Fallout Equestria: Brothers

Chapters

1 Biohazard
2 Enter Sunshine
3 Interlude: The Seeker
4 Songbird
5 Black Star
6 Interlude: The Meeting
7 Stacking the chips

1 Biohazard

“Come on! We can’t stay here!” The earth pony stallion shouted, The ragged soles of his boots pounded against the asphalt as he galloped looking over his shoulder for his brother. He was average in height and was chubby. His body was covered by a well used leather jacket, his hooves covered by some well used boots that looked like they had seen much better days. His hair was the color of mocha, his eyes were a dark yellow. The stallion’s mane was short and spiked which complimented his short and spiked tail. A tire iron rested at his side in a makeshift holster. His cutie mark was able to be seen thanks to the torn bits of his leather jacket. His cutie mark was that of a piece of iron inside of a heart.

“I’m right behind you!” The unicorn stallion shouted in response as he followed his brother. He was short, standing just a few inches less than his brother, and he had a slender body. His hair was fire red with a messy silver mane that went down to the base of his neck, his tail was slightly longer than Iron Hearts own. His eyes were a cool and calming ocean blue. His cutie mark was an arrow that had been lit on fire. He had a matching leather jacket on his body that was in decent enough shape, and wasn’t falling apart like his brother’s own.

As the two were making their way quickly towards the road out of their city, they turned and took one last, long look at what was their home… The fire and smoke filled the sky, their senses were assaulted by the acrid, foul odor of the ponies that lived in their once safe haven. The smell of bodies wafted up and into the air. A group of six ponies could be seen making their way towards them. Searing Arrow and Iron Heart could tell immediately just who they were, and why they were coming towards them. The brothers looked at one another and gulped, as they watched the group soon gather around them in a tight circle.

The six ponies wore raider armor and had scrap pistols in the holsters by their sides. Two of the stallions had Molotov cocktails set in bandoliers that hung around their chests. The stallions all looked to be unicorns, their eyes bloodshot from their use of Dash or some other chem. The two mares that were with the group of stallions had combat knives strapped to their fore hips. One of the mares was a Pegasus, while the other one was a unicorn, much like the four stallions. The unicorn mare was mumbling and giggling to herself, her green eyes were wild with chaotic movements and motions, as she smirked and began to bite and nibble on her lower lip.

“W-wait!” Iron Heart said as he shivered. “Please! Just let us go!” He pleaded to the raiders, his voice was shaking just as his body did from fear. “We didn’t do anything to you! You could have just left us alone, and we wouldn’t have-” He was cut off, as one of the stallions shoved him out of the circle and to the ground roughly a few feet away.

“Shut the fuck up!” The raider yelled at Iron Heart, and the circle closed tighter around Searing Arrow, who was shaking violently.

“Yeah, we’ll leave you two alone… Once your brother here gives Bloodied Heart here a kiss.” One of the other stallions said with a cruel sneer. “And then, once that’s done, we’ll leave you two alone, and let you both go on your way to wherever you planned on running to.” He said with a matter of fact tone in his voice.

“What?!” Searing Arrow asked in fear. “You’re kidding me! Her eyes are shaking as if she had just taken Dash on-” He never got the rest of his words out, as the blood colored unicorn mares lips pressed against his own.

The unicorn mare was the same height as Searing Arrow. As she kissed him, he could feel fresh blood, his body stuck in place as the raider mare kissed him. It was a rough kiss, very rough… He was trying to push his way backwards, only to find a scrap pistol cocked and the barrel pressed directly against the back of his skull. He was unable to do anything. He was about to try pulling away when he felt a sudden and brief pain, as the mare bit his lower lip and caused him to bleed. He let out a yelp of surprise, shock and fear as he felt the pain lance through him. The pain caused him to hold still, as the dirty and cruel mare pulled him further into the kiss. Their two fresh wounds pressed against one another and her blood ended up sliding into the wound where she had bit him!

The kiss lasted a moment longer before the circle eased up and opened, the mare broke the kiss with the stallion. His eyes were wide, as was Iron Hearts, as the mare kissed the right side of his neck slowly. Her eyes closed as she pressed her bloodied lower lip up to the side of Searing Arrows ear.

“Mmmm…” She whispered quietly to him. “You would make an amazing lunch, but… I think that I will let you live. After all, you are quite the piece of meat that I hope to find again in the cold, dangerous and deadly wasteland…” She cooed before she finally released him and stepped back. She began to mutter and mumble to herself once more, as she let out a loud cackle of a giggle, and turned to walk away from the two brothers.

The two brothers were left alone, the smell of their burning home filled their nostrils as they both shivered and exhaled. Searing Arrow wiped the blood from his wound with his jacket sleeve, and shook his head. The unicorn had expected his first kiss to come later on, from a mare that was mentally stable; that sadly wasn’t going to be the case. He turned and walked up beside Iron Heart, and softly sighed. They both had started walking together, and soon, they had left their home, their sanctuary from when they were colts, behind.

They had been on the road for four days, and were running low on supplies. The siblings hunted down some mole rats for breakfast. It had been only a short while later that they had begun to make their way onward once more. Along the way, Searing Arrow had picked up a nine-millimeter pistol off of the body of a long since dead pony. It had half of its ammunition inside of its magazine, the weapon looked like it had seen its fair amount of use in battle. There were slight traces of wear and tear along the trigger and the grip. The unicorn used his magic as he lifted the pistol up and into the air cautiously. Iron Heart looked to his brother softly as they walked, he remembered listening to his brother during the past few days and nights while they traveled and slept. The earth pony had heard his brother laugh occasionally, almost as if he had been told some sort of unheard joke. The chubbier of the two brothers didn’t think anything of it, though. They had just lost their home and their family to a group of asshole raiders that also bit his brother and had originally wanted to eat him…

Searing Arrow didn’t know why he laughed, but he did. It was a soft laugh, as if he had just heard a joke that had a decent punchline. He didn’t know why he had laughed, but he had. The stallion had also been rather hungry as of late, hungrier than normal. He was unsure as to why this hunger was happening, but he would deal with it by eating later on. The wound on his lower lip had scabbed over during the course of their travel. Searing Arrow had been picking at it absentmindedly, only to realize what he was doing and promptly stopped.

The brothers approached a wooden sign that had fallen over. Searing Arrow’s horn glowed as he lifted the sign up, and set it against the trunk of a dead tree that was nearby and looked at it. Their eyes scanned over the sign as they gasped.

“Welcome to Ponyville” Iron Heart said as he read the sign aloud, and then looked to his brother. “Come on, let’s go and look around; see what we can find for supplies.” he said calmly to the unicorn stallion who nodded and walked alongside his brother into the ruined town.

What was once a bustling town that was full of ponies of different sizes and personalities, had since gone silent and dead. The brothers looked at the buildings as they passed… What they were sure was probably at one point a bakery, now sat in ruin. Its brick and mortar walls crumbled and broke due to the years of ill repairs. A tailor’s shop had followed suit, the spot where a glass window once stood, littered the dried and cracked ground at its base with shards of rusted and dirty glass. A decayed and broken farmhouse was able to be seen in the distance, not too far from the town itself. The brothers looked to one another, and then took a look around the town once more. The sun warmed the two stallions as it peeked out from in between the cold, gray clouds. The chilly breeze swept across their bodies as it blew.

“Okay, so… Let’s split up, Searing Arrow.” Iron Heart said, his voice was calm and cheerful, despite the things that they have been through over the past four days. He spoke once again as he adjusted the tire iron from across his back, around his neck. “See what you can find, maybe there will be some food laying around that was missed by any roving raiders.”

“Yeah, maybe if we’re lucky, we can find some really valuable stuff, as well!” Searing Arrow agreed as he used his telekinesis to levitate his pistol out of its makeshift holster, and headed off to explore a large yellow building in the town square. Or, what was left of it, anyways.

Iron Heart gave a nod, as he went off to explore the tailor’s shop. Little did they know that they were being observed. A Pegasus stallion had been observing them from the shadows, his coat was a soft green color and his scraggly mane was pure white. He had a rather long tail that was smoothed down and semi-well brushed that was the same color as his mane. His eyes were jet black. The stallion had on dirty leather armor that covered the upper and lower halves of his body. A rusted shotgun rested inside of its holster by his side. He slowly pulled the shotgun out of its holster, and loaded the magazine with his remaining four shells. He was more than sure that he could kill them, and that he could get what he wanted from them when they came out with the object in question.

Iron Heart had entered the tailor’s shop and scanned the room slowly. The earth pony saw just how ruined the building was, fragments of mannequins littered the floor, along with ashes and scraps of clothes. As he approached one of the scraps and examined it, the stallion could tell that it was the sort of fabric that was once used to make a mare’s dress. He dropped the useless scrap of what was possibly once an elegant and lovely piece of clothing, and moved on to examine the rest of the interior. Iron Heart hadn’t found anything of interest, until he made his way into the back room… The stallion came across what appeared to be a big and bulky safe sitting on a desk that had a box of bobby pins sitting next to it. He made his way up to the desk and opened the small box next to it, only to find that three bobby pins were left inside of it.

Iron Heart let out a groan of frustration, and with reluctance, took the bobby pins and began to work at picking the lock on the safe. He had only just started to find the first of the tumbler's sweet spots, before he broke the first of the pins with a soft snap! Ever stubborn, he tried again with the second of the remaining pins. This time, he had managed to get past the first and second tumblers, before it snapped in the third tumbler. This safe was starting to piss him off alright, as he picked up the remaining one, as he began to slowly and carefully pick the lock.

This time, Iron Heart’s persistence and patience had been rewarded. He managed to get the remaining pin through the last of the tumblers, when he heard a soft click and saw that the safe's door had opened up slightly. He took hold of the door and opened it, revealing ten caps, along with a round, sphere-like object and a key. Attached to the key was a piece of paper that had the word wardrobe written on it. The stallion carefully took the sphere-like object and put it inside of his leather jacket pocket, then the caps shortly afterward. The key was the last thing that he took, and looked around to try and find where the key fit into, he didn’t have to look for very long. The wardrobe had been locked up tight, with a single heavy lock. He wouldn’t have been able to pick this lock just yet, but since he managed to pick that safe’s lock, and found the key, he knew that the wardrobe had to have had something good inside of it, for having been locked up like how it was.

The doors on the wardrobe opened with a loud groan, somehow, this thing surprisingly managed to weather the megaspell that had turned Equestria into a wasteland. Iron Heart blinked as he found what looked like an orb that was made out of Andalusite gems, alongside what looked like a map. The earth pony blinked as he took the andalusite orb and put it into the pocket of his leather jacket, and then took the map in his hooves. He looked at it for a moment, and realized that it was of a route that was mapped out. The route appeared to go from Ponyville to a spot on the map labeled Tenpony Tower. A smile formed on Iron Heart’s face as he rolled up the map and slipped it into the remaining pocket of his leather jacket, and made his way back outside to wait for his brother.

Searing Arrow approached a tall yellow building, its yellow paint having been blasted clean off with holes in the walls, and a partially collapsed roof were clear signs of this building’s demise when the megaspell hit. Only the ground floor was left standing, as the lattices that once hung on the sides of the building’s second floor were broken into splinters on the ground. The stallion took his pistol out and made his way inside cautiously. His hoof steps were cautious as he walked on the rotting wood planks, a loud creaking noise sounded into the air as he cringed. Slowly, Searing Arrow made his way inside of the building.

The interior was dark, only lit up by the brief glints of sunlight from outside. He made his way as he looked around. Searing Arrows eyes scanned the interior, and came to rest on a desk that looked like it had seen much better days. As he approached it, the stallion noticed that there were papers scattered all over the floor behind it, and the long since destroyed terminal monitor that sat on top of it.

“Well, this is perfect.” Searing Arrow said quietly to himself as he moved on and continued to explore the building. “I probably could have scavenged that terminal’s contents, and might have been able to find out something about this town, but… I guess that itself is out of the question, now. Seeing as how utterly fucked the monitor is.” He said as he made his way down the connecting hallway.

The doors had all been destroyed, and as he examined the deep cuts in the walls and the size of the splinters on the creaking and groaning floorboards, he could tell how they had been taken out. As he entered the rooms one by one, he found the skeletal remains of ponies. Three of the four ponies were unicorns, much like himself, while the fourth was a pegasus. The remains were beyond the reach of skeletal identification. He didn’t have that sort of equipment on him, and even with it, he didn’t have the proper skills to use the equipment. Searing Arrow saw the scraps of the clothes that these ponies were wearing, though; and sifted through the pockets. He managed to find twelve caps in total inside of their pockets.

As he explored the rooms, Searing Arrow had noticed that the majority of the terminals had been broken. He made his way to the final room in the building, after twenty minutes of looking around for anything else of value. The room in the back of this decimated building once had a name on the glass and had since been peeled off. He stood out behind the cracked door for a few moments, and listened. The unicorn heard what sounded like insects coming from inside of the room. The stallion took a moment to catch his breath as he levitated his pistol in front of his horn with a soft glow, and kicked the splintered door down!

Inside of the room were three small sacks, they sat on top of a desk and wriggled around slightly. They were a slightly red translucent color. As he approached the desk that they sat on, Searing Arrow watched in surprise and shock, as one of the strange sacks spring out to attack him! He quickly brought his pistol up to bare, and fired! The first two shots missed, going wide as the bullets shot into the wall! The stallion’s third shot, though, struck the thing in the center of its mass, and sent it falling to the floor in front of him. By this point, the other two strange creatures, yes, that was what these things were… These things weren’t just translucent red sacks, but they were something else altogether. The remaining leapt up and off of the desk with a resounding and resonating hiss of rage.

Searing Arrow fired off another three shots, his first shot went wide, and smashed through the remaining glass windowpane that rested behind the desk! His other two shots managed to hit the remaining two in the backside of one of their lower bodies, and the other was a clean shot to the head, which caused blood and viscera to be ejected and to fly everywhere! The one that had gotten the lower body shot fell to the floor next to its fellow creature, which was still alive and holding on. Searing Arrow approached his first attacker and brought his right forehoof down onto it with a loud and sickeningly wet splat! Red blood painted his hoof, the rotting floorboards, and its siblings' bodies.

“Well, these things aren’t that tough!” Searing Arrow said with a smug look on his face, and an just as equally cocky tone in his voice. “I bet that I could take on a whole mess of these little shits, no problem!”

As he rambled on to himself, he hadn’t noticed the remaining creature as it squirmed its way up to his hoof, and took a good bite out of it!

“Ouch! What the?!” Searing Arrow shouted as he felt the pain lance through his hoof and up his leg. He looked down to see the creature that was still alive, biting down into his coat and skin. He shook his leg rapidly as he grunted, he scowled at the thing, as he gave one last and hard shake of his leg. The creature hit the wall with a wet thump as its body went limp, and it slowly slid down the wall; It was almost like someone threw a foals toy at the wall, just to watch it crawl downwards.

Slowly, Searing Arrow made his way around the desk, and kicked away the remains of a broken chair to the side. He knelt down with his telekinesis keeping his pistol at the ready, as he looked underneath the desk. The unicorn could see the termites as they ate away the wood, as well as a metal box that was on the floor. Searing Arrow holstered his pistol and took the metal box out from the floor of the rotting desk, and got up. He brought the metal box to rest on the wooden panel of the window, and tried to open it. The box was locked, and with a grunt, the unicorn brought his right hoof against it! It took him a good few seconds of slamming and smacking the boxes backside with his hoof, before it finally broke. The lid of the box had snapped apart from the bottom with a soft snapping sound, and the screws that once held it shut had fallen to the rotting floorboards.

He pulled the top of the metal box aside, only to find twenty caps inside. Searing Arrow gave a shrug as he lifted the caps out of the box with his magic, and slipped them into the pocket of his leather jacket. He then turned and made his way back to the spot that he and Iron Heart both agreed to meet at. He looked around the building one last time, as he made his way back to the front door, and turned around to look back at the interior. He was able to picture the building before the megaspells were set off. He pictured and imagined that the building was some sort of court house, or maybe a place of work where the mayor came to do her job. His heart sunk as he imagined it, all of those lives that were snuffed out in this town… He turned and with a solemn heart, made his way out of the building.

After a short while, the two brothers had met back up at the town square. Iron Heart blinked as he reached into the pocket of his leather jacket, and produced the strange sphere, as he showed Searing Arrow.

“Hey, Searing, what do you think this is?” Iron Heart asked, confused as he tilted his head. “It doesn’t look like a holotape, and there has to be a way to get into it.” He said calmly as he looked at his brother.

“Well, I’m not entirely sure.” Searing Arrow admitted as he examined the sphere, and lifted it up with his magic. The unicorn’s horn glowed softly as he effortlessly turned it around in the air. “I think that this might be a memory orb… I remember a few months ago, that Blazing Striker and I found something similar to this in the quarry. That particular memory orb was destroyed, though.” He said calmly before he handed the memory orb back to the earth pony, his magic faded as he took a moment to exhale. “Did you find anything else? I managed to find twenty caps, and three bee larvae, that I had to put down.” He added.

“Eh, I didn’t find too much… Besides this, some caps and a crudely drawn map.” Iron Heart said with a soft sigh, and put the memory orb back into his leather jacket pocket. “Well, we might as well check out the location that the map leads to. It goes to-” He stopped as his ears flicked up at the sounds of movement behind him, and turned around.

As they both looked, they saw a pegasus stallion approaching them. His body was clothed in leather armor. His head and wings were unprotected, and his cold, jet black eyes locked onto them. His voice was cold, cruel and sadistic as he approached.

“Well well, gentle stallions.” He said with an icey tone in his voice. “I believe that I will be taking that memory orb from you…” He quickly drew his rusted shotgun from its holster, and took aim.

Searing Arrow quickly brought his magic up, his horn glowed as he used his telekinesis to bring his pistol up and floating next to his side. He blinked, however, as he heard a distant giggle. Shortly after he had heard the giggle, the unicorn stallion heard the voice of what sounded like a filly, who spoke to him. “Oooh! This is going to be fun! Don’t let him catch you by the tail!” The voice said in a malevolent tone that got Searing Arrow to softly and quietly laugh.

Footnote: Level Up! New Perk!

Brothers in Arms: you gain +1 to your initiative and may swap turns with your brother in combat.

Author's Note

I must thank Dandy from the Dead Tree discord server, for bringing the mistakes I made to light. I will be working to make much better chapters than this, due to how I had to shake off the rust from writing recently.

2 Enter Sunshine

Iron Heart quickly pulled his tire iron from his backside, when the pegasus stallion charged them. The two brothers dove for cover, as the raider fired a shot in their direction, the empty shell flew from the chamber as he quickly loaded the next round from the magazine. There was a wild expression on his face, as he held the rusty shotgun in his mouth.

“Shit.” Searing Arrow shouted, as he fired a shot at the pegasus. The shot went wide as he grunted. “I’m running low on ammo here.” He said and fired off another shot and hunkered down behind a stone slab.

“Sorry, I don’t exactly have the ammunition for you…” Iron Heart said as he leapt out of his cover, and struck the raider square in the chest with his weapon. The stallion’s leather armor took the brunt of the damage, as he snorted. He glared at the stallion and struck him twice more in succession. One of his two new blows struck the pegasus in his ribs, causing his armor to crack a fair bit, and the other on one of his right fore legs.

The stallion let out a grunt as he was hit three times by the earth pony, his wings quickly extended and pushed his body up and off of the ground. He flew high into the air, and fired the remaining four rounds down at the two brothers, and managed to land a shot on the unicorn’s right ear. A cruel and sadistic smile crossed the raider’s face, as the empty shells fell to the ground, and then he dive bombed the earth pony. His eyes were wild, the craving for combat raced through his nerves and veins, as he felt his mane be tussled by the air. He let go of his rusted shotgun and let it fall, only to catch the side of the barrel in his jaws. The butt of the gun, free to be used as a melee weapon. He closed in on the chubby earth pony.

Iron Heart heard Searing Arrow, as he shouted out in pain, and looked over just in time to see his right ear spurt out blood. He was in shock, and didn’t see the attack from above! The world turned into a series of colors, as he was struck across the back of his head with the butt of the pegasi’s shotgun. The earth pony grunted as he lost his grip on his weapon, which fell to the ground with a loud thud. Futily, the stallion turned around and attempted to hit the pegasus with a hoof, only to find that he was too late. The pegasus that had hit him with the butt of the shotgun, had taken flight back upwards. The world seemed to slow around Iron Heart, he was seeing two duplicates of his brother, as the colors left his vision.

As he watched his brother get hit by the butt of the pegasi’s gun, Searing Arrow felt the rage begin to burn in his heart. He quickly used his magic to take the magazine out of the pistol, and saw that he was down to one shot. That was all that it was going to take, if he was careful. The unicorn stallion narrowed his eyes as he slid the magazine back into position, and took aim. He wasn’t going to waste this shot, he was too angry to let this bastard go, after how he injured his sibling.

As he made one final dive for the earth pony, he didn’t notice that the unicorn had been taking his time to aim his pistol at him. His arrogance had gotten the better of him, as he moved in for his next strike. His bruised side was able to be seen through the cracks of his leather armor. As he used his powerful wings to propel his body down, he didn’t get the strike in, as the final bullet rang out and filled the air of the dead town.

Iron Heart fell flat on his stomach, his chubby body hit the ground with a thud that was muffled by Searing Arrows final shot. The raider let out a loud shout of anger and rage, as he was shot out of the air. The bullet from the pistol had hit the spot on his side, where the tire iron had struck his armor. He felt the bullet as it had become lodged in one of his ribs.

“O-oh! You have no fucking clue as to who you have just pissed off!” The raider shouted in pain as he stood up from the spot where he had landed on his back. “Your lives are going to be so much more difficult, now!” He said with a pissed off time in his voice, expanding his wings and clenching his teeth as he flew up into the sky and fled towards the west.

The pegasi stallion had been bleeding from his wound, as the fresh blood stained the ground where he had been standing mere moments before he took off. Searing Arrow hurried over to his brother, a worried expression on his face as he carefully examined the back of his brother’s head. The unicorn slid his now empty pistol into its holster, and used his magic to carefully move Iron Heart's mane to the side.

“Well.” Searing Arrow said calmly as he helped his brother up to his hooves, a nervous tone in his voice as he spoke. “The back of your head isn’t too badly swollen. Though it is a rather large bump, and you probably should take it easy today.” He said gently as he softly lifted Iron Hearts tire iron off of the ground, as he slipped it across his backside. His horn glowed softly for a brief moment, and then stopped as he dusted his brother’s jacket off. “Come on.” He said warmly. “Let’s get going.”

Iron Heart gave a nod as he grunted, his vision had returned to normal, and he felt the throbbing headache as the pain set in. “Yeah, I might have an idea as to where we can go. It’s on this map…” He said with a soft grunt, as he pulled out the map he had found, and unfolded it carefully. His right forehoof pointed to the location that was marked as Tenpony Tower, and tapped it softly. “There’s this Tenpony Towers place, I don’t know much about it, but it is a much better place to start, rather than out here.” He said with a grimace, the throbbing headache sent pain through his skull. Slowly, the earth pony folded the map back up after he had studied it, and slipped it back into his pocket.

“Well then, let’s get going.” Searing Arrow said with a soft smile, and began to walk alongside his brother, as they made their way towards Tenpony Towers.

The trip was quiet as the two made their way through the wasteland, they had been following the map to the north. Their supplies had run low after their third day of travel, their mouths were dry from the hot afternoon sunlight. They scanned the roadside for any sort of diner or cafe to scavenge, only to remember that they were not that lucky. They trekked onwards, despite the circumstances, and kept a lookout to ensure that they wouldn’t be snuck up on. Both of them were not ready to have to fight again.

The two blinked as they came upon what appeared to be a building out in the distance. Their eyes grew wide as they began to run towards it. As they approached the building, they both saw that it appeared to be a store. Their eyes moved to the faded posters that were inside of the windows, and saw that they were all faded to unreadability. Looking at one another, they gave each other a nod and walked to the entrance.

As they approached the entrance to the building, they saw that the spot where the two doors should have been, had been destroyed some time ago. Inside of the store, at the front facing the door, the two took a moment and looked around the front of the building. As they walked inside, the two brothers took a moment and looked around. Their eyes passed over what looked like aisles. Dust covered shopping carts were flipped and turned upside down and onto their sides, strewn throughout the building.

Eight cash registers were set up at the far right of the interior. That’s when they both realized just what this building once was.

“This place used to be a grocery store.” Searing Arrow said calmly as he looked at his brother. “Maybe there is some water in the back? Or possibly some canned food that we could take.” He blinked as he looked at the ceiling, where two iron bars hung down between the aisles could be seen.

“Maybe…” Iron Heart said in response, as he began to walk cautiously and silently towards one of the aisles. “Let’s split up, and see what we can find. You take the left side of the store, and I’ll take the right. We’ll meet in the middle, and put all the things that we find together in a bag.” He said calmly as he headed off.

“I… We really shouldn’t-” Searing Arrow didn’t have the opportunity to even suggest sticking together, as he watched Iron Heart go off on his own. He gave a shrug, and sighed, as he made his way to the left side of the ruined store.

The building was littered with debris from patches of the ceiling that had fallen inside, over the course of the years since the megaspells hit. The aisles were empty, cereal boxes and empty aluminum cans littered the floor. The sun had moved just past the distant, open hole in the roof, which had casted the interior into a cool shade. The ragged soles of their shoes could be heard, as their hoof steps echoed within the empty building.

Iron Heart blinked as he passed by a cooler door that had a glass bottle of Sparkle Cola inside of it, the stallion felt his thirst as he eye’d it. He opened the door without a second thought, and took the glass bottle. He had to save it for Searing Arrow, he knew that, so he did what he was taught by their parents, and put the full glass bottle in his free jacket pocket. He knew that was a bad place to store it, but he didn’t exactly think to grab his travel bag, when their home had started going up in flames. The stallion took a moment and thought to himself, he had been observing his brother since the day that he was kissed and bitten by that raider. He had noticed how much hungrier his brother had been getting, as well as the odd laughter. It was beginning to trouble him, a little.

Iron Heart shook his head, surely it was just his mind playing tricks on him, right? He shrugged to himself as he returned to scavenging the shelves, and picked up what he could carry on his back.

Searing Arrow had been all of the way across the store, in what looked like it once was a produce section. His eyes scanned the walls where the food once was held. The now empty and barren walls had been coated with a fine layer of dust, which had been left undisturbed for what seemed like years. The unicorn buck exhaled, as he proceeded cautiously and silently down the aisle. His pistol was empty, and the rusted shotgun that Wildcard had dropped three days prior was out of ammunition, as well. He scanned the shelves one by one as he pressed onwards, but caught the glint of something shiny on an end cap as he stepped up to it. He blinked as he found two small boxes on the shelf.

The first box had the image of a tan and gray coated pegasus who had a dark brown and well kept mane. They had a bandage on their right foreleg, possibly covering a scrape or maybe a cut.
The words on the box were able to be somewhat legible, as he read the label to himself, ‘Caballeron’s Pristine Bandages! The bandages that won’t let you down!’ The pegasus’s expression on the box wasn’t at all reassuring…

The other box was a small, white and blue box that had a white coated stallion with a blue curly mane on the side. The writing on the box was faded, but judging by the way that packaging looked, he recognized it! He recognized the box as Fancy Buck Cake, something he had found half a box of during a scavenging expedition. Slowly, Searing Arrow opened up the more colorful box, and found that there were three of the wax paper covered snack cakes left. He closed the box, and scooped the two boxes into the air, as his horn glowed. Calmly, he made his way towards the back rooms of the building.

After ten minutes, and not having found much else in the way of supplies, the brothers regrouped and set the supplies that they had gathered on the cold and dusty floor. Searing Arrow used his magic to clear away a small spot from the accumulated dust and debris, and looked over what they had managed to scrounge up. Searing Arrow exhaled as he shook his head.

“This isn’t enough.” He said calmly. “There isn’t enough food here for even a week. We can’t make it to Tenpony Tower on this much food.” Searing Arrow let out a soft sigh.

“Yeah, we tried to scrounge up as much as we could find. Sadly, there isn’t a whole lot of food left in this place.” Iron Heart said as he looked around calmly and his expression took on a much more somber look. He then spoke softly once more. “Searing Arrow, I don’t know how much farther it is to Tenpony Tower from here… We have to be close, if we’re going by what that map showed.” He said with a slight glimmer of hope in his voice.

“Well, I sure hope so. Otherwise we’re going to be dying in the damn hills nearby, probably by raiders or some sort of monster.” Searing Arrow said softly as a nervous smile formed on his face, his snout twisted as he tried to put on a show of confidence. He was failing miserably at it, too… He was about to speak once more, when the voice from a few days ago began to speak to him in its mischievous and cruel tone once more.

“Oh! He looks so tasty! Aren’t you hungry?” The voice said as it whispered into his ear.

“What? No!” The unicorn said with a horrified tone in his voice, which caused the earth pony stallion to look at his brother in confusion. The unicorn shook his head, as he looked to the side of his body where he had heard the voice from. There, he saw what looked to be a small moth-like pony!

The small, moth-like pony was a mare. Her wings were elegant and strong, the many various and intricate lines on her wings formed heart shapes all across their delicate surfaces. Her coat was a soft, shimmering magenta that shone darkly in the sun’s ever sinking rays. Her amber colored eyes gazed into the unicorn’s own, as she seemed to drool. She looked from the unicorn, to the earth pony, which looked like quite the appetizer to her.

“Uh, Searing Arrow.” Iron Heart said somewhat nervously as he looked at his brother. He didn’t see the pony that his brother was talking to, which caused him to feel like his stomach was rolling and tumbling around inside of him. He shook his head, and spoke after he steadied his voice. “Who are you talking to? I don’t see anypony there…”

“Oh, he can’t see me!” the small, moth-like pony mare said with a devious giggle. “I’m all in your little mind, cutie pie!” She said with sadistic glee in her tone. “Don’t tell him, but my name is Little Miss Sunshine, and I am your personal shoulder devil!” She said with a wicked giggle. “Tell him that you aren’t talking to anypony, that you just had a bit of a nervous break, from all of the walking and exploring.” A crooked and evil smile formed upon her lips, as her expression changed. “If you do as I say, I’ll help you get back at that fucking bitch of a mare, who imparted that ‘gift’ to you, before she left~”

Searing Arrow shook his head as he looked to the odd moth-like pony, then to his brother. ”Um… nopony, brother.” He said with a gentle tone in his voice, his tail swished back and forth as he exhaled. “I’m going to see if there’s something in the back that we could use to carry this stuff. Maybe somepony left a backpack there or something.”

Iron Heart blinked as he looked to his brother, his tail hung somewhat limp behind him, as his ears flattened against his head. “Alright, I’ll go with you.” He said in response. He didn’t believe that his brother wasn’t speaking to somepony, in fact he was more than sure that his brother had been speaking to somepony.

The two made their way to the back of the building, its cold and empty hallway echoed with each and every step that they took. It didn’t take them long to find what they were looking for, as they had soon come across a room that was incredibly dusty. Two long, singular desks lined the walls, with dusty terminals that were dark. Several chairs stood motionless in front of them, the fabric having come apart, with the stuffing and fluff puffing and falling out of it. At the far side of the room, the two could also see what looked like a separate room; an incredibly thick pane of glass separated the two rooms, alongside a doorless frame.

The brothers walked into the smaller room, and noticed that the terminal was oddly clean. Their eyes scanned the desk, only to find what looked like a device that resembled a tape of some sort. Iron Heart blinked as he sat down at the desk and faced the terminal. A moment later, he had pulled out a keyboard from an opening underneath the top of the desk. His hoof pressed the power button on the machine, seeing it light up with a soft greenish glow! The small and square object looked like it was able to be slotted into a terminal.

“So, this is a holotape, right?” Iron Heart asked Searing Arrow, as he motioned to the small, square object.

“Huh? Oh, yes! It is!” The unicorn said with a smile as he examined it carefully with his magic. “I remember how I found one of these when we were both ten. We didn’t know what was on it, and the settlement leader took it right away from us, but… I remember the design of a basic holotape.” His tail swished softly as he carefully set the holotape back onto the desk.

Iron Heart blinked as he looked at the coding that had appeared on the screen, and realized that he would have to try and hack into the system. The earth pony focused as he tapped the keyboard and moved the cursor over a series of symbols, numbers and letters to the lower right corner of the screen, before he hit the enter button. on the keyboard. A sound emanated from the terminal, signaling that Iron Heart had messed up and selected the wrong piece of code to try and hack into. He looked over the various symbols and data that was on the screen, and moved the cursor once more. Two more failed attempts as the terminal made a soft clicking sound. He was about to try once more when he felt Searing Arrow gently tap him on the shoulder. He stopped and looked to his brother, who motioned to sit down.

The earth pony gave the unicorn a soft nod, and stood up. He stepped aside as his brother sat down in the chair, keyboard levitating in front of him as his horn glowed, and he motioned to the code that he had spotted with a smile.

“The code that you are looking for is there, you, however, selected this one…” Searing Arrow said to Iron Heart with a soft and gentle smile. He gave his brother a smirk, as he returned his attention to the terminal monitor, and hit the enter key on his selected code. The stallions were not used to having to work the coding that was part of the matrix. The terminal had become unlocked for Searing Arrow, as he began to sift through the files that the machine held within itself. He had just moved the cursor down to a folder that had been titled “schedules”, before Little Miss Sunshine fluttered directly in front of his face.

“Oooh!” The small, fluttering pony said with a devious smile on her face. “What did you two find?” She asked as she turned and fluttered in place, her small wings beat at a rapid pace, as she kept herself calmly floating in Searing Arrows vision.

“...” The unicorn didn’t even respond. He knew that his brother couldn’t see her. And that if he had explained the situation, and who exactly he was talking to… His brother might call him crazy! Searing Arrow focused on the task at hand, and clicked on the “schedules” folder, which had a list of names. Searing Arrow tilted his head as he calmly spoke. “Huh, this must be the employees’ shifts.” he blinked as he exited out of the folder, and looked through the other folders, only to find nothing of any real value. Nothing, except for a file titled safe. He blinked and clicked on it, only to be met with eight numbers and looked them over repeatedly.

“What’s that? Some sort of code?” Iron Heart asked as he looked at the numbers, his tail swished alongside his brothers. “Do you think that it even still works?” He asked calmly, his eyes scanned the holotape. “Searing Arrow, let’s see what’s on this thing. We can always get the contents to the safe on the way out, I’m more curious as to what is on here.”

“Huh? Yeah! Yeah, definitely.” Searing Arrow said as he finished memorizing the numbers. He exited back to the desktop of the terminal and, with his magic, took the holotape and inserted it into the slot! After a moment, the screen went black as words appeared in a bright green color. The two calmly looked at the text.

“So, it is about time that I saw you again.”

“Well, hey there, cuz! How have ya been?! I heard that you and your folks picked up a grocery chain! How’s that workin’ out for y’all?”

“Eh, it’s working out okay, I guess… When will I be able to meet up with you and the rest of the family? I have been missing you all, something fierce!”

“Well, that’s kinda tough to say. What with how y’all picked up a shop, now. And with how I need to head to Canterlot with the others, for business, I don’t really know when we will be able to see each other again…”

“That fuckin’ sucks, cuz! I’ve missed you all, so much! I wish that we could get our Coltfriends together sometime, and have a little double date? Or maybe a family BBQ! I always used to love those!”

“Cuz, we’ll see what happens. Right now, I’m just glad to hear from ya again!”

“Be careful, please? I don’t want anything bad to happen to you…”

“Don’t worry, B! I’ll be totally fine! I have the ladies with me! What could possibly go wrong? Y’all just focus on spending as much time with your Coltfriend, and deepen those bonds of yours. Y’all hear me?!”

“I do, thank you! Safe travels!”

As soon as they finished reading that, the two brothers looked, and gave a soft nod to one another in unison. Searing Arrow took the holotape out, and exited the office. The two of them looked at one another as they came across a storage closet, just on the opposite side of the office. The earth pony blinked as he opened the door, and found a well used saddle bag hanging on the inside. Searing Arrow took the saddlebag carefully, his horn glowed as he calmly lifted it off of the hanger. The unicorn slowly examined it, and gave an affirming nod.

“Well, I think that it is safe to say that this saddlebag is in usable condition.” Searing Arrow said with a smile on his face. “We at least have something to carry our crap in, and we won’t have to worry about what to leave behind, and what to take with us.” He calmly slipped the saddlebag onto his back, where it hung there comfortably. He took a couple of extra moments to adjust the straps, to where they wouldn’t be causing too much strain on his underside.

“Right, let’s go back and get our supplies that we gathered, and be on our way.” Iron Heart said in response, his eyes scanning the hall as he started to walk back to where they had left their supplies.

As they returned to the spot where they had left their scavenged food and aid, they saw a pale pony sitting with their back to the hallway. Her mane was black, and styled in short spikes, while her red tail was long and fluffy. The two brothers both stopped dead in their tracks, and looked at one another. Their expressions were unsure, as caution flared to life.

Footnote: Level Up! New Perk! Trait Unlocked!

Unlocked Trait: Wild Wasteland- You have the propensity for discovering or
encountering extremely unusual and “wacky” elements of the Equestrian Wasteland.
When coupled with Random, you also possess unusual perception (such as limited
precognition or the ability to see ghosts).

New Perk: Magitechnologis (rank 1)- You receive +5 [Hacking & Matrix Tech, Repair & Mechanics] per rank. Mastery: 5 extra points in each of these skills.

3 Interlude: The Seeker

The Pegasus mare stood atop the hill looking down at the ruined store. She had managed to get in and out before the three ponies had arrived. She managed to plant the holotape in the manager’s office with very little trouble. The mare had a long flowing black mane that rested just behind her front shoulders, it was messy and bedraggled which was more than likely from what little sleep she had been getting as of late. Her tail matched her mane in color, but it was short and spiked out in style. The mare had on a set of metal armor that looked like it had been cobbled together at the last minute. Her cutie mark, a pair of fangs that were piercing a heart was hidden underneath her duster.

A few moments had passed when the mare heard the telltale noise of a Sprite Bot coming closer and closer. Its spherical metallic gray body flew steadily with the help of its clear and transparent wings. It approached the mare, and looked to her, before it began to speak in a calm and cool tone. Its music had been shut off.

“So, you planted the holotape right?” It asked coolly.

“Yes, I did.” The mare stated as she adjusted a dagger underneath her duster, the sheath had been strapped around her back left thigh. She calmly spoke once more. “It was planted, Watcher. We should be getting onwards to Tenpony Tower, you have made a promise and I intend to ensure that you keep it.”

The mare and the sprite bot turned and started to walk. The two of them focused as they kept on moving forward, neither of them said very much as they focused on the road ahead. The silence was broken after a couple of hours passed by, and the two had decided to stop at a run down newspaper box. The mare sighed as she tapped her right forehoof on the top of it.

“Watcher, I’ve been doing my part in this deal without hesitation or haste… I think it’s about time that you tell me a few things.” She said with a tough tone in her voice.

“Well, that depends on what you want to know.” The Sprite Bot said in response, its own tone of voice was cold and methodical as it spoke. “I will not be telling you anything about your father, until we get to Tenpony Tower. And I have some stuff that I must speak with him about in private, after you have reunited with him.” It had a very matter of fact tone in its voice.

“Well, alright then… Let’s start with the elephant in the room, then.” The mare said with a smirk. “You were there when the Light Bringer brought about Sunshine and Rainbows, right?” She asked and gently prodded the little Sprite Bot with a hoof. “That was, what? Two years ago, now? What were they like?”

Watcher floated in the air in front of the mare for a few moments, he had been pondering and reflecting on his time helping out the Light Bringer. A few moments passed by before he responded. “The Light Bringer was a good pony.” Watcher said in response. “The Light Bringer was a pony that was a bit on the troubled side, mainly when it came to drugs… Their special somepony and their friends were there to help them out through the hardships and the pain.” Watcher gave her a soft nod. “It has indeed been two years, DJ Pone3 has been setting aside the anniversary of the day that the Light Bringer made their sacrifice to save the wasteland.” Watcher said as it looked out to the west, and then back the way that they had come from.

The mare took a few moments to catch her breath, before she and the Sprite Bot resumed their journey. The mare gave Watcher a relaxed look as she flicked her tail.

“Do you miss the Light Bringer?” She asked the Sprite Bot gently. “It seems like you and them were rather close.”

Watcher went silent for a moment before he responded in a solemn tone, sadness could be heard in his voice as he spoke. “Yes, I… We all miss the Light Bringer.” The Sprite Bot softly exhaled, before resuming. “Since you will learn about who the Light Bringer is in due time, I feel that I need to clarify a few things before we reach Tenpony Tower.”

The mare gave a firm nod. “That would certainly be rather helpful, yes.” She said in a calm tone. “For one thing, you already know my name.”

“Yes, Love Bites.” Watcher replied calmly. “I know your name, due to having managed to hack the Matrix of a certain pony. It was from back where you came from, and I know that your father has a bone to pick with him.”

Love Bites softly snorted as she looked at the Sprite Bot. “I’m guessing that this pony has been keeping tabs on everyone that my father had been traveling and interacting with?” She said with a half laugh.

“...” Watcher went silent for a moment before he spoke, the tone of his voice was grave and worried. “Yes, the bastard was keeping tabs on your father and his friends. He thought that he was powerful enough to where the others that your father was traveling with, would be throwing themselves at his hooves. He thought that they could not resist his commands, and that they would beg for him to help them to save their homes and families.”

“Wait, you’re kidding me… Right?” The Pegasus mare said with a disgusted tone in her voice. “Ugh… I may have once been a raider, but even I never thought that highly of myself.”

“Sadly, that is the way that the wasteland is.” Watcher said. “It is a place of hardship, a place where good ponies fall to the corruption of those in power. It is where most of the time the good die protecting others, and doing the right thing.” His tone took on a more somber quality as the little Sprite Bot turned in the air to face Love Bits.

“Yeah, I killed my fair share of innocent ponies when I was with mom in our old raider clan…” She looked to the Sprite Bot and then briefly at the ground before she then looked back ahead. “Watcher, how can I make up for all of those lives that I took? I’ve done unspeakable things to those poor ponies back in the great north… I killed a stallion who was protecting his family’s crops.” She went silent as they stared at one another. “Even when I killed all of those innocent ponies, I never-”

“Love Bites, I know that it hurts.” Watcher cut her off, his voice kept that sombered tone. “I know that having killed all of those ponies hurts you immensely. You have to learn to forgive yourself, as well as that you have to improve yourself. We have been traveling together for the past three months.” He said as his tone eased up and became more soft and gentle through the Sprite Bots speaker. “I have watched you mature from being the rough and tumble ex-raider that you were when we met, into a more kind and gentle mare that your father will be proud of.” He softly sighed and gave a soft flutter of his wings. “You just focus on learning how to do the right thing, and make sure that you never lose your sense of right and wrong.”

Love Bites gave a nod as she and Watcher resumed their journey. They walked for hours, only to stop so for rest when it was needed. The next day flew by as the two made their way closer and closer to Tenpony Tower. At some point, they had passed by what looked at one time to have been an airfield for Pegasus to fly around during races. A small building made out of metal and wood had been situated at the edge. The two decided that whoever lived there would be better off without visitors.

Their journey seemed to stretch ever onward as they encountered outposts and settlements along the way, the all knowing Sprite Bot and the Pegasus mare had encountered many friendly and welcoming faces as well as unfriendly and hostile ones. One afternoon they arrived at a small run down building, it had a thick piece of wood mounted on it, the faded letters on it that spelled out “stop” had been left to the elements over the years.. The two approached the empty door frame and looked inside. They found the remnants of a Unicorn skeleton on the floor, the blue security guard uniform resting uselessly against the cold and forgotten bones.

A couple more days passed by when they saw the tower in the distance, its sleek gray exterior was like a beacon to the two. Love Bites looked to Watcher, who gave a soft nod with the Sprite Bot. The Pegasus mare spread her wings and grabbed the Sprite Bot in her snout as she lifted off of the ground with a mighty kick from her hooves. She flew as fast as her wings could carry herself and the Sprite Bot. It took them a bit more time to reach the tower, the sleek gray exterior and its many floors stood the test of the Equestrian Wastes. Its many windows overlooked the wasteland, stone pillars were all that was left of what had once been a grand walkway.

The Pegasus slowed her speeding body as she and the Sprite Bot reached the door, a thin layer of dirt was swept up from the ground as she landed and set the bot down. The Sprite Bot floated next to her as it lowered its volume to a soft whisper.

“I am unable to enter due to my current appearance.” Watcher said quietly to Love Bites. “Ponies don’t really like the Ministry of Morale, and this appearance could draw a lot of angry attention…” Watcher took a moment before he resumed speaking. “The stallion that you are looking for has a blue coat with a black clean cut and short mane. It won’t be hard to miss him, as he is a Bat Pony with a somewhat long black tail.” Watcher put music playing from his speaker as he then flew out of eyesight quickly from the building.

Love Bites was going to say something, but couldn’t get it out. The Sprite Bot had flown away quickly before she could even respond. She took a moment to look around and spotted a small button on the side of the wall underneath a speaker. With a gentle press of her left forehoof, a soft buzz from the speaker, a gruff voice came through.

“Tenpony Tower security, can we help you?” The gruff voice said as he spoke.

“I hope that you can. My name is Love Bites and I’m looking for my father. His name is Stacked Chip.” She responded calmly as she tilted her head and blinked. Her tail flicked as she listened to the voice on the opposite side of the speaker.

“You’re looking for Stacked Chip? And you say that he is your father?” The stallion said in a cautious tone. “Why should we believe you? This could just be some sort of ruse to get us to open our doors, and allow you to come in and slaughter us all.”

The mare exhaled and rolled her eyes. “I’m willing to take a DNA test, and I’ll even let you do a full body cavity search, if that makes you feel any better. Also, I am pretty thirsty, and tired… I haven’t slept on an actual bed in a week and a half.” She said calmly with a bit of a soft laugh. “Believe me, I don’t want to harm anypony. I’d rather protect everypony here, and I’d give my life to do so.”

The other side of the speaker was silent for a moment before a response came. “Fine, we’ll let you in. Once you are inside, we will be disarming you of all of your weapons and you need to report to the infirmary for your blood test and your medical exam. We can’t be taking any chances here.” His voice was rough now, as he pressed down the door lock on his end.

The door had unlocked and Love Bites stepped inside, the barrier soon shut and locked once more behind her. Four unicorns approached the mare calmly as their horns glowed. The four unicorns appeared to be stallions as they walked up to Love Bites and began to frisk her. Their attention was focused solely on her for the moment as their hooves roamed over her armor and her dirty leather duster. One of the unicorns blinked as his hoof took hold of the Pegasus mare’s dagger and took the sheath and strap off of her leg. The unicorns all looked at one another for a moment and then turned their gazes back to Love Bites.

“Usually we would be asking you several questions, and putting you through the proper protocols.” One of the unicorns said in a tough, if not wise tone. “But, this is a special circumstance.”

“Yeah.” One of the other three unicorns, a younger sounding stallion said. “I’ll be showing you to the infirmary. When we get there, the doc will have Life Bloom get your blood drawn and then have Stacked Chip’s own be drawn. The results will be viewed side by side.”

Love Bites gave the unicorn guard a nod and headed to the infirmary, as the other three unicorn guards took her dagger into the security office. The two made their way into the infirmary after several moments of walking. As they entered the infirmary, the interior was warmly lit and furnished with comfortable cotton chairs in the waiting room. A young adult tan earth pony mare with a well kept and clean golden mane could be seen behind the receptionist window, her brown eyes scanning the pages of the Wasteland Survival Guide as the two walked in. She immediately set the book down after slightly creasing the top right corner of the page as she greeted the two.

“Oh, hello!” The mare said with a friendly smile and tone in her voice. “Is there something that I can do to help you today, Bluegrass Melody?”

Bluegrass Melody gave a nod as he and Love Bites approached the receptionists desk. The unicorn hadn’t taken off his helmet. He spoke with a kind tone in his voice. “Actually, yes! I need you to get Life Bloom to draw blood from this mare, and then have him draw blood from Stacked Chip.” He said as he motioned to the Pegasus mare next to him with a hoof. “She claims that he is her father, and we only know of him and Emerald Song having a filly.” He said with a doubting tone in his voice. “I was told by the stallion in charge to bring her here for the bloodwork.”

The mare that sat behind the desk gave a nod and climbed off of her seat. She walked out of a door hidden just from view, and out into the waiting room. “Right this way, then! We’ll get you taken care of in no time.” The receptionist said with a warm smile, and began to lead her down the hallway towards an empty and sterile doctor’s office. The mare was a bit on the shorter side when compared to Love Bites. The shorter earth pony mare spoke warmly once more as Love Bites sat down on the bed. “Life Bloom will be in shortly, I will have one of the nurses come in and take your blood pressure shortly.”

The earth pony mare gave a warm smile as she exited the room, and shut the door behind her. The next couple of hours or so became a blur as Love Bites had gotten her blood pressure taken, her blood drawn and eventually was helped to a hospital bed in a separate room of the infirmary. The Pegasus mare had been relieved of her armor and duster, revealing some deep scars on the sides of her belly and her back legs. The scars were from blunt weapons and sharp bladed weapons that had left their marks on the once raider. She slowly came to rest on her back, and felt the thin paper-like bedsheet be pulled up onto her. The hospital gown rested against Love Bites' body as she slowly drifted to sleep.

Eight hours later, Love Bites woke to find that the day had turned into night. Her eyes adjusted to the darkness as she looked around. She was about to go back to sleep when she heard the soft movement beside her bed. Love Bites turned her head to face the chair, and that’s when she saw the bat pony stallion asleep sitting upright. His blue coat was covered by a black t-shirt and black jeans. The bat pony stallion’s black mane was short and combed over, his black tail was slightly long, as it reached to his back ankles. His agile wings had been folded against his backside, and she could see his sharp canines in the soft moonlight as they glinted in the darkness.

She had wondered where her father was, what had happened to him due to how she never got to meet him. Love Bites now was able to see her father, the stallion who she never had the chance to meet as a filly. As she looked at his sleeping form, she didn’t need to be told that he was her father. She knew that he was her father.

Footnote: Text file found!
Location revealed: Bloodbeak and Falcon’s munitions

4 Songbird

The brothers looked to one another as they slowly began to approach once more. Searing Arrow’s horn glowed as he brought the butt of his pistol up in front of him. Iron Heart took a deep breath as he and his brother made their way to stand just behind the mare. They looked to one another and nodded as Iron Heart took a deep breath and grunted loudly.

“Who are you, and what do you think you are doing with our supplies?” The earth pony said in a loud and intimidating voice. His eyes narrowed as he glared down at her.

“Eep!” The pale Earth Pony mare squeaked loudly as she jumped into the air and spun around. She landed with a soft thud as she faced them. Her black eyes were wide as her chest heaved up and down from having been startled. “I-I am sorry! I wasn’t planning on stealing your supplies, honest!” She said in a soft, almost nervous and anxiety filled voice. The brothers could see the sections between the lines as they moved with each slow inhale and exhale.

Searing Arrow said firmly. “You don’t seem to be wanting to bring harm onto us, which is nice and all. But we can’t exactly trust that you aren’t planning on hurting us.”

The mare shook her head as she gulped. “I-I don’t like to fight! Fighting hurts ponies, and it makes those that are hurt sad and feel helpless. I promise you that I am not going to hurt either of you, as well as that I am not trying to steal from you. Please, don’t hurt me.” She said with a shiver in her voice.

“We won’t hurt you.” Searing Arrow said gently as he softly approached her. He looked over their supplies and blinked as he noticed that she hadn’t touched any of it. “Are you all alone?” He asked her as he looked at Iron Heart and then back to her. “What’s your name? I’m Searing Arrow, and the burly stallion with me is my brother. His name is Iron Heart.”

“M-my name?” The mare asked as she looked at the two stallions. Her eyes moved from Searing Arrow and then to Iron Heart. The Earth Pony thought that she saw something briefly fly behind the Unicorn, but ended up shaking her head. “I don’t know my name. I don’t know how I got here, either…” She admitted uneasily. “I remember waking up in a strange tube, as well as the sound of the glass as it broke and I fell onto the cold and hard floor. I guess that I don’t even know who my parents are, or what they do for a living.” She exhaled. “I don’t know what to call myself, but maybe you two would be able to come up with a name?” She asked meekly.

Iron Heart blinked as he looked at Searing Arrow. The Earth Pony chuckled softly as he then looked at the mare. “Well, sure.” He said as he thought to himself for a moment, a kind smile coming over his snout as he looked the mare in the eyes. “How about Nightingale?” Iron Heart asked with a warm tone in his voice.

The mare blinked as she thought about the name, her expression taking on a pleasant look as she gave a nod of approval. “Nightingale… I like it!” Nightingale said in a happy and pleased tone. “I don’t exactly have anypony to talk to or to travel with. Also, to answer your question. Yes, I am all alone…” She said with a nervous and quiet tone in her voice.

Iron Heart and Searing Arrow looked at one another. They both knew just how cold and lonely the wastelands were. They couldn’t bring themselves to leave Nightingale alone to fend for herself. The brothers soon returned their attention to their supplies and began to gather everything up, their hooves carefully slipping their gear into one of the big compartments.

“Well, we aren’t going to leave you here all alone.” Iron Heart said calmly as he looked at Nightingale. “You are free to travel with us, if you so desire to. We only ask that you don’t try anything funny on us.” His voice had a gentle tone in it as he slipped the saddlebag back onto Searing Arrows back and put his tire iron across his side.

“What? Really? You mean it?!” The pale earth pony mare asked with an excited tone in her voice. “You mean that I don’t have to be alone anymore?”

“Yup!” Searing Arrow said with a soft laugh as he holstered his pistol. “We just want to ensure that you will be alright and safe. We’re heading to Tenpony Tower. We found a map back in Ponyville that had a path for us to follow.” He said with a warm smile and was about to speak, before the mare ran up and hugged both of them tightly with her fore legs around their necks.

“Oh! Thank you! I promise you that I will help out as best I can. I am at least able to help with patching you both up, if you end up in a fight.” Nightingale said warmly and let go of the two stallions.

The two brothers gave Nightingale a kind nod before they turned around and made their way out of the ruined store. They began to make their way towards Tenpony Tower once again. The next couple of days went by quickly as they traveled. During the mid-afternoon of the third day, the trio had noticed a Sprite-Bot that had been flying towards them. The Sprite-Bot was playing smooth jazz with a soft and smooth sounding voice emanating from its speakers. Before Iron Heart could say anything to Searing Arrow and Nightingale, the Sprite-Bot had closed in and cut its music off entirely.

“Good afternoon, gentle stallions and madame.” The Sprite-Bot said in a calm tone. “I have been observing the two of you for quite some time. My name is Watcher.” It said with a soft bob of its chassis. “Now, I know Searing Arrow and Iron Heart. However, I am afraid that I do not know much about you, madame.” Watcher said as he looked at Nightingale. ”You look like a Hospital Horror, but you don’t strike me as one of those monstrous beasts.”

“H-Hospital Horror?” Nightingale asked with a confused tone in her voice, along with an equally confused expression on her face. “What’s a Hospital Horror?” She asked.

“A Hospital Horror, is a monster that reproduces when it rapes its victims. They can be a stallion or mare. Most of the time, they are stallions.” Searing Arrow said calmly. “They are pretty evil bastards, but. I don’t think that you are one, Nightingale.” The Unicorn stallion said with a gentle and reassuring smile.

“That is correct, at least on the explanation of the Hospital Horrors.” Watcher said with a nod. “They tend to travel alone, and are not a monster that a pony would be interested in meeting in a dark alley.”

“I see.” Nightingale said softly as she looked at Iron Heart and Searing Arrow. “So, um.” She said nervously. “We should be coming up on a settlement or something soon, right?” She asked softly.

“Yeah, we should be.” Searing Arrow said as he took out the map with his magic. His horn glowed softly as the three of them took a moment to catch their breath. “We’re still a little ways off from Tenpony Tower. Maybe another day and we should be there.” He said calmly as he rolled the map back up and set it inside of his saddlebag. The unicorn stallion narrowed his eyes as he looked at Watcher. “And just how do you know about my brother and I?” He asked suspiciously.

“Hey, yeah. We never met a Sprite-Bot before, at least not one that talks to us.” Iron Heart said as he narrowed his eyes, as well. “Tell us what is going on… How do you know about us?”

Watcher took a moment before he responded. “I learned about you from my sources.” The Sprite-Bot said carefully. “They informed me about your settlement some time back, and I have been observing you both ever since.” Watcher had hoped that the two believed him.

Iron Heart and Searing Arrow looked at one another and then to Nightingale. The two brothers turned their attention back to Watcher, serious expressions on their faces.

“So, what you are saying is that you were stalking us for possibly months? If not years?” Iron Heart asked with an annoyed tone in his voice. The earth pony stallion gave a snort as he looked at the Sprite-Bot.

“That’s kinda creepy, Watcher.” Searing Arrow pointed out. “And if you wanted to observe us, you should have just asked us. We would have let you shadow us for a few days, maybe a month or two.” The unicorn stallion said with a grunt. “Are you able to help us get to Tenpony Tower? Or at least to a settlement? We’re running low on supplies and we could use a bit of a resupply.” Searing Arrow said with a soft shake of his dirty mane. He and his brother hadn’t bathed in days, and they looked like they could use a shower.

“I can help you get to Tenpony Tower, sure!” Watcher said with a somewhat nervous tone in his voice. “We aren’t that far away from an airfield. It was used before the war with the Zebra’s as a training ground for the Wonderbolts, but when the Megaspells fell, it had been emptied out.” He said as he began to lead them towards Tenpony Tower. He knew that they would come across the airfield after a couple more hours, though.

Searing Arrow, Iron Heart and Nightingale nodded to each other as they walked. The next two hours passed by relatively quickly and the sun reached high in the sky. They came upon the airfield at the hottest point in the day. The group noticed what once seemed to have been a barrack, its white paint had been peeled off from the years of neglect. The once green grass that had once covered the beautiful airfield had been long since dead. The three ponies and the Sprite-Bot noticed a burly brown feathered gryphon and a young earth pony colt that were sitting down next to the barracks. A wooden sign stood a few yards away from the building. “Bloodbeak and Falcon’s munitions” was written on the sign in, two crudely drawn caricatures of the Gryphon and the earth pony colt could be seen on the opposite sides of a table that was littered with what appeared to be weapons and ammunition. As the four of them approached the barrack, the Gryphon and the earth pony’s eyes went wide and smiles formed on their faces.

“Well, it’s not everyday that we get travelers out here.” The Gryphon said with a jolly smile. “What can we do for you? My name is Bloodbeak.” His body was relaxed as he stood up from his seat. He extended a claw to the three ponies, and looked at the Sprite-Bot which had begun to play music once more.

“And I’m Falcon!” The Earth Pony said with a grin, an excited tone was able to be heard in his voice. His coat was a mixture of white and black, his bright blue eyes shone softly in the hot sun. His mane was speckled black and white, as well as short and messy. His tail was short and well kept, unlike his mane and it reflected the black and white speckles, much like his mane.

“We’re in need of ammunition and supplies, maybe a new melee weapon or two.” Iron Heart said as he looked at the Gryphon and put his right forehoof in his claw, giving him a polite smile. “Oh, we can also use a place to rest and maybe some water filled canteens. We’ve kinda been running on fumes, and we’re trying to reach Tenpony Tower.” He let out a soft laugh. “My name is Iron Heart, and these two are Searing Arrow and our friend Nightingale.” The earth pony stallion said as he motioned to his brother and the pale pony with a hoof.

“It is a pleasure to meet you all!” Bloodbeak said calmly. “What about that Sprite-Bot? Is that yours, as well?” He asked as he looked at the Sprite-Bot before he resumed speaking. “Well, we do have more than enough room to let you all sleep here for the night.” He spoke as he rested a talon on his knee. His sharp claw softly tapped against the fabric of his clothes. “I’ll let you stay if you would be willing to help pry open and clean out a room in the back. That thing has been shut tighter than a safe.” He said with a frown. “Myself and Falcon have been attempting to open that damn door for the past month. We recently uncovered it from a bunch of metal sheets that came off of the wall, after I tripped and smacked my back against them.” He said as he rubbed his back with his left talon. “I’ll also throw in some canteens filled with clean water, and fifty caps to sweeten the deal.”

Searing Arrow gave a nod. “Of course we’ll help! How big of a door are we talking about?” He asked calmly as Falcon approached the group, taking a spot next to Bloodbeak’s side. “Also, your munitions and equipment are all inside, right? We could do a little extra work for the stuff we need, if you would be alright with that? And yes, that Sprite-Bot is ours. We found it malfunctioning on the side of the road a few days ago, and repaired it to working condition.”

Falcon looked at Bloodbeak and gave a soft nod with a smile. “I’ll show them where it is, pops!” He said with a cheerful and peppy tone in his voice. “Come on and follow me! I know where it is!” He said as the earth pony turned around and walked with a soft skip into the barrack and out of sight.

Searing Arrow, Iron Heart and Nightingale looked at one another before they left Watcher outside, and headed inside after Falcon. The interior of the building was nicely organized, a large cabinet was able to be seen against the right wall. The cabinet had glass slits in it that the trio thought they could make out the vague figure of a pistol inside of it. There was a heavy oak desk a few feet away from the cabinet. At the opposite side of the room sat a ripped leather couch and four chairs sat next to a small coffee table. A poster on the wall showed a small white rabbit hanging onto a tree branch, the lettering underneath read, “Hang in there”. The trio could see Falcon as he waved at them from a large and square patch of metal on the wall. They hurried over to him, not having the chance to look into the other six rooms that were on either side of the hallway.

“Oh, oh, oh! Here it is!” Falcon said excitedly as he motioned to the metal sheet. He looked at the trio and smiled warmly to them as he bounced on his hooves. “Pops and I both know that you can open up this door! We don’t know how it ended up this way, but… We’re pretty sure that you three can figure this out.”

Iron Heart blinked as he examined the large square patch of metal. His eyes scanned it and came to notice a small section of the upper left edge. The earth pony stallion pointed it out with a curious expression on his face.

“Hey, do you have a crowbar and a step ladder, Falcon?” Iron Heart asked the colt. “Because, I think that I know where to start.”

“Yeah, I’ll go get both of them!” Falcon said with an excited tone in his voice. “I’ll be right back!”

The trio watched with gentle smiles as Falcon hurried off to the front of the barracks. Iron Heart turned to face the wall once more and took his tire iron out. The earth pony began to slam the metal weapon against it as hard as he could. The wall had become dented where it was struck, as he repeatedly used his full strength. Again, and again, and again as the edges where the weld was made, had become broken. By this point, Falcon had returned with a crowbar in his mouth and a step ladder resting across his backside. The earth pony colt approached the trio and set the crowbar against the wall as he then unfolded the ladder and placed it next to Iron Heart.

“What did you do that for?” Falcon exclaimed as he motioned to the somewhat broken wall. “You three said that you could fix this!”

“Yes, we are fixing it. But that space up in that corner was a little too small for just a crowbar.” Iron Heart said as he took the crowbar in his mouth, and gently moved Falcon to the side next to Searing Arrow.

Iron Heart dug the crowbar into the opening and worked it back towards him. The metal sheet groaned as it began to slowly bend backwards. Searing Arrow’s horn glowed as he used his magic to push from the opposite side, assisting his brother in moving the obstruction from their path. After a couple of minutes had passed, the earth pony stallion moved to the opposite side and began to push with his side. After a couple more moments of pushing and grunting, the two stallions had gotten the large metal square open. The two took a few moments as they caught their breath and Iron Heart wiped the sweat away from his brow.

“Oh! You got it open! Pops and I knew that you could do it!” Falcon exclaimed as he sat down on his flank, his front hooves gave an excited “clip-clop” as he clapped them together. After a moment, he stood up and made his way into the newly revealed room.

“W-woah! Hold on now, a moment.” Iron Heart said as he exhaled and made his way inside, only to be followed by Searing Arrow and Nightingale.

The four ponies looked around in the room, the planning boards were made out of cork. Diagrams and drawings in light blue pencil were tacked onto each of them. There were filing cabinets on one side of the room, while the other had a makeshift bed near a broken window. On the bed rested the skeleton of a unicorn. Their clothes had deteriorated over the years as the heat and the elements. A large desk that rested in the center of the room had a metal object sitting on it. The object looked a lot like a pair of Pegasus wings.

At the tip of the tail feathers a small, metal hole could be seen, which looked like something was supposed to come out of them. A series of dials and meters were able to be seen across the center of the strange Pegasus wings backside. Falcon approached the table, his eyes sparkled and glinted in awe and excitement as he hopped around excitedly.

“Oh my gosh, this thing looks awesome!” Falcon exclaimed in a loud voice. He stopped bouncing and quickly grabbed the metal Pegasus wings.

“Okay, now, let’s just hold on there a minute before we do anything rash.” Searing Arrow said as he approached Falcon. He curiously scanned the odd device as he looked it over. “This is certainly an odd device. It looks like a wing pack.” His voice was calm as he looked the device over once more. “Hey, let’s see if we can find the documents for this. They have to be here somewhere.” He said as he began to start looking around.

The Unicorn and the three Earth Ponies began to search. Two of the Earth Ponies began to sift through the cabinets, while the Earth Pony colt fiddled with the wing pack. He pressed the buttons to see if anything would happen, that is when something did. Out of the silence came the suddenly sharp cry of joy and happiness, as Falcon went soaring up and out of a hole in the ceiling. The sudden cry caused Searing Arrow, Iron Heart and Nightingale to all jump from surprise and being startled. The smell of old fuel and burnt ozone filled the three adults’ nostrils as they coughed. The smoke dissipated after a moment or two had passed, the sound of excitement filled the air above the barracks as Falcon flew around with a loud roar.

The roar of the wing pack filled the sky as the exhausts on each of the tailfeathers propelled the colt forward and through the air, hot fire could be seen coming out of the exhaust ports. As he flew, Falcon could see the entire wasteland in all of its dreariness. He was going so fast that Bloodbeak was unable to catch up with him as he traversed the airfield in a matter of moments. Falcon was flying great, and then he lost control and flew directly into a large but somewhat soft dirt hill. The little Earth Pony colt heard the sound of the wing packs engines shutting off, as well as heard the sound of his right foreleg as it broke with a loud “snap”! Pain shot through his body as he bit back the tears.

“Fucking dammit!” he screamed in pain as he slid down from the spot that he had landed, his skin and coat on his right foreleg had been broken and pierced by the lower half of his leg as it showed gray bone sticking out of it.

“Falcon!” Bloodbeak shouted as he landed next to the colt, and noticed his broken leg. “Shit… I need to get you fixed up. Come on, kiddo.” He said as he calmly and gently lifted the small pony up and into his talons, before he quickly flew back towards the barracks. He had already used his beak to tear off one of the sleeves from his shirt as he flew inside.

Iron Heart, Searing Arrow and Nightingale had exited the barracks to try and catch up with Falcon, only to notice that the Gryphon had the small Earth Pony in his arms. They had only just barely gotten to the cracked asphalt when they all saw that Falcon had broken one of his legs. Watcher, who was observing this from a distance, had been watching closely. The three ponies followed the Gryphon into the barracks, worried expressions had formed on their faces. The little Sprite-Bot soon made its way inside, as well. Bloodbeak grunted as he took the wing pack off of Falcon’s backside after he untied all of the straps and cleared the top of a table with one of his wings, the objects that were on the table clattered to the floor loudly . The Gryphon grunted as he pushed the wing pack into Iron Heart’s hooves and laid the colt on the table, his gaze focused as he carefully gripped the lower part of Falcon’s broken leg.

“Ok Falcon, this is going to hurt a bit… ready?” Bloodbeak said as he gripped the upper part of Falcon’s leg.

“Just… Ugh… Fuck! Just do it, dammit!” The colt shouted as he grunted.

Bloodbeak gave a firm nod as he then forced Falcon’s bone back underneath his coat and skin. The sharp pain elicited a shout of several expletives from the colt, as he began to audibly cry. The pain was intense but brief as shortly after his bone was set back into place, he felt Bloodbeak put two wooden splints against the sides of his broken foreleg and then he felt the sleeve of his shirt as it was wrapped around the two splints tightly. The colt sobbed for a few moments, the tears stung his cheeks as he slowly sat upright with pain that shot through his leg. Bloodbeak took a moment to catch his breath as he held Falcon in his talons. The Gryphon softly carried the colt into one of the side rooms, only to come back out a few moments later. He walked to Iron Heart and took the wing pack, as he then hung it up on the wall behind the desk.

“Hey, let’s take the rest of the day off. I’ll make all of us something to eat, then we can enjoy the rest of the day and even the night until we all turn in.” Bloodbeak said as he released a breath that he had been holding in. “I don’t want to ever have to set one of Falcon’s bones back into place again… It always hurts me to do stuff like that, even if it is to help him.”

The three ponies and the Sprite-Bot looked at one another before they turned their attention back to Bloodbeak and gave a nod in agreement. The rest of the day went by quickly, they all had their fill of Pork and Beans, fresh out of the can. The day turned into night, as the three ponies, the Sprite-Bot and Bloodbeak sat around an open fire on the cracked asphalt in front of the barracks. They had all had a long day and it was showing on all of their faces. Iron Heart looked to Bloodbeak, his eyes scanned the Gryphons feathers and eyes. He was unsure as to how he hadn’t noticed his dark brown feathers or his dark green eyes before.

“Um, excuse me, Bloodbeak?” Iron Heart said in a calm tone. “How exactly did you and Falcon meet?” He asked softly.

Bloodbeak stared into the firelight for a moment as flames licked at the air. He took a stick from beside his seat and tossed it into the fire. “It was two years ago. I was on my way back here from the battle at Fillydelphia. I was told by my boss at the time, Gawdyna Grimfeathers, that we would be fighting alongside the Lightbringer in order to stop the Grand Pegasus Enclave. They had gotten angry about something, something that the Lightbringer did. It enraged them so much that they flew down and started to attack settlements… It was horrible.” He said as he closed his eyes and exhaled, he then resumed. “I had passed by Ponyville when I was making my way back. Normally, I would have gone the more safe route, but something told me to go by there. When I reached Ponyville, I encountered a Unicorn mare and an Earth Pony stallion who were both dying. They were laying on their sides, the mare had Falcon clutched against her chest. When I tried to help them, the mare told me not to worry about them. Instead, she begged me to take care of their son, and to raise him. She asked me to help him learn right from wrong, and to help him see the world, and even to see that he is safe from all of the pain and torment that the wasteland causes.” He exhaled once more as he opened his eyes, and looked at the three ponies. Bloodbeak didn’t realize that the Sprite-Bot was being controlled by a dragon on the other end. “So, I told her… Yes. I promised her that Falcon would grow up to become a fine stallion, that I’d protect him until my dying breath.”

“So, you took him in, because his mother asked you to as her dying wish.” Iron Heart gently gave a warm smile to Bloodbeak, he was moved by the Gryphon and just how much kindness he had given to the colt’s birth mother. “I think that I understand now. Thank you for telling us. I sort of didn’t get it, not at first, anyways.” Iron Heart admitted.

“Yeah, well… It’s been tough. I was living with the Gawd’s Talons for the longest time, only heard about this barrack after the battle and wanted to just live my days out in peace. I kept my weapons and gear, though. Just in case.” Bloodbeak said softly as he exhaled. “Anyways, we’re all tired. There’s more than enough beds, so feel free to make yourselves at home. Stay as long as you need to.”

Bloodbeak stood up and made his way into the barracks, leaving Iron Heart, Searing Arrow, Nightingale and Watcher outside. Iron Heart was about to say something to Watcher, before he calmly flew up on top of the barrack and softly came to rest on its metal roof. The three ponies gave a shrug as they stood up and entered the building as well.

The night went as quickly as it came. Out in the distance as the sun rose in the sky and casted its warmth onto the equestrian wasteland, no clouds to hinder it today. A group of four Gryphons that had on metal armor that was painted black with a star on the right shoulder stood out of sight of the building. They had revolvers holstered at their hips.

Footnote: Level up! New Perk!

Lucky Buck: The Critical Hit Chance of your first combat roll is raised by 10%.
New allies gained: Bloodbeak and Falcon.
New gear unlocked: Wing Pack: If you are not a Pegasus, Gryphon or a Hippogriff, you can use this item to fly! Fuel Consumption rate: fast.

5 Black Star

Bloodbeak had been unable to sleep after the three ponies went to bed. The Gryphon's mind kept replaying the day where he had been asked to take care of Falcon, the day that he had become a father. He slowly got out of bed and made his way into the barracks main room. The Gryphon remembered how Searing Arrow, Iron Heart and Nightingale had little to no ammunition for their weapons, as well as how badly they needed to be repaired. He walked over to their saddlebags and carefully took the Unicorns pistol out of the holster, along with the tire iron that Iron Heart had been carrying. Bloodbeak went right to work as he worked on making ammunition.

By the time that Bloodbeak had finished the repairs on the pistol and the tire iron, along with making more ammunition for the pistol, the sun had already begun to rise. The Gryphon had worked throughout the night once again. He had developed a bad habit of doing that as of the past couple of months. He softly yawned as he returned the weapons to the saddlebags and holster. He put the pistol ammunition next to the pistol in its holster as he turned and trudged back to his bed. The Gryphon felt his heavy and exhausted body fall onto the bed and underneath the covers. His eyes closed as he drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

Bloodbeak didn’t know just how much time passed as he was suddenly woken up by gunfire from outside. The Gryphon’s eyes moved to the window and he noticed that the sun was at the eight o’ clock position. He couldn’t believe that it was already morning as he leapt out of bed and hurriedly pulled his bulletproof vest and camouflage pants onto his body. Bloodbeak dashed out of his bedroom and grabbed a bolt action rifle from the wall and exited the barracks. The sun blinded him for a brief moment as the sound of gunfire was loud and pierced his ears. The Gryphon shook himself to where the sun was no longer blinding him. That was when he noticed the four Gryphons that were firing at Searing Arrow, Iron Heart and Nightingale. He recognized the four Gryphons black metal armor and the star symbol on their shoulders. All four of them had pistols in their talons.

“Black Star mercs, just great…” Bloodbeak said as he dived behind a dune that was nearby the three ponies. Their Sprite-Bot was nowhere in sight. “Are you three okay?” He shouted over the sound of gunfire, the bullets hitting the barrack walls exterior with a metal twang. Bloodbeak popped his upper body out from the top of the dune as he took aim. He squeezed down the trigger with his claw and fired off a round at one of the advancing Gryphons. There was a loud squawk as the bullet impacted one of their legs. Bloodbeak didn’t look to see which one was hit, as he pulled the lever and ejected the shell to the ground next to him. He then took another bullet from his pocket and slotted it into the chamber, pushing it closed as the bolt slid back into place.

“Yeah! We’re doing fine!” Searing Arrow shouted as he levitated his pistol above the dune that Iron Heart, Nightingale and himself were taking cover behind. He briefly moved his head out of cover and fired three shots. One of the four Gryphons had fallen onto his chest, his kneecaps had been shot out by the Unicorn's well placed shots. Searing Arrow ducked back down behind the dune, a sudden burst of fire from the group of four echoed loudly in the vacant airfield. “Is Falcon alright? I checked on him during the mad dash out here. It seems that he is still asleep!”

He shouted over the burst of gunfire.

“I have no clue!” Bloodbeak shouted as he popped back up from cover and noticed the kneecapped Gryphon. He took his chance, and pulled the trigger. His bullet went into the attackers skull from the frontside and exited out the back. The Gryphon was now dead, which only left the other three. “I came right out here, myself!” He exclaimed as he returned to his cover and ejected the spent shell and put a new round in.

Iron Heart blinked as he looked over at Nightingale and felt his heart pound in his chest. She was holding her head with her hooves, her eyes twitched as she grunted. He could feel the sweat forming on his forehead as he gulped.

“Nightingale, what’s wrong?!” Iron Heart asked with a worried tone in his voice, and an equally worried expression on his face.

“N-no! Stop it!” Nightingale shouted as she clutched her head. The mare was hearing voices as she shivered. Everything stopped, as if time itself had stood still as her vision went red.

Bloodbeak, Searing Arrow and Iron Heart all stopped firing when they heard her scream. They looked to see a long tendril that was slick and red erupt from Nightingale’s snout. Their bodies stiffened up as they held their breath. The mare must have been able to discern friend from foe, though, as she leapt out from behind the dune with a loud and air splitting screech. The three Gryphons that were still standing let out cries of fear.

“What the fuck is that, captain?!” One of the Gryphons shouted as he quickly holstered his pistol and showed his claws to the monster..

“It’s a Hospital Horror! Fucking kill it!” The leader shouted as he brought his pistol up and fired off a shot.

“What the hell is it doing out here?! Usually they are in, you know… Hospitals!” The third Gryphon said with fear in his voice as he fired off a few rounds from his pistol.

Nightingale charged at the three Gryphons in a bloodied rage. She charged the one that had taken out his claws and tackled him to the cold and cracked asphalt. His eyes went wide from fear as he tried to kick the mare off, only to find the long, red and slick tendril forcing its way down around his throat. He tried to fight back, but he was too late. The mare had climbed on top of him. Her tendril lashed out and wrapped around the Black Star mercenaries neck. The Gryphon began to gag as his face had started to turn blue, his trachea being crushed by the monster that had been unleashed onto the battlefield.

“Fucking shit! Fall back!” The Black Star captain said in a pissed off tone as he spread his wings and propelled himself backwards, a thick cloud of dust flew up into the air. “We were informed by our client that there was a monster roaming around here, but we didn’t think that he was serious!”

The third Gryphon propelled himself backwards just like his leader had, another thick cloud of dust filled the air as he frowned. “Boss, I don’t think that this is in our paygrade…”

He said with a worried tone in his voice. “We gotta get out of here.”

“No! I won’t fucking run!” The Black Star captain said, rage now filled his voice. “We came to fucking kill that bastard, Bloodbeak, and by the skies, I’m going to do just that!”

There was a loud snap as Nightingale twisted the Gryphon whose neck her tendril was wrapped around, was crushed. Her eyes were blood red as her long, red and slick tendril retracted into her mouth. She let out a loud and enraged scream before her eyes returned to normal.

“What happened? Why am I-” she stopped mid-sentence as she saw that she was standing on top of the dead Gryphon. Her eyes began to fill with her tears as she started to weep. “I didn’t mean to! No! Why did you have to force *her* to come out?!” She screamed in anguish and frustration. “I have been trying to keep *her* locked away! She’s a fucking monster!”

Iron Heart and Searing Arrow both looked at one another from behind their cover, their eyes went wide as they exchanged worried looks.

“Iron Heart, we need to get Nightingale out of there!” Searing Arrow exclaimed in a worried tone.

“Yeah, I know…” Iron Heart said with a grunt as he readied his tire iron. He looked over to Bloodbeak with a grunt. “Hey! Give me some covering fire!” He shouted as he then took the tire iron into his mouth and dashed out towards his scared companion.

Bloodbeak didn’t need anyone to tell him twice. He raised himself out of cover and fired at the two remaining Gryphons, causing them to spread out into a more open formation. ‘Yeah, that’s it… Spread yourselves out. You bastards aren’t going to live to see another day.’ He thought to himself as he quickly ducked behind his cover and reloaded.

The gunfire began again as the Earth Pony stallion charged the captain of the Black Star squad; he had noticed that his tire iron was heavier now as he swung it as hard as he could. He had aimed for the Gryphon’s gut, and hit it with a loud smack. The Gryphon captain let out a squawk as he protectively wrapped his free arm around his gut and aimed at the stallion. Iron Heart looked to Nightingale and decided that he had to make a choice here. The choice being to save his companion, or to finish this fight before it could get any worse.

Iron Heart decided to save his companion as he lept backwards and landed on the dirt in front of the mare. He decided to try and further harm the captain of this mercenary squad, as he tossed his tire iron at his leg. He watched as his throw went long and barely missed the Gryphon’s leg, smacking him on the front of his shin, causing a squawk of anger to escape his throat. The Earth Pony quickly lifted the sobbing mare onto his back and fled as quickly as he could behind the dune.

Falcon had been awake for the past couple of minutes. The little Earth Pony colt had been busy strapping on the wing pack that had caused him to break his leg the prior day. He found that getting the thing strapped onto his back was a huge pain with only three good legs, and one busted one. He had managed to somehow get the wing pack onto his back and strapped in, as he quickly hobbled out into the front of the barracks and over to the weapons cabinet. The pain shot through his leg as he made his way to where the weapon cabinet was, causing him to quietly cry out. After a few moments passed, Falcon had caught his breath and gritted his teeth as he made his way to the weapon cabinet and unlocked it, tossing it open. The colt’s eyes scanned the firearms that were inside. He knew that his foster father and the three ponies outside were in need of help, and he couldn’t just ignore the fact that his foster father was putting his life on the line to help three outsiders.

The Earth Pony colt took a deep breath and exhaled as he took a silver revolver in his snout. It was heavy in his grip as he opened it up with a quick flick of his head. The chamber was empty, but he knew where the box of shells was inside of the cabinet and quickly dug it out. Falcon quickly put six bullets into the revolvers chambers and spun it shut with a satisfying click. The firefight was still going on outside, and he had no time to waste. He hurried to the back room where he, Iron Heart, Searing Arrow and Nightingale had found the wing pack inside. Falcon’s eyes shut briefly as he stood underneath the hole in the roof, silver revolver in his mouth as he worked up the courage to activate the wing pack. The pain was searing through his broken leg, and he knew that once he got up into the air it would ease a little bit. Falcon had hyped himself up to where his adrenaline was pumping through his brain and body, and pressed the button on the wing pack. The Earth Pony colt went flying into the air and out of the hole, the sounds of his wing pack engines filled the sky with a loud roar that surprised Watcher, causing the Sprite-Bot to nervously flutter its wings and flap in the air.

“Woah! What the hell is Falcon thinking?!” The Sprite-Bot exclaimed as it watched the small Earth Pony soar through the air.

‘I have to do this.’ Falcon thought to himself as he soared across the sky towards where the Gryphons were standing. He saw Nightingale as she was grabbed by Iron Heart and dragged back into cover. He narrowed his eyes as he took aim with the gun and hovered in place in the air. The Earth Pony colt aimed carefully, his heart pounded inside of his chest as he got his target in his sights and fired.

The two Gryphons had been taken by surprise as the sudden sounds of engines filled the air, and then they heard the sound of gunfire.

“What the-” the one that was still standing with the captain started to ask before the bullet from the revolver pierced the back of his right talon. He let out a loud screech of pain as he dropped his firearm to the ground, and clutched at his talon. He looked up and into the sky, only to take notice of the colt hovering in the air. “B-boss! Up there in the sky!” He shouted as he put pressure on his bleeding talon, his grip was tight as he glared at the colt.

“Well, I’ll be damned Bloodbeak! You have a little ankle biter who has a big gun! He must be overcompensating for that small penis right now!” The captain said with a cold and cruel laugh. “He has bigger balls than you, though. I’ll give him that! Sad that I gotta kill him, though!” The captain’s face took on a sadistic edge as he aimed his firearm at Falcon.

“Oh no you don’t!” Bloodbeak shouted as he popped up from behind his cover. The Gryphon took aim and pulled the trigger.

The gunshot rang out through the air as both of the Gryphons took their shots. Bloodbeak had shot the gun out of the other Gryphons talon, just before he had fired at Falcon. Fire was able to be seen coming from one of the wing packs engines as the Earth Pony colt fell towards the ground, spiraling out of control as he let out a loud shout of surprise and shock. The Gryphon whose gun had been shot out of his talon squawked in anger. His vision had become filled with red as he saw Bloodbeak swiftly fly out to catch the colt. His talons spread in an aggressive manner as he threw himself at his opponent. He would have had his opponent, if it wasn’t for the heavy rock that hit him in the back of the head and caused him to fall limp to the ground, unconscious. A large bump formed with a dark purple color on top of it.

Falcon let out a loud cry of fear as he fell from the sky, one of the engines was destroyed by that attack from the mercenary captain. Right before he hit the ground, his eyes shut tightly, as he waited for the impact that would surely crush his head and kill him. However, there was a brief moment of silence and the roar of the wing packs engine, before he realized that there was no impact, and that the engine had been shut off. Falcon slowly opened his eyes to find Bloodbeak holding him tightly against his feather covered chest, his t-shirt stained with dust. The Earth Pony colt was able to smell the scent of the oil that his foster father used to clean their weaponry with on him. Falcon let out a sigh of relief, before the pain from his broken leg kicked in again and sent the world back into a painful spiral as he cried into the Gryphon’s feathered chest.

Bloodbeak held Falcon as close against his body as he could, hearing his son cry due to the adrenaline rush having worn off, along with the pain hitting him like a ton of bricks. He gently ran a talon comfortingly down the back of his neck as he flew high above the ground.

“Shhhh, It’s alright now, Falcon.” Bloodbeak said soothingly as he comforted him. “You did well, even with your broken leg.” He gave his son a warm smile, only to then glower at the Gryphon that was left standing.

“C-captain!” The remaining Gryphon said in fear as he hurried over to him and hefted him up and over his shoulders with his talons. He looked at Bloodbeak and then to Searing Arrow with a cold scowl. “You won’t get away with this! You and your little pony friends are all dead! Do you hear me!”

The Gryphon hauled his captain’s unconscious body away, his feet hit the ground hard as he made his escape. With one last glance back as he ran, he saw the four Ponies, the Gryphon and the Sprite-Bot regroup. He narrowed his eyes as he soon returned his gaze to the trail ahead, and vanished out of sight.

Bloodbeak landed slowly on the ground with Falcon in his arms. The Gryphon watched as the two Black Star mercenaries ran away with their tailfeathers between their legs. He turned his attention back to Falcon and gently took the revolver from his snout and gently set it down on the ground. The Gryphon continued to gently stroke his foster son’s head with a talon as he looked to the three Ponies and the Sprite-Bot.

“Are you all alright?” He asked with a worried tone in his voice, his expression softened as the adrenaline stopped flowing and his pounding heart began to slow back to normal.

“Yeah, we’re alright.” Searing Arrow said with a nod. “At least Iron Heart and I are.” He looked gently to Nightingale, whose eyes had become red and puffy from her crying just moments before. He had a concerned expression on his face. “Are you going to be okay?”

Nightingale had been shivering, cold beads of sweat ran down her forehead as she wiped them away from above her red and puffy eyes. “I-I’ll be fine, thank you. I just need to pull myself together, that’s all.”

Iron Heart gave a nod as he looked at Nightingale. “That’s perfectly alright, we should probably get our stuff and head to Tenpony Tower.” He said gently as he walked to where his tire iron had landed, and picked it up. He rested it across his back and returned to Searing Arrow’s side.

“Right. I’m going to be packing up our wares and put them on a cart, going to take Falcon to the Marejave. I heard rumors of a group out there called the Boomers live on an old military base. Maybe they can help my little Earth Pony learn to better pilot this tech.” Bloodbeak said with a serious and fatherly tone in his voice. “Plus, his leg isn’t going to be healing up anytime soon, if he keeps putting himself into harms way.”

Falcon was too exhausted from the battle to talk and was in too much pain to elicit a response. The Sprite-Bot looked to Searing Arrow, its monitor blinked as it saw something quickly flutter into his mane. The dragon that sat on the opposite end of the Sprite-Bots monitor inside of his cave rubbed the back of his head. His bulky body thumped the floor as he typed away at his terminal as he tried to figure out just what it was that he had just seen. The Dragon calmly pressed the speaker button and muted himself on his end of the Sprite-Bot.

“What in the world was that?” Spike asked out loud as he calmly typed away at his terminal. “I could have sworn that I saw some pony just now fly into Searing Arrows mane, but that doesn’t make sense.” He grunted as he got up and stretched, his joints popped loudly as he limbered himself up.

Spike softly stepped over to a large cabinet that had been made out of oakwood, a sheet of glass separated himself and the contents inside of the cabinet. His expression became sullen as he looked at the pictures of his smaller, more younger self, and his friends. He let out a soft sigh as he gently pressed his claw against the glass.

“Twilight, I wish that you were here right now.” Spike said to no pony in particular as he looked at a picture on the shelf. It was of himself when he was still little. He was sitting on the back of a lavender pony with deep dark purple eyes. Her violet mane and tail were frozen in time as her mane had been blowing softly in the light breeze. Streaks of pink and purple could be seen in her mane, as she and Spike looked at one another with joyful expressions on their faces.

“You always knew what to do and what to say to help me cheer up. I just wish that I had been there when the Mega Spell hit. Not like I could have done anything to stop it, but…” Spike lamented aloud as he snarled and kicked the cold ground of his home in frustration. “Dammit! I should have been there for you and the others! I should have never fallen asleep, and then maybe I could have done something for you! Just like you helped me out of so many of my messes before!” He roared in frustration and sadness. “I know that I have to keep going, that nothing can change the past… But dammit, I miss you.” He said with a somber tone as he soon calmed back down.

“Twilight, I… I have to get back to helping those ponies. You wouldn’t have wanted me to feel sorry for myself, or to be sad about the past, and I need to keep on moving forward. I *have* to make this world a better place, somehow.” Spike said aloud once more, his tone stayed somber as he returned to his terminal and sat down. Unmuting the Sprite-Bot’s microphone and observed his three companions.

Iron Heart, Searing Arrow and Nightingale waved to Falcon and Bloodbeak as they watched them leave. Their wagon was pulled by the Gryphon as he gave them a smile and a wave back. Watcher had been observing and watching the two ever since the end of the fight. It was curious about Bloodbeak’s past, but it had become too late now to ask him anything about it. The Sprite-Bot looked to its three companions and began to lead them towards Tenpony Tower further down the route shown on the map.

Watcher was not ready to bring up the oddity that it had seen earlier, the oddity being that strange and quick fluttering that went into Searing Arrow’s mane. But it wasn’t the time or the place to bring it up, it would have to wait until they both could be alone and able to talk without being overheard.

The route was long and the deafening silence had filled their ears. Nightingale was tired and exhausted from having lost control as she took a small sip from the canteen that Bloodbeak had given her before he and Falcon left. Searing Arrow and Iron Heart had gotten one, as well. Their equipment had been repaired alongside their weapons, and their ammunition had been replenished, as well. The group was lucky to have made it out of that engagement with the Black Star mercenary company.

After two hours passed, the three Ponies and the Sprite-Bot had finally arrived at their destination. The sign out front of the tall, gray tower had “Welcome to Tenpony Tower.” written on it in faded letters. Watcher looked at the three Pony’s and blinked its sensor a bit, before it zoomed in close.

“I cannot go into the tower with you three, not just yet.” Watcher said as it looked from Nightingale, to Searing Arrow and then finally to Iron Heart. “I have some business that I must attend to nearby, but I will be inside to meet you in a day or two.” It said calmly in its monotone voice.

“Urm, well… okay.” Searing Arrow said with a soft nod. “I hope that everything is alright on your end, Watcher.” He said as a gentle but tired tone came into his voice.

“Yeah…” Iron Heart said tiredly as he gently walked Nightingale up to the doorway. “If you need anything, you know where to find us.”

Nightingale didn’t say anything, she was emotionally exhausted and couldn’t bring herself to talk. Searing Arrow gave Watcher a nod, only to blink as he spoke once more.

“Just who are we supposed to be meeting here, again?” Searing Arrow asked, confused.

Watcher nodded. “Right, we all had quite a busy morning.” Watcher said calmly as it spoke. “You three need to meet up with Stacked Chip. He is a pretty nice stallion, so just watch your P’s and Q’s.” It said before it fluttered out of line of sight, and left the three Ponies alone.

Iron Heart, Searing Arrow and Nightingale looked at each other before they made their way into the cool shade of the entryway. The unicorn stallion looked to the intercom and pressed his hoof against it.

Footnote: Level up! New Perk!

Telekinetic Precision: You’ve got a steady horn on your head for when you need to count sand, thread a needle, or keep a pin in a grenade. Allows up to 1/2 (rounded up) VER objects
to be finely manipulated. You need this perk to use more than one weapon or
to effectively use a number of skills with TK. Attempting fine manipulation of
objects outside of your line of sight requires a skill rank of at least 70 in the
associated skill.

6 Interlude: The Meeting

Wildcard grunted as he approached the ruined building, it looked like it was once a place that saw ponies of every shape and size moving about. The stallion entered what was once the main door of the building and began to quietly make his way inside. It had been a good while since he fought the two siblings back at Ponyville, and he was still pissed off about his loss to them. He snarled and rubbed softly at the wound at his side where he had been shot. He pulled the bullet out after he had fled and found a small, decrepit maintenance shack that still had all of its tools and some old, but still sterile magic supplies inside. The stallion managed to use a pair of rusty pliers that day to remove the bullet and then he had put a magic bandaid over it to stop the blood from flowing, along with healing himself slightly from the bandaid’s magic.

It had been several moments before Wildcard entered a doorway and stepped into the room beyond. The room looked different when compared with the rest of the building that he had seen up to this point. Where the vast majority of the rooms had been debris filled and destroyed, this one was pristine and clean, a round table with three comfortable, padded leather chairs sat at three opposite sections of it. He raised his right eye ridge as he walked over to the chair that faced the door and sat down. He didn’t know just how long he would have to be waiting for anyone else to show up, as the soft sounds of taloned feet stepped against the cold and cracked floor of the building.

The figure came into view as the stallion watched, he had recognized the black and heavy armor with the star on their shoulder. He gave a sigh of disgust as the Black Star merc sat down on the chair opposite of him.

“Ugh, fucking great.” Wildcard said with a disgusted tone in his voice. “Let me guess, you received a summons from him, too?”

The Gryphon gave a nod as he snarled, his eyes narrowed as he looked at the Pegasus. “Yes… I got a summons from Mr. Fantastic, as well.”

The two stared at one another in a deafening silence for quite some time. The silence had gone on for several moments before it was broken, a door that had been hidden in the wall opposite the doorway that the two had used to come inside opened. The Pegasus Raider and the Gryphon mercenary both turned their heads to look.

An Unicorn in a black suit stepped out of the darkness behind the door and approached the table. His cold blue eyes scanned the two before he conjured a comfortable chair behind him. He sat down, causing his clothes to crease with each motion. His golden coat was hidden by the suit. He looked at the two that he had summoned and glowered at them.

“So, do you both want to tell me why neither of you have found Stacked Chip and brought him to me, yet?” He asked in an agitated tone.

Wildcard took a deep breath and held it a moment before he exhaled. He looked at the stallion and gritted his teeth. “I didn’t get him yet, because I had to deal with some trouble in Ponyville… I was attempting to kill them, so that I could get the map that leads to where this Bat Pony that you are looking for, went into hiding. But I got my flank kicked by the snot nosed brats.”

The golden coated stallion slowly turned his head and locked eyes with the Gryphon. The Black Star mercenary shivered a bit as he then straightened up at attention. His tail feathers stood upright as he fixed his black armor. “Sir, my men and I were on our way to scout out the last location that he was seen at, where we ran into resistance.” He had hoped that the stallion believed him, but his hope faded when he saw his expression harden.

“So, what you both are telling me… Is that both of you imbeciles, you ignorant boobs… You motherfucking ignoramuses, couldn’t even find a single Bat Pony?!” He shouted in an enraged tone. His tail thrashed behind him as he slammed his front hooves on the table. “I, Mr. Fantastic, am not paying you two to go galloping through the daisies on a midsummer afternoon… What I am paying you for, is to bring me Stacked Chip alive! If you can’t fucking do that, then why should I keep you around instead of sending my robots out there?” He asked them as his voice deepened, his heart filled with malice and rage from the memory of Stacked Chip, Emerald Song and Fang’s escape from the Frozen North. Their escape from his hooves…

“Y-yes sir! I-I swear that I will bring Stacked Chip to you alive! Whatever you want, sir!” Wildcard said with a nervous tone in his voice. His hooves trembled as he felt his body shake violently, he felt like he would have crapped his pants, he was hating himself for not having worn his brown pants today. “Unlike our Black Star Captain here, I at least have the skill-”

“Hah! You have skill? Don’t make me laugh!” The Gryphon said as he stood up from his chair. He had grown used to being yelled at by his sergeant during his training. His voice took on a mocking tone as he glared at Wildcard, his wings spread menacingly as his talons opened to reveal his razor sharp nails. “How about you just sit back and let me deal with him. I can snag him before you can think about doing it yourself!”

“Now, hold on just a damn minute!” Wildcard shouted as he pointed at the Gryphon, but once again, he was unable to get more out before he was cut off. This time he was cut off by Mr. Fantastic.

“Axe-Stone Beak, Wildcard…” The Unicorn stallion said with a grunt. “I am giving you both this last chance. If neither of you have brought Stacked Chip to me, alive. I will kill both of you…” He paused as he looked at the both of them, the tone of his voice was full of anger and frustration due to the both of them. “You have two weeks to get him and to bring him to me. If you cannot fulfill that goal, then you know what will happen to you.”

Mr. Fantastic stood up and turned around, his tail flicked softly as he walked to the open door and the darkness beyond, only to vanish into the blackened depths within. The door then slid shut behind him with a resounding and soft click.

The Raider and the Black Star Mercenary left the room silently and made their way out of the building. They calmly made their way down to the cracked and long since ruined street where they looked at one another, the Raider having calmed down enough to where he could get his hooves to stop shaking.

“You’d better stay out of my way, Axe-Stone Beak…” Wildcard snarled. “Otherwise I’m not going to hesitate on blasting your brains all over the battlefield.”

“Likewise to you, Wildcard.” The Gryphon said as he spread his wings in preparation to take flight. “We should work together and plan out an attack, as well as to figure out their objective.” Axe-Stone Beak said with a calm and collected tone in his voice. “We will have to work together, especially if those little brats are involved…”

“...” Wildcard didn’t say anything as he spread out his own wings and took to the sky. The Pegasus stallion waited for Axe-Stone Beak.

The Gryphon smirked to himself as he saw that the Pegasus realized that he was correct and lifted off of the ground. He flew up to the stallion’s height in the air and lead him towards Tenpony Tower.

Footnote: Text files found!
Dossiers revealed: Wildcard, Axe-Stone Beak and Mr. Fantastic are now able to be read. All text files will be located in Interlude 3.

Author's Note

I would like to apologize about how long this chapter took to get out. The main reason for its delay, is due to a job that I got with a ttrpg company. I cannot go into detail, but those that are in the know, know the gig. I have also been dealing with trying to find a new job, as well as am trying to move out of California, along with dealing with the stresses those bring.

I am going to be putting this story on hiatus until my side-gig is finished, as I don't want to start the side-gig and wanting to see it through until its end.

All of that aside, I hope that everyone is enjoying this story thus far, and I will be bringing you all a much longer chapter, when I get back.

7 Stacking the chips

It had been four hours since the three ponies had arrived at Tenpony Tower. They had been allowed inside and taken directly to the infirmary, where they had each undergone physical and medical exams before they would be allowed to roam the building. The two stallions and the mare had been assigned beds in a decently sized room with a window that overlooked the equestrian wasteland. Plastic white drapes hung between the three beds, silhouetting their bodies with the afternoon sun as it rose to where it was almost at its peak. They attempted to settle underneath the stiff bed covers.

“Hey, Searing Arrow?” Iron Heart said, a nervous tone was able to be heard in the earth pony stallion’s voice.

“Yeah?” Searing Arrow responded. “What’s the matter, Iron Heart?” The unicorn stallion rolled onto his side to face his brother.

“Stacked Chip… Do you think that he’s somepony that we should be worried about?” The earth pony’s voice was filled with worry and anxiety as he spoke.

“Well, he’s the chief of security here.” The unicorn mused aloud. “I don’t think that we will have to worry unless we do something wrong. In which case, we will probably have to do some community service. At least, I hope that is what we will need to do, and not end up jailed or in a worse spot than we were with those Black Star thugs this morning.”

“I should hope that we don’t…” Nightingale chimed, her voice was calm and collected. “They brought out a side of me that I wish had never existed.”

“Nightingale-” Iron Heart abruptly stopped as the door to their infirmary room opened. He turned his attention to the door, his tail nervously swayed against the bed.

The soft flapping wings filled the air as a middle aged pony of some sort had entered the room. The infirmary room was silent for a couple of moments before the stallion spoke, his voice was soft and squeaky as he let out a couple of excited and enthusiastic trills and chitters.

“You three must be Nightingale, Searing Arrow and Iron Heart, yes?” The pony asked the three resting ponies as he smiled. “My name is Stacked Chip! I’m the head of security here at Tenpony Tower.”

There was a second set of hooves on the cold tiled floor. The curtains that sheltered the trio had been pulled back and the sunlight of the wasteland washed across the room. Iron Heart, Searing Arrow and Nightingale could fully see who it was that they were speaking to, now. The pony that stood before them, all four hooves on the ground, was a leather winged bat pony.

The bat pony’s coat was a light blue. His black mane was neatly combed and well kept. His black tail was long and smoothed out. The bat pony had red eyes that gave off a gentle and warm glow as the sun’s rays passed over his face. He was a bit on the short side, just under the normal height of a fully grown stallion. At his side in its holster, rested a silver revolver. The butt of the firearm had a small trail of gold dust sprinkled along it to make an explosion-like pattern. The three ponies that were resting on the infirmary beds were unable to make out his cutie mark, due to the uniform that the bat pony stallion had on his body.

“Yes, we are.” Iron Heart blinked as he tilted his head. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Stacked Chip.”

“The pleasure is all mine!” The bat pony stallion trilled excitedly. “You three should be released here soon, and I can show you around Tenpony Tower, once you are.”

Iron Heart, Searing Arrow and Nightingale looked at one another and gave each other a brief nod. Their attention returned to Stacked Chip. The three of them realized that they had never seen a bat pony before. After a few more moments of silence, Searing Arrow broke the silence.

“Um, Stacked Chip?” The unicorn asked with a nervous smile. “You see, we don’t really know much about bat ponies. The only thing that my brother and I know is that all of you like Mango’s.”

Stacked Chip let out a huff as he stomped his right forehoof on the floor at that. His expression was one of playful annoyance.

“Now, hold on just one second!” He raised his voice in a falsely agitated tone. “That is just a stupid stereotype!”

Iron Heart was about to say something when the soft hoof steps could be heard at the door. A few moments after the hoof steps were heard, a velvet brown coated unicorn mare in a nurse’s uniform entered the room. Her mane was long and white like vanilla frosting. Her mane rested on the left side of her face as she held a clipboard in front of her using her magic. Her strawberry red eyes looked over the piece of paper that was attached to the clipboard.

“Iron Heart, Searing Arrow and Nightingale.” The unicorn mare looked at the three ponies that had been resting on the infirmary beds. “You three are free to go.” She gave them each a warm smile. “However, Searing Arrow. Doctor Helpinghoof wants you to come back tomorrow morning for a second checkup.”

Searing Arrow gave a soft nod to the unicorn mare as he carefully stood up, he had started to get changed into his clothes. Iron Heart and Nightingale soon followed in the Unicorn stallions’ hoof steps.

“I’ll be sure to arrive first thing in the morning, thank you.” Searing Arrow smiled gently to the nurse, his horn glowed softly as he lifted his saddlebags off of the floor and fastened them securely around his torso.

“We do appreciate all of the help, nurse.” Iron Heart gave a respectful bow as he fixed his clothes after several moments. The earth pony looked at Stacked Chip as he rubbed the back of his head with a hoof. “Hey, um… We don’t exactly have a place to stay while we’re here. Is it alright if we crash at your place?” He asked, a hopeful tone in his voice.

“Of course! After all, Emerald Song and I have more than enough room that you three should be able to feel perfectly at home.” The bat pony blinked a bit before he raised a wing in warning. “Please, be careful with Emerald Song and I’s filly. Her uncle, Fang, is a dragon. And he is incredibly protective of her as it is.” He gave a warm smile to them.

“Wait…” Nightingale said slowly. “You and your wife know a dragon?” Her voice was filled with fear.

“And he’s protective of your daughter?” Iron Heart said with a shocked tone in his voice. “She must be some pony truly precious to be thought of as his ‘treasure’.”

The bat pony stallion softly laughed as he stretched out his leathery wings, his eyes glinted softly as he then folded his wings against his backside. “Oh yes, she is indeed precious to Fang. Mainly she, Emerald Song and I are the only ponies that he could really enjoy being around.” He gave a playful grin.

The four ponies exited the infirmary and entered a hallway that took them past several rooms. The hallway ended at the impressive and large lobby that the three ponies had entered, just before they were hurried to the infirmary. Ponies of every size were able to be seen moving to and from their duties. As the four ponies made their way to the stairs that went up, a teenaged dragon that stood a bit taller than Iron Heart made his way down towards them.

He was muscular and his red scales glowed softly in the sunlight as he walked. The dragon’s green eyes scanned the three newcomers before his gaze landed on Stacked Chip, and he gave a warm grin.

“Stacked, Are these the three newcomers that you told me about?” The dragon asked with a soft chuckle, his words were filled with heavy sarcasm. “They look like they traveled down a couple of tough roads.”

“Yup!” Stacked Chip chuckled and calmly stepped up a couple of the steps as he made his way towards the top of the stairs. The bat pony walked past the red scaled dragon. “This is them, Fang! I think that they could use the rest, though.” The bat pony stallion whispered into Fang’s ear.

The pale looking mare blinked as she looked between Stacked Chip and Fang, her black eyes scanned the dragon a bit before she nodded and spoke. “Yes, we are all tired from the medical proceedings that we had to go through once we arrived.” She tilted her head with a soft and gentle sigh. “We have endured quite the ordeal during our trip here.”

Stacked Chip gave a soft nod as he and Fang turned and led the three ponies up the stairs and into yet another hallway. This one was short, however, as it took them to a second set of stairs that went up to the third floor. From there, it was going to take the group a few extra minutes, before they finally arrived at the apartment.

The bat pony stallion opened up the front door of the apartment and led them inside. Once Fang, Iron Heart, Searing Arrow and Nightingale had entered, Stacked Chip entered behind them and shut the door, locking it with a soft click of the tumbler.

“Welcome to our home, everypony!” Stacked Chip trilled in happiness and glee. “Make yourselves at home! What is ours is yours, and what is yours is ours! This family watches out for one another.”

“Wow, thank you, Stacked!” Iron Heart responded as he looked around the apartment’s main living area.

“Would you three like anything to drink? My wife should be home anytime! She took the little one out to get some groceries this morning, and my oldest daughter only just got here a few days ago.” Stacked Chip’s voice was rather joyful as he trotted into a doorway that led into a furnished kitchen and dining area. A steel gray refrigerator sat between a marble countertop that had what looked like a small machine that was oval in shape. The small machine had a hole in the top that a pony could easily push an object into, and the object would pass through what appeared to be steel blades that hung from the roof of it.

“Actually, yes.” Iron Heart and Searing Arrow responded in unison.

“Can we maybe get some water, please? We’re pretty darn parched from all of the traveling we had to do. And our canteens are bone dry.” Nightingale nervously leaned against Searing Arrow’s side.

“Sure! I will have three bottles of purified water for you in a jiffy!” Stacked Chip trilled happily as he stepped in front of the fridge and rested a hoof softly on its handle.

The refrigerator door opened with a soft click as the bat pony stallion had sifted through the contents with his wings carefully. Shortly after a few moments, Stacked Chip had pulled out three bottles of purified water, alongside a juicebox that had the picture of a mango on it. The small image of a laughing ponies head rested on the center of the mango as he entered the living room.

Iron Heart, Searing Arrow and Nightingale had made themselves at home alongside Fang, while Stacked Chip had been in the kitchen. The bat pony stallion looked at the three tired ponies, and his best friend. Stacked Chip approached the three ponies and handed them their bottles of purified water.

“Thank you.” Iron Heart graciously stated as he, his brother and their pale mare friend accepted the bottles of purified water.

“It is not a problem!” Exclaimed Stacked Chip as he looked down at his mango juice carton.

He waited a few seconds before he pierced the soft plastic lining with his sharp fang and began to drink. Iron Heart blinked as he watched the bat pony drink the mango juice, cocking his head.

“I thought that you said it was nothing more than a stereotype?” The earth pony stallion’s head tilted.

Stacked Chip took a moment as he drank the mango juice, the loud sound of fluid being slurped emanated from his snout. The bat pony stallion had sucked the juice carton dry after mere moments, its plastic and foiled walls having collapsed inwards. The ponies pupils had dilated as he looked at the brothers and the pale mare.

“It is a stereotype, yes. But not all of us bat ponies eat mangos.” Stacked Chip chittered gleefully as he lifted off of the floor with soft beats of his leathery wings. “I have a bat pony friend who loves apples. Her name is Colourless, but she doesn’t live here in Tenpony Tower.” His expression took on a somewhat calm tone. “I hope that she is doing alright, it has been a while since I last got a letter from her.”

“I’m sure that she’s fine.” The red scaled dragon blinked as he turned to look at Stacked Chip, his green eyes scanned the stallion a bit. “Colourless isn’t some pansy pencil pusher. She knows how to handle herself in fights and you’ve seen her turn a pony into a red smear on the floor.”

“That is very true.” Stacked Chip admitted as he flew into an adjoining room, and shut the door behind him.

Iron Heart, Searing Arrow and Nightingale approached three plush and soft lounge chairs as they sat down. Their eyes had begun to wander the living room. They wanted to learn all that they could about their hosts. Their tails flicked calmly as they examined the pictures that hung on the walls. One of the pictures was of Stacked Chip and a lovely emerald green pegasi mare. Her pink mane was braided in the back and slung onto the left side of her neck, while the front of her mane rested messily and freely on the front of her head. Her bright green eyes had been gazing into Stacked Chip’s own red eyes. They both had on formal clothes that helped them to fit into what looked like a party. The three ponies were clearly able to tell that the party was taking place in one of the rooms on the ground floor of Tenpony Tower. The mare looked like she was pregnant.

“Hey, Fang.” Iron Heart pondered calmly as he took notice of the picture. “Who’s the mare? The one at what looks like a party?”

“Hmmm? You mean Emerald Song?” The dragon grinned. “That is Stackeds wife. She is also one of the two singers at the club downstairs. She tends to usually bring in quite the crowd, alongside Velvet Remedy.”

That made Iron Heart cock his head to the side. The earth pony blinked as he looked at Fang calmly. “Velvet Remedy? As in the singer on DJ Pone 3’s radio show?”

“No, the Velvet Remedy that lives in the ruins of Manehattan.” Fang sarcastically grinned. “Yes, the very same Velvet Remedy.”

The bedroom door opened as Stacked Chip trotted out. He approached an empty chair and flopped onto it. His wings folded against his backside as he closed his eyes. The bat pony stallion had changed out of his security guard uniform and into a casual t-shirt and blue jeans. His red eyes closed softly as he exhaled. As he was about to speak, the front door to the apartment opened with a soft squeak. Fang and the ponies turned their attention to the front door, the bat ponies eyes snapped open as he tilted his head.

“We’re home!” Emerald Song chimed happily in a sing-song tone as she opened the door and trotted inside. Her bright green eyes scanned the living room calmly as she smiled. Her emerald green coat was covered by a simple, red dress that covered her fit physique comfortably. Her mane was kept as it was in the picture that Iron Heart had taken notice of. She appeared to be around the same age as Stacked Chip. Trotting next to her were two other ponies.

One of the ponies was the same age as Searing Arrow. Her brownish blue coat rested underneath a pair of pants and a shirt, which were themselves hidden by a leather duster. Her long and flowing black mane was combed and braided into a ponytail, as her short and spiked tail flicked softly behind her. The other pony was a bat pony filly who looked to be two years old. Her thick emerald green coat was covered with a small green dress that was clean and soft against her body. Her little wings spread out as she yawned. The filly had maroon eyes which glinted softly in the warm sunlight, Her mane was short and recently cut as her tail was short and braided to match her mothers mane.

The filly’s eyes lit up as she saw Stacked Chip and hurried over to him with a gentle sway with each step, clearly she had just begun to walk recently. With a joyful laugh, the bat pony stallion lifted the small bat pony filly up into his forehooves and embraced her in a warm and fatherly hug.

“Ah! There’s my little angel!” Stacked Chip exclaimed gleefully. “I missed you so much while I was at work today!”

“Well, it looks like we have some guests.” The older mare smiled as she approached the group with a warm laugh. “It’s a pleasure to meet you all, I’m Emerald Song.”

“I’m Love Bites…” The other mare spoke with a rough tone in her voice. “It’s a pleasure to meet you three.” She said as she trotted to Emerald Songs side.

Iron Heart, Nightingale and Searing Arrow both nodded softly as they smiled.

“I’m Searing Arrow.” The unicorn stallion smiled warmly.

“I’m Nightingale.” The pale earth pony mare responded, she seemed to inch away a little bit from Emerald Song.

“It’s a pleasure, I’m Iron Heart.” The earth pony stallion chuckled and turned his eyes to look at the filly. Iron Heart couldn’t help but give a gentle smile. “And who might this filly be?”

“Her name is Golden Song.” Stacked Chip held the little filly in his wings. He gently laughed as he then hugged her body close against his own. A few moments later, the bat pony stallion set the small bat pony filly on the floor. “Are you three hungry? I probably should make dinner.” Stacked Chip said as he stood up and trotted into the kitchen.

“Yeah, actually…” Searing Arrow heard his stomach growl. “I guess I am pretty hungry.” The unicorn stallion smiled.

As the others left the living room, Searing Arrow was the final pony who was about to leave when he heard the faint and soft giggle before he saw the small moth pony hovering in front of him. She had a small tuft of the unicorn’s mane in her forehooves as she grinned mischievously.

“Oh my, this place looks just perfect.” Little Miss Sunshine uttered quietly as she spoke to Searing Arrow. “And you are getting very hungry, at that! You know… There are plenty of little ponies here in this place to kill and eat.~” There was a maliciousness to her tone and how she spoke that set Searing Arrow’s stomach into an upheaval.

“N-no! I won’t do that!” Searing Arrow hissed quietly to Little Miss Sunshine, his voice was more than a whisper as he shuddered. “I’d rather eat my own right hoof, before I eat any pony…”

“Eh, suit yourself!” The moth pony smugly replied. “Just remember that one of these days, sooner or later, you’ll become so hungry that you will resort to eating a fellow pony… That is how you will be able to satisfy your hunger.”

“No, I won’t… You’ll see! I’ll prove you wrong, Little Miss Sunshine!” He gritted his teeth and exhaled. “Now, if you’ll get back into my mane… I have to go eat.” The unicorn grunted as he relaxed.

“Fine.” Little Miss Sunshine said with a huff. “You can keep lying to yourself, telling yourself that you won’t be giving into the disease… But you will give into it, sooner or later.” The moth pony smirked as she flew back into Searing Arrows mane and vanished.

Searing Arrow made his way into the dining room where his brother, Nightingale and Stacked Chips’ family had just sat down and began to calmly eat and talk. The rest of the night went by in what felt like a blur, the unicorn stallion was able to hear his stomach as it growled for food. The stallion realized that as he ate, it took more and more food to slake his hunger. Unbeknownst to Searing Arrow, Iron Heart had taken notice of his brother’s appetite and had begun to watch him.

The dinner was full of merriment and joy, laughter as well! However, as the night had begun to wind down, Stacked Chip and Emerald Song had set up beds in their spare bedroom for the brothers and their pale earth pony friend. As Iron Heart had finished preparing for bed and began to make his way into the bedroom, Love Bites softly stepped to his side with a gentle flick of her tail. The light of the full moon shone softly through the balcony window that led outside of the

“Hey, Iron Heart. Do you, um… Have a moment?” The pegasus mare asked with a soft tone in her voice, she gently bit down on her lower lip slightly, hiding her nervousness.

“Huh? Oh, yeah, sure!” Iron Heart responded with a warm smile, his own tail flicked softly behind him. “What’s on your mind?” He softly turned to face her as his eyes slowly began to examine her coat, only to start looking into her brown eyes with his dark yellow eyes.

“I was hoping that we could go and sit down in the living room, and talk for a little bit?” Love Bites nervously looked at the lounge chairs. “I haven’t exactly had the time recently to really talk to anypony since I got here. Dad was busy with you guys today, and I was out with my mother and baby sister until we got back.”

“Sure, I am perfectly fine with that.” Iron Heart beamed as he trotted over to one of the lounge chairs and sat down. He felt his body as it relaxed and became heavy, his eyes slowly closed.

The Pegasus blinked as she gave a warm smile to the stallion and trotted over to one of the free lounge chairs, and joined him. She felt her body become heavy as she exhaled.

“You, your brother, my father and Fang are leaving sometime tomorrow afternoon, right?” The pegasus mare asked calmly. “You and your brother seem to be close. Have you two always been this way?” Her voice was soft and gentle as she spoke, it was a contradiction to her tough and rough appearance. Love Bites looked into the earth ponies eyes as she sat upright in her seat.

“Yeah. Searing Arrow has a checkup with the doc in the morning, and your father pulled me into the hallway to tell me that I need to go with him tomorrow morning to talk to a few ponies. I don’t know why…” Iron Heart blinked as he rubbed his chin with a hoof. He then looked to Love Bites as he tilted his head. “Searing Arrow and I haven’t always gotten along this well. We used to fight and argue a lot when we were just colts. We used to argue and fight about everything.” He let out a hardy and soft laugh as he grinned. “Back then, life was simple and carefree. The only thing we had to really worry about was when we would need to help dad and mom with harvesting the crops, and the occasional raider attack. But, we were able to defend ourselves with little trouble… Why do you ask, Love Bites?” Iron Heart asked with a tone of curiosity in his voice.

“Well…” Love Bites blinked and ran a hoof through her mane calmly. “I want to know what I need to do in order to have a bond like what you and your brother have.” The pegasus mare admitted. “I may not know her or my mother that well, or even my father, but I want to be able to have a bond like how you two do. I’m scared that I’ll hurt her, or even worse…” She looked down at the floor as she averted her eyes. “I just don’t want to be the cause of any pain…”

Iron Heart blinked a bit as he sat upright and leaned forward in his chair, his eyes fixated on her. “To get a bond like how Searing Arrow and I have… There is never a relationship that is without pain. It is a part of life, and through that pain, through the bad and the good times, bonds form. It may not sound like a whole lot right now, but you will have many trials and tribulations that will test your faith, as well as right and wrong.” The earth pony blinked as he sat back once more in his chair. “I have faith in you, Love Bites.”

Love Bites looked back up to Iron Heart and gave a halfhearted smile. The corner of her eyes filled up slightly with tears as she quickly wiped her face with her right foreleg. She didn’t want to show Iron Heart that she wanted to cry.

“Thank you, Iron Heart.” She said softly. “You should get some sleep, I’m sorry for keeping you up like this.” Love Bites calmly stood up from her lounge chair and trotted to her bedroom.

“It isn’t a problem, really.” Iron Heart gave the pegasus mare a warm smile as he stood up. He felt the exhaustion as it set in. He calmly made his way to the room where his brother was sleeping in and softly spoke once more as he passed by Love Bites. “If you ever need to talk to anypony, I am here for you.”

Love Bites bit her lower lip as Iron Heart passed by her and spoke to her in that gentle tone. As soon as the stallion had entered the room that he and his brother were sleeping in and shut the door, she exhaled quietly. The pegasus mare quietly entered her own bedroom and shut the door behind her. She made her way to the bed and took off her clothes. She softly laid down on her bed and pulled her covers up to her neck, as she soon fell fast asleep.

The two brothers had gone their separate ways the next morning. Iron Heart had gone with Stacked Chip to a room on the penthouse floor of Tenpony Towers, while Searing Arrow had gone to his checkup at Doctor Helpinghoof’s office.

Searing Arrow calmly sat down on the padded chair in the doctor’s office as he waited for several long and agonizing minutes. He nervously looked around as he heard Little Miss Sunshine giggling in his ear. He was about to ask her what was so funny when his stomach growled loudly. He had eaten a bigger breakfast than usual just prior to leaving for Doctor Helpinghoof’s office, and didn’t realize just how unfulfilling it was. As he was about to speak to Little Miss Sunshine, the door to the room Searing Arrow was opened and inside trotted an earth pony stallion who had on a white doctors uniform. His dirt brown coat was hidden aside from his neck and face as his stethoscope hung from around his uniform collar. His messy sand blonde mane was combed to the side for a more professional appearance. His long tail flicked and twitched softly behind him.

“Wel, let’s get your bloodwork taken care of. With any luck, you should be just fine and dandy, and able to leave to enjoy the rest of your day.” Doctor Helpinghoof gave a kind smile as he chuckled. The earth pony stallion then opened up a nearby drawer. He took an empty and sterile blood bag from it along with an iv needle. After a few moments, he had set the needle securely in the blood bag’s tube and managed to get a vein to show on Searing Arrow’s right foreleg.

Searing Arrow exhaled as he felt the needle get pushed through his coat and his flesh. The slight sting was uncomfortable for a brief moment as his eyes slowly closed. Some time had passed, he didn’t know just how long he was out. His eyes opened with a slight flutter as he groaned and rubbed his head with a hoof, noticing the bandage that was around it where the needle had been inserted. Doctor Helpinghoof it seemed had wrapped some blue gauze tape around the bandage in order to keep it from falling off.

The stallion groggily looked at the clock and realized that he had been out for ten minutes. As he woozily began to get to his hooves, the door to the room had opened and in walked doctor helpinghoof.

Doctor Helpinghoof blinked as he looked at Searing Arrow calmly, his hoof steps were soft and quiet as he spoke to his patient. His clipboard with Searing Arrows bloodwork written on it. “I am afraid that I have some bad news…” The Earth pony stallion calmly shut the door behind him.

“Doc, what is it? Am I going to be alright?” Searing Arrow asked, letting out a loud gulp as he felt a chill run down his spine. His instincts were screaming at him to get out of there.

Doctor Helpinghoof walked to the small table next to the wall and set his clipboard down, his voice was cold and rough as he looked at the unicorn stallion. He slowly withdrew a scalpel from a small drawer at his desk.

“You have the Blood Hunger Plague…” Doctor Helpinghoof said, his voice cold and dark. “I am afraid that you are contagious, and that you are incurable.” The earth pony stallion exhaled. “I am sorry, but I cannot allow you to spread this disease.”

Doctor Helpinghoof made his way towards Searing Arrow, his eyes narrowed in determination. Searing Arrow began to nervously look around for something to defend himself with as he felt a shiver run down his spine. He was about to say something, when everything went red…

Stacked Chip and Iron Heart approached a large door up on the penthouse floor. The Bat pony stallion gave a series of rhythmic knocks to the door. A few moments later, the door opened with a soft click. As the Earth pony stallion looked into the room, he was led inside by the other stallion, and both of them were covered by darkness. Stacked Chip led Iron Heart onwards as the door behind them shut quietly. After what felt like minutes upon minutes of walking, the Bat pony stopped the Earth pony and whispered into his ear.

“You got that stuff that you and your brother found on your way here with you. Make sure that you tell the council everything. They might hide stuff from you, but it won’t look good if you hide stuff from them. I had to pull a lot of strings to get you in here, and don’t worry, I’ll be here with you if you get nervous.”

With that, Stacked Chip trotted away and over to an object.

There was a sudden flash as Iron Heart’s vision filled with what was a blinding light at first. He raised a hoof in front of his eyes to shield them as his eyes adjusted. After several long moments of silence and allowing his eyes to adjust to the light, the earth pony lowered his hoof and his eyes went wide.

Footnote: Level Up! New Perk!

Black Stallion: +1d10 damage to opposite sex and extra +5 Negotiation & Seduction for seduction purposes on other-gender individuals (whose barn door swings that way).

Author's Note

I would like to apologize about the wait for this one. I have been getting more and more into running ttrpgs, and also had a side gig that I wanted to finish before I could get back to this. I hope to have the next few chapters up in a much more timely manner!