Fallout Equestria 'New Stalliongrad'

Chapters

Announcement: Its over guys
Announcement: Fallout Equestria New Stalliongrad is back! "Working Class"
Working Class: Now Available!
Chapter 1 'Inside Looking Out'
Chapter 2 'Catacombs'
Chapter 3 'Following the Lost'
Chapter 4 "Old Prometheus Highway'
Chapter 5 "Next of Kin"
Announcement: You asked for it!

Announcement: Its over guys

New Stalliongrad. No longer in production

So exactly the same thing happened with New Stalliongrad as it did in I am Radar.

I juggled too many plot points that in the end, just ended up creating a lot of continuity errors toward the climax.

Let me make it perfectly clear.

New Stalliongrad is not cancelled permenantly. I love this series…I want it to work and I want to like it but as I read more and more of my own chapters I begin to notice I’m not capturing the motif and theme the story was meant to have, and that’s the conflict between Freedom and Order.

Its in cancelled hiatus until further notice…theres a very real chance I may even end up fully rewriting the whole story with more focus on the Characters themselves and a much less enormous plot.

If I do I may even release what I had planned for future chapters in the plot line but as for now I’m unsure and may seek advice from others.

I really am very sorry to do this to the very small but devoted fanbase that have taken so much time to read my silly little story and for that I thank you.

But remember.

NEW STALLIONGRAD ISN’T DEAD, ITS JUST SLEEPING.

Thank you all.

~DarcySupremest

Announcement: Fallout Equestria New Stalliongrad is back! "Working Class"

How many readers do I still have?

Seriously comment if you're reading this, Why?

Because yes, in secret I have begun work on Fallout Equestia Working Class.

The Redux of New Stalliongrad.

A lot of the chapters have been planned, 2 are actually being written, and at this rate should be ready by January.

So like I said, seriously, comment if you're reading this. Please, I'm not asking much, I just would like to know if I'm going to be starting again with a returning reading base or not.

~DarcySupremest

Working Class: Now Available!

http://www.fimfiction.net/story/75504/fallout-equestria-working-class

Welcome back to the new series ladies and gentlemen!

~DarcySupremest

Chapter 1 'Inside Looking Out'

***CHAPTER 1

“Inside looking Out”

_________________________________________***

Snow.

I suppose you all think it’s beautiful and clean, but let me tell you, when you live on the streets for as long as I have, you learn to hate that damned stuff.

I suppose I should tell you my tale.

This all happened a long time ago, back before now, when I could just barely read and write, had a pathetic education, was hungry all the time.

When I was a street rat.

We can look at where I live in two ways.

You can look at New Stalliongrad and see the tall skyline, the new buildings and the people who obey the laws and stick true to what happens with awe.

And in a sense, yes I suppose New Stalliongrad is amazing, this city nearly spans 14 kilometres of new buildings and tall skyrises built by the ingenuity of our race.

A city rebuilt far from the actual ruins of Stalliongrad, far from the madness.

Ten years ago the skies were opened up by the Light Bringer, our land was revived with the aid of the strongest magic imaginable.

With new found hope for a brighter future, ponies united and banded together to rebuild the world they had so masterfully incinerated and destroyed.

However, not in the way our saviour had hoped.

Our world was not unified, it was separated once more by the quarreling nations its citizens had created.

Ten years of intense fighting led to the creation of four nation states that controlled everything there was to be controlled in Equestria.

To the south, a nation built up of Alicorns and Unicorns called The Arcane Dominion. They scorched the very earth that their enemies stood on, and once they had acquired control over a perfect square 100 kilometres each side, they built massive walls all around the perimeter and covered their land in a huge dome of protective magic. The Dominion hasn’t moved or done anything in nearly seven years but whatever they are up to in their little safehouse.

Above them is the NCR, The New Canterlot Republic, a large democracy that controls a majority of the important cities of old Equestria including Stalliongrad, much to the annoyance of New Stalliongrad, so much so the Old Stalliongrad ruins are nothing but a war zone between the NCR and New Stalliongrad. At this current time, the frontline hasn’t moved in four years and the cannons and bullets still chatter deep into the night.

Then you have Marenburg.

Marenburg is a brutal orwellian society ran by an insane schizophrenic Earth-Pony mare named Ripchord who had been a slave under Red Eye’s Unity.

Everyone under her rule is a slave and is treated like dirt except the select few that live off the riches of the labour. Ripchord is a cruel heartless monster, the flag of her nation has ‘The Great Walls’ drawn on it to remind those who are captured of what will keep you imprisoned for the rest of your life.

And finally you have The New Stalliongrad State, the largest nation of the new world.

A huge Communist state stretching from the top coast of Equestria all the way down to pretty much the top of Old Stalliongrad.

Our world has come a long way since deserts and raiders, huh?

However New Stalliongrad isn’t all perfect.

Lately there has been a little bit of an ‘ethnic cleansing’ going on.

You see, the NSS is great if you are a pony, I however am not.

I am a Zony and so is my little sister, my mother was a Zebra and my father was a Pegasus.

I am Nimbus, I am 16, I am a Zony with wings.

I have to wear boots and socks along with a vest to hide the faded stripes on my back and hooves, in order to make sure I don’t get arrested, same with my sister.

Both my parents are dead, sent to Artechoka Prospekt, the prison camp that is never anything but a whisper and a murmur amongst those who know what happens there.

But I am alive, and so is my sister, if just barely.

We live in poverty and squalor in a wooden lean-to beneath the main bridge in the centre of town.

On a normal day, me and my younger sister Fable would tend to our mushroom farm in the dark damp area beneath our home, but this was not a normal day.

Fable was sick.

I didn’t know what it was, I think it may have been pneumonia, but it was impossible to tell without a doctor checking her, and that was something I couldn’t allow. If she got a check up they would see her stripes, and she would be sent to Artechoka.

I had been going without sleep, working as hard as I could to save up the coins and caps I had to get in order to buy a ‘MAGNIFICENTO INC CURE ALL’ potion. They cost nearly 250 bits each.

I also had to ‘wash’ frequently, sleep outside and wear a rag over my mouth and face when I helped my sister, I couldn’t risk getting sick as well.

It was another particularly cold morning, my sister coughed like a banshee in the corner, shivering like crazy, despite having every sheet in the shelter.

Fable was a slender, cream coated pegasus, she had a sleek and straight inky black mane done to be tied behind her head with a ribbon and a headband.

I was on my knees scrubbing the floor around her, she was so weak, she couldn’t even get up to use the toilet.

It was stuff like this that frightened me, her condition worsened every day, and at the same time this was what drove me.

I had to work harder, I had roughly 220 bits after a week of hard working.

30 coins remained.

I had to make 30 coins in the shortest time I could possibly manage.

Fable’s condition was severe, I doubted she was going survive to Monday.

“Nimbus...” Fable called, her voice was so faint, so weak.

I walked to my sister's side and stroked her mane “You should not talk Fable, you are weak, I will have the medicine by tonight, so please hold on”

My sister’s eyes were barely open, she was sweating profusely “When I get better, what will happen to us?”

She brought a good point to our little hypothetical table.

The savings we used to buy our food week to week were part of the medicine money, we couldn’t possibly stay somewhere like here without money to spend, we would never make it to the next crop of mushrooms if we were broke, we would starve.

When Fable got better, we had to leave New Stalliongrad, go south to the NCR, have a better life somewhere safe.

Fable’s dream was to move to Junction R-7 and meet Fluttershy. Fable loved animals, she once had a puppy named Dreamy, the poor thing died in the middle of the night due to the cold, I couldn’t bare to tell her what happened.

So I said that Celestia had chosen Dreamy to be sent to Fluttershy so he could live a happier life, ever since then she has been determined to get to R-7, to meet Fluttershy and reunite with Dreamy. It’s cruel and unrealistic I know, but Fable has put up with so much in her life, she deserved a break from the sadness and depression.

“We will have to leave New Stalliongrad, go make a home somewhere in the NCR, or even the wilderness maybe” I replied, still stroking her mane.

The wilderness are the areas that no nation has claimed as their own, mostly all of it is on the West Coast of Equestria, out there is the lawless wasteland we all know so well.

“I have to go and work now, Fable. Remember, stay in bed, keep quiet and if something happens, my revolver is just here.”

It pained me to leave her side, but I had too, otherwise I might as well let her die.

I walked outside, threw the rag across my face in the bucket filled with clean water and then proceeded to wash myself thoroughly in the river.

I had to get those 30 bits, even if it killed me.

******

First stop: the docks.

This job would get me 15 bits for a mere one hour of work, only catch, it was extremely dangerous work.

The guy who owned this dry dock was an idiot, no harnesses, no tool guards and a badly ventilated workshop, working on a massive 50 metre warship. Pretty sure the downtown area of New Stalliongrad was constantly toxic, so I wore a different rag over my mouth here, as well as a set of glasses that shielded my eyes from toxins in the air.

I didn’t clock in, I signed a working hour booklet at the entrance. This place had no employment for full time, the only thing this dry dock cared about was getting the boats out as quickly as possible and as high a quality as you could get with street rats and recycled scrap metal.

The workshop, despite how much you grew to hate it, had a welcoming temperature, immediately warming my numb and cold body.

But, like I said, you grow really annoyed with it after a few minutes working in the stuffy shop.

Before me was the huge and patchy skeleton of the NSS Enchantress.

Her body, the work nowhere near completion, consisted of a metal rig with the occasional bunch of plates welded to its surface.

I was handed sunglasses and a backpack welder, I was plating this morning, thankfully not the most dangerous job on the list. At least I wasn’t scuttling like on Wednesday, I never wanted to see that much blood again, ever.

I was lucky enough to be able to tread air with my wings, but the weaker Pegasi as well as the Earth ponies and Unicorns had to be slung to rigs hanging above the ship, another danger in this room I would like to avoid. That thing had snapped, multiple times, killing many.

Hours and hours of hot sticky work welding and many oxygen refills later I had nearly expertly welded down an area ten metres long. I was proud, I was going to get my 30 coin easily.

But of course somepony had to fuck it up.

I have no idea what happened, but my theory is that somepony knocked the support stands and the result was a horrid sight.

The behemoth of a ship groaned and in a mix of ponies yelling, metal shrieking and wood splintering, the boat rocked slowly before tumbling down onto a group of workers and sending bolts and shrapnel flying.

The sound of the ponies trapped beneath, being squashed like insects would never leave me.

I just hovered, gobsmacked at the ruin before me. Several unlucky survivors escaped with limbs cut clean off, screaming frantically as they cried in agony. One particular victim had a rivet right through his eye, another two images that would never leave me.

Despite my terrified state, I was also furiously angry. This meant one thing, I wasn’t getting paid, I did nearly three hours of breakless work for nothing.

After we were kicked out I had only 2 more options, I had to do 4 hours of work for Whiskey Shot, our local blacksmith or do some crate hauling.

I had no problem with doing either of these, my only annoyance was the part of me that knew if the ship hadn’t tumbled I would already be back home with a vial of medicine at my side.

I walked down the streets making my way out of the industrial district and made a V line to the blacksmith.

Whiskey Shot was a dick most of the time, but he appreciates hard work, heck he knows about how Fable is sick and decided to change the usual 5 coins an hour thing for 10 so I could get the money for the medicine faster.

I navigated my way through the twisting snow covered streets dodging others and staring that the ground.

I heard a rumble and when I looked up a large battle tank was rolling down the road beside me.

I looked back down again and continued down the street back to market square, where Whiskey Shot's blacksmith was located.

I slowly trotted in and saw Whiskey Shot behind the counter casually reading the newspapers until he looked up and saw me.

"ah yes Nimbus, come in" the blacksmith dropped his paper on the counter and walked over slowly.

Whiskey Shot was a considerably old unicorn buck, he had wavy Green hair at one point but it had since greyed. He also had a sapphire blue coat and a cutiemark of a bellow.

"I heard there was an accident at the the dry dock, you get hurt?" he Inquired as he looked around the store for a job to start me with.

"No I'm fine, I was plating so I was pretty much on the roof the whole morning"

The old buck sighed as he floated me a lead apron.

"Good, okay so I'm going to start you off on the furnace, you just keep loading ingots into the furnace until it's full and keep pouring molds"

I nodded "yes sir"

The hours went by in sort of a haze, as I toiled away lifting metals and tools, hammering and shaping, moulding and pouring but soon I had done the 3 hours and I had my 30 coin as well as 10 extra, just in case.

I thanked Whiskey and galloped full speed back to the house, I had the money to buy the medicine.

Fable was going to be okay.

I rushed down the ramp and up to the entrance to our little lean to shelter.

After tying my house cloth to my face I walked in slowly.

"Fable it's Nimbus, I have the rest of the money"

I walked over to look at my sister, I thanked every goddess I could that she was still alive.

She was still shaking quietly, and as lifted the secret plank and retrieved the bag with the rest of the money in it I heard my weak sister call out to me.

"thank you...Nimbus"

That was enough.

I sprinted as hard as I could to the alchemist.

Through the streets. Past the ponies.

Finally I reached the Alchemist, I nearly broke the glass in the door as I rushed in.

"Ineedamagnificentocureallplease" I said trying to regain my breath.

"What?" the alchemist replied as he dried a flask in his magic.

"A magnificento cure all please" I said now that I could breathe

"That's better, I'll go get one" the alchemist yawned as he vanished behind his curtain.

I sat there for a little admiring the potions and spell tomes that decorated the display case.

He returned with a vile of blood red liquid in his magical grasp.

"That's 250 please" the unicorn said, plonking the vile on the counter.

I fished out the money and placed it on the counter.

After a quick flick through of the coins he smiled and pushed the vile toward me.

"Have a good day" he said as I slipped the medicine into my vest and walked out.

I jogged back, taking the longer way home as to avoid confrontation or obstacles that could stop me, making extra careful to not trip or fall over.

I once again ran down the fishing ramp and through the small moat of water around our home and into the front door, wrapping the rag around me in as I did so.

My sister was still shaking in the corner, my body relaxed, I had done it.

I had saved my sisters life.

I poured the potion into her open mouth and sighed as she swallowed it.

Fable coughed lightly, the potion was very bitter almost like drinking vinegar, I had taken one ages ago when I was her age, nearly threw it right back up.

“I know it tastes awful Fable, but you have to keep it down, it will cure you”

I think we just sat there for a few hours sort of half awake half asleep.

I awoke when I heard whispering and gravel shifting outside my door.

I growled at the door and seized the revolver in my jaws and pointed it at the door.

I had never killed anypony, but if whoever this was wasn't popping in for a friendly hello, by the goddesses, the stars and everything in between I was going to learn.

The curtain shifted, the moment It did I pulled the hammer back to a satisfying

'click!'

The shadowy figure in the doorway stood still.

I was smirking confidently, at the I intruder, obviously dead terrified after realising a loaded gun was pointed at him.

A buzz and a flick of a switch changed that very quickly.

It was A New Stalliongrad Guard patrol, the largest one shone a headlamp at my face.

I had to swallow my heart as I stood up, And placing my gun on the floor.

It was one of the NSG's random house raids, you were taught protocol when you were in school, if not they had posters and pictures so it was fairly simple.

Stand up. Drop whatever you're doing and stand to

The left of the door as the inspection.

"I see you know procedures, unlike your kin here" the largest guard smirked

"She's frightfully sick sir, I'm afraid she can't get up" I reported to the group leader.

"Is that so? Well she can remain in bed for the search, now my lad, we will conduct our business, you must stay near the door at all costs, and by no circumstance may you leave that position" he stated

"Fish Bone, HappenStance, with me, we are inspecting the house" the leader continued

I was left alone by a hapless guard, who looked only a few years older than me, he looked bored and annoyed as he stood keeping watch over me.

I think a sick idea creeped into his head to fuck with me, because he looked at me and smirked devilishly.

"Whatt'a beautiful sister you have, such a shame she's sick" the punk smiled "You know what's wrong with her?"

" I'm afraid not, I think it's pneumonia" I replied as I half glanced at him

The guard smiled and walked to the foot of my sisters resting place.

"You know what the best solution is? Little bit of therapy"

The punk lifted up her sheets and peeked in at my sisters body.

I stomped and growled at the buck.

The buck yanked out a small shotgun "that's not wise Street Rat! If you pull something like that again you dirty shit, you're going right to Artechoka!"

I held myself back.

The guard grinned and returned to my sleeping sister, staring intently at her rump through the sheets.

I growled at him again "Touch my sister, you will die"

He dropped the blanket and stormed over to me.

He lifted me up and slammed me into a wall, keeping me suspended by holding my neck with his hoof as he pushed it hard against the wall.

"Was that a threat you stinking street rat?"

I smiled, despite my troubled breathing.

"You bet your ass it was" I replied

The guard growled and threw me across the room sending me sprawling into the rickety table.

I coughed and trembled as I rose to my hooves, whilst in the mean time realizing my leg wraps had unwound.

My stripes were clearly visible.

"Well Well Well, I hope you like the cells of Artechoka, because that's where you're going you striped scum!"

With a flash of thought I charged the guard and head-butted him as hard as I could.

His limp body tumbled back and he stared at the roof

I had dazed him he sat on his back staring at the ceiling, his vision swimming as he had to rethink.

I ran over to my sister and lifted her up and onto my back.

I had assaulted a guard, and my secret was out.

We couldn't stay in New Stalliongrad.

I rushed as hard as I could out the door of the shelter, up the ramp and out into the streets.

I had roughly 2 minutes before the guards realized what had happened.

The gate was halfway across the city, no good.

Fuck, what was I meant to do?

Where do I go?

The gate was nearly 12 minutes away, one of those guards was a unicorn, just as protocol.

The guards had a nearly flawless magical communications network, and a unicorn was almost like the radio technicians of the old pre war armies.

And that meant one thing, every guard detail had to have a unicorn for communication.

I had to get out as quickly as possible, and that meant one thing, and one pony.

Tunnel Rat.

Okay, I need to explain further here.

I am part of an underground resistance network, in a way.

It's not official, I'm not officially a resistance fighter.

I'm sort of in a 'protection' contract with them.

Well my father was.

Okay.

This group is called Freedom Stripes, they are a group dedicated to feeding and keeping Zonys and Zebras alive in these harsh unforgiving streets.

Every so often for guaranteed protection, I had give up an entire harvest of mushrooms.

It meant we went hungry from time to time, but it meant I could take advantage of something in particular.

Tunnel Rat.

I carefully walked up to him, Rat was a Cheerful and often humorous unicorn Zony.

He looked up from his barrel fire which lighted his reading.

"I was wondering when I would see you Nimbus" Tunnel Rat joked as he stood up from his fire.

My sister moaned on my back as she shifted slightly.

I shushed her lightly and whispered in her ear.

"What's wrong with your sister Nimbus?" Tunnel Rat asked as he tried to peer over my shoulder in order to see her.

"She's sick Rat, there was a routine raid on the house, they found out I was a Zony, we need to get out of New Stalliongrad" I said whilst rubbing my sister's neck.

"I don't know Nimbus, these things are expensive, the tunnels beneath New Stalliongrad aren't exactly safe" Tunnel Rat said quietly

"Please Rat, I have never once claimed anything from the stripes, no food, no shelter nothing, this is the only time I asked our group, please if you can’t do it for me do it for Fable” I pleaded

A somber tone hummed out.

The PA towers.

New Stalliongrad is split up into 8 district all of them has their own PA tower, that are in the exact center of the districts and are roughly 3 story high wire framed towers.

They were used for new laws, speeches, inspections and of course.

Fugitives.

“YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE, CITIZENS OF DISTRICT 7 ARE ADVISED TO REMAIN IN THEIR HOMES UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE, ZEBRA FUGITIVE‘S HAVE BEEN IDENTIFIED WITHIN YOUR DISTRICT, GUARD DETAIL’S ROMEO 1:1 and ROMEO 1:2 ARE ON PATROL AND ARE WARRANTED TO ENTER AND SEARCH HOMES SHOULD THEY FEEL NECESSARY, THANK YOU”

Tunnel Rat was silent for a minute, deep in his own thought.

In the distance Spotlights from hovering pegasai shone down on the streets as they searched for me in the dark midnight streets.

“Rat we don’t have long please...”

“Okay Nimbus, I'll do it, but you owe me so much, you hear me?”

I sighed “Thank you so much Rat, I will never forget this” I replied

“Yeah yeah whatever”

We walked quietly around the corner to a dead end alleyway with a rusty dumpster in the corner.

“Help me with this would you Nimbus?” Tunnel Rat said as he stretched his body.

I carefully laid Fable on the ground and walked back to the dumpster.

Me and Tunnel Rat shouldered as hard as we could into the dumpster and slowly pushed it out of the way.

Beneath it was a sewer cover with the number 2 engraved on its surface.

“Okay stay here Nimbus, I need to grab you something” Tunnel Rat yawned as he headed back into his little shack

I heard stirring beside me.

My sister was awake.

I walked over to her side and helped her to stand up.

Her legs trembled but she eventually stood up like she did before her illness.

I hugged my sister for a brief moment, it was so comforting to see her alive and healthy once more, after all those weeks of unsure thoughts and sleepless nights, I needed this.

“Where are we?” Fable said, the weakness still evident in her voice.

“Tunnel Rats house, we have to get out of New Stalliongrad, he’s going to help us get out without getting caught”

Fable nodded quietly “Where will we go?” she asked

“You wouldn’t remember but we have a godfather, his name is Rhinestone. He lives very far away, in Trotsvok, he’ll know what to do”

I haven’t even heard my Godfather's name spoken in 4 years, I really had no idea what kind of pony he was or heck if he was even alive anymore.

Tunnel Rat came around the corner, a small case in his magic, he nodded and smiled at Fable before walking to me.

“Okay, In this case is several things you may need down there, there's a couple of chemlights in there, as well as a flare, on top of that there is a 9mm pistol in there, now I doubt anything will be there but thats there just in case”

He lifted his hoof for a bump, I returned it “Good luck out there Nimbus, it may seem bad in here but Equestria is still pretty fucked up outside those walls, do me a favor and don’t stick your neck out too much okay?”

“Thank you Tunnel Rat, I will never forget this”

Tunnel Rat lifted the cover up to reveal the dark labyrinth of tunnels that were buried beneath this city.

I climbed down first and helped Fable down as she followed.

Tunnel Rat peered over the open hole and looked down at me and Fable “You two know what the Freedom Stripes flag looks like right?”

I nodded.

“Good, just follow the flags and you’ll get out, goodbye Nimbus”

I heard heavy metal rubbing against concrete and watched as we were plunged into darkness as the cover was placed back on the sewer hole.

I don’t think I have ever been somewhere so dark.

I opened the case and retrieved two of the cylindrical chemlights.

I bent them both until they snapped and shook them quickly until they were soon glowing enough to illuminate both of us.

I gave one to Fable and told her to keep it on her so we wouldn’t get separated.

I looked about and on the right wall was a small and crude etching of the Freedom Stripes Flag, a small box with raised striped hoof within it.

I sighed, this was my life now, an underground fugitive running from the guards and hiding in the streets.

Alas little did I know the journey ahead of me, and as we all know every journey starts with a step into the unknown.

Never has a term been so literal to me.

LEVEL UP: WELCOME TO LEVEL 1!

PERK ADDED: Family Feud

When around a memeber of your kin, you’re 20% more accurate and get a nifty 10% endurance boost!

“ I am sincerely grateful for you taking the time to read this, thank you so much and please stay tuned for the next installment”

DARCYSUPREMEST.

Chapter 2 'Catacombs'

***CHAPTER 2

“Catacombs”***

____________________________

I had always wondered what darkness was. Was it the absence of light? Or was it a separate entity, that can't exist in the presence of light?

I guess it's stuff like this that shows up and creeps you the hell out when you are in near pitch black darkness, that and whether or not Ghosts and monsters exist.

After several minutes of darkness I managed to finally get 2 chemlights out and snap them until they glowed.

We could see a vaguely for roughly 2 metres before our weak source of light faded into the darkness.

“Dark as hell down here” Fable said stating the obvious

I rolled my eyes and looked around.

These sewers were not your typical sewers, they were for the most part very spacious and to my pleasant surprise, didn’t smell as bad as I thought it would.

I figured it was time to get moving, I took a step toward the darkness, then another, and another.

Before I knew it I was walking.

Fable kept close looking around more curious than terrified.

The tunnel continued in a straight line for what felt like hours, but there was no timekeeping down there obviously so for all I know it could have been 10 minutes.

Of course another side effect of being stuck in a dark and featureless hallway, sensory deprivation.

There was simply nothing to hear, nothing to see, nothing at all and it's probably because of that, that I started seeing things, hearing things.

The wind whispered to me, as it lightly brushed my ears.

“fires“

I pricked my ears up and searched for the voice I swear I heard echoing in my ears”

“even she can’t stop them”

My heart pumped faster and faster, my eyes scanning furiously for anything that could be causing me to hear voices.

“she is powerless”

My mouth grew as dry as a bone, I breathed heavily and sweated furiously in fear.

“repeat”

I coughed in order to hide a whimper of fear, a ghostly image appeared from the corner of the darkness, a Zebra, with long hair stripped like her coat, several rings around her neck. she smiled at me caringly

“repeat”

My limbs trembled as the ghost’s eyes turned into black voids.

“REPEAT”

I stomped my foot at the Zebra “SHUT UP!” I screamed as loud as I could. The ghost disappeared and the voices stopped.

Fable looked at me like I was insane “What in Equestria is wrong with you?!” she yelled.

I panted and choked as I held back tears of fear.

“Nothing Fable, just haven’t gotten much sleep lately” I said trying not to to frighten my sibling

She looked at me like I just said we were on the surface of the moon.

“Seriously? My ass that was nothing!” yelled as she stared into my eyes.

I looked at her angrily “I’m...hearing things Fable, I need to get outside before I go insane!” I said forcing myself from her gaze and continuing on our walk.

My sister sighed and continued remaining silent for a majority of our walk.

* * * * * *

We reached a fork, and had to stop dead, there was a guard patrol in the tunnel with the Freedom Stripes flag in it.

The group milled around as they waited for orders from a tall and slender Pegasus stallion who stared intently at a map in his hooves.

This particular stallion had a brilliant white coat and the shortest and most well looked after burgundy mane I have ever seen.

He has sapphire blue eyes that held an ocean of calm strength and bravery to them, framed by a set of small black square reading glasses.

Unlike the normal black and dark orange combat armor that his squad wore, he wore a set of nearly pristine charcoal black combat armor that had elegant golden trims decorating the edges.

A short black cape was draped over his right shoulder. Everything about this pony breathed authority, and I was genuinely intimidated by his mere presence

After a few moments of staring I finally recognised him.

Commander Coal

He was the son of Lady Sky Spring, the board member for the pegasai.

Allow me to explain.

Our government is made up of 3 representatives who govern the entire nation from what is known as ‘The Boardroom’

The unicorn representative is one Sir Prairie Dog, he is in charge of the economy and trading.

The Earth Pony Representative is Lord Hunter, he runs the actual government part, laws and rules

Finally there is Lady Sky Spring, the representative of the Pegasai, She is in charge of the military, she was apparently a Commodore in the Enclave, according to Whiskey Shot, she was in pretty much every single skirmish of the Enclave War, from Friendship City to The Battle of Fillydelphia, she was there commanding troops and ships, apparently she was damn good and if it weren’t for the Enclave being brutalised into submission she was set to become the Admiral of the entire Enclave Fleet when the current one retired.

I could only imagine her son holds the same irrefutable talent for strategy as she does, bloodlines tend to work that way.

We had no other choice but to take the other tunnel, it appeared to run alongside the one we were supposed to take which leads me to believe it will relink with it again.

I theory...

I hope.

We carefully snuck around the tunnel and walked down the other, slowly making our way around them in order to remain hidden from view.

After we slowly continued a safe enough distance up the tunnel before I considered walking fast again.

But again, nothing is allowed to go as planned in my world.

2 troopers came around the corner, the two mares seemed more interested in talking than actually looking for us.

But still if we didn't get out of their way, they would see us, easy, and of course, raise the alarm.

The only place was a small hole in the wall to our right.

I told Fable to get in and I would follow after once she had done so.

We crawled into the space. It actually just kept going, like a tunnel had been dug by something that was attempting to gain access to these sewers.

We decided to keep going further and further down the cramped and dark shaft until it took us whoever it was headed.

At the entrance to our place of hiding the sound of the two guards walking by echoed down our hole.

Luckily we weren't found and after a hefty sigh we continued scooting slowly down this seemingly endless shaft.

We were getting really far off the beaten trail, I hoped we could navigate our way back to the hole once those guards go away.

Eventually (and finally) the shaft ended abruptly with a very wide and very tall tunnel crafted with masoned stones and forged flagstones.

There was no way this tunnel was built recently. This artwork suggest hundreds of years ago, maybe even hundreds of years before the war.

We walked for a minute down the dark and musty hallways, awe inspired by the depictions of art, carved into the walls, artwork of ponies celebrating, ponies fighting dragons and monsters, even griffins and winning, defending their homes from the world.

Then the next wall, it had the same world carved in the one before but now it looked like snow was on the buildings and the ponies, dead bodies and sorrow.

The next wall, the ponies are driving apart by the snow in separate corners of a triangle, looking upon each opposing corner with ire and angst, pegasai on top, the unicorns on the left and the Earth ponies on the right.

Then the next wall, a scene of a gruesome battle, swords flug high, lances of magic piercing from the sky and punching into the ground, carving the earth into glass, pegasus shooting fiery arrows from extravagant bows and they fly over their targets.

It was war, ponies killing other ponies, after looking closely the snow was even more intense here, I had to put the pieces together in my head, there was happiness, then the snow, and then the war.

Why had the snow started a war? There’s snow everywhere in Northern Equestria.

I moved back to the pane with the sad ponies and the snow, I looked carefully, I saw farms that laid bare as their farmers cried.

The snow had killed the food, the ponies began to starve and with the need to survive pushing the boundaries of desperation, the three races went to war to survive.

I sat quietly and remembered the small history I had been given, how The Great War started.

Ponies needed coal to feed the ever expanding society they had built around the resource, in exchange they traded with the Zebra’s trading the abundance of gems Equestria had for the abundance of coal the Zebra’s had, the Zebra’s building their entire society around magical gems.

A flawless machine of trade.

Then greed, somepony wanted more for less, a wrench in the gears and the machine grinds to a halt. Embargoes and tariffs, societal unrest as resources run dry.

Aggravation.

Desperation.

War.

The Great War was a repeat of the war on this wall here, had that been what the ghost was talking about?

Warning me us that another war was approaching and not even the princesses could stop it?

Creepy.

“What the hell is this place?” Fable questioned as she poked around at the various walls with her hoof, examining them by touch.

That was a fair question, I moved to the next wall and saw another pane of carved stone.

Upon this wall was ponies retreating into the underground, from a ruined world, as they hid from the snow, building homes and warmth in catacombs and networks of tunnels, not just 1 race, all races retreating from the snow, into the bowels of the earth.

What did this mean?

“Oh my gosh...Nimbus, come and look at this”

I raised my brow and followed my sister who had wandered further ahead to a platform that hung over a large cavern.

Standing beside her, I saw what she wanted me to see.

Nothing less then a city, laid before us.

Buildings as much as 5 stories high, made of stone, brick and wood scattered around a massive cavern.

“This...this is a” Fable whispered

“Stable, an ancient Stable, to escape the winter” I replied

It was huge, it must have been bustling with ponies in its hay day, now it just laid dust covered and abandoned.

“The winter destroyed the surface, so they ran and built a life beneath the earth until the winter ended, this is incredible” I said admiring the tallest building in the cavern, a large almost castle like structure.

“How many of these things were built do you think?” Fable asked

“This may be the only one, but who knows maybe there is more?”

I noticed a large and wide ramp leading straight upwards, I decided that was our best bet.

I waved my sister to me as I continued down this platforms ramp and into the Somber city beneath us.

All around the buildings surrounded us, abandoned, left behind once the warmth returned to Equestria and its citizens left for the surface.

Small masoned bowls were placed strategically along the streets, within them all was pieces of charcoal, still remaining from the last time the fires within them burned, to offer warmth and light was my only theory.

It was unsettling, I can only say that, nothing else would do it justice, it was just...haunting.

“This looks like a general store” Fable noted as she pressed her face to the glass window that amazingly remained intact after all these years of neglect.

I walked to her side and joined her as she inspected the contents within the store.

Baskets that once contained what I can only assume was fruit and vegetables, but now contained nothing but a strange mass of mould and moss laid along several counters and tables.

Something caught my attention, 2 glimmering length of steel sat on a rack at the back.

Tempted by my own curiosity I opened the cold rotting door and stepped in. The store smelled like dust and mould, a building long neglected by its owner.

I approached the lengths of cold steel, upon closer inspection I realised they were in fact multiple layers of steel.

I brought one of the two steel objects to my level and fiddled with it in my hooves.

The layers unfolded mechanically yet remained linked at their bases folding out like a V. I noticed the main piece was edged like a blade, the dull razor sharp edge looked painfully sharp to just look at.

I shrugged to myself and folded the layers up and placed them in the tight gap between my body and my vest, they sat snugly.

I had no idea what the damn things were but i figured they could be sold for a tidy sum, pure metal is worth a lot more than that recycled junk.

My sister was admiring the faded and nearly worn away paintings, after tapping her shoulder she followed me out the door and back onto the street as we continued to the large ramp that I assumed was an exit.

More and more stores and homes passed us as we walked slowly down the flagstone street.

“Nimbus, look over here!” Fable called as she ran to another store.

I rolled my eyes and followed my energetic sibling, it warmed my heart to see her running enthusiastically, I felt pride for myself for saving her life.

I stood beside my sister, it was a clothing store, many items on the manikins were nothing but black scraps of material but one particular dress was still waiting peacefully on a manikin nearly untouched by the years, I couldn’t even imagine the level of craftsmanship to create something that would last thousands of years with nearly no decomposure.

“That dress, it’s beautiful!” she squeaked, nearly on cue she burst through the door to recover her find.

I followed her in smiling as she undressed the mankien and got changed from her usual tunic into the beautiful green dress.

It was a mossy green and frilly dress that was actually surprisingly short, more so like a skirt than a dress.

I rolled my eyes when she smiled at me as she flaunted her figure playfully clearly happy her new item of clothing.

“Remember when you called me a ‘typical colt’ when I got excited by that squadron of fighter pegasi that flew over the city?” I laughed as I looked around the store at the other items of clothing still in decent condition.

“Now its my turn, I have never seen a mare so excited by a dress, you are such a typical filly!” I said in a high pitched nagging voice.

Fable laughed at me “Whatever, you’re just jealous because you wished you looked this good in a dress”

she said purposely swishing the dress left and right whilst she admired it.

“Come on, I really don’t want to stay in these caverns for too long I need some fresh air”

Fable nodded as we left the store.

Once again we returned to the flagstone street of this curious underground city.

This place probably had a considerable amount of loot still left within its boundaries, maybe I’ll sell its location to somepony in Trotsvok and buy me and Fable a nice home.

The ramp was now right before us and we slowly climbed the incline.

The air was getting thicker, filling with smoke and becoming increasingly difficult to breathe in, something was polluting the air in this next room.

We reached the top of the incline, before me was a magnificent, yet somber sight.

A room, a perfect dome stretched before us, perhaps just as large as the underground city.

In the dim light I could just make out the outline of a leviathan mural drawn on the roof.

I could barely see it, but i could just make out the shapes of 6 symbols each within its own orb, above it was a drawing of the sun and beside the sun was the moon. below was a large green expanse with ponies and cities, trees, animals and plants All living together in harmony.

The room was a memorial room, to remind the ponies of this underground city of the world they had left behind and that they hoped they would return to.

Something rumbled, the room shook lightly, dust flickering from the roof.

A shape, a huge shape shifted its position in the centre of the room.

I couldn't see it, but it was massive red mound.

“What in Celestia’s will is that!” Fable said as she squinted at the object.

Part of me wished she had said that quieter.

Two glowing topaz eyes fluttered open.

Good goddess the eyes were nearly twice my size.

The creature stretched out, unfolding its massive self and stretching out as it stood on two legs.

A fucking dragon.

It’s crimson serpentine head frilled by green scales looked down confusingly at us.

Don’t think I explained it good enough, this thing was enormous, It looked like it could touch the roof.

The creature lowered down to four legs and stretched its head toward us, the beasts head stopping a mere metre away from us.

Its head was the size of a damn building!

The leviathan opened its maw, I expected to be eaten but instead of a horrific chomping death all I heard was it say “Ponies?”

The Dragon’s voice was deep and old yet contained and educated, like his tone had a certain wise charm to it.

The beast sounded astonished “I have not seen your kind in in a very long time”

“You’re not going to eat us are you?” my sister asked calmly a hint of fear behind her voice

The thing chuckled “Please, look at you two, do you really think you would be able to sustain me? I would most likely burn more calories digesting you both then I would gain from you”

That was a relief.

The dragon pulled its head back slightly “Allow me to introduce myself, I am Melancholy, and who may you two be?”

My sister clearly exhibiting more courage than me spoke up “I am Fable and this is my brother Nimbus”

“I see, where do you two hail from little ones, your accent says...northern Equestria?” He asked his colossal body reclining as his neck and head remained motionless.

“New Stalliongrad, actually not far from you, pretty much right above this place” I perked up.

Melancholy raised his brow “New...Stalliongrad? What happened to the old one?”

Now It was my turn to look confused. “It was...destroyed” I said confusingly

“My goodness, by what?” He asked

I looked at him deadpan “The bombs?” I replied

“The what? what in Equestria are you talking about?”

It was nearly tragic, this seemingly wise old Dragon was completely unaware of the war, the exchange.

“What’s the last thing about the surface you remember?” Fable asked quietly

“Well the last thing I remember was being kicked out of my nice cosy mountain cave by six mares, they all tried getting me out, one even kicked me in the jaw nearly broke it, of course when I go out to confront them this little yellow one yells at me like it’s my fault, so then I flew here found this tunnel and settled down in it”

I tapped my chin and sighed “It’s a long story but the short version is that there was a war, a pretty big one between Equestria and the Zebra’s, the fighting was really intense and the entire planet was destroyed when we figured out how to make weapons that could destroy entire cities”

Melancholy looked very distressed “My goodness this is terrible, how can I help fix things?” He cried as he shuffled his enormous feet.

“Melancholy...?” Fable said quietly.

The dragon stopped his movement and looked down at my sister hints of sorrow in his large topaz eyes.

“The...war...ended over two hundred years ago” she continued quietly

Melancholy’s lip trembled I even saw a tear before he wiped his eyes with his hand.

I am probably the only pony in history that has seen a full grown dragon cry.

Fable touched and stroked his scaly face “I’m so sorry Melancholy, did you have family before the war?”

Melancholy smiled at Fable’s act of kindness before frowning once more “Yes, I had a son and a mate, I went out hoarding for a year so I could return to my family with a bountiful sum of gems and gold, but I guess I overslept, huh?” He chuckled lightly. Not from humor, from uncomfort and loss.

It was breaking my heart seeing this, I can’t even imagine what it must feel like to wake up one day and have two random strangers tell you that your family is dead and the world you once knew is gone forever.

We waited in silence for a few moments as Melancholy composed himself and thought about something.

“I have to get outside, get a look at this new world I...can’t stay here, I need to know how I can help ponies and fix things, but first I must see this new world” The dragon said sorrow still evident in his voice.

“Nimbus, Fable? You have come this far and helped me, maybe you are willing to go a little further?” He said sternly

Fable nodded “Anything we can do to help Melancholy”

The dragon pointed back toward the ramp we had climbed to get into this room “Back in the city area of these catacombs is my hoard, I’ve collect a great sum of treasures for my hoard through the many years when I used to be small enough to loot the buildings”

He sighed “In the stash is a gem, that is very special to me, it was a gift from my son when he was just a chick, it’s an emerald about the size of your head, it’s shaped sort of like a water droplet, I would go get it myself but I am afraid I can no longer fit through those tunnels at my age” He laughed lightly

“If you get me it you can take as much as you can carry from my hoard, just as long as I get to keep the emerald” He looked at us sadly

“Of course we will get it for you Melancholy, you can count on us” Fable said caringly.

Melancholy let out a small smile “Thank you both...so much I can’t even begin to tell you how much that emerald means to me” he sighed quietly “The hoard is in a courtyard just behind that big building that looks like a castle”

Fable nodded at me sternly and turned back to Melancholy “We will be right back, with your emerald Melancholy”

My sister slowly walked back down the ramp and after a nod to Melancholy I followed after her.

* * * * * *

We once again emerged from the ramp back into the streets of the city.

I looked left and right until I saw a castle on the other side of the damn cavern.

We trotted carefully toward the location of the hoard, through the twisting and abandoned streets.

The upside was an excuse to loot the buildings again, however I seriously doubted we'd luck out anymore than a shiny set of metal blades and a dress.

I still looked left and right at the various stores anyway for the off chance we find something useful. We lucked out, I saw an alchemist, several potions still glowed from the window.

I pushed the stiff wooden door open and stepped inside, the store, picking through the ancient potions, looking for healing potions.

My only guess were the ones with the heart drawn on them.

I collected the three marked with hearts and stuffed them between my vest and body.

I really needed to find a saddlebag when we finally got aboveground.

We stepped outside once more and looked around for more stores to loot.

There wasn't really a lot to choose from, there was a jewelers, but we thought it would get pretty redundant if we were headed to a courtyard filled with jewels.

The castle was now only a few blocks away, you could practically see into the windows.

Once we trotted around the corner a large ravine separated us and the courtyard, and a few other various things.

A few ponies, at least 4, they were dirty and covered in patchwork armor, crossed back and forth on a makeshift bridge over the ravine, they carried large baskets that were tied to their back, filled with gold and gems.

“Those are...raiders” Fable whispered

I nodded in agreement.

There was no way I was putting my younger in the risk of raiders, not a chance.

“Fable, it’s too dangerous for you, go back to Melancholy, I’ll get the gem” I whispered holding her shoulders and looking her in the eye.

“No way, we’re in this together Nimbus” she said to me sternly.

“Like hell you are, Fable, you have heard the same stuff as me about raiders, you know what they are capable of, and there is no way in hell I’m putting you in that kind of danger”

Fable opened her mouth to object before closing it and nodding “Please be careful”

I hugged my sister tightly “I will, now please, wait with Melancholy, I'll be there soon”

She nodded and began to walk back to the ramp to get back into the memorial room.

I pulled the 9mm from the box and slammed a magazine into place, flicking off the safety.

Time to learn how to shoot.

* * * * * *

I snuck closer to the bridge, trying my best to remain quiet and stay hidden as I did so, I finally got within Earshot of the biggest one there, a large Unicorn mare, she looked like she was in charge.

The next largest one ‘an earth pony buck’ walked back clutching his back and gritting his teeth.

“Goddess damn Carpenter, my back aches like a bitch, remind me why we can’t go buy some slaves to do this for us?” the buck groaned as he rubbed his back.

‘Carpenter’ backhanded the buck across the face “Because, you stupid wretch, it’s hard enough for Rusty

to move these carts of gold out of the area without the patrols noticing. Having a bunch of whiny slaves with them would just increase the likelihood of them being caught, we can’t risk being caught, you know just as well as I do how they treat Raiders in this fucked up country” Carpenter snorted to the buck.

She was right to be afraid, being caught raiding in the NSS was just about the worst thing that could happen to you.

They chained you up marched you into the city and through the streets right to the fort, in front of everyone, the guards were supposed to keep you alive until your real punishment but more often than not they turned a blind eye and let the public do as they please, you were berated, insulted and shunned on your long walk to the fort.

When you got to the fort the commanding officer ‘usually Commander Coal as he is the highest rank next his mother being the General’ decided your punishment.

Depending on the level of raiding your group is guilty of you were punished usually more to humiliate you rather than imprison or execute, if you were just highway raiders you were put in the stocks and publicly humiliated, again the guards had to make sure it didn’t get too serious but like I said more often than not they turned a blind eye and let a rock be thrown once in awhile.

If you were a much more notorious gang, you were punished much worse.

It could range anywhere from being shaved to having limbs removed, if you were really unlucky you were given the ‘Lazy Sunday’ Punishment.

If you were a stallion, you were nudiered in public, no anesthesia, only the medicine to keep you awake and alive.

If you were a mare you were chained to a wall in the male bathhouses and left there as the bucks did as they pleased.

I know it sounds cruel, but you have to understand, Raiders have been pillaging, attacking and terrorising the wastes for two hundred years, ponies really didn’t like raiders and now that innocent ponies had the upper hoof they struck back at the raiders really hard and these kinds of punishments were considered acceptable.

The bucks who did go to the bath houses weren’t frowned upon, it was socially acceptable, as normal as going down to the pub to get a drink. Except instead of popping off to the pub with your mates after work or class you went to the bathhouses.

I had once nearly been tempted to join in with a bunch of other workers at one of my random jobs. They invited me to join them on a ‘Trip to the Bathhouse to meet the new mares’ as a way to celebrate one of the worker’s birthday, they nearly convinced me too but I was exhausted so I declined and went home to bed. I couldn’t have been any older than 14 at the time.

Despite how awful it was, it worked.

Raiding was nearly extinct within the borders of the NSS, give or take the few stubborn groups such as this one who still remained.

It was groups like this, who thought they could gallop under the radars and beat the system that made the act of ‘Meeting the new mares’ possible.

“Ah, I ‘spose thats a good reason, but still one more load and I’m getting a beer”

Carpenter sighed “Fine, but not for too long Rusty’ll have me head if we don’t get enough of these loads out tonight”

The buck walked off and Carpenter was left alone.

Carpenter kicked back on a wooden chair and hummed for a little as she rested her eyes. I took the time to get even closer, I could see the hoard, it was huge!

It was probably just as big as Melancholy, and enormous pile of shimmering gold and silver with the occasional flicker of a gem within it. I couldn’t see the Emerald though, just before I was about to give up and go back Carpenter spoke again.

“Oh yeah, you big beautiful rock, you’re gonna buy ol’ Carpenter a brand new Anti Material Rifle”

Of course, I mean what else was I expecting?

Carpenter held the large droplet shaped emerald in her hooves smiling devilishly, the look of pride for finding something like that was in her eyes.

“Fuck, fuck fuck...” I said under my breath complaining about this turn of events to the god who was probably too busy playing chess with the damn lightbringer to hear me.

I was offered a small window of opportunity to get pretty much right behind her, whilst Carpenter was busy looking at the other raiders struggling to get a larger piece of gold out from the pile.

“This is crazy, this is crazy, this, is, crazy” I launched out of my cover and ran as quietly behind Carpenter’s chair.

The Emerald was right there, just sitting in her saddlebag, I could grab it and run before she even looked back.

I slowly reached my wing out to grasp it but just as I could feel it’s cool glassy surface brush my wingtip, Carpenter reached down and grabbed her bags and walked toward a building that looked like it had been converted into their camp.

I swore under my breath and quietly followed the mare toward their residence, making sure I kept quiet as I did so.

I stuck behind her, as soon as she opened the door and stepped in I leapt through the door in an act of agility that surprised even me.

I was inside the invitingly warm building, despite its cosy atmosphere, crude and vulgar graffiti violated the ancient walls, I won't go into detail but they involved Celestia or The Lightbringer, and a lot of stallions.

Okay that was too much, now I need to bleach my eyes.

I tore my eyes from the walls long enough to see Carpenter, drop her bag and walk into what I assumed was some sort of latrine.

My heart jumped nearly as fast as I did as I quietly jumped for the emerald.

I snared it in my hooves and placed it on my back clamping it down with my wings.

I sighed and made a rush for the door, flinging it wide open and rushing away toward the ramp.

"What the fuck? You stop before I pump your ass full of lead!"

Shit, now I really had to run, my only hope was that when these raiders see a dragon the size of a city block they will back off.

A gun cracked and a bullet whizzed by my ear.

I heard a door slam and a mare roar "You thieving piece of shit! Gimme back my Emerald!"

I yelped and forced my legs to move faster, it was like a cane was striking my lungs repeatedly but somehow I ignored it and kept running.

I screamed in agony when I felt a bullet slam into my flank, sending jolts of teeth shattering pain through my body.

It felt like somepony had a length of white hot barbed wire and was slowly feeding it through my wound each time my hoof touched the ground.

Yet I kept running.

I galloped onto the main street, the ramp increasing in length as I slowly made my way to it.

More bullets whizzed by my head as I kept running, each whistle that buzzed past my ear was a reminder of what was behind me.

I bounded my way onto the ramp and in a final burst of energy forced myself to run the whole time up it's incline.

I screamed once more as another bullet impacted with my body, this time in my upper back leg.

I finally reached the top, Melancholy and Fable looked at me horrifyingly as they saw my wounds.

"Get back from the ramp" I shouted to my sister.

I ran to the the point that I was feet away from Melancholy's huge body.

The dragon growled as he looked toward the door.

The raiders came roaring over the top and nearly froze completely silent as they eyes the huge beast before them.

"You ponies got a lot of guts rummaging through my hoard without my permission” Melancholy growled as he snaked his neck and head toward the group before growling again.

The Dragon opened its huge mouth and shot a huge plume of fire from its maw.

The 4 raiders screamed as they were nearly instantly killed by the intense heat.

It was horrifying, yet I couldn’t look away. I just stood there awestruck by witnessing 4 ponies being cooked alive.

I sighed and fell back on my haunches in relief, that was not fun and I do not want that to happen again.

"Nimbus! You've been shot, what the hell happened out there?" Fable yelled as she ran to my side.

I waved my hoof to calm her "It's okay, I was just hit a few times, we have potions don't worry"

"Now Melancholy, I have what you requested"

I yanked the emerald from under my wings and held it in my hooves as the dragon smiled warmly and grasped the emerald (which he was massive compared to) and just looked at it.

"You know...I wasn't always this big, I was actually quite small for my age back when my son was born, but dragons don't stop growing, especially if I am apparently over 300 years old..."

He laughed uncomfortably.

“The exit is up that tunnel, I would join you but I have a few...personal things to attend to first, In private...” Melancholy murmured quietly. Well as quietly as a dragon can.

I nodded and lead Fable out of the room, she reluctantly agreeing to do so.

As I walked up the tunnel to our freedom, I heard Melancholy call.

“Nimbus?”

I poked my head back in to face him.

“I owe you a favor, anytime you need something, find me, and I’ll help you out, no matter what it is” Melancholy said as he stared at the emerald flicking between his talons.

“Thank you Melancholy, I trust this will not be our last meeting?”

“Not a chance my friend, we’ll meet again someday, perhaps soon but now I must prepare for what I may see up there, thank you again”

I nodded and followed my sister up the ramp, slowly making our way toward the faint light that beckoned us at the end of the tunnel.

* * * * * * *

We exited the catacombs in an interesting area, behind a waterfall that had frozen over and locked us in the small gap behind it.

“Well, now what?” Fable questioned as she tapped the waterfall to test its strength.

I shrugged, rolling my shoulder as I prepared to slam my hoof into the icy wall before us.

I slammed my foreleg as hard as I could against its surface, the wall of ice shuddered and cracked before coming down in an avalanche of ice and ice cold water.

After shrugging to my sister I dived into the (really) cold river and swam out into the physical stream and floated for a moment before wading my way the the shore.

I sat quietly shivering as I waited for Fable to jump into the stream and meet me out here.

I slid one of the potions out and sculled the whole flask into my mouth.

My lungs felt like they were being squeezed, and in one single agonising moment I coughed so violently blood came trickling out of my mouth.

When I regained composure I looked at my wounds, they had healed. I guess potions weren’t as subtle or as clean back then.

I saw the cream yellow shape of Fable rear its head from the water and squeak as she crawled to the side of the river, her new dress flopping like a wet rag as she shivered up the riverbank to my side.

“This sucks, when we get to Rhinestone’s place, you’re doing the ironing” she said shaking furiously in an attempt to dry off.

It was just barely morning out here, just enough to make out shapes and features, not enough to see anything closer than a few metre’s

It was cold too, to be fair that probably had a lot to do with the fact that we were soaked to the bone.

I started walking, Fable following quietly behind, my destination was a road, a house heck a sign that could tell me where the hell I was would have been helpful.

We climbed through the forests and bushlands, coming out on a snow covered dirt road.

“So, which way to Trotsvok” Fable asked yawning quietly as she looked down both ends of the road.

I shrugged and thought about it for a moment “I don’t know, it’s West I think, didn’t you say you knew compass points from the...”

“NIMBUS LOOK OUT!”

A heavy wooden object struck my face with great force sending me sprawling across the ground and knocking me unconscious.

And this, is of course when my story really began.

LEVEL UP: WELCOME TO LEVEL 2!

PERK ADDED: Hidden from the sky.

You have spent a considerable amount of time beneath the ground and because of such you get +1 Perception when you are in an enclosed area.

ABILITY GAINED: Melancholy’s Favor.

The enormous dragon Melancholy has promised you a favor!

“ THANKS a bunch for coming back and continuing to read my story! Please stay tuned for the next installment!

DARCYSUPREMEST.

Chapter 3 'Following the Lost'

***CHAPTER 3

“Following the lost”

_________________________________________***

So finally, I was free of the shackles of the NSS regime.

Free to roam the wastes and create whatever life I wanted for me and Fable, but not before we made our way to Trotsvok and had Rhinestone give us a headstart on our new life.

We had no place in the NSS any more.

Of course there was the first roadblock of my new life, the very predicament I found myself in right now.

I raised my weary, aching head to the sound of humming.

I was tied to a metal chair that was bolted heavily to the floor.

Before me was a unicorn mare, she had a long silky brown mane and a clean sky blue coat with several small tattoos around her lower body, as well as a large one, stretching from the right side of her chest all the way down her foreleg to her hoof.

The mare’s mane was draped over the left side of her face, obscuring one eye and partly concealing her features.

The mare turned around and looked back at me with a purple eye nearly as dark as the shadowed one on her left side.

"Well well, look who is finally awake!" she said, standing up from her desk and striding over to me.

The mare looked older than me by a few years give or take, and despite her youthful appearance she definitely had some wasteland miles on her, that's for sure.

She donned a set of reinforced leather armor with a white finish.

"I am Rusty, leader of this gang. You belong to me now, same story with your sister, who will be joining us shortly."

She lowered herself down to my height and stared directly into my eyes.

"Before we do anything else, why were you in my turf? Are you just a small NSS scout?"

I chuckled at that "Come on, you see a scout under all of this? You flatter me."

Rusty lit a cigarette and puffed on it lightly whilst turning my comment over in her head.

"Decent point, still doesn't explain what you were doing snooping around 400 metres from my camp."

"We came out of that underground city. By the way, the group you sent down there to salvage and loot was killed by a dragon."

Rusty again tongued at her cigarette before replying.

"Interesting, it's a shame you're full of shit, otherwise I might believe you."

I rolled my eyes "You can believe me if you want, I don't care."

Rusty yawned and looked back at me “Okay, if you’re my new property we can’t have that tone.”

She floated the cigarette from her mouth and brought its glowing red tip right in front of my face.

Before I could even react, she brushed the skin beneath my left eye, ever so slowly burning a black scar all the way beneath it.

I screamed in agony. Even under the heavy odor of the cigarette, I could smell my flesh burning. I felt my skin die and flake away as she streaked the glowing ember across my hide.

I made a point to never cry after what happened to my parents, to stay strong for Fable, but I couldn’t help it.

It just hurt so much.

"You know, there is a pony out there, willing to pay 20,000 caps for you and your sister. Some weird buck called Jericho, got that whole mute sniper motif going on, he's even got a full set of riot gear."

I raised my brow again, stinging my burn and causing me to grit my teeth before looking back down again.

”Riot gear, that’s the NCR, isn’t it?” I said quietly.

She looked at me and nodded “Defector, runs away and gets to keep their toys, sounds like something I would do, but don’t worry about him, you’ll meet the buck eventually.”

Rusty butted her cigarette against her desk and dropped it into a chipped and faded ashtray.

“I’m not letting him buy you, he is actually a regular, comes around once a month, he also defends the place from mutants and such, buys some slaves once in awhile, does something with them, whatever it is, probably dangerous, he keeps returning for more every month.”

She cleared her throat and turned to stand before me.

“This month I thought I’d keep my catch.”

“Where’s my sister, I swear if you hurt her....” I growled.

Rusty sat down at her desk and spun around to look at me again “She is fine, she’s asleep in my room upstairs, no one would dare touch her. I’m in charge here and I’ll put a bullet between their eyes if they disobey me. You’re both my property now, no one else's to share.”

I looked at her confused “So if you’re not going to string us to a rack and cut us up, what are you planning?”

Rusty got up and walked over to me again “I don’t know, really. Your sister? Maybe I’ll break her, then resculpt her to be my protegée, I could use a partner in crime.”

She tapped her chin “You? I don’t know, I’ll probably just make you my boy toy or something, little less complicated.”

I really didn’t like how open she was being with all of this...

There was a knock on the door.

“Shit, I was hoping to have a little more time with you before he showed up”

Rusty grunted as she unlocked the door and invited a large guest in.

“Come in Jericho, have a seat” Rusty said quietly as she returned to her chair at the desk.

I will now introduce you to the most intimidating thing I have ever seen.

A tall Earth pony, almost bigger than the doorframe, walked in.

Head to hoof he was covered in big, yet smooth power armor with a helmeted full-face gas mask. The two eye pieces glowed a hellish red.

Jericho turned to me and stared, those hellish red eyes gazing into the very threshold of my soul.

Eventually, the huge Earth pony took a seat, not breaking eye contact once.

"I think I know why you are here" Rusty said, looking at Jericho.

The head hidden behind the mask turned to Rusty and stared at her with the infinitely red voids that were apparently his eyes.

"You can't have these two, I want to keep them for myself. Now I know you always buy them to feed your pet fucking Hydra or whatever, but these two are mine, you can have the next ones we pick up.

Jericho continued to stare. His glowing demonic eyes remained fixed on Rusty.

After a few awkward minutes of silence Jericho stood up and walked slowly to the door before looking back at Rusty.

He reached into his pocket and fished out a long cylindrical object. It had a red stripe painted around its length.

His hoof pushed down on the top and with a click he threw the object right into the middle of the courtyard.

The cylinder exploded into a crimson cloud which plumed up into the sky.

Oh no.

I struggled and pulled on my chair, but it was no use.

"What the fuck does he think he's doing!" Rusty growled then started yelling "Kill that mother fucker!" to the various raiders outside.

Those who were armed and ready opened fire at the huge buck blocking the doorway, their bullets uselessly pinging away like they were mere pellets.

Rusty growled before running to a radio on her desk.

“Sapphire! Turn around and shoot at Jericho, give him the biggest round we’ve got for the Anti-Machine Rifle!”

The radio barked and a grainy voice returned communication “Aye Aye.”

A loud thundering gunshot echoed out.

Jericho's left shoulder was thrown back by a hefty bullet, striking right to his side.

I believed him to be wounded but once he recovered, it became obvious that the bullet hadn’t even penetrated his armor.

The demonic Jericho remained still, staring at the raiders who fired and the arriving members who were fishing out their guns.

After a few seconds of waiting, his back buzzed and unfolded, revealing two heavy calibre looking turrets, that erected themselves and aimed at the group.

THWOP

One of the turrets roared and a nearby raider was nearly ripped in two by its sheer force.

THWOP

Another raider blown in two.

THWOP

Another.

THWOP

THWOP.

It kept going, bullet after bullet, ripping ponies into giblets like they were made of jelly.

The raiders’ guns fired, their bullets still uselessly pinging off such heavy armor.

Even grenades were lobbed, but to no effect, Jericho just stood there taking enough fire to knock out a battle tank.

In the distance I heard screaming, the sound of air being ripped apart by the speed of a thundering object.

They were here.

It was a fighter Pegasus company, drawn to the sight of a strike request marker that shimmered into the sky.

Rusty apparently heard it too, as she threw up a shield to protect herself, accidentally catching me inside its boundaries.

Outside, the ground exploded into fire, sending plumes of smoke, flames and debris flying.

Around us, Rusty's building collapsed as the Pegasi flying overhead gunned down raiders and buildings one by one.

Jericho's demonic eyes shone through the dust and fire. He strode back into Rusty’s building and plucked a restless pony's body from the rubble.

It was the figure of my dear sister Fable. She yelled something at him, desperately looking about. How she had survived a fall from the second floor as it collapsed, I will never know.

Jericho glanced at her before stopping shortly to look left and right. Then, shaking his head at her, he yanked at my protesting sister’s foreleg and galloped off quickly into the nearby forest. Fable following quietly behind.

Where was he taking my sister!

What if he did have a pet Hydra?

What if he was planning on feeding her to it?!

I ran after them but slammed face first into the shield Rusty had erected, which separated the flaming dust filled outside from us.

Rusty dropped her shield and hit me on the back of my head so I would look at her.

"Shut up and follow, or you will die!" she yelled as she put her thick saddlebags on and waved her hoof at me.

I reluctantly followed behind Rusty, keeping a brisk pace as I did so.

We retreated into the treeline, hiding from the returning Pegasi who were still gunning the camp’s boundaries.

After minutes of silent walking we eventually stopped at a small lake for a drink and a chance to catch our breath.

As Rusty bowed down to refresh herself, I contemplated killing her.

Pushing her in, holding her down, It'd be easy.

She'd die in seconds...

"You're wondering why you shouldn't just kill me, aren't you?” Rusty said, standing back up after getting her drink.

I snorted at her "Really? What gave it away?"

"I've been around ponies who wanted me dead twenty four seven, I can pick up on the mood the moment it changes, trust me."

"So yeah, humor me then, why shouldn't I kill you right now."

Rusty blew out air as she thought.

A thud echoed out as another bomb detonated in the raider camp.

"Well, beside the fact that I have taken out stallions older, stronger and bigger than you, with my bare hooves before."

I rolled my eyes at Rusty's little ego stroke.

"...I also happen to have your equipment in my saddlebag, despite only one thing being of any remote use. And finally, the most important one yet"

I urged her on with my hoof "Is...?"

"I know where Jericho set up camp, I’ve had my bucks follow him back to his lair. It’s a little drainpipe west of here that he did up. Actually a pretty nice pad, I admire Jericho’s artistic design.”

She bowed down again for a second drink as another, much closer thud echoed from the camp.

Rusty stood up again “See, I ain't an idiot, I know his type."

"The moment Mr Lone Wanderer in power armor doesn't get what he wants, he has a bitch fit like that. So in preparation for that I did a little recon."

She smirked at me "So, you help kill Jericho for crossing me, and you get your sister back, sound good?"

What alternative did I have?

Celestia doesn't even know what Jericho is doing to her right now, besides, she had my gear.

What advantage did I have?

"You have me in a tough spot, so maybe I'll help you. But how do you propose we do this, run up to the killer pony with power armor and auto turrets and punch him to death?"

Rusty shook her head, a terrifying grin forming on her face.

"My secret armory, back under my little office building."

I looked back at the camp in disbelief.

As if by convenience a thud echoed out as another explosion rippled through the ground.

"You know, the guards are probably rounding up your clan right now as we speak, going back there would be suicide."

She smiled "You think I'm scared of those stupid lackeys you call soldiers? Don't make me laugh."

"Well what weapon do you plan on getting?” I said, moving closer to her. “Jericho took a direct hit from an Anti-Machine Rifle and shrugged it off, I don't think any gun you have could do anything after seeing that" I continued whilst looking her in the eyes.

"I don't plan on using an Anti-Machine Rifle, I have something much better" she said rubbing her hooves together.

She smiled "Anti-Tank Cannon, I have one round left for it, and I saved the best till last."

Rusty pulled a long glimmering shell from her saddlebag.

"Tungsten Stubbornite alloy core, full metal jacket with an armor piercing tip, this coupled with the insane acceleration it gains in the cannon could punch a foot long hole in a Thunderhead's hull."

She slipped the cartridge back inside her bag "All I need is the launcher, which is in my armory, which lies beneath my office, which is back in the camp."

I rubbed my temples "Right, so we're talking about sneaking in and ducking under the radar right? Because if you aren't thinking that, you won't survive long."

Rusty looked back at me and smiled "Oh when you put it that way..."

"You can't be serious...that's a Pegasus strike team and possibly a dozen or more troops, I don't care if you think that the soldiers are wimps, but 12 'lucky hits' can still kill you!"

Rusty groaned loudly in order to annoy me "Fine...we'll do it the lame sneaky way" she conceded, with a hint of poutiness in her tone.

We headed back to camp for a reason, I didn’t really understand yet.

* * * * * *

Once we had arrived at the outskirts, we did a little recon.

In the camp were several troopers, meandering about or patrolling the area while others looted the tents and buildings still in one piece.

The surviving raiders, all of different sizes and shapes, sat in a recently erected cage made out of temporary fences.

Our target was the now smoldering ruins of Rusty's office room, around which one or two soldiers stood staring into space.

"Okay, so the plan goes like this: we sneak around the back of my VIP tents and then follow them forward to the edge of the office building."

She smacked her right front hoof into her left one.

"We quietly take out that guard and hide the body in one of the tents, before sneaking back onto the ruins and getting into the cellar through the ensuite’s marehole, sound good?" she questioned, looking at me as if I the pathetic little street rat would have any input for a stealth assault.

I nodded and Rusty sighed "Okay, lets go."

We moved toward the tents that Rusty reserved for her VIPs.

They were bigger than the tents or shelters the thugs got, but they were still just simple 11x11s.

A Vertibuck flew overhead, most likely for reinforcements or a guard changeover.

After they were clear, we moved again, slipping past a guard who had snuck into one of the VIP tents to loot and have a smoke.

I looked back at the now landing aircraft.

Besides the ever so subtle giant red NSS shield painted on the side, it had something more important on it.

The nose had the letters 'N.S.A.S.F 1' stenciled on in glossy white paint.

New Stalliongrad Affairs and Special Forces.

These bucks were the ponies who were called when the veterans couldn’t do the job.

They were the blackest black ops teams in the whole of Equestria, if you saw a team after you, one of the Chairponies on the Board really wanted you dead.

Five figures jumped out the side, four of them were huge, obviously muscular giants of ponies, who donned heavy, yet agile and compact sets of armor, that covered them literally ear to hoof.

The four in armor were Elites, they were the best soldiers in our military, bar none. They’d kill you, no matter how big your gun, no matter how good your armor was. An Elite was 110% better than you by default.

It was common word of the mouth back in the city’s streets and workshops.

“Hey, you hear that they cleared an AJ Ranger remnants camp out near Petrovich?”

“Who hasn’t? I heard, one N.S.A.S.F team cleaned the base out, that’s only like four Elites on like 20 AJ rangers or something, right?”

“Definitely don’t want to be on the receiving end of an Elite.”

They had a reputation for getting the job done.

Every.

Single.

Time.

The only unit that could stand hoof to hoof were the Marenburg Faceless, but those things aren't ponies, they are some mess of machine and pony.

Elites were all pony, their veterancy was forged through the fire and blood of years on the battlefield followed by years of specialised and agonising training.

They had a glistening opaque sky blue visor that hugged their faces from the lower jaw all the way to just below the ears, the rest of their armor was brilliant white with red trims.

And their emblem was a sword through a dragon's skull with the words

“Kupaemza v krovi nashikh protivnikov”

We bathe in the blood of our adversaries.

The fifth pony in their group I knew immediately.

Commander Coal, the tall and authoritative stallion I saw in the sewers, stood but 40 metres away.

He strode to the highest decorated trooper, a unicorn mare with an elaborate set of armor of black and silver, a lieutenant. She seemed to visibly shrink as she watched the four huge Elites storm over behind Coal.

I followed Rusty in a sort of half interested state, my focus entirely on Coal. What was he here for?

When we stopped again, we were within earshot of him, I could just barely hear their conversation.

"...cleaned up, this camp is one of the biggest I have ever seen, was quite a firefight too. Three casualties: one dead, two wounded" the Lieutenant reported.

She was definitely not from New Stalliongrad, you could tell by her accent, most likely an NCR defector, they were paid lots of money to come down and join our army.

"Excellent work, Lieutenant. Any sign of our little fugitive friends?" Commander Coal said as they paced to the front of Rusty's office.

Coal's voice sounded young, yet at the same time appeared educated, refined and calm, like the kind of speech a gentlecoltly library assistant would have.

"I'm afraid not, sir. We can confirm that they were here from the statements some of this scum have given us, but for whatever reason, they are no longer present."

Coal nodded, disappointment in his eyes "It doesn't matter, Lieutenant. You worry about getting this place cleaned up, I will remain in order to take a look around, but I must return to Stalliongrad Tower soon."

The Lieutenant held her hoof to her chest for a salute "Chest' I Khvala" the Lieutenant grunted.

"Slava vsem nam" Coal replied bringing his hoof to his chest.

I couldn't believe it, as if my luck wasn't bad enough. The 1st Commander of the entire NSS armed forces and an N.S.A.S.F team were tasked with finding me.

Why did I matter so much? Was I the first fugitive to ever escape the city? Was that it?

Was I damaging their rep?

"Come on you stupid git, we need to get my guns, we can't stay here for any longer."

We walked to the corner of the final tent. There stood a tall mare, she looked like she was sleeping with her eyes open, the way she just stood there staring blankly.

"I got this bitch" Rusty said as she snuck behind the soldier and withdrew a knife from her saddlebag.

She lunged forward, violently jamming the knife right into the mare’s throat, whilst sticking her wrist into her mouth in order to gag her.

A spray of blood shot all over the ground as the mare died silently, unable to react or call for help.

I had seen a lot of ponies die in my time, for all manner of violent reasons, but witnessing a pony kill another in cold blood is something you never forget.

I won't dwell on it, you are an obviously a seasoned reader of these wasteland stories, so you have probably heard it told dozens of times before from other ponies.

But let me tell you: after you start realizing that this person who has died had been a living, breathing pony just like you, had hopes and dreams, maybe even a family, a wife or a husband, or foals waiting for her to return home, that’s when it really hits you.

What stories would her voice have brought to the wasteland?

You'll never know, you can only guess and that's the part that gets to you the most.

"What, never seen a corpse before, you little pussy?"

I really wanted to kill that mare.

"Come on bitch, help me hide this body, grab her legs."

I walked around to her back hooves, grasping tightly and lifted them up as we awkwardly trotted back to the nearest VIP tent.

After dumping the body, we returned to the building and, making sure I carefully followed behind, we snuck into the smoldering ruins of Rusty's office.

She waved me to the firebombed remains of a bedroom that actually had a decent bed in it.

We entered an ensuite that was attached to her bedroom.

After a few seconds of slowly moving equipment I saw that beneath her freestanding towel rack a metal trapdoor was hidden.

Shifting a few locks Rusty slid it back and climbed down, telling me to drape a towel over it as I followed.

After doing so I slowly climbed down the ladder after her.

The room was completely black, so dark you couldn't even see the floor.

"Hang on, I had a light switch in here somewhere..." Rusty said, somewhere next to me.

After a few moments of tapping around, she finally found the switch and turned it on.

The lights buzzed to life, the small fixtures on the ceiling glowing brightly.

The room we were in was narrow, with a large metal door separating us from the armory.

She walked over to a small scanner and flicked a chipped but still whole card through the gap.

The machine chirped and the door squealed, as its rusty joints folded back to let the door retract into the walls.

Once we were inside, my jaw dropped.

This larger, metal lined room held rack upon rack filled with weapons and ammo.

The armory held tables and racks to accommodate dozens of the same type of weapon.

"Okay, how's about you pick out a toy whilst I assemble this big-ass gun?"

Rusty walked over to a chest in the corner and started to gather pieces.

Where was I to start?!

I walked over to the table with the shotguns laid out in a neat fashion.

Most of them looked like double barrel and over under, except one.

It was pretty much your average run of the mill pump action hunting shotgun, the butt had however been sawn off and it was in decent condition.

I lifted it up with my wing and rotated it slowly in my grip.

Like the child I was, I pumped the shotgun as hard as I could to get that sweet noise to ring out.

'CH-CHICK'

So awesome.

"Good choice, that shotgun is as rare as they come, somewhere in here is a kit for it, which adapts it to shoot 20 gauge. So if you hold onto that and install the kit, you can get it to shoot both kinds of shotgun shells."

I nodded and decided to keep it. Rusty told me that there was a sling for it lying around and once I had found it and the kit, I stuck them in a little pile on the floor of stuff I planned on taking.

"We need to get you an adapter so you can shoot it, the one that came with it should be lying around somewhere."

"Adapter? You mean a battle saddle, right?" I replied.

"No I mean an adapter" she corrected as she slid another piece into the now monstrous weapon forming beside her.

"You can't use that kind of shotgun on a battle saddle, you'll blow your own fucking chest off with the spread" she continued "And because you are a damn featherbrain you need the adapter."

"Okay so where is this adapter then?"

Rusty waved her hoof to shut me up "Check in the brown box under the table the shotgun was on."

I peeked under the table and opened a cabinet to reveal a brown box and a series of cleaning kits.

I took two cleaning kits and removed the brown box, taking out a heavy set of folded up metal poles.

"This them?" I asked, waving the adapter left and right in her direction.

Rusty glanced back and nodded before returning to the project beside her.

I was gathering a considerable pile of stuff, I really needed a bag.

After glancing around, I saw a whole pile of them stuffed in a corner, gathering dust.

I walked over and yanked the one in the best condition from the pile, which promptly set the whole mountain tumbling over and revealed a small SMG, that had been buried beneath its surface.

The SMG was clearly some sort of Griffin weapon, you could tell by the grooves and indents made for claws all along the surface.

It had a medium sized wooden stock with holes around the size of a Griffin’s foreleg, for the sole purpose of threading their arms through to get a better grip.

The rest was a small compact body of metal with a silencer, which was manufactured onto the weapon.

It looked like it was a really powerful gun.

"Ah, I've been looking for that for ages, thought I sold it, really good weapon, assembled in good old Stalliongrad. That one is for Griffins, but a majority of them were made for ponies. I can work that with the adapter for your shotgun, but I'll need some time, so I'll leave that for when we're not in an area swarming with bad guys."

"Oh by the way, Pipsqueak, your wingblades are still in my bag, you can get them out if you'd like" Rusty said, rasping another piece of her cannon into place.

I raised my brow "Sorry, my whats?"

She stopped her working and turned around, giving me a look that was somewhere between 'You're kidding, right?' and 'Are you for real?’

"Your wingblades, retard, the shiny lengths of cold sharp steel, you attach them to the primary bones of your wing?"

I looked at her funny, really confused.

Rusty replied by groaning and moving to my side, taking out the lengths of steel that I had acquired in the catacombs beneath New Stalliongrad.

"Pomf" she requested.

"I'm sorry what?"

She smacked her face with her hoof.

"Pomf, you idiot, smack the air, catch the wind!"

I just looked at her like she was crazy. What was she on about?

"What!?" she yelled "Do I gotta show you my ass? Flair your fucking wings, kid!"

"You could have said that for Celestia's sake!" I yelled back before sighing and unfolding my wings.

My beige wings flapped out and held strong as Rusty unfolded my 'wingblades'.

She looked up at me as I stood there, awkwardly shifting my weight. My wings stretched out on either side, Rusty’s eyes widened as she inspected them both.

"Sweet Celestia almighty, kid!"

I looked at her funny "What?" I said, raising my brow at her.

"That's...impressive...unbelievable, like the kind of thing you'd see on a griffin, a big griffin."

I shook my head at her "What are you talking about?"

"Your wings...they're huge!" she said smiling at me.

I looked at them, looked back and shrugged "I don't see the big deal."

"Goddess damn, look kid, in the future just know this: there are male griffins twice your size that wish they had wings like that."

I looked at her like she was insane.

"I hope you never read a wingboner magazine in a small room, you'd knock the building off its foundations!"

She walked over slowly, levitating the wingblades beside her. She stared at my wings as if she was intimidated by them.

I kept looking at them to see what the buzz was all about, I couldn't properly appreciate their size from my perspective though.

She finally reached my side and began placing the unfolded blade atop my wing and forcing it down.

The wingblade snapped into place and sat comfortably on my flight bone.

She walked around my back, blushing as she did so and, finally returning to my opposite side, she attached the second one.

Once she was done, she stepped back and looked at me, still blushing. Was she high on Dash or something?

"Put them away and then flair them again" she said neutrally.

I did as she asked, watching in admiration as the steel wings sitting atop my own folded away to a dime exactly like my natural ones, without catching a single feather.

Once they were stored away, I flared my wings out again and watched once more in awe as the pieces of steel unfolded simultaneously, not ruffling a single hair or feather.

Rusty was nearly blown over by the sweeping current my wings created, and once she had regained her balance, she lifted a light piece of wood up in her magic.

"Hit your wing against this" she said, holding it away from her person.

I nodded and struck the wood as hard as I could.

The blade on my wing went right through, a clean cut.

I whistled in admiration, I couldn't wait to see how something like this fared in combat.

"I heard those things are meant to be unnaturally sharp, so I guess that's two myths that were proven today" she said slyly as she returned to her cannon.

"What's the other myth...?" I asked as I walked to the reloading bench and loaded up on ammo.

"Oh nothing" she replied in a sing song tone.

I shrugged to myself and opened the cabinets beneath the workspace to reveal box upon box of shotgun shells and different sized cartridges.

"Wow, you really stocked up on ammo!" I called admiringly as I ratted through the boxes, getting all the shotgun shells I could find.

"I had to arm a mob of idiots who shot around the target before they shot the target, you wouldn't believe how much ammo those morons burn through" she replied.

"I'll tell you a secret kid, why do you think ponies form raider groups, why there were and still are so many of us?" she continued.

I paused a moment in thought and replied "I don't know, psychos like strength in numbers?"

She laughed a little "No, because the head honcho, aka me, is a genius. We work a perfect pyramid scheme, you see" she replied.

I snorted "Really? How so, oh Great and Powerful Rusty?"

She tsk'd at me "Now now kid, just humor me for a second."

"Fine, tell me."

I turned around to face her as she spoke.

"You see those toothless barbarians up in that cage? All they are, are psychopathic morons, all they want is to pillage, steal, destroy and rape."

I nodded for her to continue.

"Then you have me, I grew up in a nice little foster family in Friendship City, good education, proper medical care, clean water all that good shit."

"What do you think I see when I look at these thugs, hmm?" she made a gesture in the general direction of the cage filled with raiders.

I shrugged and she smiled like she was secretly wanting me say that.

"I see tools kid, leaderless, directionless idiots, just asking to be used by a superior entity such as myself. All they want is to pillage and rape, I provide them with equipment and they work for me, looting trading caravans and small towns."

She laughed sadistically "And all I have to give back to them in return is the freedom to go crazy on these ponies, as well as feeding them and giving them cheap shelter, which costs me nothing anyway, considering they take care of that themselves most the time."

She stood proudly, as if showing off to a crowd "I keep the loot, they're happy occupying themselves with breaking shit."

I nodded my head. Impressive thinking. Here I was, assuming she was just another thug, but in the end she did actually possess some brains, manipulating these bastards into doing her bidding.

She had probably acquired thousands of caps worth of equipment because of this plan.

"Now you know kid, you can thank me later. By the way, the SMG you picked up uses 12.7 mm rounds" she said, pointing toward a group of blue boxes.

Rusty returned to her work and I kept packing bullets.

I picked up a blue box and read its faded label.

Ministry of Wartime Technologies

12.7mm rounds 180 cartridges

Beneath the bold logo was a picture of a smiling yellow mare with a long pink mane.

(50% of your purchase will go to Lady Fluttershy's 'Rebuild Equestria Campaign' to help the war-torn southern settlements rebuild)

So they were sending funds received in a purchase of a box of ammunition to a conflict relief effort?

I can't tell if the irony was intentional or not.

Rusty laughed "Ha ha! All done, check this out kid!"

I turned back to look at Rusty's cannon.

The monstrous weapon she held was easily two metres long and looked about as thick as my foreleg.

"Look me in the eye and tell me this won't punch through Jericho's precious power armor."

I smiled in admiration "You only got one shot though, so you better know how to shoot it."

"Shooting it isn’t the issue, it's carting the weapon around that we need to worry about. Hurry up and grab the last of your shit, we need to get moving.

* * * * * *

Once we had gotten everything we needed, we moved out.

We wrestled awkwardly with the cannon to get it out of the marehole.

When we finally reached the top, and after shimmying away from the hole (an enormous gun hanging over our heads), we covered it up and moved on.

I peeked my head over the smoky debris to see if I could find Commander Coal.

He was nowhere to be seen, all that remained were five soldiers located all around the camp while three or four guarded the raider’s cage.

We snuck away from the camp, Rusty at point, shifting through trees and brush.

Once we had reached a snowy clearing, we sat down and rested the gun beside us.

To be honest, this part right here, I wonder what would have happened to Jericho had it never occurred.

The trees shifted and a noise grew.

It was the sound of blades spinning, slowly approaching us.

Before we even had the chance to move, a helicopter was on us, casting the whole clearing in a bright spotlight.

"Cease movement or you will be shot!"

I looked back a Rusty, her face painted with absolute anger and fury.

"C'mon Rusty, we need to get out of here, the guards are coming!"

Her expression was telling me more than a thousand words.

"Not a chance kid" she said, a sinister smirk climbing her face.

She floated the Anti-Tank Cannon over her back and traced the chopper in its sights.

I couldn’t believe she was considering using our only weapon which could punch through Jericho’s armor on a helicopter we could most likely lose in a thin brush of trees!

"Rusty! We need that shot to fight Jericho! What are you doing?!"

Rusty chuckled quietly as she bolted the long gleaming round into the chamber.

"I'm sure there’s a bigger gun somewhere in Equestria..."

"Rusty wait!"

She pulled the trigger, and in one deafening motion of light and sound the cannon she was holding was thrown back by its own recoil, sending a huge spear of flames spewing out of the barrel.

The round slammed into the helicopter with such force that the it lurched back.

Once the dust had cleared, I noticed that the aircraft above us had a hole I could easily fit through punched right through its surface.

Not even a second after I noticed this, the Vertibuck exploded into flames and fell apart, careening onto the ground.

"You just used our only round on a fucking helicopter we could have run from!" I yelled at Rusty, who just sat there blinking absently.

I heard the ever recognizable sound of wind screaming toward our direction.

The Pegasus group was headed for us.

I yanked Rusty's arm and ran toward a thick set of trees.

I pulled Rusty onto the ground and pushed her deep into the crunchy snow.

The Pegasi screamed overhead searching for us, unable to spot us beneath the trees and in the evening’s fading light.

I pulled Rusty up again and we started moving once more, carefully staying under the trees.

The Pegasi returned, still searching and I pulled us to the ground again, where we laid low while the Pegasus group passed over us.

It continued over and over.

Pull her up, run for two minutes, push her down, hide from the fast movers.

Rinse and repeat.

"We need somewhere to hide from these Pegasi" I exclaimed.

Rusty looked up at me "Jericho's camp! It's really close to here, we can hide there!"

She broke free of my grasp and ran toward a thicker group of trees, obviously headed to the secret location.

I followed behind her, dodging from tree to tree. We didn't have to stop here but that didn't prevent me from burying myself when the Pegasi were overhead.

I could just barely keep track of Rusty, who was constantly disappearing into the undergrowth.

Once we finally broke out of the thick set of trees, I saw a small semi-circular hole with vines and fake scrimmage sheets covering its entrance.

We ran as hard as we could toward it and leaped past its camouflage.

Once we were in the drainpipe, we hid, as the Pegasi continued to soar overhead.

After a few uneasy moments, we began to sneak further to the wooden door separating Jericho's house from the pipe.

Rusty peeked through the holes in the wooden wall and grunted after a few seconds.

"He ain't in there" she whispered before turning around and kicking the doorknob hard enough that her hoof went right through the wood.

After freeing herself, she pushed the door open and stepped inside.

Jericho's home.

I didn't think it was actually possible, but apparently Jericho was in fact a pony who was alive.

His home had a bright hardwood floor that looked like it was constantly washed and well looked after.

He had a faded area rug in the centre of the room and an extremely new looking bed.

His darkwood walls were plastered with old pre-war posters, particularly old Ministry of Morale ones and pictures of Lady Pinkie Pie.

One particular picture was on a chipped and faded table, which sat in the corner.

On it Jericho stood in his tall set of dark armor, eyes staring at the camera like he knew I was watching.

Beside him on the photo were two creatures distinctly equine yet with longer ears, I think they were called Mules or Donkeys or something.

One was fairly elderly, he had an inky black mane that looked ridiculously out of place on his head, almost like it was fake hair.

He wore a dark grey military dress fatigue, although it may have been a different color, this being a black and white photo.

The old Donkey soldier was grinning and embracing a similar sized Donkey mare beside him.

She also looked quite old, but clearly a few years younger than him. The way both of them just stood there grinning, while Jericho stared emotionless at the camera was really unnerving.

The bottom of the photo had faded yet still legible writing.

The calligraphic ink read

"Remember this day as long as you live, love you XOXO Tild'y"

I chewed my lip, idiotically asking myself if I knew anyone named like that and whether I could decode this pet name, but obviously no such luck.

I looked around at the other content on his desk. There was everything from spent bullet casings to old knives.

I flicked through his papers and found a letter, which I briefly scanned through.

Dear Jericho.

Alright, just as I promised I cleared out the drainpipe like you asked, there was nearly nine times my weight in stone in there, but you know me.

I understand what you see in this place, based on the plans you showed me. What you are making looks like a pretty nice design. When the place is done it will make a nice home to live in, that's for sure.

But yeah, this is just a confirmation that I am done for when you get back from New Canterlot City.

Cheers.

Flecker O'paul.

I raised my brow at the letter and simply threw it away.

Who was Jericho, really?

He obviously talked, or at least communicated to ponies, so who was he?

I couldn't help but wonder.

"We can't go running out, we have to lie low for a while" Rusty said, peering out the door into the world outside.

I nodded and looked about for a way to pass the time, the bed in particular called to me.

Just looking at its feathery, plush and soft promises made my joints quiver in anticipated comfort.

Believe me when I say, I had not slept in a real bed for years. Back in our New Stalliongrad 'home' we slept on layered cardboard bedrolls with sheets.

A real bed to rest on was too much of a jackpot for my body to refuse, even if I had wanted to say ‘no’ and tried to turn my back, I doubt my body would have listened.

I zombie-walked to the large kingsized bed and flopped down face first.

It was all that I had imagined and more.

"Wake me up in a year, would you?" I called absently, as I could feel myself begin to drift away.

"Good goddess..." I heard Rusty mutter.

Rusty, whether because she wanted to be nice or because she wanted to hide in the building some more, blew out the lit candles and sat cross-legged against the bed, her nice looking 10mm SMG sitting beside her, as she watched the door and thought.

I slept so carefree and restful, I couldn't believe it myself.

. . . . . . . .

A dream, for once a pleasant one instead of the usual anxious fear driven ones I used to get in New Stalliongrad.

I was looking at myself in a mirror. I was clean, well kept.

I brushed the stripes on my back and smiled, before rubbing some cologne on and getting dressed into a nice well-ironed suit.

I could feel the sensations of my body move yet I wasn’t commanding it, almost like I was reliving the memory of another.

I stepped outside, the air clear and clean with a hint of freshly mowed grass. So crisp, you could drink it like water.

I was in a nice quaint little neighborhood, complete with a white picket fence and everything.

I walked outside, I felt clean, alive and happy as I walked along, dressed in my good business suit.

A oddly familiar Zebra mare tended to an exotic garden in the front yard beside 'my' house.

"My my, your garden is looking beautiful today my dear..." instead of her name, all I heard was an electronic yelp, of static and white noise.

She looked up and smiled, I finally recognized this mare, she was the one who murmured creepy ghost prophecy things in the catacombs beneath New Stalliongrad.

"Your compliments are so kind, my dear neighborly friend. Maybe I'll help you with yours if I can find the time" she said in a husky and exotic voice.

I tipped my hat and continued to walk down the street picking up another buck in my little pony bus. He looked like me but without the jacket on, I could see he was stripeless.

"How'doya do there today Nimbus!"

"Absolutely swell Nimbus, it's a humdinger of a morning ain't it?"

"You said it friend, it's nearly perfect, except for one glaring fact..." the stripeless me said.

He pointed to my Zebra mare neighbor who, even from here, I could hear humming an exotic tune.

"Figures! We build a nice neighborhood for ponies, and a...a striped devil moves in!" stripeless said.

Why would I be racist to Zebras? I am one, this dream makes no sense.

"When ya put it that way, you're right friend, we need to teach that...that Evil Enchantress that she ain't welcome in this here town of ponies” said business suit me, who had just earlier been complimenting the Zebra's garden.

This made no sense, business suit me was a Zebra, why was he racist to them?

They sternly walked to my neighbor’s front yard.

The moment they set foot on the grass of her lawn the world exploded into green, a balefire weapon detonated a few blocks away, vaporizing the various other ponies into dust, their houses turned to ashes, changed into ruined buildings and skeletons like the wasteland I knew so well.

All except for the Zebra and my doppelgängers.

My clones had transformed into sinister and blood-thirsty raiders, tattoos, mohawks the whole sha-bang.

Business suit no longer had stripes.

"YOU AIN'T WELCOME HERE STRIPY!" former business suit yelled in a completely different tone.

The Zebra looked up in disgust before attempting to run away into her ruined home.

Former stripeless ran forward and tackled her down, he sat on her midsection and chuckled as former business suit stalked forward, a sinister look in his eyes.

"Hold her legs up!" former business suit called, as he continued further toward the thrashing mare.

Okay! I want out! Let me out of this dream, brain!

"Ohhhoho, I love it when they scream!"

Let me out! I've seen enough, I really don't want to see my creepy racist doppelgängers rape some Zebra.

"I hope you are watching, Nimbus. I got some new techniques to show you!"

I'll pass, brain!

Let me out!

. . . . . . . .

I screamed and thrashed out of my slumber, breathing heavily as Rusty laughed lightly.

"Scared the shit out of me, kid. What made you jump like that?"

"Nightmare, weird, weird nightmare..."

She walked over and belly flopped on the bed. "What happened?" she questioned.

"Two clones of myself attacked and tried to rape a Zebra" I said, really wishing there was coffee or something better around.

"Kinky" Rusty replied eagerly.

I narrowed my eyes and shook my head in confusion at her.

"You were asleep for a good three hours, I think the Pegasi have given up. I haven't heard a peep out there for at least an hour" Rusty announced, trotting over and peeking through the door’s hole to inspect the outside.

Of course, despite everything she was saying, the one thing I noticed was her flank, hanging in the air, and her strange cutie mark.

It was a leather-bound book, open to a page with a magnifying glass inspecting a sentence.

"What's up with your cutie mark, Rusty? I thought raiders were meant to have skulls and blood-soaked clubs for cutie marks, not books."

She turned around and smirked "Staring at my ass now, are you kid?"

"Don't flatter yourself."

She sighed "Well, I think I told you I had a foster family in Friendship City, right? Well, my job for a while was that of the town librarian. Then the Enclave blew everything up and my family moved to Junction Town."

I perked up, that got my attention.

"Junction Town...That's Junction R7, is it not?"

Rusty nodded.

"So you've met Fluttershy?"

She shrugged "I met her a few times, once when I offered to organize the town’s books in Dewey Decimal, she brought me tea."

She had met Fluttershy, Ministry Mare of Peace. Apparently, she had been cursed, locked in a tree for 200 years, only to mourn the loss of her world and everypony she loved.

I nodded. "What's she like?" I asked. I really wished Fable was here, she'd love to hear everything about the pony she idolized.

"What can I say? She's kind, obviously, apologetic, shy of course, soul crushingly depressed sometimes, so much so she never left her room some days. She was obsessed with the foals and spent nearly every hour of her day at the schoolhouse."

"Sounds like a really nice place, why'd you give up everything for...you know raiding?"

She sighed "This was sort of a thing I did out of boredom, it happened by accident. It all started eight years ago, when I was still a little younger than you."

She stood up and started lighting the candles again. "Joined the armed forces, NCR aerial marine, 4th battalion Delta co."

"Why'd you join the marines? That's quite a step down from a cushy job in R7, don't you think?"

Rusty reclined back on a chair and looked at me.

"The war with New Stalliongrad started, everyone was talking about 'the red threat', all the different governments and stuff and how huge their army was, so I signed up and ran off to protect the country and all that cool shit."

She kicked back further on her chair "When shit got really bad in the Stalliongrad ruin’s front lines, I saw some pretty fucked up things being done by both sides. It was all too much, so I deserted and ran off. Like a month after I did, the ceasefire was declared, so it was pretty pointless anyway, but yeah, now I’m talking to a teenager about my life, while sitting in a drainpipe, funny how life works.”

She looked up at me "What's your story, kid? I don't think I even know your name."

"Not much to tell you, I'm an orphaned street rat and my name is Nimbus. My parents were arrested and sent to a work camp because my mother was a Zebra and my dad married her. I don't even remember my mother's name, it's been so long, hell of a world to be born into."

“Well, there goes my optimism kid, thanks” she replied, turning back to the door.

I flopped down and hung my head off the side of the bed and looked down at a note.

It was another letter, it laid face up on the floor.

Alright, I'll be there, taking your word for it Jericho.

You'd better be at the bathhouse on Tuesday next week or I swear I'll knock on every door and ask where the big scary bitch in the riot gear is. Bound to he at least some pony in Frozen Lake who knows where you are.

Don't fuck me over Jericho, you'd better have some good bartering, too.

Flecker O'Paul.

I jumped to my hooves.

Jericho was going to use Fable as payment!

I was nearly sick right then and there. I thought it over in my head as quickly as I could.

It said Tuesday next week, it was Thursday back in Rusty's camp.

Therefore this letter was hopefully received two days ago, if the courier was fast.

It struck me that I now knew exactly where Jericho was headed!

"Rusty, look at this" I called as I passed the note to her.

I watched her eyes scanning left to right while she read the letter.

"That is dated this week, he's headed to Frozen Lake next Tuesday to settle payment with the writer of this letter, who renovated his house."

She tapped her chin.

"Wasted our only shot on a helicopter.”

"Yeah, who's fault was that?" I said, genuinely annoyed that Rusty had done that, knowing full well that we needed the shot, yet still firing it anyway.

"I didn't ask that, kid. I asked whether you had some other plan of killing Jericho."

"No..." I grunted, as I searched my own head for answers.

"I know who does though..." I said, clopping my hoofs together when I remembered.

This is probably as good a time as any to bring up Rhinestone.

Rhinestone had only been asked by my dad 'Greywing' whether he'd hold the kids, he had no idea my mother was a Zebra, and this was important because our godfather was a spec ops spook. His job, just like that of all the others, was to be a soldier, and that obviously meant he'd have to arrest Zebras, but hopefully I could talk him out of doing so with us and instead get him to help.

Hopefully.

"Alright, your friend will have to do, now come, every second we are here is another second I don't have Jericho dead."

I nodded and gathered my things.

As I did so, I couldn’t help but wonder why I had been so quick to trust Rusty.

She was a raider, her job was to kill others and steal their belongings, nothing more than that.

She had also kidnapped me, with the intention of brainwashing my sister and keeping me as a stress reliever.

Yet despite how much I hated myself for it, I trusted this mare to help me find and rescue my sister from Jericho’s evil plans.

Rusty opened the wooden door and stepped outside into the open field, her magic stroking her gun, ready to pull it out on any random attacker.

I followed after, useless besides my wingblades, as Rusty had not taken the time to try and set up my shotgun adapter.

Once we knew it was clear, Rusty somehow oriented herself westwards (I think she may have used the stars) and we continued in the direction of the shear and jagged cliffs.

We trotted up along the hills and once we reached the top, we stopped to admire the view.

You could see a lot from up here. To the east in the distance were the lights of nighttime New Stalliongrad as well as the much closer skyline of what I think was Midnighton.

The city of New Stalliongrad was so small in the distance, probably no bigger than a pen's nib at this range, yet the light it projected could be seen for miles, especially the long lance of Stalliongrad Tower stretching high over the city's skyline.

It occurred to me, or more accurately, struck me, that despite how bad it was there, I would never be able to go back, and how despite every guard there wanting me dead, I still considered it my home.

I had friends, workmates in the foundries and factories, that if I strained hard enough, I swear I could still hear clunking and hissing as they hammered away endlessly, creating armor, guns and vehicles for the huge army of the red flag.

New Stalliongrad wasn’t where I had been born but where I was raised, where the harsh conditions chiseled me into the stallion I didn’t want to be, but had to become to protect my sister.

And somewhere out there, Fable was being held captive, thinking I was dead and distraught as hell, while Jericho led her to her death.

To our west laid the most notorious road and city in probably all of the new Equestria.

Prometheus.

The long concrete streak stretched all the way to Trotsvok along the old pre-war highway, the narrow road paved all the way to a tiny blue glow in the distance.

Nopony lasts long in the areas around Prometheus if you leave the highway, even then caravans hire extra guards and NSS convoys double their armor on this stretch of road.

Prometheus had a really bad rap.

Ponies going missing was commonplace there, you and anyone around you just disappearing with nary a whisper or noise.

No evidence, you just vanished. Some say you are taken into the city, if that’s true, abandon all hope of ever being saved. The actual city of Prometheus is protected by some sort of experimental energy shield, forming a huge dome around it.

Nopony knew why it was there, knowledge of the reason behind the shield’s existence died along the only ponies who knew, when they were vaporized by walls of plasma in the exchange.

I secretly hoped I would never have to find out what was under that dome.

I don't think even the Arcane Dominion knew what Prometheus contained.

Behind us, Dawn’s rosy fingers stretched across the horizon.

Friday Morning.

We had little more than four days to get to Frozen Lake, that's a hell of a walk in a hell of a short time.

But Fable, my dear sister, the only family I had left in this cruel world, was in danger. Her young life was but a hop, skip and a jump from its end.

That was not going to happen.

I would fight tooth and claw to get her back, I would walk until my hooves were raw and bleeding to find her.

It was my job.

As her big brother. Best friend.

Forever.

LEVEL UP: WELCOME TO LEVEL 3!

PERK ADDED:Swooper.

A Pegasi’s wings are a Pegasi’s strength and this perk makes that strength stronger.

You can now hold much more using your wings and when used in combat they do a nifty 10% more damage, excellent for use with a set of wingblades!

“Welcome back folks, nice to see you back reading my silly little story, thanks for waiting for so long for this chapter and still coming back to keep reading.

Special thanks to the new editor Tebee who answered up and beyond the call of duty and is now helping edit this story and make it pretty for y’all.

DARCYSUPREMEST.

BACK TO THE STORY HUB

Chapter 4 "Old Prometheus Highway'

(This chapter was done in the absence of Tebee ‘my editor’ because of commitments that tie him up until early october, because of this I had to edit this by myself)

CHAPTER 4

“Old Prometheus Highway”

_________________________________________

"Mum look!" I cried

I swung my body around, holding onto the streetlamp as I curved around it.

My mother laughed "Nimbus my dear, come down before you get hurt my son"

I did a few more swings before jumping off.

"Mother I want to try" called Fable stuck beside my mother as she held her in place.

"Quiet now, your father has returned my dear"

I joined my mother at her side as I looked around this wonderful place.

Buildings lie all around, and just beyond my vision I could see a huge tower, Stalliongrad Tower, still only in construction but soon it would be one of the tallest buildings in the wasteland.

My father flew over, an old looking camera around his neck.

He placed it atop a nearby trash can and fiddled with the controls, also repositioning a few times.

"Alright you lot, squeeze in for the picture!"

My mother brought me and my sister closer to her and watched as my father returned to her.

My father bunched in beside her reaching his arms around her shoulders and kissing her as the camera flashed.

*-*-*-*-*

We had miles left to travel on the highway, but for how early in the morning it was, I'd say we were making a decent amount of process.

For the longest time we just casually walked along the prewar road, nothing but the sounds of blowing wind and our silent breathing to accompany us.

To our right the dome of magic that protected and hid the city of Prometheus grew and increased in size as we crawled toward it.

"What's that?" Rusty questioned as she tried to focus on something ahead of us.

I looked also, and sure enough something blocked our path before us.

The closer we got the more obvious it became that it was a wall.

It wasn't just a shanty wall built by merchants, this was a military blockade.

It was a ten foot high wall, topped with barbed wire and several lightly armed rangers guarding it.

There was a section still open, no doubt so travelers could pass through, but this was no small base.

A sign topped a highly guarded gate to the actual blockade the sign read

PROMETHEUS CONTAINMENT CAMP 1

"This is new..." Rusty inquired as she walked to a sign on the side of the entrance to the civilian access.

The poster read Dear Citizens, due to recent increasing numbers of disappearances around the Prometheus shield the government has deployed a highly trained team to respond to any situations around the area, we apologize for any inconvenience this fortification may cause to any merchants.

Chest' I khvala New Stalliongrad.

We walked through civilian access.

Through the metal grate of the access tunnel we could see into the camp.

Several Quonset Huts were lined up in a uniform pattern in the far left corner of the fort, far right was a latrine closest to us was a Mess area and right smack dab in the middle of the camp were two enormous Artillery cannons, the shells were at least half my size.

Another interesting fact is that the soldiers here weren't guards, they were Rangers, not like the New Stallion Guards they were full fledged soldiers.

They wore suits of arctic painted armor to camouflage them with the snowy landscapes of Northen Equerstria.

This armor was newly manufactured in the factories of Petrovich, a city built around 4 enormous pre war factories.

The armor was sleek, plates of camouflaged ceramic attached to an armor set of weaved kevlar.

Their faces were obscured by masks, simple combat masks that were black painted and protected the face and eyes from simple dusts and smokes that may be in the air on a battlefield.

On their backs the standard issue of our military, Coltlashnikov KA-94 , propaganda shows on the radio stations used to brag about how much better the KA was to the NCR N-17, more reliable and such.

"This is a lot of effort to go to to create a base to blow up Prometheus" Rusty spat as she motioned toward the 2 artillery guns "Why else would spend that much money on a firebase with two guns that big?"

Indeed, the artillery guns were unusually large, kind of made me wonder how they got them up here.

Monstrous lengths of steel and iron stood proud, several troopers walked around and inspected it, some even worked on it with several specialized tools.

I noticed something from the corner of my eye.

2 stallions were carrying a large shell on their combined backs.

They had exited from a shipping container that looked as if it had been continuously reinforced to become a powder storage.

The shell was shiny cased copper, topped with a clear warhead that had swirling sickly green orb within it.

The two carried it over to the furthest cannon and with some help from a large mare, slid it into the barrel.

"What are they doing?" Rusty questioned looking at the same spectacle.

After nodding to another mare, the large mare tapped and checked the cannon.

"Zulu base, Sledgehammer team to one and two horn, prepare for fire mission" a mare with the thickest Stalliongrad accent I ever heard, probably more than mine called over a loudspeaker.

A bunch of rangers came out of the huts and lined up and took positions around the two cannons.

A decorated ranger with a dark grey beret in a miserable state of repair walked up to us at the cage.

"Going to have to ask you two to move along, we're going to be firing some particularly loud shells and we can't have you this close to the guns without proper hearing protection, but don't go too far, wouldn't want you to miss the light show!" the ranger said smiling

"Sorry sir, we'll get out, can I ask a question though?" I replied as I began to walk away.

The ranger smiled "Of course Civy, what's up?"

"What are you shooting?" I asked pointing at the guns that were being rotated and lifted.

"Formal order from Boardmembers Sir Prarie dog and Lady Sky Spring, we're under order to try and get that shield down so we can send in some teams to check out what's in there"

I looked at the dome of Prometheus on the distance.

The blue shield shimmered and glowed, it sounded like it was quietly humming too.

"We've tried like 19 different shells and missiles on the damn thing, not even kidding here, 20mm, 45mm, 105s heck even depleted Balefire rods, nothing has punched through so we were authorized to use live Balefire shells, 6 of 'em, from 3 different firebases, that kind of firepower would level a third of a city, don't know what we're going to do next if this doesn't punch through that shield"

There was some yelling and the ranger looked behind him "Da, well I have to go Comerade, Chest' I Khvala!"

I nodded "Chest' I Khvala"

Me and Rusty shuffled out of the tunnel and onto the exiting side of the fort.

There was a few more announcements from within the fort before yelling and a few small sirens blaring.

There was a few moments of complete silence before a single yell.

Two thunderous explosions roared up and shook the earth.

My ears rung and I gritted my teeth as I felt them chattering under the vibrations.

I saw 4 other plumes of smoke rising into the air from several other positions along the highway.

It was silent for a second before it was interrupted by several blinding flashes of light.

The light emitted heat so intense it felt like it was suddenly the middle of summer.

Once the light cleared the sound of the shield warbling under a sudden burst of energy kicked in but was very quickly obscured by the deafening and thunderous sound of the shells exploding.

It was really quite facisnating, once we could actually see again you could literally see the air warbling distorting as the thunderous sound waves of the explosion rolled toward us like some sort of estranged wave at a beach.

I felt the highway we were on shake enough that it could be heard groaning and cracking.

As I looked back to the dome I saw 6 individual fiery green mushroom clouds rising into the sky.

Yet beneath the thunderous impact, the shield had merely shrugged it off and still remained shimmering and pulsating slightly.

"Celestia almighty, I sure hope that the egghead prewar scientist that made those shields got a raise, because them shields sure as hell are doing their job"

As we continued we reached the other 2 firebases along the highway.

The second one was directly in front of the shield, if you looked over the side here, you could see the main road headed into the city before it and several unlucky buildings were cut off by the dome.

The third was essentially the opposite of the first.

We continued along the old highway for a few hours until Prometheus and the forts were barely specks on the distance.

It was indeed silent, I didn't think it was because me and Rusty didn't want to talk, I think it was more we were too focused on walking.

Suddenly a prick of pain from my hoof.

I looked down, I had cut myself in some broken glass.

I tongued my cheek and tore off some of my hoof wraps made to hide my stripes and wrapped it around my cut.

It was not long after this I heard my hoof crunch on broken glass again.

There were dozens of piles of broken glass here, so much so it nearly covered it left to right.

I heard guns and safeties click off, before I heard Rusty sigh and stick her hooves up.

She looked at me "I had hoped we wouldn't meet any but then again I'm deluding myself"

"Listen kid, these are highway robbers, they'll shoot you if you so much as blink before they are finished searching you, don’t do anything stupid, they don’t usually grab guns, they need your food and water more" she whispered

I nodded ever so slightly to symbolize that I had heard her.

I heard a few silent footsteps before a body was on us.

This buck was masked by a balaclava and he laughed as he started rummaging through her bag.

"hehehe, and here Sandal Wood thought it wasn't wise to stay here with bases up at shield"

“It does not matter to me, that little bitch is gone, and since we kicked her out we have been doing better than ever!”

The group chuckled.

I wasn't too peeved, I didn't really have anything worth stealing on me, just some potions that made you cough blood and my sisters tunic she discarded when she got changed in the catacombs.

Other than that all I had was the shotgun and the Griffin SMG, along with the ammo for them.

As if on cue one of then began searching my patrol pack.

His hooves searched, and found nothing in my pack, he then began searching the pockets of my tunic.

I heard my ammo clips for the SMG clink as he picked them up.

I heard him question himself as he recovered something much heavier from the same pocket.

I tried to remember what it was that I put in my pocket before I heard the buck say.

"Hey boss, you want me to take this, it's like his wallet, ain't go 'nuthin in it, just some photos"

I remembered!

I got a wallet for my sixth birthday, the last thing my mother ever gave me, it also had the only photo I have left.

"Please, that wallet is the only thing I have left of my parents, you can take everything else, but not my wallet, I beg of you" I said to the pony behind me.

The large muscular pony, who smelt of sweat, alcohol and cigarettes laughed in a gravely and heavily accented voice as he walked in front of me.

"Look me in eye, and tell me why I should give shit about your family?"

He waved his hoof over his team "My men, have not eaten in days, you have no food, no water, and your guns are useless to me, I'll take whatever I damn please!"

I watched as my only link to my sister, my mother, my father.

My family.

I watched as it was was taken away.

No.

I was not letting this happen, these are MY things, that was mine.

And By Celestia's great will, I'd be damned if I was going to let some highway robber take my things.

I lashed out, violently flaring my wings toward the pony searching me until I heard a sickening slice and a mist of warm fluid spray me.

I jumped forward toward my foe, aiming to wrap my hooves around his neck and slicing.

Rusty took the opportunity to load her SMG and opened fire at the still stunned lackys.

She peppered them all down one by one before they had even realized what had happened.

I finally reached the big one, despite his size and weight I managed to bring him to the ground through kicks and pulls.

I very nearly sat on him as I repeatedly slammed my fist into his face.

I eventually had knocked him out, and after taking back my wallet I walked to help Rusty with looting.

As I walked back I noticed something, something that horrified me.

The one who was at my side, was a child.

He was probably a year or two younger than me, and he laid there. A large gash in his neck and a huge cut in his stomach.

I nearly threw up right then.

I had killed somepony, and that somepony was a child younger than me.

I fell back on my haunches stunned.

I couldn't believe it..I...

I was a murderer...

Rusty looked back and saw me petrified in the middle of the road.

She looked at the body I was staring and put the pieces together on her own. She walked over and sighed "First time?"

I didn't answer, I think my look was sufficient enough.

She nodded slowly before kneeling down and hugging me.

I was stunned more so now. This was the most compassionate thing I had ever seen her do.

"You never forget your first one Nimbus, I can tell you seven years ago, in the Winter War, I killed my first pony, little NSS digger, probably your height, unicorn..."

I heard her force a breath.

"Helmet...didn't fit properly, red coat, short green mane and...brown eyes..." her voice was losing stability, and I could feel her gripping tighter on me.

Was she?

I could hear sobbing.

She was!

Rusty, the leader or a huge raider clan, who's 'taken out bucks twice my size'

Was crying!

She forced another breath "It wasn't anything epic, it wasn't big like we didn’t share a staredown, it was just a little fire fight, We spotted contacts, Sergeant ordered to open fire, so we did."

She had stopped crying as loud "I saw a guy moving from space to space behind each of the positions, and I just..."

Rusty lifted her hooves like she was holding a rifle.

She lurched her hooves and legs back like she was shooting a rifle.

"It was fascinating really, It didn't look like he had been shot, looked like somepony had just slapped him really hard and he fell over, It was so quick I could have sworn he was about to get up again"

Rusty released her grasp and sniffed as she attempted to clear her nose.

“I did some pretty fucked up things in that war, but I never forgot that little buck, they say it doesn’t get easier, and no it doesn’t, it just piles up and you bury and bottle it, after awhile you begin to ignore it, and it just silently passes through your head and piles up”

She laughed uncomfortably, probably just realising that after she had spent so long on her facade of ‘Strong’ and ‘Fearless’ that she had just cried about killing somepony in front of me and runied the image I had of her.

I had a lot more respect for this mare than I previously did.

Granted I still fucking hated her guts, but at least I could tolerate her better.

Rusty turned to me “Eventually all the emotion, all the...hatred and guilt of killing catches up on you, and you just want to break something, trust me, everyone who’s killed has the ‘meltdown’ if your journey continues much like this you will too”

Rusty sighed as she searched the bodies quietly “Ponies were never meant to kill each other kid, it seemed day after day we begun to forget that, like some untapped primal rage was released, nobody can stop it, just a wildfire of rage and ire, that rips through the entire race”

She pointed at the sickly toxic green clouds that were still quietly raising from the shield.

“Then it’s released, and we destroyed one another, purged our own wretched existence from the face of the planet, that’s unfortunately what it took to make us see what fighting got us, Equestria didn’t defend its monarch’s honor and Equestria’s well being as a whole, The Zebra’s didn’t protect their way of life from an aggressor that only saw them as an expendable resource, we just annihilated one another, and it took Littlepip flicking the lights back on to make us realise how fucking stupid we all are”

She shuddered as she probed the depths of her own mind “And It really does scare me kid, what I saw in the Winter War, the same primal rage I read about, the kind of shit I saw in Stalliongrad was the same shit that happened during the Great War come back to claim its rightful place in our minds”

She stood up and faced me “Call me pessimistic, but theres only one way the conflict between the NSS and the NCR will ever be resolved, and it’s going to take more than Littlepip shaking her hoof and throwing radical weather to stop it, she couldn’t do anything to stop the Winter War, no matter what she tried”

I watched as Rusty looted the next body.

Everyone believed The Light Bringer would protect us all from what we had done, to stop us from doing it again.

But there was a reason they called it the Winter War.

Just like you would expect our saviour saw the conflict reaching its boiling point and in a ploy to cut off the war at its base before it grew out of control she turned the weather above Stalliongrad against them, hoping that the danger staying in the city would be enough to convince the two armies to leave.

But no matter what she did, no matter how hostile she turned the weather over the ruins of Stalliongrad, the two armies kept fighting.

Her orders went unheeded, her threats ignored by the two nations. She could only watch as the NCR and NSS soldiers marched through some of the worst conditions ever seen by ponykind.

Determined by rage, by hatred. The war continued to rage until it eventually stalemated and the fighting died down.

Even the saviour of our world couldn’t protect us from ourselves...

Every day, the NCR and the NSS kept remained at eachothers throats was another step closer to another period of war and darkness between our race.

It was going to take more than anything the Lightbringer had to douse this cold war.

I grasped the wallet and smiled as I remembered the day I received it. I carefully opened it.

I was greeted by a picture of my family.

My mother and father sharing a loving kiss and my stupid overly excited smile as I tossed Fables hair.

I could feel myself tearing up, as I looked at my family.

Remembering the times when I used to look out the windows of my classroom at the companies of tanks as they rolled past.

The stories of my beautiful homeland that my mother would tell me at night.

My Father showing and explaining to me all his artifacts he collected when he worked in the Enclave.

Helping my mother to teach Fable to count.

I smiled and sniffed as I wiped my eyes dry on my foreleg.

“Huh, I thought you were kidding when you told me your mother was a Zebra, I should have guessed that from your stripes back when I caught you but honestly I’ve seen ponies with more fucked up anatomy tell me they are ponies so I didn’t really take notice” Rusty said poking over my shoulder

I really should have been more angry at her for prying her way into my business but honestly she had just ruined her motif just to explain to me her beliefs, I think she had earned a little look into my past.

I looked at Fable one last time, I would not lose her like I had lost my parents.

I closed my wallet and pocketed it once again I felt a new surge of determination inside me bloom.

And with that determination, I pushed on, Rusty by my side.

* * * * * *

We had made excellent progress since the rouse with the bandits.

The bandits did bring up an interesting point though, it was midday, I had not eaten a single thing since breakfast on the day we left the city.

I was not normally hungry thanks to years of poverty but I was starting to feel it.

Apparently Rusty was too, because the moment we took the offramp with a hastily attached sign marked 'TROTSVOK" above it, she stopped and asked.

"Fuck I'm starving, we need to go hunting or something, where's my knife?" She questioned as she rattled through her saddlebags.

Eventually she withdrew the knife I had seen her use to kill a mare just last night.

Rusty flipped the knife up and swung the blade around in her magic.

“Maybe we can get some sweet bacon, maybe some wolf steaks, goddess I could just about eat a whole damn brahmin i’m so hungry.”

Rusty walked off into a nearby group of tree’s, I followed behind.

“I could get airborne if you want, see if I can see any animals?” I offered to the sneaking mare.

Rusty turned back and nodded “Sounds like a plan”

I nodded and in a flash of feathers and blades I pushed myself up into the sky.

I felt the Icy bite of the great white northern skies beneath my wings.

It felt great.

I had not properly flown for years, you had to have permits to fly around in the cities, that and flight brought attention to you, something I could never do.

But Pegasus, we are born with a natural instinct to fly, to feel the breeze beneath our wings.

It's in our blood, hardwired into us.

After I had taken a few leisurely minutes to work the rust off my wings and grow comfortable with the open air. I began my search.

It was basically nothing, except for one small thing, a single hunting cabin.

It wasn't even that far from Rusty, she probably see it if she looked hard enough over here.

After landing pretty much on it's roof I tapped about on it to check it's stability.

The roof groaned as expected, but held.

I swooped down to the ground and tried the door.

Locked.

I tapped my chin before deciding to wait for Rusty.

Rusty arrived and once I explained my conundrum she walked over to inspect.

"This thing has been out in the weather for so long I'm surprised that it's still attached to the door"

Rusty grabbed the handle and breathed in.

"Hold that handle down" she requested.

I came to her side and did so, pushing down with my wing I held the handle.

Rusty charged and threw all her weight at the door, the flimsy lock not a match of her strength.

"I tried to shoulder ram an abandoned warehouse door back in New Stalliongrad, dislocated my shoulder, good thing Whiskey Shot knew how to fix it, that would have been a problem if he didn't" I said as Rusty opened the door normally, no longer a lock in her way.

"They teach you how to shoulder ram doors in the NCR, as long as it's not an inch of hardwood you could break open pretty much any door with the technique they teach you"

We both walked inside the hunting cabin and looked about, there wasn't much in it.

A skeleton lied alone on a chair in the far corner, looking towards Trotsvok out a boarded up window beside it.

A rusty military grade assault rifle laid beside him.

Rusty walked over to the body and inspected it.

She picked up the rifle and inspected it carefully.

"Huh, either this guy was a returned soldier or this is the skeleton of a Zebra"

Rusty floated the rifle and pointed at a symbol.

It was a white shield with an extravagant black glyph mark on it.

I nodded and looked around.

There wasn't much in this room besides a few basic things, a fireplace, a bed, a refrigerator and a storage chest.

Rusty went right to the Chest and opened it.

I noticed that the floor had creaked considerably when she stood on it.

"Bah, there ain’t anything in here, it's empty"

She walked away, all the while the floor creaking as she did.

I walked over and opened the chest too, it was indeed empty.

Just before I was about to walk away and close it I noticed that in one of the corners the floor of the chest was peeled up and a vague and tiny metal cylinder.

I grabbed at it and noticed that the bottom of this chest could be shifted, and when I did I laughed.

Beneath the false bottom of a chest was a wooden trapdoor, the metal cylinder being one of the hinges.

I lifted it up and was greeted with a metal ladder.

"Look what I found Rusty!" I called back as I climbed into the chest and climbed down the ladder.

"Wow, holy shit" I heard Rusty say above me.

Once I reached the bottom of the ladder I realized how dark it was.

Rusty joined me and after a second her horn lit up with an illuminating spell.

The room lit up and we were greeted by a metal door.

Rusty did something to the top corner and shifted it with ease.

"You'll be surprised how many of these 'impenetrable' metal doors have failsafes on them you can use, and how few ponies known about them"

We slowly walked inside, we were greeted by one hell of a sight.

A room central room, posters of Zebras and various glyph marks decorated the walls.

This looked like a living room, various tables and chairs, and even a few couches were in the room there was a cooking area in the far right corner.

3 separate doors, each marked in Zebratic words sat on each wall.

"You had a Zebra for a mother, you know any Zebratic languages?"

I nodded "Fluent in South Eastern which is supposed to be the universal but this is Northern Tribal, I only know some of this"

I tried to remember.

I pointed at the door to the left "That says 'Power Something'

The one in the middle "That one is easy, that's 'Protection and Offensive'

Finally the last one "And that one is a little more complicated it looks like it might be 'Slumber' But I might be wrong"

"Power? Let me see if I can flick the breakers and get the power on"

I nodded and let her go, I decided to leave the 'Protection and Offensive' room which I assumed would be some kind of armory to last and go to 'Slumber' and poke around.

I reached the door and tried to replicate what Rusty did open it.

After a few curses and a lot of fiddling around I managed to flick something and the door began to slide on it's own.

I stepped inside.

Without Rusty I couldn't see anything but once my eyes adjusted to the low light I began to make out vague shapes.

The room was circular and it had 4 large capsule like things in it.

I walked over to one, a small screen near the back glowed.

The screen was in Zebratic 'South Eastern' and it read a little along the lines of.

"WARNING: System error, Main Power failure has occurred, containing organism with back up failsafe, please restart main power grid to restart timer systems.

I heard Rusty laugh "Here we go, found what's wrong let me kick the power up again!" I heard Rusty call.

I walked around to the side of this capsule, I noticed it was a window.

I wiped my leg across the window to remove the condensation.

I nearly had a heart attack.

It was a Zebra mare, she wore a dark grey uniform that enveloped her whole body.

A screen was pointed at her head reading all sorts of random numbers and stats.

I heard a clang and after a second a buzzing.

The lights clanged on and I heard the ventilation fans whine into life.

The 4 capsules were all the same, and I saw the shape of another 2 Zebra's in the opposite capsules and one of them was empty.

They all beeped and chirped.

In read the screen again.

"Notice, Reanimation is '174.6 years' overdue, beginning quick thaw protocols'

The machines began hissing.

We were about to be trespassing on 3 Zebra Commando's property, of which were about to wake up from a long sleep.

"Rusty...?" I called uncomfortably

"What?" she yelled

The 3 machines lifted their tops with a huge hiss and a waft of cold air.

"We might have a problem here"

I heard the sound of another door shifting and Rusty whistling "This armor is nearly as good as mine!"

I heard a groan and I turned back.

The mare was sitting up, she looked at me groggily her eyes half closed as you do when you wake up.

She spoke in a questioning tone in the tongue of the Northern tribes.

I could barely understand her, I could just make out 'what?'

I cleared my throat and replied ~{Do you speak South Eastern Sister?}~

The mare looked at me funny and replied ~{That depends, who are you?}~

Her voice was not pronouncing the words as correctly as she should, South Eastern was definitely not her native language.

Just before I was about to reply I gasped as I felt two hooves around my neck, holding me in a restraining fashion.

~{"Yakobi, why do you communicate with this foul Equestrian scum, do you not remember our mission!?"}~

This mare named Yakobi looked at this Zebra with angst.

He must have slipped out of his capsule while I was talking to Yakobi.

I choked, it was really a chore to breathe like this ~{I not a pony Brother!}~ I coughed

My restrainer laughed ~{Really, what are you then hmm?}~

~{I'm an Abomination... My name is Nimbus}~ I said with a great deal or shame.

Zebra's had gotten over Zony's being around a long time before the war, the prejudice may have gone but the word remained.

The restraining stallion gasped and lifted one of my legs to kiss it in pity as the tradition went.

The stallion looked to Yakobi ~{Come here and Pity the child Yakobi!}~

Yakobi shook her head ~{No Amoa, it's a stupid superstitious act and It probably hurts his feelings!}~

Amoa looked shocked ~{You better not let Heyouz hear that Yakobi, he'll gut you for heresy"

~{Let that fool think whatever he wants, I only took this mission because it gets my family a ticket into Great Mountain}~

Yakobi Stretched her limbs till they cracked.

I had a hard time taking my eyes away from her legs as her body twisted to each movement.

What? Only a Zebra is as flexible as that...

~{Speaking of which we should get ready, I programmed our Training Simulation to wake us up 3 hours before the Summit in Stalliongrad, so we need to get ready}~

For fucks sake.

Am I really going to have to explain to another thing to an unfortunate pre war soul?"

Amoa looked at me ~{What about this guy, he's heard nearly everything we just said}~

Yakobi looked deeply into my eyes.

~{"Leave him locked down here, get him out once we deal with Celestia"}~

~{Listen, I have something to explain to you two"}~

Yakobi and Amoa turned and looked at me.

(tab)~{The war escalated, you locked your capsules and bombs started falling, it cut your power and you capsules haven't been able to wake you because they were on backup power"}~

Yokobi Laughed.

~{Yes brother, of course the war escalated whilst me and my team were sleeping and we’ve woken up in some dystopian new world ruled by some close minded communist nation}~

I wanted to say something but I kept it quiet, more funny to see her have a heart attack than actually tell her.

Yakobi looked back at Amoa and ordered him to armor up to go check out the surface:

That reminded me, Rusty was in the armory right now, probably good time to tell

~{I for must warn you about my partner, she is a little uncomfortable around strangers}~ I said meekly to Yakobi

As if by a cruel joke Rusty came in.

That wouldn't be much of a problem if she didn't have a bunch of stuff from their armory on her back.

"Hey Nimbus, check out all this stuff I...who are they"

Yakobi looked at me with annoyance in her eyes ~{So you and your 'partner' are here to rob us is that it?}~

I looked back at the scary commando mare and I noticed Amoa reaching for something.

~{Please, you have to understand sister Yakobi, I mean you and brother Amoa no disrespect, we are just wanderers and we stumbled across your cabin by accident, If we knew you were alive we would have never stolen from you!}~

Rusty looked at me and Yakobi in confusion as we both spoke in a language completely foreign to her.

"What are you saying to her?" Rusty questioned "Who are they even!"

"Rusty just calm down and shut up!" I yelled

~{I'm telling you the truth Sister, We had no Idea you were down here!}~

~{Well, that would make you one thing then wouldn't it}~ A deep voiced pony stated.

I large Zebra rose from the furthest capsule, he had a large pink fleshy scar over his left eye.

~{You are a looter, I don't doubt that the war escalated, in fact I would be surprised if it didn't, I took this mission because It gave me a place to wait out the coming fires}~

He stepped out of his tube and stomped over to us, he was at least a head taller than Yakobi and Amoa.

~{The stars wrote that taking from something that you know can't stop you is the highest form of cowardice and heresy, and I will end you for it Abomination!}~

He lifted his hoof up to bring it down on me but Yakobi held it.

~{Maybe he and his friend are just trying to make it in the ‘apparently’ new outside world, perhaps we should let it slide}~ She said.

I saw Amoa step back.

The large one struck Yakobi with his hoof ~{Heresy! How dare you question the authority of the stars!}~

Yakobi growled and stood up ~{You son of a bitch, I never believed in that bullshit you knew that, I should kill you right now!"

Big Zebra laughed ~{I know fool, If the Abomination speaks the truth and there is no world above us then we make our own authority, and my Authority states that I will destroy those who anger the stars}~

Yakobi was starting to look intimidated ~{What happens if Chaplin Limonee finds out, you'll have to answer to him!"

The big one laughed ~{Can't you remember what Limonee said 'I'm going to keep watch up in the cabin, I think we are being followed' He was up there when the bombs fell, I doubt he is alive anymore}~

He reared up but before he could come down on Yakobi, Amoa jumped upon him.

Amoa wrapped his hooves around his large opponents neck and through some rather fancy and twisty moves brought his opponent down something that rather impressed me.

~{Run Yakobi!}~ Amoa choked out as he struggled to keep his opponent down.

Yakobi looked unsure for a minute like she didn’t want to leave but she then sprinted for the door out of bunker and when I realized she was gone me and Rusty followed.

She was already outside the hut when I reached the top of the Ladder.

I charged outside and after taking a moment to find her I pushed off and into the air after her.

~{Sister Yakobi, please you must slow down and let me explain this to you!}~

She did not listen, she instead continued to run back toward Prometheus.

She was going to get herself killed like this.

I lowered my body into a dart and charged right at her, with my body tearing through the air I managed spear tackle her right to the ground.

~{Sister please let me explain!}~ I said immediately getting off Yakobi. I saw what Amoa did to that big guy, I didn't want to be on the receiving side of that.

Yakobi calmed down considerably and looked at me.

~{Listen, I appreciate your help, but I'm older than you, I can look after myself Brother}~

I nodded ~{I admire that Yakobi, I really do, but this world is not the same as the one you thought you'd be returning to, I have to explain some stuff to you}~

Lifted her hooves up and let them down letting them make a light slapping sound I on her Grey Uniform.

~{Shoot}~

I looked at her whilst I rubbed my wing, I took off wrong and I probably hurt something ~{You're in the former North Equestria, this is now run by a large communist state known as New Stalliongrad, if any soldier, guard or even the odd civilian sees you like this, you're going to be arrested and sent to a camp, they really don't like Zebra's here}~

She nodded, I could see her visibly die a little inside when she realized her quip back in the pod room was entirely true.

~{Your best bet is headed to the NCR down to the south, that's not easy though, Immigration isn't very good between the two nations, but at least you can stand up without getting arrested there}~

She nodded once more and looked about ~{I understand this...war destroyed much but, this place seems to have recovered well, is our home still scarred brother?}~

I nodded ~{There was this machine some pre war scientist built in secrecy, it essentially once activated, fixed everything, radiation, Burnt landscapes, Fallout within the soil, only catch was it only fixed Equestria, not our home}~

It really looked like I had killed her mood.

~{Oh! There are some areas that were spared, and some areas are still habitable}~

She thought quietly ~{What about the south western mountain near the Capital, is it safe?}~

The capital of the Zebra Lands was one of the hardest hit places in the world, Celestia 1, Balefire ICBM's, Chemical Weapons.

There is a reason they call it 'The city of glass'

I couldn't say it, but I think she saw from the look on my face what I was thinking.

~{Sorry to just throw these questions at you like this, It's just...I need to know my family got to Great Mountain before this happened}~

I tried to smile but It sort of came out a weird half smile half frown.

~{Don't worry sister, You probably won't believe me but this isn't the first time this has happened to me}~

She looked at me weird and then finally nodded.

~{I'm about to request something very abnormal Nimbus, I need to reach Great Mountain to see if it still remains, check the records to see if my family remains, and because of my inexperience in this ‘apparently dangerous’ world I am requesting your help}~

I couldn’t accept this, as much as it pained me, I had to find my sister, I couldn’t go with her.

And I seriously doubted she would still be interested in looking after I find her, and of course I had no idea how long that was going to take.

~{I’m sorry to say this Sister, but I am on a search of great importance to myself and I cannot spare the time to leave it}~ I said with a great deal of remorse in my voice.

Yakobi was greatly disappointed ~{I understand Nimbus}~

I looked at her face which was frozen in a look of insecurity whilst her mind was absent in thought.

~{I can however help you attain this goal, there are a great deal of Companies that specialise in traveling to our scarred home to obtain unclaimed riches and loot, one of the biggest is a Zebra ran company in Trotsvok, I can escort you there and you can continue your search}~

Through my time in Freedom Stripes we often dealt with a company called Distant Callers

They were an exclusively Zebra trading company, many times they gave us seeds for exotic vegetables and fruits, none of which grew very well in the Snow of North Equestria, but it was a nice gesture, that and they did give us plenty of art to decorate our safe houses with.

She looked up at me after my offer to help “And they can take me there?”

I nodded ~{They will take practically anyone who asks, all you got to do is bring them back some decent loot, heck if you say you want to go to the city of glass all you have to do is ask, not many are willing to go there, you don’t last very long without proper protective gear in that area}~

Yakobi thought about it for a second and nodded ~{I will use this caravan service to head home, this sounds like it will work, I will however stay at you side until we reach the destination}~

This was an acceptable term, however despite how helpful it would have been nice to have her earlier I get a feeling she will prove herself helpful eventually.

Rusty caught up to us "There you two are, she must be a hell of a runner you two went really far"

That reminded me to ask ~{How good is you Equestrian sister?}~

Yakobi shook her head ~{Not as good as my South Western, I only knew a few words}~

She smirked again "It is bad" she said struggling the pronunciation so much that it was barely discernible.

~{It doesn't matter sister, I will interpret your words for you}~

"Rusty, this is Yakobi, she will be joining us on our way to Trotsvok, she just left her dead life in the Zebra Military and is ready to become a helpful member of this Communist Society"

Rusty looked at Yakobi "You sure she ain't gonna try kill us?"

I looked at her and smiled "I can only hope so"

Rusty looked back at me and sighed "I guess I should give her that stuff from her armory back"

To my shock Rusty hoofed over a large sniper rifle and ammo, as well as a set of armor which was very light looking and looked amazing like she had just piled dirt and grass onto her armor but was actually just fake scrimmage and fabric.

"Ask her why she has a Ghillie Suit, thought Stripeys used those invisibility devices"

Yakobi held the sniper rifle with ease and comfort, knowing exactly what she was doing.

I explained to her Rusty's question and she lit up, like she was waiting somepony to ask.

~{Remarkably Simple really, I'm a long range sniper, we often had to sit in the middle of a huge area like a forest for hours just to get one kill, not only does the invisibility device give you headaches and other implications that cause aches and even weakening bone structure and insanity in rare cases if you have it on for too long, it also is incredibly easy to spot a contact with a invisibility device in a brush because of light distortion being easy to spot amongst the perfectly stationary trees and bushes}~

She paused while she placed the suit on herself making her resemble a walking bush.

~{You'll be surprised how many stories there are of Zebra infiltrators getting right past front lines right under the noses of Equestrian soldiers with these suits"

She pulled the hood of her suit back to reveal her face and once she could see she grasped the long rifle at her hooves and began loading ammo into it's magazine.

Once we were ready she rasped the bolt forward and slapped it down.

We were ready to move.

******

As we walked I spent a lot of time explaining to Yakobi this new world and the nations that make it up.

I told her about Marenburg and the great walls that surround it, I told her of the Arcane Dominion and what Alicorns are.

Heck I even told her about The anti Zebra regime in the NSS.

She paused for thought and finally piped up ~{How can the Zebra trading company exist in a country like this then?}~

~{They only exterminate Zebra Citizens, these companies are given a little leeway as they do wonders stimulating economies}~

Yakobi nodded.

We still hadn't eating and it was incredibly hard to stop thinking about it.

My stomach was aching I was so hungry.

We hit it pretty lucky when Yakobi stopped us.

She pointed into the treeline beside us that was dusted with snow.

A Doe hopped around tree to tree eating flowers and sniffing the air. I heard Rusty laugh a bit "Looks like we're having venison for lunch guys"

I saw Yakobi lift her sniper rifle and point it at the Deer.

I was surprised, I actually thought Zebras were really 'I'd rather die than eat meat' vegetarians.

But hey, guess we learn something new every day, besides I can imagine being asleep for 200 years makes one rather hungry, Makes me wonder what Melancholy ate after we left, and how much of it too...

Yakobi took the shot and her gun roared as a single shot flew out of the barrel and smacked into the neck of the deer. Killing it instantly.

She pulled her bolt back and then back forward to load a shot and then slung her rifle back.

Rusty unsheathed her knife and walked over to the body.

I flapped my wings and flew over myself.

I had only had meat twice in my life; one when I was still very much a child, and one lucky night when Freedom Stripes did a potluck.

"Go find a vine of something Nimbus, need to hang this to drain the blood"

I nodded and flew off looking for something to use as rope.

This being a Taiga forrest, it was very unlikely that I would find vine trees but that didn't matter.

I found a birch sapling, just about as tall as me.

Birch were unnaturally strechy trees, and a good old prewar survival manual told be that using a knife you could shave lengths of bark off of it and weave them into rope.

After getting Rusties knife I did just this, shaving the bark until it was nearly completely bare.

Using the long lengths of bark I tied their ends off and crossed wrapped them slowly forming a nearly 5 foot long length of rope.

Once I had tied it off I made my way back and gave Rusty her knife back.

"Fly her up to that branch there and tie her upside-down on the branch" Rusty ordered as she picked up the Doe and helped it Into my hooves.

Trickily I did as such and tied the deer to the branch and returned to Rusty.

Rusty sliced the neck of the hanging deer and almost like turning a faucet blood poured quickly, a most gruesome sight I'm sure.

As we waited for the blood to drain we sat around as Yakobi tried to start a fire to cook on.

Rusty stood up and dusted herself off "I'm going to go get some berries or grass or something to eat with this" she said as she stood and walked away into the Forest.

Yakobi and I were left alone as she tried to start this fire.

~{If you don't mind me asking Nimbus, what is this important mission you must embark on?}~ she said as she once again grounded the wood together.

I sighed ~{My Birth Sister was taken from me yesterday by a former NCR Ranger, I have to find her before something happens to her}~

Yakobi nodded and jumped before lifting the wood to her face and blowing on it.

After a moment she dropped some of our tinder on it and a small flame flared up.

~{Yes!}~ she cried as she waved the flame beneath the branches on the fire pit.

The orange tongue of Fire licked the wood leaving several black marks until the branch flared up.

Yakobi looked around before brushing the snow off of her fatigues and sitting down beside me as the fire started.

~{You know for a post Balefire wasteland it sure is pretty normal to me, are you sure you're not just pulling my leg?}~

I looked up at her ~{Everything was fixed by this magical machine called Gardens of Equestria, prior to Gardens there were was a permanent cloud curtain thanks to groups of Pegasi Remnants banding together to make an Enclave, there was also radiation and scorched lands, all that cool stuff}~

Yakobi smirked ~{Well I guess that I'll find out how bad it is when I get to our home}~

Yakobi sighed ~{I wonder if Amoa is okay, I hate to leave him there with that monster Heyouz}~

I tried to smirk ~{We could always go back, I have a shotgun, that should make up for about anything he could throw at us!}~

Yakobi laughed ~{Amoa would see it as an insult, I wouldn’t have left if thought he couldn’t take him, Heyouz is a terrible fighter without any weapons, Amoa on the other hand, I’ve seen him take down Griffins in power armor on his own before, Heyouz doesn’t stand a chance}~

I could tell by her tone she was very confident in Amoa taking out that monstrously big Zebra, I had assumed he was a goner and he was just covering our escape with his life but now that Yakobi brought this up, I was hoping that Amoa had kicked his ass and Survived.

Rusty finally returned with some tufts of grass floating in her magic along with a small amount of berries.

As she returned to our side she cut the deer down and began her work cutting it up.

I figured the meat would be enough to feed me, I loved meat, ponies looked often looked shamefully on Omnivorous Ponies, like we were some sort of monster with no sympathy for animals.

They hadn't been so hungry they were dipping garbage for any form of sustenance.

...or eaten bacon.

Using her magic she floated the pieces of venison over the fire and cooked them.

We ate for a few moments biting our ridiculously greasy meat and sitting in awkward silence.

After a while I got up and excused myself go and 'answer a call of nature'

I got a decent distance away and hid behind a tall bush.

Just before I started I heard a crunch of leaves and a rustle of leaves.

I snapped my head over to the noise and frowned.

I still had no gun I could utilized but I had these wing-blades, they were enough, if I was fast.

I stalked slowly toward the source of the noise slowly unfolding my wings and cringing every time one of the joints on the wing-blades clicked.

I was right at the snow covered bush that the noise originated from.

I reached my hoof out and prepared myself to tackle whatever strange mutated creature jumped out at me.

I yelled as I snatched the bush aside and flung my blade toward the creature that laid on the snow covered ground.

I nearly yelped, I could only just stop my wing in time.

The creature was a Fawn, a baby deer looked up at me with absolute terror.

I looked at it as It's beady petrified little eyes looked up at me, waiting for me to strike it down.

This was awfully close to where the deer was shot by Yakobi, which obviously led me to believe that this fawn was that of the Doe we shot.

I had to look away in shame, We killed this deer, and subsequently killed it's child, I couldn't bare look it in the eyes, not after that.

I wanted to walk away, to get as far as possible away from it and wipe it from my memory.

Ignorance is bliss, that's the basis I was working on.

I walked away just ignoring it and walked further into the forest as to continue the business I came out here to do in the first place.

Once I had finished up I returned to the others who were now packing everything back up and moving along.

Rusty had buried the deer beneath the ground and Yakobi was busy attaching white pieces of scrimmage to her armor, presumably as a way of blending in with the snow.

Once we were ready to get moving Rusty took the lead and Yakobi took a position further behind me and Rusty.

And it continued like this for a while.

Empty roads and nothing but the sounds of our hooves crunching against the dirty layer of snow that sat upon the road.

After a while we did reach something that led me to believe we were getting close to Trotsvok.

Military forward positions.

They were simple Barbed fence and sandbag forts with a single Quonset hut in the middle and large tank parked beside it.

Yakobi was getting shot really dirty looks by the rangers that were all around this small position.

Somepony in the tanks gunner seat was following us as we walked, causing the huge circular turret to silently follow us as we walked beside the camp.

I looked at Yakobi and moved closer to whisper in her ear ~{Have you got a way to cover your face sister?}~

She nodded ~{Just a green Balaclava to go with this suit}~

~{Put it on, we're going to have a hard enough time getting in as it is, I'm afraid your stripes will just exacerbate things}~

That reminded me that I had to do much the same.

I grasped the long lengths of fabric out of my bag and wrapped them around the stripes above my boots.

I shivered, this was bringing back memories of New Stalliongrad again, thoughts I would no longer like in my head.

Once they were secured in place We continued toward the city.

******

The skyline of Trotsvok was growing on the distance.

Not as many buildings towered over the city like in New Stalliongrad, but it was still a city.

I could hear Yakobi admiring it as she gasped, she was going to have a fun time in New Stalliongrad if she was ever moved there before the mission to the Zebra lands.

~{It looks like this nation is more than capable of defending itself, why do they build such a large wall around the city}~

I tapped my chin, I wasn't so sure myself “I'm not so sure I know, do you know why Rusty?"

Rusty glanced at me "Why what?"

"Oh sorry, why the cities have walls despite the military in the country being enormous"

She laughed "Paranoia from The NCR, this government is sure the war with the NCR will escalate again, so they turned all their cities into forts and reinforced the shit out of them, during The Winter War our generals would always try break the stalemate through hitting the Grand Train Station that the NSS fortified, we could never get through, they butchered our lines until we just fell back"

Rusty pointed at the walls.

"It's the way they build their walls, we were always assuming that they were making us hit the hardest position and when we asked about it they told us that the train station was the weakest out of their Frontline, that's the reason the Winter War stalemated, The NSS excel at defense and holding their positions, their offensive is nothing but a huge shock and awe, they overwhelm you, take your position and dig in so deep nothing short of carpet bomber can get them out and then they sit there, they don't advance unless they are 100% sure they can take and hold their position"

I always saw New Stalliongrad City as nothing but an enormous fort, if that was the case an NCR invasion force would have a wonderful time trying to siege these places.

The windy road we were on made a right and connected onto a large main road that rolled right into the main gates of Trotsvok.

All along this road was a litany of small suburbs and communities, many were farmers that were too poor to live within the safety of the city walls’

We trotted and passed the buildings all around us.

It was particularly quiet, there were a few farmers hauling carts around but for the most part there was nothing.

There was suddenly a rumbling sound, like a roar of an engine which slowly grew louder and louder.

Then it passed overhead, a large metal object shaped like a bird flew over. roaring like a hurricane.

I was astounded, this machine didn’t have any pegasus mounts or hooks, it was flying on its own, what twisted nightmare magic was this?

“Marenburg, what are they doing in Trotsvok?” I heard Rusty mumble.

That of course made sense, Marenburg’s technology was some of the most advanced the world has ever seen.

It was all because of Ripchord, she was a cruel cold hearted monster, schizophrenic and insane from some of the stuff that used to happen to her back when she was under Red Eye.

Now she’s in charge of her own nation, almost like Red Eye’s Unity on drugs.

Apparently she’s a genius, a genius genius. All she does is run around working on machines and objects to do tasks for her.

And her inventions are nothing short of extraordinary.

After all she made...The Faceless.

….I’m...sorry to just pause like this, I don’t like thinking about the Faceless.

Those...abominations are not normal in the slightest.

Faceless are Marenburg’s elite, much like NSS Elites and NCR Veteran Rangers.

Ponies, or I should say once were ponies under her command are injected with so many drugs and cybernetic implants that their bodies warp and change.

Specifically their hair and coat lose all pigmentation and they turn stark white like chalk, then their hair starts falling out and finally their faces fuse up and they are left as smooth featureless ghosts in power armor, obviously where the name derives from.

They have no free thought, their only notion is to kill what they are ordered to kill without objection, I think there's probably even NSS Elites that fear the Faceless.

Once I had regained composure as to what had happened we kept following the road to the gate which was now right before us in a huge grand and ornate archway that was nearly 8 pony lengths high.

The gate was wall after wall after fence of gates and scanners, New Stalliongrad didn’t want you entering or leaving the city without them noticing...come to think of it they didn’t want you doing anything without them knowing.

I could hear the harrowing sound of the Red Choir playing over the speakers, the radio was playing Radio Vladistrot, the radio station owned by the state.

They only had a handful of songs, all of them were the New Stalliongrad Choir songs, just think of the most typical bullshit brain dead communist song you can think of, imagine nothing but that 24/7.

When I worked the docks or the factories of New Stalliongrad they played Radio Vladistrot nonstop.

Some bullshit about it encouraging you to work faster, never worked for me.

When we lined up I looked at Rusty and Yakobi “Alright, act normal and stick to my story and we shouldn’t be in too much trouble” I looked at Yakobi ~{Do not speak, and remember to state your name in Equestrian if somepony asks, got it?}~

Yakobi saluted.

The line was mostly populated by Caravaners and Farmers, there were a few that were residents of the city and even a few that had NCR visitation badges on their clothing.

Once we reached the tall mare in a decorative NSG uniform complete with beret and NSS shield sat at a desk typing on a terminal.

“Chestʹ i khvala, I am Commissar Deluge, by law of The Boardroom all residents and visitors of any New Stalliongrad city must be accounted for, please state your names to me for recording” she was particularly bored sounding

“I am Nimbus, this is Rusty and this is Yakobi, we would like 24 hour passage”

Deluge typed for a moment before grasping 3 bands from beneath the table and reading them and typing again.

“These are 24 hour visitation bands, these must remain on you at all times, they allow you to remain in the city for 24 hours, if you exceed this time you will be located and arrested, is this clear?” she said

“Perfectly clear, we should be in and out in only a few hours” i replied to Deludge.

She nodded “Chestʹ i khvala comrade, we got 3 coming through, open up.”

I closed the metal band around my leg and watched as it clasped tightly “Slava vsem nam” I replied.

A Klaxon honked and the large metal chain link and barb fence began tumbling to the side to let us past.

After that was just an unnecessarily long labyrinth of fences that finally opened up the the entrance square to the city.

It was almost built like a star, Five roads split off from out position, each of these from memory of school, led to the different districts, New Stalliongrad City has nearly 12 of them so the entrance square there is huge.

My best bet was to go to the Guard and City kiosk.

These had large databases that allowed you to search names and come up with what district they are on, which street, block number etc.

I walked into the warm little booth and looked at the terminals that lined the far wall.

Once I had spent several hilarious seconds trying to figure out how to work it, I finally searched ‘Rhinestone’

As if Celestia, Luna and the lord of mercy and luck and shined on me at once, there was one Rhinestone, District Four, seventh street, house number nine.

“Time to meet my God Father” I said to no pony in particular.

Stepping outside and making a line for District Four I looked over the skyline.

On a nearby roof a figure of a pony watched from up high. He was tall and he was Dirt brown, thats all you could see.

His shadow looked down at me and galloped out of sight.

Before I could question this I had to jump aside, as to avoid the cart I had nearly run into.

The owner yelled something at me, I wasn't really listening to him.

We finally reached the District 4 comm tower and once I had located the ninth house we began walking toward it.

House after house, vandalized, dirty brick walls and prefab houses joined the ranks of what passed me

We had finally reached his house, I knocked twice and waited quietly.

I heard thud after thud as his large body shook the floor.

In heard several locks shift and finally the door creak open.

The was a huge muscular Earthpony his jet black coat and short navy blue mane contrasted heavily with some kind of evening wear he was wearing.

"Who are you and why shouldn't I kill you?"

I looked him in the eyes "Greywing's son, I'm Nimbus"

Rhinestone eyes looked surprised and then fearful.

“Luna damn, I wasn't sure you and Fable were dead, but I knew that if you were alive you would eventually come, I had a feeling that was you they were talking about on the radio"

Rhinestone looked out the door and then left and right, he was afraid of something.

"Where is your sister?" he said ushering us in.

I turned and looked my large godfather in the eyes.

"That's why I'm here"

Rhinestone sighed and told my companions to stay behind and for just me to follow him "If you told me that my best friend was arrested and his kids had disappeared only for his son to just reappear at my doorstep 9 years later asking about his missing sister, I wouldn't have said yes to being your godfather in return for just one beer"

Rhinestone laughed and we entered his office and he closed the door behind him.

"Now sit down and tell me how Fable went missing"

I sat down and scratched my wrappings causing them to shift and allowing me to catch a look at the dark brown stripes on my coat.

"What's your opinion on Snow Rhinestone?"

LEVEL UP: WELCOME TO LEVEL 4!

PERK ADDED:Linguistics Advantage.

Due to your ability to read the Zebra language you gain a 10% increase to all Zebra Weapons and Armor

Hello, hi and welcome back to my story, sorry this one took longer, I had to rewrite it due to the horrific writing that appeared and I had to go back a rewrite it all’

I really hope you all understand and you come back for the next chapter.

By the way, Hello and welcome all new watchers from FimFiction, welcome to the club, I hope you enjoy your stay.

DARCYSUPREMEST.

Chapter 5 "Next of Kin"

CHAPTER 5

“Next of Kin”

_________________________________________

"What was the Winter War?"

A conflict, a huge conflict between the New Canterlot Republic and New Stalliongrad State.

I remember the day the Winter War started.

Eight years ago, the NSS made a push to control the entirety of Old Stalliongrad City. It was a daring move violence had been threatened against us from the NCR if we recaptured the city. It was still no-pony's land, but the NCR borders were very close and it was feared that the NSS would use Old Stalliongrad as a stepping stone for an invasion of the NCR.

The NSS never exhibited any need or want to invade the NCR. The plan of the government was to not anger the rest of the big four and to remain unobtrusive and neutral.

The city itself was going to be restored. The building plans and art recovered in order to inspire the architecture of New Stalliongrad and to display the artistry of to the Old World as a way of rebuilding pony culture for the New Equestria.

However, good intentions are rarely taken at face value.

For a few months the city was occupied and quietly held by no more than 300 citizens and 150 rangers who were all pretty green and basically new recruits, sent in as a measure of mutant cleaning and raider control, but more than anything it was a training mission.

The NSS had been wary but was now starting to believe that the NCR had bluffed when they threatened them.

This was, however, short-lived.

During the beginning of the following year the first NCR elections were held.

With increasing fear of the NSS and pressure to retaliate against them being ignored by the first president of the NCR –Gawdyna Grimfeathers– she was quite shockingly removed from office by a mere seven vote margin. That elected the ‘Trench’ party into office, effectively making Tin Cap the president of the NCR.

Tin Cap was an Earth Pony stallion who had much harsher views on how to deal with New Stalliongrad.

A lot of Gawdyna’s supporters were too shocked to believe she had lost, many outside sources –including The Lightbringer– coming into the equation and demanding a recount.

With Littlepip believing the NCR to no longer be the bastion of democracy and fairness she used to know, The Lightbringer turned the SPP towers and the surrounding areas into an independent state.

This of course became known as ‘Independence’.

With President Tin Cap in office, the legislations to invade the New Stalliongrad State were drawn and an aggressive fear campaign began.

The Boardroom of the NSS of course condemned these actions, calling them an unprovoked attack.

And whilst the Board and the NCR were busy arguing, the NCR moved a large task-force north and hit the city as hard as they could, annihilating what little resistance the NSS had in Old Stalliongrad.

The NCR had no idea of the civilian presence in the settlement and –believing it to be a military outpost– leveled it with artillery.

More than 180 of the 300 civilians were killed in the shelling of the fort and by the time the NCR realized the civilian nature of the camp, it was already too late.

The ponies of the NSS saw the shelling as an unprovoked massacre, and believe me when I describe the reaction when these news reached the population:

Every single pony I knew was crying out for blood.

Before the NCR could explain or release their prisoners, one of the largest task-forces in equine history –on par with something from The Great War– was on its way to Old Stalliongrad.

The only thing the citizens of the NSS saw were red, and the only way we thought we could allow the grieving families a measure of peace was through a bloodbath.

And boy was there a bloodbath.

The Winter War of Stalliongrad lasted two years, each side nearly exhausting their entire armed forces in the war.

Near the beginning of the Winter War Littlepip ordered a ceasefire and demanded a summit be held in order to stop the fighting.

For the longest time the summit looked like it was going to work, that peace would prevail and we would return to the New Equestrian dream of milk, honey and global recovery. It all seemed too perfect to be true.

In grand old wasteland style it was.

Many may not know but the NSS had a single leader to accompany The Boardroom, this position was known as High Councilor, the first High Councilor of New Stalliongrad was a mare named Cinnamon Swirl.

She...

I’ll put it this way, if Cinnamon was still in charge, it's unlikely that I would have ever been an orphan, I would still have my parents, I wouldn’t be a fugitive. The Winter War would never have escalated...

But the night it was hoped the ceasefire would be signed, Cinnamon’s Vertibuck malfunctioned and crashed, killing her.

Perhaps I will discuss the High Councilor and the actual government and how it functions as a whole more in the future, but it is not important right now, what matters is that all the more tolerant views and peaceful decisions New Stalliongrad made were because of her, and now she was gone.

So was that outlook.

They still haven’t decided who the next High Councilor will be, it’s always brought up, but the board can never make up their goddess damned minds.

With the whole Board in disarray, accusations flying, riots and multiple assassination attempts on the president of the NCR, the summit failed disastrously.

In order to quell the fighting, Littlepip changed the weather to nearly lethal conditions, in hopes that the danger staying in Old Stalliongrad posed would convince the armies to leave.

It didn't...

Fueled by bloodthirsty rage, the battle swept the city, wiping out the NCR task-force, leaving the NSS the victor, but at the cost of nearly the entirety of their army.

The war was no longer about the city or the massacre, it had devolved into psychotic rage. One final force was mobilized to wipe out the remaining NSS presence and was set to arrive on the dot the next morning.

The NSS dug in and built up walls, under the command of Board Member Supreme Commander Icarus, cutting the city in half at the old bypass highway which ran through the middle of the former metropoly.

The small force that remained held their ground, the most brutal and gritty guerrilla war seen since the Great War began. There weren't enough guns or ammo to feed the NSS army in Stalliongrad, only through incredible wit and resourcefulness the New Stalliongrad State held long enough for a ‘peaceful’ resolution.

With the war clearly in a stalemate, which was locked so tight nothing short of a balefire hit could have broken it, the decision was made to call for a truce.

So on a chilly spring morning a ceasefire was declared and the war ended.

The city is still held and split at the bypass to this day.

The two nations, that prior to Stalliongrad pretty much ignored each other and got on with their lives, were now the worst kind of enemies.

Although it's been six years since the conflict, the two nations continue to move units into the area and build up their forces’ strengths.

Tensions continue to mount and build every second that ticks away, all it would take is one pony, one stupid move...

And well, we'll have serious problem, won't we?

*_*_*_*_*

Rhinestone thought quietly to himself as he reclined on his desk chair.

I had just finished explaining what had happened to me and Fable.

It was nerve-racking. He just sat there, staring into space.

“So you are sure you signed that tag under your real name?” he said with an expression so deadpan and neutral it kind of unnerved me.

I couldn't discern if he was mad or not, he wasn't making any facial expressions to work with.

"You know, you are a fugitive now, Nimbus. If it wasn't safe for you and your sister before, it will be too perilous to even move from town to town now. You're going to have to leave New Stalliongrad entirely, it’s too dangerous for you here."

"I'm not leaving or going anywhere without Fable, even if it gets me killed!"

Rhinestone nodded uncomfortably "I'm not saying to go without Fable, I'm simply telling you that, when your mission is completed, you can no longer remain here."

Rhinestone looked at a simple clock he had on his desk.

He rose and walked over to a radio and clicked it on.

He turned the knob and combed through the static until a station came in.

...........perialist dogs!" This simple street survey proves that peace negotiations with the NCR are trivial meaningless banter!

Long live the state. Chest' I Khvala!

There was a small intermission during which a simple patriotic song played.

As requested by Board Member 1st Commander Coal, we are announcing a search for two fugitives who escaped from New Stalliongrad through the aid of an underground terrorist network known as Freedom Stripes.

The two are called Nimbus and Fable.

Both are young-aged Pegasi, Nimbus is believed to be somewhere in his late teens with a tall slenderly build, beige coat and black mane. His sister is in her early teens and has a cream white coat with a long black mane.

If you have any information regarding the whereabouts of these two, please contact a Guard at your nearest City Guard booth.

Don't forget the 30,000 cap or bit reward, if they are brought before an official alive and unharmed. Serious consequences will apply if either fugitive is harmed in any way, shape or form.

Thank you for listening.

Chest' I Khalva!

“You understand, with that tag under your name it won’t be long before somepony notices and the whole city is placed under lockdown in order to find you. For this reason you must get out of here as fast as you can.”

It hit me like a ton of bricks: my sister and I both had a bounty on our heads. Granted, Fable did have a six foot tall tank in power armor with her who was interested in my sister for his own reasons, so she was more likely to survive than I, but it just made me realize how brutal a place this was for me, just because of my existence.

"That message is going to spread very quickly, give it two more days and every single pony in the NSS armed forces is going to be looking for you."

“Rhinestone, I came here for a reason. Jericho –the pony who took Fable– is strong, much too strong for me to handle, he took a direct hit from an Anti-Machine Rifle and it didn’t even penetrate his armor, I came here because you are the only pony who might know how to stop him.”

Rhinestone stood up from his chair and told me to follow him.

I did so as we weaved between his narrow hallways. His house was designed mainly as a huge main room at the front and a hellish nightmare of hallways and such behind it.

We walked into an unlit chamber and Rhinestone clicked on the light.

Before me were two dress mannequins, one had a long light-brown trenchcoat, the other was a set of scratched and chipped combat armor that appeared to be a few shades brighter than my own coat.

"I've kept these things since I got them. That armor was what I wore when I was your age, before the NSS. I was a guard at Tenpony Tower, your father had just abandoned the Enclave and had come there trying to get his bearings, he wore that bloody trench coat everywhere he went. Your father gave it to me a while ago, just before he married your mother."

Rhinestone coughed violently.

“There...isn’t much I can offer you Nimbus. I can’t come with you, I’m much past my prime, I’d be more of a burden to you, but there are a few things I can do.”

He waved his hoof across the combat armor and coat

“I have no use for those, or my other possessions, they are yours now. I think your father would be happy that his favourite coat was in your possession, and I’m not jumping in front of bullets anymore, so my armor is now yours as well, as is one last thing.”

Rhinestone walked to a cabinet, he coughed again as he withdrew a sheet of paper.

He returned to my side.

“Marked on this map is a gully, my gully. It contains my safehouse, where I used to live back when I did work for...the NSS.”

I looked at him funny before he sighed and rolled up the sleeve of his evening wear.

A tattoo of a dragon skull greeted me.

“I knew you were in spec ops, but wow, you were an Elite?”

He nodded “There’s some pretty experimental shit in that safehouse. The safehouse as well as everything in it, is yours. I understand in your search you’re going to need a warm bed, as well as somewhere safe to hide from the guards. As an Elite I had the power to have that area stricken from the records, it’s probably the only place in the wasteland where you’re not going to be found.”

I took the map and put it in my patrol bag.

“You said his armor looked like NCR riot gear, right?” Rhinestone asked tapping his chin.

I nodded.

“Hmm, I have a theory, what do you know about the Donkeys during the war?”

I shrugged “Nothing”.

Rhinestone hummed, “They were neutral, tried everything possible to make the option of invasion less appealing to both sides.”

“How’d they do that?”

Rhinestone walked over to his chair and sat down on it. “Dealing with both sides, kissing up to both without them knowing of each other. And when they got on good terms with Equestria and the Zebras they bought technology from both countries and mixed them together, effectively making very powerful tech. Though they remained neutral to the bitter end, it was effectively their plan to build a strong defense force to repel an invasion should the need ever arise.”

He coughed for a moment and cleared his throat “I have a feeling I know why Jericho is as tough as he is.”

I gave Rhinestone a questioning look.

“Donkeys were rumored to have an armor that had personal shielding, not like the magic fields Equestria had already perfected, but energy-based shielding, like what the Zebras were working on.”

“That doesn’t sound too mythical or amazing” I said bluntly.

Rhinestone chuckled “It was. Zebras had half given up on energy shielding, so when the Donkeys got a hold of it, they just poured research into it and a bunch of prototypes were created. Of course, they needed an armor system that could power the design, but not something too large in order to stay mobile. So their solution was a near exact clone of Equestria’s riot gear, but upgraded and powered. It’s rumored to be able to protect the user from a direct hit from a 105 shell.”

That was impressive.

“They took volunteers from their armed forces and trained them in their use, so your friend Jericho must have found a base or something and managed to get by its defenses.”

I nodded “That's all well and good, Rhinestone but that doesn’t help me find a way to kill him.”

“Then this will. Energy shields aren’t like magical ones, there is no bypass bullet or hell hound claw that could get through it, the only way to negate Jericho’s energy shield is to overpower it.

The large stallion walked over to his desk and shuffled through papers, looking for something.

“Here it is, the Pulse Gun.”

He handed the paper to me and I looked over it carefully “What is it?”

“It’s a type of spark weapon, it shoots an EMP, ruins anything computer or electronic based, not saying it will work, but it’s your best bet. I can’t think of any weapon that has the same properties as it.”

Rhinestone retrieved the two sets of clothing and gave them to me.

Then he offered me his washroom so that I might clean myself up and get dressed.

I spent a few minutes striping down from my tunic.

I looked at myself in the mirror, I was a mess.

Years of malnourishment had taken their toll. I still possessed my father’s genes, making me unusually tall and slender looking, something he used to say was an honorable thing to have, it being associated with the aristocrats of the pre-war years.

I looked at my flank, my Zebra genes were more dominant than my Pegasus ones, so upon my flank was not a Cutie - but a Glyph Mark.

Glyph Marks differ slightly from Cutie Marks, in the sense that they don’t make as much sense.

The idea behind Glyph Marks isn’t exactly known, the interpretation differs between tribes. The popular opinion about them is that they are a prophecy, they hold what you will become rather than what you are – like a cutie mark would. However, their real purpose isn’t truly known.

Mine is a little weird, it’s a semi-circle with a serrated outside, kind of like a saw blade, it layers back with smaller and smaller semicircles until it reaches a certain point and turns into a white circle.

Before you ask – no, I have no idea what it was supposed to mean...

My eyes followed down to the bandages on my hooves, serving but one purpose, and that is to hide my stripes.

I bit my lip as I unrolled the rags and exposed the dark-brown stripes which swirled around all four of my legs, as well as the much more obvious patch of stripes just beneath my shoulder.

It's kind of poetic, they represented everything that made my life miserable, yet here I was stark naked as I inspected them. I certainly wasn’t proud of them, they ruined my life, I should have been disgusted, annoyed or even infuriated by looking at them, yet I wasn’t.

All I felt was acceptance. Acceptance was fitting because by this point accepting had become sort of a sick running joke in my life.

Accepting that things wouldn’t get better, accepting that life would never be easy for me, accepting responsibilities I didn’t want but had to accept to even begin to survive anymore.

Accepting that my parents were dead and never coming back...

All I could think about when I looked at the lines on my flank was my mother, this was almost like her gift to me, so that I’d never forget her. It haunts me to know that all I really remember about her is that she was a Zebra, and that’s it. Trauma does that to you, you just repress and cry until it all becomes a misty haze in your mind.

My eyes returned to myself after I broke from my day-dreaming gaze.

I never really looked at myself, it was strange. As I stared at my reflection, I noticed my own gaze, the emotions my face held spoke volumes about my life.

My gaze was one of sorrow, of longing and of failure. I looked pathetic, I really did.

I unclipped the ancient blades on my wings and placed them carefully on the bathroom counter.

I expected them to be covered in the blood of the young buck I had killed earlier today but they weren’t, they still maintained that spectacular and glimmering finish they had when I first found them.

Wondering where the blood could have went, I unfolded my wings in curiousity.

Like I suspected, I found where it had gone.

The blood had seeped ever so slowly from the blades down my wings’ feathers in a fluid motion.

It chilled me to my bones to learn that the blood of the buck had been on me this whole time.

I glanced before me and my eyes went as wide as saucers.

I actually had a mirror in which to compare size and Luna-damn, Rusty wasn’t lying.

My wings individually were nearly the same size as I, how these damn things managed to get so small when I folded them up was beyond me.

I –like the foal I am– inspected them for a little longer than I should have, before looking over my shoulder bashfully to see if I hadn’t just shown off to some sort of spectator who had snuck in behind me.

After I shrugged away these thoughts, I turned the knobs in the shower and nearly collapsed in surprised pleasure.

Hot Water.

A simple bliss that I had been without for years, and I had finally been reunited with its majesty.

I envied those who had access to hot water on a daily basis.

This is as good a time as ever to explain to you that New Stalliongrad wasn’t always an awful totalitarian communist state.

New Stalliongrad really was a nice place to live before the war. If you had a secure job you were set. When you are in a state run by workers, a worker’s position naturally becomes assured and you earn enough to lead a comfortable life.

Ponies had the freedom to do as they pleased and the right to speak their mind about anything they wished.

Wartime changes a lot of things – and now, you either like the government or you die, simple as that.

The jobs I used to do –the unsafe low paying ones– slipped beneath the radar because they were considered 'part-time' jobs. In reality, they just took advantage of the poor.

But if you were law abiding and had a secure job, you could live one of the best lives possible in the wasteland.

I just got the arsehole end of the deal because of my stripes, that’s all.

I unfortunately had to get out of the shower, but sweet stars above did I feel good.

I was clean. Legitimately clean.

It felt fantastic.

I looked at the two sets of clothing before me, I decided to put the Tenpony security armor on first.

I watched as my large wings slipped through the inbuilt area designed to accommodate them and reattached the wing blades, smiling as they fell back into place like clockwork, no feathers pulled, no pain received.

I looked at my blades for a moment. Some soldiers name their weapons, I’m not really sure why. Maybe it is the silly bond you half-develop with your weapons.

Nonetheless these weapons were too well crafted, individual. Whoever made these had obviously put a lot of time and effort into their design. Maybe it was my foalish side speaking, but I believed that they deserved a proper name.

It was from that moment on, that I called the weapon that sat upon my shoulders, Vintage.

The trenchcoat was next.

It was humbling, I held the very coat my father used to wear when he was still alive.

I carefully slipped into it and smiled as the coat was a nearly perfect fit, one or two sizes larger than I, but that wasn't an issue. It fit, so I was happy.

I looked at my newly groomed self in the mirror and actually smiled.

My mane felt clean and fresh, the aches and pains I suffered had melted off.

Probably best of all, I liked what I saw.

I felt proud, I felt...invincible.

It probably seems egotistical to you, let it appear however you want, I won’t try to convince you otherwise.

But I will tell you, after years of feeling like and believing you are trash, seeing yourself, feeling good about what you see, it’s about as strong a self esteem boost as you can get.

I walked back to the living room, where Rhinestone was sitting and conversing with Rusty.

Rusty did a doubletake when she saw me.

Rhinestone glanced back and grinned “You look just like your father, Nimbus. It’s uncanny.”

I joined the others as I sat quietly on a sofa.

Rhinestone cleared his throat “So, your friend here has described to me your plan, as well as the intentions of your Zebra friend. Like I said, you must leave Trotsvok as fast as you can, I can only assume that word of your name appearing within the city will reach higher authorities very quickly and ponies with guns will soon be on their way to find you.”

“The route I marked on the map I gave to you” he said as he gestured to Rusty “It is the fastest way out, the Distant Callers HQ is also on the way, you can drop your friend off and be on your way to Frozen Lake to meet up with this ‘Flecker’ you spoke of, but you must leave now if you have any hope of getting out.”

I nodded, gathered my things once more and prepared to move out.

Rusty and Yakobi proceeded out of the apartment and just as I was about to leave as well, I heard Rhinestone speak “Nimbus...”

I turned to face him “Yes?”

“I am sorry we couldn’t have met under more...’cheerful’ circumstances, I’m sure you –like I– wish we could have had an opportunity to properly sit down and talk about your family, but you signed that tag under your real name and word will spread of your presence within the city very quickly, even with my route you are cutting it very close.”

Rhinestone sighed “I can tell your journey to find Fable will not be an easy one, I’m sure you know this too. I do not know how long or how hard this quest of yours will be and there isn’t a lot I can say that will change your stance on that but I can say this:”

He put his hoof on my shoulder “Fight, fight until you have nothing left to fight with, because there are some things in this world that are worth more than anything you could possibly own.”

Rhinestone wrote something down on a piece of paper and hoofed it over to me “You will need this password to get into the safehouse.”

“Find your sister, and when you do, move to Independence. Get a nice life for the both of you, neither of you deserved any of this. Good luck Nimbus, Chest’ I Khlava.”

I looked Rhinestone in the eye “I don’t plan on failing, Rhinestone. Thank you for all you have done, I will never forget this.”

Rhinestone nodded “Your parents would be proud of you” he patted my back “Now go before it’s too late.”

I nodded and followed Rusty and Yakobi out the door.

Back outside into the cold snow and uncaring streets of Trotsvok.

******

We moved as quickly as we could without seeming suspicious through the winding snow-covered streets of this city.

We soon reached the Distant Callers HQ, it was a curiously shaped dome-like building, built on an octagonal base.

Yakobi looked back at me, her face obscured by her Balaclava.

~{I cannot thank you enough Nimbus, this new world...it seems too...surreal, and I need to know if my family got safely into Great Mountain, thank you for helping me.}~

I smiled and cocked my head ~{Yakobi, you didn't shoot me even when we trespassed and stole, you gave us a chance and that makes you a good Zebra in my book, I wish you all the best on your journeys, stay safe, our home is a dangerous, unforgiving place.}~

She returned the smile...I think ~{I would request you do much the same, I hope you find your sister and you give Jericho what he deserves.}~

She began to head for the door ~{I will find a way to contact you with the results of my mission. Oh, and if you do happen across Amoa, do point him in my direction, would you?}~

I grinned and waved ~{You have my promise.}~

Yakobi swallowed deeply "Good. Luck. Friend." her shaky voice squeezed out in Equestrian.

After we finished our goodbyes, me and Rusty continued on our way out of the city.

We passed several guards which we were paranoid of, but luckily they ignored us.

Once we finally reached the gate, we began our sign-out process.

Thankfully, I wasn't required to give my name. A faster system, which assigned a code to a name and marked it on the tag, meant that you simply had to get the tag removed and could leave.

However, once Rusty's and my own tag had been taken off and I began to believe we were home free, out of the corner of my eye I saw a group of guards frantically rush to the gate.

I alerted Rusty and we began to hastily speed-walk out of the labyrinth of fences. We were at the last stretch, within range of freedom.

I then heard something that froze my blood.

The comm tower tone.

“Your attention please. Pony of interest located within city walls, the city is now in a stage yellow lockdown, a stage yellow curfew is also now subsequently in effect until further notice.”

A sombre tone sounded continuously.

The guard at the gate stopped us and looked us both sternly in the eye.

I really thought we were fucked, but by some strange twist of faith the guard sighed "Go on, get out of here, travelers don't deserve to be locked up in this city while we look for this POI, have a nice rest of the day."

I nodded and grinned ridiculously "Thank you so much sir, you really have no idea how much this means to us" I said as me and Rusty got outside the wall.

The guard waved before banging on the metal portal frame twice and yelling something like 'Bring her down!'

Immediately, a thick half-metre wide blast door lowered down ever so slowly and came to a heavy rest across the gate, blocking all in and all out.

"That was too close'' Rusty said, trying to contain her breathing "Imagine if had arrived even thirty seconds later, we would have been fucked!"

I nodded as I looked back at the blast door which stood where the open gate once had been.

Too Close

******

After we had put some considerable distance between us and Trotsvok we slowed our rush down and stopped to catch our breath.

It was already unnaturally cold and there were some dark and vicious clouds blowing toward us.

A cold wave was fast approaching, making a blizzard likely for tonight, we needed to start preparing.

We found a nice small opening in a thick forest, which offered a good protection against the wind.

I told Rusty to start working on a fire while I went looking for some saplings to become our shelter’s base.

Sure enough, I found a few good ones, one quick swipe of Vintage and they were free.

Rusty was still trying to get a fire started, she'd even emptied a few of her bullets to get some assistance from the gunpowder.

I began my work by ramming the saplings into the snow, forming a circle. I then stretched their upper parts toward the center, forming a dome-shape as their top reached the middle.

I tightly weaved and tied these branches the best I could, and once that was done I began placing the heaps of leaves I had collected to seal up the sides.

Afterwards, I started packing snow atop the leaves, covering the shelter nearly from top to bottom in it.

It was by all means complete at this point, but to keep myself occupied I wanted to improve this camp with a few other things I remembered from a survival book I had read in my foalhood.

I built a fire-wall behind the campfire, which was now burning brightly, just like a healthy fire should. The red and orange glow warmed my chilly self and hopefully this wall would help direct the heat right toward our shelter. I also made something I referred to as a cold well.

You raise your sleeping area at least a foot higher, which I did with snow and a bunch of pine leaves, then you dig a hole a foot down, right in the centre of your shelter.

Apparently this was where the cold air collected. Of course I have no idea why, I can’t remember that part of the book because it was a brainy sciencey stuff I couldn’t comprehend at that age, all I knew was that it helped keep the cold air off of you for some reason.

We unfortunately had not kept any of the venison from the deer, so we had nothing to eat. I know a lot of you are probably going to say ‘we’re vegetarian’s by nature, go get some grass and flowers”.

And that is true, I don’t mind vegetables and leafage, I lived off bloody mushroom stew for six years.

But there were neither flowers nor berries in this area. I had even asked Rusty, she simply replied ‘I can tell by the shrubs and the trees, this is the wrong climate to find anything edible, unless of course you feel like chewing on the local tree leaves, which have the consistency of leather, to say nothing of their taste.”

Which raised further questions, we couldn’t spend any amount of time in the cities anymore, word of my bounty was spreading and soon my image would be known by every soldier, guard and money hungry bounty hunter in the country.

With this obstacle in my way, I could neither sell nor buy goods in any of the major cities, Rusty would have to go in by herself, which I wouldn’t have an issue with, if she didn’t scream raider just by looking at her. It was a bizarre stroke of luck we even managed to get out of Trotsvok without her getting pulled aside by a guard.

Maybe we could get her a nice long-sleeved dress in Frozen Lake and make her look like a respectable young mare again.

Luckily, Frozen Lake, being the second smallest settlement in the country next to Outward, had no system of tags. We were to head there, find Flecker, get some answers from him and stock up on supplies for the new safehouse whilst we waited for Jericho to show up.

The safehouse was partially on the way, my only hope was that we could get to it, get this weapon that could disable Jericho’s shield and get moving as quick as we could towards Frozen Lake.

The winds got angrier and gained a cold bite that stung as it brushed my exposed face, I had to squint to keep it from hurting my eyes.

I had hoped that it would remain a simple cold wave, but it became evident very quickly that we had to deal with a true blizzard.

Soon it became unbearable and we had to head inside, I kicked the fire out and ushered us both in, piling the entrance up with snow. The shelter wasn’t my best work, you could see from inside just how shoddy it was. The design was easy to build, but pretty inefficient. I just hoped it would get us through the night.

You could hear the wind as it whined and howled outside. It was a heck of a storm, but within our crude shelter the combined heat from both of us and the insulation from the snow made us actually feel warm.

I was still awake and –judging by how much she was shifting around– Rusty was too.

“So you never really told me how you became a raider, Rusty.”

I heard her sigh “I’d rather not say Nimbus. It was a particularly dark period of my life.”

I realised it was awfully selfish for me to expect Rusty to reveal these things without her knowing anything about me in return.

“Well, how about we switch sob stories? You don’t know much about my foalhood, so how about I tell you?”

She lay in silence for a moment “I suppose so.”

I wondered where I should begin, what part of my particularly dark foalhood I would tell.

“Did I ever tell you how Fable and I lost our parents?”

*-*-*-*-*

It was a relatively quiet afternoon, the school-week had been vastly shortened due to the Winter War.

We all listened to radios for the small releases of info we got from the summit.

It was a dark day when word got out that Cinnamon Swirl had died and that tensions were mounting once more for the fighting to flare up again.

Every day it was the same procedure, a tank convoy, flanked by our brave Rangers, would roll down the main street from Stalliongrad Tower out the gate, on their way to be stationed at White Base, the enormous military compound a few miles from Old Stalliongrad.

With Cinnamon Swirl dead, most of the Board was in disarray, the flawless machine of our government seized up like somepony had thrown a wrench in the gears.

It seems it was Sky Spring who put her hoof down and took control, she was the voice of reason, of hope for all of us in the dark hours of the war.

Of course, she –like most others shortly after– blamed the NCR for Cinnamon’s death, calling it an attempt to collapse our government from within, and disregarded all of what Littlepip ordered as she lined the borders of New Stalliongrad with the army.

I’m sure I need not tell you more.

See, my point in saying this is, that ever since Cinnamon Swirl died, Sky Spring has pretty much taken control of the country, despite the many votes to decide who should become the High Councilor failing and leaving the position vacant.

She still put forth all the rules, all the new bills were signed and packed by her.

Including the one about Zebra extermination.

It had been solely her idea, she started spouting all this shit about how Zebras ruin governments, how their morals are messed up. Her main point was that the struggling, fledgling society in the Zebra wastelands, known as the United Zebratic Alliance ‘essentially the NCR of the Zebra lands’, relied on foreign aid almost exclusively.

Sky Spring said they drained economies, that their religions and culture made them weak and they were the reason we were at war with the NCR – which at that moment in time we appeared to be losing.

Of course, all of that was pointless. The only reason Equestria started recovering so well in the past decade was because our world has life in it once more. The Zebras have next to no fertile soil in their lands because of radiation, the only signs of society within the UZA were incredibly small pockets in the regions that were spared the damage of balefire devastation.

There was a huge public outcry, constant protests and riots, nobody believed what Sky Spring had to say, none but the truly brainwashed.

Sky Spring called these public outcries treasonous, that these ponies supported the NCR and wanted our communist state to fall.

So she outlawed freedom of speech and protesting, from that point on you abided by the law or you got a cell in Artechoka.

It’s amazing what ponies will do when they fear for their lives, Artechoka had been likened to hell by some who had worked there and nopony was exactly eager to find out themselves.

Nopony questioned, nopony said ‘No’, everyone obeyed the State or they died.

The Zebra bill was passed and the very next day it came into action, there were no secret arrests, no black-baggings in the middle of the night.

It was army trucks and kicked-down doors right from the get go, there was no transition, no fear of public outcry, the government was in total control.

And retaliating against the guards meant death, the civilians could watch as the families were dragged from their homes and into the trucks in broad daylight.

Dad wasn't home when it happened, he left at completely random times, occasionally in the middle of the night, saying he needed to work on ‘his project’.

That particular time he left just before the bill was passed, so he wasn't there for the whole week.

It was just me, Fable and my mother sitting in a room. I was afraid, I may have been young but I wasn't oblivious, I knew what was happening.

I kept urging my mother every night for us to pack up and leave for the NCR or Independence but she kept refusing, saying we were waiting for Dad to come back before we decided what to do next.

When he hadn’t shown up for four days, she finally agreed. We began packing, she was going to leave a letter for him saying we were going to seek asylum in Independence.

…Do you know what it is like, being so relieved you are safe, so sure that you and your loved ones were safe...and to have it taken away just as you let your guard down?

That’s what it was like on the morning we were set to leave. Mum had made an arrangement and we were going to the docks to be taken to the NCR on a boat. The predecessors of Freedom Stripes had been helping and evacuating Zebras ever since the bill had been a rumor.

I envy the paranoid, I really do.

Some saw it coming, heard the rumors, packed up and left on the dot. What did they have to lose?

If they were wrong and it was just a rumor, lucky them, they come home and get on with their lives. But if they were right, they survived, their family was safe, and they were protected.

But my mother and my father, they were the blissfully ignorant types, the ones that turned their heads and ignored the warning signs, kept telling themselves ‘It couldn’t happen, nopony would allow it.’

But we were wrong, a mere hour before we were meant to leave, a bunch of guards kicked down the door of my home, dragged my mother away from me and Fable, to be locked up and killed off in Artechoka Prospekt.

Fable and I got away, ran when the first guards came in and my mother told us to.

It was the Freedom Stripes we ran to, they escorted me and Fable to the docks. When we arrived, there was no boat, the pony my mother had made a deal with had been a snitch, selling out those who were trying to escape to the guards.

They tried to get me and Fable out again, but it soon became hopeless. The navy started patrolling the coastlines, escape became impossible unless you wanted to try your luck by ducking the border in the Old Stalliongrad metro.

But that was much too dangerous for a grown stallion, let alone a foal and his little sister.

Every day that passed, I dreamed of getting over the border, getting somewhere safe, every day I’d hope my father would come home and we could live how we once did, but I gave up on any hope of salvation five years ago. I gave up hope and just accepted what my life had become and tried to protect Fable as best I could.

I always had this impromptu plan, that when opportunity best presented itself, we would make a run for it and I’d try my luck in Old Stalliongrad, in the infamous ‘Grim Highway’, the main metro line ponies used to cross the borders.

But I guess this opportunity is as good as any.

Honestly, fuck this country. As much as I believe there was –and still is– the potential for a good world buried under this fucking mess, these last couple days have brought me over the edge of my tolerance for this place.

I hated having to jump through a dozen hoops each and every day, just to get by in this Celestia-forsaken country, so screw this place.

*-*-*-*-*

After I finished my story we sat about in complete silence.

Rusty sighed "Kid, I know you are curious about it, but my descent into raiderism is not something I tend to fondly remember."

More silence.

“I...just...” she stammered before grunting “After I deserted from the frontline, I was on the run, they had ponies searching for me, I would have got the firing squad if they had found me. I was going to...a shady friend of mine’s place in Manehattan, I was going to get him to falsify some NCR citizenship documents so I could continue with my life after I got settled in.”

She sighed “Still, it was a recovering world at the time, kid. Besides what you freaks did here, gangs and raiders still existed, even with the NCR clearing out hundreds of smaller groups. I...was unfortunate enough to get caught by a convoy of bandits, coming from the wilderness to New Stalliongrad. They were going to the camp you woke up in. Paying back Flapjack, the former leader, for giving them guns and ammo with drugs and loot, they decided to include me as part of the payment as well.”

I heard her body shift atop her bedding “I spent three weeks locked up in a cage at the back of the convoy. I was blindfolded and cold, the bastards only gave me enough food and drink to just barely keep me alive. Of course, I also had the unfortunate bonus to be the group’s stress reliever and plaything whenever they felt like it.”

I swallowed as hard as I could in hopes of relieving the lump in my throat.

It didn’t work...

“Only got worse after I arrived at the camp. I was nearly dead, I could hardly support my own weight. I got exchanged and handed over to Flapjack, another month of malnourishment and torture passed by before I couldn’t take it any more. I challenged him to a fight. I never intended to win, I just wanted Flapjack to kill me and end my suffering, but during the fight I...just went savage on him like some sort of wild animal, punched his skull in, cut one of his arms off...”

I heard her snort “After I killed him I took control of everything, not one of the little cowardly shits opposed me. Having killed some of my more...hated acquaintances, I settled down as leader of the whole gang. Lo and behold, four weeks later my patrol sees you and your sister walking around, a stone throw away from the camp, and voilà, here we are.”

Great. Now I felt like shit for making her dig up those memories. I never was good at deep conversations like this.

“Rusty...I’m sorry for...”

“Don’t apologise, that period of my life was pretty fucked, kid. But I at least got a sane childhood, at least I grew up with parents and a proper education. You haven’t had any of that, if I was offered to not have to go through that period of my life, but I’d have to experience your kind of childhood, I wouldn’t change it, ever. It was terrible, you can never get over that kind of thing and it will haunt me forever...”

I heard her huff a frustrated sigh “But I can lay in solace, knowing that these things happened to me as an adult, when I was mentally stable enough to deal with them. You were a kid when your parents were arrested, you had to raise a foal when you yourself were still growing, physically and mentally. That kind of thing fucks you up really bad, and when I look at you I am amazed that you aren't a wreck and I respect the hell out of you, because I know, if it were me that had to grow up like that, I’d be a fucking wreck.”

I didn’t object, not wanting to risk digging up more of this baggage she probably didn’t want to see.

But by Celestia, Luna and all the stars, was she wrong, I’m not strong – I am paranoid, weak-minded...built like a pile of twigs, I was anything but strong.

But her...she’d been in Stalliongrad during the war, a place where hundreds died every single day, if it weren’t the bullets and bombs, it was the cold.

She stayed weeks in a place I would have gone insane in within hours.

She picked up a rifle and followed ponies she knew weren’t going to make it back, she had killed because she was ordered to kill, not because she believed it was right, she watched friends and comrades get torn to shreds by war machines.

I would never be able to do something like that, I have more respect for soldiers than I do for myself, because I know, I’d never be able to do what they do.

I rolled over and sighed, the blizzard was still howling outside the shelter, but if all went well it should have blown over before morning.

I closed my eyes and tried to get as much sleep as I could.

*-*-*-*-*

Somewhere familiar, somewhere within the confines of routine, Greasy’s Foundry – the only full time job I ever had.

I was around 15 when I started work, I had just turned 16 the day it was shut down by an inspector.

I missed Greasy’s Foundry, in comparison it was much safer than anywhere else. Greasy was a good mare, she paid for injury recovery, taught safety lessons about the machinery, I honestly have no Idea why her workshop was closed.

That, and me and Greasy’s daughter...kind of...not really...slightly...were dating.

We got very intimate between one another, I’m not sure what the word would be but I’d probably say ‘unfortunately’ I never got to sleep with her.

We came close to, one evening, but I got uncomfortable and stopped us. I told her that on our next date I would be prepared...that date never came, this was the last time I ever saw Summer.

Her name was Moter Oil, a unicorn. Surprisingly enough, her talent was perfumes, she always called herself Summer Rains after her favorite scent.

...Sweet Celestia, I just remembered her perfumes...her fragrance, she always made herself smell the way she looked. It’s hard to explain but...you would see her, and when she got near, she smelled exactly the way you would imagine she would, based off her appearance.

Goodness, she was beautiful too. Of course, you’re all rolling your eyes and remarking that I think so because we were an item, but I’m telling you, the day we started dating I had to slap myself, it was as if all the years of constant shit I had to put up with were receding at last and I finally had a patch of good fortune.

It was the end of a particularly hard work shift, I was the last one out of the foundry this night, but I didn't mind. Greasy always paid me slightly more than the others because of my situation, so any opportunity to keep her happy was taken seriously by me.

It was late, a buddy of mine said he'd drop by my house and check to see if Fable had eaten and went to bed.

I was just about to sign out when I smelled Summer’s beautiful scent drifting my way. Before I even had the chance to look up and react, I felt the itching sensation of her tail brush across my face playfully.

I looked up and caught the shape of Summer’s figure, draped in a spectacular blue dress, drifting as her head turned to look at me and meeting my eyes, locking me in her ruby red gaze.

She brushed her light pink colored body against mine as she walked to my side. I could feel my lip trembling at the brush of her soft fur against my coat and the feeling of her breath gliding along my body.

"Leaving so soon, Nimbus?"

She had me in a trance, the way her brilliant white mane swished when she turned, the way her eyelashes fluttered when she blinked.

Goddess damn, you could drive a stallion insane with that kind of physique.

It was obvious she had taken the time to put on makeup, her lips shone with a lipstick so glossy, I could see my face in it, and her eyelashes had such definition.

I...was...j-just finished work...and..to ah..I mean about to head...home."

She giggled at my stammer before leaning in and kissing me.

It went on for an eternity, but when it finished I felt like it had happened in a flash.

"I was wondering if you'd be interested in...walking me home tonight?"

"I...uh..da...love to!" I spat out.

She giggled again, I simply continued looking down into her eyes. I had reached an age when I shot up in height, turning me from a relatively normal colt into a lanky stick figure stallion in a matter of weeks.

I was roughly a head taller than a normal pony, there were even thirty year olds who I overshadowed.

Summer blushed and looked around uncomfortably “What?” she asked timidly.

“I d...uh” I blushed “I was...thinking about how p...pretty you look” I replied.

Summer grinned and purred, rubbing her head against me “What am I going to have to do to stop you from being so...shy around me, Nimbus!?” she tapped her chin inquisitively before giggling “I think I might...have an idea” she purred quietly.

I swallowed as hard as I could, some might have called her a tease, some may even have called her a number of other profanities because of her...rather titillating personality.

But not me, I was so nervous about being near a mare like her to begin with, I was always afraid I’d screw it up somehow so there is no way I’d say something derogatory.

I wrapped a wing around her and smiled as I led her out of the building into the frosted streets of New Stalliongrad, white flecks of snow slowly falling from the sky around us.

It was pretty chilly after spending all day on a factory floor. I used that as an excuse to scooch in tighter beside her.

“Nimbus?”

I turned to her and answered “Yes, Summer?”

She looked up at me with a timid smile “There is something I’ve been debating with myself for the whole week and...” she paused.

“W...What is it?” I asked shyly “You can trust me...right?”

Summer Rain looked at me with a loving gaze “Yes...yes I can” she looked down and smiled “Nearly the subject of my question, actually.”

I nuzzled her neck “And...?”

“It’s about us...” she sighed. My stomach dropped, what buck’s wouldn’t?

She looked at me as we walked, pacing the quiet streets of the late-night Industry District, headed to District 1.

“We’ve been dating for nearly three months now, I don’t think I’ve ever been this close to anypony before, not even to my mother.”

I held her tightly as we exited the industrial district and entered into the main town square.

The front gate had been locked all day, there had been a security scare at Checkpoint 4 along the border to the NCR, the whole country was on high alert, groups of Pegasi had been headed to the checkpoint since morning.

I nodded as I remained ever wary of the nearby guards, they weren’t looking at me but I was watching them “So...what did...you want to...talk about?”

She remained silent before leaning up and kissing my cheek “Just wait until we get inside, you’ll see...” she said, a smirk on her face.

She unlocked the front door to her home, and I pushed it open.

We were greeted by a flash of light...followed quickly by Rusty’s voice.

*-*-*-*-*

Damn it all!

“Goddess damn finally, kid” Rusty said, stepping away from my side of the shelter. “Blizzard stopped about an hour ago, looks like it’s gone, we should get a move on, we’re burning sunshine.”

I groaned and nodded, pushing myself up and stretching my limbs, which had locked up from the cold.

I punched the barrier I had built down with my fronthooves, the blizzard sure had cleared up because I had to shield my eyes from the sun’s glare.

It was actually very surprising, the clouds had cleared right up, the sky was more blue then I think I’ve ever seen before.

Despite that I knew the partial layout of the area from last night, stepping outside the world looked different. The fresh layer of snow covering the everything was disorienting, the world looked vastly different without truly changing.

As Rusty determined the direction north, I tried a little technique I had learned from my survival book.

Putting your wing to the horizon you can determine how long the sun has been up or how much daylight you have left, each primary feather represents 15 minutes.

Nearly two hours had passed since sunrise, I didn't like that, I had burned two hours of sunshine I could have used.

We had to make it to Rhinestone’s safehouse by midday, and reach Frozen Lake by sundown.

No Excuses.

"Alright, that way is north, so we are walking...that way."

I nodded and let Rusty take the lead.

Walking in this kind of fresh powdery snow is a real bitch, your hooves just go right through and down to the packed snow layer underneath, you use twice as much energy traveling half the distance you would have without it.

This worried me, we still hadn't eaten since we went hunting with Yakobi and it was really starting to make itself known, I had a constant ache in my stomach.

It was nothing agonizing, just really annoying. There wasn’t a whole lot I could do but ignore it and wait out for Frozen Lake. We would find food before it became a serious issue.

The ground in the direction we walked was slowly becoming more and more solid until I realized we were walking on rocky soil.

The snow was also beginning to thin, becoming a rough and slippery surface.

"Hey, Equestria to Nimbus, you're about to walk off a cliff" I heard Rusty say in an angry tone whilst grabbing my shoulder.

I blinked and looked down, indeed I had nearly fallen right off a sheer cliff and into a canyon.

"Luna's ass, now we have to walk around it" I heard Rusty sigh.

I nodded and just as I began to follow Rusty, I noticed a glimmer coming from the valley.

I turned and peered at it. What was that shimmering down there?

It was something metal, smack bang right on one of the cliff walls.

I had a strange feeling that this metal anomaly was Rhinestone's safehouse.

"We got to find a way down into this canyon" I said to Rusty.

Rusty turned back and looked at me "It'd take longer to go through the canyon, you stupid featherbrained idiot!"

I shook my head "No, I think I see the safehouse down there" I retorted.

"How much do you weigh, Rusty?"

Rusty snorted "I don't know, what kind of question is that?"

I was...not the strongest buck ever, I was built like a pile of sticks held together by duct tape.

But my theory was that I could at least glide her down slowly, flying was a different animal.

After I explained this to her she made a face at me and sighed.

"You better not fucking drop me..." she mumbled before trotting to my side.

I unbuttoned my father's coat and shrugged it off, tying it around my waist.

I flapped my wings out, grinning as Vintage made the most satisfying rasping sound as they clicked out with them.

I finally lowered my back legs slightly to allow for the awkward process of Rusty climbing onto my back.

“Don’t even think about taking a bumpy flight, kid.”

I rolled my eyes and began a quickened run for the edge, leaping slightly and flapping to gain lift.

It was much harder to fly with her weight atop mine, but I could at least control our descent.

We remained in awkward silence all the way down.

After several straining seconds, I finally reached the floor of the valley, and after a rougher landing than I had hoped for, we dusted ourselves off and continued to where I had seen the reflecting metal.

Following a winding path for some time, we finally got a good look at it. The map confirmed we were in the general area, so this had to be the safehouse, there just wasn’t anything else around.

It was a long, multi-passenger sky chariot, lodged right into the cliff, like it had crashed into it.

I moved to a fast trot, grinning as I reached a natural ramp that led up to what looked like a series of scaffolds.

If I had been a little slower and a little more observant I might have been able to put together how suspicious it was.

I heard a computer beep and a mechanical hiss as a sentry turret rose out of a nearby rock face and threw a high calibre round straight at my left shoulder.

I yelled as the bullet smacked into my armor, winding me and nearly knocking me over.

Instinctually, I dived to the nearest cover –a very small rock– before another bullet roared out of the barrel.

I gritted my teeth as I slid on the ice-lathered stone, only to cry out in pain as I felt the horrifying sensation of a round punching right through my back right leg.

I curled it up to my body, looking at the coin sized hole in my calf seeping blood in a uniform pattern.

My leg shook involuntarily as I could almost feel my heartbeat each time a dark crimson gush poured out of the wound.

I wrestled through my packs, searching each pocket, searching for the remaining two health potions from the catacombs.

My breathing became harder, my vision seemed to bleed together in a blurred finish as I flipped through the pockets.

I cracked a smile when I finally caught eyes on a potion, pulling the musty old cork from the bottle, I downed the whole flask.

My lungs and throat began to burn up and I coughed violently over and over beside me, shooting a spray of misted blood all across the frosty ground.

I looked back and was a little distressed to learn that I was still bleeding. The wound had sealed up for the most part but it was still seeping a dangerous amount of blood.

I heard Rusty's SMG shoot and the noise of strained mechanics, followed by a quiet explosion as the sentry finally gave up the ghost.

Rusty ran to my side and looked over my wound.

"I took a potion and it didn't work!" I exclaimed.

I heard Rusty groan "You dolt, a wound that big needs a healing bandage, have you got any?"

I shook my head.

Rusty face-hoofed and looked at me with a look of pure annoyance before opening her saddlebags, yanking out what looked like an old sock that had been torn into strips.

She grabbed a healing potion from her own bag and dabbed the sock in it.

Using her teeth and horn, she tightly wrapped the sock around my calf and slapped the flesh around it repeatedly.

"Stay off that for a little while, it should be fine."

"How do you...?"

"I was a librarian, kid. I read a lot of books. Now, let's hurry up and get into this house, we're burning sunshine."

I nodded, rolling and kicking myself to my hooves. I tested each one, gritting my teeth and grunting in pain when I stepped on the wounded one.

I hobbled on three legs beside Rusty, keeping my injured one suspended in the air to avoid using it as much as possible.

We reached the scaffolded frame that climbed the cliff face beside the safehouse.

It had a simple pulley and cable elevator that we both entered and Rusty started cranking to lift us upward.

I could have flown up there, but before I remembered, Rusty was already cranking, so I decided to leave it be.

The door to the hideout was locked. I cursed and searched through the papers I had been given to find any clue as to how we were supposed to enter. Luckily for me Rhinestone was kind enough to leave us the key, which tumbled out of the folded papers.

Turning it in the lock and yanking a lever back, the door popped open and let us in.

The interior of the carriage did not sing the same tune as the exterior.

The inside was mellow, welcoming and homely.

The room was a rusted but still visibly painted light brown colour, there was a hastily built yet charming hardwood floor that creaked ever so slightly at our tread.

The back of the old carriage –the end overlooking the canyon– had been furnished with a nearly flawless couch which faced the scratched and worn window into the valley.

The front of the old carriage –the side lodged into the cliff– was noticeably darker. It contained two sleeping cots that had been jury rigged from some of the remaining chairs and an old chip-wood desk, which –besides a lone desk lamp– laid completely bare.

There was also a door toward this end, a door that I can only assume lead into where the pilots used to sit.

I limped over and inspected the surface.

The door had no observable knob or handle, but beside it was a small dusty keypad.

I stared at it for a moment before fishing out the note Rhinestone had given me.

The code was obscenely long: 12,5,14,9,14,5,1,26.

I looked at the keypad and the numbers, there were no numbers higher than nine, so why did he write 12, 14 and even 26? My only guess was that he wrote it in a way that helped him remember it, so he probably intended it to mean 125149145126.

After punching the code into the keypad, the latch clicked back and the door hung freely on its hinges. Pushing it open with my nose, I stepped in.

As I suspected, this was formerly the cockpit. Large windows surrounded me on all three sides, these had since been boarded over and plastered with maps with all sorts of jargon and lines scribbled on them.

All across the walls lay the control panels that would have once been piloted by an onboard crew member, these had since been torn up and planked over, changed into a long counter on which Rhinestone had stored a litany of firearms and ammo.

My eyes were drawn to a surreal gun with an almost science fiction-like appearance.

In comparison to the rest of the otherwise very normal looking weapons, it was probably a safe bet that this was the Pulse Gun.

I scooped it up and bagged the gun and a few of the spark batteries, before looking around inspecting what remained.

One thing did catch my eye, it was a small cylindrical machine, just smaller than a head.

I raised my brow and after limping over to the object, I turned it around in my hooves inspecting it from all sides.

It was open ended and like the idiotic foal I was, I decided it was a great idea to place the object around my left foreleg just above my hoof.

The thing covered up the wraps of fabric which concealed my stripes and I thought it looked really cool. I could only assume it was a plate of armor, I didn’t care though, as long as it made me look awesome.

I tried taking off said cylinder but after several attempts it became obvious it wasn’t moving any time soon, that made me panic slightly.

All of a sudden, a prickly sensation arose under the metal plate, like dozens of tiny needles just sticking me ever so lightly.

I tried to scratch it, but the sensation stopped after a few moments.

After looking at it for a while, I felt the the coldest rush originate from beneath the object, climb up my foreleg and reach into my head, clawing at the back of my eyes.

I involuntarily blinked over and over, noticing milky white objects appearing in my vision.

The object on my foreleg chirped and after a few seconds the glass panel lit up, revealing a screen with dozens of numbers rocketing past in columns.

The numbers finally stopped and were replaced by some sort of welcoming screen.

The objects in my vision were now obviously parts of a HUD, some displaying my current health, others displaying a compass or how much ammo I had left.

I realised that this object on my foreleg had to be a Pip-Buck, it looked slightly different to the ones the clergies at the Church of Light usually wore.

To be honest I don’t think me and Fable would have lasted very long over some of those winters without their hand-outs...as much as I despised the Lightbringer, I will admit her church at least tried to help, instead of taking our supplies and forgetting about us...but I digress, that story is for another day.

Something I had just randomly picked up and played with turned out to be actually helpful.

That was unusual.

I hobbled outside beside Rusty, who was laying down on the observation couch, kicking her hooves together while waiting for me.

After glancing my way, she slowly stood up.

"I got some of the food and water from the cupboards, we have enough to last us for some time" she said, rummaging through her saddlebag.

She threw a tin at me, I hastily grabbed it in my hooves and ripped its lid off with my teeth.

Inside was a moist, sticky brown mush with a random assortment of vegetables in it.

"Don't worry, it's just vegetable and mushroom stew, I had one while you were back there."

She spoke like I was worried about how good it tasted, she obviously had no idea what Fable and I had to eat to survive.

I could observe actual food in this, that's a step up from some of the things I used to eat.

I licked up the contents of the can hungrily and emptied it in a matter of seconds.

Once I had discarded the tin out the window, I wiped my mouth with one of my hooves.

Rusty noticed the Pip-Buck on my leg, her eyes following it "Where'd you get that from?"

I gestured toward the armory room "In there."

She shrugged "Now might be a good time to hook up your firearms, get the stuff out of your bag."

I nodded and retrieved the shotgun and SMG, along with the mounting frame.

Rusty ripped open the adapter’s bag and pulled out the various poles and parts and started assembling them with ease.

She told me to empty the boxes of shotgun shells while I waited and I did just that, flicking each bullet into a magazine, filling up the six I had to the brim.

By the time I was done, Rusty had finished her work and floated the assemblage of poles and metal plates to me.

She rested the curious saddle on my back and fastened it to me tightly.

After a few more minutes of random tinkering, Rusty stepped back and sighed.

An icon that appeared to be the silhouette of a shotgun blinked and disappeared, leaving a pervious blank corner filled with some numbers.

"That saddle is synced with your Pip-Buck's X,Y,Z detector, so if you look left the gun will aim left."

She flicked back a pedal near my back hoof "Kick to reload, bite the reign to fire, you will have to pump the action after every shot...just use your wing or something, simple as that" she said, pulling the shotgun’s bottom areas off and clipping all sorts of gears and rods from the side of the saddle to it.

Rusty push-kicked the pedal and the mechanics slid the shotgun shells in one by one.

Afterwards, Rusty showed me the intake for the saddle’s store of ammunition and patted my back “Congrats, you can kill shit now. Keep that bridle locked away unless we are in a situation that calls for it, or I’ll kick your flank.”

I glared at her “What about the SMG?”

“I need another piece of equipment for that, I’ll look for it when we get to Frozen Lake.”

I nodded “Speaking of which, we should probably get moving, I don’t want to waste any more time.”

We stepped out and slid the door shut behind us and locking it.

A ladder leant against the scaffolding, the wooden lattice allowing us to climb out of the valley and onto the side. This time I used my wings to fly up, to spare my still throbbing hoof.

“Those things contain an automap spell, find it for me” Rusty asked quietly.

I peered at the panel, observing a white cartoony Pegasus standing on a scale as a cartoony doctor looked him over. This picture was flanked by the words “PLEASE WAIT, MEDICAL SCANS IN PROGRESS”.

I shrugged and moved to the screen marked by the words ‘DATA’.

Sure enough, there was a map of all of Equestia with a small box hovering over my apparent location.

Rusty peered over my shoulder and stared at the map “You see that little white spot there, the oval sort of shape, tap on it twice and set a marker.

I nodded and tapping it and selecting yes to confirm my placement.

“That is Frozen Lake, that should lead right to the main gate, look for the marker on your compass, and all we have to do is follow it.”

I looked left and right, observing the compass until I saw the tag.

I pointed and began to follow its direction at a brisk pace, using my wings to compensate for the injured back leg. With my face on the wanted list I didn’t have much of a chance getting into town unless we moved quickly.

******

We passed through dead forest and snow blasted plains as we shuffled toward Frozen Lake.

Eventually we reached a mildly steep hill. Biting my tiredness we scaled it, breathing heavily as our hooves went right through the snow and making our journey uphill so much harder.

I reached the top, helping Rusty by lending my hoof for the last few steps, and laughed triumphantly as we looked down to see a large lake frozen solid, above it was a series of criss-crossing jetties and boardwalks supporting a small village atop them.

All around the outside of the town watchtowers were placed on raised stilts about the lake, each staffed with a New Stalliongrad Guard brandishing sniper rifles and RPGs.

We trotted slowly closer, while I was tightening the wraps around my striped hooves.

When we got to a certain point, the guards in the towers turned their attention to us, moving their rifles in unison as we walked toward the settlement.

I could almost feel their scopes drifting over our heads, I wished on every star in the sky that they wouldn’t take special note of me.

Just this once, please don't recognize my face.

I clamped my teeth together as hard as I could, sweating profusely as we strode past the towers, the whole while feeling the gaze from above.

I finally let myself breathe when we got to the town’s first pontoon.

We had three days before Jericho was meant to meet up with this Flecker pony, all we had to do was sit tight for a few days and Fable would practically be delivered into my hooves.

I really hoped it would be that easy.

Me and Rusty cantered into a nearby inn, Rusty hoofed over a bag of caps and we were led up to our room.

Rusty had made it very clear that she wished to use the time we had to stock up on supplies.

She left me behind sitting on a faded armchair, contemplating my own thoughts and nursing my wound.

Just as I believed I was alone, my heart nearly leaped out of my mouth from the sheer surprise when I heard footsteps in the room without the sound of the door being opened.

I jumped to my hooves and spun around pointing my shotgun at the intruders.

What I saw were three ponies, two of whom were flanking the third, dressed in brown hoods which shrouded their faces from view.

The third pony was a very tall and thin looking black coated Unicorn, he had the kind of figure which at first glance would make you swear he was a mare, yet as I found out when he talked was a stallion.

He had a clean slate-grey mane that he had combed back neatly. It almost looked like it came with the brilliant white business suit he wore.

“Good morning, Nimbus. Do remain calm mate, this’ll only take a wee moment” the tall suited one said in a strange accent, something reminiscent of Trottingham.

“Who are...?!”

I felt the cold rush of a needle slamming into my neck and a tingling sensation as a liquid flowed through me.

I couldn’t fight or even yell, I just felt each of my limbs seize up like they had fallen asleep.

My eyes rolled back into my skull as I tipped to my left and slammed chin first into the floor, my eyes fluttering, confused as to whether I was awake or asleep.

I took my last few gasps of air as I finally fell into a deep state of unconsciousness.

I was so close...

Why now...?

Welcome to level 5!

Perk Added! :The Path of the Risen. Part 1:

Your character has gained a considerable amount of Self Respect because of a given object or pony, because of this you get a +1 to Endurance and Strength when in possession/close proximity of the object or pony but lose your bonus when it is absent.

Here we are again!

Thanks for reading and staying tuned for this chapter which took a century to finish, as always thank you for reading and stay tuned for the next in 2 weeks!

~DarcySupremest

Announcement: You asked for it!

"How Far Would You Go To Protect Who You Love?"

January 2013

Coming Soon