Fallout: Equestria - Martingale Fairytale

Chapter 4 – Neigh Orleans

We stopped for only a short time in Bakersmill. Praline Sweet met us at the gates and provided us with what she called a care package: a few cakes of something she called hardtack, some dried apple chips and other various foods, as well as a bit of filtered water from the river. She had even included a couple dozen caps, which I had to explain to my companions as we trotted away from the town.

“Bottle caps? Seriously?” Peach Tea asked, floating one ahead of her.

“Yes, bottle caps. I'm not sure how values were attached to them, but they were,” I said as we trotted along the highway. It curved through town, then followed the river toward Neigh Orleans. According to Praline, there was a split in the road where we would cross a second bridge on the northern route into the city.

“Makes sense though. Can't exactly have money if there ain't no banks working,” Lode pointed out.

“Just seems like a strange thing to pick, you know? Like, why not keep with bits?” she asked, pocketing the cap.

“Not sure. I don't think Praline and the others are kidding around, though.” I shifted the pouch in my saddlebag a bit to make sure it stopped jangling so much.

“She seems rather sweet. I hope everypony's like that,” Peach continued, apparently just trying to fill the quiet as much as she could.

“Probably not. Everypony was armed, and they had guards. You don't need guards if everpony's pleasant.”

“Maybe they're hiding something,” Lode Stone offered.

I shook my head. “They're not hiding anything, aside from trying to keep their food stores away from any criminals,” I said confidently.

“Oh, yeah, that makes sense,” Peach Tea said after a moment. “Hope we don't have to fight or kill anypony though.”

“I'm hoping to avoid that as well. The faster we get into town, and the faster we make contact with the ponies there, the better.”

“If we gotta fight, make sure to stick behind me,” Lode Star directed to Peach, grinning a bit. “I'm good in a fight.”

“I have a shotgun, you know,” she pointed out.

“Do you even know how to use it?”

“Of course I do! I worked in the armoury, ass,” Peach Tea said with a glare.

I glanced over at Kusafiri, who was trying not to laugh. I couldn't help but grin as well.

“You on the other hand, have a rusty metal stick,” Peach Tea continued.

“It's a sabre!” Lode Stone was carrying with him the twin to the sabre Kusafiri had. They were rusty, but still reasonably sharp, and better than nothing. I knew I personally wouldn't want to be hit by one. “They're the standard weapon for Destriers in the REA!”

“Yeah, but aren't you a garbage pony?” Kusafiri put in. Peach Tea started giggling at that.

“Alright, enough,” I said, chuckling a little. “Though it may not be glamourous, garbage ponies were still essential to maintaining the Stable.”

“Thank you, Doc,” Lode said happily.

“Oh, alright, fine.” Peach Tea sighed as she said it, but I could see the grin on her face. Kusafiri chuckled.

We walked on in silence for a few more steps, before Peach added: “You still stink, though.”

“Hey!”

I laughed with the three of them, grinning at Lode, who even managed to smile after a bit. We continued walking, spirits a little higher after that.

It ended up taking us most of the rest of the day to get to Neigh Orleans, and even then we weren't in the city proper. The sun was dipping below the horizon as we approached, and I felt butterflies in my stomach, a little frightened of the unknown there. The city spread out ahead of us, straddling the Muddy River that ran along our left side. It was large, but nowhere near the size of a pre-war metropolis like Manehattan or Chicacolt. Ahead of us, what I knew as South Neigh Orleans, looked much like Bakersmill: short, squat buildings for the most part, with a number of larger factories and warehouses along the waterfront. Across the river, the buildings were taller toward the middle, transitioning to shorter ones on the edges, with fewer factories. I couldn't see any details beyond that in the darkening light, not at this distance anyway.

As we walked, a sign loomed along the road. I looked up at it. It was written in two languages, surrounding a fleur-de-lys. Above it read 'Welcome to Neigh Orleans!', below, 'Bienvenue a Neigh Orleans!' Along the bottom of the sign was a tag line similar to the one on Bakersmill's sign: 'Let the good times roll!', followed by a population count (though I highly doubted there remained half a million ponies) and 'Laissez les bon temps rouler!' The top right corner of the sign was sheared off, and a number of bullet holes graced it. The paint was faded and chipped in some places, but altogether still legible.

“What's that crazy language underneath everything?” Lode Stone asked, flicking on the lamp of his PipBuck and leaning closer to the sign, as if that would help him understand.

“It's Fancy,” I said.

“I know it's fancy, but what is it?”

Peach Tea giggled, and I shook my head. “That's the name of the language.”

“How'd you know all this?” Lode asked, looking over at me.

“My mother spoke it. She taught it to me,” I explained. “I can still remember a little, though I'm rather rusty. Probably not enough to carry on a long conversation.”

“I think that's pretty cool. So they speak Fancy in Neigh Orleans?” Peach Tea asked.

I shrugged. “To some degree, apparently. Come on, let's keep going, we'll figure it out once we get to town.”

Just past the sign, the road split: one branch turned left and headed north, the other continued ahead of us. Remembering Praline and Stew's advice, I turned and led the group across the bridge to our left. I noted that, like the one in Bakersmill, this bridge arched high over the river below, allowing us to see more of the city once we'd reached the mid-point. I could make out a faint few lights, and the dark shape of a tall, spired building, a light flashing atop it.

“Wish I could see it better,” Kusafiri said wistfully.

I chuckled and nodded. “Me too.” I was intensely curious as to what the city looked like, and how it had stood the ravages of time and war.

We trotted down the far side of the bridge, and after a half hour's trot, we'd entered the city's outskirts. The sad looking trees and dried grass gave way to buildings. They were sparse, like in Bakersmill, just a few houses and small businesses, and nopony seemed to be around. The quiet of the city and the rapidly darkening sky were starting to put me on edge.

I was just about to suggest something when Lode Stone spoke. “We should stop.”

Peach Tea giggled. “Scared, Mr. Destrier?”

“No, but it's getting dark, and it's probably better if we ain't stumbling around like idiots,” he pointed out.

I nodded in agreement. “Got a point,” I said.

“What about one of these houses?” Kusafiri suggested.

I looked over at the nearest one and shrugged. I trotted toward it and knocked a hoof on the door.

“What are you doing?” the zebra asked.

“Just making sure nopony lives here first,” I said. If ponies still remained in Bakersmill, who's to say there weren't some on the fringes of Neigh Orleans? Nopony responded, so I tried the handle. It was unlocked, and so I just walked on in.

We quickly checked around, but the small, single-storey house was empty. Lode Stone raided the kitchen for some extra food, while Kusafiri searched for a way to cook it. While I poured over my PipBuck's map, he found a barbecue and some charcoal in the backyard of the house. With matches that Lode Stone found in the kitchen, we managed to get it lit and some tins of baked beans and rice warming over the charcoal.

“I dib the big room!” Peach Tea called out.

“Need somepony to keep you company? Big bed in there,” Lode Stone said as he trotted in with a plat balanced on his head. Kusafiri followed behind with a plate of his own, the food balanced on them.

“You realize I'm a lesbian, right?” Peach Tea said with a chuckle. She thanked Kusafiri for the food, and pushed aside her shotgun that she'd been cleaning.

“And?”

I couldn't help but laugh as I took some food from Lode. Even Peach Tea grinned.

“Not to mention, I'm taken,” she pointed out.

“Polyamory exists.”

“You really need to get laid,” Peach Tea said simply. Kusafiri burst out laughing at that, nearly spilling his food as he brought it inside to the table.

Lode Stone simply chuckled and sat down at the kitchen table with the rest of us. “Whatever,” he said. “So, Doc, how far from here?”

I looked up and nodded, to indicate I'd heard him. I made sure to swallow my bite of food before answering. “Well, our first stop will be the Grand. By my estimates, it's a two hour walk from here, but I don't know what the streets are like. I did mark it's general area on my PipBuck though...” I removed it and passed it around so that the others could see and remember it. Once it was passed back to me, I took it and set it back on my hoof.

“The Grand, huh? Sounds pretty fancy,” Peach Tea said.

I chuckled and nodded, then returned to my dinner. When we all finished, we retired to various parts of the house. Peach Tea got the master bedroom, and Kusafiri got a smaller one across the hall. Lode Stone and I opted for two of the couches in the living room. As with the night before, sleep was a long time coming for me, and for a good long few minutes I listened to Lode Stone snore next to me. Eventually, I managed to drift off into a somewhat restful sleep.

~~O~~

“Up.” I watched Kusafiri flung a couch cushion at Lode Stone while I spoke. We'd all been up for at least fifteen minutes, waiting on the lazy pegasus to wake up. When it became clear he intended on sleeping in, Kusafiri suggested our current course of action.

The cushion landed with a thump on the pegasus, causing him to shout and flail his hooves. He rolled off the couch and hit the ground hard, glaring up at me.

“Good morning, sleepy head,” I said with a chuckle. “We were supposed to get moving at first light.”

“Ten more minutes,” Lode whined.

“You had fifteen. Up.”

He reluctantly stood, and grabbed his sabre. “Do I at least have time to eat?” he asked.

“Eat on the road, I want to get going as soon as we can,” I explained, floating over a portion of hardtack from my saddlebags. “The quicker we get to The Grand, the quicker we can get home.”

Despite Lode Stone's grumblings, we were back on the road within minutes. The clouds were thicker today, but still broken up enough to allow the sun to shine through. It had the effect of making the city appear much more welcoming than the night we'd arrived: instead of oppressive darkness, and a fear of the unknown that lay beyond the range of our PipBuck's lamps, we could see the houses and buildings around us in much clearer detail. Nevertheless, it was still incredibly eerie, and incredibly empty. There was no sound aside from the wind and our own noises... and nopony around. The wind rustled the deadened leaves on the trees around us, and a newspaper blew across the road.

“This place gives me the creeps. Too quiet,” Peach Tea said softly.

“Come on, let's get going,” I said, motioning for them to follow. We trotted past a few more houses, and I began to take note of the increase in debris on the road. A number of rusted sky waggons, ranging from simple family vehicles to larger buses, were strewn about where they'd crashed. Most held the skeletons of their occupants, including a sky waggon with the driver still strapped to the harness at the front. The vehicle's nose was in the air, the pegasus' skeleton dangling above our heads. Kusafiri looked up at it in morbid fascination as we passed under the bony hooves. The sky waggon was just one of many other vehicles crashed in the streets, the grand majority of the others being simple horse-drawn carriages.

“The fuck's that thing?” Lode Stone asked, pointing with a hoof.

I looked over to see a strange vehicle, radically different from the others. It was an ugly, brutish looking vehicle, and bore a resemblance to the train in that respect. I guessed it had to be griffon-make. It had eight large, rubber wheels, plenty of sharp angles, and a long, sloping back. A huge gun was mounted in a turret at the front of the vehicle, and the hatch on top of it, as well as the three viewports at the front, were blown open. The vehicle's paint was burned in multiple areas, but I could still see a distinct symbol on the side: a faded hourglass on a shield.

“I'm not sure. I've never seen anything like it,” I admitted, trotting over to take a closer look.

“Careful!” Peach Tea called out.

I nodded and leaned in to examine the vehicle. There was a large hole torn in the bottom of the vehicle toward the back, through which I looked in. The vehicle was empty, with a few smears of blood but no bodies.

“Some kind of griffon tank,” I said simply after a moment.

“Why is there a griffon tank in Neigh Orleans?” Kusafiri asked, climbing on top and sticking his head inside.

“Likely for the same reason there's a griffon train at the station,” I offered with a shrug. I couldn't guess why griffons would have a stake in the city, but perhaps somepony at the Grand could answer. Or perhaps it was simply a pre-war mystery, one with no clear answer.

We left the tank behind, and the mystery only deepened for me as we passed it. Three fancy carriages were wrecked behind the tank, one being riddled with bullet holes, another on its side with a large portion blown off, and the third a burnt husk barely more than wheels and a harness. A number of skeletons remained in these vehicles, all of them equine, though whether pony or zebra, I couldn't tell. The carriage that had been shot at was covered in splotches of brown, dried blood, and one of the skeletons had a metal suitcase cuffed to his foreleg. I debated for a moment taking it to see what was inside, but on closer inspection, the case had been ripped open and emptied.

“Damn,” Lode Stone said quietly, looking at the carnage.

“Got that right,” I mumbled, looking down the road. Trailing this one-time convoy was another griffon vehicle, this one stranger than the other. It had a metal cab, elongated and thin toward the end in an almost hawkish way. There were two wheels at the front, supplemented by two sets of tank treads behind them. An open-air bed took up the rear portion of the vehicle, with a machine gun mounted on a pintle above the cab. A griffon skeleton was slumped against the gun, a single eye socket remaining, as the other half of his skull was a ragged hole. On the side of the vehicle, I noticed the same hourglass and shield symbol as on the tank.

“Ew,” Peach Tea said, giving the vehicle a wide berth. I trotted past as well, eyes set further down the road. I wanted to leave this morbid sight behind and get on with our current mission. The images of the dead, their blank, grinning skulls, were hard to shake at this point. I'd seen dead ponies before, but it was still disconcerting to see. Mercifully, as we continued down the road, the dead seemed to become less numerous, with only the occasional sky waggon crash or skeleton, giving my mind less morbid material to work with. We walked on, past the stout houses and the buildings. A billboard stretched over the road at one point, bearing the faded image of a zebra in a suit, playing a trumpet. A sky waggon was embedded in the sign, covering most of the text, but I still saw the letters “SATC” and “MO” as we passed beneath it.

For the next half hour we walked, the scenery changing gradually around us. The short, single-storey houses and businesses gave way to older, taller buildings that reached to two storeys at the very least, many of them with balconies on the second floor, made of rusty wrought iron. The streets thinned a little, going from the four lanes into the city to simply two. It was still dead quiet, and the four of us were alone... for the time being. We were passing a sign advertising a local club down in the Fancy Quarter, when two figures stepped out from an alleyway, seemingly appearing out of thin air and causing Peach Tea to jump a little with a gasp.

They were zonies, that much I could tell off the bat. They looked like zebras, aside from the fact that one had stripes of red, the other, blue, and the red striped one had a unicorn horn sticking out of his head. The red one also had a pistol hanging loosely from his side, while the blue one had a large sledgehammer strapped across his back. Neither of them looked rather friendly, though I did try and keep my hopes up and not judge them on threathening appearances alone. After all, the four of us were armed, and yet posed little threat of our own.

“Well, well, well. What have we got here?” the red zony asked with a wolfish grin.

I had originally held a bit of hope that these zebras would help us, or at least be friendly... but that grin put me off. I looked over my shoulder to speak to the others, only to spot more equines stepping out from behind cover. A light yellow unicorn mare with far too many knives strapped to her body rose above a cabbage cart next to Peach Tea, grinning wildly at her. A stallion stood nearby with an odd weapon, consisting of a metal shaft with what appeared to be a shotgun shell duct-taped to the end. In total, eight equines surrounded the four of us in a half-circle.

“A couple of lost travellers, hmm?” the red zony continued, grinning the entire time. “Thought you could just waltz on in here, not even drop by and say hello? Shame on you. Guess good old southern hospitality really is dead.” A couple of his companions chuckled at that.

“We don't want any trouble,” I said, attempting to straighten up a bit so I looked a little more confident than I felt. “We're just passing through.”

The zony laughed. “He thinks he can just pass through!” The others joined in the laugh, and I felt incredibly uneasy. “Nu-uh. That's not how it works here, right, Desoto?” he asked, looking over at the zony next to him.

The blue zony smirked and nodded. “Nope.” His tone was little more than a growl, and the look in his eyes when he looked at me was absolutely murderous.

“If you're looking for caps, we don't have any,” I assured the leader. It was a partial lie. We had caps, but a mere pittance. Still, they seemed rather desperate, enough to kill for a couple dozen caps, or even kill for just two.

“I like this one, boss,” the mare said. I looked over to see her edged up against Peach Tea, gently running a knife down the rear of her flank, while Peach looked on. I caught her eye and she gulped nervously, looking helpless. “Can we keep her?”

“Well, we'll just have to see if there's anything left of her when we're done. So, fancy pants,” the red zony said, looking at me and tilting a little to show off his pistol. “Everything y'all are carrying, and just maybe we'll let you four walk. Consider it a fee for getting into the city.”

“Please. I don't think either of us want this. Just let us pass,” I said, still attempting to placate them. I didn't want to have to kill anypony... I had never done it before. As a doctor, I'd taken an oath of ethics, that began 'First, do no harm'. I had lived my entire life by that oath, and I didn't want to break it now on account of these violent equines.

“Oh, fine. You want to play it that way? Let's ge-”

The sequence of events that cut him off mid-sentence happened so fast that to me they were little more than a blur. I had just begun to come to terms with the fact we were heading for a fight and I may have to kill these equines, when I saw Peach Tea, out of the corner of my eye, buck the mare with the knives right in the snout. In almost the same movement, her horn flared up with bright pink light and she rotated to point the barrel of the shotgun at the red zony. There was a loud boom, a bright flash, and I felt something warm and wet splatter across the front of my labcoat. I blinked in surprise. One moment, the red zony had been standing there, going for his pistol. The next, his neck was a mess of pulped flesh.

For a moment, nopony reacted. The red zony blinked, and attempted to speak. It came out as little more than gurgle, then he crumpled to the pavement. There was silence.

“Fuck!” a raider to my right called out.

“Rosco!” another shouted.

“Get the fuckers!” this shout came from the one known as Desoto, the blue zony.

I heard the rasp of steel as Lode Stone and Kusafiri drew their sabres, and to my left came the deafening boom again as Peach Tea dispatched the mare with her shotgun. I took a few steps back as Desoto turned to glare at me. He drew his sledgehammer and took a few slow steps toward me, snarling around the shaft of his weapon, his intent clear in his eyes.

I floated out my MEP, pointing it directly at the zony. Point and shoot. How hard could it be? “I'll shoot!” I threatened. It turned out, point and shoot was a lot harder when you were actually looking down the barrel at somepony. With the adrenaline coursing through my veins, I completely forgot about using the targeting S.A.T.S spell in my PipBuck, which might have made it a little easier.

The zony kept coming, in slow, threatening steps. He knew I was dead as soon as he got to me, and guessed I wouldn't do a thing. He saw me as easy prey.

“I'm warning you!”

“Just shoot him, Doc!” Kusafiri shouted. I chanced a glance over at the zebra, watching him engaged in a two-to-one fight against a pair of knife-wielding stallions. He was holding his own rather well, using his small stature and speed to keep away from them.

I brought my attention back to Desoto, who was mere feet away. I took a deep breath, then let my magic pull the trigger.

I'd never fired my magical energy pistol at a pony before. On occasion I'd taken it to the range and shot at targets under the guidance of some guards, but never had I needed to use it in self-defence. I felt a little underwhelmed by the simple Pew! sound that it made, and its thin red beam of crackling magical energy. I didn't expect it to do much, with how underwhelming it was. I was incredibly surprised when the beam hit the zony in the neck, burning a deep, blackened hole, right into his oesophagus. His eyes widened and he stumbled and collapsed to the ground, the sledgehammer falling from his mouth. He gasped for breath, flailing in the dirt, one hoof clutched around his throat.

I stared for a moment, shocked at what I'd done. Then, realizing I had little choice in the matter (I couldn't let him suffer, after all), I pointed the pistol at his head and fired a second shot. This beam of magical energy lanced through the zony's temple, right through his brain, ending his suffering quickly. I looked up to see who needed some aid. Kusafiri managed to kill one of his attackers, and the other had redoubled his efforts to take him down, but Kusafiri was just too fast for the knife-wielding stallion. Lode Stone was holding his own as well against three attackers, using his flight to get around their weapons. Peach Tea seemed fine as well, using her shotgun to great effect against the melee-only raiders.

I turned my attention to one of the three attacking Lode Stone. I took careful aim down the flat top of the MEP and fired two shots in quick succession. Both cut through the pony's side, and he fell to the pavement, dropping a fire axe he'd been swinging wildly at the pegasus. In the ensuing confusion with the other two, Lode Stone was able to kill one with a sabre, and cause the other to run off, shouting about how he hadn't signed up for this.

Within the span of a minute or two, it was over. It felt like much longer to me. In total, we'd killed five of the eight, with the other three having fled at some point in the confusion of battle. I dropped my pistol and stared down at the zony stallion I'd killed.

I felt strange. I was no stranger to death, having had the occasional patient die on my operating table before. In those cases, however, it was never due to my actions that they died. Here, I had ended the life of an equine, taken the most precious of gifts. I had broken my oath. Was it still breaking it if he had intended to kill me, however? Was I right in just killing him, instead of shooting out his leg and letting him live?

Before I could have much time to think about the ethics of my actions, I vomited.

When I was done retching, I looked up to see the others staring at me. “What?” I asked in a hoarse voice.

“You alright, Doc?” Peach Tea asked.

“Mostly. Just... never felt that much adrenaline before.” As sickening as the actions were, being in a fight had sent my brain into overdrive, flooding my body with adrenaline. I didn't want to admit that, as another natural instinct, I quite enjoyed the high. “Never killed... never killed a pony, either,” I added. I looked over at Peach Tea for a moment. ”Why'd you do that?”

“They were trying to kill us, Doc. They would have, too. I... don't like it either, but I had to do it to save us.” I noted that she was looking a little green too, and shaking from all that had happened.

I nodded, then pulled out a bottle of water from my saddlebags to take a quick drink, and watched as my companions each came down from their adrenaline highs. Kusafiri was first, the Peach and finally Lode. Though none of them were sick like I'd been, I noticed a change in their body language as we moved on, especially in young Kusafiri, who was trembling a little. All of them looked sick, and utterly shaken.

“You alright?” I asked him in a quiet voice.

“I think so.” He didn't sound exactly confident.

I reached out and put a hoof gently around his neck. “You'll be fine,” I assured him.

“It's just... it was so fast... and the way he looked at me...” Kusafiri began, but he couldn't finish it. He sniffled a bit, and for a moment, I realized just how young he was. A stallion, sure, but just barely. There was blood all over his barding, and I realized that he must have had it worse: he had to get in close to his target, and actually cut him.

“Come here,” I said, giving him a tight hug. The others looked at me, then at the bodies around us.

“What should we do with 'em?” Lode Stone asked. “Bury 'em?”

“No,” I said, letting Kusafiri go. He looked a little better, but still shaken. “We need to get going. Doubtless those that got away will be back, and with friends. I don't want to be here when they do.”

We got up and left the corpses behind. Within a few minutes, I was a little more calm, but I couldn't get the image of how easy that had been out of my mind. Just two shots, and the zony had died. I found that I could vividly remember his face as he went down, the eyes wide and staring... I shook my head, hoping desperately to get rid of the image. We had a job to focus on, after all. I sighed to myself and kept trotting.

~~O~~

“Check it out!” Peach Tea called out.

I had been thinking, my mind having wandered off elsewhere, when she spoke. I blinked, brought back suddenly out of my reverie, and took a look around. We'd been walking for over half an hour, and had nearly entered the Fancy Quarter. This far into the city, the buildings had changed yet again. This time, the buildings had started to grow closer together, and taller. Now, all were two storey at the least, with most being taller. As we passed into the Fancy Quarter itself, all the buildings were three to four storeys, and pressed up against each other so that an intrepid pony could, if they were skilled or crazy enough, run across the rooftops. This brought the additional effect of making it feel cramped, but at least the taller buildings did provide a fair amount of shade to the street; it was significantly cooler as a result.

“Did anypony catch the name of the street we're on?” I asked, taking a look around for a street sign.

“Bourbon Street,” Kusafiri said.

I nodded, and consulted my PipBuck. We weren't all that far from the Grand, now. “Just three more blocks. It'll be on our left,” I stated, continuing along the road. I could nearly feel the excitement coming off my companions, the incident with the raiders not forgotten, but pushed aside at the thought of seeing ponies that wouldn't, hopefully, try and kill us. Kusafiri was the most excited, and for a time was the one leading us down the road, instead of me, even though I knew the way.

I was quite excited myself. The eerie quiet of the city was starting to wear on me, and I wanted to relax after the raider encounter. When we finally rounded the corner and got our first look at The Grand, my jaw dropped a little. The building certainly lived up to its name: standing an impressive five storeys high, it stretched down Bourbon street from Bridle street to the farthest one, the name of which I didn't know. To our right, it extended another fair distance all the way to Fancy street, where I assume it continued up Fancy to the street down the far end. Along the bottom floor were a number of faded blue banners, each bearing a name: 'The Grand Equestrian Hotel'. On the second and third floors, a balcony stretched around the corner of the building for a few feet along either side, curved in the distinct Neigh Orleans style at the corner. In front of the door, a number of crude walls had been erected, creating a small guard post. In this post were a number of slots, where undoubtedly we were being watched.

Standing on the balcony, on the second floor, was a pony in black barding, a dangerous looking rifle resting against the railing. He looked down at us and whistled sharply. “Hey'all! State yer business!” he called out.

I stopped and looked up at him, eyeing the rifle. I hoped he wouldn't shoot, though with the way the rifle was just leaning, and the fact this zebra wasn't a unicorn zony, I figured he wasn't going to threate us. “I'm Doctor String Bean, this is Kusafiri, Lode Stone, and Peach Tea. We're not here to cause trouble, just looking to trade.”

The guard stared for a few moments, as if judging the validity of my words. We probably looked a little odd, even though I had stowed both Kusafiri's barding and my own labcoat in our saddlebags, as both were covered in gore. I had a feeling if the guard had seen that, he might not have let us in. He nodded after a moment, and I caught him grinning rather happily.

“Aw-right!, welcome to the Grand! Couple of ground rules first. Y'all gunna get searched before ya go in. Y'all gunna have to turn in weapons, all of 'em. Ya plan to sell one, ya give us the ammo instead. Ya wanna sell both? Get a permit. What else...” he tapped the railing for a moment. “Oh! Y'all got drugs? Leave 'em here. Just potions, morphine if ya really need it,” he said.

“Sounds reasonable,” I said. I heard a murmur of assent behind me by the others.

The guard motioned us forward. “Don't worry 'bout nothin'. We all nice folks here. Enjoy yer stay!” he said. The door at the guard post opened, and a single pony trotted out, though I saw a few figures inside, watching us. He was a unicorn, with a long metal box floating behind him.

“Weapons in here, please,” he said. I floated out my MEP and placed it in the box, alongside Peach Tea's shotgun, and Kusafiri and Lode Stone's sabres. The unicorn patted us down to check for other weapons, and finding nothing, nodded toward the door, returning the weapons to the guardpost and stepping back out. He motioned for us to follow him, and walked through the guardpost. We followed, and I looked at some of the other guards. Two were playing a form of cards at a table, and another watched the road, humming to herself.

We followed the guard through to the second set of doors, which he opened. These led into the lobby of the Grand Equestrian Hotel. It was... unlike anything I had ever seen.

In front of us was a small fountain, surrounded by patterned tile of sand and black, with a bit of greenery around the fountain and a trickle of water flowing through it. To the left, a sign hung over the hallway informed us the market was that way, while to the right was the restaurant. Sun streamed through numerous windows, and behind a rich mahogany desk sat a pegasus mare in a pretty blue dress. She looked up at us, and giggled at our awestruck reactions. I knew my eyes were wide, and I could only imagine my companions had similar looks of sheer wonder and amazement.

“This is...” Peach Tea began.

“Incredible, isn't it?” the mare behind the desk said with a warm smile. “Welcome to the Grand. First time?”

It took me a moment to regain my senses and answer her. “Yes,” I said simply, looking over at the mare. “The uh... the caravans. Where would they be?”

“They'll all be in the market, to your left. Will you be requiring any lodgings?”

“No, no. We're just passing through.”

“As you wish, sir. Have an excellent day,” she said with a bright smile.

I turned to look at the group, smiling myself. “I believe you've all earned some rest. Meet back here in...” I checked the clock on my PipBuck. “Two hours.”

I had barely finished when the others took off to see various other parts of the Grand. I laughed softly, then made my way for the market. I trotted slowly down the hallway. I noted the windows on my left seemed spotless, in comparison to the rest of the city. I stopped for a moment to look outside. The street outside was empty, and I saw on occasion a guard in black barding trot past. I stood there for some time, just staring, and for a moment, everything was normal. A couple trotted past, smiling and laughing to a joke the stallion said. A small, rag-tag band played jazz to the delight of a small crowd under an awning. An older mare kept watch over a trio of young foals playing in the street, while she sipped at a glass of lemonade.

I blinked, and it was gone. The couple had become a guard, who gave me a nod of greeting as he passed me by. The awning was empty, with nothing but a boarded up window underneath. No foals played in the street, and the only glass on the table across the road was a shard from a broken window. I let out a soft sigh, and turned to leave. It was hard not to imagine the world as being normal again. I had references in my mind already, having seen the old tapes in the Stable, read pre-war books, seen pre-war pictures and art. Add on to the Grand's pristine nature, and the fact that Neigh Orleans was mostly intact... and it was as if nothing had ever really happened. I sighed and turned away from the window, trotting along.

I eventually reached the market, and stopped in the doorway to take it all in. What had once been a gorgeous, ornate ballroom had been taken over by a number of makeshift booths. Ponies wandered between them, and merchants of every kind hawked wares. Near to me, a pony with a thick coat and an even thicker accented cried out: “Guns! Glorious guns!” At another booth, a mare was haggling with another over the price of a pre-War dress. Across the room, a stallion with a pair of thick rimmed glasses sat surrounded by a stack of books and magazines. I spotted Kusafiri and Peach Tea at that booth, going through the stallion's wares.

I started wandering through, looking for the caravans. I found them at the far end of the ballroom, their booths different than the others: they were more barren, with most of the gear still loaded into crates. There were a number of booths there, but most were empty, unattended. I found only one with a stallion behind it, known as the Far Trotters Caravan Company.

“Good morning,” I said as I walked up.

“Mornin'!” the stallion tilted back his dirty white hat, the wide brim having covered his eyes a bit. “What can I do for ya?”

I quickly consulted with my PipBuck notes, to make sure I was getting the name right. “I'm looking for a stallion named Tumbleweed,” I said.

The stallion tilted his eye, narrowing his eyes. “What's it to you?”

I blinked at the sudden, thinly veiled hostility. “I'm... looking to talk to him about the Bakersmill trade route. Why, is there something wrong?”

“Oh, yer from Bakersmill?” the caravaner asked. I nodded. “Yeah... there's something wrong.” Now that it seemed like I was here for benign reasons, the caravaner seemed relieved.

“What is it?”

The stallion scratched his chin with the tip of his hoof. “Nopony's seen hide nor hair o' Tumbleweed for about a week now, maybe longer. I don't like the stallion, but personally, I'm a bit worried.”

“Why don't you like him?” I asked.

“He and his daughter, Sugarcane... they do milk runs. Traders like me, an' Crimson Hoof, we take stuff from the northern cities, the farms, and from Wise Apple, all the way to here. Then Tumbleweed and Sugarcane would buy it up here and send it to Bakersmill. Cuttin' into our profits, really,” the caravner said, frowning a little. “We brave the biggest shit of the Wasteland north of here, and they get their caps fo' nothin'.”

I nodded. “Do you think one of the caravans had anything to do with this?”

“Who do ya take me for?” the stallion asked with a frown. “I would never raise a hoof against another caravaner, an' neither would most here.”

I held up a hoof to placate him. “Sorry, I didn't mean to insult you. I just want to find Tumbleweed.”

“Well, if I were ya, I'd go check Temple. Sugarcane's over there now, She probably knows more than I do.”

“Thanks,” I said, turning to leave.

“Could just be that he run off!” the caravaner called out. I looked back at him. “Stallion had a load of gamblin' debt from the card tables at the bar.”

I nodded, then trotted off. Time to find the bar, see if I could find anypony there that could tell me about Tumbleweed.

~~O~~

My search was relatively fruitless. The only pony currently in the bar to know and recognize Tumbleweed was the bartender, and all he could tell me was exactly what the caravaner had said: Tumbleweed had disappeared for the last few days. I was discouraged, but at least there was still a lead in the form of his daughter, Sugarcane, though we would have to go to Temple to find her.

I wandered the hotel for the remainder of my time there, taking in the sights. To say the hotel was amazing was an understatement. From what I'd seen so far, this was the true testimony to pony resilience. After everything that had happened, we still managed to not only hold on, but for one small block of a city, thrive. Beyond that, the hotel was quite beautiful, not to mention fairly interesting. The entire ground floor of the Grand was taken by public spaces of all kinds: restaurants, bars, the market, even just a common area to sit and talk. The upper floors and various rooms were turned into places to stay, and I'd heard tell of a spa on the second floor as well. In the middle of it all was the courtyard, a once incredible oasis in the middle of the city. There was a pool in the middle, emptied and grimy with time, yet a few ponies still milled around the area, relaxing on long chairs and talking amongst each other. I wandered around the courtyard, taking it all in, and eventually settled down next to a radio at a small bar outside.

I sat and listened to the song for a while, just taking a moment to relax.

“The breeze is softly singin' through the willows, as hoof and hoof we stroll along the trail... And love is at it's height, enchanting us tonight, like a Mar'inga~ale Fairytale...”

“What'll it be?” the bartender asked.

I blinked, then looked over at the bartender, having almost forgotten about him. I thought about it, then shrugged. “How much for a beer?”

“Four caps.”

I checked the pocket of my labcoat, and passed over four caps. I had scavenged a few extra from my room at Hope before leaving, and after everything I'd been through today, some alcohol sounded absolutely amazing.

The bartender nodded and retrieved a bottle. He removed the cap, then passed it over to me. I watched him pocket the beer bottle's cap, and couldn't help but admire the operation: every bottle of beer he sold  he was guaranteed to make at least one cap in profit.

I thanked the bartender and sipped my beer, listening again to the radio. The song had ended, to be replaced with the voice of the DJ I'd heard the night before.

“Why hello there, everypony, it's your friendly neighbourhood DJ! That was Fat Cat with “Martingale Fairytale”, and this is DJ Shorty! Just got a weird little report from that little bastion of civilization in South Neigh Orleans, Canning. According to Tapper, sentries at Canning spotted what appeared to be a large pony-shaped robot trotting around. The robot seemed to observe the town for a time, but after a warning shot was fired, it took off.” There was a beat of silence. “No, I'm not making this shit up, ponyfolk. I don't get paid nearly enough for that. The robot was armed with a pair of miniguns, so unless you want to look like a naked Changeling, I recommend keeping a fair distance.”

“A robot?” I said dubiously.

The bartender laughed, then shrugged. “I learned to not doubt anything Shorty says, no matter how ridiculous,” he said simply. “Like, just two weeks ago, he warned about a wave of feral ghouls coming in from the bayou, and sure enough, it was like one of them books come real, all the zombies walking in the streets. Fuckin' nasty. I still remember the smell.” He shuddered at the thought, then went back to cleaning one of the glasses.

I shrugged and took a drink of beer, not sure what to say, really. It seemed a little strange, but then again, I didn't know the area. This could be absolutely normal, and with all I'd seen... I didn't doubt it.

“-aypainting dicks on the back of the studio: we see you doing it, and it's not funny. Next time I'll send Rock to kick your ass. Anyways, thanks for listening, to the best... and, well, ONLY radio station in Neigh Orleans, R-N-O!”

I blinked at the radio, then finished off my beer. Before I had much time to enjoy the next song, Lode Stone walked over.

“Gettin' drunk already, Doc?”

I chuckled, shaking my head. “No, just killing time,” I said, idly tapping the beer bottle. “Figured a beer wouldn't hurt,” I added.

“Yeah, could use a drink, too,” Lode said, sitting down and paying for his own drink. I nodded and clinked my beer against his when he offered, and we both took a swig. “This place is awesome. The whole hotel. It's just...” He trailed off, grinning and watching a pair of mares trotting past. One winked his way, and I couldn't help but chuckle.

“Focus, lovercolt.”

“Come on, Doc. Good looking mares, booze, food, and the rooms look alright. Plus, pretty safe,” he pointed out. “This is the damn life, right here. Aw yeah.” He took another swig of beer, leaning over to check out the back of the two mares for a moment.

“Perhaps. We do have a job, though. Think about mares on your own time... once we help Bakersmill, you can move here,” I offered, finishing off my beer.

“Fine,” Lode said with a shrug. “Oh! How'd that go, anyways? Find the stallion?”

I shook my head. “No, he's disappeared, but I do have a lead. As soon as Peach Tea and Kusafiri get back here, we'll head out for Temple,” I explained. I looked around the courtyard, then back at Lode Stone. “Where did those two go, anyways?” I asked.

“I saw them in the market, but no idea where they went,” he admitted.

“Well, they deserve the rest. Been a long few days,” I said with a shrug.

Lode Stone and I relaxed outside for a little longer, exchanging idle chatter and listening to the radio the bartender had set up. As the two-hour mark was drawing near, we both got up and made for the lobby of the hotel again. There we found Kusafiri and Peach Tea sitting and waiting for us, the zebra stallion reading a magazine on lockpicking, though how he proposed doing so without magic was beyond me.

“Hey!” Peach said happily.

“Hello, Peach, Kusafiri,” I said as I approached, smiling. “Ready to go?”

“Yeah,” Kusafiri said.

I nodded. “What did you two get at the market?” I asked.

“A few books, some magazines. Stuff for the kids to read back at Hope,” he replied.

“Yeah! Even got something for you, Doc!” Peach Tea said, passing over a large volume. I looked at the the cover, smiling warmly. It was an issue of the Canterlot Journal of Internal Medicine. I smiled and stuck it in my pack.

“Thank you, Peach,” I said sincerely. Even if there wasn't anything of use to me in there, I could use it to help Elekezi improve her medical skills. Besides, it was the thought that counted, and I liked that.

“No problem! So, what did you find out?”

“The trader, Tumbleweed, disappeared. One of the merchants here thinks his daughter might have more information,” I explained.

“Where's she?” Kusafiri asked.

“The Temple, which is where we're going next.”

We headed for the doors, and trotted toward the guardpost. I knocked on the door, and the same guard as before opened the door. “Heading out?” he asked.

“Yeah, we have to get going,” I said. The guard nodded and retrieved our case of weapons. He opened it up and passed around the weapons we'd stored with him. I loaded my MEP and placed it back in my saddlebag. “What's the fastest way to the Temple?” I asked.

The guard thought it over for a moment, then motioned for us to follow. We all trotted outside, and he pointed down the road. “Just follow this road in. Take about an hour, but you'll get there,” he said, looking back at us and smiling. “Good luck.”

I nodded. “Thank you,” I said with a smile.

This time, the rather loud guard from the balcony was the one to call out. “Ain't a thing! And come on back any time! Y'all're always welcome at the Grand!”

As we left the hotel behind us, Peach Tea smiled happily and spoke. “I liked it there. Almost want to move in...”

“Well, let's get this whole affair sorted out, then we can decide if we're all going to stay at Hope or not,” I said. I wasn't going to force the entire group of survivors to stay in the mansion, and I knew that some would probably want to visit the city. Hope was rather isolated, and I knew some would likely want to move to Bakersmill or Neigh Orleans were there were new ponies to see.

We trotted in silence for the next few minutes, and I looked around as we went, taking in the sights. The Fancy Quarter must have been rather lively place, I decided. A good number of the buildings we passed as we walked along were bars or clubs of various types, and a few still had signs of their past parties frozen there, in the form of strewn bottles on the occasional odd mask. In front of one was a small pile of beads on a string, broken and scattered across the sidewalk.

We also began seeing pony skeletons again, after we made it a few minutes away from the Grand. The first one was a skeleton half-hanging over a railing on a balcony above, the empty eye sockets watching us as we went past, a string of beads hanging from its bony neck. Peach Tea shuddered a little, but for my part, I barely reacted. That actually scared me a little... had I already become used to death, after killing that stallion earlier today? I looked over at the others, and saw that Kusafiri was looking a little sick at the sight, while Lode Stone was pointedly ignoring it, and I began to feel abnormal about this. I managed to hide it as best I could however, and kept going.

Shortly after passing that one, we found another dead pony, this one slumped against a nearby building. The wall was riddled with holes, and there was a pistol lying on the ground. Peach Tea looked over at it, and floated it gingerly away from the dead pony. She checked the magazine. “Ten shots,” she said, putting it in her saddlebag. “Might as well... y'know. Just in case.”

I nodded. I didn't like the thought of looting from the dead, but I was starting to understand that this was not like the Stable, and the old rules didn't apply anymore.

~~O~~

Halfway to the Temple, we decided to stop to rest and eat some lunch. I pointed out a bar nearby that looked reasonably intact, and as best I could tell, was also empty. I glanced at the sign above the door. It was called “Chimes' Bar.” I had a hoof on the door when Peach Tea stopped me.

“I'll go first,” Peach Tea said, readying her shotgun. I nodded, remembering the Bakersmill incident. If there was somepony inside, I didn't want to walk in on them again like I had with Gumbo, because I doubted they would be very pleasant this time around. I took up position on the other side of the door, my own pistol floating at the ready. She gave me a nod, and I threw the door open. She went first and I followed quickly behind.

The bar may have been empty of anypony living, but the dead inside were numerous. The main bar room was set up with most of the tables on their sides, forming a barricade around the bar. A stallion was slumped  dead against the bar, while along the floor near the door were more than a dozen bodies, and a few piles of ash. Shell casings littered the floor, while all around were bullet holes, and near the door a strange set of impact holes, a little larger than the average bullet hole, and each were made of two parallel blasts, like a burned figure-eight. The bodies by the door seemed at first glance to have been barely touched, but on closer inspection I saw the charred holes of a magical energy pistol bored into their bodies.

“What the fuck happened here?” Lode Stone asked when he walked in, looking around in shock at the carnage.

“I'm not entirely sure,” I admitted, looking down a small alcove to the right. It had doors leading to the bathroom. Both doors were opened, and a single body was fallen in the doorway of one of them.

“Back room's clear!” Peach Tea said as she trotted back out. “Just somepony's camp.”

I nodded and took a look at the pony on the bar, where he lay in a pool of his own, dried blood. He was wearing strange barding, made of a black synthetic material. A golden fleur-de-lys graced the front, and on the back was a golden number 51. For a moment, I was reminded of Stable barding, but it definitely wasn't, though I wasn't entirely sure what it was supposed to be either. I examined the stallion, finding multiple holes on either side of the barding. I shifted the garment and noticed a vest of dark green armour underneath, a few bullets having managed to punch through weak points in the armour. It hadn't happened all that long ago, probably while we had just entered the Grand.

“What's he wearing?” Peach Tea asked, looking over at me.

“No idea. Some kind of... uniform, maybe. Could be gang colours,” I offered, looking around some more. On the floor around the stallion were a number of gem packs for a magical energy pistol, most spent but a few still glowing faintly with energy. I pocketed those, then looked up. “What about the others?”

“They look like those ponies from earlier, those bad ones,” Kusafiri said, shrugging. “Most aren't wearing real armour, just lots of spikes and stuff. One has this weird black barding on. There's a bloody horseshoe painted on it.”

“Pretty junky weapons, too. Nails in bats and stuff. Couple guns, might see if somepony at Hope can fix these,” Lode Stone added.

“I could try,” Peach offered.

“ 'kay. Hey Doc, what's the ash from?”

I looked over at Lode Stone to see him nudging a pile of ash with his hoof. I winced a little, because I knew he wasn't going to like the answer. “Ponies. This stallion was using an MEW... magical energy weapon. They have a tendency to... vaporize,” I said as gently as I could.

“Oh, fuck!” Lode Stone yelped, jumping back and shaking off his hoof. “That ain't right!” He ran outside, and I heard a retching sound.

I looked around, curious as to where the stallion's weapon had ended up. I spotted a handle sticking out from under a pile of bottles nearby. I floated the weapon toward me, taking a look at it. It had started life as an MEP, much the same as my own. The top had been cut open, and what appeared to be the working components of a second MEP rigged on top of the original ones. A second barrel had been added above the original, and I noticed extra capacitors inside, which would explain the larger than average holes. Finally, the stallion had bolted on a crude heatshield on top to try and keep debris out, and had painted the image of an eight-ball onto the left side of it. I checked the charge on the gem pack, then looked down the top of the pistol. The sound of a falling bottle made me jump, and I unintentionally yanked the trigger as I did.

A pair of bright red beams shot out at the same time, digging a deep gouge through the bar and eventually striking the floor beyond. Where it impacted, it left another figure-eight burn mark.

“Nice shot, Doc,” Peach Tea said sarcastically.

I looked it over and shrugged, placing it in my saddlebags. I may have already owned a pistol, but with two beams firing at once I had a feeling this newer one had a lot more firepower behind it and would be a lot more effective in a fight.

“What was in the back?” I asked, looking at Peach Tea.

“A bed, some food, a journal. I looked at it, but he can barely write,” she said with a shrug.

I nodded. “Let's head to the back then... might as well use the food.”

We all went to the back and sat down. Lunch was provided courtesy of the dead stallion's supplies, and while I ate I read his journal. Though hard to read, thanks to a combination of poor spelling, grammar, and poorly written letters, I managed to eventually decipher it all. The stallion had been a scavenger in the area, and had found his pistols near the harbour in South Neigh Orleans, deciding to combine them because, as he wrote, '2 iz beddur den 1'. He then pissed off what he called the 'Bath gang', and ended up making his final stand here.

I set the journal down and kept eating.

“Anything interesting?” Kusafiri asked.

“Not particularly.”

We were more than happy to leave Chimes' a few minutes later, and put the grisly scene behind us.

~~O~~

Celestial Square was unlike anything I had ever seen before. We arrived at the area half an hour after leaving Chimes' Bar, and had gotten a glimpse every now and again of the tall spire of the Temple rising above the buildings, but that did nothing to prepare us for what we saw in the Square.

Simply put, it was beautiful. Somepony tended to the Square, mowing the grass and clipping the various hedges and bushes that grew around the polished bronze statue in the middle of the Square, though to what end or for how long I couldn't guess. While all the flora still had the deadened appearance of everything else, somehow Celestial Square still retained most of its beauty.

“Whoa, look at the statue!” Kusafiri said, trotting toward it. The rest of us followed behind, and I looked up at the statue. It was of a mare in combat armour, her mane and tail flowing out behind her. She was standing with her left forehoof resting on a tree stump, looking off into the distance. Below here were smaller carvings of soldiers, looking up at her.

I leaned forward a little to read the plaque underneath the statue. “In Loving Memory of a Hometown Hero, Private First Class Meadow Runner, 8th Equestrian Outriders, Fort Harmony, Peachtree,” I read aloud. “Awarded the Royal Medal of Honour for her actions at the Battle of Tomare. Despite severe injury, she led a relief force through the dense forest and allowed the Royal Equestrian Army to claim victory against the invading Zebra forces.” I took a moment to look up at the statue again. Though time had weathered a lot of the details, I could see that whoever had originally cast the statue had gone to great lengths to ensure a realistic depiction of the mare, down to a scar across her cheek. I looked back down at the plaque and finished reading the last sentence. “She led where others followed.”

I looked over at the others. Lode Stone was examining some of the smaller soldiers. Peach Tea and Kusafiri continued to look at the mare herself. We stayed in silence for a moment, as if holding our own little vigil for this long dead mare.

After a few minutes I turned and looked up at the Temple of Celestial Sisters. Like the Square, it too remained beautiful despite all that had happened. The central portion rose to four storeys, with a spire half that size stretching out into the sky. On either side of the central portion were two smaller sections,  only three storeys with shorter spires. The marble of the building gleamed in the bright sunlight, and while a few sections had scorch marks, the Temple itself was well kept. My eyes ran up the front, stopping for a moment on the clock, which had been frozen at 11:28, before continuing up to the top of the middle spire, where a tall metal tower extended even higher into the sky. I noticed a blinking light at the top, and a large bundle of cables that strung down to another building somewhere behind the Temple.

As we approached, I noticed there were no guards out front, but I saw movement in the windows beneath the two spires on the sides. We were being watched. Before we even reached the massive oak double-door at the front, it slowly swung open. A strange looking equine trotted out to greet us. He was a unicorn, and a zony, his coat a light orange and his stripes a deep red, though most of it was covered in black barding with a white square on the collar. He was alone, and he trotted toward us with the brightest smile I had seen since emerging from the Stable.

“Hello, and welcome to the Temple of the Celestial Sisters. I am Father Sunray, Prophet of Celestia,” he greeted.

I smiled, trying to not laugh. I couldn't help myself, it just sounded so funny to me, to take one's beliefs that far. “A pleasure to meet you, Sunray. My name is Doctor String Bean, and these are my companions Lode Stone, Kusafiri, and Peach Tea.”

The zony nodded and motioned toward the door. “Please, come inside. It's quite hot out here,” he said, opening the doors. I nodded, and we all followed him inside. I glanced back at the others, who looked just as amused and a little confused as I was.

The interior was just as beautiful as the outside. I looked around in awe as we trotted inside. The vaulted ceiling was covered in paintings, depicting stylized versions of the Sisters through various events, culminating in a beautiful stained glass window at the far end of the hall. The window showed a stylized Luna and Celestia circling a sun and moon on a field of stars. I was so awestruck I ended up running into and stumbling over a bench, something Peach Tea and Lode Stone found absolutely hysterical. I brushed myself off, then looked around a little more, making sure to not walk and gawk.

The bottom floor had been split in half, with the left side containing a number of benches, tables, and a kitchen. On the right side were a few books, a radio, and a trading post. I heard movement from the balconies on either side, but couldn't see what was up there.

“This place is amazing, Sunray,” I said, looking over at the zony unicorn. He smiled back and nodded.

“Thank you. We take in equines from all over, if they require rest and a safe place. There is common bedding on either of the balconies, and we serve meals three times a day, at dawn, dusk, and mid-day. If you require anything, just speak with me,” he said.

I shook my head. “Thank you, but for the moment we're just passing through. We're looking for a mare, a trader by the name of Sugarcane?”

“Ah, yes. She's just over here, come, follow me.”

I followed the zony to the trading post, while the others broke up a bit to explore the rest of the Temple. I saw Kusafiri and Peach Tea head out toward the stained glass window, while Lode Stone went to look at some of the books.

The trading post was a series of wooden shelves, filled with various items that weren't considered essential, but that those here would want. Razors, scissors, scrap metal, other things like that. A unicorn mare with a light blue body and a dark purple mane and tail sat behind the counter, counting caps out. She was wearing a brown coat, covered in many pockets, and I spotted a pair of heavy looking pistols holstered on her sides.

“Sugarcane?” Sunray said as we approached. “This is Doctor String Bean.”

“ 'lo,” the mare said without looking up.

I blinked and looked over at Sunray, who was already leaving toward Kusafiri and Peach Tea, doubtlessly to try and preach the glory of Celestia and Luna. I looked back at Sugarcane.

“If you're looking to trade, gimme like, five minutes,” the mare said.

I shook my head. “No, actually. I'm here to ask about Tumbleweed,” I said as gently as I could.

She stopped counting her caps for a moment, then looked up at me. She narrowed her eyes and stared at me for quite a while. I shifted a little uncomfortably, waiting for her to speak.

“What about my Dad?” she asked.

“I was sent by Praline Sweet at Bakersmill. She was worried about your father, he hasn't shown up in the last few days, and at the Grand, they told me he'd been missing,” I explained.

She leaned against the counter and nodded. “Yeah. He ain't missing though. I know where he is... least I think I do,” she admitted.

“What do you mean, you know where he is?”

“Dad was packing up for a trip to Bakersmill, when he'd told me he'd heard that a plantation nearby had been rebuilt, and there were ponies living there. Problem is, I don't think they were the nice kind of ponies,” Sugarcane explained, fetching a map from a toolbox nearby. She unrolled it and pointed to a spot a ways west of Hope. I nodded, waiting for her to continue.

“So he went out there, and that's when he disappeared. Problem is, Dad and I... our caravan wasn't really profitable. We made enough to survive and pay rent at the Grand, but I'm not swimming in surplus caps or anything. I tried to find mercs to help, but Payback's expensive, and nopony else wanted to help look for him, especially if they are raiders or slavers,” she continued, looking up at me.

I could see where this was going. “So you want our help?” I asked.

She nodded. “If you're offering it, yeah. I'll take anything... backup, caps to pay for mercs,” she said, rolling the map back up and putting it away. “Just need the help, Doctor. But I won't lie... might get real messy out there.”

“Don't worry,” I said after a moment's consideration. I was ready, if not entirely willing, to kill again if it was to save her father. “We'll help. We already have some experience with... messy.”

Sugarcane chuckled sadly. “Yeah, welcome to the Wasteland. So, just the four of you?”

“No, we'll have to stop back at a mansion near the train station. I have others there. We can organize and plan there,” I said, looking over at the others. I didn't want to force any of them to come along, but I knew I would need the help of somepony.

“Hey, Doc?” Sugarcane asked. I looked over at her. “Why do you want to help, anyways?” she asked. “I mean, not saying I ain't grateful and all that, but most folks only work for caps, not out of the goodness of their hearts.”

“Like I said, Bakersmill asked us,” I explained. “We... my people, we're survivors from a Stable. We need the trade route that Bakersmill can offer, but they need their trading route back. And he is your father, after all. I can't, in good conscience, leave him if you know he's in trouble,” I added.

Sugarcane smiled and nodded. “Alright! Let me just finish counting my caps, and then we can head out!” she said. “Be ready to go in like, five minutes.”

I nodded, then went to find the others. They were all sitting around a table, waiting for me to return.

“So, Doc, what's going on?” Kusafiri asked.

I sat down before answering. “We're going back to Hope with Sugarcane. We'll then be heading out to a nearby plantation, where she thinks her father is being held. Now, the problem is, it can be a big fight. Start thinking about it now... when we get back to Hope, I want your decisions as to whether you're coming, or sitting it out.” I looked over at Peach Tea. “I don't want to force you, but you're good with the shotgun. I want Ginger Beer to come as well, because you two are our best fighters, I think. Lode?”

“I'll think about it.”

“Alright. Kusafiri?”

“Always got your back, Doc,” the zebra said.

I nodded. “Alright. We'll be going shortly. It's a long walk back home to Hope, so rest up.”