Fallout Equestria: Brotherhood

CHAPTER 16: THE TOWN OF LOST HOPE

Neo and Adam trudged tiredly down the road. Hills with dead pine trees and open land were unevenly spread in all directions. But both brothers didn't care what the land looked like, whether it be alive or dead, what mattered most to them was how far they were from their destination.

Their hooves ached, their backs were sore, and their bags felt heavy as they continued onward with determination. "Adam," Neo panted, "We’re... Almost there..."

Adam sighed and nodded at him sluggishly. "Yay..."

They had been walking for hours without stopping. It was late at night once they left, and now it was day, the same usual day as it was. Clouds covered the skies above, the wastes surrounded them, and all signs of life seemed to be sucked up by the grim bleak world.

Adam paused feeling the soreness overtake him, "Brother... I need to stop..."

Neo wiped his brow and looked at him with agreement. "I agree... We've walked quite a while..."

They both dropped themselves on the rugged black road and felt as the pain in their hooves melt blissfully away. They both moaned and sighed as the pain left. Neo pulled out his canteen, which was nearly empty. He looked down into the canteen and thought hard about whether he should drink the last bit of his water.

Adam puzzled the same, as he too pulled out his own canteen that was about to run dry. "I'm almost out of water, brother."

"Same here. How far is the town from here?"

Adam looked at his Pipbuck map. "About seven miles from here." He said with a hint of enthusiasm.

Neo smiled and took a sip of the last of his water. "Good, we'll rest for another second and keep going."

Adam drank his own water and frowned at him. "But, we've only just stopped, and the town is still a ways off."

He put his canteen away and moved over next to him. "I know, but think of all the rest and stuff we can get once we arrive. Warm food, real beds, and water. Lots and lots of water..."

Adam nudged his brother playfully. "Stop it, I just ran out and you'll make me thirsty again."

He smiled at his little brother and stood up with a moan. "Damn, that doesn't feel good..."

"Aren't you getting up?" Neo asked him with a few blinks.

He felt nervous, sitting down the pain was gone, and after seeing his brother get up only reminded him that the dull soreness in his hooves would come back once he got up. "Yeah, give me a sec."

His older brother put out his metal foreleg that he had built for him. "Here." He said offering him help.

Adam sucked it up and took his brothers hoof and helped him up. Though the pain wasn't as bad as it was a few minutes ago, his hooves were still sore.

Once they were both ready again, they trotted up the road bit more, in the distance, they could see old houses that were abandoned by farmers in the old days. They checked a few of the carts ahead, but found only a few bottle caps and a rusty spoon. Though what was puzzling was, why someone would leave a rusty spoon in a cart, but then again, it didn't really matter.

Up ahead of them, they could see an old roadside pit stop with a large red arrow like sign that was tilted advertised that it was there. Adam looked off into the distance and pointed it out to his brother. "Do you see that?"

Neo looked out into the distance in the direction his brother pointed to, and there, far off down the road, was the small roadside building. "Yeah, maybe there is something there we can loot. Like water, or better."

"And even if there isn't any loot, we can take another break once we get up there."

He looked up at his brother. "Can we take another break there?" He asked sheepishly as he felt the soreness in his hooves.

Neo nodded at him calmly, with an equally calm smile. "Sure, and the town shouldn't be too far off from that place anyway."

Together they made their way to the roadside pit stop. It took them about an hour to get over to the place, which was much longer than they had hoped. But on the way, they didn't pass up the chance at checking each chart, box, and thing worth looking at as they went over to the building. Unfortunately, their search proved to be unfruitful as usual.

As they came up to the cracked pavement of the roadside building, they approached it cautiously. It had boarded up windows, peeling walls, and huge cracks running up and down the dull red building. Even the door looked like it had been boarded up, and recently too. Though the hinges still show, and it looked like the door might have been boarded up as a re enforcement to make it stronger.

From outside, a foul smell lingered faintly around the building. A little nauseous by the smell, Adam got out an old rag he had in his bags and put it on his face. After he pulled out the rag, he had felt a slight hint of fear tingle down his spine which urged him to pull out his laser pistol for good measure, just in case anypony inside wasn't too friendly.

Adam bucked open the rusted boarded up door to the old rest stop along the road. It was dark and musty, and it smelled of rotting flesh. Adam levitated his laser pistol in front of him as he looked at the inside of the old building.

"You find anything Adam?" Neo said from behind him.

"No, but it looks like this place might have some stuff in it." Adam said putting the rag over his face tighter to hold back the smell.

Neo noticed his brother putting the rag on. "That’s probably a good idea, Celestia knows what kind of stuffs in there." He said getting his own rag out of his saddle bag and placed it over his mouth and nose.

Neo levitated his combat shotgun off his back and put it to his side. "Is anypony in home?" He called into the dark room.

Adam took a step inside. "I think its safe." He stated before moving into the building.

Neo followed him into the old prewar building. The building had small blackened shelves that covered the inside of the only room. Small papers and rusted cans littered the floor, only the sound of the wind outside could be heard from the inside of the dark building.

The two brothers looked around the room for a moment to see if there might be anything they could loot. In the room there were only two things that looked interesting, one was a semi-operational Sparkle Cola machine, and a safe that looked untouched on a wall behind a counter.

Neo turned to his little brother. "Look around for food, I'd like to see if there's anything to eat, I'm starving." He said keeping his voice low.

Adam nodded back to him. "Yeah I could really go for an apple right about now." He mumbled rubbing his empty stomach.

Neo made his way to the counter, and Adam started to look down each row of the old shelves, but there were only cans and dust.

"Ah shoot." He swore as he turned back to his brother. "There's no food over here, or anything for that matter." He called to him.

Neo looked back at Adam before going over the counter. "Right, lets check the safe over here and see if there's anything worth taking."

Adam nodded at him and started to make his way to the counter. Neo hopped over the top of the counter only to step right onto a decomposing corpse.

"Ah!" He yelped as he jumped back at the sight of the dead pony.

It was an earth pony, she had a yellow mane and a tattered blood soaked coat. She looked like she had been dead for two days at least. She had a large laceration across her neck, the old pool of blood that surrounded her had mostly dried up.

Neo stepped over the body and knelt down to it. "Oh no..." He sighed sadly as he closed her eyes with his right metal hoof.

Adam came up to the counter to see what his brother was doing. "Brother, did you find-" He stopped talking when he saw his brother hovering over the dead body.

"She looks a little older than me." Neo said mournfully. "Poor thing, she didn't need to die this way." He continued.

"How did she die?" Adam asked sounding just as sad as his brother was.

He pointed to the large gashing scar on her neck. "She got her neck sliced. I'm guessing she used to run this place. Then somepony thought it was a good idea to kill this poor thing."

Adam looked down at the body once again. "How do you know that?"

He looked up at Adam. "I don't. I'm just assuming what happened." Neo said before getting up and patting himself down.

Little puffs of dust came off him as he cleaned off his duster with his hoof. "You can put your gun away." He said putting his own on his back.

"Yeah, its probably best if we put our guns away." Adam chuckled.

Neo turned around to the safe behind him on the wall with a bobby pin ready. "Hey Adam? Do you have your screwdriver with you?"

"Yeah, I didn’t want to leave it behind." He said cheerfully as he gave Neo his blue screwdriver.

"Thanks Adam." He said as he took the screwdriver and started to work on the lock.

He jiggled the screwdriver around in the lock a bit, but the first bobby pin broke. "Damn it!" He swore before getting a new one and trying again.

Adam had decided that he should check out the old Sparkle Cola machine and see if it still had something in it. On his way to the machine he heard a loud snap, followed by a "Damn it" from his brother. He chuckled a bit as his brother continued to struggle with the safe. Once he had made it to the Sparkle Cola machine he started to inspect the the large machine. Its lights that advertised the beverage flicked on and off frantically.

"At least it still works." Adam said as he pulled up his Pipbuck to look through his inventory.

Luckily for him he still had four bits from the last place they looted, which was the old factory with the predators. So, he took all four bits and slid them into the coin slot. Then, he pressed the button for the Cola and just like that within seconds he heard two loud thunks come from the bottom of the machine.

There at the bottom lay two Sparkle Cola's neatly inside the dispenser box at the bottom of the machine. "Brother! I got Sparkle Cola's!" Adam called back to his brother.

Neo didn’t hear his statement and continued working on the safe. "Yes!" He cheered as he opened the safe with his two hooves. His eyes were glistening at the thought of what treasures the black safe might hold. His good expression was killed when he opened it only to find a few notes and three bottle caps.

"Really Celestia? Really?" He said pointing his head to the ceiling.

Adam creeped up behind him with the Sparkle Cola's. "What's the matter?" He asked standing at the counter.

Neo turned sharply forgetting about the safes contents. "I give up! You win Celestia, are you happy now?" He yelled looking up at the ceiling.

Ignoring his big brother’s behavior, Adam smiled at his brother and shook the bottles around. "Look, I got two bottles out of the machine."

Neo looked at his brother with a bland facial expression which wasn't noticeable under his face mask. "How is that supposed to fix our food problem?"

Adam shrugged. "It won't, but at least we can drink something."

Neo hopped over the counter. "I'll have to admit, it at least fixes out thirst problem." He said trying to look on the positive side.

Together both brothers went outside and sat down at a old wooden bench outside the front of the rest stop. The brothers both took off their masks as they stared into a small pair of depressing rocky hills. Neo was slouching back on the bench lousily as he sipped the carroty sparkling cola. His hooves felt relieved as they pain had slowly died away from the endless amount of walking they had done.

"You know Adam, just behind those hills in front of us is the town of Arkcannon. Our destination."

He took another sip of the Sparkle Cola before continuing. "Just think about it for a second. Its been two days since we've seen real civilization, and two days since we've had a proper meal that isn't crap... I miss those beans Lavender made..."

Adam smiled at the thought of a nice meal. "I miss them too, and if you don't stop talking about food you're going to make me more hungry than I already am!" He said nudging his older brother playfully.

He returned the chuckle. "Yeah, I'm gonna make myself more hungry than I already am too."

"Yeah..." He said calming down.

Neo blinked at him. "Something on your mind?"

He shook his head as he looked at the almost empty Sparkle Cola in deep thought. "It's just..."

"Just what?"

"What if mom isn't there... and what that Zebra said... it bothers me a bit."

Neo shrugged at him. "Meh, don't listen to him. He was just speaking crap, he doesn't know anything about us."

Adam was about to respond till he caught a whiff of burning smoke in the air. The smell was followed by faint sound of loud gunshots in the distance. "Do you smell that?" He asked getting off the old bench.

"Smell what?" Neo said getting up from the bench.

Neo smelled the wind for a second, the smell of burning timber and gunpowder faintly crossed his nose. "Yeah I smell it too."

"Do you think it's-"

Neo finished his sentence with a worried tone, "Arkcannon."

"Yeah."

"It could be. I hope it isn't though."

Neo pulled up his Pipbuck to look at a map of the area. "I have the town marked, and yes its just a few miles beyond those hills."

"Should we check it out?"

"It wouldn't be the worst thing to do, plus, from up on top of those hills, we should be able to see the town."

Adam nodded sternly at him before they both galloped up the nearby hillside. After maneuvering their way through the rough twisted hillside. They slowly approached the top, but once they got to the top they were completely taken by the horrific sight before them. In front of them was a large flat plain, and at its center was small town made up of tiny metal shacks.

The small town was surrounded by a tiny metal wall, the towns gate was busted down and its walls were filled with large gashing holes. The large stacks of smoke coming from the settlement added to the dark gruesome scene. But the one thing that bothered the two the most, was the large green flag with a black horse shoe in the middle waving in the center of the town.

Both of them were completely shocked. When they told them there was a war between the Ironhoof Legion and the Steelhoof Coalition but they never thought they would actually get caught up in it.

"They said this was a Coalition controlled settlement! They said the war was in the north!" Adam yelled as he was looked down at the burning town.

Neo was still shocked, his face was baffled by the scene. "Adam, somethings happening. This place wasn't supposed to be touched, it was supposed to be safe."

Adam looked up to his older brother for answers. "What are we going to do?"

"Hope Adam. Hope they haven't killed everypony yet. Because right now, thats all we can do."

Adam frowned and looked down at the town with panic in his eyes, "What if mom is there? What if they're doing something to her!"

Neo didn't turn to him and looked at the town with a glare of determination as he gazed at the burning down. "Like I said, let's hope that isn't the case. It's probably best we get down there and see just what the hell is happening. Hopefully, we're not too late..."

It had taken them an hour to climb down the hill and walk the vast open plain that surrounded the town. In the distance were godlike mountains that had peaks which pierced the massive sea of clouds above. They could see as they came up to the town the large stacks of smoke that towered high into the sky. They trotted at a hustling pace so they could see the damage done to the town, and maybe, just maybe, their mother was there and she was all right.

The green Legion flag that flew high in the sky was clearly visible now, like a dark shadow, it cast a dark aura over the land around the town. The feeling of panic, and anxiety ate them, and it only got worse the closer they got to the town.

Within moments the once small wall that covered the town from the distance was now more clear and detailed. Holes were scattered across it, as if it had been pelted by large shotgun shells, though the real question still echoed and lingered in their minds as to whether their mother was there.

They saw the gates and paused as they say the two large doors to the village broken down and bent inward as the lay there at the side of the opened gate.

In horrifying awe, the two brothers looked carefully at the town as they heard the faint sound of gunshots and shouting on the wind.

"Brother... I-I'm scared..."

Neo gulped hard, "I-I am too..."

Adam took a deep breath and stuck out his chest sucking up all the courage he could muster. "B-but mom's in there... And those ponies... T-they need help."

Neo tried with all of his might to shake the fear from himself, which proved to be pointless. "You're right Adam... we need to do this, after all, we've come this far haven't we?"

He nodded sternly. "Right then," Neo added, "Let's do this."

Once again they each took a deep breath in, and made their way to the gates ahead of them.

There was a small dirt road leading from the front gate into the center of town. Standing post at the entrance were two Legion soldiers clad in thick green military armor with their identities hidden by thick pre-war gas-masks. Both of them happened to be unicorns who toted in bleeding tangerine auras semi-automatic rifles that looked sleek -- perhaps even fabricated in the town itself.

On the soldiers' backs were swords sheathed in new tanned leather bearing the Legion's horseshoe crest.

They noticed as Adam and Neo approached the gate and readied their weapons. "Halt! Who approaches the gate?"

Adam and Neo tried their best to hide their fear as they came up to the two guards. "I am Guardian Neo, and this Province Guardian Adam. We just want to get into the town."

The guards looked at each other before looking back at the two brothers. "Captain Cyrus has given us orders to not let anypony in the town, and anypony that leaves is to be shot on site."

"You'd be smart if you just turned around and went back the way you came." Said the other guard.

Neo lowered his head for a moment and took a minute before he answered the guard. "Alright, I see. We'll just head back then."

Adams eyes widened, "B-but..." He whispered to him.

Neo gave him a serious glare. "Thank you for your time." Neo said turning around.

Adam, who was completely speechless followed his brother away from the town. "But brother why did you say that! We can't just give up that easily!"

"I know, but we're not going in through the front. If we knocked those guys out then who knows what would happen if more guards came. So, since there are these holes in the walls then maybe..."

Adam started to catch on to his idea. "Then maybe we can get in the town through the gate!"

Neo nodded confidently. "This way, we won't have to stress ourselves out, and we'll less likely die."

Adam agreed and followed his brother till they were out of sight of the two guards at the gate. Then they went around to the side of the wall near the gate, and looked for a weaker part in the wall that had taken more damage. It took them a few tries and a few minutes of searching but after awhile of pushing on the wall, and shaking it as discreetly as possible they finally found a section that was big, and weak enough for them to slip into.

They removed the part of the wall that was loose and slipped inside. Neo let Adam go through first as he watched the for guards that might be patrolling the wall. Fortunately the coast was clear, which was a big relief to them both as Neo slipped in next through the hole and carefully places the metal sheet back where it was.

A hard nervous feeling grasped them as they scanned the area around. On the other side of the wall were several buildings, each one was either made of a dark dull brick, or a roughly constructed structure made of only metal sheets and steel beams. They were behind a building, and the shadow from the building helped hid them well.

Neo went over to the corner of the building they were hiding behind and looked down the alleyway to the main street. Several boxes and cans covered almost the whole alley, so he couldn't see much more then the boxes and cans themselves.

Adam looked around the corner after his brother and listened to the loud shouts that came from the street on the other side of the junk. He felt himself grow sick as he heard the sound of cries of pain that came from ponies he couldn't see, and to some degree it made him deadly curious. Curious to see what just was going on.

Neo put a hoof to his mouth to make sure Adam understood they needed to be quiet. So, before they moved on any further, Neo removed his duster and put it in his bag.

Adam gave him a puzzled look. "Brother, what are you doing?"

After he had finished stuffing it in his bag he looked at him and pointed to his duster. "I realized our dusters make us dead giveaways if were spotted. This way we look like normal towns ponies, or at least that's what I'm hoping."

Adam thought about it for a moment, and his brother was right, if the Legion spotted them like this they were unsure what would happen. Then again, their levitation saddles would show and that could be disastrous.

“Brother, what about our saddles?”

“Just keep the strap on your bag over it, that should work for now.” That did make sense and at least this way they had a better chance at looking around the town.

He then took off his own duster like his brother did, and nodded at him that he was ready to move again. Neo nodded back at him and then trotted softly off down the wall till they found an alleyway that wasn't blocked off.

After looking down a few alleys, they found one that was empty. As calm and unnoticeable as they could they went through the alleyway and into the main street that ran through the town.

Ponies were lined up along both sides of the street, they were crying and comforting their loved ones as they watched what was happening in the center of the street. They carefully moved into the crowd and did their best to blend into the townsfolk.

In the center, ponies with green armor and the same masks covering their faces stood at attention as a pony without a mask walked along each side eyeing the ponies of the town. Among the normal Legion soldiers were three large black wagons that we entirely made of metal, they had four large wheels, and a monstrous like turret on the top which had a gun that look like it could punch a hole through a stable door. Pulling the wagons were large thick green armor covered stallions that had massive steel helmets covering their heads.

As the pony who walked up and down the crowds for a second time came back up to the end of the crowd that Neo and Adam were in, he paused and looked at the whole population of the town. I didn't occur to the two brothers but off to the side wagons that were covered with tarps were covered in flies as Legion soldiers loaded up bodies of ponies onto them roughly.

"Citizens of Arkcannon." He boomed. "You have just seen what happens when there are those who defy our order!"

He began his walk down the crowd of ponies once more. "Order is Law, and Law is Order. In order for any society to survive we must have order! Without it, we are nothing more than Equestrian ruffians! But in order to maintain law, we need supplies, and Legion law dictates that every settlement under Legion control must give a total of five thousand pounds of food every three weeks. The punishment, as you have seen just now, is that for every one hundred pounds not given one pony dies."

He stopped his march once more and turned to the whole town sharply. "Now, for this cycles trials."

With that, there was a loud murmur over the whole town. He motioned one soldier to come next to him, the soldier who he called pulled out a piece of paper and held it to him so that he could read it.

"Breeze Heart. Step forward." There was a moment of silence as he eyed everypony carefully.

"No?" He cooed. "Well then..."

"You!" He pointed over to a unicorn mare in the crowd randomly.

She stumbled out of the crowd shaking nervously, "Up here. Don't be shy." He called to her pointing in front of him.

She moved slowly up to him and stood quivering in front of him. "Breeze Heart, you have been accused of being in contact with the Coalition and violating Law 17 of the Legion. As punishment for your crimes, you will have your wings removed by sword."

She didn't dare look at him in the eyes as fear overtook her. "B-b-but, I'm n-not a p-pegasus..."

He looked her over real quick before nodding at her. "Indeed. So you'll suffer the same fate as those who broke Law 19."

Her eyes widened as she got down on the ground and pleaded to him with huge watery tears rolling down her cheeks. "Please! I'm not her, I didn't do anything!"

He nodded at two guards who bolted over to her and held her still. "Then let her come out to get her punishment!"

One of the guards who held her down gave him a sword they had on them. The sword had a strap so that it could be used by an Earth pony. "Please!" She cried as he placed the sword to the base of her horn.

"As the right of the Ironhoof Legion, I do so hereby charge you as guilty of treason, murder of Legion soldiers, and of illegally opposing the judgement of the Legion."

He lifted the sword up and prepared to bring it down with brutal force but just before he let it strike down on the poor unicorn, another mare called out and stepped out of the crowd. "Wait!" She cried.

He paused and looked at the beautiful pegasus come out with a regretful look in her eyes. She was small, with a fine build and two powerful wings. "Fine.” He said, giving the blade back to the soldier.

He slowly walked over to her, and nodded at a soldier to come over to her. "Remove... One of her wings."

The armor clad pony soldier loomed over the pegasus mare, and gave his sword to the captain. He placed one of his free hooves on her head and pushed it low to the ground so that her breathing could be seen puffing small clouds of dirt. Placing the blade to the base of one of her wings she struggled a bit gritting her teeth at him as she glared at him angrily.

Before he performed her punishment he leaned down to her face and smiled. "You have lovely wings. A shame you had to use it against the new order. But then again, what did I expect from a rebellious pegasus. Your entire race is pathetic."

She spit in his face a she held her head against the ground. He flinched as her spit hit his face, and with a calm movement he wiped it off and proceeded to punish her for a crime Neo or Adam didn't know about.

"Rot in hell..." She muttered under her breath.

"Oh, gladly." The captain said with a smile before striking down on the base of her wing.

The entire town turned their head as he hacked at her wing. Her screams of pain echoed through the quiet town. Blood covered the area around the captain and the mare. He gave back the soldier his bloodstained sword and held her now severed wing for the whole town to see.

"This is what happens! Two weeks! Don't disappoint us next time!" He dropped her wing next to the mare who was shivering and paralyzed by the pain of having her wing removed.

The Captain jerked his head and motioned his hoof for all of the soldiers to move out. For a brief moment he looked back to the sorrow filled ponies. "You know the consequences!" With that, he and the rest of the Legion soldiers, and their armored wagons, dashed down the road and out of the town. It took a minute or so before all of the soldiers had completely left the town.

A faint cloud of dust was left in the air as the town watched the soldiers leave in the distance. A pony with a stetson stepped out to the mare in the road and went down to her. "You folks know what to do." He called in a mournful tone.

A pony who looked like a nurse came up and picked her up and took her to the building across from them which had a large red cross above the door. The large crowds dissipated into smaller groups that went off to do different things in the town. A grim and sad feeling hovered over most of the town as they all went sluggishly about doing what they were supposed to.

Adam felt queasy, he held his stomach as he recalled the punishment he had just witnessed. "Brother... I think I'm going to get sick..."

Neo patted Adam on the back, reassuringly while he watched the ponies go about doing things for a moment. "And who the hell are ya'll two?" A voice asked negatively from behind.

Neo turned around with his brother, who still looked sickly. The pony behind them was a pony in a thick leather trench coat and a rusted iron star buttoned to his dirty white stetson. He was an Earth pony, with a fine build and a light brown coat. "I said, who the hell are ya'll." He added forcefully.

"Oh..." Neo said in a slight daze for a moment, "Here, one sec." He took out his duster, and with a little effort he put it on the way he had it before he came into the town. Then he pointed to the small little metal sun on his collar. "I'm Province Guardian Neo. This here is my little brother Adam, he's a Guardian like myself."

The rough stallion glared uneasily at him. "We'll see..."

Adam looked dizzy. "Yeah... I'm gonna puke..."

The stallion ignored Neo's sickly brother, who at the moment was vomiting what little food he had in him up on the dirt road and continued to look Neo over. He went to his badge and bit it curiously, then he proceeded to sniff Neo's neck. Both of the things he did made him feel violated, after all, this random pony, whom he assumed was the sheriff, was biting and sniffing him. The sheriff reeled back from the slightly disturbed pony and looked back at him with a small smile on his face.

The sheriff took one of Neo's hooves and shook it warmly. "Sorry for the rudeness, Ah'm tryin to keep my town safe, and you can't be too open with just anypony, y'know."

Neo awkwardly chuckled. "Also sorry fer yer brother there, sorry ya needed to see that. She should be fine... her wing won't work, but she'll be jus fine, hopefully, we got good medical care here."

He stopped shaking his hoof and patted Adam on the back a few times as he recovered from puking. "You gonna be okay, Adam?"

He wiped a bit of the puke that was still on his face with his hoof. "Yeah... I'll be fine..."

"Heh," the sheriff chuckled. "Well, anyway, welcome to Arkcannon, not much of what it was, but these are trying times, and we're doing our best to git by as ya just saw."

"As for me, I'm Sheriff Westwood. Ever since the Legion came by and killed the coalition soldiers a bit ago, me and a few others are the only protection this here town has."

He took off his hat and placed it to his chest, “And I regret that, even though we try ta get by with them bastards, life ain't much easier here than it was b'fore."

Adam groggily put his duster on as the sheriff described the towns condition. "But enough of that, what are ya'll doing here?"

Neo gave him a serious stare. "The coalition sent us to check on the town, but it looks like things aren't too great over here."

Westwood’s jaw almost dropped as he heard Neo speak. "Yeeee-haa!" He cheered, almost throwing his hat into the air.

Neo and Adam looked at each other as they watched the pony celebrate to himself. "If ah weren't a stallion, I'd hug ya! I knew the coalition ain't forgot about us! I jus knew it!"

Those words made both of the feel warm inside, as if they were finally doing something right for once. "Yeah, they sent us, but we're also looking for somepony too..."

He stopped his cheering and looked at him contently. "Ah see, what can I do ya for? Who is it ya'll lookin fer?"

"A pony by the name of Dahlia. She's about Adam's height, blue, has a Pipbuck. Does any of that sound familiar to you?"

He scratched his head for a moment. "Can't say ah have... But if she's around, she might be at t'clinic over yonder." Westwood pointed to the clinic that pegasus mare was taken to.

"They might’ve saw somepony like that, but ah'm not sure."

The very mentioning of their mother being in that very clinic sent their hearts a flutter. Joy and relief soared inside them as they could feel their quest coming to an end. Both brothers smiled at him. "Thanks, this means a lot to us."

He tipped his hat to them. "Ain't nothin. But shoot, you fellars need a place to sleep, ah'll tell Cotsworth at the inn you folks need a place. Ah can't wait to tell the town that real guardians are here, boy won't they be happy!"

A mare came up from behind him and tapped him on the solder with a dark sadness in her voice. "Sheriff, some of us are going to put those souls we lost today at rest. Care to help get the families and graves ready? We want those poor souls to at least have a proper place to rest."

The sheriff nodded to her reassuringly. "Ah'll go now if ya need me."

"Yes, that would be nice, my friend’s sister was killed as part of this cycles punishment, and we want to have real ceremony for her."

He gave her a slight nod and turned back to Neo and Adam for a second. "You boys take care now. After ya'll are done at the clinic, head on over to the inn and Cotsworth will get ya a bed setup."

"Alright, thanks again Sheriff."

"Anytime." After that he looked at the mare and they both went off across the street to where the legion had piled bodies in the carts.

Neo sighed, and turned to look at the clinic. "We're almost there..."

Adam too took a moment to look at the clinic. "Mom..."

"This is it," Neo whispered to himself, "This is the end of our journey."

The door to the clinic was opened with a loud creak, and a small bell jingled on the corner of the doorframe as the two brothers came in eagerly. There was a small old wooden desk that had a chair and a small terminal, the wall behind it had posters of a yellow mare that advertised something called the ministry of peace.

Old pictures and knick-knacks covered the rest of the old peeling wall. To the right of the desk was a worn wooden door that lead off into the back part of the building. Both Neo and Adam went up to the desk and rang the little bell that was on the it. But, like they had guessed, no one showed up.

There were also three old school chairs in the room, which they had assumed were for waiting ponies who had loved ones in the clinic. But the room was empty, and the old sound of creaking ached in the floor. And the sound of yelps and ponies rushing behind the door that was next to the desk.

Once again out of curiosity, Adam ringed the tiny bell on the desk, and like before, nopony showed up. Neo shook his head in frustration. "Screw it! We didn't come this far to be stopped by waiting for service!"

With that, he marched up to the door and went through. Adam tried to stop his brother from doing such a rash thing. But it was too late. He was head strong when it came to things like this, and trying to stop him with something like this was almost impossible to do.

Adam felt a little guilty for not giving them time to come and help, but then again, he wanted to see if their mother was really here and the anxiety ate him from the inside out. Inside the door, was a long room that had two opened windows at the end. Eight green medical beds were lined up against the wall with stands piled with blood soaked bandages. Six of the eight beds were taken by ponies who looked injured horribly. The room itself smelled of blood and warm meat. Nurses and normal ponies alike dashed back and forth taking care of five of the injured ponies who screamed and wailed as they had stitches, or limbs fixed up in a brutal medieval like fashion.

One pony in the far corner who had a cast on his leg lay there contently helping the ponies who were tending to the others by giving them medical supplies as they passed him. He had a yellow coat, and a fairly spiky red mane with deep red eyes.

An earth pony mare who was passing by the two brothers stopped and looked at them oddly, like as if they didn't belong. "Can I help you? We already have enough ponies being treated as we speak." She said in an agitated rushed tone.

Neo nodded his head at her. "I understand, but this won't take long. We just want to know if you're caring for a specific pony here."

She turned around and pointed to a clipboard on the wall at the end of the room. "Look over that, if they came in here then they'll be on that list. Now if you excuse me, I need to get some Med-X for a patient." With that, she took off down the room and over to the unicorn at the end who gave her what she needed.

With a light trot they both made their way to the end of the room and looked over the clipboard and the many names that covered it. Each brother muttered to themselves the names of the ponies as they looked through each one of the names that were listed. Neo started with the first name, as Adam would mutter the next.

"Lemon Jello, no."

"Fitz, no."

"Bloomberg, no."

"Cranberry, no."

They scanned the paper again, and again but no sign of their mothers name. Neo got angrier and angrier with each passing name. "No... no... no! No! No no no no!" He screamed.

Neo shoved the clipboard of the wall and hit the wall with his metal foreleg with brutal force. He grit his teeth as his brother looked sadly at the clipboard on the ground. "S-she's not here...."

Neo stomped his hoof hard on the ground in anger almost breaking the old wood floor. "Of course she isn't! I see it all now! Damn it! Why was I so stupid to not see it!?"

Adam cautiously approached his brother. "Maybe, there was a mistake! Maybe they didn't write her name or..."

Neo turned sharply to Adam and looked him straight in the eyes. "Don't you see Adam. They used us! Lucy signed us up, just to go on some wild goose chase for them! We did what we were told for nothing! I watched Lu die! I, Allie, and you almost died to escape those predator things, for what! We came all this way, FOR NOTHING!"

Tears began to build up in his eyes as he lowered his head. "Adam... My little brother..." He sobbed to himself.

Adam was on the verge of tears as well. "What is it, big brother?"

"I-I'm so sorry." He said giving him a hug and sobbing into his shoulder. "I didn't want any of this... I... I just wanted us to be a family again..."

Adam patted Neo on the back and let out a few of his own tears. "It's okay... We told ourselves we were going to try... And we did... I just wish things... W-went better..."

The injured unicorn on the bed watched them mourn to themselves. "You two lose someone in here, cause I feel ya."

Neo glared at him. "It doesn't matter, not anymore..."

"We've had something, happen... now isn't the best time."

The unicorn rolled his eyes. "I understand, we’ve all lost somepony here, I was just showing some sympathy. If it was somepony I knew then..."

Neo let go of his brother and wiped away the tears that ran down his cheeks. "It wouldn't matter... She's wasn't here to begin with."

"I don’t know, maybe she came in." The unicorn added.

"Her name is Dahlia." Adam said warmly as if they were talking about all the happy moments in their lifes.

His red eyes widened as his mouth dropped open. "Y-you know her?"

They nodded slowly at him. "She's our mother." Neo added in a grumpy tone.

"Ho-lee-crap. You're really her kids? How old are you two?"

Adam pointed to himself and then to his brother as he stated their ages. "I'm fifteen, and he's twenty."

He narrowed his eyes at him. "Wouldn't of guessed it. I would shake your hooves if I could get out of bed."

Neo looked at puzzlingly. "You've heard of our mom?"

He rolled his eyes again. "Sure I have, Dahlia right? Most ponies in the Coalition know who she is."

Neo's both sad and angry feeling melted away as he leaped at the unicorn and looked at him excitedly. "Do you know where she is! Tell us! Now!"

Adam, who was equally as curious went up to him closely and grinned at him. "Yeah, do you? Do you!?"

He pushed them back from him. "Uh yeah, no. I know who she is though."

The both lowered their heads as their smiles and hope died inside them again. "Ah..." Neo sighed in disappointment. "Just as I thought that we could come close again..."

The yellow unicorn looked at them and smiled. "I may not know where she is... but I think I know someone who does."

They both raised their heads, "Really? Who?" Adam replied.

The unicorn lay back in his bed with the same smile on his face. "He goes by the name Sharp Note. Not much to look at, but he's loaded with info on stuff about ponies. Though I can't promise you anything, he likes to hang out at the inn, that's the first place I'd try looking for him."

Neo looked towards his brother with a faint glimpse of hope in his eyes. "This just might not be over yet! Adam, if this guy has info about her, we might just get much closer."

"Right! Plus, the sheriff recommended we head there so, we'll get two things done in one sitting."

Neo took the unicorns hoof merrily and shook it up and down gently a few times. "Thank you so much, you don't know how much this means to me and my brother."

He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, "Aww, it was nothing, just tryin to help folks. Hopes something we need a lot more of around here. So I try and spread it when and where I can."

Neo let go of him and nodded. "Well then, thanks again." With a quick motion of his hoof both Adam and Neo trotted off to the door leading out of the clinic.

Just before they left the unicorn stopped them. "Hey! What're your names?"

Adam smiled at him. "I'm Adam, and he's Neo."

"Adam, Neo," He muttered to himself remembering the names. "Kay, the names Red Glare. Now get a move on, you don't have all day!"

After he said that, Adam and Neo nodded to each other and left the building and made their way to the inn. "I like them, hope Sharp Note can help em."

He looked mournfully at the different ponies in the room who sadly lay in their beds with massive bloody bandages covering whole parts of their bodies. "We all need a little more hope in these trying times."

Adam and Neo stood in front of the large rectangular building that had a worn festive light covered sign that bared in big yellow letters, Inn and Saloon. It had four windows, and like Maneton, doors that flipped open were at the entrance. A little bit down the road, ponies were fixing the large steel gate that was once busted open, though it hadn't been long and it seemed they had it almost repaired. Though judging on how long they had been under the Legions grip means that they had to adapt to fixing the town at a moderately fast speed, lest raiders or other such things get into the town.

A pony with a four others with behind him wore signs that advertised the burial later that evening. Each one looked more depressed and sad as the next. "Burial for the dead, and tribute to those who dreamed and hoped for a better future! Burial for those who have lost somepony, pay tribute to them and let them not be forgotten!"

The whole town was in both a scrambled and mournful state as ponies worked to fix the walls and gates, and those that sat outside of buildings were crying or comforting loved ones who lost somepony they cared about. It was hard to stare at the town for long, everywhere they looked, more and more ponies weeped for the fallen, and tiredly worked on what they could.

Turning away from the scene Neo looked back to the entrance to the Inn and Saloon. "Come on Adam, let's get inside."

Adam agreed and followed his brother into the old metal building.

The inside of the Inn was large. The ceiling went up two stories as a small walkway with wooden railing was at the second floor that had ponies looking down from it to the floor below. A small old fan hung from the ceiling, and various creatures decorated the walls around the first floor along with different pictures of ponies, and old pre-war posters. Flipped over tables were being put up sluggishly by two ponies who had a depressing expression on their faces. There was another pony in the corner of the room in a round booth with a guitar, he had his back hooves up on the table as he slouched back and played his instrument to himself quietly.

Three ponies stood at the bar at the end of the room talking to the brown earth pony bartender. One was a stallion who looked worn and ragged and one of his hooves was around a mare that was next to him. The third was a filly who looked no older than Lu who looked at the bartender with little tears going down her eyes.

"Can't you take some from the reserve? Would it be that hard to give us just a little?" Said the stallion to the bartender.

He shook his head. "I'm sorry, but the Legion took almost half the reserved food. I'm afraid tonights the only time we'll open it to give some to the rest of town."

"But my family hasn't eaten in three days! We need something, Lily needs at least something... me and her can get by till tonight."

The bartender sighed. "I know how you must feel, trust me, but I can't even be sure there's enough for the whole town for tonight alone. And giving you some might just make us get behind in our supply."

They all hung their head as the stallion sighed to him. “I see, I’ll see if we can get by...”

The bartender conspicuously looked around the room for a moment. "Listen, here take this, but that's all I can give you." He pulled a small can from under the counter and gave it to the mare at the stallions side.

They smiled at him. "Thanks Cotsworth, you don't know how much this means to me and my family."

He smiled back at them and whispered. "Just do me a favor, if anypony asks where you got it, you didn't get it from me."

The mare nodded at him. "Will do, Celestia bless you Cotsworth."

"Now hurry before the sheriff or some official comes along and scolds me for that." He said with a shooing gesture.

The three ponies walked away from the counter and past Neo and Adam till the passed out through the push open doors. With that the bartender turned the small radio on in the corner of the room and went about cleaning his area around him.

Neo and Adam came up to the counter and looked at him. "Hello?" Adam asked.

The bartender looked at the two solemnly. "Yes? You two are new, you travelers or something? Is there anything that can I getcha?"

"Uh, yeah, we are a little new here. But we're looking for somepony, have you seen him? We were told he likes to hang out here." Neo asked putting his hooves on the counter.

He leaned on the counter and looked more directly into their eyes. "Why? Did somepony I know did something?"

The both shook their heads. "No no no. We're looking for our mother."

"You two look a little old to be lookin for your momma."

They frowned at him. "No, no we're not. Now please can you help us, there’s somepony here that can help us out."

The bartender rubbed his nose a bit before answering. "Depends? Who's it you're lookin for?"

"A pony by the name of Sharp Note." Adam added.

Cotsworth looked over their shoulders and pointed to the both in the corner of the building. "He's over there, just don't kill him here, if you're going to do that take it outside."

Neo and Adam chuckled nervously, "Ahaha, uh no, we're not here to do that."

"Good, cause that's the last thing we need here."

After the bartender was done speaking, they thanked him for helping them and went over to the pony in the corner. The pony in the corner who lazily slouched and played his guitar was an earth pony with a blue coat and a tan fishing hat and a tan vest on that loosely hung on his body. The cutie mark on the stallion was a vinyl disk with a headset in the center.

He stopped playing as they approached him. "Can I help you?" He said tipping his hat up in a deep smooth voice.

They both sat down in the booth and looked at him. "Yeah we're told you can help us."

"Maybe I can, maybe not. You'll have to tell me your names first."

"I'm Neo, and that's Adam."

"You two friends or something?"

"No, we're brothers."

"Really? How old are you?"

"He's fifteen and I'm twenty."

He about burst out laughing. "You're twenty? You look about five years younger."

Neo snickered at him. "I'm not a kid okay, I'm an adult, a full grown adult got that?"

"Whatever you say daddyo. Now, who you two looking for?"

"We're looking for our mother. Her name is Dahlia." Adam added.

Sharp Note about stood up in his seat at the mention of her. "Ya'll not serious are you?"

"We're dead serious." Neo stated.

"Hell son, well I could help you, but there's a problem."

"What problem?"

He leaned over the table and called out for the bartender to turn up the radio. The bartender, who at the moment was cleaning an old copper pitcher went over to the small radio and turned it up for the whole place to hear. A proud deep ponies voice boomed on the speaker. "Hello my little listeners! It's me, Cool Blue, bringing you the local news today! In recent news, the old highway leading up to the settlement of Arkcannon has been reported monster free! Ya, that's right caravaners, you heard me, monster free! And it's all thanks to two guardians over at bunker 37. If you two are hearin this, then you've earned the respect of the whole southern province. Just be sure you keep up the good work, cause we could all do with a little more do gooders nowadays. In other news-"

Both Adam and Neo sat there for a second and thought. Did he just mention them? The whole mission they had been given didn't seem that big, but apparently it was much more important than they thought. But he was thanking them, as if out of all the failure they had gone through back at the bunker they had actually done something right. It was a joyful feeling, and to be honest with themselves, it was a feeling neither one of them had felt before.

"Hear that voice?" The blue pony cooed leaning inward.

"W-what?" Neo said in a slight daze as he tried to comprehend that he and his brother were mentioned on the radio.

"Brother, we were on the radio!"

"Hey!" Sharp Note snapped. "I'm still here, and I'm trying to help you."

They both shook their heads and gave the blue pony their attention again. "Sorry, it's just a little shocking is all. You were saying?"

"Yeah well, before you two lost focus I wanted to say that pony on the radio is me. Well, the speaker anyway."

"But, the speaker is there, how can you be there but be here at the same time?"

Sharp Note lay both hooves on table. "Cause I'm stuck here. The voice you're hearin there is my wife. She's got a voice maskin spell like Pon-3 up north past the border."

"For several days now I've been stuck here, the Legions got patrols that cover the outer borders of the town, and anypony trying to leave gets gunned down from out of nowhere though they lighten up the patrols when they come here." He lay back in his seat again.

"Now, she probably knows where your mom is, and even if she doesn't, she knows someone who does know where she is."

They both leaned in closer to him to listen better. "Where can we find her?"

He grinned for moment before answering. "Silvermane tower to the north. But the Legion patrols won’t let ya leave. By now they’re re-establishing their positions up there."

They glared at him curiously. "So, don’t just kill the ponies that try to leave right?"

“Anypony who leaves dies, that’s how they work. They’ve been blockin our radio broadcasts from here, and the only source of info we can get from the outside is Cool Blue’s station. Even Pon-3’s station is not pickin up anymore.”

Neo sat back in his chair and sighed. “Then, what are we supposed to do then?”

"You’re Guardians, right? Those are Coalition dusters, if I ever saw them."

They looked down at themselves and frowned, Neo specially looked at his own with more hate than his brother. "After today, I'm not sure if I'd like that title anymore."

"Well, if I were you, I'd call yourself a guardian. Folks around here need something to have hope in, and once the word goes around the town that you guys are guardians ponies will start perkin up again. Not just that but you need a place to crash till you can find a way out of here."

"Now, you better have your selves a place to stay, cause it could be awhile till you leave."

It was dark in the world, the grey dark clouds overhead loomed over the world much as they always did. A lone pegasus with dark fur and red stripes and thick gear covered his trench coat as he trudged tiredly up down a small dirt path. He was pulling a large cart with an old tarp covering the contents inside. His gear rattled and clicked quietly as he moved towards what looked like camp up ahead.

Small white tents that were formed in neat rows had tens of ponies marching, and walking about the camp as the day slowly passed. It was a Legion camp, the same that was monitoring the town of Arkcannon that was only an hour or two away.

As the pegasus made his way into the camp, a soldier near the edge of the camp snapped to attention as he approached and readied his weapon. Quickly he shouted for an officer to come quick with others before returning to the approaching stranger.

"Halt!" He shouted pointing his weapon at the traveler.

The pony halted his advance and look blankly into the eyes of the young soldier who nervously held his gun at the stranger. "Put that gun down son before you hurt somepony, or do something stupid."

He shook his head quickly as if he was totally afraid. "No! Not till you identify yourself!"

The dark pegasus pony rolled his eyes at him, "Is there somepony else I can talk to?"

"N-no, I mean yes... I-I..." He stuttered.

He nearly jumped as a pony in green armor with bronze outlining and a captains hat came up and put his hoof on the soldiers gun. "At ease soldier, he's working for us."

The soldier put his weapon to his side and stood at attention. "Yes sir." He said sternly while giving him a sharp salute.

The captain motioned his head for the pegasus to follow him into the camp. "Come with me."

Without responding the pegasus followed him into the camp. "I got what you asked for, and I've got some information too."

"Heh, good work." The captain chuckled. "His majesty will be most pleased with this news, that I can assure you of."

They went into a large tent near the center of the camp, it was large enough for the whole cart to fit inside, and large enough for many other ponies to work inside if need be. There were a few lanterns that hung from the roof of the tent that provided dim lighting for the whole tent.

There was a terminal on a stand on one side of the tent that glowed a faint green. The captain helped the pegasus unhook himself from the wagon and looked inside of the cart by holding up a part of the tarp. Within the first second of looking under the tarp, he lowered it and stood back from the cart with an awed pleased expression.

"Good, good, you did managed to take a few from the ruins. How many are in there?"

"Seven, that's as many as I could kill, and that's as many as I could haul."

"You also managed to keep them in fairly decent condition. You might just get a bit extra in your pay for that."

The pegasus grinned for a moment before shortly returning to his dull expression again. "Great, I was hoping for something like that."

"But," the captain added, "I have a question."

"Is it true these things run on the blood of their prey?"

He nodded slowly at the captain. "Excellent." He laughed. "Once again, these rogue monsters will serve their purpose again. Only this time, rather than fighting for peace, these machines will fight for a better world, and with them, we'll be well on the way to achieving that."

The pegasus glared at him oddly, as if the captain were crazy. "Whatever, as long as I get paid, I don't care what the hell you do with them."

"Heh, yes. Speaking of which, I need to go get your pay, wait here. I had a bag of caps ready for when you arrived." With that he lifted the flap to the tent up and left. Just before he had walked off he stuck his head back inside.

"Yes, well, that terminal there can be used to communicate with his majesty. You might want to inform him of your progress. Oh, and you did bring the blueprints for them?"

He nodded once more at the captain. "Good, good." Once again he pulled his head out of the tent and made his way off to fetch the travelers reward.

The pegasus looked a the terminal and glared uneasily at it. He picked up his hoof and just stared at the terminal for a moment before putting his hoof down and shaking his head.

The captain came through the door with a small rattling bag in his mouth. He dropped in in front of the pegasus and grinned at him. "Well, now that that's over with... let's discuss what we'll do with the Predators."

Foot Note: Level up!

New Perk: Wanderer: As you wander you have a 25% chance of finding rare loot in the most oddest of places.

Foot Note: Level up!

Would you like to Level up Adam as well?

Yes-

No

New Perk: Jellyfish: Random things can happen, might as well get something good out of it! Keep exploring and searching to find out what the wasteland has in store!

Proofread by:

Noakwolf

LyonAzakura

a racist zebra

wayofthepen

(AN: Well I found this chapter to be little of a pain to write, not that it was hard but editing, and time for me to sit and write was it was difficult due to life. However this is the first chapter out of a few that I am really looking forward to writing. And as always, leave a comment if you liked the chapter! I really appreciated the feedback!)