Fallout Equestria: Shattered Gleam

Google Docs

Chapter 3 – The Final Day
“That kid is going to end up dead if you keep going like this.”

“Placidity… I don’t want you to come with us.” I was in the middle of packing my stuff, as was Daring. It had been about twenty minutes since I had given the bad news and since then, we had been packing up everything we needed. From medicine to food; ammo to rocks to throw at stuff. Okay, maybe not rocks. The point is that we grabbed anything that could be useful.

“But…”

“Listen.” I stopped packing and looked her in her eyes. “This is going to be dangerous… I don’t want to put you in that. I’d rather you be safe here.”

“I know… I just don’t know what I would do if I wasn’t there if… Something bad was to happen.” I looked down as I realized that me getting hurt, or worse, was a quite real possibility. Which was all the more reason to make her stay.

“I know, but don’t worry. I’m not going down until this is all over, I promise.”

“Okay… But when you are nearby, please check in?”

“Of course. You do know that it may be weeks before I get a chance to come back? I promise to hurry back as soon as possible, but who knows what might happen.”

“Yes… And I suppose I can live with that.”

“Hey, if anything comes up… Find the nearest guard and tell them you want to speak to Shining Horizon. If they ask why, or how you know him, tell them I sent you. Let him know who you are, and he’ll arrange anything you need… I hope.” The last part I kept to myself. He better make sure those I care about are well protected…

“Okay… Don’t forget to stock up before you leave.”

“Already got it covered. Daring, you got the caps?”

“Yeah, about 200. Not very much, but should get us some ammo for that revolver of yours.”

“And we should probably get me some new armor… Don’t know if this thing could even protect against a nail, let alone anything else. Plus, I’d rather not have anything that the Shattered Ones gave me.”

“We could probably sell it at a shop somewhere. Trade it for something better perhaps? My armor isn’t the best either, but it was sort of a dress code thing for the slavers.” I finished packing my things and looked to Daring to see if he was done.

“They had a dress code? They seem more like the type that wouldn’t care about whom they were shooting at, much less their clothing style.”

“Well, they did. Mainly Ashton’s group. Guess he liked to make the others below him know that he was in charge.”

“Think we’ll run into him?”

“Oh no doubt. He isn’t exactly one to welcome someone who nearly killed him with open arms. No, he’ll most likely have every slaver and their mother looking for us. Wouldn’t be surprised if he helped the new slavers from the mainland set up shop… Knowing him, he probably took over everything and named himself lead slaver.”

“Come on, he doesn’t have that much power.”

“The slavers in the mainland know him… And fear him. This one time, he stomped this new guys head in because he scuffed his shoes. None of the people in the camp down there even looked in that direction in fear of suffering the same fate. I still think you should have killed him when you had the chance in that basement…”

“All things considered, I am still no murderer. Had he not been on the ground paralyzed, I’d probably had not thought twice. We’ll just have to deal with him when and if the time comes.”

“Yeah, guess so… Alright, guess I’m set.”

“Did you put the metal plating on the inside?”

“Yep. Saddlebags are all nice and armored. Can probably carry quite a few things in these. Still got to pack light though, nothing worse than carrying an overloaded saddlebag. It’s hell on the back.”

“Don’t worry, I don’t think I was- am a hoarder.”

“Please… You two be careful.”

“Don’t worry. We’ll be as careful as you can be when you are about to take on an evil organization that just brought and entire land to ruin! Well, seems bad when you put it that way…”

“Daring, shut up.” Placidity and I shared a laugh at Daring’s expense. Luckily, he seemed to be a good sport about it.

“All right, we need to get going. Be back… Well can’t say soon. But we’ll be back. Remember, if you start to worry, go see Shining. If you are that worried about us, see if he can send one of his men out to track us down. I’d rather you didn’t, but if it would make you feel better…”

“I’ll remember.” She and I embraced in a goodbye kiss, causing Daring to blush and look away. Was that from embarrassment, or… Pleasure. Still couldn’t tell, and frankly, I did NOT want to know. I gave Daring a playful shove and gestured that it was time to leave. As he exited the house, I turned back to Placidity and said what I was loathing…

“If… If anything does happen to me… Please, don’t mourn me. Find somepony else and live your life.”

“Please, don’t say that…”

“I know it hurts to think about it, but I need you to do it. If not for you, then for me. Please, promise me you won’t cling to me if anything happens.”

“I… Can’t make that promise. I’ll try, but I could never make that promise.”

“I understand… I’m sorry I brought it up, but it had to be said. I promise that I will return to you though.” She nodded to me as I slowly closed the door behind me. Daring looked at me and gave me a slight nod.

“You sure you want to do this? I’m with you one hundred percent no matter what you do, but is this what you want to do?”

“Can’t say it’s what I want to do… Rather, it’s what I need to do.” We started walking towards sector 2, where most small businesses operated out of. So many sectors… Yet somehow they managed to find a type of operation for each. Still didn’t know what each sector did, but I suppose I don’t really need to know at the moment… As long as Daring is with me anyways. “This isn’t even personal anymore… No, that’s a lie. It still is, but I can’t let revenge cloud my judgment.”

“Don’t worry. I know you’ll do the right thing when the time comes.” We walked in silence until we reached sector 2. Around the time of our arrival, snow began to fall again. This time the snow wasn’t a blizzard, but rather a very light flurry of snow that actually felt peaceful. Cold, but peaceful. We stepped into a nearby weapon shop. Immediately we were greeted by a rather happy mare that seemed glad to see customers.

“Well howdy there! Ya’ll look like your fixin’ to travel off yonder into the wastes. What can I do for ya’ll?”

“We’re looking for ammo to this gun.” I levitated my father’s out of the holster and placed it on the counter. “Got any?”

“Hmm… 45 caliber I reckon. Sure, got plenty of that.”

“How much?”

“Depends. How much ya’ll got.”

“Around 200.”

“That’s not bad. How’s… 75 round sound?”

“That all? That’s around 3 caps a bullet!”

“Sorry, but that’s the best I can do. Gotta look out for my shop!”

“Guess you do…” It was times like this that I wished I was better at bartering, but I could never do it for the life of me. Well, as far as I remember… Who knows, I may have had a silver tongue. Really doubt it though.

“Guess we got no choice. What’s the grand total?”

“225 caps. But since ya’ll are first timers in my shop, I suppose I can give you a welcome discount. 200 even sound fair?” Well, wouldn’t say fair… But I suppose it was the best deal I was gonna get. Wait! We still had that strange thing I got from the Shattered Ones to trade.

“Almost forgot. What can I get for this…? Thing.” I levitated the gun out of the bag and placed it next to my father’s gun.

“The criminy is that? Looks like a 10mm, but looks poorly modified.”

“It’s actually not bad. From what I was told, it can support a variety of ammo. The loader… Clip, whatever you call it, is also designed to prevent jamming.”

“I’ve honestly never seen anything like that.” I looked back to Daring who was browsing the rifles and harnesses. If his aiming with a mouthgun was bad… Don’t want to think about being anywhere near him with a harness.

“So, can you take it?”

“I don’t normally buy weapons, but I suppose I can’t pass up the chance to take that thing apart and see how it works. Who knows, if it’s good, I might be able to mass produce them.”

“So you’ll take it?”

“Shoot, I’ll take it. How much you wanting for it?”

“Does 300 sound fair?”

“300? Not on my grandmothers life. But I can see you two are struggling for caps, so I’ll take it for no more than 225.” Great… What do I say? Can’t quite make her pay 300, since I’d rather make some caps off of it… Shit, looks like I’m taking the deal. Yeah, one hundred percent sure I never had a silver tongue. With a sigh, I decided to accept.

“You got a deal.” She smiled and swiped the gun from the counter, replacing it moments later with a bag of bottlecaps. Strange… I imagined that 225 bottlecaps in a bag would be bigger, but apparently not.

“Thank ya’ll kindly. You still looking to get those bullets?”

“Yeah.” She nodded and grabbed the bag of bottlecaps and shook 25 of them out. Afterwards, she pushed the remaining 25 caps towards me and entered the back room. Probably going to get the ammo.

“Here’s your ammo. Be careful not to miss! That gun there looks like it would pack quit a punch. Probably has hell of recoil as well.”

“My father didn’t call it Thunderclap for nothing.” I remembered back to the time he would take me out back to shoot the gun… Each time I would pull the trigger, the sound would make me drop it and hightail it back into the house. Of course, that was back then… Wasn’t used to guns. Now it probably won’t faze me. Strange how I am able to remember small stuff like that… Guess the amnesia wasn’t permanent after all.

“Named his gun did he? Not very common nowadays, since ponies usually just sell their gun for a better one as soon as possible. Probably a damn good gun then.”

“I hope so.” I levitated the gun into its holster and the ammo into the custom compartment in my pack. But not before ensuring that the gun was fully loaded. After counting it, I came up with around 80 something bullets for it. Plenty enough to drop anything wanting to mess with us.

“So, is that all?”

“Daring, your gun have ammo?”

“Yep. Ashton never let us leave anywhere without at least 50 bullets.”

“Need anything else? We still got around 200 caps to spend.”

“Nope. We could probably get a couple potions with that, or we could chance it and hope to find some. Keep in mind that we don’t have any with us though. Probably don’t want to have to travel around with any injuries.”

“Yeah, I suppose your right.” I turned back to the cashier. “You wouldn’t happen to have any potions would you?”

“Nope, only guns and ammo. Try two shops down. Granite usually has various odds and ends. If you’d rather though, you could check the hospital over in sector 4.”

“We’ll try Granite. Thanks for the ammo.”

“No problem. Now ya’ll be safe, and remember to point any friends in my direction!” She waved her hoof as we exited into the fresh air. The snowfall had stopped once more, and the skies were mostly clear, indicating that the day was pretty much clear. Hopefully the radiation in the air didn’t affect the snow at all… But my Pip-Bucks Geiger counter wasn’t picking up on anything, so I guess it was safe.

“Did you see all those weapons in there?”

“Yeah, you seemed interested in them. You know, even though you shoot like a blind, crippled and mentally unstable pony.”

“Hey, it’s not that bad! Okay you’re right… It is.”

“I’d teach you how to shoot, but I never learned how to shoot with my mouth. Grow a horn and learn how to use magic though, and then I can teach you!”

“Yeah, I’ll get right on that. Just as soon as the mainland grows grass and global peace is declared forever.” We entered the shop, which was very tastelessly named Granite’s Trinkets. As soon as we entered, a tall stallion of tremendous stature walked up to us. Honestly, I was a bit scared.

“Welcome! I’m Granite!” He spoke with a booming voice, which actually seemed to shake the walls around us. Of course, that was just my imagination.

“H-hello there. We’re looking for potions. Healing potions to be exact.”

“Of course! Step up to the counter and take a gander.” As she walked behind the counter, I couldn’t help but look him over. I wasn’t… Interested in him or anything. Least I didn’t think so… Rather, I was wondering how it felt to be that buff. He barely looked like he could fit out the door! He had to be taking some sort of drug or something…

“Holy hell, you explore the wastes or something? You’re a freaking behemoth!” I snapped my head towards Daring. Please do NOT piss of the pony that could probably smash out heads in by just hitting us with his tail!

“Oh my no. I used to be a caravan guard, but that was just far too dangerous. To be honest, I actually couldn’t hurt a fly. Never even killed another pony.” We are so going to- wait what? How could something that big and… Monstrous looking never hurt anything?!

“You on drugs or something?” I immediately placed my hoof over my mouth in an attempt to hopefully catch the words before they escaped. Too late… To my surprise, he simply laughed.

“No, no. My family is just normally tall.” Tell me about it… He was at least a head taller than me! “I took that as an advantage and began to work out. Even though I could never hurt anypony, I like to instill a tiny bit of fear into would be attackers of the caravans. Even now it makes would be shoplifters think twice.”

“I apologize. We shouldn’t have gotten so personal.”

“It’s quite fine. It’s a welcome change from ponies just coming in, buying what they want, and hightailing it out. Anyways, I have plenty of potions to help you out!”

“Daring, you know more about potions that me… You handle this one.” I began to survey over the various odds and ends he had around. Most of the stuff looked completely useless, but also seemed collectable. I even began to think of a couple uses for some of the stuff… Could probably fashion a makeshift custom weapons from some of this!

“What types of potions you got? We’re thinking something small for now, but if you got the more effective stuff, then we’ll take that.”

“Sure, I got some small one shot potions that should heal anything from a small scrape to a knife wound. Or if you’re looking to go get yourself filled with bullets, I have some potions that will close that bullet hole right quick. Also got anything in between.”

“How much for each?”

“The cheapest I’ve got is 25 caps a vial. That of course is the one that should heal a cut. The ones that can fix a bullet hole go for around 100 caps. Also, for a very short time only, I’m giving one radaway per 200 caps you spend. That coming from the fact that radiation is suddenly a problem again, and I have plenty of it left over from my caravan days.”

“Give us one of the potent potions, and four of the cheap ones.” I continued to browse the miscellaneous trinkets. I now had a pretty good idea of something to fashion out of some of it… I love my brain and its ability to adapt and think of stuff like this.

“Hey, sorry to interrupt, but do you mind if I try and do something with a couple of these items?”

“Like what?”

“I’m not entirely sure, but I think I can make a weapon from a couple of these things.”

“Go right on ahead, but if you break it, you buy it. Granted none of that stuff is worth much, but still.” I nodded and began to grab some things as they continued the transaction. More specifically, I grabbed a switch, lead pipe, electric tape, battery, and a bit of electrical wire. I wasn’t sure how well this was going to work… But it would bug the hell out of me if I didn’t try.

“All right, here are your potions. Complete with a complementary pack of radaway.” I neared a nearby workbench and placed all the stuff onto it. Immediately I put the lead pipe in the middle and taped the bottom with electrical tape, making a makeshift handle. Not like I needed one, but seemed necessary in case Daring needed to use it. I actually felt a little safer knowing he might not need to be handling a gun…

“Thanks, Granite. Violet, you ready to go?”

“Just a sec… Almost done.” I attached to batter to the side of the lead pipe, near the bottom right above the handle. Next, I grabbed the electrical wiring and attached the ends carefully the battery. It took a bit of luck and scientific know how, but I eventually got the battery to start charging the wiring. Finally, I took the other ends of the wiring and connected them to the switch, which was taped carefully to the bottom of the handle.

“She always like that?”

“I really hope not.” Ignoring the two behind me, I grabbed the last two pieces of wiring. These two went from the switch to the lead pipe. A simple flick of the switch did as I hopes, and sent a violent spark of electricity to the lead pipe. The wiring in place, I taped a couple more layers over the wiring on the handle, so it won’t get bitten into. With a sigh of relief, I picked up the makeshift stun baton and turned towards my two onlookers.

“Not sure how exactly I got that to work, but it does. The battery supplies the power to the lead pipe, which is regulated by the switch. The handle is made by electrical tape so it won’t conduct through to the one holding it. The wiring is a bit unstable, which means it might need to be repaired quite a bit, but hey. It works doesn’t it?” I switched it back on, sending a spark of electricity through the pipe. The sounds of electrical humming were being emitted from it. Even though you couldn’t see the electricity, you knew it was flowing throughout the pipe.

“Well ain’t that something… I never thought to try and make weapons from all this stuff.”

“I’m still surprised that even worked…”

“Hey, tell you what. If you think you can draw up some blueprints for that thing, then I’ll let you take it. No need to pay for the supplies used to make it.”

“I’m no artist… But I suppose I could do my best.”

“Great! I’ve got some drawing utensils back here somewhere, and some blueprint paper lying around.” Despite his size, he moved rather lightly into the back room and returned a couple moments later holding a quill with ink, and a large piece of paper. “Here you go. Take your time.”

“Alright, guess I can try it out… How hard can it be?” I levitated the paper over to the workbench and grabbed the quill and ink. After about ten minutes of extreme focus, I managed to make a rough blueprint design of the makeshift stun baton. It wasn’t a hundred percent accurate, but if followed correctly, would produce a near exact replica of it. “Drawing is hard… But here you go.” I laid the plans flat out on the counter in front of him, which immediately prompted a smile from him.

“That is amazing! Forget the supplies that you used, I want to pay you for this. If you don’t mind, I want to make some of these and sell them.”

“I don’t mind, long as you don’t let them fall into the wrong hooves… Mouths or whatever.”

“Of course. Does… 500 caps sound good for these blueprints?”

“500 caps? Definitely. Who knew that a bit of curiosity could net a profit…”

“Hey, anything nets a profit nowadays.” He exited into the back room, and returned a moment later with a somewhat large bag full of bottlecaps. Weight wasn’t a problem, since that bag probably didn’t even weight a pound. I just worried about where we were going to store them. Daring could probably use one of his saddlebags.

“Well, this was a rather productive trip to the store. Excellent job Violet!” I couldn’t help but smile a bit. I did do pretty good… But can’t let that go to my head. “Anyways, we probably need to get going. We’ve spent an entire hour just going to two shops.” Daring grabbed the bag of caps and placed it into his saddlebag.

“Yeah, we have stuff to do anyways. See you around Granite.”

“Goodbye! Oh, hey. If you think of any other strange contraption like that, pay me a visit. I’ve got plenty of caps to spend on ideas like that.”

“I’ll make a note of it.” Daring opened the door and allowed me to exit. Once outside, I immediately looked up to see if the sky had lost some of its green tint. Unfortunately, there was no such luck. How does radiation have a color anyways? Maybe it was just a chemical reaction to the radiation meeting with fresh air. Either way, the greenness looked as if it was already going away from the sky. Unfortunately, that probably meant it was just settling onto the ground.

“So, where are we headed?”

“I have no idea. You’re the one who knows the wastes, where do you think we should check first?”

“I have a couple ideas, but we need a plan first. I’m all for helping you take the Shattered Ones out, as well as the Raiders and Slavers. But walking blindly around the wasteland in hopes of running into their leaders by chance is… Well, idiotic.”

“Yeah, you’re right. I guess I was just hoping that we would just be able to walk out into the wastes and just start fighting them.”

“Well for now, we should set a destination. We’re hunting the Shattered Ones, who are in turn hunting you. Same goes for the Slavers. And the Raiders and creatures need to be dealt with as they come up as well, but should be avoided if possible.”

“Do you have a destination in mind?”

“I’m not the best at planning stuff, but I think we should head to Ash Town.”

“Didn’t you say Ashton burned that place down?”

“He did. But some of the survivors rebuilt part of it and made it a small town. We should be able to talk to some of the people there; see if they saw anything. Even if they didn’t see or know anything, we are still doing something. It also wouldn’t hurt to scour some ruins as we come across them. We’re going to need everything that we can get.”

“What about those ministry buildings? There should be some good loot in those. Where is the nearest one?”

“Look up. Other than the Ministry of Magic-“

“Ministry of Arcane Science you mean.”

“-… Ministry of Arcane Science, the closest one is about twenty miles north of here. Unless you want to walk that, we probably aren’t going near one.”

“Damn… Probably would have been some good loot in there.”

“If we get near one, we can of course check it out. But don’t get your hopes up.”

“I’ll try not to. What about any weapon manufacturing factories? Are there any nearby?”

“Any of those have mostly been ransacked. The ones that haven’t are protected by those damned robots.”

“Hey, Granite mentioned something about Caravans. Any of them running nearby?”

“Yeah, there are always some by the north gate trying to trade their supplies. They’re in and out almost 24/7. Why?”

“I say we try and find one that is going to Ash Town. It’ll be much safer to go with a caravan rather than by ourselves. They know shortcuts and whatnot don’t they?”

“That’s… Actually a damned good idea. Groups attract more attention, but they are also safer. And you’re right; they do know all the shortcuts and ways to avoid the hills around here. They might also pay us to guard their caravan.”

“So it’s settled. We head to Ash Town by means of Caravan. We can break away to search any ruins we pass. Do you know of anything along the way?” We began to make our way to the north gate.

“Nothing majorly interesting. The only big thing of note is the ruins of the pre-war town of Ataraxy.”

“That’s a strange name for a town…”

“It was just a small village about the size of Ponyville, the town I mentioned in the restaurant. I would have been fine, but there was a reactor in the center of the town powering the place. As you probably guessed, the magic in it overloaded and the whole place went up like fireworks.”

“Anything worth salvageable?” I looked around the city as we walked through it. For the first time since I got here, the city was bustling with ponies’ walking about and talking on the streets. Despite the circumstances, they all continued as if the world had never ended. While we walked, I actually felt as if we were in the old world. Well, save for the earthquakes splitting the sectors.

“I have no idea. Never been there myself. Even though I talk as if I know a lot of the ruins, it’s mostly been from maps I’ve seen. Ashton only allowed us to go to them if he expected a future slave to be in them. But from what I’ve heard, it’s still got some stuff around it. Probably a couple shops with cash registers we could probably check.”

“Oh, speaking of that… You still got those bits?”

“Yep.”

“Can we make a quick stop at one of those vending machines?”

“Sure. Definitely don’t want to carry these things anymore.” We stopped out progress to the north, and instead walked to a nearby building. “They are mostly on the main streets, but they can also be found in any pre-war buildings around here.”

“Aren’t they mostly all empty by now?”

“No, the leaders of the-“

“The Ministry of Restoration.”

“Wait, there is a seventh ministry?” He gave me a puzzled look. For the first time, I was going to be able to educate him!

“Yep. Shining Horizon, the leader of the Warmth-Bringers, is also the leader of a new Ministry. Supposedly, this new ministry is supposed to be dedicated to cleaning up Equestria. Seems like it’s mostly focused on the Frozen Wastes though.”

“Well they were doing a rather good job of it until now… Anyways, the MR –Ministry of Restoration- usually fills these things back up.”

“Well that’s nice of them.” We stopped in front of a rather large blue, rusted box that had a slot for bits in the side of it. On the front was a large list of items, most of which were potions, food, or weapons. Overall, there seemed to be a little bit of everything in the thing.

“Take your pick. The price is to the left of each item, and the quantity to the right. Don’t ask how it knows the quantity, probably magic or something. Wouldn’t surprise me… Everything up here is run by magic.” I looked over the list. The prices were fair, but also expensive at the same time. The economy before the war must have been terrible… Potions were 10 bits, weapons going around 100. Somehow, I figured that the machine was modified by the MR to support weapons. If not, then the Pre-War world must have been dangerous as well.

“Get us five potions, and spend the rest on food.”

“You got it.” As he started to spend the bits on the supplies, I began to ask myself… Does he consider me the leader? I’ve never been the leader of anything… And would hate for him to think he has no control over anything. And the last thing I would ever want to do is lead him into danger because he thinks he has no say.

“Hey Daring…”

“Yeah?”

“You don’t think of me as the leader, do you?”

“Well, kinda. Yeah. I’ve always been a follower, and have no problem doing that.”

“I just don’t want you thinking you have to do everything I say; have to always be in my shadow. If you think I’m making a bad decision, or if I start to act strangely, I want you to take over for yourself and make sure I stay on the right track. We’re an equal team.”

“Guess I never thought of it that way.” He grabbed the final piece of food from the machine and placed it in his bag, and then turned back to me. “Ashton would always yell at anybody that dared to question him. Guess I’m still thinking like that. But I’ll get used to it, just give me a bit. Okay?”

“Sure. Now, what do you say we get going?”

“Yep. Let’s do it.” We continued north to the gate. Upon reaching it, I immediately saw tons of ponies gathered around bartering with each other. Some were yelling at each other, prompting the guards to run up and keep the piece; some were laughing and telling jokes as they traded. But no matter where you looked, there was a cart filled with supplies, each with about three armed ponies standing nearby.

“You weren’t kidding… This place is packed.”

“Yeah, the Caravans are important an important part of the Wasteland. Without them, the other towns probably wouldn’t get what they need to survive. And some even make occasional trips to the mainland to trade with some of the towns there. Of course, those Caravans rarely make it back… It’s a risky business. But if done right, you should be swimming in caps.”

“How do we know which one is going where?”

“Route color. It’s a new system that just went into place about a month ago. I still don’t know it very well, but I do know that the green route goes clockwise around the nearby towns. The first stop after Shattered Gleam is Ash Town.”

“How many routes are there?!”

“Too many to count. There are about five Caravans for each route. But they are incredibly organized, so you’ll never see more than one in the same place. There are also the freelance Caravans, which are owned by a single person. Those generally have more guards, and don’t have a set path. You may even see one camped out by ruins to trade with the scavengers as they find stuff.”

“Do you see a green route Caravan anywhere?”

“No, keep looking.” We began to look over the crowd of Caravans. Each cart had a color strip going down the side from wheel to wheel indicating which route they were on. But I still didn’t see a green one…

“Excuse me. I couldn’t help but hear you two were looking for the green caravan.” I turned to see a rather chubby looking colt. He had a baseball cap on, and had a bit of a beard growing. He also looked as if he had not even thought of bathing in about a month.

“Yes, we were.” I stepped aside and allowed Daring to do the talking. He seemed to know what he was talking about anyways.

“Then you’re looking for me! What can I do for you two?”

“We’re looking to travel with you to Ash Town.”

“Oh? As guards or you just looking to tag along?”

“Mainly just looking to tag along. We’re probably going to stop off at the town of Ataraxy.”

“I suppose you can tag along. Lucky you caught me. Was just about to leave, and the next Caravan won’t be ‘round for about twenty more minutes. You ready to leave?”

“Yep. We’re all set.”

“Good! Now, I can’t pay you if you do decided to help, but if we are attacked it would be nice if you two would help. But don’t worry ‘bout that. The green route is the safest of them all, due to the proximity to Shattered Gleam.”

“We got no problem with that, right Violet?”

“Nope.”

“Good. We’ll be in Ash Town by the time the sun starts setting.” I quickly glanced at my PipBuck. It was only 5:30?! This whole day seemed as if it had been dragging on for so long... So much had happened.

Before I knew it the caravan started moving out into the wastes. One of the guards pulled the cart, and the other three stood on the right, left, and behind it. The chubby guy, who I assumed was the leader, was continuously walking around the caravan, checking the wheels and merchandise. Every once in a while, I spotted him grabbing a food item and eating it vigorously. No wonder he was chubby…

“Hey, Violet.”

“Yeah?”

“Have you thought about what we’re going to do if we do find Ashton?”

“Not really. He’s not really that high on my list.”

“He should be. Look, I know that you’re hunting the Shattered Ones and I’m alright with that. But you can’t just ignore the fact that you have a seriously pissed off sociopathic slaver after you. As long as he is after us, we’re going to have a problem focusing on the Shattered Ones.”

“So what are you saying? We forget about the ponies that just basically destroyed an entire land to focus on a Slaver?”

“I know it sounds bad that way, but yes. We don’t have to just stop looking for them all the way, but we need to take care of this right now. Besides, the SO’s are probably in hiding after pulling a stunt like this.”

“Fine. We’ll focus on Ashton. But if it becomes too big of a distraction, I’m going to put it off for a bit.”

“That’s fine. Hey, I just had an idea… How big of a hell raiser can you be?”

“Pretty sure I can cause quite a stir. Why?”

“If we start a war with the Slavers, which we will if we find Ashton, we will be drawing quite a bit of attention to ourselves. And if the SO’s know it’s you causing the Slavers their problem…”

“They’ll come after me. Daring, I might kiss you for that idea.” He went wide eyed, much as I expected him to. That is NEVER going to get old.

“R-really?”

“Eh, prove yourself a bit more, and maybe.”

“You know, you are a major tease.” I laughed as we continued on. We were currently on a pre-war street that had the occasional billboard on the side. I couldn’t help but examine the ads for the various pre-war devices and food and such. But no matter where I looked, there was always some hint of war propaganda. It was actually rather depressing if you think about it.

“Daring, how old are you anyway?”

“Well that’s random. Why?”

“Just trying to make small talk. Walking in silence feels a bit awkward.”

“You’re right, it is. Fine, if you must know, I recently turned 21. I would ask you the same thing, but you know.”

“I don’t know my exact age, but I do remember getting a glance of it back in the SO facility I escaped from… It was 20 something. I don’t know. I have a feeling I’ll remember or find out soon enough.”

“Hey, we’re nearly to Ataraxy. You still wanting to stop off and check it out, or do you want to go to Ash Town and come back?”

“I don’t want to go to Ash Town and then have to circle back around. We’ll stop there now.”

“Sounds good. Hey, Mr. Caravan.” The chubby pony turned and looked at Daring. Of course, he had a half-eaten snack cake in his mouth.

“What?” Ew, he talked with his mouth open. Sure, we’re in the wasteland, but seriously? Even Slavers probably have more manners than that.

“We’re gonna split. Gonna search the nearby ruins of Ataraxy.”

“Have fun.” He turned back to the cart and began searching for another food item. How does he ever turn a profit if he just eats everything? Oh well, not my problem. We split away from the group and headed down the cracked side road. Some of the cobblestone from the road remained, but most of it had sunk below the dirt. And the stone that did remain was mostly coated by snow. It quickly became apparent that this side road was never traveled, since the road was eventually nothing but a field of snow.

“It’s fine. I think I know the way from here. Never liked those pre-war roads anyways. They have a sense of sadness to them, if that makes sense.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean. It’s sad to think that ponies use to travel them happily in the old world.” I stopped as my Geiger counter started clicking.

“What the hell is that?”

“My Geiger counter. We’re getting a tiny bit of radiation around here.”

“I’ve never run into radiation up here… Damned SO’s. Is it bad?”

“No, looks like it’s just about a rad per second.”

“That’s not bad. I think I read somewhere that it takes quite a bit of radiation to even get sick.”

“You ever have radiation sickness?” I looked down at the Pipbuck as the Geiger counter stopped clicking. Thank Luna…

“Once. But it was only minor.”

“I remember one time, about three years ago, I got some bad radiation poisoning…” Daring stopped as I spoke. It took me a moment to realize what I had just said.

“Did you just say you remembered that?”

“Yeah, I have no idea how. It just came to me…”

“Maybe you’re already getting better. Anyways, how bad was it?”

“Horrible. I was in some pre-war military base. Little did I know one of the bombs fell in the center of the base. The whole place was pocketed in radiation. Of course, I didn’t have a Geiger counter with me at the time. Didn’t even know I was irradiated until I started throwing up without any reason to. It started feeling like my insides were on fire, and it was all I could do to keep from passing out. Somehow, I managed to make it to a nearby town, where I passed out. I don’t remember anything after that, but I assume that they helped nurse me back to health.”

“Damn. All that happened to me was a bit of nausea. Keep a close eye on that Geiger counter. I’d rather not go through that.”

“Don’t worry. I’d rather not go through it again either.” We stopped talking as we walked over a final hill; on the other side, the small town of Ataraxy. Daring hadn’t been kidding… The whole place seemed like a ghost town. And sure enough, there was a medium sized crater in the center of the town. It had to have been a rather big generator to cause that big of a crater…

“Here we are. It’s not much, but we should find something useful. Can you see anypony moving down there?”

“Uhm… No. Looks deader than those caravan guards’s sense of humor.”

“I know right? How are you not going to laugh at the big guy tripping and getting a face full of food? They didn’t even budge. But we digress… Should we go ahead and go down, or wait and see if anything is down there?”

“We’ll go ahead and go down. If anything is down there, we can take it. Well, unless it’s radiation. But it looks clear from up here.”

“I don’t think you can see radiation.”

“You can’t.” I slide down the side of the hill into the town below. The whole town was a sad sight. Buildings barely stood on their foundations. Some had even begun to collapse, some of their walls fallen to the ground. And the snow lay upon everything, which made it look even more abandoned. Worst of all, when we took a step, it echoed throughout the entire town. Of course, the fat that it was enclosed all around by hills on all sides helped to amplify the echo.

“Alright, this place is giving me the creeps. I knew it was a ghost town, but damn. This is just depressing.”

“Tell me about it… I’m afraid to even try and levitate anything. This whole place could fall down at any moment.” We slowly made our way to the town center. I stopped as my right front hoof crushed something under it. I felt as pang of sadness as I looked down and saw a picture of a family. There was both a mother and a father, both smiling happily. On the father’s head was a small filly, who was smiling wide from ear to ear.

“Don’t think about them, Violet.”

“It’s hard not to… I wonder what that poor filly was thinking as the bombs fell. We go by every day worried about ourselves, but never really realize the pain the Great War caused. We never really think about small children like this, whose lives were immediately ended… Until it happens to us.” I felt my thoughts drifting back to that day when the Shattered Ones attacked my home. The only difference is that I was alive. This poor filly probably didn’t last through the night.

“I know you feel bad, and what I’m about to say may sound heartless, but she’s dead. She is in a much better place than this hellhole. It’s no use beating ourselves up, or feeling sorry for those before us.”

“You’re right.” I dropped the photo to the ground and continued down the road. It wasn’t easy to do, but I somehow managed to stop thinking about the small filly hiding somewhere in her house as mushroom clouds exploded all around her.

We continued walking down the street, stopping every couple of feet to listen for any sounds around us. After about five minutes of walking, we eventually made it to the center of town.

“Damn, that must have been a big explosion.” The town center was laid out to where the fronts of all the buildings were facing the center of the town. This was probably once a plaza where ponies met up with each other. But it looked like the moment the center exploded; it took half of all the buildings facing it off as well. None of the buildings had a front anymore, and a couple were halfway gone. One had collapsed entirely.

“Must have been a big magic overload. You better be careful if you go to charge something with magic from now on.”

“Obviously. So, what do we do now? We don’t have all night to search this entire town. Even if we do split up, we would still be searching by sunrise.”

“Most scavengers try the more intact buildings first. Higher chance to find something not ruined by the elements I guess.”

“Then that’s what we’ll do. We can try the shops first, but search a house if it’s in good condition. We’re bound to find something good that way.”

“Are we splitting up?”

“No, I still don’t like the looks of this place. It’s just far too quiet…”

“You can say that again.”

“Okay, it’s far too quiet.” I smiled as he gave me a blank stare that told me he was unamused.

“Alright, you lead. Oh, can I get that stun baton? I’m not a good shot, but I think I can swing a baton.”

“Sure.” I levitate it from my saddlebag and tossed it to him. Somehow, he managed to catch it perfectly in his mouth. Probably just good luck. “Good catch. Oh, and remember to turn it on.”

“I’m not an idiot.”

“Hey, just making sure.” We made our way into a nearby store, which appeared to have once been a general good store.

“I’ll get the register. See if there is anything in the back room.” I nodded to him and made my way into the back office. At first glance, the place seemed barren. I began to turn around, but stopped as I saw a painting on the wall. Strangely, it was slightly protruded off the wall.

“Hey Daring, I think I found something.”

“What is it?” I heard the sound of a cash register opening, followed by a thud.

“Not sure yet. Anything on your end?” I neared the painting and levitated off the wall. Jackpot! A safe and it didn’t look to have been raided.

“No, register is empty.” He entered the back room with me and looked at the safe. “Is it locked?”

“Yep.”

“Damn, that’s unfortunate.”

“Not entirely. I happen to know a nice little spell to take care of that…” I touched the lock of the safe with my horn and began to focus all my magic into the lock mechanism. After about two minutes, I heard the faint sound of metal breaking and backed away from it. “Ta da!” I levitated the door open to reveal a family photo with a bag of bits next to it. There was also a small .32 revolver next to it. Probably there in case of a break in.

“How did you do that?”

“Magic. A little spell that breaks the lock mechanism. Very useful if you need to get into something and don’t need to lock it back. The only problem is that it takes a bit of time, and isn’t exactly easy to do.”

“I wish I knew some magic.” I levitated the bag of bits out and placed them into my saddlebag. They were noticeably heavier than the bottlecaps, but indubitably more valuable.

“Looks like that’s all there is.”

“I say we split up. Search the place for about thirty minutes, then meet in the town hall and search there.”

“I still don’t like it, but you’re probably right. We’ll get so much more done split up. If you run into anymore locked safes, just make note of them and tell me when we meet up.”

“Can do. I’ll get the east side, you get the west.”

“See? Doesn’t it feel good to take charge once in a while?” I started to walk out of the building as I asked.

“Yeah, it does.” He followed me out and started to make his way to the east side of the town. After ensuring that he wasn’t being followed by anything, I made my own way to the west side. The first thing I noticed was all the windows on this side were boarded up, almost as if ponies had been barricading themselves inside. What were they hiding from? Eh, maybe I was just thinking too much into it.

I searched about four buildings, each time coming up with nothing. It looked like this entire side was ransacked and looted all the way. I was about to give up and make my way to the east side to find Daring when I saw a building that was all the way boarded up. By all the way, I mean it didn’t even look like there was a way in, which probably means that nothing had been in there. Perfect opportunity to find anything if you ask me.

Pulling the board off the front door, I couldn’t help but wonder if somepony… Or something was in there. Oh well, they’re probably dead anyways. But just to be sure, I levitated the door open from the side, and then yelled in.

“Anything in here? I don’t mean you any harm.” Silence. Looks like I was good to go in. Still cautious, I stepped inside and looked around the dark room. Not feeling like using my magic, I clicked the light of my Pipbuck on and held my front right leg out in an attempt to illuminate the room.

From the looks of it, this had been a small house. But it also looked like it had been left mostly intact. Well, given the circumstances anyways. Sensing that nothing was in deed in here, I began to search freely throughout the house. Each step I took shook old dust into the air, which was immediately illuminated by the light from my Pipbuck.

“Holy fuck, that’s a lot of dust…” I don’t know why I spoke out loud. Perhaps I was just getting uneasy by the silence. Nowhere in Equestria should ever be this quiet… I continued to search the house until I found myself in the kitchen. What the hell…? The refrigerator was actually working?! I looked over to a generator that was humming lowly. Somepony had supplied it with only enough power to make the fridge work. Doing so also made it make less noise. Pretty smart… But where was the genius behind it?

I quickly levitated my gun out of its holster in case the inhabitant was hostile. A quick check of my E.F.S revealed that there were not any life forms nearby. With a relieved sigh, I holstered the weapon and began to look around. This time not for supplies, but for a way that somepony could get in and out of the building. No doubt that somepony had been living in here, but how were they getting out retrieving supplies?

Another five minutes of searching revealed what I was looking for… The pony had cleverly fashioned a false wall, which could only be opened by sliding it into the wall. Whoever I was dealing with, they were clever. I’ll give them that. My heart skipped a beat as a green blip appeared on my E.F.S. that was either Daring looking for me or the inhabitant whose house I was intruding in.

Without any hesitation I darted behind a nearby sofa. Careful not to make myself easily detectable, I poked my head out and looked at the fake wall. Sure enough, I saw the wall start moving. Even though the E.F.S said he or she wasn’t hostile, I still drew Thunderclap just to be sure. The pony entered… And sweet Celestia… I felt my eyebrows lower in sadness and my mouth fall open. It was just a small filly… She was holding a small knife, and was trembling from the cold. Or fear, probably both for all I knew. I had to be careful not to scare her… I stood up and stepped away from the couch. When she saw me, her eyes went wide and she looked as if she was about to have a heart attack.

“It’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you. You’ve probably heard that from others before, but I promise you.” I carefully holstered my gun. I didn’t want to make any sudden movement, so as not to scare the poor filly away. “See? Me and my friend are just here looking for supplies. We’re the good guys.” My words loosened her up a tiny bit, but I could tell she was still terrified. Shit, what do I do? I can’t just leave her here… And I don’t think I could get her to be less afraid of me.

“W-Wh-Who are you?” She stuttered as she spoke. Didn’t sound like a speech impediment, most likely she was just terrified out of her mind. Honestly, I would be too.

“My name is Violet Glowingsnow. My friend’s name is Daring Dash. I’m sorry that I came in here. We didn’t think anypony lived here.”

“I-I’m the only one here.”

“Where are your parents?”

“They left with the people in black clothing.” People in black clothing? Did she mean the Shattered Ones?

“Was it metal armor?”

“N-no. Leather.” Leather… Oh merciful Celestia, she couldn’t mean…

“When did this happen?”

“Yesterday.”

“Did they call themselves Slavers?”

“No, but the one that was giving order called himself… As… Ash…”

“Ashton?”

“Yes, that’s it.” Oh sweet royal pony sisters…

“How old are you?”

“Eight… Are my parents going to come back?” Oh fucking shit… How do I answer that? I can’t just flat out say no, and I can’t lie to the poor girl…

“I… I don’t think so. That man they left with is bad.”

“Oh…” She didn’t look like she was about to cry. Rather, she looked like she was used to bad news. What was I supposed to do? I mean, maybe Daring and I could track down Ashton, but even then, then chances of finding her parents were very slim. And no matter what I did, I couldn’t just leave her here… This place had little to no supplies, and it wasn’t exactly safe.

“Did you set up that generator?”

“No, my dad did. He also made this fake door. They told me to not leave, no matter what. But I ran out of food, and I…”

“It’s alright. I know your dad probably told you to never talk to strangers and that is good advice. But I need you to listen to me. Staying here isn’t safe, and there doesn’t look like there is any food left.”

“I know…”

“If you want, I can protect you. Daring and I were hunting Ashton down. If you want, you can come with us and we can look for your parents.”

“I don’t know… I know I can’t stay here. I’m so hungry…”

“We have food if you want some. I know you don’t trust me, and that’s normal.”

“I trust you.”

“Okay, good. How long have you and your parents lived here?”

“About a year. There used to be more ponies living here.”

“What happened to them?”

“The bad ponies took them too. They would have got me too, if I hadn’t been hiding in the house.”

“So you had a whole town here? How many ponies lived in the town?”

“About thirty.”

“I see…” Holy hell, what do I do?! I need to take her away from this place, but I can’t keep her with me… And there is nopony I could trust to take care of her besides Placidity. And that would be bad; considering she has said multiple times that she is terrible with children.

“Are you going to find my parents?” I squatted down in front of her and looked her in her eyes.

“I will try. But you know, there is a chance that…” Celestia help me… How do I say this to her? “That they will never be coming back.”

“Oh…” Fuck, I felt terrible. Nopony should ever have to tell a filly that she might never see her parents again… I myself wanted to start crying, but I had to be strong.

“Come on. You can come with my friend and I, okay? We’ll keep you safe.”

“Okay…”

“I need you to listen to me carefully from now on though, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Good. If my friend and I run into any trouble, I want you to run and hide. Can you do that?”

“Yes. I’m good at hiding.”

“Good, good… Don’t worry. I won’t let anything happen to you. What’s your name by the way?”

“Sanguine. My dad always called me Sami for short though.”

“That’s a nice name.” I stood up and looked down at the filly. “Come on, Sanguine. We can’t stay here any longer. Ashton will probably send some people back to comb over for others.”

“You’re probably right.”

“Yes, I probably am.” I led her away from the false wall and out the actual front door. Not because I couldn’t fit, but rather because it seemed unnecessary to crawl through when a door was available. Sanguine and I continued down the dark streets until another green blip appeared on my E.F.S.

“There you are Violet. Sorry, didn’t turn up anything. What about… you…” He looked down at Sanguine, who was staring at the ground. “Please tell me that she’s just trying to sell you some cookies or something.” I shook my head and looked down at Sanguine.

“Her name’s Sanguine.”

“What happened?”

“It looks like you were right…” He gave me a puzzled look. “Ashton is a bigger threat than I thought. And it looks like he is now at the top of our priorities.”

“Please don’t tell me…”

“He came here yesterday, probably right after we got done with him. He took everypony, including her parents.” He looked at Sanguine and sighed.

“I knew he was evil, but Celestia… This is just going too far.”

“How fast does he usually get rid of…” I stopped myself from saying slaves. I didn’t want her to worry more than she already was. “You know.”

“He doesn’t actually do the… Uhm, transfer… That’s usually done at the nearest base of operations. But the newest… recruits are usually held for a minimum of a week to see if they are healthy and strong enough to… You know.”

“So we have about a week then?”

“Yes. Don’t worry, Sanguine was it? We’ll get your parents back.”

“Thank you.”

“It’s no problem, Sanguine. We had to find him anyways… I wish it was under better circumstances than this, but… Yeah.” Daring turned away from the filly. I could tell that he partly blamed himself for this… He was probably still dwelling on the fact that we didn’t kill him in that basement when we got the chance. Honestly, I felt responsible as well. Maybe that was why I decided to take her in until we found her parents? But I still kept thinking… what was I supposed to do if we couldn’t find them? I couldn’t bring her with me knowing who and what I was going up against… It’d be far too dangerous for her.

“Daring, give her some food.”

“Sure. Here you go, Sanguine.”

“Thank you.” She happily took the food and opened it.

“I’m sorry to ask, but can you eat over there for a moment? Daring and I need to talk.” She nodded and walked to the front of a nearby house and sat down.

“What is it?”

“I got to thinking… What the hell do we do if her parents are dead? Or worse? We can’t just drag her around the wastes.”

“I know… But this is partly our fault. If we had just killed-“

“I know that…! I know. She said she knows how to hide, which is good. But it’s still not good enough.”

“Is there anywhere we could take her?”

“No.”

“What about Placidity?”

“She is terribly with children. She told me a story once about how she had to watch a friend’s filly for a bit. Ended with her having to spend a night in the clinic for stress.”

“Damnit… What about that guy you said is leading the Ministry of Restoration?”

“He’d be too busy with having to protect the city. A filly would just get in the way.”

“Fucking shit. Guess we better hope we find her parents…”

“Yeah… We do.” We both looked over at Sanguine, who had finished eating and was now looking at the ground, tears dropping steadily from her eyes.

Footnote: Level Up!

Perk Taken: Filly at Heart – You have the heart of a child, which means you’ll be able to instill calmness in fillies near you; fillies will trust you much more than before.