A soft ethereal breeze blew through my mane as I took in the sights around me. A vast expanse of blue dunes met my eyes, interrupted only by the occasional large tree. The swirling stars in the eternal night sky bathed the scene in a soothing purple light. It was serene, beautiful, and completely still, frozen in time.

But I wasn’t here for sightseeing.

I crouched down closer to the blue dirt below me, examining the tracks I had been following with the careful eye of a hunter: eight claws, almost an entire hoof’s depth into the soil. I stretched out my own forehoof and pressed it into the ground next to the track, putting my full weight on it for a moment before lifting it again. It barely sank into the dirt at all, which could only mean that this was a big one, at least four times my weight.

“Hmm…” I muttered, swinging my spear off my back as I tried to think.

The tip let off a rainbow of hues in the prismatic light of The Lands. It was a long spear, one and a half times my length, with the blade at the end being three hooves long. The strap that held it onto my back was undecorated, nothing but a hoofful of carefully woven reeds. Other than that, I was completely bare.

I sat on the ground and took a deep breath, feeling the cool air flow into my lungs. There wasn’t much to see out here once the initial awe of just how vast The Lands were had worn off. The only real landmark was the large trees that dotted the landscape, but there was no real way to tell how close they were. For all I knew, they could be as vast as The Lands themselves, and simply placed so far away that they looked normal-sized to me.

It's going to be hard to find my way back… I thought, eyeing the landscape. If only I had a map…

My right foreleg raised as if by instinct. I turned it around, raising an eyebrow as I looked at my golden stripes. There was nothing on it, but I couldn’t shake the sensation that I needed to look at it.

A sound made my ear twitch, but I couldn’t spot anything when I glanced over my shoulder. For some reason my eyes darted down and to the left, almost as if it had been a reflex, but there was nothing there other than more blue dirt. I shook my head. This would do me no good, I needed to focus on the hunt ahead.

“Probably in a cave…” I mumbled, scanning the horizon for any indication of where my quarry could’ve gone.

The tracks were my best bet, so I slung the spear across my back and started on my way down the dune I had climbed. Before I reached the bottom, however, the tracks suddenly stopped moving forward. It looked as if the monster had stopped and stomped on the ground for a moment. Could it have been choosing where to go next? No, if that were the case it would’ve stood still, this looked as if it had rapidly moved in circles.

“Where’d you go?” I asked the tracks, not really expecting a reply.

I looked around the area, spotting another set of tracks a considerable distance off to the right. Clearly my prey had jumped away, but the reason why was still a mystery. I approached the spot where it had landed, where I saw the trail start again.

Judging by the distance between each pawprint, the beast had started running once it had landed. Gone was the steady trail, replaced by spots where all four paws were pressed together before violently launching the monster forward. It was running as fast as it could.

“Hunter? or hunt-ed?” I wondered, taking a moment to straighten my back and look at the trail ahead.

Given how the tracks didn’t have a definitive direction, I was leaning towards ‘hunted’... but by what? There were no other tracks around, so either something else had scared my prey away…

“...Or it came from above…” I said aloud, immediately staring at the boundless sky.

The infinite swirling nebulas of The Lands absorbed my gaze like blood drops in a river. Small tears formed at the edges of my eyes as the stars pressed their indescribable weight on me. I wanted nothing more but to advert my gaze, but I knew that I would find whatever had scared my prey off hiding amongst those very same stars. I knew I shouldn’t stare for long, the stars were not fond of being observed, especially not by mortal souls.

There! I thought, spotting a patch of stars that was moving a little too quickly…

Horror spread through my body when I realized what I was looking at. It was a Starbeast, a foul creature from beyond this plane.

“Oh no…” I gasped, immediately looking away.

Unfortunately, it was too late, the Starbeast let out an impossibly loud roar above me. The sound shook me to my very core, and not just me, but the ground around me as well. Small crystal growths sprouted out of the dirt, like hooves reaching up toward the firmament. I dared another glance up, and saw that the beast had whirled around to start heading directly towards me, its many tentacles swirling behind it.

I looked around me, but there was no escape, I was out in plain sight, in the middle of an endless desert. My only hope was to fight, but I knew in my heart of hearts that there was no way to fell a Starbeast. My gaze hardened. If this was to be my end, then I would meet such an end with my pride intact.

One of my forehooves reached back, swinging my spear around to rest it beside my shoulder with the blade pointed forward. I raised my head, focusing on the approaching creature. It was slug-like, its skin looking like a transparent gel that held a deep dark mist within it. Inside the deepest part of the mist spun an entire nebula, its many cyan and pink hues swirling within the creature’s transparent flesh. It had no defined head, and no legs, its only appendages being the uncountable tentacles that twisted and turned behind it. Since they were almost completely transparent, there was no real way to count them. From the center of its ‘head’, opposite the tentacles, stretched out one extra tentacle, capped off with a large white sphere that glowed too bright to stare at it directly.

For a split second, I considered bracing my spear against the ground and impaling the beast on it when it attacked as if I were hunting a boar. A second thought dispelled the idea, however, since the Starbeast was way too big. Even if I could stab into it, the creature’s bulk would simply crush me like an insect.

To my amazement, the creature changed directions as it approached, landing in front of me instead of on top. Before hitting the ground it spun around to touch the ground with its tentacles, freezing any dirt they touched.

The tentacle that formed the monster’s ‘head’ wormed upwards, like a serpent enchanted by a musician’s flute. Once it stretched out to its full length, the star on the end suddenly became brighter. I slammed my eyes shut, but the light was still there, pulsating and vile as it shone directly through my eyelids.

A wave of magic washed over me, making my forehead tingle weirdly. My body suddenly felt light, as if I were suspended in water. Daring to open my eyes, I realized that the stars were gone, replaced by a veil of darkness that swirled around me and the Starbeast. It had trapped me with it, as if in some kind of astral colosseum.

“I’m not scared of you!” I shouted, stomping the ground for emphasis and noticing that it had become incredibly cold.

The Starbeast said nothing, instead bringing its head tentacle lower to ‘face’ me before letting out a deep reverberating sound. It wasn’t a roar, nor was it any sort of attempt at communicating, it was simply a noise, loud and otherworldly.

My spear looked pathetically small in comparison, but I knew that I at least stood a chance, however small it may be. The blade’s metal was that of the stars, after all, and if anything would be able to maim this creature it would certainly be something as ethereal as itself.

“Come on!” I challenged.

I watched as the creature swam into the air, moving around me in a wide circle. I tried to adjust my stance to keep the spear pointed at it, but the strange weightless sensation in my legs was throwing me off slightly. The Starbeast didn’t attack, it kept swimming in circles, as if it were trying to measure me up. It was hard to tell given the lack of a head or any sort of eye. Not even the long tentacle with the star on the end did anything, it just bent back and joined its starless brethren in moving the creature through the air.

Suddenly, the creature stopped completely in place. The reason for its spinning became clear when I tried to stop myself, as the weightlessness that had been draped over me made my rear legs slide on the ground as if it were slickened with oil. Somehow noticing that I was unable to bring my spear’s blade to bear, the Starbeast darted towards my exposed side.

The star-tipped tentacle stretched out as if trying to touch me. I didn’t know exactly what it did, but I wasn’t intending to find out either. Since the tip of my spear was already near the ground, I raised a forehoof to grab the shaft and pulled it down with all my might, launching myself into the air a significant distance.

“Missed me!” I exclaimed as the Starbeast passed under me.

My victory was short-lived, however, as the somersault had left me wide open in the air. A nearly invisible tentacle unfurled itself like a whip, slamming into my chest with the force of a hammer blow.

I soared through the air, as the monster turned the rest of its body around and charged at me again. This time I was even higher up, and the weightlessness of my body wasn’t going to let me reach the ground fast enough to dodge. I only had one option left.

Grabbing the spear with both forehooves, I tried my damndest to orient myself and face the monster head-on. The star-tipped tentacle drew closer. I jerked the spear towards it, intent to at least try and attack. Unsurprisingly, my weapon didn’t connect, as the creature’s tentacle spun in a spiral and struck the shaft of my spear.

I cried out in pain as the hardened wood of the shaft exploded into a rain of splinters. My right forehoof, which was the closest to the tip, split down the middle, spraying glistening golden blood into the air as I tumbled to the ground.

Pony, blade, and splinters fell to the blue dirt as the Starbeast swirled above. I grit my teeth and got up, keeping my weight off the injured forehoof and letting my blood drip onto the ground. The wound was not fatal by any stretch, but given how I was now unarmed, it probably wouldn’t take long for the creature to finish me off.

I need a weapon… I thought, scanning the dirt for my spear’s blade.

The shiny metal edge was a short distance ahead of me, if I could reach it, I could still stand a chance. Using my rear legs, I launched myself into the air, working with the weightlessness instead of fighting it.

Before I could reach the weapon, I felt something wrap around my right rear leg, yanking me back and into the air. The Starbeast hurled me like a ragdoll, sending me flying away from the speartip. I spun in the air and landed on my hooves, shaking my head slightly, I raised my gaze to look at the creature.

It didn’t attack, nor did it move from its spot, circling my spear. I realized that it was toying with me, waiting for my next move. The spear wouldn’t be my salvation, but I still needed some sort of weapon to battle this beast. I looked around the ground, trying to spot anything useful, but all I saw was the blue dirt of The Lands.

Wait… the crystals…

I looked at the spot where the creature had roared at me originally, staring at the many crystalline spikes that had sprouted from the soil. It was almost the same distance from me as the spear tip, but it had the big advantage of not being guarded by the Starbeast.

You can do this! I told myself, darting towards the spikes.

The Starbeast let out its strange noise again, seemingly wisening up to my strategy, as it charged towards me like a gigantic missile. My forehooves struck the ground, pushing me forward faster. A small spike of pain came from my right forehoof, but I didn’t let it stop me from reaching the crystals.

With a victorious chuckle, I wrapped my forehooves around the nearest spike. The regret was almost instantaneous, as the hard surface was indescribably cold. My forehooves cracked from the extreme temperature, their outer layers peeling off like cracked paint.

The shock was short-lived, as once more the Starbeast wrapped a tentacle around one of my hindlegs and yanked me back. Despite the cold, I clutched the crystal with all my might, ripping it out of the ground as the monster pulled on me. Thinking quickly, I spun the crystal around and stabbed it into the tentacle before it had a chance to throw me.

Icy-cold blood poured out of the tentacle as the weightless magic faded. I was let go, tumbling to the ground and slamming onto my back. The hard impact knocked the air right out of my lungs. Before I could recover, the Starbeast whirled around and charged at me. I tried to struggle, but the countless tentacles held me firmly against the ground, crushing every last drop of air out of me.

I struggled, thrashing against the tentacles, but I couldn’t manage to move at all. The star-tipped tentacle loomed ominously above me like a surgeon’s light. I tried to struggle, but another one of the creature’s limbs pressed against my forehead, pinning my head in place.

My breathing accelerated as the mass of tentacles swirled. I noticed how the injured one was looming ominously back, the transparent skin seeming to bubble as blood poured from the wound. It almost looked as if something were trying to claw its way out of it.

“Get off me!” I shouted, thrashing harder against the creature.

A strange tendril poked out of the Starbeast’s pierced flesh, followed by another, and then another. Like a surgeon’s forceps, the tendrils pulled the wound open until it was almost the size of a hoof. I noticed how despite the tentacle’s flesh being almost completely transparent, the ‘inside’ of the monster was pitch black, punctuated only by the white tendrils that were poking out from within, and the light blue blood that continued to ooze from it.

Two minuscule dots of light appeared from the darkness. Eyes, I realized as the smaller creature tore its way out from inside the Starbeast. Like some kind of horrid perversion of birth, the smaller monster dropped from the wound with a wet splatter, landing next to my head in a puddle of blood.

It was just smaller than my hoof, and rather insect-like. A segmented body that looked as if it were covered in barbs, with a myriad of tendrils on its underside. It was colored a pale white, almost the color of bleached bones, and the two dots of light that were its eyes moved around slowly, as if it were searching for something. Eventually, the dots focused on me, and the creature started to approach me.

“No…” I muttered, my heart thundering in my ears like a war drum.

With newfound strength, I tried to pull myself free, yet no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t even get the tentacles to budge. The small insect reached my side, where I noticed the mandibles that sat underneath its eyes. My eyes shrank to pinpricks as I felt its painfully cold legs tapping my left cheek.

“No! Get away!” I shouted, but all I seemed to do was draw the creature’s attention towards my mouth.

The Starbeast loomed ominously above like an uncaring goddess, bathing me in its evil white light. I clamped my jaw shut as the smaller creature crawled along my face, coming to a stop just above my mouth. I felt its small legs prodding at my lips as its jaws clicked together. Tears formed on the edges of my eyes as my lips were forced open.

Desperation started to make my limbs freeze up as the smaller monster tapped at my teeth, its cold flesh making them hurt horribly as if I had bitten into a scoop of ice cream. I tried with all my might to keep my mouth closed, but the creature snuck the tips of its legs in between my jaws and started to pull.

I had considered biting at the creature, but I wasn’t even able to keep my jaw closed as it slowly pried my mouth open. My breathing became shallower as the monster slowly slid its way inside. The blood it was covered in burnt the inside of my mouth with the sheer cold, but that was nothing compared to the vile feeling of the creature’s tendrils poking the insides of my cheeks.

My heart lurched when I felt my tongue get grabbed. It felt as if strings had been tied painfully tight around it. The creature adjusted itself inside my mouth, walking over the top of my tongue while still holding my jaws apart. I was forced to start breathing through my nose as it moved around.

A scream was torn from my throat as the smaller monster’s jaws bit into the base of my tongue. The cold was doing nothing to mute the pain as it bit again and again, ripping through the flesh like a well-sharpened butcher’s knife. As it reached the bottom of my tongue, it severed the artery that lay within, immediately flooding my mouth with the coppery taste of my own blood.

There was so much… too much…

I let out a series of gurgling sounds as more blood poured down my throat. I had held my breath when the smaller creature had cut it, but I was running out of air fast. I needed to breathe…

Not able to hold it anymore, I tried to take in a gulp of air, but the only thing that filled my lungs was blood. I coughed violently, sending a torrent of crimson liquid out of my open mouth. My vision started to blur as every beat of my thundering heart sent another gush of blood into my mouth.

Air… I need…

I jerked up violently, sitting on my haunches and screaming at the top of my lungs. Something grabbed me and tried to push my chest down, but I wasn’t going to be pinned again. I tore my foreleg from whatever was grasping it, hearing a dull thudding sound come from somewhere in front of me.

Almost immediately, my forehoof shot up to my mouth and pulled it open, reaching inside with the very tip to touch my tongue. An impossibly relieved sigh left my throat when I realized that my tongue was completely intact. Just to be certain, I stuck out my tongue and ran my forehoof over it. The grime and dirt that was stuck to it tasted rather foul, but the fact that I could still taste in the first place was decently reassuring.

My eyes were covered with something, but I quickly reached up and pulled the cloth off. Slowly, almost fearfully, I cracked an eye open, wincing slightly at the light in front of me. I was immediately presented with Pot, who was struggling to stand up, and Narrative, who was standing idly next to me with his claws extended, as if preparing to grab me.

“Calm down,” The robot stated.

I looked at him, then at Pot, who was getting up and looking at me with concern. As the shock of my sudden awakening faded, however, the pain began.

“F- fuck!” I shouted, clutching my head with my forehooves.

Every beat of my heart felt as if a wedge were being driven into the base of my horn, blow by blow. My head had been wrapped in bandages that squelched wetly when I touched them, meaning that they were probably caked in blood. I felt cold metal wrap around my forelegs as Narrative tried to stop me from squeezing my skull.

The pain suddenly seemed to shift from my head to my belly, hitting me like I had been bucked in the stomach. I bent over to the side and started retching violently. There was nothing in my stomach, but through sheer force of will I still managed to throw up some odd mixture of blood and bile.

“Ough…” I whimpered, slowly dropping onto my back.

I noticed that I had been laid out on one of our bedrolls and stripped. My head throbbed painfully. Pot dragged himself a little closer to me and offered me a bottle.

“It's water, drink,” He said.

Before I could second-guess myself, my horn surged with magic. I preemptively winced, expecting the headache to reach a new level of agony. Yet to my amazement, it didn’t worsen. I took several gulps of water before floating the bottle back to Pot, who scooped it out of my magic and dropped it into his saddlebags.

“What… what happened?” I asked, grunting slightly when the muscles in my jaw made my skull tighten up.

Pot chuckled and sat down next to me.

“Whatever you did with that… rock thing fried the turrets for a while, so Narrative and I dragged you out,” He explained.

Memories slowly started to float up to the surface of my mind. I could remember most of it now, the machine, the amulet, the music…

“What was that thing?” I muttered, bringing a forehoof up to touch my forehead and feeling how hot to the touch it was.

Pot shook his head before replying.

“I have no idea,” He admitted. “But whatever it was, it sent you flying into a wall, cracked your head open like an egg,”

Yeah, that tracked.

“It also seems to have given you stripes,” Narrative interjected, drawing a little closer to me.

“Wait… what?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at the robot and immediately relaxing it when I felt a sharp pain stabbing into the side of my head.

Pot grimaced slightly, shooting a disappointed stare at Narrative, as if he were shocked that he had brought it up. He gave me a concerned glance before speaking again.

“Yeah you uhh… you’ve got stripes now,” He muttered. “I thought they might be burns, but no, they’re on your coat,”

I chuckled softly.

“I’ve always had these, dummy! Did you really never notice befo-” I started, but I fell quiet when I raised my forelegs up to my face and took a better look at them.

My stripes had always been light, extremely light. So light, in fact, that sometimes even I doubted that I had them. But now they were very clear. They had become a rather dark shade of gray, not entirely black, but still extremely conspicuous when contrasted against my white coat.

“What…?” I mumbled, looking down at my bare chest and noticing that all my stripes had become gray. “Okay, that’s definitely not normal…” I added.

“Do you feel okay?” Pot asked, putting his forehoof on my shoulder.

I looked at the earth pony and noticed that his prosthetic had been repaired with some metal wire. It didn’t look sturdy, but it was apparently good enough to hold him up.

“A bit of a headache… but I’m okay,” I said, nodding resolutely to try and calm the stallion down. “What even happened? Where are we?” I asked, looking around.

We were in a small room, an apartment of some sort. There was a moth-eaten couch resting against one of the walls, and a small coffee table had been pushed aside to make space for my bedroll. There was a large double door in one of the walls that had been made out of glass at some point. Much like every other window I had seen on the surface, this one was completely shattered. There was another building across from ours, just three stories tall. The cloud layer could be seen above. My ears twitched slightly as I heard the sounds of rain falling outside.

“After that machine zapped you I realized all the turrets got fried. I wrapped your head with the bandages and Narrative helped me drag you out of there,” Pot explained. “We didn’t stay long, no idea when the turrets would come back online. That was a day ago,”

“The healing bandages seem to have worked, at least,” Narrative added.

Pot let out a soft chuckle.

“I’d hope so, we used all of them,” He stated, his tone got more serious as he continued. “Are you sure you’re okay? You were losing a lot of blood,” He asked.

Truth be told, my head was hurting really bad. But I was the hero of the surface! I had to be tough for my friends, and for all poor defenseless surface ponies too!

“I’m perfectly fine, we need to-” I started, trying to get up, but I cut myself off when I collapsed onto the floor again.

The room was spinning violently, leaving me unable to put my hooves under me no matter how hard I tried. No matter how hard I focused, all I could do with my legs was trip over myself. I cocked my head to the side, feeling the movement slow down slightly while I let out a soft groan.

My heart was beating oddly, as if it were pumping twice in quick succession and then taking a longer time for the third beat. I raised a forehoof to touch my head again, trying to squeeze the pain out.

“Stop touching your head!” Pot reprimanded me, pulling my forehoof down.

“Sadness. She is clearly brain damaged,” Narrative commented.

I whipped my head around to glare at the machine.

“I am not brain damaged, my brain is perfectly healthy!” I shouted back.

Narrative raised one of his claws and held it up next to his brain jar.

“How many hooves am I holding up?” He asked.

“None, you don’t have hooves!” I retorted.

The machine slowly lowered the claw, looking almost depressed as it rolled a little further back. “Sadness. Point taken,”

“That was uncalled for,” Pot said, furrowing his brow and staring at me with disappointment.

I furrowed my own brow, raising an accusatory hoof to point at Narrative.

“He said I was brain damaged!” I pouted.

“Because we saw your head get split open ya bloody idiot!” Pot bellowed.

I opened my mouth to reply, but I closed it just as quickly. Pot was right, if I had gotten a bad head injury then it made sense for them both to be concerned about me. I lowered my head, my ears drooping, before glancing at Narrative again. He had remained completely still, save for the bobbing of his brain inside the jar.

“I’m sorry…” I said. “Can I make it up to you?” I added, raising my head to look at Narrative directly.

The machine said nothing, as if it had been offended.

“She could try to put that new sensor on you,” Pot offered, turning to look at me. “If you think you can use your magic, that is,”

I looked at the earth pony, raising an eyebrow.

“What do you mean?” I asked, looking back at Narrative and focusing on his sensor talisman. “Didn’t we grab a new one down in the bunker?”

“We did…” Pot answered, opening his saddlebag and pulling out the small talisman before putting it softly on the floor. “But let's just say that an earth pony with a single hoof and delicate electronics aren’t exactly a winning combo,” He added.

“I guess so,” I replied. “I’ll give it a try… if you want me to, of course…” I added quickly, bringing my eyes back to Narrative.

“Fine,” The machine stated. His body didn’t say what emotion he was feeling, but he was probably still feeling rather sad from my comment earlier. I had to make it up to him somehow.

I scooted over closer, feeling the room start spinning slightly as I did, but not enough to throw me onto the floor. My horn lit up and grabbed the new talisman from the floor, floating it up to Narrative’s front plate. My own saddlebags opened as I pulled out my combat knife.

Just like I had done down in the facility, I dug the tip of the knife into the edge of the talisman and popped it free. I left the new one on the floor next to me as I focused on pulling the one currently inside Narrative free. My head started to throb slightly from the focus, but it wasn’t too much to deal with. I pulled the sensor free and left it on the floor next to its replacement before picking up the new one.

“Fear. Make sure to connect it properly,” Narrative said.

“Yeah… I got it…” I replied, scrunching my face in concentration as I levitated the wires into the hole.

Narrative’s interior lit up with a faint crimson glow as my magic filled it. I could see many strange parts inside, circuitry, gears, and all sorts of wires and tubes. All the way in the back, however, I spotted the connectors where the wires on the sensor had to be connected. Thankfully they seemed to be color-coded, red, yellow, and white.

“Almost got it…” I said, connecting the yellow wire to its proper place.

“Can you even see anything in there?” Pot asked, cocking his head to the side to try and peek inside as well.

I looked at the stallion, intent on telling him… something. For whatever reason I was feeling rather lightheaded, as if my attention were being siphoned out of my head through my horn. That should be an easy fix, just had to stop using it! My magic faded into a soft shower of sparks. I turned to stare at Pot directly, who raised an eyebrow at me.

“So… do we have any food?” I asked, smiling.

“What are…? What?” Pot asked, shaking his head in confusion.

I looked forward again, where I found myself staring into Narrative Lampshade’s chassis. A wrap of cables hung out of the opening, with a talisman hanging onto the end.

“Sweet Celestia! What happened to you?” I exclaimed, stumbling back slightly.

“What are you talking about?” Narrative demanded. “Is there a problem with the sensor?”

“What?” I asked before wincing slightly and leaning over to the side, clutching my head.

Pot scooted over to me and put his hoof on my back, leaning over next to me and looking at my face. He looked concerned… Why was he concerned? We were just-

“Ough…” I mumbled, feeling the room start to spin again.

I felt somepony hold my head, then I felt it get pressed against something soft. I tried to lift my head again, but it felt terribly heavy. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get my neck to move at all.

“What are you…” I slurred when I noticed Pot out of the corner of my eye.

The room suddenly stood still, but my mind continued to spin. Round and round it went, feeling as it were twisting my stomach into knots. I wanted to throw up, but that would be so tiring! I was already tired enough already… so… tired…

Maybe just a quick nap, to get my strength back! I thought, fading out of consciousness once again.

There were no trippy dreams this time, just the endless black void of unconsciousness.

It wasn’t a normal sleep, that would have been instant. This felt painfully slow, as if every second were being dangled in front of my face before fully passing. I tried counting to pass the time, but I lost count more times than I could count.

On the bright side, at least my head didn’t hurt anymore… Or anything else, for that matter. It was rather pleasant, just me, alone in this void.

I couldn’t help but think about Pot and Narrative, however. The robot had insisted on me being brain damaged, but that couldn’t be true! I could still think just as clearly as I had before.

He’s probably just worried about me… again.

It was a ridiculous notion. I was the one that should be worried for him, not the other way around! My frustration at how vehemently they refused to accept that I was their savior. Sure, I had some missteps, but I had mostly managed to keep them safe!

I felt one of my ears twitch slightly as it picked up a muffled voice somewhere next to me. My head refused to move, but I still tried to turn it and listen better to whatever was being said. It sounded vaguely like Pot, but I had no way to be sure.

“-Sure you can’t?” The voice said.

”Sadness. No, as long as she’s still alive, I can’t leave her presence,” A second voice said, monotone and metallic.

Silence once more, but it was quickly broken by the first voice again.

“Say we kill her, what then?”

“I cannot,” The other voice droned. “This body prevents me from harming her in any way,” It added.

“Fine, say I kill her,” The stallion’s voice said.

A second passed, then another. Neither voice talked, as if both were deep in thought. Or perhaps I had simply slipped further into sleep and could no longer follow the conversation. It could’ve also been a dream, after all, there was no chance that Pot would even entertain the thought of killing me!

If I had been able to, I would’ve laughed out loud at how ridiculous the concept was. Pot was a friend, it’s not like he was some sort of bandit who had been fooling me all along. I was way too smart for that! And while I didn’t want to discredit my friends… I really doubted that Pot would be bright enough to fool me, he was a surface dweller, after all.

Suddenly, I jerked upright as if a spring had launched me off the floor. My eyes opened wide, revealing the inside of the apartment again. Pot, who had been standing next to me, jumped back so violently that his gun fell to the floor, somehow flying out of his holster. My head felt hot, almost unbearably hot, as if I had stuck it inside an oven.

I drew in a deep breath, feeling the cold air pass across my palate and pry some of the heat in my head away. My eyes finally focused, letting me take in every detail around me. The lamp, cooking pot, Pot’s bedroll, and even my own saddlebags had been packed up and attached to Narrative’s back. The only thing that wasn’t packed was the bedroll that I was resting on. Pot’s expression was grim as his eyes switched from the fallen gun to me and then back to the weapon.

“Heh… You forgot the safety strap,” I said, pointing at his leg holster.

“I swear we-” The stallion blurted out, but he fell quiet just as fast, shaking his head and focusing on me. “What?” He demanded, sounding absolutely stupefied.

My horn lit up, wrapping around the fallen pistol and raising it into the air. Pot’s face went white, his eyes shrinking to pinpricks as they focused on the gun. I floated it over to him, putting it back in his holster and passing the security strap over it, keeping it in place.

“There you go, now it won’t fall out again!” I chirped.

A large drop of sweat ran down the side of Pot’s head, his eyes remaining fixed on mine. Concern flared in my chest when I noticed how worried the stallion looked.

“Are you feeling okay, Pot?” I asked, cocking my head to the side.

“Y- yeah!” The stallion said, shaking his head. “I’m just… surprised that you woke up, yeah,” He added.

I smiled at him, puffing my chest out slightly. Truth be told, my head still hurt, but it was nowhere near the agony that I was feeling before.

“Of course I’m up! I’m the hero of the surface! It’s going to take a lot more than a little bump on the head to put me down,” I announced proudly. “What’s up with all the packing? Were you about to go scavenging?” I asked, gesturing at all the stuff that was piled on Narrrative’s back.

“Uhhh… Yeah, exactly,” He said, looking at Narrative. “But since you’re awake now, I guess we can wait a little longer,” The earth pony added, sounding just slightly off.

I was relieved to hear that, while I could think fairly clearly, I wasn’t confident in my ability to move around for too long. Narrative, who had remained silent the entire time, rolled up closer to me, pointing the gaping hole in the middle of his frontal plate towards me.

“Anger. Now that you’re awake, maybe you can finish putting my new sensor in,” The machine stated.

Pot whipped his head around to look at the robot with concern, but his gaze relaxed. He turned to look at me again, shooting a quick glance at my horn before giving me a half-hearted smile.

”Y- yeah! You should finish plugging that thing in!” He said.

“Wait… what?” I asked, furrowing my brow. “What happened to your eye thingy?”

“Anger. You took it out to put the new one in and then decided to pass out halfway through,” Narrative stated.

Some memories started flooding back into my mind, but they were foggy and fragmented. I had a vague sensation of being told to do something by the brain, but I couldn’t quite recall it. Clearly I had done something, because the sensor talisman that was normally sticking out of his front was missing, but I couldn’t remember properly.

“I’m sorry…” I muttered, lowering my head. “I can’t really remember… where’s the new eye?” I asked.

Pot let out a deep sigh, seeming more relaxed. He shook his head slightly and took a couple of steps towards Narrative, poking his head into one of the saddlebags that were draped across his back and digging out the new talisman again.

I took it in my magic, recalling that I was meant to plug it in with the color coded connectors. The telekinetic glow started to seep into Narrative’s interior, but it was… off.

When I had tried before, the glow had been the usual crimson that it had been all my life. This time, however, the color was wrong. Small flashes of blue, green, and yellow were mixed in with the red, turning the machine’s interior into a kaleidoscope.

I shook my head, trying to pry my attention away from the bright colors. I plugged in one of the connectors, followed quickly by the second one. The last one was a little difficult, as the wire had gotten caught on a piece of tubing. I berated myself internally for not twisting the wires around before putting the talisman inside.

After a little maneuvering, I managed to get the connector unstuck and floated it into place. The talisman that hung out the front of the machine lit up dimly and started to hum. I wrapped it in my telekinesis and carefully locked it into place, sealing up the hole.

“Is it working?” I asked.

Narrative focused on me for a moment. I could actually tell that he was focusing on me now, as his new talisman opened and narrowed like a camera shutter. He turned to face Pot next, focusing on him for a couple moments.

”You two look awful,” He stated.

Pot opened his mouth as if to complain, his brow furrowed, but he closed it and shrugged instead.

“Yeah, I guess we do,” The stallion said.

“Does it work?” I asked, staring into the sensor and seeing it adjust again.

“Joy. Yes, it does,” Narrative answered.

The machine rolled past me, heading towards the window. I noticed that it was still raining, with sparse water droplets clinking off the metal guardrail of the balcony.

“Don’t stay out there for too long, you’ll get…” He started, but his gaze softened with realization. “...I guess you can’t really get sick, can you?” He added.

“Why would he get sick?” I asked, turning my head to stare at Pot.

I noticed that the earth pony still looked rather tense. He nervously shot a glance at me before replying.

“The rain,” He said, raising a forehoof to point at the window. “It’s very radioactive, if it soaks your coat you’ll need some RadAway. S- so you shouldn’t go out there,” He explained.

“Weren’t you and Narrative about to head out for scavenging?” I wondered, recalling what the stallion had said before.

Pot seemed to be shocked by my question.

“I- uhh… I misspoke! We weren’t going anywhere,” He explained.

“Oh, okay!” I chirped, smiling. “Honest mistake,” I added, drawing a raised eyebrow from Pot that was quickly followed by a relieved sigh.

I turned to stare out the window, watching the droplets fall and clink off Narrative’s brain jar. I took a few steps closer, not close enough to get splashed, but closer to the balcony nonetheless. The robot remained completely silent, as if he were encased in thought. I walked up to the very edge of the window and stopped. Narrative seemed to sense my presence, because he turned ever so slightly to the side and spoke.

“Sadness. It is a rather depressing sight,”

I stared into the ruins myself. There wasn’t that much to see, since the building in front of ours obstructed most of the view. Even then it was still bleak. Broken windows, crumbling walls, the cracked street below, and the drab gray sky above made it a rather perfect picture of despair.

“How bad is it?” I asked.

“Sadness. What do you mean?” The robot droned.

“You were here before the bombs fell, how bad does it look now?” I clarified.

“Truth be told, it doesn’t look too much different. There’s simply less ponies around,” He stated.

I cocked my head to the side and raised an eyebrow. The machine didn’t move, but it still spoke after a short pause.

“Sadness. That was meant to be a joke,” He said, bringing his claws up so he could look at them. “I guess that is another thing this body has taken from me,”

“What? You can’t make jokes?” I asked, confused.

“Sadness. No, I just can’t change my tone, so I have no way of showing that I’m being sarcastic,” Narrative replied.

I fell silent, lowering my head slightly. I guessed he was right, he had no way of expressing himself properly. Maybe he could click his claws in some pattern to let us know if he was being serious or not, but that would take way too much time to get used to.

“Maybe we can find somepony who can help you,” I offered.

“I doubt there is a single pony out here with sufficient knowledge of robotics to help me,” The machine said,

I turned around to look at Pot pleadingly. His eyes went wide at my sudden movement. What’s got him so jumpy? I wondered.

“Do you know anywhere where we could find a robot repair pony?” I asked him.

The earth pony sat down and stared at the floor, as if he were trying to project a map onto it.

“Not really…” He said.

I sat down myself, bringing a hoof up to my chin to think. The sudden position change made my head throb slightly, but it wasn’t crippling.

I still need to find help for my stable too… Where could we go? I thought, of course, we could always try to go back to the Medical Center, perhaps scribe Tourniquet had some robotics knowledge.

“Sadness. It is all right, I don’t need false hopes,” Narrative stated, moving back into the apartment and facing Pot. “You, on the other hoof, need somewhere safe to lie down and finish healing,” He added, pointing at the earth pony’s crudely repaired prosthetic.

“I think we should head back to the medical center, maybe Tourniquet can help us out some more,” I offered.

As soon as I finished speaking, I felt a strange sensation on the bottom of my tongue, as if it had been stabbed through with a needle. Pot’s head twitched slightly and he blew air out of his nose, as if he had been angry. His eyes, however, looked as if they gad glazed over slightly.

The stallion screwed his eyelids shut and shook his head before focusing on me again.

“No, Tourniquet probably knows about what happened with the other Steel Rangers, he’ll want your head,” Pot said, keeping his brow slightly furrowed.

“What?” I asked, surprised by what he was saying. “That’s exactly why I should go! I need to tell him that it wasn’t me!”

“And what makes you think he won’t just order one of his knights to blast you into a red mist as soon as they spot you?” The stallion retorted.

I opened my mouth to reply, but I closed it just as quick. He had a point, Tourniquet probably didn’t trust me. Then again, it was just as likely that he had no idea about what had happened to the Steel Rangers at the headquarters. In either case, it was better to be safe than sorry, but that did bring us right back to square one.

“Then where can we go?” I asked.

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out…” Pot said.

I turned to look at Narrative, but the robot raised both its claws up above his brain jar.

“Don’t look at me, my knowledge of Baltimare is at least a century out of date,” He said.

Pot grunted and shook his head. He did not look happy, but I couldn’t tell what was causing him the grief.

“Damn it, I guess we only have one option, huh?” He muttered.

“What’s that? Going to the medical center?” I asked.

“No, I wouldn’t risk it with the Steel Rangers,” The stallion said, walking up to one fo the corners of the apartment.

I wanted to ask what he was doing, but he answered my question by lowering his head and picking something up. When he looked up, I realized that he had grabbed a small piece of charred wood. He walked up to the middle of the wall, and started to draw on it.

He drew a large horseshoe shape, then added some seemingly random lines across it. He paused for a moment and then drew a small circle on the right side of the horseshoe, then a couple of others some distance away from it. He took a step back, then walked back up to the wall and added a few more marks.

“Okay, so,” He started after spitting the piece of wood out onto the floor. “This is more or less what Baltimare looks like,”

The stallion gestured towards the entire horseshoe shaped curve. He then took a step closer and sat down to keep his balance before pointing at all the extra lines that he had drawn on top of the first shape.

“These are all the rivers and riverbeds, they’re about as close to a permanent landmark as you can get,” Pot continued.

“Joy. I see those haven’t changed much since before the war, if the old bridges are still standing, I know several spots where we can cross them,” Narrative interjected.

“I doubt we’ll need to, most of them are dry,” The earth pony stallion explained before pointing at the map again.

He pointed at one of the dots in the large group he had drawn.

“We are somewhere around here,” He stated. “And these points here are more or less where the parks and the medical center are,”

I nodded to let him know that I was still following along.

“Now, we don’t want to go deeper into the city, it’s Virtue territory,” The stallion said, gesturing vaguely towards the upper part of the horseshoe. “And we don’t want to go North-east either, because then we risk running into Slavers,”

“So that just leaves South-east and south?” I asked, scrunching up my face while I looked at the map.

“No, actually, just south,” Pot said, his tone a mixture of concern and disappointment. “I don’t know what is in the southeast, but it's still too close to Redeye’s territory for comfort,”

Narrative rolled forwards slightly. I turned to look at him and noticed his sensor focusing on the map. He raised a claw up to the bottom of his brain jar as if he were trying to hold his nonexistent chin and remained silent for a second before speaking.

“I don’t intend to point out the obvious, but wouldn’t we be trapped at the tip of the horseshoe if we went South?” He droned.

“Yes, we would…” Pot started, standing up and adjusting his sitting to point at the last dot he had drawn, all the way down on the right side tip of the horseshoe. “Were it not for this spot right here,” He finished.

“What’s there?” I asked, curious.

“That is Marepoint Fort. It’s… not a nice place, but we should be able to get somepony to ferry us across to the other end of the bay,” Pot answered.

I stared at the map again. If the scale was even remotely accurate, going to the other side of the bay would put me really far away from my stable. But then again if what Pot had said was true, I wouldn’t have much of a chance of finding help in this area.

“Okay, I think it’s a good idea,” I said, nodding.

“I know too little to make an educated choice, so I trust your judgment too, Pot,” Narrative concurred.

The earth pony stallion nodded and turned to look at his map once again, muttering under his breath.

“Only thing left to decide is our route,” He started. “Closest safe spot where we can rest is probably somewhere near Rosewood, which should be around here,” He said, gesturing to a spot around two thirds of the way to our destination.

“Rosewood, the town?” Narrative asked.

“More like ghoul-infested ruins now,” Pot replied. “That place is a death trap, but that also means that the area around it is mostly safe as long as you don’t stay for long,”

I glanced back to the window, noticing that it had stopped raining at some point during the explanation.

“Judging by the distance, we’ll probably need to find a place to camp between here and Rosewood,” The earth pony stallion added before turning to look at me and Narrative. “What do you two think? Should we try to stay in the ruins or should we try our luck with the open wasteland?”

“Fear. You are the one with the most experience here,” Narrative stated.

“Fair enough, I think the ruins should be the safest bet, but I want all three of us to be on the same page so we don’t get sidetracked,” Pot replied, looking at me with a furrowed brow.

I considered the map again, and then reflected on the options he had laid out. Thinking back to my travels so far, I had only ever fought other ponies in or around ruins. The only time Pot and I had been attacked while out in the open wasteland had been when we ran into that pack of wolves. If i had to pick, I’d say fighting things that didn’t shoot back would be more beneficial. Sure, I’d miss out on the rush of a good gunfight, but that was an understandable price to pay in exchange for being able to care for Pot and Narrative more easily.

Speaking of… where’s my rifle? I wondered, looking around until I spotted the gun sticking out of one of the packs on Narrative’s back. I didn’t really have a sling for it, so I guessed he could keep it for now. But back to the question that the earth pony had asked, I had arrived at my answer.

“I think we should try the open wasteland instead,” I said.

Once again, as soon as the last word left my lips, I felt that strange stabbing sensation underneath my tongue. Pot grunted and slowly stood back up, screwing his eyes shut. He opened them again, and the bright green that was usually there looked a little paler as he stared off into infinity. He shook his head softly and looked at me, his eyes having returned to normal.

“Aye, open wasteland it is,” He stated.

I smiled at him, grateful that he had chosen to agree with me instead of arguing.

“Great!” I chirped. “When should we leave?”

“Right away I’d say, we need to get as much distance as we can while the sun is still up,” Pot replied. “Maybe we can-” He continued, but he cut himself short and whipped his head around to look at the window.

I had heard it too, it sounded like faint voices coming down the street that passed in front of the apartment building we were hiding in. My brow furrowed immediately as a strange feeling of unease washed over me.

Carefully, I walked over to the balcony and poked my head over the edge, staring into the street below. My EFS confirmed it before I could see them myself, there were four signals approaching. As my eyes scanned the area, I spotted the first of them coming around the corner.

It was a pony, a stallion, judging by the size. A dark green horn poked out of a brownish mane. A sling held a rifle on his side, it looked crudely made. They were wearing some sort of reinforced barding, covered in metal pieces of multiple sizes, all capped with spikes.

And who are your friends…? I wondered as I waited for the other EFS blips to round the corner and join the first one.

The second one reached the corner, and it made my eyebrow rise in surprise. What I was looking at was no pony, it was some sort of strange cow creature. Even without mentioning the apparent lack of coat it was still had to keep one’s eyes off it given how it had two heads. An incredibly large pair of saddlebags were slung across the beast of burden’s back, undoubtedly filled to the brim with goodies.

Another blip, this time it was a rust colored mare who wore some light barding. The main thing that drew my attention was the revolver that hung by her side, it looked remarkably well-maintained.

Could it be Ironshod? I wondered. I hadn’t seen any FlimFlam revolvers yet, but I doubted they would be able to make one that looked that nice, even from a distance.

The last pony in the group was dressed similarly to the first one, metallic armor covered in spikes. A gun hung from a battle saddle, but I couldn’t tell if it was a rifle or a shotgun. The gun looked even more crudely made than the leader’s, but the pony still moved it around as if he had full faith in its ability to shoot

I was getting bad vibes from the spikes, but I couldn’t quite tell why.

“Who are those ponies?” I asked out loud.

“I think they’re traders,” Pot said, walking up to stand next to me.

“You sure? Those spikes don’t look good,” I stated, furrowing my brow.

“Those are probably mercenaries,” The earth pony replied.

I stared at the group again. No, I wasn’t convinced.

“I’m going to-” I started, but I fell quiet when I noticed one of the two spiky ponies raise a forehoof to stop the others in place.

His head was tilted in our direction, with the ear swiveling to try and pick up as much sound as it could. He stayed in that position for a moment, gesturing for his other spiky friend to come closer. The pony walked forward and took position next to the first one, keeping his gun pointed forwards.

“Do you think they heard us?” I asked.

Pot glared at me and lifted his forehoof to cover his mouth. I understood and fell quiet, my ears drooping. The two spikey ponies looked around for a moment before the one who had been at the front of the group spoke up.

“Show yourself!” He shouted.

Okay, they’re jumpy.

After a short moment of silence, Pot took several steps back, gesturing for me to step away form the edge too. Once we were out of sight, he spoke up.

“We mean you no harm!” The earth pony shouted.

“Sh- show yourself then!” The second armored pony exclaimed.

They sounded awfully nervous. Perhaps they were just some guards escorting a merchant. If they really were then they should look into getting more friendly-looking armor, anypony without my impeccable impulse control might have shot at them!

Just have to make sure they don’t think I’m dangerous. I realized, slowly approaching the edge of the balcony.

“We’re good!” I exclaimed, raising my hooves up over the edge of the balcony.

“Gah!” One of the ponies shouted.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood upright when a gunshot split the silence. My forelegs retracted in the blink of an eye, but they had either missed or their guns had failed them. It didn’t matter, however, the sound of a gun firing immediately sparked a fire in my chest.

“I knew it!” I shouted, whirling around and charging at the door of the apartment.

“Black Light, wait!” Pot roared behind me, but I was already on my way.

My horn flashed as I darted past Narrative, pulling the rifle off his back and crashing into the apartment door with my full weight. I landed in a small hallway, and my head whipped from side to side until I spotted a stairwell.

I barreled down the hall and jumped down the stairs, clearing an entire flight of stairs in one go. I whirled around and lept down the second flight, rolling as I hit the floor of the hallway. I considered jumping out of the second floor window, but given how the armed ponies were waiting for me, it would probably only get me shot.

One last floor. There were two doors on the bottom floor, one led into another apartment, but the other led out into the street. I ran towards it and quickly glanced outside.

There! I thought, spotting an overturned trash can. It wasn’t ideal cover, but it was made out of metal and looked thick enough to at least somewhat protect me.

I rolled behind the trash can and floated the rifle up to aim at the other two ponies. Neither of them shot at me, which was just surprising enough to stop me from pulling my own trigger.

“Put the gun down!” The unicorn at the front shouted at me, holding his rifle up in his magic.

I looked him dead in the eye, there was no way I was going to do that. For all I knew, the second I lowered my rifle he would blast my brains out!

“Not gonna happen!” I shouted back. “Who are you ponies?” I demanded, keeping my voice low.

“We’re a trader caravan,” The mare in the middle of the group said, sitting on her haunches and raising her hooves in surrender. “We mean you no harm,” She added.

I raised an eyebrow at her and scoffed.

“Why’d you shoot at us then?” I asked, recalling how I had nearly gotten one of my hooves shot off earlier.

The stallion in the back, who was wearing a battle saddle, spat out his mouth trigger and lowered his head.

“I was surprised and shot without thinking,” He said.

“Likely story…” I stated, still unable to shake the mistrust that these ponies had sparked in my mind.

“We’ve ran into way too many slavers around these parts, we are understandably on edge,” The mare retorted, staring at me with a concerned glare.

I kept my rifle aimed at the pony in the front of the group, who held his aimed at me in turn.

“And how do I know you aren’t slavers?” I asked.

The mare cocked her head to the side and raised an eyebrow at me, as if the question had been completely ridiculous.

“We could ask you the same thing!” The pony with the battle saddle said. “Nice clothes, nice gun, well-fed, you could very well be a slaver!”

Oh no he didn’t.

“Me? A slaver?” I roared. The mere implication was as ridiculous as it was insulting. “I am the hero of the surface, Black Light!”

“Likely story, where’d you get that fancy gun from?” The stallion at the front demanded. Apparently my explanation had done little to soothe the pony’s nerves.

“I uhh… I found it!” I stuttered.

“You found it? Where?” The armored stallion pressed. “Did you-” He continued, but he cut himself off and flipped his gun to aim at the front door of the building I had just ran out of.

Narrative had caught up with me. For a split second I was confused as to why he was even here, but then I recalled what he had said about not being able to get away from me. My head throbbed painfully when I tried to think of a way out of this, blurring my vision slightly.

“Don’t you dare shoot him!” I roared.

“What the fuck is that?” The unicorn demanded, keeping his rifle trained on Narrative.

“Fear. Do not shoot,” Narrative droned, waving his claws in front of his chassis.

My head felt as if a spike were being driven into it with every heartbeat. I clenched my jaw and forced my eyes to focus on the stallion in front of me. I’d have time to deal with my throbbing head after this shitshow was sorted out.

“Put your gun down now,” I barked at the stallion.

Once again, I felt that stabbing pain under my tongue. It was barely noticeable when contrasted against the throbbing in my head, but it still managed to make its presence known.

The unicorn stallion let out a soft grunt and shook his head before slowly lowering his rifle to point at the ground. Both of his companions opened their eyes wide and stared at him, mouths agape. The other armored pony furrowed his brow and turned to stare at me.

“Stop that!” He shouted, kicking the trigger back into his mouth.

“Don’t you dare!” I shouted at him, moving my rifle to aim at the stallion. “Spit it out!”

My tongue hurt again, making me let out a pained grunt. My jaw was starting to hurt from how hard I was clenching it. The stallion screwed his eyes shut and grunted, but he shook his head slightly and opened them again, glaring daggers at me.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood up a split second before the stallion bit down on the trigger. I threw myself to the side, pulling my own trigger in turn. My throbbing headache threw my aim off significantly, while I had been aiming at the pony’s forehead, my shot went low and off to the side, hitting his shoulder instead. The bullet struck the armor and exploded into shrapnel, some of which flew upward and dug into the stallion’s neck. His own shot grazed my own right shoulder, just barely missing. Whatever he had shot, it had been hefty, at least judging by how strong the gust left in the round’s wake was.

I watched as the pony collapsed onto the floor clutching their neck with their forehooves. The gunshot also seemed to have snapped his companion out of the strange stupor he had fallen into, making him shout something unintelligible at me before whirling their gun around to fire.

“Keep the gun down!” I shouted, the ringing of my own thundering voice making my head hurt harder.

Whatever my tongue was doing, it stung again and made the stallion’s eyes glaze over, buying me just enough time to adjust my own aim and shoot before he got the chance to. My bullet struck true, making a hole at the base of the pony’s horn. The bullet flew through the stallion’s head and hit the strange cow creature behind it, making it bellow in pain.

The creature charged directly at me blindly: threw myself to the side, avoiding both of its heads as it tried to impale me on its horns. My rifle whirled and fired twice into the body of the beast. With another bellow, it ran off further down the street.

Now where are-

“Ough!” I screamed, my magic imploding as a sharp spike of pain ran from the back of my head to the tip of my horn.

I collapsed onto the floor, clutching my head and squirming around on the fresh mud. Any movement made my head feel like it was being compressed by a vice. Staying still was somehow worse, feeling like I was getting struck in the horn with a hammer over and over. I tried to touch my horn, but it felt way too tender to touch with my bare hooves.

The sound of gunshots drew my attention. I wasn’t being shot at, the sounds were ringing out too often, as if two ponies were shooting at each other. Despite how badly my head was hurting, I cracked a teary eye open and spotted Pot in the doorway of the building. He had his gun in his mouth and he was shooting down the street.

I looked in the direction he was shooting in and saw that the cream colored mare was crouched behind some rubble with her revolver out. The stallion with the battle saddle was lying down behind her, holding something up to his face.

A potion! I noticed, shifting my gaze towards my fallen rifle.

By some miracle, my magic responded when I tried to use it, picking my rifle up off the ground. The crimson telekinetic field had become even more warped than before, bathing the mud below with a rainbow of different colors. It floated upwards, but I couldn’t aim it… or even hold it steady.

I tried to go into SATS and immediately regretted it, as it sent a shockwave through my head like an electric discharge. My vision went completely white and the sounds around me became muffled, replaced by a high-pitched whistling sound. I felt my face dig into the mud as I collapsed onto the ground.

Get up, Black Light! I roared at myself internally.

My hooves shakily pressed into the mud on either side of my head, desperately trying to pull me up. I was slowly starting to see again, but my EFS was malfunctioning, it looked as if it were stuck halfway through activating SATS. The compass was warped and distorted, and my eyes felt as if they were being forcefully pulled in a specific direction. I couldn’t tell what I was being forced to look at, however, because my vision was still pure white.

I raised one of my forehooves to my head and felt the telltale tingling of magic. Was my horn still working? If it was, then the rifle was still floating somewhere in front of me. There was no way for me to pull the trigger if I couldn’t even feel the weapon in my telekinetic grasp, but maybe I didn’t have to do that at all…

“C’mere…” I grunted as I threw my head backwards.

The throbbing headache had been replaced with a strange feeling, as if my skull had been filled with a thick honey that slowed down my thoughts. It was a blessing in disguise, however, as it let me throw my head back without being crippled by the pain. I felt the stock of the rifle bump against my chest… perfect.

I managed to sit on my hind legs, hugging the floating rifle in front of me and jamming the stock into my shoulder, raising the rifle and aiming at the white spot where my eyes seemed to get stuck.

“Over there!” I heard somepony shout in front of me.

Purely by instinct, my left foreleg moved further up my gun’s barrel and touched the button that would turn the gun invisible. I heard a gunshot, and something whizzed through my mane, but I wasn’t dead. I pulled the trigger, blindly firing forward until the gun stopped kicking back, it was out of ammo.

The vague smell of smoke reached my nose when the energy cell in the rifle burnt out. I could tell that I had become visible again and that I should probably take cover, but my body was way ahead of me, as my legs suddenly went limp. I collapsed onto my back, splashing the surrounding rubble with mud. It was a rather solid fall, but fortunately I didn’t hit my head against anything… Not that I thought my head could get hurt any worse.

I heard more gunshots, driving me to try and lift my head again. My vision had cleared to the point where I could make out vague smokey figures. Pot was peeking out from inside the building and shooting at the mare and stallion, who I couldn’t make out among the rubble save for the occasional yellow muzzle flash. I strained to try and get up, hoping that I could help before Pot got shot, but I didn’t have any ammunition left even if I managed to sit down.

After a few more exchanges, the blue blur that I knew to be the earth pony stallion dropped down slightly.

“N- No!” I shouted when the gunshots suddenly fell quiet, thinking that my friend had been gunned down.

My relief when I saw the blue stallion move towards me was immeasurable, I guessed he had been rearing up on his hind legs and that was why I saw him lower slightly. Either that or he had crouched to move towards me. I blinked, smiling as my vision cleared further, I could almost see normally again.

“Black Light! Are you okay?” Pot asked as he got closer, his voice had a noticeable pained tinge to it.

I eyed the blue stallion, and even through my cloudy vision I could still see a red spot on one of his rear legs.

“You got shot,” I mumbled, trying my best to get my eyes to focus again.

“I’m fine!” The stallion grunted. “What happened to you?” He demanded, putting his forehoof on my shoulder.

He moved his head from side to side, looking me over for any injuries. I could barely make out his brow relaxing when he realized that I just had some mud on me. I gave him a small grin and lifted my forehooves up to rub my eyes. My vision was back to normal, even my EFS compass went back into its proper place.

“I thought you’d gotten shot in the head with the way you were rolling around,” The stallion stated, pressing his own forehoof to my forehead.

“No… no… I just…” I started slowly, but truth be told, I didn’t even know what I had done wrong. “I tried to use SATS and it backfired on me,” I concluded, raising my PipBuck.

Pot eyed the machine with a raised eyebrow. I didn’t think he’d know what SATS even was, but he didn’t ask me about it either.

“Well… Don’t do it anymore,” He said, giving me a concerned glare.

“It’s fine…” I mumbled back, feeling my headache subside.

Out of curiosity, I tried to activate SATS again. I winced preemptively, expecting it to backfire again, but to my surprise, it activated with no issue.

Pot seemed frozen in front of me, outlined with a thin blue glow. A small window on the bottom of my view informed me that I was unarmed, but I didn’t mind it too much, not like I was actually thinking about hurting Pot…

Then again… it would be pretty easy. I realized. If my rifle had any ammo in it I could very easily target Pot’s head with SATS. He’d have no way of reacting, just a second and then bang.

I shook my head, dispelling the troubling thoughts. That wouldn’t be right, I only killed bad ponies like slavers or bandits, not my friends!

“Fear. Is it over?” Narrative droned as he drew closer. “Is she alright?”

“Yeah…” Pot answered, getting back up.

“Did you get them?” I asked, looking over to the spot where the other ponies had been shooting from.

Pot grunted back, focusing on his rear leg instead. The bullet seemed to have only grazed him, fortunately.

The mare with the revolver was slumped over the armored stallion, both unmoving. Pot sat down on some rubble next to me and lifted his injured leg. He took some bandages out of his saddlebags and tied them around his leg. Despite his missing foreleg, the stallion had become surprisingly adept at putting bandages on himself and others.

“We should see if they had anything useful,” I said, rising to my hooves. “...Or at least some clean barding…” I added when I looked down at myself and saw how much mud had stuck to my jumpsuit.

“Who were they?” Narrative asked, rolling a little closer to me and Pot.

“Some traders,” The earth pony answered, whipping his head around to glare at me. “I hope you’re happy about that, most slavers know they shouldn’t mess with traders. We’ll be lucky if we don’t have mercenaries hunting us down by the end of the week,” He added, his tone steadily rising as he spoke.

I cocked my head to the side, confused. He couldn’t really think that these ponies were actual traders, right? They shot at me of all ponies, that was basically a certificate of evil!

“Good thing they weren’t traders, then,” I said, winking at him.

Pot stared at me with a deadpan expression.

“I’m pretty sure they were,” He answered.

“But they shot at me!” I exclaimed.

“They tried to deescalate the situation when you reached the street as well,” Narrative interjected.

I jumped back some distance and stared at my friends, moving my gaze from one to the other. Pot went slightly pale when I did, with his eyes flicking over to my fallen rifle for a moment before locking back into mine.

“They were not traders,” I said, stomping the floor for emphasis. “Th- they were some bandits that were masquerading as traders, yeah!” I added.

The stabbing sensation under my tongue returned after I finished speaking. Pot’s green eyes glazed over like they had done back in the apartment, but after he blinked a few times they returned to normal. Narrative let out a series of low beeping sounds that sounded vaguely like an alarm, but his sensor talisman refocused on me.

“Yeah, you’re right,” Pot said, sitting on his haunches and raising his foreleg to hold his head. “What are… no, nevermind,” He mumbled under his breath.

Narrative remained quiet and completely still, as if he were lost in thought. I smiled at my friends. For a moment there I was starting to think that they were doubting me, but they probably realized that they were talking nonsense.

“Stay there,” I told the earth pony, drawing his attention back to me. “I’ll go check if they had anything useful on them,” I added, getting a nod in response.

I walked over to the two fallen ponies. The one with the spiky armor still had a potion clutched in their forehooves, but they had seemingly died before they could drink it, since most of the bottle’s contents were spilled over his face and neck. My horn fired up for a moment and tore the bottle out of his clutch.

“Damn…” I muttered when I realized that there was barely half a sip left inside.

The mare with the revolver was slumped over the stallion, I kicked her with a hindleg, causing her to flip onto her back. Two gunshots on her chest let me know that she was definitely dead.

Lookie here. I thought when I noticed that the mare still held her revolver firmly clutched in her mouth. The cylinder was off to the side of the weapon, empty. And I realized that the mare had dropped a speed loader on the ground next to her. Pot probably caught her mid reload.

I took the revolver and lifted it up to my eyes so I could look at it better. It was definitely Ironshod, I realized, smiling widely. It was .32 and it was in pretty bad shape, but it was about as well maintained as I could reasonably expect from a wasteland gun. I checked the mare, finding an ammo belt wrapped around the inside of one of her forelegs.

“Twelve more shots for Black Light,” I said, smirking to myself as I dropped the entire belt into my saddlebags.

The dead stallion’s weapon was a return to form, looking like it had been assembled from a pile of spare gun parts. It had been a double barreled shotgun of… some caliber. I didn’t see any sort of loading mechanism on the stallion’s battle saddle, not that any could be made, since the shotgun was breech loaded. I could only imagine that he’d need to detach it from himself to be able to put another shell in. I knew they weren’t guards! No guard worth their salt would walk around with such a lousy excuse for a weapon. Two measly shots followed by an incredibly long reload? It was a wonder that he even made it this far!

I, on the other hoof, was not limited by needing to use my mouth and hooves to operate firearms like some sort of earth pony. Eight shells were attached to the side of the stallion’s battle saddle, and a quick check revealed that both the shells inside the weapon had already been fired.

Not a bad haul, two guns and some ammunition. I found a waterskin on the armored stallion’s body as well, but the foul odor coming from it when I tried to take a swig made me throw it to the side.

I turned around to look at Pot again, who was slowly making his way towards the other fallen stallion, the unicorn. Assuming that he could manage looting him on his own, I set my own sights on a different target and started making my way towards the fallen cow creature.

It hadn’t made it too far away from where the gunfight had taken place. I eyed it curiously, there was no way that I had managed to kill it with just a single shot that had flown through another stallion’s head. It wasn’t breathing though, and unless it was some sort of undead monstrosity, I was pretty sure I’d be able to notice an animal that large moving its chest.

When I finally walked around to the front of it, however, I realized what had happened. The monster had ran headfirst into a wrecked carriage, impaling the many jagged pieces of metal that jutted out of the wreckage into the space in between its two heads. The eyes of the head closest to me were almost completely white with cataracts, yet even through the milky white covering I could still make out the pupil enough to realize that the eyes had rolled back when it died.

I looked back at the rest of the beast, taking in the bulging muscles that tore out of its hairless skin, as if the leather that covered them had become too brittle to contain the creature’s strength. It was wearing a set of large saddlebags that had evidently been tailor made for it. Dozens of pockets covered both sides of the creature, with an extra rucksack tied along its back.

Smiling widely, I opened one of the pockets and took a peek inside. My gaze was met by many small bottles and red inhalers, I didn’t know what any of them were, but I absolutely recognized the pinkish glow at the bottom of the pocket.

“Pot! I found a healing potion!” I exclaimed, looking over at where the stallion and the robot were standing.

Narrative had his claws working on one of the fallen stallion’s legs, trying to tear off the barding. Pot looked at me and said something to the machine, but I was too far away to hear it. He started to limp towards me as fast as he could, which was no easy feat considering his badly repaired prosthetic and his injured leg.

“Are you sure you don’t need it?” He asked.

I shook my head, wincing slightly as my headache flared up.

“I’ve just got a headache, you need it more,” I answered, gesturing towards his rapidly reddening bandage.

“Fair,” Pot concluded, sitting on his haunches.

I levitated the potion towards him. The earth pony took the bottle with his good hoof and brought it up to his face. He bit the cap off and spat it out tot he side before lifting the bottle to drink from it. He was really getting used to only having one hoof it seemed. Good for him.

Before my very eyes his wound started to bubble and warp. I could see as the muscle fibers stretched out from either side and joined together once more, pulling the rapidly growing skin along with them like some macabre version of sewing a hole in a piece of fabric. Once the skin was remade, the stallion’s blue coat took mere seconds to regrow, restoring itself to the same length as the coat surrounding it. Once the dim pink glow faded from the area, the only indication that there had even been an injury in that spot was that the freshly grown coat was shiny and clean instead of grimy and covered in dirt like the rest of the stallion’s body was.

“What else was on them?” Pot wondered, curiously peeking into another one of the dead beast’s pockets.

His eyes immediately widened as a smile parted his lips. He reached into the pouch and brought his hoof back out, holding a large pile of bottle caps.

“Oh yeah, this is some good stuff,” He stated.

We counted out the caps, which came out to nearly three thousand. If Pot was correct about the multitude of flasks and inhalers in the first pocket I had opened, then we had an extra thousand caps worth of ‘chems’, as he had called them.

The rest of the haul was a mixture of salvage that we dumped on the side of the road and weapons which I didn’t have a huge interest in, given how they were all FlimFlam Firearms. There was a substantial pile of ammunition too, but most of it was for the guns that were with them. Pot got several dozen bullets for his pistol, and I managed to nab three more shells for my shotgun, however.

Pot had also seen it fit to put one of the dead stallion’s barding on. Or at least most of it. I had to talk him out of putting the evil-looking spiky bits on. The rest of the barding was nothing to scoff at, however. Sure, the hardened leather probably wouldn’t be stopping any bullets, but it would definitely stop a knife.

The cow creature’s special saddlebags were put on Narrative’s back, his larger frame making it easy to drape across his back. All the stuff we had been carrying in the smaller bags he had on him before were moved into the newly vacated pockets of the larger set. They looked much better than the mismatched pile he had been wearing before.

“We still have some sunlight left,” Pot stated, looking at the small hut that we had dumped the bodies into. “We should probably get as far away from this place as we can,” He added.

“Yeah, I agree,” I answered, nodding.

Narrative rolled up to us, his sensor widening and refocusing as he approached.

“Will you not be hiding that Brahmin creature in there as well?” He asked, using one of his claws to gesture towards the dead beast further down the street.

“Unless you want to try your luck at moving that thing, we don’t have much of a choice,” Pot replied. “And we need to get away from it quickly if we don’t want to be blamed for killing merchan- err… slavers,” He concluded, shaking his head slightly after he finished speaking.

“Understandable,” The machine droned.

We set off into the wasteland immediately after that exchange, with Pot at the front guiding us out of the ruins. The sky had already began darkening by the time we cleared the destroyed buildings, and it had not been a peaceful trip.

Nothing had actually happened, but I had been on edge the entire time. The nerves and anticipation of slavers being in the area were only compounded by my horrid headache and recurrent bouts of vertigo. I had actually tripped and fallen onto my face at one point after losing my balance while skipping over some rubble.

The headache hadn’t subsided one bit, which probably contributed to how quiet the journey was. Any attempt at speaking to me from either of my companions was swiftly met by either a grunt or a short answer from me. After some time they gave up on smalltalk entirely. They did talk to each other a little, with Narrative asking Pot some things about how the world worked. I didn’t really pay any attention to their conversation, as I was fully locked into a battle with my own body.

My head throbbed painfully with every single step I took, yet I could do nothing but grit my teeth and force my hooves forward. I knew I had to stay vigilant so I could keep my friends safe, but I severely doubted my ability to protect them should the need arise right now. Still I pressed on, the last thing I wanted was to force my friends to slow down.

Every couple seconds my eyes would dart down to my EFS compass to try and make sure that there was nopony near us. For whatever reason, however, most of the time I tried to look at it, my EFS would look like a vague blue blur at the bottom of my vision. I had to blink several times before the overlay would clear up enough for me to make out the bars on it.

Even when I managed to clear it up my task was not complete, as strange symbols would sometimes appear on it. At first I thought it might just be some kind of glitch, but the strange thing was that the symbols looked too defined. They weren’t letters or numbers, or at least none that I could understand.

“How much further do we have to go?” Narrative inquired, cutting through the silence that had befallen the trip.

“Honestly?” Pot started, sitting on his haunches and panting heavily. “We’re just trying to find a spot to set up camp,” He added after catching his breath.

The earth pony stallion turned to look at me with a concerned stare.

“You doing good?” He asked me. “You look a little pale,”

“I’m… I’m fine…” I replied, holding my head with a forehoof.

“You don’t sound fine-” Narrative droned.

“Well I am!” I exclaimed, cutting him off.

My tongue hurt again after my outburst, but it seemed to have calmed my friends down. Pot drooped his head and continued panting, rubbing at the spot where his prosthetic met his stump. Narrative didn’t press the subject either, instead turning around and gazing into the horizon. I followed his gaze, looking out onto the cracked earth of the Baltimare wasteland.

I winced when another jab of pain ran through my head.

What is wrong with my head? I wondered, almost desperate. I lifted my PipBuck up to my eyes and saw that the little pony on the status screen was stumbling around woozily with bandages around her head. I raised an eyebrow when I noticed that she had been altered slightly. Whereas before she had been dressed in a Stable 75 jumpsuit, now she was completely bare, with stripes visible on her legs, back, and face.

Just like with my EFS, parts of the interface had been replaced with strange symbols that I couldn’t read. When I switched to a different screen and then back, however, the options that had been distorted returned to normal, and others that had been normal became distorted in their stead.

Whatever that weird rock was probably scrambled this thing. I thought, realizing that that was probably the reason why SATS had failed me earlier.

I did notice that no matter how I moved my compass or how many times I restarted it, one symbol remained firmly lodged near the East direction. It was some kind of strange spiraled shape with several dots along its exterior. Something about it seemed strangely familiar, but it still looked like nothing more than a doodle. I wanted to bring it up with Pot, but considering how we were kind of heading in that general direction, I decided to wait instead. Perhaps it was just a simple glitch like all the other symbols and it would just disappear as soon as I stopped paying attention to it.

The little spiral persisted as the sky continued to darken, slowly moving towards the Northeast marker on my EFS. Pot started to grow increasingly more desperate as the wasteland continued to be nothing but cracked soil in any direction we looked in.

Any direction, that was, except for the Northeast.

“Hey wait!” I exclaimed. “What’s that?” I added, pointing at the horizon.

Far out where the dark gray clouds and the dull brown earth met there was a small black spot. It stuck out from its surroundings so much that it was almost like a light in the darkness.

“What’s what?” Pot asked, panting heavily.

Apparently the pull of whatever I was looking at only affected me. And sweet Celestia did it have an effect. No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t tear my eyes away from that spot in the distance. It was reminiscent of the gunfight from earlier in the day, where my malfunctioning SATS spell had locked my eyes in the direction of the bandits despite me not being able to fully see them.

“I think there’s a building out there,” I said.

“Hmmm,” Pot muttered. “There’s nothing out here as far as I know, but if there aren’t any lights on then it might be an abandoned building,”

“Fear. And what if it isn’t abandoned?” Narrative asked.

“Then I really hope it's just some scavengers,” The earth pony replied.

I wanted to say that I hoped so too, but I knew better than to show my friends weakness. I had to remain strong and resolute for them, no matter what came our way!

We walked towards the spot on the horizon, with me taking the lead now that I was the one who knew where we were going. It didn’t take too long before Narrative managed to spot the dark object as well, which came as quite a relief to Pot, who was starting to think that I was seeing things.

“It looks like a small hut” The earth pony said when he finally managed to see the building. “Can you see any lights?” He asked me and Narrative.

“Nope, nothing,” I replied, slowing down a little as we approached.

“I see nothing either, it appears to be abandoned,” The machine droned.

When we got a little closer, I finally realized what I was looking at.

It was a ranch, a stone foundation crowned by a sturdy wood building. It didn’t look like it had been built with scraps in the slightest, which could only mean that it was from before the bombs dropped.

Off to the side of the hut lay three crudely made gravestones. I noticed that there were flakes of paint still holding onto the stone, forming letters. Whatever had been written on them had faded away into obscurity, with the only indication that there had ever been something legible there being the occasional spots where some letters could still be made out.

Interestingly, only two of the tombs seemed to be filled in, with the third having a small crater in its place. It looked almost as if a hole had been dug, but it had then been left unused for countless years.

“Fear. I don’t like this place,” Narrative stated.

“Doesn’t seem like there’s anypony here…” Pot muttered before turning his head to look at me. “What does that computer thing say?” He asked, gesturing towards my PipBuck.

I glanced down at my EFS and nodded when I saw that there were no bars on it other than Pot and Narrative’s.

“All clear,” I said, feeling a small stab of pain behind my eyes.

The front door of the ranch was unlocked, which was slightly suspicious. Just to be safe, I pulled out my rifle and levitated it up to my side, keeping the barrel aimed into the hut. The rainbow hues that flickered in and out of my crimson magic bathed the door as it slowly creaked open.

I’m not entirely sure what I was expecting,but it was definitely not what I found. The ranch was not much more than a single large room with a kitchen and a bedroom off to the sides.

What really caught my eye, however, was the table at the center of the room.Or more specifically, the dessecated corpse that was sitting at one of the chairs. A whiskey glass was still held in its leathery hoof, resting next to an empty bottle on the table. His clothes were simple, yet still incredibly well preserved. A pair of overalls and a simple hat.

The pony’s face made me realize that I was looking at a stallion, as some whisps of what had once been a mustache still clinged to the hardened leather that had become his skin.

”Black Light, stay back!” Pot whispered at me, putting his front hoof on my side.

I turned my head around to look at him, confused. The stallion’s green eyes remained fixed on the dead stallion on the chair, as if he were expecting it to lunge at us at any moment.

”What’s gotten into you?” I whispered at him.

”That thing’s a ghoul,” He whispered back.

I turned to look at the corpse. It looked completely mummified, with the bones sticking out as if they had been vacuum sealed inside of a leathery bag. It had, unusrprisingly, not moved a muscle since we opened the door.

“It’s dead, Pot,” I said, no longer whispering.

Just in case, I took another look at my EFS, which only corroborated my words. There wasn’t anything alive in that direction.

”That is a sad sight,” Narraive said, his monotone voice booming into the hut.

Despite the loud noises, the dead stallion remained dead.

”Sorry I… I thought it might be dangerous,” Pot started. “There’s ponies that look like that out here in the wasteland. Only they’ll try to bite your head off if you get too close…” He explained.

”Fear. Like zombies?” Narrative asked.

”What’s that?” Pot responded, cocking his head to the side.

I looked at him, raising an eyebrow.

“Ever seen Night of the Living Mare?” I asked the earth pony.

”No? What’s that?” Pot replied.

“He’s from the wasteland, Black Light, I really doubt there’s a working cinema out here,” Narrative said.

He did have a pretty good point, I doubted there was anypony smart enough to operate a film projector out here in the wasteland. And that was without even thinking about how unlikely it was for the movie to have survived the balefire.

”It’s a movie,” I explained. “Dead ponies come back to life and try to eat living ponies’ brains,”

The earth pony stallion sat on his haunches to think for a moment before looking up and replying.

”Something like that, only these will try to eat anything they can bite,” He said, not taking his eyes off the corpse on the chair.

Narrative rolled a little closer to it, contemplating the scene in silence. One of his claws reached out and grabbed the empty bottle, bringing it closer to his sensor.

”Sadness. Wild Pegasus. Guess he wanted one last taste of the good stuff,” The robot droned. “I miss being able to drink,”

”Wonder what happened to him…” I muttered, looking at the rather serene expression that still graced the stallion’s face.

Pot walked closer as well, spotting something on the table and going around me to reach it. Some kind of book, I noticed. The stallion opened it on the table and stared at the front page for a moment. I peeked over his shoulder and read the only thing that was written on the page.

’Summer harvest registry’ It read in fancy black letters.

”Can you read?” Narrative asked. It was remarkable how he still managed to sound slightly condescending despite his voice being a robotic monotone.

“Of course I can read,” Pot grunted back.

The next several pages were filled with uninteresting numbers and stuff about farming that I didn’t understand. But just as I was considering telling Pot to leave it, we reached a new segment.

Where most pages started with the exact date and how much it had rained, this one was written more like a page out of a diary. It wasn’t as elaborate as the writing on the previous pages, but it was still pretty. The page read:

Something bad happened, really bad. One moment we were sitting down for dinner, next thing we know there’s this green lightshow coming from Fillydelphia.

We tried to get the old radio to work, but Hayseed never got the new dial for us so it was a lost cause. I might head to Baltimare in a few days to ask what is going on.

Pot murmured something that I didn’t quite catch before flipping over to the next page, which was also written like a diary:

Whatever that green light was a few days ago, it’s really bad. The pegasi are not doing their damn jobs anymore apparently, since we weren’t scheduled to have rain for the next several weeks.

But that wouldn’t be much of a worry if it were actual rain falling from the sky. I don’t know what Tail Wind is doing, but I’m pretty sure rain isn’t supposed to be a greenish brown sludge.

The stallion flipped through the pages until the pages turned blank. After which he flipped back until he found the last page that had been written on.

Gone were the gentle curves and elegant swirls that had been used for the previous entries, replaced by writing so shaky that it rivaled my own. The page read:

They’re both dead, my little angel and the love of my life. Now they’re both buried next to the house, and I’ll go rest next to them right after I’m done with my cousin’s whiskey.

I can’t keep going anymore, not like this, not alone.

“I guess they… I guess his family died…” Pot said, his head drooping slightly.

I kept reading the start of the entry over and over, trying to understand what it meant. The love of my life… could he have been referring to the whiskey? I had heard Quick Check refer that way to his coffee before. It still didn’t make any sense considering that the entry mentioned the whiskey later.

Narrative reached forward and snatched the book off the table, carefully flipping back to the first page so he could read it as well.

Pot lifted his forehoof and wiped at his eyes.

“Are you okay, Pot? Are you hurt?” I asked when I saw the glint of a tear roll down his cheek.

“I’m fine!” The stallion grunted, taking a couple steps away. “We should… we should bury him,” He added after a moment of silence.

I looked at him, and then at the dead stallion. Something about either the dead pony or the book he had just read were clearly troubling him. If putting that shriveled up corpse away would make him feel better, then it was the least I could do. Besides, I wouldn’t feel too comfortable sleeping next to that thing anyway. Especially not after Pot had told use about ghouls.

”I’ll bury him,” I said, taking a step towards the dead pony.

“Y- you will?” Pot asked, looking at me with surprise.

”Yeah, you can start with dinner,” I answered, smiling at him. “To relax a little,”

I felt that strange sensation in my tongue again, but Pot didn’t seem as bothered as he had before. The earth pony nodded and slowly made his way into the kitchen, giving one last glance at the corpse. I followed his gaze and focused on the body, wrapping it in my magic with care, so as to not rip it apart.

For what had, in life, been a pretty large farmer stallion, the body felt incredibly light in my magic. I carefully levitated him out of the ranch and off to the side, where the gravestones were lined up.

I set the body down next to the hole and got to work on making it a little deeper. The dirt was hard, but it wasn’t anything my magic couldn’t deal with. The work helped take my mind off my headache. It had let up significantly, but it still made its presence known any time I moved my eyes too fast. Once my work was done, I put the stallion’s body in the hole and covered him as well as I could.

Almost immediately I felt a deep sense of relief wash over me.

“There you go,” I said to nopony in particular.

I walked back into the ranch, all but hypnotized by the delectable scent of whatever Pot was cooking up. The house itself seeimg friendlier, like it was actively working to guard us as opposed to just being an innert monument to a bygone era.

STABLE-TEC UNIFIED OPERATING SYSTEM

COPYRIGHT 1624 - 1626 STABLE-TEC

Biographical Registry System v.147

Full name: Tail Wind

Classification: Pegasus mare – 236 years of age – C-366e81 M-958767 E-457505

Cutie mark: a simple depiction of swirling wind

Tail Wind was a pegasus mare who was in charge of the weather distribution in Baltimare. Kind, yet strict, she commanded her weather team with the precision of a military commander.

On the fateful day when the bombs dropped, she ordered her team to flee while she stayed behind and tried her damndest to push the contaminated clouds out of the way of major cities. The high exposure to radiation at a near constant rate rapidly turned her into a ghoul, driving her mad. Despite this, she continued to rearrange the clouds, holding onto what little of herself had survived the transformation.

She would eventually be killed, alongside many other feral ghouls, in an effort by the Virtues to establish a new base of operations in the eastern Baltimare ruins.

Author's Note

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