Fallout Equestria: Ballad of a Rogue Ranger

Chapter seventeen: Homecoming

Set me on fire and call me a Molotov!... actually no, already have too much experience with that one so far. No matter, Winter was alive! One global antihalation, twenty-five years, however many miles differences since then, but hot damn she was alive!

And I was talking to her daughter.

“Like birth-birth?” I asked just to clarify while we walked.

Sleep didn’t come easy that night after finding out, and along the entire walk to where Winny called home I either pestered the mare with questions, or picked my jaw up off the ground. The odds I didn’t even want to try and calculate, nor did I even know what math I’d start out with to do so.

“Like ‘water breaking, labor for hours, blood, crying, and screaming birth,’ yes…” Alimite told me for only the tenth time. A little bit too much detail for my liking, but I got the point, “she’s, my mom.”

Huh… went from a troublemaker in school, to being a decent up and coming mare, to almost overnight from my prospective a mother. I would say how time flies, but I don’t think those rules apply in cryo. That did raise one question I hadn’t gotten to just yet, if Winters’ the mom…

“How’d she meet your dad?”

No sooner had the words left my lips than Alimite almost stopped in her tracks. She didn’t say anything to me at first, just bit her lip, “That’s a sore subject,” she visibly gulped, “mom doesn’t talk about it too much… but when she first left the stable, she got picked up by some, unsavory ponies.”

“Slavers,” Deacon jumped in, getting our attention as we waited for him to explain that conclusion. “I mean, healthy mare, no real radiation, and clean,” shit, even the merc started to cringe, “It probably wasn’t the best hoof to start out on.”

Alimite just nodded to his reasoning, “That it wasn’t, they kept her around for… safe keeping let’s say.”

Oh, so it sounds like there’s a band of slavers that need a-

“They kept her around for a good while,” the mare cut off my train of thought, almost like she could tell what station it was heading towards, “then they snatched up the wrong pony. That pony had friends that cared, those friends went to get them back,” alrighty so slavers got their comeuppance, “after that little rescue, mom went back with them to their settlement… been there ever since.”

Safe and sound, alive and kicking, and every other iteration of the phrase… it’s all I could have hoped for. Minus the obvious trauma after she got out.

“And she’s been doing well, takes care of the irrigation, pipes, and other things around the place that need worked on,” the pride she had for her mom beamed as much as her lips, and I couldn’t help but share the same sentiment. Irrigation, I wonder where she got that skill from, though I can think of where Alimite learned hers.

“Winter grow up lots since thawing,” Riff added.

“It might have been a crash course for the wasteland when she first stepped foot in it,” Alimite followed up with. Slavers would do that to ya, especially a healthy mare, “though she’s happy with the outcome.”

I smiled a bit more as the mare more or less presented herself. Riff was right, Winter sounded like she had grown up a lot sense she left the ice box of 100. How much watching over she’d need now? I couldn’t tell ya, she had a quarter century of experience on my head… what could she teach me maybe?

“Did she ever go back?” Both myself and Alimite looked over to Tumble bringing up our rear, “to the stable, she had to have known where it was.”

A gentle shake from the kin answered her question, and my curiosity, “She couldn’t… once I was born, she had to be a mom,” as good of a reason as any, “even when I was older any time I’d ask, all Winter would do is cry,” though the mares’ eyes soon turned toward me, and as if on que her smile grew with mine. “Though she talked about you often, just never thought I’d be the one to find ya.”

Oh, dear Celestia, what have you told your daughter?

“She misses you, obviously,” well I’d hope so. Though even through Alimites’ smile, I could still see the tear ready to fall, “mom always said her heart shattered twice, seemingly overnight. First, when she had to go in the stable and leave Lilac, and then when she had to go out the stable and leave you.”

We’d both had a mirror copy of the same experience. Each of us left a pony we’d cared about. One to die, and one to hopefully have a chance. A chill shot up my spine, as even the armor started to shiver. That was a memory I’d never forget myself, and one that felt like it happened only a day apart from one another…

“What was it like?” Deacon asked the question I dreaded, “the end of the world?”

For a long moment we were all silent, the only thing I heard was the light smack from Tumbles’ hoof to the back of Deacons’ head, and the gryphon grumbling about the mare being temperamental.

After a sigh, I had to relent, it was in the past after all…

“I mean… it started out like any other day…” though, doesn’t it always?

One that quickly went to shit…

The morning was like any other. Wake up, freshen up, and go in to work from there. It was less than an hour of me being in our building that we’d gotten the news that there was an attack. Most of us didn’t think too much of it. Like many when the war first started, we thought Equestria was a steamroller and the Zebras would either get out of the way and bend, or become flattened under the combined might of the whole nations pouring into the war effort.

We were wrong.

I hadn’t run so much sense PE in school. Though as my hooves beat against the sidewalk towards home, even out in the distance I could see the flashes of megaspells lighting off. Wiping entire portions of the country off the map. Other ponies scrambled to and frow around the town, ramming in to one another, shouting, all desperate to find someplace to hide. Though there was little that could hide from a spell that size. The last flash I’d seen looked like it’d came from Las Pegasus, or at least close to it, and home wasn’t far from that.

My home came in to view, and just out front of it a sky wagon with the Stable-Tec logo on the side landed. The Pegasus that jumped out the pilots’ cab already was in front of me before my mouth opened.

“Wildfire I presume,” she more so ordered, likely already having my file and picture committed to memory, “We have instructions to deliver you to the stable for safety.”

“Thank you, but I have-”

With a stomp, she silenced the last bit of that remark, “There’s no time!” the mare looked like a fighter, probably had seen some part of the war before she was a shuttle for ponies like myself under the ministries. Yet, her voice might have sounded strong as concreate, though her eyes were ready to break like glass. I already knew why, the last news I’d heard was Cloudsdale going up in fire, “You are to come with us this instant! We already have half a dozen others inside, and I will not risk their lives for-”

My turn, “I don’t expect you to!” I wasn’t a fighter, and she looked about ready to drop me and throw my knocked-out ass in the back, though I wasn’t going anywhere without them. “I have my pass on me, though the guest one I have to get.”

Finally, she understood, my own hide wasn’t the only thing I cared about, “… You have ten minutes.”

Not wasting a moment longer, I darted in to my home. A place might have been reserved for ponies like myself in a stable, probably to continue production whenever things settled down. Though Stable-Tec knew if they wanted ponies to play nice underground, they’d need ponies they were close with to join them.

From the lock box, my horn nearly ripped the latch off and pulled the pass I’d been given. Usable for any pony I wanted, the only problem was it didn’t carry over to multiple ponies. No sooner had I grabbed it than I ran past the sky wagon and to the house across the street.

Just like she always had, Lilac left the door mostly unlocked in this place. It was a safe neighborhood, and let’s face it, ponies trusted one another. Me bursting through the door wasn’t an uncommon sight to see over the years after we’d all gotten closer. Those occasions were under far better conditions.

“Lilac! Winny!” I shouted, to no answer at first.

“She’s upstairs,” I heard the warm greeting from my elder. Lilac had always tried to maintain herself in appearance, with makeup and always going that extra step to keep her mane in order as it grayed. This day was different, she was letting her age show past those eyes that had already let out all their tears, as she picked up a glass of scotch with her wing from the rocker.

“We have to go…” my hooves wanted to grab her and start dragging, but I knew that’d probably get me slapped for being ill mannered, even during a time like this. “There’s a wagon out front and-”

“And you only have one pass,” she glanced up from her sip of the glass.

‘How’d she know?’ I never showed her, nor did I tell Winter about it either. They didn’t need that kind of worry in their life, but here the mare called my bluff, “I’m sure I can convince-”

“Convince Stable-Tec?” she laughed, and it sounded just as absurd when I said it, “as much as you complain about all the forms and bureaucracy from them, I doubt that.”

She was right, like the grandmother I never had, she was always right, “They want me in the stable, if I can’t take both of-”

“You’ll… what? Do something stupid,” for the first-time since we’d know one another, the mare insulted me. I’d set things on fire in the shop living up to my name, come over with a new injury her eyes hadn’t seen yet, and even caused a few good magical shorts in my time. Although through all that, Lilac just helped bandage me up, and tell me to try again. Calmly she got up from her recliner and came over to me, gently resting a wing to the side of my face, “I’m old, I hate to say that but it’s true… I’ve already had a full life,” she had, and from those eyes I could see it replaying before her, “Let her have the same chance.”

‘Damn you Lilac,’ right as always.

My hooves wrapped around her and I let a few fleeting tears fall, and I felt the soft lips of her kiss the top of my forehead as she ushered me along. My time was ticking… quickly I went upstairs to the room I’d help paint not long ago. There on her bed, was a mare that looked as if she’d gotten her heart ripped out by her first colt. For all the tough mare attitude Winter tried to show, and for the most part backed up, here’s where she fell apart.

“We’re…” she tried looking up to me, the waterworks already in full effect, “we’re going to die, aren’t we?”

Not if I had any say in it.

My own gentle hoof rested on her shoulder, “no… we’re going to survive, Stable-Tec is waiting out front to take us away.”

“All of us!?” her joy was infecting, though like most infections, it goes away in time.

I didn’t have to say anything before it started to fall, “They only gave me one guest pass…”

Winter had gotten better with math a lot in the later years, and I already saw her doing the equation of who would be joining me, “What about-”

“She… she wants you to take it,” how do you tell a mare, that she’ll have to leave behind a pony she cared about? Winter in the end didn’t fuss, she knew Lilac was as stubborn as they came… probably a bit more than herself.

With a leap, Winter got off the bed and grabbed a bag that was already full. She was prepared once the sirens started going off, they’d probably talked about these drills and such in school. Now it was time to put that in action.

The pair of us walked down those stairs for the last time together, and at the bottom stood Lilac. She was stubborn, right a majority of the time, and very prideful to begin with. Yet all that finally broke once we reached the bottom. For as old as she was, those wings were strong, and they managed to pull the two of us in to one last embrace. My tears had already fallen, Winters’ were the next to continue their tirade.

She sniffled, trying to wipe the tears away, and gave a final look to the Pegasus, “I love you… mom,” Winter said as we moved towards the door.

If balefire could scorch a city, the warmth Lilac had shown after hearing that simple word could have burned the sun.

And with that, the door closed behind us and we were on our way.

Sky wagon was a new way of travel for me. For the work I’d done with the ministry, I had yet to sprout wings and take to the sky. It was a mode that I could have done without for this, out the windows to the cabin myself and those who joined us watched the flashes across the horizon. Some a bit too close for comfort. Winter huddled herself closer to my side while we sat, and waited for this turbulent trip to be over.

It wasn’t long after we’d taken off before it stopped once more outside the stable. The single cog cut in to the ground marked the elevator that would bring us there, and although we tried to be civil heading towards it in an orderly fashion. All of us were on edge wondering if a door that large would be enough to stop what the zebras had unleashed upon us.

“Alright, everypony here?” a colt in a lab coat called out when the elevator reached the bottom, and we followed the line leading behind the next cog, “Don’t worry, you’re all safe now, welcome… to Stable-100.”

Safe… when you could still feel the ground shake from the blasts outside.

There were murmurs all around from the others that resided there with us. How many places had been hit? How many ponies had reached stables? What would happen to the country? All questions no pony had the answer to.

As we filed through the stations, storing belonging, picking up stable jumpsuits, and getting our vitals checked. We worked our way further in to the stable, and there we reached a crossroad. “Please go to your assigned wing,” another pony under the Stable-Tec name announced, “check the board to find your place, guests will be in a separate wing.”

Going down the display, I saw my name marked ‘Resident 070- Wildfire’ in wing A. While wing B Winter would have to call home for the time being. A hoof clenched around mine, and looking to my side, the mare started to shiver. It was cold down here, but these were her nerves at work.

“I… I don’t want to leave,” Winter clenched her jaw, “I don’t want to be separated.”

It seemed like a common sight, a few others around us were going the similar motions with their loved ones and the guests they’d brought. All I could do was take a knee, and try to sooth her worries. “Hey, we made it here…” by the skin of our teeth, “… I’m only in another wing, when all this is said and done, I’ll find you.”

Still Winter sniffled, she didn’t believe me, and I couldn’t blame her.

“Promise?” she asked, and waited for me to nod, “Pinkie Pie promise?”

For the first time that day, I chuckled, “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” going through the motions, I got the same response from her. Pinkie Pie would have been proud of herself to bring one pony at least a grin, even down here.

As we were lead along our separate paths, I found myself in the wing. Chambers lined either side, stringing all the way down the corridor. Resident 070- Wildfire, I wondered for a moment how many of those assigned to this stable had made it in time, and it wasn’t long before I found my own chamber.

With the direction of the representative there from the company, all of us did as we were told. Crawl inside, get comfortable, and relax… I felt the cold touch my coat, and it seemed to go deeper than that. Slowly, my breathing started to ebb, and even the thundering in my chest fell to a flutter. I closed my eyes, wished this all to be a dream…

And fell asleep.

“Are you crying?” Deacon asked to the one sniffling.

“No!” Riff almost barked at, “get something in eye.”

Sure, you did Riff, sure…

“Well, ain’t that touching,” I heard another sniffle of a colt, and for a moment there I managed to forget about the other two traveling with us.

It makes sense, you wouldn’t want to send one pony along on their own in a place like this. Alimite apparently went along with this pair of ponies. Caravan workers who lived their lives on the road… hmm, think they knew Tumbles adoptive parents? No matter, the mare Ashburn kept to herself, and the colt with her Tanker only threw in enough remarks to remind me they still held a place in this trek.

“I’ve heard many stories here walking the lands, and to think I’d heard it all,” Tanker shook his head, “hell when I first heard of that Winter mare, I thought it was just a story…” he dug into his pockets, and out came a hoof full of bits he dropped off to his cohort.

“And you were wrong, told ya so,” Oh my word, she speaks! Ashburn made eye contact with me for what felt like the first time, “though I didn’t expect the entire history lesson.”

No pony ever does, but its one clearly not that many out here ever got to hear. Even Alimite looked like this was her first introduction to the end of the world. Her mom was really letting her down on history, ‘wow that’s gonna take some used to saying,’ once again that reality slapped me in the face. Though the mare before me held back her own tear, as she shook her head. Probably thinking the same thing, a lot of ponies did that day, and how senseless it was to burn the world.

All for some rocks.

“I hate to pry,” Tumble said, as she waned a hoof raising, “But Lilac sounds a bit old to be her mom… or am I missing something?”

No Tumble, you’re not, “because she wasn’t,” that comment earned me a few confused stares from those who’d been listening to my tales.

“Lilac had a daughter of her own, once upon a time,” Alimite picked up where I left off, more than likely hearing this part of the past all too often, “though her own daughter passed away when she was young… not long after that her husband.”

“Winter she adopted a number of years later, kinda as a surrogate daughter slash granddaughter,” a gentle reminder of what could have been to the old Pegasus I suppose, “That’s why Winny never really got close to her, no relation, and a huge age gap.”

“Until you showed up,” Alimite turned to face me with a grin, and although my visor was hiding it. Our expression was mutual, up until hers began to fade, “that’s why it was so hard for her to leave. She walked away from the closest thing she had to family, a mother and a brother alike.”

Another thing that happened likely all too much that one fateful day…

“Why not wake Wild with her?” Riff brought up the question that I’d been waiting for.

“She didn’t have clearance, only one of the Stable-Tec technicians could have,” though she was able to do something else in the meantime at least, “with there being no pony else there for her, all Winter could really do was leave,” plus, much of the food had been eaten by roaches… I wouldn’t have wanted to be trapped in there with em either.

“Mom knew that if you made it out, you’d find her eventually,” the daughter added, “you don’t break a Pinkie pie promise.”

Damn right.

***

“Good afternoon wastelanders!” well that’s an overly cheery greeting, what could the DJ possibly have for us today, “I just wanted to give a big shoutout to our resident Ranger out there, sticking it to the gunners,” the radio played for the others to hear, and after that last sentence Alimite tilted her head at my visor, “this just in, Gunner Brigadier Barrel has met her match, and is six feet under by now… or being torn apart by radscorpions, I’d take either one.”

Alimites’ jaw dropped, and for a moment she looked back at our other mare. Particularly, at the AMR she sported. Tanker and Ashburn locked eyes, before doing their own double take, and just passed me a simple nod of approval. They hadn’t known me well, but this alone seemed to garnish some level of approval from them. Traveling the wastes like them, or even Tumble, they’d probably seen the cruelty of the new Equestria first hoof.

I’d imagine any cleansing of it would be welcome, “That’s right, Rogue had knocked one pillar of their command to the ground, and from what I’m hearing it’s thrown their entire organization in a tizzy,” Odd, how could one do so much? Don’t they have two others to lead? “some gunners had reportedly left not wanting to be targeted, and some others tried to leave… before being persuaded to stay.”

That’s what it is… they’re worried I’m outright targeting them, even though if anything we just happen to have crossed paths a bit too much. “The other Commanders are working on picking up the pieces, something yours truly couldn’t be happier over hearing. All things considered, good work out there Rogue Ranger, but be warned,” just what I was waiting to hear, “Lock and Stock are going to be coming for blood next… so keep your armored ass loaded up, geared up, and ready for a fight when they do. This is DJ-Pon3 signing off!”

Oh, I plan on keeping this thing well stocked for when they do…

“That explains all the repair work,” Alimite just shook her head at me.

What do you expect? You don’t just go fighting these Gunners and expect to come out of it clean as a whistle. Thankfully, all this walking had given time for the suit to get completely up to speed. I was reading 100% across the board, and ready for round two!... or would it be three?

Then again, how far of a reach did they have? I wasn’t a geographer, nor was I all the versed in Equestrian territory. From my map I could see we were already at Unicorn Range, at least somewhere close to it. As we moved north along the western edge of the range, I could feel the nip in the air from the temperature dropping. Who was I to say anything? I just got out of a freezer.

However, while we walk with mountain peaks in both the distance, and right alongside us. Something else started to peer on the horizon, something pony made. Buildings dotted along the area they shared with a few guard towers, as the glint of turrets still shimmered even at this range, and what looked like barricades were established in places around the town. It looked fairly well defended for a random settlement out in the middle of nowhere, then again, out here what was there really to defend against?

Hopefully, too far into nowhere for the gunners to care.

With every step we drew closer, and in the last several dozen yards or so the pounding in my chest grew. My goal was almost complete, I’d be back with Winter in no time at all, and that was putting a nice warm feeling in my chest… no wait, that was a laser beam.

The shot heated up the front plating well enough for me to notice, though the gift from Alimite made it only that of a bad sunburn. Instantly said mare was in front of me, waving her hooves around, “Hold you damned fire! Friendlies!” she shouted out to the towers, enough to make it ring even in my ears, and with only one more shot meeting us they must have gotten the point and recognized her.

Steadily we approached, or at least my group did. Alimite just sent a scowl towards one of the guard towers, and a beam rifle toting mare shied away behind cover as we finally broke outer perimeter and walked in. The turrets there on some of their posts didn’t so much as even aim at us, though with just the 5.56 they were firing, there wouldn’t have been much damage done anyway. Feels nice not to have them coming my direction for once. That said, scratch my previous definition of a town or settlement, at least compared to what I’d seen so far, this was a settlement!

And those were guards…

Their mining garb kinda threw me off at first. Helmets, lanterns, and heavy coveralls with what I’d imagined was homemade plate armor bolted outside. Never the less, they were guards, and their guns were point at us… yep, undeniably a settlement.

“Alimite…” the oldest of the bunch scuffed past his mustache, just like an old sheriff I’d seen before, “findin’ folks that wanna work for their stay is admirable, though why’d ya bring that there creature in here?” both his barrel, and those of who flanked him kept their bead on the hellhound in the room, before sharing a few to me, “And one of those tin cans.”

Riff looked about ready to flex out her claws, right around his neck. Though before I could even so much as pop my visor to look him in the face and repeat not a ranger again, Alimite was already stepping forward and lowered his lever action with a flare of her horn.

“Walker, calm down, I know you take your job seriously,” her eyes almost fluttered back at me and my group, “but they ain’t your normal group.”

Now seemed a good time as ever, I reached out with my hoof, “Rogue Ranger, sir…” alright a bit of a kiss ass, but that was better than the alternative.

For a second his eyes glared at me still, then his hoof met mine, “Well then, wasn’t expecting ya to make it out in these parts.”

“Dog not expecting warm welcome,” Riff huffed under her breath, but the mic on the suit picked it up. At least she was keeping her claws in, and those teeth.

Walker, as his name went, settled down the rest of his possie and dispersed them to the sides. All disappearing amongst the shacks, buildings, and sheds seemingly scattered about the town. Each looking about as old as I was now, technically.

“Sorry about that, weren’t sure if you were being led as a hostage,” he gave a gentle embrace to our guide here.

“And like I said to mom, I can take care of myself,” she repeated, almost as if on replay, “Though speaking of mom, where is she?”

“Over by the gardens… ya know, doin’ her thing.”

Gardens? That’s a first I’d heard of that in the wastes, if you didn’t count the one back in Pasture Falls. Though from what we’d seen, this was just the tip of the town. While we walked down one street with Alimite, we ended up passing by a medical shack, trading posts, and of course… a bar… or I guess saloon given the towns feel. Hell, even a small creek cut through the town and out the side, neatly dividing it in two.

“This is… clean?” Tumble looked around, even more surprised than I was.

Okay, not entirely clean… there was still a small tick of radiation as we walked across the short bridge above the water, but at that level you’d never notice unless you’d lived several lifetimes.

“This place used to be a mining town at one point, way back before the war,” Alimite filled us in as she gave us a quick tour on the way, “set out from most others, they built it to last, and that kept it clear from pretty much all the bombs… plus, it was deserted before they fell.”

From what I’m hearing the town had to be self-sufficient upon its founding, and if it was a ghost town after the mines likely dried up. Then the Zebras had little need to hit it, somepony found gold in these hills, just in the form of a place to build upon.

“Once ponies started to started to see it as a home and not just a camp for the night, they wanted to keep it safe… and bust their asses to do so,” we followed her as my eyes looked towards those shacks behind us, likely belonging to the workers all those years ago. Now converted in to whatever the town had need for.

Many of the smaller buildings we’d passed had signs outside that gave tail to what their purpose was. Painting of a gun here, a rack of armor there, you get the idea. There were other buildings past those that didn’t have anything outside on display, some larger or smaller than the next. The few fillies and young colts that ran from that direction gave it away their purpose, those must have been actual homes.

A first real sign of life in the wastes.

Until… I saw some actual green besides from the stable. It wasn’t exactly on mass production levels, nor was it entirely green per say. Undoubtedly enough for the original town of workers, but it was stability in the wastes. Something found few and far between. From that sight alone my hooves started to pick up, leaving my group as they took their own pace. Soon enough, another passed by me, as she started yelling out.

“Mom! Ya around here?” Alimite looked along the rows of corn, tomatoes, and what I’d imagine were potatoes. Sure, they might all look a little lopsided, and a bit smaller than I remember from the golden days, but food was food.

Out from a shed answering that call poked a face not much different than the one I left long ago. There were a few wrinkles under her eyes, more than enough dirt across her coat and raggedy overalls. Yet, even with her mane under a bonnet. I could still see the smudges of mud streaking through it, but there was no doubt about it. Those violet eyes hadn’t changed one bit.

This was her.

“Alimite!” Winter shouted as she dropped a sack and bound for her daughter, wrapping a tender hoof around her shoulder. “I take it everything went well in Barkston?”

“Yes, just fine… but-”

“Now maybe Conductor will get off our flank about owing him,” Winter gave her near signature eye roll, “that damn colt needs to get laid sometime.”

“Absolutely, stick up his ass and everything, however-”

“Ugh, tell me about it, would you believe he tried to get in with-”

“Mom!” the mare shouted to her, finally breaking Winters’ rant, “as much as I would love to hear your comeback to that shit stain stuck between your boots called Conductor…” her eyes seemed to soften a tad bit, just as they rolled over her shoulder back to me, “there’s somepony I want you to meet.”

Winters’ eyes looked past her daughter, and caught my visor. Seriously, how do you miss me standing here in this thing for so long? She was surprised, I’d guess wondering what her daughter was doing walking around with a ranger. Though as she approached, I noticed the .357 revolver on her hip undone and at the ready.

“What’s your business? And why in the names of every goddess damn creature are you totting around with my daughter,” Winter went from zero to murder at the drop of a hat… huh, looked as if Alimite picked up more than just mechanic skills from her mom. Alimite just facehooved, and to be completely fair to the daughters’ reaction, I couldn’t keep myself from laughing as Winter poked her hoof in to my chest plate.

My mic caught the approach of the others, and judging by Winters’ look. She was just as taken back at seeing some of our party, “Nice to see you too… Winny,” her ears perked, and my visor found its way up as I beamed. For several seconds, she stayed put. Then those eyes widened as her hoof out stretched and rested on the side of my face, “I told you I’d find ya.”

Smack.

Okay! Not the best response I was hoping for. The silence grew there after that sound resonated between us, and I swore I could hear a certain hellhound snickering to herself. “That’s… for taking so damn long,” from murder face, back into the one I’d seen in Stable 100, talk about whiplash. Before I could say anything more, her hooves managed to reach around the bulk of the suit, and a deep sigh escaped past her muzzle against the plating, “Welcome back, Wiley.”

***

The walk to her home past the crops didn’t take long, but the conversation between the two of us felt like it’d been years… okay, so technically it was, but you get what I mean. Winter had built herself up here in this town pretty well it seemed, and as we passed by the front door to where the mare resided, that became even more apparent.

Every other home in the wastes seemed to have their own sort of disarray. Papers on the ground, dirt on the walls and all manners of scrap thrown about. Yet, here in this little slice of the country, there was organization, and an all too familiar feel to the surroundings.

“An actual home?” Deacon stood in awe at the same sight, “Impressive.”

“Well back when this town was still a town, they needed a place to fix up tools and equipment, this was their shop,” Winter walked around what she’d turned in to the living room of the place, a few dusty and ragged couches sure, but far better than other places, “when I got here I started learning under the pony that once did my job, and in time after they died I stepped in to the at roll… took years to get it all together,” the smirk on her face from the work she put in started to fade, as she looked back to me and my group, “twenty-five years to be exact.”

Years well spent. The waiting area was converted in to a sort of living room, and from over her shoulder I could see a repair bay turned kitchen, with a few doors leading to other bays themselves for whatever purpose the mare could need. The upstairs probably was much the same as before, and judging from the outside, the pony that once owned it in a past life lived here as well. A perfect set up if there ever was one to keep a town running.

“I’m sorry…” and train of thought thoroughly derailed, from the scenery my eyes went back to the mare, and this time I didn’t have a visor to hide my face. Her own started to build up its tears, “all those years I could have come back for you, but I left ya in a freezer just hoping you’d make it…”

Something that in the end probably saved my life, “It’s not your fault, you had… other priorities,” my glare turned to her kin.

“I filled him in on what had happened to ya mom, when you got out,” Alimite took her own seat on the couch, “at least enough to get him up to speed.”

Winter cringed there where she stood, biting her lip. It was in the past, and nothing that I could do about it now, she just likely didn’t want me to think what could have happened had she not wound up here.

Though that cringe started to fade, and as she took off the bonnet. Her overalls started to shed, “Not the proudest of starts… but it did earn me this, and I have you to thank for it.”

Well… I’ll be. Even out here in the waste you can still earn your mark. The flower on her hip looked in stark contrast to her canvas coat, but the peddles made of snowflakes gave a good insight to how she’d earned it. Winter tended to the gardens, and all manners of things that kept this place running, not easy to do when you’re trying to grow in the base of a mountain and with little sun to spare.

“Courtesy of learning a little something about plumbing and irrigation before I went on ice,” she started to grin.

“As fitting as ever,” sometimes ya had to wonder if ponies earned their name or the cutie mark first, “a small lesson to pay, for you to had saved my life,” most of those in the room looked lost after that. Except for one who was actually there, though for those that weren’t I’d just have to fill em in, “most of the chambers in the stable had failed…” an understatement of the last century, “and mine would have met the same end in time, had it not been for somepony splicing in a few extra talismans to keep it up and going.”

Just like when we first met, Winter tried keeping her eyes away, “well I couldn’t wake you up, but I could give you a fighting chance to stick it out… you did teach me a bit about connecting talismans and what not,” one of the many lessons that probably had aided her over the years, “a fighting chance that has really struck a chord, according to the DJ.”

Hmm so the radio waves reach all the way out here too then I suppose?

“You’ve been making enemies all over, first the Steel Rangers, then the Gunners… want to piss off the Enclave next?” she started to giggle, and by the princesses name I missed hearing that. Although I’ll take a hard pass on upsetting an entire race of pony, “you’ve also made friends as well it seems…” Winter turned to those that joined us in the room. All from a different walk of life, and all along on my little journey, “I can’t thank each of you enough, I know Wild tends to get himself in over his head at times,” gee thanks, though she wasn’t wrong with that, “I’m glad he had some to look out for-”

The door behind us slammed open, and there in the frame stood a scraggly little colt covered in what I hoped was mud looking around the room, “Winter! You there?”

You could almost hear her groan, “Yes Peeper, what is it?”

“One of the purifiers is on the fritz, again,” whelp that groan was mutual, “pumping out sludge to the piping.”

Almost as if by instinct, Winter buckled her overalls back on and tied her hair back, “I’ll be there in a sec, close off the valves to keep it away from the crops,” the colt scampered away just as fast as he’d come in, and already the mare was heading to the shop and grabbing her tools. “I apologize, we’ll have to do introductions in a bit… duty calls.”

The lot of us followed close behind her, and while I had no idea what’d we’d be doing. It was probably something my hooves could go to work on. Soon Winter was already long out of the shop and on her way to where she was needed. Letting us follow at a more leisurely pace, and giving me the chance to ask the obvious.

“So, does this happen often?” I turned to the one pony who’d be able to give me an answer.

“Possibly a bit too much, for mom’s liking,” Alimite rolled her eyes, “we have food and water sure, but it’s all at the cost of maintaining the equipment.”

A true enough fact if there ever was one. Things broke, you either fixed it, or carried on without it. Approaching, I could see the contraptions fixated next to the creek bed that jutted out over the embankment. Alimite jumped head long in to the fray with her mom, and as we approached even through my suit, I could read the hoof deep sludge that steadily ticked with radiation.

Yeah, not something you want in your corn. Together we watched the pair go between the tanks, filters, and pipes that made up their purifiers as a few other ponies there largely held on to tools or turned valves. Some of the machinery started to groan, and the rattling in those pipes withered away as the work was done to them. Before long, out from one of the hatches on a tank I saw the smeared face of a mare who’d had a little too much muck for one day.

“Motherfucker,” Winter grumbled as she climbed down the side and on to the ground, “keep the supply line closed, and open up the purges! We have enough stored for a bit, but try to ration it,” even from her barking, I could see her daughter was right. This did happen a lot more than she liked.

As if in school, Deacon raised a talon, “anything we can do to help?”

“Not unless you can pull a purifying talisman from your wing…” she quickly snapped out of that trance and shook her head, “Sorry, it’s been acting up for months, and we haven’t been able to find a replacement for it… need clean water for the fields, or else-”

“Ponies glow green,” Riff answered.

All Winter did was nod. They had something good going for them here, not many other places could say the same, “talismans are rare to come by, and to pay for one would probably cost more than the whole place has combined…”

“Why not go to a stable?” Tumble offered, and besides paying that’d probably be the next best bet… you know assuming all the other stables hadn’t gone up like mine.

“Most had been raided already, or are sealed up tighter than a posh mares’ crotch,” well the wasteland turned ponies in to poets I guess, colorful context indeed there Winter, “There’s a stable not far from here, but its chock full of ghouls… many at this settlement aren’t fighters, the turrets do most of that, so we hadn’t been able to look in to it.”

“Don’t forget the radiation leaking inside,” Alimite added as she approached, and her bandana had certainly seen better days.

No wonder it’s so damn dirty…

Although, radiation… ghouls. Sounded like something right up our alley, at least for two of us. ‘Let’s be a hero… in a way,’ I chuckled. Ahh if only a particular hound could see my face, “Riff… you did ask what the plan was when I found her…”