Fallout: Equestria - Shadowless Augury

Fallout: Equestria – Shadowless Augury

Chapter 4: Unstable Naïvety

“You wear a mask of this city’s hero. You are the pretender.”

Sleep is good. I didn’t know how much sleep I got in the stable’s clinic. Regardless, I still felt like I needed sleep. Cor and Shadow definitely needed sleep. Rose led us to the common room the other pegasi were in. The three of us took the first empty bunks we saw and plopped our gear and ourselves down.

It was hard to sleep with all the ponies talking to each other about the lacerators and getting out of the stable. I wanted to sleep, but ponies just kept yapping. I was tired though. I’d sleep soon enough.

* *           * * *        * *

Everything was dark.

Where was I? Was this a dream?

I tried walking around. I felt my legs move, but it didn’t feel like I moved. “Hello? Anypony here?” I asked aloud. I kept “walking” through the darkness. A bright purple light came from a circular platform that just emerged beneath me. Black silhouettes of birds flew around that concealed the light. “What’s happening?” I asked aloud.

“Are you a failure?” a mysterious voice asked me. Each syllable made the light beneath me pulsate.

“What?” I barely asked.

It repeated its question. “Are you a failure? I ask this, but I already know the answer.”

“Is it your answer or my answer?” I asked the mysterious voice. “Because my answer is ‘no, I’m not a failure.’”

“Then why do you feel guilty for your parent’s death? Is it because you believed you failed them? But if you didn’t fail, as you believe, then why have guilt?” he asked me. Was I feeling guilty? Was that the feeling inside me?

“Maybe I do feel guilt,” I told the voice, “but I’m not a failure.” I just saved so many, how could I come close to being called a failure?

“Then stop telling yourself you’re a failure.” I wasn’t telling myself I was a failure though. I was doing the opposite. “You hold yourself responsible for their death, and you believe you could have done better. You believe you’ve failed to save them. Your redemption is saving everypony you see. Are you saving them because you want to or because it makes the pain go away? Or is it what they wanted?” Mom and Dad would want me to save ponies, but that isn’t the entire reason I save.

“I’m saving ponies because it’s the right thing to do. If I don’t do it no pony else will. Not enough ponies are crazy enough to do what I do.”

“If you stopped saving ponies, what would happen? Would Equestria fall to even more chaos and ruin, like you believe it would, or would ponies fix their problems?” I wasn’t going to let fate decide what would happen. I wasn’t even going to give fate either of the two options. No, I was going to fix this myself with whatever help I could get.

“Fate can only guide me. Fate can encourage my actions,” I told the voice. “I have to make my own decisions. Fate can’t make Equestria better or worse, but it’ll bring us on a path. Then ponies have to make the choice for themselves: make things better or let things become worse.”

“You speak truth, but a part of you still holds onto the belief that you have failed and that you will fail. You want to live up to their example, but you’re not strong enough to do it.”

“Their example was saving ponies and doing the right thing. Maybe I can’t do it alone, but I’ll find help. Together we will strengthen ourselves and make things right.” I sat down on the platform. Whoever was talking to me had a point. I wasn’t strong enough to do this myself, but I wouldn’t let that or anything else stop me.

“Then prove yourself wrong by doing the right thing,” it told me.

“Prove myself wrong?” I mumbled. Wouldn’t that mean doing the wrong thing? I wanted to do the opposite though. Everything started fading to black.

* *           * * *        * *

        I opened my eyes to a dark and quiet room. Everypony was sleeping peacefully, except for me. I got up, took out my half empty bottle of vodka, and went to the roof of the building.

        It was a dark night and no lights illuminated the town. I sat down on the weathered edge of the building that overlooked the town. I wasn’t at the highest viewpoint in Bedrock, but I still had a good view over most of the town.

I took a few sips from my bottle. I thought of the dream I just had. “Prove yourself wrong by doing the right thing.” The words stood out so clearly from everything. If I was proving myself wrong I would have to be doing the wrong thing. Was the voice implying that I wanted to do the wrong thing?

I didn’t want to think about this now. I wanted to go back to sleep. The thought of the dream was the only thing standing in the way of that.

I looked around. The location of this town was actually perfect. The incredibly tall buildings helped to conceal Bedrock, and so did the fact that the town was built in a sinkhole in the middle of the road. Piles of rubble served as a wall for the town while not looking suspicious.

My eyes wandered to the top of the tallest building. I could barely make out a small figure at the top and a corresponding green bar on my E.F.S. I stared at it and it stared back at me. In less than a second it shot into the night sky and vanished from sight and my E.F.S.

That was weird.

I looked in the sky for the figure, but I couldn’t see anything. After giving up I took another sip of vodka. The figure helped me forget about my dream, but it started coming back. Was I a failure? Why was this question coming up so often in my dreams? Was it because I felt guilty?

No. I wasn’t doing this now. I took another sip of vodka and let my mind wander.

Where do we go next? Well we had to do the jobs Cobblestone asked us to do, but what about when we started looking for Red Rum again? Somepony had to know who he was, but who? That mysterious buck back at Prute might be able to tell us more. The safe house where I saw Project Hard Light might have a few answers.

The dark figure came back into my view. As it flew closer to me I noticed its orange and blue color. The familiar orange pegasus in a blue jumpsuit landed on the roof and skidded next to me. “Hey,” the mare from the clinic said vibrantly.

“Hey,” I said back to her.

“I’m guessing you can’t get much sleep either.”

“Pretty much,” I told her. “What’s keeping you up?”

“I’m just… feeling a bit haunted is all.” Her face looked like it was haunted. I couldn’t hope to imagine what being trapped in that stable would have been like. She had to watch the ponies she knew and loved get massacred.

“Maybe this will help,” I said as I offered her my vodka. She looked at the bottle skeptically. “Come on, it’s not bad. They say it’s perfectly healthy to drink your troubles away.”

“I think they say the exact opposite.” She took the bottles in her hooves anyway. She sniffed it once and immediately brought her face away from it. “This smells like rubbing alcohol,” she said in disgust.

“Someponies like the taste,” I said. “You’ll never know until you try it.”

She took the smallest of sips. Her face twisted and she said, “Ugh, it tastes like rubbing alcohol too.” She didn’t hesitate to give me back the bottle. I merrily took another sip from the bottle. “How do you even drink that?”

“I like the taste,” I said. “It helps me lose focus, which is good for me. I don’t want to focus on anything now.”

“So what’s keeping you up?” she asked me.

“Dreams,” I said, intentionally keeping it vague.

“Not being very specific. I’m guessing you don’t want to talk about it,” she assumed. I nodded my head. “Thank you, again, for saving us. I don’t think everypony has thanked you and your friends, so I’ll speak for those who haven’t.”

I shrugged and said, “It’s nothing.”

“It’s not nothing,” she replied in amazement to my previous comment. “You saved so many ponies. If you hadn’t come when you did I’m sure all of us would’ve been dead.”

“It’s just what I do. I’m going to save the Wasteland, even if it takes my entire life,” I told her. “Nothing’s going to stop me either.”

“So you’re a pony with a dream?” I nodded my head. “My dream is to save others. That’s why I became a doctor,” she told me. “It just feels good knowing you helped somepony else. I guess that’s why I like it. You know that feeling of course. Sadly though, that job’s gone now.”

“That job is most certainly not gone. The Wasteland is never short on doctors. Anypony out here can attest to that,” I said. “You could be a doctor here, but you might not get too much traffic. The town’s small and probably no ponies will come into town.”

“So where do you think I should go?” she asked.

“This town isn’t bad. It has everypony you know, but another town wouldn’t hurt. It would be a good way to make friends, and you could probably be a doctor there,” I suggested. She thought about it for a moment.

“What do you do?”

“Go on adventures, help ponies, get revenge, you know, the usual stuff.” She gave me a funny look after saying that. “What? That’s common in the Wastes. At least most of it is.”

“Adventures,” she said then stopped to think about it. “What are these adventures like?”

“Why? Are you actually thinking about adventuring?” I asked in slight disbelief.

“A little bit,” she said playfully.

“You’ve been out of your stable for less than four hours.” She gave a simple nod in response. “Adventuring can be dangerous you know.” She gave another simple nod. “Do you even have any experience fighting or shooting?” She gave a simple shake of her head. “You don’t even know half of the things you’ll find out there.” She gave another nod. “And you still think it’s a good idea?” She waited a moment before giving this nod. “You’re crazy.”

“Well it sounds a lot more interesting than being stuck in a small room helping ponies on the verge of death. Besides we all have to learn some way.”

“I just don’t want you getting hurt,” I told her.

“Why are you being so protective over me? We hardly know each other,” she said almost defensively.

“I’m looking to keep everypony safe, whether I know them or not,” I said.

“I can take care of myself,” she said. “Just let me travel out there with you for a few days. I’ll choose what I want to do after that.”

I thought about it for a moment. She couldn’t fight. We could teach her how to hold a gun easily and S.A.T.S. could help her shoot. She could fly. She wouldn’t have a problem evading enemies. She was a doctor. She could definitely help us and herself when we get hurt. She was eager. She would either get wrecked quickly or not get wrecked in the slightest.

“I’m not going to say I’m giving you a chance,” I said, “but I’m considering it.”

“You know it’s going to be a ‘yes’,” she said with a confident smile on her face.

“Whatever you say,” I said. “Just get some sleep. We’ll talk about this tomorrow.” I started walking away. I was hoping she wouldn’t be too trigger-happy when we got out there. Yes, it was a ‘when’, not an ‘if’. She was right about that. I had to give her a hint of doubt to make sure she wasn’t going to be too excited when we got out there. I only hoped it worked the way I planned.

I went back to the sleeping quarters and just fell back into my bed. I wanted to sleep, but it just wasn’t happening. “Yo,” Cor called me, “where’ve you been?”

“Did I wake you?”

“No, just wondering where you went,” he said.

“I just took a trip to the roof for a drink. This mare was there. She said she wanted to tag along with us for a while,” I told him.

“And what did you say?” he asked me.

“I didn’t say ‘yes’, but I’m thinking it.” He nodded. He trusted my decision. Not blindly of course, but with certainty that I knew what I was doing. Sometimes he gets a bit skeptical, but he’s usually trusting of my decisions. I guess that’s why I’m the “leader”, or whatever comes close to a leader. Sometimes I don’t trust my own decisions though. “Do you think it’s the right choice?”

“Maybe. Do you think it is?” I simply shrugged. “What about her?” he asked as he pointed to Shadow. “Do you trust her?”

I nodded. “She blew up an entire safe house for us,” I reminded him.

“Her name is Twisted Shadow, remember? I don’t care what she said about not being twisted, but you heard what she did to that buck. She butchered him. She beat that buck in the metro until his head was nothing more than a bloody mess, and she blew up her own Samdiny friends. She’s definitely twisted,” he said. “I don’t want to get stabbed in the back.”

“Trust me,” I said. “I know she’s secretive and all, but that’s because she feels hurt by the Samdiny. That’s why she doesn’t like talking about them and feels no trouble or remorse killing them.” He still looked at me skeptically. “Trust me on this.”

“Fine,” he said. “I’ll trust you, but I don’t trust her yet.”

“You’re going to have to. She’s going to be staying with us for a while after all.”

“I probably will eventually,” he said. “It’s just hard to.” It was hard for most ponies. Most ponies would think I was insane for so easily trusting a pony that came from the same group that killed my parents, but I knew there was good in her. “I’m going back to sleep. Goodnight.”

“Night,” I said. I forced my mind to let go of everything, and slowly, I began to sleep.

* *           * * *        * *

“Wake up,” Cor said and nudged me. “We got a job to do, a few jobs actually.” I crawled out of bed and got all my gear on. We woke Shadow up. “So which pony’s coming with us?” he asked.

I walked to the sleeping mare with the orange coat and teal mane and woke her up. She barely crawled out of bed.

“It’s so early," she complained.

I looked at my Pip-Buck for the time. “It’s half-past ten,” I said.

“Yeah, it’s early,” she continued to complain. “So am I in?”

“Yes, you’re in,” I responded. A smile few on her face as I said that. “Just don’t get too excited.”

“So what’s the game plan for today?”

“We have to do a few jobs for the buck that runs this place so these pegasi can keep their home,” I told her. “And we have to get you armor.”

“I don’t need armor.” We gave her a look of apprehension. “What? I’m faster without armor. Besides, I can take care of myself.”

“We’re not leaving until you’re wearing armor,” I told her.

“Why?” she asked.

“Because bullets hurt, that’s why.”

“Armor’s overrated anyway. I mean who wears armor anymore?” she joked. “Seriously though l don’t need or want armor. I’ll be fine in this stable barding.”

“No, you won’t be,” I said to her. “I’m not going to have you getting hurt so badly when you get shot, even if it costs a little bit of speed.”

“Ugh, fine. I’ll wear the dumb armor. And since I’m being rude to all of you,” she turned to the rest of us, “I guess it’s time to apologize and introduce myself. My name’s Minum. Nice to meet you and all that stuff.” We introduced ourselves to her and headed off in search of the general store.

The town’s layout was confusing. Trying to find a general store or an armory was almost impossible; we spent over twenty minutes walking around trying to find it. After giving up and being pointed to the small stone building, we went inside to find a buck and a mare of the same color hitting a rock on the counter between each other.

The inside wasn’t very furnished. The only things here were a counter and a door leading to the back. Oh, and a lone plastic chair covered in dust.

You can never forget the chair.

They didn’t notice us come in. I tapped my hoof on the ground to get their attention. They turned to me simultaneously. “Oh, customers… maybe,” the steel blue buck said apathetically. “I’m Lapis…”

“… and I’m Lazuli,” the mare finished the sentence just as apathetically. “Welcome to our shop. Buy to your heart’s content… because no one ever buys from here,” she whispered the last part. Maybe the reason no pony bought was because of their attitude. At least show some energy.

“Hey, just looking to see what you have in stock,” I said to the bored pair. “Do you have any armor? Something for a pegasus. And a battle saddle?”

“I still don’t want the armor,” Minum said to me.

“Well we’re going to need something when you realize you need it. Bullets hurt, just a heads up before you say you keep insisting you don’t need armor.” She scoffed, and I looked at the blue pair.

“We might have something,” Lazuli said with slightly more interest. She opened the door behind her and went in. She came back out with blue armor that looked similar to the stable jumpsuit Minum was wearing. “This used to belong to a friend,” she said as she placed it on the counter. “A little work could be done to it, make it a bit better. No battle saddles though.”

“We’ll make do without it then, thank you,” I said. Minum took a closer look at the armor. “See something you like?”

“Something’s off,” she said as she examined it. “There’s an ‘85’ on it.”

“So…?”

“That’s my stable. My stable never opened. How did you know this ‘friend’?” she asked Lazuli.

“Well, according to the Overmare, Aurum, and those two other ponies out here, the stable has opened,” I told her.

“But that was recent, wasn’t it? Who was this ‘friend’?” she asked again.

“She claimed to be from a stable,” Lazuli said. “I haven’t seen her in years though. She reminds me of you actually, but… No, there’s no way. Lapis, you see it too right?”

“Yeah, I see it. Do you really think…?” She nodded with conviction.

“I’m confused,” Minum said.

“Do you remember your mother at all?” Lapis asked her.

“No, Dad said she died when I was a foal. Did you know her? Is she… alive?” Minum asked with a piqued interest.

“I can’t guarantee you she’s alive, but knowing her she has to be. I remember the first time she walked into this little shop,” she reminisced. “She was a young mare, around your age actually. I took her stable jumpsuit and armored it. She gave it back to us before she went on her ‘final adventure’. Trust me when I tell you she’s still alive.”

“My mom’s alive?” Lazuli nodded her head. “What did she look like? What was she like? Can you help me find her?” Minum spat the questions out.

“Whoa, whoa, one question at a time. She looked a lot like you, actually. You have her eyes,” she said. “She had to be one of the kindest souls in the Wasteland. She saved this little ol’ shop of ours more than once. I swear every inch of her is made of steel. Nothing even came close to stopping her. When you walked in here, you had the same look as her, and I can tell the two of you share the same aspiration.”

Minum started leaning over the counter. “What about finding her? Where is she now?”

“I don’t know. I don’t think anypony knows.” Minum took a sad step back. “I’m sorry we can’t help.”

Minum took another step back. Her face showed despair “What’s her name?” she asked in a low voice.

“The Gallant Warrior, Sonder,” Lazuli said. “After all she’s done for us; I can never forget her name.”

“Sonder,” Minum repeated her mother’s name. She sat in thought for a moment.

“So how much for the armor?” I asked.

“You know what, take it. It’s free. It just needs a few repairs and it’ll be good as new,” she said. She gave the armor to Lapis. He took it over to a bench and started making repairs to it.

“Thank you,” Minum said.

“Oh, it’s nothing,” Lazuli said. “I’m assuming you’re going to try and find her.” Minum nodded with conviction. “Good. Promise me this: If you find her, give her our regards and this.” She put a silver container on the counter. “We’ve been holding onto this for a while. We couldn’t deliver it ourselves though.”

Minum examined it. “What is it?” asked as she examined it.

“It’s just a little gift. You can open it if you’d like, but you probably won’t understand it.” Minum opened the box and inside was nothing more than silver slabs stacked on top of each other. I’m sure it’ll help her out plenty. You’ll understand more when you find her,” she said, leaving it intentionally vague. Minum nodded. Lapis came back and put the armor on the counter.

“Thank you,” Minum said again. She gladly put on the armor. We traded whatever I thought we didn’t need. I kept one assault rifle for Minum and got it repaired, and then left the store.

Now she was going to stay adventuring in the Wastes. She needed to look for her mother. I didn’t know if she was going to be with us the whole time, but she was probably going to be with us for some time. Now I just needed to make sure she could take care of herself. At least she was wearing armor now.

“Now we have to teach you how to use a gun,” I said to her. I levitated the assault rifle I kept and gave it to her. “The ‘X’ in the middle of your vision is where your shot will land. If you need to aim better then S.A.T.S. should help you out. It lets you choose which limb you want to attack, but the spell takes a little while to recharge. Any questions?”

“Yeah... how do I even hold this?” she asked as she gawked at the weapon.

“A battle saddle would work, but they’re out. You could try holding it with your hooves,” I suggested.

“And how would that work?” she asked.

“I’m sure you could figure it out. Unless you want to be stuck with this,” I said as I levitated out a small 10mm pistol. “Ponies without magic can hold smaller guns in their mouth. Pick one.”

“Why not both?” she suggested. She took the both the pistol and the assault rifle. With both weapons in her possession, the assault rifle on her back and the pistol in a holster, she was ready to go.

Now came the task of completing our jobs. We left the stone town and headed for our first task: getting supplies from a nearby school that had been converted into a relief center. Maybe this school day was going to be less hectic than the last.

* *           * * *        * *

It was a short walk compared to the last few days. As we walked down the block of destroyed buildings, I could spot the school on the corner. It was in slightly better condition than the rest of the buildings. Hopefully the supplies we were looking for weren’t already looted.

As we approached the school I noticed the sure signs of raiders. Limbs and mutilated bodies hung from chains, and skulls and blood decorated the ground. Raiders were dumb and high out of their mind on drugs though. A fight shouldn’t last long, but raiders were also merciless brutes. They wouldn’t stop fighting no matter what.

We slowly walked inside the building. The inside reeked. Decomposing bodies filled the hallway. This was a drastic change from the last school.

I didn’t see any raiders yet. My E.F.S. wasn’t clear though. We walked through the hallway and to the gym. Looking through the window I could see makeshift beds, some boxes, and raiders doing… well, raider things, shooting up chems, neglecting guard dogs, and loitering.

“So how are we doing this?” I asked everypony. No pony gave me an answer. “I guess I’m calling the shots then.”

I didn’t want to go in lighting everypony up. I wanted an actual plan. I didn’t want Minum’s first Wasteland fighting experience to be bad, but it was going to be bad no matter what. Actually, a crazy fight might be good for her, a lesson on how to fight.

“All right, here’s the plan: CHARGE!!!” I screamed and bust through the door. Dad’s assault rifle was enveloped in my magic’s lavender glow. I used S.A.T.S. to put three bursts of bullets into the closest target’s body. It brought her to the ground quite easily. I fired half of the remaining magazine at the raider next to her. The remaining half went into the raider after that.

Cor and Shadow came in while I reloaded. Cor’s shotgun blasted one raider to giblets. Shadow’s shotgun turned the last raider’s head into a red goop.

The emaciated dogs were still up though. They jumped at us. One bit my foreleg as it charged. The growling canine wasn’t letting go of me. I batted it with the hard metal casing of my Pip-Buck. It fell limp after three hits connected. The other dog was already drowning in its own pool of blood by the time I turned to attack it.

I noticed Minum didn’t come in with us. She was just outside of the gym. Her face was filled with shock. “You just… killed them?” she asked. “Why?”

“They were raiders, nothing more than drugged up fighters. They’re not even good fighters. Before I forget to ask, did you miss the hanging limbs and bodies outside, in the lobby, and in the hallway?” I asked her.

“These ponies aren’t sane,” Cor said. “It’s better to attack them before they attack us.”

“How do you know they’ll attack us?” she asked in legitimate concern for the raiders. “All three of you came in and out of my stable like you were heroes, and then what? You just come in here shooting the first ponies you see?”

“Minum, don’t lecture us on what’s right or wrong. Remember how long you’ve been in the Wastes for. You don’t know how these things work. This is why I didn’t want to take you with us; you’re too naïve. You want to think everypony is good. I understand that, but they won’t show the good in them,” I told her.

“Did you even give them a chance,” she asked. I didn’t right now, but that was because they’ve had chances to prove themselves in the past. If they didn’t take the chance then, why would they take the chance now?

A moment later she started picking up the supplies we came for: healing potions, chems, food, water, most in perfect condition even after close to two hundred years after being made.

“Don’t forget to loot the bodies,” I said to her. She grimaced. “We need to see if they have anything valuable on them. Like guns, food, water, ammo, the essentials.”

“That’s just wrong,” she said. “No respect for the dead either?”

“More like little respect for the bad,” I said. “You’re going to have to learn the rules of the Wastes if you ever want to survive out here. One of those rules includes looting; it’s a means of survival.”

“But the end doesn’t always justify the means. I’m not looting the bodies,” she told me. I was perfectly fine with anypony with good ethics, but I feared she wasn’t going to last in the Wasteland. Too much compassion is the ultimate downfall because the Wasteland doesn’t allow ponies to be too compassionate. The saddest part is that it’s true. There’s only one pony who’s been more compassionate than what’s allowed, and that’s Mom. But she’s gone now, and nopony can change that.

Cor, Shadow, and I looted the bodies and picked up the rest of the supplies we came for. “Let’s check out the rest of this place,” I told them. “You never know what raiders have in store.” We might just find more supplies or ponies needing assistance.

We walked out of the gym and headed to explore the rest of the school, but before that I said, “All right, let’s split up. Minum, you’re with me, we clear the left side of the school. Cor and Shadow, you clear the right.” Minum was quiet, but she didn’t look happy to be paired with me. “Problem?” I asked her.

“No, not at all,” she said sarcastically. I wasn’t changing the arrangement though.

“Let’s head off then,” I said. She reluctantly followed me into the cafeteria. Hopefully this wouldn’t kill her too much.

The cafeteria had the same raider motif as the outside. It was absolutely filthy, as was the rest of the school so far.

A Sparkle-Cola machine was there for a nice drink. I opened the machine up and found three sodas. “Drink?” I offered one of them to Minum.

“This one better not taste like rubbing alcohol,” she said. She took the soda and took a drink. “It’s so flat and warm,” she commented.

“Yes, but it does have a delicious carrot taste. And we’ve made two caps,” I said as I levitated the Sparkle-Colas’ cap into my bag.

We went into the back of the cafeteria. It was a cornucopia of food. Several bottles of Sparkle-Cola were also there for our taking. We packed all of it into our bags. I helped myself to a Fancy Buck Snack Cake and InstaMash without feeling too guilty for taking some of the food intended for the ponies at Bedrock.

We headed out of the cafeteria and cleared the left side of the first floor. There wasn’t anything of interest until we found the nurse’s office. A few purple healing potions, medical bandages, and chems were in here. We took everything of value in the room.

Before opening the door to leave I noticed three red bars on my Pip-Buck. “There are more raiders here,” I whispered to Minum. “If it’ll make you feel better, we could try to see if there’s any good that’ll come out of them.”

“Yes, it will make me feel much better actually,” she said. I put Dad’s assault rifle away, her gun hadn’t even been out. I opened the door a crack and shouted, “Don’t shoot! We don’t even have our weapons drawn.” We slowly crept out.

“Who the fuck are you two?” a scary looking mare asked.

Before we got a chance to answer a buck next to her said, “Who cares? We got us some fresh meat!” He started taking out his gun, and I didn’t hesitate to drop him as he lifted his gun toward us. The mare shot at us. The bullets barely penetrated my armor; raider guns were usually in terrible condition. S.A.T.S. aided me in destroying her head. Her blood and brain sprayed onto the wall behind her.

“And that’s what happens when you don’t shoot them,” I said to Minum.

“All right, fine, you win,” she said in defeat. “It’s just weird for me. I’m not used to seeing ponies walk into a room and shoot the ponies inside without reason. I guess my stable was more orderly”

“I know taking another life is foreign to you, but that’s going to have to be your best friend in the Wasteland.” Fresh out of the stable and I was already telling her she needs to kill ponies. I was the perfect instructor.

“I don’t want to be a killer,” she said. From her face I could tell it saddened her to think of anypony dying, whether they were good or bad. I didn’t want any killing either, but, sadly enough, certain things needed to be done.

“I know you don’t want to kill. I hate killing,” I told her. She responded with a strange look. “With how good I am at it, you’d think it’s I’d like it, at least a bit, and that’s the worst part. I’m so good at something I hate so much.” I liked fighting, fighting for fun that is. Sparring with Cor was fun. But I didn’t like having to fight to the death. I liked giving ponies the chance to tap out, like that buck in the safe house. I didn’t want to pop his shoulder, so I gave him a chance. I think I made the right choice then.

“You don’t have to kill, right?” she asked with her stable naïvety. I didn’t want to tell her that was how the Wasteland worked. It was her first time exposed to this type of atmosphere; she didn’t need me telling her these things yet. I needed her to fight for us, but maybe she wasn’t ready for this yet.

“Let’s talk about this another time.” I didn’t know when the right time was to teach her how to fight, but if she was going to go on a search for her mother and be with us for a while, then it had to be soon. “C’mon, we have to finish clearing this place out.”

We went up the stairs. The second floor was clear, so was the third. I noticed a mess of green bars merged together and three red bars in my vision while we were on the third floor. Since I couldn’t find anything on the other floors, I assumed it was on the fourth floor. The green bars were everywhere; there could’ve been friendlies in all of these rooms.

We reached the fourth floor. The first room we looked into had caged ponies inside, and so did most of the rooms we checked after that. We didn’t help the ponies inside just yet; we needed to take down those enemies first.

The red bars appeared to be coming from all one room.  I took a peek through the window of that room and saw ponies in cages lining the room and… a Samdiny officer? What the hell were they doing here?

I could see his mouth moving, but I couldn’t hear him. “Hostages are in there,” I whispered to Minum. “Which means this is going to have to be a delicate procedure. You don’t have to shoot, but you might have to.”

“I don’t want to kill anypony. Can’t we wait for everypony else to come?”

“Fine, we’ll wait.” I looked back through the window. The officer went from talking to shouting. He was losing his patience. He pulled out a gun and pointed it at the caged ponies. “Shit, they’re running out of time. Take your gun out,” I commanded. I wasn’t whispering anymore.

“I told you—”

“Minum, I know you don’t want to, but you’re going to have to,” I said. She held her pistol in her mouth. I was intent on dropping the matter ever since our last encounter, but if she didn’t help shoot them, then the caged ponies would be gone. “Ready?” I asked. She shook her head.

At least she was being honest.

“Just stay calm and don’t forget S.A.T.S.” I pulled out Mom’ .44 and opened the door with my magic and rushed in. I kept myself away from the cages ponies and used S.A.T.S. to target the officer and put two shots into his head. Only one hit him.

Still standing, he turned and shot at me. There was no cover here. I couldn’t move into the way of the caged ponies, so I had to take each shot. I felt blood slowly dripping between my body and my barding. I returned fire at him, eventually taking him down. Behind him in the middle of the room were two more Samdiny readying their guns. “Shoot!” I yelled to Minum. I targeted a shot at the pony on the left’s body. She clutched her chest and fell to the ground, but she was still fighting. I turned my head to see Minum standing in the doorway still. “What are you doing?! Shoot them!” I yelled again.

She stared aghast as bullets and blood flew through the air. I killed my target with a critical shot that left me with no more rounds in Mom’s .44. My mind focused on reloading as quickly as I could. My body absorbed each bullet that came my way, which was barely any, but the ones that did left a painful sting. As soon as I had six rounds ready I brought up S.A.T.S. and targeted the last pony’s head. A tough facade shrouded the fear in her eyes. She was missing most of her shots, and she was afraid of me.

Was she a new Samdiny?

If she was new, maybe she could change. I wanted to spare her. My target changed to her hind leg. Both shots hit her, but it didn’t have the effect I was looking for. I shot the same leg another three times. That brought her to the ground. She clutched her wounded leg. I stepped over her and the revolver pressed against her head. “What are Samdiny doing here?” I asked her.

“Fuck off, asshole,” she said through gritted teeth. I must’ve hurt her badly.

“I’m expecting an answer,” I said as I pushed my gun against her head. “The sooner you give me an answer, the sooner the pain ends.”

“It’s a midpoint, for when we transfer ponies from our compounds to safe houses,” she said.

“Why do you transfer them?” I asked her.

“The boss needs them. He, or she, or I don’t even fucking know, needs them for Hard Light.” They were using their own for Hard Light as well as captives? “That’s all I know. Please, let me go, fucking kill me, or whatever the fuck you were going to do, just do it!”

“Do you want to live?” She nodded her head violently.

“Of course I do! What kind of a question is that?!”

I asked the most important question, “Are you done being a Samdiny?”

“Yes, I’m done!” she cried. I saw every ounce of anguish in her face. I took a syringe of Med–X that we found in the nurse’s office and injected her with it. The painkiller took its effect and her pain began to fade.

“Minum,” I called her over, “help her.”

“No,” a maroon pony with a gray mane in the cages said weakly, “don’t help that bitch. After all the evil she’s done, you can’t just give her another chance like that.”

I walked up to his cage and asked, “What’s your name, friend.”

“Spilled Blood,” he responded. I had a strange love for the names in the Wasteland.

 “Nice to meet you, Spilled Blood. My name’s Suthain, and I’m going to tell you something I want you to remember: love and compassion will save the Wasteland. There aren’t many of us who show it. After today I want you, and everypony in here, to let all see what it is to live in the love of others,” I said to all the ponies in the room. I walked over to the officer and grabbed a key off his body. I unlocked Spilled Blood’s cage then unlocked the rest. Everypony gave a short “thank you” then left the room.

Minum had just finished treating the former Samdiny’s wounds. Her leg didn’t look like a dark red, gory mess anymore. “How’s she holding up?” I asked.

“She should be good to walk now,” Minum reported. “Don’t put too much stress on the leg or you’ll be face down in the street,” she said to the mare. She didn’t say anything as she got up and left the room with the slightest limp.

“So you’re sparing her because you want to be compassionate?” Minum asked.

“I’m sparing her so the Wastes can have another pony doing some good in it,” I responded. “Besides, I don’t like killing.”

“How do you know she isn’t lying?” she inquired. “She might just be saying that so she can leave with her life.”

“Don’t ask me how I know she’s good, OK? I just know. Sometimes ponies give a clear indication, other times, I just know. I can’t even begin to explain it.” Throughout my life I always was able to figure out so much about ponies just from their visage. Only sometimes did my strange ability fail me. “The same goes for Shadow,” I told her. “She’s just like that mare, and I trust them both.”

We had to finish opening the rest of these cages. It was a slow and tiring process, an easy process, but tiring still. We only had one key, making this even slower. Eventually, we got all of them opened. Most of them thanked us for saving them. We didn’t find much else in the rooms on the fourth floor, so we left to find Cor and Shadow.

We met up with them on the stairs down to the third floor. “Fourth floor’s clear. Did you find anything good?” I asked the pair.

Shadow informed us, “The motherfucking teacher’s lounge, hiding all the good shit. Chems, food, drinks, everything was there. It took forever to clean the place up, but we got it all. What about you two?”

“Samdiny were here. They use this place as a stop while they transfer ponies for Hard Light. The entire fourth floor was caged ponies,” I told them. There were far too many ponies in this building to be acceptable, even for Wasteland standards. I hoped I didn’t free them so they could walk into their deaths upon opening the doors. “Is the whole place cleared then?”

“It should be,” Cor said as we all started down the stairs. “What’s next after we get this stuff back?”

“Then we get weapons for the town’s defenses. Anypony know if there’s an armory nearby?” Everypony shrugged. “We could try going back to Mountain Dew’s shack, try finding information on Red Rum, and raid their armory,” I said. I was already planning to go back and see the rest of the safe house hidden in Mountain Dew’s shack. This would’ve been a perfect opportunity to check it.

“Good plan, kill two birds with one stone,” Cor said, “but are we willing to travel that far?” As much as I wanted to go back there the walk would have been torturous for all of us, and my legs weren’t up to the task.

“OK, we finish our jobs here, head back to the safe house, and see if we can’t find more on this bastard. Deal?” No pony gave any objection to the plan, and so we headed out the school. “Let’s head out then.”

I honestly didn’t expect the second school day to be this bad, but I put my hopes too high again.

* *           * * *        * *

We went back to Bedrock and paid a visit to Cobblestone. “Here are some of your supplies.” We dropped the supplies we got from the school.

“Wonderful,” he said with a pleased smile. “And the rest of the tasks we agreed on?”

“We’re working on them. We need some information on the ponies you wanted us to deal with first.”

“Well there’s a group called Sixty-Seventh Street Stealers, quite notable for what they’re named after. The gang’s been robbing us for some time now. I don’t even know how they do it. We have ponies watching this place and we’re still missing shit. They’re hideout is in a shopping center called Celestial Mall not too far from here. They might have my rifle too.

“And then there’s a pony named Carmine Coma. Pink coat, red mane, and she owes me money. She’s probably trying to get close with them. Two of my enemies ought to become friends. Go and kill them all, and bring my caps back.”

I nodded my head and we left his building. “I thought you said you didn’t like killing,” Minum said once we were outside.

“I don’t, that’s why I’m not going to. I’ll make sure those ponies don’t simply walk away, but I probably won’t kill them,” I responded.

“‘Probably?’” she questioned my answer.

“If they start shooting it’s going to be hard to be peaceful. That’s typically how it works. Peace and guns aren’t a very good match.” Part of me felt this wasn’t going to be as easy as I wanted it to be. I could hope though.

* *           * * *        * *

We were approaching the ruined Celestial Mall. Hopefully both of our targets were here, less work for us. We walked through the broken glass doors of the building.

It was dark. With my Pip-Buck’s light on I could see how ruined this mall looked. Was Cobblestone sure this was the right place? It looked like no pony had been in here since the megaspells dropped. Random junk cluttered the area and made the walking space smaller. Whatever light there was from the ever-cloudy day seeped in through the cracks and holes in the ceiling and walls. In the darkness the light seemed brighter than anything I’d ever seen before. Motes of dust floated around in the light.

Red bars filled my E.F.S. It looked like we had company. I took out my mother’s .44 with my magic and got ready for a negotiation, and possibly a battle, hopefully the former. The red bars floated all around me.

Were they above us?

A hairless mole rat came through a hole in the wall. The aggressive and unsightly creature with sharp claws and tusks gave a nasty snarl our way. “What about killing that?” I asked Minum. She took her pistol in her mouth. She hesitated to aim at it. “Is it too much?”

“No, I’m fine,” she mumbled through her weapon.

“Try shooting without S.A.T.S. first. Just stay calm. Calm your mind. Calm your breathing,” I said slowly. She took a few deep breaths. She stared intently at the mole rat. When she was ready, she pulled the trigger with her tongue. The bullet ricocheted off the ground next to the mole rat. “Try using S.A.T.S. this time. Let it do the work.”

“No, I’ll get this on my own,” she said adamantly. She took another deep breath. Another bullet bounced closer to the mole rat.

The mole rat started moving toward us. “It’s getting closer,” I said, “better deal with it quickly.” She nodded her head slightly. She closed her eyes and took a deeper breath. She was clearing her mind of absolutely everything. Her eyes reopened to stare at the mole rat. The gun fired a third time. Its bullet went straight into one of the mole rat’s eyes. That didn’t incapacitate it though. “And again.” Blood oozed out of the hole in the mole rat’s face. It was in pain, and she had to end it. Her tongue was still wrapped around the trigger, but she hesitated to fire again. “End its pain,” I told her. As it got closer she took a step back.

BANG!

The rat’s head exploded. Minum’s eyes widened in shock at the mole rat. She didn’t shoot it. I turned to see Cor’s shotgun floating and pointing at the mole rat’s head, or what used to be a head. “She hasn’t even been out of her stable for a day yet,” he said. “You can’t expect her to do these things so quickly. You have to let her adjust.”

“The Wasteland doesn’t let ponies adjust so easily. You know that,” I said. Cor, Shadow, and I were hardened by the Wasteland. After living in it for our entire lives we had to be. We needed to know how to fight whatever the Wastes threw at us. I didn’t expect her to be at our level, but I couldn’t let her get too comfortable with not having to shoot anything. Things were only going to get harder for all of us. She’d eventually leave us to search for her mother, and I needed to make sure she was prepared to take care of herself when the time came.

“Can we just keep going?” Minum asked after she put her gun away. Mole rats were still lurking around us.

“We’ll take care of it from here.” Cor gave Minum a reassuring smile. He was doing the same thing Mom and Dad did to us; he was sheltering her.

It took us far too long to realize Mom and Dad made a mistake raising us. We were nothing more than stable ponies who had never set hoof in a stable. And when the time came for us to do our job fighting and defending, we weren’t able to do it well.

We failed. That’s a mistake I won’t make while teaching Minum.

Minum was in the Wastes now, sheltering wouldn’t do her any good. I was taught how to fight and shoot at an early age, but I still don’t know much. I haven’t known or even heard of the places we’ve been to. I haven’t known of a prominent group of mercenaries. I didn’t even know what I was doing now. I wanted answers, but I didn’t know how to get any. I was hunting a ghost; there was nothing to be found, no traces left anywhere. That’s what sheltering and walking the same strip of land my entire life did.

A mole rat poked its head from the hole in the wall. This one didn’t wait for a pony to shoot it. It scurried our way. Two bullets shot out of Mom’s .44 and caused the mole rat’s head to explode in a bloody mess. Three more mole rats came from the hole and some from around a corner. I wasted no time in targeting the nearest one’s body in S.A.T.S. Two bullets cut through the air and both landed in its side. It fell down ten feet away from me.

Cor and Shadow took care of the other mole rats. Red bars were still floating around my E.F.S. Maybe they were the thieves we were looking for. Hopefully they were, and hopefully they didn’t hear all the shots we fired. “We’re making a lot of noise,” I said. “Let’s move before anypony comes.” We walked deeper into the mall. Parts of the second floor had collapsed onto the first. It blocked some stores and parts of the first floor, but also served as a ramp to the second floor.

We climbed up the ramp made from the collapsed floor. Red bars were still just above the entrance we came through. We slowly and quietly made our way over to the red bars. I peeked into a store to see four ponies talking in the middle. They didn’t have any guns or armor on them. There were six red bars but only four ponies.

Hopefully the other two won’t get in our way.

“How are we dealing with this?” Cor whispered from behind me.

“We’re not. I got this myself,” I whispered back with a confident smile. I came to talk to them, not kill them. Their lack of weapons was going to make this easy. My weapons were holstered and I approached the four ponies. “Howdy, fellas.”

The four turned to me in unison. “Who the fuck are you?” a green colt asked.

“Strange, I came to ask you the same question. Do you have an answer?” Judging from the graffiti behind them reading ‘Thug Life’ and a can of spray paint under it, I found who I was looking for. The green colt looked amongst the other three ponies for an answer. “You wouldn’t happen to be a gang of thieves would you?”

“What’s it matter to you?” he asked. I noticed two green bars sneaking around from behind me. They were getting ready for bullets to fly. I wasn’t going to have any bullets flying.

“I’ll take that as a ‘yes’. I came here to deliver a message. Stop stealing from Bedrock,” I said to the four.

“Or what?” he asked snidely.

I took a few steps closer to them. “Or you don’t get the luxury of living. It’s hard living in the Wasteland, and you’re only making it harder for the ponies you’re robbing from,” I said. I took another step closer to them, staring coldly into his eyes. He swallowed. The blue mare next to him nudged him.

He regained his composure and said, “So you want to fight? Do you really think you could beat all of us?” He wasn’t intimidated by me anymore, but his eyes didn’t want to meet mine. He was nervous and scared. It was all a facade.

“Keep acting tough, but it’s not getting you anywhere. You’re done being thieves. Loot vacant buildings like this one,” I said as I gestured my hoof to the shopping mall, “but don’t steal from others.”

“Where’s the fun in that though?” the blue mare next to him sneered.

“I don’t know. Where’s the fun in dying?” I mimicked her tone. That shut her up. “I’m also going to need your help finding a mare called Carmine Coma.” The green buck pointed his head to a door behind him. “Call her,” I commanded, “and don’t even think about moving.”

“Yo, Carmine, come out for a second! A pony wants to meet you!” he shouted. I hid beside the door.

“Who is it?” a pink earth pony mare with a flowy red mane asked as the door swung open. “Is the boss finally back?”

“No, but somepony else is here,” I said as I pushed her to the ground. My face was only a few inches away from her, and I said, “I’m looking for a few caps you owe to another pony.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” she asked me. She looked at the four thieves who just stared on in shock. “What the fuck is happening?! Wait, is this part of the test?”

Perhaps she was trying to join them.

“You know what I'm talking about. Bedrock, Cobblestone, caps, ringing any bells?!” I shouted in her face.

“Oh, that asshole. Fuck him, they’re my caps! I didn’t work my ass off protecting his shit-hole of a town just so he could tell me I wasn’t getting my caps! Yes, I stole the caps, but they’re rightfully mine!” she yelled back from under me.

“You’re taking what isn’t yours. Give it back,” I said.

“They’re mine! I need them!” She was almost pleading at this point. Mom’s scoped .44 levitated into the air and pressed up against the side of her head. The eyes of the thieves watching us opened wider.

Minum came around the corner where I left her. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, what the fuck are you doing?” Minum asked. “I thought you said it was going to be peaceful.” It was. She just had to trust me.

“Just give the caps back or I shoot your FUCKING head off!” I yelled in her face. Of course I wasn’t going to shoot her no matter what, but I needed to make her afraid. I needed to give her a reason to give the caps back. Death was always a good reason, but sometimes it’s just not enough.

“Please,” she said gently with a few tears streaming down her face, “don’t do it.” She gave a glance to the door she came from in worry.

“Give the money back and I won’t have to.” I pulled the gun away from her head and shot less than an inch away from her. “The next bullet might be closer.”

“Mommy?” a filly called Carmine Coma. I turned to see a young filly that looked just like her mother. “What’s going on?”

“She’s your daughter?” I asked. Carmine Coma nodded her head. “What’s your name?” I asked the small filly, but she didn’t answer.

“Please, she needs her mother,” she said.

“But do you need her?” Her eyes widened in horror. This was the reason I was looking for. I turned the gun to her daughter. “No! Don’t you even fucking dare shoot her!”

“Suthain, what the hell are you doing?!” Minum yelled. “You can’t just… She’s just a filly! She’s so young!” I barely gave her a glance. There’s method in my madness, Minum. Dammit, just trust me. “Are you even listening to me?”

“My patience is wearing thin,” I said to the mare under me. I shifted the revolver slightly, and now it would only hit the wall. I started to gently squeeze on the trigger with my magic. An orange blur moved through my peripheral vision, and my gun wasn’t in my magic’s grip anymore. My eyes moved up to see Minum clutching Mom’s .44 in her hooves.

“I’m not letting you kill a child over a few caps. I even thought you were the good guy,” she said, disappointed in herself. “What good guy kills an innocent filly?” She put the gun down and started walking away.

“Dammit,” I said aloud. “Cor,” I called him, “stay here and deal with her. I’ll talk to Minum.” He walked out of the corner he was hidden behind and gave a nod of his head. I picked up the sleek black and purple revolver on the ground and followed the same path Minum took when she left.

I walked out of the mall and saw her walking through the parking lot. “Minum, wait!” I called her. She didn’t show any acknowledgement. “Wait!” I called. I ran to catch up with her. “Minum–”

“Leave me alone,” she said. I stepped in front of her path. She sidestepped me without even slowing down.

“Can we talk?” I asked.

“Leave me alone,” she repeated herself. She didn’t know my agenda. If she had known I used intimidation she wouldn’t be so mad, but why was she so mad over this?

“Why are you just storming off? It was just–”

“Do you want to know what it was?!” she immediately turned around and yelled in my face. “It was you ready to kill a filly! It’s bad enough you kill ponies, but now you’re threatening to kill a filly?! What the fuck is wrong with you?!” She punctuated the last word by thrusting her hoof into my chest.

“It was all intimidation. I wasn’t even aiming at her,” I said. “I needed to get the caps out of her, and that was a good way to do it.” What would I have even gained from shooting her? A dead filly, possibly a dead Carmine Coma, and a very angry pegasus, that’s losing on my part.

“I don’t want to believe you,” she groaned, “so why the fuck am I?” It was natural for her to not believe me. She was still so naïve. If it looked like I had a gun pointed at a filly she would believe I was ready to kill her. I knew the situation looked bad, but that was the point. I didn’t expect her to knock my gun free though.

“Maybe because you know it’s true. Even if you don’t want to, you know it is. You might even be trying to convince yourself that it’s not the truth, but it is.” I put my hoof on her shoulder. “Please, trust me. I’m not a liar.” She hung her head with a sigh. “Minum,” I said as I lifted her head and looked into her cyan eyes, “I’d never harm anypony so young and so innocent. That’s not the pony I am. I need you to know that.” She still looked at me doubtfully. What was it going to take to make her believe me?

“A part of me doesn’t want to believe you though.” She looked back at the ground, like she was reminiscing on something dark. She had a haunted look on her face.

“Something’s troubling you. What’s wrong?” I asked. I lifted her chin, “It’s OK. You can talk to me. I’m your friend, aren’t I?”

“This isn’t really something I want to talk about,” she said in a low voice. Dammit, why did all my friends have a dark past that they didn’t want to talk about? Shadow was a Samdiny and she knew absolutely nothing about herself or her former organization. Or maybe she pretended not to know anything. I’d find out the truth eventually. And now Minum was hiding too. “Can we just go back and deal with her?” she asked and pointed back at the mall.

“Fine, let’s go. Stay behind the corner this time. And trust me this time, please,” I said. We walked back into the mall and found Cor on top of Carmine.

“Just give us the caps. Do you enjoy making my life hard? Because you're making it pretty damn hard!” he shouted in her face. The filly still looked at her mother in worry. She was crying and scared of what would happen to her mother.

“Cor, let me handle this,” I said as I approached them. He got off her. “Well, now that a certain somepony isn’t here to interfere, maybe I can actually get something out of you.” I grabbed her and picked her up, and then I pushed her up against the wall. “Tell me where the fucking caps are!” I screamed into her face.

“Go fuck yourself! You’re not getting jack shit from me!” she yelled back at me.

“Your daughter wouldn’t want to see you gone, and I’m sure you wouldn’t want to see her gone.” Once again my gun turned in filly’s direction. She swallowed. “I’ll fucking do it. Don’t even think about fucking test me.”

“Please… don’t. She’s the only thing that keeps me going! I need her! Please, don’t do it!” she pleaded. She needed her daughter, but how badly did her daughter need her. Her filly raising herself in the Wastes and having to keep the memory of her mother dying in front of her very eyes would break Carmine Coma. The gun swung back around and pointed at the pink mare’s head.

“Then I should just kill you then. Can you live with that? You wouldn’t leave such a young filly in the world without a mother to help her, no mother to put her on the right path. How would you feel if that happened?” I asked her. Tears were falling down her face. I was breaking her. It was terrible what I was doing, but good still. “Hey at least she’ll live… or she won’t. She’s only a filly after all.”

“It’s in a safe in there,” she said, and she nodded her head toward the room she initially came from. “The combo is 10-28-15. Please, don’t hurt us. Don’t hurt her,” she said so gently with love for her daughter.

I let go of her and holstered the revolver. “Don’t let me catch you stealing again,” I said to her. “That’s not a very good influence on your daughter. It’s your job to teach her to be better than this.”

I walked into the dark room with little light coming in through the shuttered window. In it I found a broken desk, a broken terminal, and a wall safe. I put in the combo, and it opened smoothly. In the safe was a 10mm pistol and a small pouch with 1,250 Sparkle-Cola caps inside.

I found what we were looking for, but I couldn’t help but feel bad for taking this many caps from a pony who might have deserved them, especially a pony with a kid to raise. I walked back out of the room.

Carmine Coma was sitting down crying, holding her filly in her forelegs. “How many of these caps did you take from him?” I asked her, the pouch suspended in my magic.

“Half of them. He actually paid me the rest,” she said. I took eight hundred caps out of the pouch and gave them to her. She looked surprised by the gesture. “That’s more than half.”

“I know. Make a life for yourself and your daughter that doesn’t revolve around something immoral.” I turned to the rest of the Sixty-Seventh Street Stealers who were still staring in shock, and I said, “None of you better think of stealing either. At least try and have morals.” They nodded their heads vigorously and without hesitation. “I think we’re done here. Take care of your daughter,” I said to Carmine Coma. “Let’s go,” I said to my group as I started for the exit.

We were walking through the mall’s parking lot, and Minum said to me, “Today I learned how intimidation works.”

“I told you to trust me. I wasn’t going to hurt them. I was just trying to get what I needed out of them,” I said. I was usually the pony who interrogated and intimidated in the family. I could tell lies from another pony’s visage like nopony else, and I was good with shallow threats. I’m not sure if the last part’s good or bad, but it got the job done today.

“Why’d you give her the money? She was probably lying about half of it being her’s, and then you go and give her more than half. Good going, Suthain,” Shadow said.

“She wasn’t lying though.” She stopped in her tracks to give me a certain look. “What? I can tell that sort of stuff apart. Like I said yesterday, ‘I’m good like that,’” I said with a small smile. “Unfortunately, because of that I’m short a few caps.” Oh, well, she had a daughter to raise, and hopefully she would put those caps to good use doing that.

* *           * * *        * *

A filled coin purse dropped on Cobblestone’s rotten wood desk. “I got your caps,” I said “and a group of ponies won’t be robbing you anymore.”

“So they’re dead? You killed them?”

“Something like that,” I said with a satisfied smile, the smile you see when ponies find nothing but ecstasy in their kill.

He smiled too. “Hmm… I didn’t think you had it in you,” he said as he counted his caps. He looked frustrated as he finished counting, and he recounted and looked even more frustrated. “I’m short six hundred twenty-five caps. Any idea where they could be?” The caps he paid to her. He wanted them back now. She wasn’t lying though, I was sure of it. As for him… something’s up with him. I couldn’t place my hoof on what it was, but it couldn’t be that bad.

“No idea,” I said. He stared pensively at the neat stacks of coins. His eyes turned to mine. Did he think I took them? I didn’t take them, but I did give them away. He didn’t need to know that last part though.

“Oh, well, that’s a shame.” It’s not like they’re yours jackass. “I’m assuming they didn’t have my rifle then,” he said, and I nodded, “and you need to get the other guns the town needs.” I nodded again. “I’m sure you could find guns anywhere in the Wastes, but there’s one more place you could check for my magical rifle. A buck that used to work for me probably has it. If I know him he’s out hunting with it right now. Find him and kill him.” I nodded a final time and started to head out.

“He used to work for him?” I said as we walked through the lobby. “It seems like he has a problem keeping the ponies he hires. I wonder why that could be.”

“Do you trust him?” Cor asked me. Did I trust him? He was sketchy, no doubt about that, but it was hard for me to decide whether I trusted him or not. “Because I don’t trust him at all.”

“It’s hard to say.” Occasionally I couldn’t figure a pony out. There’s always an exception to each rule. Cobblestone was the exception to my rule. “It’s obvious he’s not a very likeable pony, but I can’t figure out anything more.” Why was he looking for guns though? What did he need them for? I settled his problem with ponies robbing Bedrock, so what else was to fear? Were there other ponies who would attack the town? Or would the ponies who lived here revolt? He needed some form of crowd control. They had a dick-biscuit leader, maybe they hated him. Did they hate him enough to revolt?

There was one friend who might help me with this though. We walked out of the stone building and into Bedrock’s courtyard. “We need to find Aurum. Maybe she can tell us more on Cobblestone.”

We walked around the town, keeping an eye out for her. Where the hell was she? Did she leave? Screw it. “Maybe she’ll be here after we finish running Cobblestone’s erra–”

“SUTHAIN!!!!” a voice pierced through the air. I turned around to see the gold mare we were looking for fly at me. She skidded to a stop only a few feet away from me. “Hiya!”

“Just the pony we were looking for. We need your help with Cobblestone. What do you think of him?” I asked.

“He’s… weird. There’s not much else I could say about him though. Everypony else I know loves him, but I try and stay away from him.” She didn’t know much about him, but she still chose to avoid him. Even she knew something was up with him. “Why do you ask?”

“Just wondering if I need to worry about him,” I said. He was making me take care of his enemies and getting him ready for what looked like a battle. If he starts killing, the blood will be on my hands. I just gave him the survivors from a stable as an army and now I was arming them. Fuck me. “Does Cobblestone have any enemies that you know of?”

“No, I don’t know anything.” Dammit.

“Anything? Has he been training you or anypony else in here for, well, anything?”

“Suthain, what are you–”

“Answer! Lives might be at risk here! I need to know everything you know.”

“I don’t know anything.” I sighed. I might’ve been getting him ready for a battle, and I realized now. Who would he be battling though? He said he needed it for protection, but protection from whom? “I’ll ask around. Maybe I can find out something. If I do I’ll tell you. What’s going on?” she asked with a frown.

“I’ll tell you as soon as I find out.” I needed to find out soon. How long could I pretend to be blind? He was crafty and had a certain charm that kept these ponies blind, but now that I knew, I could work on figuring him out. But how long until he’ll figure me out though?

“It’s time to go,” I said to my group. “We’ll get his guns, and then I’ll decide whether to give them to him after I learn more about him. Aurum, figure out whatever you can. Tell me everything. Even the smallest details will help.” She gave a firm nod of her head. And so we headed out another time.

* *           * * *        * *

If this former worker was out hunting, then we should have been able to hear the shots. We wandered the desolate Neigh City trying to listen to any sounds. After almost an hour of walking, we heard nothing more than the sound of our hooves clopping against the asphalt.

“This is exhausting,” Minum said with a sigh. “Is this what it’s like to be an adventurer?”

“This is what it’s like to be a bounty hunter… Don’t become a bounty hunter by the way. All you do is this… walk around looking for a pony… forever,” Shadow said lethargically. This was boring. Another ten minutes and I’d be thinking about calling it quits. We might have been headed in the wrong direction all this time.

A sound echoed between the skyscrapers. I couldn’t tell if it was a gunshot or not, it sounded so distorted. My ears perked up, and I stopped walking and put my hoof in the air to signal everypony else to stop. The sound echoed again. Nothing appeared on my E.F.S.

“Minum, fly ahead and tell us if you see anything.” She responded with a ready nod and rocketed to the skies. “We need to keep moving toward that sound.”

The sound rang through the air again. We kept walking. The echo wasn’t helping us find the sound’s origin. “Suthain,” Cor called me, “I think we need to talk.”

“About what?”

“Minum. I think you’re pushing her too hard,” he said. I turned around to face him. “I know we’re in the Wasteland. I know this world is hard to live in. And I know you want to toughen her. But I think you’re pushing her too hard. She’s been in the Wasteland for less than a full day, and you’re already expecting her to kill.”

“Yeah, kill a mole rat. I asked her if it was too much, remember? She said she was fine. You stepped in and took the shot for her after she said that.” I checked to make sure she was fine, but somehow I was still wrong?

“Dammit, Suthain. Aren’t you supposed to be able to figure ponies’ out just from their face? She was obviously having a hard time doing it.”

“She was going to do it though. She had a choice to do it or not. Why would she do it if she didn’t want to?”

“Because you pressured her into doing it!” he yelled. Shadow had been staring at us awkwardly since this whole thing transpired. “Shadow, who’s right here?”

She looked at everything but us for an answer. “Um… Yeah, I think I’ll stay out of this. I’m just going to… go that way. Hope this doesn’t get too out of hand while I’m gone. Bye!” she said in an unusually cheerful voice. It wouldn’t have been too unusual, but it was Shadow; I didn’t expect that from her. She trotted away in the same direction Minum flew and in the same unusually cheerful matter.

Shadow’s weird.

“Please, Suthain, just go easier on her. She’s lost her family, friends, home, everything, and now you’re making her adjust more quickly than she can. Just slow it down,” Cor said.

“I’m just trying to get her ready for the life she’s been forced into. She’s going to leave us eventually to search for her mother, and I want her to be ready when she does,” I told him. Another dissonant sound rang through the air. “Cor, trust me. I know what I’m doing.”

“You don’t this time, Suthain. Let me spend some time with her,” he said. “I trained you, I can train her.”

“Yeah, but she’s not me, and she hasn’t been accustomed to the Wasteland yet. It’s going to be harder to teach her,” I said matter-of-factly. “It’s like you have a damn crush on her or something.” His face instantly reddened when I said that. “Wait, do you?” I asked.

“What? No! I mean… All right so she’s kinda cute. So what? This isn’t about that. This is about you doing a bad job of making her ready for what’s ahead,” he said. How? I was teaching her the one thing any Wastelander needed to know how to do, shoot. “Just let me take care of her for a while.”

He did a good job of changing the topic from his romantic desires to my failing ability. I almost forgot about it for a moment.

The orange pegasus we had been talking about dove down and landed between us. “OK, so I might have found the guy we’re looking for,” she said to us. Cor and I looked between her and each other. “What’s up with you two? And where’s Twisted Shadow?”

The sound echoed around us again. “She… ran ahead of us,” I said vaguely. “So what did you find?”

“I found this buck shooting at weird mutated… things.” Animals that absorbed too much radiation became mutated and eventually led to a new species, like the mole rats we had been fighting. “He’s far from here, but it’s not too far. Just follow me,” she said, and she started walking down the street.

I noticed four red bars and a single green bar over my compass. If they were on my compass, then the walk couldn’t be that long. We walked down a block and turned the corner, and we bumped into a group of Samdiny and Shadow who was the one green bar.

Slightly confused, I gawked at the group in front of us. “Uh… and there they are,” Shadow said and pointed us. Guns pointed at all of us. What was happening? Shackles appeared on my forelegs and I didn’t even notice it.

“What the fuck is happening?” I asked Shadow. Why was she with them? She barely gestured her head toward the white coated officer next to her.

The white earth pony officer said, “By order, you are to be captured alive.” I knew it. Shadow more aggressively gestured her head toward the officer. Yes, that was a pony, Shadow. Good observation…? What was she trying to tell me? “And you,” he turned to Shadow, “are to be captured dead or alive.”

“Awh… what? I helped you though!” she complained as shackles wrapped around her forelegs too. “I’m one of you!”

“You also murdered half a safe house while it was packed and destroyed half the safe house itself,” he reminded her. “One of us? Do you even believe that?”

“That’s what you get. Karma’s a bitch ain’t it?!” Cor yelled at Shadow.

“Minum, get out of here,” I commanded her. Her wings were free. She could leave. But why wasn’t she? “Minum?”

“Tape her wings down,” the officer commanded another Samdiny.

“Oh, shit,” Minum murmured. She took a few steps back before the Samdiny pony pushed her onto the ground. “Get off me!” she yelled as she tried to fight the pony off.

“Don’t worry. It won’t hurt too much, but we all know that’s a lie,” the mare on top of Minum said with a chuckle.

I wasn’t going to let this happen. I hopped behind the pony, wrapped the chain of my shackles around her neck, and brought her to the ground so she was on top of me. She struggled to get the chain out, but I wasn’t loosening up. I didn’t even think about letting go until—BANG!

It felt like I went deaf out of my left ear.

“Let her go,” the officer said with his combat shotgun pointed at my head. The smoking shell of the previous shot was in the ground a few inches away from my head. “In case you haven’t noticed, we’re Samdiny. We don’t care that much for orders. I’ll kill you if I have to. That’s what they’re going to do in the end anyway.”

I needed a furtive way of getting a gun and dropping all of them at once. It wasn’t like my horn was damaged to keep me from getting Mom’s .44, but I couldn’t do that without a shotgun shell blowing its way through my brain first.

“You’ve got five seconds.” Shit, I needed a plan fast. “Five.” He could see my horn light up if I used my magic to grab a gun. “Four.” I could turn my entire body and take him down with my hind legs. “Three.” I could let her go and take him down with my forelegs. “Two.” Somepony else could shoot him. I took a quick look around, but nopony else was even moving. “One.” I let her go. The chain restricting air and blood flow loosened, and she rolled off me. She groaned and rubbed her neck. “Good,” he said, “now stand up.”

I took another quick look around before I stood up. No pony had a gun up except for the officer. If only I noticed this while I was still choking her.

This was my chance to take him down.

I stood up and tapped the ground a few times with my hind leg. C’mon, Cor, you know what that means: shoot. Shoot, dammit. What are you waiting for? I couldn’t wait any longer for him.

I leapt through the air and pushed the officer to the ground. I knocked the shotgun out of his mouth and grabbed it with my magic. Shotgun shells flew through the air at the other Samdiny ponies, and their bullets flew at me. Bullets flew into my body and a few into my head. I wasn’t going down though. I was going to kill all of them except Shadow because I needed to know what was going through her mind. I kept pulling the trigger, but I only heard a clicking sound. I was out. I hit the side of the officer’s head with the shotgun three times. He wasn’t knocked out, but he was rocked.

I threw the shotgun away and pulled out Mom’s .44. A quick use of S.A.T.S., four bullets later, and all the Samdiny were on the ground. I beat the officer over the head with the revolver. He was out cold now.

“What. The. Fuck. Were. You. DOING?!” I yelled in Shadow’s face. Blood dripped from the side of my face into my eye. I waved Mom’s .44 in front of her face. Her eyes widened in shock.

“She fucking sold us out!” Cor yelled. “I told you we shouldn’t have fucking trusted her!”

“Get the key off the officer, Cor,” I told him. “Minum, get me a healing potion.” He tripped toward the officer’s unconscious body to get the key. “You,” I turned back toward Shadow, “what the fuck were you doing?!” The shackles fell from my forelegs as Cor twisted the key he found on the officer’s body.

“I know this looked bad, but I can explain.”

“Oh, you can explain?” Cor walked in between us. “You better fucking explain before a bullet goes right up your ass!”

“Cor, calm down,” I said as I put my hooves on his chest and shoulder and made him take a step back. “He’s right though. You better have an explanation.”

“I ran into them in the road. They knew I was with you guys, so they made me sell you out. I expected you to drop them the second you saw them, not nearly get captured,” she said. She was the green bar on my E.F.S. Why would she be green if she betrayed us? “I’m sorry.”

Maybe she was telling the truth. Maybe she was trying to tell me to shoot the officer when she gestured at him. That would at least make some sense. Cor didn’t look happy as he finished taking everypony’s shackles off. Minum gave me three healing potions from her saddlebag. I drank all of them and felt the relief as my body began to heal itself.

“All the trust you had in me…” Shadow put her hoof in the air. As she slowly waved it through the air and closer to the ground she said, “And there it goes, gone… Fuck.” She wasn’t trying to sell her story by acting sad, this was genuine. “I’m sorry,” she said again. “Please, forgive me. If you leave me, then I won’t have anywhere else to go, and I don’t want to get involved in something as stupid as the Samdiny again.”

Cor was going to hate me for doing this, but he was wrong here, not me. I put my hoof on her shoulder, and said, “It’s all right. Just don’t be that stupid again.”

Cor stared at me in pure shock. “You’re fucking kidding me, right? How can you actually believe her?!”

“Dammit, Cor, trust me! I’m your own brother. You’ve seen me able to pick apart a pony with ease. I did it when we paid a visit to Carmine Coma and I did it again with Shadow. I get it, you don’t trust her, but trust me!” I said. Did he have something personal against Shadow? When it came to Carmine Coma he trusted me, but not with Shadow.

“I’m telling you now, Suthain. She’s going to screw us over eventually, and it’s only going to hurt more as we get to know her more. Cut the ties early,” he said.

“No. Learn how to trust her because she’s staying with us. I know what I’m doing,” I said.

“Oh, you know what you’re doing? Then why haven’t we been able to find anything on Red Rum?! All we’ve done is walk across half the Wasteland, find a stable, and run fetch quests for some dickhead!” he shouted in frustration. Maybe I didn’t know what I was doing. I hadn’t gotten us anywhere since Mom and Dad’s death.

No, I was doing something. I saved prisoners. I saved ponies from a stable. I gave those stable ponies a better home. I put ponies on a better path in their life. I was doing the right thing. I was doing Mom and Dad’s work. I was helping. I didn’t fail…

“Do you think you could do a better job leading us?” I asked.

“I didn’t say that.”

“Then trust me. Put your faith in me as your leader,” I said, “and as your brother.” His lack of faith actually hurt me. We were brothers, and he didn’t have any reason not to trust me.

“Fine, I trust you,” he said, “but that doesn‘t mean I trust you.”

“Cor, trust her. She’s not going to betray us. The only thing she’ll do is something stupid… again. Which I’ll make sure won’t happen, and if it does, blame me. I’ll take full responsibility,” I said.

“Geez, you make one mistake and suddenly everypony’s worried you’re going to make more mistakes,” she said quietly but loud enough for us to hear. “It was one fuck up, for Celestia’s sake! And you don’t have to worry about something like that ever happening again.”

I hadn’t heard the gunshot in a while. Maybe he heard ours and ran. “Don’t think you’re getting off scot-free,” I said to Shadow. “You almost got us captured, and our target’s probably gone now. You did a good job fucking us over. Is this why half the Samdiny hated you?” She turned away from me with a look of anguish. Was that too much? Too personal? “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”

“It’s not that. It’s something else. And they don’t hate me. They outcasted me,” she said. She opened her mouth like she wanted to say something, but nothing came out.

“Do you want to talk about it?” I asked her. She gave a slow shake of her head. “Just help me figure out what’s wrong with you.” Did Minum and Shadow plan to look hurt and not tell me what was wrong?

“No. You asked me before and it’s still no. It’s not going to change.” She was saying that now, but she’d open up eventually. I just had to get closer to her and give her time.

“You have to open up eventually,” I said.

“We’ll see.” She dismissed the issue. “Let’s keep going. We have a pony to find, don’t we?” she said with a sad smile, and then started walking the direction we had been before our run in with the Samdiny.

Now we had to try harder to search for this pony. We’d get it done though. We’d find our pony. It didn’t matter if it was Red Rum or the ponies Cobblestone sent us after; we’d find them somehow.

* *           * * *        * *

We spent another hour walking down the roads of Neigh City while Minum flew over us to get a bird’s eye view. We already passed the road where Minum said she saw this buck with the gun we were looking for, but we weren’t able to find anything more than a dead brahmin and two dead ponies next to it. One wore leather armor while the other wore a yellow jumpsuit.

Perhaps he wasn’t just hunting other animals. It looked like he didn’t hold discrimination for what he hunted. He probably shot them then left as soon as he heard out shots. He didn’t even take the brahmin’s meat or armor. More food for us and armor for repairs.

Minum was slightly opposed to eating it, but after hearing her stomach rumble for quite some time she succumbed to the hunger. Even though she didn’t want to, she realized she had to. At least she was getting used to one rule in the Wastes.

Minum flew down to us. “We’re not getting anything,” Minum complained. “It feels like we’ve been doing nothing for ten hours.”

“Maybe we’d be closer if somepony hadn’t fucked us,” Cor said harshly. He was still mad at Shadow. I was too, but he refused to let it go.

“It was one fucking time,” Shadow said, clearly tired of us bringing it up. She stopped walking. “Sorry I’m not as flawless as you are, asshole! Unlike you, I make mistakes like a normal pony! What? Are you a fucking god among us? Are you equal to Celestia and Luna?”

“No, but unlike you I don’t nearly get us captured and killed, and let our guy get away! When I do that you can throw it back in my face, but it won’t happen. Do you want to know why? Because I use my fucking brain! Try it one day!” he yelled in her face.

This was going to get bad soon. Maybe letting them fight it out was better though.

“Why don’t you fucking let it go?! Huh? Why don’t you try doing that one fucking time?!” she yelled at him. Their faces were only inches apart. “Or is this to prove how much better you are than everyone else? How perfect you are?”

Suddenly Cor tackled her and started throwing his hooves at her. She covered up well, but she wasn’t a match for Cor. If he couldn’t hit her face, then he’d target her ribs, and vice versa.

Unlike her fight with that Samdiny leader, I was not going to let it go on.

I came from behind Cor, grabbed him and pulled him back on top of me. I wrapped my right foreleg around his neck and put the hoof of the other foreleg behind his head. I placed both of the hooves on my hind legs firmly on his hips.

I was choking my own brother, and this wasn’t one of our sparring sessions. It felt… unnatural.

“Cor, calm down!” I shouted in his ear. He struggled to escape from the chokehold. “Calm… down…” I said slowly. He stopped trying to escape, composed himself, and then tapped my shoulder a few times.

I let go of him, and he rolled his body off from on top of mine. He sat down and rubbed the sides of his neck where I applied the pressure to his arteries. He gave a sigh and said, “Shadow, I’m sorry. I was mad and I let that anger do something I wouldn’t have done otherwise.” He was too embarrassed to give her more than a glance.

She stood up and sat next to him. “It’s all right.” From the look on his face, I could tell he didn’t think it was all right. Mainly because he wasn’t acting like himself. “We all make mistakes, right?”

“I guess so,” he replied quietly. His head hung low and his ears drooped.

“I think it’s time to keep moving,” I said. Cor gave a slow nod of his head before standing up. He gave a sigh. Was he mad or disappointed in himself? He felt something, but I couldn’t tell what it was. He needed some comforting, but now wasn’t the time. We were on a ponyhunt. I’d help him after our job for Cobblestone was finished.

We kept walking down the asphalt road. Minum went back to flying over us. He still looked sad as we walked. Maybe he needed my help now. I let Shadow walk ahead of me.

“Are you all right?” I asked Cor. “We can talk if you want.”

He hesitated to respond, but he finally answered, “No, I’m fine.” He wasn’t fine, and he sensed my doubt after looking in my face. “Honestly, I’m fine,” he said. Anguish was quietly lurking among his facial features.

“Come on, Cor. We’re brothers. I know you, and I know when you’re hurt.”

“Can we talk about this later?” He looked at Shadow who was still walking in front of us. “Please?” I nodded my head.

All of us were slowly hurting more. All of us were struggling with our past demons or our new demons. I’d find out the truth in all of them eventually, and then I could finally help them. But until them, I had to suffer with them.

* *           * * *        * *

It was getting dark, and Minum had been gone for some time now. She flew away from us to try to find our buck while we rested in a small intact warehouse. Cor still didn’t want to talk. He just sat in a dark corner while we waited for her return.

That incident with Shadow must have bothered him deeply, but why? It didn’t bother any of us that much. Shadow forgave him, so why couldn’t he forgive himself? Unless it was something else bothering him, but what was it?

An orange streak zoomed past the open door of the building. It came back, this time going through the open door and coming to a halt in the middle of the open warehouse. Minum breathed heavily as she stood in front of us and said between breaths, “I think I found him. He’s holed up in a building that’s about two blocks away. He shouldn’t be going anywhere; it looks he’s getting ready for the night.”

“Time to go, then” I said. We all stood and got ready to depart. Cor was slow to stand and walked behind all of us. We needed to get this done quickly because I needed to help my brother.

Two blocks later and we found the parking garage Minum saw the buck in. It was pitch black inside, not a single light.

“Are you sure this is the place?” Shadow asked Minum.

“Positive. I saw him walk in and he settled further inside.” Maybe this was the perfect place to hide, nice and dark. Who would think a pony was in here? Not us obviously.

Three Pip-Buck lights turned on before any of us started walking in. The clopping of our hooves echoed throughout the parking garage. Our lights were on and we were loud. If this was the place, then he knew we were here. Surprise wasn’t an option anymore.

“Search every little section of this place,” I said as we walked down the ramp carriages once traveled down. Rubble from the ceiling and the walls occasionally blocked part of the entrance. How did he walk through this in the dark?

This seemed like a perfect place for ghouls to hide. If a metro tunnel wasn’t close, then similar underground tunnels that made a totally different parking garage would make do for anypony trying to survive a megaspell holocaust, but even those who did hide underground had to experience ghoulification. Anypony, even the sentient ghouls, considered that process worse than death.

A green bar popped up on my Pip-Buck. He was somewhere in here. No red bars though, thankfully. We started to make our way to the green bar. As we continued down the ramp, I could see a bright light that told my pupils to constrict themselves. So he did have lights.

We walked around the curve and saw the white light emanating from a booth. Upon approaching the booth, a bluish-gray buck arose and his battle saddle with two rifles, one an intricate connection of tubes with a green glow coming from the barrel, pointed at us. “Freeze, fuckers,” he said in an accent. We all froze and didn’t even think about taking another step. “What do y’all want? Ya here t’ kill me?”

“No, we want that gun you stole back,” I said.

In less than a second and without taking us out of his sight, he unhooked a sniper rifle from his battle saddle and threw it out from the broken booth window. “There’s yer rifle. Now git out ‘fore I start shooting.” Cobblestone said it was a magic rifle. My bets were that the fancier glowing rifle was the one he was referring to, not the simple black sniper.

“We’re looking for the magic rifle that you stole. Mind giving us that?”

“I didn’t steal no magic rifles. I took that there rifle on the ground, nuthin’ more, nuthin’ less.” He wasn’t even a good liar. I levitated the sniper and examined it. I suddenly turned it so the crosshairs were right between his eyes.

“Very strange how that gun in your battle saddle has the name ‘Cobblestone’ etched on the side. Your name isn’t Cobblestone though. Why do you have it then?” I was talking out of my ass. I could barely make out the intricacies on the rifle from here, but if he looked down to check, I could shoot. He seemed to know that too.

He paid a quick shift of his eyes down to the glowing rifle. “Ain’t no Cobblestones Ah know of. ‘Cept the rock, but Ah ain’t know of no rocks ownin’ guns neither. Now Ah’m telling y’all t’ leave ‘fore things get ugly. This gun’ll turn your body int’a pile of goo ‘fore you can say ‘Sweet Celestia.’”

“Somepony wants his gun back. I think you should give it to him ‘fore things get ugly,” I said, mocking his accent.

“No. I ain’t givin’ that bastard back none of what I took. That ass don’t deserve nuthin’, which is why I ain’t givin’ nuthin’.”

This was a chance to see what a pony knew about Cobblestone. “Why do you have a problem with him?”

“He’s a fucker gettin’ ready to destroy what used to be a great town. He don’t even know what he’s doin’ is wrong. Bedrock used t’ be a good place. Ah know it was when Ah first moved in there. But now that numbskull’s ruining it all. I wanna buck that buck so hard in the face that his head snaps in two.”

“How’s he ruining it?” I asked. I didn’t even care about the rifle anymore. I just wanted to know more about Cobblestone. It looked like he’d forgotten the reason I came here too; he was calm and the magic rifle wasn’t pointed near us. I aimed the sniper at the ground. Shots weren’t going to be fired.

“We went from hidden to militarized. That’s how he ruined it. We ain’t fighters. We could be, sure, but we’re s‘pposed t’ be hidden in the Wasteland, not ready t’ fight his war.” So he was starting a war. “He wants t‘ start conquering.” I needed to talk him out of this.

“Give me the rifle,” I said.

He kicked back into an alarmed state. “No! That buck ain’t goin’ t’ war without his gun. So I ain’t givin’ it back.” Our rifles were pointed at each other again.

“Don’t make this difficult. I’m not going to let him start a war, but I’m not going to let you get away with stealing a prized possession,” I said. “How would you feel if somepony stole something valuable to you?”

He thought for a moment, and then said, “That depends. Am Ah an asshole? Cuz’ if Ah am then what the hay am Ah complainin’ ‘bout. Ah probably had it comin’.”

“That’s not the point. The point is that you did something wrong. Now I want you to give that gun back. Do something right,” I said.

He looked at the gun then back at me pensively. “Why should Ah trust you? How do Ah know you ain’t jus’ trying’ t’ get in muh head. You might be helpin’ Cobblestone start a war.”

“Trust me because I’m not the villain here. Cobblestone is, and I’m going to stop him.”

“Then why do you need the gun? Let me keep it.”

“It’s not yours. Give it back. I promise I won’t let him start a war.” He thought again as he looked between the gun and me.

He took a breath before asking, “You promise muh town ain’t goin’ t’ war?”

“I promise.”

He took the glowing green rifle out from his battle saddle and tossed it my way. I levitated the sniper rifle back into his possession.

“Ah’m trustin’ you. If Ah find out that sonuva’ bitch is starting a war Ah’ll be comin’ for the both of you without any mercy,” he said gravely. In a sudden change of tone he asked, “Is that a pegasus without a battle saddle?”

“Unfortunately,” Minum responded.

“Ah think Ah got a spare with me. Hold on a sec,” he said as he turned and dug through his possessions. “Got it!” He held the battle saddle in his mouth and walked over to Minum with it.

“Oh, you don’t have to. I feel guilty taking it,” Minum said.

“It’s nuthin’, just a lil’ hospitality.” He put it over her and tightened it making sure it fit properly. “Fit all right?” he asked with a charming smile.

“Perfect. Thank you,” she said with a thankful smile.

“Ain’t nuthin’, miss. He outstretched a hoof toward me. “Well, pleasure meeting you, uh…”

“Suthain,” I said my name as I shook his hoof.

“Name’s Saber Tooth,” he said with a smile that showed one incredibly sharp tooth. Our hooves parted and we left the buck so he could sleep.

He seemed like a good buck. All he wanted was the best for the town he lived in. I wasn’t going to break my promise to him. I was going to stop Cobblestone from trying to start an empire. I wasn’t sure how, but I was going to stop him. I put innocent stable ponies in that town. They’d been through hell in their old home, and I wasn’t going to let them be put back through hell in their new home. I refused to allow that to happen.

We got a lot of work done today. Why couldn’t we get this much done on any other day? And now that our jobs were over, I could finally give Cor the attention he needed. And so we started our long trek back to Bedrock.

* *           * * *        * *

“Cobblestone, we need to talk,” I said as I pushed open the door to his office. He was up late, but it was fine with me. Now we had a chance to talk about this conquest.

“About what, friend? Before I forget did you get my gun?”

“Shut up about the fucking gun. Why are you arming your town? You’re making us get weapons for yourself, you’re town, and we’re killing off your enemies. Why are you making us do this?” I asked. Saber Tooth told me about his war, but I wanted him to hear him say it.

“Slow it down, kid,” he said. “They’re just precautions I need to take. I don’t want my town falling apart from a few enemies.”

“I killed your enemies already. What are the precautions for?”

He hesitated to speak, but he managed to say, “You know, just in case.” My eyes stared into his, but he wasn’t intimidated at all.

I leaned over his desk and said into his face, “You’re going to tell me what you’re planning, or I level this building with everypony inside of it.” He still wasn’t intimidated. He just sat there with the same charming smile that was always on his face. “I’m not joking,” I said grimly. “This shitty mess of stone won’t withstand a few grenades and a specialty bomb.”

“Do it,” he said intrepidly. “You won’t.” Maybe I wasn’t going to blow up this building, especially with ponies inside, but I had no problem hurting him.

I jumped over the desk and tackled him onto the ground. I put one hoof on his shoulder and the other on his body, lifted him, and pushed him against the wall behind him all in one fluid motion. We were both standing on our hind legs as I moved the foreleg that had been on his body against his neck. A little pressure and he wasn’t going to be breathing.

“What are you fucking planning?” I asked through gritted teeth. “I’m not playing anymore. I want answers.”

“What are you gonna do, small fry? Beat me up? We both know I’m much bigger than you.” Most bucks were bigger than I was. I matched his height, but I was much skinnier. He was much more muscular than me, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t deal strong blows. I threw an elbow to his left cheek. He grunted in pain. “What do you think you’re going to get out of me?”

“I was hoping you would tell me,” I said, and then threw another elbow at the same side of his face. A cut was already appearing; I was fairly disappointed with how quickly it took to break his face. He wouldn’t last a minute in a real fight. “Wanna talk?”

“Nope,” he answered. I grabbed the back of his head and pulled it down. I alternated between throwing my left knee and my right knee at his head while I kept it down. I threw an uppercut while I held his head down and he was rocked.

“Ready to talk?!” I shouted in his face. “I could keep at this all night, but can you?” I gave him a second to recover from being rocked, but then I immediately threw a hook at the left of his face and a headbutt. “Talk!”

Blood dripped down his face from right under his left eye. His nose was bleeding and maybe broken. He smiled to show his teeth covered with nothing but blood, and he said, “What do you want from me?”

“You fucker,” I threw another elbow at his cut, “just talk!” Another elbow. And another. And another. I didn’t want to stop. I was raining bombs on the one side of his face. His smile had already faded.

“Suthain,” I heard Minum’s voice call in worry as she grabbed the foreleg that was devastating his face, “I think it’s time to back off.” He was knocked out. I didn’t realize that until Minum stopped me. I gently laid him down on his back.

“Can you help him?” I asked her. She gave a nod of her before kneeling down to work on him. “I want him to feel the pain in the morning. Can you manage that?”

“Why? Maybe he’s not the best of ponies, but isn’t that a little too much? Knocking him out was too much.” Maybe it was too much, but I needed him to get the picture.

“I’m sending a message. Next time we see him, maybe he’ll talk when he thinks back to this.”

She sighed and said, “Whatever,” before going back to her work.

We waited for her to heal him. She didn’t use healing potions. They would alleviate all the pain. She simply cleaned the blood, bandaged the two cuts on his cheek and nose, and checked if he had a concussion.

After spending some time with him, she concluded he was fine. She also whispered something in her ear, but I wasn’t sure what it was. Minum advised him not to sleep. Greater suffering for him, but it was good for me. I hoped he got the message. And hopefully his head was still hurting tomorrow.

We left his office and headed to our sleeping quarters. Our bags dropped and we were ready for sleep.

* *           * * *        * *

I woke up in the middle of the night from the smallest noise. I looked at the origin of the sound, Cor’s bed. Cor got up from his bed and started walking out of the room.

“Where’re you going?” I whispered. The ponies in here were already asleep, and I didn’t want to wake them.

“I’m going for a walk,” he said. Something was still bothering him. “I’m fine. I know you keep thinking about what happened earlier today, between Shadow and I, but I’m fine. You don’t need to worry about me.”

“All right, you’re fine. I get it. I’ll leave it alone,” I said. A sad and slightly forced smile grew on his face.

“Thanks. Don’t wait up for me by the way,” he said before leaving. I wasn’t going to leave him alone. I needed to figure out what was going on in my brother’s head.

I waited twenty seconds before walking out of the room in pursuit. He headed toward the roof. The same place I went when I felt troubled yesterday.

He sat on the edge of the building. I could just barely hear the sound of him weeping. “Cor,” I called his name. He turned to look at me. His eyes were watery. I never saw Cor cry much before. This was strange. “What’s wrong?” I asked as I walked toward him.

“Um… nothing. Nothing’s wrong.” My hoof fell on his shoulder.

“I’m not an idiot, Cor. Besides, I think I know when something’s up with my own brother,” I said with a compassionate smile. “Just talk to me.” I sat beside him on the edge.

“Mom and Dad are gone,” he said sadly.

I wrapped my forelegs around and pulled him into my embrace. Unlike the night when Mom and Dad died, I felt like I had to be strong for him, not the other way around.

“I know, Cor. It’s almost been a week, so why are you only crying now?” I asked.

“I don’t know. I cried a little when Mom and Dad died. I thought that made me normal, but it hardly affected me. That’s not normal is it?”

“What do you mean ‘it’s hardly affected you’? It changed our lives completely.”

“I mean mentally. I didn’t feel different at all. The only time I felt something was around the Samdiny and occasionally around Shadow. Today when I thought she tried to sell us out, I just snapped. And when I tried fighting her… I don’t know. I just felt different and… sad.”

“It reminded you of how they died. Am I right?” He didn’t respond. He just looked at me for help. “I think you need to learn how to trust her,” I said.

“I do now though.”

“No, if you did then you wouldn’t be feeling like this. You think she’s going to get us killed. That’s what you’re afraid of. You don’t want to suffer the same fate as Mom and Dad. Death scares you, especially dying the same way they did,” I said. “It’s OK. I understand it. You just need to open your trust to her, that’s the cure.”

“It’s hard though. I want to trust her, but I just… I just can’t,” he said. “How do you trust her so easily?”

“Because I know I can trust her. I know I don’t have reason to distrust her. Even though she used to be Samdiny I know she won’t betray us.” She didn’t have anywhere to go. The only thing she had was us now. She didn’t have a past she wanted to go back to, so she couldn’t leave us without leaving herself with absolutely nothing.

“I trust you. And I trust you trusting her. I want to trust her, but… it’s hard.” The pain showed on his face. It was understandable to not have trust in her, especially for a pony who lost his parents to the faction she was previously affiliated with. It took me some time to start trusting her, but I eventually did with time. That’s what he needed.

“Time. You have to give it some time. Give her some time so you can see she’s our friend. You need to realize she’s not a threat to us, so you don’t have to fear what she’ll do,” I said. He turned to me and hugged me.

In the same sad tone he’d been talking in since his incident with Shadow he asked, “How did you cope so easily when we lost them?”

“I didn’t,” I said. He gave me a confused look. “I suppressed it all.” Of course the memory resurfaced occasionally, but I chose to keep it away from me most of the time. I didn’t want to feel so broken again, so I chose not to. I tucked that night away into the back of my head because I didn’t want to remember it.

“That sounds phsychologically unhealthy,” he said.

“It’s the Wasteland; do you really think it’s the worst thing we could do to ourselves? It just matters that we endure,” I said.

“OK.” He hugged me tighter. “Thanks for caring, Suthain. Maybe a little help was what I needed after all.”

“I’m your brother. I’ll always be here for you,” I reminded him. “Don’t you remember what Dad used to tell us?”

“‘We walk together?’”

“‘On the road that doesn’t end with the views that never cease.’ We’ll stick together, until the end,” I told him. “Even through the worst of things.”

We finally let go of each other. “It’s late. We should get some rest,” he said. We walked back together and he passed out almost instantly. I couldn’t sleep though.

So I figured out my brother’s problem, now I just needed to fix Minum and Shadow’s problem. Maybe they needed time too. Time so they could open up to me and realize that talking to me could help them.

* *           * * *        * *

Dull, washed out light came in through the single window in the room. I lethargically rolled my body rolled out of bed. I was still a bit tired, but we had to make the most of the daylight.

My friends were still asleep even though my Pip-Buck said it was noon. There was one pony I wanted to see that wasn’t asleep. Or at least he shouldn’t be.

I walked over to Cobblestone’s office and pushed the door open. The bandaged buck was sitting against the window with a half-empty bottle of scotch pressed against his head.

He swallowed upon seeing me. “Y-You,” he said with trepidation. He regained his composure and asked in his usual confident manner, “Can I help you?”

“I’m done doing you favors. Get some other pony that’s too blind to see what you’re hiding to do this work because I’m done,” I said.

“What a shame. What will all those homeless pegasi do now? Unless, of course, you’re willing to pay for their stay,” he said.

“How much do you want?”

“Oh, say… hmm, two thousand sound nice?”

“No deal.”

He shrugged. “Well, good luck telling those ponies they lost their home… again.”

“What happens if I settle this with a bullet through your brain and a change in leadership?” I asked harshly. He was taken aback. Now that he knew I wasn’t afraid to use force, my threats were actually intimidating him.

“Fine, you don’t have to do anymore tasks. Just leave before your very presence starts annoying me,” he said. One problem was solved, now I had to make sure another didn’t start.

“If anything happens to the pegasi while I’m not here, I will unleash hell on you,” I said with eyes that emphasized how thirsty I was for more of his blood. “I’m still waiting for an answer. What are you planning?” I asked again.

“Nothing of importance. Well, not anymore,” he said. He looked back out the window as if he was longing for something more. “You’ve already ruined that dream.” Maybe Saber Tooth was right about him only starting his war while he had his precious gun with him. I ruined his dream by not giving back the gun. Unfortunately for him, I still wasn’t giving it back until I got a proper answer.

I left the room and went back to the sleeping quarters. I plopped onto the bed I had been sleeping in the past two nights.

My body still felt sore, my legs specifically, but I would endure. We would all endure, even through the worst of the trials ahead of us. I fought to stay awake and wait for everypony else to finally wake up. It couldn’t take too long, right?

* *           * * *        * *

I was gently rocking from side to side, almost as if I was on a boat. “Wake up,” a familiar voice commanded. “Wake up.”

The water became choppier. It wasn’t a gentle rocking anymore. “Come on. Just wake up.”

The water calmed. Everything was peaceful on my boat.

I closed my eyes for a moment and reopened them to find myself in a different world. The trio was standing next to my bed and Cor had his hoof on me. He must have been shaking me to wake up.

“You guys are finally awake,” I said sluggishly.

“Could’ve sworn I just woke you up, but yes we are awake,” Cor said. I must have gotten tired of waiting for them and fallen asleep myself. “We still have to stuff to do, so let’s go.”

“All right,” I said as I sprang out of bed. “I paid Cobblestone a visit. We’re not helping him anymore, the pegasi stay here for free, and we got a free gun for anypony who wants it.” They all looked amongst themselves, trying to decide who would get the rifle that would ultimately destroy anything. “So…? Who wants it?”

“How about a new addition to somepony’s new battle saddle,” Cor suggested. “What do you say?”

“I’m not into guns. Maybe one of you should take it,” Minum suggested.

“You’re going to have to start shooting eventually, kid. And when you do you might as well have a kick ass gun,” Shadow said to Minum. Eventually needed to come quicker. Waiting for her to come around to the concept of fighting other ponies regularly was going to be slow. Cor wanted a gradual change, but I needed her to change now. She needed to adapt quicker.

“Fine,” she said, “I’ll take the gun.” I took the plasma rifle from out of my bag and levitated it to her.

Her battle saddle already her assault rifle rigged up. I helped her hook up her new plasma rifle and I made the assault rifle more secure. She was armed to be one of the greatest killing machines anypony in the Wastes could come across, but she refused to harm another pony.

Absolutely wonderful.

We started our walk out of Bedrock. Everypony we passed was staring at us, at me. Maybe word leaked about what I did to Cobblestone last night.

They were either scared of me or thankful. I put their leader, who wasn’t a very likeable of pony to begin with, in his place. Maybe they were glad I did what I did. They could sleep well for a while knowing they didn’t have to worry about him possibly starting a war.

I helped them. At least I thought I helped them. Maybe I didn’t. Maybe they were afraid. I beat everything out of their still not likeable leader. Maybe they thought I was coming for them next. I was still looking for answers to my question after all.

I was leaving the town for now. I didn’t have to worry about it now. But as we started walking back toward Mountain Dew’s shack on the other end of Equestria, I couldn’t help but feel like I did something wrong. I left him in control of that town. Nothing bad would happen, at least I hoped not. But if it did, I would be to blame for it.

Footnote: Level up!

New Perk Added: Rapid Reload – All of your weapon reloads are 25% faster than normal.