Fillydelphia passed by far below Stern as she took Murky along for the ride. The dark forms of gray and the washed out colors that remained of paint all seemed to blend together at this altitude to form a wafting blob of depressing colors framed on all sides by the monolithic wall. He'd never been this high up, taking in all of Fillydelphia and the surrounding area at once, all of the wastelands far in the horizons. Even up here, the smog was ever-present. Murky coughed, his lungs rattling in his chest, if Stern didn't kill him and he survived the workload and the relentless bullies down in the Fun Farm, the rapidly developing radiation sickness would certainly kill him.

Why was everything a constant brush against the shoulder of death for Murky? Couldn't he catch a break? His internal monologue was stopped by Stern landing a little roughly, her grip ached at his wings, getting a pained squeak from the stallion. "Don't die on me." Stern says, her tone close to threatening.

With a swift movement, Murky was moved back and deposited on Stern's back, between her wings. Stern had come to a stop on the top of one of the many buildings still standing in the middle of Fillydelphia, the heart of the slave state. Murky looked out over the edge of the building with ever-rising tension, his previous 'home' if it could even be called that, sat far closer to the wall than where he currently was. Stern had drug him impossibly deep into this prison, although inklings of hope yet to appear in his mind and the notion of escape was unthinkable, the difference was still noticeable to him. It was the difference between being chained to the bottom of a pool and being so deep underwater that barely any light made it to you.

The sight left as Stern entered the building through the rooftop access door, sparing Murky the horrifying up-close sight of those horrid Pinkie Pie balloons landing on the rooftop just behind them. The interior of the building was as unpreserved as any other you might find in Fillydelphia, only it hadn't actively been destroyed. Where a pony might find a collapsed wall repurposed as a 'rustic open floor plan' the building had only faded and peeling paper whose glue could no longer hold it to the wall long after the designs had lost their vibrancy.

This building must have been the special housing Red Eye set aside for his Talon mercenaries, or at least most of this floor was purposed for that. There were more than a few griffons on this floor. Some rooms were nice and had a door that was able to be shut, but others had no door at all. This allowed Murky to gaze in and see the makeshift nests and beds the griffons used. There were a few ponies mulling about this floor as well. Some seemed almost happy, or at least not afraid for their lives, others seemed scared. Murky's face reddened when he noted one stallion being lead by a griffon holding... A leash? He'd seen plenty of the same situations down on the ground in Fillydelphia, but this was different. The way they looked at each other with a contained excitement was a far cry from the typical image of a forlorn slave and the slaver's grin of sadistic joy. It was finally hammered home that Murky was not here to die, not unless he did something really dumb.

Murky looked around from his perch on Stern's back as she moved slowly through the ancient corridors illuminated by a number of lanterns placed semi-regularly down the length of the hallways. Stern stopped at a door that had some writing scratched into the wood with a talon or a knife. The door unlocked with a rusty clank and opened with the pained squeak of hinges that had gone far too long without lubrication.

Stern's room had two flags adorning the wall opposite the door, such that anyone who walked in was immediately greeted by the image of Red Eye's army colors and the flag of the Talons. Murky had seen the red flag countless times during his short time in Fillydelphia, but this was the first time he'd seen the flag of the griffon faction. The dark claws seemed to be reaching out the shadows, like a swooping bird of prey noticed only far too late. It made Murky feel a pang of fear, realizing he would soon be back in Stern's grasp, her sharp claws could shear him to pieces effortlessly.

Closer still, Stern's massive bed sat in the hotel room across from a ruined TV set that once would have probably aired pre-war programs but now sat with the rounded screen smashed inward rendering it useless. With an annoyed grunt, Stern sat Murky down on the ground and looked him over again.

"Stay here." she says, pointing a sharply curved talon at Murky as she turns and walks to a small washroom near the entry door. Murky again dared not move, where would he go? Where was there to run to? The dingy carpet beneath his hooves was, for the most part, soft. It was that short and kind of scratchy office carpeting that seemed to become so prevalent just before the war and never seemed to degrade.

Several painfully long and stressful moments passed by as Stern disappeared, rummaging around in the next room over. A few items clattered to the floor and briefly Murky imagined it was... Well, he actually couldn't put a hoof on what she'd be looking for. The towering griffon returned, two bottles clutched in her hand that were carefully set on the scratchy office carpeting in front of Murky.

He couldn't read, but the larger flask was filled with a faintly glowing red liquid, the smaller bottle held a dark orange liquid. The simple pictograms beside the indecipherable text let Murky know one was for healing, the other for radiation poisoning. He stared at them cautiously, wondering why she'd just share with him? Then again, in the past hour, she'd been very generous. He just couldn't shake the constant worry.

Stern stopped, not expecting Murky to just stare at the bottles, "Drink the radaway first, wash it down with the potion because it tastes like trash." she says, turning back and slamming a fist on the countertop, "I left my armor." she groans, walking past Murky again and providing him with more than an eyeful of her soft underside. Stern walked out of the suite briefly, giving Murky a few minutes to chug the two drinks as he went for the orange one first.

Salty, bitter awfulness flooded into his mouth from the dark orange bottle, almost making him gag. The deceiving image of a happy filly on the outside upset him, what insane pony could drink this with a straight face, let alone a smile? He turned to the larger drink of the two, the potion, and pulled the cap from the bottle. It tasted better, somehow accumulating the taste of dust as a background to the vaguely fruity flavoring, and cleared his mouth of the acrid taste of radaway. He felt better for sure, the feeling of his encroaching radiation poisoning being pushed back as well as a relatively new gash from Whiplash on his flank healing. Murky wondered if he'd see them again.

The door to the suite opened with a whine, Stern returned without her armor. Maybe she'd sent somepony to go get it, how would she fly all the way to the steel mill and back in just a few minutes? Murky found himself lifted and moved onto Stern's bed. The cushiony platform was massive, even for a large griffon like herself, with room to lay out. Stern climbed on after Murky, laying on her side to face him.

"Take that off." she says, a talon prodding at Murky's jerkin. The razor-sharp claw hesitating to just slice through it. Murky recoiled, ponies of the wasteland hated pegasi enough, he didn't want to gamble on finding out what griffons thought. He had nothing in common with the ponies on the clouds besides his wings, and even then, that was a stretch.

"I. Uh, I." Murky stammered, unable to find the right way to say no. "Can I keep it on? Please?" he mustered a smile, Stern had been nice so far, maybe she'd let him keep his secret.

"No, it's filthy." she says, her brow furrowing at Murky as her characteristic lack of patience returned. Her hand came out, rolling Murky onto his back and pinning him while she forcefully undid the bindings, his little legs kicked in protest.

"H-hey! Wait, no, don't-" the article of clothing came loose and was pulled from Murky's back. He stood there, only slightly more nude than he was just seconds ago.

Stern saw, how could she not see? Her hardened frustration softened as her eyes fell on Murky's sides. "A pegasus..." she stared at Mury's little wings with growing curiosity, "Those are just adorab- wait, what happened to them?" her expression rapidly changed from curiosity to confusion to a simmering anger, thankfully not directed at Murky.

He knew what happened, he still woke up screaming some nights, "I-I don't remember, I was too young to remember." he lied through his teeth. Stern extended her hand and lifted one of Murky's wings up a bit, her gentle touch not causing noticeable pain to the damaged limb. The underside of Murky's wing erupted in a brand new sensation he'd never actually felt before, he was being touched and it wasn't to hurt him! Stern brushed the non-talon portion of her palm across his wing, Murky's eyes wide in continued shock from the wonderful feeling and how the near constant ache of his destroyed limb wasn't resting on his back like a cart full of scrap metal.

"Still got feeling there, huh?" Stern's tone turned playful, eliciting a gasp of excitement from Murky as she toyed with the soft underside of his wing.

"I-I, uh, that feels-" Murky just knew this wondrous moment was not going to last long, his luck was never this good. But it just kept going, Stern's gentle touch acclimating Murky slowly but surely to a normal understanding of feeling. The electric rushes of fear at being touched gave way to waves of relief. A new sensation that wasn't pain, this had to be too good to be true. Murky kept expecting Whiplash and Wicked Slit to burst through the door and drag him back to the Fun Farm at any second. But that moment never came, not now, not even several hours into the evening.

Murky had hardly realized Stern just spent several hours just... petting him. Until he noticed the sky was getting darker, the glow coming from the city below rather than the smog above. The words sat on his tongue, ready to come out, 'I should get back to the overseer', but he couldn't force them forward. The little voice of a slave in his head silenced almost entirely by... his own voice, maybe? One that told him to stay quiet, maybe out of a selfish desire he didn't want to give up.

The room darkened, the ceiling dimly illuminated a warm red-orange by the city, leaving the floors almost pitch black until Stern activated a single enchanted gem light that glowed in a flickering yellow. She placed it on a nearby table and climbed back into bed, her form causing the old mattress to compress deeply.

Murky found himself gently lifted from the small spot he'd managed to warm up by laying in one place, and set down right next to Stern as she laid down on her side facing away from the window overlooking Fillydelphia. Maybe that was for the best. Despite Fillydelphia's stifling heat during the days and the warm, muggy nights, laying up against Stern's warm plumage was comfortable. Between this, the mattress beneath him, and her arms holding him close, Murky had never felt this... Safe? This was Stern he was in bed with, but if today's events were anything to go by, she wasn't a threat to him.

Murky stopped letting his mind run rampant to scare himself, and closed his eyes to go to sleep.

Author's Note

Footnote:
35% HP restored, -100 rads
Temporary Perk: Well Rested
You gain a little extra experience while retaining this perk
+2 END and AGI

~~I dunno what I was thinking, this is supposed to just be something to beat your meat to but I think I like MurkyXStern.~~
The next chapter, they'll bang. Swear on me mum.