The world came back to me all at once. A cacophony of sounds, feelings, and images flooded me. I wanted to scream out of sheer surprise, but my muzzle didn’t move. In fact, none of me moved outside of slowly breathing and staring out across the clouded and snowy planes that ran up to the mountains. I took a moment to calm myself, but something felt off.

I could feel my legs. More So, I could feel something else that didn’t belong.

“So, what do you think, Major Shill?” A mare next to me spoke up out of nowhere. Again, I wanted to jump, but my mind put two and two together before then. I was somehow viewing a memory orb, and I wasn’t in control. My host didn’t seem to be paying attention, and said nothing. Again, the mare next to me spoke up. “Could I go for it, sir?”

“You know what I’ve learned this past decade?” My host spoke in a weary voice. Why did I always have to get the ponies with annoying voices? “You have to be honest not only to yourself,” He paused and finally shifted his vision. Sitting next to him was a dark brown pegasus mare with a cream colored mane. She wore a tight fitting green jumpsuit and a pair of dark sunglasses. “but to others as well. If you believe that you love him, by all means, you have my blessing.”

“Thank you, sir.” The mare gasped through a bright smile. “You know, Copper really does make me feel like the most important mare in the world.”

“I’ve always tried my best to do right by Pence.” The stallion I was riding muttered as he got to his hooves. “And I’m glad that it was you who he ended up liking so much.” He wasn’t old, but from the aches in his bones, he was by no means young. He turned around and revealed that the two of them were on the far outskirts of what looked to be an active military base. Ponies scurried about between the buildings and lines of military vehicles that were scattered about.

“You ready to go, sir?” The mare cleared her throat and spoke up. “I think the general has had enough time to get together the needed paperwork for the audit.”

“Yes, I suppose he has.” He replied as the two of them pointed themselves at a large grey building that sat near the center of the compound. They started up at a trot, headed for a large section of tanks parked in a line near them on the outskirts. “I certainly hope he has a good explanation for why Stalliongrad is going through as many spare parts and ammunition as they log.”

“From what I hear, the fighting out on this front is particularly bad.” The mare next to him said as if it were everyday news. It was only odd as the other memory orb made it sound like all these pre-war ponies couldn’t even handle the sight of violence. I guess that changed. “My cousin’s been embedded over in Pripytrot. He says that even from there you can hear the shelling this way at night, sir.”

“Well, let’s be glad that they aren’t shelling us right now then.” My host gave a weak grin, but I could tell that he was scared to death at the thought. I could feel it in his legs as the two started to walk past the dormant tanks. “And you can drop the sir thing, Grace. You’ve been escorting me for four years, and dating my son for two.” He stopped and put a hoof on her shoulder. “I’m pretty sure we’re past ‘sir’.”

She smiled for a moment before a tremendous roar came from near them. One of the tanks in the row gave off a growl as it’s engine started. After a moment, that growl sputtered and game to a grinding halt. In the silence’s place, came the angry voice of a heavily accented mare.

“Upryamyy glupo kusok der'ma!” Was all the preceded the loud clang of a wrench being tossed out into the road. My host watched as it sailed past him and the mare next to him. He turned and looked up to the tank next to them. It had been painted stark white, and bore words along it’s turret in an odd style of writing I’d never seen before. A blue coated mare blinked in disbelief from inside an open hatch on the back of the tank.

“Is something the matter with this vehicle?” My host spoke up to her. The mare in the tank simply kept her muzzle shut and shifted her vision about nervously. My host looked over himself quickly, inspecting the olive drab uniform he wore. When he looked up, he wore a soft smile. “Do not worry, I am here to try to figure out why this keeps happening. It would help if I knew what was wrong with the tanks though.”

“Silver, the general is waiting.” Grace spoke up behind him.

“Now now,” He looked back at grace and smiled to her. “The general made us wait. It is only fair that we return the favor.” His vision turned back to the mare on the tank, who looked a bit more relaxed. “Besides! Anything I can do to help may help the war end that much sooner.” With a sigh, he walked up to the tank and put his hoof on it. With a heavy grunt, he pulled himself up onto the front and climbed up. “Now, tell me what’s wrong with it.”

Dvigatel', privodnoy val, gidravlika.” She started to say in what amounted to gibberish to me. “Vse oni lomayutsya!” She flailed her hooves at the entire open back compartment of the tank. Inside sat a whole lot of machinery that did things and stuff for all I knew. On second thought, why did I care to comprehend any of this in the first place? How the hell did I even get in a memory orb anyway?

“I’m sorry, but I only speak standard equestrian.” Silver said slowly. “And if you could keep it simple. I’m better with currency than I am with machines.” He gave a light chuckle which roused an awkward smile from the other mare. “Also, my name is Silver Shill.” He held his hoof out to her, which she readily took and shook firmly.

“Sorry, I am Rolling Tracks.” She replied, this time in words I could understand. “And this is War Mare.” She smiled as she waved her hoof over the tank. “My crew and I would love her more if she weren’t always breaking something.” This time she pointed to each part of the tank as she went over them. “Main reactor manifold, drive lines, hydraulics, you name it. We’ve had to replace almost everything once.”

“Hmmm, I see.” Silver Shill put his hoof to his chin and rubbed at it. “And why do you suppose that is?”

“Ponyatiya ne imeyu, which is to say I don’t know.” She shrugged and shifted her gaze across the other tanks around the base. “From what I know, all the other crews have the same problem. Maybe the parts are just that bad.”

“That is actually very helpful.” My host said with actual enthusiasm. He turned back to find Grace staring over her sunglasses at him with a deadpan. She rolled her eyes before there was a few booms of thunder on the horizon. My host looked over into the distance where they came from. “Huh, did they slate a storm for today?”

“Niet! Poluchit' dlya pokrytiya!” Rolling yelled as she hooked a hoof around Silver’s neck. My vision spun quickly as my host was pulled off the side of the tank. As I hit the pavement hard, I watched as Grace jumped for him. A shrill whine filled the air moments before the sound of a momentous volley of blasts followed after. The sound of heavy debris pinged off the tanks and armored vehicles all around them. As the last of the rubble fell, the air was once again filled with silence. A plume of dust slowly drifted over and filled the air around the base.

“Is… is everypony alright?” My host asked shakily. His muscles almost refused to let him get back up. Not only that, but his legs were shaking so bad that I feared they might snap from the vibrations alone.

“Da.” Rolling coughed as she got back up. “Fucking stripes. How could they get this close?”

“I don’t know.” Grace groaned as she too picked herself up off the pavement. She let out a light cough as the dust started to clear, looking over my host over her obscured and now shattered sunglasses. Content that Silver was fine, she dusted herself off and stepped around the front of the tank. Immediately she froze up and shakily took off her glasses. “I-I don’t know how, b-but they had r-really damn good aim.” She glanced over to Silver. “You’re damn lucky you stopped to talk to her.”

Silver found the resolve to finally stand up. As he walked slowly forward, Rolling came up alongside him. Slowly, they peered around the front of War Mare. The rubble of the command center stood in a jagged heap of shattered concrete and twisted steel. Black smoke bellowed out of a few crevices, but there was no sign of life around it. Grace was right though. It looked as if the barrage had only targeted the command center. There wasn’t a single blast crater around it.

“If the zebras wanted to attack, why’d they stop?” Silver asked slowly, as if unsure of himself. The three of them sat in silence for a moment, just listening as the rest of the base became frantic with dealing with the command center. “I’ve been duped more than a few times in my life to know that luck is a lie sold to suckers. I should have trusted that something felt off about all this.” He spoke up as he pointed to Grace. “I’m not saying it’s anything, but I want you to get the virtibuck ready. We’re going back to Canterlot to sort this out.”

She nodded before she turned and took off.

“I don’t care who attacked, I am going to get my crew.” Rolling Tracks grunted as she jumped over onto War Mare. Deftly, she climbed straight up the front and threw open a hatch. Out from it, she pulled a plush cloth hat. Carefully, she strapped it around her brown mane and hopped back down. “If you could get some new parts delivered, I’d be grateful. Right now though, it’s going to take all of us to get War Mare rolling again.”

“Listen, Rolling.” Silver said as he put his hoof on her shoulder, stopping her from going. “I’ll get the parts situation sorted out, but if you see anything suspicious, I want you to go straight to the Ministry of Morale in Stalliongrad. Tell them that I sent you and they’ll help you out.”

“Da. And good luck.” She nodded and smiled.

“Good luck yourself.” Silver Shill replied and turned down the line of tanks. He gave one last yell for her. “And good hunting!” His walk became a trot, which then became a canter. As he turned from the end of the row of tanks, he relaxed now that that the vertibuck was in sight. “Now I just need to figure out why Flim and Flam are manufacturing substandard parts.”

The engines on the vertibuck roared as he got closer. With a hop, he climbed up the rear ramp and hoofed a button on the wall. The hydraulics could barely be heard over the pegasus powered turbines, but once the ramp was halfway up, the cabin started to quiet. With a hiss, the ramp closed, and an eerily quiet room was all that was left.

“Oh, Grace?” Silver called out.

“Yes, sir?” Her voice came through a set of speakers in the wall.

“Change of plans. I need to speak to somepony I can trust.” He grunted before he took a seat along a wall mounted bench. “I want to head to Fillydelphia so I can speak to Applejack.”

“Right away, sir.” She replied sternly. “Should I call ahead to let them know?”

“No, we can’t call anypony.” He sighed. “Also, I told you to drop the sir. You can just call me Silver.”

“Bus noooo!” Caltrop slurred angrily. The sound came across as if I’d had my head underwater, muffled but understandable. It wasn’t the most pleasant thing to regain consciousness too, but at least I woke up at all. “She jus had ta leaf meh.”

The feeling of cool, smooth concrete under me did little to quell the pain in my body. The warmth of the small fire I was near felt great though. As I breathed slowly, I could feel the tightening of the bandage that had been wrapped around my still busted ribs. Then again, I was dumb enough to get my flank handed to me by a half dead zebra. If Caltrop hadn’t been there to put a bullet through his brain, I’m sure I’d be dead. I really have to stop being so retarded that everypony has to save me from my own stupidity.

I’d thought it a good idea to see if he was talking to anypony, but I didn't want to open my eyes. He sounded like he needed to work this out of his system, and I wouldn't stop him. I'd been selfish to rip him from his life after he'd started to move on, and I deserved to listen to his pain.

“An then wha she do nesht?” He continued speaking. “Hey! Lesh go blow up poniesh!” He paused as I heard the distinct sound of the sloshing of liquid in a bottle. “Ah can’t do dish.” He paused and gave a loud sniffle. “Ah can’t loosh her, but ah can’t do dish again.” With a grunt, his hoof ground against the concrete floor. I waited for a moment just listeneing. A second later, the sound of a glass bottle breaking came from quite a ways away. The sound came with an echo that seemed out of place, almost like we were indoors. “wha should ah do?” Having worked through his anger, I heard him sit down hard. Then as I’d been waiting for him to do all these weeks, he cried. “wha should ah do?”

“Caltrop?” My voice was hoarse and dry, but I had to speak up. I opened my eyes to see him sitting across the fire from me. When he looked at me, his eyes were glazed over to the point where I thought he was staring right through me. “Where are we?"

“Pshee?” He asked urgently. He didn’t move though. He just sat there staring at me. “Ah… ahm shory.” The flickering of the fire made his teary cheeks shine and sparkle. “Ah not shtrong ‘enuff.”

“I don’t believe you, Caltrop.” I said with a light sigh. “You’ve lasted through everything, managing to keep yourself together somehow. On top of that, you haven’t compromised who you were to do it.” With how much I’d changed, there isn’t much of the old PC left in my head. “Finding you all those weeks ago, it destroyed me.” As I said it, he cringed and looked away. “Even with as hard as it’s been, with you, I have hope for once. Hope that after everything gets sorted, I can finally be happy with my life. You have no idea what that means to me.”

“Shtap.” He grunted in response. “Ahm not tha shtallion ya should love.” With a light kick, he booted an empty tin can next to him into the darkness. “Ah didn’t even look for yah, yah knowsh shat?” He turned his head and glared at me. “Ah jusht ashepted yah were dead! Jusht leave meh. Ah ain’t worth shit.”

“And why shouldn’t you have?” This wasn’t something I’d expected from him. “You did what anypony else would have done and moved on.” I’d been the one who fucked everything up in his life. I’d been the one who’d gone and fucking became attached to him. How could he be okay with what I’ve done, but hate himself? I’d just blame it on him being a Dolt, but he’s better than that.

As much as I wanted to just lay there until I felt better, I needed to get up. With a grunt, I tried to maneuver my hooves under me. The metal caps on my rear legs clacked against the concrete, scraping against it roughly in a way that sent a shiver up my spine. With a sigh, I rolled over onto just my forehooves. As I did, I knocked a small glass orb across the floor. I watched as it rolled a few feet away, stopping against a metal post with a clang.

“Oh goddeshish…” Caltrop grumbled before he doubled over and groaned. With a pained whine, he threw up and sent all of the booze he’d drunk out onto the floor. Without my rear legs, I couldn’t get over to him. All I could do was sit where I was and try to comfort him with words as he expelled the nights worth of alcohol onto the floor. When I’d admitted to myself that I loved Caltrop, I knew that things could get bad. All I wanted for him was to be happy alongside me. Hugs were nice, even if I was still relatively new to them. Words however, were something I didn’t think I was anywhere near good with.

“Caltrop, I’m the one who’s sorry.” I shook my head softly.

“Whas?” He slurred as he wiped his muzzle clean with his hoof. “Why’re yah shory? What did yah ever shoo ta shink tha way?”

“Why?” How could he even ask that? “Why!” That question made my blood boil. “Because I’ve always been so damn blind.” I snapped. Every stupid decision I’ve made since we’d met ran through my mind. “Because maybe if I had stopped being a self centered bitch for thirty goddess damned seconds to listen to you, we wouldn’t be here!” I growled out my frustrations. When that didn’t help, I screamed as loud as I could. My voice reverberated in the darkness around us, echoing as my heart raced.

“Pshee…” Caltrop slurred softly. As he stared at me, I saw his eyes focus on me. He’d lost the drunken stare now, and maybe what I would say could get through to him.

“You can’t do this to me, Caltrop.” I turned my stare into a glare and raised a hoof at him. I could hardly keep it steady as I did. “You can’t blame yourself for things like that. You’re right about what happened back there, it was fucked up. I should have seen it coming, but I wasn’t smart enough.” I dropped my hoof back to the floor as the thought of that zebra came to mind. “If I’d just told you about the job, then maybe you could have talked me out of it.” I paused and took a deep breath. My heart had started to calm, and the pain from all my injuries felt like they’d doubled. “Maybe then they’d all still be alive.”

“We’ll take other jobs from Flint.” I spoke softly. “Ones that won’t involve situations like that. Killing one or two ponies for a contract, I can live with that, you know?” I’d hoped I wouldn’t feel like a monster when I woke back up, but now I’m afraid there’s not much left of me that isn’t one. Caltrop may have lost his hope that I was alive, but I’ve lost more than that. When I look down at my stumps, I know they don’t stand for who I want to be. They’re there to make me the killer I signed myself away to be. They stand for Flint and his plans, and I’m not okay with that. This isn’t what I wanted, and I can’t hide behind ‘I had no choice’. Caltrop believed me dead. Maybe I should have just refused the offer and died there on that mountain.

“It washint yah fault easher.” Caltrop shook his head wildly. “We could run an shtart over.” He stopped shaking his head and stared at his saddlebags. Wobbleing, he reached into it and started digging around. “Why shtay when we could shouth an not turn back.” Slowly, he drew out another one of the bottles I had taken from him. Quickly, I wrapped my magic around it and pulled it from his clumsy hooves.

“I can’t run. We’ve tried, remember? I got caught anyway.” I pulled the bottle through the air towards me, watching as he drunkenly swiped at it. “But I can’t do this without you. You’ve wanted nothing more to help me this whole time, and I’ve shunned your every word.” With that, a faint frown crossed his muzzle. With his eyes locked on the booze, I wasn’t sure he could hear me anymore. “I want you to be by my side, because without you, who know’s what else I’ll screw up.”

“Ah can’t help wishout dat!” Caltrop whined and got to his hooves. He stumbled forward after the whisky in my magic. “Ah needsh it!” He followed it as I pulled it closer to me. Without watching where he went, he stepped on one of the pieces of wood for the fire. Under his weight, it snapped and levered up onto his side. He let out a horrific howl of pain as the burning board scorched him. As he stumbled away from the fire, the board lit up his saddlebag.

In a panic, I threw the bottle in my grip as far as I could. I refocused my magic around his bags just in time for him to tumble to the ground. He screamed and writhed as both the burning board and his bags made his flesh sizzle. I focused all my strength into pulling his bags and the wood off of him. They tugged free and were sent sailing off of him. With a small flash, they slammed into the metal pole the memory orb sat at. The other bottles inside broke and sent a small fireball up. In that flame, I found that the pole was actually the leg of a dormant Ponytron.

“Goddesses, Caltrop.” Ignoring my lack of legs, I started to drag myself to him as the smell of his flesh filled my nose. “Are you alright?” I knew the answer to that already, but I just wanted to take his mind off the pain if I could. From just the light of the bonfire, I could tell it was bad. Most of his side and part of his leg were badly burned.

“Of coursh Ahm not alright!” He snapped through his clenched eyes and tried to stay as still as possible.. “Stupid bitsh.”

Those two words hit me hard. I felt like I’d been shot in the chest. Every part of me locked up, frozen stiff as if that had been some command word to turn my brain off. The unnerving silence that ensued was only filled with the crackling of fire. It only lasted a few seconds, but I think in that time, Caltrop had figured out what he’d just done.

“No.” His eyes shot open. He torqued his neck up and looked at me, horrified. “Ah didn’t mean it.” I wasn’t sure if the tears streaming down his eyes were from the pain or what he’d said. Either way, it just hammered those words deeper into my heart.

A sharp slam came across the air from a ways off in the darkness. Both Caltrop and I jolted in surprise before letting out equally pained whines. An electric hum filled the air as a soft glow emanated from the distance. The brighter it got, the further the pit in my stomach sank.

“Caltrop, where the hell are we?” I asked in panic. I wanted to get up and run, but without my legs I was helpless. Row after row of fluorescent lights kicked on at the far end of whatever building we were in. I was big, and as I’d thought, had been the reason for the echoing. Large, hulking shapes sat in spaced rows along each side of the half cylinder building. Between them kicked on more than just a few Ponytrons.

“Where…” He blinked at the rapidly advancing lights, pausing for what felt like no reason. “house.” The lights over us got their turn to start up, flickering for a moment before shining brightly. Behind Caltrop sat the rusting hull of an old Vertibuck. Beside the old world craft sat a bench full of degraded tools and parts, seemingly abandoned since the end of the war. On the bench also sat a very familiar looking set of cybernetic limbs.

A beam of red lanced through the air and struck Caltrop in the leg. He howled out in pain and dropped to the floor.

“Hostile intruders. You have fifteen seconds to disarm.” The Ponytron I’d hit with Caltrop’s bag announced as it’s forehead glowed with energy. The air crackled as it charged it’s next shot, aiming at me. “If you do not comply, I will be authorized to use lethal force in ten seconds.”

Ten seconds, my ass.

I did my best to react in time. I pushed off as best I could to my side. The energy shots that the robot fired scorched three lines over the ground where I’d just been. As I flopped onto my still busted ribs, I wrapped my magic around my revolver. With a tortured scream, I slammed into the floor and fired at the robot. I had to focus on my grip, more than anything. The first few shots pinged off the robot, but the third found something critical.

With a sizzle and the smell of burning electronics, the robot shuttered and fell to pieces. With the pain in my side, I wanted to quit. I was tired of being hurt and always at some disadvantage in a fight. Sure, I’d gotten the job I’d wanted back, but without the ease at which I’d normally completed them, it wasn’t what I wanted. Granted, it was already a mistake to have taken Flint’s offer, this was just the icing on the balefire bomb that was my life.

The sound of monotonous metal hoofsteps suggested against it. I reached out with my magic for my legs and levitated them over to me. Without the time to check them over, I had to put them on and hoped they hadn’t been damaged. As if I’d done it a million times before in a rush, both legs securely attached to my stumps on their first try. With a smile, I pushed myself to get back up.

The legs however, didn’t want to move.

“What the fuck?” I grunted. With one look at them, I knew the problem. “Battery…” I looked back up to the bench for it. “Where’s the battery, Caltrop?”

Caltrop gave a moan from the floor. He writhed for a second before he whined and puked again. I’d hoped that he didn’t have anymore alcohol in his system. I needed his ass sober just in case he needed to haul me out of here.

“Hostile intruder detected.” One of the rustbuckets heading for us blurted out.

I looked around for where to run to. The warehouse was mostly plain. Other than the rows of busted up Vertibucks, there wasn’t anywhere we could really go along the wall near us. With a glance up and down the long building, I noticed that one end had a large hangar-like door. In Front of that door marched four Ponytrons. At the other end sat what looked to me a small, windowed office. It was dark inside, but was only guarded by one robot.

“Screw it.” I muttered and took Caltrop’s head in my magic. I lifted it so he was looking at me. “Caltrop, we don’t have time. You need to get us to that office.”

“What?” He pressed his eyes shut tightly and whined. “What’s going on?”

“Get up or we’re dead!” I growled and grabbed Storm’s rifle in my magic. I untangled it from him and hefted it over to me. It felt heavy and awkward. I hated guns like this, but we had no choice. Caltrop seemed to regain some sense and scrambled to his hooves. “Come here. You have to carry me.”

“What?” He shook his head. “What the hell happened? Where’s the battery?”

A trio of red beams streaked through the air. They passed right over him and struck the Vertibuck hull to little effect.

“You. Me. Run.” We were out of time, and I was out of patience. I traced where the shots had come from and wiggled myself around. The trigger to Storm’s lever action was much more crisp than I remembered, and the shot went off prematurely. The Ponytron’s head glowed as it charged another set of shots, and I stupidly tried to press the trigger again. I swore I'd never get used to lever action weapons.

Two of the three beams missed, but the third struck my neck. Even while I screamed in pain, I prayed that I didn’t vaporize. I hated energy weapons. While a bullet in the same spot would’ve killed me, I’d take it over becoming a pile of ash today.

“PC!” Caltrop called out. Galvanized from my pain, he finally got his flank in gear. Without being quite sure how he’d done it, I found myself hoisted into the air and draped across his back. I don’t know if it had been due to Earth Pony coordination, the fact that he was sober again, or if he just got lucky. Without any warning, we were off.

Riding on a ponies back was far from ideal. Through the pain that came from the jostling and shaking, I was barely able to keep my focus on the gun. Working the action took more time than it should have.

“Hold on!” He whined as another attack came in at us. This time, it had been from the lone Ponytron in our way. The shot came just before Caltrop slammed into the machine. A sharp whine and a loud boom came from the bot as it exploded. The two of us cried out as we were peppered with hot strips of metal. Caltrop hadn’t stopped running though. He charged ahead, straight for the door.

With a yell, he threw his shoulder into it and barreled the two of us through. The door cracked along the frame and swung open with a slam. We both tumbled into the dark room and slid across the floor. A crunch of wood came from where Caltrop was, while I’d slid into a metal filing cabinet. With a heavy groan, I picked myself up slowly.

“That bought us another minute.” I panted heavily as I worked to adjust my legs so I could sit. The rifle still in my magic, I kept if leveled at the door. “Now. Any idea’s how to get us out of here?”

Author's Notes:

It's been a while since I did one of these, but I really needed to do one this chapter. I have to thank my buddy thefurryrailfan for the use of Rolling Tracks and War Mare in the memory orb scene. I enjoyed the character in his story: Fallout: Equestria - Occupational Hazards. If you haven't given it a shot yet, I implore you to check it out. As fun as Merchants of Hope, but written ten times better, I know you won't regret it.

Anyway, if it weren't for Kkat and the glory of Fo:E, none of us would be here. All praise to our glorious overmare!

On top of that, I have to thank Somber, Mimezinga, and No One, for really inspiring me to give this whole fanfic thing a shot myself. Other great ponies that I owe this two is: Stonershy, John Colt, Hnetu, Xjuan, Tinker, Bad Pun, Delvius, Sawyer, RevelRomp, Sabsy, Vanguard, Lolcats, and so many others that deserve it.