Finally, it was my first day back out in the wastes.

"Just fucking kill the bitch!" A raider screamed from his cover across the road.

Yes, it certainly was good to be back. Just some asshole raiders sitting in cover, waiting to get killed for being so damned stupid. Though, it might have been going better if I had a gun. Or any weapon for that matter.

“Anytime, Null!” I chimed from the drainage ditch I’d ducked into. Null had been invisible since we both saw the clues to this ambush when we were a ways off from it. One skycarage sitting in an open section of road, right next to an old drainage pipe? It was about the most obvious ambush I’d ever seen. If this part of the wasteland wasn’t so open and flat, we’d probably have just gone around.

“Get her!” Another of the raiders shouted as they scrambled over the cracked asphalt. Of course, in their hurry to get across, they ran right into Null’s sights. With a soft click, one of the poison darts found it’s way into the raider’s neck. The toxin worked fast on somepony so scrawny. He flopped down into the ditch like a ragdoll and slid to my hooves. Poking out of a sheath on his leg, was a very shiny and well kept old world combat knife. I grabbed it in my magic and pressed it against his throat, dragging it across in one swift motion.

Still sharp too.

“What the hell are you doing over there, Shank?” The raider leader called out. “How hard is it to stab her?” The pathetic look in this stallion’s eyes dimmed out as his blood drained onto my coat tail and into the dirt. Normally, I wasn’t one for knives, but I’ll just have to make due I guess.

“One down.” I called out. “Who want’s to try next?” Normally, this sort of thing would have been little more than an annoyance to me. I have worked too damn hard to get back out here, that I’m going to enjoy killing these assholes while I can. They haven’t fired any shots at us yet, so it was relatively safe to assume that they didn’t have a gun, or that they only had a gun with limited shots.

“What are you waiting for?” The lead stallion shouted and scuffled with one of the other raiders. “Get out there and smash!” A bitch with an invisible friend had already killed one of his own. It wasn’t his lucky day, and he knew it.

Heavy hoofsteps came across the pavement next. The twang of Null’s crossbow hit my ears, but the steps kept coming. I barely had enough time to react before a rusty sledgehammer pulverised the dirt next to me. A mare that looked like she’d eaten a bottle of buck for breakfast let out one hell of an angry roar before she swung again. I pushed off from the dirt and dodged back. The head swung past my muzzle, missing me by nearly an inch.

“Shit! Move!” Null yelled from the safety of his invisibility. A pair of shots rang out from the raider’s side. They sounded like pistol caliber, but I didn’t care right now. The mare swung again. With the combat knife ready, I ducked low and rolled, reading myself to dodge yet again then strike. Annoyingly, my cyber legs didn’t respond fast enough, and the handle of the hammer slid along my side.

Even through my coat, the shaft managed to get hooked right through the cable of the battery. As the mare’s swing carried through, it tore the cable from my leg. Off balance, I couldn’t recover. The mare gave me an angry glare as she took the hammer in her hooves and raised it up.

Remember, when fighting a unicorn, never give them a weapon they can take using leverage.

I wrapped my magic around the sledgehammer and slid it out from between her fetlocks. It was heavier than I’d expected, but that’s what made it such an efficient weapon. I simply let go of the head and let my magic turn the end of the shaft into a hinge. Gravity could do the rest. The moment in which she tried to understand what had happened, the weighty weapon swung down, around, and planted itself right under her chin. Her head snapped back with a crack, and she went down.

She was out cold, but I slit her throat as well for good measure. As I wicked her blood from the knife, I glanced at her cutie mark. It was a cylinder of barbed wire, with a pony shredded and dismembered among them. How sad a raider’s life must be to have their special talent be so barbaric and useless. In that moment of downtime I had, I lifted my coat. The battery contact had been simply ripped out of it’s socket, no damage had been done to the leg or the connector. With a whine, I shoved the cord back in and wiggled my repowered hoof.

That was about when I realized that it was dead quiet. I got back to my hooves and looked around. Null was still nowhere to be seen, and two raiders lay dead next to me. With a deep breath, I brought the combat knife up. As quickly and quietly as I could, I made my way back to the drainage ditch.

“Good work with the two over there.” Null spoke up from the road above. “The other two were just as easy.” He reached out with his magic and nullified my grasp on the knife. “I assume this might be a bit more to your liking.” As he spoke, he floated a shoddy looking combat pistol over to me. The thing looked like it was held together with wonderglue and spit. Ejecting the magazine, I found that it only had two rounds remaining. I looked back at the knife, then over to the sheath still on the other pony.

“I’m taking both.” I grumbled out. Two shot’s weren’t going to do much, especially so if the gun exploded when I fired one. I used my magic to bring the sheath and knife over. Flint had never told me what he meant by ‘I’d get my weapons in Filly’. If it was anything like that revolver I killed Ash with, I don’t think I’ll mind too much. Hell, even if it wasn’t that great, it would still be better than these.

“Suit yourself.” Null sighed. “We’ve got a long way to go yet, best not to dawdle.”

“Yeah, yeah.” I tugged on the straps to make sure the sheath wouldn’t come loose from my leg. “Not like somepony else is going to do my job for me.” With a soft click, Null shimmered into view in front of me.

“Well,” He sighed. “That is not exactly true. If there is another job uncompleted, and you are in the area, you are free to complete the job first. For example, Brushfire was on a job north of manehatten just a few days ago.” He rolled his eyes and turned to face down the road. “With a pyromaniac like her, what’re the chances she would care to burn down your building and claim the contract as her own?” He flicked his tail in arrogance. “But you are right, what is the rush?”

I simply grumbled and trotted up next to him. The whole time I’d been recovering, he never treated me this way. He was probably just angry because I said I didn’t like him. Well two can play at that game. Not that it means anything to me, but I liked him better when he was just some perverted stallion I had to worry about.

“Why would I rush when you haven’t even told me where we’re going in Filly?” I’m not sure I even wanted an answer to that. There are some places in Filly you just never found yourself, and there were places in Filly that not even the slavers and raiders found themselves. I was just hoping that we weren’t going to deal with that. “Also, we have to make a stop to pick up Caltrop.” Thinking of it finding things, Null knows where Caltrop is at. Good thing I convinced Flint to have him come with me.

“You need not concern yourself about him now. I will lead you to where he is after we have completed the contract, not before.” He nearly snapped at me. I could hear it through his voice, see it in his body as he tensed. I was getting sick of his attitude.

“That wasn’t the deal I made with Flint.” I growled and stopped. “We pick him up before the job.”

“Why?” He seethed and glared at me. “Why would you want that inept stallion to go with us. He has no valuable skills, and is liable to distract you from the job.” He was fuming and more angry than I’d ever seen him. “He is dead weight, and he should be left to rot with the other filth in the wasteland.”

“You know what?” I shook my head. “Turn around and go back to Flint. Tell him that after all the work he did to get me on board, I cancel our agreement.” The moment I said that, I swear I could see his blood boiling.

“You would not dare.” He hissed at me and drew his crossbow. I knew the cost that canceling our agreement would have, and I had no intention of breaking it. A job is a job. This? This was all to prove a point.

“Go back and tell him it’s your fault.” I returned his burning gaze with one of my own. “That it was all because you were too jealous to accept that fact that I’m not your wife.”

“Fuck you!” He roared. He spun around and used his magic to throw his crossbow at the wrecked skywagon back down the road. In a blind rage, he stomped at the cracking pavement. He gave a few haphazard bucks and shouts, but those soon gave way to whines. “Fuck you.” He said in a more defeated tone. He sat down hard and sniffled. There it was, the point had finally made it into his stubborn head.

“Your wife is dead.” I said as coldly as I could. “Your fault or not, I am not her replacement.” I paused and waited for him to say something, but he was too busy wallowing in his sorrows. “Do you understand me?”

“Yes.” He spoke softly. “I am sorry.”

“Get your shit together.” While we didn’t need to push ourselves, I didn’t want to sit around all day when we could at the very least be walking. “I want to at least make it halfway before sundown.” Yes, it certainly was good to be back out in the wasteland.

The rest of the day had passed by without much incident. Null hadn’t spoken at all since his breakdown, and spent most of the rest of the trip invisible. Most of the walk I had to myself, and I spent a lot of that time trying to remember how to travel the wastes safely. We’d hidden from a caravan, avoided a roaming horde of feral ghouls, and found a bottle of dirty water in a rucksack hidden in a tree stump.

As the sun set, we’d made camp at the base of a short cliff face. A jagged indent into the rocks provided us a place to cram ourselves into for sleep. Null used a portable magical energy stove he’d brought to cook the water we’d found into something drinkable. He’d also added some dried lily dust from an old tin container into the water as it boiled. Tea was a rare commodity in the wastes, and I made sure to savor the drink long into the night.

Before we’d gone to bed, we’d stripped down our weapons and gear to clean them. He had to repair his crossbow, as some components inside of it had snapped when he threw it. The firearm I’d gotten off the raider was a completely different story. In my attempt to clean it, the heavily corroded slide stop sheared off and made the pistol completely unusable.

Feeling secure in the choice to bring the knife with me as well, I’d tossed the pistol away. In the soft glow of Null’s pipbuck, I’d removed my legs and checked them over. They’d gotten through the day with more or less no damage whatsoever. Satisfied with that, I curled myself up in my coat and gone to sleep. We’d made good time to here, and would be at Fillydelphia by the end of tomorrow. That is, if all went well. As was my life now, I’m sure something would come up that would undoubtedly ruin what should have otherwise been a smooth trip.

The trek towards Filly continued to be long and as uneventful as I’d hoped it would be.

The closer we got to Filly, the darker the skies grew. I could see the great plumes of soot giving the city it’s dark aura. Maybe that’s why I’d always gotten into a foul mood whenever I came back here. From the get go, I’ve had the wrong idea about a lot of things. Maybe I only started hating my trips here after they started some of the factories up again. Then again, I’ll probably never know. The buildings were shit, the ponies were shit, the whole place was just bad news. Yet, somehow I always found myself right back here.

Then again, I wasn’t the only one.

I should have been more attentive, but seeing as it was prime ambush territory, I shouldn’t have been surprised. From among the rocks that dotted the landscape, somepony shot me. The impact didn’t kill me, but it knocked me off my hooves. I let out a loud gasp as all the air was forced from my lungs. As I hit the pavement, a small red square flopped down in front of me. It was a non lethal bean bag round. Looking down at the welt on my chest, I was relieved that I hadn’t been mistaken.

Null tried his best to go invisible, but the next shot came sooner than even I’d thought was possible. With a loud gasp, he too collapsed to the ground. It was almost too fast for a normal pony to shoot. As I finally was able to draw in a breath, the sound of quickly approaching hoofbeats filled my ears.

“See little one, that’s why a pipbuck makes all the difference.” Bluejay gloated. Never before had I been happier to hear her voice. “Now let’s go see if they’re friendly or not.”

“That was super neat!” Sandy squeaked. I was wrong before, this trip was actually looking to go my way for once. Sandy interrupted my thoughts with an excited gasp. “Friend! It’s you!” Without further warning, she jumped onto me. She kept her paws curled tightly as she hugged my neck, which let me relax slightly. “You’re alive!”

“PC?” Bluejay said as she strolled over. She leveled her pump shotgun at Null and stared in bewilderment at me. “How are you…?” She canted her head and looked down at my legs. “Where did you...?”

“It’s a long story.” I grunted and pointed over to Null. “Don’t shoot him. He’s with me.”

“What? Why not?” She sneered at me. She opened the chamber to her gun and slid in a regular shotshell. “He’s with Flint.”

“You won’t shoot him because you owe me.” I glared at her as I pushed myself up. “Or do you want me to explain to you what it cost me when I distracted them from chasing you.” I knew I was being dramatic as I angrily pulled my coat back over my legs, but I wanted this to go smoothly. I don’t need Flint after me because he thinks I killed Null.

“Fine.” She said, putting her shotgun away. Null gasped and drew in as much air as he could. He was going to owe me quite a few favors for that.

“I knew that other friend was wrong!” Sandy smiled brightly. “She lies to me a lot about things, so I knew when she told me you were gone forever, that she was lying then too!” She giggled. “Mr. Caltrop is going to be so happy she was wrong!”

“Trust me, nopony is happier than me to know that Storm was wrong.” I grumbled. “What are you two even doing out here?”

“We’re looking for work!” Sandy chirped.

“By shooting at random ponies?” I didn’t quite get that logic.

“If we got the jump on somepony, they’d be more inclined to hire us on as bodyguards.” She shrugged and slung her shotgun across her back. “It’s worked for me a few times in the past.”

“Yeah, but Flint still want’s your head.” I facehoofed. “Why not do this outside Manehatten? You know, where you’re not shooting me.” I don’t know if she’d been taking lessons from Storm, but I guess as the very least I’m glad it wasn’t somepony using real ammo.

“Because.” Null finally found the will to join us in the conversation. “She has friends here who shelter her, isn’t that right?” All she did was nod and smile at him. Null deadpanned and looked over at me. “Why am I certain that you’re going to tell me we aren’t bringing her in?”

“One, because we still have a job to do.” I smiled at him. “And two, you owe me for not letting her shoot you in the face.” Well, there go all those favors I could have gotten. Still worth it if the rest of this trip goes as well as this has.

“Wait, you took up Flint’s offer?” Bluejay blurted out and wore her most outraged expression. “That stallion is a monster!” She walked up to me and shook her head in disappointment. Funny how much like Storm she sounded right now. “How could you even stand for it?”

“Stand?” I laughed. “He may be a monster, but he’s who gave me back the ability to walk.” I prodded her chest with my hoof. “Who agreed not to ever mess with my family, and who is going to pay me so much more for the same job I’ve always done than I’ve ever had.”

“By killing innocent ponies?” She stammered.

“I’m a bounty hunter. I do the job I’m paid to do.” I turned away from her and started to walk toward Filly again. “It’s not my job to judge.”

“No, you are an executioner.” She hissed and trotted up beside me.

“Tell me, you have killed ponies, yes?” Null asked her as he fell in line behind us. “Were all of them truly deserving of it?” I watched as his question made her expression shift to guilt. “What is justice other than the morals of the time. Had we been together during the war, you would have likely shot me down already.”

“But, I’m trying to do better.” Bluejay muttered weakly.

“And I’m just trying to survive.” I remarked.

“Why can’t you do both?” Sandy barked. “In the den, the old dogs kept telling us that the ponies up above were not to be trusted, but we were not to hurt them so long as they did not hurt us.” She looked up to me with his sad eyes. “I didn’t see it happen, but a pony came down to us once. Daddy killed them before they could hurt us. He said that they looked dangerous, and that it was for the greater good of the pack.” She looked over to Bluejay. “Even though they didn’t hurt us, it was still alright that they were killed, right?”

“I don’t know.” Bluejay shook her head softly. “It’s possible. But this stallion, he’s not like that.”

“He is simply maintaining the balance of the wasteland.” Null chimed in again.

“And balance keeps everyone happy, right?” Sandy smiled and bounced as she walked. “When everyone is happy, how can it be bad?”

“Kid.” I chuckled. I really did miss this. “You are going to grow up to be one smart cookie.”

“But…” Sandy looked horrified at that. “I don’t want to be a cookie…” Then she scrunched her muzzle up. “Wait, what’s a cookie?”

A month’s time is a lifetime in the wasteland, but some things just never change.

The northside entrance to Fillydelphia was just as busy as it always was. Even though the volume of ponies were the same, the common look of them were not. Just at a glance, I could tell that there were many more slavers here than there had been last month. With the caps this ‘Red Eye’ was offering, it’s no surprise that the slave trade had boomed. With this kinda crowd, I bet Horus was making a killing.

Null had taken the lead as we dove in. Bluejay fell behind us and disappeared amongst the flood. I didn’t blame her. She was smart, and could find us later if she needed too.

“Wow…” Sandy spoke into my ear. Her voice came across like a whisper amongst the roaring sea of noises. “I’ve never seen so many ponies!”

Huh, maybe today was just a high traffic day then. No matter, as we wouldn’t be staying long I hoped. Well, any longer than we had too seeing as we had to go get Caltrop. I just hope we didn’t have to go through too much of this city to get my weapons back. Still, I followed Null through the familiar path I used to trace on my way back to my motel home.

Even though it was the same path, it now somehow felt more oppressing. I felt like all the ponies at the bars were watching me. Sandy let out a whimper as well, and I knew my feelings weren’t unwarranted. The city had turned mean in my absence, and that just made me hate it even more. When we turned on to the street where Horus’s motel was, I felt like I could maybe relax a little.

“Hey there, sweet thing.” A well muscled red stallion spoke up as he stepped between Null and I. “How about you let me show you the best night of your life.” I didn’t even bother tipping my hat up to see his face. I wrapped my magic around the combat knife as he lifted a hoof in a move to touch my cheek.

“Let me tell you about what mistake you are about to make.” Null said as he hooked his forehoof around the stallions hoof. “See, we both belong to Mr. Flint.” He paused just long enough for the stallion to tense up. “Yeah, that Mr. Flint. If you lay a hoof on her, you better have your will in order.” He stopped again as the other stallion jerked his leg back. “Is that clear?”

The buff stallion grumbled and stepped aside without arguing. I took a single step forward before he turned and swung his massive hoof at Null. The hit was powerful. Null toppled over and hit the dirt hard. He went rigid as he did, and he didn’t get back up.

“I don’t believe you.” Was all the large stallion said before he turned back to me. I drew the knife from it’s sheath, only to have it tossed away. By a more powerful magic than my own. I looked up finally to find that he too was a unicorn. Bald, covered in scars, and missing half his muzzle, this guy was uglier than half the ghouls I’ve ever seen. His magic wrapped around my neck and squeezed. “You’re mine.”

“Sandy…” I gasped out as I started to panic. I didn’t want to have to do this, but it was the only option I had left. “Kill.”

She hadn’t needed to be told twice, she just did as she was asked. She was just a blue blur for me. She made several passes at the stallion before circling his flank and running back under it. When she came to a stop in front of me, the stallion’s grip loosened. With a grumbling groan, his belly split open. His entrails and a whole lot of organs I didn’t even know the names of spilled out into the dirt. She must have gotten more than a few arteries with that as well, cause he bled faster than anypony I’d ever seen.

“Did I do well?” Sandy squeaked and smiled. His magic faded as the stallion collapsed in a bloody heap. When he gave his last breath was when I felt safe to breath normally again. I nodded down to the pup in bewilderment. “Yay! Another bad pony gone!”

It looked like I wasn’t the only one who’d drastically changed in the last month. Sandy smiled brightly, even with blood coating her claws. The fear of killing was completely gone from her eyes. So long as she thought the ponies were bad, it’s like she didn’t care. She’s either smarter than I thought, or somepony taught her well.

“Ugh.” Null groaned from the dirt. Both Sandy and I stepped around the fresh corpse to help him up. “What happened?”

“You got knocked the fuck out.” I found it hard not to smile as I did my best to hoist him up. My cyber legs gave a bit of a whine as I did, but didn’t seem to have any issue once he was up. He looked over to me in confusion with blood dripping from his muzzle. “You’ll be fine in a few minutes.”

He nodded limply and blinked a few times. He raised his hoof and pointed up the street. Even after all that, he still wanted to continue. I had to laugh. He was a trooper, I’ll give him that. We took it slow for the first few steps. After that, he seemed to become more coherent. As we walked, he looked back at the corpse a few times. Then he looked down at Sandy and her paws.

I just kept my head on a swivel. One asshole trying to have his way with me was good enough for one day. Though, another asshole was distinctly out of place. I looked up the street to the Silver Linings Motel. Even for it being late afternoon, the place looked dark. Normally, Horus had turned on the lights by now.

“That’s odd.” I spoke my mind, hoping to get Null’s opinion on if something was off. “Horus’s motel is darker than usual.”

“Who knows.” He said as he squinted at it. I wasn’t sure if he could even see it without it’s power on. My guess was he still could. “Who cares. Leave your past in the past.” With just the way he said that, something was off with him.

“Oh, I know!” Sandy jumped ahead of us and bounced on her hind legs. “That's where a bad pony had a shootout was last week!”

“A shootout?” I asked. She nodded excitedly and beamed a smile at me. “In Filly?”

“Come on, we don’t have time for this.” Null said, finally coming to his senses enough to walk on his own again. “We've got a schedule to keep.” Now I knew he was hiding something.

“A bad pony robbed the nice bird there.” She spoke in a tone too upbeat for the topic. “Miss. Blue and I tracked him down and sent him away two days ago!” She sounded so proud of herself. “Miss Blue said that I did a good job then too!”

“You tracked him for days? How?” I’m no master at scent tracking, but I would think that is a bit of a stretch. With how much shit I’ve stepped in, and filth that I just seem to pick up, I would think it impossible. Well, without something really unique to follow.

“Through the blood on him, silly! From the bird guy.” Sandy giggled.

I didn’t even care about him. Horus had been nothing but an asshole to me the whole time I’d rented from him. Still, he’d been the closest thing to a friend I’d had before Caltrop. I found myself wandering over to the office of the motel. Maybe he’d still be angry that Caltrop stole his caps, but at least a ‘friendly’ face might be good for him.

“Miss Cap, don’t go over there.” Null tried to order me in his best authoritative voice. Null was a lot of things, but a leader he wasn’t. I got to the door and opened it with my magic. I stepped inside and found myself in a dark front office. Sitting in a chair by the reception desk, was a griffin I’d never seen before. She wore heavily beat up Talon company armor, and the purple highlights ringed a pair of familiar emerald green eyes.

“Who the fuck are you?” I said rather bluntly. “Where’s Horus?” She didn’t seem too amused by my intrusion.

“Listen, if my dad owed you money, then you can fuck off like everypony else.” Her voice was shrill, like a hoof dragged down a chalkboard.

“Dad?” I muttered. There was no fucking way that someone as unlikable as Horus could have had a relationship with anyone, griffin or not. “Funny, the entire time I stayed here, he’d never even mentioned a daughter.”

“Don't worry, I barely even knew I had a father. He left after he knocked up my mom. Only met him once when he came to headquarters.” She cooed and rolled her eyes. Now that sounded more like the Horus I knew. “And now that he’s dead, everypony wants a piece of him.”

“He’s dead?” I didn’t really know what I had expected coming in here. If he fought in close quarters like here, a fatal wound isn’t uncommon. I guess part of me didn’t want to think that he could be gone. “I’m sorry.”

“Pft, not like I care.” She shook her head and looked at me. She studied me for a moment. “You wouldn't happen to be the bitch who stayed in number six, would you?” She reached into a satchel bag she had strapped under her wing and pulled out an envelope. “Here.” She held it out and allowed me to take it in my magic. I read the inscription on the front outloud.

“To be opened on the event of my death, let the mare from number six read my last will.” Weird. I looked back up to her only to have her shrug. I opened it and read the letter inside. “In the event of my death, I hereby bequeath all of my belongings, including the Silver Linings motel, to my only daughter, Margret. The deed to it is written on the backside of this note, and contractually binds the owner to this property.”

“Yeah, fuck this dump. I've got contract work to do.” She groaned in annoyance. She stretched her wings out and walked over to me. “It’s cool that you were cool with the asshole I guess. Keep the place, I don't fucking care. I just came to pay my respects to the asshole.” With that, she continued past me and walked outside. Before I could say anything else, she took flight and was gone. Null stood there looking unimpressed and bored as I glanced at him.

“I like her. Seems she’s an asshole, just like her father.” I smirked and looked back to the letter. There was more it seemed. “In the event that my daughter refuses ownership, I leave all I own to the mare from number six, Percussion Cap.” I paused when I hit the end there. He left this place… to me? I get that we were ‘friends’ and all, but what did he expect me to do with this place?

“Unfortunately, as a hunter for Flint, you can't own any property.” Null said as he held his hoof out expectantly.

“I understand, but I'm keeping this on me till we get back anyway.” I shot back with a smile. I flipped my hat off with my magic and tucked the letter into the lining. Null frowned and cocked an eyebrow at me. If Flint wanted it, he could ask for it. Besides, who knows. A motel of my own could come in handy. “Now, where are these weapons at?” I smiled at him like the asshole I was at that moment.

Yup. It felt damn good to finally be back.