The tracks were all but gone now, and any hope I had of finding my sister with them. I quickened my pass across the flat ground, hooves kicking up dust as I went. For the next hour, I tried my best to pick up the trail, but to no avail. The harsh dry air had buried them, covering them completely. The most I could do now was travel east and pray I would come across some other sign of their passing.

Ahead of me, the landscape changed very little, near featureless terrain broken up by the odd rock or low hill. Brown tufts of grass grew in the cracks between rocks, along with thorny brush. Overhead, the thick gray cloud cover blocked out the sun, but not the heat. My riot armour felt as if it was made of stone, and was covered in dirt and my sweat. Below it, my blue and yellow jumpsuit looked no better, sweat staining it’s front and collar. For the past mile, my tongue felt as thick as my hoof, but I dared not take a drink. I knew if I did, I’d likely be unable to stop.

I was entering my fifth hour of running, when I was at last forced to halt. I had stopped sweating, and my entire body ached. Not a good sign, my hooves slowed from a full gallop to a trot as I scanned the area around me for someplace safe to take a break. Nothing but flat, empty wasteland stared back at me. Finally I spotted a gathering of rocks off to my right, and moved over towards them. After a quick check for anything likely to leap out and try and kill me, I settled down beside the rocks and pulled out my half empty water canteen. I had three others tucked into my saddle bag, along with the bottled water from Lonesome Hoof. Fishing around inside, I pulled out some dried carrots and a few slices of apples.

As I began to eat, I turned on my radio once more and listened to the music, no singing this time, just a very up beat merry little song. Sadly it did little to cheer me up. Chewing on my carrot, I glanced around the plains once more. The wind continued to whip up ever so often, the warm breeze offering me slight comfort from the heat. Once I was finished with my food, I carefully took a drink from the canteen. All too quickly, I lowered the canteen away from my lips before I could guzzle the whole thing down in one go. I had to save it. LonesomeHoof had shown me most of the water sources had been tainted by radiation long ago, and I doubted they’d cleared up since then.

I was just about to stand back up and press on, when a tone from my Pipbuck alerted me. Looking down to my right foreleg, I pressed a dial on the side of the device with my nose and watched the green screen flash up an alert. I’d come into range of another radio source. Below the station listed as “Luna News Radio, Three Horn’s station,” was another listed as a “Emergency Signal.” I quickly turned to it and listened as a mare’s voice began speaking hurriedly.

“Rose, this is your sister, we’re being chased by the Shattered Hoof, they already killed Redtail, and Appleseed’s wounded real bad. We’re trying to make it to Crossroads along the old highway, but I don’t know if we’ll make it. If you can hear this, send help please, I don’t know how much longer we can keep running.”

The message cut off quickly, but I thought I heard the sound of gun fire in the back ground, and standing up swiftly I looked out across the plains. The mare had mentioned a highway. The only one I had seen thus far had been back at Lonesome Hoof, and turning around I glanced back the way I had came. Nothing but empty plains. Crossroads, what was that? Another town? Was it further down the road from Lonesome Hoof?

I was still thinking of what to do when I heard the faint echo of gun fire again. My ears twitched and I stood still, trying to figure out from which direction it had come. The warm breeze rustling my mane and tail as I listened, ears perked. Another shot, but it sounded as if it had come from all around me.

Turning again, I looked back east, and spotted something that had not been there a few moments before. A cloud of dust was rising up in the distance. It was too far away to make out any detail, but it had to be something moving quickly across the dry ground. Somepony running from trouble. By the looks of it, several someponies.

Quickly sealing my saddle bags, I shook off a layer of dust from myself and took off towards the dust cloud, my hooves kicking up a smaller cloud behind me. It wasn’t far away, perhaps a mile or two at most. As I drew nearer, I could more easily pick out the sounds of gunfire, followed by the whoops and yells of somepony.

Cresting the low hill, I came across the source of the dust cloud and the distress call. A stagecoach was flying across the dry packed earth pulled by a single large earth pony, although it was clearly meant for two as was evident by the empty harness swaying madly beside him. He wore a old style cowpony hat and some type of barding across his large frame. A rifle could be seen slung across his side. The coach was made of wood and some steel. It looked much like the ones I had seen in the history books and the one western movie we had in the Stable. Just a lot older. Atop it were several crates and pieces of luggage tied down to the frame. The dust cloud billowed behind the spinning wheels as it crossed the plains quickly, a short time later I could see why.

Following closely behind came a group of around seven ponies. They were mostly earth ponies but two unicorns could be seen by the glow of their weapons floating along with them, aimed at the coach and the pony pulling it. They were dressed similarly to the earth pony pulling the coach; hats, barding and a mix of vests and weapons. One was wearing a rig across his back, with a large rifle built into it. As I watched, he bit down upon something near his mouth and the rifle fired. A sharp crack echoed across the flat terrain. The bullet tore through a wheel of the coach and nearly shattered it completely, splinters of wood flying out in all directions. Other rounds struck the coach with little damage beside clipping off wood from the frame, although a few struck close to the hooves of the driver. Then somepony got lucky, and a bullet struck the driver in his hindquarters. The sudden pain sent the earth pony into the dirt and the stage coach to a grinding halt nearly rolling over his body. The last I could see of them was the earth pony staggering to his hooves and reaching for his rifle. Then the cloud of dust flowed over the scene and hid all from view.

Below me the seven ponies who had been chasing began to close in, jeering at the earth pony and whoever else was on the coach. A unicorn with a rifle began floating his weapon up to take aim at the driver, a grin on his face. As they drew closer I could more easily see them, across their backs near their saddle bags they had chains and collars hanging about, likely for the ponies in that coach. My E.F.S. made it very clear who they were.

Seven red dots. Three green ones. Hardly fair odds.

Narrowing my eyes, I shook off my weariness and gripped the bit of my shotgun in my mouth before charging down the hill towards the attacking ponies; although not dressed like the raiders who had attacked my home, it was clear they were little better. I imagined whatever they had planned for the ponies inside that coach was anything pleasant.

The nearest one was alerted to my presence by the sound of the loose rocks rolling down the hillside from my movements. He had just enough time to widen his eyes and open his mouth before my first shot silenced his warning. The smoking body had barely had time to strike the ground before I fired again (this time targeting the unicorn with the rifle) only winging the target’s hind quarters, still it was enough to force him to shout in pain and miss his target. The other five turned to see where this new threat was coming from, and began to fire at me.

Dodging to the right, I galloped as fast as I could towards the trailing cloud of dust as bullets flew around me. If I could duck into it, they’d have a harder time of hitting me but I also had another reason for moving. The pony with the large rifle turned, trying to keep me in his sights long enough to fire. Shit, that thing looked like it could punch a hole through a steel door. If it hit me, I’d be luck to have anything left. As I ran I kept the heavily armed pony in my sights, bringing my shotgun up to try and take a shot.

Suddenly, the pony’s head exploded and the body toppled to the ground in a heap. Behind him, the earth pony driver lay against the front wheels of the coach, slapping the bolt of his rifle back and ejecting the spent shell. Offering me a quick nod he turned and lined up another shot at the unicorn I had wounded and sent a round through his side, hitting either a lung or the heart. The unicorn was dead either way. He’d barely even aimed before firing, he was as good a shot as Twist.

Quickly turning on the spot, I entered S.A.T.S and targeted the nearest red dot half hidden by the thick cloud of dust that flowed around the battle. It was the second unicorn, she was carrying a assault rifle and had turned her weapon on the coach itself, likely intending to unload a clip into whoever was inside. Locking onto her armored chest (the best chance to hit her despite the armor) I released S.A.T.S and let the slugs fly. What armor the unicorn had been wearing luckily did nothing to stop the lead slug from entering her body and rearranging her organs. The third round silenced her screams and pain at least.

A round bounced off my shoulder guard, another struck my left front leg and punched clean through the lighter armor. Biting back a cry of pain, I stumbled to my right and dropped down into the dirt, just as another round flew over my head. Rolling over, I had just enough time to lock onto the shooter with the remaining charge from S.A.T.S, and removed most of his face from the world...doing the world a major favor I might add. But that still left three ponies, one of which was charging me with murder in his dark brown eyes, an old model shotgun held in his mouth and pointed at my back as I lay in the dirt facing the wrong direction. I’d never get rolled over in time and S.A.T.S was recharging.

Again somepony stepped in to save my hide, as a large pistol floated up into the window of the stage coach and fired rapidly. Two shots struck the charging pony in the side, and another three struck the ground around his hooves, but it was enough to cause him to stumble to his knees not far from me and his aim to lower as he pulled the trigger. A cloud of dirt and rocks was blown up near my hind quarters and scattered across my flanks.

Rolling over onto my back, I propped my combat shotgun up by my front hooves and spread my rear legs out as I fired nearly point blank into my attackers face. Without a sound, the pony dropped heavily to the ground beside me, blood spreading out across the dry soil as his shotgun clattered across the ground from his nerveless lips.

The sound of hooves jerked my head back towards the remaining two ponies, who had clearly had enough. They fled as quickly as they could back the way they’d come, not bothering to look behind them. With a grunt, I lay back on the hot ground and stared up at the cloudy sky. This was becoming a habit it seems.

Climbing to my hooves, I shook myself again to knock off the new layer of dust I had acquired from rolling across the ground. This was quickly followed by a sneeze and several deep coughs as my throat and nose tried to clear themselves of the dust. I wasn’t a prissy pony by any means, but the dirt and dust had worked itself into ever part of my body it could. Under my barding and jumpsuit and in places I didn’t even know I had. I suddenly missed my shower back home. Shaking my head, I wiped my nose with the back of my hoof and limped off towards the coach to check on the others.

The driver was just standing up when I drew near, he lowered his rifle as he moved around the slowly spinning wheel to walk towards me and look me over with pale green eyes. Up close, he was as big as Brightblade, if a bit bulkier in muscle were my friend was more lean. Below the layer of brown dust and soil, his coat was a light gray in color. His mane and tail matched the color of the dust over his body, a light brown (at least I think it was, it could have just been covered in dust). Upon his head, the old well worn cowpony hat still sat somehow, a bit tattered around the edges and having seen better days, the dark brown hat was removed as he wiped his forehead of dust and sweat. His armor was a mix of colors; greens, browns and blacks. It looked pieced together from several different sets and types, however it all managed to come together somehow. Glancing to his wounded flank, I saw his cutie mark was a pick axe and shovel.

“How’dy stranger. Much obliged by th’ help just then. Them blasted slaver’s an’t known for givin’ up none to easily,” the earth pony said as he stopped beside the stage coaches door, holding up a hoof towards me.

Lifting my own I gave the strange sounding pony a hoof shake and a friendly smile, he seemed alright and I was thankful to see there was normal ponies up here after all.

“Name’s Stonehoof, pleasure to make yer acquaintance.”

“Shadow, and it’s nice to meet you as well, Stonehoof,” I answered before I arched a brow and added, “Slavers?” I had heard Three Horn’s speak about them as well as the Raiders, but not as often. It was hard to imagine any pony enslaving another pony for work. But then, it was also hard to imagine another pony attacking a Stable and killing just for the hell of it. As I thought about it, that must have been what the chains and collars were for, taking Stone and the pony inside the coach for slaves.

The driver tilted his head at me and looked more closely at my armor, it bore my name across the right side in white lettering just below the Stable-Tec logo on the chest plate and ‘Stable 45’ written below that. His eyes lit up as he spotted the word Stable and he smiled more openly.

“Ah see, yer one of them Stable ponies an’t yah? That explains how ya don’t know much bout slavers.” Grinning he lightly slapped me on my shoulder and started towards the coach,“Count yer blessin’ then. Slaver’s are a right nasty bunch.”

The door to the coach opened, and a white coated unicorn poked her slender head out into the dim light. Her pale clear blue eyes moved from the driver to me, smiling warmly at us both. To say she looked beautiful was a understatement. As I stood their dumbly, Stonehoof reached up and offered the mare help down out of the coach, she took his large hoof in her smaller one and carefully climbed out. I was further surprised to notice she was pregnant.

“Thank you, Stonehoof...please see to my brother,” she said softly and looked back inside the coach to somepony else. Once she had climbed out, she moved slowly and with a bit of difficulty around the coach to sit as Stonehoof climbed up inside. With a soft sigh she pushed back her long yellow mane from her face and looked back towards me standing nearby. With a gentle smile, she nodded her head and spoke up.

“My name is Lilly, and your arrival was most fortunate, Mr Shadow. As good as Stonehoof is, I doubt even he could have fought off all seven of those slavers with an injured leg and my brother and I to worry about.”

I was about to reply when a snort issued forth from the coach, and the gray earth pony poked his head back out to look at the mare, hat tilted back from his eyes.

“Horseapples if Ah couldn’t, Miss Lilly,” the large gray pony dropped back out, carrying another across his shoulders. It was another unicorn, though far younger then either of them, wearing armor similar to Stone’s. He had a very light green coat, almost a blue green in color and a far darker green for his mane and tail. I could not see his cutie mark, as his hind quarters were wrapped in bandages and soaked with blood.

“How is he doing, Stone?” Lilly asked, looking worriedly over to the young pony, her brother she’d said.

“He’s in a right bad way, ma’am. Lost a lot of blood when those slaver’s ambushed us a couple miles back. Ah dunno if he’ll make it th’ Crossroads.”

At his words, Lilly closed her eyes and gently brushed the young ponies dark green mane out from his own tightly closed eyes. I could see tears forming under Lilly’s as the mare though of losing her brother. I was reminded of my own last sibling. My ‘little sister’ lost somewhere out here.

Stepping towards the three, I saw the young pony had taken a load of buck shot across his flanks (likely shot in the back). Dozens of small wounds bled under the bandages, and there were other wounds across his body, bruises and cuts but none as bad. Stone was right, it didn’t look like he’d make it much further then he had. He’d bleed out.

Reaching back into my saddle bags I withdrew the second of my health potions I had, leaving me with only three now. But I couldn’t just stand by and watch this happen. Not when I could do something about it. Turning back around I dropped the bottle down beside Lilly and motioned towards the wounded unicorn.

“Here, this should repair most of the damage and stop the bleeding.”

The unicorn mare blinked in surprise her ears perking towards me and looked to the red potion sitting beside her. Her horn glowed brightly as she lifted it up to her face and looked at the red contents. With a pop, the cork came free. “I...I don’t know what to say, Mr Shadow...but...thank you, this will save my little brother’s life,” gently as she could, she held the green unicorn’s head up with one of her hooves and placed the bottle to his lips for him to drink. He managed to swallow all of the drink before she laid his head back down.

“Mighty nice thing ya doin’ there, Shadow,” the large grey pony said beside us, looking from the wounded unicorn back up to me. A large hoof rose up to point at my leg, “Here, let me help ya with bindin’ that there wound.”

Looking back down to my leg, I was surprised I had forgotten about the wound, it hardly even hurt at all, but sure enough it was still there. Lifting the wounded limb up to look more closely, I saw the bullet had passed clean through both the armor and the flesh below. It seemed to have missed my leg bone by inches. I’d gotten off lucky.

Once my wound and Stonehoof’s own was bandaged, I helped him right the stagecoach back onto all four wheels, it having come to rest in a rut in the road had been stuck leaning on its side. They had indeed been traveling across an old highway, the pavement covered in dust from the wind was kicked up as we worked to right the large wooden coach. The large earth pony then set about repairing the damaged wheel the slavers had shot out, having retrieved a bag of tools off the top of the coach, he made use of whatever he could to brace up the wheel. While he worked, Lilly tended to her brother, who had drifted off to sleep. During the mad flight, the unicorn had managed to dig most of the buck shot out of her brother’s flank with her magic. The potion then did the rest, stopping the wounds from bleeding and healed them far more quickly then they would have on their own.

Sitting down beside the two, I reloaded my shotgun and looked up ever so often to watch as Stone repaired the wheel. He looked as capable as Gearbox, though a lot more like able. A frowned, I’d been thinking a lot more about home and the ponies somewhere off in the wasteland behind me. I wondered if they’d reached the first towns we had seen on the map. Had they found help? Or were they like Lonesome Hoof, empty expect for ghosts from the past. After several minutes of silence I looked back to Lilly. She had folded her legs up under her as she rested, laying her brother’s head against her back as he slept. I noticed her cutie mark matched her name, a single yellow flower. I smiled at the sight of the two, Ebony use to do that for me after I’d drank to much...

“Lilly, have you or anypony else seen a large band of raiders pass through the area over the past week?” I asked, breaking the silence that had fallen over the scene. The mare looked up from her brother and looked confused for a moment.

“Raiders? No, I haven’t seen any in sometime...I heard a large band was moving into the areas up north. But, I haven’t seen any myself in almost seven months, and it was only a small band that time” The mare checked on her brother again, before she looked over to me fully, “Why are you looking for raiders? Most ponies try to stay away from them.”

“A group attacked my Stable, killed several ponies and took several more captive. I’d been trailing them the past two days when the wind erased their tracks.” Lilly’s eyes widened and she held up a hoof to her mouth as I explained, “One of them taken was my sister and I am trying to find out where they might have taken her and the others. Save them if I can.”

“Oh goddess...I’m so sorry, Shadow.” The mare’s blue eyes looked to me sadly,“Raider’s aren’t know for taking captives though,” she added softly.

“So I heard over the radio...still, I have to find them.”

“You should come with us to Crossroads, perhaps somepony there has heard or seen of them. It’s the only settlement before the Povoni Desert this far east.” I blinked and looked from the stagecoach back to the mare and her brother.

“Where are you coming from then?” I asked, if it was as dangerous as they said, surely they did not live out here alone or had made a trip to someplace with so few to protect themselves.

“From my homestead; my husband and I owned a small plot of land up near the mountains, use to be a rich gold and silver mine there, been in his family for generations. When the bombs first fell, his family stayed in the mines for a time, until they ran out of supplies. When they emerged everything was gone, but being earth ponies they just went about picking up the pieces. They managed to avoid the fate of most surface survivors being so far away from anypony else.” I looked from Lilly to the large Stonehoof, as he worked to repair the wheel, she must have figured out what I was thinking because she smiled and shook her head.

“Stonehoof is not my husband, his name was Jasper...he was killed by raiders seven months ago. Jasper and Stone were brothers. He helped work the mine with my husband. He’s been looking after my little brother and me ever since then. He’s as much a brother to us now as anything else.”

“I’m sorry to hear it...” I said, but she waved it away with another smile, before holding a hoof to her stomach.

“I still have my Jasper’s foal, and the memories we shared...so he’s not really gone in a sense,” her smile remained before she winced in pain, “Hmmm...speaking of...I believe its getting nearly time for somepony to arrive.”

“Wheels all patched up, Miss Lilly, Ah reckon we’re ready ta get soon as we strip those there slavers of useful bits,” the earth pony said, trotting up to us, noticing the pained look on the mare’s face he flicked his ears in alarm and his pale green eyes widened, “Whats a matter? Foal’s not comin’ yet is it?” he asked.

Lilly smiled softly and slowly climbed to her hooves with the aid of Stone keeping one of her forehooves against her large belly.

“The pony can fight off a hoard of slavers, pull out bullets from his own limbs with a rusty knife or fight hoof to hoof with a feral ghoul, but he gets scared of a pregnant mare about to give birth....colts...” with a roll of her eyes she looked playfully to Stone,“You’ve enough time to check those bodies for anything useful, Stone, just make it quick, we don’t have time for you to go through the lint in their pockets for gold dust.”

Reaching over, I managed to work Lilly’s brother onto my back and carry him towards the coach, as Stone helped get her inside. As I approached the door, I was about to ask Stone to help me get the young wounded pony inside when a soft white glow from Lilly’s horn flashed from within the coach and she helped get her brother inside and onto a seat beside her. The mare lay back in the cushioned seats and winced, she’d over did it with that spell.

Shutting the door, Stone dropped back down and looked over to me.

“Ah hate ta be askin’ ta take ya away from yer own problems...but Ah could use th' help ta get Miss Lilly ta Crossroads. Ah’d be willin’ ta share th' loot from them slavers seein’ how ya helped take’em out is only fair.”

Glancing from the earth pony to the twin harnesses at the front of the coach I felt myself groan inwardly. My legs still felt like rubber after the run, but a groan of pain from within the coach made me sigh. I couldn’t just walk away after all this, and Lilly had mentioned I might find somepony in Crossroads that knew more about the raiders. I nod my head once and look back to Stonehoof.

“I’m afraid I don’t know much about pulling coach's....but I’ll try and give you a hoof in getting back to town.”

“It’s alright, cause Ah know nothin’ bout birthin’ foals and with yer help Ah’ll manage ta keep it that way,” he replied with a grin, then nodded his head towards the bodies,“Bein’ new from a Stable, ya need ta learn how ta survive up here. Nothin’ goes ta waste. Take anythin’ useful off them.” with that, he turned and trotted over to the first of the dead slavers and began to rummage in the body’s saddle bag.

Turning away, I looked over to the slaver who had nearly killed me and stepped up beside the body. Looking down at the pony I found myself wondering what drove this pony to sell other ponies for money. Was it the only work he could find in this wasteland? He did not look like the raiders, his body was mutilated or wearing bits and pieces from other ponies. I looked away from the hole in his head from my shotgun. He’d been a light brown stallion, with a black long mane and tail. He could have been just another pony from my Stable honestly. His clothing and the saddle bags he wore were tattered and had clearly seen better day, as had his piece meal armored barding. A glance to his flank made me stop. His cutie mark was of a ball and chain wrapped around the outline of a pony.

No...not just any pony from my Stable.

Frowning, I shook my head, regardless of what had driven him to this, he was dead and I was alive. Reaching over with a hoof I opened his saddle bags and started digging around inside. I found a few things of use, a few more shotgun shells, some smaller caliber rounds, likely for a pistol (though not for my revolver, a quick check showed them to be far far to small), some odd dried up strips of something. It smelled spicy. Food perhaps? A quick check of his armored barding reviled a blunt looking knife and a few bandages. I tossed it all into my own bag and looked then for his fallen weapon.

The shotgun was badly damaged, the stock had cracked and it appeared that whatever damage it had suffered before, the fall to the ground had finished it completely. The slide would not pull back and eject the shell, nor would the trigger work. With a snort, I tossed it away, not wanting to be weighted down by something useless.

It took the two of us little time to strip the dead slavers of anything of use, in the end I found some assault rifles, a nearly broken rifle, two dull knives, and a single grenade (luckily the pony carrying it hadn’t been given a chance to use it, he was the first one I shot when I ran into help Stonehoof and Lilly). Much to my surprise, Stonehoof picked up the broken shotgun I had tossed aside and placed it in his saddle bag, noticing me looking at him he grinned and tipped his hat up out of his face and once more wiped his face with his foreleg.

“True enough it’s busted up good, but it could be right useful for spare parts.”

Hmmm, why the hell hadn’t I thought of that? Likely because I was worn out and ready to drop. Looking over I noticed the weapon rig still across the back of the dead slaver, again Stone noticed where I was looking and once more spoke up.

“Ah hate leavin’ a nice battle saddle like that, but we’ve wasted enough time here, we’ll try comin’ back for it, if nopony else finds it afor us. Ah stripped it of ammo at least.”

Turning away, he walked towards the front of the stagecoach and began hooking himself in.

Crossroads was the first settlement I had come across with ponies still living within it. To be fair, it was only the second settlement I had come across since coming to the surface two days ago so perhaps my opinion might be a bit one sided. The trip to the town had not taken us long, the two of us had made good time, at least according to Stonehoof we had.

Hooked into the harness beside the larger earth pony, I had a clear view of town as we crested a hill over looking it. Despite the fading rays of light that filtered through the over head cloud cover, I could still make out a good deal about the town. It was a surprising sight after miles of empty plains and ruined buildings.

The first thing that caught my eye about the town, was not the town itself but rather the very large wall surrounding it on all sides. Whoever had built it, had taken what appeared to have been random junk and whatever was at hoof to build it. Large sheets of rusting metal off buildings and carts, rocks from the surrounding country side, large chunks of pavement, even an old train car or two stacked in place. Much like Stone’s armor, it was a mix of colors from dark browns and grays to black and silver. Anything metal was a rusted shade of brown and green. The wall was little more then six feet in height, but it seemed enough to keep out all but the most determined visitors.

The second thing I noticed was further back in the collection of buildings. Railroad tracks ran through the town, traveling west to east out across the plains. I noticed wall was built over the tracks themselves, although it appeared gates had been made across them from sheets of metal and salvaged railroad ties. Was it possible trains still used the tracks? At least it explained where the rusting hulks of the train cars along the wall had come from. The gates did look like they’d be big enough for those cars as well. I looked towards where the road we were following encounters the wall and saw another gate there, much smaller then the railroad side gates. They looked large enough for the stagecoach to easily pass under, but not much else.

Lastly, was the town itself. Crossroads was far larger then Lonesome Hoof, with nearly twice the buildings, thought they rose no higher then the ghost towns. From where I trotted it was hard to make out much about the buildings, expect they all seemed intact and in use. Smoke drifted lazily from several chimneys about town, and the smell of cooking reached my nose. I could barely make out signs hanging above the roofs of several of the buildings, shops of some kind? Just before we dropped below the line of the wall, I saw the cracked pavement of the road crossed the railroad tracks in the center of town and seemed to continued on northward to what looked like another gate. Suddenly the name of the town made much more since.

It took us only a few minutes to cross the open plains leading up to the town. As we pulled the coach closer to the wall, I looked up and spotted a dark brown unicorn looking back down at me from a walkway built atop the wall, he had a rifle floating beside him. I noticed a few other ponies walking along the top of the wall here and there, keeping watch across the wasteland. After the past few days, I could understand why they would. One turned and yelled something back down into town, but I was to far away to hear what he said. I looked back to Stonehoof, but my fellow driver said nothing, so it must have been normal. The sound of movement from ahead drew my attention back ahead of us and the highway side gate that was slowly opening outwards by two ponies pushing hard against it. As we grew closer, I saw the gate was actually mounted upon small wheels that helped it open across the cracked asphalt.

“Goodthing Lilly knows th' mayor of th' town, otherwise we’d be waitin’ out here all day while they checked us out,” Stonehoof said beside me as we passed through the gates. The two earth ponies who had opened them for us watched us closely as we passed. Knowing the mayor or not, these ponies did not seem to trust strangers.

Trotting past them, and into the town itself I could see it more clearly now without the wall in the way. There were several streets that ran along the row of buildings, and old street lights along them all. Rusting green signs hung from the light poles, with old street names written in nearly faded white letters. Several wagons were parked about the streets, but all this I quickly ignored as my eyes locked upon the sight of so many living ponies moving about the sidewalks and into buildings. Like Stable 45 I saw a number of unicorns and earth ponies moving about their lives. A wide range of colors and all very much alive. I must have been staring as a few chuckled and pointed my way, I heard one mention something about Stable ponies but not enough. Well, whatever it had been, I’m sure it was true enough. I don’t think any of us had expected to really see so many strangers. After all, you spent your whole life only knowing a small number, and it never changed.

Stonehoof turned quickly down a side street, and I was jerked back to the task at hoof by the sudden change in direction, the wound in my leg screaming in protest as I hurriedly twisted it to keep up. I quickly focused on the path ahead of us and regained my pacing with the larger earth pony. After a few minutes, we at last came to a halt beside a large two story wooden building that had been painted a bright red sometime ago, but was starting to fade to a almost light pink. Loud music and the sound of laughter came from inside. Glancing up to the sign above the door, in large black lettering was written ‘The Bit and Saddle Saloon.’

Beside me, Stonehoof unhitched himself from the harness before moving around to the side of the coach. I quickly followed suit and walked up to the door as he opened it and helped Lilly out. I placed my front hooves on the running boards of the coach and climbed inside to help her now conscious brother down. The light green unicorn glanced to me, but it seems his sister had told him enough about me that he allowed me to wrap a hoof around his upper body and help him step down. The pregnant mare winced as she took a few steps and nearly fell, she hurriedly leaned against the large Stonehoof for support and let out a breath.

“Not long now...best hurry and fetch Doc McCoy, Stone,” the white unicorn said softly, one hoof holding her large belly. Her brother turned to look to her with some worry, with a quiet thank you, he managed to get his own hooves under him and moved up to help his sister stand.

“Right ya are, don’ ya fret at all, Lilly. Ah’ll be back lickity split.” Without another word, Stonehoof turned and galloped further down the street, nearly knocking over two ponies who had just walked out from a store at the corner of the street. With a yell they shook their hooves to the earth ponies retreating backside.

A soft groan beside me reminded me I had my own job to do. With the help of her brother, we managed to guide Lilly up the three steps onto the porch of the saloon and push our way past the swinging doors to enter the building.

Inside, the sounds were even louder, not to mention the smells. The saloon was full of ponies. A haze hung above the room, from a number of sources. Pipes, cigars, and cigarettes glowed about the dark room. Nearly every table in the center of the large open room was taken by groups of ponies. Ponies drinking. Ponies gambling. Or ponies talking. Walking swiftly between the tables were several well dressed mares, mostly unicorns floating trays with mugs of beer and plates of food. Black and dark red poofy dresses covered their shapely frames Their faces covered in make up, ears and necks weighted down with cheap looking jewelry.

Behind it all, was a stage. A red velvet curtain hung on either side, hiding it from view when not in use, but it was very much in use as a line of six mares danced upon the stage in black dresses. They kicked their legs up and danced in time with the quick paced music, which came from a piano sitting beside the stage and played by a very old looking earth pony. To one side of the room, was the bar, running the length of the saloon. Behind it two door ways led back into what must have been the kitchen judging by the sounds of pots and pans rattling loud enough to be heard over the talking and laughing ponies around me. Two bartenders worked along the length of the bar’s dark wood surface, setting down fresh drinks or talking with a customer or two.

Along the opposite wall was a stairway leading up to the second floor, where a balcony hung over the stage. A few ponies stood along the railing, drinks in hoof, looking down at the tables. Although I could not see it clearly, I imagined there were several rooms tucked away on the second floor, as I saw a very happy looking stallion heading upstairs with two mares walking beside him giggling and whispering in his ears.

Looking away from the colorful sights of the room, I glanced to Lilly, the mare offered me a smile, but she was clearly in a lot of pain. I was just about to ask her if there was someplace we could take her to rest when a pair of waitress mares quickly approached us, concern written on their painted faces. The first one to speak was a slender short yellow-coated unicorn with a long thick green and white striped mane and tail. She was wearing a black dress with stockings on her hind legs like many of the other mares working in the saloon.

“Miss Lilly? Landsakes, honey you look ready to drop!” she said quickly, stepping up in front of us, her soft blue eyes scanning Lilly’s face before looking to Appleseed,“What happened, Apple?”

For his part, the young colt blushed and hurriedly answered the unicorns question,“We were attacked by slavers on our way here...Lilly wasn’t hurt, but it’s hardly helped her condition. She sent Stonehoof to fetch the Doc.”

Shaking her head, the unicorn nodded to the second waitress, a black coated red maned mare who stepped up towards the stairs quickly, and climbed them swiftly.

“Lace will go clear us out a room, won’t take her a minute, let’s get her up the stairs quickly then,” turning, the small mare wasted no time in clearing us a path up the stairs. It took us several minutes to help Lilly up the stairs, as sudden pains seemed to cripple her ability to walk, as her grip on my side with her front leg did to my entire body. Sweet Celestia she had a grip. Luckily, Appleseed and the mare managed to combine their magic enough to help Lilly climb the steps and I was spared death by strangulation. I wished Brightblade was here, he seemed far more capable at telekinesis then any other unicorn I had known in Stable 45, and it seemed more than any unicorn presently here. Looking to the white unicorn, sweat on her face and neck, breathing heavy, I frowned. I knew nothing about childbirth, but I could figure enough out to know she was going to have the foal and soon.

“How far away is this doctor?” I asked, when Lace opened a door at the top of the stairs and waved us inside. The mare in front of us stepped aside and allowed Appleseed and myself to half carry half drag Lilly inside. It was about what I expected, a single room with a large soft looking bed along the far wall, windows to my right looked out to the street below and a few pieces of furniture lined the rest of the walls. The walls themselves were covered in red and black wall paper, with little hearts and hooves covering it, trimmed with gold boarders along the edges of the wall. It was a bit...gaudy really.

“Not far, unless he’s away visiting a patent in town,” the mare said, as she and Lace piled up several soft looking pillows at the top of the bed. With the three unicorns magic and my own muscle we managed to get Lilly up off the floor and laying on her back, the mare groaned softly as she lay back.

Lace floated a bowl of water and a towel up beside the bed and began to wipe off Lilly’s forehead gently, cooling her face and cleaning away some of the sweat from the mare’s white coat. The other unicorn, who I still had no idea what her name was, turned back to Appleseed and myself and shooed us towards the door with a hoof.

“Thank you for getting her up here, but this isn’t a place for a couple of bucks. You really should head on back downstairs, we’ll see to Miss Lilly until Doc arrives.” Appleseed seemed ready to argue, it was his sister after all who was here but the young pony followed me out into the hallway.

As the door shut behind us, the light green unicorn looked around, unsure what to do with himself now. Although the healing potion had repaired most of the damage to his flank and sides, he still looked tired. I had no idea how long he, his sister and Stone had been running, Apple looked ready to drop. So was I, the mad dash to reach them followed by pulling the stagecoach with Stonehoof to town had left me a bit winded. I liked to think I was in fairly good shape, but we’d not exactly had to pull a lot of heavy loads in a Stable across vast distances. Again I wondered how my old friends were fairing out there. Shaking my head, I looked to the young pony and nodded my head towards the stairs and set off. After a moment, he followed me down.

It sounded as if not much had changed downstairs while we’d been busy, loud voices and laughter still carried its way up the stairs to greet us as we walked down. Glancing over the railing, I watched the ponies around the tables, while they seemed happy enough, something about the ponies made gave me an odd feeling. I couldn’t place it until we had to move aside for a drunk buck and mare stumbling up the stairs. Looking at the pair I noticed what I’d missed seeing. Both were armed. The stallion had twin handguns hoisted on his flanks, and the mare was carrying a rifle across her back. Looking back to the crowd below, I saw all of them armed. Back in the Stable, only security ponies carried weapons, and only rarely. Most just carried a baton and sidearm. But, I reminded myself, it was a dangerous world now. We had just reached the bottom of the stairs when Stonehoof and two other ponies entered the saloon in a hurry, leading the group was a mare who asked one of the waitress’ something and was pointed up towards us. Upon seeing the mare, Appleseed trotted quickly past me and over to her.

“Rose!”

At the mention of her name, the mare looked away from the others and a smile broke out across her face. She was another unicorn, a light red with pink mane and tail. She was wearing a dress similar to the waitresses but far more elaborate and with much better jewelry. Her eyes were a striking dark green and like most of the other mares working here, her cutie mark was covered by the edge of her dress. I could see the resemblance to Lilly almost at once, both mare’s were beautiful.

“Apple, oh thank the stars your alright!” the mare wrapped the young colt into a hug and nuzzled the side of his neck, before she stepped back and looked at his still bandaged sides. Her eyes widened and she tsked softly checking the wrap and looking more closely at the young unicorn. After several more seconds of fussing, now blushing buck managed to calm the red unicorn. As the two parted, she looked my way and tilted her head.

“So, your the pony who’s responsible for saving my little brother and sister? Stonehoof said your name was Shadow? Well, I’m Rose and we don’t get many strangers willing to lend a hoof to others around these parts anymore.” As she spoke, the other pony with Stonehoof walked up to Appleseed, the poor fellow looked ready to yell as once more his bandages were poked and prodded by hooves.

“You alright, Apple?” He was an older pony, his brown coat having hints of gray along the edges of it, and though his mane and tail had once been black, there was now more gray mixing in. He wore a simple green vest and had a black bag hanging over his neck. His cutie mark was of a needle and scalpel. Behind a pair of battered glasses, kind hazel eyes scanned the young colt.

“I’ll be fine, Doc, but my sister is in a lot of pain...” he motioned back up the stairs where we had left Lilly in the care of the two mares.

“We’d best hurry then...” the doctor (McCoy was his name?) said as he hurriedly made his way up the steps, nodding politely to me as he passed.

Rose started to follow him up, then paused and looked back to her brother,“Apple, you look ready to collapse, why don’t you go to your old room and get some rest.” She nuzzled her brother again and nudged him on his way towards the stairs, the young pony gave a glance to the second floor room before he finally went on his way. Rose then turned to me.

“I must see to my little sister, but I’d like to offer the services of the saloon to you for your help, Shadow. At the end of the hall upstairs is an empty room, make yourself at home please. If you need anything to eat or drink let one of the bartender’s know,” and with that, she hurriedly climbed the stairs after the doctor and slipped into Lilly’s room. The door clicking softly as she closed it behind her.

Stonehoof stepped up beside me, then looked from were Rose had gone before turning back to me. “Well, best get ya bedded down for th' night, it’ll likely be a few hours yet fore my nephew shows himself. Ah’ll show ya where before Ah see ta th' coach.”

“Do you need any help?” I asked, before walking up the stairs. Both my legs and hooves protested. Oh goddesses why did there have to be so many stairs and why did I have to climb them again?? Beside me, Stonehoof simply chuckled.

“Shoot, Ah can pull th' thing without much fuss.”

Passing Lilly’s room, we trotted down the hallway past a couple of ponies sipping their drinks, Stonehoof tipping his hat to the few mares we walked past and earned some winks and giggles from them. Passing a few more rooms, we reached the end of the hall, which branched off to the left and continued on with more doors, Rose had a big place. Stonehoof reached up and opened the door, pushing it aside to allow us to enter.

Inside, the room was about the same in size as mine back at the Stable. The thought made me feel a pang of loneliness, but I quickly pushed it away. Like Lilly’s room, there was a rather large bed with a mix of blankets and pillows. A few chairs and a dresser lay around the room. Two windows looked out from the corner of the room, down into the now darkened street below.

“Make yourself at home, Ah’ll see ya in th' mornin’,” the large gray earth pony said, before turning and trotting back down the hallway.

Shutting the door behind me, I walked over to the bed and pulled off my saddle bags, dropping them onto the floor with a cloud of dust. Setting my worn plot down on the edge of the bed I began losing the straps of my barding and armor. With a grunt I found one of the straps stuck and had to roll over onto my side to better reach it. Oh man...this bed was soft...now...if I could just...get...that.....

I awoke the next morning feeling well rested, despite the fact it seems I had fallen asleep in my armor. As I rolled out of bed and got my hooves back under me, I glanced to the bed and winced. I’d left a mess on the soft red sheets and blankets from the dirt I’d been covered in, and even now was still covered in. Still, not much I could do about that now.

With a tired yawn I stepped towards the windows and the light of day shinning beyond them. Looking out, I saw the streets far busier then they had been the night before, with ponies going this way and that. As I watched three wagons began pulling away from the building across the street, pulled by two ponies each and with two other ponies sitting in them beside crates and barrels. They all looked heavily armed, though one caught my eye. She wasn’t a pony, least not like any pony I’d ever seen before. A bit larger in build and with a much thicker amber colored coat. Suddenly I remembered where I’d seen someone like her before, back in school when we’d talked about the Buffalo. She was much larger then an of the ponies sitting around her though she was armed like them. A large rifle was swung across her back and fitted to her like the stallion slaver’s rig.

Wither or not she knew somepony was watching, she tilted her head up and looked straight at me ears perking forwards. I smiled and offered her a wave, which I was surprised to see she returned. With a jolt, the wagon she was in began moving and she lowered her head back down to the street. As I watched, they moved out of sight around a building.

Turning away from the window I made my way back to the bed and my dropped saddle bags. Picking them up with my mouth I snorted as a pile of dirt formed under them on the floor. Room service was going to just looove me. Tossing them back across my back, I tightened the straps and made my way for the door.

Once out into the hall, I trotted down the steps (sooo many stairs...) and into the saloon. It seemed largely empty, save for a familiar large gray earth pony sitting alone at a table near the door. He appeared to be waiting on me, His hate laying on the table before him beside a glass of some dark liquid and a half empty bottle to match. He was leaning back relaxing when I arrived. When he saw me trotting down the steps he stood up at once and walked over towards me.

“Mornin’ Shadow, sleep well?”

“Yes I did, thank you.” Looking around the quiet saloon, I then looked back to Stonehoof, “How’s Lilly doing?”

“Well, if th' swearin’ and yellin’ was anythin ta go on, she an’t had th' kid yet.” A slight grin formed on his face as he looked up the stairs to the room Lilly was staying in,“Can’t say Ah’m sorry ta be missin’ it. At any rate, Rose asked me ta show ya around town while she’s with Lilly and Ah believe ya have somethings ya might want ta be partin’ with,” he pointed a gray hoof at my saddle bag.

“I wouldn’t be agaisnt lighting my load a bit.” I answered and he nodded his head with a grin. Turning, he started towards the doors and I followed. Stepping out into the warm morning air, I looked around for any signs of the wagon train or the strange Buffalo I’d seen riding in it. All around us, the ponies of Crossroads were moving about the streets and doing whatever they normally did. Few bothered to look our way as we stepped of the saloon’s poarch and into the street.

As we walked, I looked around at the shops and buildings we passed, most appeared in good shape, if a bit worn by age. Chipped paint, cracked glass and a sagging roof seemed to be the most common problem for a lot of them. Like Lonesome Hoof, I doubted this town had ever been hit by a Balefire bomb, or even smaller bombs. I imagined it held little importance during the war. I began idly wondering if the ponies here were the great great great however many more greats grand children of those who had been living here at that time. I decided to ask Stone about it. I meant to ask about the strange Buffalo I had seen as well, but the story he told me quickly made me forget about her.

“As Ah understand it, there was quiet a few ponies livin’ here at th' time of th' war. True enough no bombs was dropped here, but didn’t need a bomb ta kill ponies. Radiation did that right enough.” the gray pony said as we walked along the sidewalk to avoid another row of wagons coming down the street, “Tha fallout did a number on’em here, but some managed ta survive long enough in nearby mines like my family. Ah believe th' original settlers of Crossroads are from a train that got stuck in th' tunnel from Kanter City to Appleloosa. Th' bombs sealed th' entrances and they were trapped inside for a spell. Time they got themselves out it was all over. Kanter City was no place for ponies so they went past on another track. Th' train they were all riddin finally gave out here, or so th' story goes. They found this place nearly abandoned. About th' same time, a group of survivors followin’ th' road from up north came upon th' town. Th' two groups joined up here.”

“I see, it must have been difficult, but somehow they managed.” looking to the right I spotted the tracks of the railroad between two buildings and wondered what it had been like to ride through the aftermath of the end of the world, so much death around them.

I was beginning to wonder where he was talking me, as it seemed we’d nearly reached the cities walls. Most of the shops we passed were open, but a few still had closed signs hanging in the windows. The shop we approached however, was very much open. The building was a rather unimpressive single story structure, built out of bricks and wood like the other buildings in town. Few of the building’s windows were boarded up, but they were however covered by thick bars of iron or some other dark metal. A sign above the door depicted a cartoonish earth pony wielding a rather impressive assault rifle spewing a even more impressive spray of bullets into what must have been a raider. I say must have been, because there was little left but bits of hooves and a surprised head of the earth pony’s target. Below this was written,‘If it needs to be dead, it needs to be a Jacobs.’

“Colorful...” I muttered. Beside me Stonehoof grinned and walked up onto the porch and into the shop. After a moment, I followed him inside and figured out why the shop owner had bars across his windows. The place was an armory. I stopped and stared at the array of death around me.

Old worn cabinets along one wall held a impressive array of weapons from shotguns to rifles and even a rocket launcher (had somepony painted a smiling face on the missile sticking out of it?). Suits of armor lay spread across a table to my left, a few ponikins standing on the floor wore some of what was displayed. Thick armor plates that put my Riot armor to shame, along with a lighter looking suit made of animal hides? Bah. Looking back around to Stonehoof, I saw him standing before a counter with scattered boxes of ammo and bits and pieces of guns all across it. I also spotted a few magazines for guns laying about, and was that a playcolts under one?

Lifting a hoof up to the counter the gray pony rang a bell sitting atop it twice and looked to a door leading off into the back. Only a ratty, dirty piece of what had once been a white (and was now a very ridged looking brown) cloth blocked off the view. As I neared Stone, I heard a voice speaking up from behind the cloth and somepony moving about in the back.

“I am coming! I am coming! Keep bridle on!” The sound of heavy hoof steps followed the shout, and the cloth was pushed aside. Standing in the doorway and looking between us was a rather large earth pony, though unlike Stone, this ponies size was in his gut. He had a rusty brown coat and black mane and tail that stuck out at odd angles and seemed as if it hadn’t been combed in long time, upon the end of his snout he wore a large thick mustache that twitched when he spoke. His cutie mark was half hidden below a bright red shirt that looked more fitting on a circus announcer. But I could just make out what looked like caps and half a rifle. As his red eyes landed on Stone, the pony grinned wide and nearly roared.

“Is Stonehoof! Best paying customer! I hear you have run in with slavers! Hear you give nasty ponies a beating!” With a laugh that shook his belly, the pony stepped around the counter and slapped a hoof against Stone’s shoulder.

“Yer always right well informed, Jacob,” Stone said with a smirk, tilting his hat towards me,“But Ah couldn’ done it alone, not this time. They nearly had me if it wasn’ for this pony right here. Jacob, this here’s Shadow...a Stable pony from forty five.”

“Ah! Stable pony!! Always so easy to make caps from Stable pony! But...since friend of Stone, Jacob won’t swindle too much!” the pony said with a wild grin, and a slap to my shoulder that nearly sent me face first into the counter top. Holy shit, he had some strength to him. I simply grinned sheepishly and nodded my head as I rubbed my shoulder with a hoof.

“Uh...thanks...” I turned away from Jacobs and began rooting around inside my saddle bags. After a bit of thought, I decided to hang onto one of the assault rifles, it would give me some range over the shotgun. The hunting rifle would have been a better choice, but it was too badly damaged to make it worth more then spare parts (I think it had taken a bullet or two during our fight). Swinging the assault rifle across my neck and back, I pulled out the remaining weapons. All told, I had two small assault rifles and a hunting rifle, the small caliber pistol ammo and two combat knives to lay before the earth pony who looked the items over carefully.

“Hmmm...slavers are better at keeping weapons. Raiders are too stupid to clean weapons. Still, not good shape are the weapons here.” He lifted the hunting rifle and attempted to pull back the bolt, only to have it pop out in his mouth. With a snort, he spat it out onto the floor and began muttering darkly in another language. After a few minutes, he reached to the cash register atop the counter and pressed down on a key. With a ding the tray slide out and he rummaged around before withdrawing something from inside.

“I am thinking...one hundred caps for junk is fair. Can always use for spares.” And down before me he sat a pile of caps, a few rolling around atop the counter. Bottle caps. Caps from the tops of soda bottles. I blinked and tilted my head confused. I’d heard Three Horn’s mention caps over the radio before, but we had just assumed it was some slang word for money. Not actual caps. Jacobs must have figured out what I was thinking by the confused look on my face because the pony began to laugh.

“I am forgetting, are Stable pony. Yes. Caps are money. Can not buy anything unless have caps!” He grinned, and pushed the caps towards me once more,“Best take, Stable pony need caps if plan on staying alive. Staying alive is good.”

Reaching up with a hoof, I swept the caps up and towards me, dropping them into my saddle bag. At once, my PipBuck updated itself with a list of my inventory. As it did, I glanced around the room slowly for any signs of ammo, the Raging Buck was down to one round, and after it’s performance with the armored Rad Scorpion I had decided to restock it.

“Is Stable pony looking for anything?”

“Yeah, two things actually, I’m looking for some ammo for this.” I said, reaching down to pull the Raging Buck out of its holster across my chest. The large revolver made a heavy thunk as I laid it down upon the counter. Both Jacobs and Stonehoof whistled at the sight of the large revolver.

“Is very rare.” he said, as he dropped down behind the counter and began rummaging in boxes below. I heard the sound of bullets striking the floor and rolling around as he dug about, until finally he reemerged with a box in his mouth. As he laid it atop the counter, I saw nine brass rounds sticking up in the box. All a perfect match for the one still in the chamber. Not much, but it would give me two complete reloads with the single round I still had. It was better then nothing. I looked up to Jacobs and asked.

“How much?”

“Revolver is rare, ammo is rare. Afraid is all I have...and is not cheap. Ten caps...” oh, well, that didn’t sound to bad “...a round.” Okay...never mind. What was that about taking it easy on the new guy? Stonehoof seemed to agree and said as much turning to Jacob’s.

“Shit, Jacob...that’s not fair t’all.”

“Jacob is sorry, but ammo is rare. In ten years, is all ever found. And not just here, Jacob have stores in other towns across Povoni Desert. Not find many in them either.” He motioned to the bullets upon the counter.

It would take all the caps I had just made to buy nine rounds of ammo, well it would leave me with ten caps left. After a moment though, I began to wonder. Rose had said I was welcome to stay at her saloon, so a place to stay was not an issue, as was food. But, how long was I really planning on staying? Not very. And I did have a fair amount for my shotgun, and ammo for it seemed easy enough to find at the moment.

“I’ll buy them all for seventy five caps.” I spoke up, I had to at least try and get them cheaper if I could. Oh, now you haggle a voice inside my head said, but honestly, the guns had been in poor shape and the blades wouldn’t cut water let alone anything tyring to kill you.

Jacob turned to me and arched a brow, for a moment he stared at me, before grinning slowly. Then he began to laugh and reached across the counter to slap me on the shoulder. Shit, much more of that and I would need to use another health potion.

“You are good pony, Stable pony. You saving friend, so...Jacob could let you have for say...eighty caps.”

“Deal.” I reached back into my saddlebag and pulled out the requested amount and dumped them atop the counter. Waving me to take them, I scooped up the box of bullets and my revolver. With a flick of a hoof, I snapped the chamber open and began slotting the rounds in with my teeth. Once I was finished, I returned the revolver to its place and pushed the spare rounds back into the box and dropped it into my saddle bag.

“Is good! Another satisfied customer!” Jacob said with his trademark grin,“Now, what else is Jacobs helping Stable pony with?”

“I’m looking to get to Kanter City, don’t suppose you know the way?” at this question the friendly smile upon the weapons dealer dropped away completely and he eyed me more closely then before.

“Hmmm....Stable pony does not look crazy...perhaps problem in head? Is not raider either, no body parts on armor.” After a moment of me not answering him, he pressed on, “Kanter City is no place for Stable pony. Is no place for anypony. Unless raider. Of have death wish. Bad place.” He shook his head and leaned across the counter to look at me, red eyes locking on my face.

“Its where I have to go.” I said simply, returning his look.

“Why? Why is so important to go to city of raiders? Stable pony have death wish, da?”

“Raiders attacked my home and kidnapped my sister along with several others. I left to try and find them if they are still alive...or at least find out their fate if they are not...I just have to know either way.” My words seemed to surprise the old pony, and reaching into the pocket of his shirt, he withdrew a long brown cigar and lighter. Once he had the thing going, he tossed the lighter back atop the counter and took a pull.

“Is good reason.” he finally said, a thoughtful look on his face as he smoked, looking from me to Stonehoof. “Da, is good reason. Kanter City is west, if follow railroad tracks find it easy enough. Finding not hard part, getting in hard part.” He flicked his cigar lightly with a hoof before continuing, the ashes falling atop the counter and were ignored. “City is controlled by raiders. Not like normal raiders...well, rape, kill and eat you still, but smart raiders. Have leader, da. Big boss banding all raiders under steel hoof. Coming across from mountains. Very organized for raiders. Not seen likes in twenty years.” Jacob shook his head and presses on, “City is like fortress. Walled like San Ponisico. Patrolled by ponies and griffins. No pony goes in comes out.”

“There’s one pony claimin’ ta have escaped,” Stonehoof spoke up, drawing my attention at once, although Jacob merely snorted and shook a hoof at him.

“Nyet, is just crazy old mare,” the shop owner said, taking another long puff off his cigar.

“Crazy or no, Ah believe her story. Jasper and Ah found her near dead in th' desert not three years ago.”

“All know is, Kanter City is bad news...if sister and friends taken inside...not sure how Stable pony get inside,” Jacob said sadly, “Wish luck, but best advice is, go home. Maybe live longer.”

Nodding my head in thanks, I turned and trotted back out into the streets while Stonehoof began bartering for his own salvage. It seemed I was going to need more then just a shotgun and pistol to get into the city. Looking up, I noticed the streets of town had become far busier than before. The ponies around me seemed happy enough, if a bit grim. But then, it was hardly a pretty world they lived in...or rather we lived in. I was up here with them now too.

I couldn’t fault Jacobs advice, it seemed a daunting task, a city controlled by all accounts by an army of raiders and it’s borders watched over and walled in. No, I couldn’t give up now, but it was clear I was going to need help if I was going to find my sister. Behind me, Stonehoof walked out of the shop, his own business finished with Jacob. Silently, we started back along the street towards the saloon. After a few minutes of walking, I turned to look at my fellow earth pony.

“Who’s this mare you mentioned. The one who might know of a way inside?”

“Ah’m not rightly for sure of her real name, folks round her just call’er Wildfire cause of her mane and most think she’s crazy,” he said, glancing to me,“She don’t live in town, rather up top one of those bluffs outside town, see.” He motioned his head towards the walled edge of town, and the towering stone pillars rising up into the gray sky. The mesa’s dominated the scenery for miles around them, only the far distant mountains to the west seemed taller, but they were obscured by the haze.

“How well do you know her?” He shook his head, and looked back from the bluffs to me.

“Not very, she don’t come ta town often. Just every now and again for supplies. Most ponies round her don’t like her sort.” That caused me to arch a brow. “She’s a pegasus. An outcast by th' looks of it. Ponies don’t much like our winged friends ‘cause of th' clouds.”

“So the pegasus survived the war?” I asked, as we stopped to allow a row of carts pass, looking closely I noticed what was pulling them. I’d heard of cows before...but I can’t remember them having two heads.

“Yeah, they sure enough did, but they sealed up th' sky after tha bombs fell ta save themselves.” He snorted and shook his head his hat tilting back a bit,“Mighty hard ta grow food without th' sun.” As the last cart passed, he started walking again and I hurried to keep up.

“Do you think she’d be willing to help?”

“Dunno...is worth findin’ out Ah suppose. If yer willin’ Ah can take ya ta see her after lunch,” he said, looking over to me.

“Sounds like a plan,” I said, nodding my head. It was the best lead I had thus far.

When we arrived back at the saloon, it was still largely empty save for a few ponies who had arrived before us and were eating lunch. Four tired looking earth ponies sat at the bar sipping their drinks. The stage was closed, the curtain pulled across it and only a few of the mares moved between the tables. We were just finishing our meal when Rose and the doctor came downstairs talking quietly to one another as they climbed the stairs. Both looked tired, but happy at the same time. After seeing him to the door, Rose turned and spotted Stone and myself nearby. With a smile she approached our table just as one of the waitresses began picking up our empty plates.

“Remind me never to have children, Stone,” she said with a grin, sitting down beside me at the table. She then turned to me and the grin turned into a smile. “So, Shadow, how are you finding our small town? I imagine it’s not quit what you was expecting from the surface?” she asked.

“Very nice, Ma`am. After seeing the surface for the first time, I was unsure what I’d find out here in the wasteland beyond what I’d heard Three Horn say.” the mare chuckled softly and nodded her head.

“Well, it isn’t easy, between raiders, slavers, food and water shortages it’s a wonder we’re still here. But this was an earth pony town before the war, and earth ponies tend to be a tenacious lot as I’m sure your well aware of. Perhaps why I like them so much. Been living here ever since my daddy first brought us all here. We worked hard to make a life for ourselves here. Maybe that's why they decided to elect me mayor. Also, stop calling me ma`am, makes me feel like an old mare. Call me Rose.” She smirked and leaned against the table.

“How’s Lilly doin’?” Stonehoof asked after finishing his drink.

“Both she and our new nephew are doing well.”

“A colt...” the grin on the earth ponies face grew at the news, “whats she gonna name’em?”

“Jasper Jr...” she said, looking over to Stone to judge his reaction. The earth pony lowered his head and nodded. Reaching across the table, Rose lightly touched his hoof with hers and smiled, “He looks just like your brother, Stone. You should go see him.”

The gray pony looked up and offered Rose a smile. “Ah will, but first Ah promised Shadow Ah’d take him ta see Wildfire.” At the mention of the mare, Rose’s eyes grew wide and she turned at once to me.

“Why on earth do you want to go see her?”

“Stone said she may know a way into Kanter City, perhaps the only pony who would know a way inside,” I answered, finished with my own meal. I drained the glass of water, not letting a drop of the stuff go to waste.

“Kanter City? It’s hardly a place for a lone pony to go...” she trailed off, before something seemed to occurred to her,“Is this because of your missing sister? Lilly told me a little about it last night.”

“Its the most likely place they’d take her. I have no idea why else they would bother to take her or anypony else from the Stable if not to take them somewhere for some reason.”

“Honey, that place has been the death of many a pony over the past few years. Those raiders have been kidnapping ponies from all across the Povoni Desert settlements lately, mostly unicorns,” she said with a frown. “You’re going to get yourself killed.”

“Why doesn’t anypony do something about them then? You have over a hundred if not more able ponies here...and if what I heard from Jacob today is any indication, there’s other settlements like this scattered all across the wasteland. Surely if you all banded tougher...” But Rose simply shook her head and looked up at me. I could see a hint of anger flash in her green eyes.

“A good number of the ponies I have in this town are either to young or to old. The rest are afraid, for their families and for themselves. Nopony wants to be captured by the raiders. Do you have any idea what raiders do to ponies they capture?” With a tired sigh, she calmed herself, “The C.S.E. tries to help, but they have their own problems with the Steel Rangers and bands of Super Mutants around San Ponsisco.”

I paled when she said that, oh goddesses I sent my friends and family to San Ponsisco. We’d heard Three Horns talk about trouble, but it’d been sometime since she’d last mentioned it...we’d thought it was safe.

“Is the city under attack?” I asked hurriedly.

“No...from what I heard the mutants are up north of the city...and the Ranger’s have a base further along the coast, an old naval base I think. Why? Your a long way from the city.” she looked confused as she spoke.

“We had to evacuate my Stable, the raider’s sabotaged our systems. I sent them towards San Ponsisco, we didn’t know of any other safe place out here.” I relaxed, well...they were armed, perhaps neither the mutants or Rangers would bother a group that size. Besides, I doubted Crossroads could house that many ponies all at once, as big as the settlement was, I figured there was no more then roughly the same number of ponies within its walls.

“Oh...I’m sorry, Lilly did not tell me that...but I wouldn’t worry. The C.S.E. have ponies patrolling the wasteland around the city and for several miles around. If Crossroads was several miles closer, we’d be protected by those same patrols.”

“We should likely be goin’ Shadow, if ya wanna be back afore night fall,” Stone said as he stood up and replaced his hat back atop his head. The earth pony nodded to Rose and trotted for the doors, watching him walk off, the mare turned to look at me once again. She seemed to have something else on her mind, and after a moment’s hesitation she decided to continue.

“Since it seems your set on doing this, might I ask you a favor?” she asked, standing up as I got ready to go. Turning to look to her, I motioned for her to continue and wondered what it was she needed,“There are three wells the town draws on for it’s water, natural springs hidden in abandoned mines that run deep underground. So deep in fact, little radiation managed to work it’s way in. When the originally survivors settled here, they built the wall around the city and sealed off the wells. Later, small outposts were built around the mine entrances, not very large but big enough for a few ponies to stand watch. In recent years, all three have begun to dry up, but it’s our only source of water.”

I nodded my head once and waited for her to get to the point, it was not that I was uninterested, it was I was on the clock. She seemed to notice, and explained quickly.

“Last week, well number two was attacked, while it’s not unusual for a band of raiders or local wild life to try and get in, we can normally handle it. This time however...we lost five of the six ponies watching the well. The last is still bed-ridden in Doc McCoy’s home. She said a pack of gecko’s attacked them, managing to burn through the walls of the outpost and killed the others.”

Stonehoof who had been near the door arched a brow and stepped back towards the table and us.

“Gecko’s? Sure enough they are a right pest, but never heard of’em killin’ five armed ponies afore.”

“Nor have I, Stone. Or of them being able to ‘burn’ through metal walls. But it seems this pack did.” With a sigh she looked back to me,“I know I can’t expect you to risk your life for ponies you hardly know, and you’ve already done so much for me just by saving my family. But, we need that well, unlike the other two it seems likely to last a bit longer. I’ll pay you a hundred caps to at least check on the well. If you can safely clear it, I’ll add in another two hundred.”

I had already lost a week or more since my sisters capture holed up in the medbays bed then with preparations to evacuate the Stable. Goddesses alone knew what was happening to her and the other ponies taken from Stable 45. The trip here had been well worth the time, as I now knew the raiders had taken her to Kanter City. I had learned the city was a fortress and was preparing to go speak with a pony who might know a way inside. But now...

Looking up to Rose I saw the hope in her eyes, she oddly reminded me of Ebony right then...she had the weight of over two hundred or more ponies on her shoulders. How would they survive without water? Would they be forced to abandon their home we had been forced to abandon Stable 45? Make a trip across the wasteland to San Ponsico?

As much as I wanted to race off and find my sister, I knew I couldn’t just leave her and these ponies with a problem with which I might be able to help. After all, both Stone and myself were already heading out of town, and as Jacobs had said, I needed the caps to survive.

“Alright, I’ll take a look into it on our way back into town,” I said finally a look of relief spreading across Rose’s face, and heard my Pipbuck beep as a new marker appeared on the map display. Outpost 2 was flashing north east of Crossroads. It was not far from town, but it was a bit off the path to see this Wildfire. Unknown to me, the map had placed a marker for the strange mare as well. How it managed to do any of this I had no idea...I was no Pipbuck repair pony after all.

“Ya mean ‘we’ll’ check it out,” Stonehoof said beside me, the large gray earth pony smirking as I looked over to him. “Ah’ve as much a stake in seein’ these varmints run off as anypony.”

“Be careful, while I doubt you’ll run into any raiders or slavers this close to town...the recent attack on my sister has proven they are getting bolder,” Rose said, looking between us. Standing on the tips of her hooves, she wrapped her front legs around Stone’s chest and hugged the large pony. Releasing him, she turned to me and smiled once more, leaning forward to place a kiss on my cheek which swiftly warmed up as a blush covered my face. All I can say is thank the goddesses for a dark colored coat, still my ears betrayed me as they flicked to the side in embarrassment.

“Didn’t think it’d be that easy to make you blush, perhaps I’ll try and do it again when you return.” She winked to me. Oh boy...

“Well, um...we better get going, Stone...,” I said turning to retreat out of the saloon as quickly as my hooves could carry me. Behind me, Stone snorted and trotted to catch up.

Several ponies passed me as I exited the saloon and I waited for Stone to step out beside me, a knowing smile on his muzzle. Ugh. Shaking my head I waved a hoof towards him.

“Well, lead on.”

Nodding his head, the gray stallion walked down the steps and began trotting down the street, working his way between the other ponies as he went. Following, I scanned the buildings as we passed. Most seemed to be homes and small stores; a clothing shop, a blacksmith, a few shops selling mining supplies. The buildings suddenly ended as we reached the center of town and the rail road tracks that crossed through it. A single large structure stood here, what had once been a train station was now town hall it seemed. The building was the largest building in town at four stories tall, and at it’s top a clock tower stood, which still appeared to be running surprisingly enough Like everything else in town, it had clearly seen better days, but it also looked in better shape. Perhaps extra care had been given to maintaining the building. Behind it, the tracks split apart, allowing for other trains to park and not block the main tracks, the split track came up to the building and a walkway that would allow ponies onto and off the trains. There was no train parked there, however, and I again wondered if it was still used. I asked Stone as we passed the station.

“Sure nough,” the pony said, glancing over to me as we walked across the tracks. They were rusted, but still seemed in good shape. The wooden ties had began to rot, but still held the two lengths of steel together. My hooves slid in the lose rocks that lined the track as I stopped over the rails and back onto the dry dirt, “Th' tracks survived th' bombin for th' most part. It’s a straight shot ta Kanter City from here...if ya have a train that is.” He chuckled softly.

“So there’s no trains still running?” I asked. Looking forward I spotted our destination, the northern gate out of town. It was open at this time of day, and a few ponies were coming in from outside. All were stopped and searched by the guards. Like Stone, they wore mismatched armor and carried a mix of weaponry. Was Stonehoof a member of the town’s guards then? No, not likely, Lilly said he’d been taking care of her and her brother for the past seven months now.

“Oh, no, there’s only two Ah know of. Just none here. From what Ah hear, there’s one in Kanter City, suppose to take captured ponies across th' mountain range ta Apploosa. The other is in the hooves of th' C.S.E. in San Ponsisco.”

The raiders had a train? And they used it to haul away prisoners? Was that what they had planned for my sister? Shit...I really didn’t have a lot of time to spend, but I had promised Rose to help if I could. Stone spoke up, relaxing me somewhat.

“Ah wouldn’t worry none. Last year some ponies blew up th' tunnel th' raiders used to go under th' mountain. An’t been a train out of th' city in sometime or so Ah hear. Th' over mountain bridges and trails all been destroyed.”

I expected the guards to stop us, but a unicorn mare simply waved us on past as she checked a dirt covered earth pony’s saddle bags. Seemed they only checked those coming in, not out.

As we stepped out into the plains, I glanced to the distant mesas that were our goal, perhaps two hours there and back, we’d arrive back in Crossroads just as night was falling. That was if we did not encounter any trouble on the road, or had any issues with the well.

The trip across the plains was uneventful, and we made good time reaching the mesas that over looked Crossroads. I had wondered how we’d manage to climb them, as from a distance they looked completely smooth sided with no sigh of paths leading up. But upon reaching them, I saw they were in fact quite rough sided, years of dry desert air and summer rains had eroded the rock formations over time. At their bases were massive piles of stone, likely the source of the buildings back in town. In the shadows of the massive towers of stone, more shrub brush grew, along with cactus and other plant life. We saw little animal life beyond bugs and small rodents; upon glancing at one I noticed it seemed to have six legs.

Stonehoof seemed to know his way around well enough, and we soon stopped before the one he said atop which Wildfire lived. It appeared to reach all the way to the clouds, and I could just make out the top-although from this angle I couldn’t tell if there was anypony living atop it. Still, I trusted Stonehoof, as strange as it sounded having only meet the pony last night, but he seemed a good pony.

Lowering my head back down, I spotted him making his way up across the debris pile around the base of the natural stone tower and work his way along a rough worn path along it’s edge.

The path (and I use that term loosely) was barely wide enough for one pony at a time, and in several places it disappeared entirely and we were forced to climb and jump our way up the stone pillar. Several times I almost lost my hoofing and slid down, only to grasp a hole in the rocks or a ledge. It took us a little over an hour to reach the summit, luckily we both managed to arrive without breaking any limbs or twisting our ankles, though my hooves ached from clinging tightly to the rock wall.

“Some how, I imagine she doesn't get too many visitors,” I said, as we sat down atop the flat surface of the mesa. I drank a little more from my water canteen then I normally would have allowed, seeing how there was a fresh water source nearby. Before me, the Povoni Desert spread out as far as the eye could see. Large stone mesas like the one we sat atop dotted the landscape for several miles before giving way to a flat sandy expanse. I had to admit, from up here the view was breathtaking, despite the utter emptiness of the landscape. What little light reached the surface turned the deep browns and tans of the mesas a bright red and orange. They almost seemed to glow (no, it wasn’t radiation, I checked for that).

“Ah reckon she likes her solitude,” Stonehoof said, sitting beside me and glancing out across the plains below us, the gray earth pony reaching up to push his hat off his head and wipe away the sweat that had pooled under it. Taking a drink from his own canteen before he turned his attention to the shack sitting in the center of the rise.

It looked to be made up from several different things, much as the wall around Crossroads had been. Large sheets of metal and wood formed the outline of the shack. A door made from a single large piece of wood lay closed, and shutters barred the windows. The whole thing was badly rusted and leaning at an angle. It looked barely large enough for a single pony to move about inside.

Standing up, I made my way towards the shack and lightly tapped my hoof against the door causing it to shake and rattle in it’s frame. As I tried again, I noticed it was more then just the door that shook. Not a place to be in a strong wind...

“Hello? Wildfire?” I glanced back to Stonehoof who was still sitting on the ground watching me, and turning back to the door I tried knocking again. “We’re here looking for information, we don’t mean you any trouble,” I called out. Was she even here? I wondered how long ago it was anypony had seen the pegasus in town.

“If I thought you meant me trouble kid, you’d never have made it to the top of the summit,” a voice called out from above. I jerked my head towards the source, but saw nothing.

“Wildfire?” I asked, stepping back from the shack and looking to the sky; she was a pegasus after all and the voice did sound as if it came from above me more so then anywhere else.

“No, I’m fucking Princess Celestia,” the voice called out again, followed by a snort. Something orange darted down from the clouds above, moving around a bank of clouds before landing in a cloud of dust with a flutter of her feathered wings.

I soon realized why the ponies of Crossroads had named her Wildfire. The pegasus’s coat was a bright orange, her long wild mane and tail were both a equally bright red. You could not miss her for anything, yet somehow she had been hiding just above me in the clouds. Across her back and just under her wings, she wore a battle saddle, similar to the one the slaver had been wearing, though this one bore two long rifles, with belt feeds leading up into a pack settled across her hunches. I then noticed her cutie mark, or rather a lack of a normal one. It appeared to have been burned off her flank, and a brand burned into it’s place. A cloud with a rainbow lighting bolt coming from it. Odd, I seemed to remember seeing that mark before somewhere. The pegasus mare smirked as she looked at me, bright blue eyes locking with mine.

“I’m a bit old for you, darling,” she said with a wild grin, and a toss of her mane before she looked over to Stonehoof. Tilting her head a bit, she pointed a hoof at the earth pony, “Stone, what do you want?”

For his part, the gray earth pony finished taking a drink from his water before he answered her, “It’s nice to see ya too, Wild. This here’s Shadow, a Stable pony, he’s here lookin’ for some help.”

Wildfire looked back over to me and snorted softly, her tail flicking aside, “A Stable pony, eh? Well fucking good for him.” She turned away from us and moved back to her shack, kicking the door open roughly before entering. I glanced back to Stone, who simply shrugged his shoulders, and stood up.

“She was never a right friendly gal.”

“I got that...” I turned away and walked towards the door and lightly knocked on the frame. I heard her moving around inside the dark room and dared to poke my head inside. It looked on the inside like it did on the outside. A few personal effects lay scattered about the shack: Old worn photos, a torn piece of a uniform, a helmet far to large for the mare who was busy beside a dented refrigerator. A open bottle of beer in her mouth. Sitting it back atop the fridge, she turned back to me and arched a brow.

“Still here, eh? Well, shit...what do you want?” she asked, before pushing past me and back outside. Turning, I watched her move to the edge of the mesa, her back to Stone and myself. I arched a brow and spoke up figuring I had better say what I needed before she decided to blow us off completely.

“I heard you might know more about Kanter City, like a way past the guards.” I waited for a moment, wondering if she heard me, but then she turned her head back towards me, blue eyes narrowing on my face and she frowned. I decided to continue.

“I need to find a way inside the city, and soon. I don’t expect you to show me the way, but if you could give me an idea of...”

“You one of those salvagers looking to score big? Make a lot of caps? Heard a lot of stories about the riches in a city supposedly untouched by others?” she grunted and stamped a hoof hard atop the ground, eyes fixed on mine. I started to open my mouth and explain, “There’s nothing worth your time in Kanter City. You heard wrong, I don’t know anything about that place,” she said cutting me off, and started to turn away from me. I wasn’t willing to let it go that easily and stepped up closer to her, she hurriedly turned back to me, as if expecting me to attack her. I held up a hoof and spoke up.

“This isn’t about caps, this is about my sister. Raiders attacked my home, and kidnapped my sister...I don’t have a clue why, I just know they took her, and as near as I can figure they took her to Kanter City. I have to find her...save her if I can.”

“Save her? Fuck kid, ponies that go into Kanter City never come out...least not like they were before going in.” The mare stopped once again, and stared ahead across the wasteland. Her wings rustled as she shifted before she turned back to face me, eyes narrowing, when she spoke, she sounded bitter, “Your sister’s already dead, kid, everypony in Kanter City is already dead.”

“I don’t believe that. I can’t believe that. Please, help me,” I asked her, reaching a hoof up to touch her shoulder, nearly begging the mare to help me. She looked back to me, her eyes hard and she jerked her shoulder away from my hoof and stepped back with a snarl.

“The world doesn't give a fuck what you believe, kid. I want nothing to do with that fucking hellhole ever again. I can’t help you.” With those words, she lunged forward off the cliff edge and dropped quickly toward the ground below. With a snap of her wings, she shot skywards and flew off towards the north. I watched until she was little more then a speak on the horizon.

Stonehoof stepped up beside me and stared off towards the distant pegasus. With a sigh he glanced to me.

“Ah’m sorry, Shadow...Ah fingered she’d be a might stubborn but thought she’d at least give ya some information but Ah think somethin’ bad musta happened to her in that place. She never spoke about her past afore.”

I shook my head and turned away from the cliff edge and started towards the path leading back down to the ground.

“It’s alright, Stone, I knew it was a long shot...we’d better hurry if we’re going to check out that well before it gets too dark.”

“We’ve a bit of time, best ta recover before trying th' path down.” he said, walking back to where his hat sat on the ground. I followed him over and joined him.

My best chance at finding a way into Kanter City had just flown away...litterly.

“Stone, you said you and your brother found her in the desert?” I asked, taking another drink from my canteen, my hooves felt better for the rest, but I did not look forward to the climb down.

“Sure enough we did, she was near dead when we found’er wandering th' plains south of Crossroads. No clue where she’d come from, she wasn’t wearin no armor or weapons just a collar round her throat.”

Collar? Had she been a slave in the city? I sipped my water now, before placing the lid back atop it, despite the fact there was a fresh supply nearby I still had better save it for when we reached the ground. I looked back to Stone.

“So...she was a slave then?” I asked.

“Ah rightly an’t for sure. Ah don’t think so, she’s far to mean spirited to be a slave. But she’d clearly been abused...if ya know what I mean.” I winced and nodded my head, I could imagine. “Jasper and Ah took’er ta Crossroads and got’er fixed up. She never told us her name, or where she’d come from. Soon as she was well enough, she upped and left. Towns folk started callin’ her Wildfire cause of her colors and her temper.”

I glanced back to where the pegasus had flown off, no wonder she hadn’t wanted to talk about the place. I sighed and shook my head before standing up.

“Well, we’d better get started...”

As it turned out, getting down the stone pillar was far easier then going up it. This was mostly due to us falling a few times and nearly breaking our necks. Still, we managed it, and reached the ground just before sunset. Not once did we spot Wildfire, I imagined we wouldn’t see her again. We started back towards Crossroads along a different path then the one we’d taken to get here. The Well was a bit east of town.

As we neared Well Number Two, the sun was setting somewhere behind the wall of gray clouds above us, casting the already dim landscape into growing darkness. We’d followed a worn path in the ground up to the mine’s entrance, marked ever so often by steel poles driven into the dry earth. The only sound made by the crunch of gravel under hoof or the soft groan of the night wind.

Ahead of us, the rocky outcropping that formed the basis for the outpost could be seen against the darkening skies. Smooth unnatural shapes could also be made out, from where they had built atop the natural stone of the mine entrance. As we drew closer, I could see a crudely built tower rising above the rocks, giving anypony inside a good view of the surrounding area. Below this, a building had been cobbled together from whatever was at hoof, looking similar to Wildfire’s shack. A small doorway could be seen were the path meet up with the wall. Above the door, a sign had been hung, ‘Outpost #2.’

As we rounded a bend in the path I spotted something that at once set me on alert. The outpost’s metal walls looked to have stood up to many things over the years, from the blasting desert winds to the guns of raiders. They did not stand up, however, to whatever had burned a pony sized hole in the side of it, just to the right of the doorway along the gentle slop it was built atop. I ducked down beside a small pile of rocks, grabbed my shotgun clicking the safety off the weapon and waited for Stonehoof to move up beside me.

I pointed out the hole to Stonehoof, and the pony moved carefully closer to the wall to get a better look as I covered him. He reached down to his side, pulling up his rifle and clicking the safety off. Once he reached the hole, he carefully looked through it at the inside of the outpost. When nothing seemed to alert him, he moved a bit closer to the hole and slowly poked his head inside to look around further. Something near the hole itself seemed to catch his attention. After a few seconds he pulled his head back out and turned to wave a hoof down to me, and I quickly moved up beside him.

As I neared the hole, I spotted the body laying inside the outpost, beside it. It had been a pony at sometime, but it was now little more then a mutilated pile of flesh and bones. Looking closer I saw he had bite marks in his flanks and legs and his face appeared to have been melted off somehow, a half melted shotgun lay a few feet away from him. I felt something rise in my throat, but quickly swallowed it back down, tasting the vomit that had nearly spilled out.

I looked away from the body and instead scanned the inside of the outpost, making note of the small space beyond the wall. Across from us, a natural rock pile jutted up from the earth, in its center a hole had been dug down into the ground; the mine entrance. To the right of the tunnel, I noticed a pile of boxes and barrels stacked up neatly, supplies and water for the outpost, no doubt. Looking to the left, I saw where the rock face met the pony made wall, built along the natural rock facing. They had built added stairs atop the stone that rose up to where the tower I had seen outside stood. I also spotted a few stalls, likely for those two headed cows they used to haul large heavy carts in town. They were empty.

Stonehoof quietly stepped through the hole and into the outpost, looking around quickly before he made his way towards the cave entrance. His hooves making little sound as he crossed the open space, head darting left and right looking for any threats.

Waiting a few seconds, I slipped in behind him and followed him across the open space. Glancing up, I noticed a roof had been built across the top of the outpost, to completely enclose the mine and the natural spring within. But it was damaged, either from the recent attack or from something else. A large hole had been ripped in the roof, exposing twisted metal sheets and beams across it. The grey sky above could be seen easily through the hole. I looked away and scanned the surrounding space, half expecting something to attack us, but for the moment there were no red dots on my E.F.S.

I reached the entrance to the mine within seconds of Stonehoof, taking up positions on the other side of the opening. Dim light flickered from inside and peeking around the corner, I noticed lamps hanging from hooks in the ceiling, still lighting the tunnels after almost a week. Looking over to me, Stone whispered softly across the space between us.

“We should check th' bunks first Ah reckon, it’s th' first passageway off th' main one we’ll come ta,” he said, and I nodded.

Made sense, after all, we did not want anything coming up from behind us. I idly wondered how far in we should go, we were only suppose to scout it out for Rose. Shaking my head, I looked back to Stone and motioned him to lead the way. He knew this place better than I, and he quickly moved ahead of me once more. I followed behind him as we entered I felt a oddly at home in the enclosed space. Oh, the rough stone walls of the mine tunnel was a far cry from the smooth metals walls of the Stable, but they both had a similar feel. I noticed the walls still bore the marks of picks and shovels from when it had first been carved out...Celestia knew how long ago. Two hundred years? Maybe more? As we went deeper, I noticed the wooden support beams had begun to show signs of rot and many had begun to crack, but they had held up this long and I doubted they would give any time soon.

As Stonehoof said, the tunnel ahead of us forked off in two directions. To the right was what I assumed was the main tunnel, to the left the tunnel was smaller and more smooth in appearance. Newer perhaps then the main tunnel, yet somehow I doubted it had been dug anytime recently. In the fork of the tunnel, a single large wooden beam had been erected to help bare the weight of the slightly larger open space. Upon this beam, somepony had nailed a metal sign. Two arrows pointed off down the two tunnels. Written in white paint above the right arrow was ‘Swimming Pool’ and above the left arrow was ‘The Open Grave Hotel.’

Stone motioned to the left tunnel, and I fell in behind him, the tight space leaving us little room to do much more then turn around. The tunnel continued like this for some time before it at last began to open up, and we entered into a large open space.

The living quarters for the outpost’s guards was a single large room. Four lamps swung slowly from their hooks over head, casting a soft yellow glow on everything below them. I counted eight beds along one wall of the room, with trunks and dented lockers beside each. Against the far wall a ledge was carved into the rock, used to store boxes of food stuffs and ammo. Across from the beds was a small side chamber, the ceiling lower then the main chamber, but still high enough for a pony to walk. In this room I saw two overturned tables with their contents scattered across the floor. Chairs lay broken around the tables.

Raising his rifle up, Stonehoof edged into the room, and I followed, spreading out to the right as he went left. Carefully we stepped across the broken plates and shattered cups and remains of what must have been dinner. Drawing closer, we could see the tables had been clawed at, and one had even been burned nearly completely through.

I was the first to spot the body behind the table. A mare, though I wasn’t sure if she had been a unicorn or earth pony as her head was missing. Like the body upstairs, her body had been ripped into, her assault rifle laying nearby, broken in two. Spent shell casing littering the floor around her in a pool of her own blood.

Stonehoof moved around the table and taking in the sight of carnage lowered his weapon. Surprisingly, he stepped closer to the body and leaned his rifle against the table before he began to unbuckle her saddle bags. I was about to ask what he was doing when he gave them a tug revealing her light purple flanks and a cutie mark. A bucket of what looked like water. The large earth pony gave a sigh and covered the mare’s flank back up.

“A friend?” I asked him quietly. He nodded once before picking his rifle back up and standing. For a moment I didn’t think he was going to answer me, and I wasn’t about to press the issue.

“Yeah...Raincatcher...we were...close once.” He left it at that, turning back to enter the main chamber.

I glanced to the dead mare before turning away and following him back out into the living quarters. Looking back towards the tunnel, I saw a few more crates but little else. A quick check of the room turned up no signs of the geckos that had attacked the outpost. We did come across a wealth of ammo and food, but I held back from taking it. I noticed Stone had not attempted to take anything from the room, so i decided to follow his example. After all, this was all owned by Crossroads, and I hardly wanted to piss off the first friendly ponies I had found thus far.

With little else to be found here, we quickly made our way back up the tunnel and to the main shaft. I glanced down it, it was the only place left to check. If we found nothing here, then the geckos had likely moved on to somewhere else. Somehow, I doubted it would be that easy.

I moved to the right side of the wall, Stone took the left and we slowly began to descend deeper into the mine. As we went, we noticed the lamps had gone dark in spots, running out of oil, or in a few places laying shattered across the floor. In several places there was evidence of fire along the floor, where the oil had spilled out, and even a few charred support beams.

We also saw more signs of a fight. Spent shell casings in the corners of the tunnel, chunks of wall blown out from bullet impacts and signs of dried blood. I glanced down at my Pipbuck and noticed the auto-mapping feature was no longer updating itself. I stopped for a second and checked, everything else was working perfectly fine, but the map screen was run through with static.

Stone looked to me as I stopped and arched a brow, I waved him to wait as I fiddled with the controls on my Pipbuck, but still nothing. Then I noticed the radio was also blacked out, it had to be something in the walls that was blocking the signal. And if it was blocking the radio it may also be causing havoc with the map...and perhaps my E.F.S. Fuck...we’d been wandering around blindly.

I hurriedly looked back to Stone and waved a hoof to my right leg, and whispered,“It’s not working...I can’t tell if there’s anything in front of us.” The gray earth pony shook his head.

“Never had one of'em fancy things afore, and Ah’ve done right enough. Just use your own eyes and ears, it’s what yer mother gave’em to ya for.”

With a grunt, I nodded my head and lowered my right leg back down, well, he had a point. Gripping my shotgun once more in my mouth, I started forwards. As we went, I felt the floor sloping slowly deeper and began turning to the right. Not longer after we came across two more bodies, bring the count to four. According to Rose there had been six ponies guarding the well, and one had managed to stumble her way back to Crossroads. That left one pony unaccounted for.

The two ponies laying across the floor of the tunnel had attempted to hold off their attackers there. A crude barricade had been hurriedly erected from over turned crates and empty metal barrels. It hadn’t stopped whatever had come for them. Both showed signs of having been half eaten after they had been killed. At least, I hoped they had died before whatever had attacked them began eating. Like Raincatcher, spent bullet casings lay around them, along with their dropped weapons. However, they had not died alone but had managed to take some of their killers with them to the here after.

As we climbed around the barricade, I spotted several other bodies near the ponies. There had to be at least a half dozen. They were covered in green scales and in place of hooves had clawed webbed feet and hands. Most were easily the height of a young colt or filly, though far more muscled. All of them had a short stubby tail and a reptilian head with frills. Many were also riddled with bullet holes and had leaked dark red blood across the floor. My Pipbuck began clicking when I approached the green scaled bodies, and I quickly stepped back.

Looking to it, I saw the radiation meter had begun to climb into the higher green zone. Arching a brow, I looked back to the geckos (for that's what they had to be) and stepped closer to one of them. Again my Pipbuck began to click and the needle of the radiation meter began to rise towards the yellow.

Shit, these things were radioactive.

I stepped back away from the body and glanced over to Stone, who was looking further down the tunnel, and I noticed he seemed focused on something ahead of us. Carefully, I edged closer to the tunnel wall, and slowly moved forward until I could see at what he was looking. When at last I had moved far enough around the bend of the tunnel, my hindquarters landed in the gravel and I sat shocked.

Ahead of us, gathered around a metal wall that blocked off the tunnel, were at least a dozen or more green scaled bodies with their backs to us. They appeared to be waiting for something, what I had no idea. Looking at the wall itself, I noticed it had a door in the center with a control panel beside it. Slumped next to the panel was the remains of the finally guard. She’d literally been ripped limb from limb and lay scattered across the floor, but it seemed she’d managed one finally act of defiance. A red glow from the control panel indicated it had been locked, and while the wall appeared made up of piece’s of metal as the one above us, it seemed to be far thicker.

One of the geckos moved forwards and began making a choking noise. Glancing to Stone, I saw the other earth pony shake his head and look back. As we watched, the gecko opened it’s mouth wide and spat a large glob of saliva over the door. As gross as it was, the next thing we saw surprised us. The saliva began to hiss and run along the wall, or rather into it. Melting it. This day just kept getting better and better...large lizard creatures with a taste for pony flesh that were radioactive and spat acid. Fucking perfect.

Stonehoof narrowed his eyes and began to quietly step back from the tunnel, motioning me to follow. He had the right idea, if the corpses behind us was any indication, these things had either some thick natural armor or were fast as hell and between just two of us we’d never manage to take down that many before they overran us. The well was safe for now, and if we hurried, we could return to Crossroads and come back with a larger number before they could get inside and taint the water. I didn’t doubt they wanted the water just to drink, but with as much radiation as was coming off them, they’d soon make it undrinkable for anything else to use.

As I turned to follow Stone back up the tunnel, my right front hoof dislodged a large stone near the edge of the wall and sent it rolling back down the tunnel. I froze at once, as did Stone ahead of me. Perhaps they hadn’t heard that...

A loud hiss, followed by several more proved me wrong. The sound of clawed feet scampering up behind us sent us to running back up the tunnel.

Glancing back over my shoulder as I followed Stone up the tunnel made me swear rather colorful things about what Celestia did with her horn. A swarm of clawed scaled creatures were flooding the tunnel behind us. Reptilian eyes glowing in the dark with unnatural light.

Shit...if they started shooting lasers I was quiting...

As we raced through the tunnels with a dozen radioactive geckos hot on our hooves, I turned and leveled my shotgun back down the way we had come and snapped off a shot. As tightly packed as the space was, I could not miss, and the slug slammed into the lead gecko, sending the scaly body tumbling into those behind it. I didn’t waste anymore time, I knew it would not take them long to untangle themselves and charge up after us.

Ahead of me, Stonehoof had turned and began aiming down the path behind me, covering my retreat. As I drew closer, I saw him pull the trigger on the rifle and the bight flash from it’s muzzle. I heard rather then saw the bullet zip past my ear and the sound of brass impacting flesh. As quickly as he fired, he was up and running again, our hooves skidding on the lose stones of the path. Behind us, the hiss of the geckos dropped back a bit, we’d bought a bit of time, but not much.

“We’re almost there...we need ta reach th' hole and hold it, can’t get more then one of’em through at a time and we can easily pick’em off one by one.” the large gray earth pony said beside me, after working the lever back on his rifle.

“Right, and if things get ugly we can fall back down the path a ways and pop them as they try and get out.” I replayed, the mine entrance looming before us. If we attempted to run back to Crossroads, those geckos could overtake us and swarm us in the open plains.

As we left the mine, we raced towards the hole we had entered through and our salvation. Glancing back again, I saw the geckos had yet to exit the mine, this was our chance. Looking back ahead of me I let out a shout of alarm as the hole was blocked out by a large scaly shape. We dug our hooves into the soil and skidded to a halt coming dangerously close to a very large and angry looking gecko. My Pipbuck began screaming in alarm as the large gecko pushed its way inside, glowing drool dripping from it’s jaws and hissing as it struck the ground.

“Oh fuck me...” I managed before the thing swung it’s large claws at Stone’s head. He reacted at once rolling to the side and under the swing, but before he could climb to his hooves the large gecko back handed him with it’s other hand, and sent the earth pony flying across the open space to land in a heap near the far wall.

I attempted to back up, and bring my shotgun to bear on the back of the large gecko, I was just about to activate S.A.T.S when something scaly from behind sent me spiraling into the dirt, and with a grunt I impacted face down and plot up. With a groan I rolled over onto my side and shook my head to clear it. Still groggy from the sudden fall, I turned to see what had hit me, and came face to face with one of the geckos we had been running from. The creature was climbing back onto it’s clawed feet and began hissing at me, while behind it more of its kind came scurrying up the mine entrance. Desperately I lashed out with my hind legs to unbalance the creature, but it simply dodged aside.

Turning to get my hooves under me I saw my shotgun laying on the ground not a few feet away, the strap having been pushed over my head when I’d landed in the dirt. I lunged for my fallen weapon, and saw out of the corner of my eye the gecko lunge towards my head with out stretched claws and a gaping maw full of sharp teeth.

I wasn’t going to make it...

Welcome to Level 4!

Perk Added: Rapid Reload: With your life on the line and every second counting, you’ve learned ways to speed up once time consuming tasks. Allows you to reload all your weapons 20% faster than normal. This also has the effects of allowing you to switch ammunition types faster.

Author's Notes:

I am not so good with the accents. I would like to thank my pre readers and editors for helping me with them. You might notice me slipping from time to time in places and I apologies ahead of time for that.

Also, thank you platyraptor for noticing that mistake in Chapter Two. I shall fix it soon...esh. :)

Editor and Chief: TheGamefilmGuruman

Editor: Avi

Pre- Reader: MagicLlama

Pre- Reader: Bronyken

Original Cover Art: TimeForSP

Current Cover Art: MisterMech Go. Worship his work.