Fallout Equestria: A Wastelander Tale

Fallout Equestria: A Wastelander Tale, Chapter Forty Six

_______________________________________________________

I stood on a stage, the audience a mix of ponies I knew, some raiders, some the townsfolk of Ursa's Rest, all cheering. I tried to move, but found myself bound and gagged, suspended in the air and my back legs spread apart by a bar. Worse, there was a heaviness in my belly and I could feel something move inside it.

"Now look at this every creature, we have here one Bonafede breeder whore!" Onyx called out, trotting onto the stage, dressed in some strange leotard suit that showed off her legs too well. She'd be sexy if not for the hole that was her eye socket that oozes black liquid. She then smiled, showing two rows of sharp black teeth.

It was Strife, it had to be.

"Wrong!" Strife said as she appeared next to me, nuzzling me. "Oh so wrong."

It couldn't be Onyx Heart, she's dead!

"And she belongs to me, isn't that right my daughter!" Strife said to the dead mare.

Onyx then bowed to Strife before addressing the crowd. "Now for the this show, the whore will be fucked by our newest brother, spreading his seed for all of you to enjoy. Maybe later you all can join in. I know the whore will open her wet holes wide for you all.

Heavy hooves stomped onto the stage, and From the corner of my eye I could see him. Spine Breaker was a burnt corps, his own mouth filled with jagged black teeth, looking at me with hunger.

I struggled, I wanted to scream, but I could do nothing. I knew it was a nightmare, but I didn't want this, not after I got my revenge.

Everything then froze as Strife pulled on my mane, getting face to face with me, and though she was just a mass of blackness, I could see an all too wide smile. "That's it, that is it. Give me more. All of 6our fear, all of your hate. The joy of victory and the pain of defeat, give it to me and I'll reward you. Yes, just like those forgotten relics, I too can give you my boon, my… favor."

"And what would I get, why would I want it?" I thought out the question.

I then felt a pain in my belly, followed by two shrill cries. Strife lifted up two… things, blobs of black goo, both letting out the cry of a baby. "You want them gone, I can do it for you, make it all go away like it never was. I can even make you stronger, faster, more deadly. Just like the hero's you hear of in the wasteland."

She then ungagged me, resulting in me puking up viscous white fluid that smells of burnt rubber. Once the cum was out of me, I then asked, "what's the catch?"

Again I felt her smile. "No catch, none at all. Why would I need to, when this offer is free. Here, let me give you a blessing right now."

I tried to pull back as she reached out with her neck, planting a kiss on my lips. And it burned. It was like a vile fire, and I could not make it stop as I felt a tendril enter my mouth and down my throat, burning everything. Then heavy hooves grabbed my hips, and a large and meaty member pressed on my nethers.

I shut my eyes, feeling powerless, unable to stop all this.

"No more!" The voice of a mare called out, and as I opened my eyes, I found everything lit up in a blue light. "This ends now!"

Strife broke away from me, and Spine Breaker let me go, seemingly vanishing.

"Why are you here!" Strife snarled.

"Rewarding a good deed." The mare said.

Strife then vanished as the mare trotted closer, her light warm and comforting. My bindings fell away and I found myself freed.

"Not free yet I'm afraid." The mare said. She was an older gray mare with a wild black mane, and strangely was engulfed in blue fire. Theis two came to find me, wanted me to help you."

Looking down at her hooves was Mire Frost and Will-o-Wisp.

She then smiled, "they said you've been doing your best out there, and were in trouble. So I had to come and help. Anyways, I owe you one for helping clean up a mess I missed." The blue fire covered mare said as she patted the shadow form of Mire on the head.

Will-o-Wisp whips then danced around her, and I could feel great joy from it… no, not it but her, Will-o-Wisp was a her.

The mare laughed and then patted Will-o-Wisp too. "I know, I know, it's good to see you too."

Turning to me, the mare then pushed both Mire Frost and Will-o-Wisp over to me. "Now you two keep helping the young mare out, and come get me if that bitch shows up again. I'll try to help, but…" the fire around her then dimmed a little. "But I need my rest. Hope is not something I can just throw around every time there's danger. Otherwise it too will become tainted, so try and avoid Strife when you can."

She burst into a glorious blue flame, and I could swear I saw an alicorn in it. The near blinding light then faded, and then vanished, leaving me in the glow of Will-o-Wisp.

"Lottery," the mare called out from within my head. "Do take care of my old friend, I couldn't save her, but maybe you can."

"I… I don't understand!" I called out, but got no answer back. Only the soft light of Will-o-Wisp, of which I then held in my hooves.

_______________________________________________________

Waking up on the cold hard ground, the sun was already in the sky, and the smoldering remains of Elysium was still sending black smoke into the air. Next to me was my gun Rime Frost, and on top of her was Will-o-Wisp. I still didn't understand any of this, or why it was happening to me, but it did make me feel calm knowing they were with me.

As everypony got up, and we used some of the food salvaged from Elysium to cook breakfast, it was mostly a quiet meal. Low had lightened up the mood by talking about himself, mostly distracting everypony about many things we all didn't want to talk about.

Moonlight was looking better, ignoring the lost legs, she was actually a remarkably stunning beauty. Despite how messy her main was, it was clearly well cared for. Even her lips had a slight pout. It made me a little jealous with how plane I was. But her eyes were filled with a deep sadness that broke my heart, yet I knew that she was going to be fine, that the wasteland had not broken her yet. She still had a fire within her, or at least that's what it felt to me.

Mint and Aloe had gotten to work helping everypony, and it was thanks to them that Moonlight had even survived the loss of her back legs. Through then everypony knew that they could get help at Ursa's Rest, and talk with ponies who have been through the same thing. Though for most of them, it would be a poor decision to have them help rescue the other townsponys. Moonlight could, if she still had her back legs.

"Umm… Are you okay with… you know?" Plasma asked, pointing at my new dress, with my torn jumpsuit now laying on top of a saddlebag. The only thing we could find not ruined by the raiders was some strange golden yellow nightwear dresses with brown spots like it was some kind of animal print. It was both embarrassing to have on, yet strangely comfortable. My armor easily went over it, so it wasn't all bad.

"I'll be fine, and not the worst thing I've worn. And it even came with its own underwear and socks." I told her, doing my best to not sound like I knew a few ponies had been looking at me a bit too hard. The nightwear dress, though tame compared to some things I've worn, or even what I had under my jumpsuit, it still felt far more alluring. Plasma herself had seemingly calmed down from how she was last night, but only by a little. It was rather distracting with how fidgety she was, and not all that fun hearing her quietly pleasuring herself as we tried to sleep.

"Okay, well is it… well… okay if I could keep one of those?" She asked, not keeping eye contact.

I had to admit, it was rather comfortable, and it was not like she was going to show it off. "Alright, not like I'm hording them or anything. Just be careful, I don't know why but I feels like this dress catches eyes real easily."

Leaning in, I then quietly asked her, "So how are you holding up, if you're alright with me asking?"

She sighed, staying silent for several long seconds before answering. "Truthfully, not good, but I'll be fine."

"Alright, we will get through this." I told her and then returned to my meal, but kept an eye on her. I knew something was wrong with her, but I had to trust her, and wait for her to come to me.

Once everypony had their fill, we were on the move again. Fortunately the hidden library is just a day's travel away, which would give us another day until the fighting starts over the Breaking Grounds. If we're lucky, Grizzly's forces might actually break through and take the place, and all its guns. But my mind wandered to the Bailfire Egg Launcher, and I had a terrible feeling about it.

But the mission came first, and if we don't take this opportunity now, we will regret it later.

With Spell Circuit reading the map, and Cold Trails flying up to look for landmarks and or trouble, we had a relatively easy time as I lead the now larger group. It helped that the ruins were thin out in this area, giving critters and monsters less places to nest.

Flying over head, Cold Trails damaged armor squeaked as he landed near us. It had repaired itself a bit last night, but clearly not enough to look in any kind of good condition. Still, it was amazing that such armor was self repairing.

"I saw a monument dead north, it looked like a bunch of motor wagons in the middle of a field with lots of stone markers." He told Spell and I.

Spell nodded his head as he looked at the map. "That sounds like the memorial sight, the library is under the monument."

"Memorial sight?" Cold asked before I could.

"You will see when you get there." Spell said as he put the map away.

"You're talking about the Elysian Fields Memorial Sight, aren't you?" Moonlight asked, as she was sitting in a cart Cauterize was pulling. After a moment of us not saying we knew what that was, she then explained. "It's the graveyard for the soldiers who fought in the battles of the first push, early in the Great War. My ancestors were veterans of the great war too, and served as guards for the memorial site. Our home was named after the place."

"What's a graveyard?" Cold then asked.

"It is where the dead are laid to rest." Spell answered, then asked. "How do you not know this?"

"Well we just disintegrate our dead and let the winds take them." Cold explained.

Again Spell nodded. "That would explain why we never saw dead pegasus just fall from the sky, or their discarded bodies on the ground."

As though not wanting to continue the morbid subject, we continued on in silence, eventually cresting over a hill, and reaching the memorial sight. There I saw a long and flat brown land, with rows and rows of headstones. Hundreds, no thousands of them, all looking relatively clean, and hardly a weed or shrubbery to be seen. There were even several patches of green grass… grass!

"We would come here a few times a year to pay respect and maintain the graves. We even managed to keep some of the grass here from dying." Moonlight explained, reading my confused expression on my face, tears forming in her eyes. "With so few of us left, it will be impossible for us to continue to do that. It hurts to think that they will be forgotten after so long."

"You're alive, and we may yet still save the other members of your community. Maybe in time you all can return here." Mint said to the mare, conforming her.

"Excuse me, Lottery." Aloe said as she trotted up to me. "I need to go pay respects to my father, its…. Been too long."

"He's buried here?" I asked, knowing the answer.

"He was an artillery pony, who held off the Zebras from reaching Equestria soil before the great push happened. Many ponies died just to keep the old cannons firing. It was the first time the war actually got real bloody." She told me in a rough but sorrowful voice.

I nodded, "go, and I'll send some pony to go with you." Turning to my group, I figured that it couldn't be that dangerous here, so I picked the robot. "Margret, could you go with Aloe for a bit, make sure the local wildlife leave her alone."

"Can do Miss Lottery, Guardianship mode activated!" The robot proudly announced and then floated off after Aloe.

Curious, I then asked Mint, "do you have anypony buried here?"

Mint shook her head. "Fortunately no, my family was not the type to get involved in fighting. Bakers and Taylor's most of them. My brother was an anti-war activist too, always saying that if we don't make peace then we may end up killing everypony. Well at least he was wrong, but not by much."

As we reached the center, there was a large marble pedestal with a bronze structure on top. There were several statues of ponies in uniforms, holding different guns. I recognized one gun being a battle rifle, it being held proudly in the hooves of a rather large stallion, whose helmet looked ready to fall off.

Spell trotted up to it and read off a large plaque on the marble pedestal, "in memory of our fallen heroes, who stepped up in our time of need and sacrificed their lives to protect ours."

Mint trotted over to the memorial. "Tragically, this was thought to be the end of the fighting. Celestia actually started peace talks soon after the Zebras were pushed back. There was even a cease fire… for a month. I don't remember what exactly happened at the time, but I think that other groups started fighting and caused the war to flare up again." She then let out a long sigh. "If my memory serves me correctly, I don't think a year went by without Celestia trying to end the war peacefully. No pony tried harder than our princess to stop the war, and the Zebras spat in her face every time." There was a bitter tone in Mints voice at the last part, the old ghoul likely scowling under her mask.

We all remained quiet for a long moment, it revealed how silent this place was, with only the wind making any real noise.

After a bit I felt it was time to get to the library and trotted up to Spell, giving Mint a nod along the way. "So… how do we get in?"

Spell's eyes widened as though now realizing that's what we were here for. "Right, simple really. We just need to solve a puzzle that has been built in the nearby area. There's a riddle hidden here that gives out the answer if you understand it. It references a Daring Do book, and a tomb that held arcane secrets of the lost civilization of the sphinxes."

I shoved my hoof in his mouth to shut him up. "I don't know a Daring Do, or could if I wanted to. I also doubt any pony would know either."

"Daring Do, they had all her books backed up on the terminal for all Steel Ranger Chapters." Plasma spoke up sheepishly. "I've read them all several times over."

Spell seemed to light up about this. "That's fantastic to hear. Actually theirs a complete collection inside, all signed by J.K. Yerling. "

Plasma bounced over, eyes wide. "Really! Truly!"

I stopped her right there. "I get it, it's something you both enjoy. And you can gush about it… later. But we need to get inside, so lets focuses."

"Right, sorry." Spell Circuit apologized. "I'll get right on that. Miss Plasm, would you care to join me."

Plasma nodded excitedly, and the two trotted off. It weirded me out a bit over how they both could be so into a book, but I was good to see the both of them enjoying themselves over something. We then watched as the two went from place to place, Plasma excitedly trying to solve the riddle along the way.

I then turned to Moonlight, who looked absolutely baffled. "I'm guessing you don't know this Daring Do either."

"Actually, I do." She said with an eyebrow raised. "Elysium had the best open library on the east coast, only second to the hidden library at tenpony tower. It even had all of the Daring Doo novels. Strangely, now that I think about it, even when a book was lost, the elder always found a brand new one to replace it."

Looking at the others, I mostly got shrugs, and when my eyes fell onto Mint, she just said, "Was never a fan, I read mostly trashy romance novels."

There was then a loud clunk and stone slabs on the floor began sinking down, forming a staircase that wrapped around the monument. When Spell and Plasma returned, we all then descended down, entering our temporary base for this operation.

_______________________________________________________

The stairway went deep underground, and I almost feared that it would never end, forever trotting down in darkness. But a single light revealed that we had reached the end, with an ancient stone door blocking our way. Spell trotted over, solving a puzzle on the door and opening it.

Bright light and warm dry air then greeted us when the door opened, and trotting inside we found the place to be surprisingly clean. It was all brick made structures, not gray concrete, but actual brick and mortar, painted over with white lie. The inside was at least three ponies tall, and stretched out far with many connecting halls that made this place feel absolutely massive. Not surprisingly, books neatly filled every nook and cranny, and were placed behind glass.

As we trotted down into the main hall, there was a ponytron standing in front of a display case that housed several books.

Plasma gasped in excitement as she charged the display case, only to hit some invisible barrier.

"Please do not attempt to touch the books or glass protecting the books." The Robot told Plasma, then pointed to some kind of reception desk to the left, it having another ponytron there. "If you wish to check out a book, a new one can be printed for you over at the book printing station."

Again Plasma's eyes lit up. "Wait, this is the great Repository Library, you know how long the Steel Rangers have been searching for this place! All this lost knowledge, ready to be printed out and distributed!"

"It's more cultural heritage than anything" Spell said as he trotted to the first ponytron. "Librarian, what kinds of books are stored here?"

The robot then answered in a joyful tone, "Stories and tales. All the best sellers from the last few hundred years, from foal picture books to the famous Daring Do novels. We even have several basic education books to help give a foal a head start in life!"

Spell turned to the rest of us, a stoic look on his face. "Unfortunately there were no advanced technical books here. Nothing from after the formation of the Ministries is here, other than then the robots and the book printer. This place was solely made for the preservation of Equestria's culture."

"So this place is pre-ministry." Plasma said, and Spell nodded. "Still, the rangers would kill to protect such a place, I mean I know I would."

"That's all well and good, but I think it's best if we rest up and get ready for tomorrow." I told them.

Nodding, Spell then pointed off to the right. "Theirs cots over in the room there, and a stockpile of preserved foods. Oh, and be careful if you go wandering about, I never explored this hole place."

"Really?" I asked.

"Well it was far more interesting to read than explore." He explained.

Rolling my eyes at the egghead, I then turned to everypony else. "Alright, let's settle in, this place is going to be your home until Ursa's Rest comes to get you all out of here."

The large room was like the rest of this place, filled with books. But this one was more spaced out and had another ponytron guarding the supplies further in, along with another printer that could make pillows, blankets, and simple clothes. For my own sanity, it could produce a needle and thread, of which Molo gladly took, and began working on my jumpsuit. The other ponies we rescued were also glad to get something to cover them and something to sleep on.

It also helped that almost everypony had something to read, which kept them all distracted as we rested. As it turned out, Cauterize was almost as illiterate as I was, and had a disdain for books, calling them lame.

So once we all had something to eat and drink, a few of us decided to look around.

"There's actually a room for ancient books if you want to check them out. Including ones written by Starswirl The Bearded?" Spell asked.

"It's all the same to me, sorry." I told him.

Plasma on the other hoof looked very interesting. "I must see them!" She excitedly exclaimed.

That got a slight chuckle out of me. "Here, go show her them, I'll look elsewhere. Anyways, I need some time alone."

Watching them trot off, I then began to wander. Books, books, and more books, with all while ponytrons trotted around cleaning. It all held no interest to me, though it was rather beautiful in its own right. But not what I was here for.

"Will-o-Wisp." I spoke out and the little blue flame appeared in front of me. "Hello Will-o-Wisp, is there anything here I can use?"

The flame bobbed up and down, then floated off deeper into the library.

As I began trotting slowly down, hoofsteps clopped over from behind me. "Lottery!" Cold Trails called out. "Might be a bit dangerous to go off on your own like that."

I shrugged. "I can protect myself."

"I know, but still, safer in pairs as it goes. Anyways, there's something I want to talk to you about." He said as he got up next to me and matched my pace.

"About what?" I asked.

"Well… I rather not pry, not my place and all, but how are you holding up? After everything, yet you're still pushing forward." He asked me.

"Still don't know myself." I blurted out. "Revenge maybe, why are you asking now?"

He looked forward, scratching his chin with his wing. "I guess that makes sense, and I was wondering why for myself. Since the clouds fell and after my sister's death, I've… just been kind of lost. Ya I want to stop whatever Flyright is up to, but nothing just stops me from flying off and becoming a farmer like my parents."

I raised an eyebrow. "Seriously, a farmer… what, how's that possible in the clouds?"

"Cloud crops," he said nonchalantly. "Something made during the great war I think, and trust me when I say this, it tastes terrible… well not so much as terrible, but very bland. Well my family ran one of the Enclave controlled farms, so they didn't get to keep what they grew, not that it matters with how everything had no real taste or texture to it."

"And you wanted to grow more of that?" I asked.

He let out a laugh. "Actually, ya. I managed to save seeds and cuttings after the fall, Chain Lighting is holding them for me. We want to see if I could make the cloud crops better. Maybe having them in the ground would improve the taste somehow." His amused expression then faded a bit. "I tried to share the idea with Chilly, after the clouds fell, but she… Well, she always hated farming. Not the best memories for her."

That got me more curious. "how so?"

"It's related to the Enclave population control you see." He explained. "Every family is allowed only to have one foal, any more and the family is severely punished. But if the family has shown significant loyalty and above average contribution to the Enclave, then they can have more. Long story short, most ponies with more than one foal tend to be Enclave fanatics, or part of the inner party. My family on the other hoof won the right in a prize drawing."

Cold let out a long sign, it filled with a bitter pain. "Must have been jealousy, but our neighbors didn't like that we could have what they could not. Took it out on my sister whenever we weren't watching, always putting on a friendly mask with the rest of us. I think it caused my sister to double down on her loyalty to the enclave, wanting to show them all that she was better than them. Probably why she ended up listening to Flyright over me."

"I… see." Was all I could say. I had only known the mare for a brief moment, and at the worst point of her life, followed by her suicide. But hearing about her, it made me feel like we might have gotten along, maybe we could have even been friends. If only I had paid more attention, tried harder, been faster. Maybe if she was kept somewhere safer and distracted, she could have adapted to life in the wasteland.

Something then clicked.

"You know, I wasn't allowed to wallow in my despair… after my… separation from Tripwire. I either had to move or had to work." I then looked Cold in the eyes. "I don't know what the others had told you, or what you overheard but… things had been difficult for me for a while before you joined us. If you think I'm some innocent mare… she died over a month ago."

I looked away, at what looked like the end of the underground library. There I saw a fence with a desk, and a ponytron standing like some shop clerk. "I had been raped before, by those who started this mess, and only survived because Spell Circuit saved me. But after that… stupid me let myself become a prostitute, having so many stallions in me that I lost count, and not all because of work. I never got the chance to just let myself be sad all day, never stop doing something, sometimes not even thinking. Eventually I just got used to it. It was just life. So even after the raiders had their fun with me, I was more angry than anything, not like I was any more defiled then before."

Stopping, I let out a bitter chuckle and touched my belly. "But it turns out I was wrong. Now two raiders are growing within me."

Cold Trails patted me on my back gently with his wing. "I… don't think-"

"I don't need pity." I growled out. But the outburst sent a bit of shame to wash over me. "Sorry."

Trotting forward I came to the robot, the thing standing in the dark. Strangely it had a very straight rainbow colored wig and a fake purple horn sticking out from the wig. It made me wonder why it was here and what needed to be caged off.

"So what books are behind here?" I asked.

The robot twitched as it came to life, its legs moving in a more dramatic motion as it spoke in what sounded like a mocking tone. "Yes books, I love books, it's all I ever care about. Not like I need friends when I have books. Books are like, totally the bestest thing evvveerrr….errr….errrrr… error, personality program incorrectly…. Programed… error…. Error."

The robot seemed to power down, yet still spoke, this time it sounded like a recording. The voice was of an older mare with a bit of a scratchy voice. "If Pentagram is right, this should let me program a message into this dumbass robot-" the mare then let out several wet coffs. "Fucking radiation poisoning, thanks Celestia for power armor and rad-away. Well if you're reading this, then you must be an egghead, or one of the guards here. Either way, good job surviving. But if you're looking for Twilight, she's not here. The… Fucking bombs dropped right on her lab! There's no way to get close without getting cooked or mutating."

"Wait, there's no way!" Cold Trails said in shock. "That's-"

The recording continued. "Well… If my fame precedes me, then you must have realized by now. Yes, I am Rainbow Dash, former Ministry Mare of the Ministry of Awesome." She again started coughing, it sounded painful. "Amazing I know, but please keep the cheering down, as by the time you hear this, I'm long gone… and likely dead seeing that it will be a long time before anypony comes here again. If you come here looking for me, sorry, but no clues to my whereabouts will be found here, only my collection of Daring Do books. Please don't touch. And don't bother the ponies living near the memorial sight, they promised to keep this place a secret and I've told them nothing about what I'll doing after I move on. I only came here to direct a few more survivors, and get some rest."

More painful wet coughing came before Rainbow Dash continued. "Fortunately the amount of crazy ponies around here are minimal, so I feel safe to let the ponies above take shelter down here. Though I've advised them to not stay, just until the radiation clears out in a few day, this place was never meant to be a long term shelter, and the books are meant for future generations. They understand, as their good ponies, so please don't cause them problems. That said, if there's a problem, you can use the stash here. Me, the guard, and some really awesome biker ponies managed to salvage a military surplus, and store most of it here, and away from the looters. Once again Rarity was wrong, I told her the Desperados are good ponies, well not entirely good, but certainly not as bad as she said they are. Anyways, I'm going with the Desperados to secure more weapons and arms, keep them from being used on the innocent ponies trying to survive. I've also gotten in contact with a tank battalion further north, and plan on helping them get back several stolen tanks before these… raiders destroy another shelter in their mad bloodlust."

There was a pause, and a voice called out, it too far to hear, but then Rainbow continued. "Ya, I'm coming Arras, keep your flank on." She then chuckled. "I know it's inappropriate, but it feels good actually helping ponies again. Anyways, Twilight, if you're hearing this, if you're alive somehow. Don't come looking for me. It's time to stop, it's time to move on. We failed, and we failed hard. Just look for a nice peaceful place and settle down. If there's anypony who needs to move on more than anypony, it's you. Maybe we'll meet again, maybe not. But I know it's time to move on, and make new friends. Sorry, but once I'm done with what I'm doing here, I plan to just… settle down. My wings are tired, and I've not had a restful night sleep for years. I just… I just need a rest. Goodbye my... friend."

The robot then shut down, and lights turned on behind him. In the smaller room were many dark green boxes with the symbol of the Equestria military on it.

"Oh! This has to be what I think it is!" Cold Trails said as he flew over the robot and opened a box. Inside was a IF-64 rifle, and ammo. "Mint condition Bloomberg Rifles! Rainbow Dash must have taken these from the military reserve, it's possible they were going to be sent to the front line for the Great War. This must be the stash Spell mentioned, and there's gotta be… I don't know, but it's a lot of rifles!"

I hopped over too and took a look. Certainly there were a lot of them, and covered in oil, meaning they were likely in pristine condition. Not only that, but it looked like there were mods too, with extended barrels, scopes, and even several suppressors in the box. Rainbow Dash didn't just make sure weapons were left here, but made sure a pony would have the right tool for the job.

"This will certainly help Grizzly arm ponies to fight Tripwire. At the very least we can give them to the ponies here so that they can defend themselves. Maybe donate them to the NCR." I said as I picked up an IF-64, the rifle glinting in the dim light.

"Again this is why I've come to like you." Cold said as he turned to look at me. "You never stopped thinking of others. Where I thought we could use this in our mission, you want to get them to the others."

He then put the rifle down and with his wing, pulled me close. "What I was about to say to you, it wasn't pity. Far from it. I think that after all that, the fact that you still give a damn. That you still want to help others, I find it amazing. Yes, the pony who did this to you is a raider, and nothing will change that, but I'm sure anything made by you will have your heart. If you have those foals, they will be half you after all. So don't call them monsters, raiders or anything of the sort, because that's like calling yourself a raider. And you're not!"

"I…I…" my mind was going blank, he was so close and I could smell his sweat. Also his words… they did make some sense. Even if their father was a raider, they were also half…me. And it's not like ponies are born raiders, Molo wasn't after all. I still didn't want them, and the idea of giving birth to them disgusted me, but… maybe it was wrong to call them thing, to call them raiders. Not like it was their choice.

"But… I'm defiled. I was a whore!" I told him.

Cold Trails let out a sigh. "I can't say such things don't bother me, and frankly, I feel conflicted. But I know that you care, that you suffer because of it. You cried for my sister who was a stranger to you... and what was done to her… what kind of pony would I be if I looked down at another pony who went through the same thing."

He then let out a huff. "Ya, I don't care that you sold your body, or any of that. I care about the good pony who charged up a burning tower to protect all of us. A mare who gathered a scared herd of ponies and brought them to safety, and then made sure they were looked after. And let's not forget, you're a beautiful mare who looks good in anything."

Hearing that made my shoulders feel a little lighter. As though I wasn't as tainted as I had felt before.

Looking up a Cold, smelling his breath, I kissed him. I knew it was the curse pushing me, but I didn't care anymore, I needed the touch of a stallion. Our tongues touching, tasting each other.

Braking for air, Cold said. "Are you sure this is a good-"

He shut up when I pressed on his balls with my hoof. "Don't care, I need this right now! You don't know how much I've been going crazy."

The kiss continued as I drew his shaft out from his sheath, caressing it. Pushing him onto his back, I got to work with my mouth, engulfing myself with his smell. It didn't take long before the bitter taste of his seed entered my mouth, but somehow it didn't taste all that bad, and felt good as I swallowed.

Wiping drool from my lips, I looked down at his reasonably larger cock and smiled. "Oh I really need this!"

Pulling off the animal print panties, I climbed on top of Cold and let his member slide into me, causing my spine to quiver with pleasure. I could feel the tattoo burn, enhancing the pleasure more than I had felt before. It was euphoric.

We did our best to keep our grunts and moans as quiet as possible, fucking until I passed out from exhaustion.

_______________________________________________________