FALLOUT EQUESTRIA: RISING DAWN

Once upon a time in the magical land of Equestria ...

Everpony has nightmares. But we always wake up from them... always.

Within the safety of our white halls, our world was the stable, and the stable - our world. But when our luxuries failed us, we left our home in the pursuit of vanity: purified water. All this time we'd been sleeping, dreaming sweet dreams beneath the earth as the world writhed in unending nightmares.

Outside those doors, in the ashen drifts of the far North, we thought there was still hope to prolong our existence underground. But we woke to a frozen world bathed in eternal darkness. Here, the lights and warmth of my home are planets away.

Mutant abominations and the machinations of ancient, dark magic blacken the horizon and stomp out any hope to see the dawn of another day. The solution to my stable's problem was nothing but a means to an end as greater evils threaten not just my home, but the rest of Equestria, too.

Out here, it is foalish to hope for a rising dawn. Because everypony has nightmares. But some nightmares never end.

Chapter 1

Stable Problems

"RED DAWN!" Somepony screamed.

Hearing my name, I jerked upright and banged my head against the railing I had been leaning under and galloped across the grated metal catwalks towards the source. My brown coat flashed a brilliant white as an explosion bloomed from the center of the chamber.

An orchestra of whooping sirens howled a cacophony of bleeding notes that sent me into a daze. It was like the whole world was about to explode. Actually, it was probably going to.

"What's wrong!?" I screamed against the howling sirens as I felt something wet trickle out my ear. In the growing confusion and bedlam, hooves clopped frantically around me as ponies rushed to flashing consoles and terminals.

A pipe blew out in front of me, spraying the catwalk with scalding steam that would have cooked me alive. I fell to my chest, ducking as low to floor as possible. The steam seethed over me but not around me, and I thanked the First Law of thermodynamics for working as it should. Now, if I could just crawl under this and - another blew out with an explosion of shrapnel and boiling steam. I covered my muzzle reflexively; stray bits of shrapnel punctured my barding when a ceiling pipe blew out above me. And another. And another.

The hot air was getting hard to breath. It was as if my lungs were boiling from the inside out. I reached out with my horn and slapped on my breather mask. I took a breath of cold oxygen, crawled under the growing steam cloud and galloped across the catwalk. One of the pipes in front of me began to rattle and pop, boiling water spurting out of it from the over pressure.

I thought I could make it. I stepped into the path of an exploding pipe. I slipped into SATS and the world slowed. I saw the shrapnel veering sluggishly towards me, and in the time it would have taken for me to get eviscerated, I stepped out of the way just as SATS ended.

But that didn't save me from the backwash. My left hind leg nearly cleared the blast – I was so close. But not close enough.

The moment I felt its searing touch, I clamped my jaw shut.I let out a horrifying yelp as the water washed over my left flank. The boiling splash split apart the flesh of my coat and summoned up blisters. Within seconds, my leg gave up under me mid gallop. Tumbling end over end across the catwalk, I came to an almost complete stop when the unforgiving steel grating slowed my roll to a slide like breaks on a wheel. I've been burned before, but boiled? The water stuck to my bleeding, burning coat and continued to cook. Blinded with tears, I lifted my hind legs, bucking as hard as I could and shook my body vigorously, spraying a pair of fleeing engineering ponies with cooling, bloody water.

The boiling pain began to subside, but the bleeding blisters continued to leak crimson. This hadn't been the first time this had happened to anypony lately, and I was glad the Overmare ordered that we healing potions on hoof at all times while in engineering. Levitating a potion from the pocket in my barding, I pushed my mask up with a hoof and dumped its contents into my mouth, swallowing it with an audible gulp.

Goddesses - I was going to be cooked alive! I whinnied as I pulled my breather mask back down and struggled to flex my stinging limb. The healing potion's effect was not as pronounced or as immediate as I had hoped. I half limped, half galloped my regenerating flank to a console built into a, thankfully, pipe free wall. I tapped its screen and punched in the buttons that I hoped were controlling the vents above us. I dialed the fans to maximum and groaned with relief when the huge fan above the chamber began drawing the hot air into its spinning blades.

Luckily for me, that was not the end of it.

SCREEE ... a section of the catwalk broke away and the chamber quaked violently, throwing me to the catwalk once more. I saw ponies fly over the railing as a section of the walkway that I had trodden only seconds earlier tipped over and plummeted into the water below. The sound of metal on metal reduced my hearing to a disorientated hum. If they hadn't been impaled by the metal beams, they'd be fine, I kept telling myself through the acute ringing that accompanied my spinning disorientation.

I turned to see the rumbling shell that housed the spherical water purifier at the center of the chamber shriek with a dying mechanical groan. My heart beat once and thankfully not for the last time as the thing blew up like a star gone supernova, burning a blooming white flash into my retinas. The console behind me ignited in a blast of shrapnel and electrical fires licked at its shattered screen. I coughed and choked as I scrambled to my hooves, pushing through the billowing smoke to the muffled voice of a screaming pony mare.

I shook off my daze and peered through the lenses of my breather mask, rushing blindly through the steam towards her voice.

"It broke! Goddesses damn it, shit! It broke! IT BROKE!" Dew Drops cried out as my hearing returned. I realized that the high pitched humming wasn't coming from my ears, but from the smoking ruin of the purifier. To my surprise, once the smoke lifted, the machine itself was still, for the most part, intact. Only a crater the size of my forehoof reminded me that the thing had exploded.

The mare fumbled with the system's still working controls, tapping her hooves against the terminals keyboard like her life depended on it.

With a dying hum, and the purifier's high pitched mechanical whine faded to dead silence.

The steam that had been billowing out of the pipes around us choked to a sputtering stop. She turned to look at me with an expression of relief when the terminal exploded, showering her with shrapnel. She pounced back reflexively; the blur of her blue coat slammed into me and I broke her fall.

We thrashed blindly against each other's limbs until I bit down on her teal mane and pulled her to her hooves. I squinted through the smoke as ponies galloped past us, plugging steam pipes and spraying fire extinguishers into dancing flames. What the hell had just happened?

I rushed to the rails and peered downward. The water below me pulsated with a reddish glow while the sirens above us flashed like the stable itself was about to be consumed by balefire.

"It broke!" Dew Drops whined, blood seeping from shrapnel wounds under her breather mask.

"The whole system?" I shouted at her over the sirens, shaking her with both my forelegs. She shook her head and tapped her right ear with a confused look on her face. "Would somepony turn those off!" Engineering ponies scrambled past me, putting out fires and generally running away from the exploding steam pipes as the plugs popped.

How silly of me, was I the only one concerned about the smoking machine at the center of the room? The machine that purified our stable's water and generally kept everypony alive? I took a step toward the machine to make a closer inspection but the drying, raw skin on my hide sent needles through my nerve endings. I winced. Maybe the purifier could wait.

I roared in a voice that nopony else seemed to hear. With SATS recharged and my hit rate desirable, my horn glowed and I hurled my wrench at a console at the other end of the catwalk. It banged silently against the buttons and to my surprise, the sirens miraculously turned off. "The whole system!?" I shouted despite my voice being unimpeded by the whirring sirens. Pony shouts replaced the shrieking orchestra but she at least heard me this time.

"No - worse." She croaked, the hairs on her mane standing on end as she gaped at the smoking machine. "The Water Talisman. It's. Broken."

I blinked. Then I blinked again. Then I banged my head against the railing. Ow shit. I'm definitely not dreaming. This was a nightmare, it had to be!

"H-h...how? That thing is supposed to last centuries!"

She cried out every expletive in the books and dropped her wrench in despair.

"I tried fixing it, but it just flashed and disintegrated, I don't know! If I hadn't closed my eyes I probably would've been blinded."

Well, we're fucked. I looked at the smoking terminal in front of the machine and tapped my hooves uselessly against its still flickering screen. It flashed once, stuttered, and died.

"The stable... how long?" I said as calmly as I could.

"The hell do you mean how long -"

"How long do we have until our freshwater's gone!?"

"I-I don't know. W-we need to tell the Overmare!" Dew Drops turned to a mare who was running towards us. "Bulb Flicker! Tell the Overmare, get help, do something!"

She nodded, and scampered off to the exit. My horn glowed as I tried pulling out some of the shrapnel that had penetrated her bleeding hide, but she waved me off and gestured to my pipbuck instead.

I shook my head and attempted, with futility, to interface with the purifier's systems. No response. "DD, none of the systems are responding." I reported, tapping my hoof against my pipbuck's screen with frustration.

Dew Drops trotted towards me but slipped on a puddle and fell on her face. She groaned, looked at her hooves, then me, then her hooves again.

The sky blue mare glowed with a pink light and a magical field helped her to her hooves. The Overmare stood behind her, staring at the smoking machine with purple eyes that spoke of shock and growing despair. Well that was fast.

"I ran into her just as I was about to leave." Bulb Flicker said, rubbing her horn as she trotted next to her. Following closely behind them, three security ponies with weapons slung across their backs looked around with shock as Overmare Peach Petals came before us. I saw her gulp before her eyes darted to meet mine.

"What happened here? How ... how did all this happen?" she asked, the motherly authorative voice she often spoke with gone to be replaced by a trembling croak. You know something terribly awful has happened when the overmare herself sounded like this (she never, ever sounded like this).

I looked at her and glanced over my shoulder blade.

"The Water Talisman got fried, I don't know why, and neither does Dew Drops here." I replied, looking at my master engineer. You'd probably be expecting that somepony two years younger than you would be your apprentice and not the other way around - well, it might as well have been, because Dew Drops gawked at the smoking machine like a brainless monkey. She had as little of a clue as to how the water purifier blew up as I did. From the looks of it, I somewhat had a haunch that it had overloaded. No machine randomly scalds ponies alive with steam by just breaking down. It practically blew up in our muzzles.

"Is the damage repairable? Goddesses, please tell me it's ..." the Overmare asked with a hardly concealable pleading tone. "You, and you! You and you and you ..." She pointed her hoof at a group of scrambling engineering ponies. "Unless you want to die in a pool of diarrhea from shitting out contaminated water, find some way to fix this - now!" The Overmare commanded, the authoritativeness in her voice returning. I winced at what I had to say, but before I could say it, Dew Drops took the words from my trembling lips.

"Ma'am, the thing's fried, we can't fix it -"

The Overmare silenced her with a seething glare.

"I. Don't. Care." She snapped. "Find something … I-I'll try to find something. Just. Try. Everypony is going to die without freshwater." she whinnied.

"I-I-we'll try.. ma'am." Dew Drops eeped. I looked behind the Overmare and across the catwalk behind the open bulkhead, a small group of ponies had begun to gather. From their terrified faces and murmuring lips I could tell that they too knew they were utterly screwed. The Overmare and her security ponies swung around to face them and rushed to the bulkhead, herding the congregating ponies.

"Everypony calm down, the situation is under control. Return above floors and I will let you know personally once the ... issue is resolved ... and I promise you, it will…" her voice fading away as the crowd became more and more distant.

Surprisingly, even here, the engineering ponies had calmed somewhat. Though my ears perked at a few scattered, retching curses that some pony hissed here and there, the ponies weren't so focused on trying not to get cooked alive anymore and were instead more focused on trying to fix whatever had just happened.

Looking around me, the once pristine, silvery, teardrop shaped chamber looked like a tornado had blown through it. The cobweb of interlocking pipes that ran across the ceiling and the curved walls around the chamber had been ripped apart from the inside out. The valves that controlled the water pressure had blown out too, resembling metal trees that branched out droopingly from the gaping hole at their centers.

This was going to be a lot of work. I let out a hoarse sigh and wrapped a leg around a trembling Dew Drops. She rested her head on my shoulder while we stood there, looking at the broken machinery around us.

I turned and looked to her imploringly, my horn glowing with a scarlet sheen. She nodded, clenching her jaw while I dug the shrapnel from her coat. She shook as I pulled the last sliver of metal out of her hide. She opened her teary eyes and gawked at my hind leg.

"Dear Celestia, your leg –"

I nodded weakly. "I can fix that." Somewhat, I wanted to add. The blisters had stopped bleeding at least, but the flesh was raw and stinging. I levitated several more potions from my bag and downed them one after the other before I spoke. "But the purifier … ?"

Dew Drops shook her head, looking at me wearily.

"No. No you can't. The talisman isn't even there anymore." she answered, grimly, pointing a hoof at the smoking compartment that had blown open on the talisman's housing.

I closed my eyes shut and just shook my head. "How long do we have?" I asked again.

She shrugged. "A few weeks, a month or a few maybe? Depends on how fast we consume our reserves." Dew Drops murmured in reply.

An engineering pony with her apprentice in tow approached us.

"DD we need another talisman." Amber Fields said, her yellow mane glistening and dripping with water. She had been one of the ponies that fell into the tank below. I thanked the Goddesses no one got hurt. She lifted a reflective sliver of scrap metal. "This is all that's left of ours."

"Get the others," Dew Drops told her. "We need to find some way to ... I don't know - purify our damned water!"

The other mare's apprentice groaned, "Don't you get it? We're fucked, fucked I'm telling you! I'll be shitting out of my ass like the Overmare said -" a hoof struck her muzzle, cutting her off.

Amber Fields glared at her sniveling apprentice and nodded at Dew Drops. "We'll find a way .. we have to." she said, hauntingly before dragging her apprentice away from her.

I saw a stallion with a gray coat and a brown mane trot past me, head hung low.

"Box Cutter!" I said, calling out his name. He looked at me sullenly. "Are you alright?" From his bruised flesh and the deep gash on his back I knew the answer had to be no.

But he smiled faintly, rocking back and forth on his hooves. I trotted up next to him and my best friend leaned against the side of my body that hadn't been cooked. His coat was wet and still dripping; he must have fell in with Amber Fields.

"Fine and dandy, Red." He chuckled. I noticed the bump on his head.

"No, you're not." I grunted.

"You look pretty fucked up yourself, Red." He said.

"It's just a flesh wound," I replied, grimacing at my crimson hind leg. At least my coat was still there. "Nothing I can't fix with a few healing potions." I added, painfully. Goddesses, did it sting. I looked at Dew Drops who was staring blankly at the water purifier. "DD, help me get Box Cutter to medical .. I think he has a concussion." Box Cutter's eyes looked at me distantly. This was not good.

She nodded, but turned and said, "Everypony, listen up!" The engineering ponies turned to look at her. "Start repairs on the water purifier and plug those pipes. Re-divert the pumps to the reserves; if you can't, wait for the next shift. Until then … just … do something."

She took one look at my leg and shook her head. "You aren't carrying him with that." Since I had ran out of potions, she forewent her own injuries to administer her pocket's worth to Box Cutter's mouth one after the other until the gash on his flank stopped leaking scarlet somewhat. I nodded at her thankfully because Box Cutter was too woozy to do otherwise.

He let out a sigh as I levitated Box Cutter onto her back and she paced to the clinic, with me limping after her. Moving this fast wasn't going to help my leg, but I needed to see my friend through.

We left the dark, damp confines of the engineering level, its pony sized piping and grated floor turning into gray tiles and white wash walls.

Below on the hoof trodden halls, earth ponies and unicorns gave us concerned looks as we trotted past them in a hurry. The soft flapping of feathery wings caught my momentary attention and I saw that a flock of pegasi fillies were following us closely with frightened looks on their faces.

"We shouldn't have come this way." Dew Drops said softly.

I tried not to make eye contact with the bystanders. "Why not?" I called after her.

"Look at them, they're scared."

Just when I thought my leg was finally going to give up on me, a pegasus wearing security barding landed in front of us a yard away. Dew Drops was about to go around her when the pegasus called out to her.

"DD – oh shit! Is that Box Cutter?" Lightning Twirl said, her blue wings propelling her toward us. "The hell happened? I mean, I heard the explosions and everything." She said, blowing a strand of her white hair out of her eyes.

"The water–" I began.

"The water purifier overloaded. We're fixing it as we speak." Dew Drops stammered, nodding her head. She was keeping the truth from her, but she wasn't exactly lying either. "Box Cutter fell and well…"

"He's bleeding all over her barding." I finished for her. The gash on his flank was pretty deep.

"I'm still conscious you know..." he muttered as he lay limp on my back.

"Listen, Box Cutter has a concussion, I think." I said. Lightning Twirl's blue eyes widened at that. "We need to get him to the clinic."

She trotted next to me. "I can fly him there. I'll use the aerial access tunnels – it's much faster." The pegasus mare offered. I transferred him to her back. He groaned painfully when Dew Drops' barding brushed against his flank. Hey, my coat was scalded and I wasn't complaining!

"Sorry – shit – sorry." I winced, trying to levitate him onto the pegasus. When I finally got him on her back, he hugged his forelegs around the base of her neck.

"Bite my mane or you'll fall off." Lightning Twirl said, spreading her wings.

"That what you tell Star Glint before you fuck?" he said, with a grin.

Lightning Twirl snorted, and took off, Box Cutter screaming about his head hurting as she disappeared in one of the holes in the ceiling.

I shook my head, chuckling.

We trotted through the living quarters past the unicorn and earth pony housing. They were circle shaped portals that each pony inside decorated with pictures they drew or pictures of themselves, friends, or families. I smiled as we walked past Dew Drops's room, who had tacked the doodles I'd drawn for our friends when I was just a colt on the surface of her door.

I looked up and saw the poofy pillow shaped globs of white cushioning that stuck out of the walls from metal beams far above us where the pegasi could land and chat above the 'clouds'. It was a simple reminder of what the world had looked like once outside. Farther above my head I could see the pegasi quarters; the entire pegasus tier was painted a sky blue with murals of great cities that hung above the clouds. The rooms closest to the edge had no doorsteps, but could be accessed from backdoors in a hallway where grounded ponies such as myself could get to – which I thanked the Goddesses and whoever designed the stable for because I wouldn't ever be able to see my mom if it hadn't been that way.

Everywhere I looked, ponies had tried to cover the boring whitewash walls around us with beautiful murals drawn by artists of both the past and the present. The murals depicted landscapes of green and skies of purple; fields of gold and shimmering seas of blue. Sunsets of ember light and moons that gleamed white against the twilight stretched across the walls – none of which anypony who'd drawn them had ever seen.

A herd of fillies and colts ran past us, laughing at each other in a game of tag, breaking me from my trancelike state as I admired the murals I'd walked past my entire life. One of them slowed, looking at my now scabbing leg as she trotted past.

We passed by open, dome shaped rooms where ponies lounged on white washed couches or cushions, eating dried carrot chips while listening to live music from the cello, guitar, and violin. The soft hum of the yellow ambient lights above me calmed my nerves. I almost wanted to forget that the Water Talisman was broken.

Even down here, several hundred feet underground in a bomb shelter built two centuries ago and spared from the balefire holocaust, I imagined life here to be just about as comfortable as it was up there before the war.

It was as if ponies had lived here since the beginning of time. If there hadn't been so few of us here, I would've believed that notion.

---

I looked down at Box Cutter who laid spread eagled on the clinic bed with an ice pack wrapped around his head. Bandages mummified his flank where he had been cleaved by a broken metal beam as the catwalk fell under him.

Me? I suppose I was better off. After a dose from an extra strength healing potion, the scabs on my leg peeled off and the flesh beneath went to a very interesting shade of pink. I got bandaged up and told to not run on it. Though the itching was really starting to bother me.

Box Cutter did in fact have a concussion, and had begun seeing things in his concussion induced confusion. I was glad Lightning Twirl got him here fast enough for the doc to wrap his head in ice so it didn't swell.

A peaceful yellow glow fell upon us from the lights above. The walls around us were patterned with swarms of butterflies of alternating colours – insects that were probably long extinct, but nevertheless pleasing to the eye. The ceiling was painted to resemble an open sky with sparse clusters of poofy clouds. I imagined that lying on a hospital bed in pain was probably better when your head was in the clouds.

The clinic's clean, sterile halls were mostly empty. Behind the pink curtains surrounding Box Cutter's bed, I heard a somepony groan. Several of the engineering ponies had suffered shrapnel wounds and second degree burns. I was one of them, but I'd only gotten off easily because it had been just one leg. I winced at the thought of my entire body getting cooked.

But for the most part, the stable was as healthy and happy as it could be. For now, I thought darkly.

For two centuries since the bombs fell, my stable had lived in relative luxury. Fresh water. Working toilets. Hot baths. Fresh food - if colorless apples and genetically modified veggies counted as fresh. We had it all here. I wasn't sure how long we could continue living like the way we were now with the Water Talisman broken. Water was always recycled. That poop water in your toilet? It's what you're going to drink tomorrow morning at breakfast. Not that it'll taste like anything (the ponies of the past had worked hard at making talismans that made life easier). It was recycled and treated. But without the talisman, that poop water is still going to be poop water when you go for a drink tomorrow no matter what you do.

"What happened?" I asked him, who, thankfully, was still conscious. "I tried accessing the systems but they were dark by the time I had my pipbuck up."

"Shit if I know. My console was giving me crazy readings and the entire room started shaking," he sighed. "Then the catwalk fell from my hooves and, well, I'm here now."

My brow furrowed. "What kind of readings, though?"

"The Water Talisman just couldn't take it anymore I guess. It overloaded. There was too much pressure in the valves and it overheated trying to compensate. It started boiling the water instead of treating it."

Dew Drops, who stood behind me harumphed. "That explains the explosions. But why? It's supposed to last us centuries."

I narrowed my eyes at her. "That's what I said," I looked back down at Box Cutter. "Stupid StableTec, giving us faulty machines." My toilet clogged up last week and I had to use Dew Drops's bathroom since then. Then the pipbuck around my leg tightened somehow and chafed me. Then the sliding door to the cafeteria closed on my tail.

And now the Water Talisman is broken, and my left hind leg was a pink raw mass because of it. I guess I've been blaming everything on StableTec lately. Stable problems, I thought with an audible sigh.

"There has to be another way. There just has to be." Dew Drops muttered. She looked at me hoping I'd echo her words. I just met her gaze with worried eyes for a brief moment before looking down at the alabaster floor beneath my hooves. Honestly, I was sure we'd have to be drinking poop water real soon.

"All the engineering ponies are meeting with the Overmare later today in a few hours. You and I will be going, Red." Dew Drops said finally after a few seconds of silence. "You need to come too, Box Cutter."

"He needs to stay in bed," the doctor's voice said behind the curtains. Stitches, the stable's local equine fixer pushed through the pink fabrics. He levitated a pen out of his white coat and jotted down notes on a clipboard as he gave the injured earth pony on the bed a look over. "Box Cutter hit his head pretty hard. He might lapse out of consciousness and hurt himself even more." Doctor Stitches gave the stallion a serious look, "I might even need to crack his skull open to relieve the pressure building up inside of it or it might blow like the purifier downstairs."

Box Cutter's eyes widened in horror. "Just pulling your leg." Stitches chuckled. I glared at him and so did Dew Drops. He had that sick sense of humor that scared the hell out of you and made you even angrier after finding out your mom wasn't really going to die from cancer. That bastard. "You do have a concussion though, so you still need to rest for a bit, maybe even for a while." Box Cutter groaned,

"Could be worse." Dew Drops grinned. "Your head could'asploded."

"Quit scaring me, this shit's serious." He pouted.

Dew Drops patted his rumpled mane comfortingly.

"You'll be fine. Take it easy. Red and I are going to grab a bite before the meeting."

I bumped hooves with Box Cutter and left the clinic, Dew Drops taking the lead.

We stepped out the door and I cringed as a pair of hooves wrapped around me.

"My baby, my baby!" My mom moaned, wrapping her wings around me. She pushed me into the door and my bad leg rubbed painfully against its frame.

"Mom – ow – please –"

"I'm so glad you're okay! I heard the explosions and I thought you were hurt! But my little colt is A-OK!" She cried, hugging me tighter as she buried my muzzle in her red mane.

"Miss Morning Dawn, your little pony got a boiling water bath … you probably shouldn't be touching him… at all." Dew Drops advised, suppressing a giggle.

Mom's ears twitched and she let go of me almost immediately. I could feel my flesh burning where the door had grazed me. I smiled painfully at her. "I'm fine, mom, really."

"Did you have dinner yet? Curfew starts in half an hour." She asked, raising a foreleg to rub my shoulder, but lowering it when she noticed the red marks under my brown hide.

"DD and I were just about to go get something to eat. Don't worry 'bout me, mom. I'm fine … but the water purifier isn't." I said, frankly. "The water t-" Dew Drops clapped my mouth shut with a hoof.

"The water's going to be cold for a few days while we try to get the heater working. It blew out too when the purifier broke down. But we still have our reserves, so we should be fine for a while until we can fix them." Dew Drops finished for me. I glared at her. "We're going to an engineer pony meeting with the Overmare later tonight. We'll have it allllll fixed ASAP." She drawled.

"Oh ... okay." Mom said, touching a hoof to her lower lip. "Wear your sealed barding next time you're down at engineering," she said to me. "You two should go have dinner now, it's getting late."

"Yes, mom. And g'nite!" I said, before trotting off after Dew Drops who had begun making her way down the hall.

"Love you, Red!"

My cheeks turned scarlet and I waved goodbye. Dew Drops giggled at me. She must've thought that was cute. Well I'm not cute, okay! I'm a full grown stallion! I fix things! I'm an engineer, a worker, and a cynic! I am a lot of things, but I wasn't cute! Okay?

I let out a long sigh.

Somehow I knew that the meeting was going to be in vain. What else could we do? We don't have any extra talismans. This one was built in, and was supposed to be built to last – for the Goddesses' sake, why now?

10 generations ago my great great great great … great something grandmother and grandfather came here just as the bombs fell. It has been 200 years since the green fires we read about in the books scorched the land above us. Even underground, you could still see the seismic aftershock of the holocaust that had made life outside the stable extinct on the cracks in the walls in the upper levels.

2 centuries pass, and our talisman decides to break now. And its warranty was beyond expired. Speaking of warranties … no. StableTec, the Ministries – there was nothing left above ground. At least, that's what we've been told. The history books tell us that when the bombs fell, the earth split apart, lakes evaporated, trees disintegrated, and the world became a cold, empty crater devoid of life.

We were all that was left. Stable 29 was the only home I've ever known. Goddesses help us all –

Dew Drops stopped suddenly and I bumped my head into her flank. I blinked, gasped, and took a step back. She was looking back at me with a sly grin. Dew Drops swished her tail across my reddening muzzle.

"Pfft pwa –" I sputtered, my name beginning to match my likeness.

"Don't look so down, Red." She said as I trotted past her to the cafeteria. "We've lived here, our mothers lived here, and their mothers lived here. We'll find a way, I promise." Dew Drops bumped her flank playfully with mine and I winced.

"That hurts, you know?" I managed as my scalded hide tingled and stung.

"C'mon, let's get something to eat." Dew Drops and I entered the cafeteria and found that it was surprisingly rife with chatter.

The air was permeated with a normality and an everydayness that made my mane itch. Dew Drops caught the eyes of a hoofull of ponies sitting at a table nearby when they saw her engineer barding. She gave them a hearty smile and the two of us made our way to the cafeteria line.

Before I could lift a hoof, I felt something yank my tail. I glanced behind me and Amber Field's colt looked up at me with wide eyes.

"Mista Dawn, is the wawer tawisman bwoken?"

Pursing my lips, I glanced over at Dew Drops in hopes she'd answer for me. She mouthed no. I was awful with kids.

"I uh, no, it's just …" I stammered, scratching my mane as I searched for a delicate way to put this without scaring him. Even for his age, he knew that the Water Talisman meant life, and without it, meant death. Or whatever he thought came after life. "The water purifier is just broken," I said, "We can fix it, dontchu worry, m'boy!" I said, mussing his mane. "Go back to Amber and tell her Box Cutter's alright too, 'kay?"

"Thass wha Miss Pea Pewals said!" He gave me a relieved grin and scampered off. Thank the Goddesses I didn't make him cry. Overmare Peach Petals really knows how to keep everypony from freaking out and breaking tables against the walls.

"And you say you're horrible with foals. He's not bawling his eyes out thanks to you."

"Yeah well it's better that the young'uns don't know how screwed they are." I muttered. Dew Drops hooked her foreleg around mine and lead me to the line like I was her foal. Damnit, she's two years younger than me!

I shrugged her off with a bothered look on my face.

"You're so cute when you're annoyed, little Reddy. You really need to lighten up. We're not dying any time soon." The expression on my face persisted. She just pouted and wrinkled her brow. "I hope I'm not annoying you!"

"I'm two years older than you." I sighed, levitating a plate for her and then myself.

"You're still my apprentice." She cooed, before craning her neck towards me so that we looked eye to eye. "And I'm telling you to lighten. Up." Dew Drops said rather forcefully when I saw that the ponies in the line had overheard my quip about keeping the truth from the foals. Their faces went from oblivious contentment to that of fearful concern.

I sighed, grinning sheepishly. "Did I say we're screwed? I meant we, as in Dew Drop and I, 'cus it'll be our shift that'll have to fix the purifier." I said forcefully. The ponies looked away and began murmuring to each other. "I wouldn't want to make them shit their flanks before they drink the water when it actually goes bad." I hissed grimly, picking up a hoofull of slightly over steamed carrots and a few slices of what looked to be vat grown squash.

We took our seats next to another engineer pony from our shift. Star Glint and his marefriend, Lightning Twirl, were making cute little faces at each other.

I groaned, sticking out my tongue. "Yuck." I smirked when the two turned to face us. Lightning Twirl's wings pomfed as Star Glint gave her a wet smooch. Dew Drops wrapped a leg around me and pulled me close, puckering her lips.

I shrugged her off, again.

"Don't be such a tease, DD, you're making Red turn .. well, red." Laughed Star Glint, as he fixed his black mane.

"Oh come on, Red, you two look GREAT together!" Lightning Twirl snickered. "Unless Red's ... gay?"

I growled, "Gay? GAY? Me being straight or gay is the only thing bothering you? Am I the only engineering pony who's bothered by the fact that our Water Talisman is broken?!" I hissed loud enough for only us to hear. I leaned over the table, glaring at Star Glint, who shrugged in response. If anypony shouldn't be undisturbed by what happened today, it should be another engineering pony like him.

Lightning Twirl stretched a feathered wing over the pale stallion.

"You need to lighten up –"

"I work down at engineering. Engineering. Keeps. Every. Pony. Alive. And now that the talisman's broken, we can't do that!" I whinnied, folding my forelegs across my chest as I sat down.

Lightning Twirl pursed her lips. "So you're not gay?"
I sighed, levitating a carrot to my mouth. I munched on it bitterly as they waited for a response with playful expressions stretched across their faces.

"There's nothing wrong with … being gay – and I'm not!" I snapped. "I'm too busy." I spent most of my free time tinkering with random bits of machinery I'd find or fixing other ponies' broken possessions over at B block, the section on the living quarters level where myself and 49 other ponies live in. Right now, I had two radios and a keyboard on my queue.

I sort of became B block's handy pony. The red sun and wrenches crossed over my flank reminded me of the years I spent trying to find my special talent. After failing time and time again, as was normal by most ponies, I snatched at every opportunity I could to put it to practice. Now that I had it, all I was trying to do was do some good with it.

I wasn't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed, nor was I a social butterfly – but hell, I knew my way around a wrench and a screwdriver and I could fix almost – mind you, almost – anything, if given time. Well, except for the Water Talisman. I had neither the tools nor the capacity to do that anyways. That really bothered me. Maybe it was because an opportunity to get my hooves on something new to fix had eluded me? Fixing radios and terminals do get pretty old after the hundred somethingth time.

Nah. Maybe it was because our water would be contaminated without a working talisman.

"I can't believe you guys aren't worried about poop in your water."

Star Glint sighed, pointing at the bandages around his face.

"That explosion really got me too, but I'm not letting it bring me down." He said, "Everypony's going to get scared if you are too. It's best if they just knew that the purifier broke, not the talisman."

Dew Drops rested a foreleg on my shoulder.

"So stop being worried. I keep telling you we'll find a way but you won't believe me."

I opened my mouth but she cut me off as she added, "When we work together, there's nothing we can't do." Dew Drops said, nodding at Star Glint whose face went serious.

"Right." I scoffed, levitating another carrot into my mouth. "I'm surprised how much control the Overmare has over the situation."

"If a leader like Peach Petals tells her little ponies everything's going to be okay, everything's going to be okay." Lightning Twirl stated as a matter of factly.

Maybe we are going to be okay? Maybe we can figure out some way to purify the water ourselves. I mean, my ancestors didn't settle this stable without knowing something like this would ever happen. Then again, something like this WASN'T supposed to happen.

"Maybe you're right. Maybe we aren't going to die swirling around in poop water." I said with forced enthusiasm.

"What's with you and poop water?" Dew Drops asked, narrowing her eyes at me.

I shrugged, popping the squash slices into my mouth. I levitated a cup of water and eyed its contents carefully before gulping it down.

"I'm going to go make sure they got the pumps connected to our reserves." I said getting up from my seat. Dew Drops wrenched me down back to my rump and I cursed under my breath as my bad leg bumped the edge of the seat.

"Don't you dare think about going there without me. We never. Work. Alone." She stated. "Besides, just let the next shift deal with that. Let the ponies who didn't get blown up with steam and shrapnel connect it." She looked at her pipbuck, "Their shift starts in 10 minutes anyways."

I folded my forelegs over one another on the table and rested my head on my hooves. Dew Drops gave me a hug and I just sat there. My eyes caught Star Glint's amused smirk, and I turned and wrapped my legs around her.

"You should get some rest. The meeting is later tonight." Dew Drops said softly.

I got up from the table and, after waving my goodbyes to Dew Drops, Star Glint, and Lightning Twirl, I was off to the living quarters.

---

I opened the door to my room and waddled in through the darkness as it closed behind me. The lights flickered on and I was bushed. I slunk into my bed and lay out my legs with extra care to not graze my hind left against something hard. I rested my head on a pillow and I stared blankly at the ceiling. I was glad Dew Drops stopped me before I could make my way to the engineering level again, because now that I was on my mattress, I felt exhausted.

My room was pretty bland. I had a bed, a couch, a fridge, a closet, a bathroom (which was still clogged, by the way), and a study table topped by stacks of books by the door. On my bedside table was a lamp, and a strange wind up pony shaped toy I'd fashioned from alarm clock parts and some LED lights; it rang when you twisted its tail.

Stacked in one corner were boxes full of scrap metal and wires. On another corner was a shelf with this week's handy pony queue. I levitated a radio towards me and set it down at the edge of my bed, giving it a thorough look over. I needed to rewire its AC cord. It looked as if somepony's foal had tried to see how far the cord could bend.

I levitated it across the room back to its shelf and stretched out my legs, yawning. I looked at my left hind leg curiously and unraveled the bandages. My flesh was a very light shade of brown now and the itching had subsided. I gave a sigh of relief.

Rolling over towards the bedside table next to me, I glanced at a picture frame of a foal, my mom and a unicorn I hardly knew. I didn't know my dad too well.

You look just like him, my mom told me. I had his brown coat and his red eyes. We did look alike, I thought as I levitated the picture in front of me. My mom's red mane and white coat were a polar contrast to my dad's. I did have her hair though, I thought as I ran a hoof absent mindedly through my scarlet mane.

He died in an accident when I was just a baby. I looked at the unicorn stallion in the picture. He looked happy, and I bet he enjoyed his job every day of his life until a pipe blew up in his face. Or so I was told. Funny, I had pipes blowing up on my face just this evening and nearly died myself. When I got my cutie mark and filled the horseshoes my father left behind, I never once thought that I'd ever die from doing it. The white coated pegasus mare – my mother - hugged me as I smiled a wide, toothless grin.

Only now did I realize I could have died down there at engineering. I could have died. I looked at the picture frame next to it and saw a picture of myself, Dew Drops, Amber Fields, Star Glint, Lightning Twirl, and Box Cutter posing in front of a picture while holding the results of our CAT (Cutiemark Aptitude Test) tests. Dew Drops was hugging me as I bumped hooves with my best friend. Amber Fields, Lightning Twirl, and Star Glint were jumping for joy behind the three of us as the camera pony snapped the picture.

My eyes focused on Dew Drops. I remembered what she was like back then. She was the same smart, helpful, and humble pony she is today. I always admired how fast she learned things. She'd disassemble a radio once, put it back together, and reassemble it without looking back at a manual.

Me? It took me 20 radios before I finally memorized what piece went where and why. She did teach me, you know? Actually, most of what I know today was a result of my apprenticeship under the younger, fully fledged mare.

I sighed. My mom loved her. I questioned if she loved Dew Drops more than I – hah! Nah. But really, I mean, who couldn't and who wouldn't?

Looking back now, I don't think I would've gotten my cutie mark without her help either. My crusade to attain my cutie mark had been one of trial and error. I spent a few years trying everything, but I hadn't enjoyed any of the jobs one bit. Drawing? I got good at it, but there wasn't much to draw in an underground bunker. Cooking? Awful. I hurled too many times. I even tried working at the orchards, but bucking apples all day was too mundane.

My mother never wanted me to work down at engineering, but the satisfaction of watching a broken terminal come back to life was, to me, almost as intoxicating as the hard cider from the Stable's orchards.

One day, when I was just a colt, and she, a filly, Dew Drops was replacing a light bulb in her bedside lamp; she was nice enough to show me what end went where and how I had to screw it in place.

Not long after, my mom asked me to replace the flickering light in our bathroom, From then on, I realized that fixing things was just exactly what I wanted to do. The CAT test had been a redundant reminder that I was going to be an engineer just like my late father.

I fixed Star Glint's alarm clock. I fixed the sound system in Amber Fields's quarters. I even fixed Peach Petals's faulty terminal. All that mattered to me now was being able to fix things that broke. I'm Red Dawn, and I fix things.

Had I been younger, I would've thought I could fix anything.

My only regret was that I should I have been there to lend Dew Drops a helping hoof. I had been too busy wondering why the chamber's water level had been receding until it was too late. Maybe if I'd gotten there in time ... no. Today had been a stark reminder that some things were beyond fixing. That Water Talisman was beyond anypony's expertise; conceived by minds long dead and manufactured with arcane technology long lost.

Now, myself and the rest of engineering had to focus on finding a way to fix our Stable's freshwater problem before everypony died from disease or dehydration. You couldn't really fix dead.

I rolled over and sighed as I levitated the picture closer to see the newly formed cutie mark on my flank. It brought the slightest of smiles to my face as I laid my head down and closed my eyes.

That day was probably the happiest day of my life. Well, finding out my mom didn't have cancer was probably the happiest, actually, but this had to be the second happiest. My eyes caught the blue filly hugging the brown coated colt and I closed my eyes.

If I had died, I would've left all that. My mom. My friends. I thought about my mom crying as they fed my body into a cremator. Thought about my friends mourning for the pony that pushed them away every time he tried to get work done.

I could have died.

---

A hoof rapped loudly against my door, yanking me from my slumber.

"Red!" I heard Dew Drops shout, "You're going to be late!"

"Oh shit." I hissed, throwing on my uniform, combing my mane, and rushing out the door. I ran into her and we fell to the floor in a tangle of limbs.

I looked into her gray eyes, and turned red at the warmness of her coat. I scrambled off of her, apologizing as I helped the mare to her hooves.

She just smiled at me and we hurried off to the assembly room one floor above engineering. When we got there, everypony was waiting for us. The Overmare looked at us patiently, tapping her hooves together as she stood on her hind legs against the podium.

"You two are late." I heard Amber Fields drawl.

"Late from a good night I hope." Lightning Twirl giggled with her stallionfriend.

I turned red once more and we took our seats around the raised platform the Overmare stood on.

49 other engineer and security ponies were seated around us. Only Box Cutter was out for the count.

"I'm glad you ponies are here." She began, eyeing Dew Drops and I with a look that said 'Get here on time next time'. I looked away, pretending I didn't know what she was implying. "But our Water Talisman is broken, you all know this. I managed to keep everypony from panicking …for now. And I am thankful you ponies didn't spread the word." The overmare smiled thoughtfully, and added, "Very smart of you all

Dew Drops glared at me and I sighed.

"But we can't keep the rest of the stable uninformed forever. Sooner or later ponies are going to notice the taste in their water. Our reserves have been sitting in tanks underneath the stable for centuries, and, while they're purified, I'm sure the metallic taste is going to get to them. But never mind that – what matters now is that we're working on time bought for us by the ponies that lived here before us.

"To be frank, and to be as terse as possible, all I will say is that no – we don't have a replacement. That Water Talisman, the one we've had for 200 years, was the only one we had."

The murmuring died away to panicked chatter.

"So we're going to die here?"

"What about my filly? We can't live without fresh water!"

"How are we going to fix this?"

"Poop. Water." I said, loudly. Dew Drops smacked me on the back of the head.

"Everypony please, calm down. I said we would get this resolved, and with your help, we will and we shall. We must, because the lives of 250 other ponies are counting on us." The Overmare punched a button on the podium with her hoof, and a projector flickered at the back of the room. An anthill view of the stable's infrastructure appeared on a white screen behind her.

She trotted up to the projection and tapped her hoof on the roll down screen. The picture rippled slightly at the touch of her hoof.

"100 feet below our stable is a one hundred thousand gallon water tank. I estimate that one hundred thousand gallons, if rationed to 5 gallons per pony a day, will last us about 2 months, maybe even longer, if each and every pony uses half of that ration or less."

"2 MONTHS?" A pegasus mare shouted, flapping her wings into the air. A hoof yanked her back down to her seat.

"Now, now, my little ponies. Two months is too much time, I believe." She said, trotting back up to the podium. Her hoof pressed a button again and the projector flicked to a picture of Equestria. Names of cities, Ponyville, Canterlot, Manehatten, Hoofington, Crystal Empire – all of them I knew, but meant nothing to me, faded out of my focus as she pointed to a region on the map. "We are here, north of Canterlot. Stable 29 was built not too far from a city named Poneva. My great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great," her face looked like it was going to turn blue. "-grandmare was from there; she worked for StableTec."

StableTec built our stable. Everything we use daily, everything around us was built by StableTec. They are the reason we were still alive today.

"Now, my great times 8 grandmare worked at a StableTec facility in Poneva. They manufactured and distributed talismans of all sorts. The Water Talisman was one of many of these."

This time, we all went silent.

"There is only one thing between us and Poneva, my little ponies." Overmare Peach Petals said gravely, leaving the podium and stepping to the edge of the stage to meet eyes with everypony in the room.

"The Stable doors."

It was quiet for a moment as everypony struggled to connect the dots. Myself, I was struggling to figure out if that was even possible.

"You … you want to open the doors?" I heard a Lightning Twirl squawk, reading my mind. Everypony looked at her, and then at the Overmare.

"But there's nothing out there!" one pony said.

"Just darkness, blackness, a void!" said another.

"We'll fall off the world if we leave those doors!"

The history books told us that the world outside was gone. That we were the last vestige of civilization on the planet. That we were the last of ponykind. What the Overmare said next sent shivers down my spine.

"It is our only hope. To open those doors, we may die. But to remain here, we WILL die." Peach Petals paused to let her words sink in our heads.

The ponies went silent once again. I didn't know what to think – what to do. I've never seen the world outside, and I wasn't sure I wanted to. The only other pony in my family who had ever been outside the stable was 200 years dead. The only life I knew was a life in the stable. What the Overmare suggested was nerve wracking.

Dew Drops wrapped a hoof around my trembling foreleg. I couldn't stop shaking.

"I want to send out an expedition to Poneva. I want to know if we still have a chance." Her expression turned grim. "I won't force anypony to go. All I ask is that six ponies volunteer."

My ears perked up at her words.

"I'll go." Somepony said next to me. That somepony was Dew Drops. My jaw dropped as I whirled to face her with wide eyes. "I couldn't fix the Talisman and it blew up in my hooves when I tried. I'll go."

"You're insane!" I hissed, loud enough for only her to hear. She ignored me as she stood to her hooves, and everypony gawked at her.

I held her hoof. "DD, please don't do this … you don't know what you'll find out there!" I begged.

She looked at me and didn't say anything.

"Thank you Dew Drops. I need 5 other ponies."

The room was silent. Nopony had the guts. I didn't have the guts. My own guts churned and I felt like puking out my dinner.

"I'll go too! I'm not letting my friends walk out that door alone!" Star Glint declared, jumping to his hooves.

Lightning Twirl spread her wings with an audible pomf. "You wrench-heads aren't going anywhere without me!"

Amber Fields …

"Me too. If they go, I go."

"Amber think about your colt!" I blurted out. "You have a family to come back to."

She looked hurt. "Red Dawn, you have a family too. Morning Dawn. Me. Dew Drops. Star, Twirl, and Box. If I don't go, there won't be any family left alive to think about."

I turned my eyes low, ashamed and angry at myself for speaking out. Was I being selfish? I beat myself up in my thoughts. I felt Dew Drops's eyes boring into my hide. What was she thinking? What the FUCK was I thinking? The weight of my friends' stares threatened to crush me beneath. I weighed my options: stand up with my friends and die at any moment we step out that door or wait here and die for sure. Either way I'd be dead.

My heart was racing faster than I could breathe, and I clenched my eyes shut so hard I felt like they were going to recede into their sockets. I ground my teeth and smacked myself mentally. I couldn't let my friends die out there. I couldn't let Dew Drops die out there. I'd never live with myself if I let her go and she never came back.

47 other ponies stared at us as I trembled under their heavy gazes.

I looked at my hooves. I wanted to cry. I wanted to cry for us all. My friends – Dew Drops – they were all volunteering to go and I didn't want them to go. I didn't want to go.

I gave out a trembling sigh and stood to my hooves.

"I-I'll go. I'll go with her … you all." I croaked, standing beside her.

"Red–" Dew Drops began, trotting towards me.

"You go, I go. We never. Work. Alone." I told her, my voice trembling, as I echoed her words from earlier, this time in a voice that everypony heard.

The auditorium doors burst open, and a bed headed Box Cutter stumbled inside.

"Don't you ponies go do anything without me!" he shouted, his head still wrapped in bandages. Box Cutter tripped on his own hooves, falling on his face as everypony watched. Lightning Twirl fluttered towards him and helped him to his hooves.

The Overmare's expression shimmered with both pride and sadness. Tears welled up under her eyes.

"Thank you. Dew Drops, Star Glint, Lightning Twirl, Amber Fields, Red Dawn, Box Cutter – thank you. You will be stepping into a world none of us here have ever seen. You'll be stepping out into the unknown." Her voice trembled, "You may not return."

Dew Drops was looking at her hooves, and I hugged her consolingly. She rested her head against mine.

"I would gladly come with you myself, but the stable needs me here. The stable needs you too, and you and you and you." She said, pointing her hoof at us and then the rest of the crowd. "Until they return, I will need all of you who remain to monitor the water usage and make sure nopony exceeds the 10 gallon limit. It would be even better to not max out one's daily ration, so please encourage the minimum among your fellow ponies." Peach Petals tipped her head upward as if balancing an apple on her nose, panning her gaze across us all.

"You are all dismissed. Goddesses help us all."

Everypony got up from their seats. Their movements were sluggish. Some were too stunned to even get off their rumps. The six of us started to the door, but a leg hooked around one of mine.

A teary eyed unicorn, a mare I barely knew from another shift approached me.

"Thank you…" She whispered.

A muscly security pony came to us. "I'm sorry nopony else had the courage to do that." He looked ashamed.

"Somepony had to do it." Dew Drops stated softly. "Don't be ashamed. I … I might regret this."

"Nopony should be ashamed," I added. "Not even I want to do this." But I was Red Dawn, the fixer pony, damnit. I fix things! And I'll fix this too. "But it's not about what I want." I looked at Dew Drops, leaning against her. "It's what we need to do."

Dew Drops sobbed audibly.

Ponies walked past our group, thanking us as they left. The Overmare was the last to the approach.

"Thank you." She said again, meeting our eyes. "We're on a very tight schedule, so you all will leave for Poneva tomorrow morning. Prepare your gear and pack rations to last at least a week or longer. You'll be armed, and you'll be ready." Peach Petals tapped her pipbuck. "I'll have the security ponies clear you all for armory access."

I gulped.

"Ma'am, are you sure we'll need them?" I asked with uncertainty. Everypony got weapons safety lessons when we were younger. I even got to hold and shoot one. We learned how to take them apart and put 'em back together, and we learned how to use them. I just wasn't sure I'd be able to shoot... something.

Lightning Twirl caught my apprehensive gaze and read my mind. "It's easy, just point, slip into SATS, and shoot!" She said, "Besides, I'll be here to protect ya. Your local security pegasus reporting for duty. Star Glint knows how to shoot too." Star Glint nodded with acknowledgement.

"I know some of you haven't held one since you were younger, but I'm sure Twirl can teach you." Peach Petals said, with an encouraging smile. "Get a lot of rest, and help yourselves to another dinner if you like. The armory and range are open."

We all hugged the Overmare.

"I believe in you ponies. You'll come back … you have to."

---

I sighted down range. Well, it was more of a really long tunnel with targets mounted on rails that ran down its length. The target was about 20 yards away from me, I estimated.

I levitated the carbine in front of my face, and pulled the trigger. In a flash of light and a puff of smoke, it rattled off a burst of lead that peppered the saucer shaped target a few dozen yards across me. I fired another, and this time the center of the target blew out from the tight placement.

"Naishot!" Amber Fields said through her bit as she aimed her shotgun down range. The earth pony tongued the trigger and the weapon's recoil made her stagger. She spat it out, laughing.

"Wasn't expecting that much kick!"

"Just plant your back legs firmly and let your body do the moving, not your neck." Star Glint said, trotting up to her, fixing her posture.

Box Cutter shouted wildly as he bit down his battle saddle's bit. He unloaded with both of the submachine guns that juttednout from his sides into a target not too far from the railing.

"T-h-i-sh i-sh fu-u-u-un!" He said against the saddle'srattling recoil.

Ratatatat – Dew Drops squeaked and dropped her carbine.

"Celestia's labial bits – don't fucking drop the gun!" I heard Lightning Twirl shout.

"Sorry …" I turned, setting mine down and levitating hers to the air for her. She took it with a nervous smile, and I proceeded to fire rounds down range. With short, controlled bursts, I eviscerated the target and filled it with holes.

I felt Lightning Twirl land next to me.

"Good, you can shoot piece of paper." She interfaced with her pipbuck and the round target sunk below the range and a new one appeared. This one was in the shape of a pony. "Try now."

Ratatatat – and I missed every shot. I realized that I was breathing heavily and the strength of my magic grip was waning.

Lightning Twirl gave me a strange look as I grinned weakly and tried again.

Okay, this time, I peppered the pony's chest with burst of 10mm bullets. A spray of crimson followed and the pony crumbled to the dust in a heap. Wait.

The blood drained from my face.

I ejected the magazine and leaned against the railing. The others were still firing down range. Twirl and Star were putting shots at the maximum effective distance. The rest of us were mediocre in comparison.

The hell was going on with me? I inserted a fresh magazine and pulled the charging handle.

I focused this time, entering SATS and aiming for the pony's – no, the target's head. The burst tore the damn thing off in a fountain of -

"SHIT! Goddesses damnit!"

Everypony stopped and looked at me as if I'd just lost my mind.

"You okay?" Star Glint asked. He looked at Lightning Twirl and she just shrugged, looking at me too.

I was hyper ventilating and shaking all over. What the fuck is wrong with me? It was just a paper target. Just a target. Not a pony. I blinked several times, and all I saw was its white, flat surface.

Box Cutter trotted over and bumped my shoulder with a hoof.

"Hey brony, you're shaking …"

Star Glint bit down on the carbine that floated in front of me and took it from my magical grip.

"You shoush chit down for a bit'n rest." He said through his teeth, patting me on the shoulder. Star Glint spat the gun out onto a table. "Really, I think that's enough. Besides, Twirl and I'll protect ya." Star Glint beamed.

I didn't say anything. I just sat on my rump in front of the railing and stared at the pony target.

"What the fuck… " I muttered, scratching my mane.

I heard hooves clopping behind me and Dew Drops stood over me, her muzzle nuzzling my mane.

"Is my apprentice okay?" she asked softly.

I looked at my hooves, shaking my head. I tipped my head up at her and shrugged.

"What's up?" Amber Fields asked, trotting towards us.

"I think he's just had enough for today." Dew Drops said as a matter of factly, magically lifting me to my shaky hooves.

"You should get some rest, bud. We're leaving pretty early tomorrow." Amber Fields said putting a hoof on my shoulder. I smiled at her sheepishly, nodding.

I started towards the exit but stumbled on my own hooves. Dew Drops held me in her magical grip as I exhaled softly.

"I'll take him to his room. You guys have a good night, okay?" She said, hooking a leg around mine and leading me out the door.

"Take it easy, Red." Box Cutter said as I bumped hooves with him weakly.

"Nite!" Star Glint and Lightning Twirl said at the same time.

I was silent for the rest of the walk. I don't know what came over me. My mind was blank and I didn't realize that we had at the door to my room. I reached out with a hoof and missed the panel by an inch.

"I'll do it … what's your passcode?"

"E-G-P-R-2-9." I said shakily.

The door opened and closed behind us as she helped me to my bed. She sat next to me as I looked at my hooves. I flicked on a lamp by my bedside table. She levitated the picture frames to her face and she smiled as she looked at them.

Her smile went away when she saw me staring at my hooves.

"Red Dawn, what happened? Why were you shaking?" she asked, setting the frames back on the table.

I sighed, shaking my head.

"I was shooting just fine then Twirl had to put up the pony target. I just couldn't do it. I got scared, and I imagined it was … another pony I was shooting at." I said, my eyes fixated on the floor in embarrassment.

She said nothing for a few seconds as she rubbed my leg with hers. She always knew what to say. Even when she didn't say anything at all.

"I'm just scared. I don't think I can do it, I don't think I can shoot anypony …" I rubbed my forehead with a hoof, furrowing my brow. "I shouldn't have volunteered, I'll just get you all killed."

She touched my chin and tipped my head to face her. "Don't say that. I'd rather get stuck in Hell with you than anypony else."

I smiled timidly. "Really?"

"Really." She said. I could feel her breath on my muzzle. She was really close. "I'm glad you came with us. I was really hoping you would. And you did. I was doubting myself until you stepped up."

"Why would you?" I asked. "You're smarter than me and you can shoot a gun – you're better than me at everything." I whinnied.

"I told you we can do anything … as long as we're together. Anything is possible, Red, when you have your friends with you. Remember that." She said, holding one of my hooves. "I can't do anything without you."

We looked at each other in the dim light for what seemed like an eternity. Then I felt her lips press against mine. I blushed and pulled away reflexively. She looked about as surprised as I did.

"I-I'm sorry, I thought …" she began, looking away while scratching her mane. I leaned close and kissed her back as she wrapped her arms around me.

"I wish we had more time." She said, softly. "I wish you'd done that sooner." Dew Drops added before she tongued the inside of my mouth.

How the hell did she learn how to do that?

"I'm sorry … I'm just trying to be good at what my cutie mark says I'm supposed to be good at." I admitted. "I'm so damn busy all the time." I trailed off, my eyes glancing at my handy pony queue.

She kissed me again and I tried to do that tongue thing. Ugh. Dew Drops pulled away and laughed. "You need to practice more often."

"We need to practice more often." I corrected her, running a hoof through her mane.

Dew Drops pursed her lips together, looking at me questioningly. "How's your leg?"

"Fine, it healed pretty fas –"

She rolled on top of me and laid me out on the bed.

"Um …" I said as I felt the warmness of her coat on mine. Now her breath was really close. She pressed her lips against mine before I could say anything and gave me a wet smooch. I just closed my eyes and took her tongue lashing. "Where'd you learn how to do that …"

"I had a few stallionfriends." She said chuckling. I narrowed my eyes at her and she caught on what I was implying. "Oh no … this – just instinct, I guess. I've never gotten this far before."

I breathed, relieved. "I haven't either."

"Course you haven't." she scoffed, licking my muzzle.

I shook my head, muttering, "Oh fuck me, I totally set myself up for that one."

The blue mare grinned wickedly, biting her lower lip and batting her eye lashes.

"Oh… I didn't mean – I –"

And she pounced.

---

I ran a hoof through her mussed, yet still delicate teal mane as she lay next to me. I watched as her chest rose and fell, listening to her soft breaths. Her forelegs were wrapped around one of mine which she hugged close to her chest. I smiled, laying my similarly disheveled mane onto a pillow.

I sighed softly as I watched her sleep. I thought I loved her. No, I loved her. I didn't want to let her go. I didn't want to let her leave the stable without me. But we had to leave tomorrow morning. There was never enough time – never enough time for her in my life. And now I wanted to make time.

I knew I wasn't going to be able to, and my smile faded away. I looked over her shoulder and saw the picture of myself and my parents. I looked away somberly. I needed to tell my mother I was leaving.

She wouldn't be too happy about that. In fact, she'd probably beg me to stay. I was only comforted by the fact that when I left, my mom, the mare who had given me life and raised me by herself would at least be safe. For a while.

I needed to save my stable. We needed to fix this.

I gently pulled away from Dew Drops's forelegs. She fidgeted sleepily as I pushed a pillow in its place.

".. huhh … Dawn…" she murmured in her sleep.

I felt my eyes well up with tears as I pulled the blanket over her and left my room. It was night time, well – night time in the stable I guess. The lights were off except for the glowing footlights that lined the floor in the halls of the living quarters.

High above me, the rooms where the pegasi slept had to be reached by a brisk, long climb around a tall spiral staircase. I trotted up the stairs, my hooves clopping against the gray tile making the only sounds in the quiet of the curfew.

I reached the top floor and a security mare shined her flash light in my face. She saw me and nodded as I trotted past her to my mom's room.

I knocked, and a few seconds later, my mom opened the door. I'd just woken her up but her face lit up at the sight of me.

"Red, what are you doing up so late?" She asked.

"Mom … I need to talk to you." I said with a grim look on my face.

She looked worried, and gestured for me to step inside.

The door closed behind me and we sat together on the same couch I played 'fly pegasus fly' on and hit my head on the same table that lay at the foot of her bed when I was just a colt. I didn't have wings like she did.

"What's up? Your mane is all mussed up." She said trying to straighten my mane with her hooves.

I gave her a nervous grin and her eyes widened.

"Oh I know that look … that's the look your dad used to give me when he's done something funny."

"That's beside the point mom. I need to tell you something and you need to promise that you won't freak out like you usually do."

She thought for a moment, and nodded, zipping her hoof across her lips.

I told her everything. My mom just stared at me wide eyed, her bottom lip quivering. I told her about the water talisman breaking, and then the meeting with the Overmare, and how I volunteered with Dew Drops and the others to go help find a new one.

"Red … why … y-you step out that door and … I might never see you again!" She held me with both her forelegs. The Water Talisman was the least of her worries. "I might never see my little colt ever again!"

"Mom! I'm not your little colt anymore …" I said, almost abrasively. I sighed. "I'll be fine, I'll come back – I promise!" I said as her shoulders began to rock and tears began to stream down her cheeks. Mom squeezed me so tight I didn't think she'd ever let go. I hugged her back and cried with her. I wasn't sure I'd be able to keep my promise. I … I didn't want to leave her all alone here.

I wept into her mane like a foal and she rubbed my back with her hoof. "Mom, I don't tell you this enough but –" I sobbed suddenly, unable to formulate words as I bawled. "-b-but I love you." I cried.

She hugged me tighter and said softly, her voice trembling. "I love you too, son." She kissed my forehead. "I know you're not a colt anymore, but a mother can only dream." Mom chuckled, wiping her cheeks. "I'm glad Dew Drops is coming with you. She's a good mare and I trust that she'll keep you safe."

I grinned sheepishly.

Mom looked at me with her watery amber eyes. "Whatever you do … whatever happens ..." Mom's quivering lips became a warm smile. "I don't know how many clocks, radios, and terminals you've fixed, but what I do know is that you can fix this. Do your best, like you always have. If you don't come back …" She trailed off, not wanting to finish.

"Whatever happens, I'll … I'll be proud of you, my little fixer pony." Mom said again, choking on tears. "Your mother loves you so, so, very much." She hugged me again and I rested my head on her neck as we sat on the couch together. "Your father would be too if he were here."

"I wish he were here." I whispered through sobs.

"He's always been here. He's watching us from the Everafter. He's watched you grow and become the engineer pony he wanted you to be."

I pulled away from her, but still holding her shoulders with my forelegs.

"If I go … I'll always be here too, okay mom?"

"Don't say that!" she snapped, looking away. "Please … I can't lose you too. I don't know what I'll do …"

I wrapped my forelegs around her and she wrapped her wings around me protectively as if the shadows that stretched across the walls were going to eat her baby colt.

"I love you son." She whispered.

---

It was time to go. We all stood in front of the door clad in black security barding, battle saddles, coats, balaclavas, gas masks, oxygen tanks, and everything else we needed to survive an irradiated, post-apocalyptic shithole.

I slung the carbine around my neck and checked my pipbuck again to see if I had everything. I checked and rechecked until I was satisfied I hadn't left anything behind. I looked through my inventory and eyed two items it identified as 'PICTURES x2'.

I smiled. They'd always be with me so long as I could still lift things with my horn.

I looked back and saw my mom among the crowd of almost a hundred ponies who stood a few feet away from us six. I lifted up my gas mask, pulled down my balaclava, and grinned at her, waving my hoof in the air. Mom cupped her mouth with a hoof and wiped away glistening tears before she smiled back. She stood on her hind legs so that she was a head taller than the rest of the crowd, pointed at me and shouted, "That's my colt, Red Dawn! Can you see him! That's him! My baby colt!"
Dew Drops bumped my flank with hers and we both laughed, waving at her again as the crowd cheered at us all. Peach Petals had informed the entire stable of the ordeal. Right now, we had everyone's expectations weighing down like planets on our shoulders.

The Overmare trotted toward us before looking at a windowed guard post one floor above us. She nodded and the ponies inside hovered their hooves over the door's controls. Peach Petals tapped a hoof on her pipbuck, overriding the door's lock.

"Goddesses guide you all. We'll be here waiting. I know you ponies can do it." She said, her voice trembling as she blinked away tears. I wondered how she felt, sending six of her ponies to their possible deaths. I couldn't have felt worse than the overmare or my mom.

"Thank you ma'am." Lightning Twirl said, saluting her.

Everypony had said goodbye to their families, and, like my mom, they too were cheering at us as we trotted toward the door. Dew Drops was wearing a blue and white striped scarf her mother had given her. I'd seen her mother wear it once. It made me think of the pictures I'd taken with me; it seemed as if we all wanted something to remember our loved ones by if we didn't get to come back. Or didn't come back in time. I gulped down a lump in my throat as my heart drummed against my chest. I needed to be strong. I needed to save them all.

A circular lock on the door spun and sunk into the door's surface. Wisps of steam leaked through it as it began to part. I closed my eyes and clenched my jaw; my heart felt like it was going to burst from my chest. I could barely breathe.

I opened my eyes and only saw another door. I gawked.

"What the …"

"That's a buffer zone. Please step into it. This will be the last you'll see of the stable when these doors close behind you until you return. Goddess speed, my little ponies." The Overmare said, saluting us as a tear streamed down her cheek.

I heard a grating metallic drawl and the doors began to close like curtains on a stage. My eyes caught sight of my mother's face and she smiled at me one last time before the doors shut.

The impenetrable steel door's lock spun into place and shut me off from the rest of the stable – and apparently the light as we stood there fidgeting on our hooves in almost complete darkness.

We waited there for what felt like hours, when the whole chamber began to rumble beneath our hooves. I gulped and my heart rate began to rise. I was shaking again, and I felt like I'd melt out of my barding and seep through the grating below us.

But I felt a leg wrap around me and I knew it was Dew Drops.

I need to be strong. I can do this. We can save the stable.

With a hiss, my ears popped and the door in front of us began to open. I raised a hoof above my muzzle, expecting to be blinded by the searing beams of natural sunlight. I expected to see a land flattened by the balefire bombs of my ancestors. I even expected to be sucked out of the door and into the open stars of the space I learned about when I was just a colt.

Through the widening crack between the parting doors I saw only darkness.

Only darkness.

Footnote: Level Up.

New Perk: Fixer Pony - +5 Small Guns, +5 Repair

FALLOUT EQUESTRIA: RISING DAWN

Chapter 2

Into the Darkness

"It is our only hope. To open those doors, we may die. But to remain here, we WILL die."

Darkness.

The buffer zone door had closed behind us and in that instant we were shut off completely from the rest of our kind in these black halls.

Never had I known darkness such as this. The lights in the stable were only two blast doors behind me. Yet here, I gazed into the maw of an abyss and knew that out here, they were so far away. It was all around me; there was not a single mote of light in the frozen shadows of whatever underworld we had entered.

I flicked on my flashlight and gasped as the darkness parted.

"Goddesses … are you ponies seeing this?" Amber Fields asked, shuddering.

Bones. I saw bones. Too many to count; too many and yet not enough to form a whole skeleton.

Star Glint nudged a stray rib. "How many ponies died here?"

"Too many." I heard Dew Drops murmur.

I took a step back and my hoof crunched through something brittle.

I looked down and the bone white cranium of a long dead pony broke like a porcelain jar around my hoof. I stymied the urge to scream and struggled to look elsewhere, somewhere that wasn't littered by the bones of some deceased pony.

I found none. All that remained were the shattered, howling jaws of ponies long dead. Their silent, broken maws warned me to turn back to the safety they were not able to enjoy. Their envious, infuriated ghosts screamed at me to tuck my tail between my legs and return to the home that they had been denied to settle.

I looked behind me away and saw the black trails that smeared the surface of the stable doors as far as I could reach. Images of ponies clawing desperately at the door with their hooves until they were gored and worn to bloody stumps flashed before my eyes as I stared, shaking violently at their crushed, disintegrating remains. They had tried to claw their way in as the balefire flames consumed them. Hundreds of ponies had died in this tunnel with help and safety only two doors away.

They were so close, yet so far.

"Try not to look." Dew Drops whispered, pushing me away from the mass grave.

How couldn't I? Even long dead, their unhallowed bones still cried out for mercy - for some solace from the annihilation that erased the memories of their existences from the face of Equestria. These ponies were the forgotten souls that ponykind had decided to leave behind.

My wandering, teary eyes came upon a skeleton too small to be that of a stallion or a mare.

"They left them here to die." I turned to find that the others were looking at me. "They had foals … they had foals …" I murmured, nudging the delicate, trampled skull of a colt. Or was it a filly? I wondered how it died. I wondered if the ponies who had crushed it beneath their hooves even heard its screams.

The horrifying wail of a dying filly echoed in my thoughts.

"We need to get out of here." I said, loud enough to turn heads.

Lightning Twirl started down the tunnel. "Don't look back. We have to keep moving forward. There ain't anything here for us to see." She muttered, ash and dust swirling around her hooves as she trotted through their ashen graves.

I flashed my light to the end of the tunnel – was that the end? I couldn't tell; only an empty stretch of abyss snaked beyond as far as my eyes could see. The dead paved a path of bone that we followed.

In the distance, the persistent haunting moan of a frozen wind beckoned us forward. It was as if the souls of the ponies who had been burned away in the balefire apocalypse were trapped in an eternal purgatory, howling together in endless suffering. We heard the siren call and followed it as it promised us a Water Talisman and a return home to our families.

The touch of the frozen air slithered through the fabric of my barding, and I shivered under my skin, stepping over pony remains that I dared not disturb. They deserved rest.

Here, I knew now, that warmth and comfort had been luxuries that we, the 300 ponies of Stable 29 had taken for granted.

"Where's the exit?" Box Cutter whispered, wisps of mist jetting out of his breather mask.

"We're close, I think. Can't you feel it getting colder?" Lightning Twirl replied, leading us through the tunnel.

I was trailing behind them not wanting to see what lay for us outside, but, at the same time, trotting forward out of fear of being left behind. I feared what lay outside far more than the frozen halls that stretched out before us.

Star Glint beamed his flashlight down the tunnel and we watched it pan across a partially collapsed archway.

"Thank the Goddesses." I heard Dew Drops mutter. We trotted towards it and our relief was short lived.

We were close enough to see the bones poking out of the rubble when we were blasted by a glacial breeze. It was as if we were being touched by the hooves of death itself. We were planets away from home, for the world we emerged unto was nothing like that which I had expected.

I ducked under the fallen archway and poked my head out of the tunnel; my eyes neither dilated nor contracted for the darkness had not given way to light.

This place - this wasteland - was a snowy abyss. Before me was a bleak, frozen field of blackened willows that reached their grim claws to the sky for a sun that would never come. Mountains of snow and crag fields of 200 year old ice that would never melt smothered the lifeless earth as far as my eye could see. A flurry of snow blew through my limbs and I shivered against its chilling touch.

Was this the heirloom our illustrious ancestors left behind for us to inherit? No, this couldn't have been the Equestria we learned of in the books. There was not a single thing magical about this bleak perversion of ponykind's homeland. There was an ubiquitous insidiousness that seemed to lurk in the shadows of the lifeless hills.

The snow storm seemed to intensify as I took several trembling steps further out of the tunnel, my friends following close behind me. I glanced upwards and my eyes glazed over.

The sky.

I looked up and the world around me seemed to fall away from my paralyzed hooves. I stared wide eyed and skyward into infinity. My legs began to tremble beneath me; I felt incredibly small and helpless beneath the weight of the dark, ashen clouds that hung above the frozen earth.

I tore my eyes from the dark canopy of balefire fallout and an overwhelming sensation of vertigo overcame me. I fell into the sky.

The earth disappeared beneath my hooves. Everything around me tumbled end over end as I dropped into the clouds.

The world turned white and I crunched muzzle first into the snow drifts. I lay there with my mask in the snow, swallowing the bile that rose to my throat. In my daze, I could hear ponies shouting after me through my ringing ears.

Hooves wrenched me out of the snow, and I gasped for air, my radmeter clicking softly. I came out of the snow, Box Cutter smacking my cheeks with his hooves. I saw Dew Drops in the snow, dry heaving. "The sky will be the end of me!" she hissed.

Star Glint hoofed his mask and vomited into the ice. "Glllhuh …

"The sky .. I never thought I'd ever see it." Lightning Twirl deadpanned her gaze to the everwinter skies. "This can't be the same sky my ancestors soared." She murmured with an anguished sigh, fluttering a few feet above the snow. She stared into the clouds. "It just can't be." The mare sobbed softly, a frosty mist trailing behind her tail as her breather discharged.

The murals of blue skies and white clouds she had admired and known her entire life within the confines of our stable were scrubbed away by the bleakness of the winter.

The expectations I had built over my lifetime had been shattered the moment I stepped out that door. But out here, they were ground to a fine, glassy dust and poured into my eyes to blind any hope I had ever held for the world above.

This wasn't Equestria, the glorious land of magic and wonder that the Goddesses of the Sun and Moon had presided over. I panned my ghastly eye holes into the sky once more. In the distance, a black speck seemed to be watching us. A snow swirl blew across my eyes and when I blinked it was no longer there.

Then I hoofed my mask and vomited the contents of my stomach into the snow only for it to solidify in seconds before my bloodshot eyes.

I wanted to turn around and never look back.

Or up.

---

The sky had darkened to an obfuscated black expanse. I was glad I couldn't tell whether or not it was still there as I illuminated my flashlight down upon a path we had decided to follow. We snaked through a forest of ancient, gangly dead trees, 6 different hoofprints trailing behind us.

In this land, there was only night. I stared grimly into the shadows knowing that I might never see the light of day or feel the warmth of a home ever again.

My pipbuck, every now and then, in a land I could barely see, would alert me that I'd entered a new zone. How it could have possibly ever known that this particular area was known as the 'Crystal Highway' was beyond my understanding. There was no sign of a highway anywhere. I looked down and thought that it might have been buried several feet beneath my hooves in century old permafrost.

If there had ever been a highway, we wouldn't be following it.

Our flashlights cut illuminated swaths across the shadows as our misty breaths reminded us that we were still alive. Exposed to the elements, our bodies began to slow and wear down while the snowfall only intensified. Around us was a forest of disintegrating stumps, uprooted trees, and half fossilized trunks. They looked like they were drowning under the snow, clawing at the surface for air with gnarled, broken fingers as they suffocated beneath the shifting tides.

I shivered, not from the howling wind that blasted at my barding, but at the unnerving lifelessness of these pale barrens. The wind moaned a somber requiem that chilled me to the very core; my soul felt like it was going to freeze over.

Whatever life that had been here once had been strangulated out of existence 200 years ago. I wasn't expecting to see anything that moved except the hooves beneath my five other friends.

We had been trotting through the snow for several hours now. My legs were sore and I felt like my body was going to give up on me at any moment now. We'd trudged almost endlessly through the gloom with only a few half hour breaks in between. Amber Fields stumbled and collapsed as Lightning Twirl pushed us eastward in a direction we thought would lead us to Poneva. Box Cutter helped her to her hooves, the pegasus pony only pausing momentarily for the mare to catch up. I could hear Amber Fields's sobs behind me as I trudged deeper into the frozen snowfall.

We had to keep moving, she had said. We couldn't stop, she said.

Every minute we spent out here exposed to the unforgiving elements, the snow storm intensified. It was getting harder and harder to see more than 20 yards ahead of us. My flashlight's beam was waning through the snowflakes, warping and reflecting against the flurry of white specks that swam across my field of vision.

Were it not for my pipbuck, I wouldn't have known it'd been almost eight hours since we'd left our stable. There hadn't been any sign of light; no hint of whether or not the sun or the moon had been hanging over us. I thought that perhaps when the balefire bombs fell, the planet had been thrown away from the guarding light of the moon and the warmth of the sun.

I stumbled through the white drifts, my hind legs giving in to the burning sensation of fatigue that pulsated through my muscles. I panted heavily, wisps of vapor trailing out of my filters. I wanted to just sit here and wait until my muscles stopped spasming. But out here, blood that isn't circulating isn't going to circulate at all.

A grayish magical field swirled around me and Dew Drops helped me to my hooves. I leaned against her, catching my breath. I couldn't tell what she was thinking behind her balaclava and oxygen mask, but I hoped she didn't think any less of me. I wasn't sure how much trotting I had left.

"You're fine, Red. Just catch your breath; we can make it." She whispered.

I squeezed my eyes shut, exhaling. "Why do you sound so sure?" I wheezed, taking a few weary steps through the snow.

She, my shoulder to lean on, trudged onward through the snow as I leaned against her.

"Because it's all we've got to hope for." The blue mare said softly, "because if we don't…" she stopped for a moment and I nearly slumped to the snow. Dew Drops shook her head, not wanting to finish. I met her gray eyes briefly before the mare trotted forward, her scarf billowing behind us in the chilling breeze.

By the time we came across a reminder that pony life had existed here once, it had become so dark that we would not have been able to see anything past our muzzles without our flashlights.

A bent, half buried sign that reflected dully under our beams spoke to us more than anything out here had ever said since we emerged.

"City of Poneva, 20 miles." Lightning Twirl read out loud, scraping away a layer of rime with a forehoof. She tapped her pipbuck and swung her flashlight due east. "I think we're on the right track, if my pipbuck isn't just spouting off bullshit my way."

"20 fucking miles." I muttered.

Star Glint exhaled loudly and leaned wearily against the sign only to have it crumple into the snow with him. He shook himself of the powder that clung to his barding and sighed as the snowfall scattered more across the fabric, "Let's just find the damn thing and go." The stallion grumbled.

"How do we even know there's a Water Talisman out there?" I asked, grimly. We had seen nothing but snow and ice for the last eight hours. At this rate, I wasn't sure we'd find anything left, let alone Poneva city. I was hoping to see a few ruined buildings here and there, maybe a fence. There'd been no sign of civilization until now. "We've been our here for hours now, and the only thing that changed was this fucking sign here." I growled, nudging its bruised, melted frame.

"Just keep walking." Lightning Twirl stated, her voice flat as she followed wherever her flashlight shone. "We can't waste any more time –"

I sighed a jet of air through my mask. "We may not even be heading in the right direction. How the hell do our pipbucks know that this really is the Crystal Highway? I'm not seeing any crystals anywhere."

"As long as we stay on the highway, we'll follow it." The mare replied, "This highway has to lead somewhere … if we follow it, we'll get somewhere."

"Somewhere." I muttered, stopping for a moment to lean against a burned disintegrating tree trunk. I beamed my light lazily across the trees, not looking for anything in particular.

I flashed its yellow beam skywards and saw only a canopy of ghastly branches. It was remarkably unnerving; the shadows of my friends played against the trees like ghosts. They were getting further and further away and I started forward, swinging my beam from left to right.

For a moment, as it passed between a pair of trees, a pair of teal orbs flashed back at me. I frowned, panning it back. It wasn't there anymore. Now my mane was itching and the flesh under my barding was beginning to tingle.

I hurried away, not looking back.

"You ponies see that?" I huffed softly, crunching through the snow.

They all turned to look.

"It wasn't a sign that said 'stable stec, this way' was it?" Box Cutter asked, hopefully.

I shook my head. "I think I saw something." I murmured, unsure. Looking at them imploringly, I added, "Or somepony."

Star Glint panned his flashlight across the trees. "There's nothing here but us." he said, shining along the path once more.

I shrugged, Dew Drops looking at me worriedly.

Lightning Twirl shivered, "I don't care, let's just keep walking and stop looking back -"

Somepony screamed. I whirled around and saw Amber Fields fall through the crumbling earth. The snow fell away and she disappeared beneath a snow drift. I galloped to the ground she had been standing in and I heard an audible thump at the bottom of a dark hole at my hooves. Amber Fields shrieked in agony, and my stomach churned as I expected the worst.

The ground had caved in and given way to what looked like a bear den, if the pictures in our textbooks had been accurate.

I shined my light inside and saw skeletons buried within beneath Amber Fields's heaving chest. I shivered and saw that the bear skulls had an extra set of jaws.

Amber Fields whined as one of her hooves was began to swell to a point that made my stomach churn. I shouted her name.

"Goddesses!" The mare cried through the howling wind, "I - I think I twisted my ankle!" She screamed, hoarsely. Good, at least she was still alive.

"We're getting you out, Amber! Stay with us!"

The mare began screaming once more. "What the hell are these things?" She croaked, thrashing through the bones.

"Those might have been bears at one point." I replied, focusing my magic around the golden coated mare. A red and gray glow surrounded her and we slowly lifted the pony out and set her down a foot away from the sinkhole.

"Is she okay?" Lightning Twirl shouted, her voice becoming barely audible in the intensifying blizzard.

"Twisted her ankle," I shouted back, supporting the mare with my magic as she limped painfully across the snow.

"We can't stay out here - the snow - it's getting too thick!" Dew Drops screamed as the wind blasted across our rime encrusted bardings.

I was beginning to panic. A whiteout was approaching, and the snow was piling up around us as we lingered. We had to keep moving.

"Stay together, we're going to make it through this!" Lightning Twirl screamed. I held Amber Fields tight and wrapped a leg around Dew Drops's neck. The frozen wasteland opened its maws and threatened to swallow us whole.

I shouted soundlessly in the blizzard, pushing past a wall of powder that piled up in front of my very hooves.

"Twirl! Star! Box!" I cried out into the storm. No response. "Where the fuck are they!?" I asked, shaking the snow out of my goggles.

"I-I can't see - I can't see!" Dew Drops shrieked, hoofing at her mask like her life depended on it.

"It's a whiteout DD, don't let go!"

Amber Fields was sobbing, her limp rocking us back and forth as we stumbled through the snowstorm. The mare was slowing us down.

"I can't go on like this, Red!" Amber Fields screamed, her voice barely audible as the wind shrieked through my ears. Its howl was that of a thousand screaming voices coalescing into a single, anguished moan. The dead demanded we join them.

"Don't let go Amber, don't let go!"

"Hold! ON!" I shouted, my muscles burning.

The mare stumbled, breaking my grip. And the wind dragged her into the night.

Amber Fields screamed until her voice faded away and I could feel her leg wrapped around me no more. "NO!" I stopped for mere seconds, looking back the way we came before the blizzard threatened to bury us beneath its unrelenting drifts.

My flashlight flew from my magical grip and everything went dark. Dew Drops's beam flashed wildly across the swirling flakes like static noise on a terminal screen. I wanted to turn back.

A dark corner of my mind told me that she was already dead.

I needed to be strong. I needed to survive.

I needed …. to rest.

The snow piled on top of me, in front of me, and around me. My tears fogged the inside of my goggles and I lost any and all ability to see. Never before, not even within the purification chamber of stable 29 had I feared death as much as I did now.

At least when you died in a stable, you had a body to cremate. Out here, we were going to be lost beneath the drifts, never to be seen again. Never to see the light again.

Seconds passed by, then minutes, then for what seemed like hours. The two of us pushed through the snow. My body had given up. Only my mind had the capacity to send its weary nervous signals to twitch my frozen limbs through the blizzard. My muscles burned and my heart drummed faster than I could breathe. Then I began to see stars.

- thump - thump - thump - thump – thump – thump….. thump …. thump ….

Shadows began to take me. I failed.

My arms slackened and Dew Drops threatened to slip from my barding. But instead, I slipped away from her. The wind took me, and I could feel myself being dragged through the snow. Rocks dug into my barding and clipped my ribs.

… thump …. thump … thump …

"…DAWN!" My head slammed onto solid floor.

…..thump – thump – thump -

Hooves tore my breather mask from my face and I took an agonizing gasp. Dew Drops's blurry, blood shot grays stared into mine and she pulled me to my hooves. I felt the metallic lip of a canteen push through my lips and the familiar taste of hard cider rushed down my throat.

I coughed, sputtered, and collapsed to the concrete floor.

Dew Drops's mouth moved, but I couldn't hear what she was saying. I tipped my glassy eyes to what had to be a ceiling over my head. Holes and breaches in both the walls and the roof above me sent cascading showers of winter flakes into the open room. Three other equine silhouettes were stumbling into the cottage behind her. I was too disorientated to care who they were at this point.

The sugar from the cider metabolized and the black tunnels around me faded away.

"- Fields?" I heard her asking me, "Where's Amber Fields!?"

I closed my eyes for a moment and I remembered her screams die away in the howling wind. I opened, and the others were staring down at me, masks off as their teary eyes bore down upon me with the weight of worlds.

"She's dead." I looked away, not wanting to meet their eyes. I could have turned around. I could have caught her. But I didn't.

She was already dead. "Goddesses …" I sobbed. "I told you, Dew Drops … I fucking told you." I wheezed. "Told you I'd get everypony killed."

Dew Drops deadpanned me, and trotted away with the rest.

I let my head roll against the blackened concrete walls of the dreary, ancient cottage, and let the darkness take me to a slumber I wished I would never wake from.

---

My bloodshot eyes fluttered open, and not to my surprise, they didn't need to adjust. Everypony was still asleep as I trotted through the burned out ruin. The blizzard had subsided to a thin layer of snow fall that might have made for a peaceful winter night had I not been standing inside the ruins of somepony's home.

The inside of the cottage had been worn bare by the elements over 200 years of unrelenting punishment. Parts of the brick house had already begun to collapse, and some sections, like what I assumed to be its dining room, had barred me entry with a fallen ceiling. Whatever personal belongings there had been that hadn't been locked up looked to either have been incinerated or carried away by the wasteland's frozen gales. Black outlines painted the walls and floor where furniture had been burned away by the balefire holocaust.

I trotted to a shattered, blackened window pane and stared out into the snow.

Dew Drops had told me that anything was possible as long as we had our friends. I imagined a golden pony mare wandering through the snow alone, helpless and lost, just waiting to die - abandoned and left for dead by the ponies she had thought were her friends. I turned my weary eyes low in shame and knew that her colt would never see his mother ever again.

And that I was the one to blame.

My shoulders began to quake with the force of my sobs. My body had given up, and Amber Fields had died because I wasn't strong enough.

I imagined the mare stumbling into the powder on her bad leg, her limps turning into crawls, and her crawls turning into stillness. She curled up in a vast, bleak field of snow – cold, alone, and dying – only to close her eyes and let the glacial touch of death finally take her.

The pale layers had risen several inches and nearly touched the bottom of the window pane since the blizzard ended, threatening to pour in through its shattered frame. I leaned into it and looked out into the gloom. I wouldn't say it was day, but it wasn't night either. It was bright enough to see the paleness of the snow without the aid of my flashlight. It was not as dark as it was … I looked at my pipbuck: four hours ago.

I scanned the gnarled tree trunks that surrounded the lonely cottage. A part of me hoped I'd see Amber Fields limping our way. I frowned.

A black silhouette partially concealed behind a withering trunk watched me from the distance. Squinting at it, I could see its distinctly teal eyes narrowing back at me. We stared at each other for a good five seconds. I was about ready to raise my hoof to wave at it when I felt somepony nudge my shoulder.

"What are you doing?" Box Cutter asked, tiredly.

I glanced over and back out the window, "I –" the silhouette was no longer there. "I don't know. I think I saw something."

Box Cutter was silent for a moment.

"Amber?"

I shook my head slowly, lowering my head.

"I saw the snow take her away." I whispered, my breath escaping my lips in a vaporous cloud. My friend trotted up next to me and stared out the window. "This can't be Equestria, Box. Nothing… nothing can survive out here. I can't even hope that Amber's still alive. I can't hope that we'll find the Water Talisman. Even if there were still any of them left, the land'll freeze over before we can even get near it."

I shivered and rubbed one of my forelegs with another.

"I'll tell ya one thing, this ain't the Equestria I read about in the books – that's for sure." He muttered with a wheezing chuckle. "Amber … Amber was out of the game when she fell down that hole." Box looked at me with his bloodshot eyes. It looked like he had been crying all night. I met his gaze, and he added, "No way anypony could've walked through a blizzard with an ankle like that, Red. It wasn't your fault…"

"I just hope she went out quick…" I trailed off. Maybe the snow buried her and she froze to death. Maybe the wind swept her off a cliff or … damn! That wasn't helping me. "I should've held on tighter. I just wasn't strong enough, Box. I'm tired, everything's so sore I'm not sure I can make the rest of the trek, and I think I'm seeing things now." I breathed.

He punched my shoulder with a hoof. "We have ponies waiting for us, waiting for you to come back home. If you give up, if I give up – If any of us gives up, the game's over." Box Cutter he said, swiping his hoof through the air. "If one of us goes … the others have to keep going. Like what Twirl said, 'just keep moving'. Don't stop, don't stop for just one moment, because if you go too…" He trailed off. Box Cutter shook his head, "There's still five of us left, Red. As long as there's still one of us going, as long as there's one pony still moving, there's still hope."

We leaned against each other for what felt like hours. I finally chuckled and said, "When you fell in the water and got stuck with that metal beam back home, you were grinning ear to ear like it was just a bruise." I bumped him with a hoof, "How do you do it?"

Box Cutter snorted a jet of cloudy vapor. The stallion shivered on his hooves and he looked out the window with glassy, bloodshot eyes. "It takes more than a sauna treatment and a paper cut to kill me, Red."

"You thick skinned son of a bitch…" I muttered with a smirk. "You must've been born without nerve endings weren't you." I stated, not asking. "Concussion and all, you still came to the meeting and volunteered. Didn't even know what you were volunteering for."

"I'm still feeling it, honestly." I said softly. "I get headaches every now and then, and that trek was pushing it."

I sighed, levitating out a canteen of stable cider. I took a swig, and passed it to him. "I never knew it'd be this bad." The stallion said, gripping the canteen with his teeth and tipping his head back. "To think our ancestors were all about friendship and harmony and all that ...they did all this, destroyed themselves."

"And this is the land the stables are supposed to open their doors to. I don't think the stable'll ever be ready for what's out here. I can't see ponies ever living here in a million years. White walls are better than white outs, honestly." I said, taking another drink before passing it to Box Cutter. The cider burned going down my throat, but the pain assured me that I was still alive.

"Amen to that, brony." He tipped his head and frowned. Box Cutter held the canteen upside down. "Least my headache's gone."

I laughed grimly, "Dying'll make it all go away." He chuckled along with me, but I wasn't kidding. I reached into my satchel bags and gave him a few painkillers which he swallowed them dry. "You should try to get some more rest. Your head might swell up and explode or something."

Box Cutter nodded, trotting away from the window. I stood there for a few moments in silence. Under the quietude of the snowfall, I heard somepony sobbing a few doors down. I followed the mare's voice. I followed Dew Drops's voice to a small room that'd somehow held against the passage of time.

I peeked my head through the doorway and, beneath a somber veil of darkness, I saw Dew Drops lying next to the skull of some long dead pony. The deteriorating half buried skeleton lay crushed beneath a collapsed section of the cottage's wall. Dew Drops was laid out across a charred, wooden floor, her quivering nose touching the skull's pale, weathered muzzle.

Her bags were scattered all around her and an empty canteen of what I assumed was cider was a hoof's length away from her anguished lips.

I started cautiously towards her, calling her name. "DD?" I whispered.

She just laid there and sobbed unresponsively. The mare's eyes were closed but beneath her eyelids, her eyes swiveled rapidly as if they were in the middle of REM sleep.

I sat beside her, watching the blue mare weep. Dew Drops must have been asleep, I thought, running a hoof through her disheveled teal mane. I lay down next to her and looked at her worriedly. Her cheeks and brows were squeezed into a wretched, miserable grimace.

"DD, are you okay?" I whispered, shaking her softly. The mare wouldn't move.

I bit my lower lip and trotted around her, looking for some sign as to why she was acting like this. On the other side of her body, closest to the wall, was a strange blue orb a breath's length away from her face. Rivulets of tears streamed by and under it.

"What is this …?" I murmured, eyeing its shockingly lustrous surface. Whatever this thing was, it had somehow survived Equestria's fall.

I reached out with my magic to levitate it away from her, sure that it was the reason behind her feverish state. A red magical field wrapped around it, and almost instantaneously, I felt a numbing sensation surge through my body.

My limbs slackened and the last thing I remembered before I blacked out was the skull's sunken eyes staring at me with its hollow, dead eyes.

-=======ooO Ooo=======-

I exhaled a contented sigh. I peered out the very same window Box Cutter and I had been looking out of only minutes earlier and it struck me that the trees were that of a very lively shade of green.

My bright eyes admired a day's worth of gardening, floating a clear glass of lemonade to my mouth to take a long, well deserved drink. The tart, freshly squeezed citrus juice swam down my parched throat and I smacked my lips with a satisfied "Whew!"

"Flash, you are going to love what I did to our garden." I said out loud. Suspended in front of me was the same blue orb that I'd seen earlier. "I hope you get this before the Princess ships you back to Canterlot."

Outside, a well-trimmed lawn of verdant grass stretched across the front yard. It was sculpted by a cobblestone path lined by pots of pink begonias and stalks of balsams that ran a snaking path down to a red picket fence at the other end of the yard.

I grinned proudly at a newly planted evergreen sapling that formed the centerpiece of my front lawn. My horn tingled wearily at the sight of the shovel that had been planted on a mound of dirt underneath its immature branches.

On a table beside the window a radio played a gentle tune that brought a smile to my lips as the sun shined through the window and onto my face.

'Sompony's sleeping

Through a bad dream

Tomorrow it will be over

For the world will soon be waking

To a summer day.'

I leaned against the window, admiring the mare's heartwarming lullaby. Her silky sing song echoed hauntingly in my thoughts and I played the song over and over again…. somepony's sleeping … through a bad dream ….

My mind spun in circles; the world around me seemed … alive.

"That was Sweetiebelle's Summer Days!" A mare's voice said as the song faded away. "Boy do I love that song – really gets me in the mood to sit out, sip a glass lemonade and watch the day pass by! This DJ Pon3 wishing you sunny days from Equestria!"

"Way ahead of you, buddy." I said dreamily, taking another sip. Wait. Those weren't my lips moving. "Here's to summer days, Flash!"

The sound of laughing children pulled my attention to the front lawn as a trio of foals galloped after each other across the cobblestone path. One of them, a colt, tipped over one of the flower pots in a carefree game of tag and its contents spilled across the stone path.

My eyes widened. "Boys!" I called out to them. I pushed off the window and raced outside, the colts and one filly tumbling over each other in the grass.

"Boys!" I …. no, she – t-the … mare? I was so confused. I …. I was a mare! "And here comes our monsterfoals."

I trotted outside into the afternoon sun. My … her emerald coat turned a brilliant white as she trotted out of the front porch and into the warmth of the sun.

A cool breeze caressed my soft, spring green mane. I hoofed the yellow lily tucked behind my ear as I trotted toward the rampaging foals.

"Boys, please – you might hurt yourselves –"

One of the colts squeaked as his leg clipped a rose bush. I rushed towards him as he whined, plucking the thorns from his hide with my magic.

"Spark Sentry!" I shouted, raising my voice.

He stopped immediately. "Sorry, mom." The earth pony colt sighed as his brother and sister trotted up to us.

I narrowed my eyes at him, "It's not safe to be running around in the garden, there're too many thorny bits to hurt yourself with!"

The colt glowered at his grinning siblings as I brushed his tawny coat with a hoof. "There, let's go inside and get you some bandages."

The three looked at me, at each other, and at me again.

"Tag, you're it!" The youngest of the three nickered and they scattered.

"Hey! Fresh Fields! What did I say about running in the garden!?" My eyes darted around, and I sighed. "Flash, where are you when I need you to coral these out of control kids!" I said out loud. "Get back here!" I let out an exasperated sigh, shaking my head. "Well. I tried. I tried, Flash... but..."

Then a smile crept slowly across my face. I sprang to my hooves and whirled on the blue maned pegasus filly who was galloping away from me as fast as her small legs could take her.

I slowed playfully as I caught up, the filly's voice cracked as she shouted, "You'll never catch me!"

"Spring Song, you stop right this instant!" I shouted, laughing. "Just wait till your father sees this!" I said mock angrily with a sly grin. She veered through a garden of equine shaped bushes. I ducked under a stray branch and pounced on the filly as she slowed to make a sharp turn around a bush sculpted to look like the Goddess Celestia.

The small filly squawked, flapping her wings uselessly like a flightless bird before she ducked out of the way. My eyes widened and I ate a mouthful of leaves. Ouch.

"Wrrhhphrl!" I nickered, shaking the leaves and twigs out of my hair. "Pwa, pfft!" I plucked a bitter tasting leaf from my tongue, grinning. "You slippery little filly!" I got to my hooves and charged after her, my long emerald mane billowing behind me as I closed in. "This is what happens when you marry a military pony! He gives you fighter foals!" I said hysterically.

I snapped my jaws closed and bit down on her mane, yanking the filly off her hooves. Spring Song dangled from my mouth as my horn glowed and caught her younger brother in a verdant emerald field.

"Goshoo!" I cheered, the pegasus filly in my teeth beating her wings in futility.

"Oh come on, that's not even fair!" Fresh Fields pouted, folding his arms across his chest as he floated towards me.

"Un 'ore to go!" I said through a tuft of blue hair.

"Mom! Put me down!" Spring Song screamed.

"Nuh' 'il I find your buther!" I proclaimed, grinning. I looked around the yard and frowned mischievously. "Now, where ish he?"

I took one step forward and the world around me flashed green. Then my ears popped.

A heartbeat later and windows in the cottage shattered. I whirled the foals away from the window behind us and shielded them with my body. Broken shards of glass flung into my green hide sending sharp spears of pain through my nerves. I cried out through Spring Song's mane and lowered the screaming filly to the trembling grass.

The two whimpered as the sky darkened with green fire. Above the tree line, a plume of black clouds erupted to the skies in the distance.

"Dear Celestia …" I murmured, watching the mushroom cloud expand across the distant landscape like a tidal wave of darkness. Goddesses. This is how it all ended.

Then came the aftershock. The ground quaked beneath my hooves. Fissures opened up around us, swallowing the garden piece by piece. The sapling that the mare had planted earlier disappeared in a maw of shattered rock and soil.

The earth split beneath me and my hooves slipped.

I screamed, pushing the foals away from me as I tipped over the edge. A green magical field enveloped me and I righted myself, dragging myself away from the fissure as the earth yawned and moaned.

The cottage rumbled and shook; the roof caved in and its walls collapsed from the inside enveloping us in a suffocating cloud of dust and detritus. Debris surged around our hooves as we fled from the collapsing cottage.

I gathered the two foals close and looked at them pleadingly. "Where's your brother?!"

"I-I don't know! I saw him running to the shed!" Spring Song stammered.

"Stay close to me, okay!" I wheezed, leading the foals out of the expanding cloud and away from the shattered earth. The skies darkened to an ashen black, the balefire fallout blocking the sun's rays for the first and last time.

"Spark Sentry!" I shouted hoarsely, but the missing colt didn't respond.

Dusk stretched across the land, and my shadow melted away into the ravenous darkness. My eyes darted all around me, and I saw only a long stretch of road that led north towards the billowing mushroom cloud in the distance and an endless expanse of evergreens that expanded in every direction.

We were in the middle of nowhere.

My eyes fixated upon the ruined cottage and my body began to tremble. I wondered if the mare knew she was going to die. There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide as she hugged her foals close, shielding them from a cloud of debris that swelled from the front porch that began to sink into the earth.

"Spark Sentry!" I cried out again, and I hoped to the Goddesses that he'd reply or come running out to see them.

Silence.

My horn sparked, lifting them both onto my back and we raced to the cottage. I screamed at her to stay outside of the collapsing cottage, but she couldn't hear me. I glanced over the horizon and saw a blinding wave of green annihilation burning a swath toward us at the pace a fire burns through parchment.

She just wasn't willing to lie outside, curl up and die. I felt a deep rumbling resonate through my bones as the world flashed outside.

The forest blew away in a wave of balefire flame that scoured away the grass, leaves, flowers – everything outside the cottage's walls burned away as the mare ducked with screaming her foals behind the kitchen counter. Green flames splashed around the cottage's brick walls and burned its wooden components to ash.

The inside of the house turned into a searing furnace of pain. Anguished tears were streaming down my cheeks as I squinted through a curtain of black smoke.

I shielded the two foals, my coat singeing as the fires threatened to roast me alive. Only a mother's unrelenting will to protect her children kept the mare going.

I couldn't watch this. I only imagined them burning alive, and I cursed her for taking them inside the crumbling ruins. But dying was the least of her worries. She seemed to have something else in mind.

My amethyst eyes stared into the green flames and they stared back. I gazed with teary, contracted pupils at a room beyond the balefire conflagration and gathered the foals onto my back.

I leaped over the flames, landing at the edge of a balefire flame that singed the tip of my green tail. I winced at the bite of the heat that radiated from the conflagration. I looked up and saw that we were now in the room I had found Dew Drops in earlier.

I lowered my chest to the floor and let the foals hop off my back.

My horn glowed and the floor opened up a hoof's length away from me to reveal a ladder that led to a basement. I lowered the foals into the room below. I looked down the shadowy chamber below and knew that she was only forestalling the inevitable. It was the only place inside and outside that hadn't caught flame. Below the concrete foundation they'd be safe.

For now.

Even up here, the smoke suffocated me with every anguished breath I took. Soon, I thought grimly as the mare levitated her colt down the hole. Too soon.

"Mommy!" Spring Song whimpered.

"Stay down there, I'll be back – I promise!" I wheezed, turning my back to the basement before closing it behind me. I pulled myself out of a window, and looked outside. The fissures and patches of grass surrounding stone path leading to the shed flickered before my eyes.

Nothing stopped me from galloping through the billowing smoke and radioactive fire. Tears evaporated. My mane burned away. My mind was reeling, convulsing from the burning torment that enveloped me. My tortured nerve endings erupted with white hot agony as my once supple emerald coat flaked away and fed the flame.

Blisters popped and my body told me to die. But the mare kept going even after her coat had completely burned away. I bucked the door down and found Spark Sentry cowering underneath an overturned wheelbarrow.

He screamed.

"It's your mother! It's me … Spring Fresh!" I said approaching him as he whimpered. My blackened flesh was nothing the young colt would ever recognize. "Son! Come on, I need to get you someplace safe!" I said. He cried, shaking his head.

"Dad was right! H-he knew it was going to happen! Now we're … you're …" I levitated the trembling colt, threw him over my back, and galloped as fast as my dying body could take me. "What about you!?" he asked, but I didn't answer.

I wrenched open the basement door and lowered him into the darkness. I raised a hoof to follow them down -

Then I felt something slam me to the floor. Then nothing.

Bricks and debris tumbled over me as the wall collapsed, burying everything below the lower half of my body it and shattering my spine. I howled in agony at the nerves that hadn't lost feeling, my broken hind legs twitching uncontrollably under the rubble. The mare's foals screamed, crying for their mother. My horn flickered and died as my consciousness ebbed and flowed. Dark tunnels began to form around my eyes and I began to take my dying breaths. I reached a trembling hoof across the trap door only for it to stop at the basement's edge.

"Mom, please don't go!" Spring Song cried out to her, reaching out to me with foreleg not long enough to touch my own. If only she could hold them one last time …

Blood trickled through my teeth. My eyes began to glass over.

"Stay down there … you'll be safe ..." I sobbed, "I love you … I…." bloody tears streamed down my cheeks. "Your father and I will come back for you … I promise … don't come out until I say it's safe."

The foals whimpered silently as the light faded from my eyes.

"Mommy …"

I smiled tenderly, craning my neck so that I could see them for the last time.

"It's going to be okay; don't come out, it isn't safe out here anymore." I rasped, choking through the black smoke that hung above the floor. "J-just close your eyes and … go," I took a dying gasp for air, "… go to sleep." I choked on my words, tears streaming down my cheeks. "And when you wake up your father and I will find you."

The three foals stared up at me from the darkness, their eyes glistening with tears. Spring Song struggled to reach me, fluttereing her wings and, to the mare's widening eyes, taking flight for the first and last time. I lowered my head and wept sorrowful tears of joy.

"Spring Song … don't look back. Spark, Fresh … take care of your sister." The oldest of her foals, Spark Sentry, pulled her back down, kicking and crying.

My hoof caught the basement door's latch.

"Mommy, no! Don't go!" Spring Song wailed, her voice growing farther and farther away as black tendrils twisted and curled around the closing tunnels of my sight.

"NOOOooo … !"

I pulled the latch down and the basement door swung closed.

With a moribund moan, I slumped to the floor, a puddle of my own blood pooling around me, seeping through the debris that trapped my broken limbs. I stared at death's door, the black tendrils giving way to a light that drew me away from my mortal coil and all the pain and suffering that licked at my trembling flesh. My body clung to life, but it would not linger for too much longer.

"Flash … Flash Sentry … I tried." I said, pushing a blue orb to my face with a trembling foreleg. My horn began to glow as I poured into it all the magic I had left. "They're safe now … I hope you made it out alive. I couldn't save myself. I told them it's going to be okay. I … hope you're okay. I love you." I said with a finality that shook me to the core.

"Sompony's sleeping…" I crooned, singing Sweetiebelle's lullaby in a haunting tune I'd never forget. Blood trickled through my teeth as I struggled to formulate words. Shadows danced upon my face in the gleaming fire light. "…sleeping …through a bad dream … tomorrow it will be over…"

"… for we will soon be waking … waking … way ..."

-=======ooO Ooo=======-

My own eyes opened. I blinked away a glassy rivulet from my eyes and Dew Drops's watery grays gazed down at me.

"You saw it too?" she asked as if she'd seen a ghost.

My eyelids fluttered closed and I nodded slowly. My coat felt as if it were still charred and stricken with deathly rigor mortis.

I was alive.

"What was … that thing? How?" I sighed shakily.

Dew Drops pushed the orb away with a hoof.

"It's some kind of memory orb," she replied. "Let's you experience the memories of other ponies."

I looked at the small blue orb and wondered how it could have ever survived this long. I pushed myself upright and saw Spring Fresh's crushed, lonely skeleton. "That was how it ended, wasn't it." I said, not asking. I let out a trembling breath that turned into a cloud of misty vapor.

"How could anypony deserve … this?" She asked, sweeping a hoof across the blackened floor and wind worn walls. "How did it ever come to this?" The blue mare asked, tears pouring down her face. "The foals, Red … the foals …" Dew Drops reached for the basement door and her hoof hesitated.

I stood to my hooves and gripped the latch with my magic. I gave her a long, weary look. My chin trembled with suppressed sobs as I lifted the basement door open. I flicked my flashlight on and descended into the darkness below.

Amongst the dusty, fallen cabinets and the ancient debris I saw what I already knew. Huddled in the shadowy corner was a trio of skeletons, their limbs tangled together in a hug. I turned away, dropping my flashlight as tears streamed down my cheeks. The bombs had spared no one. Not even the innocent had been spared. War was truly hell; it was indiscriminant in its destruction. There was no respite for the young and helpless. These were the souls ponykind had left behind and forgotten. These foals were the children of the damned.

I heard Dew Drops's hooves clop next to me before she trotted silently to the dusty corner. I watched as she, with solemn prudence, floated each of their small, curled up remains onto a dusty tarp that we found on the floor. Like a funeral procession and with our heads hung low, we carried their tattered bones into the snow.

With a small shovel I'd taken out of my bags, we dug through the snow until we unearthed the blackened soil beneath.

---

Dew Drops and I stood solemnly over the black mounds we'd dug out of the frozen earth, her blue scarf flapping in a wintry breeze that sprinkled their graves with fresh snow. With some effort and help from Dew Drops' magic, we levitated a blackened gravestone and drove it into the ground among three others.

The largest of the broken headstones belonged to Spring Fresh. We had buried her foals next to her. We'd given the mare a burial I knew she would have wanted; she and her foals would never be separated ever again. I hoped that we had brought them peace.

One day, I hoped, their graves would see the dawn of a summer day.

---

We sat by a burned out window, listening to the wind. Her forelegs were wrapped around me as we rested our backs against the wall underneath the windowsill. It was still dark outside. I wondered if it was like this all the time in the wasteland; we were bathed in an eternal, wintry twilight.

It was dark in the small, blackened room we were sitting in. It overlooked what I thought was the remains of the cottage's backyard. The view from the window could have been beautiful once, had the world been not a dead, frozen wasteland. From the charred outlines of small furniture, I figured that this must have been one of the foals' rooms; it was down a hall near the master bedroom where Star Glint and Lightning Twirl had taken for their own.

Other than the occasional giggle and the moaning wind, the night was a rather quiet one.

"DD?" I asked, softly.

"Red?"

"Are we going to find a Water Talisman?"

She rubbed one of my forelegs tenderly.

"Yes."

I nodded, slowly.

She turned her head to look me in the eyes. "Don't make Amber's death be in vain, Red." Dew Drops added. "We're not done yet." Her words echoed hauntingly in my thoughts. "Don't give up on our Stable."

I exhaled a cloud of mist and hugged Dew Drops tighter. She sighed, tucking her head under my chin.

"I won't." I whispered, brushing her soft mane.

"Promise me."

I stared down at her gray eyes, my expression rife with funereal uncertainty.

"I promise." I added, forcing a grim smile.

In the darkest corner of my mind, I kept telling myself that that was a hollow promise.

---

I woke to the sound hoofsteps in the snow. My eyes shot open and I darted around me. To my left, I saw that Dew Drops was slumped against the wall, fast asleep. My horn glowed and I levitated my carbine to me.

I hugged it closed, listening to the sound of crunching snow. They were close, and my heart was pounding in my chest.

I slowly inched my way up the wall, trembling with every second that passed. I was afraid of what I might see. Outside the window, a dark mass with a flashlight was moving across the backyard.

My own light flicked on and brought the silhouette to the light.

"Star Glint?" I whispered, relieved.

The stallion turned, giving me a strange look.

"Don't shoot, I'm just gonna take a leak." He whispered back.

"Goddesses, you scared the shit out of me." I whined, "Don't stay too long out there."

"Yeah, I might freeze my bits off." Star Glint chuckled, before trotting off once more.

I slid back down the wall and curled up next to Dew Drops. My eyes closed once more and I went back to sleep.

---

"Where is he?!" I heard Lightning Twirl scream.

I jumped to my hooves, waking Dew Drops who had been resting her head on my shoulder. I looked outside the doorway, "What the hell is going on?" I called after her.

The pegasus stormed out of the master bedroom wide eyed and with her battle saddle bit clenched between her teeth.

"Star Glint? Where the hell is he?" She demanded, hysterically.

"He's missing?" Box Cutter asked, rubbing his eyes as he trotted out of his room.

"Well no shit, he's standing right here isn't he?" Lightning Twirl snapped.

I raised a forehoof. "Twirl, calm down."

"Calm down?" She narrowed her eyes at me. "Star Glint is missing, and … and you want me to CALM down?"

Dew Drops followed me outside into the hall.

"Where'd you last see him?" my marefriend asked.

Lightning Twirl glanced over her shoulder. "We were sleeping in our room and I heard him leave, said he needed to take a wicked piss." She breathed, pacing on her hooves.

I blinked. "I saw him last night…" or, whatever night amounted to in this wasteland, "… saw him walking out to the backyard."

The pegasus's eyes widened at me, "You … you let him go out by himself?!" She yelled, pointing a trembling hoof at me.

"I-I thought he'd be fine –"

"We just lost Amber in a blizzard, and you think that Star Glint'll be fine walking out there by himself too? Have you lost your fucking mind, Red?"

I took a step back, fear creeping across my face. "I-I told him to not stay out there too long –"

"Goddesses, Red, you got Amber killed and then you let Star trot out there on his own!" She screamed, her face turning red.

I bit my lower lip, my heart drumming against my chest.

Dew Drops smacked Lightning Twirl with a hoof. "How dare you, Twirl?" she hissed, "It wasn't Red's fault, okay? And don't you dare bring up Amber either! None of it was!" Though I wasn't sure I could believe that.

Lightning Twirl growled, grinding her teeth together. She looked about ready to kill me. Had I lost Dew Drops, I wasn't sure I'd be feeling any different if our places were reversed. I sniffed, and looked at my hooves. Had I … had I killed another one of my friends?

"Fighting each other won't solve any of this," Dew Drops intoned, her voice hoarse. "Let's go; let's find him. He couldn't have gotten far."

I looked outside, and it was still dark. I wondered how long it'd been since I'd seen him. We hefted our gear and loaded our guns. I trembled beneath my barding as I zipped my coat closed and slipped my balaclava and mask over my muzzle.

I watched Dew Drops packing her satchel bags. She paused for a moment to meet my stare. She pursed her lips, reaching over to touch my foreleg. I looked down at my hooves once more as she pulled on her mask and trotted out the door.

We followed Lightning Twirl to the backyard. It was an open field of snow. I beamed my flashlight across the drifts and saw a faint path of hoofprints snaking through the powder.

"Everypony stay close." Lightning Twirl said, loading rounds into her battle saddle.

I hoped to the Goddesses it'd never come to that. I was shaking uncontrollably and my mane was itching. I gulped with apprehension and followed the ponies into the dark forest. We followed them up to a tree not far from the cottage, and saw that the hoof prints ended here. Yellow snow puddled around the tree, and Box Cutter chuckled.

"Guess he wasn't kidding when he said he had to piss."

Lightning Twirl and Dew Drops glared at him through their goggles. "Sorry…"

I looked around, beaming my flashlight across the gnarled, gangly trunks that slithered out of the snow. My beam caught something.

"I saw something!" I blurted out loud, trotting after it.

"Red! Get back here!" Lightning Twirl shouted after me.

"Star Glint!" I shouted, calling his name. My voice echoed loudly through the hollow, black forest. "Star Glint! Where are you!?"

The ponies trotted after me, beaming the tracks I was leaving behind as they fought through the snow to catch up. My flashlight panned against a tree once more and saw dark mass peaking out at me from behind a tree.

"Star Glint, quit fucking around!" I said, my voice trembling. I raced towards it and looked around and saw nothing there.

My friends were a long ways behind me now; their flashlights were glimmering a few yards behind me, but I would not relent. I needed to find Star Glint.

I beamed my flashlight across the contorted branches once more and caught two teal orbs staring back at me.

"You son of a bitch!" I roared, galloping after it. "Who the fuck are you?" The eyes disappeared behind a tree. The forest was blurring around me as I pounded through the snow. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO STAR GLINT?!"

"Red!" I heard somepony say, but her voice was getting farther and farther away from me.

My flashlight flickered and I stopped in my tracks. I saw Star Glint trotting through the woods to disappear behind an icy boulder. "St-Star?" I asked, shaking. No response. I gulped a lump of apprehension down my throat and started forward.

I rounded the corner, flashing my light across the snow.

Dear Celestia.

---

Lightning Twirl, Dew Drops, and Box Cutter huddled behind me. Nopony said a word as we looked across the snow drifts.

Blood.

There was so much blood. It trailed over rocks, stumps, and beyond where our flashlights could illuminate.

"Everypony …" Box Cutter whispered. He didn't have to finish his sentence as he tongued his battle saddle bit and craned his neck, wracking the weapon's charging handle. We did the same.

I levitated my carbine and flipped its safety off, then tied my flashlight to its grip. I pulled open the breach and saw that it was loaded. I felt like my shaking would drill me into the snow and through the earth.

Lightning Twirl stumbled through the pale, following the trail of blood. We saw deep, continuous lines that gouged canyons into the snow and patches of bloody hair littering the crimson trail, but still no sign of Star Glint. My filters were pumping out a constant stream of vapor as I hyper ventilated. I'd never seen so much blood in my entire life. It felt like my heart was going to burst through my chest.

We followed the trail at a pace that made it seemed like we'd been out here for centuries. It dragged on and on, and I couldn't even see the cottage from here. The forest seemed to be closing in on us. The charred remains of foliage became less sparse. Dead branches clawed at my barding as we trotted further and further into the darkness.

The blood lead through and … and over … and around a ruined stump. It was as if somepony had tried clinging to the blackened stump only to be dragged away. Lightning Twirl unfurled one of her wings in front of our path, and stopped in silence.

She exhaled a cloud of vapor and she glanced back at us, hesitating. The mare pushed through the brittle foliage. The branches broke against her barding and we trampled them beneath our hooves, following her to the clearing.

Box Cutter tore off his mask and vomited into the snow. I blinked. And blinked. And blinked again. This had to be a dream. This was a nightmare and I was going to wake up from it. I closed my eyes, clenching them shut.

When I opened, the skinless, mutilated mass was still lying in the snow at my hooves.

Lightning Twirl screamed, falling to the snow, cradling the flayed corpse's head in her hooves. The mare pulled off her mask, reared her head to the clouds and wailed into the night, her tears mingling and melting the layer of frost that had begun to form over the corpse's pink, frostbitten flesh. She hugged Star Glint close and let out a banshee wail that disturbed the dead, unnerving silence that permeated the frozen wasteland.

"Who the fuck did this!?" Box Cutter screamed. "Who. The. Fuck!? You sick fuckers!" He cursed, stomping his hooves into snow. "You fuckers killed Star Glint!"

Dew Drops pulled her mask off and broke down in tears. She fell to the snow and buried her muzzle in her hooves, crying tears that froze as they streamed down her cheeks and into ashen snow.

Box Cutter clamped down on his battle saddle's bit. "You mother fuckers! Show yourselves!"

A twig snapped behind us.

I whirled on my hooves and beam my light into the foliage. A gold coated pony was approaching us. She trotted towards us on precarious legs. Then I saw her limp.

"Amber Fields?" I asked. I shined the light up her body and my eyes widened at what I saw. The mare was blind folded and gagged. Her flank was red with blood and her coat was adorned with random gashes that had long stopped bleeding. Her satchels were bloated with round objects that poked out of the black fabric.

Her mouth moved but all that came out was a muffled cry.

"Amber!" Box Cutter trotted towards her.

Amber Fields shook her head, screaming at him through her gag. Streaming down her cheeks and through her blindfold were streaks of dried blood.

"What … what the fuck?" I asked, taking a few hoof steps towards her.

"Nnnph … nnnph! Snnnnff brrrrrkk!" She cried, sobbing through her gag as Box Cutter pulled it off. "It's too late now … I tried to die … I'm so sorry …" The mare whispered.

Then the night lit up in a white flash. I stumbled backwards and fell into the ashen drifts as a pillar of gore and detritus blew out of the cratered soil. Box Cutter was thrown back off his hooves, screaming before he crunched into the snow.

He held up both his forehooves – they were gone. Only bleeding, ruined stumps remained as he roared in agony.

Wild demented cackling erupted from the darkness. Black forms burst out of the snow around us. I hefted my carbine, pointing my flashlight beyond the crater that had once been Amber Fields.

A pony.

It … it was garbed in thick barding that would have been white had it not been stained a disgusting mixture of brown and red. My light flashed over the frostbitten flesh of its muzzle and staring back at me, behind a pair of cracked goggles, were glazed, yellowed eyes that promised me a horrible, bloody death.

I watched it, frozen in place. I remembered the night at the shooting range.

It was just a target. Just a target.

It was a pony.

"Red ... ! RED!" I heard Dew Drops shouting at me. Her voice was muffled in my ears, my senses focused on the pony that stared at me across the clearing. The blood drained from my face.

"WE'LL CUT YOU UP GOOD!" The pony cried out madly, before galloping towards us.

I aimed my carbine and fired. The weapon burped a burst of 10mm rounds that peppered the thickly barded pony through the chest. It let out a hysterical, giggling death rattle before stumbling forward and crashing headfirst into the snow.

Several silhouettes charged out and into the clearing, blundering through brittle foliage or stomping recklessly through the snow carrying bloody cleavers and knives in their mouths.

Box Cutter dragged himself out of the snow drift with an agonized grunt and bit down his saddle bit.

The night lit up in an epileptic cacophony of yellow flashes, gunfire, and ecstatic squeals of delight.

His pair of submachine guns flared to life, spitting out a torrent of lead that ate through the barding of a charging psycho pony. It reared on its hind legs before a stray bullet blew its brains out the back of its head.

"DO YOU WANNA SEE WHAT YOU LOOK LIKE ON THE INSIDE!?" A psycho pony mare screamed at me as she galloped through the snow with a sharpened scalpel held in her magical grip.

I slipped into SATS. In between two heartbeats, I tagged everything between the mare's barded neck and frothing muzzle and pulled the trigger. She caught the first bullet through the throat and stumbled, blood erupting from her neck in a splash of crimson. The bullets made their way up her face and the burst tore the damn thing off in a fountain of skull fragments and gore.

My heart skipped a beat as the pony's cratered skull crunched into the pale drifts.

I'd killed two ponies.

"You'll pay for this!" Lightning Twirl screamed, wrenching me from my trancelike state. Her wings unfurled and she launched herself into the air, lancing tracers through the charging psycho ponies.

Dew Drops screamed. I whirled on my hooves and galloped towards her as a pony sunk a dull knife through her barding. The psycho pony tore the blade out of her and reared its head back for another stab before I jammed my carbine into its chest and sunk the trigger back. Half a magazine's worth of lead erupted into the pony's chest cavity.

He gurgled out a maniacal cackle through a mouthful of blood, pirouetting on his hind legs as he tumbled to the now scarlet snow. I felt hooves buck me off my own and I fell to the snow. A giggling psycho pony pounced on top of me, pinning me on my back before I could roll out of the way.

"I bet you're a pretty one," She hissed, licking at my wheezing filters. She tore my mask and balaclava right off with her hooves and chortled with glee, "YOU'D LOOK BETTER WITHOUT A FACE!"

She reared her forehooves to stomp my skull in before a feathered blur crashed into her. Lightning Twirl and the psycho pony tumbled through the snow in a flurry of hooves and spurting blood.

"Twirl!" I shouted after her as Dew Drops pulled me to my hooves.

The pegasus screamed wildly and she stomped her hooves as hard as she could into the mare's chest, burying her in the snow before launching herself into the air once more. Her battle saddle flared midflight as her wings propelled her away in spiraling twist.

"You fuckers! Stay. Away!" I heard Box Cutter shout. With blood trailing behind him, his hind legs pushed himself backwards through the snow drifts. The psycho ponies seemed to take the crawling as some kind of invitation to their sick games.

One of the ponies leaped through the air only to be driven back by a barrage of SMG fire. Another knocked past the falling corpse before his masked face exploded in a shower of pink giblets.

Dew Drops and I trotted forward, firing our carbines into psycho ponies as they charged through the bushes trying to tear our hoofless friend apart in bloody melee. Box Cutter cursed when his battle saddle clicked dry.

We covered him with flashes of 10mm rounds that held the monsters at bay for the time it took for him to return to his stream of curses and automatic weapons fire.

Then something white hot punched through my body above my collar bone and out the other end. I stumbled back only to see muzzle flashes erupting from behind the bushes.

"Get to cover!" Lightning Twirl shrieked as she dove into the canopy.

I dropped to my chest, crunching in the snow. Dew Drops fell back behind a tree trunk, firing her carbine at anything that moved. Blood leaked into the pale where I lay, but I clenched my jaw through the pain and screamed, firing until my magazine ran dry. I took a brief moment to slam a fresh magazine home and wracking the charging handle back.

It was all the time they needed. Even with Dew Drops's sporatic fire, her suppression was half as effective without another carbine. With us cowering in the snow, they threw themselves at Box Cutter until his magazine ran dry.

Lightning Twirl swooped down, legs outstretched to pull her friend to safety, only to get peppered with bullet holes before retreating to the canopy once more.

"Box! No … no!" I cried, rising to my hooves only to get clipped by a burst of rifle fire. I howled as I threw myself down to the snow once more and witnessed Box Cutter getting dragged away by a pair of blood smeared psycho ponies.

He screamed, digging the stumps that used to be his forehooves into the snow with futility, leaving behind a glistening trail of crimson that disappeared behind a veil of cackling darkness.

The psycho ponies cheered when my best friend's screams died away and galloped after me, firing their guns wildly into the air. Bullets blew holes through the snow around me and I got to my hooves, firing my carbine as I backed away from them.

I felt the white hot kiss of lead rip through my barding and out one of my legs. Tears welled up in my eyes as I slipped into SATS and tagged three ponies for death. Head, chest, legs.

I knocked the closest psycho pony off his hooves when the shot bore through his skull. The next stumbled in front of me to catch a burst of lead that gored her chest cavity. The last blew out her knees and she laughed before eating a mouthful of scarlet powder.

"Red, look out!" I heard Dew Drops scream as a pony thrust the barrel of her rifle into my face. I swatted it away with a hoof and it discharged a three round burst a breath's length away from my left ear. Now with an acute ringing dulling my senses, I side stepped into another pony's machete, cutting myself across my chest. I cried out, firing my carbine wildly in a wide arc that launched the machete pony off his hooves and only mildly frustrated the other.

She snarled through her frothing lips before her jaw tore off in a flash of yellow tracers. Hooves planted the mare into the snow as Lightning Twirl barely stuck the landing. The mare's black barding was riddled with bullet holes and a sliver of blood trickled down her mouth as she turned to face me.

"Go!" I opened my mouth to protest, but the mare cut me off, "I'm sorry Red, I'm sorry for yelling at you earlier … now go! I'll hold them back! Just fucking go!"

I stood there frozen on my hooves before she launched herself back into the air. I watched as the psycho ponies arced their gunfire to the skies. Dew Drops and I turned and ran as I cried frozen tears.

I glanced over my shoulder to see several tracers spear through both her wings. She shrieked in a burst of feathers and blood before plummeting out of the skies and into a mob of ravenous ponies. Her screams were barely audible over their frenzied cheers as she disappeared under their falling blades.

"Twa-hirl!" Dew Drops wailed, pounding her hooves through the snow.

"Godesses, they're gone!" I cried as I raced behind her.

"Don't stop for anything!" she screamed as we galloped into the woods with no direction in mind. Anywhere but here! Please, Goddesses, anywhere but here!

Then the snow erupted in front of us. They'd been waiting for us.

Dew Drops shrieked as the three psycho ponies leaped on top of her. She charged through the middle, knocking one of the ponies to the snow and trampling over her underhoof. But one jerked her tail back and another wrapped her blood slicked forelegs around her throat.

"DD!" I screamed, aiming my carbine only to have it bucked out of my magical grip. My horn flared and I dropped it. I roared and reached out to her with my hooves. I knocked the psycho pony's hooves away and tried to yank her back. She howled in agony as the pony behind her bit down on her tail and dug his legs into the snow.

"YOU LET HER GO! YOU MOTHER … MOTHER FUCKERS!" I levitated a rock and threw it at the biting pony's skull. He let go with a skull cracking pop and Dew Drops dove towards me.

I met her tearing gray eyes for a single, fleeting moment as both our hooves touched. Then the mare beneath her hugged her chest and pulled her down with her, before sinking her teeth into Dew Drops's foreleg. Then I felt somepony buck me in the chest.

And I watched as my hooves slipped away from her.

My horn glowed as I fell back, trying to envelope her in a magical field before the pony who'd bucked me swiped a hoof over my horn. My focus abated and I screamed, flailing my forelegs after her as my magic failed me when I needed it the most.

Instead of pulling her with me, I tore the blue scarf from her neck and another pony leaped on top of her.

"Run! RED! RUN!" She shrieked as one of the ponies crashed her forehooves into her ribcage. "DON'T LOOK BACK!" her voice called out to me as the sound of tearing flesh and screaming washed away my resolve.

I did all I could have done.

I ran.

Hoofsteps plodded behind me. A psycho pony raced after me, laughing hysterically.

"I'LL FUCKING SKIN YOU ALIVE!"

My forehoof caught a gnarled root and I crashed through the snow to a grinding halt. I felt hooves land on top of me, pinning me to the ground. I didn't have enough fight left in me; I whimpered and cried. I looked up and saw Star Glint grinning back down at me.

The pony was wearing his skin.

My eyes widened as the unicorn pony drove a blade down to my stomach. I threw my hooves out in front of me and caught it an inch above my chest as the psycho stallion pushed and pushed.

"BLOOD! AHAHA! BLOOD, BLOOD, BLOOD!" He screamed, glaring at me through Star Glint's coat.

I roared, lifting a rock from the snow. I cracked it against the pony's skull and his magic wavered. I forced myself up, gripped the knife in my teeth and slashed it across the stallion's throat. Flaps of Star Glint's skin gave way to his carotid artery.

The psycho pony giggled through a mouthful of scarlet, arterial blood spilling from the gash in his neck and down his chest. I tucked my hind legs in and launched him off me, crying as his warm lifeblood spurted all over my face. I stumbled away, sobbed, and ran.

Tears streamed behind me as I wailed into the night and their demented laughter faded in the distance.

I galloped into the darkness, black shapes blurring past me.

I ran, and ran, and ran.

The balefire winter worked against me, closing in on me with a curtain of blinding snow in an unforgiving blizzard. I powered through it, not caring where I went. I plowed through the snow that buried my hooves. I forced my way through the white out without so much of a single shit given.

And I collapsed in the storm.

Footnote: Level Up.

New Perk: Snap Shot - +5% accuracy in S.A.T.S. with every attack queued

FALLOUT EQUESTRIA: RISING DAWN

Chapter 3

Dust and Echoes

Tomorrow it will be over

For the world will soon be waking

To a summer day.

I've never been afraid of the dark. I've never been afraid of ghosts either. Well, I've never seen a ghost, for that matter. The most frightening thing that had happened to me before the doors opened was described as a "sauna treatment and a paper cut" by my best friend.

Everpony has nightmares. But we always wake up from them. Always …

Whenever I had nightmares, I always woke up in my room, relieved to see that the white washed walls of my stable were still standing around me. I'd tell myself that the horrors I'd seen weren't real and that I was still home safe.

As a foal, whenever I'd wake up kicking and screaming, my mother would cradle me under her angel wings. The softness of her feathers and her soothing lullabies always brought me back from the brink of hysteria. I'd lay there beneath her feathers and look up into tender eyes that promised me unconditional love and comfort.

When I was awake, the fears of unscrewing the wrong pipe or tampering with the wrong console had always been chased away by Dew Drops' helping hoof.

Together, it seemed, there was nothing we couldn't fix. She told me that with our friends, anything was possible. She promised me that we'd save our stable … together.

Looking back now, I remember that the textbooks told us of the mantras of our ancestors. 'Friendship is magic', was one of many.

Together, my friends would drive away the fears and insecurities of stable life with their warm laughter and unwavering loyalty. But then, there was not much to fear within Stable 29's secure, hardened walls.

My day to day life in the stable had been a mundane one. I fixed things that ponies broke, I inspected the pipes, systems, and terminals at engineering, and I made my usual rounds between the living quarters, cafeteria, and my toilet.
My two greatest fears were getting locked inside of engineering past curfew, and swimming in poop water. Whooptie fucking doo. The worse that could happen was either a reduction in rations or a visit to Dr. Stitch's clinic so he could make morbid jokes about your injuries.

I think of them and I laugh, for they were petty and insignificant in comparison to the things I'd truly learn to fear in the world above.

I suppose I expected too much from the wasteland. Perhaps, I thought, that when we emerged, we'd trot out into a world reborn.

Then reality hit me. I realized that there were worse things than nightmares.

My entire life, I'd taken the safety and relative luxury of my home for granted. The simple act of being alive in a stable was a gift that nopony ever seemed thankful for. We simply lived, and lived, and lived as the world above us, a world of magic and magnificence, disintegrated into nothing but the dust and echoes of a shameful age.

We'd been told that we'd only leave the stable when it was safe. We'd leave when we were ready.

Well when we did, we weren't ready at all. Not even by a longshot. We weren't ready for the degenerate monsters that everypony had devolved into on the surface.

We forewent the safety of our homes. We threw it all away for the comfort of purified water. We trampled upon the graves of the ponies we left behind to die.

And we paid the price.

Everpony has nightmares. But some nightmares never end.

---

I woke up screaming. Forelegs pinned me to the cold metal frame of a hospital gurney. I thrashed against their limbs, swatting them away and kicking my legs at the silhouettes that blurred around me.

"Get away you, psychos! GET THE FUCK AWAY!" I howled, batting their invading limbs.

They found me, and now they were going to torture me like they did to Amber Fields.

"FUCK! YOU!" I roared, kicking one of the equine shapes in the face. It fell over, moaning, and disappeared from my hazy eyes.

"I'LL TAKE YOU ALL WITH ME!" Somepony grabbed my forehooves, pulling them away from me. Surely they'd rip me limb from limb. I was going to die.

"NO!" I writhed, yanking whoever was holding my right foreleg on top of me. I rolled over and I heard a mare with pink eyes scream, but I didn't care. I brought my forehooves to her throat and squeezed. She kicked under me, suffocating.

"I'll kill you! I'll fucking kill you!"

I felt something metal crack against my skull and I fell over, blacking out for a second.

"Hold him still!" somepony shouted.

I waited for the touch of a cold blade to slice through my bare flesh. I waited for the ripping, the tearing – but they never came.

With my limbs pinned to the ground, I could do nothing as I felt the familiar taste of health potion dribble down my lips and wash down my throat. My head was spinning too much to care who was administering it.

I held out my limbs weakly in feeble resistance. And for good measure, they cracked me across the skull again.

My consciousness left the building before I could scream.

---

My mummified body lay shivering on an itchy cot with a mildew-stained blanket pulled up to my neck. My limbs were splayed out underneath the blanket, and one of my legs hung limply from the edge of the bed.

I was alive. But I sure as hell didn't feel like it. The flesh under my coat was bruised black and blue. My head throbbed as if I'd been beat with a metal bar. Wait. If I remember correctly, I was.

I groaned, tucking in my battered legs to my chest. My weary, bloodshot eyes looked around the room. A gas lamp glowed dimly on a shabby bedside table to my right, its faint light hardly illuminating the cabin end to end. Around me was a patchwork structure of corrugated scrap metal bolted together to build the walls that held the makeshift ceiling aloft. Outside, I could hear the wind moan, running its freezing tendrils across the walls in poor attempts to reach the inside of this metal hovel.

"Welcome back." A voice said as a mare walked out of the veil of darkness at the furthest corner of the room.

"Dew Drops?" I murmured, hopefully.

My ears drooped when a pony with a midnight blue coat and a black mane stepped into the light. Shadows played across her hard complexion. The mare looked like she'd seen better days.

"Night Sky." She trotted up to my cot and held up a small photograph in one of her hooves and a blue scarf slung over her back. She placed both at the edge of the bed between my legs. "You got a name?"

I closed my weary eyes and replied, "Red. Dawn."
She nodded thoughtfully, glancing at my pipbuck. "You're one of those stable folk, aren't you." Night Sky said, not asking.

The blue scarf levitated to my chest and I ran a hoof across its blood specked fabric as gently as I would with Dew Drops' mane. I found that I'd been holding my breath, and I exhaled shakily, holding my head in my hooves.

I swirled a faint magical field around the picture and floated it to my eyes in silence. Dew Drops. Box Cutter. Amber Fields. Lightning Twirl. Star Glint. I turned my eyes pleadingly to the rime encrusted window to look out into the unforgiving winter.

"We found you in the drifts, half dead. You looked like you've been through hell."

I looked over the picture of my friends and eyed her painfully.

"If this is hell …" I whispered, my voice trembling.

"This ain't hell. It's worse." The mare said with a cold smile, "Welcome to the wasteland, Red Dawn."

I stared at her wide eyed. Welcome back to life. I gulped a lump down my throat, grinding my teeth together. My lower lip trembled in denial. This was a nightmare, and I was going to wake up from it… I set the photo down on the blanket and my shoulders began to rock with sobs.

Wake up … please. I closed my eyes, listening to the chilling gale howl away outside the patchwork walls. I opened them and I was still lying on the same scratchy cot, in the same bleak hovel. I stared longingly at Dew Drops' striped scarf, tears welling in my eyes.

I swung my legs out of the blankets and stood on rickety hooves.

"And where the hell do you think you're going?" the mare started towards me.

"They're still out there." I croaked, pointing out a rime encrusted window. I made for what looked to be the door, but Night Sky stepped into my path. "My friends –"

"Are dead."

"No!" I stumbled to get past her but she pushed me back with a foreleg. "You didn't see them … you don't know!"

The look she gave me insisted that she'd beg to differ. My heart sunk. "You go out there and I'm not gonna drag your sorry flank back." She said, severely. I started towards her only to cry out in agony as pain jolted through my chest. With blurry eyes, I fell to the wooden floor in a heap. Blood seeped out of the gray bandages, and I could feel my heat dissipating into the freezing cabin.

I felt Night Sky clamp her jaws on my mane, but I twisted away, curling up on the floor.

"Now you opened up that cut of yours again." She muttered, rolling me over and tugging at the bandages.

I shook her off and tucked my legs into my chest. She stood over me, regarding me with her steely blue eyes. I sobbed and blinked away fresh tears. "Why am I alive …" I whimpered, burying my head in my hooves.

"You're lucky. Not everypony gets to die in the wasteland." Night Sky replied grimly, sitting on her bottom. "My crew patched you up. Though I nearly beat your brains out …" She turned her head low, glaring at me. "You kicked one of my ponies in the face and choked another one of 'em out. Look at you now, walking all over the place wrapped up like that. You ain't so soft for a stable pony, are you?" The mare chuckled. "No wonder you survived."

"What the fuck … did you just say?" I breathed, rising to trembling hooves.

"What?"

"No wonder I survived … I watched my friends die … and I ran." I chuckled, darkly, baring my teeth as I looked the mare in the eye. "Maybe I didn't want to come back. Did you think for once that maybe I didn't want to survive?" I snapped, tears streaming down my face.

She stayed my glare and stared back, unflinching.

"You ain't got a choice to just die, Red Dawn."

"Bullshit!" I hissed. "I walked out into that blizzard thinking I wouldn't be coming back. You think I want to be here?" I cried, choking on my own tears. "Do you fucking think I want to be alive in this shithole?!" I shouted hoarsely into her face. Night Sky's gaze did not relent.

Night Sky clenched her jaw and gave me a ghastly look. "This place may be a shit hole … but it's all we've got left." She said, softly. I looked down her chest and saw flecks of blood all over her barding.

It changed nothing.

"I'm leaving, and you're not going to stop me," I stated, close enough to her muzzle to feel her shallow breaths.

I wiped away my tears and pushed past the mare, zipping up my barding and throwing on my saddle bags. She just stared after me as I limped out the door and started down a flight of stairs. Two ponies sat at a bar below. I trotted past them to the door, and they looked up from their shot glasses, eyeing at me irritably.

"The hell are you doing?" One of them grated, getting off his stool.

Night Sky poked her head over the railing. "Let him go." She said, simply.

The stallion snorted and returned to the bar, not even pausing once to glance over his shoulder. The mare sitting next to him followed me with her pink eyes as I limped to the door.

As soon as I stepped out, the unforgiving storm hit me. Engulfed in frozen powder, I made my way blindly through the snow, the drifts threatening to swallow me whole. I could faintly make out lonely lights and other ramshackle buildings across the street as I plodded across the shifting, snowy dunes.

I kept walking, my eyes only opening once to see if the lights were several desolate yards behind me. I whimpered, sobbing with tears that hurt to shed as I gazed longingly at the picture I held in my hoof.

My head was spinning and the gash on my chest had either clotted or froze. I took a shuddering breath and slumped into the pale.

Days ago I had been afraid to let go of the life I'd been living in the stable. I could have died. Back at the stable, I could have died a scalding death. I was afraid that I'd leave them all behind, but instead, they left me to fend for myself in this frozen hell. Night Sky and her ponies had given me a second chance I never wanted.

Now, even surrounded by those surface dwellers, I was still alone. So alone.

All I wanted to do now was join them. I couldn't finish what we started without them. We were supposed to find the talisman together. Together!

"Anywhere but here …" I wept, "Goddesses … anywhere but here." My weakened body was wracked with quaking shivers, my frayed barding exposed to the wind and snow that swirled around me. I didn't care.

I should have died.

I moaned feverishly, reaching into my bags to pull out the same shovel I'd used to dig Spring Fresh's grave, and started digging. Tears welled out of my bloodshot eyes as I stabbed at the frozen earth again and again, only to freeze along my cheeks with every chilling, agonizing minute that slaved by.

My limbs were numb and my consciousness was pervaded by a tunneling, skull splitting headache that threatened to send me sprawling into the powder. My heart labored weakly and my body pleaded with me to stop. Every fiber of my being wanted to give up.

But I toiled onward, not caring even as my ears and limbs swelled and blistered with throbbing chilblains. I collapsed into the snow, writhing with every laborious breath.

Give up. Just give up.

I pulled myself to my hooves with a grim resolve and speared the shovel through the frozen earth once more. I wouldn't stop digging until I'd hollowed out a grave for each of my friends. I thought of them as I dug, their memories – the burden of surviving while they did not, weighed down heavily upon my shoulders.

With every grave I finished, I buried my burdens. One by one, I'd bury them all.

I dredged out another grave and moved on, tearing into the earth without pause. Every heave of unearthed soil was in their memory. I plunged the shovel into the earth and struggled to break the soil, my magic failing me as my horn flickered and died. An agonizing jolt of pain surged through my skull and I howled into the night, my brain threatening to split asunder.

I moaned, slaving through the torment and bit down on the shovel's handle and continued. I broke the earth, this one for Dew Drops. I wailed her name into the darkness, screaming for the storm to take me to her until my throat went raw.

"Goddesses – anywhere but here!" I howled beseechingly. "TAKE ME AWAY!" I cried out in desperation before I crumpled to the snow in a tangle of writhing, blistering limbs.

I took a shuddering breath and stared grievously into the sky. My pallid flesh was covered in sores that throbbed dully in my fading consciousness. I listened to my slowing heartbeat as the wind blew a frigid requiem fit for a funeral.

A black figure clad in thick barding entered the blurry, veiny tunnel that was my field of vision. The pony helped me to my hooves, and I leaned on its shoulder.

"What've you done …" I heard Night Sky murmur as she stared with wide eyes at the six graves I'd hollowed out of the earth.

I managed a few painful steps towards the final grave I'd dug. The one I'd dug for myself.

"I need to finish this …" I wheezed, clamping my jaws around my shovel's handle and starting towards the half-dredged hole.

Night Sky ripped the shovel out of my mouth and swung it hard into my skull. I tumbled to the snow, blood trickling down my forehead.

"That's enough." She said, tucking the spade into her bags. "I don't know you or your friends, but I'll tell you this much: dying isn't gonna help nopony. Everypony that's alive has lost somepony."

I hacked out scarlet ichor, glaring at her.

"What do you know about losing shit …" I asked, darkly, my voice trembling.

Night Sky's eyes narrowed with icy malice. She unzipped the lower half of her barding and it fell away before me.

My heart almost stopped.

"Too much, I'm afraid." She replied softly, shivering through clenched teeth, wiggling the stubs that used to be her wings. I eyed the scarred flesh over what was supposed to be her cutie mark, a symbol of a lightning bolt branded her mottled flesh. She zipped on her barding and bit my mane, yanking me to my hooves.

"I'm … sorry …" I rasped weakly.

Night Sky gave me a cold stare. "You might think you got a choice to die, but out here, you ain't got any other choice but to live. Because there ain't anything out here that'll just let you curl up and die – that'd be too easy. There's never an easy way out. There's no mercy for the weak, and there's never no rest for the weary ... you live, and while you're alive, you do everything you can to stay alive."

My eyes fluttered closed as she pushed me onto her back and hauled me back to civilization.

---

The sky .. I never thought I'd ever see it…. this can't be the same sky my ancestors soared…

"Sky … can't … see…" Darkness. I saw only darkness.

Let's just find the damn thing and go…

Phantasms billowed around me, murmuring into my limp ears.

"Can't … won't …."

You're fine, Red. Just catch your breath; we can make it.

Their ghosts whispered to me, coaxing me onward through the night.

"Try … I'll …"

We have ponies waiting for us, waiting for you to come back home. If you give up, if I give up – If any of us gives up, the game's over.

I was tired. I just wanted to rest.

"No! I can't … dead … gone."

The haunting specters encircled me like predatory birds, turning against me in anger. Their lifeless, frozen coats brushed against my own, chilling my very soul. I was letting go and they were holding on.

Goddesses, Red, you got Amber killed and then you let Star trot out there on his own….

I sobbed, feeling the warmness of my blood seeping away from me to dissipate into glacial nothingness.

… knew it was going to happen! Now we're … you're …

"I'm sorry … I'm sorry!" I tried moving my limbs, but they wouldn't budge.

I can't go on like this, Red …

Shadows surged over my still body. A corpse. A corpse to join the rest.

Mommy, no! Don't go!

"Don't let go … don't …!"

It's too late now … I tried to die … I'm so sorry …

A cloudy mist surrounded me, engulfing me in its chilling touch.

"Too late for everypony … too late for the stable …"

We're not done yet… don't give up on our Stable.

"Dew Drops …" I rasped, losing my voice with every exertion.

Promise me.

My mouth struggled to open through the rime that sealed my lips.

As long as there's still one of us going, as long as there's one pony still moving, there's still hope…

My chest trembled and convulsed, my lungs fighting for air that would never come. I could feel the darkness closing in; I could feel the frozen gales taking me away.

Spring Fresh's voice crooned in my thoughts.

Sompony's sleeping … through a bad dream …

The quaking intensified. Balefire bombs fell from the sky, wrenching the once verdant garden apart, burning away the darkness. The ground opened up beneath my hooves and fires licked at my green coat. I could feel it now, the pain, the agony of bruised, freezing flesh.

I thrashed my hooves as the aftershock rattled my bones, threatening to shatter me into thousands of emerald shards.

I need to get you someplace safe … A mare whispered, my lips moving in time with her words.

My hooves reached out in front of me, and I met Dew Drops' eyes for the last time. The stable's alabaster walls crumbled around me.

In a bloodied heap, I lay pinned beneath the rubble, the 299 ponies of Stable 29 looking up at me through the basement door.

We'll find a way, I promise… Dew Drops' haunting voice whispered to me.

"No … it's over…" I whimpered, gazing wearily at my crushed limbs. My life blood pooled around me, seeping through the debris that crushed my trembling body into the balefire-scorched floor. Fire light danced equine shadows across my contorted expression, the murmurings of 299 stable ponies begging me to get up. I moaned, unable to move, my spine shattered and my legs buried beneath the rubble.

The voices of my friends, family, and everypony from Stable 29 coalesced into a single, pleading sound. My ears perked weakly as Peach Petals' words reached out to my limp, dying form.

I believe in you ponies. You'll come back … you have to…

I reached out with a foreleg, the balefire parting before me. I reached out with another, my hoof running against the fabric of Dew Drops' blue scarf. I can't ... give up. She never wanted this. I promised her I wouldn't.

Please … I can't lose you too. I don't know what I'll do … my mother begged.

"You won't …" I sobbed.

We're not done yet. Don't give up on our Stable.

"I … won't."

Promise me.

"... I promise."

The rubble gave way to my writhing limbs as I dragged my foreleg across the blackened floor.

"I won't give up!" Blood trickled out of my mouth. The bullet holes on my leg and above my collar bone seeped with fresh blood. It was nothing.

Tomorrow it will be over…

I roared with renewed vigor, fighting against the darkness that threatened to claim me. I kicked and thrashed, bucking my legs through the rubble.

A white light shone upon my face as I rose from the detritus, my coat covered in dried blood and bruised black and blue. I felt its warmth grace my cheek, driving away the shadows and balefire.

For the world will soon be waking … to a summer day…

I reached out with a hoof, and Dew Drops' hoof met mine.

In that instant, the world fell away beneath my hooves and I tumbled into lucidity.

---

I woke up in the same cot. This time, the gas lamp was shut off, and the window shuttered closed. I didn't want to look outside anyways. Not anymore, at least.

I shivered under my now completely bandaged coat. Every part of me, even my ears, were wrapped in wool. I rolled over, wincing at the sharp pain that skittered across my flesh. I shifted my left hind leg and heard the clinking of empty health potion bottles.

Even now, I could feel my blisters and frostbite healing. But without a super regeneration potion from the stable's clinic, my time spent bandaged up was to be a relatively lengthy one. My scabbing flesh itched under the wraps, and I fought the urge to scratch at them.

I sighed, tucking in my legs in search for warmth. I found none. Next to me was Dew Drops' scarf. It was one of the only things I had left to remember her by. I reached out with my magic, but my horn flared once and died. A dull pain throbbed in my skull.

With a shivering foreleg, I pushed it close to me. I ran a hoof across Dew Drops' scarf, my eyes glazing over the flecks of dried blood that peppered its soft fabric. I closed my eyes and hugged it close, nuzzling it with a tenderness that made my heart ache.

Nothing I can do will bring her back.

I laid there thinking about them. My mom, most of all. I wonder what she would think if she learned I'd given up. That I'd let the wasteland win.

No. My mother's expectations were not the only thing that mattered now. 294 stable ponies were still counting on our return. Every hour, every day I wasted away was one day closer to the end of their rations.

How foalish was I. I was being selfish; what I wanted didn't matter. I knew then that the lives of 294 other ponies balanced on my hooves. It didn't make me feel any better knowing that I was the last hope for my stable. Every other pony that had stepped out that door had perished.

I was all they had left.

I, the unfledged engineer pony who, when was younger, didn't know what end to screw in a lightbulb, was all they had left. I mean, there was only one way you could screw it in! I heaved a bitter, self-deprecating laugh and stared up darkly at the ceiling.

I chuckled, "You're all fucked." I snorted, laying my head on the unfluffed pillow. I never worked alone. Even afterhours at engineering, Dew Drops usually waited for me to finish whatever I was doing before we both left. Sometimes I'd find her sleeping under some piping or lying on the floor next to my busy body.

Never. Work. Alone.

I wrapped Dew Drops' scarf around my neck. Even with them gone, I knew then that I'd never be alone. Like my mother had told me, my father had been there with us this whole time, watching me from the Everafter. So were my friends, and I knew even now, they were still counting on me to finish what they started.

Not by lying in a grave I'd dug for myself. Not by laying here on this bed either.

I limped over to my bags and bit down on the lip of my last health potion. I tipped my head and downed it in seconds, whistling as its magic stacked with my previous doses to speed up my regeneration. I didn't feel good enough, but it'd have to do.

I pulled out my security barding and laid it out on the dusty wooden floor. I fixated upon the numbers that were stenciled onto the back of its collar: 29. I zipped it on and trotted over to the door, fumbling with the doorknob. I really wasn't going to get used to walking around without my magic. I pushed the door open, and peeked outside.

Down the hall were three more rooms. Their doors were open, so I assumed everypony was downstairs. I slowly made my way downstairs, the wooden boards beneath my hooves creaking with every step. The smell of alcohol and bitter cigar smoke made my nose crinkle as I poked my head over the railing. Sitting around a table, sharing drinks, were Night Sky and two other ponies.

She blinked and caught me in her peripherals.

"Well look who it is." The mare said, the other ponies turning to see me.

"You better not be thinking 'bout running again, you lil shit." A gruff sounding pony with an eye patch growled, levitating a shot glass to his lips. The ash coloured unicorn downed it and took a puff from a cigar he held in his teeth.

I frowned. There was a distinct bruise on his muzzle. He must be the one I bucked in the face. Good, from the looks of him I'd bet he deserved it.

"Well come on down, we were just talking about you." Night Sky said with a smile.

"I bet you were." I muttered, leaning against the railing the entire way down.

I settled down on an empty barstool amongst the three other surface dwellers. A mare slid to me a shot glass across the table. I looked at her nervously. I remembered her pink eyes distinctly. She was the mare I tried to strangle to death in my pain driven hysteria a day ago.

"No hard feelings, I hope?" I said, with a wry grin.

She snorted, nodding her head once.

"We've all had the urge to choke a bitch." She said, "Can't say I haven't done that to anypony else sitting here. Well, cept you, o'course." The lavender mare scoffed, staring at me with what I hoped wasn't a promise. "I'm Sprinkles, by the way."

"Red Dawn." I said. I looked around the narrow rectangular room and saw that it too was made of a mixture of wooden planks and corrugated metal. A few round tables stood here and there, but most didn't have enough chairs around them to sit the number of ponies that were drinking at our table. Inside the fireplace at the far end of the room, a stack of blackening wood glowed warmly, making the room somewhat more pleasant than upstairs. This might have been a tavern at some point, but given its emptiness, I figured that they must've appropriated the place for themselves.

Stenciled on the wall above the bar's counter were the words 'Rough Riders', reinforcing my previous thought. I wondered for a moment who these ponies were and what this place was. Ever since I woke here, I didn't even bother to ask where the hell I was.

"This some kind of town?"

"Guess you can say that. Dusktown's a caravan stop for travelers heading down South to New Applooza. Total population of forty three ponies and one griffon." The town sounded rather quaint for a post-apocalyptic safe haven. "Every now and then we go out to escort caravans heading up to the Frozen North."

I cocked an eyebrow. To me, the thought of there being more survivors living in this winter wasteland was shocking. "You mean … there're others?"

They looked at me like I'd said something stupid. The gruff unicorn sniggered, chewing on his cigar.

"Forgot you were a stable pony for a sec. Sure there is. Though not everypony's as welcoming as us here in Dusktown." Night Sky chuckled bitterly. It sounded like there was more than what she felt comfortable to talk about.

I looked out a window by the door and saw that the storm had calmed. The silhouettes of thickly barded equine shapes milling about made being alive in this shithole a little less disheartening. If there were ponies still alive out here, then there was still hope for finding what my stable needed.

"What with all the Red Eye and Unity horseshit, we haven't seen too many caravans coming up here lately. The North's got its own problems; we don't need any of those crazy southern folk coming up here and making things worse." Night Sky added, pouring herself a glass of whiskey.

"Red and Unity what?"

"Slavers and alicorns. You don't want to be traveling by yourself. You might get chained up and put to work up north at East Eden or south by Fillydelphia. And if you're a unicorn … well, like I told you earlier, there are worse things than death if you come across somepony chortling about Unity."

"A-alicorns? Like … like the Goddesses?" I asked hopefully.

The unicorn stallion laughed at me in his harsh, gravelly voice.

"There ain't no goddesses out here, boy. Celestia and Luna've been dead for a looong time."

I clenched my jaw, glaring at the stallion. The Goddesses were all I had left out here. I wouldn't let the wasteland take them from me. Or me from them.

"I don't fucking care … they're Goddesses and they always will be."

He sighed, giving me a crass chuckle before puffing on his cigar. I wanted to take that thing and shove it down his throat.

I needed something to calm my frayed nerves. I focused my horn, clenching my jaw as I tried to levitate the shot glass. I groaned, my head only hurting even more, and hung my head dejectedly.

"Damnit."

"It's called magical burnout." Night Sky said, pulling my attention from the shot glass that refused to budge. "You work yourself too hard, and you… well, you burn out. Can't use your magic till you rest up."

Son of a ... "How long till I'm better?" I demanded, hoarsely.

The mare shrugged.

"Maybe a few days? It all depends on you." Night Sky leaned over the table. "Don't do anything fuck-stupid and you should be fine in a few days, I'd imagine." She narrowed her eyes at me and added, with a tinge of irritation, "Considering that shit you pulled off last night, you probably shouldn't even be down here trotting around."

"I don't have time to just sit around." I muttered.

"Huh? What are you doing outside of your stable anyhow?" Sprinkles asked.

"Come to say hello to the ponies you fucks left behind?" The unicorn stallion growled, baring his teeth.

I glared at the bastard. "Better down there than up here." I snorted. I shook my head, still keeping my stare, "I don't feel sorry for any of you at all."

"Pipe down, Bone Charm." Night Sky intoned, knocking the stallion with a hoof. "He had it rough when he was just a colt." He snorted, giving me a look that promised a bucking. Bone Charm, huh? He sure does have a charming personality. That bastard.

I stayed my glare as I craned my neck, biting the glass and tipping it back. The whiskey burned down my throat, and I let out a shivering snort as my insides warmed a little.

"What does it matter to you ponies?"

"We didn't save your ass for nothing, stable colt. Nopony's stupid enough to walk out into a storm like that. It'd be dandy if I knew why I had to waste 12 of our healing potions on you." The gruff unicorn stallion said, blowing a ring of smoke to dissipate over my muzzle. I stifled the urge to cough, and choked it down, scowling at him. "Then you had to walk out into the snow and try to get killed, again."

I snapped, leaning over the table to look him in the eye. "If it were up to me I'd go back, sit behind that door, and forget about everything outside." I folded my forearms over my chest. "Anywhere is better than here ..." Even if it meant I had to die to get away from this place. This place would never be my home. It would be my grave if I never returned.

He sneered, "Go down south, hell, go anywhere on this planet and it's all the same." Bone Charm began, "And if you don't know, stables all across Equestria've been opening up and nopony's been coming out alive. Soon, I bet your cozy little hole won't be so different.

I fought to keep my composure. "I don't care about this place … I don't care what you think about me, and most of all, I don't care about you. I'd close those doors and leave you behind! I stepped out that door and I knew why we never opened our doors to let anypony in – because nothing outside those doors was worth saving!"

He wore a challenging smirk, saying, "Then why don't you? Scurry back into your hole and lock us out again. I lived forty years of my life here washing my hands in blood just to survive, and you waltz out of that warm stable and bitch and whine, and threaten to kill yourself just because life just got a little harder for your manicured hooves. I've lost too much to have a single sliver of pity for you, boy.

"The last thing we need is another mouth to feed. So dream your sweet dreams in those underground halls of yours while we scrape on by up here!"

I stood up from my stool, knocking it over. "Listen here, you surface dwelling vermin –"

Night Sky intervened, slamming a high caliber revolver on the table.

"Quiet, ladies. You two get into a fight and I'll mop one of you across the floor." She said rather indelicately. "So what's your story, Red?" Night Sky asked – no, she demanded. The mare cocked her head and leaned across the table.

I tapped my forehooves together apprehensively. I barely knew these ponies. Sure, they saved my life, but Bone Charm didn't like stable ponies too much. What if they tried going back to my stable now that they know it's been opened? Can it even be opened again?

"Our Water Talisman broke," I said, quietly with a hint of bitterness. "So myself and five other ponies set out to find another."

The gruff unicorn whistled, "Damn was I right about that." He drawled, puffing another ring of smoke my way, "It's only a matter of time ..." He chuckled grimly.

Sprinkles poured me another glass and slid it across the table to my hoof.

"We found you by yourself, so I suppose the others that came with you are …"

She caught my grim stare and fell silent. I downed the whiskey in silence as the others fidgeted with their hooves. Awkward.

"Well if it makes you feel better, we cleaned up those furies afterward." Night Sky said, folding her forelegs across her chest. "Us and another group teamed up and wiped em out."

"It doesn't." I muttered.

"Wasn't supposed to. What matters to me is that we get paid." The gruff unicorn said, knocking his hooves together. I was starting to hate that pony.

"What are you ponies? Mercenaries?"

They nodded in unison.

"Yeah. We picked up a contract to put a dent in the snow fury population around these parts. I say we fucked em up pretty good." Sprinkles replied. "Maybe now we'll have more visitors around here."

I thought for a moment, shivering at the memories of the psycho ponies erupting out of the snow. "Snow Furies." I sneered. "That what they're called?" Memories of psycho ponies frothing from the mouth flashed before my eyes.

Night Sky nodded. "Yeah. Though you might hear southerners call 'em 'raiders'. Round these parts, we call 'em furies. They like burying themselves in the snow to surprise anypony that comes they're way. They're just a bunch of sick fucks that ambush caravans or traders down by the Crystal Highway and all the way down to Poneva and the Crystal Border Lands –"

"Poneva?" I blurted out suddenly, interrupting her.

Night Sky arched a brow.

"What about it?"

I looked down at my shot glass, both my forelegs supporting me over the table. "Word is, in my stable, an old StableTec facility was built there." I began, and looked up. "We were heading that way to find one."

The midnight coated pegasus snorted, "Well good luck, I mean, I don't think there're any Water Talisman's anypony's willing to give up."

"It's worth a try." I muttered, my voice trembling. "It's our only hope."

"If you say so." Night Sky said skeptically, getting up from her chair.

"What do you know about Poneva?"

Bone Charm put out his cigar and folded his legs across his chest. "Well I'll say that there ain't no Ponevan that done me good in my lifetime." The unicorn stallion snorted. "Cept pay me caps."

"I wouldn't do you any good if I were a Ponevan." I muttered.

"Fuck you just say?" he growled.

Sprinkles leaned over the table. "Listen, kid, Charm isn't kidding. That city is no good. They've got all sorts of bad ponies you don't even want to know about."

"You make it sound like I'll get eaten by a dragon or something." I scoffed, tapping my forehooves together.

They looked at me with hard eyes. Not even a chuckle. Okay, that didn't sound too good. Night Sky returned with a few flat slices of bread from a loaf that didn't rise.

"What's this talk about dragons?"

"Red Dawn here wants to go up to Poneva." Sprinkles said, gnawing on a slice.

My face lit up as I asked, "Can you take me there?"

She thought for a moment, and shrugged. "If you're planning on staying there, you're on your own, bud. But we're heading up that way to turn in a few contracts."

I smiled, something I haven't done genuinely in what seemed like forever.

"That's great –"

"But we're not going there any time soon. If you want to come, you're going to have to roll with us to finish whatever contracts we have left before we turn in."

I frowned, pursing my lips. I had nowhere else to be, and I didn't know anypony else.

"Whatever gets me to Poneva in one piece." I said, finally with a drawn out sigh.

Bone Charm barely suppressed a chuckle, "Wait till he sees the Bloodletters and Snow Devils. You'll be regretting coming up here soon enough, stable colt."

My expression darkened.

---

"I already am."

I followed Night Sky outside into the soft, cold breeze. My hooves sunk deep into the snow that had piled up overnight. The blizzard had buried everything but the buildings outside, and ponies with shovels were laboring to clear the snow off their porches.

The town was shockingly rife with pony life., albeit, a life I could never have related to. Back in Stable 29, young ponies were never assigned occupations until they received their cutie marks. Here, blank flanks labored with their parents, pulling plows that cleared the immense mounds of snow off the single, main road that ran along the town's midsection. But here, there was a mutual goal both our worlds strived forward to: surviving. Just as we survived through the participation of every able bodied pony, these surface dwellers did the same, and more. It was, what I assumed, a major contribution to their survival in this frozen wasteland.

All around us, ponies worked together to push away the result of last night's snow storm, and within minutes, a wide path of flattened snow stretched from one end of the town to the next as wagons began pulling out of scrap metal garages and rolling down its length.

Next to the Rough Riders' tavern were several other shops with a variety of items for sale. We walked past each, stopping for a moment to look inside a gun store that sold boxes of ammunition that I both could and couldn't recognize. Night Sky window shopped for a bit, taking count of what supplies she needed for tomorrow's merc contracts.

We returned outside into the relative cold, and I panned my vision across the sky. Damn. I need to stop doing that. But in my sickness, I did see something up there that was rather unusual.

I did notice that there was a lack of pegasi amongst these ponies. All I saw were earth ponies and unicorns hauling around more than their weight or levitating shovels and other small tools, respectively. There was not a single sound of flapping wings in the chilling breeze. No sign of the feather winged ponies I'd lived with back at Stable 29. It was odd, but not inherently disturbing.

It seemed as if the surface had been settled by unicorns and earth ponies and only unicorns and earth ponies since time immemorial. Was 200 years enough to forget the existence of our cloudborne brethren? Were they blasted into extinction when the balefire bombs decimated their cloud cities? There was not a single pegasus in the air as Night Sky and I trotted throughout town.

In a clearing walled off by lines of deplorable metal stakes was a field of headstones. We walked past it, and I stopped for a moment to watch a pony mare kneel in the ashen drifts next to three freshly dug graves. She sobbed and murmured incoherently, cradling her head in her hooves.

Night Sky turned to glance over her shoulder, eyeing me curiously. I turned back to the mare, and back at Night Sky; she shook her head and gestured me to follow her.

"What happened to them?" I whispered, trotting beside her.

Night Sky gazed on forward, her face stone cold.

"Zebras." She said simply, and nothing more.

I gave her a puzzled stare, unsure of what she had meant. Zebras? Did zebras do that? I supposed it was none of my business, and I left the pony to grieve for whomever she had lost. The mare's sobs faded into wind as we made our way through the town's only road.

A few yards down the street from the Rough Riders' tavern was a boot shaped structure that puffed out smoke from its chimney. From inside glowed a warmth that beckoned me to enter. Above its door hung a neon sign that glowed with the words 'diner'. The smell of bread and … what was that? It smelled like a steam accident at engineering. Meat? Both entered my nostrils and filled me with mixed feelings of hunger and revulsion. Did these ponies actually eat meat? We walked inside, the warmness of a furnace and a hearth loosening my tense muscles as we took seats next to other wastelanders who eyed my pipbuck curiously.

I waved to them nervously and they looked away, chatting among themselves.

"Not too many ponies've seen a stable dweller before." Night Sky said, resting her forelegs on the counter in front of us. A lightbulb flickered dimly above us, and a pony mare with stained overalls unscrewed it with her magic and replaced it.

It shined brighter than the other hanging, barewired bulbs around the room and bathed Night Sky and I with a white glow. The spotlight was on the stable dweller, and ponies were giving me a variety of looks, ranging from curiosity to the same vehemence Bone Charm displayed to me at the tavern.

"Maybe they're more interested in the bandages that are wrapped around my muzzle." I looked like a corpse! The mare that had replaced the bulb above us trotted behind the counter, a stick of what looked like charcoal and a slip of paper floating in her magical grip.

Night Sky offered to buy me a bowl of … stew. Floating inside of it were a variety of vegetables – which I was entirely okay with, until I saw, floating visibly underneath the soup, dark chunks of what looked like meat.

I gulped and shook my head. She shrugged and pushed a few bottle caps across a warm counter to the pony behind it. That must've been their currency.

"Why are you doing this for me?" I asked her quietly as the unicorn mare slid to me a slice of bread and water and Night Sky a bowl of soup. "I don't want to sound ungrateful …" I trailed off, biting into the surprisingly soft, yet crusty bread. "… but … why? Why didn't you just leave me in that blizzard?"

Night Sky lapped at her bowl and paused for a moment.

"Ponies gotta stick together out here. If we don't, well, we die." She answered, before returning to her soup. I watched her chew on one of the chunks of red meat and swallow, much to my suppressed disgust.

"That's reasonable." I brought the water to my mouth, but my pipbuck's radmeter crackled audibly. I hesitated, and placed it back down on the counter. "But how do you ponies live like this? I was expecting less of an actual town and more of a …"

"Shithole." She said, taking the words from my mouth.

"That's not what I –"

"It's fine. I expected as much from a stable dweller." Night Sky said with a terse chuckle. "This town has established trade routes with Poneva and a few towns down south."

I nodded, taking another bite from my bread.

"You said you're a mercenary. What kind of work do you do?"

She licked at her empty soup bowel and wiped her mouth with a forehoof.

"Any work we can." She replied with some resignation. "Anything worth caps is worth doing."

I blinked. "Anything?"

"Anything."

My throat was parched and I eyed the radioactive water longingly.

"You can drink that, you know? Just pop a rad-away if you start feeling dizzy."

I sighed, shaking my head as I downed its contents.

"So you'd kill a pony if that's what you were being paid to do?" I asked with a hint of distaste. "You'd kill somepony if that's what it took?"
"If that's what it took, why not? You said you were looking for a Water Talisman. Wouldn't you do anything to bring one back so everypony in your stable would live?"

I thought for a moment. Would I really do … anything? Anything to get my hooves on a water talisman? How many ponies would I have kill for it? I tensed, frowning at my hooves in a whirling seesaw of self-doubt as they rested on the counter.

"Why? Is that what Equestria's come to?"

"This ain't Equestria anymore, Red Dawn." She said, bitterly. "And I'm no trader. I'm no gangster either. I'm a mercenary because I have a choice to live or die on my terms. I don't have no need for protection along the roads, I got my rifle and my crew for that. I don't have no need to take orders from some pony because I take orders from me and myself."

The unicorn mare behind the counter levitated a pitcher of water to me, and I nodded thankfully as she poured me another glass. "It's a choice to survive, then." I said, simply, with some understanding. "To be free."

"Exactly. I have a choice to do what I want to do, and I do it all for caps." She sighed, resting her cheek on a hoof, "I get to choose. And not everypony gets that choice. You and me? We're lucky. We're lucky we're not slaves. We still got a choice – we can choose to live or keep on living. It's why I hit you with that shovel. You were wasting that choice on something stupid." I bit my lower lip at that, my expression visibly hurt. "Being alive is all that matters. You can't save your stable dead, Red Dawn." She said softly, resting a hoof on my shoulder. "I'm a mercenary and I choose to live and continue doing what I need to do to continue living."

I didn't know what to say to that. It sounded perfectly reasonable in my head.

"You have a choice to live, and that means you gotta do what you need to do, Red Dawn. Maybe even if that means you live and somepony else doesn't." She ordered for herself a cup of water, and took a swig. "Personally, I don't just go around taking any contract. I take ones I know matter to us ponies in Dusktown. If it means I gotta kill some poor pony, I make sure she deserves it."

"That's … commendable?" I said, unsure.

"There's no escaping it, Red Dawn." Night Sky took another sip. "Out here, killing is just part of living." She said with a disturbing smirk.

I frowned at her, bothered by that statement. But I shook away the doubt from my mind. I pushed away my fears, because a darker part of me felt that I was just being naïve. If I was going to survive this, I needed to be strong. I needed to do what needed to be done. "Whatever it takes." I said finally.

"That's the spirit." She balanced her glass of water on the surface of her hoof and held it out to me. "To life."

I almost tried levitating my glass, but, in exasperation I did the same, and our glasses clanked.

"To life."

---

After accompanying her back to the stores and helping her carry back their supplies to the tavern, she sent me below the floorboards to the basement to peruse their armory to arm myself for tomorrow's contracts. Well, I guess it was an armory. It was mostly just a bunch of tables set with disassembled guns, random parts, tattered barding in need of repair, and boxes full of ammo and magazines. I wrinkled my nose at the scent of cordite and oil as I came down the stairs.

Whoa! What the hell is that thing!? I almost said that out loud.

The youngest member of the Rough Riders, a griffin, meandered about through the tables, sifting through boxes of gun parts. The gray feathered griffin saw me come down the dim stairwell and gave me a sideways glance.

"You're the pony Night Sky picked up, aren't you?" she asked.

I fidgeted on my hooves, taking a deep breath, grinning crookedly. "The one and only."

The half-bird-lion thing - I mean, the griffin, walked up to me, her claws tapping loudly against the wooden floor. "What are you doing here?" She kept her distance. So did if a bandaged up, half lucid pony was going to do anything remotely dangerous. Besides... she was a griffon! A griffon! From the story books... the feathered beasts from the west! And I was talking to one.

Trying not to stare at her lithe, alien form, and dangerously sharp talons, I said, "I'll be tagging along with your ... uh… your crew for a contract or two." Her brow furrowed at that. "Night Sky said you could help me pick out a gun?"

She tapped her beak with a claw and nodded.

"Uh, sure. I guess." The griffon gestured me to follow her and we waded through the junk to the far end of the basement. We came to room lined with lockers. A dim light bulb flickered over a table at the center of the room. "Anything not in a locker is up for grabs."

I blinked. Everything was in a locker though. Oh look. I walked over to a table and found a 10mm pistol. Well I was making progress. I pulled up my pipbuck and sifted through my inventory. I found that I had 53 10mm rounds stocked up.

I levitated the pistol – ugh. I bit down on its mouth grip and tested its weight. I wasn't used to well … anything without my magic. It was a few pounds heavy, not too much for me to handle, I hoped. I've never shot a gun from my mouth before.

"Well I should be good –" I turned around and the griffon wasn't there anymore. I waded through the detritus and saw her leaning over a table in the main room, poking a black box. "What's that for?"

She looked up from her claws, "Oh this? Well, it was a radio at some point."

A radio you say? My smile beamed as she continued, "It broke last week, and I've been trying to figure out why it stopped working."

"Did you check if your device was plugged in?" I droned, with a wry grin.

She caught my lame sense of humor and chuckled. "I'm no expert at electronics. All I do is clean the crew's hardware," she said, jutting a claw at the disassembled rifles lying about.

"Mind if I take a look?" I asked, trotting up to the table. She shrugged, and stepped away from the radio.

I gave it a look over, and opened it up with a screwdriver I picked out from my bags. I eyed the contents of the radio and saw that there was not a piece out of place. Did she really forget the on/off button?

I pulled the power cord taut and fount a thin indentation over a section along its length.

"Heh, well, I've seen this before." I said, standing on my hind legs, one foreleg on the table to hold me upright.

"Hm?"

"Looks like your radio's going to make it." I said, trying to sound like Dr. Stitches. "But the AC cord's going to need a wire transplant … stat." I looked at her, wrinkling my brow.
She ran a paw through her dark brown head plume and flattened a rogue feather, giving me a weird smile.

"That's … great news, doctor …?"

"Red Dawn." I replied, fishing through my bags.

"My name's Gail." She clenched a paw into a fist and reached out with it. I looked at it for a second, hesitating. My eyes moved to meet the griffon's, and I cracked a nervous smile.

I bumped her fist with a hoof.

"You're a lot less intimidating than the others, you know that?" I said, with a snort, splitting the cord.

"Yeah, I get that a lot. I kinda stand out, ya know, with me hanging around a bunch of hardass mercs all the time." Gail confessed, rubbing her neck. I glanced over at her thin frame and thought she looked kind of cute – ahem, I mean, for a griffon. Everypony else upstairs had that calloused look about them; she seemed sort of fresh.

"Oh … but they're not so bad. They picked me up too when I was just learning how to fly. Bone Charm raised me like I was his own."

I cocked a brow at that. That coarse-hided pony raised a sweet griffon like her? "No way."

"He's kind of a dick sometimes …" Sometimes? "But he has a soft side. My parents were never around as much as he was. But then again they're not around anymore … so …"

My eyes softened. "What happened to them?" I asked gently, pausing.

"My parents were Talon mercs. Wasn't really the best line of work to raise a kid, I guess. They died on a contract and orphaned me."

"Sorry to hear that." Night Sky was right about everypony losing somepony. If I lost my mom … I don't know what I'd do. "And now you're a merc too?"

"Yeah, yeah, 'why follow in your parents' footsteps when it got them killed'." The young griffon sighed, "There's not much to do here but merc work. Unless you want to join one of the gangs up in Poneva or be a slaver, you're just a victim." She shook her head, "And I'm not going to be a victim." Gail stated with conviction.

I gave her a long, curious look. Gail eyed the floor scathingly.

"I had a few run ins with furies and slavers before the Rough Riders picked me up." She murmured. "They had me towing wagons around for them like some kind of pack animal."

"Met a few furies myself." I muttered. I wasn't a merc, gangster, or slaver. I was a stable pony. But out here, it meant nothing to these mercs, especially Bone Charm. I was a victim. I looked back down at my work and returned to it in silence. I realized then that there were two kinds of wastelanders: survivors and victims. And I was a victim.

I bit my lower lip and almost drew blood. A few seconds passed by us in awkward quietude.

"Hmm…" Gail uttered, trying to break the ice. "I like your scarf."

"Thanks. It's … ah … a friend gave it to me." I said sadly. "She isn't around anymore."

Gail seemed disheartened as she leaned on the table next to me. "We've all lost someone."

I nodded, quietly. I saw her eyeing the pipbuck on my foreleg and she pointed at it with a talon.

"What's that thing?"

"It's a pipbuck." I answered, my tongue poking out of my lips as I focused on my work. "It's like a terminal, but on your leg."

"You look like you know a thing or two about arcane contraptions." Gail said.

I chuckled, "Eh, I know my way around a wrench and a screw driver. I was an engineer back at my stable." I thought for a moment, "Still am."

The smell of singed metal made my nose twitch as I soldered in a spare wire I had at the bottom of my bags. It never hurts to bring a handful of spares. Or two. Okay, I was just ready for these kinds of things. Who wouldn't walk out into the unknown without preparing for a few repairs?

I finished with the cord and reassembled the radio.

"There she is, good as new." I said, switching it on only for the radio to flood the room with static.

Gail's face lit up as she fiddled with the contraption.

"Thanks! Now we can have some music playing around here."

The radio burped and snorted random snippets of chatter in between its bouts of noise vomiting, and picked up a channel that garnered our attention.

"- brrrfftt - now, my little ponies, it's time for the news! Now you ponies remember when I told you 'bout those two ponies who crawled themselves out of Stable Two – brrrrffffffffttttttt …."

And the signal died.

"Who was that?" I asked. My brow furrowed as I realized that Bone Charm was right about other stables opening too.

Gail groaned, twisting the tuner back and forth, trying to find the signal. "Sounded like DJ Pon3. It's really hard to get his signal around here."

DJ Pon3 … that name was familiar. The last I heard of that name, it was from a mare, and it was from a memory orb recorded 200 years ago.

" brrrrffttttttt - took out the raider nest in the heart of Ponyville, and saved several pony captives - including the beloved – brrffttttttt - Ditzy Doo! – brrrfffffffftttttt –" and the signal broke out into static once more.

"Damn. Must be the clouds."

"Eh? There's always clouds out though." I remarked with a snigger.

"Yeah, but around these parts, the clouds from beyond the Frozen Wastes blow in from the north and mix with the pegasi's cloud cover. Makes it worse."

Pegasi? "The hell's a cloud cover?"

"Well ever since the pegasi flew up and left everyone down on the surface for dead, they poofed up a layer of clouds to protect themselves." She replied, bitterly. "From us. The half dead survivors. Those feather brained bastards. They always say they're going to swoop down to the surface and save everyone. It's been 200 years since the bombs fell and the cloud cover's never opened up once." She leaned her back against the table and folded her forelegs across her chest. "Never trust a pegasus if you see one."

I sort of felt ashamed; if I was a pegasus, I wouldn't come down here either. "Isn't Night Sky a pegasus, though?"

Gail wore a surprised look on her face.

"H-how'd you … never mind. Well, she's a Dashite. She's the kind of pegasus that got kicked out by her own kind."

I remembered the stubs that used to be her wings. Dear Celestia, that was cruel. I heard from my mother that a pegasus without wings was like a unicorn without a horn. Or anypony without legs.

"Why … why'd they do that to her?"

The griffin shook her head, shrugging.

"She doesn't like to talk about it. Never once did she tell us what happened. I don't think I want to know – it takes a lot to get kicked out like that, I heard." Gail replied empathetically. "Makes me mad how anypony could do that to her. Wow … if I lost my wings, I'd rather be dead."

Gail played with the radio's tuner again, trying to pick up a signal. She sighed and gave up.

"So you said you're tagging along with us for a bit?"

I found a holster lying around on the floor and gestured to her if I could use it. Gail nodded, and I strapped it across my chest, holstering my pistol.

"Not too long, I hope." I replied, dryly. "I have a few things to do on my to-do list and I'm running out of time." I added, with a hint of urgency. I was beginning to wonder when they were going to start their next contract.

"And what's that?"

I sighed, I hoped I didn't have to explain this to everypony I met. I eyed her for a moment; she looked like someone I could trust.

"My stable's Water Talisman broke, so I was planning on hitching a ride up to Poneva to find a replacement when your crew's done with their contracts." I said in a low voice. "Six of us went out of those doors, and I'm the only one who's still alive. I'm all they have left."

Gail nodded, thinking for a moment. "Well you're in luck, because we've only got two contracts left unfinished. They're pretty easy, I guess, so it won't be too much of a hassle for you."

"What kind of contracts? I mean, what are we going to do?"

The griffin went to another table and began reassembling a rifle she'd oiled up earlier.

"Tomorrow we're going to meet a caravan over by the old railroad station about 10 miles out from here and escort them back to Dusktown. Then we're going to lay down some good ol' wasteland justice on some pony murderin' zebra scum."

My ears perked at that last part. Were they responsible for the graves I'd seen earlier today? I touched my chin with a forehoof, my brow furrowing. The first time I heard about zebras, it was in a history book detailing their rampaging war that tore across Equestria. Images of a grisly looking pony with stripes, red eyes, and a menacing mouthful of serrated teeth came to mind when I heard that word.

I gulped. They couldn't possibly … actually look like that, right?

We went upstairs and found that everypony else was asleep. I pointed a foreleg out the window. "Well when's tomorrow, because it's always night time to me."

---

So this was morning, huh?

I sat in the back of a wagon being pulled by some grotesque looking two headed cow thing, chewing my pistol's mouth bit. Morning, apparently, was noticeably lighter than the afternoon or the evening. Gail said something about DJ Pon3's channel being more coherent in the mornings when the skies cleared up somewhat.

I looked up to the clouds and winced, swallowing bile down my throat. Yep, they were still there. I guess what made mornings in the Frozen North different was that you could see the clouds. When complete, total darkness fell upon the land, then it was night. It was still rather gloomy outside, and likewise, equally as depressing.

My breath fogged up in front of my face as I stared out into the distance. A light snowfall sprinkled us with bits of powder, and for once, I felt like I might survive out here. There hadn't been a whiteout in 12 hours. That was good sign.

Behind us were two other wagons full of supplies and a hooffull of trader ponies that seemed about as apprehensive as traveling through the snow as I was.

A winged shape hovered above us ahead of the caravan. Gail flew back and forth to call out reports to Night Sky as she scouted out the path ahead. The others kept an eye out for anything coming in from the sides or behind.

Sprinkles nudged me with a hoof and motioned for me to look outside the wagon.

"You see that?" She said, pointing her hoof out in the distance.

I could barely make out what looked to be a dozen small shapes prowling through the snow.

"What are those things?" I asked, squinting.

"Those're wolves." Sprinkles replied, unpleasantly. "Well, they used to be. Now they're Bloodletters. Nasty little critters that hunt in packs and attack anything that moves."

I narrowed my eyes at the creatures as they disappeared behind an exceptionally large snow drift.

"Well why aren't they attacking us?"

"Because they're not stupid." She gestured to her rifle. "There's too many of us and too few of them, anyways. Thankfully their packs don't get bigger than that." Sprinkles added as the creatures faded into view once more.

"Eh, they're just wolves. Can't get any worse than that right?" I said with a chuckle.

She looked at me sternly.

"There's also Snow Devils. Pray to your Goddesses you never see one, because they're tough, and they don't go down too easily. Used to be bears, I think. They've got claws that can rip through the armor of this wagon." I remembered seeing odd looking skeletons at the bottom of the den Amber Fields had fallen into. Then I remembered the extra pair of jaws that poked out of their mouths. I shivered.

"Okay … so, we got mutant wolves and bears. Anything else I should know about?"

She gave me that stern look again.

The sound of gunfire in the distance grabbed my attention, and my head whirled to its origin. Seconds later, somepony whistled ahead of the caravan before Sprinkles could continue. Gail's winged silhouette landed in front of us as the wagons pulled to a stop.

"Furies ahead, they were in the middle of burying themselves in the snow when they saw me."

Night Sky trotted out of a wagon behind us to meet her.

"How many?"

"I counted about a dozen, maybe more. They're heading here as we speak." Gail replied, clawing at her battle saddle's safety. She took to the skies once more, her sniper rifle scanning the perimeter.

"Alright everypony, form up! Get those wagons in formation!" Night Sky called out to the others who were coaxing the two headed bovines to their places. Within a span of 20 seconds, the three wagons had formed up into a triangle, with each of the mercs including myself, and three trader ponies ducked under their metal frames.

I was crouched next to a trader unicorn that had a shabby looking shotgun held in his magical grip.

"Hey." I said, leaning against the wagon.

"Howdy, pardner."

My ears perked at his accent. I looked over the wagon and didn't see any furies. I guess I could wait for the others to call them out.

"You're not from around here are you?"

"Enope." I regarded him expectantly until he continued.

"Ah stopped by New Applooza for a few sales and a couple bargains. Headin' back up t'Poneva t'stock up on some agristuff." By agristuff he probably meant food. Real food, I was hoping. I thought about the vat grown vegetables and g-modded apples I used to eat at the stable, cringing.

"Poneva, huh? Have you been there before?"

He nodded, "Eeyep." Well this pony seemed to be a stallion of simplicity.

My brow furrowed. Maybe when I get there, if I have the time, I'll try a few.

"Well I'm not from here, either. Came out of a stable not too long ago," I said, waving my pipbuck. "What's it like?"

His eyes widened at that. "You're one'a them stable fellers! Ah don't suppose you're one o'them ponies from Stable 2, huh?" he exclaimed.

"What? Er, no. I'm not." I said, awkwardly, remembering DJ Pon3's fragmented broadcast.

"Oh." He coughed disgruntledly.

I snorted, "Hope I didn't disappoint you too much. I'm from Stable 29."

"Neh, there's just all this excitement down south 'bout somepony clearing the routes of raiders over by Ponyville. Sorry, heard 'stable' and ah got ahead o'muhself." He said, tipping his hat at me. "Well anyways, ah've been to Poneva a few times. It's a purty nice city – if you ignore all the gangs and rampaging hooligans an' such."

Well then. How am I not surprised? Can't there just be one normal thing out here? Wait, I'm ducked under a wagon defending against psychotic murderers, a few minutes after I was looking at a pack of mutant wolves. I'm in the wasteland. Nothing's normal here.

"That's good to know, I guess. I was planning on heading up there too."

The unicorn nodded, "Well fer a first timer, pay the toll at the gates and ya probably won't have no problems." He added, still nodding.

Probably. "Thanks, I'll keep that in mind." I picked up my pistol awkwardly in my mouth, and the stallion frowned at me.

"Why're ya holdin' it like that?"

"My 'orn ishn't erking right." I struggled, talking through my mouth bit.

He did that distracting nodding thing again.

"Talk ta me after we tussle with these raiders. Ah might have somethin' that can help ya."

Before I could reply, a bullet whizzed past us and kicked up a small plume of snow. The sounds of hysterical laughter sounded off in the distance.

Night Sky yanked her rifle's charging handle with an audible click.

"They're here! Everypony, on your hooves!"

I chewed on my mouth bit and peeked over the wagon. My eyes forward sparkle, a friend or foe identifier built into my pipbuck, blinked red. I saw them. The ponies – no, the furies, were poking their heads over snow drifts and out of black boulders that jutted out of the earth.

These were the monsters that slaughtered my friends. They may not have been the same ones, but it was too easy to condemn them all. I won't be a victim. Not again.

Crack!

A shot pinged against the wagon's hull a few inches away from my head and I ducked back down reflexively. Then all hell broke loose. The furies screamed, promising, among many eloquently stated things, a horrible ass raping, ocular penetration, flaying, and many others with meanings I didn't want to put too much thought into.

Gunfire erupted between both sides as Bone Charm levitated a light machine gun over the wagon he ducked under and let loose a torrent of lead that sent the furies diving for cover. Gail swooped overhead, lancing the furies with her sniper rifle.

I looked over the wagon and saw one of the furies' head explode.

"Dear Celestia." I murmured. As soon as Bone Charm's fire died down to reload, a handful of the furies brandishing axes and machetes, bounded across the snow towards us, screaming. Those that stayed behind had the sense to cover them with gunfire, forcing me under the wagon once more as a stray bullet pinged against the wagon's frame a few inches from my face. But I didn't duck. Something caught my eye.

I narrowed them at a fury who simply watched the ensuing firefight. Without even a maniacal cackle or an eloquently stated expletive, it just stood there. Observing. A bullet clipped my collar and I dove back under cover.

"Here they come!" I heard Sprinkles shout.

I poked my head over again and entered SATS. I wasn't about to try shooting anything without an aim assist. Time slowed to a halt and I flicked through the targets, my pipbuck gauging my range and effectiveness.

I tagged the closest fury's torso and legs, and tongued the trigger. Bounding recklessly through the snow, the fury took the first few bullets into the chest, staggering momentarily. Then my shots blew out his knees.

Even crippled, the stallion clambered his way to me, picking up small showers of powder in his screaming wake.

"Celestia, do they know when to stop?" Choosing not to waste the rest of my charges on SATS guided rounds on farther targets, I tongued the trigger once more.

Damn it all, I missed every single one. It just wasn't the same without magic!

"C'mon pardner, ante up!" The trader shouted, blasting apart a fury that came too close with his shotgun.

Somepony levitated a sub machine gun around the corner and sunk the trigger back. I dove into the trader, throwing him to the snow as the bullets shrieked over us. My chest stung where some had pancaked over my vest.

"SHIT!" I hissed, the two of us scrambling away from the gunfire. The fury poked her head out and got it sheared off by a blast of buckshot. I swallowed the bile in my throat and stood out of cover.

I took aim once more and came face to face with the frothing mouth of a fury. She was in the middle of heaving herself over the wagon by the time I entered SATS. I didn't even need it this close.

I speared her head like a kabob with a single shot, and she landed on me with a crunch. I cried out, struggling to get the limp corpse off of me when another fury rounded the corner. My tongue twitched and my shots went wide. The fury whooped, coughing blood as he took a few to the chest.

I shut my eyes and flinched, waiting to feel the touch of steel kiss my flesh. There was a loud crack and I opened my eyes to see a large caliber bullet punch out a gaping hole in the fury's throat. He choked and sputtered, mouthing soundlessly through bloody lips.

Gail's shadow passed over me and I lunged at the dying fury and jammed the pistol in his mouth.

A second later, and the fury's head painted my face with dots of scarlet. I shook my head vigorously, snarling as the blood flicked off my muzzle but stained my barding black. The fury I'd crippled earlier crawled into view, brandishing a cleaver, threatening to take my knee caps off.

Without wasting a single breath, SATS aimed a favorable shot through the fury's skull for me. At this range, the bullet lost its velocity and tumbled end over end as it penetrated, blowing his brains out the back of his skull. I exhaled sharply, swallowing the bile that rose up my throat.

Hooves plodded behind me. I whirled around just in time to get nicked by a unicorn mare's glowing switchblade. It painted my cheek red with my blood at its icy edge. I groaned and side stepped, the mare charging through the air I'd been in half a second earlier. She ran her head into the wagon, jostling its contents.

"You cunt!" She snarled, snapping her teeth at me as she lunged once more.

I spun around and bucked her in the throat, slamming her into the wagon again. She coughed and sputtered, gasping for air through the indentation that was her windpipe. I leveled my pistol and yanked the trigger back – and it clicked empty.

"Goddesses damnit!" I screamed, patting down my vest for another magazine. But she was up on her hooves before I could ram it home. The fury charged. I threw my forelegs in front of me and caught her head between them. We fell into the snow, and I drove her face through the powder with her own momentum. I stumbled away, slamming my back into the wagon's frame, hoofing in a fresh magazine.

The mare pulled her head out of the drift, and came at me again, threatening to tear out my nethers with her teeth. I entered SATS, and she halted mid gallop. I tagged her head, and somehow found myself staring into the blues of her eyes as the world froze. These were supposed to be the windows to her soul. But gnarled tendrils of black clawed across the whites of her eyes, boarding up any glimpse of the sentience that made a pony ... a pony.

She might have been beautiful once; the loveliness of her delicate face was marred by grisly blood splatters that I knew were not hers.

Down the length of her coat, I saw that her cutiemark was that of a colourful songbird. I wondered, for a moment – who was she? What she was before she became … this. Was she a birdkeeper? Perhaps she had a marvelous singing voice?

I gulped, struggling to queue my shots. Was there still a pony beneath this madness? Was there any sense, any reason for – for this!? I looked around me and I saw Sprinkles thrusting the barrel of her assault rifle into the gaping mouth of a snow fury. Night Sky was in the process of punching a mare's face in with her forehooves, the blood splatters frozen in midair in the zen silence of SATS.

Behind me, the trader's shotgun bloomed outward a roiling cloud of buckshot into the chest of a rampaging stallion.

These maniacs, these degenerates – these were the creatures that skinned Star Glint alive. They raped, abused, and made a martyr out of Amber. They blew her up in our faces when they could have just killed her and been done with it. I could hear Dew Drops screaming through the squelching tear of meat.

I tagged her legs. The bullets ripped through her knee caps, and she plunged into the snow at my hooves. The pale mare let out a tortured moan, thrashing her bleeding limbs through the drifts, unable to get to her hooves.

"Stop!" I shouted, hoarsely. But she wouldn't listen. I threw myself over her, pinning her bloodied legs to the snow. Tears were streaming down the pony's grimy cheeks. "Why are you doing this!?" I demanded through my teeth.

She murmured something incomprehensible, the black veins in her sclera receding.

"Answer me!"

"I … I …" She whimpered, her right eye twitching uncontrollably. The pony grinded her teeth and clenched her eyes shut, her face contorting into an agonizing grimace as if something was ripping her apart from the inside out.

Her eyelids flew open. "I'LL KILL YOU!" She shrieked, a web of throbbing, black tendrils bulging around her retinas. I felt her switch blade stab into my chest, and I screamed through my mouth bit.

The muzzle flare flashed in her eyes and her head flopped back into the snow. Blood and brains pooled out the neat hole in the back of her skull, her cold blues gazing blankly at me. I watched, ripping the switchblade out of me as the veins receded once more.

"What the fuck are these things…" I murmured, touching the mare's pale face.

I heard a mare scream behind me and turned just in time to see Sprinkles get gutted by a rusty machete. She screamed as the fury wrenched it out of her before falling to the bloodied snow.

I entered SATS and queued a shot at her head. And I missed.

"Shit!" I cried out, eyeing now depleted SATS charges. I clenched my jaw, watching the fury raise the machete to cleave Sprinkles' head off. It fell, and in the time it took for me to scream, the fury's chest cavity blew apart in a rattling barrage of machine gun fire.

She danced against the tirade of bullets before crumbling to the snow like a ragdoll. Bone Charm, his machine gun smoking, screamed for me to duck, and I heard the stomach-churning sound of bullets tearing through meat squelch behind me.

I turned and a fury fell forward on her face, nicking me with a hatchet in her writhing death rattle. I winced, stumbling back to fall next to a squirming, bleeding Sprinkles.

"Red!" She said through a mouthful of blood, clutching her chest with both her forehooves in an attempt to make the bleeding abate. "My bags … health … potion …"

I bit my lower lip, hoofing through her belongings and pulled out the most colourful looking potion I could find. I tipped it into her open mouth and she gulped it down without a word. Being injured like this seemed like second nature to her.

Her flesh stitched together before my very eyes and I sighed, relieved. "It's not over yet." Sprinkles grunted, pushing herself back to her hooves. She mouthed her assault rifle and fired a burst over the wagon behind her. I frowned as a rewarding scream brought a cold smile to her lips.

I hurried back to the trader who jammed the barrel of his shotgun into the mouth of a fury. I shut my eyes and looked away, trying not to look at the gory mess he made all over the snow.

"They're feisty lil critters ain't they?" He shouted over gunfire, racking his shotgun's slider.

I peeked over the wagon and saw a plume of gore fountain into the air – the result of Gail's exceptional aim. The only downside was that she had to pause to hover so she can aim. It was only a matter of time before she –

Gail plummeted from the sky and crunched painfully in the snow, one of her wings trailing scarlet across the powder. The furies screamed, bursting out from behind rocks to a full on gallop. In my mind I saw Lightning Twirl land in the midst of a psychotic mob.

My jaw clenched, and I broke from cover.

"Gail!" I cried out, galloping towards her. She clutched her bleeding chest, wheezing through wet exhales as she scrambled away from the murderous ponies. For a second I wondered what the hell was I doing as I pounded through the snow dodging each lucky bullet at a time.

I barely knew these mercs. I shouldn't care about whether they lived or died, for all that mattered was that Stable 29 lived. I'd sacrifice all these poor, surface dwelling vermin if it meant that everypony in my stable survived.

If I died, all the hope my stable had for survival would die with me. But I galloped on.

I wasn't going to let Gail become a victim. Not like my friends. Bounding straight for me, a fury brandished her spiked club, salivating through the barbaric weapon. In the silence of SATS, I created entry wounds that erupted all over the fury's chest. She collapsed past me, my pulse hammering in my ear drums.

But I wasn't bullet proof. I felt white hot pains spear through me. At this range, I was glad that their bullets didn't lose velocity as I felt one exit out my shoulder. Another one struck one of the bullet proof plates on my chest, and I stumbled, the wind knocked out of me.

Gail screamed, one of the ponies trying to drag her away. I entered SATS, gasping for air, and placed guided rounds through the pony's foreleg. The fury hesitated for a moment, opening his mouth to scream when I spun around and bucked him in the jaw.

I overextended and felt bones break against my hooves, driving his head back to hear a disgusting snap as his neck broke at a disturbing angle.

"Holy shit!" I heard Gail squawk.

That's exactly what I thought when I fell on my ass wide eyed and gawking.

"Red Dawn! Head. Down!" I heard Bone Charm roar, leaping out of cover. Another bullet struck me in the back, pancaking against my vest and driving me face first into the powder. That was painfully convenient because the unicorn stallion laid down a wide arc of machine gun fire over my mane that sent the furies ducking.

Those that did not were perforated with a stream of lead, laughing through gurgling death rattles. I forced myself to my hooves, sputtering through a mouthful of snow and clamped my jaws shut on one of Gail's wings. I proceeded to drag her away from the carnage, my head bent low, bullets shrieking over me.

Night Sky and Sprinkles leaned out of the wagons and kept the furys' heads down when Bone Charm's machine gun ran dry. They fought like a well-oiled machine, taking turns to slam new magazines home.

Halfway back to safety, somepony smashed into me, knocking both of us into the ground.

A fury guffawed manically into my face spraying my muzzle with fetid ropes of spittle. I tried pushing her away, but she had me pinned down as she levitated a metal apple before my eyes. She cackled, biting on its stem and pulling it off with a metallic ping.

It began to puff smoke.

Bullets slammed into her, but she did not relent. The crazed mare stabbed her hooves into my throat, squeezing the life out of me, even as blood trickled out of her grinning mouth and her nose. I choked, my eyes rolling to the back of my head, holding my forelegs out trying in desperation to push her off of me.

Black veins began rooting their tendrils in my field of vision.

"I. Won't. Be. A victim!" I grated, and swung a foreleg into her glowing horn. My hoof connected and her focus dropped. The apple fell and I rolled her over it.

The world around me exploded in a roiling plume of shrapnel and gore. The blast jarred my insides and rattled my bones, launching me a foot off the ground to land in the remains of the fury mare's chest cavity. I stood up on wobbly hooves, and stumbled away in a hazy daze, trailing gore and viscera beneath my legs. I fell to my knees, panting to fill my lungs with air. I forced myself to wobbly hooves and slipped on a trail of gory snow. With a grunt, I fell on one of Gail's wings, and she screeched in agony.

In my dull, disorientated state, I bit Gail's wing once more and dragged her back to the wagon. The adrenaline was abating and I could feel my jaw slackening, my legs tiring, my lungs struggling to fill with air through Gail's feathers and my teeth. I dragged her through the blurriness of my eyes, refusing to give in, to die so easily. These snow furies had made myself and my friends victims before – and I wasn't about to let them make me one again.

I pulled her behind the wagon formation and spat out a mouthful of her feathers before collapsing in the snow, gasping for air. My head was spinning and I blinked away the shock of being blown up for the second time in the last few days. My insides felt like they'd been rearranged by the shock of simply being so close to it. I rolled over and finally let myself go, heaving the contents of my stomach underneath Night Sky's wagon.

The gunfire had died down by the time I got to my hooves as the furies retreated back to whatever icy hole they came from. I teetered on my hooves, and fell against a wagon's frame, gasping for my breath.

"Yeah, run you panzy tailed sons of bitches!" Sprinkles screamed at the fleeing snow furies.

The scrambling was far from over, however, as Gail had a punctured lung and a hole in her wing. She hacked up splotches of scarlet that melted through the snow, clutching her ribs in a vain attempt to quell the bleeding.

"How bad is it?" I sputtered in between breaths, the dizziness fading to a dull headache.

Sprinkles trotted next to me, leaning on her assault rifle. "As long as it went through her, she should be fine."

"Look for an exit wound." Night Sky said to Bone Charm, jostling the wheezing griffon.

A patch of contour feathers, once gray, trickled blood down her back as they rolled her over. Was an exit wound supposed to be a good thing?

Flippingn her unceremoniously onto her back, Bone Charm wrenched her mouth open and levitated a potion to her beak. Gail clenched the potion in her talons and gulped it down before curling up into a ball and heaving her chest violently to fill her regenerating lungs.

Right. Can't regenerate around a bullet.

The eye patched stallion stared at me steel faced. I met his gaze and pursed my lips as we looked at each other for too many seconds. I expected him to berate me; I probably would have too, risking my life like that.

But he nodded once, and attended to his adopted daughter. It was worth it after all.

"You ain't so bad, for a stable dweller." He muttered, not meeting me eye to eye. A suppressed smile stretched across my lips.

I knelt next to the convulsing griffon, whose wheezing has lessened somewhat. Gail tipped her head to see me and smiled painfully through a bloody beak.

"Thanks –" she heaved for a breath of air, "- Red… can I call you that?"

A narrow smile reached across the corners of my lips, my heart warming.

"That's my name."

She looked overjoyed. "I owe you one, Red." Gail gasped, laying down flat on her back, her breathing stabilizing.

"You don't owe me anything." I murmured. I don't think I would 've been able to survive that had the other mercs not jumped in. A darker corner of my mind told me I shouldn't have taken that risk for that griffon, let alone for a bastard like Bone Charm. But the gratefulness that widened across her beak and the relief in the grizzled unicorn's eyes trickled white paint down the narrow black walls of my conscience. I stuck out my tongue and hoofed a rogue feather out of my mouth. "You still got a few feathers on your back, that's all that matters." I said, forcing a crooked smirk.

Gail struggled to contain a chuckle to let out a few wet coughs.

"You sticking around for some more?" she rasped, clutching her feathered chest.

I looked out into the snow and around us. The cooling remains of ponies were laid out to freeze among the drifts, possibly doomed to rot where they'd fallen. Not too far from our wagon formation, I spied a crater with half a pony laying in it.

"I ah …" I didn't have enough in my stomach to hurl again. I've had the urge to do that too many times today. Why was it so easy for these mercs? I shivered. It shouldn't have been that easy for me. My frown turned to a glare as my eyes panned over the pale coat of the mare I'd crippled earlier. These weren't ponies. These were monsters. And I wasn't going to be another one of their victims.

Hesitation was going to get me killed. I was afraid to say that I'd go to any length to return to my stable alive and not empty hoofed. I rubbed them together in the powder, trying to clean the blood off my lower legs. "Whatever gets me to Poneva." I continued, grimly.

The sound of hooves sloshing through the snow behind me made me jump. I popped in my mouth bit and almost shot the trader in the face as he approached.

"Whoa nelly, you're a jumpy one, aren't'chu?" He said with a wry grin.

I exhaled heavily. "Shorry, thought you were one of thoesh …" I glanced at their mangled corpses, spitting out the bit, "… those psychos."

He nodded rapidly before levitating out a strange blue bottle out of his satchel bag.

"Listen 'ere, you saved my ass earlier. And I ain't the ungrateful bastard."

I shook my head, waving it off with a forehoof.

"I'm sure you paying Night Sky off will cover it –"

"I never said that Night Sky mare did –" He tipped his hat, "I said you, ya git."

I frowned.

"Well, I supposed it'd be rude." I muttered, pursing my lips. I barely knew this unicorn and he was already giving me handouts. The blue solution swirled gently inside the shot glass sized bottle. "What is it?"
He pointed a forehoof at my horn, "It's called Sparkle. Makes yer magic stronger. Should boost you up good; might even bring your magic back for a bit. It ain't as helpful as a week o'rest, but it might do you good if ya need it in a pinch." The unicorn floated it to me, balancing it on my nose. "But ah said, use it in a pinch. This ain't no potion you just drink 'n forget."

My nose crinkled and I tossed my head back, catching it in my mouth. Well that was cool. I wonder if I could live as a glorified earth pony with a horn. I squinted at the bottle in between my teeth, curiously sloshing around its contents. Though I wish I still had my magic.

"Like … like what?" I asked, with a hint of apprehension.

He leaned against a wagon, regarding me sternly. "I just told ya. It might bring your magic back. For a bit. And not much longer."

"Sure." I said, rather skeptically, nodding my head slowly. Craning my neck to my side, I dropped it in my open bag. "Thanks!" I said with a nervous smile.

"No problemo." He drawled, starting back to his wagon. "Ah'll leave it to ya mercs, then. See ya 'round, uh. I didn't even getchur name, boy?"

I zipped my bag closed, and turned to trot back to the caravan's lead wagon.

"Red Dawn." I said, glancing over my shoulder.

"Name's Duster, and nice to meet'cha, Red Dawn. Ah might see you again one day." Duster said, plodding through the powder. "Might not."

I paused for a moment. Huh? I turned and waved him goodbye, trying to suppress the curious look on my face.

---

We dropped off Duster at Dusktown and immediately headed further north on our wagon, this time, with Bone Charm pulling it. Gosh was that stallion strong. We weren't even following a path. I couldn't see the usual wagon lines in the snow – but the path was heavily trodden with hoof prints.

The skies had darkened significantly since the last I saw it. I had slept for most of the way, and so had Gail. I'd woken up to the rumble of the wagon during its offroad course. The griffon, however, was still napping.

I yawned, rubbing my eyes with my forehooves. Looking around, I noticed everypony was still armed. I wondered why we were packing so much heat, given the contract we were pursuing.

Sitting in an indentation on the wagon's frame was a metal tube. Several rocket propelled grenades rested against it.

"What the hell is that for?"

Night Sky, who was laid out on the wagon bed, sat up and replied, "It's just for diplomacy."

"Diplomacy?" I snorted, "I guess. Your kevlar plated barding really screams for compromise."

She chuckled, letting out a long drawn out sigh. "I know you're new to this wasteland stuff, but zebras aren't exactly the kind of folk to just listen to us ponies."

"I'd imagine. We fought a war with 'em." I sat on my hind legs, eyeing the labels stenciled on the rockets. 'HE-I', I read along the crimson munitions.

"Not we. We never fought them. They're the ones still fighting us." She muttered, closing her eyes.

"Could've sworn the war ended 200 years ago," I sneered. A widening mass of crumbling black trees crept closer and closer as the wagon made its way through the snow. "What exactly are we doing out here?"

"They killed L.J. and his colts from two weeks ago while they were out looking for firewood." He muttered in his gravelly voice, "killed 'em … even the colts." He shook his head and continued, "One of the colts made it back to town, barely alive. Said that the three of them walked in on zebra loggers and got executed on the spot for trespassing." He shook his head. Bone Charm's tone chilled to a cold rasp. "We're going to pay them a visit and find the pony murderin' son'bitch who did it."

I wrapped my forearms around my chest.

"So the five of us are going back into zebra territory with the possibility of provoking more of them ourselves?" I cocked an eyebrow, "That's smart." I added, wryly. "There's bound to be more of them than us. And you make it sound like they won't just hand the zebra over."

"That's why diplomacy's on our side." Night Sky chuckled grimly.

I wondered what HE-I meant.

Sprinkles loaded a magazine into her assault rifle and panned it across the path in front of us. "They come to our land, our Equestria, hallowed by our dead, plant their flag down, and settle it when everypony's dead. Then, on top of that, they go around killing everypony else that so much as breathes their air."

My expression darkened at that. Just what I needed to hear: more pony killing monsters. They had no shame in killing foals. This alone made them monsters in my book. I looked out into the distance; is this what Equestria's come to?

Maybe their depictions in the textbooks were really no different than what they actually looked like: striped, red eyed, shark toothed killing machines. The last part, at least, seemed to match Sprinkles' description.

"They sound no better than the snow furies." I intoned bitterly.

She turned to face me. "I'd say it's about time we taught those tribals a lesson."

Night Sky leaned against the wagon's frame. "We ponies just want to survive out here without causing any problems. The zebras've raided Dusktown's stores in the past, and I'm not about to let those scum make our lives harder than they already are."

A plume of smoke drifted lazily into the sky above the gnarled canopy in the distance. We were near.

"Let's find this bastard."

The others were silent after that, loading their weapons with a conviction that hinted that they wanted more than just diplomacy. I poked Gail with a forehoof and she shook herself into lucidity.

"We there yet?" she yawned, putting on her battle saddle.

Night Sky got to her hooves and looked over Bone Charm's mane. I frowned, an incredulous look stretching across my face. I had expected the same weather beaten corrugated masses that made up Dusktown's buildings.

But before us was a small circle of gnarled, wooden cabins surrounding a smoldering bonfire. Inside the cabins there was not a single mote of light. I would have thought the zebra village had been dead if there weren't equine shapes milling about outside in tattered, inadequate barding.

The ramshackle village was shadowed by an icy cliff face that stretched its wind swept boulders over the squalid, balefire blackened shacks.

Zebras noticed our final approach. I was surprised at how they didn't start shooting at us. Instead, they scurried inside their cabins, slamming their doors shut. A zebra mare herded her foals inside her cabin, meeting my baffled stare for the briefest of moments before shutting the door behind her.

"Everypony out." Night Sky ordered as the wagon came to a stop several yards away from the village. "Let's get this over with and get paid." The mercs dismounted, Bone Charm shaking off the wagon's harness before levitating his machine gun close.

I kept my eyes on the desolate village, chills running down my spine at how empty and dilapidated the shoddy buildings looked. Not too far from the village, underneath the shadow of the cliff face, were several rows of lonely gravestones.

While everypony else was floating guns to themselves or clamping down on mouth bits, I just stood there, unsure what to do with myself. I turned to look at Gail, her eyes were devoid of … of anything in particular.

Everypony had this grim, glazed over look that made me shiver.

"Charm, I want you on that cliff face with the RPG. Gail, circle the village from the air. Both of you know what to do." Night Sky intoned chillingly. She turned to face me. "Red Dawn, you and Sprinkles are with me." She glanced over her shoulder as a group of zebra stallions came out of the cabins, regarding us expectantly. "Charm, Gail, take your positions. You two," She nodded at Sprinkles and I, "Follow me."

I gulped as we slogged through the knee-deep snow. I hoped I wasn't wrong. I hoped these zebras were feral beasts, just waiting to murder us when we turned our backs on them or looked away. They just stood there, shivering, with dark looks in their eyes as they watched us with half-lucid stares.

"Evening, zebras." Night Sky said, trotting up to the mob.

A middle aged zebra stepped forward. "Not too close, pony!" He ordered firmly, the other zebras brandishing underappreciated handguns and warped blades.

"Whoa there, boy, we're just here to find somepony we're looking for." Night Sky's foreleg twitched visibly as her hoof almost reached for her assault rifle.

The zebra in charge, I assumed, narrowed his distrustful eyes at the heavily armed mercs.

"There were 5 of you when you came."

Sprinkles gave him a shady grin. "Oh they're still here, don't you worry about that."

The zebras shifted uncomfortably in their hooves. A younger stallion who looked about my age eyed me in fear. I wasn't even visibly armed.

"I think you zebras know why we're here," Night Sky began, taking a few steps towards the group. They glared at her menacingly. A few of them actually took a step back. "One of you zebras killed a few ponies back at Dusktown. Murdered a stallion and his two colts. I was hoping you'd tell me where I could find him?"

Zebra leader's jaw clenched. "He's among us."

Night Sky looked relieved, as if she'd taken a difficult job only to have the workload halved.

"We're here to take him into custody." Her expression blackened. "He's coming with us." She stated, sternly.

The zebras looked at each other grimly as their leader shook his head.

"He did no crime, and he most certainly is not going with you ponies."

My eyes caught a black shape at the top of the cliff, a long tube like weapon hovering in the air beside it. A winged silhouette circled above us like a carrion bird.

"I don't think you understand." Night Sky said, "We didn't ask."

The aged stallion stamped his hoof in the snow, the stallions behind him jeering at us in their alien tongues. "And I said no! It was not he who attacked them." His expression hardened, and he narrowed his eyes at us, eyes that have been aged with decades of prejudice, "He was carrying home firewood when they threatened to take from him the fruits of his labor."

"That isn't the story I heard." I said out loud, the zebras looking at me with distant hopefulness. Night Sky and Sprinkles just glared at me.

"Remember that these aren't your trees, zebra." Sprinkles wore a baleful expression that spelled out murder. "That firewood didn't belong to him."

"Fuck you ponies!" A stallion shouted, stamping his hooves in the snow. "Leave us alone!"

Another jutted a foreleg at us accusingly. "You take, and take - you leave nothing for us!"

"These trees, this land – it belongs to neither of us. We cannot survive this winter without fire, and these trees keep us alive, and you cannot deprive of us that which is not yours." He declared, taking an assertive hoof step towards us.

Night Sky grew impatient. "I don't give a shit about your trees, I want that zebra, and I want him now!" she demanded.

"No! We will not relinquish him for he has done no wrong! Go back to your Dusktown and be content that nopony else was slain." He ordered, raising his voice. "Leave us be, and do not come back."

"Night Sky …" I murmured, noticing the zebra foals staring at me through the windows.

She shook her head, smirking. "I'm no sheriff, zebra. I'm a mercenary, and I'm getting my caps either way." Night Sky snorted, shifting on her hooves. "Don't make us take him by force."

The zebra stallion did not take that kindly.

"You … you would kill us?" He began, his voice trembling. The zebras crowded around him, baring their teeth. "Do not be foalish, pony!" The zebras behind him clamped their jaws around their mouth bits, brandishing their weapons.

"You ponies wouldn't dare!" A stallion snarled, brandishing a rusty axe.

"They are outnumbered – we kill them, now!"

"Ndio! Sisi hufanya!" Said another agreeably, glaring at us.

Zebra leader held out his forehooves and held his kin back. "Hapana! Nopony else needs to die. Do not do this, ponies, it is not worth it! Think of our foals!"

"I'm going to ask one more time." Night Sky said, non chalantly, hoofing her assault rifle. Sprinkles did the same. "Give us the zebra, and we'll be on our way.

I was taking shallow breaths as they stared gravely at one another and murmuring in their exotic tongues. Just when I thought this was going to end in a shower of lead, a young stallion pushed past the zebras.

"It was me." He murmured, trembling. His zebra kin shouted at him, trying to pull him back.

"You do not need to do this!"

He shrugged them off. "Just take me with you and don't hurt anypony else … please. Let's stop this madness."

The zebra leader gawked. "No, you are not going anywhere!" He shouted, stepping in front of the zebra. "And you most certainly are not going with them!"

"Hand him over, now, and we'll be out of your mane." Night Sky ordered. Sprinkles looked like she was fighting the urge to pull the trigger.

"Look around you, you ponies! See our village, see our poverty! Have you no shame, living in your Dusktown while we freeze in the snow?" He snapped, "Too many of us perished during this winter, and if we lose any more, our village will surely die off! We have too many tools and not enough zebras to use them." He wrenched the young stallion away with a forehoof. "You are taking from beggars, can you not see?"

Night Sky and Sprinkles looked at each other in exasperation. They didn't care.

"Leave our meager village, leave, and don't come back! I will tolerate your presence here no longer, ponies!" The zebra pleaded.

The mercs brandished their rifles.

One of the zebra stallions racked his shotgun's slider. "Hapana!" The zebra said alarmingly to the others as they started forward. "Wanataka hiyo!" But his words did nothing to calm them. "This is what they want! Do not give it to them!"

The zebra with the shotgun took aim.

Zebra leader flung his forehooves in front of him. "Hapana –"

Night Sky tipped her head to the side.

Crack! My heart nearly stopped. The zebra's head exploded in a shower of bone and gore, splattering my barding with bits of scarlet. I screamed in horror, scrambling away as the night turned to day.

The hut behind them erupted in flames, blinding me in a terrifying flash of light that threatened to consume us all. A jarring shockwave blasted apart its walls and toppled its ceiling, Night Sky and Sprinkles sunk their triggers back, writhing shadows dancing across their faces in the hellish firelight. I ducked low, plugged my ringing ears with my hooves and screamed, bullets and dying zebras shrieking around me.

I watched with wide eyes as the zebra with the shotgun convulsed, ragged, bloody holes ripping open across his entire body. He took a bleeding step forward before his chest blew out in a splash of gore, Gail's black form casting a shadow over me as she soared over us.

"Stop!" I screamed, blood streaming down my face over the gunfire as the zebras collapsed into the melting, crimson snow. But Night Sky and Sprinkles did not relent.

Zebras, engulfed in flames, galloped out of the burning shack in fiery agony as the inferno consumed them. Sprinkles swung her rifle wide to meet the screaming zebras. I watched helplessly while she mowed them down, their burning, bullet ridden corpses falling into the snow to smoke and smoulder.

The smell of burning meat filled my nostrils, summoning vile bile to my throat. Whoosh! A trailing rocket-propelled grenade blew apart a cabin to my left, igniting it in a plume of fire and debris and showering my trembling coat with tingling heat waves.

"No... no! What are you doing!?" I screamed as Sprinkles' assault rifle flared at the small shapes that fled the collapsing cabin. "They're foals! Dear Celestia, Sprinkles, they're just foals!"

"They're zebras, Red Dawn." She growled.

I cried out as one of the small shapes tumbled into the snow, blood spurting. Shrieking hoarsely, I tackled the mare to the ground her assault rifle's bullets kicking up the snow at our hooves. "STOP!"

"Get off me, Red Dawn!" She screamed, bucking me off her.

"What have you done!?" I demanded, galloping towards her with the intent of spearing her with my horn. She sidestepped and held out a foreleg. I tripped and planted my face into the snow, watching in denial as a flaming zebra mare stumbled out of the cabin after her foals. She reached out with a charred, trembling foreleg, only for her smoldering body to collapse into the crimson drifts.

"This is our bonus, ponies! If it's striped, it gets wiped!" Night Sky shouted, arcing her gunfire at a group of fleeing zebras. One of them crashed in a thrashing splash of dark scarlet. Another whirled around to bite down on his mane and drag him away. I reached out with a foreleg and watched them both get perforated in a hail of unforgiving tracers, my jaw trembling in horror.

The cabin they'd burst from erupted in flames. Bone Charm sent another rocket-propelled grenade into the village, and another, and another. I watched as the zebras fueled the fire.

"Night Sky … please … NO!" I begged, gaping at a herd foals that crumpled into the snow in a tirade of scarlet splashes.

All around me, a roiling conflagration devoured the town in a pyre of destruction, enshrouding me with a hellish glow. I stared into the inferno with watery eyes and it stared back, the dying shrieks of zebra foals echoing distantly in my ears. The flames told me that I'd been wrong.

This wasn't wasteland justice. This was a massacre. Night Sky told me that I should be willing to do anything I could to survive … but not like this! Goddesses, not like this! These zebras - they had sons and daughters and husbands and wives – we were no better than the snow furies that slaughtered my friends!

How could I have just stood there and watched!? I watched while they butchered everypony, and even then, my hooves were wet with their blood. I could have done something! They'd made a monster out of me.

… you gotta do what you need to do … even if that means you live and somepony else doesn't … I heard Night Sky say in my thoughts.

Whatever it takes… I heard myself say.

No … no! This can't … can't be right! I clamped down on my pistol's mouth bit and aimed it at Night Sky, entering SATS. I won't be like her! I won't let the wasteland turn me into a monster!

The muzzle flashes of her assault rifle froze in time, and so did the zebra on the other end. Tracers speared through her body and she tipped forward, threatening to topple into the drifts. I mashed all my charges to tag her head until they were spent, my fiery tears glistening in the infernal glow.

My accuracy was favorable. But my conscience was not. My body tensed, and I hesitated. I simply couldn't do it. It was no use. I'd join the zebras if I did. I canceled out and watched the zebra tumble end over end into the snow in a heap, leaving a trail of blood behind her in her wake.

It was over. We were done. And so were the zebras.

The gunfire died down, and only the moaning of crumbling wood remained. I stood there, unable to move, unable to rationalize what these ponies had done. Gail crunched her paws into the snow behind me.

I fell to my knees, my crooked shadow billowing across the crimson snow drifts. Bathed in the cruel pyre light, my conscience agonized in purgatory. I heard Gail's footsteps crunch into the snow to stop next to me. Her winged form overshadowed mine in a sinister cloak of darkness.

"Ready for Poneva, Red?" She asked, cheerily, unfazed by the destruction left in her wake.

Have you no shame? I crawled across the snow to the zebra mare that Night Sky had butchered. She was still breathing, taking ragged, shallow breaths as she teetered on the edge of life and death. I knelt over her, cradling the zebra's head in my hooves.

"I'm sorry." I whispered, "I didn't know. I didn't know they'd do this… I'm not a monster … please …"

The mare gurgled through a mouth full of blood, her fluttering eyes meeting mine before they blinked for the last time. She stared at me blankly as I held her limp corpse. I tipped my head low, trembling uncontrollably.

"What've you done, Gail? What've you ponies done …"

She didn't answer me, her gray feathers glowing a fiery orange. "Was it worth it? Was it worth the fucking caps?" I demanded. She looked at her feet.

"You're right … you're no victim, Gail." I said to her, my voice faltering. The griffon came to me, resting a foot on my shoulder. I shook her off, standing to my hooves. Glaring into her eyes, I asked, "But do you know what you are?"

She turned her head away from me, gazing into the flames. "I …"

"You're a monster." I intoned.

I left her, trotting away from the funeral pyre. I had believed in them, I believed that they were right, that anything was worth doing to survive ... even if it meant that ponies died and I lived. Was this what it took? Was this going to be my life? I didn't know anymore.

Night Sky was right about one thing: I couldn't escape this. This wasn't the end. I realized that if the wasteland did not kill me, it'd kill my soul.

I followed them this far. And this was as far as I was going to go.

Anywhere but here. Goddesses … anywhere but here.

Footnote: Level up.

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

FALLOUT EQUESTRIA: RISING DAWN

Chapter 4

Bad Pony

"If that's what it took, why not? You said you were looking for a Water Talisman. Wouldn't you do anything to bring one back so everypony in your stable would live?"

Even in the distance, I could still see their village burning. Behind me, it was a dim glowing ember in a sea of shifting snow. Their screams permeated my thoughts. Night Sky's words blackened my conscience. It wasn't right. They'd murdered the zebras, and they'd do it again if they could. At the end of the day, they'd get their caps for whatever atrocities they promised to commit.

I trudged through the perpetual twilight that haunted these ashen plains, and at the end of the day, my hooves would still be empty. They'd done what I could not and could never have. They were doers. They were survivors. And I was still a victim. I made the choice of walking away from my only safe means of travel to Poneva.

I chose to be a good pony – at the cost of my stable's rations. Every hour, every day spent out here was another day sheared off my stable's lifespan. I wasted my time – I wasted their time! The time I spent accompanying those mercs was thrown out the window, all because I chose to have a conscience. All because I chose to not be a monster.

A darker part of my soul reasoned with me. I should have stayed with those mercs; I'd probably be in Poneva by now. I'd have a water talisman in my hooves and I'd be able to return to my stable and close those doors and forget about everything outside.

I threw my head back and screamed in frustration, stamping my hooves into the snow. I would have sacrificed those zebra a hundred times over if it meant my stable lived! These surface dwelling vermin shouldn't mean anything to me! There's nothing left on the surface to save. There was a reason why we never opened our doors … and this … this place was it.

My stable … my stable was my world, and my world was my stable. I didn't belong here. I looked around me, the chilling breeze blowing powder over the pale dunes that rose up around me. I was in the middle of nowhere.

Again.

All because I chose to be a good pony. The first ponies I met slaughtered my friends. The next group slaughtered an entire village of zebras. Was there anything that made those two groups different? What use was there being good if everypony I saw, everypony I met was bad? It would be a disadvantage. It would make me naïve and vulnerable in the face of opportunity. Opportunity. I chuckled at that word, shaking my head as I sloshed through the powder.

For a moment, at Dusktown, I had hope. Hope that the darkness that enshrouded this land hadn't blackened the hearts of everypony. I knew now, as I plodded through the snow, that there was a monster in everypony and in everyone.

There was one in me too.

For hours, I made my way through the snow, kicking through the powder in a direction my pipbuck told me was north. I stopped for a moment to catch my breath, and, in the distance, I saw several black silhouettes stalking me in the darkness.

Blood Letters.

I tried counting them, but the snow swirls that danced across the drifts distorted their shapes. My EFS unhelpfully marked them as a large amorphous red blob. For all I knew there could've been 30 of them. I didn't know what to expect – I didn't want to know what those creatures could do. I gulped. I needed to find shelter, or someplace I could wall off or hide in. The pace of my hoofsteps quickened.

I looked behind me once more. They were getting closer.

I slid carefully down a massive hill of snow and felt my hooves sink into the powder to clop on solid stone. My pipbuck alerted me that I'd entered a different zone. The Crystal Highway. Thank the Goddesses, at least I was making some progress. I looked behind me and could not see that the silhouettes were still following me.

Oh fuck. My eyes darted across the snow and I realized that I was standing in a wide crack in the earth. Glancing to the left and right, it was evident that the land had been split asunder in the jagged teeth that jutted out of the ridgelines around me. I glared at the hill behind me; it was too steep to climb back up. There was no way out of here, and no way to go but forward and back.

With only two directions possible, I figured that forward was a good idea. I trotted along the winding path, passing under the shadows of the broken rock formations that reached over me. Turning a corner, I saw, half buried in the snow, what looked like a wagon. I came towards it and poked through the mound of snow that buried it. From its half melted surface and the direction it was pointed, I surmised that it had been fleeing from the balefire. I looked up, and my expression darkened.

All around me, straddling the ridge walls to my left and right, or just buried in the snow in mass graves were wagons. Hundreds of them. I gulped; this was the Crystal Highway after all. I squinted through the darkness; they had been fleeing the blast zone. Lightning Twirl was right: follow the highway, and you'll get somewhere.

That somewhere, I hoped, was Poneva. I trudged onward, stepping over hunks of scrap metal that would have clipped and cut into my flesh had I not been wearing my barding. Taking in my surroundings, I noticed that two rows had been cleared through the wreckage on either side of the valley. Wagon lines ran along the midsections. The 2 century-old wreckage had been simply bulldozed aside to make room for a road going north and south.

By chance I came across a wagon that had been flipped over so that its blackened wheel spokes pointed skywards. It didn't look like the others; its frame was built more for practicality than looks. The remarkably sturdy looking rhombohedron of metal hadn't been blasted apart by the balefire like the rest. It was fairly large, and it looked capable of holding half a dozen or more ponies within its hull.

I lowered myself to my chest and peeked underneath it through a slit that hadn't been buried under with snow. Something caught my eye inside and my interest piqued.

I dredged the hole further with my hooves, pushing the freezing powder away until I could see inside the pitch black interior of the overturned wagon. I flicked on my pipbuck's flashlight and flashed it into the darkness. Skeletons. Almost a dozen of them, and two more partially buried lower halves that belonged to the wagon pullers, I assumed.

Some of the bones were too small to belong to that of a full grown mare or stallion.

My eyes hardened as I stared into the wagon's contents. Among them I found, littering the dirt beneath and around their fractured skeletons, cases of blackened belongings and disintegrating satchel bags. It was clear to me now that these ponies were fleeing … something. Balefire, I assumed with a shiver.

Some of the skulls wore helmets that were still tied snugly to their frozen craniums. Outside, there were hundreds, maybe even thousands of wagons. This wasn't just a desperate flight; it was an evacuation – a mass exodus. I thought back to Spring Fresh's memory orb; her husband, a military pony, had apparently known of what was coming. Even with foreknowledge, they were not able to escape.

I gulped down a heavy lump in my throat and noticed a frost-encrusted shape clutched within somepony's skeletal hooves. It was a foal. And under its hooves was the frayed, disintegrating coat of an ancient foal's toy.

The touch of cold, cold death slithered against my coat.

"Mommy, please don't go!"

I stood to my hooves and banged my head against the wagon bed, my mind reeling and my body trembling. I looked around me and all I saw was the dead.

Mommy …Spring Song's voice whimpered for her mother, her voice emanating from the hanging maw of the small skeleton that lay before me.

"NOOO!" Spring Song wailed.

I shrieked, squeezed my eyes shut, and scrambled out of the darkness, my pipbuck's beam flashing against their forsaken remains, painting their wretched, anguished shadows against the wagon's charred insides. I wrenched myself out from under the wagon and fell on my bottom, gasping frantically for my breath as I kicked my hind legs away from the dark hole.

My heart drummed against my chest. I stared with wide eyes as the screams of Spring Fresh's foals faded away into the haunting breeze. I sat there as the wind blew a solemn tune, my heavy breaths hissing through my lips in wisps of white vapor. I made my way back to the wagon and, with my forehooves, swept them over the hole, filling it with snow.

I left the wagon behind me and did not look back, walking along the lonely highway into the darkness as the snowfall thickened. I stopped every now and then to pan my pipbuck's yellow beam across the frigid snow swirls. Even inside the thick fabrics of my barding, I was cold – but inside, I was even colder. Desperation was all that was keeping me going at this point; this road would take me to whatever end awaited me. I just knew it.

If Poneva held not the salvation my Stable needed, I didn't know if a life out here was worth living. The dead were calling me to join them. The memories of Spring Fresh and her foals were still haunting me even after I buried them. I knew they weren't real. They were long dead. But I couldn't stop shaking.

I was soft, and the wasteland was leaving its marks.

As I trudged onward, the night became darker and it felt like I'd been trotting for hours when a yellow light shown upon my flank. It seethed around me, painting my shadow against the snow as it came closer.

I turned slowly, my right foreleg held over my muzzle against the glare. My pupils contracted as a large black mass with a beam of light training upon me approached. I gulped a heavy lump down my throat as I stood my ground, unsure what to expect. As they closed in, I could see several equine shapes following closely by its flanks.

The black mass stopped. For seconds that felt like hours, I waited for their maniacal cackles, for a hail of bullets, hell, maybe even a rocket propelled grenade. Instead, there came four equine silhouettes as they disembarked from the dark mass, the vehicle's light still trained on me.

All six illuminated the night with their flashlights, panning them across my face. I held out a trembling foreleg and flashed them with my pipbuck's beam. Six hooded ponies in thick snow barding approached, and held in their mouths or floating in their magical fields, were an assortment of carbines and other automatic weapons. To my grim relief, they were not furies. But their poise changed nothing.

A stallion with a machine pistol trotted up to me, my apprehensive face reflecting dully in his battered black goggles. I dared not make any sudden movements. "Look at what we got here." He said as I shielded my eyes with a foreleg.

"Where're you headed, colt?" The unicorn stallion asked, jadedly.

I gulped, taking a step back, narrowing my eyes at them.

"What does it matter?"

The sound of somepony racking his weapon's charging handle pushed me another step back.

"Jus' wondering. Not that many ponies go this way on hoof. 'N not that many ponies go up ta Poneva alone."

I snorted. So this road did lead to Poneva after all. "Well, no shit." I murmured. "If you knew already, why'd you ask?"

The stallion glanced over at the others.

"Thought that since we headin' the same way, you could hitch a ride with us." He said, reaching out with a foreleg. He grinned under his hood.

I shook my head, trotting back carefully. "I won't be going anywhere with anypony …" Every hoofstep I took back, they took another forward. "I can make it there myself."

"Come on, colt. It's dangerous out here, bloodletters and haunters and such. It ain't safe out here on your own."

"No." I said, firmly. I survived out here by myself this far, and I was intending on keeping it that way. Alive, alone, and away from these ponies, whoever they were. "Leave me alone."

His grin widened as he shook his head.

"Hold on, wait a sec!" He said, trotting up to me, so close, that I could see the scratches in his goggles.

"Stay the fuck back!" I growled, shoving him away from me.

"Hey, hey, hey!" He said, standing on his hind legs and holding his forelegs in the air. "I was just gonna say that you remind me of somepony."

Huh? I craned my neck and cocked my head. These ponies were testing my patience. I didn't know any of these ponies, and I didn't have time for this bullshit!

I glared at him, "Do you, now?"

He bobbed his head with a nicker. "Yeah, yeah, you guys know this pony too, right?" He fell on all fours and turned to the others.

They nodded, trotting towards me. Who the hell were these ponies?

"Listen, I don't know who the fuck you are –"

"Mhm, I've seen him around," Said a mare as she unslung a battle rifle from her back.

"Yeah, he's that one slave," Grated another as the ponies leveled their weapons at me.

My eyes widened. "W-what? I don't even know you ponies." I stammered, trembling. "I'm no slave." I croaked, my eyes darting to each pony and back at my holster.

They all laughed at me, the other stallion approaching me with a long metal chain. I drew my pistol reflexively.

"You are now." He said, with a wide grin.

I froze. My mouth opened and closed with words I couldn't find. No, not like this. My eyes locked onto the holster slung across my chest.

"No." I said, backing away. "I don't want to hurt anypony …" I pleaded with them; I didn't want any more blood on my hooves. "Nopony needs to die."

"Die?" The mare guffawed. "You're surrounded, colt."

Please, Goddesses, don't make me kill anypony else. Goddesses, somepony, something – make them turn around and leave!

The unicorn pony chuckled, taking a menacing hoofstep towards me. "Don't even think about it." The stallion said forcefully, levitating his machine pistol to my head. "You're coming with us whether you like it or not, colt."

My lungs ached as I realized that I'd been holding my breath.

I closed my eyes for a moment, and when they fluttered open, I exhaled, slowly. Nopony's going to stop me now. Not when I'm so close. Not with so many ponies waiting for me to come back home. "Fuck. You." I said, under my breath, and slipped into SATs.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

The stallion's goggles exploded inward as a bullet speared through his lenses and out the back of his head. A heartbeat later, the pony with the shackles dropped dead before he could even scream as I blew a hole out the back of his hood. My third, aimed at the mare with the battle rifle, went wide as she dived towards me, forelegs outstretched.

"You son of a bitch!" she howled. I gazed at them with shock as they slung their weapons and launched themselves into the fray. They wanted me alive.

I tongued my mouth bit, my pistol discharging the last of its magazine as they wrenched it out of my teeth, blowing one pony's left ear off in the process. In a whinnying frenzy, he spun around and bucked me in the chest, knocking the air from my lungs before the mare slammed into me from the side, tackling me to the powder in a plume of snow.

I shrieked, ramming a hoof into her throat. She threw her head back for a moment, choking for air before another hoof connected with her nose, peppering my muzzle with splotches of her crimson. Not this close, not this close to Poneva was I going to go down to scum like these!

"Get. Off!" I cried out hoarsely, bucking her off me with a grunt and kicked up snow beneath me as I scrambled for my fallen pistol. Won't – be – a – victim -

I was a breath away from it before a stallion kicked it away from my hooves.

He wrestled me to the snow in a tangle of limbs, slamming a hoof into me before violently flinging me over onto my stomach. I thrashed and screamed as he and the rifle mare pinned me to the snow as I kicked a crater out of the ground in my desperate struggle.

I looked up and a younger looking mare with blue goggles rushed towards me, a carbine floating in front of her. She looked down at me with conflicted eyes, and hesitated.

"Sugar Rum, do it!" The stallion screamed, hoofing me in the ribcage. She blinked, and slammed the buttstock of her carbine into the base of my skull, ramming my face into the snow.

My sight blurred out and I tasted the irony taste of blood that I'd learned to become familiar with, lately. That lull in consciousness was all the time they needed. With an audible metallic clank, I felt the cold touch of frozen metal clamp around my hooves.

I lay there in a heap, beaten and overpowered. There was nothing I could do now.

"No …" I whimpered, as they rolled me over on my back, a chain tugging against my forelegs. This can't be happening! A rivulet of blood ran down my forehead and over my brow as they dragged me back to their wagon.

In that moment, I lost everything. Dew Drops' scarf, my family pictures – everything in my bags - my holster and my gun. I lost the only thing worth living for in this wasteland. I lost what Night Sky and her mercs washed their hands with blood to preserve.

I lost my freedom. I took it for granted, chose what was right over what needed to be done, chose to be a good pony, and chose to walk away from my only chance at making it to Poneva in safety. Everypony in Stable 29 was going to die, and it was all my fault.

I was Red Dawn. I was a victim.

Now I was a slave.

"You did us a favor." The mare with the carbine said into my ear as she chained me to the back of their wagon. I looked up into the wagon bed and half a dozen weary eyes peered back down at me between the metal bars of a steel cage. "Now the cut's split between the four of us."

---

I trotted sullenly, my forelegs chained to the back of the wagon as it rolled due north. I was getting to Poneva after all.

In shackles, of course.

This, sadly, was yet another thing that Night Sky was right about. Slavers. I should've stayed with Night Sky; the weak and naïve don't survive too long out here, I came to realize.

There was no way out of this, I concluded abysmally as I clanked my biting chains together. I looked up and Sugar Rum, the mare that had beaten my skull in with her carbine, was watching me through her blue goggles. I shot her a deathly look and she kept my burning gaze for a few heartbeats. With a snort of icy air, she turned away, panning her flashlight across the road.

I wasn't dead yet. As bleak as my situation looked, the only thing running circles around my mind was – how the hell was I going to get out of this? I'd lived to see my friends die, and walked away from certain death three times now. This was not how it was supposed to end. The wasteland can take anything but my freedom if I could help it.

It was my choice to pick up where my friends had left off when they died; if even that choice was taken away from me, life was no longer worth living. Night Sky told me I didn't get to choose the easy way out; but, ultimately, I had the right to choose how I'd die. And I wouldn't let these bastards take that away from me.

I grinded my teeth together and eyeballed the back of the wagon where they had thrown my bags. I narrowed them at the black shape of my holster. If I could just get to them …

I shot the slavers with a look that promised murder. One of them saw me and laughed. They didn't give two shits about what I thought of them as they pulled the wagon through the debris-littered highway.

I followed my clanking metal chains to the steel bars of a cage sitting on the wagon's bed. I stared through its dirty, rime encrusted bars and saw them – 6 poor ponies in all, as they sat together in somber quietude.

What I saw made my blood boil. The ponies were battered and bruised. Some had black eyes; others had bumps on their heads or patches of coat missing. One of the mares had a bloody, blackened flank. She lay on the wagon floor with glassy eyes, not staring at anything in particular. Each pony inside had a collar wrapped around their necks – wired collars that blinked every now and then with a red light. My expression darkened as one of the ponies met my eyes.

"What are those things around your necks?" I asked.

A mare with bandages around her chest replied, "Bomb collars."

Goddesses have mercy. How can anypony do that to somepony? Bomb collars? What the fucking fuck? They chained me to the back of the wagon because there wasn't enough room inside the cage. My lack of a collar supported the notion that they weren't prepared to capture more than six. But they'd made accommodations just for me.

"What did they do to you all?" I whispered, my voice trembling.

For several heartbeats, nopony answered. An earth pony in tattered snow barding limped to the cage's bars and peered down at me. "Took me while my daughter and I were scavenging for food." He answered, faintly.

My jaw clenched. His filly was nowhere to be seen. "Your daughter … what happened to her?"

He looked at his hooves, and back at me with eyes that burned with balefire. He blinked furiously, shaking his head as they welled with tears. "They took me … and left her behind."

These slavers were vermin. "Why …" I murmured.

"East Eden ca' never have 'nuff slaves." A stallion missing several patches of coat where curved lines lacerated his bare flesh, croaked.

I looked at him with gloomy curiosity. "East Eden?"

The mare with bandages wrapped around her chest crawled to the metal bars. "They're a plantation in Poneva. They need slaves to plow and harvest their fields."

"They're going to put us to work and work us to death," Growled the earth pony.

The mangy stallion shook his head. "That ain't true. I heard they feed you and put a roof over your head." I couldn't believe that.

"Bullshit." The pony hissed. "They don't give a shit about any of us! Look at what they did to her!" He pointed a forehoof at the mare with the bloody flank. "Look at what they did to my filly!"

"S'better than being dead." The mangy pony replied. I almost stopped in my tracks, but the chain dragged me along with it. Nothing can be better than being dead. Especially this. "Three meals a day, and a bed t'sleep in. Ain't nuthin wrong with that."

To my shock, the mare nodded, slowly. "I scavenged everyday for something to eat before these slavers found me. Sometimes I'd go a day or two without something in my stomach."

A pony leaning against the bars in the back of the cage, turned his eyes low. "I'd do anything … anything for a bite. Just … something to eat," Added a unicorn with a broken horn. "I'm so hungry."

The mare and the patchy pony nodded together, shamelessly.

"No!" I snapped, raising my voice. These ponies – how could they be so accepting of this – this abomination of a fate? They looked at me with bleak, desperate eyes. "How can anypony be okay with this?!" I demanded.

None of the ponies said anything. Not even the earth pony. They were as beaten and hopeless as this frozen wasteland.

"You're a stable pony," The hornless unicorn began, eying my pipbuck. "You don't know what it's like out here … you're lucky if you eat once a day. You're a king if you eat twice."

"No. No. No." I hissed, glaring at him, "This and this?" I said, pointing a forehoof at the daughterless earth pony and the mare with the bloodied flank, "This isn't right. And nopony should be fine about it."

"It doesn't matter." I whirled my baleful gaze to its source and Sugar Rum's blue goggles were facing me. "East Eden's better than out here."

"Nowhere. Is better. Than here." I stated, scorning the very snow that crunched beneath my hooves. "But you ponies, you slaver pieces of shits make this world worse than it already is." I was going to tear this mare apart! "How the fuck do you live with yourself? Huh?" These ponies – no, these vermin - were worse than Night Sky's mercs.

Her goggles gave away nothing of the pony beneath.

Seconds passed, and Sugar Rum finally replied, "It's a business. You get paid. And when you get paid, you can put food on the table. If I don't do this, my family'll starve." Her voice was trembling and tinged with self-reproach.

"It's not worth it!" I screamed, venting out all the anger that I had stored for Night Sky. "You fuckers, y-you sick, calculating fucks - that's all it is to you, isn't it!?" Sugar Rum turned her head away from me and stared off into the distance. My voice lowered as I craned my neck towards her.

"It's just for the caps, isn't it?" I intoned, mockingly. I glanced at the poor mare with the ruined flank. "Look at me." I said to the slaver, hoarsely. She didn't turn. "I SAID, LOOK AT ME!"

Her goggles pivoted shakily towards me like an unoiled machine. "Now look at her." I said, pointing at the glassy eyed mare. "You see that? Is that what you do? Is that … that work … worth it? How'd you like it if somepony did that to you?"

The slaves were as speechless as the slaver. I don't think they've seen anypony mouth off to a slaver like that before. Sugar Rum looked at her hooves, and muttered something incomprehensible. "What?" I demanded. "What the fuck did you just say?"

"I … I …" She stammered, choking on her own words. Sugar Rum sniffed, bowing her head for a dark moment. Her blue goggles turned to face me, and I saw my own reflection. "I… don't care. I-I don't fucking care."

I trotted behind the wagon in silence as the wind howled around me. No hope. There was no hope for these ponies.

"Hey …" Somepony whispered. I looked up to cage and the ponies inside parted aside. The ravaged mare was looking straight … through me. "Thank you … you're right, this isn't okay." She stated, faintly. "But there's nothing. Nothing we can do now."

I looked down at my hooves. Maybe she was right. My chains were cold, cold steel. No amount of pulling, yanking, or bitching was going to save me now. My body was chained, but my spirit wanted to be free. My stable was calling out to me. My mother was praying to the Goddeses to spirit me back home.

I made a promise to Dew Drops. I wasn't going to give up now.

In the darkness, several octaves higher than the sorrowful songs that the wind moaned, howled a creature that sounded nothing like anything I'd ever heard. Sugar Rum straightened out, levitating her carbine over the wagon's sideboard, her ears perked.

I heard it again, the haunting, unnatural howl that rattled my resolve. I trotted as close to the wagon as I could, the slaves inside the cage huddling together in fear. Fear. I thought I knew what it felt like to fear.

I swung my head around in every direction, trying to find the source of the devilish cries. Or sources. I nearly jumped when dozens of the terrifying howls pierced the night. I saw them. Goddesses. There were so many of them.

Rising from under the ridgeline's broken fingers, on either side of highway, were a dozen black shapes in all. Each was about as big as a third of the wagon's frame.

"Bloodletters!" One of the slavers scrambled onboard the wagon, a machine pistol in his mouth.

"Faster, we need to get away from those things!" The mare with the battle rifle ordered, tapping her hoof rapidly on the wagon's sideboard. The wagon puller nodded and entered a gallop. That resistance – that unwillingness to sit there and become prey, set the creatures off. The prey was escaping.

And they needed to feed.

With a rallying screech, a bloodletter leaped off the ridgeline and landed in a burst of powder. It blew through the snow shower at a full sprint, snarling as it bounded towards us.

"Put 'em down! Don't let 'em get close!" The rifle mare shouted, lighting up the night with flashes of muzzle flare. Sugar Rum panned her flashlight at the creature and I saw that it was a wolf as white as the snow itself. Its mindless, soulless eyes hungered for flesh and its slobbering mouth was wet with frothing saliva.

Chunks of its flesh blew off as the battle rifle's large caliber rounds tore into it. It yelped, faltered for a moment, but carried on as its kin joined the fray. A dozen of the creatures leaped into the highway from both sides. I screamed as one of the bloodletters flung itself in front of the wagon and ripped into the wagon puller.

His gurgling screams halted as the wagon ran both of them over with a sickening crunch, flipping the wagon's frame end over end to crash into the snow in pieces. I was flung into the air as the wagon smashed into a snow drift. I thrashed my limbs midair, screaming for my life when the chain brutally yanked me back down to the earth in a blur of flailing limbs.

I crunched into fresh debris, my forehead smashing through a ruined plank of wood. I got to my hooves, blood running down my face, and all around me, ponies screamed. Only this time, it wasn't a village burning.

Littering the snow was the remains of the slavers' wagons, and underneath them, they clawed to the surface. One of the stallions burst through the debris, stumbling out into the open. I shrieked as a blurred form rammed into him, claws ripping through his barding as a bloodletter struck him down. I scrambled away, turning from the feasting creature even as the pony's screams died away to the snarling and howling of the mutant wolves.

"Goddesses – oh my Celestia – Luna's fucking grace!" I murmured as several more of the wolves fought for the slaver's meaty limbs. One of the bloodletters cocked its head at me and found the smell of my fear tantalizing.

My eyes widened as it bounded towards me, baring its wickedly sharp teeth. I galloped away and – the chain yanked me back to the ground. The bloodletter pounced. It tackled me to the snow, its claws digging into my barding as it snapped at my exposed throat.

I held out a foreleg in terror and watched with wide eyes as it, instead of chomping through my flesh, ripped through the chains that bound my legs. Unshackled, I threw out my forelegs and shoved it back with all the strength I had left, pouring into my forelegs all the hope and desperation the wasteland hadn't taken from me yet. It roared into my muzzle, spraying my face with ropes of disgusting spittle. The smell of its breath was that of a hundred rotting corpses. I could still see chunks of meat poking out from between its teeth.

The dead were calling me. Calling me to join them.

With a nightmarish, unnatural screech, the bloodletter threw its head back and bellowed a throaty, deafening roar that made my ears ring. Its head began to writhe and twitch from the inside out. Its lower jaw parted, and widened, and widened – and Goddesses, its head fucking ripped open!

It split apart, blooming outward like a budding flower – only its head didn't come apart. With a disgusting fetid gurgle, a long, writhing proboscis erupted out from the fleshy hole that was its throat between its four dripping mandibles.

"Holy shit – what the fuck is this thing!?" I cried out, as thick ropes of sickening saliva dripped onto my quivering muzzle. I bared my teeth and screamed into its flapping mandibles, trying to wrestle the beast off me.

The bloodletter hissed, its fleshy, pink proboscis widening to reveal row upon row of serrated teeth. It, about as long as my outstretched foreleg, snaked into the air as I held back the rest of its body with faltering strength.

My muscles were burning. It was too strong, any moment now I'd let go.

I faltered.

My forelegs slackened. In a heartbeat, it was upon me. I shrieked as blood splashed onto my face and onto my chest. It tore into me, ripped open my chest cavity. I lay there screaming, bleeding out.

But the blood wasn't mine. The mutant abomination let out a dying hiss and slumped on top of me with a dozen ragged holes pouring crimson out of its throat. I wrestled it off me with a faint groan, and saw Sugar Rum's carbine smoking.

She lowered her carbine and flung my belongings at me with a magical field. I looked at her, covered in thick scarlet. Sugar Rum nodded once, levitated her gun, and continued firing. Two of the remaining slavers galloped towards her, opening up with their automatic weapons as the bloodletters plodded towards us.

I slipped on my holster and threw on my satchel bags. Somepony screamed behind me, and I whirled on my hooves. No!

Three bloodletters circled the cage as the ponies huddled together inside, only inches away from the mutant canines.

"HELP! Somepony, please!" The mare screamed.

"Get us out of here!" Shouted the earth pony stallion.

"The slaves!" I cried, pointing a forehoof at the cagefull of ponies.

The two other slavers ignored me, firing their guns like their lives depended on it.

"We need to help them!" I galloped toward Sugar Rum, gnawing my pistol's mouth bit.

"The key, find the key!" she hollered at me.

I panned my pipbuck's flashlight across the snow and spotted something shiny. I kicked my legs towards it - and a bloodletter landed in front of me. Son of a bitch – it thrashed through the snow, bounding towards me… and the key disappeared beneath the shifting drifts.

I lost it. I lost.

"NOOO!" I cried, my face red as SATs aiming my entire magazine's worth of 10mm rounds down its gaping maw. The bullets lost their velocity, and blew apart its neck in chunks of ruined gore. It tumbled to the snow, its thrashing death rattle painting the drifts crimson with a fountain of blood. It slid to my hooves in a trail of gore, dead.

I spun my head to the wagon's wreckage just in time to see the bad go to worse. The slaves screamed as one of the bloodletters wrapped its jaws around one of the metal bars and yanked. The cage fell over on its side, pinning the creature beneath – the ponies landing on top of it in a shrieking heap. Its head split open and it snaked its writhing proboscis through the cage and ripped into the mangy pony's throat.

It shredded out a huge chunk of flesh and he fell back against the metal bars at the other end of the cage. Within seconds, the bloodletters outside devoured his flesh through the bars in a gory frenzy of chomping teeth. He screamed in silence, his throat torn to the bone as they tore his limbs through the bars.

I shook my head vigorously, unloading a tirade of bullets their way. Several plunged deep, but the beasts were unfazed in their enraged, mindless state.

"Dear Celestia, somepony help them!" I pleaded in desperation.

"Fuck 'em," The slaver mare with the battle rifle shouted back. "Let's get the fuck outta here!"

"You mother fuckers!" I roared, swinging my pistol to the slavers. I heard the mare inside the cage scream and I swung it back at the wolves to see her lose her forearms.

The slavers turned and galloped – except Sugar Rum. She glanced over her shoulder once, and levitated her carbine to gun down a bloodletter that got too close. Behind me the slaves howled in agony as the mutant abominations shredded through the metal bars like plastic.

It was a feast.

I watched helplessly while they tore into the defenseless morsels, devouring them alive, their shrieks dying beneath the beasts' nightmarish screaming. I started towards them, and paused – it was no use. They were already dead. I turned and darted my eyes to the fleeing slavers. I glanced back at the feeding frenzy, the voracious cacophony echoing thousands of times over in the thoughts, clawing at the white walls of my conscience, staining them red, cracking them with every vicious snap.

I stood there and watched both, my heart threatening to burst from my chest. I stood on my hinds and cradled my head in my hooves, screaming for Luna's grace.

Everypony I tried to help slipped away from my hooves.

With a whooping screech, one of the beasts pounced on Sugar Rum, clawing through her throat with its razor sharp talons. She stumbled backwards on her hinds, her forelegs wrapped around her neck, blood spurting through her hooves.

I roared, SATs guiding rounds through its head until my magazine clicked empty. I galloped towards Sugar Rum as she fell back into the snow, her lifeblood melting through the powder around her.

I held out my hooves but she swatted them away, shaking her head.

"Sorry - I'm sorry... the things I've done... the ponies I've killed... not worth it." She choked, blood running down her lips. She hoofed one of her breast pockets, and pulled out a frayed slip of paper, holding it out to me with a bloody hoof. It was an aged photograph of a golden yellow pony, a mare with blonde locks, and two pale coated twins. "Take it … please …" She said with an anguished sigh. I slipped it into one of my vest pockets, nodding gravely. Sugar Rum lifted her blue goggles and pulled down her hood, revealing the amber coated pony underneath. Her watery, teal eyes gazed up at me as the light began to fade from them.

"The slaves …" I began.

"I'll take – c- care of them." Sugar Rum croaked. She levitated a small tube, and flipped open its top. "Go. If you find my daughters … my sister … tell them I-I … I went out … a good pony."

I nodded, somberly. "Thank you." I whispered, touching her cheek with a forehoof as tears welled in my eyes.

I glanced over at her once, and saw Sugar Rum sit up, her carbine blazing into the night. I galloped away from her and after the other two slavers. They hadn't gotten far. I saw, splattered across the snow, a stallion, his chest cavity opened and viscera spilled across the melting pale. Around him were two dead bloodletters, their heads blown apart by large caliber rifle rounds.

The mare was on the ground, wrestling with one of the beasts.

"Help!" She cried out, as the proboscis clamped down on her shoulder and tore out a haunch of meat.

A part of me just wanted to keep running. I watched as she struggled, entranced by my conflicting conscience. I felt it again. The darkest corners of my mind whispering to me. Telling me to run.

The night lit up for a brief moment with a resonating crack, my ears ringing as my eyes fluttered closed. A single gunshot followed, and the screams behind me ceased. Only the bloodletters remained. I exhaled a shaky breath.

Tonguing my mouth bit, I chanced a trio of unguided rounds that struck the beast in its center of mass. They plunged through its coat, tumbling through its chest and exploding out the other side. It paused to scream, and the mare bucked it off her.

She scrambled to her hooves and broke into a full on gallop, blood trailing behind her. "C'mon, c'mon!" She shouted. And I followed.

The ridgeline disappeared behind us and we scrambled up a steep hill of broken asphalt and metal beams half buried beneath century-old snow. We approached a lone building, with an aged, blackened sign that vaguely read 'Mane 7-Eleven' as the bloodletters closed in on us, the hunger of the roaring beasts not yet sated.

Rifle mare bucked down the door to the building and we charged in, not caring what may be inside. I shut the door behind us and we scrambled inside. The mare pushed in front of the door a half-disintegrated shelf, bits of blackened miscellanea spilling from its as we heaved it into place.

For good measure, we heaved two more – but even then, we were only forestalling the inevitable. Outside, our horrible deaths awaited us. The door rattled and shook, the wooden barrier threatening to snap. A crack opened up in the door's frame, and the enraged, bloodshot eye of a snarling beast glared back at us.

"Shit! These things are fucking strong!" The mare hissed, backing away from the barricades. She looked at me. The door slammed once more, and one of the shelves fell over in a heap of shattered wood and metal, kicking up plumes of ash that hung above the charred floor.

The slaver turned to look at me, levitating her sidearm from a leg holster and said, "If we make it out of this, I'll let you go."

My expression darkened. We were going to die, and that was what she was thinking. To her, I was still just another slave. She left the slaves behind for dead – for bait - so she could escape, and didn't give a single shit. Even Sugar Rum had a change of heart.

This one … this one cared only about herself. I stared at her with a disturbing calmness that would have frightened me had I looked in a mirror. I shivered beneath my barding; in that moment, the bestial roars outside, my heaving chest, my pounding temples – they all faded away into a grim silence.

I decided that only one of us was going to make it out of this alive.

Cold, black paint trickled down the pock marked walls of my conscience. I let the floodgates part.

I learn from my mistakes. I don't make the same mistakes twice. And you know what?

Good things happen to bad ponies.

"W-why are you looking at me like that?" She asked, turning to face me.

I slipped into SATs.

Her knees snapped beneath her like wooden planks with a satisfying, wet crack.

She let out a horrifying scream as her pistol discharged, two of the rounds pancaking against my barding and one grazing my neck. I watched with an icy stare as she crumbled to the floor, blood running down my neck.

"You son of a bitch!" She wailed, as I spun around and ran the other way. One of the shelves went down in a crunch of splintered wood. She crawled across the floor with her useless limbs and leaned against the final barricade holding it against the door for her dear life. Outside, the monsters rammed their bodies against the door behind her. "NO! Don't leave me, here! Please!"
I galloped away from her, knocking over shelves in my wake.

"PLEASE!"

I didn't look back. The doors smashed open in a cloud of ash and splintered parts as their carnal, bestial roars echoed behind me. They tore into her, the sounds of flesh tearing and bones breaking piercing my ears as the bloodletters ripped her apart, limb from limb.

I bucked down the backdoor and galloped out into the snow, the mare's frantic, gurgling screams dying away behind me. My legs pounded beneath me, kicking up showers of powder as I ran for my life. My life.

I ran until the Mane 7-Eleven disappeared behind me in a veil of thick snowfall. For what seemed like hours, I galloped on until my legs gave out beneath me and I crunched into the snow. Out of breath, I wheezed for air, filling my lungs with biting cold oxygen that reminded me that I … I was still alive.

I struggled to my hooves and looked up. A sign. I beamed it with my pipbuck's flashlight.

Welcome to the City of Poneva.

Population 185,538.

I stared up at the sign in disbelief, my breaths coming out as coughs. I held out my forelegs and hugged the sign's metal posts, gasping for breath. I wheezed, fell on all fours, and threw up acid, for I had nothing left to heave. I lay there in the drifts, curled up into a ball, writhing as my stomach churned and my head spun.

I took a deep breath, and exhaled slowly, my breath dissipating into the darkness. A wide grin slowly stretched across my face.

"Hah … hah …" I breathed. "Haha ... Hahaha ..." I closed my eyes, threw my head back and laughed. I whooped with maddening hilarity until my cackles turned to chuckles, and my chuckles turned into sobs.

I choked on trembling sobs as warm, fresh tears welled out of my weary eyes. I wept into my hooves, my tears mingling with the dried crimson that splattered my face, turning black, and seething down my cheeks in dark rivulets. It was as if I was crying blood.

I sat on my rump in the snow, staring off into the distance, my heart throbbing, my lungs heaving, my body shivering. The huge, towering skyscrapers of Poneva rose to the clouds, lights and distant signs twinkling as far as the eye could see.

I made it, Dew Drops, I made it.

I was alive. I won.

That was all that mattered.

Footnote: Level Up.

New Perk: Mare Killer - 10% damage to the opposite sex and unique dialogue options with certain characters.

FALLOUT EQUESTRIA: RISING DAWN

Chapter 3

Dust and Echoes

Tomorrow it will be over

For the world will soon be waking

To a summer day.

I've never been afraid of the dark. I've never been afraid of ghosts either. Well, I've never seen a ghost, for that matter. The most frightening thing that had happened to me before the doors opened was described as a "sauna treatment and a paper cut" by my best friend.

Everpony has nightmares. But we always wake up from them. Always …

Whenever I had nightmares, I always woke up in my room, relieved to see that the white washed walls of my stable were still standing around me. I'd tell myself that the horrors I'd seen weren't real and that I was still home safe.

As a foal, whenever I'd wake up kicking and screaming, my mother would cradle me under her angel wings. The softness of her feathers and her soothing lullabies always brought me back from the brink of hysteria. I'd lay there beneath her feathers and look up into tender eyes that promised me unconditional love and comfort.

When I was awake, the fears of unscrewing the wrong pipe or tampering with the wrong console had always been chased away by Dew Drops' helping hoof.

Together, it seemed, there was nothing we couldn't fix. She told me that with our friends, anything was possible. She promised me that we'd save our stable … together.

Looking back now, I remember that the textbooks told us of the mantras of our ancestors. 'Friendship is magic', was one of many.

Together, my friends would drive away the fears and insecurities of stable life with their warm laughter and unwavering loyalty. But then, there was not much to fear within Stable 91's secure, hardened walls.

My day to day life in the stable had been a mundane one. I fixed things that ponies broke, I inspected the pipes, systems, and terminals at engineering, and I made my usual rounds between the living quarters, cafeteria, and my toilet.
My two greatest fears were getting locked inside of engineering past curfew, and swimming in poop water. Whooptie fucking doo. The worse that could happen was either a reduction in rations or a visit to Dr. Stitch's clinic so he could make morbid jokes about your injuries.

I think of them and I laugh, for they were petty and insignificant in comparison to the things I'd truly learn to fear in the world above.

I suppose I expected too much from the wasteland. Perhaps, I thought, that when we emerged, we'd trot out into a world reborn.

Then reality hit me. I realized that there were worse things than nightmares.

My entire life, I'd taken the safety and relative luxury of my home for granted. The simple act of being alive in a stable was a gift that nopony ever seemed thankful for. We simply lived, and lived, and lived as the world above us, a world of magic and magnificence, disintegrated into nothing but the dust and echoes of a shameful age.

We'd been told that we'd only leave the stable when it was safe. We'd leave when we were ready.

Well when we did, we weren't ready at all. Not even by a longshot. We weren't ready for the degenerate monsters that everypony had devolved into on the surface.

We forewent the safety of our homes. We threw it all away for the comfort of purified water. We trampled upon the graves of the ponies we left behind to die.

And we paid the price.

Everpony has nightmares. But some nightmares never end.

---

I woke up screaming. Forelegs pinned me to the cold metal frame of a hospital gurney. I thrashed against their limbs, swatting them away and kicking my legs at the silhouettes that blurred around me.

"Get away you, psychos! GET THE FUCK AWAY!" I howled, batting away their invading limbs.

They found me, and now they were going to torture me like they did to Amber Fields.

"FUCK! YOU!" I roared, kicking one of the equine shapes in the face. It fell over, moaning, and disappeared from my hazy eyes.

"I'LL TAKE YOU ALL WITH ME!" Somepony grabbed my forehooves, pulling them away from me. Surely they'd rip me limb from limb. I was going to die.

"NO!" I writhed, yanking whoever was holding my right foreleg on top of me. I rolled over and I heard a mare with pink eyes scream, but I didn't care. I brought my forehooves to her throat and squeezed. She kicked under me, suffocating.

"I'll kill you! I'll fucking kill you!"

I felt something metal crack against my skull and I fell over, blacking out for a second.

"Hold him still!" somepony shouted.

I waited for the touch of a cold blade to slice through my bare flesh. I waited for the ripping, the tearing – but they never came.

With my limbs pinned to the ground, I could do nothing as I felt the familiar taste of health potion dribble down my lips and wash down my throat. My head was spinning too much to care who was administering it.

I held out my limbs weakly in feeble resistance. And for good measure, they cracked me across the skull again.

My consciousness left the building before I could scream.

---

My mummified body lay shivering on an itchy cot with a mildew-stained blanket pulled up to my neck. My limbs were splayed out underneath the blanket, and one of my legs hung limply from the edge of the bed.

I was alive. But I sure as hell didn't feel like it. The flesh under my coat was bruised black and blue. My head throbbed as if I'd been beat with a metal bar. Wait. If I remember correctly, I was.

I groaned, tucking in my battered legs to my chest. My weary, bloodshot eyes looked around the room. A gas lamp glowed dimly on a shabby bedside table to my right, its faint light hardly illuminating the cabin end to end. Around me was a patchwork structure of corrugated scrap metal bolted together to build the walls that held the makeshift ceiling aloft. Outside, I could hear the wind moan, running its freezing tendrils across the walls in poor attempts to reach the inside of this metal hovel.

"Welcome back." A voice said as a mare walked out of the veil of darkness at the furthest corner of the room.

"Dew Drops?" I murmured, hopefully.

My ears drooped when a pony with a midnight blue coat and a black mane stepped into the light. Shadows played across her hard complexion. The mare looked like she'd seen better days.

"Night Sky." She trotted up to my cot and held up a small photograph in one of her hooves and a blue scarf slung over her back. She placed both at the edge of the bed between my legs. "You got a name?"

I closed my weary eyes and replied, "Red. Dawn."
She nodded thoughtfully, glancing at my pipbuck. "You're one of those stable folk, aren't you." Night Sky said, not asking.

The blue scarf levitated to my chest and I ran a hoof across its blood specked fabric as gently as I would with Dew Drops' mane. I found that I'd been holding my breath, and I exhaled shakily, holding my head in my hooves.

I swirled a faint magical field around the picture and floated it to my eyes in silence. Dew Drops. Box Cutter. Amber Fields. Lightning Twirl. Star Glint. I turned my eyes pleadingly to the rime encrusted window to look out into the unforgiving winter.

"We found you in the drifts, half dead. You looked like you've been through hell."

I looked over the picture of my friends and eyed her painfully.

"If this is hell …" I whispered, my voice trembling.

"This ain't hell. It's worse." The mare said with a cold smile, "Welcome to the wasteland, Red Dawn."

I stared at her wide eyed. Welcome back to life. I gulped a lump down my throat, grinding my teeth together. My lower lip trembled in denial. This was a nightmare, and I was going to wake up from it… I set the photo down on the blanket and my shoulders began to rock with sobs.

Wake up … please. I closed my eyes, listening to the chilling gale howl away outside the patchwork walls. I opened them and I was still lying on the same scratchy cot, in the same bleak hovel. I stared longingly at Dew Drops' striped scarf, tears welling in my eyes.

I swung my legs out of the blankets and stood on rickety hooves.

"And where the hell do you think you're going?" the mare started towards me.

"They're still out there." I croaked, pointing out a rime encrusted window. I made for what looked to be the door, but Night Sky stepped into my path. "My friends –"

"Are dead."

"No!" I stumbled to get past her but she pushed me back with a foreleg. "You didn't see them … you don't know!"

The look she gave me insisted that she'd beg to differ. My heart sunk. "You go out there and I'm not gonna drag your sorry flank back." She said, severely. I started towards her only to cry out in agony as pain jolted through my chest. With blurry eyes, I fell to the wooden floor in a heap. Blood seeped out of the gray bandages, and I could feel my heat dissipating into the freezing cabin.

I felt Night Sky clamp her jaws on my mane, but I twisted away, curling up on the floor.

"Now you opened up that cut of yours again." She muttered, rolling me over and tugging at the bandages.

I shook her off and tucked my legs into my chest. She stood over me, regarding me with her steely blue eyes. I sobbed and blinked away fresh tears. "Why am I alive …" I whimpered, burying my head in my hooves.

"You're lucky. Not everypony gets to die in the wasteland." Night Sky replied grimly, sitting on her bottom. "My crew patched you up. Though I nearly beat your brains out …" She turned her head low, glaring at me. "You kicked one of my ponies in the face and choked another one of 'em out. Look at you now, walking all over the place wrapped up like that. You ain't so soft for a stable pony, are you?" The mare chuckled. "No wonder you survived."

"What the fuck … did you just say?" I breathed, rising to trembling hooves.

"What?"

"No wonder I survived … I watched my friends die … and I ran." I chuckled, darkly, baring my teeth as I looked the mare in the eye. "Maybe I didn't want to come back. Did you think for once that maybe I didn't want to survive?" I snapped, tears streaming down my face.

She stayed my glare and stared back, unflinching.

"You ain't got a choice to just die, Red Dawn."

"Bullshit!" I hissed. "I walked out into that blizzard thinking I wouldn't be coming back. You think I want to be here?" I cried, choking on my own tears. "Do you fucking think I want to be alive in this shithole?!" I shouted hoarsely into her face. Night Sky's gaze did not relent.

Night Sky clenched her jaw and gave me a ghastly look. "This place may be a shit hole … but it's all we've got left." She said, softly. I looked down her chest and saw flecks of blood all over her barding.

It changed nothing.

"I'm leaving, and you're not going to stop me," I stated, close enough to her muzzle to feel her shallow breaths.

I wiped away my tears and pushed past the mare, zipping up my barding and throwing on my saddle bags. She just stared after me as I limped out the door and started down a flight of stairs. Two ponies sat at a bar below. I trotted past them to the door, and they looked up from their shot glasses, eyeing at me irritably.

"The hell are you doing?" One of them grated, getting off his stool.

Night Sky poked her head over the railing. "Let him go." She said, simply.

The stallion snorted and returned to the bar, not even pausing once to glance over his shoulder. The mare sitting next to him followed me with her pink eyes as I limped to the door.

As soon as I stepped out, the unforgiving storm hit me. Engulfed in frozen powder, I made my way blindly through the snow, the drifts threatening to swallow me whole. I could faintly make out lonely lights and other ramshackle buildings across the street as I plodded across the shifting, snowy dunes.

I kept walking, my eyes only opening once to see if the lights were several desolate yards behind me. I whimpered, sobbing with tears that hurt to shed as I gazed longingly at the picture I held in my hoof.

My head was spinning and the gash on my chest had either clotted or froze. I took a shuddering breath and slumped into the pale.

Days ago I had been afraid to let go of the life I'd been living in the stable. I could have died. Back at the stable, I could have died a scalding death. I was afraid that I'd leave them all behind, but instead, they left me to fend for myself in this frozen hell. Night Sky and her ponies had given me a second chance I never wanted.

Now, even surrounded by those surface dwellers, I was still alone. So alone.

All I wanted to do now was join them. I couldn't finish what we started without them. We were supposed to find the talisman together. Together!

"Anywhere but here …" I wept, "Goddesses … anywhere but here." My weakened body was wracked with quaking shivers, my frayed barding exposed to the wind and snow that swirled around me. I didn't care.

I should have died.

I moaned feverishly, reaching into my bags to pull out the same shovel I'd used to dig Spring Fresh's grave, and started digging. Tears welled out of my bloodshot eyes as I stabbed at the frozen earth again and again, only to freeze along my cheeks with every chilling, agonizing minute that slaved by.

My limbs were numb and my consciousness was pervaded by a tunneling, skull splitting headache that threatened to send me sprawling into the powder. My heart labored weakly and my body pleaded with me to stop. Every fiber of my being wanted to give up.

But I toiled onward, not caring even as my ears and limbs swelled and blistered with throbbing chilblains. I collapsed into the snow, writhing with every laborious breath.

Give up. Just give up.

I pulled myself to my hooves with a grim resolve and speared the shovel through the frozen earth once more. I wouldn't stop digging until I'd hollowed out a grave for each of my friends. I thought of them as I dug, their memories – the burden of surviving while they did not, weighed down heavily upon my shoulders.

With every grave I finished, I buried my burdens. One by one, I'd bury them all.

I dredged out another grave and moved on, tearing into the earth without pause. Every heave of unearthed soil was in their memory. I plunged the shovel into the earth and struggled to break the soil, my magic failing me as my horn flickered and died. An agonizing jolt of pain surged through my skull and I howled into the night, my brain threatening to split asunder.

I moaned, slaving through the torment and bit down on the shovel's handle and continued. I broke the earth, this one for Dew Drops. I wailed her name into the darkness, screaming for the storm to take me to her until my throat went raw.

"Goddesses – anywhere but here!" I howled beseechingly. "TAKE ME AWAY!" I cried out in desperation before I crumpled to the snow in a tangle of writhing, blistering limbs.

I took a shuddering breath and stared grievously into the sky. My pallid flesh was covered in sores that throbbed dully in my fading consciousness. I listened to my slowing heartbeat as the wind blew a frigid requiem fit for a funeral.

A black figure clad in thick barding entered the blurry, veiny tunnel that was my field of vision. The pony helped me to my hooves, and I leaned on its shoulder.

"What've you done …" I heard Night Sky murmur as she stared with wide eyes at the six graves I'd hollowed out of the earth.

I managed a few painful steps towards the final grave I'd dug. The one I'd dug for myself.

"I need to finish this …" I wheezed, clamping my jaws around my shovel's handle and starting towards the half-dredged hole.

Night Sky ripped the shovel out of my mouth and swung it hard into my skull. I tumbled to the snow, blood trickling down my forehead.

"That's enough." She said, tucking the spade into her bags. "I don't know you or your friends, but I'll tell you this much: dying isn't gonna help nopony. Everypony that's alive has lost somepony."

I hacked out scarlet ichor, glaring at her.

"What do you know about losing shit …" I asked, darkly, my voice trembling.

Night Sky's eyes narrowed with icy malice. She unzipped the lower half of her barding and it fell away before me.

My heart almost stopped.

"Too much, I'm afraid." She replied softly, shivering through clenched teeth and wiggling the stubs that used to be her wings. I eyed the scarred flesh over what was supposed to be her cutie mark, a symbol of a lightning bolt branded over her mottled flesh. She zipped on her barding and bit my mane, yanking me to my hooves.

"I'm … sorry …" I rasped weakly.

Night Sky gave me a cold stare. "You might think you got a choice to die, but out here, you ain't got any other choice but to live. Because there ain't anything out here that'll just let you curl up and die – that'd be too easy. There's never an easy way out. There's no mercy for the weak, and there's never no rest for the weary ... you live, and while you're alive, you do everything you can to stay alive."

My eyes fluttered closed as she pushed me onto her back and hauled me back to civilization.

---

The sky .. I never thought I'd ever see it…. this can't be the same sky my ancestors soared…

"Sky … can't … see…" Darkness. I saw only darkness.

Let's just find the damn thing and go…

Phantasms billowed around me, murmuring into my limp ears.

"Can't … won't …."

You're fine, Red. Just catch your breath; we can make it.

Their ghosts whispered to me, coaxing me onward through the night.

"Try … I'll …"

We have ponies waiting for us, waiting for you to come back home. If you give up, if I give up – If any of us gives up, the game's over.

I was tired. I just wanted to rest.

"No! I can't … dead … gone."

The haunting specters encircled me like predatory birds, turning against me in anger. Their lifeless, frozen coats brushed against my own, chilling my very soul. I was letting go and they were holding on.

Goddesses, Red, you got Amber killed and then you let Star trot out there on his own….

I sobbed, feeling the warmness of my blood seeping away from me to dissipate into glacial nothingness.

… knew it was going to happen! Now we're … you're …

"I'm sorry … I'm sorry!" I tried moving my limbs, but they wouldn't budge.

I can't go on like this, Red …

Shadows surged over my still body. A corpse. A corpse to join the rest.

Mommy, no! Don't go!

"Don't let go … don't …!"

It's too late now … I tried to die … I'm so sorry …

A cloudy mist surrounded me, engulfing me in its chilling touch.

"Too late for everypony … too late for the stable …"

We're not done yet… don't give up on our Stable.

"Dew Drops …" I rasped, losing my voice with every exertion.

Promise me.

My mouth struggled to open through the rime that sealed my lips.

As long as there's still one of us going, as long as there's one pony still moving, there's still hope…

My chest trembled and convulsed, my lungs fighting for air that would never come. I could feel the darkness closing in; I could feel the frozen gales taking me away.

Spring Fresh's voice crooned in my thoughts.

Sompony's sleeping … through a bad dream …

The quaking intensified. Balefire bombs fell from the sky, wrenching the once verdant garden apart, burning away the darkness. The ground opened up beneath my hooves and fires licked at my green coat. I could feel it now, the pain, the agony of my bruised, freezing flesh.

I thrashed my hooves as the aftershock rattled my bones, threatening to shatter me into thousands of emerald shards.

I need to get you someplace safe … A mare whispered, my lips moving in time with her words.

My hooves reached out in front of me, and I met Dew Drops' eyes for the last time. The stable's alabaster walls crumbled around me.

In a bloodied heap, I lay pinned beneath the rubble, the 299 ponies of Stable 91 looking up at me through the basement door.

We'll find a way, I promise… Dew Drops' haunting voice whispered to me.

"No … it's over…" I whimpered, gazing wearily at my crushed limbs. My life blood pooled around me, seeping through the debris that crushed my trembling body into the balefire-scorched floor.

Fire light danced equine shadows across my contorted expression, the murmurings of 299 stable ponies begging me to get up. I moaned, unable to move, my spine shattered and my legs buried beneath the rubble.

The voices of my friends, family, and everypony from Stable 91 coalesced into a single, pleading sound. My ears perked weakly as Peach Petals' words reached out to my limp, dying form.

I believe in you ponies. You'll come back … you have to…

I reached out with a foreleg, the balefire parting before me. I reached out with another, my hoof running against the fabric of Dew Drops' blue scarf. I can't ... give up. She never wanted this. I promised her I wouldn't.

Please … I can't lose you too. I don't know what I'll do … my mother begged.

"You won't …" I sobbed.

We're not done yet. Don't give up on our Stable.

"I … won't."

Promise me.

"... I promise."

The rubble gave way to my writhing limbs as I dragged my foreleg across the blackened floor.

"I won't give up!" Blood trickled out of my mouth. The bullet holes on my leg and above my collar bone seeped with fresh blood. It was nothing.

Tomorrow it will be over…

I roared with renewed vigor, fighting against the darkness that threatened to claim me. I kicked and thrashed, bucking my legs through the rubble.

A white light shone upon my face as I rose from the detritus, my coat covered in dried blood and bruised black and blue. I felt its warmth grace my cheek, driving away the shadows and balefire.

For the world will soon be waking … to a summer day…

I reached out with a hoof, and Dew Drops' hoof met mine.

In that instant, the world fell away beneath my hooves and I tumbled into lucidity.

---

I woke up in the same cot. This time, the gas lamp was shut off, and the window shuttered closed. I didn't want to look outside anyways. Not anymore, at least.

I shivered under my now completely bandaged coat. Every part of me, even my ears, were wrapped in wool. I rolled over, wincing at the sharp pain that skittered across my flesh. I shifted my left hind leg and heard the clinking of empty health potion bottles.

Even now, I could feel my blisters and frostbite healing. But without a super regeneration potion from the stable's clinic, my time spent bandaged up was to be a relatively lengthy one. My scabbing flesh itched under the wraps, and I fought the urge to scratch at them.

I sighed, tucking in my legs in search for warmth. I found none. Next to me was Dew Drops' scarf. It was one of the only things I had left to remember her by. I reached out with my magic, but my horn flared once and died. A dull pain throbbed in my skull.

With a shivering foreleg, I pushed it close to me. I ran a hoof across Dew Drops' scarf, my eyes glazing over the flecks of dried blood that peppered its soft fabric. I closed my eyes and hugged it close, nuzzling it with a tenderness that made my heart ache.

Nothing I can do will bring her back.

I laid there thinking about them. My mom, most of all. I wonder what she would think if she learned I'd given up. That I'd let the wasteland win.

No. My mother's expectations were not the only thing that mattered now. 294 stable ponies were still counting on our return. Every hour, every day I wasted away was one day closer to the end of their rations.

How foalish was I. I was being selfish; what I wanted didn't matter. I knew then that the lives of 294 other ponies balanced on my hooves. It didn't make me feel any better knowing that I was the last hope for my stable. Every other pony that had stepped out that door had perished.

I was all they had left.

I, the unfledged engineer pony who, when was younger, didn't know what end to screw in a lightbulb, was all they had left. I mean, there was only one way you could screw it in! I heaved a bitter, self-deprecating laugh and stared up darkly at the ceiling.

I chuckled, "You're all fucked." I snorted, laying my head on the unfluffed pillow. I never worked alone. Even afterhours at engineering, Dew Drops usually waited for me to finish whatever I was doing before we both left. Sometimes I'd find her sleeping under some piping or lying on the floor next to my busy body.

Never. Work. Alone.

I wrapped Dew Drops' scarf around my neck. Even with them gone, I knew then that I'd never be alone. Like my mother had told me, my father had been there with us this whole time, watching me from the Everafter. So were my friends, and I knew even now, they were still counting on me to finish what they started.

Not by lying in a grave I'd dug for myself. Not by laying here on this bed either.

I limped over to my bags and bit down on the lip of my last health potion. I tipped my head and downed it in seconds, whistling as its magic stacked with my previous doses to speed up my regeneration. I didn't feel good enough, but it'd have to do.

I pulled out my security barding and laid it out on the dusty wooden floor. I fixated upon the numbers that were stenciled onto the back of its collar: 91. I zipped it on and trotted over to the door, fumbling with the doorknob. I really wasn't going to get used to walking around without my magic. I pushed the door open, and peeked outside.

Down the hall were three more rooms. Their doors were open, so I assumed everypony was downstairs. I slowly made my way downstairs, the wooden boards beneath my hooves creaking with every step. The smell of alcohol and bitter cigar smoke made my nose crinkle as I poked my head over the railing. Sitting around a table, sharing drinks, were Night Sky and two other ponies.

She blinked and caught me in her peripherals.

"Well look who it is." The mare said, the other ponies turning to see me.

"You better not be thinking 'bout running again, you lil shit." A gruff sounding pony with an eye patch growled, levitating a shot glass to his lips. The ash coloured unicorn downed it and took a puff from a cigar he held in his teeth.

I frowned. There was a distinct bruise on his muzzle. He must be the one I bucked in the face. Good, from the looks of him I'd bet he deserved it.

"Well come on down, we were just talking about you." Night Sky said with a smile.

"I bet you were." I muttered, leaning against the railing the entire way down.

I settled down on an empty barstool amongst the three other surface dwellers. A mare slid to me a shot glass across the table. I looked at her nervously. I remembered her pink eyes distinctly. She was the mare I tried to strangle to death in my pain driven hysteria a day ago.

"No hard feelings, I hope?" I said, with a wry grin.

She snorted, nodding her head once.

"We've all had the urge to choke a bitch." She said, "Can't say I haven't done that to anypony else sitting here. Well, cept you, o'course." The lavender mare scoffed, staring at me with what I hoped wasn't a promise. "I'm Sprinkles, by the way."

"Red Dawn." I said. I looked around the narrow rectangular room and saw that it too was made of a mixture of wooden planks and corrugated metal. A few round tables stood here and there, but most didn't have enough chairs around them to sit the number of ponies that were drinking at our table. Inside the fireplace at the far end of the room, a stack of blackening wood glowed warmly, making the room somewhat more pleasant than upstairs. This might have been a tavern at some point, but given its emptiness, I figured that they must've appropriated the place for themselves.

Stenciled on the wall above the bar's counter were the words 'Rough Riders', reinforcing my previous thought. I wondered for a moment who these ponies were and what this place was. Ever since I woke here, I didn't even bother to ask where the hell I was.

"This some kind of town?"

"Guess you can say that. Dusktown's a caravan stop for travelers heading down South to New Applooza. Total population of forty three ponies and one griffon." The town sounded rather quaint for a post-apocalyptic safe haven. "Every now and then we go out to escort caravans heading up to the Frozen North."

I cocked an eyebrow. To me, the thought of there being more survivors living in this winter wasteland was shocking. "You mean … there're others?"

They looked at me like I'd said something stupid. The gruff unicorn sniggered, chewing on his cigar.

"Forgot you were a stable pony for a sec. Sure there is. Though not everypony's as welcoming as us here in Dusktown." Night Sky chuckled bitterly. It sounded like there was more than what she felt comfortable to talk about.

I looked out a window by the door and saw that the storm had calmed. The silhouettes of thickly barded equine shapes milling about made being alive in this shithole a little less disheartening. If there were ponies still alive out here, then there was still hope for finding what my stable needed.

"What with all the Red Eye and Unity horseshit, we haven't seen too many caravans coming up here lately. The North's got its own problems; we don't need any of those crazy southern folk coming up here and making things worse." Night Sky added, pouring herself a glass of whiskey.

"Red and Unity what?"

"Slavers and alicorns. You don't want to be traveling by yourself. You might get chained up and put to work up north at East Eden or south by Fillydelphia. And if you're a unicorn … well, like I told you earlier, there are worse things than death if you come across somepony chortling about Unity."

"A-alicorns? Like … like the Goddesses?" I asked hopefully.

The unicorn stallion laughed at me in his harsh, gravelly voice.

"There ain't no goddesses out here, boy. Celestia and Luna've been dead for a looong time."

I clenched my jaw, glaring at the stallion. The Goddesses were all I had left out here. I wouldn't let the wasteland take them from me. Or me from them.

"I don't fucking care … they're Goddesses and they always will be."

He sighed, giving me a crass chuckle before puffing on his cigar. I wanted to take that thing and shove it down his throat.

I needed something to calm my frayed nerves. I focused my horn, clenching my jaw as I tried to levitate the shot glass. I groaned, my head only hurting even more, and hung my head dejectedly.

"Damnit."

"It's called magical burnout." Night Sky said, pulling my attention from the shot glass that refused to budge. "You work yourself too hard, and you… well, you burn out. Can't use your magic till you rest up."

Son of a ... "How long till I'm better?" I demanded, hoarsely.

The mare shrugged.

"Maybe a few days? It all depends on you." Night Sky leaned over the table. "Don't do anything fuck-stupid and you should be fine in a few days, I'd imagine." She narrowed her eyes at me and added, with a tinge of irritation, "Considering that shit you pulled off last night, you probably shouldn't even be down here trotting around."

"I don't have time to just sit around." I muttered.

"Huh? What are you doing outside of your stable anyhow?" Sprinkles asked.

"Come to say hello to the ponies you fucks left behind?" The unicorn stallion growled, baring his teeth.

I glared at the bastard. "Better down there than up here." I snorted. I shook my head, still keeping my stare, "I don't feel sorry for any of you at all."

"Pipe down, Bone Charm." Night Sky intoned, knocking the stallion with a hoof. "He had it rough when he was just a colt." He snorted, giving me a look that promised a bucking. Bone Charm, huh? He sure does have a charming personality. That bastard.

I stayed my glare as I craned my neck, biting the glass and tipping it back. The whiskey burned down my throat, and I let out a shivering snort as my insides warmed a little.

"What does it matter to you ponies?"

"We didn't save your ass for nothing, stable colt. Nopony's stupid enough to walk out into a storm like that. It'd be dandy if I knew why I had to waste 12 of our healing potions on you." The gruff unicorn stallion said, blowing a ring of smoke to dissipate over my muzzle. I stifled the urge to cough, and choked it down, scowling at him. "Then you had to walk out into the snow and try to get killed, again."

I snapped, leaning over the table to look him in the eye. "If it were up to me I'd go back, sit behind that door, and forget about everything outside." I folded my forelegs over my chest. "Anywhere is better than here ..." Even if it meant I had to die to get away from this place. This place would never be my home. It would be my grave if I never returned.

He sneered, "Go down south, hell, go anywhere on this planet and it's all the same." Bone Charm began, "And if you don't know, stables all across Equestria've been opening up and nopony's been coming out alive. Soon, I bet your cozy little hole won't be so different.

I fought to keep my composure. "I don't care about this place … I don't care what you think about me, and most of all, I don't care about you. I'd close those doors and leave you behind! I stepped out that door and I knew why we never opened our doors to let anypony in – because nothing outside those doors was worth saving!"

He wore a challenging smirk, saying, "Then why don't you? Scurry back into your hole and lock us out again. I lived forty years of my life here washing my hooves in blood just to survive, and you waltz out of that warm stable and bitch and whine, and threaten to kill yourself just because life just got a little harder for your hooficured hooves. I've lost too much to have a single sliver of pity for you, boy.

"The last thing we need is another mouth to feed. So dream your sweet dreams in those underground halls of yours while we scrape on by up here!"

I stood up from my stool, knocking it over. "Listen here, you surface dwelling vermin –"

Night Sky intervened, slamming a high caliber revolver on the table.

"Quiet, ladies. You two get into a fight and I'll mop one of you across the floor." She said rather indelicately. "So what's your story, Red?" Night Sky asked – no, she demanded. The mare cocked her head and leaned across the table.

I tapped my forehooves together apprehensively. I barely knew these ponies. Sure, they saved my life, but Bone Charm didn't like stable ponies too much. What if they tried going back to my stable now that they know it's been opened? Can it even be opened again?

"Our Water Talisman broke," I said, quietly with a hint of bitterness. "So myself and five other ponies set out to find another."

The gruff unicorn whistled, "Damn was I right about that." He drawled, puffing another ring of smoke my way, "It's only a matter of time ..." He chuckled grimly.

Sprinkles poured me another glass and slid it across the table to my hoof.

"We found you by yourself, so I suppose the others that came with you are …"

She caught my grim stare and fell silent. I downed the whiskey in silence as the others fidgeted with their hooves. Awkward.

"Well if it makes you feel better, we cleaned up those furies afterward." Night Sky said, folding her forelegs across her chest. "Us and another group teamed up and wiped em out."

"It doesn't." I muttered.

"Wasn't supposed to. What matters to me is that we get paid." The gruff unicorn said, knocking his hooves together. I was starting to hate that pony.

"What are you ponies? Mercenaries?"

They nodded in unison.

"Yeah. We picked up a contract to put a dent in the snow fury population around these parts. I say we fucked em up pretty good." Sprinkles replied. "Maybe now we'll have more visitors around here."

I thought for a moment, shivering at the memories of the psycho ponies erupting out of the snow. "Snow Furies." I sneered. "That what they're called?" Memories of psycho ponies frothing from the mouth flashed before my eyes.

Night Sky nodded. "Yeah. Though you might hear southerners call 'em 'raiders'. Round these parts, we call 'em furies. They like burying themselves in the snow to surprise anypony that comes they're way. They're just a bunch of sick fucks that ambush caravans or traders down by the Crystal Highway and all the way down to Poneva and the Crystal Border Lands –"

"Poneva?" I blurted out suddenly, interrupting her.

Night Sky arched a brow.

"What about it?"

I looked down at my shot glass, both my forelegs supporting me over the table. "Word is, in my stable, an old StableTec facility was built there." I began, and looked up. "We were heading that way to find one."

The midnight coated pegasus snorted, "Well good luck, I mean, I don't think there're any Water Talisman's anypony's willing to give up."

"It's worth a try." I muttered, my voice trembling. "It's our only hope."

"If you say so." Night Sky said skeptically, getting up from her chair.

"What do you know about Poneva?"

Bone Charm put out his cigar and folded his legs across his chest. "Well I'll say that there ain't no Ponevan that done me good in my lifetime." The unicorn stallion snorted. "Cept pay me caps."

"I wouldn't do you any good if I were a Ponevan." I muttered.

"Fuck you just say?" he growled.

Sprinkles leaned over the table. "Listen, kid, Charm isn't kidding. That city is no good. They've got all sorts of bad ponies you don't even want to know about."

"You make it sound like I'll get eaten by a dragon or something." I scoffed, tapping my forehooves together.

They looked at me with hard eyes. Not even a chuckle. Okay, that didn't sound too good. Night Sky returned with a few flat slices of bread from a loaf that didn't rise.

"What's this talk about dragons?"

"Red Dawn here wants to go up to Poneva." Sprinkles said, gnawing on a slice.

My face lit up as I asked, "Can you take me there?"

She thought for a moment, and shrugged. "If you're planning on staying there, you're on your own, bud. But we're heading up that way to turn in a few contracts."

I smiled, something I haven't done genuinely in what seemed like forever.

"That's great –"

"But we're not going there any time soon. If you want to come, you're going to have to roll with us to finish whatever contracts we have left before we turn in."

I frowned, pursing my lips. I had nowhere else to be, and I didn't know anypony else.

"Whatever gets me to Poneva in one piece." I said, finally with a drawn out sigh.

Bone Charm barely suppressed a chuckle, "Wait till he sees the Bloodletters and Snow Devils. You'll be regretting coming up here soon enough, stable colt."

My expression darkened.

"I already am."

---

I followed Night Sky outside into the soft, cold breeze. My hooves sunk deep into the snow that had piled up overnight. The blizzard had buried everything but the buildings outside, and ponies with shovels were laboring to clear the snow off their porches.

The town was shockingly rife with pony life., albeit, a life I could never have related to. Back in Stable 91, young ponies were never assigned occupations until they received their cutie marks. Here, blank flanks labored with their parents, pulling plows that cleared the immense mounds of snow off the single, main road that ran along the town's midsection. But here, there was a mutual goal both our worlds strived forward to: surviving. Just as we survived through the participation of every able bodied pony, these surface dwellers did the same, and more. It was, what I assumed, a major contribution to their survival in this frozen wasteland.

All around us, ponies worked together to push away the result of last night's snow storm, and within minutes, a wide path of flattened snow stretched from one end of the town to the next as wagons began pulling out of scrap metal garages and rolling down its length.

Next to the Rough Riders' tavern were several other shops with a variety of items for sale. We walked past each, stopping for a moment to look inside a gun store that sold boxes of ammunition that I both could and couldn't recognize. Night Sky window shopped for a bit, taking count of what supplies she needed for tomorrow's merc contracts.

We returned outside into the relative cold, and I panned my vision across the sky. Damn. I need to stop doing that. But in my sickness, I did see something up there that was rather unusual.

I did notice that there was a lack of pegasi amongst these ponies. All I saw were earth ponies and unicorns hauling around more than their weight or levitating shovels and other small tools, respectively. There was not a single sound of flapping wings in the chilling breeze. No sign of the feather winged ponies I'd lived with back at Stable 91.

It seemed as if the surface had been settled by unicorns and earth ponies and only unicorns and earth ponies since time immemorial. Was 200 years enough to forget the existence of our cloudborne brethren? Were they blasted into extinction when the balefire bombs decimated their cloud cities? There was not a single pegasus in the air as Night Sky and I trotted throughout town.

Was Night Sky the last of her kind?

In a clearing walled off by lines of deplorable metal stakes was a field of headstones. We walked past it, and I stopped for a moment to watch a pony mare kneel in the ashen drifts next to three freshly dug graves. She sobbed and murmured incoherently, cradling her head in her hooves.

Night Sky turned to glance over her shoulder, eyeing me curiously. I turned back to the mare, and back at Night Sky; she shook her head and gestured me to follow her.

"What happened to them?" I whispered, trotting beside her.

Night Sky gazed on forward, her face stone cold.

"Zebras." She said simply, and nothing more.

I gave her a puzzled stare, unsure of what she had meant. Zebras? Did zebras do that? I supposed it was none of my business, and I left the pony to grieve for whomever she had lost. The mare's sobs faded into wind as we made our way through the town's only road.

A few yards down the street from the Rough Riders' tavern was a boot shaped structure that puffed out smoke from its chimney. From inside glowed a warmth that beckoned me to enter. Above its door hung a neon sign that glowed with the words 'diner'. The smell of bread and … what was that? It smelled like a steam accident at engineering. Meat? Both entered my nostrils and filled me with mixed feelings of hunger and revulsion. Did these ponies actually eat meat? We walked inside, the warmness of a furnace and a hearth loosening my tense muscles as we took seats next to other wastelanders who eyed my pipbuck curiously.

I waved to them nervously and they looked away, chatting among themselves.

"Not too many ponies've seen a stable dweller before." Night Sky said, resting her forelegs on the counter in front of us. A lightbulb flickered dimly above us, and a pony mare with stained overalls unscrewed it with her magic and replaced it.

It shined brighter than the other hanging, barewired bulbs around the room and bathed Night Sky and I with a white glow. The spotlight was on the stable dweller, and ponies were giving me a variety of looks, ranging from curiosity to the same vehemence Bone Charm displayed to me at the tavern.

"Maybe they're more interested in the bandages that are wrapped around my muzzle." I looked like a corpse! The mare that had replaced the bulb above us trotted behind the counter, a stick of what looked like charcoal and a slip of paper floating in her magical grip.

Night Sky offered to buy me a bowl of … stew. Floating inside of it were a variety of vegetables – which I was entirely okay with, until I saw, floating visibly underneath the soup, dark chunks of what looked like meat.

I gulped and shook my head. She shrugged and pushed a few bottle caps across a warm counter to the pony behind it. That must've been their currency.

"Why are you doing this for me?" I asked her quietly as the unicorn mare slid to me a slice of bread and water and Night Sky a bowl of soup. "I don't want to sound ungrateful …" I trailed off, biting into the surprisingly soft, yet crusty bread. "… but … why? Why didn't you just leave me in that blizzard?"

Night Sky lapped at her bowl and paused for a moment.

"Ponies gotta stick together out here. If we don't, well, we die." She answered, before returning to her soup. I watched her chew on one of the chunks of red meat and swallow, much to my suppressed disgust.

"That's reasonable." I brought the water to my mouth, but my pipbuck's radmeter crackled audibly. I hesitated, and placed it back down on the counter. "But how do you ponies live like this? I was expecting less of an actual town and more of a …"

"Shithole." She said, taking the words from my mouth.

"That's not what I –"

"It's fine. I expected as much from a stable dweller." Night Sky said with a terse chuckle. "This town has established trade routes with Poneva and a few towns down south. We trade what we scavenge or make, and buy whatever else we can't make ourselves." She explained.

I nodded, taking another bite from the bread.

"You said you're a mercenary. What kind of work do you do?"

She licked at her empty soup bowel and wiped her mouth with a forehoof.

"Any work we can." She replied with some resignation. "Anything worth caps is worth doing."

I blinked. "Anything?"

"Anything."

My throat was parched and I eyed the radioactive water longingly.

"You can drink that, you know? Just pop a rad-away if you start feeling dizzy."

I sighed, shaking my head as I downed its contents. She tossed me a small red capsule, and I tucked it into my bags.

"So you'd kill a pony if that's what you were being paid to do?" I asked with a hint of distaste. "You'd kill somepony if that's what it took?"
"If that's what it took, why not? You said you were looking for a Water Talisman. Wouldn't you do anything to bring one back so everypony in your stable would live?"

I thought for a moment. Would I really do … anything? Anything to get my hooves on a water talisman? How many ponies would I have to kill for it? I tensed, frowning at my hooves in a whirling seesaw of self-doubt as they rested on the counter.

"Why? Is that what Equestria's come to?"

"This ain't Equestria anymore, Red Dawn." She said, bitterly. "And I'm no trader. I'm no gangster either. I'm a mercenary because I have a choice to live or die on my terms. I don't have no need for protection along the roads, I got my rifle and my crew for that. I don't have no need to take orders from some pony because I take orders from me and myself."

The unicorn mare behind the counter levitated a pitcher of water to me, and I nodded thankfully as she poured me another glass. "It's a choice to survive, then." I said, simply, with some understanding. "To be free."

"Exactly. I have a choice to do what I want to do, and I do it all for caps." She sighed, resting her cheek on a hoof, "I get to choose. And not everypony gets that choice. You and me? We're lucky. We're lucky we're not slaves. We still got a choice – we can choose to live or keep on living. It's why I hit you with that shovel. You were wasting that choice on something stupid." I bit my lower lip at that, my expression visibly hurt. "Being alive is all that matters. You can't save your stable dead, Red Dawn." She said softly, resting a hoof on my shoulder. "I'm a mercenary and I choose to live and continue doing what I need to do to continue living."

I didn't know what to say to that. It sounded perfectly reasonable in my head.

"You have a choice to live, and that means you gotta do what you need to do, Red Dawn. Maybe even if that means you live and somepony else doesn't." She ordered for herself a cup of water, and took a swig. "Personally, I don't just go around taking any contract. I take ones I know matter to us ponies in Dusktown. If it means I gotta kill some poor pony, I make sure she deserves it."

"That's … commendable?" I said, unsure.

"There's no escaping it, Red Dawn." Night Sky took another sip. "Out here, killing is just part of living," She said with a disturbing smirk.

I frowned at her, bothered by that statement. But I shook away the doubt from my mind. I pushed away my fears, because a darker part of me felt that I was just being naïve. If I was going to survive this, I needed to be strong. I needed to do what needed to be done. "Whatever it takes." I said finally.

"That's the spirit." She balanced her glass of water on the surface of her hoof and held it out to me. "To life."

I almost tried levitating my glass, but, in exasperation I did the same, and our glasses clanked.

"To life."

---

After accompanying her back to the stores and helping her carry back their supplies to the tavern, she sent me below the floorboards to the basement to peruse their armory to arm myself for tomorrow's contracts. Well, I guess it was an armory. It was mostly just a bunch of tables set with disassembled guns, random parts, tattered barding in need of repair, and boxes full of ammo and magazines. I wrinkled my nose at the scent of cordite and oil as I came down the stairs.

Whoa! What the hell is that thing!? I almost said that out loud.

The youngest member of the Rough Riders, a griffin, meandered about through the tables, sifting through boxes of gun parts. The gray feathered griffin saw me come down the dim stairwell and gave me a sideways glance.

"You're the pony Night Sky picked up, aren't you?" she asked.

I fidgeted on my hooves, taking a deep breath, grinning crookedly. "The one and only."

The half-bird-lion thing - I mean, the griffin, walked up to me, her claws tapping loudly against the wooden floor. "What are you doing here?" She kept her distance. So did I. As if a bandaged up, half lucid pony was going to do anything remotely dangerous. Besides... she was a griffon! A griffon! From the story books... the feathered beasts from the west! And I was talking to one.

Trying not to stare at her lithe, alien form, and dangerously sharp talons, I said, "I'll be tagging along with your ... uh… your crew for a contract or two." Her brow furrowed at that. "Night Sky said you could help me pick out a gun?"

She tapped her beak with a claw and nodded.

"Uh, sure. I guess." The griffon gestured me to follow her and we waded through the junk to the far end of the basement. We came to room lined with lockers. A dim light bulb flickered over a table at the center of the room. "Anything not in a locker is up for grabs."

I blinked. Everything was in a locker though. Oh look. I walked over to a table and found a 10mm pistol. Well I was making progress. I pulled up my pipbuck and sifted through my inventory. I found that I had 53 10mm rounds stocked up.

I levitated the pistol – ugh. I bit down on its mouth grip and tested its weight. I wasn't used to well … anything without my magic. It was a few pounds heavy, not too much for me to handle, I hoped. I've never shot a gun from my mouth before.

"Well I should be good –" I turned around and the griffon wasn't there anymore. I waded through the detritus and saw her leaning over a table in the main room, poking a black box. "What's that for?"

She looked up from her claws, "Oh this? Well, it was a radio at some point."

A radio you say? My smile beamed as she continued, "It broke last week, and I've been trying to figure out why it stopped working."

"Did you check if your device was plugged in?" I droned, with a wry grin.

She caught my lame sense of humor and chuckled. "I'm no expert at electronics. All I do is clean the crew's hardware," she said, jutting a claw at the disassembled rifles lying about.

"Mind if I take a look?" I asked, trotting up to the table. She shrugged, and stepped away from the radio.

I gave it a look over, and opened it up with a screwdriver I picked out from my bags. I eyed the contents of the radio and saw that there was not a piece out of place. Did she really forget the on/off button?

I pulled the power cord taut and fount a thin indentation over a section along its length.

"Heh, well, I've seen this before." I said, standing on my hind legs, one foreleg on the table to hold me upright.

"Hm?"

"Looks like your radio's going to make it." I said, trying to sound like Dr. Stitches. "But the AC cord's going to need a wire transplant … stat." I looked at her, wrinkling my brow.
She ran a paw through her dark brown head plume and flattened a rogue feather, giving me a weird smile.

"That's … great news, doctor …?"

"Red Dawn." I replied, fishing through my bags.

"My name's Gail." She clenched a paw into a fist and reached out with it. I looked at it for a second, hesitating. My eyes moved to meet the griffon's, and I cracked a nervous smile.

I bumped her fist with a hoof.

"You're a lot less intimidating than the others, you know that?" I said, with a snort, splitting the cord.

"Yeah, I get that a lot. I kinda stand out, ya know, with me hanging around a bunch of hardass mercs all the time." Gail confessed, rubbing her neck. I glanced over at her thin frame and thought she looked kind of cute – ahem, I mean, for a griffon. Everypony else upstairs had that calloused look about them; she seemed sort of fresh.

"Oh … but they're not so bad. They picked me up too when I was just learning how to fly. Bone Charm raised me like I was his own."

I cocked a brow at that. That coarse-hided pony raised a sweet griffon like her? "No way."

"He's kind of a dick sometimes …" Sometimes? "But he has a soft side. My parents were never around as much as he was. But then again they're not around anymore … so …"

My eyes softened. "What happened to them?" I asked gently, pausing.

"My parents were Talon mercs. Wasn't really the best line of work to raise a kid, I guess. They died on a contract and orphaned me."

"Sorry to hear that." Night Sky was right about everypony losing somepony. If I lost my mom … I don't know what I'd do. "And now you're a merc too?"

"Yeah, yeah, 'why follow in your parents' footsteps when it got them killed'." The young griffon sighed, "There's not much to do here but merc work. Unless you want to join one of the gangs up in Poneva or be a slaver, you're just a victim." She shook her head, "And I'm not going to be a victim." Gail stated with conviction.

I gave her a long, curious look. Gail eyed the floor scathingly.

"I had a few run ins with furies and slavers before the Rough Riders picked me up." She murmured. "They had me towing wagons around for them like some kind of pack animal."

"Met a few furies myself." I muttered. I wasn't a merc, gangster, or slaver. I was a stable pony. But out here, it meant nothing to these mercs, especially Bone Charm. I was a victim. I looked back down at my work and returned to it in silence. I realized then that there were two kinds of wastelanders: survivors and victims. And I was a victim.

I bit my lower lip and almost drew blood. A few seconds passed by us in awkward quietude.

"Hmm…" Gail uttered, trying to break the ice. "I like your scarf."

"Thanks. It's … ah … a friend gave it to me." I said sadly. "She isn't around anymore."

Gail seemed disheartened as she leaned on the table next to me. "We've all lost someone."

I nodded, quietly. I saw her eyeing the pipbuck on my foreleg and she pointed at it with a talon.

"What's that thing?"

"It's a pipbuck." I answered, my tongue poking out of my lips as I focused on my work. "It's like a terminal, but on your leg."

"You look like you know a thing or two about arcane contraptions." Gail said.

I chuckled, "Eh, I know my way around a wrench and a screw driver. I was an engineer back at my stable." I thought for a moment, "Still am."

The smell of singed metal made my nose twitch as I soldered in a spare wire I had at the bottom of my bags. It never hurts to bring a handful of spares. Or two. Okay, I was just ready for these kinds of things. Who wouldn't walk out into the unknown without preparing for a few repairs?

I finished with the cord and reassembled the radio.

"There she is, good as new." I said, switching it on only for the radio to flood the room with static.

Gail's face lit up as she fiddled with the contraption.

"Thanks! Now we can have some music playing around here."

The radio burped and snorted random snippets of chatter in between its bouts of noise vomiting, and picked up a channel that garnered our attention.

"- brrrfftt - now, my little ponies, it's time for the news! Now you ponies remember when I told you 'bout those two ponies who crawled themselves out of Stable Two – brrrrffffffffttttttt …."

And the signal died.

"Who was that?" I asked. My brow furrowed as I realized that Bone Charm was right about other stables opening too.

Gail groaned, twisting the tuner back and forth, trying to find the signal. "Sounded like DJ Pon3. It's really hard to get his signal around here."

DJ Pon3 … that name was familiar. The last I heard of that name, it was from a mare, and it was from a memory orb recorded 200 years ago.

" brrrrffttttttt - took out the raider nest in the heart of Ponyville, and saved several pony captives - including the beloved – brrffttttttt - Ditzy Doo! – brrrfffffffftttttt –" and the signal broke out into static once more.

"Damn. Must be the clouds."

"Eh? There's always clouds out though." I remarked with a snigger.

"Yeah, but around these parts, the clouds from beyond the Frozen Wastes blow in from the north and mix with the pegasi's cloud cover. Makes it worse."

Pegasi? "The hell's a cloud cover?"

"Well ever since the pegasi flew up and left everyone down on the surface for dead, they poofed up a layer of clouds to protect themselves." She replied, bitterly. "From us. The half dead survivors. Those feather brained bastards. They always say they're going to swoop down to the surface and save everyone. It's been 200 years since the bombs fell and the cloud cover's never opened up once." She leaned her back against the table and folded her forelegs across her chest. "Never trust a pegasus if you see one."

I sort of felt ashamed; if I was a pegasus, I wouldn't come down here either. "Isn't Night Sky a pegasus, though?"

Gail wore a surprised look on her face.

"H-how'd you … never mind. Well, she's a Dashite. She's the kind of pegasus that got kicked out by her own kind."

I remembered the stubs that used to be her wings. Dear Celestia, that was cruel. I heard from my mother that a pegasus without wings was like a unicorn without a horn. Or anypony without legs.

"Why … why'd they do that to her?"

The griffin shook her head, shrugging.

"She doesn't like to talk about it. Never once did she tell us what happened. I don't think I want to know – it takes a lot to get kicked out like that, I heard." Gail replied empathetically. "Makes me mad how anypony could do that to her. Wow … if I lost my wings, I'd rather be dead."

Gail played with the radio's tuner again, trying to pick up a signal. She sighed and gave up.

"So you said you're tagging along with us for a bit?"

I found a holster lying around on the floor and gestured to her if I could use it. Gail nodded, and I strapped it across my chest, holstering my pistol.

"Not too long, I hope." I replied, dryly. "I have a few things to do on my to-do list and I'm running out of time." I added, with a hint of urgency. I was beginning to wonder when they were going to start their next contract.

"And what's that?"

I sighed, I hoped I didn't have to explain this to everypony I met. I eyed her for a moment; she looked like someone I could trust.

"My stable's Water Talisman broke, so I was planning on hitching a ride up to Poneva to find a replacement when your crew's done with their contracts." I said in a low voice. "Six of us went out of those doors, and I'm the only one who's still alive. I'm all they have left."

Gail nodded, thinking for a moment. "Well you're in luck, because we've only got two contracts left unfinished. They're pretty easy, I guess, so it won't be too much of a hassle for you."

"What kind of contracts? I mean, what are we going to do?"

The griffin went to another table and began reassembling a rifle she'd oiled up earlier.

"Tomorrow we're going to meet a caravan over by the old railroad station about 10 miles out from here and escort them back to Dusktown. Then we're going to lay down some good ol' wasteland justice on some pony murderin' zebra scum."

My ears perked at that last part. Were they responsible for the graves I'd seen earlier today? I touched my chin with a forehoof, my brow furrowing. The first time I heard about zebras, it was in a history book detailing their rampaging war that tore across Equestria. Images of a grisly looking pony with stripes, red eyes, and a menacing mouthful of serrated teeth came to mind when I heard that word.

I gulped. They couldn't possibly … actually look like that, right?

We went upstairs and found that everypony else was asleep. I pointed a foreleg out the window. "Well when's tomorrow, because it's always night time to me."

---

So this was morning, huh?

I sat in the back of a wagon being pulled by some grotesque looking two headed cow thing, chewing my pistol's mouth bit. Morning, apparently, was noticeably lighter than the afternoon or the evening. Gail said something about DJ Pon3's channel being more coherent in the mornings when the skies cleared up somewhat.

I looked up to the clouds and winced, swallowing bile down my throat. Yep, they were still there. I guess what made mornings in the Frozen North different was that you could see the clouds. When complete, total darkness fell upon the land, then it was night. It was still rather gloomy outside, and likewise, equally as depressing.

My breath fogged up in front of my face as I stared out into the distance. A light snowfall sprinkled us with bits of powder, and for once, I felt like I might survive out here. There hadn't been a whiteout in 12 hours. That was good sign.

Behind us were two other wagons full of supplies and a hooffull of trader ponies that seemed about as apprehensive as traveling through the snow as I was.

A winged shape hovered above us ahead of the caravan. Gail flew back and forth to call out reports to Night Sky as she scouted out the path ahead. The others kept an eye out for anything coming in from the sides or behind.

Sprinkles nudged me with a hoof and motioned for me to look outside the wagon.

"You see that?" She said, pointing her hoof out in the distance.

I could barely make out what looked to be a dozen small shapes prowling through the snow.

"What are those things?" I asked, squinting.

"Those're wolves." Sprinkles replied, unpleasantly. "Well, they used to be. Now they're Bloodletters. Nasty little critters that hunt in packs and attack anything that moves."

I narrowed my eyes at the creatures as they disappeared behind an exceptionally large snow drift.

"Well why aren't they attacking us?"

"Because they're not stupid." She gestured to her rifle. "There's too many of us and too few of them, anyways. Thankfully their packs don't get bigger than that." Sprinkles added as the creatures faded into view once more.

"Eh, they're just wolves. Can't get any worse than that right?" I said with a chuckle.

She looked at me sternly.

"There's also Snow Devils. Pray to your Goddesses you never see one, because they're tough, and they don't go down too easily. Used to be bears, I think. They've got claws that can rip through the armor of this wagon." I remembered seeing odd looking skeletons at the bottom of the den Amber Fields had fallen into. Then I remembered the extra pair of jaws that poked out of their mouths. I shivered.

"Okay … so, we got mutant wolves and bears. Anything else I should know about?"

She gave me that stern look again.

The sound of gunfire in the distance grabbed my attention, and my head whirled to its origin. Seconds later, somepony whistled ahead of the caravan before Sprinkles could continue. Gail's winged silhouette landed in front of us as the wagons pulled to a stop.

"Furies ahead, they were in the middle of burying themselves in the snow when they saw me."

Night Sky trotted out of a wagon behind us to meet her.

"How many?"

"I counted about a dozen, maybe more. They're heading here as we speak." Gail replied, clawing at her battle saddle's safety. She took to the skies once more, her sniper rifle scanning the perimeter.

"Alright everypony, form up! Get those wagons in formation!" Night Sky called out to the others who were coaxing the two headed bovines to their places. Within a span of 20 seconds, the three wagons had formed up into a triangle, with each of the mercs including myself, and three trader ponies ducked under their metal frames.

I was crouched next to a trader unicorn that had a shabby looking shotgun held in his magical grip.

"Hey." I said, leaning against the wagon.

"Howdy, pardner."

My ears perked at his accent. I looked over the wagon and didn't see any furies. I guess I could wait for the others to call them out.

"You're not from around here are you?"

"Enope." I regarded him expectantly until he continued.

"Ah stopped by New Applooza for a few sales and a couple bargains. Headin' back up t'Poneva t'stock up on some agristuff." By agristuff he probably meant food. Real food, I was hoping. I thought about the vat grown vegetables and g-modded apples I used to eat at the stable, cringing.

"Poneva, huh? Have you been there before?"

He nodded, "Eeyep." Well this pony seemed to be a stallion of simplicity.

My brow furrowed. Maybe when I get there, if I have the time, I'll try a few.

"Well I'm not from here, either. Came out of a stable not too long ago," I said, waving my pipbuck. "What's it like?"

His eyes widened at that. "You're one'a them stable fellers! Ah don't suppose you're one o'them ponies from Stable 2, huh?" he exclaimed.

"What? Er, no. I'm not." I said, awkwardly, remembering DJ Pon3's fragmented broadcast.

"Oh." He coughed disgruntledly.

I snorted, "Hope I didn't disappoint you too much. I'm from Stable 91."

"Neh, there's just all this excitement down south 'bout somepony clearing the routes of raiders over by Ponyville. Sorry, heard 'stable' and ah got ahead o'muhself." He said, tipping his hat at me. "Well anyways, ah've been to Poneva a few times. It's a purty nice city – if you ignore all the gangs and rampaging hooligans an' such."

Well then. How am I not surprised? Can't there just be one normal thing out here? Wait, I'm ducked under a wagon defending against psychotic murderers, a few minutes after I was looking at a pack of mutant wolves. I'm in the wasteland. Nothing's normal here.

"That's good to know, I guess. I was planning on heading up there too."

The unicorn nodded, "Well fer a first timer, pay the toll at the gates and ya probably won't have no problems." He added, still nodding.

Probably. "Thanks, I'll keep that in mind." I picked up my pistol awkwardly in my mouth, and the stallion frowned at me.

"Why're ya holdin' it like that?"

"My 'orn ishn't erking right." I struggled, talking through my mouth bit.

He did that distracting nodding thing again.

"Talk ta me after we tussle with these raiders. Ah might have somethin' that can help ya."

Before I could reply, a bullet whizzed past us and kicked up a small plume of snow. The sounds of hysterical laughter sounded off in the distance.

Night Sky yanked her rifle's charging handle with an audible click.

"They're here! Everypony, on your hooves!"

I chewed on my mouth bit and peeked over the wagon. My eyes forward sparkle, a friend or foe identifier built into my pipbuck, blinked red. I saw them. The ponies – no, the furies, were poking their heads over snow drifts and out of black boulders that jutted out of the earth.

These were the monsters that slaughtered my friends. They may not have been the same ones, but it was too easy to condemn them all. I won't be a victim. Not again.

Crack!

A shot pinged against the wagon's hull a few inches away from my head and I ducked back down reflexively. Then all hell broke loose. The furies screamed, promising, among many eloquently stated things, a horrible ass raping, ocular penetration, flaying, and many others with meanings I didn't want to put too much thought into.

Gunfire erupted between both sides as Bone Charm levitated a light machine gun over the wagon he ducked under and let loose a torrent of lead that sent the furies diving for cover. Gail swooped overhead, lancing the furies with her sniper rifle.

I looked over the wagon and saw one of the furies' head explode.

"Dear Celestia." I murmured. As soon as Bone Charm's fire died down to reload, a handful of the furies brandishing axes and machetes, bounded across the snow towards us, screaming. Those that stayed behind had the sense to cover them with gunfire, forcing me under the wagon once more as a stray bullet pinged against the wagon's frame a few inches from my face. But I didn't duck. Something caught my eye.

I narrowed them at a fury who simply watched the ensuing firefight. Without even a maniacal cackle or an eloquently stated expletive, it just stood there. Observing. A bullet clipped my collar and I dove back under cover.

"Here they come!" I heard Sprinkles shout.

I poked my head over again and entered SATS. I wasn't about to try shooting anything without an aim assist. Time slowed to a halt and I flicked through the targets, my pipbuck gauging my range and effectiveness.

I tagged the closest fury's torso and legs, and tongued the trigger. Bounding recklessly through the snow, the fury took the first few bullets into the chest, staggering momentarily. Then my shots blew out his knees.

Even crippled, the stallion clambered his way to me, picking up small showers of powder in his screaming wake.

"Celestia, do they know when to stop?" Choosing not to waste the rest of my charges on SATS guided rounds on farther targets, I tongued the trigger once more.

Damn it all, I missed every single one. It just wasn't the same without magic!

"C'mon pardner, ante up!" The trader shouted, blasting apart a fury that came too close with his shotgun.

Somepony levitated a sub machine gun around the corner and sunk the trigger back. I dove into the trader, throwing him to the snow as the bullets shrieked over us. My chest stung where some had pancaked over my vest.

"SHIT!" I hissed, the two of us scrambling away from the gunfire. The fury poked her head out and got it sheared off by a blast of buckshot. I swallowed the bile in my throat and stood out of cover.

I took aim once more and came face to face with the frothing mouth of a fury. She was in the middle of heaving herself over the wagon by the time I entered SATS. I didn't even need it this close.

I speared her head like a kabob with a single shot, and she landed on me with a crunch. I cried out, struggling to get the limp corpse off of me when another fury rounded the corner. My tongue twitched and my shots went wide. The fury whooped, coughing blood as he took a few to the chest.

I shut my eyes and flinched, waiting to feel the touch of steel kiss my flesh. There was a loud crack and I opened my eyes to see a large caliber bullet punch out a gaping hole in the fury's throat. He choked and sputtered, mouthing soundlessly through bloody lips.

Gail's shadow passed over me and I lunged at the dying fury and jammed the pistol in his mouth.

A second later, and the fury's head painted my face with dots of scarlet. I shook my head vigorously, snarling as the blood flicked off my muzzle but stained my barding black. The fury I'd crippled earlier crawled into view, brandishing a cleaver, threatening to take my knee caps off.

Without wasting a single breath, SATS aimed a favorable shot through the fury's skull for me. At this range, the bullet lost its velocity and tumbled end over end as it penetrated, blowing his brains out the back of his skull. I exhaled sharply, swallowing the bile that rose up my throat.

Hooves plodded behind me. I whirled around just in time to get nicked by a unicorn mare's glowing switchblade. It painted my cheek red with my blood at its icy edge. I groaned and side stepped, the mare charging through the air I'd been in half a second earlier. She ran her head into the wagon, jostling its contents.

"You cunt!" She snarled, snapping her teeth at me as she lunged once more.

I spun around and bucked her in the throat, slamming her into the wagon again. She coughed and sputtered, gasping for air through the indentation that was her windpipe. I leveled my pistol and yanked the trigger back – and it clicked empty.

"Goddesses damnit!" I screamed, patting down my vest for another magazine. But she was up on her hooves before I could ram it home. The fury charged. I threw my forelegs in front of me and caught her head between them. We fell into the snow, and I drove her face through the powder with her own momentum. I stumbled away, slamming my back into the wagon's frame, hoofing in a fresh magazine.

The mare pulled her head out of the drift, and came at me again, threatening to tear out my nethers with her teeth. I entered SATS, and she halted mid gallop. I tagged her head, and somehow found myself staring into the blues of her eyes as the world froze. These were supposed to be the windows to her soul. But gnarled tendrils of black clawed across the whites of her eyes, boarding up any glimpse of the sentience that made a pony ... a pony.

She might have been beautiful once; the loveliness of her delicate face was marred by grisly blood splatters that I knew were not hers.

Down the length of her coat, I saw that her cutiemark was that of a colourful songbird. I wondered, for a moment – who was she? What she was before she became … this. Was she a birdkeeper? Perhaps she had a marvelous singing voice?

I gulped, struggling to queue my shots. Was there still a pony beneath this madness? Was there any sense, any reason for – for this!? I looked around me and I saw Sprinkles thrusting the barrel of her assault rifle into the gaping mouth of a snow fury. Night Sky was in the process of punching a mare's face in with her forehooves, the blood splatters frozen in midair in the zen silence of SATS.

Behind me, the trader's shotgun bloomed outward a roiling cloud of buckshot into the chest of a rampaging stallion.

These maniacs, these degenerates – these were the creatures that skinned Star Glint alive. They raped, abused, and made a martyr out of Amber. They blew her up in our faces when they could have just killed her and been done with it. I could hear Dew Drops screaming through the squelching tear of meat.

I tagged her legs. The bullets ripped through her knee caps, and she plunged into the snow at my hooves. The pale mare let out a tortured moan, thrashing her bleeding limbs through the drifts, unable to get to her hooves.

"Stop!" I shouted, hoarsely. But she wouldn't listen. I threw myself over her, pinning her bloodied legs to the snow. Tears were streaming down the pony's grimy cheeks. "Why are you doing this!?" I demanded through my teeth.

She murmured something incomprehensible, the black veins in her sclera receding.

"Answer me!"

"I … I …" She whimpered, her right eye twitching uncontrollably. The pony grinded her teeth and clenched her eyes shut, her face contorting into an agonizing grimace as if something was ripping her apart from the inside out.

Her eyelids flew open. "I'LL KILL YOU!" She shrieked, a web of throbbing, black tendrils bulging around her retinas. I felt her switch blade stab into my chest, and I screamed through my mouth bit.

The muzzle flare flashed in her eyes and her head flopped back into the snow. Blood and brains pooled out the neat hole in the back of her skull, her cold blues gazing blankly at me. I watched, ripping the switchblade out of me as the veins receded once more.

"What the fuck are these things…" I murmured, touching the mare's pale face.

I heard a mare scream behind me and turned just in time to see Sprinkles get gutted by a rusty machete. She screamed as the fury wrenched it out of her before falling to the bloodied snow.

I entered SATS and queued a shot at her head. And I missed.

"Shit!" I cried out, eyeing now depleted SATS charges. I clenched my jaw, watching the fury raise the machete to cleave Sprinkles' head off. It fell, and in the time it took for me to scream, the fury's chest cavity blew apart in a rattling barrage of machine gun fire.

She danced against the tirade of bullets before crumbling to the snow like a ragdoll. Bone Charm, his machine gun smoking, screamed for me to duck, and I heard the stomach-churning sound of bullets tearing through meat squelch behind me.

I turned and a fury fell forward on her face, nicking me with a hatchet in her writhing death rattle. I winced, stumbling back to fall next to a squirming, bleeding Sprinkles.

"Red Dawn!" She said through a mouthful of blood, clutching her chest with both her forehooves in an attempt to make the bleeding abate. "My bags … health … potion …"

I bit my lower lip, hoofing through her belongings and pulling out the most colourful looking potion I could find. I tipped it into her open mouth and she gulped it down without a word. Being injured like this seemed like second nature to her.

Her flesh stitched together before my very eyes and I sighed, relieved. "It's not over yet." Sprinkles grunted, pushing herself back to her hooves. She mouthed her assault rifle and fired a burst over the wagon behind her. I frowned as a rewarding scream brought a cold smile to her lips.

I hurried back to the trader who jammed the barrel of his shotgun into the mouth of a fury. I shut my eyes and looked away, trying not to look at the gory mess he made all over the snow.

"They're feisty lil critters ain't they?" He shouted over gunfire, racking his shotgun's slider.

I peeked over the wagon and saw a plume of gore fountain into the air – the result of Gail's exceptional aim. The only downside was that she had to pause to hover so she can aim. It was only a matter of time before she –

Gail plummeted from the sky and crunched painfully in the snow, one of her wings trailing scarlet across the powder. The furies screamed, bursting out from behind rocks to a full on gallop. In my mind I saw Lightning Twirl land in the midst of a psychotic mob.

My jaw clenched, and I broke from cover.

"Gail!" I cried out, galloping towards her. She clutched her bleeding chest, wheezing through wet exhales as she scrambled away from the murderous ponies. For a second I wondered what the hell was I doing as I pounded through the snow dodging each lucky bullet at a time.

I barely knew these mercs. I shouldn't care about whether they lived or died, for all that mattered was that Stable 29 lived. I'd sacrifice all these poor, surface dwelling vermin if it meant that everypony in my stable survived.

If I died, all the hope my stable had for survival would die with me. But I galloped on.

I wasn't going to let Gail become a victim. Not like my friends. Bounding straight for me, a fury brandished her spiked club, salivating through the barbaric weapon. In the silence of SATS, I created entry wounds that erupted all over the fury's chest. She collapsed past me and I lost not a single step as my pulse hammered in my temples.

But I wasn't bullet proof. I felt white hot pains spear through me. At this range, I was glad that their bullets didn't lose velocity as I felt one exit out my shoulder. Another one struck one of the bullet proof plates on my chest, and I stumbled, the wind knocked out of me.

Gail screamed, one of the ponies trying to drag her away. I entered SATS, gasping for air, and placed guided rounds through the pony's foreleg. The fury hesitated for a moment, opening his mouth to scream when I spun around and bucked him in the jaw.

I overextended and felt bones break against my hooves, driving his head back to hear a disgusting snap as his neck broke at a disturbing angle.

"Holy shit!" I heard Gail squawk.

That's exactly what I thought when I fell on my ass wide eyed and gawking.

"Red Dawn! Head. Down!" I heard Bone Charm roar, leaping out of cover. Another bullet struck me in the back, pancaking against my vest and driving me face first into the powder. That was painfully convenient because the unicorn stallion laid down a wide arc of machine gun fire over my mane that sent the furies ducking.

Those that did not were perforated with a stream of lead, laughing through gurgling death rattles. I forced myself to my hooves, sputtering through a mouthful of snow and clamped my jaws shut on one of Gail's wings. I proceeded to drag her away from the carnage, my head bent low, bullets shrieking over me.

Night Sky and Sprinkles leaned out of the wagons and kept the furys' heads down when Bone Charm's machine gun ran dry. They fought like a well-oiled machine, taking turns to slam new magazines home.

Halfway back to safety, somepony smashed into me, knocking both of us into the ground.

A fury guffawed manically into my face spraying my muzzle with fetid ropes of spittle. I tried pushing her away, but she had me pinned down as she levitated a metal apple before my eyes. She cackled, biting on its stem and pulling it off with a metallic ping.

It began to puff smoke.

Bullets slammed into her, but she did not relent. The crazed mare stabbed her hooves into my throat, squeezing the life out of me, even as blood trickled out of her grinning mouth and her nose.

I choked, my eyes rolling to the back of my head, holding my forelegs out trying in desperation to push her off of me.

Black veins began rooting their tendrils in the shrinking tunnels of my vision.

"I. Won't. Be. A victim!" I grated, and swung a foreleg into her glowing horn. The fury let out a surprised whelp, her horn's glow flickering as her focus dropped. The grenade fell and I heaved her over it.

I heard a crack - then nothing. In a flash, the world around me exploded in a roiling plume of shrapnel and gore. The blast jarred my insides and rattled my bones, launching me a foot off the ground to land in the remains of the fury mare's chest cavity. I stood up on wobbly hooves, and stumbled away in a hazy daze, trailing gore and viscera beneath my legs. I fell to my knees, panting to fill my lungs with air as my ears rung. I forced myself to wobbly hooves and slipped on a trail of gory snow. With a grunt, I fell on one of Gail's wings, and she screeched in agony.

In my dull, disorientated state, I bit Gail's wing once more and dragged her back to the wagon. My adrenaline was abating and I could feel my jaw slackening, my legs tiring, my lungs struggling to fill with air through Gail's feathers and my teeth. I dragged her through the blurriness of my eyes, refusing to give in, refusing to die so easily. These snow furies had made myself and my friends victims before – and I wasn't about to let them make me one again.

I pulled her behind the wagon formation and spat out a mouthful of her feathers before collapsing in the snow, gasping for air. My head was spinning and I blinked away the shock of being blown up for the second time in the last few days. My insides felt like they'd been rearranged by the shock of simply being so close to it. I rolled over and finally let myself go, heaving the contents of my stomach underneath Night Sky's wagon.

The gunfire had died down by the time I got to my hooves as the furies retreated back to whatever icy hole they came from. I teetered on my hooves, and fell against a wagon's frame, gasping for my breath.

"Yeah, run you panzy tailed sons of bitches!" Sprinkles screamed at the fleeing snow furies.

The scrambling was far from over, however, as Gail had a punctured lung and a hole in her wing. She hacked up splotches of scarlet that melted through the snow, clutching her ribs in a vain attempt to quell the bleeding.

"How bad is it?" I sputtered in between breaths, the dizziness fading to a dull headache.

Sprinkles trotted next to me, leaning on her assault rifle. "As long as it went through her, she should be fine."

"Look for an exit wound." Night Sky said to Bone Charm, jostling the wheezing griffon.

A patch of contour feathers, once gray, trickled with blood down her back as they rolled her over. Was an exit wound supposed to be a good thing?

Flipping her unceremoniously onto her back, Bone Charm wrenched her mouth open and levitated a potion to her beak. Gail clenched the potion in her talons and gulped it down before curling up into a ball and heaving her chest violently to fill her regenerating lungs.

Right. Can't heal around a bullet.

The eye patched stallion stared at me steel faced. I met his gaze and pursed my lips as we looked at each other for too many seconds. I expected him to berate me; I probably would have too, risking my life like that.

But he nodded once, and attended to his adopted daughter. It was worth it after all.

"You ain't so bad." He muttered, not meeting me eye to eye. "Not bad for a stable dweller." Bone Charm added with a grunt. A suppressed smile stretched across my lips.

I knelt next to the convulsing griffon, whose wheezing has lessened somewhat. Gail tipped her head to see me and smiled painfully through a bloody beak.

"Thanks –" she heaved for a breath of air, "- Red… can I call you that?"

A narrow smile reached across the corners of my lips, my heart warming.

"That's my name."

She looked overjoyed. "I owe you one, Red." Gail gasped, laying down flat on her back, her breathing stabilizing.

"You don't owe me anything." I murmured. I don't think I would 've been able to survive that had the other mercs not jumped in. A darker corner of my mind told me I shouldn't have taken that risk for that griffon, let alone for a bastard like Bone Charm. But the gratefulness that widened across her beak and the relief in the grizzled unicorn's eyes trickled white paint down the narrow black walls of my conscience. I stuck out my tongue and hoofed a rogue feather out of my mouth. "You still got a few feathers on your back, that's all that matters." I said, forcing a crooked smirk.

Gail struggled to contain a chuckle to let out a few wet coughs.

"You sticking around for some more?" she rasped, clutching her feathered chest.

I looked out into the snow and around us. The cooling remains of ponies were laid out to freeze among the drifts, possibly doomed to rot where they'd fallen. Not too far from our wagon formation, I spied a crater with half a pony laying in it.

"I ah …" I didn't have enough in my stomach to hurl again. I've had the urge to do that too many times today. Why was it so easy for these mercs? I shivered. It shouldn't have been that easy for me. My frown turned to a glare as my eyes panned over the pale coat of the mare I'd crippled earlier. These weren't ponies. These were monsters. And I wasn't going to be another one of their victims.

Hesitation was going to get me killed. I was afraid to say that I'd go to any length to return to my stable alive and not empty hoofed. I rubbed them together in the powder, trying to clean the blood off my lower legs. "Whatever gets me to Poneva." I continued, grimly.

The sound of hooves sloshing through the snow behind me made me jump. I popped in my mouth bit and almost shot the trader in the face as he approached.

"Whoa nelly, you're a jumpy one, aren't'chu?" He said with a wry grin.

I exhaled heavily. "Shorry, thought you were one of thoesh …" I glanced at their mangled corpses, spitting out the bit, "… those psychos."

He nodded rapidly before levitating out a strange blue bottle out of his satchel bag.

"Listen 'ere, you saved my ass earlier. And I ain't the ungrateful bastard."

I shook my head, waving it off with a forehoof.

"I'm sure you paying Night Sky off will cover it –"

"I never said that Night Sky mare did –" He tipped his hat, "I said you, ya git."

I frowned.

"Well, I supposed it'd be rude." I muttered, pursing my lips. I barely knew this unicorn and he was already giving me handouts. The blue solution swirled gently inside the shot glass sized bottle. "What is it?"
He pointed a forehoof at my horn, "It's called Sparkle. Makes yer magic stronger. Should boost you up good; might even bring your magic back for a bit. It ain't as helpful as a week o'rest, but it might do you good if ya need it in a pinch." The unicorn floated it to me, balancing it on my nose. "But ah said, use it in a pinch. This ain't no potion you just drink 'n forget."

My nose crinkled and I tossed my head back, catching it in my mouth. Well that was cool. I wonder if I could live as a glorified earth pony with a horn. I squinted at the bottle in between my teeth, curiously sloshing around its contents. Though I wish I still had my magic.

"Like … like what?" I asked, with a hint of apprehension.

He leaned against a wagon, regarding me sternly. "I just told ya. It might bring your magic back. For a bit. And not much longer."

"Sure." I said, rather skeptically, nodding my head slowly. Craning my neck to my side, I dropped it in my open bag. "Thanks!" I said with a nervous smile.

"No problemo." He drawled, starting back to his wagon. "Ah'll leave it to ya mercs, then. See ya 'round, uh. I didn't even getchur name, boy?"

I zipped my bag closed, and turned to trot back to the caravan's lead wagon.

"Red Dawn." I said, glancing over my shoulder.

"Name's Duster, and nice to meet'cha, Red Dawn. Ah might see you again one day." Duster said, plodding through the powder. "Might not."

I paused for a moment. Huh? I turned and waved him goodbye, trying to suppress the curious look on my face.

---

We dropped off Duster at Dusktown and immediately headed further north on our wagon, this time, with Bone Charm pulling it. Gosh was that stallion strong. We weren't even following a path. I couldn't see the usual wagon lines in the snow – but the path was heavily trodden with hoof prints.

The skies had darkened significantly since the last I saw it. I had slept for most of the way, and so had Gail. I'd woken up to the rumble of the wagon during its offroad course. The griffon, however, was still napping.

I yawned, rubbing my eyes with my forehooves. Looking around, I noticed everypony was still armed. I wondered why we were packing so much heat, given the contract we were pursuing.

Sitting in an indentation on the wagon's frame was a metal tube. Several rocket propelled grenades rested against it.

"What the hell is that for?"

Night Sky, who was laid out on the wagon bed, sat up and replied, "It's just for diplomacy."

"Diplomacy?" I snorted, "I guess. Your kevlar plated barding really screams for compromise."

She chuckled, letting out a long drawn out sigh. "I know you're new to this wasteland stuff, but zebras aren't exactly the kind of folk to just listen to us ponies."

"I'd imagine. We fought a war with 'em." I sat on my hind legs, eyeing the labels stenciled on the rockets. 'HE-I', I read along the crimson munitions.

"Not we. We never fought them. They're the ones still fighting us." She muttered, closing her eyes.

"Could've sworn the war ended 200 years ago," I sneered. A widening mass of crumbling black trees crept closer and closer as the wagon made its way through the snow. "What exactly are we doing out here?"

"They killed L.J. and his colts from two weeks ago while they were out looking for firewood." He muttered in his gravelly voice, "killed 'em … even the colts." He shook his head and continued, "One of the colts made it back to town, barely alive. Said that the three of them walked in on zebra loggers and got executed on the spot for trespassing." He shook his head. Bone Charm's tone chilled to a cold rasp. "We're going to pay them a visit and find the pony murderin' son'bitch who did it."

I wrapped my forelegs around my chest.

"So the five of us are going back into zebra territory with the possibility of provoking more of them ourselves?" I cocked an eyebrow, "That's smart." I added, wryly. "There's bound to be more of them than us. And you make it sound like they won't just hand the zebra over."

"That's why diplomacy's on our side." Night Sky chuckled grimly.

I wondered what HE-I meant.

Sprinkles loaded a magazine into her assault rifle and panned it across the path in front of us. "They come to our land, our Equestria, hallowed by our dead, plant their flag down, and settle it when everypony's dead. Then, on top of that, they go around killing everypony else that so much as breathes their air."

My expression darkened at that. Just what I needed to hear: more pony killing monsters. They had no shame in killing foals. This alone made them monsters in my book. I looked out into the distance; is this what Equestria's come to?

Maybe their depictions in the textbooks were really no different than what they actually looked like: striped, red eyed, shark toothed killing machines. The last part, at least, seemed to match Sprinkles' description.

"They sound no better than the snow furies." I intoned bitterly.

She turned to face me. "I'd say it's about time we taught those tribals a lesson."

Night Sky leaned against the wagon's frame. "We ponies just want to survive out here without causing any problems. The zebras've raided Dusktown's stores in the past, and I'm not about to let those scum make our lives harder than they already are."

A plume of smoke drifted lazily into the sky above the gnarled canopy in the distance. We were near.

"Let's find this bastard."

The others were silent after that, loading their weapons with a conviction that hinted that they wanted more than just diplomacy. I poked Gail with a forehoof and she shook herself into lucidity.

"We there yet?" she yawned, putting on her battle saddle.

Night Sky got to her hooves and looked over Bone Charm's mane. I frowned, an incredulous look stretching across my face. I had expected the same weather beaten corrugated masses that made up Dusktown's buildings.

But before us was a small circle of gnarled, wooden cabins surrounding a smoldering bonfire. Inside the cabins there was not a single mote of light. I would have thought the zebra village had been dead if there weren't equine shapes milling about outside in tattered, inadequate barding.

The ramshackle village was shadowed by an icy cliff face that stretched its wind swept boulders over the squalid, balefire blackened shacks.

Zebras noticed our final approach. I was surprised at how they didn't start shooting at us. Instead, they scurried inside their cabins, slamming their doors shut. A zebra mare herded her foals inside her cabin, meeting my baffled stare for the briefest of moments before shutting the door behind her.

"Everypony out." Night Sky ordered as the wagon came to a stop several yards away from the village. "Let's get this over with and get paid." The mercs dismounted, Bone Charm shaking off the wagon's harness before levitating his machine gun close.

I kept my eyes on the desolate village, chills running down my spine at how empty and dilapidated the shoddy buildings looked. Not too far from the village, underneath the shadow of the cliff face, were several rows of lonely gravestones.

While everypony else was floating guns to themselves or clamping down on mouth bits, I just stood there, unsure what to do with myself. I turned to look at Gail, her eyes were devoid of … of anything in particular.

Everypony had this grim, glazed over look that made me shiver.

"Charm, I want you on that cliff face with the RPG. Gail, circle the village from the air. Both of you know what to do." Night Sky intoned chillingly. She turned to face me. "Red Dawn, you and Sprinkles are with me." She glanced over her shoulder as a group of zebra stallions came out of the cabins, regarding us expectantly. "Charm, Gail, take your positions. You two," She nodded at Sprinkles and I, "Follow me."

I gulped as we slogged through the knee-deep snow. I hoped I wasn't wrong. I hoped these zebras were feral beasts, just waiting to murder us when we turned our backs on them or looked away. They just stood there, shivering, with dark looks in their eyes as they watched us with half-lucid stares.

"Evening, zebras." Night Sky said, trotting up to the mob.

A middle aged zebra stepped forward. "Not too close, pony!" He ordered firmly, the other zebras brandishing underappreciated handguns and warped blades.

"Whoa there, boy, we're just here to find somepony we're looking for." Night Sky's foreleg twitched visibly as her hoof almost reached for her assault rifle.

The zebra in charge, I assumed, narrowed his distrustful eyes at the heavily armed mercs.

"There were 5 of you when you came."

Sprinkles gave him a shady grin. "Oh they're still here, don't you worry about that."

The zebras shifted uncomfortably in their hooves. A younger stallion who looked about my age eyed me in fear. I wasn't even visibly armed.

"I think you zebras know why we're here," Night Sky began, taking a few steps towards the group. They glared at her menacingly. A few of them actually took a step back. "One of you zebras killed a few ponies back at Dusktown. Murdered a stallion and his two colts. I was hoping you'd tell me where I could find him?"

Zebra leader's jaw clenched. "He's among us."

Night Sky looked relieved, as if she'd taken a difficult job only to have the workload halved.

"We're here to take him into custody." Her expression blackened. "He's coming with us." She stated, sternly.

The zebras looked at each other grimly as their leader shook his head.

"He did no crime, and he most certainly is not going with you ponies."

My eyes caught a black shape at the top of the cliff, a long tube like weapon hovering in the air beside it. A winged silhouette circled above us like a carrion bird.

"I don't think you understand." Night Sky said, "We didn't ask."

The aged stallion stamped his hoof in the snow, the stallions behind him jeering at us in their alien tongues. "And I said no! It was not he who attacked them." His expression hardened, and he narrowed his eyes at us, eyes that have been aged with decades of prejudice, "He was carrying home firewood when they threatened to take from him the fruits of his labor."

"That isn't the story I heard." I said out loud, the zebras looking at me with distant hopefulness. Night Sky and Sprinkles just glared at me.

"Remember that these aren't your trees, zebra." Sprinkles wore a baleful expression that spelled out murder. "That firewood didn't belong to him."

"Fuck you ponies!" A stallion shouted, stamping his hooves in the snow. "Leave us alone!"

Another jutted a foreleg at us accusingly. "You take, and take - you leave nothing for us!"

"These trees, this land – it belongs to neither of us. We cannot survive this winter without fire, and these trees keep us alive, and you cannot deprive of us that which is not yours." He declared, taking an assertive hoof step towards us.

Night Sky grew impatient. "I don't give a shit about your trees, I want that zebra, and I want him now!" she demanded.

"No! We will not relinquish him for he has done no wrong! Go back to your Dusktown and be content that nopony else was slain." He ordered, raising his voice. "Leave us be, and do not come back."

"Night Sky …" I murmured, noticing the zebra foals staring at me through the windows.

She shook her head, smirking. "I'm no sheriff, zebra. I'm a mercenary, and I'm getting my caps either way." Night Sky snorted, shifting on her hooves. "Don't make us take him by force."

The zebra stallion did not take that kindly.

"You … you would kill us?" He began, his voice trembling. The zebras crowded around him, baring their teeth. "Do not be foalish, pony!" The zebras behind him clamped their jaws around their mouth bits, brandishing their weapons.

"You ponies wouldn't dare!" A stallion snarled, brandishing a rusty axe.

"They are outnumbered – we kill them, now!"

"Ndio! Sisi hufanya!" Said another agreeably, glaring at us.

Zebra leader held out his forehooves and held his kin back. "Hapana! Nopony else needs to die. Do not do this, ponies, it is not worth it! Think of our foals!"

"I'm going to ask one more time." Night Sky said, non chalantly, hoofing her assault rifle. Sprinkles did the same. "Give us the zebra, and we'll be on our way.

I was taking shallow breaths as they stared gravely at one another and murmuring in their exotic tongues. Just when I thought this was going to end in a shower of lead, a young stallion pushed past the zebras.

"It was me." He murmured, trembling. His zebra kin shouted at him, trying to pull him back.

"You do not need to do this!"

He shrugged them off. "Just take me with you and don't hurt anypony else … please. Let's stop this madness."

The zebra leader gawked. "No, you are not going anywhere!" He shouted, stepping in front of the zebra. "And you most certainly are not going with them!"

"Hand him over, now, and we'll be out of your mane." Night Sky ordered. Sprinkles looked like she was fighting the urge to pull the trigger.

"Look around you, you ponies! See our village, see our poverty! Have you no shame, living in your Dusktown while we freeze in the snow?" He snapped, "Too many of us perished during this winter, and if we lose any more, our village will surely die off! We have too many tools and not enough zebras to use them." He wrenched the young stallion away with a forehoof. "You are taking from beggars, can you not see?"

Night Sky and Sprinkles looked at each other in exasperation. They didn't care.

"Leave our meager village, leave, and don't come back! I will tolerate your presence here no longer, ponies!" The zebra pleaded.

The mercs brandished their rifles.

One of the zebra stallions racked his shotgun's slider. "Hapana!" The zebra said alarmingly to the others as they started forward. "Wanataka hiyo!" But his words did nothing to calm them. "This is what they want! Do not give it to them!"

The zebra with the shotgun took aim.

Zebra leader flung his forehooves in front of him. "Hapana –"

Night Sky tipped her head to the side.

Crack! My heart nearly stopped. The zebra's head exploded in a shower of bone and gore, splattering my barding with bits of scarlet. I screamed in horror, scrambling away as the night turned to day.

The hut behind them erupted in flames, blinding me in a terrifying flash of light that threatened to consume us all. A jarring shockwave blasted apart its walls and toppled its ceiling, Night Sky and Sprinkles sunk their triggers back, writhing shadows dancing across their faces in the hellish firelight. I ducked low, plugged my ringing ears with my hooves and screamed, bullets and dying zebras shrieking around me.

I watched with wide eyes as the zebra with the shotgun convulsed, ragged, bloody holes ripping open across his entire body. He took a bleeding step forward before his chest blew out in a splash of gore, Gail's black form casting a shadow over me as she soared over us.

"Stop!" I screamed, blood streaming down my face over the gunfire as the zebras collapsed into the melting, crimson snow. But Night Sky and Sprinkles did not relent.

Zebras, engulfed in flames, galloped out of the burning shack in fiery agony as the inferno consumed them. Sprinkles swung her rifle wide to meet the screaming zebras. I watched helplessly while she mowed them down, their burning, bullet ridden corpses falling into the snow to smoke and smoulder.

The smell of burning meat filled my nostrils, summoning vile bile to my throat. Whoosh! A trailing rocket-propelled grenade blew apart a cabin to my left, igniting it in a plume of fire and debris and showering my trembling coat with tingling heat waves.

"No... no! What are you doing!?" I screamed as Sprinkles' assault rifle flared at the small shapes that fled the collapsing cabin. "They're foals! Dear Celestia, Sprinkles, they're just foals!"

"They're zebras, Red Dawn." She growled.

I cried out as one of the small shapes tumbled into the snow, blood spurting. Shrieking hoarsely, I tackled the mare to the ground her assault rifle's bullets kicking up the snow at our hooves. "STOP!"

"Get off me, Red Dawn!" She screamed, bucking me off her.

"What have you done!?" I demanded, galloping towards her with the intent of spearing her with my horn. She sidestepped and held out a foreleg. I tripped and planted my face into the snow, watching in denial as a flaming zebra mare stumbled out of the cabin after her foals. She reached out with a charred, trembling foreleg, only for her smoldering body to collapse into the crimson drifts.

"This is our bonus, ponies! If it's striped, it gets wiped!" Night Sky shouted, arcing her gunfire at a group of fleeing zebras. One of them crashed in a thrashing splash of dark scarlet. Another whirled around to bite down on his mane and drag him away. I reached out with a foreleg and watched them both get perforated in a hail of unforgiving tracers, my jaw trembling in horror.

The cabin they'd burst from erupted in flames. Bone Charm sent another rocket-propelled grenade into the village, and another, and another. I watched as the zebras fueled the fire.

"Night Sky … please … NO!" I begged, gaping at a herd foals that crumpled into the snow in a tirade of scarlet splashes.

All around me, a roiling conflagration devoured the town in a pyre of destruction, enshrouding me with a hellish glow. I stared into the inferno with watery eyes and it stared back, the dying shrieks of zebra foals echoing distantly in my ears. The flames told me that I'd been wrong.

This wasn't wasteland justice. This was a massacre. Night Sky told me that I should be willing to do anything I could to survive … but not like this! Goddesses, not like this! These zebras - they had sons and daughters and husbands and wives – we were no better than the snow furies that slaughtered my friends!

How could I have just stood there and watched!? I watched while they butchered everypony, and even then, my hooves were wet with their blood. I could have done something! They'd made a monster out of me.

… you gotta do what you need to do … even if that means you live and somepony else doesn't … I heard Night Sky say in my thoughts.

Whatever it takes… I heard myself say.

No … no! This can't … can't be right! I clamped down on my pistol's mouth bit and aimed it at Night Sky, entering SATS. I won't be like her! I won't let the wasteland turn me into a monster!

The muzzle flashes of her assault rifle froze in time, and so did the zebra on the other end. Tracers speared through her body and she tipped forward, threatening to topple into the drifts. I mashed all my charges to tag her head until they were spent, my fiery tears glistening in the infernal glow.

My accuracy was favorable. But my conscience was not. My body tensed, and I hesitated. I simply couldn't do it. It was no use. I'd join the zebras if I did. I canceled out and watched the zebra tumble end over end into the snow in a heap, leaving a trail of blood behind her in her wake.

It was over. We were done. And so were the zebras.

The gunfire died down, and only the moaning of crumbling wood remained. I stood there, unable to move, unable to rationalize what these ponies had done. Gail crunched her paws into the snow behind me.

I fell to my knees, my crooked shadow billowing across the crimson snow drifts. Bathed in the cruel pyre light, my conscience agonized in purgatory. I heard Gail's footsteps crunch into the snow to stop next to me. Her winged form overshadowed mine in a sinister cloak of darkness.

"Ready for Poneva, Red?" She asked, cheerily, unfazed by the destruction left in her wake.

Have you no shame? I crawled across the snow to the zebra mare that Night Sky had butchered. She was still breathing, taking ragged, shallow breaths as she teetered on the edge of life and death. I knelt over her, cradling the zebra's head in my hooves.

"I'm sorry." I whispered, "I didn't know. I didn't know they'd do this… I'm not a monster … please …"

The mare gurgled through a mouth full of blood, her fluttering eyes meeting mine before they blinked for the last time. She stared at me blankly as I held her limp corpse. I tipped my head low, trembling uncontrollably.

"What've you done, Gail? What've you ponies done …"

She didn't answer me, her gray feathers glowing a fiery orange. "Was it worth it? Was it worth the fucking caps?" I demanded. She looked at her feet.

"You're right … you're no victim, Gail." I said to her, my voice faltering. The griffon came to me, resting a foot on my shoulder. I shook her off, standing to my hooves. Glaring into her eyes, I asked, "But do you know what you are?"

She turned her head away from me, gazing into the flames. "I …"

"You're a monster." I intoned.

I left her, trotting away from the funeral pyre. I had believed in them, I believed that they were right, that anything was worth doing to survive ... even if it meant that ponies died and I lived. Was this what it took? Was this going to be my life? I didn't know anymore.

Night Sky was right about one thing: I couldn't escape this. This wasn't the end. I realized that if the wasteland did not kill me, it'd kill my soul.

I followed them this far. And this was as far as I was going to go.

Anywhere but here. Goddesses … anywhere but here.

Footnote: Level up.

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

FALLOUT EQUESTRIA: RISING DAWN

Chapter 4

Bad Pony

"If that's what it took, why not? You said you were looking for a Water Talisman. Wouldn't you do anything to bring one back so everypony in your stable would live?"

Even in the distance, I could still see their village burning. Behind me, it was a dimly glowing ember in a sea of shifting snow. Their screams permeated my thoughts. Night Sky's words blackened my conscience. It wasn't right. They'd murdered the zebras, and they'd do it again if they could. At the end of the day, they'd get their caps for whatever atrocities they promised to commit.

I trudged through the perpetual twilight that haunted these ashen plains, and at the end of the day, my hooves would still be empty. They'd done what I could not and could never have. They were doers. They were survivors. And I was still a victim. I made the choice of walking away from my only safe means of travel to Poneva.

I chose to be a good pony – at the cost of my stable's rations. Every hour, every day spent out here was another day sheared off my stable's lifespan. I wasted my time – I wasted their time! The time I spent accompanying those mercs was thrown out the window, all because I chose to have a conscience. All because I chose to not be a monster.

A darker part of my soul reasoned with me. I should have stayed with those mercs; I'd probably be in Poneva by now. I'd have a water talisman in my hooves and I'd be able to return to my stable and close those doors and forget about everything outside.

I threw my head back and screamed in frustration, stamping my hooves into the snow. I would have sacrificed those zebra a hundred times over if it meant my stable lived! These surface dwelling vermin shouldn't mean anything to me! There's nothing left on the surface to save. There was a reason why we never opened our doors … and this … this place was it.

My stable … my stable was my world, and my world was my stable. I didn't belong here. I looked around me, the chilling breeze blowing powder over the pale dunes that rose up from the dead earth. I was in the middle of nowhere.

Again.

All because I chose to be a good pony. The first ponies I met slaughtered my friends. The next group slaughtered an entire village of zebras. Was there anything that made those two groups different? What use was there being good if everypony I saw, everypony I met was bad? It would be a disadvantage. It would make me naïve and vulnerable in the face of opportunity. Opportunity. I chuckled at that word, shaking my head as I crunched through the powder.

For a moment, at Dusktown, I had hope. Hope that the darkness that enshrouded this land hadn't blackened the hearts of everypony. I knew now, as I plodded through the snow, that there was a monster in everypony and in everyone.

There was one in me too.

For hours, I made my way through the snow, kicking through the powder in a direction my pipbuck told me was north. I stopped for a moment to catch my breath, and, in the distance, I saw several black silhouettes stalking me in the darkness.

Bloodletters.

I tried counting them, but the snow swirls that danced across the drifts distorted their shapes. My EFS unhelpfully marked them as a large amorphous red blob. For all I knew there could've been 30 of them. I didn't know what to expect – I didn't want to know what those creatures could do. I gulped. I needed to find shelter, or someplace I could wall off or hide in. The pace of my hoofsteps quickened.

I looked behind me once more. They were getting closer.

I slid carefully down a massive hill of snow and felt my hooves sink into the powder to clop dully onto solid stone. My pipbuck alerted me that I'd entered a different zone. The Crystal Highway. Thank the Goddesses, at least I was making some progress. I glanced over my shoulder and was relieved that the silhouettes were following me no longer.

Oh fuck. My eyes darted across the snow and I realized that I was standing in a wide crack in the earth. Glancing to the left and right, it was evident that the land had been split asunder in the jagged teeth that jutted out of the ridgelines around me. I glared at the hill behind me; it was too steep to climb back up. There was no way out of here, and no way to go but forward and back.

With only two directions possible, I figured that forward was a good idea. I trotted along the winding path, passing under the shadows of the broken rock formations that reached over me. Turning a corner, I saw, half buried in the snow, what looked like a wagon. I approached its charred, shattered remains, and poked through the mound of snow that buried it. From its half melted surface and the direction it was pointed, I surmised that it had been fleeing from the balefire. I looked up, and my expression darkened.

All around me, straddling the ridge walls to my left and right, or just buried in the snow in mass graves were wagons. Hundreds of them. I gulped; this was the Crystal Highway after all. I squinted through the darkness; they had been fleeing the blast zone. Lightning Twirl was right: follow the highway, and you'll get somewhere.

That somewhere, I hoped, was Poneva. I trudged onward, stepping over hunks of scrap metal that would have clipped and cut into my flesh had I not been wearing my barding. Taking in my surroundings, I noticed that two rows had been cleared through the wreckage on either side of the valley. Wagon lines ran along their midsections. The 2 century-old wreckage had been simply bulldozed aside to make room for a road going north and south.

By chance I came across a wagon that had been flipped over so that one set of its blackened wheel spokes was pointing skywards. It didn't look like the others; its frame was built more for practicality than vanity. The remarkably sturdy looking rhombohedron of metal hadn't been blasted apart by the balefire like the rest. It was fairly large, and it looked capable of holding half a dozen or more ponies within its hull.

I lowered myself to my chest and peeked underneath it through a slit that hadn't been buried under with snow. Something caught my eye inside and piqued my interest.

I dredged the hole further with my hooves, pushing the freezing powder away until I could see inside the pitch black interior of the overturned wagon. I flicked on my pipbuck's flashlight and flashed it into the darkness. Skeletons. Almost a dozen of them, and two more partially buried lower halves that belonged to the wagon pullers, I assumed.

Some of the bones were too small to belong to that of a full grown mare or stallion.

My eyes hardened as I stared into the wagon's contents. Among them I found, littering the dirt beneath and around their fractured skeletons, cases of charred belongings and disintegrating satchel bags. It was clear to me now that these ponies were fleeing the balefire.

Some of the skulls wore visored helmets that were still tied snugly to their frozen craniums; emblazoned onto the metal cuirasses that encased their chests were emblems depicting two alicorns mirroring each other as the sun and moon rose and fell behind them. These ponies were soldiers of the Goddesses armies.

Outside, there were hundreds, maybe even thousands of wagons. This wasn't just a desperate flight; it was an evacuation – a mass exodus. I thought back to Spring Fresh's memory orb; her husband, a military pony, had apparently known of what was coming. Even with foreknowledge, they were not able to escape.

I gulped down a heavy lump in my throat and noticed a frost-encrusted shape clutched within somepony's skeletal hooves. It was a foal. And under its hooves was the frayed, disintegrating coat of an ancient foal's toy. I found myself lost in the pink doll's buttoned eyes.

The touch of cold, cold death slithered against my coat.

"Mommy, please don't go!"

I stood to my hooves and banged my head against the wagon bed, my mind reeling and my body trembling. I looked around me and all I saw were ponies - dead and gone.

Mommy …Spring Song's voice whimpered for her mother, her voice emanating from the screaming, hanging maw of the small skeleton that lay before me.

"NOOO!" Spring Song wailed.

I shrieked, squeezed my eyes shut, and scrambled out of the darkness, my pipbuck's beam flashing against their forsaken remains, painting their wretched, anguished shadows against the wagon's charred insides. I wrenched myself out from under the wagon and fell on my bottom, gasping frantically for my breath as I kicked my hind legs away from the dark hole.

My heart drummed against my chest. I stared with wide eyes as the screams of Spring Fresh's foals faded away into the haunting breeze. I sat there as the wind blew a solemn tune, my heavy breaths hissing through my lips in wisps of white vapor. I made my way back to the wagon and, with my forehooves, swept them over the hole, filling it with snow.

I left the wagon behind me and did not look back, walking along the lonely highway into the darkness as the snowfall thickened. I stopped every now and then to pan my pipbuck's yellow beam across the frigid snow swirls. Even inside the thick fabrics of my barding, I was cold – but inside, I was even colder. Desperation was all that was keeping me going at this point; this road would take me to whatever end awaited me. I just knew it.

If Poneva held not the salvation my Stable needed, I didn't know if a life out here was worth living. The dead were calling me to join them. The memories of Spring Fresh and her foals were still haunting me even after I buried them. I knew they weren't real. They were long dead. But I couldn't stop shaking.

I was soft, and the wasteland was leaving its marks.

As I trudged onward, the night became darker and it felt like I'd been trotting for hours when a yellow light shown upon my flank. It seethed around me, painting my shadow against the snow as it came closer.

I turned slowly, my right foreleg held over my muzzle against the glare. My pupils contracted as a large black mass with a beam of light training upon me approached. I gulped a heavy lump down my throat as I stood my ground, unsure what to expect. As they closed in, I could see several equine shapes following closely by its flanks.

The black mass stopped. For seconds that felt like hours, I waited for their maniacal cackles, for a hail of bullets, hell, maybe even a rocket propelled grenade. Instead, there came four equine silhouettes as they disembarked from the dark mass, the vehicle's light still trained on me.

All six illuminated the night with their flashlights, panning them across my face. I held out a trembling foreleg and flashed them with my pipbuck's beam. Six hooded ponies in thick snow barding approached, and held in their mouths or floating in their magical fields, were an assortment of carbines and other automatic weapons. To my grim relief, they were not furies. But their poise changed nothing.

A stallion with a machine pistol trotted up to me, my apprehensive face reflecting dully in his battered black goggles. I dared not make any sudden movements. "Look at what we got here." He said as I shielded my eyes with a foreleg.

"Where're you headed, colt?" The unicorn stallion asked, jadedly.

I gulped, taking a step back, narrowing my eyes at them.

"What does it matter?"

The sound of somepony racking his weapon's charging handle pushed me another step back.

"Jus' wondering. Not that many ponies go this way on hoof. 'N not that many ponies go up ta Poneva alone."

I snorted. So this road did lead to Poneva after all. "Well, no shit." I murmured. "If you knew already, why'd you ask?"

The stallion glanced over at the others.

"Thought that since we headin' the same way, you could hitch a ride with us." He said, reaching out with a foreleg. He grinned under his hood.

I shook my head, trotting back carefully. "I won't be going anywhere with anypony …" Every hoofstep I took back, they took another forward. "I can make it there myself."

"Come on, colt. It's dangerous out here, bloodletters and haunters and such. It ain't safe out here on your own."

"No." I said, firmly. I survived out here by myself this far, and I was intending on keeping it that way. Alive, alone, and away from these ponies, whoever they were. "Leave me alone."

His grin widened as he shook his head.

"Hold on, wait a sec!" He said, trotting up to me, so close, that I could see the scratches in his goggles.

"Stay the fuck back!" I growled, shoving him away from me.

"Hey, hey, hey!" He said, standing on his hind legs and holding his forelegs in the air. "I was just gonna say that you remind me of somepony."

Huh? I craned my neck and cocked my head. These ponies were testing my patience. I didn't know any of these ponies, and I didn't have time for this bullshit!

I glared at him, "Do you, now?"

He bobbed his head with a nicker. "Yeah, yeah, you guys know this pony too, right?" He fell on all fours and turned to the others.

They nodded, trotting towards me. Who the hell were these ponies?

"Listen, I don't know who the fuck you are –"

"Mhm, I've seen him around," Said a mare as she unslung a battle rifle from her back.

"Yeah, he's that one slave," Grated another as the ponies leveled their weapons at me.

My eyes widened. "W-what? I don't even know you ponies." I stammered, trembling. "I'm no slave." I croaked, my eyes darting to each pony and back at my holster.

They all laughed at me, the other stallion approaching me with a long metal chain. I drew my pistol reflexively.

"You are now." He said, with a wide grin.

I froze. My mouth opened and closed with words I couldn't find. No, not like this. My eyes locked onto the holster slung across my chest.

"No." I said, backing away. "I don't want to hurt anypony …" I pleaded with them; I didn't want any more blood on my hooves. "Nopony needs to die."

"Die?" The mare guffawed. "You're surrounded, colt."

Please, Goddesses, don't make me kill anypony else. Goddesses, somepony, something – make them turn around and leave!

The unicorn pony chuckled, taking a menacing hoofstep towards me. "Don't even think about it." The stallion said forcefully, levitating his machine pistol to my head. "You're coming with us whether you like it or not, colt."

My lungs ached as I realized that I'd been holding my breath.

I closed my eyes for a moment, and when they fluttered open, I exhaled, slowly. Nopony's going to stop me now. Not when I'm so close. Not with so many ponies waiting for me to come back home.

"Fuck. You." I said, under my breath, and slipped into SATS.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

The stallion's goggles exploded inward as a bullet speared through his lenses and out the back of his head. A heartbeat later, the pony with the shackles dropped dead before he could even scream as I blew a hole out the back of his hood. My third, aimed at the mare with the battle rifle, went wide as she dived towards me, forelegs outstretched.

"You son of a bitch!" she howled. I gazed at them with shock as they slung their weapons and launched themselves into the fray. They wanted me alive.

I tongued my mouth bit, my pistol discharging the last of its magazine as they wrenched it out of my teeth, blowing one pony's left ear off in the process. In a whinnying frenzy, he spun around and bucked me in the chest, knocking the air from my lungs before the mare slammed into me from the side, tackling me to the powder in a plume of snow.

I shrieked, ramming a hoof into her throat. She threw her head back for a moment, choking for air before another hoof connected with her nose, peppering my muzzle with splotches of her crimson. Not this close, not this close to Poneva was I going to go down to scum like these!

"Get. Off!" I cried out hoarsely, bucking her off me with a grunt and kicked up snow beneath me as I scrambled for my fallen pistol. Won't – be – a – victim -

I was a breath away from it before a stallion kicked it away from my hooves.

He wrestled me to the snow in a tangle of limbs, slamming a hoof into me before violently flinging me over onto my stomach. I thrashed and screamed as he and the rifle mare pinned me to the snow as I kicked a crater out of the ground in my desperate struggle.

I looked up and a younger looking mare with blue goggles rushed towards me, a carbine floating in front of her. She looked down at me with conflicted eyes, and hesitated.

"Sugar Rum, do it!" The stallion screamed, hoofing me in the ribcage. She blinked, and slammed the buttstock of her carbine into the base of my skull, ramming my face into the snow.

My sight blurred out and I tasted the irony taste of blood that I'd learned to become familiar with, lately. That lull in consciousness was all the time they needed. With an audible metallic clank, I felt the cold touch of frozen metal clamp around my hooves.

I lay there in a heap, beaten and overpowered. There was nothing I could do now.

"No …" I whimpered, as they rolled me over on my back, a chain tugging against my forelegs. This can't be happening! A rivulet of blood ran down my forehead and over my brow as they dragged me back to their wagon.

In that moment, I lost everything. Dew Drops' scarf, my family pictures – everything in my bags - my holster and my gun. I lost the only thing worth living for in this wasteland. I lost what Night Sky and her mercs washed their hands with blood to preserve.

I lost my freedom. I took it for granted, chose what was right over what needed to be done, chose to be a good pony, and chose to walk away from my only chance at making it to Poneva in safety. Everypony in Stable 91 was going to die, and it was all my fault.

I was Red Dawn. I was a victim.

Now I was a slave.

"You did us a favor." The mare with the carbine said into my ear as she chained me to the back of their wagon. I looked up into the wagon bed and half a dozen weary eyes peered back down at me between the metal bars of a steel cage. "Now the cut's split between the four of us."

---

I trotted sullenly, my forelegs chained to the back of the wagon as it rolled due north. I was getting to Poneva after all.

In shackles, of course.

This, sadly, was yet another thing that Night Sky was right about. Slavers. I should've stayed with Night Sky; the weak and naïve don't survive too long out here, I came to realize.

There was no way out of this, I concluded abysmally as I clanked my biting chains together. I looked up and Sugar Rum, the mare that had beaten my skull in with her carbine, was watching me through her blue goggles. I shot her a deathly look and she kept my burning gaze for a few heartbeats. With a snort of icy air, she turned away, panning her flashlight across the road.

I wasn't dead yet. As bleak as my situation looked, the only thing running circles around my mind was – how the hell was I going to get out of this? I'd lived to see my friends die, and walked away from certain death three times now. This was not how it was supposed to end. The wasteland can take anything but my freedom if I could help it.

It was my choice to pick up where my friends had left off when they died; if even that choice was taken away from me, life was no longer worth living. Night Sky told me I didn't get to choose the easy way out; but, ultimately, I had the right to choose how I'd die. And I wouldn't let these bastards take that away from me.

I grinded my teeth together and eyeballed the back of the wagon where they had thrown my bags. I narrowed them at the black shape of my holster. If I could just get to them …

I shot the slavers with a look that promised murder. One of them saw me and laughed. They didn't give two shits about what I thought of them as they pulled the wagon through the debris-littered highway.

I followed my clanking metal chains to the steel bars of a cage sitting on the wagon's bed. I stared through its dirty, rime encrusted bars and saw them – 6 poor ponies in all, as they sat together in somber quietude.

What I saw made my blood boil. The ponies were battered and bruised. Some had black eyes; others had bumps on their heads or patches of coat missing. One of the mares had a bloody, blackened flank. She lay on the wagon floor with glassy eyes, not staring at anything in particular. Each pony inside had a collar wrapped around their necks – wired collars that blinked every now and then with a red light. My expression darkened as one of the ponies met my eyes.

"What are those things around your necks?" I asked.

A mare with bandages around her chest replied, "Bomb collars."

Goddesses have mercy. How can anypony do that to somepony? Bomb collars? What the fucking fuck? They chained me to the back of the wagon because there wasn't enough room inside the cage. My lack of a collar supported the notion that they weren't prepared to capture more than six. But they'd made accommodations just for me.

"What did they do to you all?" I whispered, my voice trembling.

For several heartbeats, nopony answered. An earth pony in tattered snow barding limped to the cage's bars and peered down at me. "Took me while my daughter and I were scavenging for food." He answered, faintly.

My jaw clenched. His filly was nowhere to be seen. "Your daughter … what happened to her?"

He looked at his hooves, and back at me with eyes that burned with balefire. He blinked furiously, shaking his head as they welled with tears. "They took me … and left her behind."

These slavers were vermin. "Why …" I murmured.

"East Eden ca' never have 'nuff slaves." A stallion missing several patches of coat where curved lines lacerated his bare flesh, croaked.

I looked at him with gloomy curiosity. "East Eden?"

The mare with bandages wrapped around her chest crawled to the metal bars. "They're a plantation in Poneva. They need slaves to plow and harvest their fields."

"They're going to put us to work and work us to death," Growled the earth pony.

The mangy stallion shook his head. "That ain't true. I heard they feed you and put a roof over your head."

I couldn't believe that.

"Bullshit." The pony hissed. "They don't give a shit about any of us! Look at what they did to her!" He pointed a forehoof at the mare with the bloody flank. "They left my filly for dead!"

"S'better than being dead." The mangy pony replied. I almost stopped in my tracks, but the chain dragged me along with it. Nothing can be better than this.

"Three meals a day, and a bed t'sleep in. Ain't nuthin wrong with that."

To my shock, the mare nodded, slowly. "I scavenged everyday for something to eat before these slavers found me. Sometimes I'd go a day or two without something in my stomach."

A pony leaning against the bars in the back of the cage, turned his eyes low. "I'd do anything … anything for a bite. Just … something to eat," Added a unicorn with a broken horn. "I'm so hungry."

The mare and the patchy pony nodded together, shamelessly.

"No!" I snapped, raising my voice. These ponies – how could they be so accepting of this – this abomination of a fate? They looked at me with bleak, desperate eyes. "How can anypony be okay with this?!" I demanded.

None of the ponies said anything. Not even the earth pony. They were as beaten and hopeless as this frozen wasteland.

"You're a stable pony," The hornless unicorn began, eying my pipbuck. "You don't know what it's like out here … you're lucky if you eat once a day. You're a king if you eat twice."

"No. No. No." I hissed, glaring at him, "This and this?" I said, pointing a forehoof at the daughterless earth pony and the mare with the bloodied flank, "This isn't right. And nopony should be fine about it."

"It doesn't matter." I whirled my baleful gaze to its source and Sugar Rum's blue goggles were facing me. "East Eden's better than out here."

"Nowhere. Is better. Than here." I stated, scorning the very snow that crunched beneath my hooves. "But you ponies, you slaver pieces of shits make this world worse than it already is." I was going to tear this mare apart! "How the fuck do you live with yourself? Huh?" These ponies – no, these vermin - were worse than Night Sky's mercs.

Her goggles gave away nothing of the pony beneath.

Seconds passed, and Sugar Rum finally replied, "It's a business. You get paid. And when you get paid, you can put food on the table. If I don't do this, my family'll starve." Her voice was trembling and tinged with self-reproach.

"It's not worth it!" I screamed, venting out all the anger that I had stored for Night Sky. "You fuckers, y-you sick, calculating fucks - that's all it is to you, isn't it!?" Sugar Rum turned her head away from me and stared off into the distance. My voice lowered as I craned my neck towards her.

"It's just for the caps, isn't it?" I intoned, mockingly. I glanced at the poor mare with the ruined flank. "Look at me." I said to the slaver, hoarsely. She didn't turn. "I SAID, LOOK AT ME!"

Her goggles pivoted shakily towards me like an unoiled machine. "Now look at her." I said, pointing at the glassy eyed mare. "You see that? Is that what you do? Is that … that work … worth it? How'd you like it if somepony did that to you?"

The slaves were as speechless as the slaver. I don't think they've seen anypony mouth off to a slaver like that before. Sugar Rum looked at her hooves, and muttered something incomprehensible. "What?" I demanded. "What the fuck did you just say?"

"I … I …" She stammered, choking on her own words. Sugar Rum sniffed, bowing her head for a dark moment. Her blue goggles turned to face me, and I saw my own reflection. "I… don't care. I-I don't fucking care."

I trotted behind the wagon in silence as the wind howled around me. No hope. There was no hope for these ponies.

"Hey …" Somepony whispered. I looked up to the cage and the ponies huddled within parted aside. The ravaged mare was looking straight … through me. "Thank you … you're right, this isn't okay." She stated, faintly. "But there's nothing. Nothing we can do now."

I looked down at my hooves. Maybe she was right. My chains were cold, cold steel. No amount of pulling, yanking, or bitching was going to save me now. My body was chained, but my spirit wanted to be free. My stable was calling out to me. My mother was praying to the Goddeses to spirit me back home.

I made a promise to Dew Drops. I wasn't going to give up now.

In the darkness, several octaves higher than the sorrowful songs that the wind moaned, howled a creature that sounded nothing like anything I'd ever heard. Sugar Rum straightened out, levitating her carbine over the wagon's sideboard, her ears perked.

I heard it again, the haunting, unnatural howl that rattled my resolve. I trotted as close to the wagon as I could, the slaves inside the cage huddling together in fear. Fear. I thought I knew what it felt like to fear.

I swung my head around in every direction, trying to find the source of the devilish cries. Or sources. I nearly jumped when dozens of the terrifying howls pierced the night. I saw them. Goddesses. There were so many of them.

Rising from under the ridgeline's broken fingers, on either side of highway, were a dozen black shapes in all. Each was about as big as a third of the wagon's frame.

"Bloodletters!" One of the slavers scrambled onboard the wagon, a machine pistol in his mouth.

"Faster, we need to get away from those things!" The mare with the battle rifle ordered, tapping her hoof rapidly on the wagon's sideboard. The wagon puller nodded and entered a gallop. That resistance – that unwillingness to sit there and become prey, set the creatures off. The prey was escaping.

And they needed to feed.

With a rallying screech, a bloodletter leaped off the ridgeline and landed in a burst of powder. It blew through the snow shower at a full sprint, snarling as it bounded towards us.

"Put 'em down! Don't let 'em get close!" The rifle mare shouted, lighting up the night with flashes of muzzle flare. Sugar Rum panned her flashlight at the creature and I saw that it was a wolf as white as the snow itself. Its mindless, soulless eyes hungered for flesh and its slobbering mouth was wet with frothing saliva.

Chunks of its flesh blew off as the battle rifle's large caliber rounds tore into it. It yelped, faltered for a moment, but carried on as its kin joined the fray. A dozen of the creatures leaped into the highway from both sides. I screamed as one of the bloodletters flung itself in front of the wagon and ripped into the wagon puller.

His gurgling screams ceased as the wagon ran both of them over with a sickening crunch, flipping the wagon's frame end over end to crash into the snow in pieces. The impact catapulted me violently into the air as the wagon smashed into a snow drift, throwing up showers of ashen powder. I was thrashing my limbs midair, screaming for my life when the chain brutally yanked me back down to the earth in a blur of flailing limbs.

I crunched into fresh debris, my forehead smashing through a ruined plank of wood. I got to my hooves, blood running down my face, and all around me, ponies screamed. Only this time, it wasn't a village burning.

Littering the snow was the remains of the slavers' wagons, and underneath them, they clawed to the surface. One of the stallions burst through the debris, stumbling out into the open. I shrieked as a blurred form rammed into him, claws ripping through his barding as a bloodletter struck him down. I scrambled away, turning from the feasting creature even as the pony's screams died away to the snarling and howling of the mutant wolves.

"Goddesses – oh my Celestia – Luna's fucking grace!" I murmured as several more of the wolves fought for the slaver's meaty limbs. One of the bloodletters cocked its head at me and found the smell of my fear tantalizing.

My eyes widened as it bounded towards me, baring its wickedly sharp teeth. I galloped away and – the chain yanked me back to the ground. The bloodletter pounced. It tackled me to the snow, its claws digging into my barding as it snapped at my exposed throat.

I held out a foreleg in terror and watched with wide eyes as it, instead of chomping through my flesh, ripped through the chains that bound my legs. Unshackled, I threw out my forelegs and shoved it back with all the strength I had left, pouring into my forelegs all the hope and desperation the wasteland hadn't taken from me yet. It roared into my muzzle, spraying my face with ropes of disgusting spittle. The smell of its breath was that of a hundred rotting corpses. I could still see chunks of meat poking out from between its teeth.

The dead were calling me. Calling me to join them.

With a nightmarish, unnatural screech, the bloodletter threw its head back and bellowed a throaty, deafening roar that made my ears ring. Its head began to writhe and twitch from the inside out. Its lower jaw parted, and widened, and widened – and Goddesses, its head fucking ripped open!

It split apart, blooming outward like a budding flower – only its head didn't come apart. With a disgusting fetid gurgle, a long, writhing proboscis erupted out from the fleshy hole that was its throat between its four dripping mandibles.

"Holy shit – what the fuck is this thing!?" I cried out, as thick globs of digestive fluid dripped onto my quivering muzzle. I bared my teeth and screamed into its flapping mandibles, trying to wrestle the beast off me.

The bloodletter hissed, its fleshy, pink proboscis widening to reveal row upon row of serrated teeth. It, about as long as my outstretched foreleg, snaked into the air as I held back the rest of its body with faltering strength.

My muscles were burning. It was too strong, any moment now I'd let go.

I faltered.

My forelegs slackened. In a heartbeat, it was upon me. I shrieked as blood splashed onto my face and onto my chest. It tore into me, ripped open my chest cavity. I lay there screaming, bleeding out.

But the blood wasn't mine. The mutant abomination let out a dying hiss and slumped on top of me with a dozen ragged holes pouring crimson out of its throat. I wrestled it off me with a faint groan, and saw Sugar Rum's carbine smoking.

She lowered her carbine and flung my belongings at me with a magical field. I looked at her, covered in thick scarlet. Sugar Rum nodded once, levitated her gun, and continued firing. Two of the remaining slavers galloped towards her, opening up with their automatic weapons as the bloodletters plodded towards us.

I slipped on my holster, threw on my satchel bags, and wrapped Dew Drops' scarf around my neck. Somepony screamed behind me, and I whirled on my hooves. No!

Three bloodletters circled the cage as the ponies huddled together inside, only inches away from the mutant canines.

"HELP! Somepony, please!" The mare screamed.

"Get us out of here!" Shouted the earth pony stallion.

"The slaves!" I cried, pointing a forehoof at the cagefull of ponies.

The two other slavers ignored me, firing their guns like their lives depended on it.

"We need to help them!" I galloped toward Sugar Rum, gnawing my pistol's mouth bit.

"The key, find the key!" she hollered at me.

I panned my pipbuck's flashlight across the snow and spotted something shiny. I kicked my legs towards it - and a bloodletter landed in front of me. Son of a bitch – it thrashed through the powder, bounding towards me… and the key disappeared beneath the shifting snow.

I lost it. I lost.

"NOOO!" I cried, my face red as SATS aimed my entire magazine's worth of 10mm rounds down its gaping maw. The bullets lost their velocity, and blew apart its neck in chunks of ruined gore. It tumbled to the snow, its thrashing death rattle painting the drifts crimson with a fountain of blood. It slid to my hooves in a trail of gore, dead.

I spun my head to the wagon's wreckage just in time to see the bad go to worse. The slaves screamed as one of the bloodletters wrapped its jaws around one of the metal bars and yanked. The cage fell over on its side, pinning the creature beneath – the ponies landing on top of it in a shrieking heap. Its head split open and it snaked its writhing proboscis through the cage and ripped into the mangy pony's throat.

It sheared off a huge chunk of flesh and he fell back against the metal bars at the other end of the cage. Within seconds, the bloodletters outside devoured his flesh through the bars in a gory frenzy of snapping proboscides. He screamed in silence, his throat shredded to the bone as they broke his legs at stomach churning angles and ripped them clean off through the bars.

I shook my head vigorously, unloading a tirade of bullets their way. Several plunged deep, but the beasts were unfazed in their enraged, mindless state.

"Dear Celestia, somepony help them!" I pleaded in desperation.

"Fuck 'em," The slaver mare with the battle rifle shouted back. "Let's get the fuck outta here!"

"You mother fuckers!" I roared, swinging my pistol to the slavers. I heard the mare inside the cage scream and I swung it back at the wolves to see her lose her forelegs.

The slavers turned and galloped – except Sugar Rum. She glanced over her shoulder once, and levitated her carbine to gun down a bloodletter that got too close. Behind me the slaves howled in agony as the mutant abominations snaked their writhing proboscides through the bars to pick apart the hapless souls within.

It was a feast.

I watched helplessly while they tore into the defenseless morsels, devouring them alive, their shrieks dying beneath the beasts' nightmarish howling. Ponies pleaded to die as limbs tore, bones broke, and entrails spilled. The earth pony fell to the bottom of the cage, clutching his eviscerated innards as proboscides fought with his gory forelegs in an effort to yank away his intestines.

I started towards them, and paused – it was no use. They were already dead. I turned and darted my eyes to the fleeing slavers. I glanced back at the feeding frenzy, the voracious cacophony echoing thousands of times over in my thoughts, clawing at the white walls of my conscience, staining them red, cracking them with every vicious snap.

I stood there and watched both, my heart threatening to burst from my chest. I stood on my hinds and cradled my head in my hooves, screaming for Luna's grace.

Everypony I tried to help slipped away from my hooves.

With a whooping screech, one of the beasts pounced on Sugar Rum, clawing through her throat with its razor sharp talons. She stumbled backwards on her hinds, her forelegs wrapped around her neck, blood spurting through her hooves.

I roared, SATS guiding rounds through its head until my magazine clicked empty. I galloped towards Sugar Rum as she fell back into the snow, her lifeblood melting through the powder around her.

I held out my hooves but she swatted them away, shaking her head.

"Sorry - I'm sorry... the things I've done... the ponies I've killed... not worth it." She choked, blood running down her lips. She hoofed one of her breast pockets, and pulled out a frayed slip of paper, holding it out to me with a bloody hoof. It was an aged photograph of a golden yellow pony, a mare with blonde locks, and two pale coated twins. "Take it … please …" She said with an anguished sigh. I slipped it into one of my vest pockets, nodding gravely. Sugar Rum lifted her blue goggles and pulled down her hood, revealing the amber coated pony underneath. Her watery, blue eyes gazed up at me as the light began to fade from them.

"The slaves …" I began.

"I'll take – c- care of them." Sugar Rum croaked. She levitated a small tube, and flipped open its top. A detonator. "Go. If you find my daughters … my sister … tell them I-I … I went out … a good pony."

I nodded, somberly. "Thank you." I whispered, touching her cheek with a forehoof as tears welled in my eyes.

I glanced over at her once, and saw Sugar Rum sit up, her carbine blazing into the night. I galloped away from her and after the other two slavers. They hadn't gotten far. I saw, splattered across the snow, a stallion, his chest cavity opened and viscera spilled across the melting pale. Around him were two dead bloodletters, their heads blown apart by large caliber rifle rounds.

The mare was on the ground, wrestling with one of the beasts.

"Help!" She cried out, as the proboscis clamped down on her shoulder and tore out a haunch of meat.

A part of me just wanted to keep running. I watched as she struggled, entranced by my conflicting conscience. I felt it again. The darkest corners of my mind whispering to me. Telling me to run.

The night lit up for a brief moment with a resonating crack, my ears ringing as my eyes fluttered closed. A single gunshot followed, and the screams behind me ceased. Only the bloodletters remained. I exhaled a shaky breath.

Tonguing my mouth bit, I chanced a trio of unguided rounds that struck the beast in its center of mass. They plunged through its coat, tumbling through its chest and exploding out the other side. It paused to scream, and the mare bucked it off her.

She scrambled to her hooves and broke into a full on gallop, blood trailing behind her. "C'mon, c'mon!" She shouted. And I followed.

The ridgeline disappeared behind us and we scrambled up a steep hill of broken asphalt and metal beams half buried beneath century-old snow. We approached a lone building, with an aged, blackened sign that vaguely read 'Mane 7-Eleven' as the bloodletters closed in on us, the hunger of the roaring beasts not yet sated.

Rifle mare bucked down the door to the building and we charged in, not caring what may be inside. I shut the door behind us and we scrambled inside. The mare pushed in front of the door a half-disintegrated shelf, bits of blackened miscellanea spilling from its as we heaved it into place.

For good measure, we heaved two more – but even then, we were only forestalling the inevitable. Outside, our horrible deaths awaited us. The door rattled and shook, the wooden barrier threatening to snap. A crack opened up in the door's frame, and the enraged, bloodshot eye of a snarling beast glared back at us.

"Shit! These things are fucking strong!" The mare hissed, backing away from the barricades. She looked at me. The door slammed once more, and one of the shelves fell over in a heap of shattered wood and metal, kicking up plumes of ash that hung above the charred floor.

The slaver turned to look at me, levitating her sidearm from a leg holster and said, "If we make it out of this, I'll let you go."

My expression darkened. We were going to die, and that was what she was thinking. To her, I was still just another slave. She left the slaves behind for dead – for bait - so she could escape, and didn't give a single shit. Even Sugar Rum had a change of heart.

This one … this one cared only about herself. I stared at her with a disturbing calmness that would have frightened me had I looked in a mirror. I shivered beneath my barding; in that moment, the bestial roars outside, my heaving chest, my pounding temples – they all faded away into a grim silence.

Cold black paint trickled down the pock marked walls of my conscie ce. I let the floodgates part.

I decided that only one of us was going to make it out of this alive.

I learn from my mistakes. I don't make the same mistakes twice. And you know what?

Good things happen to bad ponies.

"W-why are you looking at me like that?" She asked, turning to face me.

I slipped into SATS.

Her knees snapped beneath her like wooden planks with a satisfying, wet crack.

She let out a horrifying scream as her pistol discharged, two of the rounds pancaking against my barding and one grazing my neck. I watched with an icy stare as she crumbled to the floor, blood running down my throat.

"You son of a bitch!" She wailed, as I spun around and ran the other way. One of the shelves went down in a crunch of splintered wood. She crawled across the floor with her useless limbs and leaned against the final barricade holding it against the door for her dear life. Outside, the monsters rammed their bodies against the door behind her. "NO! Don't leave me, here! Please!"
I galloped away from her, knocking over shelves in my wake.

"PLEASE!"

I didn't look back. The doors smashed open in a cloud of ash and splintered parts as their carnal, bestial roars echoed behind me. They tore into her, the sounds of flesh tearing and bones breaking piercing my ears as the bloodletters ripped her apart, limb from limb.

I bucked down the backdoor and galloped out into the snow, the mare's frantic, gurgling screams dying away behind me. My legs pounded beneath me, kicking up showers of powder as I ran for my life. My life.

I ran until the Mane 7-Eleven disappeared behind me in a veil of thick snowfall. For what seemed like hours, I galloped on until my legs gave out beneath me and I crunched into the snow. Out of breath, I wheezed for air, filling my lungs with biting cold oxygen that reminded me that I … I was still alive.

I struggled to my hooves and looked up. A sign. I beamed it with my pipbuck's flashlight.

Welcome to the City of Poneva.

Population 185,538.

I stared up at the sign in disbelief, my breaths coming out as coughs. I held out my forelegs and hugged the sign's metal posts, gasping for breath. I wheezed, fell on all fours, and threw up acid, for I had nothing left to heave. I lay there in the drifts, curled up into a ball, writhing as my stomach churned and my head spun.

I took a deep breath, and exhaled slowly, my breath dissipating into the darkness. A wide grin slowly stretched across my face.

"Hah … hah …" I breathed. "Haha ... Hahaha ..." I closed my eyes, threw my head back and laughed. I whooped with maddening hilarity until my cackles turned to chuckles, and my chuckles turned into cries.

I choked on trembling sobs as warm, fresh tears welled out of my weary eyes. I wept into my hooves, my tears mingling with the dried crimson that splattered my face, turning black, and seething down my cheeks in dark rivulets. It was as if I was crying blood.

I sat on my rump in the snow, staring off into the distance, my heart throbbing, my lungs heaving, my body shivering. The huge, towering skyscrapers of Poneva rose to the clouds, lights and distant signs twinkling as far as the eye could see.

I made it, Dew Drops, I made it.

I was alive. I won.

That was all that mattered.

Footnote: Level Up.

New Perk: Mare Killer - 10% damage to the opposite sex and unique dialogue options with certain characters.

Chapter 5

Part I

One with None

"Not that many ponies go this way on hoof. 'N not that many ponies go up ta Poneva alone."

Alone. Never in my short life have I ever felt so alone. So cold, so helpless, so … so useless. So far, the only pony I've been able to help was myself.

Everypony I have tried to help or has tried to help me was either dead or a long ways behind me. The night I lost them all, DD's hooves were so close. But I wasn't strong enough to save her. I'd failed to save the mare I loved. The night I was taken by those slavers, the key to the cage was within hoof's reach – and I failed them too.

I was only one pony. I was a glorified earth pony with a horn. How I made it this far escapes me; but the fact of the matter was clear: the only thing worse than being one was having none.

Every waking moment since the day my friends died, there's been a voice in the back of my head telling me that I should have died with them.

Anything is possible when you have your friends with you. I believed her when she said that. I still do. But where was she now? Where were my friends? How can I keep going without somepony to pick me up when I fall down?

Gail was my first friend in the frigid north. I knew that after I saved her from that mess, that she'd do the same for me if and when the time came. And that time did come, and she wasn't there. I'm no good at keeping friends – around or alive. Gail … I left her … the first friend I made … I left her and her crew behind.

Box, Amber, Twirl, Star … DD? I ran from their gruesome murders when I should have stood my ground until the end. I galloped into a blizzard in hopes that I'd never come out of the snow alive. I left them behind too.

I wished Box was still here so that he could build me up if I fell apart. And I've been falling apart a lot lately. I wished Amber was still around so that she could remind me what I was fighting for, so I'd have the courage to keep on going. Because I've seen better days. I wished Star and Twirl were here to protect me. Because I can't protect myself – or other ponies.

I wished DD would be here to wrap her legs around me and comfort me when my tears begin to fall. Because the nightmares never end.

But you can wish and wish and wish, but you'll never get what you want. Because what you want doesn't matter; there is only what can be, and what never can be.

And I'd never see them ever again.

Even at the gates of Poneva city, my journey was far from over … and I was afraid I'd have to walk these ashen wastes alone – cold, helpless, and useless.

---

I trotted quietly behind a dirty wagon, Dew Drops' blood-speckled scarf billowing behind me in the chilling breeze. Across the road – more of an icy path dredged into the frozen earth - a frigid wind blew swirls of pirouetting snowflakes that clung loosely to the gray fabrics of my bullet-ridden barding. Beneath my vest's kevlar plates, my bruised, livid flesh sent sharp, wincing twinges of pain through my icy nerves with every tremblng breath I took. I was exhausted. There was not a single muscle in my body that wasn't sore; every step was a step made with aching exertion.

Ponies trotted past me, kicking up snow behind their legs as they slaved through the ankle deep powder in their final approach to the largest concentration of civilization in all of the frozen wasteland: Poneva city.

Several miles away in the distance, Poneva's atrophied skyscrapers, towers that may have been taller once, hung over the fallen city like tombstones, somber effigies from an era of magnificence and wonder. An era of greatness lost beneath the tides of war. Two hundred years have passed, and this dimly glowing potter's field was the brightest light in the sea of darkness that bathed the northern wastes.

Erected outside the city's perimeter were towering ramparts of salvaged metal and rock that encircled the city's entire circumference. What with the terrors that lurked outside in the wilderness, it wasn't too surprising they'd decided to just build a huge wall to keep out the hellbeasts and marauding snow furies that roamed the darkness beyond the city limits.

I was entirely convinced that behind those walls, life was somewhat safer than a life out here, despite what Duster had told me. Hooligans and gangsters or not, I preferred to be shot at by other ponies, and not to be devoured by mutant abominations from hell. My heart fluttered with distant hope; maybe, just maybe, I'd survive this.

From this rather scenic view, the city looked expansive, but all around me, in the outskirts of Poneva city, were the ruins of buildings too small or too structurally weak to have survived the balefire apocalypse. These glorified headstones were small reminders of a time when Poneva had been much larger and more expansive – once.

Blackened foundations and dilapidated metal skeletons were all that remained of the city's surroundings suburbs and countryside; they stretched off into the distance as far as the eye could see. As remote as Spring Fresh's woodland cottage was, even it was not far enough to escape the infernal hellfire that scoured the earth clean of life; how much more for the buildings on the outskirts of its city limits? Ground zero may not have been close by, but very little remained even this far away from the heart of the city.

Snaking along the road that lead to the city gates were undulating ant trails of ponies. I paused for a moment and glanced over my shoulder. Behind me and around me – at a cautious distance - trotted a shivering procession of ponies from all walks of life. Traders and their wagons full of machinery, medicines, canned foods, and the occasional armaments rattled past me. I shared the road with the infrequent slaver wagon which I met with a burning glare that turned away heads – slaver and slave alike.

I bared my teeth through an amused grin as a slaver with an assault rifle eyed me up and down and trotted to the other side of the wagon bed.

If it wasn't the hatred in my eyes that was leaving them with their tails tucked between their legs, I wasn't sure what was. I sure as hell didn't scare Sugar Rum's crew much when they tried to take me. What made things so different now?

A wagon-full of wayward travelers peered down at me from behind the sideboards of their rickety contraption, and shot me strange, ghastly looks. I narrowed my eyes at them and they looked away or feigned preoccupation in lame attempts to lose my attention.

One mare, as she lead her pack animals through the snow, took one look at me and mouthed 'holy shit', before quickening her pace.

Why the hell was everypony looking at me like that?! These ponies looked like they've just seen a ghost. Did I step in two headed bovine shit or something?

I grumbled irritatingly as I plodded through the snow, their awkward stares tearing at my already frayed nerves. A wagon groaned past me to my right. A colt wearing a hat too big for his head was ogling me with wide eyes.

I gave him the friendliest, most innocent grin I could muster. But my smile capsized when he let out a terrified squeak and ducked underneath the wagon's sideboard.

"You little bitch … " I muttered. I didn't even do anything remotely threatening!

I turned my head and caught somepony staring at me in my peripherals. I whirled upon the stallion and jabbed a hoof at him, my expression contorting with simmering irritation.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU LOOKING AT?" I demanded, gratingly, my voice hoarse.

He swatted my foreleg away and pelted me with bottlecaps. "S-shit, just take my damn caps and leave me alone!" He screamed hysterically, galloping away from me in horror.

It was just a damned question!

I exhaled a shuddering, exasperated breath of mist and stopped for a moment to rub my weary eyes, a hooffull of caps now resting in the snow before me.

My hooves came away from my face encrusted with coarse crumbs of dried crimson. I glared at my trembling hooves with grim, dark eyes. Down my chest, I saw that I was painted with it. My blood-bathed barding was a macabre canvas of gruesome red splatters, accented by grisly bits of hardened gore and vicious bullet holes that raked across my chest.

Had they known that beneath my barding were plates of kevlar, they might not have thought I was some kind nightmarish, cadaverous, zombie pony.

Hell, even my mane sported attenuated splotches of contrasting dark reds.

Yay. Highlights.

I wasn't sure what blood was mine, or to whom it belonged to. It made me visibly sick to my stomach; though most of it may have belonged to the bloodletters, the blood of ponies – snow fury or otherwise – left behind stains that I wasn't sure I'd ever be able to wash away. Not on the surface of my barding, but something further beneath my shivering flesh.

I remembered, contritely, the mare I... I murdered. I remembered how easy it was to just enter SATS and sentence her to death. She was no snow fury; whereas I could not understand their motives in doing what they did, hers was more than likely similar to that of Night Skys': to live and continue living.

In my mind I tried to rationalize it. I tried to justify it - I kept telling myself that I never would have survived that ordeal had I not done what I did.

Bait. That was how I used her: she was bait. But she was a slaver, a monstrous excuse for a pony. She was a bad pony, and bad ponies need to get what's coming to them. But... what did that make me? Maybe she too had a family, a family who was wondering where she was and if she'd ever return home to provide for them their livelihood.

I shut my eyes closed and cradled my head with weary forehooves. My doubtful expression became nothing but an evanescent dream as my mind reclined into a chilling tranquility.

She was a slaver. Maybe she deserved to die.

I sighed a trembling, wispy breath and watched it dissipate into the frigid breeze. So as to not make eye contact with those around me, I averted my gaze to my hooves. I stooped over as ponies continued to avoid me, mumbling obscenities as I gathered up the caps in my hoof and spilled them into my bloody satchel bags.

In this weary state, I couldn't risk attracting too much attention; I couldn't risk getting into another scuffle with somepony. I was running dangerously low on ammunition – not that I needed to put a bullet in somepony. My gruesome appearance was keeping most of them away from me, anyways.

I keyed my pipbuck's inventory and scrolled through what little belongings I had logged. Twelve rounds for my pistol and one health potion were all I had left. I'm not sure if I even had a fight left in me.

I still didn't want to fight unless I really had to. My horn still didn't work, and my stomach was empty. I needed to rest. But, most of all, I still had a promise to keep. I couldn't let Dew Drops down – I couldn't let my Stable down.

A mile or two later and several minutes spent trying not to look at anypony in the eye passed, and Poneva's corrugated walls and dilapidated sky scrapers began to tower over me. I was here and at the gates to salvation; I was so close. So close, that I could feel the weight of a water talisman resting upon my hooves. I held up my right forehoof and gazed at it longingly, my leg shaking uncontrollably as it hung in the air.

As I approached Poneva's gates, I walked alongside a lonely wagon. I turned my head and what I saw startled the living shit out of me.

"What the …" I murmured, as one of the black-coated ponies met my stare. I gave him a wide eyed look over and saw that he looked like a pegasus … except instead of feathered wings tucked at his sides, black, leathery bat wings were folded behind him.

He stared through me languidly, his muzzle resting upon his hooves as he leaned out of the wagon to watch the snow drifts and ruins pass by. If the exotic pony was in any way repulsed by my appearance, he gave away not a single hint of it. The callousness of his gaze sent shivers down my spine.

I turned my head low and chanced a glance at the pony's visage in my peripherals. He, like the other ponies inside the wagon had piercing yellow eyes, bat wings, and furry, elongated ears that dwarfed my own.

The … the batponies (for the lack of a better term), looked worn to the bone, like they'd been through the depths of hell and back – but not without hell leaving upon them its marks. Many of them, even the mares, sported vicious scars that stretched down their muzzles to disappear beneath their frayed barding.

I didn't want to imagine what sort of monster could have caused them such harm. Some looked to be deliberately shaped, as if they were tortured, toyed with, or made to suffer at the hooves or talons of some laughing, nefarious creature.

I wanted to attribute their scars to snow furies … but from my experience, they were more of a force of nature than they were calculating torturers.

Inside of their battered, dirty wagon, the weary souls huddled together in silence as it rolled somberly along the road. Seeing ponies like that really made me question if I really understood what suffering meant.

I slowed my trot to a walk and trailed behind them as they approached the gates. Peering over the corner of their sideboards, I spotted ponies standing on the side of the road. The batponies slowed as the bystanders took notice, trotting towards them.

We came closer, and I saw that they were wearing matching barding – how cute. They were garbed with an assortment of scarlet bandannas wrapped around their muzzles. Some tied do-rags around their cropped manes; others simply wore barding that were of a shade relative to the color red. Or at least I thought it was red.

Slung across their backs or held in their mouths were a variety of gunmetal black firearms that looked newer and more maintained than their own barding.

One of the red ponies galloped back to the herd of unruly stallions with a bag of jingling caps. Upon seeing this, they erupted into boisterous cackling, shoving each other around in a kleptomaniacal frenzy, trying to get their teeth on the pony's coin purse.

The purse pony stumbled backwards, spilling caps and miscellanea before getting into a full on brawl with another. He bucked the pony away from him and swept up his bounty, stuffing it into his satchel bag with a hysterical chortle.

Watching all this, I could do nothing but raise a brow. These guards were far from conventional. Though I wasn't even sure if the professional tone the word guard conveyed could even apply to this rabble. I remembered what Duster said to me at the caravan: pay the toll, and you probably won't have any problems. Probably.

One of them, visibly irritated by his empty hooves, turned his gaze to the wagon of batponies, a devious grin stretching across his face. Seeing how impulsively these red-garbed stallions carried themselves, I stepped off the road and slunk back into the darkness. I could not afford to involve myself in another scuffle.

Pulling off Dew Drops' scarf, I slipped it gingerly into my bags. Its white stripes would give me away if somepony shined a light on me – and I couldn't risk that. Not in my current state.

I was low on ammunition, I was starving, and my muscles were locking up from too many consecutive near death encounters. My brown coat and dark gray barding melted into the night as I scuttled beneath the shadows of the outer city's skeletal remains. Once again, I found myself crawling amongst the graves of ponies long dead. Poking out of the snow, among the debris or unearthed foundation was the occasional ribcage.

I stopped for a moment, peaking over junk encrusted snow drifts. Letting out a trembling breath, I watched the crimson ponies approach with a weary gaze. They shouted at the wagon and the batponies slowed to a complete stop.

"Hey!" One of them shouted, raising a hoof to the wagon. "Pay up, or get the fuck out!"

I observed in silence as one of the batponies dismounted the wagon and hoofed a sum of caps the stallion's way. The toll collector eyed the batpony mare up and down, shook the sack of caps, opened it, and gave her a hard stare.

My eyes widened as he threw it to the snow.

"The fuck is this shit?" He demanded, to my shock.

The batpony's jaw dropped. "What!?"

He leaned in, baring his teeth. "You're three caps short, bitch!"

"I - I thought the toll was 20 caps." She nickered. Her winged kin peeked over the sideboard, chirping to each other in hushed tones.

The toll collector eyed at the pony's leathery wings and scoffed, "The toll's whatever the fuck I say it is, you bat-winged freak." He stood on his hinds, folding his arms across his chest. "Now pay the fuck up."

"Those are all the caps we have …" I heard the batpony mare say. The collector threw his head back and laughed in the mare's face.

"We gonna have problems, bat girl?" The stallion asked, jutting a hoof into the pony's chest. She grunted audibly as the wagon shook.

"Please ... all we want is shelter from the blizzard!" She pleaded, cupping her forehooves together. "Keep the caps, just let us go!"

The collector threw his head back and laughed as his cronies approached. "These batpony freaks think they can short change the Blood Brothers!" The gang of red ponies surrounded the wagon, crooked bats, rusty pipes, and firearms in tow.

"These batpony cunts want to fuck with us?!" A Blood Brother shouted, racking the slider on his shotgun. Mares screamed as the reds prodded the ponies with the ends of their rifles as if they were a gaggle of exotic zoo animals. The batponies huddled together inside the wagon bed and batted away their invading limbs.

The guards that mounted the ramparts panned their floodlights to bathe the growing herd of reds that surrounded the batpony wagon in a glare of white light. The line of travelers behind them backed away, keeping a considerable distance between themselves and the brawl that was sure to erupt at any moment.

With the lights and all attention diverted to the stage, I realized that this was an opportunity. I closed my eyes and listened to their shouting voices fade away from my focus. Opportunity, opportunity. I let the word roll off my tongue in silence as my temples pounded like hammering pipes.

I pony-crawled through the rimy, blackened detritus. Every now and then I'd peer out of a crack in the rubble or poke my head over a snow drift to watch the escalating situation.

I imagined myself crawling through the pipes at engineering; I imagined myself crawling beneath the steam clouds the day my life made a turn for the worst. Head down, eyes forward. Head down, eyes forward. I stuck to the darkness like a shadow sticks to a body.

"You leather-winged freaks!" one of the reds growled as somepony punched him in the face, blood running out of one of his now swollen eyeballs. He fell from the wagon and into the snow with an audible crunch, his brothers hauling him away from the bedlam.

A batpony stallion rose from behind the sideboards. Aiming a strange, pointy firearm, he shouted, frantically, "Stay back! Stay back, damn you!"

One of the reds fired off a burst of rifle fire that made the batponies duck for cover. I flinched at the staccato cracks and drew my pistol reflexively.

"Yeah – haha, stay down, fuckers!"

Crawling beneath a charred windowsill, a skeletal remnant of some forgotten age, I felt sharp pains arc like electricity through my nerves as my unarmored sections scraped against a formation of melted glass that jutted out of the snow like icy stalagmites.

I heard hoofsteps above me and curled up as close to the demolished wall as I could, glass digging into my barding. Two of the brothers leaned their bleeding comrade against the rubble outside, my proximity to his obscene swearing too close for my own comfort.

One of the reds guffawed, "That little fuckface gotchu good, didn't he?"

"Fuck off, those ponies got some crazy zebra-jitsu bullshit!" the injured brother grated, spitting into the snow.

"They ain't zebras, dumbass – they're just batponies."

"Well, no fucking shit, asshole. Bu'that prick hoofed my face twice before I could even count one!"

I bit my tongue as the glass raked my flesh. I gazed down the line of ruined suburbs and saw that I was a mere twenty yards away from the gates. A carpet of darkness enticed me onward. I grinded my teeth as the ponies outside continued berating each other; these shitheads were going to get me killed.

"Whoa! Calm the fuck down everypony!" the collector shouted over the profane cacophony. His brothers ignored him, harassing the batponies with insults or the occasional rifle butt to the muzzle. "Everypony shut the fuck up!" He fired a burst of assault rifle fire at the hooves of the red herd.

They got the message and backed off, lowering their weapons and muttering things about the collector's mother. In the relative silence, I narrowed my eyes through a crack that ran down the wall, trying to see past a pair of hooves.

"Ain't got the caps, eh?" A disturbing grin stretched across his face as he ran a hoof down the mare's neck. "Tell ya what: you find something else to pay me and I'll let y'all in." She cringed, craning her neck away from him as he chuckled softly. "I always did wanna know what you batponies tasted like." He reached a hoof into her barding's collar below her chin, and parted it slightly.

She swatted away his foreleg, cursing him with a tirade of high pitched trills. The collector stood on his hinds and simply laughed as the reds hissed and jeered.

"Take it off, batbitch!" I heard one of the reds outside the windowsill shout.

I reached out with a foreleg and pulled myself forward. Prink! I shut my eyes closed as chunks of broken glass dug into my barding and dragged with me.

"The fuck was that?" One of the blood brothers exclaimed, leaning over the windowsill searchingly. My gasp was lost in the breeze; I dug my back as far into the charred concrete as I possibly could like a startled radroach.

"Come on, lil filly, just one kiss!" I heard the collector snarl. The mare threw her forelegs in front of her and shrieked as he slammed her into the sideboards. With shrill cries, the mare's kin shot out of the wagon, beating their wings frantically, and barking at each other in their strange language as the blood brothers cheered the collector onward.

There was going to be blood. And I needed to get out of here – now –

"Ey Rocky, hoof me yer flashlight. Think I heard somethin' back 'ere."

A black pipe levitated over the window and down at me. I was going to die.

My heart nearly skipped a beat. Fight or flight – fuck! I threw my legs out and dragged myself forward.

Prink! Prink! Prink! Shit! I craned my neck over my chest, thinking that I'd shattered more glass.

But somepony outside screamed. I peered out a crack in the wall, between the ponies' hooves, and watched as the toll collector tumbled to the powder in a spray of crimson, long metal spikes jutting out of his chest and throat.

A batpony stallion leaned over the sideboard, one of the strange, pointy weapons clamped down between his teeth. The pistol smoked with fresh cordite that dissipated into the frigid breeze.

All hell broke loose.

"You leather winged fucks!" The flashlight plummeted into the darkness, cracking against my ribcage as the ponies galloped off. I exhaled a jet of air as I bit my tongue and drew blood.

Gunfire erupted into the night. Now was my chance. I peeked my head over the rubble, fresh blood dripping down my side as the reds pumped lead into the wagon's frame.

A horrified look stretched across my face. I wanted to help them somehow. Here I was, watching helplessly as more ponies died. To me, they were ponies; but deep inside, they were nothing but distractions. And I needed to book it the hell out of here while I still could.

Kicking up snow behind me, I bounded across the rubble, ducking under a fallen column and into the skeletal remains of a several-story building. Muzzle flashes painted my silhouette with alternating patterns of yellow and black against its bare walls as I galloped between its collapsed edifices.

The world around me blurred past as every throbbing fiber of my being, every sore muscle, every hypoglycemic blood vessel in my body focused on reaching the gates alive.

I heaved myself over a partially collapsed doorway without a pause.

And I didn't even notice the blood brother loitering outside. My eyes widened as I blundered into him and tackled him into the snow with a jarring crash. We wrestled around in the darkness as he screamed for help.

"Get the fuck off me!" He cried out, trying to draw his pistol. It was in vain as I swatted it out of his hooves, the weapon landing a foot away in the rubble.

"Stop!" I hissed at him as I knocked him across the skull with a forehoof, silencing his hoarse cries. "Be quiet – I don't want to kill you!" I pleaded with him. But be bucked me off his chest, clawing at the snow in desperation, trying to hoof his fallen pistol with a dazed look in his eyes. I growled and threw myself on top of him, pinning him against a pile of charred debris.

If he didn't stop shouting, he was going to alert his brothers. He was going to get me killed!

"You – mother – fu-hucker!" I snarled as I dropped my hooves onto his face again and again, my mind reeling as fresh blood peppered my muzzle.

"H-help!" He wailed, shielding his battered face with trembling hooves.

I tipped my head to the side and saw with awe as the batpony wagon, surrounded by half dozen cooling corpses, rose into the air as its pullers flapped their leathery wings and wrenched the vehicle into the sky. The batponies within rattled their flechette guns, perforating the reds who arced their tracers skyward.

With my attention diverted elsewhere, I loosened up for a split second. Hooves slammed into my gut, summoning bile to my throat. Without a moment to spare, he wrestled me to the powder and trampled me beneath his hooves as he sprung to his fours.

Whipping his mane back, he screamed over the gunfire, "H-help! Runner! We got a -!" I bowed my head and galloped straight at him – and plunged my horn into his chest. I wrenched my head back and ripped out of him in a gory splash; he stumbled backwards, whimpering helplessly as he gawked at me with wide eyes, stunned, and clutching his gored, heaving chest.

He gasped for air and dropped his jaw... I knew what he was going to do next. I didn't even give him a chance to scream. Not again. "Shut the fuck up, damn you!" I growled, tackling him to the snow in a shower of ashen powder.

The stallion writhed beneath me, one of his forelegs knocking his pistol further away as I wrapped my forehooves around his throat. "Shut up … shut up! SHUT. UP." I hissed into his muzzle as he batted at me with faltering forelegs, unable to scream while he gagged and choked.

Low on blood sugar from my exertions, I began seeing stars. My sense of hearing dulled, and all I could hear now was my quaking heartbeat and my frantic breaths. Dark, veiny tunnels closed in around me, my face contorting into an anguished grimace as my lucidity plunged into the darkness like a ship sinking beneath the waves of a frozen sea. I lost myself in his terrified eyes, the eyes of a pony who knew he was going to die. I gazed at my own reflection, my teeth bared, my coat bathed in blood, and my darkened visage sneering an unforgiving look back at me.

I felt nothing. I thought nothing. The stallion moved his mouth but I heard not his words. It only made me squeeze harder.

"I won't … be … a victim …" I heard somepony whisper, distantly.

Muzzle flashes illuminated the darkening windows in his bulging eyes as I strangled the life out of him. My hooves dug into his coat, drawing blood. The stallion popped a blood vessel and he wept dark crimson that streamed down his cheeks as I squeezed … and squeezed … and squeezed.

You can't stop me. Not this close. Nopony can stop me, now.

It was over before my brain even registered it. His bleeding saucers stared back at me as I knelt over his lifeless corpse, gazing at my trembling hooves in horror through the dark tunnels in my eyes. Tears streamed down my cheeks as I heaved myself over him and stumbled to my ungainly legs, taking shuddering gasps for air that only fueled a splitting headache. I bowed my head down and saw in the darkness, beneath my hooves, a pony.

I almost wanted to scream – scream bloody murder. Eviscerated. Strangled. Goddesses … what happened ... who did this?! Who the fuck did this – oh. My. Goddesses. I sobbed hysterically, staring at my bloody hooves as I realized that I'd done that. I did that. A rivulet of blood streamed down my face.

I killed another pony.

I shook my head vigorously, trying to clear my mind as I stumbled blindly through the snow. My heart felt like it was going to just stop as it pounded against my chest. I didn't want to look back, I should've kept going, kept galloping toward the gates while I still could. But I didn't, and all I saw was the stallion lying in the snow. Dead.

I … I did that? I did … I did that to a pony with my bare hooves.

The gunfire and screams were nothing but muffled bass drops in my ears. In my glassy peripherals, I saw the batponies take to the skies.

A flash of light jolted me from my trance-like state, painting my shadow against the fleetingly illuminated drifts as a rocket propelled grenade detonated in midair. I inhaled sharply and snapped my head skywards to see a fiery cloud erupt in the sky. The blood brothers cheered, whooping like wild animals.

Impossible. My teary eyes widened as the wagon – whole and unscathed – spun away from the blast in a spiraling barrel roll. They made it.

But I needed to make it, too.

I snapped out of it, shoving to the back of my mind everything that scraped against my thoughts like hooves on chalkboard, and tore my eyes from the dark clouds. Now was my chance. Nopony could stop me now. Nopony else stood in my way. I galloped out of the darkness and across the final stretch as the blood brothers screamed at the dissipating fireworks display in frustration.

By the time they returned to their posts, I was already gone, melted into the darkness. Now was the time for me to finish what my friends started. I wiped away a single tear as I followed the shadows to salvation.

---

I stood at the center of a snowy intersection. Ponies, clad in tattered, dirty barding trotted past me and around me like a stream parting around a heavy stone. Their eyes, turned low, paid no attention to the filthy, shivering stallion that stood amongst them. For I, to them, was nothing but another impoverished indigent – like everypony else in these dim slums.

I deadpanned my bloodshot eyes, taking in my gloomy surroundings. They glistened dully in the ruddy red and yellow neon lights that flickered weakly in the wintry snowfall.

Sprouting out of the dirty snow were small, smoke-wreathed eateries - stalls that stunk with the bitter, stomach turning smell of burned meat and oversteamed cabbages. Hovels and gnarled concrete ruins that reeked with more than just the stench of vomit and alcohol, sported flickering neon signs that barely clung to life, spelled out 'liquor' or 'mares'.

I turned my head high and reality skewed inward as if the entire world was collapsing upon itself. The colossal edifices of the old city rose amidst the squalid shacks and shanties like starved, dying trunks amongst a field of weeds. Poneva's dense, concrete jungle towered over me. I trembled beneath my blood-caked barding as the dilapidated apartment buildings and skeletal high-rises closed in on me, threatening to squash me underneath.

Distant gunshots, echoing shrieks, and carnal moans coalesced into an uncomfortable ambience that scratched incessantly at my thinning sanity. There were too many ponies. Too many voices. Too many in one place.

I wanted to scream.

Here, it felt like I was going to be buried alive - buried beneath the concrete limbs and metal skeletons of this decripit, concrete jungle. Whereas night outside Poneva's walls was silent, eerie, and haunting, night here in Poneva was a clausterphobic mess of epilleptic lights and mind reeling sounds that made me physically ill.

This place was an alien world; and I was the alien. Any semblence of normality that my thoughts once held dear – warmth, comfort, safety - was snuffed out, suffocated and trampled beneath the cold, grimy hooves of the underworld ponies that trotted past me. This place was the final nail in the coffin, a coffin that I felt powerless to escape.

I took a step forward, and my hoof crunched into the broken glass. The shards broke around the surface of my hoof, scattering dozens of reflective fragments across the black snow. For a haunting, dislocated moment, I caught my reflections - warped and distorted across their lacerated surfaces. My chin trembeled at the sight of the disheveled wreck of my former self, my mane grizzled, my coat darker in some places with filth and dried persperation. And the blood. Oh Goddesses, the blood; it was everywhere, all over me, staining my barding, my flesh, and the soul underneath.

I stared at my reflections, my chin quivering as I tried to suppress my hopeless sobs. That can't be me. That ... that thing ... that ghost can't be me. It just can't.

I'm Red Dawn. Assistant engineer. Shift C. Serial code F03RD82996. Stable 91.

But the murderer kept glaring back at me with its watery, blood shot eyes.

I'm Red Dawn. Assistant engineer. Shift C. Serial code F03RD82996. Stable 91.

His ghostly, weary eyes told me I was lying to myself.

I-I'm Red Dawn. Assistant engineer. Shift ... Shift C. Serial code ... F...0...3...

A thousand phantoms, silhouettes born of my image, warped and distorted into macabre parodies of myself before my very eyes, mocking me, accusing me, damning me.

"No!" I hissed through clenched teeth, stomping the glass shards frantically until the ghosts broke apart and died. "Not me ..." I whispered, running a hoof against Dew Drops' scarf as hot tears streamed down my cheeks. "You're not me ..."

---

My stomach grumbled. I eyed longingly at a flickering neon sign that said 'diner', before flames crept up the wall beneath it. Blinking for the last time, the sign popped and exploded in a dull flash. The smell of cooked meat and acrid smoke filled my nostrils. I cupped a hoof over my mouth as I relived a memory that was branded into my conscience not too long ago.

Zebras or not, it was all the same.

My shadow rippled in the firelight. Before me was a small shop, its windows broken, fires raging inside its crackling interior. Wooden beams snapped and fed the flames as the fire slowly consumed every inch of the shop within. Outside, ponies dragged out corpses and charred crates of miscellanea. At first I thought that the ponies that were pulling the burnt bodies from the burning building were mournful friends or relatives.

Looters. I watched from the shadows of an dreary, littered alleyway as they unceremoniously dropped a pony's sooty remains into the snowy asphalt of the pockmarked street and hoofed through its pockets. One of them yanked out a small sack of caps, clenching it between her teeth.

She glanced over both her shoulders and scurried off to disappear beneath the shadow of a dilapidated office building. Others didn't leave as fast. There was no honor amongst these thieves; they were desperate, and unaffiliated with any other group but themselves. One ashen corpse had its barding torn off in several different places as grimy-looking ponies looted whatever valuables remained in its pockets.

Some fought each other over charred crates that had been recovered before the shop was completely engulfed in flames. The impoverished ponies, clad in grimy, tattered barding, fell upon an opened crate of foodstuffs, tearing into it like wild animals and spilling its tin viscera to the snow.

I kept reminding myself that this was the greatest bastion of ponykind in the Northern Wastes. I looked up around me and found that I was bathed in almost complete darkness. Were it not for the fires that raged not too far away from me, I probably would not have been able to see the brawl that erupted when somepony tried dragging the crate into an alley with him.

Around the corner was a four-lane street that was lined with buildings that might have seen better days. I looked up, and the skeletal, half-destroyed skyscrapers that towered over me looked like severed limbs, their shattered stumps reaching skywards as if they had fallen from the clouds. Two hundred years ago, they did, and this was what was left of them.

This was what was left of ponykind. And this shithole was the biggest concentration of it.

Not far from the smoking pyre, ponies in collared, jet black business-wear that reminded me of the pictures of pre-war ponies in the history books, watched the shop burn as they clanked glass bottles and took long drinks.

One of them took a rag, stuffed it in one of the bottles, lit it aflame, and lobbed it through the shop's gaping window frames. The flammable splash infuriated the fires within, and the inferno exploded outward, spilling out of the shattered windows like a cup running over. The scavenger ponies yelped, scuttling away from the searing bonfire. One of them rolled around in the snow, his barding trailing smoke.

The black-clad ponies donned wide-brimmed bowler caps that hid their eyes, spitting into the pale as the shop burned. I watched them heave a soot-covered metal safe into the back of a wagon before the ponies departed, their job done and their treasures stowed away.

I plodded out of the darkness, my mind numb. My hooves slopped through the half-melted snow; this close to the burning ruin, the surface of the pale drifts had begun to liquefy. Sighing softly, I stopped at one of the crates, staring at its spilled innards. Tin cans, scattered across the snow, leaked their brownish contents into the melting slurry. I dipped a hoof into a puddle of the pasty, brown sludge, brought it to my nose and sniffed it, cautiously.

Beans. Oh, and burning flesh, and smoke. My stomach whined for sustenance, and I was getting desperate. I'd nearly passed out earlier, and a steady, pulsating headache prodded my brain with rail spikes every time a hoof made contact with the ground beneath me. But as Night Sky said, there was never no rest for the weary.

To keep going would kill me; but to sit here and wait for my horn to flicker back or wait for my insides to stop churning meant another ration of my Stable's water would be consumed. I opened my satchel bags and dumped inside the few cans that hadn't trampled over. For a moment, I hesitated as my languid gaze crawled down my vest. My barding was still covered in blood. Glancing over my shoulder, a small crowd of ponies was watching me.

Maybe they thought that I'd been the one who'd done this. Not me. I'd killed a few ponies to get here, but this time, it wasn't me.

With a heavy heart, I clamped my teeth around the brim of a perforated tin can, shaking out as much of its contents as I could, and stumbled towards the flame.

Skirting the fire's edge, my skin prickled from the waves of thermal energy that radiated from the seething fires that licked at the shop's crackling innards. I approached a wooden beam that had fallen into the snow outside, its surface blackened and smouldering with hungry flames.

I knelt beside it, eyeing the slurry of partially melted snow that had begun to puddle around its charred frame. I took the can in one hoof and ran it across the snow, filling it to the brim with a large scoop of cold, dripping slush with a disturbed look on my face. I kept telling myself I wasn't a murder, but the gory canvas I wore over my shivering flesh spoke otherwise. I needed to wash it off. I wanted to believe that the stallion beneath was still unstained, that the blood hadn't seeped through to touch his soul underneath it all.

I killed that Blood Brother. Gored him with my horn and choked him to death with my bare hooves; if this is what Night Sky meant by doing whatever it takes to save the folks back home, then my life wasn't the only thing I feared to lose. I remembered it in fragmented snippits of dreamy memories; my horn dripping red, the stallion's muffled screaming, and my hooves wrapping around his neck.

The rest was lost to blackness and hysteria.

Out here, killing is just another part of living …

My heart flared with ire and I chased away her words as if they were home invaders breaking into my thoughts. I gulped down the lump in my throat, and slammed shut the imaginary door behind me, locked it, heaved a book shelf in front of it, and swallowed the key. But behind that door, something rattled and shook, calling after me, trying to reason with me – trying to justify the things that it had done.

Oh wait. No, that was just my headache.

Shaking my aching head, I retreated back into the darkness of the alleyway with my can of slurry. Climbing atop mounds of frozen detritus and discarded scraps, I found a place where I could be alone. Away from the murder scene, away from everypony, there was a quiet shed sitting upon the roof of an abandoned shack that overlooked Poneva's paltry slums. I inched my rump onto the cold sheet metal beneath me in an attempt to ease the strain on my sore muscles. Trembling jets of wispy air hissed through my lips as I lowered myself to my chest, before shrugging off my satchel bags.

I placed the can of slush between my forelegs and narrowed my eyes at it with all the focus I could muster – to no avail. In fact, my headache only worsened. A riveting flash of searing agony speared through my cranium. I fell forward on my forehooves, heaving into the metal. When the pain subsided, I felt warm tears well out of my eyes.

A foreleg came to my muzzle to wipe away the tears, but instead, it came away with blood.

I grumbled quietly and fetched the can with a hoof, pouring its contents down my vest. The ashen slurry ran lazily down the gray fabrics; with my other hoof, I scrubbed away as much of my bloody shell as I could. When I finished, my barding was lacerated with darker shades of gray where the blood had settled in. I shivered briskly as the wind touched my soaked chest.

It'd have to do.

From up here, I could see that, behind the ruined stumps that hung their shadows over the ramshackle patchworks that wriggled beneath them, there was light.

It did not seem so distant from this elevation. Amidst the jungle of ruined skyscrapers, the orange glow seemed to gleam from a structure about sixty or seventy stories tall – too tall for me to see with all the obstructions in my field of vision. Even still, its origin was hardly discernable behind the hooffull of city blocks, rife with similarly-lit skyscrapers between it and me.

I obviously wasn't going to find a water talisman here – at least not in a filthy ghetto like this. Farther off in the distance, the few skyscrapers that had survived the balefire radiated with a ponymade glow, and I knew that my Stable's water talisman was close. I just needed to find out what that light was. I needed to find Stable-Tec.

Reaching into my bags, I pulled out a bruised can of beans. I brought it to my lips and clamped my teeth down on a tab that stuck out from its lid, and pulled. With a dull plop, the lid came off and the smell of old beans wafted into my nostrils. I tipped the can into my mouth and the frigid, chunky sludge poured onto my tongue.

I chewed and swallowed, too tired to worry about the unwholesome taste of expired beans. Within minutes, I'd downed its entire contents, my stomach's whining abated – for now. I lay down on my chest, yawning as I rested my chin upon my hooves. Maybe I'll rest for a little bit.

Just a few minutes with my eyes closed … no – I needed to keep moving! Every second I spent was another ration consumed. But … I was just so tired. My aching body begged me to sit down and rest, pleading with me to take a break. Fine. Just a few minutes.

I yawned once more. Just a few …

Shuddering with a languished sigh, I watched with heavy eyes as my breath dissipated into the wintry breeze to be carried off into dismal nothingness. I followed its fading mists, and gazed upon a small, yet immense slice of Poneva's paltry slums and all of its destitute glory. I closed my eyes, trying to imagine a field of verdant, green grass undulating like ocean waves in a gentle breeze; I tried to imagine a guardian sun that caressed my cheek with its lovely warm rays. I felt considerably warmer, even as the cold breeze whispered down my neck. The wintry wasteland was slowly fading away … away as I altered Spring Fresh's memory orb in my vision, letting my weary mind escape into a place far, far away.

I remembered the murals painted across B-Block's walls, the awe-inspiring skies and the vibrant landscapes of a world that once was beautiful. Beautiful. It was just beautiful. Lost … I found myself lost in my memories.

The sound of hooves plodding behind me caught my attention. My bright eyes gravitated to the mare I loved.

Dew Drops ran into me at full gallop, and I took her into my forelegs, pirouetting through the grass as she buried her muzzle in my chest. We fell on our hooves and I was taken aback by the beauty of the mare that stood before me. The sun touched her face and her eyes reflected brilliantly like diamond jewels, encapsulating me in her tender gaze. Dew Drops giggled once, brushed her teal mane out of her eyes and gave me a long kiss, wrapping her forelegs around me and hugging me tight as if she hadn't seen me ages. It might as well have been, because I returned the favor tenth-fold, pausing only for a moment to take a shallow breath of air before parting her lips with my tongue once more.

Oh Goddesses. Only they knew the things I'd do to make this day last forever.

I took Dew Drops' hoof as we trotted through a verdant field of grass, the tall stalks parting before us as we giggled, loving each other … and loving the world around us.

We entered a clearing, a picnic basket with its contents set upon a red-checkered blanket waiting for us. She … the mare I loved, gleamed with a heart-melting smile that I found irresistible – I just wanted to gobble her up! We enjoyed our lunch of hay sandwiches and carrot juice and lied out on the soft, cool grass, watching the alabaster clouds float by.

We laughed to each other, pointing out shapes we discerned in the cloudy, ivory heavens as the wind pulled them along the sunny skies. I rolled over beside her, and our lips met as the sun began to set, a line of magnificent, amber light parting down our muzzles as the moon took to the skies and bathed us in pale moonlight.

She rolled me over on my back, whispering that she loved me as she nibbled playfully on my ear while I planted kisses upon her neck.

Thud … thud … thud … the midnight blue skies shuddered as if something were tapping on the glass behind it. Dew Drops' expression flickered briefly, going unnoticed as I reached her jawline. With her panting breaths hot against my muzzle, I stifled her euphoric gasps with a kiss, caressing her tongue with mine.

Thud … thud … thud …

I let the sounds pass unheard through my ears as I lowered myself over her, stroking her flushed cheek with a trembling forehoof. I gazed dreamily into her dilated grays, her gentle voice whispering to me softly … beckoning me onward.

"DD … I …"

Thud.

I winced, my vision swimming for a moment as a sharp twinge erupted in my head.

"Ngh…" I shuddered. I took a deep breath and looked down upon Dew Drops' face, her expression unchanged, waiting for me to take the amorous plunge.

I needed to tell her, or I'd never be able to tell her again!

"DD … I … I …" My vision unfocused, and I grimaced, blinking furiously.

Thud.

"Ah!" I cried out painfully, my eyes clenching shut. They opened, and Dew Drops was still beneath my chest, her startled eyes staring through me, her jaw dropped as she saw something behind me that I could not. Something that I did not want to see.

No. I won't leave you. Don't leave me …

"DD, I –"

THUD.

"GAH!" I screamed, my head threatening to split open. My eyes flew open and snapped downward as the sound of a hoof scraping against a chalkboard screeched into my ears. Dew Drops was lying beneath me, her head tipped slightly to the side, staring into nothingness with wide, inert eyes … blood pooling around a gash along her throat … melting the snow around us … marring the beauty of her tender, blue cheeks.

"DD … ? DD! DD!" I screamed, shaking her frantically with blood-caked hooves. "DD, PLEASE! GODDESES, NO … SAY SOMETHING!"

Thud – thud – thud – THUD – THUD!

I felt somepony ram a spike through my skull. My bloodshot eyes shot open and my paradise shattered like broken glass, falling away from my hooves. I touched a hoof to my forehead, my headache throbbing painfully as reality pervaded my returning senses.

Hoofsteps thudded behind me, and I swung my head back – my satchel bags were gone. An equine shadow was bounding away from me across the rooftops as I stood to my hooves. I eyed over my shoulders frantically, batting at my neck - Dew Drops ... Dew Drops! He took her!

Her scarf – Dew Drops' scarf!

"STOP!" I shouted, galloping after the fleeing pony, my eyes on fire like an animal roused from a hibernating slumber. We raced across the shanty town's rickety, scrap-metal rooftops, forty feet of frozen air between us and the slums below.

My eyes widened as he leaped off the edge of a patchwork shanty. Did he just - I reached the edge and saw him roll to a violent stop as he landed upon a rickety canopy that dented beneath him. He scrambled to his hooves, glancing over his shoulder as I took a hoofstep back and hurled myself over the edge.

"GIVE THEM BACK!" I howled, breathlessly. But by them, I meant not my bags.

"Shit!" The pony swore, beating his hooves loudly against the metal sheets. I chased him into a third-story alleyway, the orange light of the skyscrapers in the distance flickering blindingly like lightshows through the cracks in the indisposed corrugated walls that separated shanties with less than a foot of space between them. Ponies dived out of the way, spilling over carts full of scavenged materials and refuse that clattered behind me in my furious wake.

He dodged a cart sitting in the middle of the alley, and I leaped over it. He ran around a congregation of loiterers, and I blundered through them. He took her from me.

"Dew Drops!" I cried, loud enough only for my own ears.

A mare sifting through a cart of bent cans screamed shrilly as the pony narrowly sidestepped past her. Me? I didn't care. I shoved her aside, spilling her tin treasures across the snowy, weather-beaten deck.

"Hey! Watch it, asshole!" She shrieked to deaf ears.

We reached the end of the narrow alleyway, my hind legs pumping behind me, throwing up showers of dirty snow. In my mind I saw snow furies dragging Dew Drops away from me. My legs only pumped harder.

The pony ducked through a shanty's door and kicked it shut behind him. I flung it open and charged through the doorway, a family of huddled ponies screaming past me as the pony stumbled out the back door with me hot on his tail.

"STOP, NOW!"

"No!" He shouted back. I was close enough to see his tattered barding and his scratchy, brown mane. "I need this!"

We were reaching a dead end. But this pony knew this city more than I did. He vaulted across a gap between two rooftops, landing on the other side with a slight stumble before recovering fast enough to take another leap.

I leaped, bounded, and flailed – swearing under my rasping breath as chunks of snow and ice, disturbed by my scrambling hooves, plummeted four stories beneath me. Ahead of us was a dead end, the next building twelve feet across a ravine that fell into the darkness below. The pony screamed his voice hoarse.

And took the leap.

Holy fucking shit, I mouthed as he throttled across the gap, forelegs outstretched, hinds kicking through the air with my satchel bags trailing behind him. He was going to fall. He was going to splatter across the streets below … and take Dew Drops ... Box Cutter, Lightning Twirl, Amber Fields, Star Glint ... Mom and Dad ... away from me.

His screams cut short when he crashed violently into the rooftop, skidding abrasively across the frozen metal to tumble end over end several feet before landing in a heap.

The whole time I was approaching the precipice I was thinking to myself, how the hell was I going to make that jump? In the seconds I spent nearing the ledge, I saw myself splatter across the pavement in several dozen different ways; I saw the world spinning end over end as I tumbled to my gruesome death – pancaked across the asphalt like a squashed radroach.

How many feet would I have to clear, how high would I have to jump -

My hooves left the sheet metal beneath them.

Flying, I was flying; soaring through the air like a pegasus pony. Trapped in this frozen hell, I, for the briefest of moments, felt free; freed from the shackles of this hell on earth. The weathered metal rooftop at the other end of the gap seemed close enough to touch as time slowed and my entire existence became devoted to reaching it. The world bent inwards towards me, Dew Drops, mom, and everypony calling my name.

Snow furies cackled their maniacal cries, their snarling, psychotic cacophony echoing distantly in my ears. Not this time … you mother fuckers. You can't take them away from me.

I'll save them. I'll save them all.

They were waiting for me on the other side. I held out my forelegs, letting the chilling breeze carry me upon flapping wings. I imagined myself catching the frozen winds beneath my feathers to sail across the gap between my life and the life I lived before. Nothing could stop me –

Except gravity.

My imagination swam, reality violating my senses once more as I looked down, and the world below me stretched on into infinity. A maw of chilling metal parted beneath my thrashing hooves, threatening to swallow me whole.

I was falling.

I careened over the edge, flailing my legs, and screaming at the top of my lungs. The world raced by my peripherals like a fleeting memory beyond my grasp, the ledge at the other end of the gap beyond my reach. I wasn't going to make it. I threw out my forelegs, stretching them out as far as I could, my joints screaming frantically at me that that was as far as my forelegs could go. But they couldn't reach out far enough.

The weather beaten ledge was less than half a hoof's length away. And I missed.

A mortal, ear splitting shriek erupted from my lips. "FUUUUU –"

Then my face became acquainted with the corrugated edifice. My forehooves broke some of my impact as I collided with the shanty's steel façade with the force of a sledgehammer swinging into my skull. Stars exploded in my eyes and my vision swam away from the light of clarity, my ears ringing like a tolling deid bell.

My hooves scrambled for blind purchase, but I skidded down the wall, plummeting back to the earth. Crack! I felt the ligaments in my right fetlock shred like paper as my hoof caught itself between two rimy layers of twisted rebar and I broke my own fall with a violent snap.

"Dear fucking Celestia –" I hissed as white hot agony shot through my veins, my right hoof in burning agony. With a laborious grunt, I compelled my hanging left foreleg to reach up, and I clung to the deformed metal for my life.

The rooftop's edge, past a series of twisted metal beams and sheared steel, was nearly a foreleg's length above me, reflecting blurrily in my teary eyes as I reached out achingly with my right foreleg. My nerves drowned in searing torment as I entrenched my throbbing hoof into a gap within the twisted, steel façade. I kicked my hindlegs inwards, scraping away layers of rime as my left forehoof came to meet my right.

My limbs were on the verge of giving out on me, but then I heard her. Dew Drops' screams echoed distantly in my ears. NOOO!

I threw my right hoof over the rooftop's edge, and my left – and, with my hindlegs and an anguished howl, I heaved myself onto the weather beaten deck, and when I looked up, my pupils contracted. I saw only the thief's silhouette against a glaring fulmination of luminous multicoloured lights.

As I stood to my hooves, the concrete jungle opened up in front of me to a view of a clearing in which radiantly-glowing skyscrapers, rife with lively, ponymade glows bathed the city below in beams of orange illuminations.

With my head hung low, my visage darkened underneath the skyscraper's blinding glow, as I tried to catch my breath. My disheveled, scarlet mane fell in front of my eyes as I collapsed to my knees, gasping hoarsely to fill my burning lungs with air. I snapped my head back up, my mane parting before one of my eyes; a rivulet of blood streamed down my forehead and onto the frozen steel beneath my trembling hooves.

Cruel vehemence, given light by the fiery orange glow of the towers before me, burned in my eyes as I locked gazes with the thieving son-of- a-bitch that stole everything I had left to remember my friends by. He took a step back, his jaw dropped as he stammered with disbelief. He took one back, and I took another. I came towards him, my head bowed forward like a beast cornering its prey, ready to gore him with my horn.

"Holy shit …" the pony murmured at me as he backed away, shivering with despair.

I craned my neck and yanked my pistol from its holster. "No … more … running..." I hissed, out of breath. Behind him was a several story drop into the frozen depths of Poneva's underworld. But he didn't seem to understand that I was right.

The pony shrugged off my satchel bags, my belongings clanking dully against the shanty's roof. "Th-there, j-just …" He took another terrified step back - one step too far. "… just leave me alone – AH!"

My eyes widened. The stallion slipped.

He fell over the edge, screaming as gravity dragged him to his gruesome end. I raced towards the end of the roof, my fetlock aching as I reached the ledge and peered down the patchwork cliff face. There he was, hanging from a single hoof, his tattered barding billowing in the wind.

He looked up at me in desperation, his eyes telling me a tale of an impoverished surface dweller scraping by day to day through whatever he could scavenge or steal. The pony's weak, trembling limbs spoke of days of gone by on an empty stomach. The dips and turns of the stallion's emaciated body protruded out of his barding like broken bones told me that chase had consumed what little energy he had left; his hoof looked like it would give out any second now.

But I just stared down at him, a cold look chilling my features. His mouth moved soundlessly as I imagined his head exploding like a melon as he splattered against the pavement. I came to realize that his life hung not at the edge of this steel rooftop, but upon surface of my hoof.

I blinked once, and a snow fury was gaping back at me. The black veins in his fearful eyes receded as he mouthed 'help me' to my deaf ears. I started forward but I hesitated; the blood of my friends stained his coat and the fabrics wrapped around his trembling flesh. He took them from me. And now, he'd never take them again.

Blinking again, I saw that the skeletal pony was gazing back at me once more.

I watched in slow motion as his hoof slipped, his frantic eyes widening for the last time. The grim reaper pony ran its chilling hooves down my spine and I shivered beneath my coat. No.

Nopony else needs to die.

I dove forward and caught his outstretched foreleg between my hooves, crying out weakly as my sprained fetlock jolted my nerves. He weighed less than I thought he did. With an agonized grunt, I pulled him up and yanked the pony back over, heaving him onto the roof at my hooves. The stallion fell to his gasping chest, his limbs splayed out at his sides as he wheezed for air.

Tucking my pistol into its holster, I regarded the pony with a look of pity as he stood upon rickety legs.

"Oh my Goddesses … y-you saved my life." He murmured, weakly, meeting my empathetic stare. "You saved me." He repeated, looking down at his hooves, tears streaming down his grimy cheek. "Why?" he asked, to which I did not provide an answer.

"I'm… I'm sorry… I saw you walk from that store with those cans … I needed them so bad." He said, weakly. "I needed them..."

I limped to my bags, wrenching them open - and rolled out three cans of pre-war beans, the only food I had. They tapped against one of his hooves and he nearly fell to his chest, startled. His head snapped up at me, his mouth moving, but words did not escape his quivering lips.

"Take them." I said, simply, my voice hoarse.

He looked at the cans at his hooves once more, in disbelief.

A painful smile barely graced my lips. "Go ahead. You need them more than I do."

The pony's head bobbed up and down slightly, repeating my words in his head. Until it registered that I wasn't going to shoot him, he nodded quickly, fetching the cans in his hooves, and tucking them into his barding.

"Thank you. " He whispered, his eyes not leaving me once as he trotted away.

But mine did not follow. His hoofsteps dissipated into the wind, and I was, once again, alone upon these windswept rooftops. I limped to my bags and fell to my knees, exhaling laboriously as my sprained fetlock pulsated with fresh waves of pain.

I parted my satchel bag's flaps and fetched a health potion. It was the last one I had. I popped its cap and downed it in one gulp, sighing softly, my shorn ligaments stitching back together with every beat of my heart. I dipped a hoof into my bags and pulled out Dew Drops' scarf, hanging it from my neck as I withdrew the two frayed photographs within.

I stared at them for what seemed like an eternity, my mind numb and my face blank. But I could not keep my mask on forever. My chin began to tremble as the wind wept a haunting requiem, my friends' cheerful laughter echoing distantly beneath its haunting choruses. I could discern each and every single one of their voices in the chilling winds before their laughter melted away, drowning in the howling darkness. A tear trickled down my cheek as I tried to keep a straight face, tried to suck it back in. But my shoulders rocked with sobs I could contain no longer. I bowed my head, my visage darkening and my tears glistening under the orange light. It was just in my head. All of it was.

As I stared down at my friends, their faces frozen in time, I relished the life I had lived with these ponies, cherishing their memories, the sweet and the bitter, the hilarious and the disappointing, the proud and the despairing. I had their photographs, I had her scarf … and yet I still felt empty inside. Nopony ever gets second chances for failure such as this; I wanted a second shot, I wanted more time! Ever since I got my cutie mark, I'd neglected my friends to develop my skills, putting off the hours we could have spent together alone, tinkering, fixing, learning... and now I had what I fucking wanted; I was alone, truly alone. I took them for granted - most of all, I took her for granted. And I wasted it all. They died without knowing how much I appreciated their friendship; Dew Drops died, with so much love to give. And my selfish, ignorant self, deserved not a single second of it.

Days ago, I thought that I had buried them, even if there had been nothing to bury. But they still haunted my thoughts and my made up reality, their dying screams and their last words still fresh in my mind. They'd been torn from me, leaving wounds that I'd tried stitching shut; I tried compartmentalizing them away, slaving onward to finish our mission, but it was too hard to keep them closed forever. Now, they were open, and I was bleeding out.

I shook my head in hysterical denial, shaking away the tears that welled out of my bloodshot eyes. I looked upon my family picture, saw my mother's face and thought: would she be proud of me if she looked at me now?

Would she be proud of me if she'd known the things I've had to do to get this far? The ponies I've killed? All those snow furies I cut down without even a single thought? All the friends I've lost … what if she knew that I wasn't strong enough to save them? That I wasn't strong enough to save the mare that I loved?

I dropped their pictures into my bags and curled up on the rooftop, burying my muzzle in Dew Drops' scarf.

That dream I had of her… it felt so real. Her coat, her flesh, the taste of her tongue – it felt. So. Real. That awakening, that rude pervasion of reality into my weary imagination was a rude and startling one. It had stolen her away from me, and I'd chased after her, forelegs outstretched. And now that I had her back … now that I had them back … the only things I had left of them all … I was still empty inside.

I could wear a straight face and gun down all the ponies I wanted; I could keep putting my thoughts aside and continue focusing on finishing what they'd started, but nothing could ever hide the anguish in my eyes and in my soul. There was a void in my heart that they left behind.

The mare of my life was dead.

All of this… all of this was too much, too much for me to handle. I was so close, but without my friends, without the ponies I loved, I was nothing.

With nopony to comfort me, nopony to stand me up on my hooves, I was nothing. I was only one. But I had none. I was cold, alone, and tired. Anger – anger at myself for being so weak, for being such a little bitch - welled up inside of me like a geyser as I laid there, the traumas of watching my friends die and my entire journey up to this point spilling out of my eyes in tears that felt like they would never end.

I reviled almost everything that surrounded me. This wasteland, the snow, this city, the ponies that lived in it, the snow, the monsters outside, oh - and the fucking Goddesses damned snow! I sobbed, my eyes heavy and swollen from too many tears.

There comes a point when you run out of tears to shed. I'd reached that point now, and I wasn't sure if I could keep going like this.

I rolled onto my back and stared up into the dark skies, too tired to weep. In silence, with only the wind and the distant Ponevan ambience whispering in my ears, I watched the amorphous masses that hung above the frozen earth, and for a brief moment, I thought I saw a light.

A small dot, a hole, opened up in the sky, and out poured a weak beam of yellow light that encapsulated me in its radiance. Even though I've never seen it before in person until now, I knew exactly what it was. It was unlike the orange artificial glow that washed over me; it was pure unadulterated sunlight.

And just like that, it was gone, as fast as it had come. If I was right, the sun was still there – just behind the cloud layer. It was somewhat comforting, knowing that it was still there; that even when the darkness fell upon this earth, the sun was still there behind the clouds, waiting … waiting. Even in this nightmare, it was still there. It had persisted through the apocalypse as ponies and zebras slaughtered each other; it had watched as the world it had stood guard over smoldered in the ashes ponykind had wrought; it had witnessed the survivors of our ancestors' wars devolved into monsters – and yet it still remained.

It hadn't turned away from us in shame. If it was still there, that meant that it still had hope for the creatures that mewled within this broken cradle of a planet. If the Goddesses were really out there, they still had hope, raising the sun and lowering it even as their children sinned and made war, and not love. They still had hope for us. Hope.

My simple act of kindness, giving what little I had to a pony that had wronged me made me realize that … perhaps that is why the sky had opened for that brief moment. It had opened to remind me that my actions, everything I've done, and everything I will do, will be judged. And I'd done something right.

I thanked the Goddesses for their kindness … thanked them for not losing hope in us … in me. I wanted to think that they knew that I only meant the best, that my means always justified the ends. In no way was I a good pony. I wasn't sure, but maybe I was a bad one. But I was certain that I wasn't perfect.

I hoped they knew that I'd do anything to save the ponies I loved, and that that was enough. But … e-even if it wasn't enough … knowing that they were still up there, raising and setting the sun and the moon, I was comforted by the fact that even though I wasn't a perfect pony worth hoping for, there'd be one out there to set things right.

A Lightbringer. Somepony to bring light into this dark age. I read once in a silly foal's book, that the night was always darkest before dawn. It was clichéd, I know, but the darkness around me meant something, I just knew it – and it was pretty fucking dark. That beam in the sky reminded me that a Lightbringer was still possible. Whoever he or she was, this pony would make it right. For the Goddesses … for our sake.

My head rolled across my shoulder and onto the chilling sheet metal, my darkened visage turning into the light to illuminate my half-closed eyes with a ponymade glow. I rolled onto my chest and gazed up at the skyscrapers that towered over me, casting their beams of multicoloured light onto the necropolis below.

Since I came up here, I'd never taken the time to absorb my surroundings. I was so focused on getting my bags back, that I'd never noticed what had been staring at me in front of my face this entire time. The closest skyscraper, glaring me with its orange radiance, caught my eye. And so did the immense neon letters that hung from its titanic, concrete edifice.

World Tree Company.

I had no idea what the World Tree Company was, but it seemed important. Probably was, given how it was built into one of the few lit skyscrapers along Poneva's broken skyline. But below it I read, in disbelief, blinking my eyes furiously as I believed that they were deceiving me, again. I recognized that name. I'd seen it stenciled onto too many things to count in my Stable. It glowed dimmer than the letters above it; it had that refurbished – I just recently fixed it sort of look to it.

Stable-Tec.

I stood to my hooves, the skyscraper's lights painting my shadow across the rooftops, my mane, my tail, and Dew Drops' scarf billowing behind me. I wiped a hoof across my face, and sniffled.

I never really believed in hope. All my life I simply did things and waited for the consequences or the results. Now, I knew, that all the hope that my friends had held in their hearts had culminated to this.

The chase had led me here, and, I, with my forelegs outstretched, had chased after her, the memory of the mare I'd loved. Dew Drops had led me here personally. All this time, I'd never been alone.

Dew Drops was always right. She was smarter than I, and even in death, she still knew better even when I was convinced she didn't and that she was just being naïve.

Dew Drops was right. We would find a way ... together.

And we found it.

---

To be continued in Part II ...

Chapter 6

Six Thousand

"But I was certain that I wasn't perfect. I hoped they knew that I'd do anything to save the ponies I loved, and that that was enough."

My heart was pounding against my chest – I had lost sight of the tower as I descended from the slums, its light disappearing behind Poneva's concrete skeletons. I clambered over a mound of frozen debris, my hooves scrambling for purchase. Blocks of rubbish fell away beneath my limbs as I struggled to catch a glimpse of the tower's rays once more.

"Come on, come on!" I muttered, throwing a hoof over the collapsed concrete edifice that had been blocking my path. With a heave and a grunt, I hurled myself over and a shaft of orange light painted a smile across my face. There it was.

I stood upon my four legs atop the hill of snow and rubble, DD's scarf rippling in a light breeze. "Finally!" I gasped, grinning madly at the brightest light I had ever seen in the wasteland. For some reason, with my mouth agape, I was encapsulated by the tower's radiant glow like some curious, buzzing insect.

Never before have I seen something so bright. Never before have I seen anything so immense. Shiny. Ooooh …. I reached out with a hoof, as if the gleaming facade was within my reach.

Then I began to tip forward. "Whoa –" I flung my legs in front of me in an attempt to plant them into the earth, but that only aggravated my forward momentum. With a crackly yelp, I toppled forth, rambling curses as I tumbled end over end down the snowy embankment.

I punched a four inch outline into the snow as I slammed head first into a bed of fresh powder. I winced at the dull pain in my ribs, pushed myself to my knees and found myself staring at an oncoming wagon. Like a deer in headlights, I watched its lantern glow come closer and closer. My eyes darted around me, searching for a way out as lantern-lit wagons painted yellow tracers across my dilating irises. I realized that I was sitting in the middle of a Goddesses damned intersection.

"Well, fuck!" I shouted, leaping out of the way as the wagon puller, who either didn't see me, or didn't give a shit about the fact that he nearly ran me down, hurtled past me. I turned my head into oncoming traffic with another f-bomb on the tip of my tongue.

The wagon's glowing reflection flashed in my eyes as I dove out of the way, at the last possible second. I was getting pretty good at avoiding certain death and I clung to each little victory like precious gems. A thin smirk creased my lips.

With the Stable-Tec tower at the other end of the intersection, I spared not a single moment more sitting on my ass.

"YOU STUPID SHIT!" Somepony shrieked as I narrowly evaded an oncoming crash that would've killed us both. Kicking up powder beneath my hooves, I galloped off to the home stretch, dodging several more that clipped my tail and showered me with powder. Haha! Red: Seven; Wasteland: Zero –

Then I felt somepony run into my flank.

The collision threw me off my hooves and I spun ninety degrees to slam into a scorched guard rail that knocked the wind from my lungs. A mare screamed and the sound of a box full of nails and glass being thrown against a wall followed in suit as her wagon veered off the road and careened into the metal rails.

And life went on. Not a single pony stopped to see if the wagon puller, or myself, was okay. Well, that's the fucking wasteland for you. I limped across the snowy sidewalk as ponies hurried past me, not wanting to be a part of whatever had just transpired.

A pair of orange hindlegs wiggled and bucked through the snow, but the rest of the pony that they were attached to ramained to be seen. I cocked a brow at the … assault rifles, shotguns, and pistols that lay strewn about the crashed wagon. I reached for the pony's legs and hesitated when I saw the strange emblem emblazoned across the wagon's sideboard.

I studied the pair of black, angel wings that bloomed out of the downward arrow stenciled onto the metal frame. A plume of snow showered my muzzle as the pony kicked her legs once more.

"I'm going to regret this." I muttered as I yanked her out of the drift. In a second, I was panicking and she was on top of me with her pistol jammed into my mouth. Why wasn't I surprised?

"YOU! YOU FUCKING STUPID SHIT! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU FUCKING DOING RUNNING ACROSS THE ROAD LIKE THAT – YOU DEER IN THE HEADLIGHTS FODDER FUCKER!"

It was rather difficult to reply with the barrel of a firearm lodged in between my teeth. "Ish … shar …" I struggled in desperation, trying to formulate a response that would hopefully not get me killed.

She parted the red and orange ocks that fell over her brown eyes as she craned her neck and glared into my own. For a second I thought she was going to paint the snow pink with my brains, until she snorted a jet of mist and loosened up. Her brows flattened with exasperation and she pulled the pistol out of my mouth. "Grrr … you're helping me clean this up." I sat up on my ass and rubbed my lower jaw, wincing. "Fodder fucker …" The mare added as she trotted to the fallen weapons. She glanced at me as I sat there, trying to pull myself together. "WELL?!"

"Sorry. Sorry about your wagon." I murmured to which she didn't respond, scrambling across the snow to clamp my teeth around a horribly maintained assault rifle. I was about to drop the weapon into the wagon bed when I saw that winged emblem again. "Whash dat?" I asked through my teeth.

"None of your fucking business, just –"

She turned to look at me and narrowed her eyes at the way I held the gun in my teeth. "You retarded something?"

I tossed the rifle back into the wagon. "Look, I'm sorry about all this, but can you please stop fucking calling me names?" I sighed, rubbing at the dull pain in my ribcage. It felt like I was talking to a female Bone Charm. Except with excessive swearing.

"I mean, your horn, why're not using your magic?" the mare asked.

Another rusty piece of scrap metal clanked in the back of the wagon. What was she doing with these things anyways? They'd blow up in her face if she tried shooting any of these.

"Uh, well, my horn's –"

She waved me off, throwing the last rifle into the back of the wagon.

"Whatever, I don't really give a shit." She said with a grunt as the earth pony threw on her harness. The mare lifted a hoof but hesitated for a moment. She glanced over her shoulder and saw my bitter expression, sighing a cloud of gray mist. "Sorry about that, I can be real rotten sometimes. Just running a little late on my uh ..." The mare looked at the rusty firearms in the back of her wagon. "... my business. Next time, don't run through the fucking street like a … fodder fucker."

Well, how nice of you, I wanted to say, as she rejoined the speeding wagons that plowed through the streets. My flank stung where she had run into me, but, needless to say, I was closer to the Stable-Tec tower than I was several minutes ago.

Though a part of me really wanted to know what she was doing with all those guns. And that symbol? Maybe she's some kind of gangster, the kind that Duster was talking about? If she was one of those hooligans outside, I'd probably have been dead by now. I glanced over my shoulder gloomily, watching wagons race by. I can't let my excitement get ahold of me like that again.

Here I was, at salvation's doorstep. I survived my friends, snow furies, bloodletters, and Blood Brothers. It was sort of embarrassing thinking about how I could've died just now when I had come this far. Get a fucking grip, Red Dawn. Wait. I don't have thumbs.

I shook my head vigorously. I needed to get to Stable-Tec before I got too unhinged and get myself killed. A hot bath and several days of undisturbed sleep sounded really great right about now; the sooner I got a water talisman, the sooner I could return home and save my stable.

As I approached, the titanic nature of the Stable-Tec tower became more apparent; though it was not by far the tallest, it was undoubtedly the brightest. In comparison to the dimly-lit lights flickering behind the broken or boarded up windows of the inhabited skyscrapers and apartment buildings that towered over me, the Stable-Tec – or the World Tree Company building, was a tree in a field of gnarled weeds.

It was a titanic obelisk of concrete and riveted metal, elevated above the street upon a tremendous estrade, accessible only by a flight of wide stairs that narrowed the closer you got to the top. Surrounding it were four immense, ramped bridges that connected the ground level streets with the skyscraper's platform. Built upon four great concrete arches, the wide structures held the bridges aloft over the four lane streets below.

I stared in awe as busy ponies brushed past me, unable to move as everything I'd learned about Equestrian cities before the Great War came to life before me.

Gazing upon its current state was like traveling back in time 200 years, for it must have looked largely the same as it did before the bombs fell. The tower looked virtually untouched by the holocaust, apparently subject only to the passage of time as the centuries dragged by.

The ponies who trotted past me paid no attention to it, as if such a thing was normal to them; it probably was, but for me? For a stable dweller who has seen nothing but white walls and pipes his entire life? This relic was the most magnificent thing I'd seen since I stepped a hoof out into this wasteland. And it was probably one of the last of its kind, standing proud and tall amongst the skeletons that languished around it as a gleaming monument to the grandeur of historical ponykind. Even stained by old age and weathered by the unforgiving elements, the structure was, for the most part, still standing.

It was a lighthouse in an ocean of darkness. Here, standing beneath its shadow, it was even more magnificently intimidating up close. I cantered up a flight of narrow stairs that led to the bridge an entire storey above me, and found myself standing before the tower and all its glory.

Weaving through the wagon and hoof traffic that slogged through the ashen streets, I finally arrived at the tower's front door. I panned my gaze up the icy concrete steps that led me to the collapsed remains of an ancient revolving door, minus the revolving part. I lifted my chin, tipping my head as far back as I could. Wow, I couldn't even see the tip of the skyscraper from down here. Now that was impressive.

I took a step forward, but hesitated; there were hardly any ponies loitering about here. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw that not that many ponies were approaching the tower either. I wasn't sure if that was a good sign.

This was my only way in. Gulping a lump down my throat, I tried to put on the most confident face I could muster as I walked up the steps. As my hooves clopped against the last set of steps, I peered through the revolving door, and my heart nearly skipped a beat.

The blood drained from my face as I stepped a hoof through that door. Im...possible. The lobby was dilapidated; dark lines where furniture or counters had once been standing marked the remains of whatever may have furnished its interior. Piles of dust – or was that snow – were scattered across the floor. Did snow get that gray?

Now I was truly bemused. Shit, bemused didn't even begin to describe how I felt. The warm glow of artificial light or civilization was absent here. It was nothing like what I imagined the inside of the tower to be. My teeth bit my lower lip so hard I almost drew blood.

I turned my head over my shoulder and saw that the window panes that lined the walls on either side of the revolving door were singed black, layers of melted glass riming the concrete beneath. I looked down at my hooves; the floor and everything here had that blackened, charred look – just like all the other ruined shells outside. The balefire had blown through the windows and obliterated everything inside.

My red saucers absorbed the entire void, and beheld nothing; no door, no stairwell, no sign that anything had ever occupied this now empty space. This couldn't be possible; there were lights flickering through the windows in the stories above me! This place looked just about as dead as the rest of the wasteland.

Hot anger welled up inside of me as I began to panic, sweat beading up on my forehead. This can't be possible ... I made it this far, and I can't even get in! I paced back and forth, fruitlessly checking and rechecking the bare facades around me. Nothing. There was fucking nothing!

I cried out, punching a hoof into the snowy detritus.

"Goddesses damnit!" Was this some kind of fucked up joke? I ran a hoof vigorously through my unwashed mane, standing on my hinds as I tried to make sense of what this place was. I planted my rump into the icy floor, tapping my forehooves together, my mane itching. I exhaled harshly, licking my chapped lips in frustration.

Did I come all this way just to – fuck! Okay, just calm down, Red. I took a deep breath. Maybe I was in the wrong building; maybe there was no way in through here - wait. Everything that led directly into rest of the tower was missing.

A bulb flickered in my head. Walking to a bare wall, I reached into my satchel bags and drew my spade. I narrowed my gaze at the it's icy surface as I scraped at it inquisitively, chipping off a chunk of frost. Beneath it, I uncovered a bulkhead of blackened steel.

How didn't I expect this from Stable-Tec? The company that built balefire bombproof bunkers? This entire floor was contained - isolated from the rest of the tower.

My left brain obsessive curiosity with all things mechanical possessed my limbs as I ran my hooves frantically along the walls, shuffling across the charred concrete floor on my hind legs. I remembered that even my Stable's doors had controls to open it from the outside. If this place was built in the same way, there had to be a way in - controls, a button - something! My hoof ran over a bump in the rime, and I exhaled sharply, realizing that I'd been holding my breath. It was a small cylindrical piece of metal, painted a clever white to hide itself among the frost and snow that piled up inside. I peered into it; it was some sort of eye hole, or maybe it was a camera?

I cocked an eyebrow, tapping it with a forehoof. It blinked red.

"Yow!" I cried out in shock, jumping back as I rubbed my now blinded right eye.

"You are trespassing on private property," a mare's voice warned in monotone, her voice crackling through the walls around me. It sounded like she had said that same line hundreds of times already and I was just another one of those bastards making her job harder than it should. "Leave the premises immediately, or we will be forced to remove you."

The sound of machinery whirring to life made the hairs on my coat stand on end. I swung my head frantically over both my shoulders and curse was lost on my lips. A dozen turreted weapons folded out of the ceiling above me; their bare wired barrels exuded an aberrant violet glow.

Oh. Goddesses. I cleared my throat, trying not to flinch. "Uh, w-what the hell are those?"

"Magical energy turrets. Leave immediately, or we will be forced to remove you." The mare ordered a second time. I glanced sheepishly at the gray powder beneath my hooves as I realized what it really was.

Then it hit me like a hoof in the gut: I was going to die. Again. I'd be swirling across the floor with the rest of them in no time.

No, no - this can't be happening! I planted my hooves onto the wall, staring into the red light as I spoke, my voice tinged with desperation. "Listen, I really need help -"

"Everypony needs help," It remarked, cutting me off. "If you need food, you'll find our agents at the Old Bank District." It paused for a moment, and added, the energy turrets glowing brighter, "Leave the premises, immediately, while you still can –"

I shook my head, sitting before the light with my forehooves wrapped together pleadingly, "No, no, no – I-I can't do that!" I stammered. "You don't understand – I came all this way from –"

A high pitched whine rang shrilly behind me as the turrets cycled in new charges. "This is your last warning."

They were going to fucking kill me. My breaths came out and in as frantic gasps as I struggled to convince them to do otherwise. I shouted, desperately, "Wait, don't do this –"

"Three." The room began to glow a sickly purple as all twelve of the magical energy weapons spurred to life.

My stable was doomed. "N-no! You have to listen to me –"

"Two." Their high pitched whirring intensified, drowning out my own thoughts; it was as if the all 293 ponies of '91 were shrieking in unison.

My eyes widened to saucers as I realized I wasn't getting out of this alive.

"Please!"

The shrieks reached their deafening crescendos, and I could already feel my flesh sloughing away.

"One."

I threw my forelegs in front of me.

"STOP!" I screamed.

And they did. The turrets' acute purrs decelerated to a groaning halt. A rivulet of cold sweat ran down my snout and spilled onto the blackened concrete at my hooves.

"Please … my stable … our water talisman's broken; our purifier's shot out … we need help, or we're all going to die." I begged, sweat dripping down my face.

"Let him in," Said a different voice, this one a stallion. The red light flickered orange.

There was a silent, hesitant pause; the only sound echoing in my ears was the rhythmic pounding of my temples.

"Sir?" The mare asked, dubiously.

The stallion's voice crackled over the comms, ignoring her. "Take a step back, please, away from the camera so I can see you," The pony asked … or was that an order? He must've seen the anxiousness in my grimace, because he added, "It's okay. You'll be alright. We won't hurt you," He told me in a voice a parent would use to comfort a frightened child.

I blinked, trying to stay my gasps. He was talking to me. I obeyed with a terrified look on my face, my flushed visage glowing dimly in the violet glare.

What felt like an eternity passed – which was really more like a few heartbeats – and the stallion's voice crackled over the speakers once more. "Let him in."

"Yes, Director." The mare replied with a hint of uncertainty.

I gulped a lump down my throat, my eyes darting back and forth as the turrets retracted into the ceiling and the light flickered green. I trembled beneath my barding; despite having dodged a heavy bullet, or a laser, rather, I was unsure what I was going to do next.

Unsure what they were going to do to me next.

The wall in front of me began to crack and I took a cautious step back, the layer of rime chipping away as the machinery underneath spurred to life. A grating, mechanical hum echoed through the empty room and a chunk of frost with a diameter of both my forelegs held out to my sides broke off and shattered on the concrete at my hooves.

A thick steel cog jutted out of the gap it had left behind. Seconds later, a grinding metallic shriek that made my ears ring followed as it spun 360 degrees before retracting back into the wall with a resounding thunder clap. The steel bulkhead – what was actually a giant steel cog, began to part like a curtain on a stage, quaking the concrete beneath my hooves and tearing away from the frost that had encased it for two hundred years.

Billowing clouds of pale mist seethed out of the widening divide before me, chilling the bare flesh on my face. I held a hoof over my eyes, a yellow strobe light flickering blindingly through the clearing fog. Several equine silhouettes were trotting towards me, the mists parting in their wake.

I took a cautious step back, wiping away the sweat that clung to my wary features. This was it.

A gray coated mare with the same voice that had threatened to dust me across the floor earlier, stepped forward into the light, and said, "Let's go, stable colt. The Director would like to speak with you."

---

My eyelids fluttered as I entered into the soft light. Sighing softly, I quickly adjusted to the same pale fluorescent lights that had illuminated the hallways of Stable 91 my entire life, and possibly the last 200 years.

Flanked by two security ponies and the mare whose voice nearly condemned me to death, we trotted into a flickering vestibule that didn't look like it had been walked upon in centuries. It probably hadn't, as my hooves summoned up poofy clouds of dust that mingled with the mist that lingered around my legs.

A grating, metallic groan echoed behind me as the cog rolled back into place with a floor-quaking slam, sealing this place off from the outside once more. Inside, it was utterly silent except for the hooves that clopped in our gait.

I was still shaking from the passing possibility of being cauterized to death, and it showed in the legs that wobbled beneath me. And they would have, if it wasn't for this Director; had he not intervened, I would have been another speck of dust on these unswept floors. The others who escorted me did not seem happy that I was walking amongst them. The two that flanked me exchanged with each other cautious glances, eyeing me watchfully, and then glancing imploringly at the mare at point.

I tried not to look, but I caught one of my escorts staring at me and she quickly turned the other away, focusing upon the door at the far end of the hall. I realized that I was still gasping for breath.

"What's your name, colt?" The gray mare asked me, glancing over her shoulder.

I took a deep breath, running a shaky hoof through my dirty mane. "My name's Red Dawn. I'm from Stable 91."

She nodded to herself, still trotting. "You seem flustered, 'hun," She remarked crassly as we neared the door at the other end of the vestibule.

"You nearly incinerated me," I snapped, glaring at her as my voice cracked with hoarse resentment.

She stopped suddenly and turned to meet my eyes with a severe expression that didn't match the tone of her voice. I gulped down the sassiness in my tone.

"If it wasn't for that pipbuck of yours, I would've thought you were a snow fury or something. Hell, if it wasn't for the Director I probably would have dusted you anyways." My musckes tensed as she leaned into my muzzle so that we could see eye to eye. "Just know, Red Dawn, that if you try anything, and I mean anything stupid, we'll dust you across the floor. Understand?"

My head dipped slightly at the holstered energy pistol that was slung around her neck. I took a deep breath, clenched my jaw and nodded, bitterly.

"Crystal Empire clear." I intoned. I was getting real sick and tired of being antagonized all the time.

"Good boy," the mare cooed. "If you really are from Stable 91, then it'd be a shame if you got atomized after coming all this way," She added.

I felt the urge to say something I'd regret, but I held my tongue. She didn't even know half of it.

"Both of us can agree on that." I said, glaring at her.

"Good to know." She tipped her chin up and held out a hoof, interjecting, "Before we go any further, I'll need you to relinquish all your bags, guns, knives, explosives – anything that you're carrying. We'll need to search your belongings, too." Apprehension skittered across my features, my lower lip quivering. "Standard procedure for visitors here at the World Tree Company."

"Do I look like I have bombs on me?"

She shrugged, "Let's find out."

I spared a languid glance at the two guard ponies on either side of me, and saw that they had their hooves planted on their holsters. I reached over reluctantly, hesitating as my hoof brushed against my satchel bag's straps. I'd nearly killed myself trying to get these back earlier; hell, I nearly killed somepony.

"Alright." Pursing my lips, I shrugged off my bags and unhooked my pistol's holster. I knelt on the floor, my bags sitting between my forelegs. Parting its flaps, I spared a glimpse at the pictures of my friends, pain and loss flickering in my heart.

The gray mare noticed the apprehension that haunted my visage as the faces of my friends flashed before my eyes I didn't want to let go of … them … again.

Her hoof lowered and so did her tone. "You'll get them back," She said, softly, in a voice I didn't think she had.

A moment passed and I nodded, slowly. Staring down at the floor, I pushed the bags away from me and gave the mare my pistol, barrel down as I felt hooves brush me up from head to hoof. After patting me down, the two ponies proceeded to part the flaps of my satchel bags, poking through my belongings. I cringed as I heard a security mare comment on how cute I looked in my foal picture.

"Excellent. Then we shouldn't have any problems. The Director never has any visitors, well, any visitors that weren't threatening to hang his head over the ramparts outside. If he thought you were a threat to security, then he would've let me atomize you." She paused for a moment, considering what she was about to say. She jutted a forehoof at me, lowering her voice. "But don't think for a single moment I'll let you off easy. Get in, get what you need, and get out."

My brow crinkled at her indifference. "Are you like this to everypony? Or … do you just not like me?" Shit, I really wanted to take that back as she narrowed her eyes at me. Now wasn't the time for my smart ass mouth.

"I hope to the Goddesses that nopony else saw you walk in. Because I don't want anypony else thinking they'll get treated the same way as you." The mare replied, gruffly, implying that she's seen it happen before.

I sighed, "If I'm some kind of threat, then why'd you ponies let me in?"

"Wasn't me. Wouldn't have let you in even if you were being chased by a flock of haunters." You uptight … wait, what the hell are haunters? "The good Director crawled out of a Stable like you did; probably felt a connection with you or something."

This Director was a Stable pony too? I wondered how many Stables existed in this region. 91 couldn't have been the only one.

She nodded to the ponies that flanked me, and they seemed to ease up a bit. "By the way, I'm Dapple Gray, Chief of Security here at the World Tree Company, and I'm in charge of keeping this slice of sanity safe," Dapple Gray declared, fervently. She turned to hoof a control panel.

"Safe from what?" I asked, half expecting her to say 'you'.

Her foreleg stopped mid-reach. "Why, everypony, of course," she said, giving me a portentous half-smile. Dapple Gray tapped the panel in front of her and the door rumbled and shook, its internal mechanisms sliding and rolling into place.

"BRRZT -" I inhaled with a shallow gasp as crackling bouts of static noise echoed throughout the vestibule. An amusingly catchy jingle, completely out of tune with the grim dark reality inside and outside these walls, tooted above me. I spotted its source – a pair of dusty speakers that were built into the door's lintel.

"Welcome to Stable-Tec, Equestria's premier in life-sustaining and subterranean habitation technology," a mare's hauntingly familiar voice startled me as a cog in the door spun.

I loosened up somewhat as the pony's melodic words soothed my frayed nerves; even dampened through the ancient speakers overhead, her voice was still as smooth as silk. The others wore annoyed expressions on their faces as I listened to a greeting they must've heard thousands of times.

"We hope that you will find your visit enjoyable, and that you will choose Stable-Tec again in the future!" The mare chirped, cheerily.

Somepony's sleeping … I heard Sweetie Belle coo as my mind became encapsulated in the returning memories of her delightful sing-song. The cog snapped into the door's frame and a loud clank interrupted my distant musing. Sweetie Belle. This was the same Sweetie Belle I heard on the radio in Spring Fresh's memory orb.

Then the door swung open and a glaring blanket of white engulfed me. I gasped as I stepped into the light, shielding my eyes, inhaling only to have my brain go haywire at the aromatic, alien scents that flooded into my nostrils.

My body quivered with electrifying euphoria as something, no, some things, rather, ploughed my virgin senses. Dapple Gray led us across the mezzanine to a veranda overlooking the storeys below. I wasn't exactly following her at this point. Instead, the scents spirited me over to the railing where they happened to be standing, the fruity fragrances intensifying the closer my nose came to the stone balustrade.

The catchy jingle that ended Sweetie Belle's welcoming message played for deaf ears as I tried blinking away what had to be another delirious hallucination. One level down, lab-coated and jump-suited ponies led formations of tracked robots that towed behind them dozens of carts filled to the brim with, what I could not believe, were verdant, green vegetables.

Containers with the breadth of two ponies standing next to each other with their legs outstretched and as tall as a stallion on his hinds were overflowing with a mouthwatering plethora of golden apples, and succulent oranges, and bright red tomatoes, and Goddesses – are those strawberries – and exotic fruits I thought I'd never see with my own eyes. Some of these fresh morsels had names that were right on the tip of my tongue – and holy hell, did I wish that they actually, physically were.

When I was younger, the names of a number of fruits and vegetables, among other historical, extinct things, were lost to me, because, why the hell would I need to know something I'd never see or touch?

But I was wrong. Goddesses, was I wrong.

My escorts looked amused, the face I wore simply priceless. Wide eyed and slack jawed, I uttered the only words I could put together.

"Bwaahhh … ummm…" A thin line of drool trickled out of my lower lip and I shook my head vigorously, wiping it dry as I blinked my eyes back into focus.

"W-what is this place?" I murmured under my breath as I realized that the tower's floors extended far beyond what I could make out above me and deep into the earth thousands of feet below me. Alternating tiers of mezzanines and open air floors descended into the depths below, flickering with flashing yellow siren lights as swarms of robot cart pullers hustled across. Other balconies were illuminated by fluorescent beams where employees lounged on lunch breaks.

"This the heart of all innovation in Poneva. We've got so much pre-war tech just sitting here that everypony wants a slice of the pie." Dapple Gray replied, proudly, sweeping a forehoof over the railing.

"This is why we can't just let anypony in. Why we can't have our doors wide open. Can't risk losing … all this." She added, leaning over the edge. "The folks back at Stable-Tec left us a going away gift, but it was the Director who opened it for us."

"That's incredible. I-I've never seen so much fresh food, so many robots, so much … of everything." I said, breathlessly as I stalked a crate of breathtakingly yellow banan… bananas? I've never seen actual bananas before. And … are those pineapples? What the hell are those spiky things? Never mind that! How the hell can they grow all of this in this frozen hole in the earth?

There were too many questions to ask; the little hamster in my cranium was struggling to decide on whether to pose them, or to crave for a crate of strawberries that was being carted away from me. I stared astonishingly at the bustling plantation that unfurled further the farther down I looked.

I found that my mouth was incredibly parched, and I licked my lips before saying, "What don't you grow here?"

Dapple Gray just shrugged casually, vaguely amused at my blabbering.

"I'm just here for security. The eggheads upstairs do all the research. Well, resurrecting, as the Director likes to call it." She chuckled, vaguely amused. "They're bringing back all sorts of good stuff from the old world up there," The mare added. Dapple Gray patted down her uniform, tipping her chin back slightly as she regarded the massive, clanking procession of labor bots below. "We're the third largest source of food in all of the Northern Wastes. Hell, probably in all of Equestria."

"Huh?" My jaw plummeted to my hooves, a stupid expression widening across my features. "Third largest?" I repeated, incredulously. "This place is huge!" I gawked, unable to believe that there were … others. Others even more expansive than this.

I couldn't even fathom the scale of their yields.

Dapple Gray groaned, visibly irritated at my ignorance and questioning. "We've got stiff competition." She bit her lower lip, brushing her energy pistol as she nodded to herself. "Big competition, rather." I saw her glance at me through my peripherals; my eyes too busy devouring a crate of golden apples that was sadly rolling farther and farther away from me. "And our competitors really don't like competition." She added with a crass chuckle.

I peeled my focus from the cornucopia of mouthgasms and caught the sternness in her gaze.

"I think I can see where this is going'" I said out loud.

"When the other plantations want something, they always get it," She spat with blatant resentment. "And they want to put us out of business." The mare pushed herself off the parapet and nodded to my escorts. The two ponies motioned for me to follow them. "For all I could've known, you were one of them, trying to get inside."

"What? Did my bloodied up barding give it away?" I scoffed with a sly grin.

She chuckled bitterly, folding her legs across her chest. "Don't give me any ideas. I might just find a reason to buck you out that door."

I just turned my eyes elsewhere and shook my head.

"I can't risk letting anypony ruin what the Director's started. Can't let all of his work go up in flames." The mare stated, earnestly. I thought I detected a hint of admiration in her voice. Given the fact that the Director wasn't as trigger happy as Miss Gray here, and the way she spoke of him, he seemed like a decent pony.

"You sound like you're very fond of this Director," I scoffed.

"And you ask too many Goddesses' damned questions." Dapple Gray snapped, suddenly as the two guard ponies exchanged smirks. "We've dillydallied enough. The big egghead's probably wondering about his esteemed guest right about now."

We stepped into an elevator and Dapple Gray tapped its flashing buttons, our destination gleaming the brightest. The elevator rumbled once and began to ascend with a whirring lurch.

I quietly watched as the storeys dinged by, hoping that the Director was just as generous as Dapple Gray.

---

The elevator dinged 91 and the doors parted. Dapple Gray led me across the hall to the only room on this floor: the executive suite. We walked passed rows of hanging picture frames depicting, what had to be notable members of the Stable-Tec corporation. I paused for a moment to look at a picture of three mares, one with a yellow coat, another orange, and the third alabaster, holding each other's hooves up high before a cheering audience, a projector beaming across a screen behind them an image of a newly built Stable door.

Stable-Tec – On a Crusade to build a better tomorrow, said the plaque beneath it. It took me a moment to recognize just who these mares were … I'd seen these mares before in the textbooks at school. Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle – the founders of Stable-Tec. How can I forget the very ponies that designed all the stables in Equestria?

I looked closer, craning my neck, admiring the pale unicorn. Wow, Sweetie Belle was gorgeous. She sounded just as exquisite as she looked.

Dapple Gray cleared her throat, and I snapped out of it, cantering up the hall to catch up with them. With me in tow, we arrived at the Director's executive suite. As I watched Dapple Gray approach the door, I found that my heart was drumming against my chest. I felt a little sweaty as well. I trembled – not from fear, but from sheer anticipation.

I took a deep breath as the mare knocked on the Director's door. Seconds passed, and a thin line of sweat trickled down the side of my face.

A shallow gasp escaped my lips as the door opened and a copper-coated unicorn stallion stepped out into the hall to meet us. He saw me first, catching my uneasy stare. His right eye red, and his left, a green orb with a deep scar running down his brow, flickered for the briefest of moments with perplexity as they turned to see me.

Quickly composing himself, the tawny stallion, older than his eyes showed, creased his lips with a curt smile, opening the door wider. The faint sound of whining mechanical servos whirred beneath his shabby white lab coat as his slender frame stepped out into the hall.

"Sir." Dapple Gray grunted, straightening her spine at the pale-maned stallion.

He brushed her shoulder with a forehoof and her posture wavered, somewhat.

"Thanks, Gray." Then he turned his weathered face to me, seized by a peculiar warmth I never thought I'd ever see in the frozen wasteland. "Hmm," He murmured, studying me pensively as he tapped a hoof to his chin. "I'm the Director, but ponies call me Steam Sprocket." He held out a hoof to me, to which I stared at cautiously as if he were drawing a knife. It was just a simple hoofshake. But nopony out here has ever been this kind to me until now. His polite smile widened, but my heart was gripped with wary hesitation. "What about you, my boy?" At least he didn't call me stable colt, like everypony fucking else. He seemed like a nice pony … but …

I took his hoof, feverishly. "My name's Red Dawn," I replied, unable to remove my gaze from the unnerving pair of multicoloured orbs that were holding my stare. "I'm from Stable-"

"91," He said suddenly, plucking the words right out of my mouth. I stood there with my lips parted open, confounded. "I never thought I'd see the day when those doors would open," Steam Sprocket intoned. One of my hooves came to scratch at the number stenciled on my collar. It was muddled with a black stain, almost unreadable.

"I never thought I'd see the day …" He repeated again, under his breath.

My hooves shifted uneasily beneath me. How did he know where I was from? The stables were cut off completely from the outside world, not to mention there could be dozens around here nopony's heard from or seen in two centuries. There's no way he could've known.

"Have we met?" I asked, abashed.

He thought for a moment, even though I knew the answer to my own question.

"You will soon, I suppose." The old pony held the door open for me, and motioned me forward. "Do come inside. We have much to discuss, yes?"

Suspicion stifled the movement in my legs. I found it hard to trust a pony who knew more about where I was from than anypony else in the entire wasteland.

I glanced at Dapple Gray, who was giving me that stern 'I'll break you if you try anything' look again. Nodding slowly, I stepped inside his office as the Director leaned out the door to have a few words with the Chief.

While they spoke, I glanced around his penthouse office, curiously. Soft white light cast shadows against the ancient, graying facades and painted the dark hardwood floor a coarse black.

Potted plants, filing cabinets, and tables of glowing terminals and flickering monitors furnished Steam Sprocket's personal suite. A staircase led to a wide mezzanine with a couch, drawers, closet, and a bed that must've been there since the bombs fell.

Hanging from the walls were pictures of ponies in pre-war garb. One was of a pair of ponies tipping their hats to the newly built Stable-Tec tower – its structure largely the same as it was when I saw it outside.

Looking past the half-mooned desk at the center of the office, I peered through a wide, panoramic view of the flickering labyrinth below us. I trotted toward the window, and placed a hoof against the glass.

The city was incomprehensibly larger than I had initially thought. Although the black sprawl stretched on beyond what I could see, the city of the lights – indicative of life – grew sparser and farther in between the further I stared out into the distance. Far from here, beyond a dark forest of skeletal highrises, I saw only an opaque curtain of night. But where there was light, there was life. At the heart of this darkness, it was shocking to see so much of it in one small place.

The office's door closed, and I heard hooves clopping towards me against the hardwood floor. "Six thousand souls," the old pony said. I heard him before I saw him. His mechanical servos sighed as he came to a stop at my side. I glanced over my shoulder and saw the stallion looking out the window, too. "Six. Thousand. You don't see those numbers anywhere else in the wasteland, do you?"

"I wouldn't know," I replied, simply, running a hoof through my messy mane. "I haven't been out and about for too long."

"I wouldn't have been able to tell you were new to the Northern Wasteland. You look like you've seen it all." He said, noting the dark stains on my chest. Blood wasn't the only mask I was wearing right now. So many things were bothering me at the moment, that if I were to allow my brain to feel them all at once, I'd probably snap again.

"I've seen enough of this place for a lifetime." I said, quietly.

Steam Sprocket leaned against the window, folding his legs across his chest. "The wasteland is a rough place for a stable dweller," he remarked, regarding the outlying city sprawl. "You haven't even seen a third of it, if that's the case. It's a whole 'nother world."

I turned to him curiously and saw that, beneath his white sleeve, his right foreleg was encased within a glowing pipbuck as well. "You're from a stable, too?"

He nodded, avoiding my gaze. "You remind me of myself when I left mine." The stallion contemplated the stains on my barding. "Alone. Bloodied. Searching for something," he trailed off, staring out the window once more.

"That why you tugged on Dapple Gray's leash?" I muttered, loud enough for him to hear.

The stallion was silent for several heartbeats.

His servomotors yawned as he shuffled his back hooves. "I knew 91 would open its doors one day," He digressed. "But … I wasn't expecting this. I wasn't expecting you … to be the only one."

My shoulders drooped and I casted my eyes to my hooves.

After a difficult moment of silence, he finally spoke.

"How bad is it?"

I frowned, leaning against the window. "Not bad. Yet." I replied, as he reminded me about my stable's ticking clock.

His question lingered in the air as the unicorn waited for me to continue even when I was not. I paused, my heart fluttering with doubt at the patience this pony had for me. I would've asked him why he cared, but he wouldn't have stopped Dapple Gray from atomizing me if he hadn't. But really, why did he? To Dapple Gray, I was just another trespasser. To him, I wasn't sure what I was.

A few heartbeats passed by as I stared out the window with butterflies in my stomach, looking at our reflections in the glass. "Our water purifier broke, and so did our water talisman. The damage was repairable, but the talisman was not." I remembered vividly the shattered fragments of scrap metal that had remained. The sounds of pipes shrieking and exploding coalesced with the memories of cackling snow furies still fresh in my mind. I cupped my mouth with a hoof for a moment, gasping quietly as the voices faded away.

Steam Sprocket caught the ghosts that haunted my scarred eyes. To my surprise, the unicorn placed a hoof on my shoulder, nodding slowly, telling me, without words, to take all the time I needed.

"I was of a scout party of six. We came out here looking for a new one." I ran a hoof against the window, my leg slumping down its surface to the floor. I felt … better, talking about them. But I stopped myself from speaking more, inhaling sharply.

It didn't concern him who died or what those ponies had meant to me.

"I'm the only pony who made it this far," I trailed off, exhaling deeply. "I'm the only one left." I looked up and the Director was pondering me quietly once more.

He remained silent for some time, nodding to himself in the somber quietude that followed. "And you're hoping that I can provide?"

My bloodshot eyes turned to face him, and the stallion found it difficult to hold my gaze. He looked … hesitant.

"I want to go home," I murmured. "Though I'm not quite sure if I can anytime soon." I dipped my head to him, a lock of my mane falling before my right eye. "That depends on if I can get one."

"Come." He said, trotting away from the window. "Follow me; I'd like to show you something. I may be able to wipe that frown from your face."

I trailed after him as we exited his office to take another elevator ride several floors down the tower. With an audible ding, the doors parted and my nose crinkled at the same overwhelming scents that I had smelled earlier. Only here, they were far more intense. And I saw why.

Towering above me, upon dozens of tiers of hydroponic gardens, were trees, hanging vines, and green stalks – their fruits hanging proudly upon their thick branches or blooming from their lush tendrils.

Networks of irrigation piping wove through the brush, trickling sparkling freshwater directly into their submerged roots. I followed Steam Sprocket down a hanging walkway between hydroponic groves of apple trees.

Unlike the ones at 91, these apples were a mouthwatering shade of yellow, the same ones I was admiring on the first floor. The Director looked over his shoulder and saw the curiousness in my eyes and endeavored to humor me. Brushing past a labor bot that was inspecting the arcane machinery that fed the plants at our hooves, he picked an apple from a branch and floated it towards me. I tensed, unsure of what I was supposed to do with it as I held it in one of my hooves.

"Go ahead, have at it," he said, smiling.

With an audible crunch and a spray of delicious apple juice, I took a bite and swallowed. My retinas dilated to saucers as liquid heaven made sweet, sweet love to my taste buds and dribbled down my chin. Goddesses' labial bits.

Steam Sprocket chuckled heartily as I took another bite, and another, and another. Before I knew it, the apple was gone, and I was eyeing dolefully at the ravaged core that rested upon my hoof.

"You got a little something on your lip," he said, prodding his own. I licked my lips ravenously and wiped away a stray apple chunk.

"Wow, this is fucking amazing!" I exclaimed, my apprehensive reticence falling apart as the light in my eyes returned. I cleared my throat, my cheeks reddening. "Sorry, I mean, they're just … so … guh-hooooood." A labor bot rolled before me and plucked the apple core from my outstretched hoof.

The Director snickered, dismissing my outburst with a wave of a hoof. "That's exactly what I thought when I had my first." He sighed, looking up at the hydroponic gardens that hung above us. "They're called 'Golden Delicious Apples'," he told me as my stomach grumbled. He picked two more, one for me and the other for himself. I caught the apple between my teeth, its juices trickling down my lip.

"I think they're my favorite," I said, relishing in the sweet aftertaste that lingered on my tongue

"They're my favorite too. Heh, and Goddesses, whoever named them that named them right." The old pony chuckled, plunging his teeth into the golden orb that floated in his levitation spell. I stopped chewing for a moment when he said Goddesses. Another adherent of the Goddesses? I smiled warmly at that; it was pleasant knowing that I wasn't alone in this godless place.

"At 10 caps per pound, these are the cheapest apples in all of Poneva. Ponies scramble for these when my agents cart them out into the markets." He took another bite, chewed, and swallowed. "Six thousand souls." Steam Sprocket waved a hoof above him, saying, "All this? Everything you see here? It still isn't enough for everypony."

I pivoted 360 degrees, gazing up and down at the hydroponic plantation around me. This wasn't even the entire plantation. "I can't believe that."

Steam Sprocket led me down the catwalk, nodding at a pair of lab ponies that trotted past us. "Tell me, Red Dawn, what was your job at Stable 91 before you left?" the old pony asked.

"I was … I'm an engineer." I was going to say apprentice … but … "Yep. An Engineer," I added. It's not like he needed to know I was still a student.

He chuckled, "Then you must know a thing or two about Water Talismans?"

I thought for a moment. "Of course," I replied. Hey, that wasn't a complete lie! I knew a thing or two; I just didn't know everything there was to know about them like Dew Drops did.

"What can you tell me about them?" he asked.

Alright, I got this. "Water talismans use purification spells to produce freshwater." Textbook definition. Fuck yes.

He nodded thoughtfully as we trotted across the catwalk. "Indeed. The water talisman is an intricate lattice matrix of crystalline superconductors that, when introduced to an expurgation spell, generate an arcano-distillation field to purify a liquid or aqueous substance for pony consumption." Steam Sprocket turned to my muddled expression. "Of course, any stable engineer would know that!" he added, with a chuckle as I stared at him blankly. "Don't worry, I had to learn that too when I was an engineer at my stable."

I nodded. "S-sure. Yeah." The pony laughed as we trotted along the catwalk.

"I was able to learn more about those talismans when I arrived here. This facility was one of the premier RND centers for agriculture research in Equestria back in the day. Many of the bio and arcanomechanical technologies used to grow and sustain plant life were developed here."

What with the hanging gardens that surrounded us, I wasn't surprised.

We stopped at the center of the room overlooking a massive cylindrical machine that seemed to stretch from this floor and into the floors above and below us.

"Holy hell." I muttered, unable to fathom the amount of work it must have taken to put this whole machine together.

It was gargantuan; it would take a several minute long trot to walk around its entire circumference and a long elevator ride to get to the machine's base. Pipes, branching out of the metal trunk, formed a vast byzantine network of piping that fed the hydroponic gardens.

"Any idea what this beauty is, Red Dawn?"

I touched a hoof to my chin. "It reminds me of the water purifier back home."

"That's because it is. This facility was used to research and develop new strains of fruits and vegetables that could be grown without conventional husbandry." He nodded to himself, saying, "Much like the white apples grown in many standard configuration stables throughout Equestria. But they needed something to provide water for all their plants," he stated. "It only made sense that the first water talismans were created and used here.

"During the war, Stable-Tec, with help from the Ministry of Arcane Science, researched the applications for advanced Crystal Imperial superconductor gems, which was the standard in the Empire at the time –"

"The Ministry of … what?"

Steam Sprocket chuckled, folding his forelegs over his chest as he leaned against the railing. "You didn't pay much attention in your Equestrian History class did you, my boy?"

"U-uh, sure I did. It's just been so long." I never thought I'd have to hear about the Ministries after I graduated. I hated history.

"Well the M.A.S did just what their name suggested; they researched and developed new magical spells for use in everyday home appliances and for military applications. They're the ones who invented the expurgation spell, or the purification spells used in conjunction with water talismans."

I nodded slowly. Again. "I knew that."

"Unlike the flawed, reverse engineered zebra talismans that Equestria used in mass-produced talisman designs, water talismans were built for quality over quantity, using Imperial gems that were guaranteed to increase their efficiency and output ten-fold.

"Here, they developed the very talismans used in every single stable in Equestria, field testing them through their hydroponic agriculture research."

My eyes lit up. "If they made them here, you must have enough talismans to last hundreds of years!" I exclaimed.

"Well," he began, tapping his hooves together. I noticed that he wasn't looking at me anymore. "Water talismans were made in labs, not factories. They were constructed by hoof in batches, tested, and shipped, before another batch was given the green light to begin assembling."

Was that a yes? He paused, looking at me severely as my enthusiasm slowly died away.

"The last batch of twenty never left its testing phase when the balefire came. That batch is currently being tested as we speak."

I rubbed my forehead with a hoof, exhaling a breath I just realized I'd been holding in. "Wait, what? They're being tested? Can't you stop the test? You don't need twenty water talismans to feed this plantation, do you?" I asked, nervously. I gulped a lump down my throat. Butterflies. I had butterflies in my stomach again. There was something he wasn't telling me.

Steam Sprocket looked hesitant to continue. "This water purifier was built to test several water talismans simultaneously." I listened to him carefully, craning my neck at him with my ears perked as I tried to understand where he was going with this. "Take one out, and the machine ends its testing phase." He looked at me with a grave expression. "And it was already on when I first came here."

I couldn't take the rising and falling anticipation that convulsed within me with every beat my heart.

"Well what's that supposed to mean?" I whinnied, my voice crackling with desperation. Yes or no, Goddesses, please!

Still, his gaze unable to hold my own, he continued. "Many of the systems were offline and irreparable when we converted this facility into a hydroponics plantation. End the testing phase, and the purifier may not be able to run another test –"

"Hey!" I snapped, suddenly, stomping my hoof. "I'm sorry, Steam Sprocket, but can you fucking help my stable or not?"

The weary old pony bowed his head to his hooves.

"I'm sorry Red Dawn ... if I stop the test, the plantation will fall apart." He chewed his lower lip, and shook his head. "No. I can't help you."

No, no, no … I stared at him with widened saucers, frozen with horror.

"What!?" I blurted out, unable to believe what he had just said. "You … you can't?"

He shook his head, firmly. "No," the old pony said, once more.

No. No? No! I collapsed against the railing, hanging my head over the edge as beads of sweat burned against my forehead. Everything I went through, everything my friends died for was for nothing.

Something shattered inside of me.

"Everypony in my stable is going to die …" I murmured desolately, staring into space with vacant eyes. "Everypony … in my stable … is GOING TO FUCKING DIE!" I screamed suddenly, my face red and contorted in anguish. Steam Sprocket took a step back.

"I'm sorry Red Dawn … I really want to help you –"

"BUT YOU CAN'T! YOU WON'T!" I shrieked, bowing my head as if ready to charge. "Your fucking business is worth more than other ponies' lives!"

"Red Dawn –"

"I SHOULD'VE KNOWN YOU WERE IN IT FOR THE CAPS LIKE EVERYPONY ELSE – "

"BE QUIET!" He roared.

I fell on my bottom, gasping for breath, my eyes widened to watery saucers.

"Six thousand souls, Red Dawn." He said, his voice trembling. "Six thousand – and all this … all this is not enough. Our yields are hardly enough to feed less than a thousand ponies. But it's all we have. We're the only source of large-scale free labor in all of Equestria. We're a clean business. We pay our employees. We sell modestly. The other plantations – they don't! If you haven't noticed, Poneva is a crime-infested tartarus perpetuated by the other plantations! They fund gangs and mercenaries to keep their business running; they enslave ponies to toil in their fields. And in turn, those gangs, those good for nothing merc garbage are allowed to run free throughout Poneva's streets!" The weary old pony knelt in front of me, looking me in the eyes, his muzzle close enough for me to see my downcast reflection in his multicoloured orbs.

"So long as everypony can eat, so long as everypony can get high, ponies will turn a blind eye to the things they do!" Steam Sprocket told me. "Cut our production, and ponies will start buying more and more from East Eden or from Sunny Days – and every cap that goes in their pockets goes to funding crime, extortion, and slavery in the north. If we let them win, the entirety of the north will become their playground." Steam Sprocket placed a hoof on my shoulder; as he spoke, I could see the pain and reluctance in his weary eyes.

I shook my head, exhaling sharply as I refused to believe that he was right. My stable would die so that six thousand would live. Six. Thousand.

My heart screamed that the two hundred ponies back at home meant more to me than anything or anypony else in the world.

"I really want to help you. I know what it's like to lose everything. To leave behind everypony you love ... But what I'm doing is worth more. I'm trying to make this city a better place, you have to understand …"

I didn't say anything as I lowered my head to my legs. I … I just gave up.

"Six thousand souls. Six thousand over three hundred … Red Dawn."

"I wasted my time coming here. Wasted everypony's time." Maybe I'd just find someplace to die out in the wilderness. Maybe I'd just run into a bunch of snow furies and get flayed alive. I didn't care anymore. I got to my hooves and turned to leave.

"Red Dawn, wait."

I kept walking.

"RED DAWN, STOP THIS INSTANT!" He shouted, and I stopped in my tracks. Though I didn't look back. "Let's talk."

"We already did. I've nothing else to say to you." I replied, desolately.

"Well I do." He said firmly, in a voice a parent would use on a problematic child.

"Why do you want to help me?!" I snapped, glaring at him.

Steam Sprocket looked at me hauntingly. "Because I was a stable pony - just like you." He said, hauntingly. "I lived in a stable … just like yours. If I can help other ponies, I'll do everything I can to try. And that's all you need to know."

"There's no point … I'll find another way – I'll search the entire wasteland if I have to!"

The old pony snorted, chuckling darkly. "You'd be wasting your time. Nopony would give up a water talisman as easy as I would."

"As if I haven't wasted my time already!" I shouted, baring my teeth. "It's over, Steam Sprocket, I'll find another way …"

Steam Sprocket held both my shoulders, and shook me. Hard. "It's. Not. Over." The pony said, sternly. "If the others … East Eden and Sunny Days fell, and I somehow absorbed their plantations, and somehow appropriated the arcane machines that keep their crops pure and rad-free we'd have enough food to feed the entire city, all six thousand souls … maybe even the settlements outside … maybe even the entire north."

"Somehow …" I muttered, burying my head in my hooves.

"If that happens … I'll be able to spare you as many water talismans as your stable needs. Enough to last you hundreds of hundreds of years."

My eyes widened incredulously. "I-is that a promise? Ha-ha!" I cackled derisively, a cruel, bitter grin stretching across my lips. "You want to steal from plantations several times bigger than yours? You're either dreaming too big or you're fucking insane, Steam Sprocket!" I screamed at him. A growl escaped my lips as I paced back and forth restlessly, butterflies ripping me apart from the inside out. "I'm running out of time, Steam Sprocket. "They're running out of time," I said, trying to stifle my tone. But it was in vain. "I don't need your hypothetical BULLSHIT! I need solutions – now!" The old pony stared back at me in silence, his jaw clenched.

My eyes fluttered closed and I bowed my head to my hooves. I flinched, lifting my gaze as he put a hoof on my shoulder. "I'm sorry … Steam Sprocket …" I sobbed, seeing the hurt in his eyes. "But how… HOW CAN I SAVE THEM!?" I screamed, suddenly.

I shrugged him off, inhaling sharply. Another sob. Another failure. Defeated. Again. I leaned over the railing, strands of my disheveled mane falling over my eyes. What the fuck was I going to do, now!?

"How … Steam Sprocket," I began, softly, cringing at an intangible agony that burned inside of me. My heart was torn between two worlds, and it was tearing itself apart. I covered my eyes with a hoof, grinding my teeth. "How can I choose them over the ponies I love? My mom … my stable… I can't … I-I just can't! If you can't help me now … then it's already over." Two months, more or less, was all they had. And nothing short of a revolution – no a war - was going to win this city … this wasteland back. I didn't have time to wait for that to happen. Nothing was worth to me as much as my own home. And Goddesses help me if I let this pony sacrifice them all so that … so that a few fucking ponies could eat Goddesses damned apples! "I made a promise that I'd find a talisman. Please … I can't choose … I can't betray the dead! Six thousand ponies … shit!" I cursed, slamming a hoof into the catwalk. "If letting my stable die is right, then I don't know what right is!"

He closed his eyes and I turned mine away. We stood there in silence as the water purifier hummed in our somber reticence.

Steam Sprocket's voice gently parted the curtains between us.

"If you won't do it for the wasteland, do it for your family. Do it for your … parents," he told me, achingly. "Do it for your stable, because there's no other way."

Bullshit. There … there had to be another way. Maybe I could look for one of those dead stables … take theirs. If looters haven't already. Maybe … maybe I could go south, find somepony. Somepony.

I clenched my eyelids shut. No … the odds of somepony … Damnit! I couldn't bring myself to accept that he was right. Goddesses help me if I had to move entire mountains to save them all! If there was even the slightest chance, I'd wrench the earth apart to find one!

But there wasn't.

I groaned, my innards churning. From one ultimatum to the next, the lives of other ponies continued to rest upon my hooves. A rivulet of sweat slaved down my wrinkled forehead. If he was right, if the ends justified the means, then I'd save my stable either way. Damnit all. The old pony was right … there really was no other way.

"How can I trust that you won't just fuck me over … ? How can I trust you won't just fuck my stable over?"

The pony locked his stern gaze with mine. "I can't make you trust me. But I'll be damned if I can't make you trust that you'd be doing the right thing."

The right thing. It was the only thing I could do.

And I'd do anything – anything – to save my stable.

"My hooves are tied," I whispered under my breath. "And I can't go home empty hoofed." I turned to him my pathetic gaze, my eyes watery and bloodshot. "How?" I asked, finally. "How can we stop the plantations?"

"The resistance," he answered. "You won't be alone, Red Dawn. Nopony ever is. The Orphanage, the Fallen Angels – we are all working against them."

"The what? The Orphanage … the Fallen Angels?" That emblem I saw on that orange mare's wagon was making sense now. "How … how can I help? How would I help? I'm just one pony." I hesitated for a moment, covering my mouth with a hoof. "What if they don't even need me?"

Steam Sprocket grinned. "They need all the help they can get. Find them. Join them. I don't know how, or where, but that's what you have to do."

I looked bemused. "How do you not know where to find them? I thought you worked with them?"

He shook his head. "They keep their safehouses a secret to protect themselves from everypony else." Steam Sprocket gestured me to follow him as we made our way back to the elevator.

"I … I would've thought the city would be more supportive of them." From what I've seen unfurl before me since I'd arrived, a resistance seemed almost unfeasible. Poneva was a brutal, uncaring place. It was everypony for herself. But so was the rest of the wasteland.

"They're afraid," He said, earnestly. "Say or do anything that makes the plantations' tick, they'll find you. Make you pay."

The elevator dinged from floor to floor.

"There's too few of us and too many of them. You said they might not need you. No, they need everypony they can get." Steam Sprocket said as we reached the ninety-first floor.

"Then I'll need to find them," I murmured. "How, though? I don't know where to start, - I don't know what they look like, what they're like."

I followed him to his desk where he took a seat at a chair behind it. He gestured for me to take one too. "We have little to no interaction with the Angels – all I know is that they're on our side, too. They're not very open with their membership, however. They're aggressive. Standoffish. Secretive. Mayor Salacity calls them terrorists. Me? They're just another part of the resistance."

That explained that orange ponies vehemence. She probably thought I was a gangster.

"I ran into one today," I began, running a hoof through my mane. "Ran her wagon off the road…"

"You're lucky she didn't kill you," Steam Sprocket murmured.

"She almost did."

The old pony snorted. "You're better off looking for Salacity's Orphanage. We give them portions of our yields to support their relief missions throughout the North. They're good ponies, Red Dawn. The kind that just wants to make this wasteland a better place."

"One problem just leads to the next," I said, quietly, chewing my lower lip. "Where would I start?"

"Ask around the Old Market. There's bound to be somepony who knows, there. Check the inns, bars – places ponies frequent. The wasteland's a very small place."

My hooves came to my face, rubbing the bags beneath my tired eyes. Soon, if the wasteland kept this up for me, I'd be looking too old for my age just like Steam Sprocket.

"Do you really think they can be stopped? This 'resistance' sounds pretty dislocated."

Steam Sprocket folded his legs across his chest.

"I've never once doubted that I wasn't doing the right thing." He replied. "I've dedicated my entire life to this plantation … I'm in too deep to think otherwise now." The old pony looked away for a moment. "The Orphanage and the Angels might not agree on some things – on how to deal with the plantations, but their goals remain the same. That, at least, is worth fighting for."

I nodded, understandably. He might have been naïve, but the look on his weary face burned with fervent ambition. But in a place like this, hope lied within dreamers; I could dream that the clouds would clear and the sun would touch my face, but that would only be a dream.

But dreams are better than reality … more so if somepony could make them become reality. If there was hope for this wasteland, then it lied within ponies like Steam Sprocket.

"Then I'd better start looking, soon." I said, finally, narrowing my eyes out the windows.

"It won't be easy, Red Dawn, not alone." He rested his hooves upon the table in front of me, leaning toward me. "The East Eden Company's led by Winter Blossom. She and I … we were business partners once. Didn't like the way I ran things, so she went ahead and started her own; attracted the Blood Brothers gang and hired her own private mercenary army. She's charming. Vindictive. Rotten to the core."

"She has her own fucking army?" I remarked. "What the hell am I getting myself into?"

"Then there's the Sunny Days Company. Alder Blaze runs the drug business in Poneva with the Silver Horseshoe Society and the Palomino mafia; he likes a good smoke. Likes it a lot. More than other ponies. Get in his way, and he'll smoke you too." He regarded me the way my mom did when I left the stable. "You need to be careful out there."

I regarded him quizzically, cocking my head. "You seem to care a lot about a pony you just met."

"I was just like you when I was younger. Nopony gave a shit about the lone stable dweller," he growled. I was taken aback by his choice of words, something I haven't heard him say until now. "I found out the hard way that the closest thing to being cared for is to care for somepony else. Oh … the things I had to do to get where I am now." He said, his voice tinged with a history of sin and regret. "Indeed. You made it this far. The least I could do was lend a pony that went through everything that you did to get here, a hoof. Otherwise, your journey would have been for nothing. And I know what it's like to be in vain."

"I … thank you. When those turrets opened up on me, I thought I was doomed. Thought my stable was doomed. You saved my life."

Steam Sprocket smiled faintly.

"Us stable ponies have to stick together. We're a dying breed out here in the wasteland. Not too many stables have been opening their doors … those that do … those that do haven't always been coming out alive."

"How'd you know? About Stable 91, I mean?"
The unicorn paused for a moment, before replying. His left ear twitched as he spoke. "My terminal's connected to Stable-Tec's monitoring network. This facility was used to keep track of progress on the North's stable construction projects. I know everything from project specs, equipment, population, which ones are currently online … which ones aren't, and et cetera, et cetera."

"Fair enough" I said, locking gazes. A few moments passed by in silence until I broke from his unwavering stare and said, "Time isn't on my side, Steam Sprocket. I need to go. Now." I stated, finally, standing up from my chair. "I don't have time to just sit around."

"Indeed." He nodded. "Before you go, I'll radio Dapple Gray to pack some supplies in your bags. Fresh food – fruits, maybe a few potions." I opened my mouth to protest, but he cut me off. "You'll need it." The pony trotted to the door, holding his pipbuck to his muzzle. "Wait a minute while I radio for an escort."

Several minutes later, Dapple Gray and the same security ponies that had escorted me here earlier were outside the door, and Steam Sprocket was conversing with her outside. She didn't sound too happy. Something about packing lunches for stupid foals. I rolled my eyes – but in the process, they caught sight of the terminal at his desk.

I hesitated. Steam Sprocket seemed to know much about the stables in the region. He seemed to know much about 91. I clenched my jaw; a part of me didn't want to do it, but the other wanted to know more about this peculiar pony. No … how did he know I was from 91?

My hooves found themselves upon the terminal's keyboard. He'd left it on. I scrolled through its contents, glancing over the monitor every now and then as I tapped away.

I craned my neck, keeping one eye on the door and another on the screen.

REGIONAL ARCHIVES

There we go.

REGIONAL ARCHIVES

Stable 91.

Stable 98.

Stable 103.

Stable 105.

Stable #$%$

S$ !& #^&&

*$ ^ & #$%

I pursed my lips as I entered the very first entry, noting the gibberish at the bottom of the screen.

Stable 91.

Tap. Snippits of information, and some more gibberish appeared before my eyes.

Stable 91

Starting Construction Date...

#$%#$# #$

E%$#$% Const%&$##%$ %ate..

##*&% #%#

Total N#$#ber Of Occu&ants...

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St&tus …

I scrolled down to the bottom and entered the final entry. I needed to know how he knew.

St&tus …

Tap. The screen flashed and I glowered at it, swearing under my breath.

****ERROR****

File Corruption Detected.

Please Re-install Operating System Software.

I stared at the monitor, perplexed. I returned to my seat and reclined in the chair, pondering curiously the tawny pony whose head was still outside the door.

He lied.

Footnote: Level 4

Chapter 8

The Out-and-Out

"I found out the hard way that the closest thing to being cared for was to care for somepony else."

"You couldn't save me."

She glared through me, my muddled reflection glistening in her dilated grays. Her words bled me out more than the bullet holes across my chest. I lay at her hooves, leaking frozen crimson across the snow, the wind howling through my ears as a blizzard threatened to consume us both.

"YOU COULDN'T SAVE ME!" She shrieked over the wailing snowstorm.

I held out a hoof to her but she batted it away. "I'm sorry … DD … I …"

"Failed. You sorry little fuck up … you failed us all. You ran … I saw you run. You let us all die."

"Dew Drops …"

"YOU LET US ALL DIE!"

The blood drained from my face. "DD … wh-why? Why're you saying those things … I tried, please …"

The blue mare craned her neck to the bloodied, shivering form at her hooves.

"Just like how you tried helping those slaves. Or how you just stood there and let those zebras die."

I froze, my heart skipping a beat as her words began to sink in, driving into my soul like a frigid blade forcing its way slowly through my chest. I could do nothing as the agonized screams of zebras, ponies – my friends – coalesced into Dew Drops' gravelly voice.

"Well, you didn't try hard enough." She stared into the dazed, shell shocked windows to my bleeding soul. "Is that how much you care? Is that how much you care about me? To just leave me there, and let those furies take me?" Her voice bit deep like a bed of needles pressing against my flesh.

I shook my head as if my life depended on it. "N-no – please, it's not like that … I … I … I didn't …"

My words cut out with a shallow gasp as I felt her cold breath against my neck. I could smell the stench of spilled innards and rotting death about her.

The dead mare whispered into my ear, "You're a coward. A worthless coward."

"I'm sorry … Dew Drops … I'm so sorry," I sobbed. "If I could do it again … if I could just turn the hands of time I'd … I'd …"

"Fail. Again." She reared on her hinds and dropped her hooves onto my face. I cried out weakly, as they slammed into my muzzle – "Again! AGAIN! AND AGAIN!" Rivulets of fresh scarlet poured out of my nose and from a gash on my forehead, freezing against my shivering flesh and staining my coat black.

Rising to my hooves, I uttered a raspy breath before collapsing pathetically into the bloodied snow beneath me. My half-closed eyes pleaded with the corpse that hung over me. "Dew Drops … why … why are you doing this to me … ? This isn't like you … stop … please … I … I love you …"

She levitated an icy, warped machete, suspending the blade over my shivering form.

No - my eyes widened to weeping saucers, grievous tears freezing along my cheeks as I sobbed, begging her – pleading with her. I lifted a trembling hoof in supplication, sobs escaping my lips in shallow, dying gasps.

She lifted the blade higher.

"Dew Drops – please – don't do this … I-I lov-"

"No. You failed. You couldn't even save the ponies you cared about. You couldn't save me." She held the dull weapon over her head, gazing down at me with her chilling grays. "You can't save anypony. Not even our stable." The grin she wore on her ghastly, corpulent face squeezed the air from my lungs.

Even smiling, her dead eyes showed not even the slightest hint of amusement. Where once there were eyes that regarded me with affection, were now dark, souless sockets that ran with rivulets of black blood. "Heh …" She chuckled. "You can't even save yourself."

And she ran the blade across my shoulders.

"NO!" I flung my hooves in front of me, gasping for my breath, sweat freezing against my forehead. As my mind convulsed in hysteria, I slowly realized that I was still curled up beneath the corrugated shelter that stretched over me.

Three stories above the city below, I watched the snowflakes seethe past me from the crack between the warped wooden boards in front of the shelter's crawl-in entrance.

Still shaking, I gathered my bags to me and hugged them close, nuzzling Dew Drops' scarf.

Tears welled up in my half-closed eyes as I tried to still my trembling body.

Minutes passed, my drawn out exhales barely visible in the lightlessness of my shelter. Every setback was a fuck up in my book. Every pony … every zebra I've been helpless to save so far was a fuck up. I didn't want Candy Cane to be another bullet on the list.

---

My muzzle, a barely perceptible outline behind a veil of darkness, tipped slightly as I saw a pony leave the brothel. A stallion.

If he touched Candy Cane in any sort of way I swore to the Goddesses that I'd remember him and that I'd find him. Not too far from the Sultry Scullion I lied in wait. For nearly four hours I had been here, crunching on an apple or two as I watched ponies leave and enter the brothel.

I hid amongst the remains of a collapsed building, wedged deep between its rubble like just another chunk of debris. I shifted a little bit, stretching my hind legs slightly.

Another hour passed by, and the stream of ponies dwindled until nopony entered or left at all. Only a changing of the guard. For the past five hours, the bowler caps changed every hour, by the hour. I switched on my pipbuck's light, smothering the glow with my left hoof.

Glancing at the screen, the clock told me it was 0100. My eyes darted to the entrance. A thin stallion shooed away Big Dumb and Stupid as he leaned against the front doors, lighting a cigarette. I watched as the large stallion walked back inside.

There were six guards. For the past several hours, I had seen only six different ponies guard that door. This was a good sign.

I wanted to remain here for another hour and see who they'd swap out this time, but Goddesses, my legs were aching. It was as if they were about to atrophy into useless vestigial limbs. But my own pain was the least of my worries.

Candy Cane. Not a minute had passed where she hadn't crossed my mind. I didn't want to imagine the things they were doing to her in there … or the things that she been forced to do within the confines of that filthy place. My jaw clenched as I let my chin rest against the frozen concrete beneath me.

I exhaled softly. Some intangible thing about her bothered me. And the more I thought about it, the more horrifyingly absorbed in it I became. Steel gray. Her eyes were the color of frozen steel. It sent shivers down my spine as I remembered vividly the last I saw I saw those eyes. They weren't the first pair of teary grays that had widened at me in desperation.

When I first met her gaze ... I thought I saw a ghost staring back at me.

I rubbed my face with a hooffull of chilling powder, jolting me from my state of reflection. A subtle stream of mist exhaled out my nostrils. I had enough of sitting around.

My muzzle broke the stagnant pool of darkness that had settled over me. I stuck to the shadows, gliding my side across the cold pockmarked wall as I ran against the edge of a fallen office building. I stalked the perimeter of the brothel, out of sight and as quiet as a radroach.

I couldn't sneak through the front door without getting discovered. Right now, I was biding my time in hopes I'd find another way inside. The flesh on my face prickled as I bounded past a burning trashcan, my shadow dancing against the walls around me in the firelight.

I neared a small, empty lot behind the brothel, fenced off and lit with burning trashcans. As I approached, I glanced at my pipbuck, keeping track of the blips that blinked on my EFS. Seven more inside. Several dozen more outside, somewhere in another building or milling about in the snow. But for now, I was alone as I approached the empty lot.

My EFS blinked as something began trotting my way.

I stopped in my tracks and ducked behind an overturned dumpster as a stallion, one of Grifter's henchponies, trotted by. Curled against his body with one of his hooves was a bag of garbage. He walked past my huddled form, yawning as he stood on his hinds and attempted to dump it into an open dumpster a few feet away from me.

The bag slipped from his hooves and fell to the snow, scattering an assortment of garbage across the powder.

"Blech …" he sneered , hoofing a used condom off his chest as he gathered the trash and used toys into his hooves and tossed them into the dumpster.

The stallion picked up one half of a purple … dildo … rolling it around in his hooves.

"How the fuck do you break one of these things?" He muttered, tossing the shattered toy into the trash. Rolling my eyes, I thought about my chances – maybe I could sneak past him while his back was turned. He stood a few feet away from me, gawking at the plethora of erotic treasures. I eyed the machine pistol slung around his neck.

No, I didn't want to risk getting caught. I thought for a moment. Well, I could just kill him. I blinked. What the hell was that, and why did my brain just suggest that as if it was an okay thing to do? I bit my lower lip as he began to whistle a tune that was lost beneath my pounding temples.

I pressed my back harder against the wall. Closing my eyes, I waited for his hoofsteps to disappear. The sound of a gate closing and a door slamming followed seconds afterwards.

Breaking from my cover, I followed his tracks, my shadow cast against the metal panels that formed a fence outside the brothel's backdoor. I came to the gate and found that there wasn't a knob, a latch, or anything to open it with. Frowning, I pressed my forehooves against it and pushed.

Rattling, the door didn't budge one bit.

"Son of a …" I glanced over my shoulder, squinting through the glares of the burning trashcans; the coast was still clear.

The gate must've been locked from the other side. There had to be another way. Searching the fence's perimeter, I found everything short of a way inside. I tried climbing over the fence, but barbed wire and broken glass blocked my path.

Back again at square one, I tried heaving the gate open again.

"Come on…" I murmured, trying to force it open with my hind legs. Sucking in a breath of air, I heaved. And again. And again. The thing simply wouldn't yield.

Out of breath and frustrated, I slid to my rump and leaned against the door. I checked my pipbuck, bringing my right leg to my face. Another hoof came to toggle the device's brightness, but something else reflected against its glossy screen. Flashing in my eyes, I turned to my left and found that a shaft of light was glimmering through a small crack in the corrugated panels that rose up around me.

I rose to my hooves and squinted at the crack in the wall, about two inches in length and an inch in breadth. My right pupil dilated as I brought an eye to the hole, the darkness beneath my right brow giving way to light. Peering through a layer of rusty chicken wire, I saw, on the other side, the brothel's backdoor, lit by a flickering gas lamp that reflected brightly in the mirrors of my eyes.

I shifted my gaze and saw to my left the latch that opened the gate from the inside. Maybe I could … no, even if I snipped open the chicken wire, I didn't have six foot long legs to reach into it with to pull the latch open. Besides, I was a thin pony, but I wasn't pencil thin.

If only I had my magic, I could grip the latch and open it from the other side. I snapped my eyes to my bags. I lowered myself to the snow and opened my satchel bags. Beneath a hooffull of apples and a few health potions, I found a peculiar bottle of sparkling purple liquid resting at the bottom of my bags.

Sparkling … sparkling … sparkling …

I lifted the vial of Sparkle to my muzzle, narrowing my eyes at the drug as I sloshed it around inside its bottle. If it wasn't for the faint violet glow I might've mistook it for a sample of some lab-borne energy drink from back home, or a bottle of grape juice if I've ever seen one.

It certainly looked … tasty. I peered into the hole above me and watched as the slender stallion poked his head out the door. Diving back into the darkness, he shut me out from the light as the gas lamp went dark. Holding the bottle of sparkle close to my chest, I gulped.

I had no idea what terrible side effects this drug carried with it. But I knew one thing: I needed to get through that damn gate. If I had to spontaneously mutate and grow a fifth leg, then that's what it took.

With an audible pop, I pulled off its cork and emptied its contents into my mouth, swallowing it hesitantly. I sat down and waited, a fruity aftertaste lingering upon my tongue. Seconds passed, and I crossed my eyes up at my horn – rendered nothing but a vestigial growth several days ago. I waited for a shimmer, an arc of electricity – something.

Nothing.

"What the hell!?" I hissed, running my hooves through my mane.

I shook my head vigorously, and looked up dizzily at my horn. Nope.

Growling in frustration, I stamped a hoof in the snow.

Lightning arced through my veins. Something erupted inside of me like a spark battery going haywire. A jolt of electricity surged through me, shocking me from the inside out, every nerve ending in my body engulfed – drowned beneath a sea of burning lava.

I shut my eyes, my body felt like my innards were being squished and condensed into a ball. I hissed through clenched teeth, the lines of my painful grimace glowing in the firelight as I fought an inferno inside of me. My hooves dug trenches into the snow as I dry-heaved into the pale, writhing where I laid.

Then my vision flashed white.

My eyelids flew open and a chunk of snow tore itself out of the drifts, enwreathed within my magical grip. I blinked, and the snowball flung itself away from me and into the darkness. Far away, I heard glass breaking and somepony scream.

"Well … fff …" I trailed off, a wide grin stretching across my face.

I rose to my hooves and peered through the chicken-wired crack in the wall, squinting my eyes into the darkness. I could see the latch. For unicorns, that's all it took.

Sparks of magic arced across my horn as it gave off a crimson glow. Clack.

The gate swung open. Back in the game, I thought, as I drew my pistol without raising a single hoof. With my weapon hovering close to me, I shut the gate and trotted to the backdoor, testing the door knob.

Without further difficulties, the door yielded to my magical grip and parted. Closing it behind me, I slunk inside and into a narrow, dirty corridor. I wrinkled my nose at the scent of cigarette smoke, sweat, and a long, rough night.

The brothel was dimly lit. A hooffull of flickering light bulbs overhead vomited ruddy beams of yellow light onto my chilled flesh. Creeping through the hall, I noticed that the walls were plastered with posters of scantily-clad mares in very compromising positions.

One poster showed a mare inserting a … Goddesses … I didn't know ponies could put things in that hole. The poster said, in huge, bold print, 'PLOT DEVICE; at the bottom, it screamed, 'WATCH FOR THE PLOT!'

I pursed my lips and tried not to look as I began to sense a warm sensation between my legs. This place was filthy, abominable, and terrifyingly uncomfortable. Pornographic material was unheard of at '91.

I followed the corridor further into the brothel and found myself behind a stage, curtains and all. Long metal poles stretched up and into the ceiling. Strobe lights lined the floor and above stage, hanging from the rafters.

I poked my head through the curtains and out into the room beyond, spotting a few dozen tables, benches, and a bar stocked with bottles of colorful drinks at the other end of the room. In the flickering rainbow glow of neon lights, the two ponies that I had never seen before were lounging at the bar, pouring each other drinks and slurring drunkenly.

I counted four ponies so far. The stupid one, the slender one, a stallion, and the two drunk ones. That left the mare uncounted for.

The sound of a scuffle and boisterous giggling caught my attention as I turned in the direction of its origin. I flipped my pistol's safety off.

Down the hall to my left were the private rooms where countless lecherous deeds beyond my virgin imagination may have been committed. Or being committed, rather. I crept down the hall, my coat a jet black in the ruddy light as I hugged the wall as close as I could. Of the twelve rooms, one had its door parted slightly – wide enough for me to see what was happening inside.

The Palomino mare moaned with carnal pleasure, her back arced and her crimson cheeks raised delightfully to the ceiling as the stallion I had seen outside ploughed into her from behind.

The disgusting, squelching smacks of slick, bare flesh on slick, bare flesh made me cringe. "Oh fuck! Ngh – AH! YES – OH FUCK – OHSHITFUCKGODDESSES – YES!" she screamed, her voice wavering with every stroke.

I shut my eyes, throwing my gaze away as suddenly as I had peered inside. I felt dirty, and filthy, and unclean. Now with my cheeks reddening, I cursed my male biology as the mare's lusty squeals echoed through my ears.

I've never known anything like this. I've known love, but never a 'good fuck'.

I needed to leave this Goddesses-forsaken place.

Shaking my head vigorously, and spiting the Palominos under my breath, I left the hall of private rooms. I avoided the light, stalking the darkness at every twist and turn as I tried to tune out the animalistic yelping that echoed behind me.

I came upon room after room, each empty. More private fuck havens, I assumed, as I checked door after door. But at the end of this hall, I found a door that led into a different section of the brothel.

More rooms. I trotted up to each, reading the names that had been stenciled upon each door. Stellar. Buns. Glimmer. Iris.

I pressed an ear up to one, and I heard somepony snoring softly on the other side. This must've been the dormitories where the slaves slept. It surprised me somewhat; in this part of the brothel, it was slightly warmer than outside in the halls or out on the stage.

They had a roof over their heads, and a bed to sleep on, and a warm place to escape the blizzard. I remembered what that one mangy pony had said when I was being hauled to Poneva in chains, not too long ago.

They're going to put us to work and work us to death.

That ain't true. I heard they feed you and put a roof over your head …

I considered for a moment that maybe he was right. Maybe a life in here, sheltered from the unforgiving elements and the destitute slums, was truly a life better than a life outside.

No. I was adamant that no pleasure, no comfort, not even safety was worth the sacrifice of one's freedom. Especially if you were one of the dozen mares who worked in this abominable place. Their life was one taken advantage of by the hedonistic and the lustful.

They had a bed to sleep on, and a warm place to escape the blizzard, and armed ponies guarding them from the outside. But at what cost? Their dignity. Their bodies. Their freedom.

My blood began to boil as I listened to Iris's breaths. I wanted to see this place burn – Its unclean, filthy walls burned to the ground, incinerated, and purged from the face of the planet.

No longer wary of my hoofsteps, I trotted from one end of the hall to the next, searching for Candy Cane's name. Then I found her. Or her room, at least. Eyeing the name, 'Cane', stenciled upon the door, I pressed my ear against it and listened, carefully.

Nothing. She wasn't inside. Where else in the world could she be?

Lying in a ditch with a hole in her head. Or without a head at all, her collar detonated.

No. No, they wouldn't do that. I hoped they didn't do that … I hoped to the Goddesses that I wasn't too late. I gulped down the dreadful taste of another disappointing failure lingering upon my tongue. With sweat beginning to bead on my forehead, I thought for a moment, switching my pistol's safety on and off as the seconds ticked by.

I decided I'd continue exploring the brothel, navigating its halls as I left the dormitories behind me. Pushing the door closed, I broke the veil of chained comfort, the unforgettable wasteland chill returning to caress my flesh. It was colder here.

Trotting down the dim corridor, I saw that there were two doors, one to my right, and another at the other end of the hall. The slit beneath the door to my right glowed with a dim light. A shadow passed over it for a second as somepony milled about inside.

I ducked into the shadows instinctively, holding my breath. But nopony came trotting outside. Exhaling thankfully, I hugged the wall, peering around the corner once more. It was me, my gun, and the darkness.

As always.

I slunk to the right and leaned against the door's frame, listening to whomever was moving around inside.

"- 435, 436, 437." There was a short pause. "Uhh... uhh... Fuck! Lost count," I heard a stallion mumble. I heard Grifter mumble. My expression went from bothered, to infuriated, as I played with my pistol's safety.

Off. On. Off. On. Off. On … I sighed. Off.

Not yet. I glanced over my shoulder and trotted to the door at the end of the hall. Pressing my ear against the door, I listened. Nothing. I wrapped a magical field around the door's knob, and turned it slowly. It clicked, and I pulled it open.

The chamber was pitch-black; I couldn't see an inch in front of me, and the freezing touch of the northern air was rampant in this glacial place. I might as well have been standing outside, because I was shivering even beneath my security barding and my peacoat.

Glancing around, I saw to my right, a barred, yet open window that welcomed in the wintry squalls like esteemed guests, who blew into the room without hindrance. In the darkness, I could faintly make out what looked to be metal bars.

Then I heard somepony sniffle.

My pipbuck's flashlight beamed a shaft of light before me, and a maroon mare held a hoof to her face to shield herself from the glare.

"Candy Cane?" I breathed, trotting up to the bars between us.

She squinted through the light. "Red … Dawn?" The mare's eyes widened and her mouth opened to speak, but her words were lost upon her lips. She ran a hoof through her curly mane, blinking her eyes vigorously as if I were some kind of hallucination conjured up by her helpless, desperate state.

"I … you … you came back," she whispered, barely loud enough for me to hear. "You came back for me … I thought you …"

"Left you behind? No. I promised you I'd bust you out – for good," I told the shivering mare. "What are you doing in this room?"

She smiled weakly. "I was thinking about asking you the same thing," Candy Cane said, through chattering teeth.

I panned my foreleg across the room, and saw only cold, bare tile and steel bars. Glaring at the frozen concrete that surrounded us, I concluded, balefully, that this was her punishment for escaping: to sit in a frozen, bare chamber, exposed to the elements with nothing but the clothes on her back.

"I'm getting you out of here, Candy Cane," I vowed, suddenly, trotting up to her lonely cell.

A moment passed as she sat there freezing to death, her pale, miserable flesh shivering beneath her frost encrusted coat as if she was going to bore a hole into the floor. I really wanted to hug her.

I stared at my hooves, and whispered, somberly, "I'm sorry I couldn't do it earlier … if I had enough bullets … I would've -"

"It's fine. You're here now, that's all that matters. I wouldn't want anypony throwing their life away for me." Candy Cane wrapped her hooves around the cold steel bars between us. "It … it means a lot to me," she said, looking me in the eye as she smiled faintly. The mare pursed her lips, crinkling her brows. "How, exactly are you going to get me out of here?"

I thought for a moment, frowning.

"I didn't think I'd actually get this far …" I confessed, scratching my mane.

Candy Cane's expression turned sour. She tapped her chin, before her eyes darted to mine as she pointed at my bags. "Do you have a screwdriver? Any manepins? Anything thin or pointy I can use?"

I stared at her for a moment, confused as to why she'd ask me that. What could she possibly need a screwdriver for - then it occurred to me. I remembered her picking locks at the factory earlier. My eyes darted to scrutinize the lock on the cell's door.

She wanted to pick it.

Nodding quickly, I levitated out everything I had carried with me since I left '91. The first thing I yanked out was a screwdriver. I'm an engineer, of course I have a screwdriver … as for the other thing ... I rifled through my tools. Screws, bolts, lug-nuts, wires, a soldering iron, several types wrenches and screwdrivers, pliers -

My hooves came away, empty. I fixed an agitated glare at the lock as I sat there with a screwdriver floating before me.

I got nothing.

She caught the consternation in my eyes and bit her lower lip, thinking. Candy Cane's head swung in every direction, searchingly. Then something caught her eye. Lifting a hoof, she jutted at a cabinet at the furthest corner of the chamber. "There ... pry a nail out of it, I have an idea."

Cocking an eyebrow, I did as she asked, hurrying upon my hooves. Studying the poorly built cabinet - an amalgamation of charred wood and scavenged materials - I sighted a rusty nail head and stabbed at it with my screwdriver.

I struggled for a moment, trying to get the tool's head beneath the nail's. Prying for purchase, I forced the nail out of the wood a little less than half an inch. This thing was buried deep. My levitation magic wasn't strong enough to tear it off outright.

I eyed it hesitantly; this was a tetanus shot waiting to happen. I leaned forward and clenched the rusty finishing nail with my teeth. Wrenching my head back, I ripped it out of the cabinet with a plume of splinters and shattered wood.

Spitting out the rusted sliver of metal, I hurried back to Candy Cane's cell and levitated to her both the screwdriver and the nail. And I watched the mare get to work.

Her eyes lit up with renewed hope as Candy Cane bent the nail's tip into a rough, L shape, like some kind of dentist's tool. The mare was certainly in her element.

She poked her muzzle between the bars and floated out the makeshift torque wrench, working it into the lock as she turned it carefully with the screwdriver curled in her hoof.

Clank.

I watched her with amazement as the bars swung open, a thin smirk stretching across her pale lips. Impressive.

Suppressing a triumphant chuckle, she floated to me my screwdriver, tucking the nail inside her mane. She stared at me for a moment, her eyes tearing. "I-I really didn't think you'd come back for me."

I said nothing as I drew my pistol, checking the rounds in its magazine. I turned my gaze and saw her still gazing expectantly at me, sniffling as she shivered on her hooves. Her smile faded away as she rubbed at her bloodshot eyes.

"Now … now what?" Candy Cane asked faintly.

I shrugged off my peacoat and wrapped it around her. Her eyes widened, surprised as I buttoned it across her chest.

"Thank you ..."

"Don't thank me yet." I started towards the door, "We still need to deal with Grifter."

I noticed that she hadn't moved an inch as I approached the door.

"What are you doing?"

"Why … why me?" I heard her ask.

I fixed my gaze upon the doorknob.

"I can't save them all."

She cocked her head at me. "You didn't answer my question."

"We can't waste any time standing around …" I began, pressing my ear against the door to listen for movement outside. Nothing. I sighed, as she remained outside her cell.

There was an uneasy silence between us. I wanted to answer her, but I honestly didn't know why I was here. Why I was risking my life to save this pony.

Maybe it was because I wanted to spite Grifter for what he did. Maybe it was because I wanted to spell out a big 'fuck you' to the Palominos. Maybe it was because it was the right thing to do.

When I came here, I would've traded the entire wasteland for the lives of my friends, the ponies I truly cared about and loved. I still would. But the world doesn't work like that.

Steam Sprocket's voice echoed in my thoughts. The closest thing to being cared for was to care for somepony else.

But why? Why did I care? Why did I care if this pony was free or not? I grinded my teeth, frustrated with myself and at her for standing there.

"I don't know," I replied, finally. "I don't know."

"I'm not the only mare here …" she trailed off.

I sighed restlessly, twirling my pistol in the air.

"Candy Cane, believe me, I'm aware."

"There are others who've suffered here longer than I." Candy Cane sniffled, hanging her head. "I don't deserve this."

I glared at her, irritated.

"You don't have a choice … I don't. Save yourself or nopony at all," I hissed over my shoulder before glancing at my EFS.

The mare nodded, her curly mane falling over one of her eyes. "I wish I could take the others with me," she whispered, somberly.

Visions of Dew Drops cutting me down with a machete flashed before my eyes. I shook them away, vigorously, growling, "What's the point in thinking about saving them if you can't even save yourself?"

Candy Cane bowed her head, injured by my words.

I sighed, softly, turning back.

"They're your friends, aren't they?"

"The only friends I know," She whispered.

"Well you can't save them if you're still in chains." She shook her head, silently, not wanting to accept what I was telling her.

"Candy Cane?"

Silence.

"Candy Cane …" I curled a hoof around her shoulder, squeezing her gently. "Listen, when you and four others are in separate cages, and only you have the tools to pick their locks, who do you free first?"

"The pony next to me," she replied, instantly.

I snorted, chuckling wryly.

"You'll reach through your bars and into theirs and pick their lock?"

The mare shut her eyes and bit her lower lip, shaking her head. Candy Cane thought for a moment, her brows furrowing.

"Fucking damnit … I'd … I'd free my ... myself," she murmured. "I would need to pick my own lock before I could get to the others."

I beamed. "Exactly."

The mare stared at her hooves, murmuring to herself in denial.

"Hey … listen," I began. I was giving her another chance at life – like Night Sky did to me. And there was no way in hell that I'd let her waste it … not even for the others. "We're running out of time, here. Why don't you think about freeing them too when you have the power to actually do that?"

Candy Cane sighed.

"You're right." She lifted her head, parting her mane with a hoof. A spark of determination ignited behind her eyes. "I will," she said, with renewed vigor.

I started towards the door once more. "We need that detonator, or else all of this is just a waste of time."

She followed closely without saying another word as we left the chamber. Checking my EFS, I found that nopony had left their rooms. I checked and rechecked my pistol as we stacked on either side of Grifter's door.

"What's the plan?" she whispered.

"I'll pull my gun on him; make him give me the detonator."

Candy Cane nodded, uneasily. "What happens after that?"

"Then we run," I replied as terse as possible.

She smirked as if I had just made a dumb joke.

"They'll be on us as soon as the first shot's fired."

I rolled my eyes. "Then we run faster?" She looked at me, her eyebrow raised. "Well, you got a better plan?"

Candy Cane nodded, "This building wasn't a brothel before the war," she began. "It was a motel. There's a patio right outside Grifter's office. It's our safest bet."

"Alright, let's do this."

I turned the doorknob. It swung open with a drawling creak.

Grifter was sitting at a desk, counting caps as we stepped inside.

He looked up, frowning.

The stallion saw me first. "What the fuck are you doing here!?" he exclaimed, startled. Then his eyes darted to Candy Cane, and he narrowed them at me. "What're you doing with her?"

I nodded at Candy Cane as she closed the door behind us and locked it. She levitated the door's security bar into place with a clank.

"Give me the detonator, and we'll go quietly," I demanded, my horn glowing with a crimson sheen as I held the gun on him.

"The detonator …" he trailed off, tapping his hooves together as he stared off into space.

I snapped. "Don't play dumb, Grifter, you conniving son of a bitch. I know you have one for her collar."

He sniggered, "Why? Whaddya want with the girl?"

"It doesn't matter to you."

"You're with East Eden aren't you?" He asked, to which I didn't answer. "Hmm … you're not a Blood Brother. Too competent. But you are stupid." Grifter sighed, straightening his back as he sat on his stool. "You must be a Novaran, then, right? You gotta mix of stupid and competent," he added, shimmying his forehooves.

"I'm the pony with the fucking gun," I said, baring my teeth at the bastard.

"Heh, you really are a big balled palooka." He leaned over his desk, staring down the barrel of my pistol. "Do you know who you're fuckin' with?"

"Frankly, I don't give a shit."

"You fuck with me, then you fuck with the Palominos. You fuck with the Palominos, then you fuck with Avilign Crème. You fuck with Avilign Crème …" he chuckled to himself, nodding. "She'll fuck you bad, ya dig?"

I glanced at Candy Cane who was behind me, standing by the door.

"Unlike everypony else in this shithole of a city, I'm not afraid of you." I bared my teeth, my voice steady as I stared gunfire into his eyes. "And I'm not afraid of the Palominos."

Candy Cane was gawking at me with wide eyes.

Grifter laughed as if that was the most hilarious thing ever, banging his hooves on his desk. "You'renot afraid of the Palominos? Even I'm afraid of them – and I'm one of them!" He grinned at me menacingly. "You know you're gonna die, right? You're spellin' out your own death sentence, ya dig?"

"I'll fucking blow your brains out …" I said, my voice trembling. I didn't want to do it.

His eyes could see right through my guise.

"Hmm, this is about earlier, ain't it?" He nodded at Candy Cane. "That bitch wouldn't stop screaming about you after we brought her back. Had to lock her up to quiet her down."

I grinded my teeth together. "You lied to me."

He shrugged. "I never lied – she did mug Daintybelle, ya know? I only told you what you neededto know."

"Give me the fucking detonator!" I screamed.

The stallion folded his legs across his chest, cocking his head at Candy Cane. "No, no, no. How about you tell me what the fuck you want with that whore?"

"I'm breaking that pony out of this fuckhouse."

He tapped his chin, thinking. "If you ain't a Blood Brother, a Novaran, or with the EEC …" he clapped his hooves together. "That's it! You probably got a taste of that fine broad! You wanna break her outta here so you can have her for yourself – ain't that right?"

My magical grip tightened, but I said nothing.

"Nah, you don't want her." Grifter barely suppressed another chuckle, resting his chin on a hoof. "You know they call her 'Candy Cunt'?" I glared at him, my horn's glowing red hue darkening. "You wanna know why?"

"Cus' her cunt's like a candy store – all the boys and girls want t'go inside."

Candy Cane's jaw clenched, shaking all over.

"You know how many stallions – no, mares she's slept with? You really want to help a filthy bitch like that?" He cocked his head at me, grinning. "You lay one hoof on that, and your leg'll practically melt off."

His voice slowly faded away, my temples roaring inside my eardrums as I scratched at my mane. Black paint muddled my thoughts as every sound in the room became nothing but muffled bass drops.

Somepony flipped a switch inside of me.

I lunged at him, dragging him over his desk before cracking my pistol across his skull. "Enough with the bullshit, Grifter, I'm done hearing you talk!" He yelped as I shoved him back into his chair, only for him to tip it over and crash into the hard, concrete floor.

He pulled himself to his hooves, leaning against the desk.

"Alright, alright, I'll hoof it to ya – hold your fuckin' horses! You coulda just asked nicely …"

Grifter reached into his desk, rubbing his head as he opened a drawer and held the small black tube in his hoof.

"Now hand it the fuck over," I snarled, jamming the pistol in his face.

He blinked. Then his horn glowed.

"What the fuck are you –"

Something heavy crashed into the back of my skull. Stars exploded in my eyes as shattered porcelain fell away from my mane. I fell forward, my eyes rolling to the back of my head, slamming my head onto his desk before collapsing to the floor in a heap.

"RED DAWN!" Candy Cane screamed.

Grifter flipped the switch.

Lightning arced across her body as she screamed in agony, thousands of volts of electricity shocking her into submission. The smell of singed flesh and burned hair pulled me back from my daze as I stood to my hooves, floating my gun to me.

But he was on in me in a matter of seconds.

A hoof connected with my horn as Grifter slammed my head back into the floor with a brutal thwak and darkness threatened to take me. My pistol clattered to the floor, a foot away from my writhing body.

He spat curses into deaf, ringing ears as he crashed his hooves onto my face, every strike sapping the clarity from my eyes. I saw through a lens of hellish crimson as blood streamed down my face and over my right eye. Blinded with violence, I threw out my legs in desperation - my right forehoof connecting with his throat. Grifter's eyes widened as he paused to let out a hacking cough.

Without a second to lose, I roared, threw myself over onto my chest and bucked him off me, launching him through a bookcase in an explosion of wooden shrapnel and tumbling books. Scrambling to my hooves, I collapsed once more in my daze, reaching out with a hoof to snatch my pistol off the floor. My horn glowed wearily, but Grifter swatted it away.

Somepony banged on the door.

"Hey boss, what the fuck's going on in there!?" I heard a mare shout over Candy Cane's shrieking.

Grifter stumbled to the door as I rolled around on the floor in pain, groaning.

"Some sorry mother fucker –"

"You son of a bitch – I'll KILL YOU!" I shrieked, and charged. His eyes widened as my horn punched through his flesh, my momentum ramming him into the wall by the door with a sickening crunch. Ripping out in a splash of gore, I hurtled into him before he could cry out in pain, tackling him to the floor in a shrieking frenzy.

His magical field flickered and died away, and the detonator rolled across the concrete.

Snarling, I swirled a magical field around the closest object I could find, and proceeded to pummel his face in with a dusty book. I found that I couldn't stop even as he held out his hooves and screamed for help - his voice drowned out by the ringing in my ears.

"We're coming in there, boss!" A stallion screamed behind the door as it began to rattle and buck.

"I'm not afraid of you – or your Palominos, you phony sack of shit!" I growled as blood streamed down my face.

I wanted to kill him. I wanted to make him pay. He was a slaver - a bad pony, and he needed to die.

Grinning through bloody teeth, I lifted the battered book for a final, skull-cracking slam, its pages soaked and coming apart. I didn't even give a single shit as the door's frame began to crack open.

Until I felt his knee find its way between my legs. I yelped, crying out Celestia's name as he lunged forward, running into me head on. He slammed me into a wall, an assortment of ornaments and debris spilling from his dusty surface to shatter against my skull.

The world was spinning around me as I blinked the blood out of my eyes and watched him, helplessly, as he levitated a knife to my throat. I felt him press its cold steel against my aching flesh.

He screamed into my face, blood spilling through his teeth.

"You're dead, you fucking mook, you're fucking dead!"

"HEY!"

We both turned and saw Candy Cane, her mane hanging in front her darkened visage, and my pistol and its magazine enveloped in a gray magical field.

She swept her mane out of her face, her cold, steel eyes gleaming with icy malice at the monster whose hooves had made her suffer for far too long.

"I'm not afraid of youeither …" I heard her slam its magazine back home with an audible click. "Not anymore."

He spat blood, laughing. "You wouldn't … you're just a fucking whore with a loud mouth." He reached into his pocket with a hoof. His eyes widened.

"Where is it …?"

Candy Cane floated out the detonator with a triumphant smirk. She leveled the pistol as Grifter swore under his breath.

Her eyes fluttered to meet mine, then glared through his.

"No. I'm the pony with the fucking gun."

Crack!

Grifter screamed, falling away from me as I slid down the wall.

"BOSS! WHAT THE FUCK!" Somepony screamed behind the door.

"Red Dawn!" Candy Cane yanked me to my hooves. "We need to run – now!"

As Grifter writhed on the floor in a growing pool of blood, I trampled him underhoof before swiping a sack of caps off his desk. But not before sparing him a passing glance.

"Why don't you finish him off?"

Candy Cane glared at the bleeding pony. "I shot him in the kidney." She stared at me and said no more as blood began to swell around my hooves.

The door exploded inward, the security bolt banging loudly against the floor.

"Shit! They fuckin' shot him!" The Palomino mare screamed as she dashed into the room, an assault rifle floating beside her.

Big Dumb and Stupid screamed through his mouthbit.

"KILL 'EM!"

"Now we run!" I cried out as tracers rained upon us. Candy Cane took my hoof and dragged me to the other side of the room, slamming open the patio door in her wake.

And out into a snowstorm we galloped.

Yellow muzzle flashes lit up the night as we galloped through the powder; the visibility through the streets had decayed to the point where I could see only a few dozen feet in front of me.

Their shouts were barely audible through the storm – but the sounds of bullets shrieking past us, cutting swaths through the air against the wind kept me on my hooves. I could feel them grazing my barding and kicking up snow before me.

"WHERE ARE WE GOING!?" I shouted over the gales that whipped past my face.

"Just follow me!"

"DON'T LET 'EM GET AWAY!" I heard a mare scream as the muffled, staccato bursts of automatic weapons fire echoed dully through the wind-swept streets. I threw my head over my shoulder, and saw that their muzzle flashes were not too far behind. It was impossible to aim through this weather. They were sending out rounds in our general direction in hopes that one would strike either of us.

They were spraying and I was praying.

But praying wasn't enough; my luck had run out.

Something tore into me.

Fire engulfed my insides as a rifle round punched a ragged hole through my flesh. My kevlar plates, barding, and flesh parted in its wake as lava erupted into my chest cavity. I curled up in reflex and crashed into the snow, sending up a plume of bloody powder.

I had never been shot in the chest before.

My screams left my lips and it seemed as if they would never stop coming. Neither would the blood. I cried out Candy Cane's name, but my voice was lost beneath the wind as she disappeared in the blizzard.

"Candy Cane!" I wheezed, faintly, blood streaming down my lip as I tried to rise to my hooves only for a bullet to spear through my leg in a burst of gore and torn fabric. I screamed. She was going to leave me behind. I lifted a hoof, trying to crawl away as bullets shredded the snow around me.

She was going to leave me behind.

I couldn't blame her. She was free. It was all that mattered.

Come on ... get up, I begged myself. I swept a foreleg across the snow as I tried to pull myself to my four hooves, only to paint the snow with an arc of crimson. I clenched my stomach with a gory hoof, hacking up blood onto the frozen earth. Get ... up ...

"Red Dawn - get up!"

I felt somepony yank me to my hooves. A maroon mare curled a hoof around my left foreleg and pulled me. Hard. I slung a leg over her shoulder as she dragged me through the drifts. Holding onto her likemy life depended on it, I trailing scarlet through the snow in our wake. My eyes darted back and forth, blurry, ruined buildings falling away from us as we raced down an abandoned street.

"Come on! Don't stop for anything!" A ghost screamed at me as black tunnels closed in around me. Snow furies cackled inro my ears as Lightning Twirl's screams dying away beneath the sounds of steel blades hacking away at pony flesh. Their haunting echoes drowned out the storm.

The only indication that the world that seethed past me was real were the dull, ruddy tracers that raced past us as the Palominos refused to let us escape with our lives.

"Dew Drops?" I said through a mouthful of blood.

"Almost there!" I heard her shout over the deafening winds.

I squinted through the shadows in my eyes, the echoes fading away, my face pale and my nerves shrieking at me with every throb of my pounding heart. The road fell away into the darkness twenty yards in front of us.

"W-where's the road!?" I wheezed, the leg that I had wrapped around her chest beginning to slip.

She didn't answer.

I felt a bullet clip my shoulder.

"Candy Cane!"

"There is no road! We're going to need to jump!"

Jump?

"I asked you this before – and I'll ask you again," I began weakly, as the end of the road drew near. "But … ARE YOU FUCKING CRAZY!?"

"Trust me – we'll be okay!" I heard her shout back.

"Candy Cane!"

"You have to trust me! I know this city like the back of my hoof!"

I glared through the snow that whipped past my face. Goddesses. No. Countless feet below us, I could see only darkness.

"CANDY CANE!"

"JUMP!" She screamed.

The road disappeared beneath our hooves and we tumbled into the howling darkness, the wind whipping past our faces as we hurtled into the abyss. Within mere seconds I felt my body I plunge deep into the drifts, my momentum driving me through the earth. My screams were smothered beneath the shifting black tides as I dive-bombed into a heap of powdery snow.

The powder that I had displaced filled the hole I had created, and I was lost in utter darkness. I dug with all the energy I had left, fighting to break the surface even as the snow vowed to bury me alive. My muscles were burning out, and every second I spent lucid was another second spent in agony as my warmth and my lifeblood leaked out of my chest.

If I didn't freeze or suffocate to death, I would certainly bleed to death.

My forehoof broke the surface. And another. With a gurgling groan, I pulled myself free and flopped onto the frozen, black dunes. Sighing weakly, I tapped my pipbuck once, and I bathed the snow around me in yellow light.

Candy Cane burst out of the pale next to me, gasping for breath. She scrambled to ungainly hooves and shook herself vigorously, showering me with snow.

"Where the fuck did they go?!" A voice echoed over the streets above us.

"Turn that light off!" Candy Cane hissed, flinging herself onto my right foreleg. I bit my tongue to suppress a painful yelp as she wrestled my leg into the drifts. I got shot in the chest and somepony blew out one of my hind legs – now you gotta break my foreleg?

My breaths came out as wheezing gasps as Candy Cane smothered out my pipbuck's light.

"They fuckin' jumped!" I heard the big stupid one exclaim with disbelief.

A thin smile creased my bloody lips. With my brain starved of oxygenated blood - blood that was pooling around me, I began to see stars as my vision blurred and blackened.

"Seriously? They insane?"

"Doesn't matter … they're dead." Somepony kicked a rock down into the darkness. I numbly felt it kick up a plume of snow next to me. "Ain't nobody coulda' survived that. Fuck 'em, anyways. Slippery bastards."

I'm dying. No really, I'm bleeding out, I wanted to say, as Candy Cane peered upwards.

"Candy … Candy Cane …" I gurgled, through a mouthful of blood.

She turned and her eyes widened.

"Red Dawn – you're bleeding!"

"Yeah … it's kinda what happens … when you get shot."

The mare rolled me over on my back and grimaced at the hole in my chest.

"Why the fuck didn't you say anything?" I felt her heave me onto my side.

"Too busy … trying ... to keep up," I wheezed.

She swore under her breath.

"No exit wound," she murmured gravely, chewing her bottom lip. Her eyes darted worriedly across my pale features. "I'll need to extract the bullet."
I slurred, in my fading consciousness. "Ex…extract? W-what?"

"Your bags –I need pliers, tweezers – scissors - something!" She dragged them out of the snow and began rifling through them. That wasn't my tool bag. Unable to speak through the blood that was filling my mouth, I reached out for my tools, parting its flaps as I levitated out a –

My head exploded from the inside out.

The horn atop my skull flashed with violent, magical sparks before going dark as a million stars went supernova behind the darkness of my eyelids.

I cried out, my eyes rolling to the back of my head and fell limp in the snow, dark crimson streaming out of every facial orifice.

"Red Dawn!" I heard Candy Cane scream, shaking me desperately.

It's called Sparkle. Makes yer magic stronger. Should boost you up good; might even bring your magic back for a bit …

For a bit. Burned out. Again. My body screamed for darkness to take it, because it felt like somepony was slowly driving a railspike into my skull.

"Red … to extract … bullet …" I heard a voice echo faintly in my state of decaying consciousness.

I blinked my eyes in an attempt to return to lucidity. But I felt something cold enter the hole in my chest, fishing around my innards, worming its way into my gut.

The last thing that I remembered was a muffled scream, its fading vibrations thrumming in my chest. Then darkness washed over me.

---

I gasped for breath as my eyes fluttered open to find a pony sitting beside me, her head hung above my chest. She opened her eyes and smiled, languidly, her thick, curly, candy cane mane billowing in the wind.

Her hooves held my right foreleg over my chest so that we both could share in the light of my pipbuck.

I regarded her with dull surprise. She had the detonator. She could've just disabled her collar and left me here.

"You're … you're still here," I sighed, blinking away the grogginess in my eyes to see her.

Her smile widened, wearily. "I thought I'd see you through."

I groaned, a dull pain pervading my hazy senses. My stomach felt … tight, as I tried to expand my lungs for air. I glanced down my gory chest and found that Dew Drops' scarf – bloodied and worn, was wrapped tightly around me.

My red eyes widened to saucers.

"I had to use your scarf to stop the bleeding. There was just so … much … blood. We're lucky you didn't bleed out on me," she told me, touching my chest gingerly.

DD's scarf … I brushed it with a hoof as gently I would with Dew Drops' mane.

"I'm sorry … I might've ruined your scarf."

I shook my head. "It's … it's fine," I lied. Damn, why was I worried more about that scarf than my own life? Because it was the only thing I had left to remember her by …

My head shook once more, with grim finality. It had stopped the bleeding. If Candy Cane saved my life, then Dew Drops certainly had a hoof in saving me as well. We had nothing but the clothes on our backs. She was an extremely resourceful mare … making a tourniquet out of the only article of clothing she could afford to remove without either of us freezing to death.

I hid the sullen look in my eyes as I asked, "What … what did you do to me?" I twitched my hind leg, eyeing the gaping hole that had been punched through my barding.

Candy Cane pointed at my stomach. "Punctured digestive tract. Severe hemoptysis and internal hemorrhaging inside your chest cavity. But you're lucky the bullet didn't strike any vital organs." She rubbed her gore encrusted hooves through the snow. "Had to dig a little bit to pull that thing out of you. I needed to extract it before I could administer any potions," she began, eyeing DD's blood soaked scarf. "I hope you don't mind … but I had to look through your bags for health potions. I didn't have any on me, otherwise. No magic could've healed around that bullet, either way." Candy Cane levitated out a frighteningly large, blood caked 5.56 round. The mare grinned as she held the copper prize in her magical grip. "Wanna keep it as a souvenir?"

I snorted out a jet of mist, vaguely amused as I let my head roll into the powder.

"Nah … I'm good." I guess Steam Sprocket was right about me needing those apples and potions after all. I lifted my head and cocked an eyebrow at her. "Where'd you learn to do all that?"

Candy Cane stared at the ashen snow for a moment. "It's certainly been a while, but I was a nurse before … all this."

My, she was a lock-picking rogue anda nurse?

"Thank you, so much," I breathed, weakly.

"I learned a lot from my father," she said, quietly. I could sense the funereal sentimentalism in her voice. She chuckled, "I guess you should thank him instead."

"I would if I met him."

The grin faded away from her face as she looked at me gravely, and then at the snow.

"Oh … I'm sorry."

"He taught me a thing or two about battlefield surgery." She began, as if I hadn't said anything. "I hope you don't get an infection, though. I had neither the means nor the time to sterilize your pliers before I could use them."

"It's fine … I'm alive … for now. That's all that matters," I intoned. I panned my eyes around me. The rooftops of ancient buildings poked out of the snow beneath us like broken headstones. We had fallen into a massive sinkhole, no doubt caused by the balefre bomb's quaking aftershocks. "How did you know we'd survive that fall?"

Candy Cane giggled, "I didn't."

I gawked at her. "W-what?"

"I didn't," she repeated with another amusingly triumphant smirk. It was like she actually enjoyed being in constant danger. "But I knew that in a storm like this, there'd be enough powder to break our fall." She stuck a hoof through the snow. "If you dig far enough … hmm, say ten-fifteen yards, you'll hit concrete. It's better than falling face first into solid stone, really."

"Uh huh," I muttered.

Regardless of our luck, she knew this wasteland better than I did, that was for sure.

"Glad I was right, though," She nodded to herself, hanging her head as she closed her eyes. Candy Cane looked about ready to collapse. She wasn't the only one. I don't think I've ever been skull-tapped that many times in a single day. Despite the ubiquitous pain boring into my skull, the dull throbbing inside my chest cavity, and the blurriness that dulled my sight whenever I moved too fast, I was somehow able to stand.

I remembered that I had lost a great deal of blood.

With stars in my eyes, I rose to my four hooves, crunching through the now unyielding snow drift. She heard my shuffling and turned her head to see me.

"What are you doing?" she asked as I reached for the detonator.

I squinted at it carefully, glancing at her before tapping a button on its surface. Her collar whined – and went dark, the pulsing red light on its shell fading to black.

She exhaled deeply after noticing she had been holding her breath.

"Thank you …" she began, but stopped as she saw me fishing through my satchel bags. "Now … now what are you doing?" Candy Cane asked.

I retrieved a wire cutter and a screw driver and started towards her.

"Red Dawn, what are you going to do with those?"

"I'm taking that thing off your neck."

She held out her a hoof in between us, shaking her head.

"I-I'm fine with it around my neck … it can't explode anymore."

"Candy Cane –"

"Red Dawn, please, you've done enough … I don't want to risk tripping the explosive." She said quickly, backing away from me.

I looked at her pleadingly.

"Candy Cane … do you really want to keep that thing around your neck? It might not be able to detonate remotely, but that bomb is still hot." I took another step towards her, and she took another back. "Do you really want to be constantly reminded that you were a slave?"

She froze, trembling, her chin quivering as she stared glassy eyed into the snow. Candy Cane's hoof crept up her neck to touch the collar that was wrapped tightly around her throat. It was a mark.

But it wasn't permanent. "I was an engineer at my stable … I still am."

"I-I don't suppose you know anything about bomb disposal?"

I sighed. "No … though I'd imagine it's like cutting a machine's power supply so that it can't work anymore."
She shook her head. "No ... no! It's not the same! If you cut the collar's power supply, it activates its failsafe and pops anyways!" Candy Cane shook me, pleadingly, a disturbed look in her eyes. "I've seen it happen so many times..." she cried. "Red Dawn, I think I can live with it … I've always had one on ... it's like it's not even there!"

"That's because you're used to being a slave," I shot at her, scathingly. "You might be free, but you're still in chains – and until somepony takes that thing off of you, you're still – in everypony else's eyes – just a slave!" I glared at her, and she at me. "Besides, you have an unexploded bomb tied around your neck for fuck's sake … isn't that enough to make you want to have it removed?"

Candy Cane cut canyons into the snow with her hoof, shaking her head incessantly.

"You told me to trust you earlier. And I did, and we survived because youhad a hunch that there was powder down here." I tucked the tools into my chest pocket and gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze. "Now you have to trust me." I thought for a moment. "I can fix this …" I always have. I'm Red Dawn, the Goddesses-damned fixer pony for Celestia's sake.

Candy Cane gazed at me hopelessly with her uncertain, bloodshot eyes.

"You're sure?"

I nodded. "I can do it."

"You're 100% positive?"

I clenched my jaw. "I can do it," I repeated, sternly.

Candy Cane chewed on her lower lip, her eyes darting side to the side as if she were searching for a means to escape her impending doom. I was determined to unchain this poor soul.

"Only if you trust me."

She looked up and stared into my eyes, her entire body trembling.

"Okay …" she breathed. "Okay … but be. Careful."

I nodded, but didn't say another word as I curled a hoof around my screwdriver and slowly loosened the collar's screws. Delicately and deliberately, I used the tool to pull apart the collar's casing.

Parting the shell, I peered into its innards and spotted a black wire inside. I let go just a millisecond before I pulled it taut, my heart pounding inside my chest. I glanced at her and found that she had clenched her eyes shut, whimpering softly. I gulped.

This time, with one hoof, I parted the collar's case with my screwdriver as my wire cutter slowly descended into the wiry crack. I squinted through the shadows, positioning my right forehoof slightly so that my pipbuck's beam could shine through.

Dear Celestia. Why.

There were three other wires. Black wires. And they weren't color coded. And all four of them were tie-wrapped together. What the hell kind of an electrician completes a circuit without indicating which one's positive, negative, or ground? Normally, when you wire a circuit incorrectly and the relay is connected to a light bulb, you get shocked – or in this case, you lose a hoof, or both.

There was no way in hell this was assembled by hoof. Nopony can be dumb enough to wire a circuit in this fashion without mixing up the negative with the positive and walking away with their hooves.

I gulped.

Given what Candy Cane said, I assumed that the device wasn't a direct circuit; it would likely detonate if a connection is lost. Which only frustrated me more, because there was no sure fire way to disable the circuit by severing it – because that's what it was probably designed to do.

And cutting any one of these four was a chance that Cane would walk out of this a head shorter regardless of whether I was aiming to sever the circuit or the tripwire itself.

I clenched my jaw so tightly I nearly popped it as my wire cutter trembled over the crack. My eyes darted back and forth between the four wires.

One of these connected the device to the explosive. The other three, to the mechanism that pulled the tripwire taut. Damn … I lowered the wire cutter , studying the quartet of black wires.

I chose one wire among the cluster of black death sentences – wire Apple, and followed it deep into the collar's shell. A curse hissed between my teeth as I exhaled frustratingly. It and the other three, Butter, Cider, and Dog looped around the circumference of the collar as one amalgamation of black wires. But what mattered to me was where they ended.

The cluster of wires terminated beyond my line of sight. I shuffled on my hooves, trying to get a better look, and found that the cluster separated at the collar's radius. My teeth grinded together as I cursed the manufacturer of this death device once more.

Butter and Dog were split in such a way that they formed a confusing black knot with Apple and Cider, further obscured by the shell's indentions and protrusions within the collar's innards.

"Red … Dawn?" Candy Cane whispered.

I ignored her as I tried to focus, studying the loose knot of wires – trying to figure out which wire was which. In this light, it was neigh impossible to tell which wire went where. Black wires inside of a black shell weren't exactly the easiest to differentiate in almost complete darkness.

I closed the collar and retrieved another screwdriver from my tool bag. This time, holding it open, I used my left hoof to play with the knot, prodding it in an attempt to separate them enough for me to tell which one was which.

After several minutes of checking, rechecking, and poking, I found that Cider was connected to the inside of the collar, while the others separated and looped around the collar's circumference.

My eyes marked Cider for a gelding.

I replaced my left screwdriver with a wire cutter and slowly descended upon Cider, my tongue poking between my lips in concentration. Any wrong movement could bend the casing in two – pull the cluster taut, and cover me in Candy Cane's brains. A wrong snip could paint me red just as easily as the first. I gulped.

"Red Dawn?"

"Shit!" I gasped, jerking the wire cutter away from her neck. I gawked at the collar, my right hoof nearly wrenching the collar's casing apart. My eyes narrowed at her, a thin line of sweat streaming down my forehead, as Candy Cane eyed me with concern.

I checked the collar – I had pulled Cider taut; the wire was bent upwards, half of its length nearly yanked out of the shell itself. Dear Celestia. Had that been the wrong wire … I would've killed her.

"I-it's fine," I stammered, a thin line of sweat streaming down my forehead. "I can do this … just hold still, and let me focus."

I glared at the collar, my pipbuck beaming down the crack. My eyebrow cocked at what I saw. With Cider yanked out of place, I saw the other three with renewed clarity beneath the light of my pipbuck.

"Apple, Butter, Dog …" I whispered, prodding them with my wire cutter . Which one, damnit? Which one!? "Apple, Butter, Dog …"

"Red Dawn …"

"Candy Cane, please – shut up for Celestia's sake!" I snapped, silencing her before she could say more, my hooves trembling.

I shifted my right foreleg. All four terminated in the same general area, curling downwards and into the devices confines. But with Cider out of the way, I could easily see what exactly they were connected to without all four's shadows getting in my way.

Beneath the wires were two shapes – a wide box and a small cube – what I presumed to be the wire separator - that were connected by a single wire. Each individual wire in the cluster was pulled through a single hole on four of the cube's six faces. Ugh. This was making my headache worse. It was like my brain was melting trying to connect the dots.

The circuit was inside the cube. And the cube was there to separate them. Only the pony who designed this knew which face separated what – the positive, the negative, the ground, or the tripwire. A wire – strung through the fifth face connected the separator to the larger shape, which I concluded was the bomb itself.

What the fuck.

I checked and rechecked, tracing the coil from one radius to the next. My eyes scrutinized the collar's entire circumference. There was no fifth wire. There couldn't be one.

That meant that the fifth was either Apple, Butter, Cider, or Dog – strung through the separator and connected to the bomb to serve as the mechanical detonator … the trip wire.

There was only one way to find out.

Replacing my wire cutter with a pair of pliers, I sighted wire Dog. I glanced at Candy Cane, regarding me nervously as she shivered inside her peacoat. A layer of frost had formed over her forehead where sweat had streamed and solidified in the frozen air. Her hooves were shifting beneath her as she fiddled with a chunk of ice in an effort to keep her mind off of being decapitated.

"Alright … let's do this."

I clamped down on Dog.

Streams of sweat traced lines of clean, brown coat upon my grime and blood encrusted face. I glanced at Candy Cane once more, her eyes opened, and staring back at me. She was watching me kill her. I closed my eyes.

And pulled.

"Shit!" Nothing. The wire that connected the separator to the bomb didn't move an inch. I gulped. That left three of them. My pliers fastened themselves around Apple.

I wiped away the sweat from my face with my sleeve so that they wouldn't freeze. The last thing I needed was to shiver from not just apprehension, but from the cold, too.

I closed my eyes and pulled.

Candy Cane squeaked, whimpering as she felt her collar jerk slightly.

Nothing.

Tears were pouring out of her eyes. Two more.

I prodded at Cider. We meet again, you son of a bitch. And I pulled.

My heart nearly stopped.

"Red Dawn!" She cried out suddenly, startling me, tears streaming down her face.

I nearly jerked the collar right off her neck and killed her again. I would have yelled at her if I hadn't realized that Cider belonged to the circuit.

That left Apple. It was the only one left.

I took a deep breath and curled a hoof around my wire cutter , lowering it to Apple. I held my breath, my hoof trembling uncontrollably as the two blades wrapped their edges around the final wire.

I closed my eyes. I didn't want Candy Cane's skull fragments ripping into my sclera. My mouth clapped closed … I didn't want her brains splashing into my mouth, either. I imagined her head exploding, splattering me in gore and gray matter as doubt began to haunt my thoughts.

I took a deep breath.

And I curled the wire cutter closed.

Snip.

Crack!

Candy Cane's scream was lost beneath my shriek.

Nothing. Neither brains nor skull fragments painted my muzzle red. I opened my eyes, and Candy Cane grays were widened to quivering saucers, her jaw dropped as she gasped desperately for breath.

I looked down at her hoof and saw that she had crushed the chunk of ice beneath her.

"Son of a bitch," I muttered.

She slowly turned towards me, her trembling threatening to burrow herself into the snow.

"W-what d-did you do?" She stammered, breathlessly.

I said nothing as I took my screwdriver and undid the collars screws, wrenching it apart, dismantling it, undoing the mark of her slavery.

And it crunched into the snow.

We stood there next to each other for what seemed like hours as Candy Cane fought with her brain to process what had just happened. Her eyes darted back and forth between me and the bomb collar that laid at our hooves.

She exhaled suddenly, rubbing her eyes vigorously with her hooves, clearing away whatever hallucination inducing grogginess she thought was plaguing her. Then a hoof slowly crawled up her chest, reaching for her neck. Her hoof stopped four inches above her throat – as if her collar were still there.

But she persisted. Candy Cane touched with delicate disbelief, the furry indentation that had been trapped beneath her bomb collar. She rubbed at her matted coat, her breathing intensifying as she struggled to grasp that it wasn't there anymore.

That her chains were broken.

"I'm free …" she whispered, curling a hoof around her gnarled hide. "I'm finally free …" Candy Cane turned to me, slowly, tears welling in her eyes. "You did it," she murmured. "You … you really did it."

"YOU DID IT!" She shrieked running into me with the force of a charging stallion. She hugged me, her legs tight around my chest as she wept joyfully into my mane.

"I … I did it …" I murmured as I slowly lifted a leg and wrapped it around her, an ecstatic grin slowly stretching across my face.

Candy Cane pulled away, her face and my neck soaked with her tears as she held my shoulders with both her hooves. "Thank you ... so much … a thousand times over, thank you!" She cried. "You saved my life … freed me from that horrible place and my collar … I'm finally free … I'm finally … FREE!"

She yanked me close and hugged me once more. The tighter she embraced me, the harder it was to suppress the warm, victorious laughter that fought its way through my lips. I stared off into the ashen clouds, praying for a sign. Praying for the Goddesses to tell me that I had finally done good.

"Thank the Goddesses … you're free now."

I wrapped my other leg around her in an embrace, and hugged her tight. We won.

"You saved my life!" Candy Cane cried once more, her voice muffled against my barding.

"You saved mine too … you had the detonator. You could've just used it and walked away."

Candy Cane was smiling from ear to ear, her tears glistening in my pipbuck's light.

"Whether you like it or not, you got us this far …. you got me this far … thank you … so much. I never thought I'd ever be…" She paused, growing fond of the word she hadn't used to describe herself in years. "I never thought I've ever be free … again. Again … it's been five years. Five. Years. I never thought …"

She looked away, shaking her head. The mare brushed her matted coat, trying to flatten it out to no avail.

"The scars … they'll always be there. I'll never forget what happened to me … what they did to me... what I was forced to do." Candy Cane gazed at me with teary eyes. "I'll never forget what you did either … thank you, again." She hung her head somberly and dabbed at the snow with her hoof. "I wish there was some way I could repay you, because my words are not enough to express my thanks."

I shook my head. "Don't even mention it." I smiled, chuckling, "Keep your chin up! You're free now. And that's all that matters." I lifted her head with a hoof, her chin wet with tears.

The mare swept her mane out of her eyes, wiping her face vigorously with her sleeve.

"Is it though?" she murmured, with uncertainty.

I said nothing as I watched her touch her neck gingerly, as if she had never seen her own coat before.

"Now what?" I asked, quietly. "Now what will you do?"

Candy Cane looked at her hooves, thinking.

"I don't know," she replied. "I don't know. All my friends and family are either dead or in slavery." Candy Cane sniffled, strands of her mane falling before one of her eyes. "I don't know … I don't know what I'll do, Red Dawn. I have nopony to come back to."

We stood there, a bleak silence between us as she stared at the ashen drifts with empty eyes. I thought for a moment, tapping my chin.

"Maybe … maybe you can come with me?" I said.

"Come with you?"

I nodded, saying, "I can barely survive out here on my own." I stared off into the sky, watching the gray clouds hang over the frozen earth. "It's a harsh world out here. It's even worse trying to survive out here alone."

I unwrapped Dew Drops' scarf from my chest, flecks of dried blood fluttering to the snow. Pursing my lips, I wrapped it around my neck, solemnly.

"My Stable's water talisman exploded not too long ago. So myself and five other ponies set out to find a replacement … without it my stable will die from dehydration and disease," I began.

Candy Cane listened quietly.

"What happened to them?" she asked, her gaze softening.

"This scarf … it's all I have to remember my friend by. She … she was taken by snow furies. So were the others. We were ambushed, and butchered because we weren't ready for what was outside those doors.

"Ever since then it's just been me, and my gun, and this scarf against the entire wasteland," I uttered a grim chuckle. "It seems like that, at least. I barely hoofed it to Poneva alive."

"I'm sorry about your friends." Candy Cane saw the memento wrapped around my neck. "And your scarf …"

I shook my head. "She would've wanted me to actually stay alive to finish what they started, anyways. I have you to thank for that." I thought for a moment, running my hoof through my mane. "You seem to know a lot about this city – this wasteland. Maybe you can help me?"

"How?"

"I ran into Grifter while looking for the Orphanage. He promised that if I helped him, he'd give me the location of one of their hideouts. He gave me this." I showed her the coordinates I had received.

I opened up my pipbuck's map and pointed to her its location in the fallen city.

The mare snorted. "No … no you don't want to go there." She prodded my pipbuck's screen with a hoof. "That's a metro tunnel overrun with feral ghouls."

"Feral … what?"

She chuckled, grimly, shaking her head. "You would've walked there to your death. They would've ripped you to pieces."

"Son of a bitch …" She really did know her way around the city. That cafone bastard was trying to kill me.

The mare cocked an eyebrow at me.

"What do you want with the Orphanage?"

"Well, when I arrived here, I found a water talisman … well not exactly. I spoke with the manager of the World Tree Company – Steam Sprocket."

Her eyes widened at that.

"A face to face audience with Steam Sprocket? He never lets anypony inside the WTC …"

I nodded, agreeingly. "He's been working with the resistance to take down the other plantations. He wants his hooves on their tech; apparently they can purify water without water talismans."

Candy Cane nodded, adding, "It's always been a mystery how they can yield so many crops without the equipment the WTC has."

I paused for a breath, and continued. "Steam Sprocket says that if he appropriated their technology, he wouldn't have need for Water Talismans anymore – and he'd be able to spare me one or two or thirty." A hopeful fire burned behind my eyes. "Enough to keep my stable going for centuries."

"You're putting a lot of faith in this pony," Candy Cane remarked.

My expression darkened. "It's all I have left to put faith in. Without this talisman, everypony in my stable is going die. For all it's worth, I'd do anything … anything to save them all.

"I figured I'd join the resistance. Steam Sprocket said they're always in need of hooves to keep the movement running." I sighed, wearily. "My stable doesn't have much time to live on their reserves. I've been around the city. Nopony gives a shit about the Plantations," I spat, with frustration. "At this rate, hell will freeze over and my Stable will be rotting a hundred feet below the earth. I can't sit around on my hooves and waste my time – waste my stable's time, waiting for everypony to have some kind of revelation that maybe, just maybe, the plantations should get booted out." I pursed my lips, and gazed at her with grim resolve. "I want to join them. I want to join the Orphanage."

"The Orphanage, huh?" She whispered, intrigued. "And you want me to help you find them, then?"

"I don't want your help … I needyour help," I said, shaking my head. "I can't do this alone." I looked at her pleadingly, the harsh wasteland wind fanned our dirty manes. "If we join the resistance, we'll be able to save all your friends at the Scullion. We'd be able to save them all."

Candy Cane's eyes lit up with distance hope.

"If I join you, you need to promise me … promise me that we'll free them." Something powerful ignited within her as she clenched her jaw and glared into the snow, staring balefire through the drifts.

My eyes widened as a different mare growled, mist jetting out between her bared teeth, "Promise me … that we'll put an end to the Palominos. If we die, I want to die helping ponies. Now that I'm free, I won't stand by and watch them force any more ponies into slavery.

"I want to tear them down, Red Dawn. After everything they've done to me … I-I … I …" she shook her head, tears welling out of her eyes. "No … I won't be like them." Candy Cane stomped her hoof into the snow. "But I want to help ponies. Can we do that?"

Help ponies? Help the scum of this wasteland? The bottom feeders that turned me away when I mentioned the only source of good in this hell?

Most ponies didn't even care about the horrors that the Plantations and their pet gangs wrought. Many couldn't give a damn if the pony next to them was dragged away into a ditch and shot in the head. They were content with this life so long as their own lives were preserved.

But Candy Cane was different; I wanted to admire her. This is the sort of naivety that gets ponies killed; it's what nearly got mekilled. Good things neverhappen to good ponies, if my injuries could attest.

I guess my impudent penchant for liberating complete and total strangers influenced her somewhat. I realize now that I had saved this pony not because I saw it as a test: a test to see that if I could save just one, then there was a chance that someday I could save them all. If I could save Candy Cane, there was a chance that I wasn't a useless, helpless, train-wreck of a pony, abandoned to the terrors of a world of hedonism and debauchery and powerless to save even himself.

The difference between Candy Cane and I was that everything I did was supposed to be a stepping stone to my end goal; but I had deviated from that path in my impudence. I risked the lives of nearly three hundred ponies for just this one mare; for if I had died, all hope for my stable would have been lost. I wondered once more … why?

Why? My heart rationalized that it was simply the right thing to do. But my brain wondered what kind of stupid, unreasonable logic was that? I could've died. Again.

But it didn't matter to her.Candy Cane had no end goal. She was free now, and she wanted only to help as many ponies as she could before the wasteland finally took her.

Ponies that didn't even want her help. She had faith that there was still hope to turn this wasteland around, even if it was one pony at a time. I saw a light, a fervent desire for change in Steam Sprocket, and now I was seeing that same light shining within her.

I held out a hoof.

"We'll try. I promise. Even if it kills me."

Candy Cane took my hoof and shook it, a determined smile stretching across her lips.

"Thanks, Red Dawn." She thought for a moment, before saying. "I … don't know where to find the Orphanage." She confessed, hesitantly.

"But I do know this city. I've escaped from the Scullion so many times; I've had the time to explore almost every nook and cranny in the outer city, and some parts of the inner city. All I need is a point in the right direction and I can take you there." She grinned, hopefully.

"I know somepony who's actually inthe Orphanage," Candy Cane chuckled. My brows furrowed as I cursed Grifter's name under my breath. "She runs an inn in downtown Poneva; she can probably tell us how to find them." The mare noticed the dark circles around my bloodshot eyes. "Maybe she'll even give us a place to stay for a bit."

I really needed a break. Not a nap, not a few hours of shut eye. I needed to rest.

"You know her?" I asked, wobbling on my hooves.

She reached out with a hoof and held me still.

"She's given me shelter during my escapes." Candy Cane nodded to herself, confidently. "She's a good mare."

Finally, I was getting somewhere.

"That sounds like a plan." I sighed, rubbing my eyes. "Much better than asking random ponies on the street, that's for sure," I muttered, bitterly.

I looked around us, panning my light across the shifting white dunes. We were in a massive sink hole.

"Well … first of all how do we get out of here?"

Candy Cane peered up and into the city above us, her eyes darting back and forth, searchingly. She lifted a hoof and pointed at the rooftops that poked out of the snow. Rooftops that were high and close enough to jump in between.

Oh Goddesses.

"I have an idea."

Footnote: Level up.

New Perk: Guerilla Pony - Your sneak attack criticals with revolvers, pistols, and submachine guns (guns and magical energy weapons) all inflict an additional 20% damage.

Chapter 9

A Cold Hearth

"There was an uneasy silence between us. I wanted to answer her, but I honestly didn't know why I was here. Why I was risking my life to save this pony…"

I half limped, half stumbled through the snow, trying to blink away the stars in my eyes as Candy Cane led me up the street.

For hours now, she had navigated the streets for me, turning corners or leading me through dark, dimly lit underpasses that tunneled through the collapsed, concrete behemoths of old. Every twist and every turn were detours she steered through with absolute confidence. It became apparent to me that she had been through this place countless times.

She led, and I followed, closely, in silence. I wasn't exactly the kind of pony who reveled in small talk, so much of the walk up till now had been a quiet one. Candy Cane would spare me a few curious, furtive glances every now and then, but besides that, nopony spoke a word.

We were still just two strangers.

Our pace was beginning to slow, however, all thanks to my exhausted state. A wheezing breath erupted from my lips, and I stopped for a moment, falling to my knees, too tired to continue like this.

Candy Cane heard the hoofsteps behind her stop, and swung her head around to see me lying in the snow. She knelt next to me, and I heard her voice for the first time in nearly an hour.

"What's wrong?"

"Just ah … heh …" I chuckled, face-hoofing tiresomely. "I'm just feeling a little under the weather, right now." She gave me a worried, yet exasperated look. My bitter sarcasm was lost on her. Being hurt in any sort of way didn't seem like a laughing matter to her, but a wry chortle every now was a sign that I was still lucid enough to say those things deliberately.

She regarded my long, weary face with soft eyes. "That detour we took out of that sinkhole was rough. Those platforms just weren't stable enough to jump on …" she sighed, dabbing a hoof in the snow. My, she was a mind reader.

After that stunt we pulled off to heave ourselves from that sinkhole … Goddesses. My horn wasn't the only thing that was burned out. Hopping from roof to roof, we had suffered a terrible cave in that had forced us back to bottom of that snowy abyss. She had found another way out, but it was an exceptionally long ordeal; I was shocked, really. I never knew I could rock-climb.

"No, no, it helped get whatever blood I'd left in me flowing," I said, bitterly, grinning at her. At her hooves I laid, limply. My muscles ached and my eyes begged me to shut them closed. I had nearly passed out from my previous exertions; it was difficult to do anything strenuous after having lost so much blood.

"We can't stick around for too long," Candy Cane said quickly yet quietly, double-taking over both her shoulders. "This part of town belongs to the cafones."

"Lovely," I crooned, staring blankly at the snow. A yawn parted my cracked lips, and I winced as I inhaled a breath too large for my lungs.

I looked up, groggily. "Didn't you hear them, earlier? They think we're dead."

She crossed her left foreleg over her right. "I'd rather be safe than sorry," Candy Cane intoned, darkly.

"Okay … but let me just lie here for a bit." I groaned, the powder biting my livid flesh. Sleep. I sleep here now. Sighing, I lowered my chin into the pale, clenching my eyes, and shuddering violently. "Damn that's cold." My eyes fluttered open at the mare's worried gaze. "It's alright," I murmured faintly as I shivered in the snow. "The cold reminds me that I'm still alive."

She knelt beside me and laid a hoof on my forehead, muttering to herself. Her hoof was icy cold against the frost melting surface of my flesh, and I shivered at her touch. The look she gave me suggested that whatever she saw was not good.

"What's the diagnosis, doc?" I chattered through my teeth.

"You've a fever, likely caused by your magical burnout," the mare remarked.

She pursed her lips, conjuring a glowing orb of light. Candy Cane cupped a hoof over one of my eyes and levitated the orb in front of the other. My eyelid twitched sluggishly, closing slightly, but my retina did not dilate. A flat, ohhhh, seethed out of her lips.

At least when she found something bad she didn't berate you like Doctor Stitches did. Because what she saw in my twitching eyeball didn't seem too good either.

She exchanged hooves and tested the other, summoning from her a terse exhale.

I groaned, "Isn't it just wonderful being a glorified earth pony with a horn?"

"You just need to rest. Sleep it off. Just not here, Red Dawn."

I sighed, letting my head roll back into the snow.

"Can … can you still walk?"

I shook my head free from the drifts, cringing as that only worsened my headache. "Sure," I winced. "I can do you a few squats if you want, doc."

"I'm a nurse, Red Dawn," she stated, somewhat annoyed by my pain induced quips.

With a foreleg and a swirl of her gray magic, the mare pulled me back to my aching hooves. We stood there in the snow in silence as she probably wondered what in the Goddesses' names was she was going to do with me. I was deadweight at this point.

She hung her head and sighed, exhaustedly. The irritation faded from her expression as her eyes softened once more. Candy Cane touched my shoulder with a tender hoof, before pointing down the street. "Come on, we're almost there," she whispered. "I'm sure you'd prefer a bed to a blanket of snow?"

I smiled faintly, peering into the mare's gentle, gray eyes.

"Whatever puts me to sleep the fastest, I guess. That is, if hypothermia doesn't get me first." She frowned at that, but motioned me to follow her with a swish of her swirly tail.

As we plodded through the snow-swept streets, the uncomfortable silence between us was beginning to settle in again. That's alright, I was too tired to care in the first place. But Candy Cane's gait slowed so that we were walking shoulder to shoulder.

"How long have you been out here?" she asked suddenly, glancing at me.

I thought for a moment. I wasn't even sure … it felt like I've been wandering this wintry wasteland for months – no – years now. The bags under my eyes and my grime encrusted … everything … made me feel as if I had been away from home for an eternity.

In the stable, there had never been a day when I hadn't had a shower, or a full meal, or eight hours of undisturbed sleep. It felt like an eternity since I had lived in the comforts of Stable 91.

I stared longingly at the snow that crunched beneath my hooves. "Too long," I grunted, tersely.

Candy Cane hesitated, looking away for a moment, she parting her mane as it bobbed in front of one of her eyes. "You … you look like you've been through so much in such little time."

"You don't even know half of it," I replied, severely. I caught her looking at me expectantly in my peripherals as I stared onward and into the dimly lit street. "Ponies died, and I lived." I gulped down the lump in my throat. "That's all …" I muttered, with grim uncertainty.

The mare turned her troubled gaze away from me and we parted the shifting drifts in silence. Candy Cane's pace began to quicken, and so did mine.

Nearly ten long minutes later, she stopped in her tracks and we found ourselves standing before our final destination. The inn, I supposed.

"Is this the place?" I asked Candy Cane.

She nodded as I trotted up to the door. The inn was a quaint, cozy-looking two story building with windows that glowed with giddy, dancing firelight.

At least that's what I had imagined it may have looked like two centuries ago. As I walked up the icy, blackened steps, I peered curiously through the boarded up windows which belied any suggestion that there was life behind this door. I raised a hoof to its thick, battered wooden surface, and knocked.

A few seconds passed, and the only sounds that we heard were the distant wagons and the sound of hooves crunching through snow behind us as we stood there, waiting for the door to open. The only light that shone upon my face was a dim, flickering light bulb that was begging to be put out of its misery.

The snow began to fall again. Powdery flakes of balefire winter clung loosely to my bloodied security barding, and I shivered on my hooves. Glancing over my shoulder, I mouthed to Candy Cane, if she was a hundred percent certain that this was the right place. The mare nodded.

So I knocked again.

This time, a speakeasy door slid open and two navy blue eyes narrowed back at me. I opened my mouth to speak, but the pony cut me off.

"We're closed," a mare told me, before the speakeasy door slid shut.

My face turned sour. I lifted a hoof to the door and knocked again. The speakeasy door opened once more.

"Hey! I said we're closed, okay? So scram!" The mare shouted through the speakeasy door before slamming it shut.

I sighed, glancing over my shoulder at Candy Cane.

"Well isn't she a ray of sunshine," I muttered.

Candy Cane, snorted, before she took my place and knocked.

"Goddesses – I said we're closed –" A mare hissed, but her voice was lost on her lips. The mare saw me first, but her eyes fluttered instantly to the pony next to me. "Candy Cane … ?"

---

I shifted on my stool, a rickety, neglected old thing that creaked underneath me – much like the inn itself. A fine layer of dust had settled upon the lonely bar in front me. Resting my legs upon the counter, I kicked up a small cloud of dust that roused from my cracked lips a sneeze.

Behind it, on a wide rack, were rime encrusted whiskey bottles by the dozens, most were empty, others with little less than a shot remaining. There wasn't a single drink in this place that could relieve even the most lightweight of drinkers of the inn's deplorable state.

I thought about unhooking my holster and stowing it in my bags, but it was too late for that now. We had left our bags by the door. And I didn't feel like walking all the way back there.

Sniffling, I heard hooves clop upon the creaking wooden boards behind me. The innkeeper passed by a cold hearth – unlit and forlorn as she made her way, sluggishly, to the bar. Candy Cane, sitting next to me, rubbed her hooves together, briskly; the bite of the northern wind was trying desperately to fully penetrate the walls of this place. It scratched upon the boarded up windows like an animal begging to come inside.

She trotted past me, but not before shooting a careful gaze my way. The mare regarded me – the stranger – with apprehension, noticing the gun holstered around my chest. My presence was making her edgy. I knew I should've stowed my gun away.

"I'm really sorry you have to see me like this, Cane," the mare began, still keeping an eye on me. "Sorry to see my place like this. A lot's changed since I saw you last; the last time they took you, I never thought I'd see you again."

"It's been too long, Summer Smiles."

The two hugged warmly, Summer Smiles sighing as she closed her eyes, and squeezed her tight. Letting go, the blue mare turned her eyes to the floorboards.

"Heh, well I don't smile so much anymore." Summer Smiles sighed, brushing her blonde braids with a hoof. "The inn's been closed for nearly a month now. The cafones've been stepping up their game, and making us lose ours." She shook her head. "It's gotten so bad that my sister and I have been living from paycheck after paycheck."

"What happened to your savings?" Candy Cane asked.

Summer Smiles glared at the bar's counter, her jaw clenching. "It's … we're … the cafones upped their prot taxes. I've been using it to pay them. Though, most of it was used up when my sister lost her job and had to find a new one."

"That's terrible … they keep raising their taxes. I don't know why, though," Candy Cane remarked.

Summer Smiles snorted, shaking her head. "They don't need no reason to, they just do." She spat, "Bastards … all of 'em." The mare noticed the bitter look I wore as they spoke of the ganger menace.

There wasn't much else I needed to hear anymore to convince me that the Palominos needed to be taken down. They were sucking the life out of this place.

"How are the girls? Your sister?" Candy Cane asked.

Summer Smiles hesitated for a moment, no doubt watching me in her peripherals. With one eye on Candy Cane, and another on me, she leaned forward and rested her hooves on the counter.

"Doodle and Hops have gotten bigger since you last saw them." Summer Smiles said, proudly. She chuckled, "To me, it's like they haven't grown older at all. Same Doodle, same Hops."

Candy Cane's visage flickered cheerfully. "What about Hops? Her ... legs?"

Summer Smiles shook her head. "She was born that way, Cane. There's no healing genetics."

The maroon mare clenched her jaw, saddened, her ears drooping.

"They'll be glad to see you, Cane," she added, touching her hoof. Candy Cane salvaged a smile out of that.

"What about your sister?"

She glanced at the door. "She hasn't been around, lately. Went off on an assignment ... she's still out there. I don't know where, though." Her brows furrowed with impatience. "If she doesn't come back soon, I won't have any more caps left to put food on the table. And I can't leave the inn to find work ... not if it means leaving Doodle and Hops behind."

"It just keeps getting worse, doesn't it?" Candy Cane murmured.

The blue mare blew a puff of dust off the counter, sighing. "You think you'd get used to it, living out here." Her gaze found its way to meet me. "You never do." Summer Smiles made her way behind the bar, and tapped her hoof on the counter. "I'd get you two a couple of drinks, but …" she looked over her shoulder, sparing the empty racks a dismal glance.

Candy Cane's smile belied the dimness of this place. It felt a little warmer, seeing her do that. "It's okay; at least we're out of the snow," she said, softly.

"Out of the snow ... huh." Summer Smiles looked at Candy Cane strangely. "How'd you get out this time?" Her ears drooped, wistfully. "You disappeared for two years ... Candy Cane. Doodle and Hops have always wondered where 'Auntie Cane' went. I could never bring myself to tell them what happened to you ..." the mare said, softly. "I really never thought I'd see you again."

Candy Cane grinned as she turned to face me.

"I had some help," the mare said, her lips arcing faintly.

Summer Smiles blinked, cocking her head at me. "Really? I've been wondering: who's this stallion you brought into my home?"

"Of course you have, you've been watching him like a hawk since we got here," Candy Cane chuckled.

The blue mare shifted on her hooves, irked at her observation. It's not like she wasn't making it obvious.

Her friend grinned, one brow cocked. "Relax, Summer. He's not going to bite your leg off."

She scowled back. "Oh you know stallions; they're good at biting, and leaving marks." Our host snorted, "Just look at my sister: two foals and a stallion nowhere to be seen."

I laughed nervously as Candy Cane's expression darkened. Summer Smiles wasn't the only pony in this room that has had a problem with stallions. Candy Cane – more so than anypony else I currently knew.

"My name's Red Dawn."

"Sure it is." Summer Smiles nodded, studying the arcane device wrapped around my foreleg. "You're from a stable, Red Dawn?"

"Yes ma'am," I nodded, stifling a yawn as I tapped my pipbuck with a hoof.

The mare cocked an eyebrow, perplexed.

"Heh, what in the Goddesses' names is a stable-dweller doing out here? There are few ponies around the wasteland with those things around their legs." Her voice turned sour. "I can imagine why," she added enviously, scorning her disheveled, pitiful surroundings.

She imagined right. Beneath the earth, stable ponies slept in their stables while ponies like Summer Smiles and Candy Cane suffered outside, helpless and cold. I thought back, sifting through my family's countless generations, thankful that my great, great - something - grandmare had been chosen to live in Stable 91.

It began to occur to me, that despite the terrible things I'd seen so far, nopony was luckier than stable-dwellers like me were. We had lived in a stable for most of our lives while the world outside went to shit. I sighed. Better there than here, of course.

"Just wanted some fresh air, I guess," I chortled, dryly.

She snorted, vaguely amused. "Are you one of those ponies from Stable 2? The one everypony keeps hearing about on the radio?"

That's the second time somepony's asked me that.

"Uhh ... no. I'm from Stable 91, about twenty or thirty miles out from Poneva, I think."

"That's a pity ... Stable 2's the only stable I've heard of that hasn't let out anything but dust and skeletons." The mare looked unassumingly sure of herself. "Something bad must've pushed you out."

I nodded, chuckling dryly. "I've been told that a lot. We're going to be like the others, soon enough, I think," I added, flatly. "Our water talisman broke. Now we've got two months to live. Well they, really. I ... we ... my friends and I, we left Stable 91 to find another."

Summer Smiles glanced at Candy Cane. There was only two of us, and only one of us had a pipbuck around our legs.

"Your ... friends?"

"They're dead, now," I intoned; the mare blinked, expecting me to say more. I didn't. All she got was an exhausted stare that pleaded to be put to sleep.

I hadn't told anypony what had happened that night. What had happened to my friends - how Star Glint was ... and Amber Fields ...

A grim silence hung over the three of us as we sat there, unmoving. Contemplating the grisly fates of my best friends only fed the thrumming headache that bored into my skull. So I just stuffed them back in the corner where I couldn't see them.

The mare studied my troubled face, and the blood that caked my chest, and the grime that covered my face. Candy Cane was about as bloodied as I was – although most of it was mine, anyways.

"You ... you two both look like you've been through hell."

I scoffed, hanging my head languidly, "I guess that's one way of putting it."

"You've got a lot on your hooves. Why're you with Candy Cane anyways?"

I stared at her, my heart flickering with surprise. I do in fact have a lot on my hooves. Though, as much as I hated to be idle like this, I knew that if I continued to throw myself out and into the fray, I'd die from fatigue if the wasteland or its damned inhabitants didn't get to me first.

Her eyes narrowed at me when I didn't answer. "How'd you meet her?" she asked, warily. "It ain't everyday somepony walks in with an escaped slave."

The maroon mare beside me spared me a glance. She parted her peacoat's collar, folding it down flat so that Summer Smiles could see the matted, red coat beneath.

"Your bomb collar - it's gone?"

Candy Cane grinned ecstatically.

"He saved me, Summer Smiles. He freed me from the Scullion ... and he took the collar right off."

Summer Smiles' eyes widened with disbelief. "He … oh my Goddesses …" she leaned over the counter, reaching out with a hoof to touch the matted indentation where her collar used to be. She rubbed the patch of fur, tenderly, stricken with disbelief. "How? You – removed – you did that?"

I nodded, slowly, "It wasn't easy." I nearly killed Candy Cane during that ordeal.

Summer Smiles couldn't believe what she was hearing, her expression struck with bewilderment.

"How'd you do it? I mean, how'd you make it past the cafones?" she stammered, breathlessly.

"We nearly died." Candy Cane rubbed her bloody hooves together, tipping her head at me. "Well, I nearly died. Those Palo … those cafoneswouldn't let up." I explained to her how I broke into the Scullion, our confrontation with Grifter, and our flight from the brothel. She couldn't believe the words that she was hearing. When I got to that part about the sinkhole, she just about lost it there.

"You … you jumped into a sinkhole? That's … that's insane."

I chuckled at Candy Cane. "That's exactly what I told her."

Candy Cane waved me off with a hoof, shamelessly.

"Though it's because of her I'm still alive." I pointed a hoof to my blood caked chest as Candy Cane fixed her unassuming gaze to the floorboards beneath her. "One of those cafones got me. Candy Cane pulled the bullet right out of my gut," I added, with a grimace. I could vaguely remember the touch of cold steel worming around my innards.

"Barely," Candy Cane said sheepishly, still staring at her hooves. "You almost bled out." She played with her curls absent mindedly, frowning as she said, "My skills are out of practice."

I snorted, the grimness of my expression belied my whimsically sardonic tone. "We'll be traveling together soon, so I'm sure you'll get a lotof practice."

Candy Cane chuckled once, unamused. "Then there's going to be loads of roof hopping to do if you're going to be traveling with me," she replied, with a smirk.

I wheezed a nervous laugh, my brows furrowing.

"So, you two are traveling together?"

We turned to each other simultaneously.

"I promised I'd help him," she stated, adamantly.

Our host frowned at her. "I would've imagined you'd want to settle down after … you know?" Summer Smiles said, gingerly.

Candy Cane thought for a moment, laying her forelegs on the counter and resting upon them her chin. "Sure, I'm free. But what about the other slaves? I left them behind, Summer. I don't deserve to be free any more than the other mares at the Scullion." Candy Cane began. "I have nothing to do with my life; I've not much to lose." The mare turned to me, saying, "Red Dawn wants to join the resistance. He wants to help us … and I want to help him help everypony else I left behind."

Summer Smiles shifted uncomfortably on her hooves.

"I thought he was looking for a water talisman?"

"I still am. And I found one ... or several. Well, not exactly." I explained to her my meeting with Steam Sprocket and the promise he made me. Like Candy Cane, she was overcome with shock at the fact that I'd been granted an audience with the World Tree Company's executive hermit. I told her exactly what I told Candy Cane. She nodded, silently, irked at the mentioning of the Orphanage. "I need to join them. I can't just sit around, waiting for Poneva to roll over."

Candy Cane spoke up. "So do I. That's why we're traveling together. We need to find the Orphanage."

Summer Smiles cleared her throat, scoffing. "The ... the Orphanage?" she asked, feigning ignorance to my exasperation, much like the rest of the ponies outside in this city.

Candy Cane narrowed her eyes at her.

"We need your help."

Summer Smiles' eyes darted to my face.

"So that's why you brought him here," she intoned, warily. "You … you told this pony? He knows?"

"Yes –"

The mare leaned over the counter towards Candy Cane. "I really don't appreciate that, Cane. Theywouldn't appreciate that. You know this!"

"I-"

"What were you thinking!? If word gets out that I'm with the Orphanage, they'll kill us all! Andthe foals!" she hissed. "I thought I could trust you!"

"You still can!" Candy Cane stated, upset. "If he was with the plantations he wouldn't have been at the Scullion, breaking me out of there. If he was with East Eden, he would've hauled me to theircamps." She glared at her. "I wouldn't have agreed to help him if I didn't think that he was a good pony, Summer."

A … good pony? My heart fluttered at that. Am I really? If only she had known the things I did … that mare I butchered. I shot her in the knees and left her to die – and that Blood Brother I … murdered. I murdered him. Both of them.

I looked at my hooves. The dark corner of my mind was whispering to me again. That Candy Cane was just a stepping stone. That I needed her help, and that was it. I pushed it away, disgusted with its incessant murmuring. I wasn't a good pony. I was just a pony with a mission to finish.

Summer Smiles caught the apprehension that haunted the good pony's eyes, and smirked. She wasn't buying it. And I wasn't either. "I don't know, he looks pretty nervous, Cane." Anypony else would be if they were put on the spot like she was doing to me, right now. "I know he saved your life and all, and you might think you owe him something, but … you'd trust that pony with your life?" She asked, as if I wasn't there. "Our lives? You might've just endangered my entire family –"

Candy Cane cut her off, "He went through hell to save me – he nearly died – and he doesn't. Even. Know. Why." I found that she was staring deep into my eyes as if she could see the soul behind them. "He was willing to help a complete stranger … there aren't that many ponies like that around anymore." Candy Cane intoned. "You know that."

Summer Smiles nodded, slowly, her gaze still fixated upon me.

"I do," she murmured. "That's what the Orphanage stands for."

Silence hung over us as she tapped her hooves nervously on the counter. She eyed me hesitantly.

"I'll … I'll think about it, okay? If they find out … and they take me … I don't know, Cane. Doodle and Hops won't have anypony to take care of them."

"Goddesses forbid that ever happens. But … what … what about your sister? They're her foals, after all."

Summer Smiles shook her head.

"She hasn't come back from her job yet," she murmured, distantly. "Soon, my savings will run dry and nopony will be able to feed them anymore. She was the one paying the bills after all …" Summer Smiles stared past us at the door. It seemed like she had been doing that ever since her sister had left. "Her daughters have been asking for her for the last five days now. "Sugar Rum's been gone for almost two weeks now."

I froze. Sugar Rum. Sugar Rum. Sugar … oh my Goddesses. My mouth opened, but words would not escape my lips. I remembered her. The screams, the sounds of flesh tearing. Then the pop. The simultaneous pop of every collar Sugar Rum had control over.

Crack. And Sugar Rum had taken her own life. The mare, the mare that had stayed behind to grant the ponies she had wronged a final respite, had left behind these three: her sister, and her daughters. Why … why didn't I recognize Summer Smiles until now?

"Red Dawn?" I heard Candy Cane ask, as the blood drained from my face. "You look like you've just seen a ghost."

"I … I did." I dipped my head into my bags, searching for Sugar Rum's family photo. The one she had given me as she bled out into the snow. I found it, laying upon the surface of my hoof the blood-caked, frayed piece of paper.

I turned my haunted gaze to Summer Smiles, whose eyes were darting towards my own and the photograph that was held in my hoof.

"What's that?" she asked, apprehensively.

I held the photo to my face, eyeing the four ponies – the family whose smiling faces had been frozen in time. Sugar Rum was sitting next to her sister, Summer Smiles, a blonde, blue coated mare, as she wrapped her forelegs around her two pale-coated daughters. Lowering it, Summer Smiles was standing alone.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

I said nothing as I gave her the photograph.

The mare stared at it desolately, her hoof trembling before her muzzle. She stared at it for a long time, pale-faced, her eyes drowning beneath the rising tides of horror that drained the blood from her face. They beheld every speck of blood, every splatter of dried crimson that had sullied the aged photograph. The canyons on her ghastly expression deepened with every grim thought she shoved away to the back of her mind, in denial. A hoof grazed her sister's frozen smile, her eyes darting to the door, and back, to the door, and back.

Summer Smiles met my numb gaze with desperate repudiation, her eyes widening and her chin quivering.

"Why … why do you have this?" she croaked, her voice faltering.

I looked at the floorboards, and she knew. Goddesses, she knew. I opened my mouth once more, but could not find the strength to say the words I needed to say. "WHY DO YOU HAVE THIS!?"

I hung my head, shaking it as beads of cold sweat formed on my forehead. Again and again, I heard the resounding gunshot that took Sugar Rums' life as the howling bloodletters permeated my thoughts.

Crack.

"Sugar Rum … my … my sister …" Summer Smiles fell upon the counter, her shoulders shuddering and her chest threatening to tear itself apart.

Candy Cane was left breathless as the horror began to settle in. She looked at me with teary eyes, unable to believe what she was thinking. "Goddesses … you don't mean she's …"

"Dead. She's dead, Summer Smiles." I intoned, the burden of being the only pony who knew of Sugar Rum's fate weighing heavily upon my chest.

Summer Smiles buried her face in her hooves, her sobs echoing throughout the inn as she wept. Her tears washed away the dust that had settled upon the counter as she wailed into her coat. She leaned up suddenly, and slammed her hoof on the counter.

"Damnit! Why!?" She demanded. "How!? Her foals – Goddesses, her foals!" Summer Smiles clenched her eyes shut, trying to stymie the tears that refused to stop falling. But it was in vain. "she's dead … their mother ... my … my sister … my only sister. She's. Dead!"

My heart hung as low as my head as I stared at the floorboards, unable to meet her gaze. I could never stand to see a mare cry; her weeping made me stricken with guilt. Somehow, I felt responsible. Somehow, I felt that I could have saved her. Could have.

Just like the zebras, and the slaves. I had failed them all.

If only I had seen the bloodletter before it saw her. I could've … I could've stopped it. I could've SAT'sed it to death. I … she could've been here with us, with her sister, with her two daughters.

The sound of a filly's voice broke me from my rapturous state.

"Auntie? What's wrong?" a girl asked. I turned and, looking down at us from the top of the stairs at the other side of the room was a filly, her coat an alabaster white.

Goddesses. No.

Summer Smiles struggled to compose herself – for the sake of the children, she couldn't tell them. Not now. The mare wiped her bloodshot eyes vigorously, her breaths coming in and out as broken sobs.

"Doodle – go back to your room," she told the filly, her voice quaking.

The filly looked at us, terrified. Another pair of eyes peered over her back, and I found that another pony was clinging to her sister's coat.

"Are … are they going to hurt you?" the other asked, in Doodle's voice.

Summer Smiles croaked, "Hops …"

"Auntie –"

"GO BACK TO YOUR ROOM, NOW!" She screamed, and the twins scrambled back upstairs.

Summer Smiles slammed a hoof on the counter once more as her shoulders quaked with sobs. Her anguished grimace ran wet with fresh tears as her strength waned and her dams broke once more.

"Damnit … I shouldn't have done that. The last thing they needed to see was that … their mother's dead, for Celestia's sake. I need to be strong ..."

Candy Cane wrapped her hooves around her, comforting her until her sobs began to die away. I couldn't look at her like this. I struggled to contain tears of my own.

"What happened to her? How'd she go?" she asked me, trembling.

I eyed Candy Cane and hesitated. I wasn't sure what she'd think if she knew Sugar Rum was a slaver … she never would've associated herself with these ponies if she'd known.

But I relented. Summer Smiles deserved to know, whether or not Candy Cane liked what she was going to hear.

"She and her crew … they … they picked me up. Chained me to the back of their wagon with the other slaves …"

Candy Cane slowly turned towards me, her embrace loosening for a moment as her ears perked, unsure if she heard me right. She nearly let go and dropped Summer Smiles' head onto the counter.

"As we were heading up to Poneva, we were ambushed by bloodletters. They … they butchered everypony." I bit my lower lip, shaking my head. "Sugar Rum stayed behind with the slaves. She gave me that photo … she wanted me to tell you that she went out a good pony."

A trembling sob forced its way through Summer Smiles's throat, and she broke down in tears once more, burying her face into Candy Cane's chest.

"A good pony?" she whimpered, as Candy Cane held her head to her chest, running a tender hoof through her mane. Candy Cane's compassionate demeanor was betrayed by the shock and horror that haunted her visage.

I nodded, solemnly. "The other slavers ran off – left the slaves to die in their cage. The bastards left them to the bloodletters so that they could escape." Their dying screams echoed faintly in my ears and I cupped a hoof around my mouth as I shuddered. "A bloodletter got her …" I remembered her torn throat, the grisly scene replaying itself over and over in my head as I touched Sugar Rum's pale, blood-drained cheek.

"She was dying. She stayed behind with the slaves as those monsters were tearing them apart, and … gave them a merciful death." I finally met Summer Smiles' gaze, struggling to hold it as I forced myself to continue. "Then Sugar Rum did herself out … before the bloodletters could."

Summer Smiles whimpered into Candy Cane's peacoat as the maroon mare brushed her mane, tenderly. But her gentle hooves were lost upon the horror that skittered across her features.

"Summer … I didn't know Sugar was … a slaver," Candy Cane murmured, her voice trembling with consternation. Not even Candy Cane had known.

With a shuddering sob, the blue mare pulled away from her, shaking her head.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you … please, you mustunderstand! We needed the caps – we needed to put food on the table!" Summer Smiles sniffled, pitifully as she rubbed her eyes with her hooves. "She was a good pony … a good pony until the end, Candy Cane. She never liked her job ... she hated it! But it was all we had ... it was all we could do."

Candy Cane exhaled a breath she had been holding in, closing her eyes. She shook her head, her curly mane tumbling in front of her eyes. The mare wasn't sure what to think, and for several seconds, she sat there, unmoving as Summer Smiles' gazed at her pleadingly. To my surprise, she took Summer Smiles hoof in hers and squeezed. "I … I know she was ... she was the pony who found me half dead in the snow when I first escaped."

I cast my eyes to the floor. "I'm sorry. I should've … I could've saved her –" I began, but Summer Smiles cut me off.

"She enslaved you!" She looked away, ashamed. "I wouldn't have if I'd been you."

I shook my head.

"It wasn't like that. I knew she was different … she wasn't like the others. She was meek; she hesitated before she captured me, Summer Smiles. She. Hesitated." Only at the behest of her fellow slavers did she tap my skull with the butt end of her carbine. Beneath those blue goggles was a pony who hated what she was and what she had to do. I continued, "She cut down a bloodletter that was going to eat me alive. I owed her my life."

Tears began to well up in my eyes, but I fought them off, steeling myself as I clenched my jaw, tight.

Summer Smiles struggled to wipe her cheeks dry, her tears refusing to wane. "It's … I'm just glad somepony was able to tell me. Usually ponies just disappear here, and nopony ever hears from them again. For the last two weeks I thought she was going to be one of those ponies … " The mare found the strength to reach over the counter and touch my hoof. "Thank you … for telling me. It's reassuring knowing how she went out. Knowing about what she did."

But the utter hopelessness returned to her voice, and her eyes turned low. "With my sister dead, we won't be able to pay our dues. Our family relied on her paychecks …" She cradled her head in her hooves. "I don't know what I'm going to do … the foals … Goddesses, the foals."

Knock, knock, knock.

Hooves rapped against the door behind us, riveting us from our solemn hour.

Summer Smiles looked up, an abominable look of terror and fear draining the blood from her face. The three of us swung our heads to the door, none of us making another sound. Seconds later, the knocks came again, as assertively and insistently as the last.

The blue mare got to her four hooves and stumbled to the door, wiping her eyes vigorously with the sleeve of her winter coat. She sniffled once, glanced over her shoulder, and told us to get out of sight. And so we hid behind the counter as the door opened.

I peered furtively over the counter, and saw bowler caps. Son of a bitch.

"Nice to see you again, Summer Smiles," a mare greeted, whimsically, tipping her hat.

Our host just scowled at her, parting the door wide enough for me to see the mare's face. The two gangers behind the mare craned their necks over her shoulder, trying to get a look at Summer Smiles. One of them whistled, chuckling at the other.

Summer Smiles bit her lower lip, closing the door slightly.

My hoof crawled up my chest, resting upon my pistol's holster. Candy Cane squeezed my hoof with hers, shaking her head.

The Palomino mare cocked her head. "Why the long face, ol'pal?"

One of the stallions laughed, "I can make her smile for ya!"

"Pipe down, you dogs!" the mare hissed, shooting them a murderous look. She smiled politely once more when they pulled themselves together. "Sorry, they're new. Unblooded, sorry little young'uns."

Summer Smiles scowled at them, growling, "It doesn't matter to you." She planted one hoof on the door and stretched out a foreleg to the doorstop.

The mare laughed, amiably. "Of course it doesn't." The bowler cap craned her neck, peering into the inn. Summer Smiles tip-toed on her hind legs, leaning in front of the opening, obstructing her from a view inside. Giving up, the mare cleared her throat, simpering as she straightened her neck and brushed down her peacoat. "Eh, well, I think you know why we're here?" She asked, with a shrug.

They exchanged brief stares before the mare chimed in once more.

"We gonna have a staring contest here, Summer Smiles? I didn't come here to play no games."

"No … you didn't, did you." Summer Smiles tipped her head at the automatic weapons slung around their chests. The Palomino smirked, noticing the resentment in the mare's eyes; she gawked at her own submachine gun as if she just now realized it was there.

"I'm the only pony between you and my fillies."

She chortled, "The only thing between us and your fillies're, no, this entire establishment of yours, is the caps you owe us." The mare leaned against the railing outside the door, her accomplices wearing crooked grins. "It's pretty cold out here," she said, blithely. "We might just come inside for a bit, check out those caps of yours, because I know you got 'em. Whaddya say, Summer Smiles?"

Candy Cane and I exchanged worried glances.

"T-that won't be necessary."

"I hope so," the mare replied, sparing her submachine gun an evocative glance. "I hate scaring foals. It's just such a shitty thing to do, wouldn't you agree?"

Summer Smiles bit her lower lip, tapping the doorframe frantically.

"Can … can you just give me a break? Just this once? I'm never late on my payments …"

The Palomino shook her head, pursing her lips contritely.

"Girl, you know I can't do that," she whinnied.

The muscles beneath my barding tensed as I saw her glance back inside.

"I …" Summer Smiles gulped, pushing more of the door between her and the Palominos outside. There was a loud thump as the mare outside planted a hoof on the door's surface.

"I think we need to come inside," She said, indelicately. The mare threw her head over her shoulder and nodded at the others. "Last chance, Summer Smiles."

The mare tried parting the door further, but Summer Smiles leaned her weight against it.

"Summer Smiles?" she sighed, the sounds of bolts clacking made my ears perk.

My hoof lunged for my holster once more, and so did Candy Cane.

"Red – " I shook her free, and drew my pistol, cold sweat beading up on my forehead. "Red Dawn!" she hissed. "Don't."

I glared at her, saying nothing as I flipped the safety off. If they stepped a hoof through that door, I was afraid I'd have to kill again. And these Palominos were begging to get shot. I ducked behind the counter as a strained silence hung over us all once more.

The mare tipped her cap over her eyes, chuckling.

"Come on, boys-"

Bang.

A jolt of adrenaline surged through my veins as Summer Smiles stomped her hoof into the floor. I nearly threw myself over the counter, mouthbit clenched between my teeth.

"Wait!" she cried, the sound of hooves shuffling outside sent my heart pounding. I could hear, faintly, as Candy Cane's breaths hissed out of her mouth. "Wait here. I have the caps … just wait. Here."

Hooves clopped across the room as Summer Smiles made her way upstairs. She stopped at the foot of the stairs, looking back at us grievously. Another sum of her savings was going to be spent paying these bastards the money she didn't owe them.

I pressed my back against the bar, clenching my jaw as I heard her hoofsteps fade away upstairs. My eyes flicked to Candy Cane's, and she watched me as I brought my pipbuck to my muzzle.

Grifter's voice echoed in my thoughts.

… 435, 436, 437. … Uhh... uhh... Fuck! Lost count …

I'd lost count of what I had in my bags as well.

I sifted through my inventory. Not too long ago I'd trampled Grifter beneath me and stolen from him a sack of caps; there had to be hundreds in there. My pipbuck confirmed my suspicions. Eight hundred and twenty caps. I had eight hundred and twenty caps logged in my inventory.

Why I snatched it off his desk, I didn't know; it seemed like a good idea at the time. Perhaps it was to spite him? To tell the Palominos that that money wasn't theirs? That they were a bunch of thieving parasites?

My gaze slowly parted from my pipbuck's screen, firm and resolute.

It didn't matter now. They had taken this money from their victims.

It was time to give it back.

Candy Cane's jaw dropped, speechless as I bit my teeth around the sack of caps and yanked it out of my bags. Words were lost on her lips as I held it in the air before me. She had never seen so many caps – not even in her previous workplace.

"How – where … how much?" she murmured, eyeing the heavy bag with wide eyes.

I shook my head slightly, jingling the caps inside.

"Enough."

Summer Smiles came downstairs, her face contorted with despair as a bag of caps jingled between her teeth. Fresh tears were streaming down her face as she made her way down the steps, slowly, and deliberately. That must've been some of the last of her savings.

I knew what she was thinking. How were those two fillies going to eat?

I waved a hoof at her as she reached the bottom, and motioned for her to come closer. She trotted towards us, uneasily. Then I held out to her my bag of caps.

The mare stopped in her tracks, her small pouch dangling precariously from her mouth. Summer Smiles gasped, her mouth agape; her bag tumbled to the floor, erupting in a shower of bottlecaps.

"What's going on in there?" The Palomino mare outside demanded, her patience thinning, as she swung the door open with a hoof. The freezing winter breeze blew past her, showering the floorboards with fresh powder and welcoming in the wasteland's chilling bite.

Summer Smiles appeared oblivious to the winter storm that was now blowing into her home. It didn't matter. Safety and security lay upon my hoof.

"What …"

I held my leg out farther. "Take it."

The distrust she had reserved for me made her hesitate. Summer Smiles' curled lips said no, but her bloodshot eyes said yes. She needed this. For her sister's orphaned children.

"Summer Smiles!"

The mare swung her head to the door, broken from her trance like state.

"I … I just dropped my bag. Give me a second."

She knelt down beside me, biting the heavy bag, gingerly. Her teary gaze met mine, and she hesitated, narrowing her eyes at the spoils that she clenched between her teeth. I cracked a faint smile, and nodded.

"Why are you doing this?" she whispered, the immense sum of caps confounding her.

I sighed, "Because I can."

Summer Smiles needed this more than I did. I didn't need material possessions to get what my stable needed. I didn't have a home to pay taxes for, and I didn't have a family to provide for. I was adamant that she'd take it.

And the damn bag was beginning to weigh down on my hoof. My leg was starting to hurt.

"Go on," I said, softly, with a lopsided smile.

For the first time since we'd arrived, I saw it in her eyes. A sliver of hope flickered behind the windows to her soul. Something inside coaxed her onward. She needed this. Her sister's ... her foals needed this. And she did. She took it from my open hoof.

Summer Smiles rose to her fours and relinquished the sack of caps to the Palominos outside. There came an astonished gasp as the Palomino mare seized her spoils and shook, her ears perking at the sound of glorious currency – music to her ears.

"This … this is … a lot," the Palomino gawked. She cleared her throat, composing herself. The mare glanced at Summer Smiles as she shuffled nervously on her hooves. "Give us a few minutes. We'll count this up for ya. We ain't a bunch o'welchers," she grinned courteously, hoofing the bag to her subordinates. Her eyes never once left Summer Smiles' apprehensive visage. "One hundred caps, boys."

I was expecting the cafones to take the whole bag and gallop off with it. I was surprised really; there appeared to be some sliver of honor amongst these thieves.

A few minutes passed as the Palominos levitated out one cap after the other. When the deed was done, they unceremoniously dumped Summer Smiles' dues into the other's satchel bag. The mare smiled courteously before hoofing her back the sack of caps, one hundred caps lighter.

"There ya go," she said graciously, tipping her hat at her, and turning around to take her leave. "I'm glad we didn't have to do something neither of us would'a liked." The looks on her subordinates' faces begged to differ; they looked to be itching for a firefight. Or Summer Smiles' body.

"Like … likewise," our host managed as the sweat on her forehead turned to frost.

The mare held the bag in her hoof, frozen, and unable to speak. She looked on, distantly, as the Palominos started down the steps.

"You be a good girl, now," the mare called over her shoulder as Summer Smiles pivoted around, sluggishly, and shoved the door closed with a rear hoof. The inn was colder, now, but a different kind of warmth lingered among us as we stepped out of hiding.

Both of the mares were staring at me with a mixture of relief, gratitude, and disbelief. Summer Smiles had just dodged an explosive bullet. I caught Candy Cane's gaze, and saw that she was wearing that same look she had when I had dismantled her bomb collar.

"Thank you, Red Dawn," Summer Smiles began, trotting to the bar with a shell-shocked look on her face. "Now they'll leave my family alone for a bit." She set the bag of caps on the counter and pushed it towards me.

I shook my head, and slid it back, much to her surprise.

"It's yours now," I insisted. She just stood there, looking troubled. I nudged it towards her with a hoof when she didn't budge. "You need it more than I do."

She parted the bag's lips, and peered inside. It was a decently heavy bag. And it was hers now. She still couldn't believe it.

"I still don't know why you're helping me."

It bothered me because I didn't know why either. What's with me and helping random ponies? I could've used those caps to buy me rations for a week, or maybe some ammunition for my pistol. Maybe even a new bulletproof vest, which I desperately needed, if they sold that out here. A part of me was regretting that decision, now.

Those caps – my spoils – my loot – could've funded my journey.

My journey. I was growing fond of helping out random, unimportant ponies. Like … Candy Cane? Summer Smiles? But somehow, it seemed, everypony was important to somepony. Even I was important to somebody; I thought of my mother. I thought of Doodle and Hops as I stood there, my thoughts in conflict with one another.

How was helping Summer Smiles going to help me?

When I didn't answer, she pursed her lips, and posed another question. "How much is in there?" she asked, faintly, her eyes fluttering.

I poked it. It was still about as heavy as it was when I had taken it out of my satchel bags.

"Seven hundred and twenty caps."

Summer Smiles curled a hoof around its neck, her leg trembling.

"This'll last us weeks … maybe even a month." she murmured. The mare blinked, and shook her head. "I can't take this, it's not mine."

I sighed, growing irritated with her resolute down to earthness. Kindness seemed to be an alien concept in this wasteland. "If you don't want it, I'll just leave it there. The extra weight makes it harder to vault over rooftops," I smirked, dryly, glancing over at Candy Cane whose astonished grays continued to stare through me.

Our host just stood there again, dumbfounded. So I nudged it again, and again, and again, until it was banking precariously off the counter's edge and she was forced to hold it with her hooves. I smirked, slyly.

And Summer Smiles finally relented, clutching the bag tight.

She regarded the sack of caps with grim relief. "Thank you, Red Dawn. Doodle and Hops can eat for a while longer, now, thanks to you." The mare paused, hesitantly. "Candy Cane might just be right about you," she murmured, looking away. "Ain't that many ponies who'd just give out caps like that around here."

"Eh, they weren't mine to begin with. I stole them from the cafones."

Her eyes widened with shock.

"Goddesses bless you, Red Dawn. Sugar Rum would've kissed you for this …" I shrugged, my lopsided smile stretching across my cheeks.

"I need some time to think about this. The Orphanage I mean." She turned to Candy Cane. "I don't suppose you were planning on staying here for a while?"

"We were hoping we could." Candy Cane rested a hoof on my shoulder. "If you'll have us, of course?"

I couldn't help but notice as Summer Smiles' name matched her likeness. She was grinning from ear to ear.

"I could never say no to you ..." Summer Smiles intoned, staring deep into Candy Cane's eyes. She blinked, and fixed her gaze upon me. "Not to either of you." The mare could see the weariness in my eyes, and the way my posture dipped languidly from side to side as I stood, idle. "I'm sure you'd like a place to sleep."

"Sleeping would hit the spot, right about now," I yawned.

Candy Cane folded her legs across her chest. "We won't be here for long. We don't want to be a burden."

"Nonsense! Please … stay – stay for as long as you'd like." She glanced at the door one last time. "It's the least I can do for an old friend … and … a … good pony, I think."

I looked away, flattered; I was starting to believe that. Entering forth unto the wasteland shattered the expectation I had built over decades of ignorance. Entering forth unto the city of Poneva took whatever hope I had left and grinded it into a fine dust, before scattering it into the frozen winds.

But seeing somepony smile … somepony in this wasteland, made my livid flesh and the graying soul beneath just a little warmer.

Despite this, I hated having ponies owe me things; never did ask for or allow anypony to give me any sort of payment for fixing up their doodads and trinkets at 91. I didn't want to do that now …

But she was offering us a place to stay; no matter how much I wanted to refuse her kindness and keep hoofing it, a bed and a roof to come back to every now and then sounded divine. But she didn't need another burden on her shoulders. With her sister gone, she had more important things to worry about than a stranger staying in her home.

"If you'll let us stick around, I could pool whatever caps, food, supplies I come across," I chimed in. Candy Cane nodded agreeably; she too cherished in the idea of having a roof over her head in the event of another winter storm.

"We'd like to pull our own weight," she offered, cheerfully, holding Summer Smiles' hooves. "It'll be like old times!"

The mare exhaled with relief, hugging her. "That's more than I would've asked for." She panned her gaze and her expression turned sour. She scorned the dusty, neglected room around her. "This place is just despicable. Sugar Rum would've hated to see you returning to my inn like this. I have rooms unoccupied upstairs, but I haven't cleaned them in months ... ever since I closed this place down, I kind of just forgot about everything else myself, my sister, and her foals didn't use."

I waved it off with a hoof. "It'll do. I've been sleeping in metal boxes for the past two weeks. Any bed to lie in is a bed nonetheless."

Candy Cane bowed her head. "Yes, whatever you can spare is good enough for me," she assured, graciously.

Summer Smiles nodded, hesitantly, grumbling under her breath. She wanted the best for her guests. "You look like you're about ready to drop," she remarked, cocking an eyebrow at me.

"Do I? I can't even … tell," I yawned languidly, rubbing my eyes.

Candy Cane chimed in, "He's been beat up pretty bad." She touched a hoof to her chin. "How he's still standing, I don't know."

"After that sinkhole dive, I don't know either, Candy Cane," I said, rolling my bloodshot eyes.

Summer Smiles waved us onward. "Come on, I'll show you both to your rooms, upstairs."

"Let me just get my bags." I trotted over to the door where I had left them, and swirled around them a magical field – and white hot agony arced through my veins.

I uttered a rasping gasp, collapsing to the floor in a heap, my eyes tearing up with blood as crimson poured out of my nose. Stars exploded in my eyes as my head connected with the floorboards, and I just laid there, limply, as I bled out of every orifice on my face.

Summer Smiles shrieked as Candy Cane galloped towards me, rolling me over on my side to cringe at my bloodied visage.

"What the hell'd you do, Red Dawn?!"

Her shrill voice sent a terrible twinge through my ears, dazing me; meanwhile, somepony slowly screwed a metal bolt into my skull. I groaned, my limbs twitching erratically as my mind began to give up on being lucid.

"I'll n-never get used to being an earth pony," I wheezed as the two mares lifted me to my hooves.

She glared at me. "You don't have to be … don't go around trying that until after you've slept this thing off!"

"What's wrong with him?" Summer Smiles asked, wincing.

"He burned out his magic," she said, grunting as she propped me up against the wall.

I gasped for breath, clenching my eyes shut as my brain floundered around within my skull. Having a burnout induced headache was like having a debilitating muscle cramp but inside your brain. I was getting sick and fucking tired of this useless horn of mine.

I shrugged them off, irritated with myself. "It's … I'm okay. I can … I can walk."

I took a feverish step forward and nearly fell on my face once more, prompting Candy Cane to lean up against me. A long, drawn out sigh wheezed out of my lips.

"Let me just get my bags," I repeated. "Let's try this again," I murmured, much to Candy Cane's dread that I'd try magic again.

"I can get those for you –" she began, but I brushed her off, and reached for them myself. This time, I curled my hooves around my bags' straps and hurled them over my back with a grunt.

I looked up, and found that the two mares were staring at me.

"What?"

Summer Smiles covered her face with a hoof, muttering to herself.

"You're getting blood on my floor."

---

I stumbled around in almost complete darkness, the only light coming from the open door that led to the hallway behind us. I shuffled blindly across the floor, and ran into something solid; I nearly collapsed again. Whatever I had struck rattled and shook, my muzzle stinging where it made contact. I was too tired to care really. All I wanted to do was to find the bed that was supposed to be in this room.

A light switched on, and the obstruction revealed itself to be a dresser. Glancing over my shoulder, I caught Candy Cane's worried stare, her hoof hovering over a button on the wall.

"Thanks."

Candy Cane watched, silently, as I set my bags down next to an old bed that lay beneath a shuttered windowpane. I could hear, faintly, the wind moaning outside.

The air inside was chilly; but thankfully not bone gnawingly freezing like it was outside, especially with the storm blowing past us. I was glad I was inside, this time. The room was furnished with a table with an uneven leg, a dresser that was missing a drawer, and a cracked mirror, through which I gazed at my reflection. The bags under my eyes and the redness of my sclera were sorry sights to look at.

I was a sorry sight to look at. Candy Cane knew this too.

"I think I got it from here," I told her, but she didn't budge an inch. The two mares had helped me upstairs, because I was apparently too loopy to walk up a flight on my own. What'd they know? I had four legs that weren't broken … yet. That's what I told Candy Cane, but she said I'd get one if I kept being stubborn.

Summer Smiles had left to check on the fillies, but the maroon mare had remained.

With her still leaning against the doorway, I rummaged through my bags, pulling out my Stable 91 jumpsuit. It was clean; I haven't worn it since I left the stable. And I wasn't about to wear my bloody security barding to bed. I ran a hoof up my chest and curled it around the zipper under my neck. I frowned, Candy Cane's shadow still stretching across the floor next to me. I glanced over my shoulder, questioningly.

"Oh … sorry," she said, turning away. You can leave, you know, I wanted to say. Whatever. I sighed and shed my battered barding. My teeth chattered, rifling the inside of my skull, and joining the dull pain that throbbed in my head.

With a zip, I slipped into the blue and yellow jumpsuit, the numbers 91 emblazoned onto my sides.

I turned, and found myself unsurprised. "You're still there," I remarked, as Candy Cane turned her head back to me.

She smiled, faintly. "I'm just here to make sure you don't fall on your face again."

I rolled my eyes and flopped onto the bed with a groan, laying my head down on the pillow. My eyes fluttered closed. Soft. The blankets were cold beneath my flesh, but the bed was soft. It had been a while since I'd lain down on something like this. I almost felt like I was back at home. I took a deep breath and imagined I was lying in my bed. I imagined Dew Drops lying next to me, sleeping soundly as I closed my own and began to drift off into a peaceful slumber.

Then I felt the air above me shift. My bloodshot eyes flew open and I eeped. Candy Cane was staring down at me.

"Shit …" I murmured, tucking my legs to my chest as she placed a hoof on my forehead.

"Your fever's gotten worse since I last checked. Give me a minute." The mare trotted away, disappearing outside. She returned, shortly after with a wet towel, which she draped over my forehead. Candy Cane sighed, "There. Is it cold?"

I shivered, kicking the blankets under me before pulling them over my numb flesh.

"Y-yes," I managed, as I felt my headache begin to wane.

"Thank Celestia," she muttered, relieved. "That should cool you down. I don't want you having a meltdown inside that skull of yours."

"Thanks, Candy Cane," I said, staring up at the ceiling.

She stood there for a few heartbeats, looking like she had something to say.

"What you did earlier … I'm glad Summer Smiles didn't have to give them her caps. Doodle and Hops mean the world to her," she whispered.

I sighed, wishing she'd just leave me be so that I could sleep. I mustered through my pervasive headaches a crooked smile, and nodded, but the towel slipped down my face. Candy Cane snorted, somewhat amused, and tugged it back onto my forehead. I shivered, my muzzle wet with cooling water.

"You made me a pony again, Red Dawn," she said, tenderly, staring into my heavy eyes. Candy Cane nudged my shoulder with a hoof. "So I'll help youbecome a unicorn again."

I had already fallen asleep by the time the light flicked off and the door creaked closed.

Footnote: Level 6

XP: 250/3450