Chapter 10:
Now:

I woke with a throbbing headache and the worst stiff neck I'd ever had. I realized I was lying on a grimy mattress, my Pip-buck light was on, though it sat on the bed beside me, and a quick look around the room told me I was in the old medical bay in the ruined base, Ebony and Ivory sitting on the bedside table, weak light shone through a window beside me.

“AHH!” A happy voice barked from the end of the bed. I looked and saw Candy sitting in a small cargo crate, the insides lined with blankets and pillows. She looked at me curiously and closed her eyes, leaning her head in and shaking it back and forth slowly, then opened them and squawked at me again.

I rolled over slowly and sat up, reaching back and feeling the massive lump on the back of my skull, a bandage wrapped around my head over and over, even looping around my horn a few times, I must have looked like I was wearing a turban, this was clearly Brutus's medical knowledge at work. I leaned in close and Candy grinned a big happy smile and leaned in again, closing her eyes and nuzzling me happily, then opened her eyes and laughed.

“You're a fast learner.” I said, lifting her up in my magic and holding her in the air above me as I lay back. She giggled and squirmed happily in the air. “You're also a very happy baby, which I am very grateful for.” I leaned in and nuzzled her again. Despite the anger I felt towards Brutus and Crackshot, knowing they were the cause of my injuries, and that they had stopped me from trying to save Ruby, laying here, holding Candy I just couldn't be too upset. She was so happy for the both of us and it was infectious.

I lowered her into my forelegs and sat up, cuddling her close. She gave me a big happy smile and waved her hoof at me before shifting and snuggling up to my chest, cooing to herself.

The door opened quietly a few minutes later and I pulled Candy down onto the bed, making her laugh as she slid down beside me, now behind my back as I put myself between her and the door, Ebony and Ivory taking her spot in my magic above me.

“Whoa whoa, it's just us.” Brutus said quickly. I sighed and put the guns back down on the side table as he and Crackshot came into the room.

“How're you feeling Sugarcube?” Crackshot asked, coming over to the bedside.

“Feeling annoyed that somepony clocked me in the back of the skull before I could save Ruby.”

“You couldn't save her.” Brutus said bluntly.

“You didn't even try.” I replied bitterly.

“Hey hey, he's right.” Crackshot said quickly, “they swarmed that graveyard in seconds, they were WAITING for us.”

“Maybe I could have repelled them with my magic.”

“There were too many of them and you know it.”

“You don't know that for sure.”

“I know what I know, and I know that if we hadn't stopped you they'd have TWO prisoners right now.” Brutus said, “and I love Ruby, but you are far too valuable an asset to fall into Enclave hooves.”

“Yeah but...”

“No 'buts' young buck.” Crackshot said, shaking her head, “if they'd gotten you too they would have tortured you, maybe even killed you, if they found out what you were capable of, no computer in the Wasteland would be safe. They'd get access to everything.”

I sighed deeply, knowing they were right. I looked at the foal snuggled up beside me, happily sucking on her hoof again. They might have gotten Candy too, that was something I couldn't let happen, I had to keep her safe...

“Alright, so what's the plan?”

“Well the Enclave left. They grabbed up Ruby and took off like a bat outta hell.”

“Really? They were specifically after her?” I asked, all the more worried now.

“From the look of it yeah.”

“Shit shit shit...Do you think it's that same Pegasus she escaped from?”

“Scourge Cloud right?” Brutus asked and I nodded, “It might be...He didn't strike me as the type to let something like an escaped prisoner just go uncorrected.”

“Why did he take so long to come for her though?”

“She's always pretty well defended. When the base was in operation she was never more than a yell away from help and the guards have a standing order that any Enclave ships show up it's 'shoot first, shoot later, shoot some more and then when everybody's dead try to ask a question or two'.”

“But we lost the base, never really came back...So who knows how long they've been waiting to snatch her up.”

“We have to do something, they might kill her!” I said, sitting up again.

“We will do something. We went and radioed for help. Lily will be here as fast as her wings can carry her, we'll go back to the hospital, we'll rally the troops and we'll march into the sky if we have to.”

“You hear that Candy?” I asked the baby, looking back at her, “Aunt Lily is gonna come get us and we'll go home where it's nice and safe.”

Candy just grinned around her hoof, drool running down onto her back leg.

“Aww I'm an Aunt now am I?” Lily asked, making all of us jump again and weapons fly back up into the air. She stood in the doorway, dressed in her Mare-Do-Well armour.

“Wow you guys are high strung.”

“We were attacked by almost three dozen Enclave Power Armoured soldiers, see how calm you are after something like that.”

“Yeah I know, come on, lets go, I wanna get home.” She said, “Venture is already working on seeing what he can do about finding out where the Raptors went. He's trying to use the M.A.S. Network to trace it's path.”

“Alright, sounds good.” I said, picking Candy up. She whined and squirmed in my grip, “What's wrong babe?” I asked, looking at her curiously. She whined at me again squirming side to side, giving me a dirty look.

I set her down on the bed and she shifted around slowly, orienting her legs under herself and pushing up, walking around slowly in a circle, grinning happily at me.

“Aww baby girl that's great.” I said, watching her trot around slowly only to catch on a pillow and face plant into the padded square.

“Well...it's a good start.” Crackshot said, chuckling to herself.

“Come on sweetie, we you can walk around all you want when we get back to the hospital.” I said, scooping her up again. She wasn't pleased about it, but for the moment my mind was made up and I ignored her whimpering and squirming against my magic.

I turned to leave, my hoof connected with something solid under the edge of the bed. It clattered loudly and rolled forward, coming out at the base of the bed, bouncing off Crackshot's leg and stopping.

“It's a memory orb.” She said, picking it up and looking at it curiously. It was covered in ash and had a crack in it, but it still glowed brightly.

“It must be the one Rosa left for me, I don't see my name etched on it.” I said, looking it over slowly.

“Well you can check later.” She said, tucking it in her saddlebag, “lets hit it.”

“Ladies first.” I replied, bowing my head to her. She snorted and walked out of the room with Lily, then Brutus, and I brought up the rear.

We moved through the burned out base slowly just in case, but there was no sign of any Enclave soldiers. All the same we hurried to the ship once we got outside and took off fast as we could, staying low to the ground for the first little while before popping into the air and continuing on.

//////////

11 Months Ago:

Ruby and I walked down the stairs of the hotel, heading for the entrance.

“Is everything alright?” Ike asked, coming out of his room when he saw us walk past, “that ghoul seemed in quite the state.”

“Oh yes, everything is fine, just an unexpected family reunion.” Ruby said.

“Oh, well as long as it's nothing more to worry about.”

“Not at all.”

“Umm, excuse me?” Marcy asked, sticking her head out from beside Ike, “you said you had a friend you wanted me to meet..?”

“Oh yes, I wanted you to meet my friend Lilith.” I nodded, “why don't you two come with us and you can meet her?”

“I...I don't know,” Ike said, clearly hesitant to leave the safety of the room.

“Awe come on Ike, we've been cooped up in here for days!” Marcy whined.

“Well...I guess...as long as we aren't too long.”

“No longer than you want.” Ruby said, nodding to him.

We set off out of the hotel with our new friends and headed back towards the sky wagon, giving the 'circus' a wide berth and avoiding all the adults we could. We reached the ship quickly and headed in.

“Hey Lily.” I called up to the cockpit as Ruby closed the door behind us. “I have someone you should meet. Don't worry about getting dressed up.” I said, sticking my head through the door and looking at her, sitting in one of the crash seats, flipping lazily through a magazine.

She got up and walked out into the seating area. Marcy's eyes lit up when she saw her. “Are you a Changeling?” She asked, but without waiting for an answer she flashed and changed into her own normal form.

Surprisingly she didn't look the same as Lily. I hadn't seen many Changelings but she looked very different from Lily. She had long slender legs with holes in them, and four wings instead of two. Her body was narrower and longer than Lily's. Her horn was also jagged, coming forward out of her head as though it was meant to curve, but it pulled back the other way sharply and stuck up like the end of a bolt of lightening.

Most surprising though was Lily's small shriek of terror and the door to the cockpit slamming shut.

“What the hell?” Ruby asked nopony in particular, looking at the door.

“Did I do something wrong?”

“Of course not sweetie...” Ruby said without looking over at her. “Lily! What the hell?” She asked, banging on the cockpit door when it proved to be locked on her attempt to open it.

“Nope nope nope nope nope!” Was Lily's only reply from within.

“Lily you let me in this instant!”

“Go away! Nobody here but us chickens.”

“Dammit...Cane, would you kindly..?” Ruby asked, looking over at me. I nodded and pressed my horn to the lock. It clicked and shifted and opened after a moment of coaxing. CB had taught me some of her lock picking skills, but mostly I had just gotten so familiar with the ship from working on it that there were hardly any parts of it I hadn't at least partially disassembled.

“Excuse us one moment.” Ruby said, pushing me into the cockpit and closing the door again.

“Lily! What. The. Fuck?” Ruby asked, looking at the Changeling in the corner of the cockpit, who was cowering a little and looked terrified.

“Ruby...Don't you see?”

“See what?”

“She's a Queen...” Lily said quietly.

“She's a Queen Changeling?” I asked, I vaguely recalled a Queen crashing Princess Cadence's wedding but I couldn't remember the details.

“Yes...She might try to take me back to her hive. I don't want to deal with that shit.”

“Back to her hive? Lil, she's like, nine years old. She doesn't have a Hive. She travels with the Earth Pony out there.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, she's an orphaned Changeling, meeting another Changeling for what might be the first time in years, and you're freaking the fuck out? Think about how you felt at that age.”

“Alright alright, don't bust my horn over it.” She sighed, getting up and shaking herself out. I opened the cockpit door and walked back out. “Sorry about that.”

Lily walked out after me, Ruby coming last to make sure her cousin didn't wuss out.

“Uhh, hi,” Lily stammered, looking at the young Changeling cautiously, “I'm Lilith.”

“Hello Lilith,” The girl grinned, “I'm Mar...” She was cut off by a loud banging on the ship hatch. With a flash of green energy she turned back into a red filly. Lily quickly did something similar, turning into Firebird.

I opened the hatch and sighed deeply when I saw it was just CB, Xem and Brutus. “You remember I gave you ACCESS codes right?” I asked.

“Yeah, but with Lily in here we figured advance warning to change was a good idea instead of just opening the hatch.” Xem said, looking at the group in the ship.

“So we have a mission?” Brutus asked curiously.

“Ahh yes. Uhh, Ike, Marcy, I guess you two can go back to your hotel...we're going out to the forest to investigate a lead.”

“We are?!” CB cried, “but it's terrifying out there! Can't it wait till morning?”

“We're trying to track a fire.” Ruby explained.

“Yeah, that's a little outside of our ability set.” Ike said, looking at the red filly, “come my dear, we'll go back and have some dinner.”

“Alright, it was nice to meet you Lilith.” She said to the other Changeling.

“You too Marcy.” Lily nodded.

The two headed out of the sky wagon, heading back the way we'd come to bypass the Cutie Pox infected children.

“So what's the plan?” Brutus asked, sitting down on one of the benches.

“Well thanks to Snipe we know the general area of where the fire is,” Ruby began, pulling her battle saddle from it's resting place on the wall and starting to pull it on, “we figured we could break into three groups of two and sweep the area.”

“And why can't this wait until morning?” CB asked.

“We can't waste any time. Think about how those children out there are suffering.” Lily said before I could speak up. “They can't control themselves, they can't eat, can't sleep, can't do anything but practice their talents until they die of exhaustion.”

“Well when you put it that way...” She sighed, nodding.

“Alright, so Me and Lily, You and Ruby and CB and Xem?” Brutus asked me.

“Exactly.” I nodded, “and I'm trusting you two to be brave and do this.” I added, looking at the children.

“Of course.” Xem replied.

“Well, lets head out then.” Lily said, heading for the exit of the ship.

"What happened with Crackshot and Snipe?" I asked.

"For the moment there's nothing I can do to help." Xem said, "I need to go back to the base and look at some old texts of my grandfathers. I don't know all Zebra glyphs. Sniper Joe said he was fine to just wait until we're done with the Cutie Pox problem. He said he's been sitting in that chair for 200 years, a few more days won't make a difference."

We made our way outside and walked through the city to the forest, then traveled through the trees together until we reached a point where we couldn't see the town but we could see the AA tower and then split up.

//////////

We spent the next few hours searching the forest.

Ruby and I walked through the trees quietly, listening for any sound, or any light or garbage or anything that might point us towards our goal.

“I'm starting to get ready to give up on this...” I sighed, “maybe we should head back.”

“Shh...Do you hear that?” Ruby asked. I fell silent and listened. I could hear soft chattering noises.

“What is that?” I asked, barely above a whisper.

“I dunno...it's coming from over there...”

We moved through the trees slowly and came to a small clearing. There was an extinguished fire pit, still smouldering, and a small tent sitting tucked between two bushes, camouflaged really well from view, except that my E.F.S. showed a small cluster of green indicators and I picked the tent out of the darkness.

“Uhh hello?” I called softly, keeping Ebony and Ivory tucked away but at the ready.

The tent opened slowly and a small creature emerged. It was only about 12 inches tall, covered in dark grey fur, and clumsily trying to hold a pistol in it's small hands.

“Hey hey, no need for weapons, we're friends.” Ruby said. “We're just out here looking for a friend we lost. We're not going to hurt you, really.” She put her hooves up and shifted up on her hind legs, unbuckling her battle saddle and letting it slide off onto the ground behind her.

“A-Alright...just...stay put...” He said, shaking from head to toe but keeping the gun on us still.

A half a dozen more of the creatures emerged from the tent, all looked exhausted and terrified.

“What are you?” Ruby asked.

“We're...B-Bushwoolies.” A small red one replied, stepping forward slowly.

“Bushwoolies? I thought you guys went extent centuries ago...” Ruby said, looking at them in amazement.

“N-No, we're just good at hiding...” The red one said.

“Well why don't you come back to the hospital with us? It's way safer than out here in the woods of the Wasteland.”

“Uhh, excuse us a sec...” They all turned and piled into the small tent again and Ruby giggled softly.

“What are you doing?” I asked her.

“They need our help, we can't just leave them out here. They may be the last of a previously thought dead species, we can't just leave them out here. They're terrified.”

“They have a gun.”

“You have a gun, you have two guns, that shoot lasers. I have guns,” she pointed to her battle saddle, “everyone in the wasteland hands guns, I don't know if you realize that.”

“We don't know if we can trust them. You remember the part where Snipe said that the strange monsters in the forest have seemed to vanish? What if this is all some kind of set up?”

“Uhh, excuse me?” The little red one had emerged from the tent again, though the grey one was still looking out of the tent with his gun drawn, “we would very much like to come with you. We're very tired of hiding all the time, but need your help first.”

“With what?” I asked flatly, still untrusting of the creatures.

“We were captured by an evil unicorn who forced us to do her bidding and kept us as slaves, she made us wear collars that would explode if we left the cave. We managed to find a way to break them and escape, but we had to leave our littlest brother behind.”

“You found a way to break out of them?”

“We smashed them with rocks.” He admitted.

“EXPLODING collars? You smashed with rocks?”

“You've never been a slave. Those collars are worse than death.” Ruby said softly.

“The little one was too weak to smash free...he ran and hid and we set out to try and find someone to help us. Please ponies, please help us!”

“Cane, they are desperate, they need our help.”

I sighed deeply but nodded, she was right, I couldn't abandon them just because they were weird.

I fired a ball of light into the air, lighting up our location with the flare, calling the others to our location.

“We're going to have our friends come meet us, then we'll go help you alright?” Ruby asked. “If this unicorn is as mean as you say then we're going to need lots of help.”

“Alright,” the red one said before the grey one could speak up.

So we sat and waited for our friends to arrive.

Footnote: Level up

New Perk Added: Familial Pride: You feel a strong swelling of emotion and love whenever traveling with a family member. You gain +1 strength and +2 Damage Threshold. You gain an additional +5 to Damage Threshold and receive a temporary stun immunity when taking damage in place of your family member.

Author's Notes:

Special Thanks to Pridark for the beautiful picture: http://pridark.deviantart.com/art/Comm-Hello-Daddy-401652061

Go tell her how awesome you think her art is.