It was lukewarm with surprisingly little taste, simply tasting like flavored water with small chunks of what I had to guess as carrots. The odor may have lied to me about the taste, but it would make my body think it was full.

Once I finished, he nudged me and took the bowl, placing it beside some similarly cracked bowls, and walking away yet again towards a small orchard, or what would be considered one. It was just three rows of vegetation that didn’t go on for that long, although now I knew some of these had to be carrots. I could see Nyte Watch and Patchwork following Shady Berry, and Stakeout, Olbreck, and Torchlick listening to Bountiful. Finally just past them all, Vi and Rusty were in the back, cleaning up their bushes and taking precise snips to its leaves. I felt Gene pat my head before shoving me next to them, making me squeal while I try not to fall over. Both elders watched and hardly reacted about it, and Vi trotted up to me and helped me up before she spoke.

“Good morning, Pumpkin!” they’ll never tell me what that is, will they? “Ye’re up and about, das’s great! How are ya doin’?”

“Much better… Nothing is hurting all that drastically thanks to all the potions, I’m just glad I have one leftover.” I’ve been trying to “keep looking at the bright side” ever since I got here, and I think it’s helped my mood. Before I could get to what I wanted to talk about, Rusty spoke up.

“Wonderful darlin’, Just remember to take it easy for the next few days.”

“About that…” before I got the chance to continue, I was cut off. He had a strange concerned look that I wasn’t used to seeing on a stranger.

“I know it must be hard for you Pumpkin, but please know that you can stay here if you want. We… know you don’t got anywhere else to go, we thought if we offered a solution…” he stopped, his intention was clear, and a great offer was in front of me, but my choice was already made.

“I’d… like to believe that I normally would, you both have just been some of the kindest ponies I’ve met, but I can’t! My mind just won’t stop, it’s completely restless… I… I have to find out why this happened. No matter what I do it’s been in my head, and I was kind of hoping that… you’d watch the kids while I try to find them a home, I can’t just take them with me.” I was expecting some sort of resistance from them, saying why I should stay. They seemed protective like that.

“Okay.” she… agreed just like that, I didn’t know how to respond to that. My stunned silence got her to continue. “Frankly, ya might wanna just leave ‘em in our care. We don’t get much in troubles outta here, they’d be safe.” I… didn’t think about that, they are safe here, after all, I’d have to find someplace amazing to make it better than here, wouldn’t I?

“Right… That’s right, I guess that’s the best call. It’d be too unrealistic to find a better place, and then even taking them would be dangerous… If I uh, happen to, I’ll come back for them! I promise!” they didn’t seem to mind in the slightest at my proclamation, and simply nodded.

“When yas leavin’, Pumpkin?”

“Well… Today?” this is what broke their calm demeanor, her voice growing louder while rusty shook his head.

“Ta...Taday!? Ya jus’ left yar room t’ough! Ya should rest a few mo’e days, ya?”

“I wish I could, but I’ve already decided… It was bountiful fixing my weapons, right? Do you know where she placed them? And where should I go from here to the nearest town?” Vi looked like she wanted to say something, anything, but she just left out a sigh and looked defeated. This time it was Rusty who spoke up.

“In the other shack… It’s her workshop after you get your things head north towards Rainbowless falls.. can we at least know why you gotta go today?” For some reason, I began to have a smile creep across my face, and I felt strangely satisfied in my response.

“You could say that… I saw it in my dream.”

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Finishing goodbyes to the ponies that lived here, and Gene, was easy enough. Although bountiful started to yell at me about proper weapon maintenance, and ‘how dare I let this Kukri get worn out like that, and when I asked what a ‘Kukri’ was she… gave me an earful, all she needed to say was that it was the knife. But besides all that, my weapons looked better than ever, those attackers didn’t care for their weapons. But she seemed to care at least somewhat for my well being, she didn’t charge me a cap and was kind enough to give me a few boxes of different ammo for each of my weapons.

Saying goodbye to the kids was going to be heartbreaking, I know it. I brought them all together and sat down with them, a bunch of kids I hardly knew outside of checkups, and they know less about me. Yet I was their last connection to home, their normal lives. I felt responsible for them… worst of all, I forgot to prepare what to say here.

“Dreamrush? Is it true you want to leave?” Olbreck knew? How did… “Bountiful said you were going to go away…” he was a rather… direct colt, it seemed. But the others all carried the same face, they knew it too and were upset.

“Well… Yes, I have to go. It’s what my horoscope said after all!” that was hardly a good enough answer, and they were not happy with it, yet they accepted it. I felt a crushing weight on me, as the reality settled in. I might never see these kids again… “I’m… I’m going to find out what happened and… and-” this time I was cut off by Torchlick, who seemed both fearful but excitable.

“Teach them a lesson..?” there it was, the question I feared. How was I supposed to answer something I didn’t know?

“I… Want to find out why, so I’m going to find that monster and… H-handle it. I also want to find you all a better home!” I was trying, maybe too hard, to sound excited, yet it seemed to work a little bit, but not nearly enough. “Oh and… Stakeout? C’mere please.” she looked confused as she walked past the others to me, even more so when I grabbed her hoofs and placed the “Pipe” pistol (as Bountiful called it) into her grasp.

“Huh…? A gun?” I wanted to leave some wonder in them, something to excite kids, and from what I’ve seen, she seemed like the first to act and to be a leader.

“It’s the pistol I got after I became the town doctor, It belonged to the doctor before me and he got it when he got his position.” that last part was a lie… probably. “And now that you’ve shown you’re a responsible filly, I want you to take it and help protect everypony here, okay?” she and the other kids seemed shocked, a connecting state of shock and bewilderment. I think I got them-

“What’s its name Dreamy??”

...Fuck.

“Oh, that’s easy! It’s a, uh. Inheritance? Yes! That’s its name!” she looked even more amazed than before, my rather awful name for it caught on better than expected. It was now when I needed to leave, on a high note. I gave Stakeout all the ammo I had for it, (Thank the goddess the other pistol, a “.44“ used different ammo. Thank you Bountiful!) and gave each one a personal goodbye. Not one of the kids teared up, thankfully, that might have broken me, and I set off towards Rainbowless Falls.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

What in the world is with these giant bugs!? First, it was those giant flies with stingers, but now it’s these round, bloated bugs after me! I swear by the time they finished the flies, there were two more of those strangely colored bugs that came from nowhere, doubling their numbers! I wasn’t fast enough to outrun them, and they were so sporadic that I couldn’t get a good shot off with my .45, and I was scared to waste ammo, so I started to fish out the double barrel from its holder when I felt another surge of pain from my tail, one of those colorful orbs was chewing on my tail again! It was biting quick, but it was more stationary, which meant aim was easy even for me, and I only missed once before it exploded into gunk, leaving about 3 shots left before I was forced to reload. The other three were getting close, and I had no miracle help in front of me, just Rushy. Finally, I was able to pull out the Double Barrel (I really need to readjust that…) and pointed it behind me, at the general mass of bloated bugs and fired, almost dropping the shotgun from the explosion-like sound it produced, and force behind it. I didn’t know it was like lightning in a barrel! Worse of all, the three bugs were still flying with only minimal bleeding from two, and one that was teetering back, yet continued the chase.

“Oh come on! Go away and lick your wounds! Why are you chasing me?!” my cries were useless to the feral bug that just wanted to eat me, and I glanced up the path I was going on, the turn up ahead was getting close, and empty mountains unchanging. I could feel my tired limbs wanting to stop, screaming from the previous days of stress. Glancing back at the bugs to see them closer than ever, another two minutes and they’ll easily be on me.

I pointed the sawed-off again, this time waiting for them to condense closer… and let the thunder fly. One of the bugs flat out exploded, while another crashed onto the ground, yet I completely missed the last one. I tried to fire again and all I got was a click, I forgot it only had two shots! I looked back to the bug as it got close enough and bit onto my tail, again. I let out a scream and magically yanked it off, and realized something…

I could hold it in magic rather easily, it could only wiggle in this magic imprisonment. It was thrashing as it pushed it far away from me, more than far enough for nothing to splatter and pulled out the .45 pistol again and took aim, the first bit of real target practice I’ve had in years…. Everything recently has been in a panic, but real experience. I was getting ready to pull the trigger and realized I was hesitating. Holding it still was making me sympathetic. It looked harmless now, but I know better, the wasteland will kill those who don’t act, so I just need to shoot. No reason not to, I just needed to point and… fire. Pull the trigger, see if I can aim, so c’mon Dreamrush, fire!

I heard the bang before I felt my squeeze of the trigger, my shot wasn’t perfect, just enough to kill it. Looks like I’m decent with a small gun like this, and I’m learning how to survive the wasteland, and this was the first thing I needed to learn.

But why did I have to feel bad about it?

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Nothing for hours besides small groups of bugs, which have all been easy due to magic, I don’t know how Earth Ponies survived without it. I’ve been hoping for some kind of shack, ruin, or even one of those factories with killer robots that I’ve heard so much about. I’ve learned that humming my favorite songs helps with the loneliness, but only just. I’ve never been so far away from a town for so long before, so this was a new feeling.

I hated it.

At least I had my favorite song to think about, it made the house durable. I was hoping for something non-dangerous to happen, even a trash can to look through when a loud crack echoed around me. Panicking I whipped out my pistol and started to look around for the source, but Instead heard yelling… Yelling? That means ponies! I found myself rushing towards the sounds further along the path till I saw some walls from a building, and ponies to the side of it, with the rest of a town behind them, arguing about a bit of decoration that fell off from it. They were both blue and whiteish gray. The little town past them had fewer buildings than Our Town and was built similarly and just as ruined. I noticed the ground looked different in certain areas… almost as if something heavy was dragged around in a circle, it was strangely flat. There was a strange crater in the middle of Rainbowless Falls, with a tiny, curved, path-like ravine that was empty, and it felt like it was missing something.

I couldn’t help but wonder why they have no walls, it seemed so dangerous to live like that, maybe they just don’t care? Thinking about it was hurting my head, so I focused on the town. The closer I got the more of an ‘adventure’ vibe I got, I wonder why that is…

That’s when laughter erupted beside me, the twins with the decoration, two stallions I could tell now, were chuckling and looking at me.

“Hey lass, couldn’t help but notice… You ran into a buncha bloatsprites, right?”

“Hehe, you look like a mess.”

“Bloatsprites? Are those what-” I was cut off by these two… dunderheads, breaking into laughter again. I could feel my face scrunching up in annoyance.

“Beasties that got your tail? Yep! They like to rip and tear at just about anything that moves, be glad you didn’t find their hive!”

“Haha yeah! You’d be gone girl, no more Orange.”

“Oh shaddup you, that ain’t funny. A bite mark on the tail is funny, some mare dying ain’t.”

“Uh…” the more dull stallion didn’t seem to know how to respond, and the not-so-mean stallion just snorted and looked back at me, his face looked squashed and flat like... Old war art.

“Now, welcome to Rainbowless Falls and all that, you must be new to traveling if you don’t even know that, where ya from?”

“I’m from… I’m from Our Town, south of here” saying the name was starting to hurt me, it even got stuck in my throat for a moment. C’mon rush, snap out of it. You gotta grow stronger and out of that.

“Our town?! What kinda town is named after some unity friendship bullshit?! Bwahah!”

“Y-Yah! Stupid Friendship! Haha!”

“There ya go Huffle! Now that’s funny!” they both kept laughing and making similar jokes at my town’s expense but I didn’t (or more so wouldn’t) stick around to hear more. My eyes were set on a target: The biggest building I could see, I hardly had a plan and was just hoping it would lead to something, maybe meet somepony I could ask about… Oh, what do I ask first? Food and water? Supplies like meds and ammo? About the mare in strange armor? I’m thinking survival first, she can wait and I might be going the wrong way already.

When I got to the building I was welcomed by a pleasing smell that was almost invasive from how the rest of my week was, and then was followed by the ever lovely smell of alcohol. I’ve never been much of a drinker, but if I had the caps to spare, I'd forget the rest of the day.

The first thing that clicked in my head was the music, they had a radio! Oh, holy goddess, have I missed music, I was just hoping for something I could tolerate, and to my disappointment, it was a song I hardly cared for by Songbird Serenade, but I would gladly tolerate it. I hurried into the warm atmosphere, which was what I believed to be packed, all the different ponies talking with another or eating (more so drinking) quietly.

Nopony gave me any attention as I entered, no pony laughing at my bitten tail, I took a seat at the counter on one of those circular chairs that used to spin, with my seat rusted into place. The mare who was handling everypony was taking her time to get to me, which gave me time to think, yet I didn’t get to think at all as a familiar voice came in through the radio of the wonderful DJ-Pon3.

“Good evening Wastelanders, DJ-Pon3 with more on the wasteland. Firstly, an update on that little northern town of… Well, ‘Our Town’, strange name to report on.”

My heart sunk, ponies knew what happened? Would there be any good news? Did.. they know?

“It seems like there may have been ponies there after the attack, dead ponies seemed to have been moved and most of the safes have been opened, there might have been survivors with how quickly that was.”

Oblivious to the world as I listened, my mind was jumping from one extreme to the next, wondering how to tell the DJ that I’m alive, and of the armored mare?

A slam in front of me made me aware of my surroundings, the mare who seemed to run the joint was in front of me with a deadly glare, her stance was wide and made her look bigger than she was, and she spoke in a cold voice, her blood-red eyes matched her mane and the booze matched her coat.

“Hello miss… what brings a pony like you here?” I found myself leaning away from her, she was behaving intensely as if she was trying to fire daggers from her eyes, and she didn’t even let me talk. “Because your friends were here not too long ago… you looking for them?”

“My...Friends? I don’t follow what-” she cut me off, and her body began to shake in what I thought at first to be rage, but I noticed her face. She was worried.

“Right, of course not. That’s definitely NOT the same armor your friend had. I’ve tolerated your type for a while, but you all doing THAT,” she motioned towards her radio as she spoke before she continued. “I won’t be allowing you here, no matter how you threaten. Listen to the radio to find them.”

“I- what? My armor? But-” I looked down at what I was wearing and it clicked, and I croaked out “wait! Not! T-That! Killed! I uh, I’m from Our Town! I had to kill them and had no other protection!”

Her stare felt like it lasted forever, and she finally sighed while bringing a hoof to her temple.

“Oh, sweet stale biscuits… Here I am yelling at some ol’ poor survivor. I’m sorry about that, Gal. How can I help ya then?”

“Uhm..” it took me a minute to recover from that… okay, multiple, before I spoke. “I just uh... Have you seen a mare with strange armor… it has a strange ghost on it?”

“Strange ghost? Can’t say I have, no ma’am.”

“Oh, well… What about supplies? I could-”

“You can buy things like guns and armor from the square building that looks like it could fall apart at any second, tell them Hightop sent ya, and for food, ya can look no further!” I got the feeling that she has practiced that line before…

“And are there any doctors I can buy from..? I don’t have much on me at the moment.”

“You’d want Mineva Essence, it’s the building decorated in those yellow medical boxes that have faded white, it stands out.” food, ammo, and a possible new set of armor to avoid being confused again… Almost everything I needed!

For more caps than I had.

“Thank you, Hightop was it? Do you know if she might need any help? Or anypony else? I’m a traveling doctor myself…”

“Uh, nope not really. You said you’re a doctor?” she started to look over my person, and she suddenly clapped, with her voice getting louder. “Oh! Actually, Starfury has been looking for a pony JUST like you, he has a job you could do, hell he might just give you those drugs you need!”

“Starfury? Where can I-”

“Inside the taaall building near the old tracks, is that all I can help you with?” I wanted to tell her that was all, but she kept bringing up more offers and ‘deals’ that I had to decline, her costs were way too high for me, and I have to see what the other dealers have, and as I was leaving I heard her yell out “Oh! Ask him about your ghost gal! He might know a thing or two ‘bout it!”

The tall building that she mentioned was instantly insight, standing at what felt like two floors higher than the rest of the buildings. Nopony else was as intrusive as those two twins as I traveled through the small town, and everything felt so… normal, besides those odd paths and craters that could have been ponds. The ponies here were living perfectly fine, just as I used to, just like everypony I ever knew, why did seeing this just hurt? It almost felt like… regret.

Before I knew it, the towering building was right in front of me, it felt strange to me that this was their leader’s house when everything was so similar to home, yet their mayor’s home was vastly different. I pressed my hoof to the door and it opened with ease, no lock, and seemingly no guards inside. It was strangely empty inside and hardly anything besides a few chairs, couch, and stairs, no other relics of the previous world.

“Hello? Is anypony here?” I began to step inside as a new voice shot from the top of the steps, it felt soft, mixed with a heavy, unmoving nature behind it.

“Ah! Yes up here! I’m coming, I’m coming! No more screaming now!” Starfury, I assumed, yelled. His voice held enough authority to have me wait in place. I heard hooves going back and forth for a moment above until the unicorn showed his face and- wait, that’s not a unicorn…

His horn was thick and moved similar to the end of a branch, with a red stripe across it, his mane was also growing around his chest and neck, his tail wasn’t just hair, it was long and slim which ended in a small patch of matching purple hair, and finally, it seemed like he had scales on his back.

“Yes yes, what? What is it Pony? Is there a way I can help or are you just visiting randomly and looking around? I don’t have time to host guests, unfortunately.” he tapped his hoof impatiently for an answer, and I was just staring at this odd creature.

“W...what are you even??” was all I could force out.

“A pony, obviously.” wait, what? He most definitely was not a pony, and I was trying to think of the nicest way to say ‘no you’re not’ when he smiled and chuckled. “No? Okay, bad joke I apologize, I’m a Kirin.” he said it as if that would answer everything, Kirin look so cool if this is what they all look like.

“Alright..? I do have one thing I need to ask…” I described the pony in ghostly armor again, and he leaned backward almost as if to think of how to say something.

“Pony in ‘ghost’ armor, eh? I wouldn’t have called it that, I was thinking she looked dressed in ice, why, what about her?”

She… she was here? I’m on her trail!? How in the goddess’s name… my heartfelt like it had crashed, I didn’t think I’d get on her trail this quick, I don’t think I’m ready. I can see her uncaring face already, I-

“Yooou-whoooo, ponygirl? Are you okay? You’re looking all panicked, you remember how to breathe right?”

“Y-yeah I… sorry.” I took in a deep breath to try and calm myself and my racing heart, this Kirin thing staying idle in front of me, and it helped me calm down.

“Right, bad question, I see I see. Yes, we did, she was happy about some job she did and so she was a tad rowdy while she was here, before leaving towards Crystal City in the west, anything else lady?”

Crystal City? I’ve never heard of that place, I knew of the ‘near’ location, perhaps it was simply far away? So far north and in the mountains, it’s understandable that they’d be so far separated from each other. I couldn’t help but picture buildings made out of strangely bright, multi-colored crystals where everything was shining, how silly!

It was here when I finally got around to asking about why I was sent to him, and as soon as I said I was a doctor, his eyes lit up in joy, almost literally it felt.

“Oh perfect! You’re here for the job... You’ll have to do, the only doctor here refuses to go anywhere… I can tell you don’t have much on you, so all the supplies I give you for the job you can keep, for a fraction of your pay. You’ll be joining a small group in a small hunt, okay? That’s all, keep them safe. You can meet them to the north of town, where you’ll be going to a few abandoned factories nearby, they’re in utter ruins, so nothing can hide well, okay? Just a quick hunt against those who want to harm us.”

“I’ve done this kind of thing once, actually! I follow, sir.” All I had to do was make sure no one died from the animal or animals they needed to hunt? Seems like an easy job to do. “Of course I can do that!”

“Wonderful, you go over to them when you’re ready and they’ll hand off the supplies to you, come back as soon as you’re done, thanks pony!”

A bunch of trained hunters and a doctor? This would be fine.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

I HATE my big mouth! This is anything but fine! These aren’t animals, they’re raiders! PONIES shooting at us! Why wasn’t I warned about this?!

Part of the tree I was hiding behind erupted into splinters, reminding me how thin all our cover was… I assumed. I could only see two of them, that meant our Griffin and Miss Sizzle were unaccounted for. My shotgun was useless here, they were elevated, covered, and had range, leaving me with just this old looking .45

“HEY SPOT! Figure out how many yet!?” ‘Blast’ as he called himself yelled, shoving his third… Magazine? Clip? Into his rifle which was in the air floating beside him.

“Seven! Six up top and one somewhere our level, two of ‘em not looking this way!” a faded gray earth pony, who looked like they could hide in soot yelled. An explosion of dust struck where she was moments ago, pelting her and her damaged battle saddle with grime.

More shots hitting wood ringed out, and Blast jerked around the tree and took three quick shots before getting back behind the tree, and I could see his tail get torn apart by bullets.

“Did I get one?!”

‘Spot’ (I swear those weren’t their real names) looked over for a brief moment and she cried out in pain, and yanked back behind cover, crimson sprouting from her upper arm.

“N-No idea! I’ve been hit..!” She had been shot, which meant I needed to get to her through a hail of bullets.

“Hey, lass! It don’t look too bad from here, don’t worry about it for now!”

“But she was shot!”

“It ain’t gonna be worth it, Gah why’d we get somepony new to this!? Just wait for them to stop shooting and DO NOT HESITATE! Pop out and shoot, blindly if you have to! Be unpredictable! Need all the firepower we can to blow em back!” he pushed his head back around the corner and fired twice before ducking back behind it, as a voice in the distance screamed. We had to beat them before we could leave… wait, blow them back?

“Hey Blast! C-can this help?!” I screamed while pulling out the two sticks of dynamite I had with me, and Blast’s eyes went wide and jumped slightly in a contained cheer.

“You damned idiot! Of course they will, now toss ‘em to the wall, it’s crumbling already!”

“I don’t know If I can throw it that f-”

“Don’t then! Just hold it in your magic and push ‘em in that direction! Keep moving them so they can’t shoot ‘em out of the air!” I had no rebuttal to that, I had to push these explosives towards ponies? The idea of what happened to the dog I blew up happening to a pony made me feel sick, twice as much as when I lit the sticks. I couldn’t do anything else but thrust the sticks into the air blindly, forcing them to weave wildly in the air. The sounds of bullets hitting our cover stopped, and I heard somepony scream out to... Do something, he didn’t get to say it before the explosions went off and I felt my magic grasp fade, with the sound of metal creaking and crashing. Both Blast and Spot suddenly pushed out from their spots and advanced, while blast started to fire, and only began to follow them after I realized what they were doing.

The ‘factory’ was incredibly small, and now was missing the front part of it. Most of the second floor was laying on the first floor, with dazed and wounded ponies on top of it, out in the open and being filled with lead. Blast didn’t hesitate to shoot them, I didn’t raise my pistol because it seemed like he had it, and within seconds all six of them were down, bleeding, dying.

That’s when the seventh raider crawled into view, behind Spot with a knife in her muzzle, she didn’t see me and was in the open. She was still trying, even though her friends were dead?

“Spot! Behind!” was what I yelled out, while magically yanked on the knife in their muzzle, and surprisingly was able to yank it out. I figured without a weapon she would surrender, but instead the raider dove onto Spot as she spun, biting into her neck!

Spot cried out and shoved herself against one of the trees, yet the pony held on. Blast raised his rifle towards them, but she had Spot as a shield. He began to move in an arc to try and get a shot off, but the raider would shift and drag spot to keep her as a shield, leaving herself open to me as if they thought I didn’t have a weapon while keeping her teeth in. She was slower than the ‘bloatsprites’ from before, an easy shot. I raised my pistol just like against those bugs and aimed, I didn’t have to move so aiming felt easier, but having a pony in its sights felt different.

I pulled the trigger and watched a spot on her back burst into red, she let out a pained cry and fell over. I thought we were done with her, no need to hurt her further, yet Blast went above her and pulled the trigger, and killed the raider with a single bullet. I must have gasped because he looked at me, and his horn began to glow, yanking me forward beside her while he continued to the building.

Fine, fine, he’s right. Spot needs to be checked, her throat was bleeding enough to get me to worry, yet a quick look over showed nothing vital was hit, just the muscles on the side of her neck, it’ll be strainful to turn her head for a while. I had to do a quick job, only wrapping it with one of the magic bandages, and having her drink half of one of my few health potions.

By the time I was done with her, the firing stopped. I looked at Spot who just nodded, so I assumed we’re done here and began to search for Blast, Sizzle, and... The griffin whose name I couldn’t remember. To my surprise, they were completely fine, and looting bodies on the other side of the building while listening to Blast complain about me.

“...Gone dropped a wee child in our care who doesn’t even know the essentials. What was that oak-horn thinkin’ with that? She don’t shoot to kill, hesitated, and let one of these scum-breathing good for nothings touch Keena… You know she had dynamite? She didn’t tell us and brought em out and fucking asked. And even then..” he just continued for a good while and had Sizzle noticed me and said nothing. It hurt hearing him talk, not because his words were mean, but they were true. He went from my armor choice and wearing it in public, to my weapons being inadequate. He didn’t stop until he saw me, to which he just said “well, did you at least do your job?”

“Yes and… You’re right, I’m sorry.” my voice wanted to show emotion, but I was trying to force myself to sound not as hurt. I had to learn, didn’t I? “I didn’t think it was going to be like this, but that’s still my fault. I could have gotten somepony killed, couldn’t I?” Blast’s cold gaze stayed still, and he walked up to me and responded with blunt anger, his hoof to my jaw which knocked me down.

“Of course! Do you have brahmin shit for brains? Because of your failure, Spot was hurt worse than she already was! When you’re in a team, you have to trust them, and I shouldn’t have put my trust in you, and your kind words are useless out here! You need to grow a spine before you get a pony killed, and learn to take life out here seriously!” he finished in a growl, and stomped away. Sizzle and the griffin began to follow him, but the griffin stopped beside me.

“You feel that pain? Remember it and learn.” was all he said before walking past, leaving me alone to think about what I’ve failed to do. I failed to keep a pony safe, and she could have died. My feelings were swelling up, I don’t normally keep emotions down, but now that I was alone I couldn’t help but let myself cry. They felt like fresh wounds that slowly cut around my heart, I hardly knew them yet they trusted me… I didn’t take this seriously and believed this was going to be easy caps, and I thought wrong.

I couldn’t let myself just sit there, so I crawled into the nearest somewhat intact room: a dirty bathroom. I didn’t pay attention to the time, but nopony came looking for me and I didn’t blame them. I let my sorrow and anger out on myself, telling me to do better next time, and that I can’t afford to do that again.

My emotions got back under control not after long, and I found myself staring at one of those bright yellow, pink butterfly medical boxes you find in just about any bathroom. I couldn’t help but wonder if anything was inside and… Nothing, been emptied long ago. Though I noticed something strange about it, strangely it was in… rather great condition, besides the faded yellow. I could even tell the pink butterfly on it was a butterfly, which I was used to being so faded the pink was gone.

An idea came to me, in order to do better and have others trust me I’d need to be quick, but I’m a doctor first. I should have quick access to what I’d need to keep someone alive, not just keep it in the same bag as the other things I carry. If I needed to change, this would be the first thing I do.

It was hardly attached to the wall and came off with ease. I didn’t have the right things to turn it into a makeshift saddlebag at the moment, so I strapped it to the underside of my other bag. I was crying just moments ago, and now I'm smiling like an idiot. Although I’ll have to do something about that awful coloring, it stands out way too much, especially on me. I’ll need to paint it, why did the Ministry of Peace have to have it colored after her?

Calmed down and focused, I left the breaking room to make my lonesome way back towards the road, yet to my surprise, there were ponies (and a griffin) waiting for me, and blast gave me another hard look.

“You look surprisingly happy… Good, c’mon Doc, we’re done here and tired.” it was completely different from what I was expecting, no laying into or anything, nor did they leave me. The group started to walk ahead and I followed, thinking about which question to ask first. “No, we wouldn’t leave you here. That’s dangerous and you’re still with us, rule two; No pony left behind!” he’s done a complete shift from how he was just treating me, why was that?

“Why are you being so nice to me when you just… said all that? I don’t get it, you even hit me!” his response was a softer blow to my arm, one that might bruise but otherwise harmless.

“Yep, I did. Great memory there runt, so no excuses if you forget what you learned today, I’ll punch ya to Canterlot if you ever do, ya hear!?'' What in the world were these mixed messages? I was lost with him already! “Good! Now let’s get back and get some fucking rest, that was awful.” Spot or Keena, I guessed, gave a silent, yet exaggerated nod as Sizzle (Did she have a fake name too? What about Blast??) let out a smaller cheer when the pale griffin finally spoke in a raspyish voice and I realized this was the first time he spoke.

“Can you make something with meat this time for me Siz, please?”

“Aww I just can’t stand the smell, it makes me gag. Don’t blame me if I hurl over that nasty stuff Whisp!” wait a moment, Whisp, like Whisper? Did… Did they call themselves these nicknames based on what they do? I can’t tell if that’s strangely sweet or just stupid!

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

The Not-Pony was counting out caps behind his desk with a grimace, regretful look. The band of mercenaries had already left with their money, another job from the mayor, and offered to let me rest with them in their lodging, and I was thinking of taking them up when the Not-Pony asked to talk to me, so there I was, waiting for him to say his part. I’ve been waiting for five minutes by the time he started to speak.

“So… from what Blast said, I take it you’re not a battle medic…?”

“Wha..what? No! Of course not, I’m just a doctor that helped my home clear out bad animals! Why would you think I’m a trained fighter?” He sighed and hung his head on his desk, hoofs on his temples.

“Gah..that… Fucking idiot of a barkeeper!” he screamed, and his whole body changed to an almost black color, as flames grew where his hair was. I let out a sharp cry and reached into my bag, grabbing the last of my water and dumping it on him. Steam filled the room, and he stared at me with a strangely annoyed look. “I’m fine... I’m fine. Just mad. I light on fire when I’m mad. Don’t make a kirin mad, okay? Give me a second, just let me breathe.” I just nodded and didn’t say anything, he leaned away from anything flammable and let himself calm down, even changing back to his normal colors.

“You... You good now..? No more fire?”

“No more fire, sorry, sorry… The barkeep who sent you over here, Hightop? I asked her to send me fighters… I’m so sorry about this, I didn’t mean to send you in harm's way. I’m giving you extra caps for that, keep the medicine as I said before, and I’ll try to help you with anything else you need, alright?”

“Thank you uhm, Starfury was it? That’ll be great! I can maybe even get some non...threatening armor. Frankly, I don’t know how I’ll sleep tonight after all this and… do you by chance have anything I can use for recoloring something? It’s nothing special, It’s just something I want to do for myself.”

“I can definitely look around and ask to see if somepony might have paint or something… But, if you’re still hurting for caps and don’t plan on sleeping anytime soon, I do have a much less dangerous job I haven’t been able to give to anypony, and you’re a doctor, you know how to treat radiation in some way, better than any of us here besides our own lazy one… It’s an investigation, Ponies think that our water supply might have some sort of radiation leaking into it, some are starting to get sick. We pull mostly from a well, it has an old water system that we’re blessed to have work, just go into our sewers and see if you can find the problem.”

Definitely sounded easier, no getting shot at sounded great too. He was assuming I’d take it, he was right, I accepted. I’m smart, I’m a unicorn so I can pull a leak or whatever out of the water, and I’ve treated minor rad poisoning before. Oh, don’t get ahead of yourself Dreamrush, learn! I started to repeat that to myself to take this as its own mission, don’t compare it to other slightly similar situations, and don’t make the same mistakes I’ve already made. I was confident and fully expected this to go south somehow.

I left the mayor’s office and headed towards the well, and apparently, all I needed to do was just climb in, it had stairs and everything! I descended into the rank darkness, with only my horn to light the way, it wasn’t much but it was what I had to- oh, an idea! I pulled out the empty bottle in my possession and held it out in front of me, acting like a forward light… It wasn’t perfect, but it would do.

The smell wasn’t as bad as I expected, I was thinking it’d be like some pre-war sewage system but honestly, it reminded me of the caves near Our Town, except it was filled with water in the middle. I didn’t feel comfy walking without a weapon out, so I had my Kukri out beside my head.

This wasn’t any grand adventure or anything, and these large rats were the only thing to jump out at me. Holding those rats still with what I was already holding was tiring, but not straining. I was starting to feel like an exterminator as I killed more and more of these rats, which were thankfully much easier for me to kill than ponies with relatable faces, or even feral dogs, these things were ugly… Oh, maybe they were the issue and there was a nest? I could see that being an issue if left alone long enough.

I jumped over a small gap between the side paths that had long broken off where a door was waiting for me. I gave it a shove and it didn’t budge, and I had no lock picks to even try to open it… So I kicked it, stupid door.

The further I traveled, the more I stumbled across these cursed doors, taunting me for having nothing to pick at their loot-protecting locks, each one whispering the wonderful food and water and hints that may be behind it.

I was getting tired and my legs were hurting, that’s not a good sign, I’ve only been at this for like an hour or two, how out of shape am I? I had to sit down, the old walkway was cool to the touch and not comfy, but it worked. A break was what I needed, a moment of reprise to refuel, and- I forgot to buy food. Oh, dear goddesses in the sky Dreamrush what am I doing?! Great, I can’t stay down here that long now. I should probably even head back now before I go too far in, I couldn’t help but sigh at my stupidity and I let my legs slip into the water as I yelled at myself, and stopped. The water felt odd and gross, but it looked normal... I yanked my hoofs out as quickly as I could, it had to be radiated, right? That didn’t feel normal, not at all. But if I could feel it, it had to be strong, so I had to be close right? But then I could feel something else, rumbling over my body.

Crrkkrit...crrkkit..

My ears flattened, the strong sound trying to push me over. Whatever that was, was either close or huge… I mean it must be large, but if it’s not close then it must be gigantic. With a groan I rose, I was pretty sure I wasn’t suffering from any radiation poisoning at this time, but I’m going to avoid the water if I can. I approached the next corner and peeked around it, to another empty hall.

Crrrkkrit…

It’s coming from this direction, where the water is flowing from. I found myself getting closer to the ground as I crept forward, stealth was never my specialty obviously, but if I’m dealing with an animal, it’ll be easier to hide from it...unless it had a good nose.

I got to the next corner and looked around the next one, and finally saw something that might be what I’m looking for: A green cloud spread over the next area, it looks dense but unmoving, like a fog wall. It wouldn’t take much to just trot up and wave my hoof through the foggy area, and as it seemed to roll away, more seemed to replace it.

Getting closer made my back tingle, yet the air felt fine even when I got within arms reach. I slowly gathered breath and blew into it, and disrupted the smooth wall, flowing it back into the deep mist.

Crrrkkrit… Rbbbrt..

The mist pushed forward in response to the sound and pushed it into my face. Radiation coated me, causing me to scramble away and gag. It felt awful, and where it touched made my body feel off. I was looking fine, but that was intense…then the smell hit me, and tears swelled in my eyes, taking everything within me to not drink the water to get the awful taste and smell down... I looked back to the fog wall while wiping my eyes clear and thought I saw something moving, and heard something that sounded like a whip shooting out, and now I definitely saw something shooting out at me! I rolled into the water and felt a crash into the ground where I was, and saw a fleshy tube-like thing punch where I was, before reeling away into the radiation. Whatever it was was large, it had to be twice my size at least.

Plan, I need a plan to kill it, and the only thing I can think of is to just shoot into the mist blindly and hope for the best - but that feels stupid, I shouldn’t rely on that, what if-

A blast of green, ethereal gas burst out of the radiation wall and enveloped me, and I could feel that sickening feeling from the water again, tenfold. I cried out from the sheer shock and turned back around. It could shoot that radiation gas?! It just had to be the source!

Stumbling back around the corner into clear air, with what felt like twelve meals ready to shoot up my throat, I stumbled forward with a hazy vision. That… That radiation had to kill quickly, how could something survive in that? It can fire it blindly too, how big did it have to be… wait, big?

The world’s simplest plan struck me, why didn’t I think of that sooner? I brought the Kukri floating around me down to directly behind, and pointed it where the beast should be walking out of as I started to gag, the stench from the mist that I was in reaching me again… it was awful, worse than before... Radiation and smell, this is the worst..! It was hard to focus ahead, and with what I felt was enough distance turned and waited for anything moving in the fog.

It was a predator stalking what it thought to be something meek and defenseless, and it’s seemingly sluggish body appeared in the mist. I thrust my kukri forward into the mist, letting my telekinesis tell me when I struck. It sailed true, and I felt it dig deep into something as the monster roared in pain. Bullse-

I was so ecstatic that my plan worked, that I didn’t hear the whip sound or see the long fleshy tube shoot out at me, nor my weapon sticking out of the tip of it, buried deep inside as my own hilt slammed into my head, and I turned weightless. I felt no pain for a fleeting moment, and realized I was looking at rushing water pass me… no, wait. I was rushing past the water for a good four seconds before splashing into the canal and started to feel pain on the side of my head.

Coughing and gasping as I began to taste something metal, I slowly sat up in the water and saw a somewhat white tooth float past me, it’s roots red. What just happened..? Looking around felt like a mistake, and caused my vision to blur. I could only see vague colors and shapes, such as a green wall, and black walls to both uneven sides. That thing was still in there, and it had my knife in it. Standing only hurt my head, my legs felt fine but caused vision to shake again. I needed to fix this, so I began to open up my medical box.

The whip sound echoed through the tunnel again before I could pull anything out, the whip means the flesh. I Shoved myself to the side and felt my body crash against the cold stone as a rumble echoed out, the source inches from me. As long as I move when the crack happens, I should be… Cccrack!

Another one echoed out, and I ended up slamming myself to the wall as a second fleshy tube hit where I was again, it has multiple!? I can’t rest now, who knows how many it has. I forced out the first health potion I could, causing several clinks and clatters on the floor around me and uncorked it, beginning my retreat. I don’t care what I just dropped, I had to move, NOW!

I had forgotten the taste of a healing potion, it feels like it’s been just about forever since I last had to have one while conscious, I made sure to not drink it all at once, drinking it all is more wasteful than not, and my vision instantly started to come back. I had put more distance between me and it than I thought, it was out of the radiation.

It was what I had always imagined a toad to look like, but large, mutated, and a strangely smooth yellow body. Multiple eyes that had a look of hunger, with its tongue sticking out to its side slightly, the hilt of my blade sticking out of it, buried deep into the flesh. That was a tongue it was attacking me with, so it must have more than one too, it’s very breath was leaking radiation as if it was a balloon full of it.

Rbbbrt..

It’s tongue cracked through the air again and launched at me, blade hilt pointed at me once again. Instead of moving to the side, I made my horn glow and grab the blade, and yanked it to the side. It was enough to force it off course and slam beside me, and as quickly as I could, I yanked my sawed-off out and started pulling the trigger as much as I could to the tongue. I assumed it would saw through it and detach it, but no. While it looked shredded it was still very well connected after the two shots.

CRROAAAAK!!!

The cry was ear piercing and it took everything to not grab onto my ears as rubble dripped onto the creature from above, I had to focus. I’m not used to reloading this sawed-off yet, luckily the giant frog seemed distracted. Unfortunately, my weapon couldn’t even blast through its tongue of all things, a frontal attack wouldn’t work.

Wait, rubble? That makes sense, these tunnels must be old and out of maintenance. I aimed the barrel up towards the ceiling and unloaded as the frog calmed down and aimed back towards me, it’s cheeks beginning to puff up as it inhaled… as the ceiling broke down on top of it, radiation shooting out from the bloated frog as it was buried. I made sure to back up in case it caused a chain reaction and grabbed back onto what I dropped and pulled it back… Putting it all away beside my one Radaway, I needed this for sure.

Bright, orange, and tasted nasty, blugh… I don’t think I could ever get used to that. I gagged the last of it down and stared back down to the destroyed tunnel in front of me, the frog was mostly covered in rubble, thankfully it didn’t cause a cave-in and more importantly, killed the toad thing. I couldn’t help but lean back and fall over and stare, coming to the realization that there was no way to clear out the radiation, there was nothing else to do in here. I wasn’t feeling like exploring all the locked doors or to see if it lead to any place, so after I let myself rest and began to check over myself. I was only showing minor signs of radiation poisoning, which were quickly fading. Radiation was nasty, that all felt awful and was only the start of it, radiation is terrifying.

Well, my job here was done, so I got up and began my way back through the dank tunnels, I felt tired and had a headache but I couldn’t feel better. I did this right, sure maybe I could have handled it better, but there were no giant errors, I did a job right!

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Sleep evaded me in the room I bought, and I was just proud of myself if I’m honest with myself. Instead, I ended up thinking about three rules for me to follow: Rule 1) Ask Why. Everything out here happens for a reason and knowing why may help. Rule 2) Observe. Keep an eye open and be observant. Rule 3) Help and believe. If I’m traveling with somepony, or even working with somepony, I need to protect them and believe they’ll do their part. Yet at the same time… I know I shouldn’t blindly trust everypony, there was going to need to be an exception or two to that rule…

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

The Orange pony travels around, each building they come out brighter.

Given a gift by fire, the light fades and they join the crowd.

Pretty lights shine, and engulfed by a dark light.

The dark light swims to Orange, filling it’s head.

A lock shatters, and Orange vanishes.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Not quite sure when it happened, but my body succumbed and I had fallen asleep, just to wake up what must have been hours later, and looking outside made me think it must be midday, always hard to tell without a clock. My dream this time was a bit different than what I was used to, and while the vanishing part of it had me a little worried, nothing violent happened, so I think I’ll be fine. Regardless of the dream, I wanted to go through the town. I decided to keep the armor I had been using off and walk around the town with just my little vest and-

Well don’t I feel stupid, I forgot that the vest had a holster. It was small and would be a great fit for my pistol, where I could keep it close. The darn raider armor blocked it, and I never really used it before. I pulled the .45 auto-pistol out and put it right against my chest, and head out. My first stop was directly below me: the tavern I stopped at and talked to Hightop to buy a meal.

“Are you kiddin’ Little Orange? I treated you like my morning shit!” okay gross… “This one meal will be for free, I’ll even find the least expired box of Bronca Cheese I got! Least I could do for ya after my little insult, and I guess because you’re protecting the town, or whatever.” her prideful attitude shone through more than ever, but it gave me a free meal and I was starving… So why would I say no? Though I did need to correct her on something as she got down to look through her stock.

“I’m uh, not going out to attack those raiders again. I’m not a ‘battle medic’, just a traveling doctor, I guess at least.” she would glance up at me, and toss up a green and yellow box in front of me with a hint of a glare on her eyes.

“Then the lass who did protect our town once, or whatever! T-that part doesn’t matter, alright? Just forget about that bit!” she snorted out the last bit, and I couldn’t help but wonder if she only cared about my view of her.. And I realized that she wasn’t even cooking anything for me, just gave me an old box with food for me to eat out of, no effort behind it at all.

“Well… thank you, I’ll probably come back in a little bit after I get paid for the trip ahead. Though I won’t have that many bits and I’m just learning out here… Can we make a deal?” her body language instantly changed, and I swear I saw a glint in her eye, just like I swear I saw a puff of dust come out of the box I was opening, I hooked her. Now, this was familiar territory; haggling. Selling medical supplies to traveling ponies was interesting enough, and I found myself trying to get out with the better deal, and now I was on the other side. “I just want a bit of a discount, nothing special just something you’d give to the ponies- and uh, kirin, that live here. And I’ll brag about the amazing pony who helped me in my time of need, giving me food and the needs to begin to survive out of the kindness of her heart, and her amazing deals, best out here in the mountains.”

“Oh.. Hmm~” she began to sway back and forth on her hoofs in contemplation, I could have just waited, but I decided to speed her up with a yawn, make her panic and think I was about to drop this deal for her. “Well, I might as well give ya that discount for helping our hindquarters! So why not? I’ll give ya the discount, have I ever mentioned my cooking? I got some great eggs and even some fresh mutfruit..”

I honestly was expecting to walk out with just over half my bits, but the food wasn't as expensive as I was expecting it to be. I bought purely the things that would stay good for my times out here, and a few pounds of it too, no way was I going to starve out here. I also may have splurged a bit, buying this casserole thing she made, it didn’t even taste that good but the warmth that I felt while eating it just felt so relaxing and rewarding.

Next stop was for supplies, and I instantly traded out that raider armor for some nice leather bindings that with that trade, was next to nothing in caps. I felt more exposed I’ll admit, it was not as protective as the bigger, clunkier armor I just had, but there was no way I would wear that anymore. Luckily for me the pony running the generals store also had ammunition for my pistol, I didn’t feel lacking in it quite yet, but almost doubling my ammo felt nice, really nice.

Second to last was the medic that I heard about her not wanting to go out of the town or help those silly mercenaries attack the crazed raiders, she seemed inexperienced honestly, and I traded a few of my ‘super-secret’ methods for a few healing potions… how hard is it to understand to not drink a whole healing potion at once?! Unluckily for me, she refused to budge on anything else and I had to pay more than I wanted to for Magic bandages, Painkillers, Rad-aways, and Radsafes. Overall though, I spent less than I had expected too, I still had over fifty bits, and with payment coming up, I hit the jackpot!

Finally, to Starfury, I returned to give him a recap of my hopping adventure. His brow raised like the mountains the more I told, and by the end, his head had lowered far to match his lackluster emotions.

“Ohh great… Thought it’d be something simple but no, it never is… Again, girl, I’m sorry to hear it went worse than expected. Glad you’re alright though, and hey! You went and killed a Buforad for us, and it was contained in a small space, good for you!” curiosity struck me, and I turned my head and asked a question I’d regret.

“Wait, why does the small space matter in this?”

“Oh simple, if you were outside you’d be dead. They use their strong legs to their advantage to keep ponies from running away and out of their radiation if they can’t just snatch them outright with their sticky tongues.”

“Sticky… tongues?” but… but one hit me, and it felt solid and… metallic... My knife was in it, did… did my knife hit me and not the tongue and...

I almost died.

“Yeppers, but good job! You went and killed it for us, so I’ll even throw in a bonus for you, extra hundred caps for saving me some hard work, and clearing out the source of the radiation, and even a ticket to the show tonight!” I hardly heard him, my excitement almost killed me. Don’t celebrate early, don’t celebrate early, don’t celebrate…

“Hellloooooo?” Starfury was in my face, waving his hoofs. “You’re doing it again, staring off into nothing. I got your payment right here Orange, go on take it, enjoy the show tonight.”

“Show? What?” his sigh to my accidentally ignoring him was loud and over the top, as he held up a ticket that he had set on the bag of bits in front of me.

“A traveling show pony showed up last night asking for a place to perform, it’s a rarity to see ponies selling entertainment, that I can’t say no. The town just loves them too much, even if it’s awful. I was able to get a few for free, so why not take one and relax? It’s not every day you’ll get one.” he returned it to my newfound loot pile, all smiles.

Showponies, I’ve heard of them before but none ever came to Our Town. I couldn’t help but wonder why they’d come up here and not my dinky little town. Looking over the ticket revealed that one side was painted, and the other side was a pre-war newspaper. The pretty side showed a poorly drawn gray unicorn in a cape, in a simple over the top pose with childlike stars drawn around him, with ‘valid 4 when son is goin away’ written on the other side, and it looked amazing!

I gathered up my newfound bits and started to head out, but Starfury groan and whistled out.

“Hey hey! Didn’t you hear? I got ya that paint you were looking for, it’s a dark blue color that almost matches that blue in your mane, right there, on the table.” well, guess I missed two helpful things from him, still need to work on that I see. I grabbed onto the rather small tube in my magic and stuffed it away as I walked out to try and find a way to spend my time till it became dusk. I went to an area where most ponies here didn’t seem to inhabit: the area where the majority of the odd path things were in the ground and looked inside some of the buildings here.

Now when I say there was a lot of terminals in these buildings, I mean I’ve tripled the number of terminals I’ve seen in my life in these next few hours with absolutely no valuable information in the ones I could get into, I understood the basics of breaking into these, but anything that would be hard left me confused. Most of these had information about these special days it held, strangely often, such as this strange event called “Trader Exchange”. Was the old world so privileged they didn’t have to trade constantly? How unfair.

One file of interest I found was about the first time the Goddess Twilight Sparkle was in charge, and almost had to sell one of the future ministry mares as a slave, maybe the old world wasn’t as good as I thought.

There were too many files in too many computers to be able to go through it all, and it was soon time for the show. I wasn’t sure what to expect to happen, except maybe a singer? Songs were just about the only thing I could think that a creature could make a job out of something like this, but the ticket didn’t show anything musical like.

The crowd was gathering in front of the tavern, slowly filling in one at a time. It seemed like they were using the larger room outside of the main room for this show, I ended up letting most the crowd go in before I followed suit, being one of the last ones inside. They even had a kind of strong-looking unicorn sitting beside the door, with a bunch of torn tickets sitting beside him. Well, that’s an easy job to do, how much does one get paid for that? Just like all the others before me, he closed the door in front of me until I handed him the makeshift ticket, and went inside.

Besides the seats built inside, they brought in makeshift things such as buckets and barrels for ponies to sit on, but luckily for me, there was a higher than the other barrels in the back that I took, sitting in the darkness of the room, seemingly far away from the ‘stage’ being used. There was a box in the very back with some sort of curtain over it, and a unicorn black in a coat with scars over his body leaning against it, and he was wearing the cape just like in the ticket, was he the showpony?

Glancing around while I waited for the last of the ponies to get seated, I noticed a few small boxes placed around the floor. They were small and dirty like the wood as if to blend in. I wanted to look at them more, but the unicorn at the front had his horn begin to glow and the room began to dim, except around him.

“Glad evening’s ponies and kirin, I am the one and only Grand Gladioso!” he boasted, standing up on two hooves. Around him the air shimmered, and a glowing mist faded in around him, spelling ‘Gladiso’ above him, the origin from one of those boxes in the room. He was trying at the very least. “Now some of you may not be aware of my legends..” his misty name began to swirl around him as he spoke, taking a different form above him. “Exterminator of Bloodwings, feller of a pack of putrid Ophiotaurus, and a slayer to even an Alicorn!” misty forms of each creature appeared above him, and he spun, a dagger flying through all three and spreading the mist away as if vanquishing them. His tale of greatness was honestly reaching me, I should ask him for tips!

“But none of these is my biggest achievement, you see. Many years ago, as a much more grand, Grand Gladioso found a beast so foul, so vicious, it threatened the whole world! Not only did I defeat it, but I also tamed it!” Wait... what did he just say? “Look and behold the mighty, evil, yet safe Pony of Shadows!” his horn flared, and the curtain over the towering box was yanked away and revealing a cage, with a dark mist in the form of a pony inside with only its angry eyes visible. The beast inside began to growl and move, as the darkness inside began to move wildly. The crowd, especially myself, let out a surprised gasp, and a few of us even backed up.

“Gah, calm yourself beast! I command it!” yelled the mighty Glandioso, as his horn began to flare… and I noticed something strange, the monsters green eyes closed, no squeezed shut, and revealed it’s red eyelids, with its body shrinking into itself as sparks grew from its neck, and it screamed in a strangely...pony way, to then fall limp to the cage floor. The crowd roared in stomps and cheers, besides for me. I alone was silent, staring in fear, not of the Pony of Shadows, but for.

The Pony of Shadows braced itself, and nopony noticed. They only cheered as the monster inside twitched slightly before the cover was put back over it, and Glad Gladioso continued his routine. I didn’t get to enjoy it, my mind was racing and this time for the better. That monster knew it was going to be shocked, it was sentient that much was clear… so why did It try to attack like that now? This didn’t make sense, none of this was making sense and this wasn’t something I could just let slide, because it seemed like the Pony of Shadows might need help.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

The show ended before I had time to think of a plan to talk to him, I had to do this carefully, the Pony of Shadows could be a true threat after all if I could just talk to him then… then I could figure this out. While the smiling ponies were leaving, I tried to talk to Gladioso after the show was over, but that pony that took my ticket got in front of me.

“Boss don’t do no signings, likes to be left alone after a show, so beat it.” darn, there goes my first plan. He stood ready in front of me, and even pressed a hoof to my shoulder and gave me a bit of a nudge.

“H-hey now… I just wanted to make sure you all got a room! There seem to be a lot of you here after all. And-” the big beefy unicorn, who I started to call Slug in my head due to his slow speech, cut me off.

“Har, we don’t get rooms! The boss roughs it with us, can’t take all his possessions into those places he says. Doubt he’d like to bunk with a wee gal like you!” he laughed the last bit out, and I in a flustered mess just turned and got out of there to prevent any further rude comments.

Once I had calmed down and mentally cursed at that vulgar pony, decided to stalk the tavern and wait to see where they would ‘rough it’. Not even twenty minutes later I saw them packing up, and loading their stuff onto either their brahmin, or its cart, including the large cage. I saw Starfury walk outside with Gladioso and give him a bag of bits, and Hightop came out and gave them what seemed like cooked dishes for the night. Food and bits for entertainment was their price, and he seemed happy with this and began to talk to the guards with him, and began to wander off.

Starfury and Hightop were talking together, and I noticed the spot in front of the tavern had a view of all the streets, perfect. I made my way up to them, more so to blend in and not stand out while I spied on the entertainer.

“Oh, Rushgal! Hello! Did you enjoy the show right? Free thirty bits for you, on the house” Starfury said with curiosity rising in his voice, he was really trying to make it up to me, wasn’t he? I hope I didn’t get found out talking to the Pony of Shadows, I’d hate to make his gift into a bad view in any way.

“Oh, Yes it was amazing, never seen one like it before! So, sparkly. Uh, Where are they going? It’s almost dark and they’re not staying here? Are they leaving?” I felt like I had to lie, I knew they weren’t leaving just yet, but I had to seem like I wasn’t following them. To my surprise, Hightop didn’t let the mayor talk and spoke for him.

“What, psshh naw. Girl, they declined the offer to stay in my lovely rooms in exchange for bits and food instead, the standard price for them is a free night and a meal, it’s a win-win for us all ain’t it?” not the question I wanted to be answered, gah!

“Okay, so where are they going then?” No other questions for you this time, Hightop!

“Go set up a tent somewhere on the outside of town, we suggested the prewar track field for them to use, we never use it and all that’s there are those computers that nopony likes. Nothin’ interesting on em anyways, don’t bother with them.

“Oh now Hightop..” began Starfury, and he began to talk about the town's history on those computers, perfect. I left as their debate sprung into action, good to know all mayors seem to love history as much as Dewdrop did.

The track field wasn’t far away, and as soon as I rounded the tavern I could see them putting down what seemed to be a tent and other things. This was perfect, I knew the path to them and from what I could see, the cage was being put upright against one of the buildings. Now I just need to do one thing before I can go talk to him: wait. Let them tire down and let it get darker. A few hours should do, so I returned to my room at the tavern (while avoiding the two ponies I knew here still talking about history) and bided my time, and drowning in anxiety.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

I forgot to buy bobby pins, gah why was there so much to keep track of? I think I almost woke up the shop pony with how late it was, I felt obligated to pay extra for these things, she seemed annoyed but I think that made it up to her... But now I was ready, set to go and talk to the pony of shadows.

They hadn’t moved, just set up their tents and a campfire with my goal frozen against the building, all but it’s tarp over it flapping silently in the dusty wind. I decided to take the long route around, get to the other side of the abandoned area, and slowly made my way forward. I was debating on crawling there or not and decided against it. Anypony sees me like that and it’d be way too obvious, crouched down I can go fast, and then maybe they won’t think twice at a glance.

Two buildings away, and I was starting to feel cold. I was acting like a thief and sneaking forward as if to steal from them, how a pony could do this and have this feeling of cold and dread, with adrenaline rising like this? I was starting to feel sick as well, and now with the ally between me and the building with the cage I froze, I could feel what felt like that giant frog crawling up my throat. Was it the fact I was acting like a petty thief, or that I was trying to talk to a creature who only wants to bathe the rest of Equestria in darkness? There was so little ‘light’ left in the wasteland, was I just scared? I’ve read those ancient books by the whole of the ministry, you can find those just about anywhere, and within the second book lies the pony of shadows and his tale. Those stories were common, even ponies in stables seemed to take a few copies of the prewar history with them. I always assumed none of them came back, were they all in similar situations, just as slaves?

Slow deep breath in… and out. Don’t overthink it, not this time, just pay attention to the now and go forward. The sight was clear with the guards just sitting next to their larger than needed fire, perfect, I could hear the crackling and popping from here. I gathered myself and walked forward, keeping myself low until I got to the cage and heard a soft whimper. Don’t stop now, don’t think about it, can’t stay in the open, I have to hurry here. I lifted the cool cover and brought myself under it, and was hit with a rancid odor and the exact opposite of what I expected.

A dirty, red unicorn was curled up in the furthest corner from me, shivering enough that I could hear his teeth from here and looked closer to a rabid dog than a pony… he was so far on one side to be close as close to the fire, I couldn’t help but think. Almost the ideal look for a slave, except for one thing: he had some muscles, regardless that his ribs were showing. I couldn’t see his cutie mark from here with how he was curled up. What I saw before me was not a monster, but a plea for help.

“Psst… Hey!” my voice, quiet to me, must have been eardrum-shattering to him due to how he darted his head up in pure shock, his deep green eyes - the same ones from the show, shrinking as he looked at me. “You hardly look the creature from the show… please just- hold on.” I kept repeating it in my head: Don’t stop and think, don’t stop and think. I stayed on my pure emotions, this pony was suffering I now knew for sure, and I wasn’t going to let it stand.

Bobby pin into the lock on the door, and screwdriver to the thin part of the key. It seems Gladioso didn’t seem too worried about security for the Pony of Shadows, this lock was simple. I felt the pin go further, pushing the mechanisms in place and made the lock click, and just like that the lock was off, and the Pony of Shadows was no longer in containment. His green eyes just stared at me in bewilderment, and I saw his body tense up.

“Quiet now… Get out of here, now.” I whispered as I pushed the door open to just a crack. He silently nodded and shakily stood up, revealing to me his body. Red coat with mangled what looked like a pink layer on the bottom, and black on the top mane and tail, a collar around his neck with a gem to his throat, and a cutie mark of two black circles that looked something like ghosts, or maybe just darkness waving? It was hard to tell in the darkness of the cave. I backed up as he slowly walked forward, shaking as much as a drunk mare on the weekend.

He was able to get down without an issue and stared down longingly at the dirt below him as if it were alien. As much as I would love to let him frolic in freedom, the longer he was here the more likely he’d be in danger with this...this slaver. Don’t think, just go right? Now he needed to learn it! I put myself behind him and gave him a gentle shove, swinging my tail into his leg. He seemed to get the idea because he just took off the way I came without looking back.

I did it, I freed somepony who was a slave! Who everypony thought was, or even is the Pony of Shadows. My excitement was short-lived because I let my thoughts in. ‘If everypony thinks he’s evil… won’t they see what you did as bad?’

...Oh, oh fuck I got to get out of here and run. Without a thought in my mind, I turned and began my rather extreme loop around the town towards the entrance, no pony stopped me because every pony was inside. No rude pony twins who laughed at people’s misfortune, no fire ponies, and no show pony slavers yelling at me. I was able to leave the town without looking suspicious, I thought and bolted to the west towards Crystal Town.

What did I just do? I saved a pony and probably ruined my reputation with rainbowless falls in one fell swoop! Did they know it was me? Would they think it odd I left as the Pony of Shadows escaped? Oh no, that was so obvious, they were going to hate me! I didn’t even get to talk to Blast and his group again!

“S...Stop! Please!” croaked a raspy voice, causing me to spin in fear of being caught, yet there was the red and black unicorn, staring at me and panting, slowing down once I turned to him. He paused and stared at me, tapping the ground and shifting his weight, he was looking for words. I didn’t interrupt and waited as the night continued as we stayed frozen. I thought about how flawed my plan was in the meantime, I didn’t have any plans for him once I saved him, just to let him wander the town until he was caught again? No escape plan was made on my end, I guess not thinking was a bad call. It didn’t take long before he finally spoke his single word. “Why..?”

I wasn’t honestly sure how to respond, so I simply shrugged. I didn’t have one specific reason for doing it, and while I was searching for my own words he soon continued.

“I don’t… I don’t get it! Nopony has helped me with that… that stallion. I’ve been the Pony of Shadows for the past ten years and-” it was my turn to cut him off, correcting him on the one wrong thing in his words.

“But you’re not, that’s clear. You can’t be a wild monster, I saw you brace for that horrible shock. I guess that to me it didn’t matter if you were the Pony of Shadows, you were suffering. Once I saw you without that fake mist around you, you were just another pony and… I didn’t think about it, I just helped you.”

“Just..just..?” he was trying to find his words, to say anything, but all that came from him were tears. He might have been free, but there was one issue with my actions that I intended to make right, so I walked over to him and placed my hoof on his shoulder.

“This might sound strange, but… Would you like to come with me? I’d hate to just leave you out here alone, and I would love some company. I got a few extra weapons that we can share, too.” he looked down to me, with my horn reaching up to his forehead. He didn’t say yes, and he didn’t say no.

He hugged me, and let his sobs lessen to just a sniffle. I rested my hoof on his back to let him know it was okay, he has somepony now.

“I don’t... Even know your name..” he croaked out, and realized he might have hurt his throat from the yell before, and then forcing himself to scream for me.

“Dreamrush” I began, as I fetched out some water and held it out for him. “Now drink slowly, doctor’s order, you look malnourished, Mr…?”

“B-Black...Cherry...” he stuttered, eyeing the water as a raider would to a stable full of food and guns… and tied up ponies for them. I made him slowly drink up, letting him recover himself. I may be weak in general and while he looked stronger than me, he had no energy to keep him going.

“Well, Black Cherry… Would it be okay if I called you BC? As a nice little nickname?” he nodded, guzzling down more of my water. ...No, our water. He was my brand new partner, and I was for sure going to make sure he’d be able to stand without me. More importantly, however, was that he was my brand new friend.

“I...I...” he gulped out while drinking the rest of that water. “Y-yes, yes I mean..” his answer made me smile from ear to ear.

While we spent just a few more moments in rest, I could see him clearly. Red coat yes, with a more… The magenta bottom half of his mane, and so dark it was almost black kind of purple on top. Yet I was wrong on his cutie mark, it wasn’t two ghosts or shadows or souls at all, there was a line in the shape of a V connecting the two, and it was a symbol I’ve seen before.

A Black Cherry with a ghostly aura.

Footnote: Level up.

Skills note: Firearms has reached level 25
Medicine has reached level 50

Perk gained: Lil’ Doc (Level 1). For every level of this perk, gain 25% more effectiveness with medical items for you and companions.

Author's Note

WELL, THAT TOOK FOREVER.

Apologies to all, and permission to make fun of the slow author. Shit happened, all better now, won't be as consistent but better.

Oh goddesses, I'm nervous.