Chapter 13 — Echoes

I was sitting in a small room, underneath a desk. The lock on the floor safe was giving me particular trouble. No matter how much I tried, I couldn’t get it open.

I groaned in frustration, and the walls continued my wail. It didn’t seem odd at first. As long as I didn’t pay them any mind, I would be fine. But their screaming persisted, and I found myself unable to ignore it.

They were in incredible pain. It was then I noticed the gunshots echoing throughout the building. To keep my mind off the battle, I redoubled my efforts to open the lock. As I applied more torque, a thin stream of blood trickled out the bottom of the keyhole.

I started backwards, pressing my back against the wall. To my surprise, it felt moist, but not cool. Turning around, I was horrified to find that the walls were now bleeding as well.

Red liquid was pouring out of every little crack in the concrete, making them into thin but deep wounds. Soon, the ground was covered in a shallow pool of blood, soaking my rump and back legs. I screamed, but the walls screamed louder.

I ran out into the corridor, where I only found a sea of crimson, as well as corpses swimming it. Immediately, the putrid smell of death made me recoil. It wasn’t just blood, but also feces and urine that combined into an acrid stench.

I stumbled backwards into the office, and my flank bumped into something tall. Turning around, I ended up staring into Iron Sights’ sharp red eyes. She reassured me with a confident smile, but immediately started coughing. Droplets of blood hit my face as hers contorted in pain.

Then a bullet shot straight through her chest. She fell into the pool of crimson, sinking until she disappeared from sight.

I started sinking as well. Within moments, I found myself gasping for air as waves of blood poured over me.

I woke up, inhaling sharply.

I sat there in panicked silence, my mind racing to grasp the situation. Finally, after a short eternity, sensible thought returned to me.

It’s just a dream, I reassured myself, panting and covered in cold sweat. No, it was this dream again. This was the third night in a row I’d had a nightmare about the factory, though this one was by far the most abstract and even more disturbing.

I sighed, lying back down. Judging by how dry my eyes were and how heavy my eyelids felt, I must not have slept for very long.

And yet, if I closed them, my mind was filled with images of death. Ponies lying in gigantic pools of their own bodily fluids.

Yeah, sleeping was out of the question for now. How did Iron deal with this? I’d merely witnessed it, and I was losing my mind. Not to mention, I’d still get nightmares about my mother’s corpse. Killing a single pony left a permanent mark on me, so I couldn’t imagine what state Iron was in, for her to slaughter a dozen ponies without thinking twice about it.

I couldn’t admit it to her, but I was glad I wasn’t her. Part of me knew she had to have lost some of her equinity along the way, so I wasn’t ashamed to be sensitive. I used to be, but seeing the carnage really put things into perspective. In a way, I’d understood why she felt so bad about spurring me to want to mature. I could never go back to a state where I hadn’t seen this massacre, just like I could never go back to a more worry-free state.

Or perhaps I was just trying to justify having such a weak psyche.

Still, I couldn’t bring myself to judge her, despite my own feelings. She couldn’t help the path life forced her into. With a cutie mark like hers, it was only natural a pony living in the wasteland would end up living a violent life. After all, I might have been a serial burglar, if I’d lived before the war. Or maybe not.

I looked over to her. She lay in her bedroll, muzzle contorted in a scowl and fur glistening with moisture. A single bead of sweat ran down along the scar across her eye.

While we finally got her the meds she needed, they didn’t seem to be working. Her breathing had gotten a lot heavier since our trip to the factory, and her fever had worsened as well. In general, her condition had actually heavily deteriorated. So much so that I couldn’t help but worry about her life.

On top of that, I felt responsible for her state. She’d told me she had doubts about the factory, yet my dumb, overconfident self decided to talk her into it. If she didn’t pull through, I wasn’t sure I could ever forgive myself. Not only had she overexerted herself, but she’d also been forced to drink a healing potion…

While the harsh, rational part of myself argued she herself had ignored her illness for this long and was thus partly to blame, I pushed those cruel thoughts aside.

I stretched out my hoof to touch her forehead, only to find it uncomfortably warm. That couldn’t be good. I levitated the moist cloth we used to keep her fever in check towards me. Sometime during her sleep, it must have fallen off.

Pressing it to my hoof, I noticed it was barely damp anymore. I decided to go to the nearby river to refresh it. It wasn’t anywhere close, but I needed to stretch my legs anyway if I wanted to fall back asleep tonight.

I left through the front entrance, careful not to make any noise opening and closing the door. As I stepped outside, Petal called out to me from the roof. “Lockpick? Where are you going?” I’d taken the first shift, and she had the second one.

“Grabbing fresh water for Iron. That’s mostly just a pretext; I had a nightmare and need to get my mind off it.”

“I see. Do you want me to come with you? It’s dangerous alone.”

“I’m not feeling chatty, and you should keep watch here, shouldn’t you?” I replied.

“That’s fine. I don’t think anything will happen while we’re gone; and I’ll also be keeping you safe by going along.”

“I’ll be fine, really. I have this,” I tapped the weapon attached to the belt around my chest. “Iron showed me how it works, and I’m apparently a decent shot.”

“If you say so. If you’re not back within the hour though, I’m waking up Banter.”

“I understand.”

What were the odds of somepony attacking me at night, after all? Frankly, I was more worried about critters than sentient beings, but they wouldn’t bother me this close to a settlement. Well, in any case, I’m prepared, I thought while trying to remember what exactly she’d told me about the gun…

"Alright now," she said in between laboured breaths. "While you were in town, I've had a look at how this thing operates. The basic design is similar to other CB firearms. Here's the safety." She pointed to a lever at the side. "Not quite standard for an energy weapon, but that's no issue."

She took another moment to calm her breathing, then continued, "The trigger is also quite nice. It's light at first, but gets heavier past the midpoint. It's a nice touch, since they could have just made a button—like some energy weapons manufacturers seemed to love doing." Then, she flipped it around and pointed to another lever. "This seems to be a power selector. I don't exactly know what velocities they correspond to, but hopefully the lowest setting is subsonic, since that would make the weapon near silent.”

“Did you get to try it out yet? It sounds like you haven’t.”

“No, and those are just the superficial things. The most interesting part is that it seems like it should work with any bullet of less than ten millimeters in diameter. At least if I understand how it works. I have a few 10mm rounds that I could dismantle, but I also wanna see if it works with smaller, lighter bullets.”

We went outside, and spent the better part of two hours dismantling some rounds she had on her, and testing them out. The 10mm bullets only broke the sound barrier on the highest setting, while the 7 mm-ish one only broke it on the highest setting. The smallest bullet, which had been extracted from a tiny round that was supposedly used for long rifles—which I found very bizarre—broke it on all three settings.

Iron also did accuracy testing, and was pleased to find that the projectile was given a spin, despite no rifling being present in the barrel; “rifling” apparently meaning spiralling grooves and wasn’t restricted to rifles.

Less than an hour later, I was back at the building we were staying in, a bucket of water levitating behind me. As I opened the door, I silently thanked Celestia for keeping me alive. I didn’t get attacked, but constantly heared noises that made me think I was about to be. Now, I was just glad to still be alive. I very much regretted not having Petal with me.

On my stressful walk, I decided that tomorrow, I would ask for the doctor to see Iron. She’d insisted on not going into town and simply getting the medicine she needed. But given that her condition wasn’t improving in the slightest, it was in her best interest.

I’d need to come up with a good reason for the doctor to go out of town and keep quiet about it. I would also have to apologise to Iron for going behind her back like this. Yawning, I decided those two were both future Lockpick’s problems.

I slightly wrung out the cloth before placing it on Iron’s forehead. Then, I lay back down and quickly fell asleep.

We were walking down Dodge City’s main street, back towards our current stay. The town medic was with us. After asking around for a bit, I found that there were two ponies in town who could give some sort of medical aid. One of them was an elderly earth pony stallion, with an entire lifetime of experience. The other one was a younger unicorn mare called Adrenaline Shot. She worked with him most days, taking in his knowledge, but was actually independent.

We’d picked her over the buck because of Banter’s assessment. He’d talked to both for quite a bit, enough to get a grasp on their values and personalities. The male believed in trade and caps; he would always treat a patient, even if they couldn’t pay him, but insisted they pay back their debt to him in some way. While he wasn’t a bad pony, this made us distrust him for this particular affair.

The mare, however, valued life over everything. She used to be a combat medic in a group of mercenaries, but decided to settle down after realising the ponies she saved would only go on to take many more lives.

I was a bit worried that this last part would make her cross Iron, but Banter convinced me otherwise. She wasn’t the type to let someone die or even cause them harm in any way. She just didn’t want to work in a field where her actions would always cause more hurt in the long term.

Walking alongside us, she was talking to Banter and Petal about Manehattan and Tenpony tower, while I was lost in thought. So much so in fact, that the trip to the outskirts of town felt like it passed by much quicker than usual.

“Oh, you should have mentioned you’re staying at the old sawmill. You see, I live near here,” she said, pointing to one of the houses we would pass on every trip to and from town. From the outside, nothing indicated that it was inhabited.

Actually, on second thought… the building did have an old sign that read ‘Medical Emergencies’, I’d just skipped over it because it looked like a pre-war relic, rather than something a wasteland pony would put up. In hindsight, however, the house looked nothing like those old clinics, so it should have been obvious.

“We saw that, but figured this wasn’t an emergency,” lied Banter. “Do you live out here for that reason? To provide first aid to travellers?”

“Basically. During the day, when I’m in Dodge itself, though, there’s just a few healing potions as well as a radio so they can call me over,” she replied, tapping the portable radio in her medical gown’s pocket. “At night I’m always here, though.”

“Well, you might want to work on the signalling, since I would have missed it if it wasn’t pointed out to me,” I chimed in. “Maybe add some wooden signs? I just passively assumed it wasn’t recent.”

“Good point, thanks,” she admitted.

“Aren’t you worried that somepony might steal the potions you left out?” asked Petal.

“Not really. If they needed it, then it’s good they took it. If they didn’t… Well, that’s an acceptable risk if I want to save lives. The only thing I’m worried about is that somepony who might need it won’t get it, and I do have some measures against it, but there’s little I can do to inconvenience thieves that wouldn’t also inconvenience patients.”

The conversation continued on between the three of them—albeit mostly between Banter and Adrenaline Shot, as Petal remained rather quiet, while I accidentally stopped paying attention. I only realised I had missed out on the rest of the discussion when we actually reached our destination about a minute later. I was even more scatterbrained than usual. Normally, my mind would only occasionally wander, but my sleep had been horrible lately with all those nightmares.

“So, I lied about the reason our friend couldn’t go into town. She’s not weak enough to be unable to walk to your clinic. Or even to town, for that matter,” admitted Banter. “Instead, she owes a fair deal of money to the local loan shark. If she showed herself in town, we would need to find a way to pay back all of the interest, and this simply isn’t an option for us.” He sighed before adding, “We can pay you just fine, of course, but it’s important you don’t tell anypony about her.”

“Normally I’d reluctantly agree to such a demand,” she said, causing my heart to sink. “I’m not fond of treating patients in secret, but I also don’t want to let anypony die. However, I can’t say I’m fond of Itty Bit and her ‘business’ in the slightest, so I’ll gladly help.”

With that, we entered the main room of the sawmill. Iron looked shocked at first, but Banter gave her a reassuring nod, and she calmed down.

Adrenaline Shot, who’d been given a basic description of Iron’s condition, started out by using her stethoscope to listen to Iron’s breathing, then took her temperature. After a while, she asked, “So, how long have you been taking antibiotics?”

“About a week now?” Iron replied weakly.

“Hmm… it makes sense that your breathing isn’t back to normal yet, but your temperature should have gone down already.” She furrowed her brow before continuing, “If I remember correctly, Mister Banter said something about you being sick for a long time before you finally got treatment. How long are we talking? Did you take anything to manage your symptoms?”

“Almost two months. I took an ungodly amount of Buck over that period because I thought it was just a pesky cold.”

“That would explain quite a few things. Buck withdrawal, coupled with recovering from such a sickness, is bound to be unpleasant and leave you in a weakened state. The only thing you can really do right now is rest and wait out the withdrawal. It should start getting better soon.”

“Figured I’d have to deal with it eventually, though I guess it’s reassuring to know it’s just that.”

“Well, you probably lost a few years off your life by pulling that stunt. I won’t pretend like it didn’t save your life right now, but next time, try to rest up before you need dangerous drugs. I’m assuming you didn’t take it recreationally, right?”

“Not at all. I’m an alcoholic, not a druggie,” Iron stated flatly.

Her attempt at humour either went unnoticed or was unsuccessful, as Adrenaline Shot answered, “Well, for the next week or so, you’ll physically feel like you need to take it. It’s just a matter of toughing it out.”

“I know, I know, I’ve been there before.”

“Well, if that’s all, I’ll be going.”

“Hold on, could you look at some of my wounds? They’re mostly closed, but they were treated with healing potions and magical bandages.” She’d explained to me that magical healing only treated your injuries in the quickest, dirtiest way possible, and the wounds they closed could reopen very easily. That was apparently one of those things you usually learned the hard way.

After Adrenaline Shot declared that Iron’s wounds had all healed decently well, the latter paid her the owed caps. Banter offered to help pay, since it was my idea to get the medic all the way out here, but Iron insisted.

I awoke from another nightmare. This time, however, I didn’t start. The dream I’d had was much calmer. It was again about the factory, but was a lot less graphic. To such an extent, in fact, that it didn’t truly feel like a nightmare, just an uncomfortable dream.

It was then that I realised that it wasn’t anything in the dream that had woken me up. Instead, ponies were loudly whispering to each other. Coupled with the sound of movement, I briefly found myself wondering if I’d overslept. That would be good, since it meant that I’d gotten to catch up on my sleep debt.

However, that short moment was interrupted by the realisation that the voices were coming from below me, and that I’d been on the first watch shift…

Oh, sweet fucking Luna, I’d screwed up bad, hadn’t I?

I tried getting up as quickly as I could without alerting the ponies in front of the building, but just getting out of my bedroll proved harder than expected. I’d sat down in it to keep warm, but I must have drifted off to sleep somewhere along the way.

Eventually, I managed to get up and start making my way down the stairs into the sawmill. During the day, I’d argued with Iron about us staying here a while longer. She’d just been told to get rest, and she already wanted to leave. None of us accepted, since we thought we could stay one more day. She did say ponies were bound to start suspecting us, which prompted Banter and Petal to agree to leave in two days. Iron wasn’t happy about it, but she didn’t have a choice but to agree to it. I just wished she hadn’t been right…

By the time I arrived at the bottom of the stairs, the front door burst open, and the intruders pointed a flashlight at me.

“Don’t any of you fucking move,” barked a male voice.

“Wh-what’s going on?” I asked meekly. “Who are you?”

Ignoring me, the stallion shone the flashlight at Banter, then Petal, before finally settling his gaze on Iron. With the light off me, I was able to notice we were held at gunpoint by three ponies, one unicorn stallion and two earth pony mares, one of which was positively massive. The large one was holding a pistol in her muzzle, while the others had shotguns. All three were pointing their weapons at Iron, along with the flashlights taped to them.

Were they bandits? They didn’t seem intent on just stealing our things. Slavers? Maybe, but they only seemed to be looking for Iron.

The chains one of them was carrying certainly seemed to indicate the latter.

“Is this about the debt?” asked Banter, clearly as confused as me.

“Shut up,” was the intruder’s sharp reply. I knew I should be scared, but part of me wasn’t processing this situation. It felt surreal. Like a nightmare, or a very confusing dream.

“We can tell you where our cap stash—”

“I said shut up!” bellowed the stallion. “I know your type. You ponies could talk a cat into barking. This doesn’t involve you, so stay out of it.”

Petal stood up and opened her muzzle to speak, but was promptly silenced by a shotgun being pressed to her forehead. The large mare—who likely didn’t even need a gun to kill somepony—started approaching Iron. The latter slowly attempted standing up, but was so unsteady on her legs that I thought she could collapse at any moment. Can’t you see how weak she is? She’ll die if you move her. I knew that wasn’t entirely true, but she probably would die if they handled her too roughly. Instinctively, I walked in between Iron and the large mare, and stared up at her defiantly. What am I doing? I thought to myself, confused by my own actions. What was I trying to achieve?

With the back of her left hoof, she sent me tumbling across the room and landing underneath a table. It happened so quickly. I was suddenly on the other side. Before long, my mind realised I’d been hit, and the feeling in my body caught up. My head was spinning and pulsing with pain. Meanwhile, my right leg ached horribly from where it had slammed into the table.

“Moonlight, you fucking retard, I swear if you kill the filly, I will break every single bone in your body,” growled the boss in a dangerous tone.

Adrenaline taking over, I racked my brain for something, anything that could help us get out of this situation. I couldn’t just let them take Iron! And even then, I’d made the assumption they only wanted her, but what if we would be considered collateral, and also enslaved? I couldn’t let this end here. I had to do something.

But what? Petal was held at gunpoint, and Banter wouldn’t have time to reach for his gun either. Iron was in no shape to fight, and didn’t seem particularly intent on trying. Thankfully, I was near my saddlebags, and the attackers were paying me no mind, so I could easily grab my own weapon. Using the least amount of magic possible, I retrieved the pistol from my saddlebags and switched it from “safe” to “maximum”. It wasn’t a particularly conscious decision; at the moment, I just lacked the telekinetic precision to set it to a mode of my choosing.

My brain scrambled for a way to distract them, but couldn’t find anything. I mentally shuddered as I realised I only really had one option.

In a single motion, I pushed myself behind the table and used my entire telekinetic strength to tip it over as swiftly as possible. I tried lunging upright, but my left foreleg sent a huge wave of pain crashing through my entire body as I tried to stand on it.

I aimed where I knew Moonlight would be, and pulled the trigger. The bullet broke the sound barrier and produced a loud bang as it pierced the mare’s chest and then the wall behind her. However, the earlier loss of the precious second proved itself terrible; she was already looking in my direction when I fired the shot, and she fired back. I felt the burning agony of a bullet punch through my midsection as I was knocked backwards.

The next few instants felt like an eternity. Multiple gunshots. Shouting I couldn’t understand. A red flash. It all happened so quickly.

Forcing myself to my bearings, I reached into my bag for a healing potion, and downed it. The pain in my head, neck, and stomach subsided a little, but my leg still ached horribly.

I scrambled to move out from behind the table. A few more gunshots rang out, and bodies hit the floor. Then, a horrifying, dreadful silence draped over the room.

As I turned the corner, time seemed to stand still. Petal had her leg wrapped around the neck of the shotgun mare, who was desperately trying to wrestle loose, her eyes starting to roll back. Iron was standing on the headless corpse of the buck, levitating his shotgun next to herself, blood flowing out from her neck. Her side was covered in dozens of deep lacerations and bled profusely. Moonlight was lying on the ground, as headless as her boss.

Finally, my eyes stopped on Banter, who was lying in a giant pool of blood. His entire side was peppered with tiny, yet deep wounds. The most gruesome of them was where they were concentrated. Blood was gushing out of the gaping hole in his back.

The mare finally dropped her shotgun, and Petal let go of her and bolted to the nearest saddlebags, not letting Banter out of her eye. Iron collapsed, clutching her wounds while trying to levitate her saddlebags over, but her magic fizzled out mid-way. I was only snapped out of my paralysis by the sound of Iron’s belongings hitting the ground.

Running over to her, I floated out a potion from my bag. I uncorked it and poured it over her wounds as quickly as I could. I knew I was wasting a lot, but I didn’t have a choice. Having her drink it would cost precious seconds that we did not have. Shaking Iron’s saddlebags, I caught the bottle that fell out before putting it to her lips.

Iron, no longer in as much pain, took a bottle of Buck pills and poured three or four into her mouth. Chewing intensely, she magically lifted a syringe from the floor and jabbed it into her neck.

She forced herself to her legs, and I helped her as well as I could. Still chewing, she moved over to Banter, who had received a similar treatment to herself. Except his eyes were closed.

Petal whimpered, “He’s not breathing…”

“Sweet Celestia, please no…” I begged.

Iron, however, opened his mouth and spit the chewed up Buck into it. “We have to get him to the doctor. He might still live. Help me until my meds kick in.”

“What if there are more of them outside…?” Petal mumbled.

“There aren’t. Or at least none close enough to show up on my EFS,” Iron replied, quickly lifting Banter onto Petal’s back and bolting for the door. The latter followed her out, and so did I.

This little bit of movement had already left Iron panting and even less steady on her hooves. “You should stay here. Get our things ready so we can leave as soon as possible,” I told her as Petal and I trotted ahead. Well, staying here isn’t an option, but what are we going to do about Banter? Future problem for future me, now we had to get him to Adrenaline Shot first.

“What if somepony… attacks… you? My EFS… has limited range… you know,” she responded between ragged breaths, trying to keep up but clearly struggling.

“Just teleport him then!” I shouted.

“I can’t…” she said, but then shook her head. “But I have to.”

Her horn glowed red, and she enveloped Banter in its aura. Moments later, they both disappeared.

Petal and I ran ahead at full gallop, and soon arrived at Adrenaline Shot’s clinic. Luckily, a light was already on. Petal burst through the door first, and when I entered, I saw Iron lying on the ground, while Banter was on the examination table.

Adrenaline Shot was standing in the corner, hurriedly gathering tools. She only noticed us when she turned around to look at her patient. As she moved towards Banter’s limp form, she said, “Take your friend on the ground and leave. Go to Riverbreak, and I’ll make sure to send a letter when I can. It’s east of here.”

“But… we can’t just leave him here!” complained Petal.

“Yes, you can. Get out of here before I change my fucking mind,” snapped Adrenaline Shot, placing a gloved hoof inside of Banter’s wound, which the healing potion hadn’t managed to fully close. “There are more ponies on the way, and you’ll be caught if you stay. Leave.”

Banter might be dead. This thought echoed in my mind, over and over again as I pulled our cart, limping. Given I could still bend my leg normally, I doubted it was broken, but it hurt terribly whenever I put even the slightest amount of weight on it.

It had been a bit over five minutes since we’d left the clinic, and about eighteen since we’d fled the sawmill in a hurry. Iron was still unconscious, carried by Petal. I looked back at Iron, and the foam at the edges of her mouth reminded me to check something.

I levitated Iron’s saddlebags from the cart towards myself. Taking out her bottle of Buck, I counted the pills, getting up to a total of twenty-six. I didn’t want to be too controlling, but I really wanted to help her quit them. She’d said quitting wouldn’t be difficult, but I’d heard similar things from mom…

Anyway, I thought, pushing that train of thought aside and putting Iron’s belongings away. It wasn’t long, however, before the topic of Banter came back into my mind. I knew there was nothing I could do now, and yet my brain couldn’t help but to return to it.

I felt worried and sad, and yet I didn’t feel like crying. Maybe it was due to how badly I needed to keep going. Or maybe I was too busy forcing myself forward, and the full extent of the situation had yet to hit me.

I couldn’t shake the feeling of guilt, though. There were so many things I could have done differently and the outcome would have been so much better. If I hadn’t fallen asleep on my Celestia-damned shift, none of this would have happened. And even then, if I hadn’t forced Iron to come along with me to the factory, she would have been in better shape and wouldn’t have tried to surrender. Finally, if I’d just stayed in my place, we wouldn’t have needed to fight…

But then Iron would be gone, I remembered. Not to mention, Adrenaline Shot’s behaviour was odd. She immediately treated Banter, but told us to leave him there. That, however, wasn’t the strange part. The fact that she seemed perfectly aware of what was going on was really weird. I could understand why she was up; the gunshots would have woken her up, if nothing else. But knowing more ponies would attack us?

Either she was lying to get us to leave, or she knew of the attack… which meant she was in on it. The former would imply that she wanted Banter for something. Maybe to enslave him? But that didn’t make any sense, this wasn’t a slaver town; the ponies here weren’t alright with slavery, except perhaps Itty Bit and her goons.

The alternative, however, was much more logical. She knew of the attack because she was the one to tell that loan shark about Iron. But why was she helping us escape, then? Especially since she specifically told us to take her with us…?

Well, maybe her conscience caught up with her at the last moment? She did say she wanted to avoid bloodshed, so maybe that was part of it? She didn’t want an innocent to die because of some greedy mare? Or maybe she owed the mare something, and just telling her about Iron once was enough to settle her debt?

There were so many unknowns and so few answers. My mind continued to spin around in circles for several more minutes, trying to figure out what in Equestria had happened, when I heard Iron’s voice from behind me. “Thanks, I think I can walk…” she said weakly.

I stopped for a moment in order to let Iron get on the ground. Petal then told me, “You should let me pull the wagon now, we’ll move much faster.”

I was about to protest when I realised that I wouldn’t win that argument. My bullet wound still ached, despite the fact that externally it had looked like it had fully closed, and I was already starting to get very exhausted, despite our moderate pace. It didn’t help that for the past two or so minutes, the road had a noticeable incline. Petal and I had decided she would carry Iron as well as some of our saddlebags instead of placing them on the cart. I didn’t have the strength to carry Iron, and Petal couldn’t pull the cart with Iron on it.

Both of them trotted up to me, and Petal took over the harness. It quickly became obvious that Iron was actually currently in better shape than I. It was probably due to the copious amount of Buck she’d taken, but she was having no problem keeping up with Petal, while my own breath was more ragged than I liked.

Petal noticed this and told me, “If you need to take a break, you can get on the wagon for a moment. I should be fine if it’s only for a few minutes.”

“I’ll be alright, but if I feel like I’m slowing us down, I’ll take you up on the offer,” I replied. By the end of the sentence, I found myself breathing heavily. Walking and talking was out of the question for now, it seemed.

“So, what exactly happened while I was out?” asked Iron Sights.

“Not much, really,” replied Petal while I caught my breath. She explained how the doctor sent us away, and how we fled in a hurry. The fact that she was speaking at all was surprising, given her tendency to completely close up after traumatic events. She wasn’t doing well in the slightest, but she knew she had to be strong. I would need to thank her later.

“Fuck, it sounds like she was in on it,” commented Iron. She sighed deeply. “I understand if you want me to leave, either now or later.”

“What, I don—” I cut myself off as I realised Petal had also started replying.

“What’s done is done, and I won’t try to get a petty revenge on you now. As for Lockpick, well, she’s the one who stood up for you, so I doubt her opinion differs much from mine,” she said.

Iron shook her head. “No, of course not, you’re not that kind of ponies. What I meant was in terms of safety. My presence with you caused Lockpick and Banter to get injured, and I would perfectly understand if you wanted to avoid problems like that in the future.” While her voice was perfectly level, I could see her eyes shaking, and her eyelids blinking a bit too fast.

This had the same effect on me as an admission of guilt. It was her fault, wasn’t it? Why had I been blaming myself this whole time when it was her stupid debt that caused us all this?

“Huh, that’s exactly what I’ve been thinking about the entire time you were on my back. Honestly, I don’t know. Yes, your presence is what caused this all. At the same time, having you around also makes me feel a lot safer. The question comes down to whether or not this kind of thing will ever happen again.”

If she’d told us sooner, we’d have avoided Dodge and headed directly towards Manehattan. Or maybe Riverbreak; it was out of our way and a pain to get into, but it would have been better than getting fucking shot over a debt that wasn’t even ours!

“I can’t promise it won’t. What I can guarantee, though, is that Dodge City is the only place in Equestria where somepony has this much of a motive to go after me. It’s why I wanted to avoid it as much as I did, and I should have pushed more. There might be some ponies with grudges against me, but given that I was just a merc following orders, I doubt there are too many.” She sighed again. “Like I said, I can’t promise my past won’t catch up with us, but I can warn you if it might happen.”

“Well, it’s cer—” Petal began, but I cut her off.

“And you expect us to just put up with it? You can’t even warn us of everyone! Do you really think somepony who had their friend killed will just let it slide because you were only following orders‽” I half-shouted, panting.

To my surprise, Iron shrank back. This reaction only made me more furious, however, and I continued, “And fuck, why the hell did you immediately try to surrender? I had to step up for you, and that led to the whole situation with Banter!” This time I was shouting at full volume, strongly hyperventilating.

“Lockpick, quiet. It’s the middle of the night, and we’re being chased,” scolded Petal.

“And you!” I cried out. “What in Luna’s name happened?” I took another deep breath. It felt like I didn’t get oxygen from it, but I didn’t care; I just wanted to scream. “How could you let Banter get shot‽ Why didn’t you do something? Is that why you’re taking her side?” I stomped my hooves in anger, and immediately regretted it. A flash of lightning shot through my leg, and my throat locked up. Before I knew it, I’d lost all balance, and was falling face-first into the ground. I didn’t even feel the impact.

I awoke with a mild headache. The rest of my body didn’t fare much better; a dull hurt spread throughout my chest, while a sharp pain pulsated in my left foreleg. A moment later, I realised I was on somepony’s back. I groaned in exhaustion as I lifted my head. Judging by the surrounding brightness, it was late morning.

“Oh, you’re back,” said Petal. As I attempted to get down, she added. “You should stay on my back. That potion took its toll on you, and your left leg is badly swollen. I think the two of us will be faster if you don’t walk.”

We were walking on a dry desert hill, surrounded by shrubs, cacti, and distant radscorpions. To my left, a valley separated us from more hills; to my right, the usual desert stretched on until the horizon. While I was taking in our situation, my mind slowly remembered what happened before I fell unconscious. I couldn’t help but feel utterly ashamed of my outburst.

As I fully came to my senses, I realised something odd… “Hey, Petal? Where are our cart and Iron?” I wondered, worried.

“Down in the valley,” she replied matter-of-factly. “You can occasionally spot her, or hear her gunfire.”

“Wait what, why did we split up? Where are we?”

“Since we didn’t really think where we were going, we ended up taking an inconvenient path that forced us here. Iron told me about the valley after you blacked out. It’s irradiated and swarming with giant radscorpions, and going around wasn’t an option with the cart. Somepony even bothered to put up a sign warning of the radiation levels.”

“So she offered to sacrifice herself and let us take the easy route?” I asked, knowing I’d pressured her into it with my remarks.

“No, we simply made the logical choice in that situation. We only had enough Rad-X and RadAway for one pony to safely make the trip, and I’m not good with guns, so the radscorpions would have gotten me.”

“I see…”

We fell quiet for a while. I was still ruminating over the things I’d told Iron, but didn’t know what I could do about it. I figured she probably had a radio on her, so I could reach her, but I was so ashamed of my outburst that I didn’t dare say anything. Or rather, I was looking for the proper way to apologise.

“Petal?” I mumbled. “The thing I told Iron earlier… it was really stupid. I think I took her admission of guilt as a pass to dump it all on her. How do I apologise?”

“Well, I think she’ll understand. She didn’t seem mad at you, but she did feel guilty about what happened.”

“But, it’s hardly her fault…”

“She still played a part in it. And so did I; if I’d been more careful, that mare couldn’t have shot either Iron or Banter. Trying to pin the blame on any one of us isn’t going to fix anything.”

“But I fell asleep during my shift! And it was my idea to bring in that shady doctor! And the factory!”

“I won’t deny any of that, but like if any one of us had done something different, things would have gone better. Or not; we don’t even know. As terrible as this situation is, we really can’t afford to destroy each other—or ourselves—over it.”

“I…” I sighed. “You’re right. This is all just so much. How do you manage to be so collected about this?”

“I have to, otherwise I’ll go crazy…”

We were continuing to walk east along the valley. At many points during our trip, I could see Iron down in the valley, and just like Petal had said, I could hear her gun just as often, if not more. However, at some point, she’d disappeared ahead. Now it was mid-afternoon, and I could tell both of us were starting to get tired; I was taking a sip from the cantine when the radio activated. We’d used it to communicate with Iron a few times, just to confirm we didn’t see anypony going after us.

“I’ve reached the end of the valley, I’ll wait for you guys here,” it said in Iron’s voice.

“Roger that,” replied Petal while pressing the button on the device attached to her chest. Then, she breathed a sigh of relief and added, “I was starting to get exhausted myself. I was planning on stopping when she got too tired to continue, but I was not expecting her to power through like that.”

We’d only taken short breaks during the entire trip; I’d occasionally gotten off Petal’s back to help make it easier on her. Iron, however, didn’t seem to slow down in the slightest. Yes, the terrain was flatter down in the valley, but that couldn’t be the whole explanation. I’d need to recount Iron’s Buck pills… But then, I couldn’t really blame her for taking some in an emergency, could I?

Soon enough, our cart came into view, and an hour after that, we finally met up. As soon as we were close enough, I got down from Petal’s back and hobbled over to Iron, hugging her to the best of my ability. “I’m sorry…” I mumbled.

“It’s… alright. You shouldn’t hug me, though. I’m as radioactive as a TV tower right now,” she replied, gently pushing me away. “We should find a place to set up camp for the night. Our pursuers—if there are any—don’t seem to be anywhere near us, but we should still get to a good, defendable spot. Ideally, we want to hide the cart between some boulders, and be able to see everywhere around us from atop them. There’s a decent spot nearby, but getting the cart up there will be difficult.”

“Do you think I could pull it up if you helped me?” asked Petal.

“That was on my mind, actually. It’s right up there.” She pointed to one of the sides of the valley.

I didn’t go back on Petal’s back, as pulling the cart was already hard enough. Instead, Iron and I took some heavier objects and placed them in our saddlebags. Half an hour later, our cart was hidden and our bedrolls ready. None of us had eaten anything proper since yesterday evening, so we decided to have some cold preserved pre-war vegetables and beans. As much as we all wanted to heat them up, lighting a fire was out of the question, as the smoke would immediately reveal our location to anypony within a large radius of us.

We sat there in awkward silence, neither of us willing to break it. Eventually, though, Petal spoke up, “We still have to decide what to do next. We’ll likely be waiting in Riverbreak for at least a week; couriers don’t deliver mail anyway. We should find something to do there, some way to make caps while we’re waiting.”

Iron nodded in agreement, but remarked, “What about what we were talking about earlier? Like I said, there’s no guarantee my past won’t cause some issue for you two.”

“Well, I’ve already decided I’m willing to put up with the risks, but Lock—”

“I wasn’t done,” interrupted Iron. “For that reason, I’ve decided to give my savings to you. I don’t know how much you need. I have four thousand caps on me.”

“Four thousand‽ How did you have so many on you at all times? How did you get them?” exclaimed Petal.

Iron shook her head. “They were in my personal stash, which is a cave in that valley. They’re what I’ve saved up over the years; it’s fairly easy to earn when you’re good at killing and are unscrupulous enough to accept just about any job that pays well.”

“That puts us significantly closer to our goal!” exclaimed Petal. “Banter estimated we’d need around eleven or twelve thousand caps, all costs added, and with what we’ve already invested in legal procedures, we only need maybe six thousand to buy property. Well, we’d need to wait for somepony to sell theirs first, and that could take a while. Plus we could get unlucky with the pricing. Still, we’re within the last sprint! And if you live in Tenpony Tower, you won’t have to worry about your past catching up to you, either!”

Iron smiled and said, “Thanks for the offer, but I’ll make myself a home somewhere else in Manehattan. A place such as Tenpony would definitely remind me too much of Stable Four to ever live in. But then there’s also the fact that I doubt they would even let me in. You’ve both seen my legs, and you know how they treat ghouls, so I doubt taint-ridden muties like me get a much better treatment. That detail notwithstanding, you know I’ve done some… ethically questionable things as a mercenary, and their law is very strict.”

I blinked, completely dumbfounded. She’d just dropped a massive bombshell. I’d noticed it a few weeks ago, but my mind had been elsewhere at the time. My thoughts never landed on it again. “Wait, mutation? You mean the grey bit on your leg?”

“Yeah, and it feels worse than it looks. Dunno how to describe it, other than ‘wrong’. Sure, I can hide it, but I wouldn’t want to live in a place where I’d constantly need to fear being discovered.” She shook her head. “But like I said, I’m fine getting myself a cozy place of my own on the outskirts of town. Set up a few turrets, find a decent mattress, and I’m good, as long as I get to see you once in a while.” Before I got to add anything, she changed the topic. “So, how exactly did you and Banter meet?”

Petal hesitated for a moment, but then spoke up, “Long story short, when I was a filly, my mother was murdered by raiders, but they didn’t find me. She gave her life so that I could live.” She took a deep breath and sighed. “I knew I had to leave, so I went to the closest settlement, where I survived by begging.” She paused, then corrected, “Well, tried to. Even though it was one of the bigger towns around, not many ponies could spare something, and I wasn’t strong enough to do any meaningful work, so I often went hungry.”

She took another swig from her tea, then continued, “I couldn’t tell how long I’d survive like that. I knew I’d need to eventually find something, or my life would end before it really began.” She gulped and hesitated for a moment. “And so, as soon as I started drawing stallions’ eyes, I started making caps that way.” Frowning, she let out a deep sigh. “I hated it with my entire being, but I knew I had to do it if I wanted to live.”

After drinking some more, she proceeded with her story, “At first, I would dream about eventually getting away, finding something else to do. But as time went by, that spark of hope died out, and I became a soulless husk that only thought about getting through the day.”

She smiled wistfully as she started talking again, “Then he came into my life. He didn’t bother me outside of work hours, it’s as if he knew I wouldn’t listen to some stranger. Instead, he bought some time with me, because I at least tried to listen to what my clients had to say—you’d be surprised how many of them simply felt lonely and needed somepony to talk to, by the way.” She said that last part with an amused smirk. Shrugging, she continued. “He was definitely one of my younger customers, but his words struck me, and I realised just how complacent I’d gotten. The next day, I fled with him and never looked back.” She was almost grinning, now, as she added, “In a way, he saved my life. Surviving just isn’t the same as living.”

That was something I didn’t know about Petal. I understood that he’d saved her from stagnation, but I’d never heard that she used to work as an escort. “You never told me that much,” I complained.

“Sorry. It was just a bit awkward to ever bring it up. At first you were too young to comfortably talk about it, and then it kinda never came up…”

Wait a second. That had to be at least five to seven years ago. She couldn’t have been much older than I am now… I wrapped my forehooves around her in a big hug. I couldn’t imagine what that would be like. I didn’t want to imagine…

I was surprised at how talkative Petal was. A few years ago, we’d lost our youngest family member, a little colt simply named Blue. Petal hadn’t taken it well in the slightest. It had taken weeks for her to even start replying to basic yes or no questions. Now, however, she was less shut in than usual. I had to admit, seeing her like this definitely helped me as well.

On the one hoof, I knew that if she closed herself off, it wouldn’t be good for me or her. On the other hoof, I didn’t want her to feel like she needed to shoulder the burden herself. I’d have to find a way to make it clear to her. Yes, I had to be strong for her.

My train of thought was broken by Iron, who took a deep breath and said, “You know, there’s something I should tell you two. I don’t think there’s a good moment to say something like that, but…” With every word she spoke, I was getting more worried. How bad was the news she was about to drop? “Well, maybe it’s best to ask you a question first… How much do you know about Nightmare Moon?”

Huh? I tilted my head. What did that have to do with anything?

Before I could gather my thoughts enough to utter a coherent sentence, Petal replied, “Not much past the basic tale. I know that Princess Luna turned into Nightmare Moon before getting banished for a thousand years.”

Iron nodded. “But do you know how exactly she became the Nightmare?”

“I… dunno. I never asked myself the question,” admitted Petal.

I had no idea either. History had never been my strong suit. Well, not that it was easy to find history books in the wasteland anyway.

“Unfortunately it was one of those things that historians never truly figured out. There were three primary theories before the spells fell. It didn’t help that neither princess ever confirmed or denied any of this. The first was by far the most popular one. It claimed that Luna was overtaken by some kind of maleficent entity. It’s mostly been criticised because it seems like a convenient excuse to uphold the status quo,” explained Iron matter-of-factly. I couldn’t understand why she was bringing any of this up. A quick look at Petal confirmed that she was just as confused as I.

“That’s where the second theory came into existence. It claimed that Nightmare Moon really was just the princess whose insanity had reached a climax. This theory was popular before the war, but once the Ministry of Image was founded, books discussing it became rarer and rarer. Luckily Mr. Pegas, my ancestor, was rich enough to manage to get a few of those past the authorities. It also implied that the Elements of Harmony brainwashed Luna, which is why most ponies disliked that idea. But that’s all besides the point.”

“Finally, and it’s what I’ve been building up towards… It’s the theory that the reality was somewhere in between. In essence, they speculated that somehow, when an alicorn got upset enough, their incredible power could… ignite as some kind of defense mechanism and overtake them. In a way, that newly formed person was Luna, but also not.”

What in Equestria was she talking about…?

She sighed deeply. “And I think it might apply to powerful unicorns as well. I… haven’t been having amnesia episodes. Instead, I think there are just two different ponies inhabiting my mind. I somehow remember everything she does, while she only remembers her own actions.”

It took me a few seconds to grasp what she was saying. “What?” I uttered before my brain was even finished processing the information. Finally, my mind caught up with my mouth, and I asked, “So one day you woke up and had another filly in your head? And couldn’t you just come out and say that instead of going with that convoluted Nightmare Moon analogy thingy?”

Her brow furrowed in confusion, Petal stared at the ground. She occasionally opened her mouth before closing it again.

Iron slowly shook her head. “Maybe, but I’m not sure. I can’t tell which of us was here first. I don’t know how long she’s existed, or how long I have existed. I’m… I’m kind of scared I’m not the original. Like I’m a defense mechanism formed by her magic…”

“So you mean… The filly I’ve talked to last week, she is the original… you?” It… kinda made sense, as insane as it seemed. After all, the two were quite different. “Wait, wouldn’t that make her—”

“Iron Sonata? Yes, but I usually think of her as just ‘Sonata’.”

“Then why did she introduce herself as Iron Sights?”

“Oh, right. I’ve been writing journal entries for her on my PipBuck. Partly because I felt bad for her, but mostly so that she wouldn’t do anything stupid. Figured it would be a good idea to tell her about my new name, too.”

“Wow, she’s one hell of an actress, then,” I said without really thinking about it. My mind caught up with my mouth, and another idea sprang forth. “Or I guess she doesn’t know about you and genuinely believes she has amnesia…”

“It’s the latter,” admitted Iron. “When I first realised what was going on, I didn’t know what to do. If I kept her in the dark, she could get herself—and me, by extension—into trouble. But… if she did find out, then what would happen to me? Since she’s the original, I’m scared she can just… wish me away or something. I mean, I don’t think it’s very likely, but I’m still afraid of the possibility. I… don’t wanna stop existing.”

“I still think you should tell her. Maybe… I could do it? I’m sure she’s nice enough to let you co-exist with her.”

Unconvinced, she shook her head. “Maybe one day, but for sure not right now. I’m actually scared she’ll take control and doom all of us right now.”

“How does that happen?” asked Petal.

“You mean her taking control? I’m not entirely sure, but so far it seems like she takes over whenever I feel safe, I hear a song she likes. She used to come out when I had massive hangovers, but that’s been getting rarer. I take over whenever she spots a gun that would pique my interest, or whenever she’s in immediate danger or is otherwise very stressed. It’s this last part that makes me believe I’m just a defense mechanism.”

“I doubt you’re just that,” I protested. “If you were, wouldn’t you only come out whenever she feels threatened?” This was beyond weird to think about.

She pondered this for a second. “You have a point. Still, I have to face the fact that I’m not the original. There’s also the fact that I don’t have any real control over her once she takes over. And, well, she can be a bit naïve and get us in dangerous situations that I would have known to avoid.”

“Is there really nothing you can do? I suppose if she’s with us, we can prevent her from doing anything dangerous.”

“It’s part of why I wanted to join up with the three of you. I figured I needed help keeping her and I safe.”

“Well, why don’t we help you with her, and tell her the truth? Not right now, but when we get someplace safe. I know it’s scary, but it’s currently causing more issues than it solves.”

Iron frowned and fell quiet, gathering her thoughts. In the end, all she could mutter was, “I don’t know…”

While I was scrambling for more things to add, Petal said, “Do you really think she could and would wish you out of existence? It would take an awful lot of control over her own brain to achieve that.” She locked her gaze with Iron’s and argued, “I don’t know about you, but I can’t stop myself thinking about stupid, insignificant things I’ve done in the past, so I don’t know why some teenager would be able to completely isolate off a part of her mind. Not only that, but why would she kill off somepony who’s essentially her twin sister? Sorry if I’m coming across as harsh, but it just doesn’t make sense to me.”

Iron averted her eyes, looking at me instead. I slowly nodded. Finally, she replied, “Fine. I’ll write up a journal entry explaining the whole thing. You’ll still need to talk to her, because she might not accept it at first though…”

Afterwards, we fell quiet. As we were done eating our sad meal, we decided to go to bed, Iron taking the first shift, and I the last. During mine, I counted Iron’s Buck pills, and noticed she’d only taken a single one since last night. How had she been able to make such a trip on only one pill? Maybe the lot she’d taken this morning just lasted that long?

Another odd detail I noticed when she came out of the tent in the early morning… her hide had completely regrown. All of the partly closed wounds from the factory had entirely healed up. Even her side, which had been cut deeply into just yesterday, was in pristine condition. On top of that, her fur practically shined.

Noticing my gaze, she yawned and said, “What are you staring at? If you wanna see my scars, you can just ask, you know?” My face suddenly felt warm enough to light a fire.

Author's Note

Yeah, y’all remember how I bitched and whined in chapter 2’s author notes about how I needed to rewrite a bunch of passages a bunch of times? Yeaaaaaah this chapter was like 13 times worse. I think I’ve written in the neighbourhood of 25k words total for this chapter, just because I kept having to change things. I think I rewrote the assault scene alone from scratch like 3 times. Pain.

On the bright side, I seem to have gotten back into a decent habit of writing; not nearly as fast as back in Spring 2020 where I’d put out 2k words a day sometimes, but I still think I can aim to push out one chapter every four weeks or so. Probably more often once I start writing the shorter chapters that will appear later on.

Oh, right! The other reason I’m excited to be picking up the pace again: I have a plan! Like, a proper plan on the plot. Until now, I had a pretty good idea of where to go with each chapter, and overall in the story. But it was a bit vague, and I would sometimes find myself in a situation where I needed to put significant effort to connect the dots. Something similar happened with this chapter, and it’s why it needed so many rewrites (I’ll put the exact reason in the next chapter).

If everything goes according to plan, I’ll have 15 more chapters (excluding potential flashbacks).

But also, I decided to change my writing style a bit. I’m good at fast pacing, so I think I’ll start playing to my strengths a bit more.

2023 Etyco note: Yeah, it ended up more than that. But hey, it's around this point that I really started improving as a story teller, so you can look forward to a way more interesting story.